On Sept. 6th, you’ll see those big yellow buses rolling, hear the bells ringing from Pacific Beach down to Ocean Shores and 630 students will be welcomed as they walk through the doors of our three school sites in North Beach; Pacific Beach Elementary, Ocean Shores Elementary, and North Beach Junior/Senior High School. Each year we also welcome new educators to the district and this year we welcome eight teachers and one administrator to our team, some with experience and other straight out of college. After leading our new teacher orientation yesterday, I am filled with hope and promise for the future of our North Beach scholars (students).

The North Beach School District is focused on continuing to build a student centered culture where all students feel that they have a safe place to learn and grow, have a trusted caring adult that can support them, and have a wide array of academic opportunities to support each scholar’s strengths and needs to ensure a successful future. Our vision for North Beach scholars is to ensure that all students are goal-oriented, independent, resilient and confident risk-takers, who believe in their power to embrace learning and to EXCEL. And our mission is a commitment to fostering an environment that will educate, nurture, motivate and graduate critical thinkers, who are respectful leaders, skillful communicators, and contributing members of the local and global community.

To accomplish our vision and mission we are focusing on increasing student achievement by improving classroom instruction and using student data and researched based best practices to guide our academic decisions, both in instruction and curriculum. Building a student centered culture takes focus, commitment, and time. There can be periods from time to time where we might hear, “Why are we doing this?” We also might hear many questions about why change. Our student data tells the story. We are currently not meeting state expectations for student achievement in many academic areas and this is across our system, K-12. Our goal is systemic change in practice at all levels and is based on research that will improve outcomes for our students.

We will continue to provide each school with professional learning opportunities in standards based instruction as part of our support for improving instruction. Last year our focus was on learning targets using grade level academic vocabulary. By January, I was so impressed with every classroom I visited, to not only see a posted learning target, but to also hear the level of vocabulary being used not just by the teachers but by our scholars as well. Our focus this year will continue on learning targets with the addition of high quality formative assessment. Research tells us that we can teach it, but if we don’t know whether students got it, outcomes won’t change. We have to use those formative assessments to make instructional decisions on a daily basis to change outcomes for scholars. I am seeing this in many classrooms and look forward to seeing it in all classrooms this year.

During change like this, we will experience “implementation dips” as Michael Fullan, a leading educational researcher calls them. This is normal. After thirty-eight years in education, I’ve certainly experienced these dips. What I’ve learned however, is that staying focused on the vision and mission through this change process rather than resisting change leads to great outcomes. Our greater challenge will be sustaining change. Keeping our vision of our ideal North Beach graduate alive and a focus on our academic, social, and civic competencies for that graduate will assist in sustainability. Finding short term wins and celebrating those wins at every turn will increase our opportunities for successful sustainability.

North Beach School District is also looking for opportunities to expand our offerings to students and families. Our community partnerships are integral to this expansion and this year we are celebrating the opening of a full day preschool at Pacific Beach Elementary. Our partners at the YMCA, Grays Harbor Community Foundation, and Harbor Architects are making this happen and we thank them for their time and generosity and commitment. While this is a great support for our families, it is also supported by research. Students who have attended preschool come into kindergarten with superior academic and social readiness and have a much greater chance for success in school and a higher likelihood of graduating.

We, as the educators, parents and community of North Beach have the incredible privilege of being part of our students’ lives in a variety of ways. We see them learn their ABC’s, we cheer them on in sports, we see them get their driver’s license, apply for their first job, and we watch them graduate. It’s a joy to see them succeed, and it’s heartbreaking to see them fail. In closing, I call on all of you, to support us as the North Beach School District, as we work diligently to improve every student’s opportunity for success in school and in life, to help us in any way you can. We are committed to improving the future for our scholars and we hope you’ll join us!

Have a great school year!

Deborah Holcomb

Superintendent