Sojourner School
A North Clackamas Magnet
[NCSD Board Approved, June 21, 2012]
Revised: 6-4-15
Introduction
For more than a decade, Sojourner School, a North Clackamas magnet, has helped hundreds of elementary students discover their talents and develop their many strengths through the lens of multiple intelligences (MI). Sojourner has produced students who moved on to middle school and high school speaking Spanish, writing at advanced levels, playing musical instruments, building and contributing in a multitude of innovative ways. Upon graduation, they have carried the messages of creativity and character into the North Clackamas community and beyond, and story after story has endorsed the lifelong impact participation in the Sojourner program made on their lives.
In the 2011-2012 school year, the Sojourner staff has responded to a need to revisit and refocus its mission and its program for the future. This document will describe the positive outcomes of long discussions, hours of planning, School Board direction and oversight and a collaborative effort to make a wonderful school sustainable and ready to serve many more students from across the district. The following report will describe the Sojourner School in more detail:
• Mission and Philosophy
• Instructional Program: Foundation, Structure, Multiple Intelligences Opportunities
• Organizational Model
• Staffing
• Budget
• Admissions Policy and Procedures
• Program Evaluation
• NCSD Magnet Program Policy IGBD and (AR)
The North Clackamas School District holds the highest value regarding the educational processes for and the achievement of all of its students. The achievement goals of the district can be attained through diverse educational programs based on students’ needs. As the unique instructional approach of a magnet school serves to provide a different opportunity for students to learn and grow, the district supports the Sojourner School instructional focus on the multiple intelligences model.
Sojourner Mission
The mission of Sojourner School is to recognize and develop the multiple intelligences of students from varied backgrounds to their fullest intellectual, social and emotional potential.
Sojourner Philosophy
Sojourner School recognizes that all children are uniquely individual, and the development of the whole child is paramount. Based on this belief, Sojourner Magnet School provides an educational program that embraces the multiple intelligences of its children.
Sojourner School facilitates diverse learning opportunities through a variety of instructional models, strategies, and theme based, integrated curriculum anchored by the theory of multiple intelligences.
Sojourner School fosters an environment where children, staff, parents and the community are partners in the educational process and the achievement of all of its students.
Sojourner School
As distinguished from traditional elementary schools within the North Clackamas School District, Sojourner School reflects its mission and philosophy through a unique instructional program and a distinctive organizational relationship between site leadership and instructional staff.
• Instructional Program
Sojourner’s mission and philosophy of educating children with an emphasis on the multiple intelligences (MI) is anchored in a dynamic instructional program that enables all students to experience different learning modalities on a consistent basis. The instructional program is comprised of three interdependent components: Foundation, Structure and MI Opportunities.
1. Foundation: The instructional model Sojourner students experience is built on a foundation of five key beliefs:
• Balanced MI: Sojourner’s model enables students to have regular instructional experiences across all eight of the multiple intelligences based on the work of Howard Gardner:
• Visual- Spatial• Verbal-Linguistic• Logical-mathematical• Bodily-kinesthetic
• Musical• Interpersonal• Intrapersonal• Naturalistic
• Constructivist Teaching Philosophy: Instruction within the MI framework is constructivist in nature. Constructivist teaching is based on the belief that maximum learning occurs as learners are actively involved in a process of meaning and knowledge construction rather than passively receiving information. Learners are the makers of meaning and knowledge. Constructivist teaching fosters critical thinking and creates motivated and independent learners.
• Integrated Studies: Curriculum utilized at Sojourner addresses all state standards and district goals. Instruction according to standards is accomplished through a teacher-developed, integrated system that allows students to see and explore the connections between and among different content areas and experiences.
• School-ThemedProjects: At regular intervals throughout the school year, students are involved in demonstrations of their learning through projects reflecting a larger theme. The themes are a connection point across the entire school, as students at all grade levels produce work addressing the shared theme.
• Student Progress: Sojourner staff communicates student progress throughout the school year in a variety of ways. Parent conferences are held three times during the school year to share student information.
• Celebrations: Regular celebrations enhance the community of Sojourner at both the learning level and the social/ emotional level that supports the instructional model. Students and staff present and share their love of learning and evidence of their growth in a variety of ways and at various points throughout the school year, contributing a key component to the foundation of the school and the learning community.
2. Structure: Built upon this instructional foundation, Sojourner utilizes a unique daily structure that directs many aspects of the model:
• Longer school day: Additional instructional minutes on a daily basis enables Sojourner staff to incorporate four program days into the year-long calendar for the school. This unique daily structure is consistent with the existing collective bargaining agreement. Any future modifications would require a specific memorandum of understanding with the North Clackamas Education Association.
• Program days: Four days per year are identified as Sojourner program days, which are non-student contact days for staff. These days enable staff to engage in schoolwide professional and program development to support the program’s needs and to facilitate growth.
• Flexible scheduling: The instructional needs of the content determine the nature of the schedule for Sojourner. Depending on the requirements of a given unit or a specific project, staff works together to plan for students to spend more or less time engaged in certain aspects of the daily schedule.
• Low-tide: This term references a schedule feature that allows for grouping and regrouping to allow students access to different MI opportunities and to allow teachers to work with smaller groups of students.
• Lunch Program: Sojourner students and staff remain in their classrooms at the lunchtime each day. This creates a time for students to be together with their teachers in a different manner that enhances the community spirit of the model. Read-alouds can occur during this time period in addition to other community-building activities. Students can either bring their own lunch from home or access all available food options from the district’s food service.
• