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Long-form interviews and conversations from Mason County, Washington. Host Jeff Slakey sits down with local leaders, legislators, small business owners, and community voices for unhurried conversations about what's shaping the Hood Canal region — government, education, healthcare, the outdoors, and the people making a difference.
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Well good evening everybody and once again thank you for joining us on these continued community forums across the Shelton School District. My name is Jeff Slakey from KMAS Radio. We are here at Mountain View Elementary tonight to talk with Superintendent Wyeth Jesse.
We also have school board member James Dale, principal Lissandra Ness, and kindergarten teacher Joanna Bielik. Thank you all for being here once again to talk about the school district and things are going on. This is an opportunity for folks to learn a little bit more about the school their students go to.
This is Mountain View Elementary finding out how the school year is going and just other ways that we can connect with the community. So as we get started here I have some questions that I prepared but as these last ones have shaken out we've kind of just ended up having a really good conversation specifically about the school for sure. So I'm going to start with you first Principal Ness.
Tell us a little bit about Mountain View Elementary, this school here, kind of the makeup of the students and things like that. Yeah so this year super excited to be here and be a part of the MTV community. I will tell you that the way in which the the staff come together to support students and just wrap around everything that is student-centered, they have they have students always at the forefront of every decision that we make and so that was something that you know we came together at the beginning of the year make certain that we're all in agreement about why we're here, our norms, our why and so that was just an easy easy leverage piece where we all had that agreement and then the staff really are so they're just so focused in on how to identify how to help students and they they look at what might those gaps be or what might be those additional supports to move students to that next level and they just pull together and they they're all about looking at strengthening the students learning right.
It's not just I came out here and I taught but how we can improve student learning and so they're always looking at data. I have never been at a school that has been so just data driven, so data focused and they want to look at those pieces so that they can identify some interventions, implement them, see if that's working and continue to move forward and so it's just always a center focus. How much of that is engaging in the students and trying to hear directly from them like getting their voice in some of this decision making? Oh without a doubt that's the street data right? It's that getting in having those conversations doing things like conferring with the kids, those small groups, pulling a kid aside and saying here you know read with me or you know working through you know the awareness of the phonics and how they blend together and all of those pieces and hearing what the students are doing and then being able to provide those next steps and those those supports.
Joanna talk to me a little bit about the kindergarten school year, how it's going. We're getting close to Thanksgiving break and then we'll move into winter break so we're a fair amount into the year already. How are the students? Well actually I have one of my kindergartners out here right now.
It's nice to see a familiar face. They're doing amazingly. We started last year in the district a kind of intro to kindergarten called kindergarten jump start and it's been really amazing to see what kindergartners were like before the school year started.
Kind of get their toes in the water of what school is going to be like and where they're at now. You'd be amazed at the independence that you can see in the classrooms when you walk in and I do have to say that this is genuinely in my 13 years one of the sweetest kindergarten classes or one of the sweetest classes that I've ever had. The children are compassionate and kind and so excited to be at school and it really like I have moments where I stop teaching and I'm just in awe and I have gratitude for how amazing they are.
So it's been really great. Is that across the whole kindergarten cohort as well? I mean that's the sentiment you all have. Yeah I mean our kindergarten teachers love what we do.
We without a doubt are early childhood educators who love helping kids to love school and learn those foundations and some kids you know every child is different. There'll be kiddos who have a hard time but the teachers are there every day fresh start ready to help them and they just they're a great group of kids. James you're on the school board here with us.
We last talked at the Bordeaux roundtable so kind of from there to here maybe looking at both the schools independently. What are you seeing especially here specifically that that you're really keying in on? Yeah and I'll put my cards on the table. I'm a little biased.
I like this school a little bit better because my wife teaches up here and so I agree they have the best kindergarten team around but but I've got to be here a couple of times and see things like the literacy efforts here. So last year I got to come in and read with students and have them read to me and and those are the windows in to see all of the policies all of the strategic plans that you read on the website actually get in to these students to actually this a rubber meeting the road and you're seeing the reward for all of the effort and so last year as I was sitting there having kindergartners read little things and then they have no spatial awareness them crawling right on you to read with you. It just helps you to see the good that is happening in this district and so both Bordeaux, Mountain View, Evergreen I've got to see the collaboration so all the schools are on the same plan which really feeds into that middle school success.
Last time we met YF we talked at Evergreen about how unique that school is in the district and a lot of the special features that have going gone on there for a long time some 24 years in certain cases. Here at Mountain View what do you see from your perch as a superintendent about the kind of the shining stars the spotlights at this school? Yeah so that Director Dale had it pretty right around like they really want to be they're very team focused here and really trying to build some things up grade level to grade level in preparing their students. There is a good sense of rigor here and I also kind of two other things that I think of are really designing the educational space.
