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Monthly highlights about the work our ESD is doing in the community |
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Colleagues -
After a period of record high COVID-19 illness and sporadic school closures, the virus is receding. Oregon’s immunity is at its highest since the start of the pandemic, so we’re able to relieve our staff and students from strict health protocols.
At the same time we celebrate this relief, war is raging in Ukraine. This is not the good news month I was hoping for.
Despite the distance, the war in Ukraine hits hard: The war precipitated at a frightening speed. Social media networks like TikTok and Airbnb connect us to Ukrainian families as if they’re next door. And one of the largest Ukrainian communities in the U.S. lives here in Oregon, and they are hurting.
The days ahead call for increased understanding and compassion. Here are some outstanding educator resources I’d like to surface:
Young students frequently catalyze lasting advances in our communities, like when Ukrainian students organized demonstrations that led to the full-fledged Maidan revolution and civil rights movement (Watch Netflix’s Winter on Fire). Closer to home, student protests in Forest Grove set the stage for Oregon’s ethnic studies standards (Virtually visit the Five Oaks Museum Exhibit).
As we steer staff and students through changes in our local schools (i.e. changes to mask requirements) and process the global destabilization, my hope and expectation is that our schools are safe spaces for our youngsters to think critically about the many complexities facing our world. I hope we all seek to understand before rushing to judgment, find common ground and demand justice in the face of intolerance.
Through it all, NWRESD educators are working hard to connect you to meaningful opportunities. I’m looking ahead to a spring of learning, resilience, and healing in partnership with you.
I hope you enjoy the enclosed newsletter about current goings-on at NWRESD–
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My best-
Dan
 Dan Goldman
Superintendent
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Oregon's immunity is the highest it’s ever been. Public health officials have relaxed requirements for masking and contact tracing. School districts large and small are embracing the opportunity to give students and staff a break from strict health and safety protocols.
Like the 20 school districts in our region, masks will be optional at most NWRESD locations starting next week. We are also welcoming more visitors to our service centers where component school districts can now reserve conference rooms. Read our latest update about COVID-19 protocols. To make conference room requests, email Carolyn Quinn.
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The NWRESD Foundation is accepting grant applications. We encourage any and all educators in Clatsop, Columbia, Tillamook and Washington counties to apply for up to $2,500 per project for your innovative ideas. |
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The foundation awards grants that support children in one of these four areas:
- Birth to age 5 special education
- Early learning and kindergarten readiness
- English language learners and migrant education
- School‐age special education (including regional inclusive services, social emotional learning schools, transition programs)
Apply for a grant or donate so more educators can have their projects funded.
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NWRESD seeks candidates to fill the remaining term of the Zone 3 board position. The member school district for this zone (Hillsboro School District) will interview and vote for the NWRESD board member at a public meeting in April 2022.
The newly elected board member will take office July 1, 2022, and their term will end June 30, 2023. The deadline for filing is no later than March 21, 2022, at 11:59 p.m.
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Ernest Stephens joined the Northwest Regional Education Service District Board of Directors in December in the business position. Ernest is the chief executive of Morant McLeod. He most looks forward to learning more about our students and educators.
“I’m particularly passionate about special education services and finding ways to create psychological safety equally, for everyone,” he says. Read the full story.
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Northwest Regional ESD’s post-secondary pathways team needs to know what educators, counselors, administrators and others who support career and college readiness need in order to be successful.
Please complete the survey by Friday, March 25. Be sure to share the link with others who would be interested. Your feedback will help us improve and redesign our program.
Questions? Please email Melissa Pendergrass, career and college pathways coordinator at Northwest Regional ESD.
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With nearly 2,000 instructional assistants and thousands more support positions, our region has a lot to celebrate this week! Classified employees support the smooth operation of offices, the safety and maintenance of buildings and property, and the safe transportation, healthy nutrition and direct instruction of students.
Take, Kimberlee Henderson, an instructional assistant at NWRESD’s Beaverton Early Childhood Center. She has decades of experience supporting children.
Kimberlee Henderson reads with a child at the Beaverton Early Childhood Center.
“I have witnessed the love and care Kimberlee shows for all our kiddos,” says Johnna Timmes, executive director of early learning. “She is especially gifted with our kiddos who tend to be more impacted by their disability.”
Or look at Analisa Howard, an instructional assistant at Lewis & Clark Elementary School in the St. Helens School District. She recently received a “Tire-Less Teacher Award” from Les Schwab Tire Center.
Analisa Howard (left) receives her award from Lewis & Clark Elementary Principal Martine Barnett.
“Analisa is a kind and caring person who makes a difference in the lives of the children she works with,” says Stacy Rager, administrator of the NWRESD Columbia Service Center. “Her work and dedication is appreciated by our agency and the St. Helens School District.”
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 The Oregon Department of Education provides troves of public education data, but it can be difficult to sort through hundreds of lines of data in spreadsheet after spreadsheet. Northwest Regional ESD’s research, assessment and evaluation team recently launched a data visualization tool in Google Data Studio that allows you to compare this data through charts and graphs.
Every month, our teams submit one-page reports to our board of directors. These reports include highlights, challenges and plans for the future and are available from our early learning, special education, instructional, equity, technology, human resources and fiscal teams. See our board agendas for links to these program updates.
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