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| Phyllis Textor |
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| As November hurtles into full swing, I thought this would be a good time for us to slow down a bit, and do a “check and reflect” on our goals and priorities for this school year. We started the year knowing that the budget would be tight, and would likely get tighter as the year moved along. I encouraged staff and the ASB to hold on, minimize spending, and get the most out of every dollar spent. It’s been difficult, but we’re doing a good job of this here at Sehome. Our department chairs are working together to combine spending when possible and we’ve hit the nine week mark “on budget.” |
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| One of our goals for the year was to address the teen-age drinking and partying, and to implement a drug and alcohol intervention program. We put a brochure entitled “Teen-aged Parties...You can be the Difference” into every parent’s hands at open house and freshman orientation, and we have them available at all open meetings. Our drug and alcohol prevention specialist, Jeff McKenna, is now well-established in our school, and is seeing students on a daily basis. We settled on a model called “Student Assistance Program”, which relies on teachers referring students to a core team, and it’s going very well. Teachers refer students they have concerns about, and each Monday, the core team meets about each referral and discusses the best resources for that student. So far, our Student Assistance Program has processed over fifty referrals, so we’re feeling like we’ve made great strides in this area. In addition, our new mentor program is off and running, but in need of more adult mentors. If you’d like to spend an hour a week or more helping a struggling student with school and/or life issues, please call Holly Baker, our Vista/Americore mentor coordinator at extension 5314. She’d love to answer your questions. Please consider becoming a part of this important program for students. We need you! |
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| We’re also putting a lot of energy into creating interventions for our at-risk and struggling students. As part of the federal stimulus, each school has an allotment of money to use for students who are “academically or behaviorally not at standard.” Ideas for proposals range from strategies to help our English Language Learners be more successful in the classroom to helping our students in poverty become more connected to the school to early identification of potential high school drop-outs so that we can wrap services around them. We’ve learned much from our research into best practices, and are now planning to implement strategies to help all students succeed. And of course, all of this happens while simultaneously providing a full array of academics, activities, sports, and special events for all of our students. Fall sports have come and gone, along with Homecoming, and the PSAT exam. Our fall drama production is coming up in early December, so watch for that, and winter sports season started this week. If you are like many, and this time of year, with its bad weather and dark days setting in, tends to get you down or make you less patient, remember to pause and remember the great things that are happening all around us. This really is a wonderful learning community. |
| Contact Information: |
(360) 676- 6481 |
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