| Opening Day Address from the Board President to All Staff on 8/26/08 |
Date Posted: 9/29/2008 |
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Vickie Ybarra’s Address to All Staff at the Welcome Back Celebration, August 26, 2008:
I am so happy to be here today with you, so pleased to be anticipating another school year together. Yakima is a great school district. And you are one AWESOME group of dedicated school employees. On behalf of YOUR Board of Directors, I need to tell you how proud we are to be a part of this terrific team.
You know how we know you’re awesome? Because of the way you work together; because of the way you meet the challenges set before you every day. And of course because of the way you genuinely care for your students, for OUR students.
PAST SCHOOL YEAR
Each school year seems to bring new milestones in education reform. In June 2008 that milestone was the dreaded WASL graduation requirement. Let me tell you, we know you are AWESOME, because of how you met that huge challenge.
You know that for a number of years many of us have been concerned about the requirement that was in state law – the law said students had to pass the 10th grade reading, writing and math WASL, in addition to meeting all other state and local requirements, in order to graduate from high school. You know that your superintendent and this school board worked hard starting about 4 years ago to communicate to state policymakers that this was not a practical requirement for 2008. We joined other districts from the Yakima Valley to tell them about our students and our schools here in the Valley, and to propose other solutions.
We believe in standards, we support standards. As school board members and administrators we welcome accountability: Accountability to our communities, to taxpayers and to parents. But we didn’t think that students should be penalized for failures that are outside of their control. We took responsibility for performance in our districts, and we took collective action to advocate for changes for kids. As a result, we saw changes to the graduation requirement in the 2007 session that included a delay of the math WASL graduation requirement and an expansion of alternatives, other ways for students to show their proficiency.
But we knew the Reading and Writing WASL graduation requirement were still substantial challenges for our students – where a good many in high school have not yet mastered English. But Wow, did you work hard to make sure that our students could meet that challenge. I’m proud to report that out of a 2008 graduating class of over 600 students, fewer than 25 of them failed to graduate because of the WASL graduation requirement. Fewer than 25! You deserve the credit, for working hard, for working with your students and their parents, and for encouraging them to keep at it. Thank you for that work. Thank you for that success.
TODAY’S CHALLENGE
And the challenges continue, the work goes on. Today we will be dealing with another challenge. Today, our district 08 preliminary WASL results and the state WASL results will be released. So you’ll see what you already know, that we still have challenges in our schools, in our district.
You know, as I combed through our 2008 preliminary WASL results over the past week, and you know we as school board members have them ALL. As I combed through these results and saw some decreases, some increases (there are some very nice bright spots), I agonized over many more decreases than I wanted to see, many more decreases than I know you will want to see. I struggled in my mind to make sense out if it – on the School Board we KNOW how hard you’re working, we KNOW how hard your students are working, and we KNOW how we’re working to align the system that supports the work you’re doing, to make the best possible use of the resources we have available.
So why do we see mixed results? The experts will a chance to analyze the results and will give us some answers. In addition, I’d like to share some insights I have this morning…
I’ve come to understand that the struggles we have in this district are struggles we are likely to have for a very long time to come. That’s not an excuse, but I think it’s a reality we need to embrace. We have students coming to us, more and more every year, who don’t speak English, who come from abject poverty – poverty that we can’t even imagine, and probably most significantly – whose parents have very low education themselves. That doesn’t mean they are bad parents, but it means they are challenged and their children are challenged, and when they come to school those challenges become our challenges. But, as you know, there is tremendous strength as well. Strength that can make the challenging work rewarding at the same time.
Many of you know that my professional training is as a public health nurse. I came to the valley right out of nursing school in 1989 ready to save the world. I cut my professional teeth by doing home visits up and down the valley with very poor families with young children.
I know some of you have done home visits with families of your students. Kudos to our kindergarten teachers this year who participated in our new kindergarten transition program – I know you did home visits to visit the parents of your new students. Thank you for that – I know it will mean so much to those parents.
The things I saw on home visits – What an education that was. Young moms living in garages with no heat in the house - families challenged with not having enough food - mostly immigrant families working very hard at their jobs and living in very humble circumstances. But always they’d welcome the nurse in, and share their lives with me. I learned about the profound strength of the families living in our valley, even in the face of immense challenges.
