HSD News Round-Up

Elementary students from across Clark County gathered at Clark College on Thursday, March 30 for the EarthGen Clark County Elementary Student Summit. Students gained experience with scientific activities like water quality sampling and air quality monitoring at the event. The theme for this year’s summit event was "Green Teams in Action."

“The most rewarding part is seeing the students light up when they share what their Green Teams have been working on,” said Cameron Foy, outreach coordinator at EarthGen. “It was inspiring to hear what they have accomplished and how they are impacting their community. ” Students in the Green Team at Hockinson Heights Elementary School had an opportunity during the summit to present on the action projects in progress at the school this year. This included the school garden and compost/recycling programs.

This year, the school's Green Team is also focusing on paper towel waste reduction efforts and educating families about the environmental impacts of idling car engines in school parking areas. The student team also continues to maintain the school garden area and hopes to do a habitat restoration project on the Nature Trail in the near future. “One of the things that we’re most proud of is that the students have chosen the projects that we work on,” said HHES teacher and Green Team facilitator Nathan Tracey.

The HHES Green Team was recognized by Clark County Green Schools as the Clark County Green Team of the Year in 2022. EarthGen has been coordinating student summits for 12 years, since the founding of the organization.

Communication is key. Every year, we check-in with Hockinson families about the messages, stories, and posts that they are receiving from their schools and school district. Family and parent input helps us to understand what methods of communication are working best for our community. Please take a few minutes to fill out this short survey by Wednesday, April 20. We want to hear from you!

As you may have already heard, Hockinson School District is making exciting changes to support its unwavering focus on student learning. As current HHES principal Joshua Robertson transitions to become the Director of Curriculum and Instruction for Hockinson School District next year, current HMS principal Meredith Gannon will transition to HHES Principal for the 2023-24 school year. The candidate interview process for a new HMS principal begins this week.

Your voice matters as we identify priority attributes for a new HMS principal. If you have not already, we invite both incoming and current HMS families to take a few minutes to fill out this Principal Attributes Survey as we prepare to interview HMS principal candidates for the 2023-24 school year. Last call! Please provide your input by the end of the day this Thursday, April 13.

Hockinson Schools have a new data dashboard! The dashboard finds trends between factors like attendance, SBA performance, participation in after-school programs, and grades. The new system provides school administrators and the School Board with important information about how best to serve students.

The district saved money by utilizing existing staff resources to create the dashboard. The system was created in-house by Administrative Assistant to the Director of Special Services, Amy Linton. “Amy is renowned around Hockinson School District for her Excel spreadsheet skills,” said Director of Special Services Keila Dean. "She's also known for always lending a helping hand," added Dean.

By aggregating data in a Google software program within the district's existing Google platform, the dashboard is not only compatible with other Google systems already in use, it was cost-neutral to create. "Purchasing reporting software with the similarity functionality would have cost our district thousands of dollars. We are always on the lookout for cost-effective solutions and in this instance it came in the form of Amy stepping up to create us something we really needed and will use throughout the school year, every year, " said Superintendent Steve Marshall.

Student progress tracking provides school administrators with insight as to the most impactful programs for influencing student success. Every school in Hockinson School District creates and follows an annual school improvement plan focused on student learning. “One of the challenges with school improvement is quantifying goals and accomplishments,” said Marshall. “Our school board and principals are in agreement that the data dashboard will help us do that as well as shine a light on trends that otherwise might have been overlooked.”

The data dashboard is accessible only by school administrators and members of the School Board. It is not available to the public because the HSD is committed to protecting student privacy and the dashboard allows users to drill down in granular detail (eg, grade, gender, ethnicity, primary language spoken) to a level at which small groups of students and even individual students could be identified. However, interesting general data points gleaned from the dashboard will be shared with families in future newsletters.

In addition to surveys and interviews, quantifiable data is one strategy HSD schools use to identify priority focus areas and understand which programs and efforts carry the greatest impact. The HSD Data Dashboard is an exciting tool that will help our schools connect more Hockinson students with the resources they need to be successful.

National Library Week has been observed across the nation since 1958. Research around that time showed that Americans spent less time with books in favor of radios and televisions. In response, the American Library Association enacted National Library Week to encourage people to read again.

Jenny Hermann is Hockinson Heights Elementary School’s media tech. While she helps students and staff troubleshoot issues with Chromebooks and instructional technology, a big portion of her workday is spent within the school library where she repairs old books, purchases new books, and checks out books for students to enjoy. Jenny’s grandmother was a librarian and gifted her with the love of reading. She believes reading teaches children to think and explore life around them.

