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Superintendent’s Update

Shared with the Corvallis School Board during the September 12, 2019 meeting

Boundary Review

Phone surveys to school district parents and guardians about school boundaries will begin soon. There will be 385 surveys completed with an emphasis on our elementary school families. The information we gather will be used to develop core values and guiding principles for the process. You will hear additional information tonight about the boundary review process.

Community Mental Health Meeting

We continue our focus on the School Board goal and strategy that prioritizes student mental health. September is National Suicide Prevention Month and we are taking several steps to raise awareness about the importance of mental health and removing the stigma about the need for mental health support. District staff in all buildings are trained in QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer), a proven suicide prevention intervention and our new mental health and wellness program is an important investment that will benefit students this year.

Next month, we will host our first of two annual Community Mental Health Meetings on October 29, from 1:00-3:00 pm. Over 90 staff members and district partners will be invited to this event. I am proud of the collaborative approach our community has taken to support mental health for the youth in our community.

Enrollment

As of today, total district enrollment is 6,614 students, 48 students under our projected enrollment of 6,662. These are preliminary numbers and will likely change prior to our formal report on student enrollment at the October 10 board meeting.

Meritorious Budget Award Received

I am pleased to announce that for the second year, the Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO) has recognized Corvallis School District for excellence in budget presentation with the Meritorious Budget Award (MBA).

The ASBO International MBA award promotes and recognizes the best budget presentation practices in school districts. This recognition highlights our commitment to budget documents that are accurate, easy to read, and that communicate the district’s goals and objectives. We are proud of the work our business services staff, led by Finance and Operations Director Meyers Buch have done to achieve this award.

National International Dyslexia Association Conference

The International Dyslexia Association Conference will take place in Portland this year. As we continue to grow in our knowledge on the topic of dyslexia, this conference provides an opportunity for our staff to gain high-quality professional development. Two staff members from each of our elementary schools will attend, along with district-level coordinators. This is a great opportunity for our staff.

Student Success Act Update

We will be holding community meetings this fall to discuss the implementation of the Student Success Act. The meetings will be on October 16 at Lincoln Elementary and November 6 at Linus Pauling Middle School. Both meetings will begin at 6:30 pm.

While we have developed a long-range financial plan with input from parents and community members, these meetings will allow us to review this plan and discuss areas specifically outlined in the Student Success Act, including:

  1. Reducing academic disparities for students
  2. Meeting students’ mental or behavioral health needs
  3. Providing equitable access to academic courses
  4. Allowing teachers and staff to have sufficient time to collaborate with other teachers and staff and review data on students’ grades, absences, and discipline, based on school and on grade level or course and to develop strategies to ensure that at-risk students stay on track to graduate.
  5. Establishing and strengthening partnerships

Start of the 2019-2020 School Year

Today was the 7th day of the 2019-20 school year and I can say we have had a successful start to the school year. I have visited all thirteen schools and our students and staff members are working really hard to get the year off to a strong start.

It is exciting to have new materials in our teacher’s hands and accessible for our students.

We have adopted new dual language/language arts materials that are now in use at Garfield and Lincoln, added a new character education program in our elementary schools, called Caring School Communities, and launched the Character Strong program in our middle schools.

At the high school level, we have some new language arts materials, and the Language Arts department completed a book study this summer focused on increasing choice and engagement in language arts. Our high school social studies teachers will be piloting new materials in October to be adopted later this year.