Principals of each of Fallon’s schools provided an update of the first few days of school and their progress with three strategic themes identified by Dr. Stephens at the September 8 meeting of the Churchill County School District Board of Trustees. The following are the highlights from the reports by each school:
Northside Early Learning Center
Students returned to school Monday, August, 30 and the first week went well. The first strategic theme is Ensuring all Learners are Life-Ready. The school uses Teaching Strategies Gold, and staff is working to better utilize TSG to help it reach its full potential. The program is based upon developmentally appropriate milestones in each child’s development and authentic assessment occurs during instruction.
The second strategic theme is Developing the Whole Child. Which is focused on social and emotional development. High-quality, developmentally appropriate situations are planned into daily schedules to foster social-emotional development, and academic content is structured around the developmental stages of the child.
The third strategic theme is Improving Communication/Engagement with stakeholders. Teachers provide parents with regular communication, often on a daily basis.
Lahontan Elementary School
Lahontan Elementary welcomed 248 kindergarteners to school on August 30 to make a total of 472 students The week went well with a few glitches in traffic, but by Friday traffic was flowing much smoother.
Strategic Theme 1: Teachers created Student Learning Data Notebooks to allow students to track progress. Special teachers are in classrooms meeting students and creating a schedule to support the learners. PLC on Fridays provides time for teachers to collaborate. A continuous Improvement Team is in place and will begin working on the SPP. All teachers are on a committee (Literacy, PBIS, ICAT, and School Performance) to support the initiatives at the school
Strategic Theme 2: Restorative Practices have been a discussion and a book study with the book Hacking School Discipline will continue throughout the month of September. Teachers taught expectations for playground, lunchroom, bathrooms, and bus by using the expectations developed by the PBIS committee.
Strategic Theme 3:Teachers created Class Dojo accounts to communicate with parents/guardians. All kindergarten students had a kindergarten screening and parents and teachers met to share expectations and answer questions. The first grade had a “Back to School Night” on August 26. Teachers are completing their landing pages and playlists and the Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) has set time for meetings and will hold the first meeting in September.
E C Best Elementary School
Strategic Theme 1: Teachers are actively working within their grade level to help students take ownership of their learning. This includes reviewing prior student learning guides and course summary documents to see which units of study can be merged. Common assessments are reviewed and discussed with emphasis on students being able to demonstrate their mastery of the curriculum. Emphasis is also placed on students being able to incorporate their new learning into their everyday lives. Students must be able to verbalize what they are able to do and not do.
Strategic Theme 2: School counselor Janell Suess teaches lessons with all students incorporating social/emotional learning with academic and career themes as well. They are now in Tier 2 of the implementation of PBIS, which is part of MTSS, which offers support to all students in various areas including Social Emotional and Behavior supports, Academic supports, ELL, LLI, ICAT, Indian Education services, McKinney Vento, and more. PBIS focuses on responsible decision-making, positive reinforcement, clear expectations, and data-based decision-making for all students.
Strategic Theme 3: All teachers have updated their landing page, which provides parents information for each teacher’s class. Teachers also use other resources for communication such as Class Tag or Class Dojo. Third-grade teacher Shannon WindRiver keeps the school Facebook page current. The staff is provided weekly collaboration time to work together on Learner-Centered Framework, along with co-teaching planning. Each week staff is provided with a newsletter in an effort to keep consistent with communication.
Numa Elementary School
Strategic Theme 1: Learner-Centered Framework includes full implementation for English language arts and math and first-year implementation for social studies, science, art, music, and PE. Running records are being completed for students who previously began service through Leveled Literacy Intervention. Once MAP testing is completed the week of September 7, students will be grouped for reading intervention. The goal is to work with at least 40 students throughout the day in a small group setting.
Special education teachers are building a scheduled to meet the Individual Education Plan needs of students.
Strategic Theme 2: This includes restorative practices, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support. There is a school-wide and classroom focus on social and emotional learning competencies, and this year Buddy Benches have been placed on the playground and are a tool for students to become more involved and feel more included. The Path to Friendship/Peace Walk is new this year and helps with friendship and conflict resolution skills.
Strategic Theme 3: The school is communicating with parents and the community through the district and school website, Peachjar, Facebook, phone calls, parent/teacher conferences, Back to School night, various classroom apps, and online communications and written notifications.
Churchill County Middle School
Strategic Theme #1: During the Professional Development days prior to the start of school, staff revisited and refined curriculum documents of Course Summary Documents, Learning Guides, and assessments. The first week of instruction mainly focused on building relationships and classroom communities and introducing students to the LCF documents.
Strategic Theme #2: Students are participating in PBIS lessons this week during advisory. They are focusing on the core agreements and expectations of Mutual Respect, Attentive Listening, and Showing Appreciation. Wednesdays are designated as Kindness focus days and teachers are provided a lesson to present during advisory. Both students and teachers are providing feedback on the advisory activities this week to collect data on implementation and look for areas of strength and weakness as they continue the implementation of MTSS.
Strategic Theme #3: Prior to school starting, CCMS hosted an open house for families. This was the first time 6th and 7th grade students and families had the experience to tour the school and meet the teachers prior to school starting. Before the open house, staff developed a Welcome Back flyer to advertise the open house, provide information about dropping off and/or picking us students from school, house of operation, picture day, and fall sports.
Churchill County High School
Strategic Theme 1: There are 529 students enrolled in CTE courses, 282 student enrollments into tech/CET courses, 63 student enrollments into CVE, and 53 dual-enrolled students. Al core learning targets have been identified, Course Summary Documents have been completed for the first nine weeks of school, Summative Assessments are completed for the first nine weeks and Formative assessments are in progress
Strategic Theme 2: Restorative practices such as MTSS, PBIS, Social/Emotional/Academic Development are in progress and a Refocus Room for students needing a place to de-escalate is being developed. An assigned staff member uses social-emotional de-escalation techniques and restorative circles. Students are awarded a coupon for displaying positive behavioral techniques with other staff, students, and parents. Their coupon is then part of a raffle each week. Students can earn gift cards or other incentives for this display of positive behavior.
Strategic Theme 3: School admin spends part of each day talking with students during breakfast, lunch, transitions, after school, and student focus groups. Weekly or as needed, an informational message or newsletter is sent to all stakeholders regarding focus for academics, behavior, and/or other important information. CCHS is using district and other media to market the high school and display the positive things happening. Admin also makes weekly calls to families to help develop the school’s message and understand the needs of the community.
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