Grapeview seeks to make parents part of education team

Grapeview School District Superintendent Gerry Grubbs noted the changes students and families can expect as they start the new school year, beginning with a new administrative team, which he said is "working toward unity in leadership and vision."

Cynthia Breeze is the district's director of student services and athletics, while Hannah Nelsen is its new principal. Grubbs touted their efforts to bring back the "robust volunteer program" the district had prior to COVID.

Grubbs promised students and families that they can expect STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math) activities throughout the elementary and middle school grades, thanks to a newly developed schedule designed to create "more purposeful opportunities."

The district's middle school science teacher now has opportunities to work with elementary school teachers and students built into his scheduled collaboration time to provide hands-on science lessons up to the eighth-grade level.

"Inclusionary practices are also a priority for our school, as we train for and implement Universal Design for Learning strategies, as well as Character Strong curricula," Grubbs said. "UDL helps teachers ensure diverse learners can succeed in the classroom. It's so much easier to include students with disabilities in general education classrooms when teachers can plan lessons that afford those students diverse methods of taking in, then demonstrating the information they've learned."

Grubbs said he aims to foster team-building between teachers and parents to yield "healthy, happy learning environments, with strong communication and collaboration," and hopes parents will incorporate the vocabulary of Character Strong in their home.

"The Character Strong curriculum addresses social and emotional issues that students face in the course of life," Grubbs said. "It seeks to teach the nine characteristics of respect, empathy, cooperation, responsibility, perseverance, courage, gratitude, honesty and creativity, which even us adults need to be reminded of occasionally."

Grubbs asked that parents stress the importance of school attendance by scheduling their appointments and vacation times in ways that allow the district to return to its pre-COVID attendance rates, which he estimated were in the upper 90%.

"Yes, every year comes with its own set of surprises that are hard to anticipate, but we have such a supportive community that, with clear communication, most of our issues are easily worked through," Grubbs said.

Grubbs reported on the $1.6 million Small School Modernization grant the district received to upgrade its HVAC systems in its elementary school in its main building and in its middle school classrooms.

"Having a new, more efficient system will be well worth any inconveniences we experience," Grubbs said. "The previous superintendent applied for this grant almost five years ago. We got onto the list by being small and rural, but we had to wait our turn for the state to provide enough money."

Last year, the Grapeview School District secured grants totaling $70,000 to improve its gardens, outdoor learning trail and interpretive stations as part of an ongoing project set to be expanded over the next two years.

"Being surrounded by forests made having an outdoor learning trail a very natural thing to embrace," Grubbs said. "I believe we qualified for those grants because we could show how we would utilize those resources to get students outside, where they would learn experientially."

Grubbs said the district intends to work with naturalists to create stations around its trail, using QR codes and iPads to "merge technology and outdoor learning," through stations describing flora and fauna along the trail, with their digital devices enabling students to access more in-depth information.

Author Bio

Kirk Boxleitner, Reporter

Shelton-Mason County Journal & Belfair Herald
[email protected]