The school does have a lot of pride both in its makeup in the hallways and in the classrooms about supporting student learning. I mean you can see a lot of things that go into supporting literacy, math development, obviously writing. They've done a lot of work around science around for in the library.
They used to have a STEM thing before we had our budget cuts you know we'd love to bring that back and then I would also add down student jobs. I get a lot of things going on that really help them out. The other piece is just community so like many generations have gone through Mountain View so you'll hear a lot of stories of yeah my grandmother went here too and so people really want to build up and so there's a kind of this real deep-seated need to send my family member to Mountain View.
So there's I've heard that since I got here a lot of demands for that keeps alive and you know keeps a lot of those kind of traditions that are really important to Mountain View and in the greater community. Since we're here and since we're just talking I do want to just kind of get this out of the way. There was some social media stuff last week online about some political clothing.
Can you just talk about that? It was it was at this school and so it kind of lines in good with where we're here to. I saw comment at the school district board meeting this week and there was a post on the social media but could you explain what's going on there for me Wyeth? Yeah so in public education you know our primary duty is to obviously keep kids and staff safe and then also really educate them. We are in the education business.
You will see us all all around us in the library, you go back in the classrooms you know that's the things we're focused on but you know through my entire career no matter which district I'm in there's always going to be some things that happen that are what we would term a possible disruption to the educational environment. So there's just things that that happen sometimes they're low level. I think this is a low level incident sometimes I get blown out of proportion just because some people want to jump on them but you know our job is to be a non-partisan government agency that does support student learning and then sometimes whether it's students, staff, or community members who come in there might be something that requires us to address if it's disruptive in this particular case you know anything that symbolizes a political movement or some partisanship you know if we have to address we will.
I had a brief conversation, addressed it, staff member did something in response to it and then we just moved on with the rest of our school day. Is that a school district policy or is that a state policy or where did you where do you get the language to look at when addressing this? Yeah so districts are governed really about you know RCWs so they're state laws and rules that we do follow in this particular case those are the exact things that we do again disruptive to the educational environment and also we cannot be a partisan organization we have to be a non-partisan. I cannot wave any flag or thing that is in favor of any political party or movement really just because it gives signals to the kids and the families that we're here for this reason in all reality we're again public education where we welcome everybody in and we don't want to just not have that be the kind of welcoming environment that looks like we're only here to serve certain people for certain reasons and so that's really what it is.
Again I really would like to keep that thing small. I know in this day and age some things get elevated that was most certainly not the intent of the Shelton school district and again I think this one really was handled really well quick brief moved on maybe some people I think outside of the Shelton school district didn't want to move on right because some things got posted on social media. Okay well that's great thank you and then we can move on in our conversation here folks in the audience if you have questions there is no cards there that I'll take we have had some pre-submitted questions for this as well.
Lissandra tell me about some of the goals here for the overall student body and whether or not that's start of the year seeing a metric end of the year seeing a metric how the students are getting prepared for the next grade level they're going to what do you look at in your team meetings and and getting folks ready? Joanne and I are looking at each other and kind of laughing because we I met with the kindergarten team actually today in talking about literacy and comprehension and you know being able to to start with that foundation in kindergarten to ensure that our kiddos are are leaving with the ability to read at the right level for moving into first grade and so when we look at those pieces and we think about you know the metrics that were were measured by the state with the SBA at third grade it is about building those foundations early on kindergarten first and second and then going on up to third and fourth so that they're also successful to get all six credits at the high school and do those types of things so it we really are focusing in on that and having those conversations about okay what do we need to do to get our kinders ready to go and one of the things that I've really been just super appreciative of is our third grade team came together we looked at data and we looked at you know the kids that we believe we can move to being at grade level standard by the end of the year and it's a lofty goal it's 57 percent and and but we looked at it and we looked at it you know collaboratively we looked at you know all of the just the different metrics that are out there and and and talked about what can we do to be intentional about that so we created sunrise scholars which is a monday wednesday friday where kids come in at 7 45 to 8 45 to get interventions and we're seeing it already work and so that part we're just really excited the kids are moving up levels are getting fluency down better and so we're seeing that movement and then my specialist which I have one specialist here in the audience that they're coming together and they're also supporting the work to improve literacy as well as attendance because we also saw that our third graders who maybe maybe could have made it you know to standard they had a lot of absences and so my specialists are coming together and they're being really intentional and really focused on the kids to you know celebrate make you know uh sort of deals with them and interventions with them and get them here so that they can be successful because if they're not here then they can't be successful and so you know all of these guys coming together to really to move the students forward and then again all the other grade levels are sharing that same goal around literacy and we have that same focus so that as we move forward in future years we're not starting with such a gigantic gap we are starting out with much more of