The Monday Memo Aug 29, 2016 Volume 2, Issue 1 York City School District Looping teachers welcome students, reporters As if the first day of school isn’t stressful enough, two York City teachers answered the call last week when asked if they would host a reporter in their classroom. That’s right. We embedded a reporter and photographer in the classrooms of Davis teach- er Angie Harman and Jackson teacher Marissa James on the first day of school. Why would we do such a crazy thing? Because there’s no better time to demonstrate the value of looping than the first day of school — when a group of kids see their 3rd grade teacher in their 4th grade class- room. As Dr. Bill McNelis told the York Dispatch, looping is a structure designed to enhance student achievement. YDR photo York Dispatch photo Did you see the newspapers on Aug. 23? If not, you can catch up on York City looping news by clicking the links below. York Daily Record coverage York Dispatch coverage
Transcript
The Monday Memo
Aug 29, 2016
Volume 2, Issue 1
York City
School
District
Looping teachers welcome students, reporters
As if the first day of school isn’t stressful enough, two York City teachers answered the call last week when asked if they would host a reporter in
their classroom.
That’s right. We embedded a reporter and photographer in the classrooms of Davis teach-er Angie Harman and Jackson teacher Marissa James on the
first day of school.
Why would we do such a crazy thing? Because there’s no better time to demonstrate the value of looping than the first day of school — when a group of kids see their 3rd grade teacher in their 4th grade class-
room.
As Dr. Bill McNelis told the York Dispatch, looping is a structure designed to enhance
student achievement.
YDR photo
York Dispatch photo
Did you see the newspapers on Aug. 23? If not, you can catch up on York City looping
K-8 buildings introduce PRIDE The Phineas Davis Bearcats
are showing P.R.I.D.E.! Bearcats show
Preparation, Respect, Integrity, Deter-
mination, and Engagement. All Davis
Bearcats heard this during the morning
announcements first thing Monday
morning. This phrase continues to be
announced each morning. In addition to
hearing this on the announcements, the
Davis staff is doing a phenomenal job at
reviewing this with their students. I’ve
had the opportunity to visit each class-
room at least two times this week. I
continue to hear the word PRIDE dis-
cussed.
Seventh and Eighth grade Sci-
ence teacher Amy Burgess had her 8th
grade students discuss each component
of the P.R.I.D.E. acronym and write/draw what it looks like and what it
doesn’t look like. As I talked to stu-
dents in the classroom, they were able
to clearly articulate what preparation
should look like inside the classroom.
Seventh and Eighth grade ELA
teacher Sharon Tribue had her students
define preparation, respect, integrity,
determination, and engagement. Ms.
Tribue is now having her students take
this information and turn it into a poem.
Third and Fourth grade
teacher Nathaniel Leierer uses the
P.R.I.D.E. acronym terms throughout
his daily lessons. During a five minute
visit in his classroom, I heard him use
the following statement, “Way to be
determined and not give up on this
assignment!” I also witnessed Mr.
Leierer pull a student to the side and
do a quick mini lesson on preparation.
“Talk to me about what it looks like
to be prepared for this particular les-
son. Do you need a pencil?” (No)
“Do you need scissors?” (Yes). This
continued until the student knew ex-
actly what he needed to be prepared
for the particular assignment he/she
was working on.
The P.R.I.D.E. acronym is
seen in a multitude of ways around the
building. We will continue to pro-
mote P.R.I.D.E. at Davis. A special
Thank You to the staff for implement-
ing this in such fantastic ways and a
special Thank You to the Davis stu-
dents for showing everyone that they
are a Bearcat and they do show
P.R.I.D.E.
— By Mindy Sweitzer, Davis
Principal
Goode practices Determination Last week I designed a series of lessons on our new Bearcat P.R.I.D.E. initiative in the district. Each day, I visited our 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms at Goode K-8 and taught them about the meaning of
each letter in PRIDE.
On Thursday and Friday I used cooperative team-building games to help teach the students about De-termination and Engagement. The picture on the right is from the lesson on Determination. It shows several of Ms. Gross's 3rd graders playing "The Maze Game." In this game, the entire class had to work together to navigate a secret path through the maze
grid.
