February 2014 Meeting
February 2, 2014 – 12:08 pmNext meeting: February 13th at 6:30 PM in the middle school’s professional development room.
Site Council Meeting Tonight
December 12, 2013 – 3:25 pmDecember Site Council meeting will be held tonight at the Middle School at 6:30 PM. Agenda – Dec 12 2013 SSBC.
Meeting Tonight
November 14, 2013 – 7:02 amSite Council’s monthly meeting is tonight at 6:30 at the Middle School in the professional development room. All are welcome!
News Release Nov. 8, 2013
November 8, 2013 – 1:28 pmNews Release
Seward elementary and middle schools reconfigured
Soldotna, November 8, 2013—The KPBSD Board of Education approved an administrative recommendation that Seward Middle School be reconfigured to include grades 6, 7, and 8, and William H. Seward Elementary School be reconfigured to include grades K-5, beginning August 2014.
Dr. Atwater, superintendent, said, “I look forward to the students benefitting from the increased class offerings that will result from the reconfiguration of the Seward Middle School.”
“This decision to reconfigure the Seward Middle and Seward Elementary enables the middle school to provide consistent curricular and co-curricular opportunities to our schools, no matter what the class size,” said Jason Bickling, Seward Middle School principal. “It will also stabilize our staffing which helps ensure we are able to attract and keep a high quality staff. There of course will be challenges and some growing pains, but we are excited to move in the direction of restoring opportunities that were lost over the last few years with declining enrollment.”
The Seward area principals will be working on both 5th and 6th grade transitions as well as staffing, schedules, building use, and other logistics. Additionally, they will continue working with the Seward schools Site Based Council (SBC) through the planning process. The next Seward SBC meeting is Thursday, November 14, 2013, at 6:30 p.m., Seward Middle School.
Approval of Schools Reconfiguration
November 5, 2013 – 4:18 pmRECONFIGURATION OF SEWARD ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOLS: The KPBSD School Board approved the Administrative Recommendation that Seward Middle School be reconfigured to
include grades 6, 7, and 8.
October Site Council Meeting – October 10
October 4, 2013 – 3:26 pmPlease come and join us Thursday, October 10th at Seward Middle School
6:30 – Seward Schools Site Based Council Meeting
7:00 – Dr. Atwater presentation
7:30 – Seward Schools Reconfiguration Recommendation Review
Superintendent Atwater’s Blog Concerning New Standards
September 27, 2013 – 2:17 pmhttp://sup.blogs.kpbsd.k12.ak.us/wpmu/2013/09/02/new-standards-will-help-us-improve/
New standards will help us improve
By Steve Atwater | Published: September 2, 2013
The new Alaska standards in language arts and math are the foundation of our curriculum development in these two content areas. These standards that are tightly aligned with the Common Core raise the bar of K-12 instruction by placing a greater emphasis on those skills needed for college or the workplace. Recently, I’ve encountered a sect of our community who is opposed to the Common Core, and by association (I suppose), the new Alaska standards. One of the objections to the Core is that the standards are a federal way to undo local control of our schools. And while it is true that the standards do standardize the “what” of instruction in these two content areas, I don’t believe that they will cause our students to lose their Alaskan identity. The “how” of instruction remains a local decision.
Although I regularly boast that our students perform well above the state average, I am frustrated that I cannot do the same with students from across the country. Alaska’s standardized tests do not allow for such a comparison. The SAT and ACT exams for our college bound students provide some perspective, but there is not a lot to point to for our 6th graders. I am pleased that the new Alaska standards will in a sense, level the playing field to allow this type of comparison. One of this year’s school board goals is to design and implement an objective process to gather comparable student achievement data from high performing school districts. When superior systems are identified, the board will investigate their processes and as possible apply them to KPBSD. The identification of such districts will be much easier knowing that we are teaching similar math and language arts standards.
So while it is fair to be suspicious that the Common Core standards are a mistake, the move to standardize this end of education will actually help us improve.
Site Council Meeting/Training October 10th at 630pm with Special Guest – Superintendent Dr. Steve Atwater
September 27, 2013 – 2:13 pmOur regularly scheduled meeting will be Thursday, October 10th at 630pm at the Seward Middle School. We will have a brief meeting starting at 630pm and at 700pm, Dr. Atwater is scheduled to present a Site Council Training/District Update. It is a unique opportunity to meet the Superintendent, hear how our schools are doing and learn how the Site Council works. Please spread the word! All of our meetings are open to the public!
We will also be having a work session at 600pm at the same location to review our local Site Council bylaws. Please come if you can or let Mica (micad@hotmail.com) know if you have any bylaw questions or comments.
We will not have time at this meeting to go in depth concerning the “Common Core” questions that came up at the last meeting but I do have some information that will be provided at the meeting and we will include this as an agenda item for the November meeting.
Minutes Available
September 14, 2013 – 10:27 amMeeting minutes have been updated to include last May’s meeting. The minutes from the first meeting of this school year in September will be uploaded after they are approved at the October site council meeting.
First Meeting 2013-2014
August 13, 2013 – 6:38 amThe first meeting of the Seward Schools Site-Based Council will be September 5, 2013, 6:30 – 8:30 PM, in the Middle School professional development room. All are welcome to attend.