a solid foundation you know hopefully next year we start off with maybe 40 percent that are coming into third grade that are already at standard and we can make it to 60 or 70 percent just continue to grow so that it just the conversation and the and the dedication the staff are having and the students are setting goals themselves and they are getting excited about the learning that they are they're showing so joanna can you tell me what the end of the year you're looking for when it comes to reading can you explain what your kiddo in the audience here is going to potentially be able to read by the time school's out for parents who may not have students as kindergartners i think that one is probably a big shock to a lot of people because kindergarten is not what it used to be um it's extremely rigorous it's extremely academic um our students leave kindergarten being able to read i mean and it's not just short words it is long vowels it is paragraphs it is full you know books and it's a very wide range for our students you know you'll have some that have finally learned their letter sounds because they had hardly any background knowledge when they started kindergarten but ultimately the goal is that they are able to read by the time that they leave kindergarten and when they enter first grade they have much more complex patterns but they have solid foundations by the time that they leave kindergarten that they can read and they can write principal also mentioned absence is why i thought something you and i talked about a lot in the shelton school district can you talk a little bit about that broadly here and what you guys are trying to do to encourage folks to be here every day i love this topic and it but it's a heavy lift too it's not easy to sometimes you know um get students to come to school it's a habit right and so uh getting into the healthy habit of coming to school every day um you know i know coming off of covet you know even with little sniffles come on down if you're obviously got a fever or you're throwing up please do not show up i just want to be really clear um i'm sure teacher belic here does not want she does not want that either for her right uh but uh we as a district recognize you know looking at our data looking coming off of covet because it was just like a new thing you know attendance was really rough you know most districts uh were hovering around you know literally 50 of the students showing up or a or less absences a month on average so that i mean just think about that folks i can't remember i was talking to actually a number of folks um earlier today just about that um at one of our high schools and i was like can you guys remember that when your kids like that many kids being missing school and so they're like no i i can't and so there's this thing as time goes on it becomes kind of a this acceptable in some environments to miss a couple days of school a month and it doesn't seem like much but when you add that up and i know they're doing that here is one of their moves from mountain view is like trying to send that message like two days and then two more days like some simple math here and then two more and the next thing you know you're like whoa your student just missed 15 20 days 15 20 days of instruction i can tell you any teacher especially kindergarten here i'm thinking if if i said hey most of your students that are missed 20 days oh my gosh like they're gonna miss a lot of really important things and then you got to try to make it up and it just kind of snowballs so um and the unfortunate part coming off covet is we were less than our comparable districts we actually averaged our 44 percent of our population only made it to school on a regular basis meaning again two or less absences in a month 44 percent our percentage has gone up we're in the high 60s that's great we have had tremendous growth compared to other districts like shelton same kind of demographic and size we've had just equal growth of not exceeding growth and increasing our tenants the challenge is just like trying to keep increasing that means new things for us and we're always trying on new strategies whether that's the jobs program they have here at mountain view tracking and sending messages right engaging curriculum empowering kid voice those are things reward systems obviously but we need to work with our parents and our guardians too to be like oh okay so now school when school's a session please come every day as much as possible and get in there for us so i saw the vending machine downstairs with the books in it talk to me a little bit about that i can talk about the book vending machine um the book vending machine was actually purchased by our ptso a couple years ago our amazing ptso um and we've used it a couple different ways over the last couple of years but really the ultimate goal is to get every child a book every year that they can keep and call their own um it's getting books into kids hands and it's like one of the most joyous moments for each child when they get to take their special coin and drop it into the you know the coin slot and then identify which book they want and some kids will ask can i hold on to it the book i wants back there three layers back um having to wait you know in the anticipation but um teachers will use that for attendance they'll use it as a reward for expected behaviors um there's kind of a couple different ways we use it but really it is another piece that just brings joy and if you're not here you can't get that um and so when kids are here it's like oh yes you're here today let's go do your book you know your book token and get your special book that you get to keep forever so that's pretty cool you mentioned uh principal nests a lot of different ways you engage the students outside of the classrooms with the different jobs and things like that how how does the student body uh how do they get along together how's the dynamics i find them to be just very caring and kind and um you know i i was watching actually i think i believe it was the young lady that's in our audience uh we had a student who um has some additional needs and i was watching a pe class and you know she was sitting alongside and redirecting the student um and helping the student follow along with the directions and it's those types of moments where you see that empathy that oftentimes is missing in society and it just warms the heart and and we see that you know throughout our building we see kids taking care of one another and looking out for them and so just watching you know um just sitting alongside and and guiding the student who doesn't necessarily always have the skills to to follow those directions because of additional you know academic and social needs it was just it was just heartwarming and that was you know i just saw that during an observation i think i was on thursday of last week um and and the students are also very encouraging so we do attendance awards for zero to one absences each month and we go to the classrooms