At times, the game can be (purposefully) frustrating, so it's a good exercise in not giving up using determi-nation to remain focused and accomplish a difficult task. We also discussed how when the going gets tough at school we have our friends and teachers to support and encourage us - to stay determined. As the little girl is taking her turn in the maze and con-templating her next move, her classmates and friends are helping her and pointing her in the right direc-
tion.
— By Karen Erb, Learning Support Teacher
Ferguson meets Bobby Bearcat
Ferguson concluded a week of PRIDE lessons with an assem-bly to introduce the school’s new mascot: Bobby Bearcat. The school’s elementary students said goodbye to Fergie Fox and hello to the mascot that will bring stability and consisten-
cy to the School District of the City of York.
Who volunteered for the job of wearing a mascot’s costume in August? That would be York High senior Devon Estrada-Wansel, a football player and member of the Youth Court Alliance. Athletic Director Ron Coursey accompanied Devon
to Ferguson.
Check out a video of Devon talking about his experience as
Bobby Bearcat here.
Ferguson also treated its students to a performance by School Counselor Eric Schlosser, who wrote a song about Bearcat Pride. A group of 4th graders helped him share it with the rest of the students. He’s been taking the show on the road. See Mr. Schlosser perform the song with a class of
For the second year in a row, the community showed up on a Monday morning to welcome the freshman class to York High.
The Class of 2020 is officially in the building!
The first-day welcome is intended to get the students excited
and drive home this message: High school is a big deal.
We owe big thanks to members of the Salt & Light group, who designed welcoming banners for community members to hold
as the freshmen arrived.
We’d also like to thank those who addressed the freshmen after their arrival: School Board President Margie Orr, state Rep. Kevin Schreiber, York City Business Manager Michael Doweary and David Volkman, executive deputy secretary for
the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
York High graduate Kevin Jackson showed us yet again the embodiment of the Bearcat spirit. The 2016 commencement speaker returned to meet the Class of 2020 with inspiring
words. Thank you, Kevin!
Finally, thank you to former school board President Jeff Kirk-
land, who snapped several of these great photos.
Page 5
We’d also like to thank the lo-cal pastors who formed a pray-er circle after the freshmen ar-rived. The pastors and commu-nity members took turns pray-ing for our students’ success
and safety this year.
Did you miss it?
Watch Dr. Holmes greet the
freshmen here.
Watch the freshmen arrive!
Watch York High Principal Brandon Carter greet the com-
Jacob L. Devers K-8 School opened on schedule for the 2016-17 school year with a brand new look and a brand new
focus on safety and security.
Before new construc-tion in the office area, visitors were buzzed into the building and needed to travel through a common hallway before reaching the office. Security measures were a real concern, and a de-sign was discussed and put into place right before the opening of
school this year.
Visitors now enter through a newly secured door, only being buzzed in after ex-pressing their business to be
done. They are then buzzed a second time into a secure office area, completely redone and con-nected to the building itself by a
locked door into the hallway.
So, only after a third buzz in is the door able to be opened, accessing the hallways and moving into the common building
areas.
The new look at Devers is not only an attractive one, but highly secure and safe. It has been a long time coming, and we appre-ciate all of the hard work put in all
workers to make it beautiful!
— By Craig Linn, Devers
Principal
Hannah Penn writes hopes, dreams
At the Hannah Penn back-to-school night, the staff asked parents, students and other staff members about their hopes and dreams for the upcoming school year. Their answers were heart-warming! Student responses are in orange, parents in white, and staff in blue. It was an idea kindergar-ten teacher Ashley Miller presented at the school’s Distributed Leadership meeting after seeing a video on Facebook of another district doing it on their opening day. Ms. Miller was able to make it happen for us and it's now being dis-played in the school’s front office.
Page 7
Who Am I? An introduction to
Deanna Bowman, Acting Assistant Principal at
Jackson
I am a York Native.
I am a Daughter.
I am a Sister.
