By Halley Griffin, Daily News staff writer July 3, 2009
Moscow's newest school is a hub of activity these days.
The Palouse Prairie School of Expeditionary Learning will become Moscow's second active charter school this fall, and one of the six sanctioned by the state of Idaho to open each year.
Parent and trustee committees are hard at work planning school lunches, student nutrition programs and playgrounds.
Architects, contractors and volunteers have been moving, cleaning, painting, pouring concrete, erecting walls and making plans for several months now, and hope to have their building ready for students by mid-August.
School Director Summer Clayton officially began her appointment July 1, and is already diving into work, and facility upgrades are in the home stretch.
"I feel like things are coming together, it's happening really fast," Palouse Prairie School Board member Lahde Forbes said.
Hearing the sounds of construction has been a relief for school board members who say securing a building has been their toughest task to...
By Halley Griffin Daily News staff writer July 10, 2009
Summer Clayton is ready to start from the beginning.
Clayton began her tenure as director of the new Palouse Prairie School of Expeditionary Learning on July 1.
"I think one of the things that I'm really, really excited about is being able to start from scratch," Clayton said. "As a small school and as a small community, we can move forward in the way that aligns with our vision. It's shared leadership at its best, and I think that's the way school should be."
Clayton comes to Moscow after working in Atlanta schools for more than 12 years. She last worked as an instructional coach, a role similar to that of assistant principal, in a small school district made up entirely of charter schools.
The elementary schools within the district were based on the same expeditionary learning outward bound model as Palouse Prairie will be, in which all aspects of student learning are incorporated into different units, or "expeditions."
I'm excited to be addressing you as a group for the first time in my new role. I'm even more thrilled to officially announce that we have made teacher selections and have received verbal acceptances.
Thank you to those who served on the teacher selection committee. The committee received over 40 applications and narrowed it to a short list who were invited to in person interviews. After a long but exhilarating day the committee emerged with a recommended list of candidates.
I had the pleasure of speaking with each candidate Friday and Saturday of this past week. My selections mirrored those of the committee. Jeneille Branen – kindergarten, Lisa Stratford – first, Jessica Dahlin – multiage 2/3, and Kathryn Bonzo multiage 4/5.
All four teachers are incredibly excited to begin the next leg in our journey and seem undaunted by the enormity of the task. It’s a great team. You all should be very pleased!
Thank you for your great work. I look forward to seeing you all again in a short month’s time.
Library getting ready
Whew, what a day on Monday. Gottschalks in Lewiston is going out of business and we got the call to go down there and look at all the fixtures-- hoping to find classroom tables.
The tables were not what we expected, but some of the other items were a steal. We got a set of pieces for the library -- display shelves and tables -- places to put pictures books and show off art.
We also got 10 great carts that can become computer workstations and be wheeled from the media center to where ever they are needed in the building.
A group of volunteers have been sorting thru the 1000+ books that have been donated so far, deciding what we have and what needs to be ordered.
This slide show will give you an idea about the furniture -- photos taken as stuff was getting bought or moved or stored at the school.
Student Centered School
The following is a reflection by a teacher/parent on her recent visit to Summit School and EL school in Spokane Valley. Its framed in the "Notice and Wonder" format:
What I noticed about the school was that is was student-centered and led. The school environment was very positive including the teachers, students and principal. Respect and accountability were evident throughout each classroom and the assembly. Students take responsibility in the learning, their behavior and are treated with the upmost respect by the staff and their peers. There was a strong sense of community and culture. One student described it as a big family. The learning environment provides each child with an intrinsic motivation to learn, which decreases classroom management issues. It was an honor to see the school in action.
What I wondered about the school is how new students adjust coming into the school and how they adjust when they go into middle school. I wondered about the resources and curriculum and what resources our school will have. I also wondered and got some clear answers from the teachers and principal about how expeditions are integrated into...
I was doing some housekeeping in preparation to working on a minor revision to the charter approved by the Board in April 2009, when I found this photo of the charter printed in preparation for our March 2008 visit to the Commission.
Idaho schools to see 3.2 percent cut Palouse Prairie School is still waiting to learn the exact impact on its budget, the funding comes in several categories, including the administrative and teacher salaries categories mentioned at the end of the article.
From Moscow-Pullman Daily News Staff and wire reports May 2, 2009
Idaho public schools took a lower-than-anticipated budget hit Friday, when Gov. C.L. "Butch Otter" signed their $1.4 billion 2010 budget into law.
State funding will be reduced just 3.2 percent with the help of federal stimulus money, state taxpayer funding and cash from rainy-day reserves to minimize cuts.
This is the first time in generations Idaho spending on public education is less than the previous year.
School district officials have waited and waited to find out how much money they'll receive from the state. They've had to set supplemental levy amounts based on guesses and estimates.
"I still don't know how much money we're getting," said Genesee Superintendent David Neumann. "It's nerve-wracking to wait so long to know where we're going to be."
He said the Genesee School District is cutting its...
Palouse Prairie fills 73 of its 87 seats; Moscow School District looks at potential layoffs
By Halley Griffin, Daily News staff writer March 30, 2009
Seventy-three local students have secured slots at a new charter school that will open in Moscow this fall, while two Moscow teachers could find themselves without jobs next school.
Palouse Prairie Charter School officials announced Saturday they'd filled 73 of the available 87 seats through a lottery process. The rest of the seats will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
Nils Peterson, chairman of the Palouse Prairie board of directors, said all but six of the students live within the Moscow School District.
Moscow School District officials have predicted the district will need to cut two teachers for next year to cope with the decreased enrollment.
"This is on top of the state reduction," Superintendent Candis Donicht said today.
Donicht said based on the results of the lottery, she still believes the district will need to downsize by two positions.
On Saturday morning we completed our lottery. There were 81 student applicants. Given the enrollment capacity set out in the charter, 73 were able to be offered enrollment.
The results are
Kindergarten - 18 offered enrollment with 7 on waiting list First - 18 offered enrollment with 5 empty seats Second - 8 offered enrollment with 3 empty seats Third - 12 offered enrollment with 0 empty seats Fourth - 12 offered enrollment with 1 on waiting list Fifth - 5 offered enrollment with 6 empty seats
The map above shows the distribution of students within Moscow. A next challenge is to figure out safe routes and means to get these children to school.
Impressionist Art -- March 21 project for kids Here is a concept that we are going to try on March 21 at our school tour. Georges Seurat was a French neo-impressionist painter. Several folks have been suggesting kids hand prints be used in some way in the school. Amy Desrosier offered this vision, a Palouse-scape.
Think about the math skills potential of this activity done in the context of an expedition. Transferring the picture from original to glass could involve Cartesian coordinates and graphing.
Some version of this idea will be attempted March 21 at the Shebang event.
