• Category 3

    Selected in 2019

  • Grades: k - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 1
    Student Enrollment: 160
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 1%
    White/Caucasian: 42%
    Hispanic: 1%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 52%
    Other: 3%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:20
    % Reduced Lunch: 43%
    % ELL Learners: 0%
    Founded: 1980
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Jenn Miller-Yancey
  • CONTACT:
    350 Bennett Street, Box 736
    Wrangell, AK 99929
    907-874-2321
    jmiller@wpsd.us
Evergreen Elementary School
Wrangell, AK
No school is ever "there"; lifelong learning/teaching is key.
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
Our Title 1 Program hosts our Back to School Picnic. This is the first opportunity of the school year that families can learn about Title 1 and services. Following the Back to Schoo Picnic, families can interact with a representative of Title 1 at any Community Fair or special educational function. At those events, games are played, information is disseminated, and relationships are built. Throughout the school year there are events parents can take part in or help with like Open House, Grandparents' Day, Power Hour of Reading, 100th Day of School, Kindergarten Celebration, Hooligan Fair, PTCC (parent group) Meetings, Sea Day, Stikine River Field Trip, LeConte Glacier Field Trip, EATS School Garden, STEM Lab, Playground Walking Path, Lunch Rotation, Holiday Parties, Character Day, Harvest Festival, Friendsgiving, Seed Sale, Plant Sale, Read A Thons, WInter Clothing Drive, and many, many classroom-based endeavors. We could not do all this and more without our families!
Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.
Evergreen Elementary School is nestled on beautiful Wrangell Island in the Tongass National Forest of Southeast Alaska. Generations of families reside here, including a large population of Tlingit elders. For the last two decades or so, Evergreen staff and students have honored our grandparents/elders in a very special way... Grandparent's Day. Students and staff plan an entire morning around activities to engage grandparents (and if students don't have a grandparent on the island they share or have a guest grandparent) in our school through touring the local museum (a grandparent favorite), being interviewed by their grandchild, having their photo taken at the photo booth, decorating a cookie together for a snack, playing a board game, sewing a project together, and just enjoying each others' company. This celebration is one way our ties are strengthened to our community, and because it is in September, it sets the stage for grandparent inclusion all school year long.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
School change/improvement must include a needs assessment that shows what stakeholders view needs change or improvement. The needs assessment must be very comprehensive and cover every important aspect of student achievement and what the research says. School change/improvement must also be driven by the stakeholders. Top down does not work. Gathering input and working off of that almost always does. School change/improvement needs to be systematic, slow, and purposeful. Radical changes at lightning speeds create chaos. Methodical, well-planned and orchestrated change/improvement will almost always be successful. The persistence of the leadership that can make/break positive school change/improvement. It happens over time, under strong leadership, with engaged stakeholders. This is an unbeatable combination that will produce excellent and sustainable results. Also, school change/improvement is a constant. No school is ever "there"; lifelong learning/teaching is key.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
Evergreen Elementary School's top two goals for the 2020-2021 School year are:

1. Increase/expand on our PBIS Program. We will continue SEL classes. We will review our think sheet and positive referral program. We encourage leadership in/around our school. The more empowered students are, the better they will perform. We will look at individual needs of students and tailor opportunities to what we'd like to see in growth. Paras/teachers will continue PD on the topic so we are all on the same page. We will continue to seek outside resources when we are spread too thin.

