News From The School Superintendent For October, 2024
Theresa Laville Superintendent’s Board Report October 1, 2024 Mission: To provide an excellent education Vision: To pr...
Theresa Laville
Superintendent’s Board Report
October 1, 2024
Mission: To provide an excellent education
Vision: To prepare and empower all students for current and future success
Unity
On Thursday, September 19, 2024, Carry the Cure’s Committed to Life Program, featuring Broken Walls conducted asuccessful assembly for grades 4th-12th, Kenny Lake, Glennallen, and Slana students were in attendance. The event was very engaging for students and provided opportunities for students’ participation. The event was well received. Thank you Birdie and Anna for attending the evening event.
Georgia and I attended the Gulkana Council Meeting on Monday. At the meeting, the Light Shine Ministries were recognized for their work and continued partnership with Gulkana. Georgia shared plans for potential student dropout and dropout students to get them back in school or keep them in school so they can complete their education during the credit recovery and complete graduation. Since then, a letter has been mailed home to parents. During thevisit, I verbally shared some information on the new release of the AK STAR and mCLASS data and the district’s continued reading progress.
The Coffee/Tea with the Superintendent took place in Tazlina on September 18, 2024. During the visit, the 12 participants and I engaged in a conversation about Treks, elders in school, values and respect, literacy nights, potlatches, beading/sewing, transportation, tutoring, and credit recovery. The concerns focused on vaping, Title IX, grief and trauma, gun violence, and Indian Education. It was a great dialogue, and I look forward to our next discussion in the Spring.
The Coffee/Tea with the Superintendent took place in Gakona on Wednesday, September 25, 2024. It was a greatopportunity to dialogue with a community member, Lishaw Lincoln. She was concerned about students not knowing their identity. Ms.Lincoln will provide a video that I can share with staff about the different potlatches, in which each one has a different meaning. It was a great opportunity to dialogue with Ms. Lincoln.
Special Education: Amanda Abraham
The specialists were on site in the Copper River School District in September. Joseph Gerard, the school psychologist, was here from September 9th–September 12th and met with case managers and completed student evaluations.
SESA specialists Lyon Johnson and M’lissa Parker were here September 17th–September 19th and observed classrooms and offered any needed assistance to each case manager.
The new specialists Alison Barnett, Physical Therapist; Lauren Reeves, Speech and Language Pathologist; and Lauren Flynn, the Occupational Therapist, were here September 23rd–September 25th. They arranged times to meetwith each case manager and students on their caseload at each site. The Special Education Department received positive feedback from each specialist. They have already set up their second quarter onsite dates, which will be November 11, 2024 - November 14, 2024.
Gail Greenhalgh and Andrew Carlson set up Q&A meetings with the casemangers to be held every Friday from 3:30 pm to 4:00 pm, starting on Friday, October 11th. It will allow case managers to have an open discussion on questions they currently have. On September 27, the special education teachers and paraprofessionals participated in a training,focusing on protocols, policies on the district, state, and federal level, and team building and communication.
Technology: Johnathan Carty
Playground Camera:
The camera facing the playground was installed on September 19, 2024. The location of the camera is a challenge.
Vivi Installation: Throughout October I will be working to get the first round of Vivi boxes configured and installedin classrooms and common areas. This will allow the implementation of digital emergency alerts, and make many common tasks for teachers and admins simpler.
Other Projects: Working with Lydia in the GHS office to update and reimagine the CRSD website, along with theSchool Pages. Looking into the district's cybersecurity solutions, to ensure that we are getting full functionality out ofservices we are paying for. Looking into different options that will help reduce costs, and a new cybersecurity initiative called Pilot Program. Pilot Program works similar to E-Rate funding, that could help cover costs for cybersecurity equipment and services.
Indian Education: Georgia Jackson
We are still working on re-enrolling students, and monitoring and assisting students who are behind. Working on aSyllabus Template for Ahtna Beading Class and will create another for Ahtna Regalia. These are TREK classes.
I will be uploading all the supporting documents to the ESEA Monitoring for DEED this week. Next week I will start the Annual Performance Report.
I will be attending a session on McKinney-Vento during the NIEA Conference to learn more on our requirements and how to meet those obligations. McKinney-Vento is a federal law related to homeless students. It requires schools to provide the following assistance to homeless students: Immediate access to full participation in school even with lacking documents; transportation to and from school; clothing and school supplies; help work with them to getrecords from previous schools and doctors; and continued enrollment in original school, if it is in the student’s best interest. The main goal of this program is to make changing schools non-disruptive to student education and allow them to continue schooling in their original school if that is their request.
District Interventionist: Laura Scott
Trainings and Site Support
•Rewards and Phonics for Reading Curriculum
I have been providing training to Kenny Lake and Glennallen, certified and classified, on both curricula. I deliver the training mostly one on one, which gives the opportunity to dive in and practice the routines of a typical lesson.
