Winslow Unified School District Superintendent Connie Gover is pleased with her first semester as the leader of the district. Further, she is excited to take on the next calendar year with what she calls a “young, energetic, creative leadership team.”
According to Gover, one of the biggest takeaways from the last year for school leaders has been the need to nurture the “whole child,” meaning the social and emotional health of students as well as their academic progress. “Some of these kids really needed to learn how to be students again. It has been a rough 18 months for all of them.”
She explained that the district has brought on several counselors to address this. “We do have counselors at our high school and other services, we even have elementary and junior high counselors. Even our teachers are doing more social/emotional modules just to work with these kids to help them through this.”
She also noted that in the coming year, the district will continue to focus on keeping students and staff safe in the battle against COVID. “Before the Thanksgiving break, we had as many as 35 active cases in a week which, with our population is still only 1%. Following the break, however, we were back down to five active cases. So that is good. We are doing everything we can to keep everyone safe and healthy. We want to start bringing back some of our clubs and extra-curricular activities in the semester coming up. We want to bring back dances, and clubs and other things that allow the kids to get back to socializing. They need that, especially after the last 18 months they have to learn how to interact with each other again.”
Sports have always been a big part of the Winslow School District. Gover expects that to continue as long as COVID numbers allow it. Further Centers for Disease Control recommendations are expected to come before the end of the school year and a federal vaccination mandate could affect WUSD.
Gover said, “In January, if mandates are passed, we will have to follow the federal guidelines. However, I won’t be requiring everyone to be vaccinated. What we will do is those that are not vaccinated will have to wear a mask and get tested every week. They always put these mandates, but they don’t put money with them, right? So, is everyone going to have to pay for testing out of their insurance or do we use our Binex testing? We do have those rapid test kits for students and staff but someone has to pay for them. Also, people don’t have to tell us if they are vaccinated, and that is their right. That will be another interesting part of this.”
She continued, “We do have a lot of people worried about this surge and whether we will have to go back to online. I don’t know. We are ready for it if we have to. As part of our distance learning plan, we are ready. We purchased laptops for all the kids last year, and our teachers are ready and prepared, much more than they were when this first started.”
She mentioned that it is not only the students who have struggled with the pandemic, but teachers and staff as well. She maintains an open-door policy in which she welcomes educators to share their concerns. “Sometimes, it’s not even about offering advice as much as it is to just let them know that they are being heard. This has been so hard on all of us.”
In addition to further counseling services, Gover and the principals of each school site have implemented what they are calling a “reset room.”
She said, “This will be a space within each school that offers a safe place for kids to regulate their behavior, instead of suspending them. Because, again, there are all kinds of things that make kids feel different ways and they don’t always understand what those things are or how to deal with them. Inside the room, there will be different activities and exercises that will help bring themselves down. Maybe it will take a kid 20 minutes to calm down and maybe it will take a kid all day. Each kid is different, and we will have a staff member with the student to help guide the regulating of emotions. This will help reduce the loss of learning, or time out of the classroom.”
She is also looking forward to continuing positive momentum in academic assessment. She said, “We started a new assessment for our students, called MAP testing, which is the Measure of Academic Progress. Basically, we started the second day of school testing the kids to see where they were academically. As we move forward in the year, we will be able to track their progress. And really, it is measured against how that individual student did before, it reflects the progress each student makes, not necessarily how they meet set standards.”
She will see how students performed in the last round of MAP testing as they return from the holiday break. “Next, we will use those numbers to put together some data that will inform us on what interventions we need to focus on throughout the district. These are what we call data digs, and it is just to aggregate the data to show us where we need to put more focus for the kids to be more successful academically. This is kindergarten through high school testing, and a useful tool for us to see where we are.”
The district continues to face challenges with staffing, namely in the transportation department. “We have raised the wage for part time drivers as an incentive and trying to encourage people to apply. The bus driver shortage is a problem facing the nation, not just WUSD. But we are doing all that we can to bring in quality drivers to keep our kids safe and our bus routes running smoothly.”
Substitute teachers continue to be in demand as well. However, as Gover pointed out, teacher turnover is at a low this year. “Usually, by this time in the year I am hearing teachers decide it’s not for them or they will be moving on to a different district, right now, I am not hearing that and we are very grateful for that.
“I do see us moving forward and trying to get some sense of normalcy back. I think that is what we are headed towards in the New Year. We are going to continue to find the bright spots.”
To apply for transportation or substitute teacher positions, visit the district website at www.wusd1.org.