I remember one young woman who I visited – she had diabetes in her pregnancy, and it was my job to teach her how to give herself insulin injections for the last 3 months of her pregnancy. So that she and her baby could stay healthy. Like most young Spanish-speaking women I worked with, she had very little education. But unlike most women I worked with, this young woman not only could not read and write Spanish words, she could not read numbers. So how was I to teach her to give her insulin? – with so many units of the first kind of insulin, plus so many units of the second kind of insulin? A basic addition problem that most of my patients could master, but not this young woman. And on top of that – her husband was just educated enough to know that drugs were bad. And he was worried
– I was asking his wife to inject herself with a needle full of drugs, twice a day, for the rest of her pregnancy. On my first home visit I learned he was forbidding her to take the medicine.
So I worked with this family – I spent time with the husband, in my halting Spanish – to help him understand what diabetes was and how it was affecting the health of his unborn baby. I spent time with her, we marked her syringes with tape, and she learned how to draw up and measure her own insulin. She successfully gave herself the injections, twice a day, for the rest of her pregnancy. And they had a healthy baby boy.
A few years later I saw that family at the Fair – the child was playing and enjoying the rides. An intact family, a healthy child. So many challenges, but so much strength.
On reflecting back, I think I worked with that family probably in about 1990. So that boy would be about 18 years old now. Maybe he was one of the students you worked so diligently with to help graduate in June.
There is nothing you can do about the challenges that your students bring to you, or the challenges their parents are facing. But please know that in addition to challenges they all bring strength – strength that you are building on every day in your work with our students and with their families. These challenges will not go away – with each new entering class of students the challenges will be there anew. But these are our students, and we must embrace them.
So, for the most part, it’s not a challenge you get to work hard at and conquer. It’s not the challenge of the great Mt. Everest that you climb and get to the top and can rest, and look out over the vista and know you’ve conquered. No. It’s the challenge that keeps on giving – yes you’ll have successes, and we all need to celebrate those. But the challenge will be there anew every day.
Please know that no matter what the test score results say –we know you are working hard. Our call to you as a school board is to keep on – keep on working hard, keep on working smart – most of all, keep working together. Because we know that by taking INDIVDIUAL RESPONSIBILTY for our role and our piece in this work that is sometimes overwhelming – individual responsibility along with collective action will win the day. Thank you for all you do.
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| Superintendent Evaluation Summary Released - May 2008 |
Date Posted: 5/29/2008 |
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| The Yakima School District Board of Directors is pleased to release our annual summary of Superintendent Ben Soria's performance for the 2007-08 school year. The summary begins, “The Yakima School District Board of Directors has completed the 2008 annual superintendent performance review in May 2008. As your elected board members, we are pleased to share with the community, including district students and staff, our unanimous and unwavering support of Superintendent Benjamin A. Soria.” Click here to access the full evaluation summary: http://www.yakimaschools.org/Departments/bod/2008_Supt_Evaluation_Summary.pdf |
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| Policy Governance Policies Approved - April 2008 |
Date Posted: 5/29/2008 |
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At their April 15, 2008, business meeting, the Board of Directors approved the remaining sixteen policies to implement Policy Governance. This approval culminates almost two years of work to formalize the Yakima School District Board of Directors move to Policy Governance. The board announced it expects to begin full implementation of Policy Governance with the 2008-09 school year, including community linkage meetings and policy reporting.
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| Policy Governance Update - March 2008 |
Date Posted: 3/13/2008 |
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The Yakima School District Board of Directors is preparing to complete its formal move to Policy Governance at its April 15 Business meeting. After almost two years in study, preparing and revising policies, and implementing community linkage sessions, the School Board looks forward to formal and full implementation of the Policy Governance form of governance. The School Board expects to hold a Policy Governance Forum on Tuesday March 25th, 7:00-8:00 at Central Services Conference Room A&B to present its preparation for the move to Policy Governance and to hear any suggestions for improvements on proposed Policy Governance Policies. In addition, as always the board welcomes any comments on this or any other issues before the board through public testimony or in writing.
Policy Governance formalizes in board policy those beliefs, values and practices that have characterized the Yakima School District Board of Directors for many years: That we have an obligation to represent the community owners of the district, and that we must be accountable in governance as we hold our superintendent and district accountable for excellence in operation and student outcomes. Policy Governance is consistent with national and state school board standards which encourage local boards to develop systems to “Govern through Policy”. In this time of change and increased accountability in public education, when our district is accountable for student achievement outcomes as never before, when we are asking more of our staff and administrators than ever before, the Yakima School District Board of Directors is doing our part to step up to excellence in governance by adopting Policy Governance. We don’t need to look far to see what problems a distracted and disorganized school board can cause for a district, and we don’t ever want that to happen in Yakima. The time to step up to excellence in governance is while things are moving in a positive direction, while the district is making strong strides in improving academic achievement, while the board is strong and functioning well. This change is an investment in the future strength of the board and the district.
