Click here for a video of this message. Happy September! This message is provided as an update on several items relative to students beginning school on September 8. First, bus routes are posted on the district’s website.  Kurt Lee and his team have worked very hard to reconfigure routes based upon the information received from families in July.  This takes an extensive amount of planning and preparation.  We have added an additional bus from McGill to Ely in order...

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Click here if you'd rather watch a video of this message. Wow--it’s been an incredible few months, hasn’t it?  And as hard as it is to believe, WPCSD teachers and instructional support staff return to school next Monday for two weeks of training and work.  And students return on September 8.  My purpose today is to 1) provide an update regarding the district’s plan to bring students back on campus, 2) share information about how we plan to serve our students who...

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A little over four weeks ago, I sent a survey home to all WPCSD families eliciting feedback on their Learn from Home experiences and asking for feedback on returning to In Person Learning in August.  Based on these survey results and the guidelines published by the Nevada Department of Education, I convened a committee to examine the feasibility of reopening our campuses for learning. This committee has met twice and will meet a third time next Monday evening.  The Board of Trustees...

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Happy June! Despite the weather for the last few days, summer is upon us.  The last few months have been very difficult for students, parents, teachers, and probably almost everyone.  The school year ended in a way that I certainly have never experienced before--and one that I’d rather not experience again.  I am incredibly grateful for the work of the WPCSD staff--teachers, principals, instructional support staff, custodians, food service, maintenance, technology, and district...

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Good Morning Key Communicators, At this point, you’re no doubt aware that at yesterday’s press conference, Governor Sisolak closed school buildings for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year.  While I’m not surprised by this, I am wholly disappointed for all of us as educators, our organization, our students, and our families. There are details to still work out regarding what the end of the school year will actually look like.  Graduations, field trips, class...

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March 15, 2020 Through the weekend, the Nevada superintendents have been collectively monitoring and communicating about the world, national, and state coronavirus situation.  Last Friday morning, we had a lengthy conference call regarding athletics and extracurricular activities. As the situation continues to evolve extremely rapidly, we met again this morning to discuss school closures. There are many, many factors that weigh heavily on our minds at this time, including the social and...

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I want to take a moment to celebrate the really wonderful accomplishments towards world class learning that our students and staff have achieved recently. First, it’s so important to lead with the fact that students’ overall core academic learning is improving.  Elementary literacy proficiency rates have improved by nearly 10 percentage points in the last three years. And elementary math proficiency rates have improved by nearly 9 percentage points in the last three years. ...

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Please click on this link for the Key Communicators Message.

In my last message, I shared information about student growth as measured by the Nevada School Performance Framework (NSPF).  Click here if you missed that message, which includes data about White Pine students and their growth as compared to a fairly complicated norm-referenced measure called the student growth percentile (SGP).   A hefty portion of the WPCSD’s district performance plan is centered on creating world class Tier 1 instruction.  I’ve shared a number...

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Please click on this link to read A Deeper Look.  Due table and other formatting, it's difficult to view in this platform.

Today was the official back to school for this forever student. I started my career 20 years ago in this historic building--which is also where I graduated from high school. By the time I returned to Ely, it was White Pine Middle School. My classroom was on the second floor just outside the main office, on the right hand side from this angle. There has been lots of change both personally and professionally in that time; and I couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic today! That year, I taught...

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Please click on this link for some outstanding information about the schools in our community.

I’d like to share some incredibly exciting news! For the last four months, David E. Norman principal Cammie Briggs and I have been working with Nevada Department of Education professionals to secure funding for an innovative new college and career ready program at the school.  I am thrilled to announce that the school has received a grant of nearly $300,000 to launch the DEN Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) Academy. This concept was developed in examining the...

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The WPCSD has three overarching goals in its District Performance Plan (DPP).  The first two of these goals are focused on academics--specifically, students’ literacy performance and progress and students’ engagement and performance in college and career ready learning opportunities.  The third goal in the DPP focuses on school culture: attendance rates, chronic absentee rates, and students’ perceptions regarding their social and emotional experiences at school. The...

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It’s fairly easy, as a student or even as a working professional, to get to a point where one feels “I’ve learned enough to be reasonably competent, so now I’m going to just take it easy for a while.”  Believe it or not, this can even happen in education, where lifelong learning is constantly preached but less frequently observed. I am so thankful to be part of an organization where continuous learning is embraced, modeled, and part of the culture. More Fridays...

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In legislative years, the Nevada Association of School Superintendents (NASS) works to create a platform about needs in education from the school district perspective.  With 17 very diverse school districts, all of which have different individual needs, the group establishes an agenda of commonalities.   NASS's presentations to the Assembly and Senate will both be later this week.  The focus of iNVest for the 2019 legislative session include the following. Reset per pupil...

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In October, I wrote about the Nevada School Performance Framework (NSPF) and the growth specific to literacy that is occurring in the district.  This month, I will share additional information regarding the NSPF as it relates to the District Performance Plan (DPP) with a spotlight on the efforts being made in connection with College and Career Readiness (CCR) at all levels. But first, two quick notes on CCR in general.  To embrace CCR is not to attempt to prepare each and every student...

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The Nevada School Performance Framework (NSPF) is a system designed to measure a number of different indicators regarding schools’ performance and then assign stars to represent the number of points schools earn in each of these different indicators.   I will focus on attempting to provide clarity regarding what these indicators are and how they do (and many times do not) measure the work going on in schools within the WPCSD. While it’s tempting to pay attention to "stars"...

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One of Nevada’s priorities is developing college and career readiness skills in students prior to their graduation from high school.  This is an endeavor that the White Pine County School District supports wholeheartedly. Some people believe that preparing for college looks differently than preparing for a career.  Given that the purpose of attending college is to prepare for a career, the WPCSD subscribes to the notion that many of the skills needed to succeed in a career are...

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Did you know the following about the WPCSD 2017-2018 school year?   24 students earned an advanced diploma (accomplished by earning an extra math credit, extra science credit, and 3.25 cumulative grade point average)? 11 students graduated with a career and technical education endorsement (accomplished by earning a B or better in three years of a CTE program and passing the associated skills and employability exams)? 3 students earned associates degrees from Great Basin College...

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