October 9, 2014 - Gresham

2014-15
District Advisory Council Meeting
October 9, 2014
Kelly Creek Elementary School
DAC Members present:
Deep Creek-Damascus
East Gresham ES
East Orient ES
Hall ES
Highland ES
Hogan Cedars ES
Hollydale ES
Kelly Creek ES
North Gresham ES
Powell Valley ES
West Gresham ES
Amy Buren
Gerene Daugherty
Jennifer Levens
Megan Johnson
Shannon Rist
Sunny Rovi
Kathy Koch
Diane Spencer
Trisha Knobbs
Michael-Lee Deveney
Clear Creek MS
Dexter McCarty MS
Gordon Russell MS
West Orient MS
Gresham HS
Dawn Bures
Linda Kue
Sam Barlow HS
Maria Grevstad
Springwater Trail
HS
School Board Members: Kris Howatt and Dan Chriestenson
Administrators: Athena Vadnais, James Hiu, and Nancy Torbert
-MINUTESCalled To Order
Vice-Chair Dawn Bures called the meeting to order at approximately 7:00 p.m. and
reviewed the evening’s agenda.
Community Partnerships – Deputy Superintendent James Hiu and Communications
Director Athena Vadnais
The topic of tonight’s meeting was Community Partnerships. James Hiu, Deputy
Superintendent, shared first regarding our Community Care Day and the faith-based
community that supports it.
Community Care Day –
Started within the faith-based community to meet the need for helping/supporting to
beautify the schools for the students coming back from summer break. It started in 2004
with around 150 volunteers donating 500-600 man-hours to do yard work, add new
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bark and fresh paint to Sam Barlow High School. Now all 18 schools are supported and
this year 2500 hours were donated. Our faith-based organizations not only donate time
to beautify the inside/outside of our schools, but they also donate resources and money
for our students to get the support they need. The district has been trying to deepen
our relationships with the faith-based community. An example is East Hill “adopting”
Gresham High School. Some schools are now trying to send out letters to students’
parents to get them involved in beautifying their own schools. Hopefully it can grow to
happen more the once a year.
Oasis Volunteer Program –
Marilyn Shephard, the coordinator for Oasis, came and spoke to us about their
organization. They began in the 1980’s with the goal of connecting senior citizens with
schools to help tutor young students who may be struggling with language arts. Now it
is open to all adults. These adults are trained to tutor and support students. They have
an initial six hour training session and have continued training once a month for 90
minutes. Each adult mentors one student 35-60 minutes per week. Some volunteers
have more than one student. They work mostly with 1st thru 3rd graders, but do have a
program with a 4th/5th element. They work on reading, word work, and journal writing.
Oasis is now involved in eight schools in the district. A volunteer at East Gresham,
Jackie, shared her experience with us. She loves the program. Oasis has it’s own library
and resource materials, but do allow for flexibility that would help reach a particular
child’s interests or passions. If you know of someone who would like to volunteer with
Oasis, just email Athena.
Metropolitan Family Services –
Mr. Hiu introduced us to Linda Kue, the Gresham High School Site Manager for
MFS/Sun. She spoke with us about the program. MFS helps people move beyond the
limitations of poverty, inequity and social isolation. It began as a grant in the district in
2000. It is now funded by Gresham-Barlow, Multnomah County, and some of our FaithBased organizations have donated to keep it going also.
We have 7 schools in the district designated as SUN schools, three elementary, three
middle schools and one high school. SUN stands for Schools Uniting Neighborhoods. It
was started to creating and community center in a school, a safe place for kids to be
especially before or after school. They provide after school classes and activities for
students. Examples of programs offered are homework club, cooking, art, dance,
soccer, and at the high school level credit recovery. With this opportunity to make up
missed credits, we have seen our graduations rates improve. They also provide
educational classes for parents. The district, thru SUN, has served 500-700 students in
the last five years. It creates a close-knit school. They also provide a summer lunch
program at Highland Elementary and Gresham High. Have community events
(Halloween Fest). GHS has the Gopher Exchange – a clothing closet/exchange that
around 40 kids have accessed. They also have 9th grade support programs (All Hands
Raised) . Gresham High is a model program for other high schools. The county would
like ALL schools to be SUN schools.
Principal’s Report – Nancy Torbert, Principal of Kelly Creek Elementary School
Nancy Torbert, principal of Kelly Creek, spoke about what the school was doing in
alignment with the district initiatives.
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Instructional Practices
o Sheltered instructions – she gave a math example
 Lots of visuals
 Building foundations for real life
 Using content/vocabulary to explain a student’s thinking
Data Teams
o Working and getting ready for Smarter Balance Assessment
Response to Intervention
o Monitoring progress to see improvement
o How do students respond to intervention (improving or not)
Educator Development
o Teacher Evaluation
o Goals – teachers set 2 student learning goals and targets for each child
o Looking at what teachers do to support student learning
Supportive Learning Environment
o PBIS
o Attendance Rates (which have gotten better)
District Interaction with the Board – Board of Directors
Kris Howatt and Dan Chriestenson represented the school board. Dan shared that our
school board would be represented in the state legislature as both he and Carla Piluso
are running. He encouraged us no matter who we supported – just go vote! Kris talked
about her experience with Mr. Schlachter attending a late start morning at Clear Creek
Middle School. They had a diversity exercise (how many homes have at least 50
books?), discussed sheltered instruction regarding literacy and applying it in a way that
makes sense, talked about data teams and STEAM (science, technology, engineering,
arts and math). She said the staff discussed a lot in that 90-minute period. They are
accomplishing a lot during the Wednesday late start time.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:00 p.m.
Minutes submitted by:
Dawn Bures
DAC Protem Secretary
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