PORT TOWNSEND — For Tuesday’s first day of school, members of the Port Townsend School Board will visit each campus with a basket full of apples to distribute to teachers and staff members.
Chimacum, Quilcene and Brinnon schools also will resume classes the day after Labor Day.
While the year begins with a symbolic act, the principals of Jefferson County’s largest public school district — enrollment was 1,346 full-time equivalents in 2009-2010 in the Port Townsend district — believe that improvements will be more substantial.
Discussions
“We’ve had more discussions about student learning and instruction than in the curriculum six years before that,” said Blue Heron Middle School Principal Mark Decker.
“It’s exciting.”
For this, Decker credits interim Superintendent Gene Laes and the School Board that hired him.
“In past years, we had three schools — Grant School Elementary, Blue Heron and the high school — that were islands, they were doing their own thing,” Decker said.
“The School Board and Gene have said, ‘those days are over,’ and K-12 [kindergarten through 12th grade] decisions are being made.”
Math skills
One of the changes is paying more attention to math training throughout the district.
This includes making sure kids know multiplication tables up to the 10s by sixth grade and offering an elective math class to bring ninth-graders who have lagged behind up to speed.
“We have found a lot of kids from Blue Heron don’t have the math skills,” said Port Townsend High School Principal Carrie Erhardt.
“So we give them an extra period of math so they are able to deal with algebraic concepts when they get into 10th grade.”
Erhardt said some kids need to be convinced as to the value of math instruction, but it is important to stay on point.
“Math skills are part of life,” she said.
Added Decker, “Kids can use calculators, but you need to understand which numbers you need to put in.”
Chimacum: Math a priority
Chimacum Superintendent Craig Downs has also listed math development as a priority for the district that serves some 1,150 students from kindergarten through high school.
“Part of the problem is that the math skills required by the state have been a moving target,” Downs said.
“Kids don’t know what they are expected to learn.”
Both districts are working toward developing more specific curriculums, testing students along the way to make sure they are learning the material.
“We are becoming laser-focused on what kids need to know,” Downs said.
“We don’t want to wait to the end of the grading period to assess them.
“If they fall behind, then we need to be there help them to fill the gaps.”
Erhardt in Port Townsend also emphasized the importance of constant monitoring.
Downs said teachers are willing to spend the extra time to help students learn.
“We are asking them to do more,” he said.
“But they are willing to put in the extra effort.”
Quilcene, Brinnon
Phone calls for comment from Superintendent David Anderson of the Quilcene School District and to Nancy Thompson of the Brinnon School District were not returned.
The Quilcene district serves about 300 students from preschool through high school.
The Brinnon district served 40 students in kindergarten through eighth grade in 2009-2010.
Literary arts, technology
Port Townsend’s Erhardt said that while math is tough, the students “rock” when it comes to the literary arts.
She boasts of higher-than-average reading and writing skills, adding the importance of literacy is incorporated into every subject.
Decker is proud of Blue Heron’s commitment to technology, as it moves toward the goal of having one laptop available for every three students.
At Grant Street Elementary, the faculty spent last week painting the playground blacktop, replacing tennis courts with more interactive, noncompetitive games.
This includes several activities that Principal Steve Finch “has yet to figure out,” but he knew the students would pick up quickly.
There is also a large map of the United States, separating the states with different colors but leaving off their names in order to help kids learn geography.
Right before the map was painted, Finch resolved a last-minute detail — whether to minimize the size of Alaska on the map or keep it in proportion.
“Alaska is so large that we had the option to paint a full-size Alaska or a smaller Alaska,” he said.
“But we’re as close to the real Alaska as you can get, so if anyone was going to use the full-size Alaska it was going to be us.”
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
