A committee consisting of principals, staff, parents, and students and facilitated by the Executive Director of Secondary Education will make a schedule recommendation before the end of the 2011 calendar year.
June 15-17, 2011
Superintendent Rasmussen announces to high school staff and the community that a formal conversation will begin in the fall of 2011 with the desired goal of creating a shared high school schedule for all high schools across the district.
June 2011
The High School Leadership Team has opened up summer school for more acceleration and enrichment opportunities. Through a creative use of time, students can complete a .5 credit of PE in a 2-week period by attending for several hours a day and participating in a wide range of physical fitness activities on and off campus. This class has full enrollment.
January 2011-March 2011
The Leadership team worked closely with the Associate Superintendent and Middle School Principals to move the course that meets the district's technology graduation requirement to the middle level. This move frees up space in the high school schedule for more elective options. This middle school course will begin in the 2011-12 school year. In the interim, for those students who did not have access to this new middle school offering and did not yet meet the graduation requirement, we will offer opportunities to take the technology proficiency exam more frequently and the tutorial will be more accessible.
Sept. 2010-Dec. 2010
The High School Leadership Team met periodically throughout the 2010-11 school year to continue its work on providing more flexibility in scheduling for students. An On-Line Learning Coordinator position was created to guide and assist students and families who desire access to learning opportunities through the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). An Online Learning website provides information for families and answers frequently asked questions.
May 2010
Over 50 students representing all four district high schools took part in a conversation about exploring "flexible scheduling" options. Specifically, students worked in groups, with each group focused on one of the following topics: 1) Technology 2) Jan-Term 3) Learning Obstacles 4) Learning Wishes and 5) Citizenship. Tables were asked to consider key questions around these topics. Student comments were captured and recorded to help guide future work on high school scheduling.
Student comments
April 2010
On Tuesday May 11, The OHSE Leadership Team will be hosting a Conversation with Students as we continue to explore "flexible scheduling options" in our high schools. That conversation will be in the Administration Board Room from 7:00 pm until 8:30 pm. Invitations will be forthcoming and all students are welcome to attend.
December 2009
In light of our 5 OHSE belief statements and the District Ends, we decided to investigate flexible scheduling. "This is a broad topic that touches a myriad of factors of organizing a school day including: class offerings, on-line learning, time of day learning, experiential learning, flexibility in staffing and sharing staff, providing balance for students, access to teachers and courses, access to facilities, access to transportation, support for struggling learners, etc." (10/2009)
Washington state's education reform vision as outlined in WAC 180-51-001, articulates the shift from a time and credit based system to a standards and performance based system. An initial step to our investigation requires a clearer understanding of the options available for earning and awarding high school credit. Credit, defined in WAC 180-51-050, is a recording mechanism for the many and varied learning experiences students pursue.
As a next step we will investigate issues such as:
- Do students need to have minimum seat time to acquire credit?
- Are there high schools currently exempt from this requirement?
- Do those high schools offer learning opportunities and delivery models that meet the needs of all students?
- What role does technology play in those learning opportunities and delivery models?
- What are the funding/budget/resource implications of this type of exemption?
October 2009
The OHSE (Optimal High School Experience) Leadership Team reconvened on Oct. 20, 2009. The team reviewed last year's work which centered on a close examination of the cultures and systems currently in place in each of our district's high schools. They reviewed the feedback acquired at focus groups, in community conversations, and through e-mail correspondence. That information was compared to work to be accomplished this school year (reintegrating the freshman at IHS and SHS, math curriculum, comprehensive counseling review, etc.). Lastly, they listed desired areas and topics to possibly investigate this school year and how they matched up with community feedback and existing work. In that process, the team landed on the idea of "flexible scheduling" as the key topic to be investigated this year. This is a broad topic that touches a myriad of factors of organizing a school day including: class offerings, on-line learning, time of day learning, experiential learning, flexibility in staffing and sharing staff, providing balance for students, access to teachers and courses, access to facilities, access to transportation, support for struggling learners, etc. The team has scheduled follow up meetings to shape and plan our investigatory work for the year in this critical area.
May 2009
On May 18, the Leadership Team held a "Conversation Café" and invited all members of the community to talk about the Optimal High School Experience–what's working, what's not, and what outside-the-box thinking do we need to ensure all students succeed? More than 50 students, parents, and staff members attended, and the conversations were rich and varied, as outlined in the transcript of the evening. This information will be added to the feedback collected in focus groups conducted at each high school as the Leadership Team uses the information gathered during the close examination phase to begin to identify and establish priorities for further investigation.
April 2009
More than 120 students, staff members, and parents spent—combined—20 hours discussing the Optimal High School Experience in focus groups at each high school in February. The OHSE Leadership Team thanks everyone who participated for their thoughtful, sincere opinions. The groups' conversations focused on OHSE's five Guiding Beliefs and how well high schools currently provide opportunities in those areas. Overall, participants had passion about "Access" and "Connectivity" in particular. The Leadership Team now wants to broaden the conversation by inviting all community members to comment on the Guiding Beliefs and the current state of high schools via e-mail or at an open Conversation Cafe at 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 18, at the Administration Building. These conversations will form the foundation for the initial stage of OHSE work: close examination of high schools.
OHSE focus group documents
March 2009
The Leadership Team spent the month of March analyzing and summarizing the data from the February focus groups at each school. The Team also explored opportunities to bring the entire community into the conversation.
February 2009
The Leadership Team held focus groups at each high school to examine the experiences of current students, staff members, and parents. The resulting data is to be used as a springboard for the next steps in the OHSE process.
January 2009
The Leadership Team met for an all-day work session with Susan Schmitt on January 14 to solidify details about the focus groups and community outreach.
December 2008
Susan Schmitt hired as facilitator for community focus groups.
November 2008
In meetings this summer and during the beginning of school, the high-school leadership team has
solidified its guiding beliefs around the Optimal High School Experience and is now developing
opportunities to solicit baseline input about the high school experience from students, staff, parents,
and community members. This will likely include focus groups in the beginning of 2009 followed by
district-wide surveys of parents, students, and staff.
Summer 2008
The district's graduation requirements committee is on hold because the Washington State Board of
Education this summer passed a
draft high-school credit framework called CORE 24 that could become mandatory depending on the
Legislature's ability and willingness to fund the plan. The "core" of CORE 24 is a set of graduation
requirements with flexibility to allow students to put together a program of study that best matches and
supports their post-graduation goals. Our School Board has expressed its support of CORE 24 and issued a call to
legislators to invest the money needed for successful implementation.
The Leadership Team met several times to develop guiding beliefs and a framework and expectations for OHSE.