I am a York High Gradu-
ate.
I am a Graduate of Cali-
fornia University of PA.
I am a Wife.
I am a Mother.
I am a Graduate of East-
ern University.
I am a K-6 Elementary
Education Teacher.
I am a Special Education
Teacher.
I am a Role Model.
I am a Team Player.
I am a Perfectionist.
I am a Work in Progress.
I am a Stakeholder.
I am a K-12 Administra-
tor.
I am a Change Agent.
I am a BEARCAT and
It starts with ME.
Devers students in Ms. Denise Waughtel's class are thankful for school supply donations that residents of the Devers neighborhood generously donated to the school! Ms. Waughtel lives in the neighborhood and her neighbors enjoy helping and donating. Ms. Waughtel used social media to reach out to the neighbors for anyone willing to donate to Devers. The neighbors started dropping off boxes and bags of school supplies for the
students!
Devers recently received several hundred dollars’ worth of school supplies from
SpirTrust Lutheran, The Village at Kelly Drive. The director and four other staff
members walked here with a huge push cart full of notebooks, backpacks, pencils,
crayons, tissues, pencil boxes, etc. The supplies were donated by staff and residents at the
retirement community. Devers is very grateful for their generosity and support.
— Eric Schlosser, school counselor
Day Date Location Time
Friday Sept. 2 @ Reading 7 p.m.
Friday Sept. 9 @ Smalls Field 7 p.m.
Friday Sept. 16 @ Cedar Cliff 7 p.m.
Friday Sept. 23 @ Smalls Field 7 p.m.
Friday Sept. 30 @ Dallastown 7 p.m.
Friday Oct. 7 @ Smalls Field 7 p.m.
Friday Oct. 14 @ Smalls Field 7 p.m.
Friday Oct. 21 @ South Western 7 p.m.
Friday Oct. 28 @ Smalls Field 7 p.m.
Friday Nov. 4 @ Central York 7 p.m.
Varsity Football Schedule 2016
Congratulations to district Desktop
Support Technician Dave Brady, who
was named Marine of the Year for the
Department of Pennsylvania of the
Marine Corps League at its 2016 Con-
vention in State College.
Brady was also elected to a fourth
term as Department Adjutant. He
serves as Senior Vice Commandant,
Paymaster and newsletter editor in
the First Capitol Detachment of York
County and chairs the Toys for Tots
local community organization support-
ed by the Detachment.
Brady is also involved with the York
County Joint Veterans Council repre-
senting American Legion Post #791.
More football
news on Page 12!
By DR. JAMIE
MALLOY
Cornerstone
Principal
Greetings fellow York City colleagues and community members! As Corner-stone begins its fourth year as the dis-trict’s tier III intervention program, we wanted to share a little bit about some of the exciting changes happening that we know will allow us to better meet the
needs of the students we serve.
For those of you who are new or aren’t familiar, Cornerstone is an intervention program designed to support students from the School District of the City of York in grades 1-9 who were not able to make progress despite tier I and II inter-ventions in their regular classrooms and buildings. Currently serving approximately 90 students from every district building, the program provides a positive and ther-
Cornerstone excited for change apeutic-based structure to teach students the skills necessary to be successful in
both the academic and behavioral realms.
Although often confused with alternative education, or even to some as a punish-ment, it is important to understand that this is simply not true! The program is designed as an OPPORTUNITY for stu-dents to receive more individualized and intensive supports in a smaller and struc-tured setting so that skills can be learned by students and then transferred back to
their home buildings when ready.
This year, the elementary program has evolved to embrace a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) structure within the tier III programming. This means that stu-dents in the program are provided sup-port through an MTSS framework within tier III of a district level program. To sum
it up, tier III is tiering! (See below).
Students are still referred into the pro-gram through the district’s Comprehen-sive Student Support Team (CSST) pro-cess, and are accepted with the goal of meeting needs that are identified through this process. Once Cornerstone students have gained the necessary tools to be
more successful and they have met their CSST goals, a transition process back to home buildings begins. If a student strug-gles to meet his or her goals, they are then provided tier III support within the program and/or the CSST process contin-ues to identify additional needed interven-
tions and/or programming.