Reference documents include:
http://www.yakimaschools.org/Departments/bod/Yakima_School_District_Board_of_Directors_Policy_Governance_.pdf
http://www.yakimaschools.org/Departments/bod/Status_of_Policy_Governance_Policies.pdf
http://www.yakimaschools.org/Departments/bod/March_2007_Board_Presentation_on_Policy_Governance.pdf
See also full policies and other documents related to Policy Governance previously posted in this Current News section.
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| Martha Rice Elected as WSSDA President-Elect |
Date Posted: 11/27/2007 |
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| Yakima school board member Martha Rice is elected as WSSDA president-elect, putting her in line for the WSSDA presidency one year from now. The Yakima School District Board of Directors is very proud to have our colleagues around the state recognize the fine leadership and advocacy abilities that Martha brings to the WSSDA board. We are fortunate to have Martha’s continued advocacy for issues that impact our students and our district at the state level. |
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| Policy Governance Update - November 2007 |
Date Posted: 11/5/2007 |
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The board will hold its next board training with Policy Governance consultant Connie Fletcher (Issaquah School Board) in Board Study Sessions to be held Thursday, November 8, 4-7 p.m., and Friday, November 9, 7:15-9a.m. Both sessions will take place at the Central Services Building, 104 North 4th Avenue, Yakima. Board Study Sessions are open to the public and the board welcomes attendance by interested community members.
The topic of these training dates will be Monitoring Procedures for Executive Limitation and Board-Superintendent Linkage policies. During these two days of training, the board will review Executive Limitation and Board-Superintendent Linkage policies, which are currently on first reading, to establish expectations for reporting on the policies. The board expects to approve the remaining Policy Governance policies that are on first reading at its November 20 business meeting.
These two days of training follow three previous days of training with this consultant, the last of which occurred in June of this year. Approval of the Executive Limitation and Board-Superintendent Linkage policies, as well as an update of the Board Ends policy to reflect the district Ends/Goals adopted by the board in June of this year, will complete the Board revision of policies to move to Policy Governance. The next step will be to schedule accountability reports from the superintendent. In addition, the board expects to resume Board Community Linkage meetings as an important mechanism to continue to solicit input from the community owners of the district, beginning January 2008. Fourteen separate Community Linkage meetings were held by the board in January–June of this year, and the input obtained at those meetings was used by the board in crafting the updated district Ends/Goals for the district’s updated Roadmap.
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| Raymond Navarro Jr. Speaks to Group regarding Simple Majority |
Date Posted: 10/25/2007 |
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| Raymond Navarro Jr., Yakima School District board member, joined other speakers on October 11, 2007, for a Simple Majority ballot measure panel discussion sponsored by The League of Women Voters of Yakima County. Mr. Navarro addressed the inequity of school funding for districts on the eastside of the state compared to the wealth of funding available to districts on the westside. He emphasized that levy dollars, once used for supplemental programs, are now necessary to provide school programs and materials inadequately funded by the state. Mr. Navarro added that collecting levy dollars qualifies a district for additional Levy Equalization funds provided by the state; however, these state funds are not available if a levy does not pass. Vicki Dwight, Yakima Education Association President, joined the panel discussion, providing the history of the Super Majority and explaining the difference between district bonds and levies. Susan Whitman, City Council Representative, reported that the Simple Majority will help our community pass school levies and this, in turn, boosts the community’s economy. Panelists had opportunity to address other aspects of the issue and answer questions from the audience. [Expand Story] |
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| Message from Board President - Spring 2007 |
Date Posted: 6/21/2007 |
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Who doubts that young people today are more intelligent, well-behaved, vital and committed to their community than they’ve ever been? How lucky we are in this community to have such great young people to celebrate. I believe that this good fortune should cause us to reflect on our responsibilities as adults to the youth of our community.
One of the great privileges as a school board member is to witness the spring season of celebration of great students in the district. We do well to loudly and proudly celebrate the accomplishments of hundreds of youth in our community who are choosing a constructive life course.