we hand them a certificate we depending on how many months they've had it so for the first month they'd get it they get an otter pop if they get two months it doesn't have to be two months in a row they get an otter pop and a pencil and then if they get three months they're gonna get an otter pop a pencil and a sticker so it's like accumulating right they get more and more each time they accomplish that and the students are cheering for one another and they're also taking a moment to go oh i need to be at school so i can get those those things right and and so i'm working with ptso in regards to popcorn and you know other types of opportunities to really make certain that you know we're doing those celebrations but they're they're cheering each other on they get a picture with the teacher and they're they're celebrating one another right they're they're just taking care of one another james you mentioned that you have some inside info here at this school so you may know this a little better than maybe some of your other school board members but when you hear stories like that how does it uh help you as you guys sit around and and kind of look ahead to the few years make your decisions on the forward movement of the school district yeah all of those all of those pieces allow you to see what's working and then what needs to keep being addressed because teaching is an art form there's data but you're working with real humans and so as i'm listening to everything from the book machine to attendance you're trying to figure out what is working and what needs to be adjusted and so all of that data but all of those experiences and i do get the privilege of hearing lots of great stories with everybody's name left out but lots of great stories from my wife about what happens in this school and what they're trying to do and where they're adjusting and so i feel like i get a little peek in even when i'm not touring the schools to the efforts behind it which puts you know if you're a school board and you're you're there for about two hours you don't really get to see the inside things you got a policy and you're reading through it and you're making sure you aren't breaking laws and you're you're honoring the community but this gets you to the reason why you're there so joy and i think if you engage students even at an age level of kindergarten with um um kind of uh treating them as equals you kind of give them a responsibility to be part of the whole outcome for the school in the classroom they seem to hold on to that take that and and really thrive do you see that in your classroom have you noticed that even just across the whole school here oh absolutely um so i've actually taught kindergarten through third grade so i have kind of a variety of backgrounds and one thing you'll see when you walk into my classrooms is i'm really big on student independence and ownership it's their classroom it's not my classroom we build it together and what they want to learn about i will adjust things to make sure that they are thriving and enjoying school they get to help decide what kinds of you know rewards and celebrations we do but they have the ownership of our classroom in our school and you'll see that in other classrooms as well our teachers really do take value in student voice um whether that's with academic lessons or like i said celebrations um but teachers teachers here really really value student voice and want their students to feel like this is their space to be proud to be proud of what they've learned proud of the work they've done all of that and i think that's that's throughout our entire school well sandra it occurs to me then as you give students voice and ownership of these they take more pride in the overall school uh maybe there's less trash in the hallways people pick things up people are kinder to each other is that something that happens here stuff like that oh yeah without a doubt so um this week is national anti-bullying week for example and so we are focusing i mentioned that in the morning meeting i share that we're going to focus on kindness to one another and we you know we hand out confetti when we see different things and so and kids get really excited when they get their confetti and you know they're like yes i showed this you know i did whatever and i you know and i'll make a little comment to the student you know oh i appreciated how you we had we had a student who got stuck on the um one of the the big toys outside and there's another kid who stayed with him so they wasn't alone and so i was like that's cool nice job buddy you know and and gave him a confetti and he was super happy and so you know they take pride in those pieces and they take pride again in those jobs that they do so we have our fourth grade leadership team who goes and goes down to the kinders and walks them out to the buses and gets them lined up and ready to go we have you know other fourth graders that are collecting confetti we have fourth graders who are going and bringing in the fruit or the vegetables that they get for the day and so they're working on all those pieces and connecting with the younger grade levels and and they're seeing oh these are the leaders in the school and you know i had a conversation with one parent who at first was worried that we were not going to have leadership this year because of losing on out on our stem program but we were keeping it going because the fourth grade team took that on so again that's that coming together that sense of community in the school to always problem solve not just admire a problem but come up with solutions so that we can continue to thrive we talked at the evergreen forum about this fourth graders getting ready to go to oms and and they're being ready and we heard resoundingly from paula there that they are overly ready they're more than ready to be engaged oms eagles and so when they move out of here you're seeing those same things and then how does that trickle up to the culture then into junior high to the high school part of the strategic plan on safe and welcoming all that stuff yeah so i you know i hear a district kind of question here and you know director dale was also mentioning this too you know it's really building a system you know and each of the three elementaries have their own unique populations they have really unique culture they have you know different talents too i mean you know mountain view is really good at teacher leaders they have some really good teacher leaders that come across the grade levels obviously teacher belix in a really good leader to help guide kindergarten so each grade level can really work together to support the kid because at the end of the day if they're not working since they enter the doors here and developing those skills things can be missed out so they they are thinking about that what is it that we need to do to adapt so that they're ready to go at olympic middle school you know right next door because that's a lot it's a lot to have the students over there