Foundation Funds Teacher Grants
The Post Falls Education Foundation have recently provided over $32,000 to fund innovative classroom projects. Post Falls School District staff members submitted 136 individual grant requests for consideration. The PFEF has provided over $350,000 of grant awards since it was formed. The primary source of PFEF grant funding comes from the Wine, Stein and Dine event held each spring.
District Considers Late Start Mondays for 2012-2013
For several years the district has tried to find time for school and district staff teams to meet for planning purposes. We have provided some time within the existing schedules, but the total amount of planning time has been either too short or too inconsistent to create the curricular and instructional improvement that is always our goal. Generally teachers only meet during in-service days (no students) and before and after school to consult with one another regarding instruction, curriculum and strategies to help individual students. The district also has used the available open time to help educate and train staff regarding major educational initiatives such as improving formative assessment skills and the impending Common Core curricular changes.
We have examined how other districts create time for these purposes. Many districts across the country and locally have created time by lengthening the school day and using that additional time to have early releases or late starts for students once a week. Post Falls School District has unique challenges regarding doing either method because of our back-to-back busing schedule. However, we have developed a modified proposal to provide consistent training and collaboration time while providing as much or more instructional time with students.
The draft proposal is to add one or two instructional days (still being researched) into the 2012-2013 school calendar and use that additional time, in combination with time earmarked in Idaho Code for teacher training, to start school 25 minutes late every Monday during the school year. The draft proposal, which includes the 25 minutes that teachers are required to arrive prior to the start of class, would create 50 minutes of time for teacher training and/or collaboration. If this proposal were to be implemented, we would recommend that the district provide free before school child care for the 25 minute late start at our elementary schools. We are considering Mondays because there are several Mondays during the school year that we do not have school because of holidays. While the 25 minute late start is considerably shorter than most districts that have implemented a similar plan, it will still provide the district with a better system to plan together while minimizing the impact on family schedules.
Currently the district is in the process of gathering more information regarding this proposal. Please provide feedback regarding this proposal by e-mailing the district at info@pfsd.com.
Given selected to attend Naval Academy
Post Falls High School senior Gil Givens, was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy based on his 4.169 GPA and No. 4 ranking in his class. He will receive an academic scholarship and will also play hockey for the academy. There were 23,000 applicants to the academy and only 1,200 appointments were offered. Givens, who played junior hockey for the Spokane Braves and is an Eagle Scout and varsity baseball player, plans to study engineering at the academy.
District Conducts Parent Survey
All district schools recently completed a parent survey in conjunction with parent teacher conferences. 1,157 surveys were completed. Parents had the option of completing the survey online or completing a paper copy. The overall results of the survey show that parents are pleased with the quality of the education that their children are receiving. The survey questions ranged from rating the quality of instruction to student safety. Parents were encouraged to provide comments as well. The following graph is a grand total tabulation from all the schools.
