June 8, 2018 Friday Memo, Page 1 of 21
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To: School Board From: Superintendent Nyland Date: Friday, June 8, 2018 RE: Superintendent Friday Update (based largely on Superintendent Comments at the June 6, 2018, School Board meeting) Celebrations: Graduations: In less than a couple of weeks, our district, community, families and students will be celebrating graduation ceremonies. We are so proud of our Seattle Public Schools (SPS) graduates! Congratulations to school staff and leadership, parents, mentors and all of our graduates. I know I speak for the board in our appreciation for all the work that goes into making each student a success. We look forward to participating in many of the upcoming events. The full list of graduation locations and times can be found on our district webpage. Although graduations are usually just about celebrations, we are particularly thinking of our Franklin High School seniors as they are working through the difficult news. Last weekend, Ryan DeLaCruz was shot and killed while at a city park. The Franklin seniors will be honoring him in a variety of ways. Today, students created a "human orange ribbon" along Rainier Avenue. Orange is the symbolic color for reducing gun violence, so each of us wore an orange ribbon and many of us joined Franklin students' Call to Action event at 11 a.m. today at the school. We (myself and the board) also wore orange on Wednesday night in support of Ryan, Ryan's family and our students. June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month! On the morning of June 1, staff, students, families and community members joined Directors Harris and DeWolf, along with Clover Codd, Assistant Superintendent of human resources, to raise the LGBTQ and Transgender Pride flags at the John Stanford Center. The crowd gathered in the midst of morning commute traffic and construction noise to celebrate and kickoff the month of Pride! Please remember to join staff, families and students for the City's pride parade on June 24. You can march with our big yellow school bus or cheer on students from the sidelines. This is a great way to demonstrate our commitment to inclusive, welcoming and safe learning environments for all of our students. More information will be posted on our homepage next week. Recognitions at the June 6 School Board meeting: On Wednesday night, we recognized a number of different students for a variety of accomplishments: • 2017-18 Athletic Champions: What an amazing group of athletes! It was a pleasure recognizing the excellence of these SPS sports teams and individual athletes. All our student athletes play their very best in every game while working hard in their classes, but we offer special congratulations to those who reach the state championships for their sport or as academic champions. I would also like to say thank you to the coaches, families and all the other people who have supported these student athletes. There have been many studies showing the benefits of high school sports in contributing to student success. Congratulations to our athletes on their outstanding achievement! Associate Superintendent for Capital, Facilities and Enrollment Flip Herndon said a few words about these high achieving teams at Wednesday’s board meeting. See the attachment for the list of our 2017-18 Athletic Champions. Superintendent Larry Nyland June 6, 2018 1 June 8, 2018 Friday Memo, Page 1 of 21 (Pictured: School Board Directors, Superintendent Dr. Larry Nyland and the 2017-18 State Champion Athletes) • 2018 Seal of Biliteracy Recipients: Congratulations to our graduating seniors who have demonstrated their language skills through world language credit testing or by passing Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams. They were honored for having received the State Seal of Biliteracy. The seal is intended to highlight the benefits in today’s world of speaking, reading and writing English and at least one other language. Michele Aoki, our International Education Administrator, recognized our students who have successfully achieved a Seal of Biliteracy, noting that students represented 12 high schools: Ballard, Chief Sealth International, Cleveland, Franklin, Garfield, Ingraham, Nathan Hale, Rainier Beach, Roosevelt, Seattle World School, South Lake, and West Seattle High School. See the attachment for the full list of recipients and languages. (Pictured: School Board Directors, Superintendent Dr. Larry Nyland and the Seal of Biliteracy Recipients) • Garfield Chess Team: Executive Director of Schools Sarah Pritchett, Principal Howard and Chess Team Coach Jeff Nomura recognized the GHS chess team for placing 12th in the National High School Chess Championship! Superintendent Larry Nyland June 6, 2018 2 June 8, 2018 Friday Memo, Page 2 of 21 (Pictured: School Board Directors, Superintendent Dr. Larry Nyland and the Garfield HS Chess Team) • National Board Certified Teachers: Executive Director for Curriculum Instruction Support Cashel Toner shared information about the National Board Certified Teachers process. National Board Certified Teachers are highly accomplished educators who meet high and rigorous standards set by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. National Board Certification is achieved upon successful completion of a voluntary assessment program designed to recognize effective and accomplished teachers who meet high standards based on what teachers should know and be able to do. SPS has 550 employees who have achieved certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, including 106 teachers who successfully completed the certification process this year. Congratulations to these teachers! See the attachment for the full list of teachers. In this update, I am sharing: 1. Recent highlights that support our Strategic Plan and related Superintendent Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic/Relevant and Time Bound (SMART) goals 2. Good News 3. Community Engagement/Highlights Strategic Plan - 2017-18 Superintendent SMART Goals Update: The SPS Strategic Plan includes three major areas: Educational Excellence and Equity; Improving Systems; and School, Family and Community Engagement. Thank you to the School Board for focusing our SMART goals on these areas during the past several years. 1. Educational Excellence and Equity: We are committed to building shared understanding across schools and district silos, on how to eliminate opportunity gaps (EOG), ensure opportunities for greatness (EOG 2.0) and accelerate learning for all students. During the past year, we worked to better communicate the urgency of EOG while affirming our collective belief in every student’s potential. We are guided by these three values: o Belief in every student; no matter what; no exceptions o Recognition that relationships matter; and they must be meaningful and sustainable relationships with at least one caring adult in the school o Commitment to knowing each student’s story, strength and need; and providing strength-based interventions and supports Sundae Challenge/Competition: On Wednesday night, I invited Susan Grant, our Career and Technical Education (CTE) specialist, to provide highlights from our recent CTE culinary partnership and districtwide summit (Molly Moon ice cream challenge, school lunch challenge and SPS culinary summit). She also Superintendent Larry Nyland June 6, 2018 3 June 8, 2018 Friday Memo, Page 3 of 21 highlighted that students toured our central kitchen and made menu recommendations. She was joined by Franklin students and a representative from Molly Moon. Board Retreat: Thank you to the Board members and SPS leadership staff for spending the past Saturday at a board retreat. It was a great day and they covered many important topics, including relationship building between staff and the board; and district-level SWOT analysis. 2. Improve Systems: We continue to make progress toward building effective systems in support of schools. Preparing for next year’s budget and working toward full funding remains a top priority. • Budget: The budget for 2018-19 will be introduced on June 27. While a balanced budget was reached for 2018-19, McCleary is not fully funded, and SPS is still projecting deficits beginning in 2019-20. • State Auditors Exit Conference: Overall a good audit was reported to the board by the State Auditor's Office. While there were two findings noted, SAO made sure to say that both areas had been addressed and changes made by administration that were already in progress addressed concerns. • Building Excellence (BEX V): During our BEX V work session we explored about the rising costs of construction and the challenges with responding to both our capacity issues and our building condition issues. We have another work session scheduled for June 25 and will continue the discussion around prioritizing and identifying building capital projects and technology investments. 3. School, Family, and Community Engagement: Goal No. 3 focuses on our ability to better listen, engage and communicate with our families and stakeholders. Communication Survey: In support of levy planning and in response to outcomes from the Family Engagement Task Force, a communications survey went out to families and staff last week. The survey will close on June 12. Data from the survey will help shape communication/engagement levy strategies and support continued communication improvements in the department. The survey will be complemented by phone interviews, home language meetings in June, and 1:1 interviews. Good News: We have lots of great news