build the stamina making sure they're independent making sure they're also you know not only content knowledge but also good citizens they've been working hard on that there but that's because the work that was laid as a foundation here at mountain view so that those kids can do that without having to take up additional time at oms because when i got here three different schools with three different expectations and three different ways of doing things means when they get to middle school they're going to take months to teach those skills i know we talk about it all the time like look this is a well-oiled machine only because again they're working in concert with one another and that is a district effort and each school is doing their part to prepare our students each year because i don't want to lose sight of that and obviously for that big transition to olympic middle school how's the family support here when you reach out for assistance or you reach out to say this week's anti-bullying week may be around an opportunity to talk with your kiddos at home about this and engaging in reading things like that what's the kind of parent response you get here i have never encountered better parents in my entire life they are they're amazing they come together they are responsive they um you know they come in they have conversations with me regarding how that how to support the school how to support their students um you know again they are also looking at problem solving and they're very very collaborative we have a literacy uh drive going on right now also where you know our goal is 100 minutes you know a week and kids get a little tiny palm to put into their class jar and then the classroom teachers are celebrating and again we're we have that support with with our ptso we have that support with our parents it's it's just been ongoing and with regards to the bullying piece it goes out you know my sunday message also to families how the kids will earn confetti for the week and what that messaging is and again you know it's it's that ongoing piece where i hear families saying thank you this we we hear it we see it we celebrate it they see their their students being recognized for the confetti um on fridays they get the picture taken because we do a drawing and and i'm seeing the parents sharing it out they're tagging other family members and like so and so you know and so they're really just they come together the most caring the best community i honestly have ever had the pleasure to work with joanna talked a little bit about this when we were talking about kindergarten reading and how by the end of this school year students are going to be reading in ways that you may not be familiar with at the end of the time maybe you were in kindergarten and wyeth how do you and maybe james too you guys can riff on this a little bit push forward even more of this responsibility to elementary school students to to become even better readers earlier more understandable when it comes to maybe mathematics earlier things like that how do you how are you seeing that move forward over the next couple years yeah so i mean let's you know i think again telling the story of the journey four years ago we developed a strategic plan as four initiatives one was high quality learners instruction but that is bifurcated one is the love of literacy so that's you can teach a lot of students how to read and they can read and write but if they don't love literacy then you'll drop off in the sense of being independent as learners and that critical thinking pieces and that's what we want for our our students as we move forward and we've been working on this we we're continuously having to adapt though in an environment where expectations that were here just a couple years ago are not the same expectations so a lot of the schools had 20 minutes of reading all the way up through fourth grade that is not going to do the trick that's nice at the primary grades but when you get up into to you know third and fourth grade you're gonna be you're talking about 30 40 minutes of reading different kinds of books different kinds of conversations getting into book clubs those are things that just develop over time because you've been working on it i know again i've been in joanna's class a lot of times she does word work really well but she keeps coming up with new activities and games ways kids can engage these are things that you know you keep building on some new things see what works some some years this doesn't work some years that does work uh so we just keep building our toolbox keep adapting raising the rigor and getting those kids to be again more independent because i think that is that is ultimately so they're independent learners themselves as opposed to just focusing on how to read we are moving it go ahead james just just simply to add one of the things i've observed place to place and here in particular a lot of different types of books right so that you're trying to find your just right book you're engaging that reading level and that that enjoyment of literacy that will produce people who will read longer as you get to older grades but that is done so much there's so many options to read and it's fun to walk around a classroom and see somebody has a sports book and this person has this type of book and this one has animals and to see that personality and what they're reading drawing them deeper into that literacy so that reading isn't just for those kids it's for all the students one thing i will mention too is as we move into the spring there will be opportunities uh to come and read with and read to the students i was here last year for it i think you guys were as well and it's a i was here and at evergreen and it's a really cool to see uh these kids reading books and you kind of look through them and you go yeah okay let's see how you do and they're able to get right through it so there will be those opportunities i'm sure that you'll you'll please go ahead i would also say we would always welcome volunteers to come into our school yeah how does that work forms and yeah there's an online form on the district site or if you want to come into mountain view we will help guide you and and get you to show you where those forms are at and guide through the the filling them out um and we would be more than happy to have you in any of our classrooms to read anytime so joanna i'm just gonna i'm gonna ask you this here what what is it to have a parent come in and take the time out of their day to volunteer i think a lot of parents might be uh hesitant to be in the classroom with their student their child their kiddo uh you know for fear of making them feel like oh man my mom and dad are here or the parents you know a teacher may think why is the parent here what are they here for can you kind of dispel that i hear it all the time that on both sides people are like i don't know if i should go maybe they want me there maybe they don't want me there i mean i think that just boils down to open