MARYSVILLE — District staff, school board members and teachers last week shared ideas to help turn struggling schools around with other educators at a National Education Association conference.
The Priority Schools Campaign “Changes, Challenges and Collaboration” forum, held Thursday through Saturday in New Orleans, focused on helping students with the greatest needs succeed. The cost of the trip for 17 staff was paid for by the NEA, which is the nation’s largest teachers union.
Teachers and staff from Tulalip and Quil Ceda elementary schools, Totem Middle School, and officials from the Marysville Education Association and Marysville School District joined representatives from 35 schools from across the country at the conference.
The group from Totem Middle School spoke about their team approach that resulted in being named one of Washington’s most improved schools and helping more students than ever take and pass ninth grade algebra in the eighth grade, superintendent Larry Nyland said.
“They credit their success to teacher teams that meet daily to figure out what else they can do to make students successful,” Nyland said.
The team from Marysville spent time working together and with people from other districts at the conference, said Arden Watson, president of the Marysville Education Association. Making sure teachers have time to work with each other on instruction and growing family, community and school partnerships, were some topics of conversation, she said.
School officials also learned at the conference that the district will receive a $10,000 grant from the association to support community engagement. Representatives from the association have given the district support in the past and will likely help to design ways to collaborate more with the community, Watson said.
Teachers will also brainstorm ideas for community engagement, said Robert Kalahan, principal of Totem Middle School.
“An area we’re interested in is how do we make home visits with our students and how do we build engaging community events that bring in not just parents but businesses and other organizations that would be more supportive of the school,” he said.
Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491; adaybert@heraldnet.com.
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