Superintendent's Corner ~ May 2, 2008

Turning Mini Grants into Major School & Community Partnerships

Diane Hull (Special Programs Director) and Hugo Martinez (Migrant State Advisory Committee President) led a Bridgeport presentation team to the National Association of Directors of State Migrant Educators. The breakout session gave staff members from the district an opportunity to discuss the strategies which funded many of our school improvement efforts through a variety of mini grants.

Make plans to attend the staff recognition breakfast on Monday May 5 at the high school cafeteria. Staff is invited to a continental breakfast to celebrate the great work you do in our schools. The staff breakfast will be served from 7:00 AM until 8:30 AM.

Staff resignations, retirements and requests for leaves of absence will lead to a restructuring of the administrative team and a reformat of some classroom teaching assignments for the 2008-09 school year. Most noticeable will be the leadership of the elementary school building. As many of you are aware, Mr. Pointer resigned as principal. To fill that vacancy during the upcoming school year, I will recommend to the school board that a Dean of Students leadership position be created. Another significant change will occur at the high school. Following the announcement of Mr. Delwiche's retirement, the school counselor's position will be restructured to a half time guidance counselor and half time teacher position. I will also recommend to the board the elimination of one sixth grade teaching position. This will be accomplished by transferring a teacher to the elementary. The retirement of Julie Reynolds at the kindergarten creates a teaching vacancy that will be filled through an in-house transfer. In addition, Kathy Myers and Amy Porter's request return to the classroom will be honored. This will result in a redesign of the K-3 Reading Coaching model and could lead to a possible teacher opening in the intermediate grades. Malcolm Townsend requested a leave of absence. His position will be filled through an in-house transfer. A new secondary English teaching position has been posted. Rafael Tricas resigned as a secondary math teacher. That position, along with the others mentioned in this announcement is currently posted in-house.

End of the year classroom articles are now being collected for the district newsletter. Classroom teachers are encouraged to email an informational piece that sums up your school year to Tami Jackson by May 8. Office staff will translate the article to Spanish for the dual language district newspaper.

Plans are underway to host a district sponsored First Aid Course and CPR training in May. If you are in need of a card, contact Raelynn at the district office to place your name on the list.

Discussions continue on the development of the district's 3-5 year strategic plan. The next meeting is set for May 13. Representatives from the certificated and classified associations will be invited to attend. The focus of the upcoming meeting will be to develop action plans for the goals and objectives that were gleaned from earlier strategic planning sessions with the community.

May 15 is a day of interest for the district. Bids for a new heating and cooling system will be opened. The first $100K of the project is funded by a small school repair grant. The rest of the cost will come from district funds. The project includes the installation of five heat pumps that will heat and cool the ten middle school classrooms. Installation of the new system is expected to take place this summer. The current heating is a 1950 radiant heat system which was built into the floor. Over time, some of the metal pipes, encased in the concrete flooring, began to leak and were capped off which caused some rooms to receive more or less heat than others. The present cooling system consists of small air conditioners suspended in classroom windows. The new system will not only improve the room temperature, it will also improve air quality in the classrooms.

Mark your calendars for May 16-17. The middle school will conduct an emergency lockdown and evacuation drill. Funded by a grant, a large contingent of police officers from throughout Chelan and Douglas Counties will gather to practice simulated emergency response drills. Staff volunteers are needed to participate in the Saturday event. Contact middle school assistant principal Jon Symonds for more information.

May 17 is also the date chosen for the next Family Leadership Institute. Training runs from 2:30 – 6:30 PM in the elementary cafeteria. The focus of this lesson will be Living in two worlds – Cultural Perspectives.

 In yet another exciting development, some future Bridgeport graduates who seek to become teachers could qualify for a special future teacher's scholarship program. The state legislature created a $150K line item in the budget to develop a start up program to mentor bilingual students to become teachers. Bridgeport High was one of about a dozen schools invited to participate in discussions about this opportunity. Should this plan come to fruition, approximately fifty future teachers from twelve Washington State schools would be recruited from next year's junior class.

A look back at 2006