communication and um talking with your your child's teacher of like hey i'd like to come in and then oftentimes as teachers we say okay great what kind of work you know what kind of things would you like to do would you like to help group you know projects in our project because some parents are comfortable with that and some are not would you like to read with kids would you like to run game stations things like that and just finding out what parents want to do i love having parent volunteers in um i've had a volunteer in the audience right here helping me out with just some things it's like oh i haven't gotten to that yet or you know sitting and reading with kids last year i had um one of my sweet families uh one of my students grandmothers is a former teacher and she came in once a week and during our readers workshop time she would pull a group of five kiddos and have story time with and they loved it and he got to be part of the group every single time and it was like this cherished most proud um and sometimes he'd bring books from home for grandma to read and sometimes they'd pick some from our classroom library but it's a you know a really a coveted really special time to have parent volunteers in and we really want to partner with our parents um because we're a team we're a team in your child's education and the more people we can get in the better because you see them i mean a large majority of the waking day you're with those kids yeah we got a question here and let's see if we can get through it maybe we'll start with yf and then move into how it works here at mountain view there is note cards up there if you also have the role of a teacher has seemed to change with more hats to wear in the classroom what steps or vision is there to support classes with larger percentage of students with ieps and 504s and other social emotional needs where the teacher is being pulled in so many directions so both district and school level whoever wants to start well i'm old enough uh to tell you a little bit about history on this one too you know when i i've never been a kindergarten teacher for example i've taught second all the way through eighth grade um but you know back before there was class size limits it was pretty typical to have 28 30 students of kindergartners in a classroom that would be blasphemy to today and there was still high need students back then so i'll put that there and i'll move on because i'm not trying to create a lightning rod issue um but the expectations for students have changed that i will i will add um and that started about 20 years ago and then the movement was for lower class sizes k through three um and then this particular school does have a high percentage of students who receive special education services you know more more than your typical elementary school out there it's a full spectrum of special education services are here meaning that more intensive services are also here as well as mild and moderate and so those those are elements that come as a surprise i think to some people because you know disabilities can look different in different ways and that includes you know needs for all sorts of modifications to the curriculum accommodations throughout their day whether that's physical or social aids and then also just you know sometimes behavior and so when you have those things going on kids trying out things and communicating through their behavior that might not be looking so fitting society's norms we have to remind ourselves we're here young kids they do things we're here to teach them and uh help them get more independent and uh obviously um meeting those state standards whether that's core academics around social emotional so they do a good job here they really work together as a team to think about how can we support our students um but those things the job the hats the educators have these have been long-standing things they just look different in different ways and different ways to respond to things that are are maybe ways that were used in the past that are not as effective as some of the strategies that are applied today that maybe require more training and more work that's for sure you know and we don't get paid much to provide more additional training for our staff on average it is 40 hours a year of additional monies for professional out per educate that's a lot of time that's usually if you're following adult learning theory is really just about getting one or two skills and so that puts things in a rub where we want to do this you got to get this how do you find the time and effort around the training that's just required yeah how do you work in kind of this space where there's a finite number of hours in the day there's a finite number of helpers teachers to share that load i guess or how how do you work through that here well i i again i think about joanna and and she has a young student who um we we problem solve together so we sit down and we we have a conversation about a kid who you know how can we provide that next level of challenge so you know she's got a she's got a kid that that requires a little bit more time and focus and can read off the charts i think we're still trying to figure out what level the kid is reading right and so having that time to collaborate and talk and problem solve as well as you know making certain that we have the right supports and making certain that we are talking about what is or isn't working and it has to be that ongoing conversation piece about again problem solving not just in my and i you know can not just admiring admiring the problem but coming together to to look at what can we do to support and um you know we have a a teacher whose sole focus is around social emotional learning we have our counselor and we we bring the team together to talk about what what are the supports what's needed what what's some of the data that we're seeing you know is is it you know a student who might be struggling in math and that might be a triggering moment for them that's causing them to you know have some sort of behavior you know work avoidance basically right and okay how can we make this what can we do so that they want to be there and they want to engage in the math and so it we have a team of teachers who come together another staff that come together to problem solve and and then develop a plan to make certain that we have the right supports and the teacher feels supported and it doesn't always work perfectly right and then we go back to the table and we have those conversations again and until we get it right so the kid does get those right supports. It was either the last school board meeting or the previous uh the board and you Wyeth and finance director Clinton uh Sherman finalized some numbers regarding the upcoming levy in February so these are opportunities now to kind of explain here specifically let's start with that on Mountain View where some of those dollars fit in and what you see from your perspective as a superintendent there. We only have 17 minutes.
