Good morning,

During the school year our district has developed a direct partnership with the authors of the book Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity.  This text is guiding our professional development efforts to develop a school and district culture where each person feels welcomed, represented, supported and safe. We are excited to announce that this relationship will continue for at least two more years with direct consultation with Floyd Cobb and John Krownapple. 
 

A significant outcome of the belonging work is embedding the four dignity standards into our district and school cultures. It is integral to our success that every person in our district feels we:

1. Presume competence and positive intent
2. Build partnerships and community
3. Repair harm and restore relationships
4. Affirm differences and uniqueness
   
   

Have a great week of learning. 

Good morning.

I hope that all of you had a restful and fun weekend.  As a former high school English and Journalism teacher, I always found the writing of Dr. Martin Luther King to be incredible.  I do enjoy reading through his sermons, speeches and articles and love coming across quotes that I never encountered before.  

As a district we are striving for a higher ideal.  A school system where students, staff and families can say, "I belong here."  That message is made difficult by strong forces that seek to divide and negate messages of hope and improvement.  It is intriguing that Dr. King wrote this approximately 60 years ago while accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.  

Truth and love.  That is a great starting point for belonging.
  

Have a great week of learning. 

Good morning,

I have always been fascinated when people outside our profession try to articulate a definition of basic education.  What does that mean?  For some, the term is used as a means to narrow the scope of what is required, and therefore, funded.  However, I tend to include those things that can't be removed in the definition.  If we can't take something away, it is required.
 

The point is that so much of what we do falls beyond a simplistic or basic definition.  We support students significantly beyond the basics of core instruction.  We develop instruction to meet special needs, provide multiple forms of therapeutic services, augment for sensory needs, and even provide supports beyond graduation.  Though much of this is not considered basic education, it is indispensable.

One of the supports we provide is scheduled for February 22 at Yelm High School.  Approximately 50 service providers from the county will be on hand to answer questions, provide resources and to make connections for all persons in our area with special needs. This forum will also be a great showcase of the many ways we support students and families in our district.  The resource fair will begin at 5 p.m. with a panel discussion to follow. I hope you all attend. It will certainly help define what basic education truly contains.

Have a great week of learning.

Brian

Good morning and welcome to 2023!

Welcome back everyone.  The past couple of weeks have been so great spending time with family and friends.  That said, I am also very excited to continue the strong work we started back in September. 
 

Our school year started with two simple and solid areas of focus.  First, we set out to completely restore our instructional focus away from Covid restrictions.  Second, we engaged in new learning and new strategies designed to make sure each student, staff member and family feels a strong sense of belonging in our district.  I am very proud of the work completed so far this year. 

The new year gives us great promise to continue our growth and achievement as a community of schools.  Happy 2023, and have a great week of learning. 

Brian

Good morning,

It does seem weird that the next Monday Memo will be in January, 2023!  

I know there is a lot going on this week in all our schools.  There will be celebrations, songs, activities, and of course food.  Enjoy all of it.  Please also be on the lookout for students and adults who might need extra support this week.  

We are an education community consisting of 5,700 students, 800 staff, and more than 10,000 parents and guardians.  It takes all of us to succeed.  I want to borrow, again from Charlie Mackey's book, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.  The mole said, "I'm so small."  "Yes, said the boy.  But you make a huge difference."

Have a great week of learning. 

Good morning,

Congratulations to the Yelm High School football program for winning the state 3A championship on Saturday in thrilling fashion.  Thousands of supporters packed the home side of the field in Puyallup to root for the players and come together as a community.

As I was walking up to the stadium Saturday I began talking with a gentleman who wasn't wearing the colors of either team.  I asked him who he was rooting for and he said, "Yelm of course!"  He told me he had no connection to Yelm and his son was a student at Sumner HS.  The man continued that they had met a couple of Yelm students at different sporting events and noticed how polite and engaging they were.  He said he had followed the team and was amazed at how the community backed the program.  

After the incredible finish to the game, it was joyous to see the students and coaching staff celebrating and hoisting the trophy.  About 30 minutes after the game I turned around and noticed that nearly all of the crowd was still there!  It was a great moment for our students and a wonderful moment for our community.  We were Yelm Community Schools celebrating our students together.
  

Have a great week of learning. 
 

Brian

There will be lots of celebrations of students this week. First, congratulations to the Yelm High School Football team for earning their spot in the state championship game next Saturday.  That is the school's first trip to the championship game ever.  The game is at noon Saturday at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup.

If you are not heading to the big game, Yelm City Park will be the host site of the annual Christmas in the Park community celebration.  Christmas in the Park is a collaboration between the city, the school district and the Yelm Chamber of Commerce.  In addition to the announcements of Youth of the Year and essay contest winners, there will be various musical performances, activities for kids and holiday treats.  This is a free event for the community. I want to give a big "Thank You" to all who are involved in planning Christmas in the Park.

Have a great week of learning and celebrating our students.

Brian

Good morning,

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the state school director's conference in Spokane with our board and student representatives.  It was an incredible experience spending time with our students talking about the power of student voice and their ideas for school improvement. 

