Multnomah Education Service District: Students And School Employees Meet With Dr. Paul Coakley

Press release from Multnomah Education Service District:

November 17, 2021

During the week of Oct. 25, students and school employees met with Dr. Paul Coakley during Multnomah Education Service District site visits. Here is a full account from MESD Superintendent Dr. Coakley.

Site Visits

[During the week of Oct. 25], I was able to spend the majority of my time at schools and programs engaging with students and staff.

Three Lakes and Riverside High Schools at Oak Creek Youth Correctional Facility

Monday, I spent the day in Albany visiting Three Lakes and Riverside High Schools at Oak Creek Youth Correctional Facility. While it is a full security correctional facility, the school culture was pleasantly positive. The staff was energetic and upbeat, and I got to talk to several students about their school experience, some are working on competing high school requirements, while others are taking college courses. Two students I met participated in my hiring process and were looking forward to meeting me in-person. Principal Koenig gave me a tour of the program and facility. It was evident that she has built trusting relationships with students and cares deeply about ensuring that students leave prepared for their next step in life. She is also working to diversify the staff. To that end, I met two new classified staff members of color that were hired recently, one of them is working toward their teaching licensure. As a side note, the students also loaded me down with gifts, a bonsai tree, a plaque made with a digital wood carver, and a pumpkin with my last name carved in it.

Pacific NW Carpenters Institute with Helensview students

Wednesday, I participated in the tour and overview of PNCI’s program with a small group of students from Helensview. Apprenticeship classes were in session so our students were able to observe and ask questions, there was plenty of hands-on learning happening during the tour. Program Coordinator Meg Kilmer provided a presentation to our students and talked to them about how apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship works, as well as answered any questions that they had. Special thanks to Board Chair Jessica Arzate, Vice-Chair Denyse Peterson and Director Mary Botkin for attending this event, as well as Sasha Perrins and Interim-Principal Dan Cohnstaedt for organizing this opportunity. Dan knows our Helensview students well and has plans for providing several partnership opportunities to allow our students to learn as much as possible about the trades. I will share more information about other partnership visits as the details become more clear.

Burlingame Creek School

Thursday I served on a team of judges at Burlingame Creek. We went to each classroom and rated the Halloween Door Competition that every class participated in. It was great to hear from students about their artwork, themes or concepts and their level of participation in the displayed
work. While each class took pride in their work, the winner was classroom 205. That class won a pizza party on Oct. 29.

ELA Caravan and Adoption Information

I am providing this information as a follow up to the October Board Equity and Inclusion Committee meeting as a part of the inclusive curriculum discussion.

The adoption process is typically a year long process, with the caravan being one part of it. This year the caravan looks different than it has in the past, partially because of COVID-19 safety measures. In lieu of the traditional fall caravan, MESD will be hosting an Oregon Department of Education training in November, at which ODE staff will share information about the adoption process; this event will be recorded for later viewing by curriculum teams who cannot attend. Then in early 2022, ELA curriculum publishers will provide a virtual and asynchronous caravan experience to allow teams to review at a later date when it makes sense for their processes.

The official adoption process is multiple steps beginning with forming an instructional materials review/adoption committee. The committee is composed of a variety of stakeholders including content teachers, administrators, specialists, Special Education experts, educational assistants and when possible/appropriate parents or community partners.

We are currently in the process of recruiting committee members and have our initial kick off meeting with them scheduled for early December.

The committee will then complete a needs assessment and develop criteria for adoption that meets Oregon curriculum standards, MESD instructional adoption standards (Board Policies: II/IIA and ARs), and program needs. These criteria will then inform the review process and ultimately the recommendation. Once the committee has narrowed down selection options, we will also share with larger stakeholder groups to gather feedback. As part of this process, review materials will be available at each site and parents/guardians will be notified that they may review them. If possible and appropriate we may also select a couple staff/sites to field test some of the materials to gather more insight.

After reviewing feedback from stakeholders and rating the materials by designated criteria, the committee will present its findings and recommendation to the Superintendent. The Superintendent then submits the recommendation to the board for approval. The goal is to have this process be finalized by June 2022.

The Board’s official role is to approve or resend the recommendation. However, individual Board members are welcome to participate in community feedback opportunities for the materials.

On a larger scale, the Board also influences the process by developing policies pertaining to instructional materials adoptions. The Senior Program Administrator team is reviewing these policies currently and may have some recommended updates to the current policy that recognize and reflect the MESD Equity Lens. Our hope is to bring the policy to the Board in December as a first read.

Educator Diversity and Grow Your Own Work

Lastly, I wanted to share a video that we produced recently to showcase the voices of future teachers, current teachers, and administrators of color highlighting the importance of having a more racially and linguistically diverse education workforce. We're excited to share it far and wide.

This press release was produced by Multnomah Education Service District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.