All right so I'll just jump in here um we've had a lot of conversations so I just up front just want to invite people not to be able to cover all that in this conversation but they can check on our website we have updated information we have uh handouts that are on pdf we have a calculator we have everything that you could imagine and if you have questions you can always email Clinton Sherman or myself happy to answer it so I just want to get that information out front because then it gets some of this does get technical but you know for a district like this 12 and a half percent of our budget comes from the levy so it's an 85,000 uh 85 million dollar budget is our annual budget it's a fixed income there's not another way to get additional dollars you do rely on that levy out of that 85 million dollars so that for us um is you know 10 it'll grow over time with inflation and budgets but you know you're talking about 10 million dollars right now in today's dollars out of that 85 is coming from the levy and it funds everything and I think in the past people thought oh it's gonna fund some of the enrichment things well these dollars pay for insurance utilities maintenance costs they cover athletics and activities all of that expense you cannot use general fund dollars to pay for that I think that comes as usually is a big surprise to people because they go wait well what would happen to the sport especially you know at the you know the middle grades and especially in the high school people don't realize how much that is uh the cost for that does come from again the levy and then we have what they call basic ed enhancements and those enhancements really are everyone because the state for example the our the the teacher salary average teacher salaries we're gonna get from the state is 77,000 dollars our average teacher makes 95. How do you cover that gap for every one of those staff members is gonna come from the levy and so that's what makes this tricky to explain sometimes because you're like well you're gonna still have to have teachers I mean trying to be like no she's gonna have a job whether the levies are not gonna be passed the problem is is to cover not having those levy dollars to top off her salary that's gonna have to come from the basic ed side your of your budget and those dollars are gonna have to cover the rest of a salary for a typical teacher and then that's gonna leave less for other things that the levy would normally you know would help fund and then we could use some other dollars from the state but we have to shore that up because our basic responsibility would be that there's a classroom teacher and that we have an administrator and that we have a front office person because you're gonna have to operate. Everything else really starts to really move either will be significant curtailed or no longer will be available and so oh yeah all that like all the other things those are just because it's 10 million dollars we had a cut of we had to cut budget for 2.3 and we were to shave away some things that were non-staffing dollars those things are gone so this is gonna be strictly right into staffing for 10 million so one could easily start to calculate what that starts to look like when a teacher's around 100,000 you know just trying to round around numbers 100,000 paraeducators are 35 40 thousand dollars that you can start to build out those expenses.
And again that information is on the school district website got another submitted question we have one that was online with just about 10 minutes left I have a few more things that I want to ask but this is a I can't wait to hear this answer here how can we make state testing less stressful for both teachers and students so maybe some things you do here to help the kids prepare for these state testings and then what the school board can do the superintendent can do to make it less stressful. So one of the things that I see and I've done you know k through 12th grade all sorts of testing and it's about really creating that normal environment right helping them feel comfortable having them just recognize like it's okay right you have as much time as possible that so just kind of removing those barriers and letting them know that you know they're going to be just fine as well as you can gamify it a little bit in regards to like the kids take their maps testing and go okay so this is what map shows now let's see what you can do on the SBA right let's see you top that and so you know getting that gamifying that piece and and I think that one you know going from third to fourth grade I think it's easy for us to then look at that next year when the third graders come back as fourth graders and to be able to celebrate and say look you you beat what the SBA what the maps predicted you were going to do look at how you achieve this piece and get that kind of the culture and the norm that it's you're going to have time you can take as long as you want and take it serious and it's okay it's you're going to be okay and and just getting that practice right and just reminding them we're practicing every day we're practicing it's good it's good it's good and just realizing that we're building those skills for them and we're providing those opportunities for them to be successful. I'd imagine too it's important in a kindergarten to start with that as you kind of look to normalize the testing process so it is when it shows up there's not a lot of over test anxiety yeah yeah I mean we we do assess in kindergarten and we do not use computers to assess them at that level but they do take their first computerized assessments when they jump into first grade but we check in with our kids all the time we talk about the data with them like oh you know this week we got we did so well on these ones these are some skills that we need to work on what goals can we set with you to move forward and so it is kind of a foundation at the kindergarten level to looking at not necessarily like performance but seeing their strengths like wow you did so well on this and here are some areas that we need to support you on so that you can feel successful and then helping them to know the tools that they need to be successful on those assessments so once they get into first grade it really becomes a lot more comfortable and that a first online assessment is oftentimes not the best data because half of them don't know how to use a computer yet and that's one of the big hurdles for them but like Ms. Ness said gamifying it is a really helpful helpful way to