In May and June, our school board had the wonderful experience of honoring terrific students in our district:
• One Washington State Scholar, in the top 1% of seniors statewide;
• 32 Washington State Principal Scholars, in the top 5% of seniors statewide;
• 92 Honor Students at Honors Convocation, with GPAs of 3.5 or higher.
In addition, we honored 50 Stanton Academy high school graduates, many of whom have faced substantial adversity, but have persevered to achieve an important milestone. And, of course, we honored 292 Davis and 310 Eisenhower high school graduates; talented students who collectively graduated with many honors and hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships.
As we celebrate youth, in the spring and all throughout the year, I encourage each adult in our community to consider what responsibility and role we have to provide a community that supports the achievements of young people. We all do have a role in this, whether we have children in our home or not. We may impact the lives of young people directly, by meeting their daily needs and providing personal encouragement. We may impact the lives of young people more indirectly, by providing part time jobs or volunteer opportunities for youth. We may be in positions of public trust, as are school board members, and provide policy support for nurturing social and school environments and quality instruction.
Whatever your role, I encourage you to consider seriously how you might support one or all of the wonderful, successful, positive youth we are so fortunate to have in our community.
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| DRAFT Ends/Goals Statements |
Date Posted: 6/19/2007 |
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Since January, the Yakima School District Board of Directors has met in 13 community linkage groups with over 100 community members to get feedback on this question:
“Envision what the Yakima community will be like when our kindergartners graduate from high school. What skills, knowledge, and abilities will they need in order for them to live successful and productive lives and to contribute to the community?”
The purpose in asking this question has been to help provide the board insight into the values of the community as we work to craft the goals that will guide the district for the coming three years. We’ve received wonderfully rich feedback from all who’ve participated in this process.
As planned, the board met in an all-day work session this past Friday June 15th, to draft the new goals/ends statements for the district. We based our work in large part on the feedback we’ve received from the 13 community linkage meetings we’ve had with you and other interested community members, as well as written input and readings we’ve received, and other information the board has reviewed.
The DRAFT goals/ends statements that we came up with at our Friday meeting include 6 goals for students. DRAFT Goals/Ends Statements:
http://www.ysd.wednet.edu/Departments/bod/DRAFT_EndsGoals_Statements.pdf
We invite your feedback this week on the DRAFT goals/ends statements, and specifically the answer to these questions:
> If we accomplish these results with all our students, do you believe we will have fulfilled our mission? If not, what’s missing?
> What do you perceive to be the primary barriers to our success in each of these end result areas? How can the community help us?
> What can we do to ensure that the community knows and understands the importance of the goals/ends statements as well as the importance of its role in helping us achieve them?
We welcome responses to these questions in writing, either by letter or email, prior to Friday June 22nd when we will meet to finalize these statements.
The board’s work this year with community linkages has been a part of our overall move to policy governance. We appreciate your interest and support of the board’s efforts as we implement this new method of receiving feedback from the community and incorporating the community values into our district goals/ends statements.
Vickie Ybarra
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| Martha Rice Appointed as WSSDA Vice President - April 2007 |
Date Posted: 4/30/2007 |
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The Yakima School District Board of Directors is proud to note that our own Martha Rice has been appointed as Vice President of the Washington State School Directors’ Association. Martha’s long and notable service to the Yakima School Board and WSSDA has been recognized by the WSSDA board in this appointment, and we are proud to support her in this role.
Link to WSSDA:
www.wssda.org/wssda/webforms/en-us/news/2007/20070331_rice.asp
April 2007
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| Message from Board President Vickie Ybarra |
Date Posted: 3/19/2007 |
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In July 2006, the Yakima School District Board of Directors formally and publicly started down the road of moving our board operations to policy governance. Policy governance is a manner of formalizing board operations including the board’s relationships with the community, with itself, and with the superintendent. The Yakima School District Board of Directors has been operating by many of the principles contained in policy governance for many years.
Policy governance rests on the belief that the board has an obligation to represent the community owners of the district. It operationalizes our belief that the board speaks with one voice, or not at all, and that we provide instruction to the superintendent via written policies. It provides a structure for the work of the board, focused on assuring that the outcomes of the district are achieved for all students, while also assuring that inappropriate means are not employed to achieve those outcomes. And it puts us as a board in more direct contact with the community owners of the district, regularly gaining input that is incorporated into the goals of the district.