One of the sessions we all attended was Dr. Adolph Brown's talk on belonging.  He told his personal story of growing up in poverty and dealing with trauma.  It was incredibly powerful.  A comment he made near the end of his presentation really impacted me as an educator.  He said, "Judge me by my exit, not my entrance."  The point he was making is that educators were critical in his life and helped him through many barriers.  He was ultimately very successful due to educators impacting his life. If you ever need an emotional lift, I would encourage you to watch or read some of Dr. Brown's work. 

Have an incredible week of working with students and their families. 

Brian

Good morning,

One of our big challenges this week is to schedule conferences with families.  These personal conversations are so important because we can both honor the opportunity to work with students, and also lay out a solid plan for growth.  In the book Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity, Cobb and Krownapple are very clear in that the inclusion of families is critical for all to feel welcomed in our schools.  

I really like their definition of inclusion as a space where, "...everyone is honored and feels welcome, not by accident, but by design. In fact, inclusion is about the design, the process through which we intentionally create the environment.  Inclusion is about partnering with the people we are serving and changing the culture so they experience access and unconditional belonging. That's a different paradigm than expecting people to change themselves in order to fit in."

Have a great week working with students and families. 

Good morning.

I want to start by honoring all of our staff who are veterans.  Our district Veterans Day celebrations began last week at Ft. Stevens and will continue through Thursday.  Many of these celebrations will include guests and speakers who have served, or continue to serve our country.  Thank you to all our veterans.

As a reminder, tomorrow is election day.  Ballots are due no later than 8 p.m. on Tuesday. 
 

Have a great week of learning.

Brian

Good morning,

Normally I use the Monday Memo to push out a positive message in line with our yearly achievement efforts.  This week, however, the recent traffic accidents on Yelm Highway, and their significant impact on our education community, are weighing heavily. 

These events make me even more thankful for our staff and students who come to work and learn every day.  Each of you are integral and I thank you all for being Yelm Community Schools.  With our yearly switch to daylight savings time, I urge everyone to be extra careful on the roads each morning and evening. 

I also want to congratulate the Yelm High School football team for completing the regular season undefeated and ranked #1 in the state.  On Friday night at 7 p.m. the team will start their playoff run with a home game against Bishop Blanchet HS.  Good luck to all.

Have a great week of learning.  

Brian

Good morning,

Many of our schools work on positive character traits weekly or monthly.  Often, the traits emanate from being resilient, having grit, or having a positive mindset.  It is even one of our descriptors in the district Portrait of a Graduate. 

I came across a passage last week from a conversation reporters were having with Seahawks rookie Tariq Woolen.  He was asked what people overlook about him.  Paraphrasing, his response was his smile.  His smile represents his never-ending positive attitude. "I stay positive no matter what...and knowing you will get better, the sky is the limit."

That is a mindset worth celebrating.  We also need to acknowledge that schools are great places to develop positive learning attitudes. 

Have a great week of learning. 

Brian

Good morning,

Our students recently completed the Belonging Survey and I found myself reflecting about two of the questions.  

1. I feel very different from most other students here.
2. It's hard for people like me to be accepted here.
   
   

My reflection goes to the individuals and activities at our schools specifically designed to open the door to belonging for each student.  I know our schools work exceedingly hard to welcome every student, to provide support where needed, and to build relationships.  If there are gaps for some students, how do we bridge the divide?  The answer starts with our individual connections to each student.
 

It is our collective hope that students, staff and families would respond, "Always true" to the statement, "There is at least one adult in this school I can talk to if I have a problem."
  

Have a great week of learning and connecting with students.
 

Brian

Thank you to all who participated last Friday in our professional development offerings.  Working to create a culture of belonging for every person in our district, and learning Nisqually history are important factors in making sure everyone feels welcomed, supported and represented at our schools.  

Cobb and Krownapple write often about acknowledging dignity.  They teach about the "brave space conditions" needed to honor the inherent dignity in all people.  I really like their simple approach to this concept and how well it applies to working with students.

1. Empathy - try new perspectives.
2. Patience - slow down to go far.
3. Openness - keep an open mind.
4. Listening - listen to understand, not to respond.

Wow, we are into October!

The next two weeks are important with respect to multiple data points we value as a district. Today we will submit our official October 1 enrollment count which will allow us to graph our arc for the year in terms of the number of students we serve.  One of my hopes this year is to not experience our normal drop-off of enrollees after October.  

Our benchmark assessment window remains open during the first half of October.  The resulting data, along with other classroom assessments, gives us important information that drives many of our instructional decisions.  We will be paying close attention to the student growth aspects of the data to see if all students are on a strong upward path.   We will also be able to analyze and compare student attendance and discipline information.  Anecdotal evidence would say that students are coming to school more, and making better choices this fall compared to last September. 

Lastly, we will soon see our student data from the belonging survey.  We have placed great emphasis on building relationships and structures that help students connect to the adults and cultures of their schools.  The survey will give us strong feedback about our efforts.

The goal is never to simply produce data, but rather to use data to give us insight into our students and to guide our educational choices.
  

Have a great week of learning. 

Brian