In addition to the new structure, some exciting additional changes are headed to Cornerstone this year. We have already modified the secondary schedule to align with the high school’s bell schedule so that 9th grade students can transition by course and/or all at one time based on the needs of individual students. We are also looking forward to welcoming a new Social Worker, as well as a new Behavior Specialist to help support the students’
social-emotional learning and growth.
To close, it is going to be an exciting year and we look forward to sharing more about the great things happening at Cornerstone as the new school year pro-ceeds! Thank you for the opportunity to share information and I hope everyone
has a fantastic year!
Level 3
Two teachers Chunked/teamed flexible
scheduling with teach-ers sharing students
Daily Groups with Social Worker and/or Behav-ior Specialist
PA Counseling and/or community agency re-ferral/involvement re-quired
FBA and PBSP required Transitions to Level
2based on team deci-
sions
Level 2
Four teachers Homerooms grouped chrono-
logically (1-3 and 4-6 Academic groups flexible with
sensitivity to chronological and/or individual student needs
Additional privileges (class and school)
PA Counseling and/or commu-nity agency refer-ral/involvement recom-mended
Weekly Behavior Specialist and/or Social Worker groups
Behavior Specialist referrals as needed
Set criteria to move to Transi-tion status/Level 1
Level 1
Transition Integrated into level 2 Fridays spent at home building (as
determined by level/criteria) Cornerstone staff available to sup-
port at home buildings on Fri-days
Academic groups flexible with sen-sitivity to chronological and/or individual student needs
Additional privileges (class and school)
Increased rigor PA Counseling and/or community
agency referral/involvement recommended
Weekly Behavior Specialist and/or Social Worker groups
Set criteria for earning/maintaining Transition status/level
Full transitions to home buildings made via team-based decision making
Behavior Specialist referrals as needed
Summer 2016 The School District of the City of York stayed busy this summer! Officers of the district’s police department continued their track record of com-
munity involvement.
In July, the department spent a whole day helping Habitat for Humanity construct a new home for a veteran in Manchester. Their participation drew several media outlets to cover the story. Check out York Dispatch coverage here and York Daily
Record coverage here.
When the Pokemon Go craze hit, Superintendent Dr. Eric Holmes posed for a photo with Drowzee, who seems to spend a lot of time at the admin-
istration building.
York City Council-woman Sandie Walker (former school board member and York High graduate) orga-nized a block party this summer outside the York City police sta-tion. Parent Advocates for Children took ad-vantage of the chance to interact with York City families. Check
Above, Dr. Holmes visits with School Board President Margie Orr and York City Council President Carol Hill-Evans at the Veterans Memorial Park Neighborhood block party during National Night
Out.
To the right, York City School Po-lice Officer Britney Brooks volun-teered to paint children’s faces
during EqualityFest in Penn Park.
Dr. Holmes made his rounds during National Night Out in early August. Throughout the city, neighborhoods host block parties to celebrate com-munity. In the photo to the left, Dr. Holmes met a McKinley student who was sporting his Academic All-Stars
shirt.
The police department was also invit-ed to try a different kind of workout at House of Yoga, 19 W. Market St. Check out a video here. Check out Chief Michael Muldrow in the photo
below.
Officer Angie Morales-Santiago was the star of the show at the York United Block Party. She danced and jumped rope with the kids all evening.
Football season hasn’t officially be-gun, yet the York City community has already packed the stands at Smalls Field several times
this summer.
Hundreds of people attended a pep rally Aug. 8 to see the band, cheerleaders and football team rally some team
spirit.
Then, on Aug. 20, a large crowd showed up again for a Satur-day evening football
scrimmage.
Don’t miss Meet the Bearcats on Thurs-
day at 7 p.m.!
Welcome back, Bearcat Family
By DR. ERIC
HOLMES
Superintendent
This year at the School District of the City of York is about building on the momentum we gained last year with so many new initiatives and hard
work.
