The 8th annual Community Appreciation Block Party was attended by nearly 1,000 West Valley patrons. Thank you to all in attendance for making this a memorable district festival!

Community Engagement representatives will meet on November 5, 2009, from 9:30 to noon in the Community Conference room at WVHS to continue their work to support the district in graduating each student ready for college, career and citizenship.  The focus of this meeting will be the district Character Development program.  Committee members will review the identified character education traits, as oulined in the strategic plan, as well as review and determine best practice around Character Development as it relates to Community Engagement efforts.    

 

The 2008- 2013 district Strategic Plan is posted to the website and can be found by choosing that option from the menu on the home page or you can click here to view the plan. 

 

District administrators and a school board member presented our Community Engagement plan to a national group of school board directors in the spring of 2009.  Click here to view presentation.

 

A focus of the Community Engagement Task Force is environmental school sustainability.  Currently, West Valley High School and West Valley City School participate in the Washington Green Schools pilot program.  Research is being conducted by district personnel regarding inclusion of all West Valley Schools in the Green School program.  For more information on this environmental program click here. 

 

If you have questions or would like to be a part of the district Community Engagement Task Force, please contact Sue Shields in the district office at sue.shields@wvsd.com or 509)924-2150.

West Valley School District recently received an additional $511,000 three-year expansion grant from the Washington State Achievers Scholarship Program.  The Achievers Scholarship program was established five years ago by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with the Washington Education Foundation.  West Valley School District was one of only 16 school districts in Washington State to receive the grant allowing students to compete for $100 million in scholarship money over a 10- year period.  The district was also awarded $400,000 to restructure West Valley High School into smaller learning communities. Research shows that small learning communities along with a supportive academic environment, increase graduation rates and the number of students going to college.
 
The district steering committee, charged with fulfilling the requirements of the expansion grant, has three divisions: 

• District-wide Instructional Improvement
• Mission Alignment/Support and Accountability
• Community Engagement  

If you would like to be involved in the Community Engagement division of this important work, please contact Sue Shields in the district office at (509)924-2150.