Headlines & Highlights
Headlines & Highlights
School Board Annual Meeting
The Board of Trustees will meet Monday, Jan. 3. This is the Board's annual organization meeting, which includes newly elected Trustees taking the oath of office; setting the 2022 meeting schedule; and selecting the Board chair and vice chair. Board representatives will be:
Zone 1 - Allie Anderton
Zone 2 - Casey Morrisroe
Zone 3 - Heather Tenbrink
Zone 4 - Lesli Bjerke
Zone 5 - Rebecca Smith
This meeting will be streamed live on the District's YouTube channel.
Civics lessons span all grade levels
We think our community will be pleased to know we provide a robust, comprehensive government and civics education to all students in the Coeur d’Alene School District, from elementary through middle and high school. There’s a whole lot more going on than you may realize.
Idaho State Content Standards require civics standards beginning in kindergarten, where they begin to build “an understanding of the foundational principles of the American political system, the organization and formation of the American system of government, and that all people in the United States have rights and assume responsibilities.”
Here in the Coeur d’Alene School District, we intentionally build our students’ foundational knowledge in civics and American government to provide a comprehensive and robust civics education throughout their educational journey. This includes lessons on the roles and responsibilities of citizenship throughout our social studies curriculum, from kindergarten through high school.
Superintendent Shon Hocker and other instructional leaders gathered at Canfield Middle School recently for a Learning Walk. The purpose was to observe classrooms as instructional teams.
The visiting team gives productive feedback to building leaders and teachers within context of our Teaching Framework. The focus at Canfield was on building community within classrooms.
Registration open for second semester of IDLA
Families looking for an online school alternative can enroll their students in the Idaho Digital Learning Alliance for the second semester of this school year, which begins January 31, 2022. To sign up, complete THIS FORM for each student.
The IDLA state school option is free and available to students in kindergarten through high school. Students remain enrolled in the Coeur d’Alene School District and keep their affiliation with their home school. The IDLA curriculum is developed by Idaho teachers, using Idaho Content Standards.
Next steps: High school schedules
The High School Alignment Committee members wish to sincerely thank the community for their input on the three high school schedule options. We had 766 students, staff and community members who participated in the online feedback survey.
The committee met Wednesday of this week to analyze the data from the focused survey feedback and consider other data points, such as Hanover Research, performance data, and financial impact of the three schedules.
This valuable community feedback will be used to further assist the committee with its goal of making a recommendation to the Board of Trustees within the first few months of the new year.
JingleBooks tradition lives on
The traditional JingleBooks program, with community donations of new or gently used books for elementary students, remains on hiatus this year. We hope to see it return in 2022.
The District team did not want elementary students to miss a year of the exciting tradition of our free holiday book fair. Thanks to federal funds dedicated for learning loss in literacy, the District was able to purchase and send nearly 11,700 new books home with students to add to their home libraries.
Access to books at home are linked with a boost to literacy, especially for grades K-3. Students up through Grade 2 are able to pick out three new books. Students in Grades 3-5 are taking home two new books.
We encourage students to pay it forward with their selected books: When they are done reading, they can share and swap their selections with classmates and peers so their joy of reading continues and grows.
Indian Education Student Night
At the Indian Education Student Night in November, students and their families made hand drums. Three of the students pictured here try out their new drums. The next Indian Education Student Night will be January 6 at 5:30 PM at Woodland Middle School. The group will learn Stickgame.
All American Indian students (K-12) who have an Indian Student Eligibility Certification Form 506 on file with the Coeur d'Alene District are invited to attend. Forms are available at the events.
Project SEARCH first rotation presentation
Our Project SEARCH interns presented on their first rotation of the year during a ceremony Wednesday. The presentation was streamed live and can be found AT THIS LINK. Check it out and learn about our interns' successes at Kootenai Health.
Have you activated your Xello parent portal?
If you are a parent or guardian of a middle school or high school student, please remember to activate your Xello parent portal.
Xello (pronounced Zello) is our district's college and career readiness software that helps develop each student's post-high school pathway to college or the workforce. Students engage in a variety of lessons and activities to develop a four-year plan, explore options, and complete collegiate applications.
By activating your Xello parent portal, you can:
- Gain a deeper understanding of your student’s interests, goals, and plans so you can support them along the way.
- View your student’s progress on lessons. These are assigned in grade level specific courses and are not expected to be completed independently at home.
- In 8th grade and beyond, view your student’s course planner where they will map out a draft of the courses they want to take all 4 years of high school.
SELECT THIS LINK to learn more about the Xello parent portal timeline.
Screenagers mostly non-tech gift guide
From Tech Talk Tuesdays, the weekly newsletter from filmmaker Delaney Ruston
While compiling this list of mostly non-tech gifts for this holiday season, I so enjoyed the distraction from the complexities and uncertainties of COVID — and I thank my film partner Lisa for her contributions as well.
I realize this list is not too soon since Hanukkah started this week. There are gift ideas for little kids on up to adults. While many of these gifts have links to buy online, I hope you look for these items in your local stores because I firmly believe buying from small stores is the best way to support our communities.