• Slana Site Support: I helped with mCLASS test administration. I provided support to certified staff with the Program Mapping during the ELA block.
Literacy Committee:
The Committee voted to have earlier Parent/Teacher conferences, the weeks of October 7-18, in order to notify parents within the timeline and begin interventions within the required window. Interventions will begin at the end of the month of October.
Updated Information from DEED, as of 9/23: Only new IRIPs require the initial meeting with teachers.Continuing IRIPS are not required to meet and can attend at regular conference time. Teachers do need to inform parents about re-opening IRIPs.
The Committee voted on administering the CORE Multiple Measure diagnostic test to students who score far belowand below benchmark in the mCLASS screener. The AK Reads Act requires a diagnostic only to those students who score far below the benchmark, but our Committee voted to extend it to the ones who score below. This diagnostic will inform specific reading deficits.
The plan is to group K-5 students according to their reading deficits and strengths to meet their needs.
mCLASS Testing Progress:
Completion Data as of 9/23
● District Wide: 87%
● Kenny Lake: 100%
● Glennallen 96%
● Slana: 75%
● Upstream: 54%
Keep in mind that a few students that have not completed the assessment are special education students.
Academic Advisor: Jared Dale
Financial Aid/FAFSA: I have invited the student affair department from PWSC to come to GHS on 10/16/24 at 6:00 PM. The purpose of the meeting is to inform CRSD senior parents and families of some valuable Financial Aid/FAFSA information as they go through the process of securing loans, grants, and or scholarships for their post-secondary education plans and goals.
There will also be help available in terms of actually filling out the FAFSA. The meeting will be in person, but virtual attendance is also an option - a Zoom link has been provided. To advertise this event, a post was made to the CRSD website and Facebook page. Additionally, a letter was sent home to GHS and KLS students with the pertinent information. The same letter was shared with UL to be included in the weekly UL Newsletter.
Xello: The Glennallen and Slana 4th-8th staff is having a final meeting on 09/25/24 to make sure everyone is ready to start using Xello with their students. KLS has already been using Xello, so
Brian Hodges will be attending the meeting to share his experience thus far and to answer any questions that may arise about using the platform. There will be one final training session provided by the support Xello team during the October inservice. A student-led curriculum review for the high school career program will be taking place at theend of the month to choose a program that will be used by the 9th-12th students.
Alaska Performance Scholarship: In June, some major changes were made to the Alaska Performance Scholarship. The scholarship is based on three levels: Level 1 (formerly $4,755 now $7,000), Level 2 (formerly$3,566 now $5,250), and Level 3 (formerly $2,378 now $3,500). In addition to the increased award amounts, the scholarship is easier to obtain.
Previously, students had to earn a certain number of credits in certain content areas, as well as, earning a certain GPA - GPA helped determine the level of the award that was received, and obtaining a certain score on either the SAT or ACT - the test score also helped determine the level of the award that was received. There were two paths forstudents to choose: the Math and Science option (Option A) which required four Math credits, four Science credits, four ELA credits, and four Social Studies credits or the Social Studies and Language options (Option B) which required three Math credits, three Science credits, four ELA credits, four Social Studies credits, and two credits in the same world language (now the language credits can be an Alaska Native language, cultural heritage classes, or Fine Arts credits).
These two options still exist, but a third CTE option (Option C) has been added. The CTE option requires three Math credits, three Science credits, four ELA credits, four Social Studies credits, and two credits of CTE (one of those credits must be in CTE classes that are subsequently more rigorous within a career cluster.
The final change that was made is that students no longer have to have the credits from options A, B, or C, GPA,and test scores to achieve a certain level. Instead, they now only have to have the credits from option A, B, or C, and a certain ACT/SAT score or a certain GPA.
This change should lead to more CRSD students earning the Alaska Performance Scholarship. All of the award amounts are per year for four years - as long as students maintain academic eligibility as determined by their post-secondary institution. Here is a link for more information: https://acpe.alaska.gov/financial-aid/ak-performance-scholarship
*In order to receive APS funds, a student has to have a FAFSA on file for each academic year in which they plan to use the APS funds.
Migrant Education Program (MEP):
Last MEP Count: 208 Current MEP Count: 229
Last MEP Informational meeting: August 13, 2024 with 20 present
Next MEP Parent Advisory Committee Meeting and Elections is scheduled in person and hybrid for October 2, 2024, beginning at 5 pm.
I am currently working on FY24 Summer Course History Report DUE Sept 30. I am preparing to distribute our first book distribution to go out by September 27. My Primary Objective is to focus on MEP Recruitment Due Nov 30. I have made contact with tribes to request if I may present at community events in an attempt to recruit families. I submitted a Letter to the Editor via Copper River Record and Copper River Country Journal to encourage and recruit a more culturally-balanced MEP Parent Committee.