The School’s resources should be dedicated to teaching and learning.
Ultimate administrative and budget targets should include student loads that promote personalization, substantial time for collective planning by teachers.
We are all feeling the effects of challenging financial times. In the State of Washington, our schools are particularly vulnerable since our revenue fluctuates directly with the volatile and changing economy. During this last budget cycle we had some difficult conversations as a staff, but as hard as our decisions were, I was inspired by the fact that as a community we knew our priorities. We work to keep resources in powerful classroom teaching and in necessary social/emotional support for students . Our budget process helped us to reflect and refocus on our essential work.
Thanks in large part to your support and contributions to our Annual Campaign, we have been able to maintain school staffing that will continue to provide small class sizes for ninth grade academies and math classes. As this month’s principle states, we strive to maintain small class loads that promote personalization and hence greater success. Although we cannot do this in all classes, we have identified key junctures--the ninth grade--and content areas—mathematics--where we often leave students behind. Our data continues to indicate that the added resources in these areas are creating remarkable success for all students.
Our Tuesday late start days give our teams and departments absolutely priceless time to plan collaboratively, to refine curriculum, and to analyze student work so that we can better teach your students. We are so grateful for your support of our staff on Tuesdays! Research shows again and again that teacher practice, and hence student success, improve dramatically when teachers have the chance to leave their individual classrooms and learn from one another.
If you stop by my office, you will see a bookcase just outside my door, where I keep an ever-evolving collection of fresh and exciting titles. Students and staff are welcome to borrow a book and keep it if they wish. Maintaining this little main office library is my way of focusing each day on our essential function as a school community; whatever work we do administratively, our first job is to model and practice critical thinking, literacy, problem-solving, and the joy of lifelong learning.
This library is also a tangible manifestation of the “stone soup” principle (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_soup for a retelling of this folk tale). What began as a small collection of books culled from my home and second hand bookstores has grown to abundance as anonymous givers regularly contribute to the collection. Regardless of the difficult financial times, when we are committed to core principles, to keeping our classrooms vibrant and rigorous, to keeping students at the heart of all we do, we will continue to thrive. Thank you for your generosity, and for sharing your remarkable students with us.
Best wishes for a happy spring!
Marni Campbell
