Good morning,

On June 1, (Thursday) our school district will host our annual Day of Champions event at the YHS stadium.  Students from Rainier, Tenino and Rochester school districts will join in with us for an incredible morning of events, activities and celebrations of our special education students. Day of Champions also highlights our general education students serving in mentor roles throughout the day. 

This event requires incredible levels of collaboration with transportation, food services, facilities, community relations, Yelm Police, and the staff of each school to send their champions over to the high school to show off their skills.  We also have significant corporate sponsorships for food, snacks and T-shirts on board to make the event incredible for our students and families. Many thanks to the Office of Student Support for their leadership. 

Yelm High School will also have athletes competing at the state level this weekend in golf, tennis, fastpitch and track.  Let's celebrate their accomplishments as well. 

Have a great week of learning. 

Brian

Good morning,

We are quickly moving into the time of year where we celebrate the successes and growth of our students and organization. There are several upcoming events where everyone in the district and community can attend.
  

• June 6 - Community Scholarship Night at YHS (6 p.m.).  Members of the class of 2023 will receive multiple local scholarships set up by the community and the Dollars for Scholars organization.  
• June 8 - District Awards Night at YHS (6 p.m.).  We will honor our retirees, our classified and certificated staff of the year, recognize years of service and celebrate the top achieving students from each school. 
• June 11 - Graduation at the Tacoma Dome (9:30 a.m.).  We will celebrate the accomplishments of the class of 2023.
• June 20 - Last Day Breakfast.  Each school and department staff will view a recorded celebration of years of service and receive breakfast goodies from our local businesses and Graduate Yelm! partners. 
  
  

Have a great week of learning, 

Brian

Good morning.

First let me give an early Mother's Day wish to all the moms in our district.  I hope all of you have a great day of celebration.  Stay cool!  It's going to be a warm one.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all our amazing teachers. The classroom environment is the heart of great learning and we are so appreciative of the impact all of you make. Thank you for choosing this honorable profession and making a difference in the lives of students.
 

Have a great week of learning

Brian

Good morning and welcome to May!

We have focused our attention this year to building a culture of belonging for all students and staff in our district. The work has granted a great opportunity for our leaders to work directly with John Krownapple, co-author of Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity.

This weekend I had the privilege to hear an interview with Kim Samuel, author of the book, On Belonging.  She talked about four connections that can create her definition of belonging - the feeling of being at home wherever you are.  The concepts she put forward were:

1. Connection to people
2. Connection to place
3. Connection to influence (having a voice)
4. Connection to purpose
   
   

Have a great week of learning.

Good morning,

I am very much looking forward to warmer weather later this week.  The last time we had temperatures above 70 degrees was last October! 

Last Friday we held our third Superintendent Advisory Council meeting with our representatives from grades 6-12.  They are an amazing group of students committed to furthering student voice in our district. During the second semester these students have conducted focus groups and listening events at their schools, receiving more than 200 comments from their peers. We organized those comments into common themes:

1. Increasing Mental Health Supports
2. Student Accountability for Behaviors
3. Expansion of Activities, Athletics and Events
4. Increased Academic Supports for Students
5. Increasing Teacher/Staff/Student Respect
6. Increasing Student Recognition
7. Increasing Communications Systems to Students

Good morning,

I have shared previously that baseball has played a significant, and positive role in my life, and in the lives of our family.  Yesterday in major league baseball all players wore jersey number 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson.  He is definitely a person who made a huge change in our society. 

Jackie Robinson was quoted as saying, "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." For someone who faced extreme racism while being the first black major leaguer, a commitment to impact others as a life mission is pretty heroic.

Have great impact with our students. Have a great week of learning. 

Brian  

Good morning and welcome back.

Last Thursday the school board selected six applicants to participate in preliminary interviews for the new superintendent.  Those interviews will take place this Saturday, April 15 in executive session.  After the interviews, the board will announce the finalists for the position.  Each finalist will spend a day in the district April 17-19.  The board will select the new superintendent at the conclusion of the final interviews. I invite everyone to visit our district website to see the schedule on those days.  There are multiple opportunities for staff and the community to meet the finalists and provide feedback. 

Also, I am pleased to announce that DeeDee Buckingham will be our new Director of Human Resources.  DeeDee has a strong background in HR, working with Yelm, Clover Park and the ESD. DeeDee began working for Yelm Community Schools in 2018, working predominantly with certificated personnel and collective bargaining. 
 

I hope everyone is well-rested and ready for the final quarter of the school year.  Have a great week of learning. 

Brian

Good morning,

I want to share a quick thank you as we head into conference week and then spring break. Thank you for supporting students and their growth each day.  We always refer to schools being the hub of our community and we have a chance to show that with families during the week.  Please watch for students and families that might need support over the break.  

