Proud to be part of caring, committed community
By Xavier Botana
Welcome to the new school year! The 2019-2020
school year – which begins Sept. 3 for students in grades 1-12 and Sept. 5 for
kindergarten and pre-K students – will be my fourth as superintendent of the
Portland Public Schools. I am so grateful to be part of this great community
that believes in the importance and value of public education for all.
We witnessed a
prime example of the community’s caring and commitment this summer when so many
of our neighbors came together to support the influx of asylum-seeking families
temporarily housed at the Portland Expo.
Among the families
were more than 80 school-age children. Portland Public Schools staff
stepped up to help, led by Grace Valenzuela, our Executive Director for
Communications and Community Partnerships. We determined the first step
was completing their intake. Our Multilingual & Multicultural Center’s
intake process is a thorough evaluation of a student’s academic,
social-emotional and medical history and an assessment of current academic
levels and English proficiency. We knew intake would be necessary whether these
students remained in Portland and attended our schools or moved to other
communities.
Because they
arrived at the end of the school year, during the intake center’s break, our
intake staff had to change their break plans to help out. I extend my deepest
thanks to our Multilingual Center staff for demonstrating their commitment to
the well being of our families and students.
Our district also
provided summer school to nearly all of the youngsters at the Expo, thanks to
our summer school team. The students were able to improve their English and get
an introduction to American schools, which we know will serve them well this
coming school year.
Another example of
the Portland community’s support is the school budget Portland voters approved
in June. The budget is an investment in our Portland Promise and will help it
come to life.
Adopted in the fall
of 2017, the Portland Promise is our district’s strategic plan. It commits the
district to prepare and empower Portland students to succeed in college and
career by working to realize four goals – Achievement, Whole Student, Equity,
and People. We’ve set five-year targets to measure progress toward those goals
and strategies to achieve them.
Starting this fall,
I’ll be writing this monthly column about each of four new initiatives in the
2019-2020 budget that embody our Portland Promise goals.
I’ll detail how the
expansion of our pre-kindergarten program will help address our Equity goal by
reducing opportunity and academic achievement gaps for our economically
disadvantaged students. Research shows access to high-quality early childhood
education helps reduce such gaps. Students perform better academically and
attend college at a greater rate.
In the next column,
I’ll talk about how we’re creating a robust behavioral health continuum to help
realize our Whole Student goal. We’re adding teachers, social workers and
behavioral health professionals, and students from our former Bayside Learning
Community are in our other schools as part of our new Breathe program.
Another column will
focus on how we’re progressing toward our Achievement goal by strengthening
core instruction through strong teacher leadership and sustained professional
learning. Research shows effective supports, quality curriculum, and collective
teacher efficacy improve student achievement.
I’ll complete the
series by writing about how we’re working on realizing our People goal by
attracting, supporting and retaining talented and diverse staff.
I’ll say it again:
I am so proud and grateful to be a part of this welcoming and caring school
district and community.