Jenny recommends Pete the Cat: Crayons Rock! for our younger HHES readers and The War That Saved My Life for our older students. Readers can follow Pete the Cat around town as he draws portraits of his friends, or learn about 10-year-old Ada’s adventure during World War II. All Hockinson students are encouraged to stop by their library to find a book that captures their imagination.

The Hockinson SD recently completed its annual Financial Statement and Federal Program Funds audit for the 2021 - 2022 School Year. This audit was conducted by the State Auditor’s Office. The HSD audit was clean and there were no findings! The HSD was represented by Board Chair Dave Olson, Superintendent Steve Marshall, and Director of Business Services Aaron Villanueva in the exit interview earlier this month. In particular, the Auditor commended the HSD for providing the necessary requested information to the SAO in an efficient and timely manner and for its responsible use of ESSER funds.

"In college, that was the first time that I thought that maybe an ordinary person like me could write a book,” said Matt De La Peña, New York Times bestselling and Newbery Medal winning author of seven young adult novels. De La Peña led three virtual writing workshops for students at Hockinson Heights Elementary School, Hockinson Middle School, and Hockinson High School via Zoom.

During the session, De La Peña read excerpts from his books. The group discussed finding a passion in reading and writing. “We tend to write about things that confuse us or that we’re uncertain about,” said De La Peña.

Students learned about Matt De La Peña’s journey to becoming an author. He was the first in his family to attend college, and came from humble beginnings. “When I was young, my family said that if you’re going to live under this roof, then you’re going to work. So I started working at Domino's when I was in high school.” De La Peña followed his dream and hopes his story will inspire students to follow theirs.

Hockinson Elementary School is hosting a Multicultural Night to celebrate the beautiful cultures thriving throughout the world. Each grade level at HHS has been studying a respective continent throughout this school year. Students have been learning about their continent's geography, art forms, and literature. HHES students have been creating their own art and music inspired by their classroom studies.

This year's Multicultural Night will feature a Taiko Drumming Group, which is a musical form native to Japan. HHES students will be hosting an art show to display the art forms they have been practicing. Attendees will also enjoy an artifact museum with pieces representative of all over the world, poetry reading, Polynesian Experience, and a Movement & Music Experience. Don't miss out on one of the most beloved aspects of Multicultural Night...snacks from all around the world!

Please join us on April 20 from 5-7:30 pm at Hockinson Heights Elementary School. View the HSD calendar page for more information. We hope to see you there!

• HSD Earth Day Clean Up, April 22, 9am–2pm: Join us at the Hockinson Community Center!​ Sign up HERE.

• HHES Multicultural Night, April 20, 5-7:30 pm: Explore cultures from all around the world right here in Hockinson.

• Congratulations to our FIRST Robotics Team Mean Machine that qualified for the PNW District Championship Event held last week at Eastern Washington University.

• HMS STEM Ambassadors kicked off Spring Break by showcasing their projects at Vancouver Mall April 1.

• Spring Sports Update: 65 HMS students are participating in track and field this spring. That is nearly 20 more than last season!

• HSD has applied for a waiver for the June 20 Snow Makeup day. We expect to receive a decision in early May. We will notify parents as soon as we hear whether or not this waiver is approved.

April 10 TK and Kindergarten online registration open

April 18 HMS Vancouver Pops Assembly All-Day Community Event @ HMS Main Gym

April 19 AAA Booster Meeting 5 - 6 pm @ HHS Library

April 19 Fun Days Planning Meeting 6 -7 pm @ HHS Library

April 20 Multicultural Night 5 - 7:30 pm @ HHES

April 22 HSD Earth Day Clean Up 9 am - 2 pm @ Hockinson Community Center

April 24 HSD Regular Board Meeting 6 - 8 pm @ Hockinson Community Center and Zoom

May 1 CAC Meeting 6 pm @ HSD District Office - Public is invited to attend via Zoom

May 1 Boundary exception applications for 2023-24 open for all current and new requests

May 2 Online registration open: Comm Ed Summer Camps & 2023-24 Afterschool Adventures

May 3 Kindergarten Round Up @ HHES

May 5 Book Swap 6 - 8:00 pm @ HHES

May 6 Father-Daughter Dance hosted by Elim Lutheran Church 6-8 pm @ Clover Lane Event Center

Spring Sports Schedules available at hockinsonhawks.com

HSD Upcoming Events Calendar

Email: justine.hanrahan@esd112.org
Website: https://www.hocksd.org/
Location: 17912 NE 159th St, Brush Prairie, WA 98606, USA
Phone: (360) 448-6400