October 2023 – Cascade Elementary

Oct 30

October 30, 2023 SCC Meeting

By laurenbrewer SCC

Board Member Sara Hacken
Wants to make us aware of things from the District and School Board level. They are doing a study on all special programs- ALL, DLI, preschool, Autism, etc. The District team is preparing a study and will present information so they can receive input from the public. They will have a place on the District website for people to submit feedback. One issue is equity and access to programs. Question from DCC member- Is there a limit from the state on the number of DLI programs allowed? Sara Hacken will check into that. There is a reconfiguration study happening right now. The company is MGT from Florida. They will receive that in January. That will be put online with an opportunity for people to give feedback. They will wait until after the legislative session to make any kind of decision. They will then decide if it should be on the ballot for November 2024. They want a cost per community for us to maintain the programs we already have. They’re a very experienced company.

DCC Member Grace-
They were just trained on PLC’s (Professional Learning Community). The teams and collaboration help the teachers be better and help the students learn more.

Alina-
Note from the district that we need to be very cautious about SPAM and hackers. Do not buy gift cards for anyone!

95% program.-
Email sent to Darrin from Reading Interventionist- They are teaching small group lessons to 68 students and 42 are ML. In addition, 28 students are working on fluency. The 4 kindergarten classes receive target lessons. In Sept and Oct they had 33 students advance in PSI and 8 advance out of interventions or into fluency help. They do push-in and push-out. Kindergarten does alphabet boot camp and they are also doing star trophies. The kids are retaining the information and maintaining their learning. As of Friday 9 have letter and sound fluency (not done testing them yet).

JoMarie Larsen- Coach- Presentation on Priorities

School Wide Achievement
1. Increase proficiency and growth in literacy. Increase the number of students k-6 who are proficient from BOY to EOY on the Acadience Reading Benchmark. We will increase the number of students making typical or better growth from BOY to EOY.
  1. We are at 64% proficiency. K- 45% 1- 64% 2- 76% 3- 62% 4- 62% 5- 57% 6- 80% (5th grade has the highest number of ML and newcomers)
Focus Group Achievement (Ours in MLs. We have 140 MLs)
1. Increase proficiency and growth in literacy. Increase the number of students k-6 who are proficient from BOY to EOY on the Acadience Reading Benchmark. We will increase the number of students making typical or better growth from BOY to EOY. (Comparing growth to national data to see if they increase similar to other students at the same level as them.)
  1. We are at 23% proficiency. For many ML students this is their first experience with English or even at a school. We have to build language and reading background. K- 0% 1- 35% 2- 43% 3- 24% 4- 17% 5- 5% 6-38% (5th grade has the highest number of ML and newcomers). The amount of newcomers impacts the proficiency. Some of these students are also not literate in their first language. Many of these families are also split apart.
  2. We have an ML coach and aides. Looking to hire more aides.
  3. Question- If you remove newcomers from the data does the level of proficiency improve over time (from grade to grade)? WIDA level 3 is a place where students tend to plateau because that moves from social language to academic language. K-3 focuses on learning to read and 4-6 focuses on reading to learn.
How do we accomplish proficiency?
Tier 1 instruction
Language support
Tier 2 & 3 instruction
Connections Goal
1. We will focus on climate, culture, and connections. Focus on habits of teaching responsibility, remaining on task, working towards achievement and showing respect. (Data is in process through the school counselor.)

Other items for future meeting- Additionally we will discuss briefly the next items on the schedule as well as upcoming deadlines as indicated by the SLT.

Next meeting is Nov 27th at 1:00pm.
We will discuss cyber security and safety and statistics.

Oct 27

October 27, 2023

By cascadeweb Weekly Newsletter

Dear Parents,

Our Halloween Parade will start at 8:30 on Tuesday
Families are invited to watch the parade on the back playground of the school
Please send students to school in their costumes ready to go
Face paint should be simple
No props that portray violence or weapons are allowed
Costumes must follow school dress code

Picture Make-up day is Tuesday, November 7th

The PTA annual fundrive clothing drive starts on November 6th and runs through November 10th

Oct 18

October 18, 2023

By cascadeweb Weekly Newsletter

Dear Parents,

Upcoming Calendar:

Fall Break is Thursday and Friday, October 19-20. On Monday, October 23 we have a teacher professional development day. There will be no school on these days

All students at Cascade Elementary are highly encouraged to participate in the STEM fair. K-4 grade students will receive fun prizes and certificates. Twenty students in grades 5-6 will move on to the district-level competition.To participate, fill out this form and return it to Mrs. Wold (6th-grade teacher) in room 146. Reach out to Mrs. Wold with any questions. She is happy to spend time after school helping students conduct experiments, create their science journals and lab write-ups, or finish posters.

2023-24 STEM Science Fair Applications, Rules, etc.

This year we are a Title 1 Target assist school. This has brought additional services to our school. Schools are designated as a Title 1 School based on Free and Reduced school wide percentages. We are encouraging all families to take a moment and look at the Free and Reduced application. The application can be found on the Alpine School District web-page under nutrition services or by typing in the following link.

Free & Reduced Meals – Online Application

We have received updated guidelines for volunteers and background checks. We are required to have all of our volunteers receive a background check. These are considered a lifetime ASD background check. The cost is $35 and takes about 10 days. We are looking at ways to possibly help with the fee for those who need the financial help. You can go here to schedule an appointment for fingerprinting:

Alpine School District Fingerprinting

Oct 16

October 16, 2023 SCC Meeting

By laurenbrewer Uncategorized

Overview of SLT Spending plan from 2023-2024

Teams will use summer collaboration to create common assessments that align to the Utah Core Standards, district essential standards and school priorities. $13,500
Teachers will collaborate weekly on data gathered to focus on academic progress of all students and groups.
Teachers will focus on explicit Tier 1 instruction using district and state approved materials along with research based practices.
Trained aides to work directly with students using our 95% program. $50,000
Teachers will be provided with professional development conferences. These include the UVU Engaging Readers National conference, the BYU CITES Conferences, and other conferences as they become available. $8,000
Purchase Chromebooks to enhance the literacy goal. These will be used daily for Lexia
reading, Spelling City, and online vocabulary enhancement. 20 x $329 $6,580
A portion of a teacher’s salary that allows a teacher to provide extra time to collaborate as teams with the coach to support students in learning outcomes. $3,000
Supplies and materials will be purchased that directly support reading enhancement throughout the school. $3,500. We are purchasing BOB decodable readers, Half pint Decodable readers, and Spire Decodable readers. These are research based.
Purchase books and reading software to support the classrooms. $12,500
Through the Teacher Student Success Act (TSSA), Cascade Elementary will have a half-time counselor working in our school to meet the social emotional needs of our students.

Total Spending Expectation: $89,880 of $97,000 as of October 15, 2023

Amendments made on October 15, 2023

Due to the reevaluation of Title 1 Status, new funds have been received and allocations of
alternative funds have been Proposed thusly:

Amendments

Expendable Items – we are purchasing classroom libraries for our new teachers. $500 per teacher for 3 teachers. This is to provide access to literacy materials and supplies for students in these classrooms to directly support reading enhancement. Additionally,
decodable books will be purchased for students in grades K-1 to support reading in the home at a cost of $2,500. Salaries and Benefits – Remove the summer collaboration stipends ($13,500) due to this expenditure coming out of different accounts. Add in $30,000 for a certified teacher and/or certified aides to enhance academic achievement through working with students in areas of need. Books, Ebooks – Include purchase of literacy materials to support MLL’s in their language and reading acquisition; increase
this amount to $32,500

Voting members: 5
Votes cast:
Vote Result:

Oct 13