2. Evergreen Elementary School will once again work toward preparing a Blue Ribbon School application. We were Blue Ribbon in 2010 and are ready to try again a decade later. We will make sure all our systems for success are in place, and use the opportunity for growth and reflection. Every part of our learning program and learning day will be analyzed for improvement through this application process.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
The most important factor in the success of our school is the entire staffs' attention to students' basic needs. First and foremost, every single day, each student is greeted by the Principal. Then they are greeted by teachers and paras. Breakfast is available in the classroom. This helps greatly to develop safe/strong classroom communities. Loving relationships are built in just the few morning routines we choose to employ. Students are highlighted during morning announcements. There is a visit from the Principal to hand out the Positive Office Referral in person. For students struggling with choices, Think Sheets are employed so students can be reflective. Parents get a copy at home. Students meet with the counselor at lunch to go over Think Sheets and reset. We emphasize both free and structured play. Once basic needs are met, students feel safe, loved, happy, and healthy. Our positive student achievement increases are natural consequences of all these actions.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
We have many programs and initiatives in place that all work together to create the most positive impact on student achievement that we can, however I will focus on our use of a Title 1 Para for our students that are showing lag in achievement. We have a room designated for our Title 1 Para to run an intervention program that K-5 students test into based on the research based Sidewalks program. Our para is instrumental in assessing all students that teachers would like and working with the teachers to compare the classroom data with the Title 1 data in order to join efforts for creating the best learning program for the individual student. Our para then formulates small groups for instruction based on the needs. In addition, our para, along with another para, run an after school homework club intervention that students must sign up for and/or teachers must make recommendations for. This provides up to one hour of extra help/time on building necessary skills for success.
Explain how ESEA federal funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
Being a very small school, we utilize our federal funding very intentionally. There is a good mix of personnel hired, supplies/materials purchased, and professional development for all obtained. ESEA allows us to have a strong Title 1 Para, a part time school counselor and needed materials, a professional library that is full of resources to support language arts and math best practices, professional development that solidifies teachers work across classrooms, and resources for integrating all content areas to improve vocabulary and expand opportunities by offering diverse experiences, Our improvement efforts through all that listed cover necessary movement and fresh air that students need, proper nutrition modeling, and content that is motivating, relevant, and necessary. Through these improvement efforts we focus on building relationships that are crucial to students' optimal success. We stretch those dollars as far as we can to cover a variety of topics and student needs.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
In order to improve teaching/learning we must be very eclectic. There must be exposure and progress with understanding basic needs, building relationships with students, identifying best practices in all content areas, incorporating a balance of free play and structured play, being knowledgeable about brain research, understanding how to utilize data, and a plethora of other things. The activities we utilize for this professional development are taking actual credited classes, having guest speakers, attending webinars, going to conferences, attending meetings with colleagues, planning events that benefit students together, and hands-on activities like scoring writing assessments, planning instructional groupings across grade levels, and diving into tearing through new sets of data for the first time. There is something important to be said about how these activities as they relate to important professional development that serves the main purpose of raising students' achievement.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
Teachers and support staff review data weekly, and in some cases daily. We also have monthly data and quarterly data checks. Classroom based assessments make up our weekly data checks, like spelling, STAR assessments for math and reading, math tests, and the like. Depending on grade level, we are making sure we check our most struggling students especially with a monthly STAR assessment and Title 1 assessments, as well. Quarterly, which would be at report card time, we would look at all of the above plus sight words, math facts, and writing assessments. The district also rolls out MAP testing three times per year, and we see that as our double check to all other assessments we are administering to check progress. In addition, our lower grades keep oral assessments recorded in ESGI for K-1's. At any time, any teacher pull up the data on a student to check their progress. Students also self-assess. Those weigh in on knowing what they are good at and what they need to work on
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
Our school culture has been held up as positive as it can through 8 years of changes in both principal and superintendent administration. This is due to the dedicated para, support, and teaching staff. We believe all children can and will learn. We believe basic needs must be met before learning can occur. We also believe in the power of play and developmentally appropriate practices, even more so in the age of over-testing even our youngest of students. We know reading comprehension is maximum with a vast amount of life experiences and extraordinary vocabularies. We know the key to overall success is being a great reader. Changes implemented most recently are a new PBIS system that includes positive office referrals, think sheets, and SEL curriculum, plus a half time counselor to assist with that all. We've purchased new and exciting oversized playground games that also offer strategy thinking, The principal meets/greets every student every morning. All staff attend PD.
Stats
  • Category 3

    Selected in 2019

  • Grades: k - 5
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 1
    Student Enrollment: 160
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 1%
    White/Caucasian: 42%
    Hispanic: 1%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 52%
    Other: 3%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:20
    % Reduced Lunch: 43%
    % ELL Learners: 0%
    Founded: 1980
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Jenn Miller-Yancey
  • CONTACT:
    350 Bennett Street, Box 736
    Wrangell, AK 99929
    907-874-2321
    jmiller@wpsd.us