Have a great week of learning.  Have a wonderful break next week, along with a peaceful Easter weekend. 

Brian

Good morning,

Conference week is quickly approaching with parents and students scheduling time with their educators. There are two critical messages we can share when we connect with families in the coming days.  First, we can communicate the gratitude we feel for the ability to work with students.  Second, we can communicate the progress students are making toward their goals. 

During February and March, our administrators worked directly with John Krownapple, co-author of Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity.  Together we studied the nature of belonging and the creation of school cultures where students, staff and families feel connected.  Krownapple talked about developing an "invitational culture" where families feel confident in joining with their home school. 
 

Scheduling conferences, welcoming students at the classroom door, greeting students as they enter the bus or lunch line are all examples of honoring dignity that can propel learning forward.  Have a great week of learning. 

Brian

Good morning,

Students were the big winner Saturday night!  The annual Dollars for Scholars Auction raised at least $120,000, with potential for more donations to come in.  This is an incredible and enduring committee of volunteers who have raised funds for senior scholarships for more than a quarter century.  About half of the 240 people who attended are also Graduate Yelm! Partners.

One of the many highlights of the evening was a brief talk given by one of our 2021 graduates.  Marky Liburdi used his Dollars for Scholars scholarship to purchase the tools he needed to enter into a construction trades apprenticeship.  He was so genuine in expressing his appreciation of the community's support of his future.

Nights like Saturday remind us of our strategic plan goal that states each student will be on a path to graduation, continuing education and work.  A huge note of thanks to all who supported the auction in some way.

Have a great week of learning.

Brian

We have spent a great deal of time this year learning about belonging and dignity, including the four dispositions of the Cobb and Krownapple framework.  These are being appreciated, validated, accepted and treated fairly. 
 

In our fall student, staff and parent surveys, the disposition of being treated fairly was rated the highest across all groups.  Recently, we worked with students who comprise the superintendent advisory council and asked how we should analyze that data. Is it good?  How high of a rating is high enough?  How do we reach those who feel otherwise?

Of course there are no simple or perfect answers.  Rather, the data tells us to continue to learn,  and seek to build stronger and stronger connections.  It is our daily commitment to honor dignity by treating all in ways that show acceptance, validation, appreciation and fair treatment.  Students learn better when they feel all four dispositions are present. 

Have a great week of learning. 

Brian

Just recently many of our teachers and administrators re-engaged in training targeting our collaboration in professional learning communities (PLC). On most Wednesdays our community supports educator collaboration via our late starts.  The training our staff attended was not new, but work that many of our schools are again investing in post pandemic.
  

Collaboration in PLC's has been proven time and time again to be the most effective strategy for academic growth.  John Hattie describes PLC efforts as "teacher collective efficacy."  The effect size impact of educators working together to provide high quality instruction and assessment  has consistently been rated at 1.57, or nearly four times the impact that would show a year's worth of growth in a year's time.  

I recently came across a simplistic representation of collective efficacy.  Goal Setting + Collaboration + Goal Monitoring + Celebration = Mastery = Collective Efficacy. (Hoogsteen, 2020).  I like this representation and it was great to see our teachers and leaders actively working to promote our collective work.  

Have a great week of learning. 

Brian

Good morning,

This week I will have the privilege of facilitating our district's first Superintendent Advisory Council meeting along with our student representatives to the school board.  In all, we will have 19 students from grades six through twelve working to create new and creative ideas and feedback on how we can improve as a district and to create a powerful sense of belonging for each person in our district. 

The students on the council will be challenged to work at their schools to host listening events back at their schools.  These could take many different forms, but the goal is to engage as many students as possible to develop themes of feedback and new ideas for the board to consider.  Our board reps will regularly report the feedback to the board in our meetings each month. 

I would ask that all adults in our system help support the development of student voice throughout our district.  I have been able to witness firsthand the power of adding student input to our board work.  Our students are wonderful experts about young people.  I look forward to listening to their ideas

Have a great week of learning.

Brian

Good morning,

Validation, appreciation, fair treatment and acceptance. These four terms have been introduced in multiple ways across our district this year as the indicators of dignity (Cobb, Krownapple).  Applied generally, we can all reflect on our interactions with people and determine if we are working to embed the four indicators. 
 

In our school system it is incumbent on all of us to understand every contact point we have with students and their families.  At the bus stop, on the phone, interactions at the grocery store, and yes, with each lesson that is taught, there are opportunities to extend and build dignity and a culture of belonging. 
 

I have been inspired recently with the Great Kindness Week challenges underway at many of our schools.  The Challenge reminds all of us of how easy it is to engage in kind acts on a daily basis.  Kindness builds on the indicators of dignity.  

Let's have a great week of learning and belonging. 

Brian

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.