While there is nothing forcing the Yakima School District Board of Directors to adopt policy governance, we believe this is part of our responsibility to protect the future of the district. In the same way that we are asking employees all over the district to step up with their best, to think about their work in new ways, and to achieve excellence in their own area of practice, we believe it is our responsibility to step up with excellence in governance. For us, policy governance represents that excellence. Our board has for years operated according to many of the principles of policy governance, under the quality leadership that was in place. This move seems to the current board the natural next step in formalizing good governance for the district and ensuring the board stays focused on priorities. We don’t need to look far to see what problems a distracted and disorganized school board can cause for a district, and we don’t ever want that to happen in Yakima. The time to make this next step is while things are going well, while the district is making strong strides in improving academic achievement, while the board is strong and functioning well. This change is an investment in the future strength of the district.
As a part of our move to policy governance, the Yakima School District Board of Directors has undertaken an intensive effort to connect with the community around the goals of the district. Between January and May of 2007 we will meet with 13 separate groups of invited community members to listen to their answer to this question: “Envision what the Yakima Community will be like when our kindergartners graduate from high school. What skills, knowledge and abilities will they need in order for them to live successful and productive lives and to contribute to the community?”
The answers that the board hears will be used to inform our crafting of new goals for the district to be used in the 2007 update of the district’s Roadmap. In addition to invitational meetings, the board expects to hold a large general community meeting to receive additional input on this question at the Central Services Building, 104 North 4th Avenue, Monday, May 14, at 7 p.m. In the meantime, the board welcomes your input on this question and the district’s Roadmap process, so please write me at the district office at Yakima Public Schools, 104 North 4th Avenue, Yakima, WA 98902.
The Yakima School District Board of Directors has been investigating and moving towards policy governance for some time. In addition to sessions we’ve attended at Washington State School Directors Association (WSSDA) conferences over the past two years, our board has held discussion and training in public meetings on the topic over the 8 months that led to the first reading of our 26 proposed policy governance policies. See links to minutes from all of our board meetings where policy governance has been discussed:
March 8, 2007: To be posted
March 2, 2007: To be posted
February 9, 2007: http://www.ysd.wednet.edu/Departments/bod/February_9_2007_Minutes.pdf
February 2, 2007: http://www.ysd.wednet.edu/Departments/bod/February_2_2007_Minutes.pdf
December 12, 2006: http://www.ysd.wednet.edu/Departments/bod/December_12_2006_Minutes.pdf
December 2, 2006: http://www.ysd.wednet.edu/Departments/bod/December_2_2006_Minutes.pdf
December 1, 2006: http://www.ysd.wednet.edu/Departments/bod/December_1_2006_Minutes.pdf
November 30, 2006: http://www.ysd.wednet.edu/Departments/bod/November_30_2006_Minutes.pdf
September 22, 2006: http://www.ysd.wednet.edu/Departments/bod/September_22_2006_Minutes.pdf
July 24, 2006 Minutes: http://www.ysd.wednet.edu/Departments/bod/July_24_2006_Minutes.pdf
Other related documents that may be of interest:
Board president memo to all district employees on policy governance, March 9, 2007: http://www.ysd.wednet.edu/Departments/bod/Memo_to_Employees_3-9-07.pdf
Working document of comments received and board responses, updated March 9, 2007: http://www.ysd.wednet.edu/Departments/bod/March_9_2007_Working_Document.pdf
Board president statement on policy governance at first reading of policies, December 12, 2006: http://www.ysd.wednet.edu/Departments/bod/Board_President_Statement.pdf
Proposed policy governance policies currently awaiting approval:
Ends (1 policy): http://www.ysd.wednet.edu/Departments/bod/Section_1_-_Proposed.pdf
Executive Limitations (10 policies): http://www.ysd.wednet.edu/Departments/bod/Section_2_-_Proposed.pdf
Governance Process (10 policies): http://www.ysd.wednet.edu/Departments/bod/Section_3_-_Proposed.pdf
Board-Superintendent Linkage (5 policies): http://www.ysd.wednet.edu/Departments/bod/Section_4_-_Proposed.pdf
This site will be updated monthly, or more frequently as needed. Contact information for the Board of Directors is provided here if you wish to contact members of the board: http://www.ysd.wednet.edu/Departments/bod/Board_Contact_Information.pdf
Thank you for your interest in the news of the Yakima School District Board of Directors.
Vickie Ybarra
President, Yakima School District Board of Directors
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