make it feel less stressful yeah I mean uh there's a you know like they just gave some really good examples both of them about what the things that you you do to prepare and I and I I go you know I'm going to go up to the 30,000 foot level here is you know I'm going to keep advocating that um you know these some of those those assessments are rigorous and especially for our multilingual learners sometimes that assessment there's no such thing as a perfect assessment so just putting that out there and then sometimes what is that assessment assessing sometimes it is hard especially for kids who are from um uh more marginalized populations people who lived in poverty or again multilingual populations they might not have familiarity with some of the background of what's in the test that is a real challenge and you know one of the answers here you're hearing from Joanne is like you got to get to know your kid and you're using different assessments you know them like oh this wasn't really the skill this wasn't a really skill this is a background knowledge issue maybe for some of the students and so those are the things that uh skilled educators use because they use multiple assessments the high stakes stuff is there it does have a real purpose though because without some ability to have a standardized assessment across the state and across states then it can start to lose impact on our ability whether we are meeting the mark for what students should be able to do or not do at each grade level and when every state starts to go its way alone we can start to water down what we have ours as far as our expectations for them and I will just have to add you are in the district with the number one literacy growth for third grade in reading and writing right here since COVID so we've been working really hard on that and that is through the smarter balance assessment as Ness was saying and so we'll continue but you know for us I just don't think you know we try to address that gamify it give up some strategies and try to make some of those things feel like that's the uh their experience are getting on a regular basis as opposed to just landing on a test and making it overly stressful because we do we don't ultimately want that for our students.
Our final submitted question came in before we started and I think this is a good one it may relate to the elementary level it may be higher so we'll just see who wants to answer this. How can the local non-profit soccer club Shelton FC partner better with the school to encourage families keeping their kids active through sports? I can I can speak to that please um we I don't know if it's been three years now started doing after school sports at the elementary level um soccer is one of the ones that we're trying to offer which is really great um I will also say that I coach with the Shelton FC. Oh okay.
I have stepped in to coach when there's not enough coaches for both of my children and I seem to do it with every sport so um we definitely in our community do need more families to step in and coach our kids but I think it's something I don't know about the partnership but we can definitely talk more with the Shelton FC with our after school programs and see if we can have that kind of partnered together to um keeping our kids active in sports. We have a good turnout for the soccer program but volunteers is what we need and if maybe we can find some ways to partner with that after school that'd be great. And if you've never heard of that before it's the they have the soccer fields over by MCRA where they hold bluegrass from the forest every year those are they're nice nice fields as well.
Anybody else want to take that? I don't have too much there except I know I know Derek who's part of that and and I think the heart there is students need particularly as you go through middle school to high school those places to find your identity and and keep you connected and I know that our um non-profit Shelton Soccer really wants to encourage that in the schools and so that that connection there I think they're looking for is how do how do they help? They're here just they want to cheerlead that because they know though it's not the only path. Athletics in school help students show up, keep your grades up, gives them a why, gives them a community. I just want to as a as a former soccer coach at the high school level um I would also say that it's a great opportunity to have those high school level kids to come and support maybe at an elementary and come alongside one of the other coaches and join in and and get the kids excited and and then the kids look up and they go oh a mentor and they see that this is what I can achieve and so that's another opportunity.
Very cool very cool uh keep that microphone what is up in the future here for Mountain View as we move into Thanksgiving, winter break, you guys doing any assemblies, what's what's going on? Yeah our music teacher left um she's got all sorts of things coming um I think she at the at the tree lighting um event our choir is performing yeah and then um we're going to be here uh doing the 15 days of winter and so every day will be something fun for our students and and staff to get involved in um and then um what else do we have going on? This Thursday we have a PTSO event everyone can come to glow bingo it's very fun last year we had to bring out more tables because it was such a packed house um it's a great time and yes we have the winter carnival coming up on the 12th of December. And then Joanna hope for the for the end of the year not the end of this calendar year but the end of the school year what would you like to see kindergarten and then the overall student body transform into I guess I'm not really sure. Oh gosh um well I kind of wrote down an answer that does not quite um match that well I mean for all of our students I'm going to speak kind of for all of our teachers and and I guess myself but we really hope that our students leave every school year feeling like they accomplished more than they ever could um believing in themselves we always hope that they can read and have met their academic standards um and that they leave each year knowing that they're loved and proud of themselves and that there's always a teacher here to cheer them on.
Home of the Vikings Mountain View Elementary thank you so much Principal Ness Joanna as well Superintendent Jesse and James thank you for being here uh no further questions from the audience and that pretty much wraps it up for me so thank you very much.