Our Recovery Plan is working. We are meeting our challenges, and in-creasing student achievement will re-
main our top priority.
For those veterans of the Bearcat family, welcome back! For those of you new to the district, I’d like to wel-come you to your new extended fami-
ly.
As you can see in this newsletter, we’ve wasted no time getting off to a great start for 2016-17. Already, I’ve seen the commitment of York City
educators and support staff at work.
I’d like to take this opportunity to share some great news with you. Here’s a few things you may have
missed:
Construction work is complete at both the Goode and Devers K-8 buildings. The installation of new heating/air conditioning units, and the installation of new class-room floors at both buildings were completed this summer. The new office configuration at Devers provides for a more se-cure entrance and enhances the safety of all students and staff in
that building.
We are also happy to announce that the new ELA curriculum for grades K-6 has been delivered to the District and was made availa-ble for staff at the start of the
school year.
The district has hired curriculum coaches to assist K-8 staff in the successful implementation of the ELA curriculum and in the use of the new resource materials. These coaches will be assigned to your buildings for 12 days each month and will provide individual
and group professional development as well as offer suggestions or an-swer your questions. Their primary purpose is to ensure that the new curriculum is being implemented
with fidelity.
The district has worked diligently over the summer to find ways to provide more student services at our schools. Six social workers have been hired. Their job will be to hold sessions with individual or groups of students to assist them in developing pro-social skills to be used in the school setting. They will also make home visits, case manage student needs, serve on the CSST, and help schools address student
mental health issues.
The District has expanded the Be-havioral Specialist Program. Each building will have a dedicated Behav-ioral Specialist whose new responsi-bilities will include assisting the ad-ministration and staff in implement-ing the new PBIS program. They will also assist staff with developing strategies to include in student be-havior plans, hold one-on-one meet-ings with students, check in on class-rooms on a daily basis, serve on the CSST, and supervise the anti-bullying
and peer mediation programs.
The District will open an interven-tion room in each building for the purpose of helping students address behavioral issues that disrupt the educational environment. In keep-ing with our changing philosophy of discipline and classroom manage-ment, this room will not be used as a traditional internal suspension
room or a holding room.
The District will continue working with teams of teachers and adminis-trators from each building to make changes to our current discipline policy and philosophy. We will be implementing PBIS in every building this fall and have developed expecta-tions for all students that will be used consistently in all of our school buildings. The focus this year will be
on PRIDE.
Other new initiatives will include the creation of a committee at Wil-liam Penn to examine the concept of Learning Academies/Small Learning Communities. The District would like to provide a more specialized learning experience for students at the high school. The goal is to for the committee to make a recom-
mendation to the Board of School
Directors in the spring of 2017.
There were several initiatives that we began in prior years that will continue to expand and improve this year. They include: Imple-menting with fidelity the Distribut-ed Leadership program in all of our schools; aligning our middle school math and ELA curriculum to state standards; implementa-tion of the 9th grade academy at the William Penn High School; implementation of the K-6 looping pilot; expanding the number of pre-kindergarten classrooms from 12 to 13; expanding the number of participants in the after school program from 100 students par-ticipating each night per building to 150 participants; continue the dropout prevention and commu-nity outreach efforts of our Com-munities in Schools programs at the Jackson, McKinley, Goode, Hannah Penn and William Penn
schools.
Speaking of Communities in Schools, we’ve added a site coor-
dinator to Davis K-8.
The District’s new website will be up and running soon. In June, the Board of School Directors hired a local company to customize a website for the District that will include micro-sites for each of the schools. Stay tuned for more in-
formation on that.
As a District, we should all be proud of what we have been able to accom-plish during the past two years. I be-lieve we are making great strides in
implementing the Recovery Plan.
With the new initiatives planned for 2016-17, we hope that they will aid us in achieving our goal of improving stu-dent achievement. However, if we truly want to make a difference in the lives of our children, then we must do two
things.
We must continue to have a laser focus on literacy throughout all of our schools, and we must be willing to accept the fact that change, while diffi-cult and sometimes frightening, is nec-
