Schools

District Music Education Curriculum Spotlighted in Kibler Presentation

The Enumclaw School Board heard Monday about how district teachers are collaborating on teaching a consistent music curriculum across the district.

While the rest of the teachers in the Enumclaw School District gather Fridays following early dismissal for their Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) collaboration sessions, the music teachers at each school don't have their own peer group on site. Acknowledging this, Kibler Elementary School principal Julene Miller led an effort to bring the music teachers together for their own PLC, and that was where the spotlight fell Monday during the Enumclaw School Board's workshop.

Kibler music teacher Cindy Killip, along with Jack Prindle, director of the community Gateway Concert Band (http://www.gatewayconcertband.org/), shared with the board how the current music curriculum is set up, how lessons are tailored for students from kindergarten through fifth grade and how assessments work.

The benefit of having the collaboration across schools is that there is now a consistency is what the students learn by the time they reach middle school, Killip said.

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School board member Tina McGann lauded the teachers for an impressive curriculum, stating it was much more than she learned when she was in school.

Math's Up, Reading's Down

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Miller continued the school presentation to the board, including a quick walking tour of the district's oldest school building, with an update on reading and math assessments for Kibler's fourth graders.

According to Miller, the students consistently scored below 40 in math on the WASL assessments between 2007 and 2009. When schools switched to the Measurements of Student Progress (MSP) assessments for 2010, they scored a 36.7. However having a year of dedicated focus on teaching the new math curriculum, the 2011 score jumped 69.1.

With the good news comes the not-so-good news: the school is seeing a drop in reading scores which Miller believes is likely related to the focus on math. However, teachers are now comfortable enough with the new math curriculum that they want to refocus on reading, she said.

School Board President Chris VanHoof thanked Miller for the assessment presentation in that the board typically focuses on high school scores and it was nice to see how K-5 was doing. "I was glad to see the focus on math but I'm sorry that it looks like it took away from reading," he said.

The scores will come back up, Miller said. "You've just got to give us a little time," she said.

Miller also told the board that thanks to funding the school received for a Title 1 kindergarten project, the school was able to extend half-day kindergarten to full day by adding an intervention session in the afternoon. The curriculum is not the same as that for full day kindergarten, Miller said, and an assessment is done to see which students are in the most need for this intervention.

Board Talks Olympia

The school board also discussed time spent recently with several local legislators in order to promote the importance of funding schools -- especially following the recent .

Superintendent Mike Nelson said it appeared the McCleary decision is spurring local leaders to 'do something' though while the session continues, nothing concrete has come about.

Still many ideas have been brought forward -- all of them underlined with an emphasis on no further reductions.

House Republicans have come forward with HB2533 which proposes to pull K-12 education funding out into its own separate budget so that it doesn't compete with other state funding issues.

Dubbed 'Fund Education First,' the bill is co-sponsored by Rep. Cathy Dahlquist, a former Enumclaw School Board president.

There is also a related HB2770, specifying the making of appropriations for K-12 education, Nelson said.

Aware of local concerns for cuts to levy equilization money, district business and operations manager Tim Madden said that while it's important to watch what's happening in Olympia, "as we do every year, we'll put together a budget that works."


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