Public School Volunteer Week is being celebrated throughout the Olympia School District Monday, April 18 through Friday, April 22.
Superintendent Patrick Murphy read a proclamation during the April 14 Olympia School Board meeting recognizing April 18-22 as Public School Volunteer Week. The local recognition coincides with both the state and national Public School Volunteer Week.
Murphy recognized OSD Volunteer Coordinator Steve Desselle on behalf of all volunteers throughout the district and thanked him for his work.
The proclamation states in part that volunteers “are an integral part of student learning, play an important role in the education of students and provide a valuable partnership link with our community.” It also states that volunteers “inspire success in students while nurturing and challenging them to extend beyond their reach.”
Thank you, volunteers, for all you do for our schools!
Superintendent Patrick Murphy and several members of the Equity Policy Steering Committee shared information in a one-hour community webinar on April 13 about work underway to develop an OSD Equity Policy.
All of this year’s community webinars, which have been held monthly since October, are posted on the Superintendent’s Messages webpage. More information, including links to board study sessions on this topic, a list of all steering committee members, a tentative timeline for this work, and resource links, is on the Equity Policy Development webpage.
Special thanks to all of the panelists who participated in this latest Equity Policy webinar.
“Orange Sky,” by Constance Phegley, paraeducator at Capital High School and instructor at Virtual Academy of Olympia.
OSD employees are encouraged to send us a photo of their artwork portraying nature (e.g., landscapes, sunrises or sunsets, an interesting cloud formation, a close-up of a flower) for consideration in this staff blog. Your image can be something you captured on canvas, in a photograph, on a textile, in a pencil, charcoal or pastel drawing, with wire — the possibilities are endless!
Guidelines:
Nature/scenic images only (no people or pets please).
Attach a photo of your original art in jpeg or png format to an email and send to communications@osd.wednet.edu. The higher the resolution, the better.
Photos must be in-focus and cropped so the art is visible.
Include your name, title, work location, and if applicable, where the image was taken (you can name the city, for example, or provide even more specific details (e.g. sunset taken from Long Beach, WA). This information will be included with each image published.
Depending on the number of images submitted, we will print one or more in each issue of the staff blog.
Note:While the staff blog is emailed to OSD employees, if anyone shares the link it could mean your image is visible to others outside our district. If you are concerned about copyright of your image, we would suggest you not submit for posting.
We look forward to seeing more images in our email inbox!
All are welcome to celebrate the lives of Marc and Kim Coyner from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
The celebration for the former Washington Middle School Media Arts teacher and his wife will be held at the Lacey Community Center, 6729 Pacific Ave. S.E., Lacey, Wa.
The Coyners passed away in January in a car accident while out of the country.
As we have shared in previous blog posts, Olympia School District is in the beginning stages of exploring the concept of a balanced calendar. The next Citizens Advisory Committee meeting about balanced calendar is on Wednesday, April 20, 2022 and all are welcome to attend. Zoom meeting information is posted on the Balanced Calendar webpage.
Recently we emailed all staff and families a new one-page flyer and a brief video about this topic:
Links to the flyer and video are also posted at the top of our Balanced Calendar webpage, and copies of the flyer are available in all schools and support buildings.
Every year the Olympia School District publishes an Annual Report to share with the community many of the student, staff and school successes during the previous year.
The 2020-21 Annual Report posted on the school district website also features demographic and financial information, building improvement updates and links to School Improvement Plans and School Performance Reports.
We encourage you to read the report and join us as we celebrate many of the great memories that made the 2020-21 school year one of the best.
Staff, students and families are invited to take the Panorama Well-Being Screener Survey April 18 – May 6.
There is one survey link for classroom teachers and other instructional staff, and another survey link for all other district staff. The survey link for families is posted on the district website, and students will receive the link in the OSD Student Portal.
Full information and Fall 2021 survey results can be accessed on our public-facing Teaching & Learning (T&L) Panorama Survey Webpage.
State Expectations for Well-Being Screener
We are in Year 2 of implementing our Panorama Well-Being Screener Survey. OSD got a head start on implementation by launching in 2020-21 to get a temperature check on what students, staff and families needed during remote learning. Then, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) began requiring every district to have a Well-Being Screener in 2021–22 as part of Recovery Plans, which our OSD Board of Directors had already committed to within our Academic and Student Well-Being Recovery Plan (2021).
Supports for Implementing our Panorama Well-Being Screener
Our goal is to ensure we capture the voices of students, staff and families impacted by the policies and systems we operate in. To have a strong conclusion in our data, below outlines our goal for Spring 2022, and the T&L internal webpage for Panorama includes resources to support schools with implementation.
Response Rates: Fall 2021 Actual Compared to Spring 2022 Goal*
Students: 74.1% (5,857 total) compared to 85-90%
Families: 19.6% (1,593 total) compared to 25-30%
Staff: 48.4% (669 total) compared to 70-80%
*This percentage is based on the national determination from Panorama for a valid and reliable data set.
Strong Response Rates are Important
Strong response rates help provide credible data for analysis and intervention in support of students, families and educators based on trends.
Implementing the Spring Panorama Survey
Below is a calendar of supports being provided in partnership with Teaching & Learning team members and schools for Panorama spring Implementation. A toolkit with additional ideas to support implementation is on the T&L internal webpage for Panorama.
April 18 – May 6: Panorama spring survey is live April 20, 5:30-7 p.m.: Multilingual Panorama Night* April 27, 5:30-7 p.m.: Multilingual Panorama Night* May 10, Panorama Survey ready for review
*Multilingual Panorama Nights are events to support our families who are multilingual with completing the Panorama Survey and making meaning of the survey together. The events will have food and childcare.
Who to Contact
The best way to access partnership and service through our Teaching & Learning (T&L) Team is by emailing: Knox-K12TeachLearn@osd.wednet.edu.
The Panorama Implementation Team, consisting of site-based educators and Knox leaders, is facilitated by Director of Whole Child Success Char Franz, whose contact information is at the bottom of our public-facing T&L Website.
Application Period 4 Grant Requests are due by 5 p.m. on Friday, April 22 and must be submitted electronically to info@osdef.org. OSD employees who work directly with OSD students are eligible to apply.
Easy to complete, grant requests can be made in any amount up to $2,000. Application forms, guidelines and examples of grants awarded by the Foundation last year are all available at www.osdef.org/grants.
The Foundation will begin accepting grant requests for the 2022-23 school year by mid-August.
Questions? Contact Executive Director Katy Johansson at katy@osdef.org or (360) 596-6110.
The Annual Olympia School District Ice Cream Social is scheduled for Monday, May 23, 2022. This year the social will be taking place, in person, at the Olympia High School Commons from 4:30-6 p.m.
During the event, the Olympia School Board will honor dedicated staff members who are retiring this year. An advocate of the year from each of our schools will also be recognized, and the Olympia Education Association will recognize its Teacher of the Year.
Don’t forget to bring an appetite because Ice cream (with all the fixings) will be served! OSD staff and families are encouraged to attend and support our retirees and advocates. We hope to see you all at OHS on May 23!
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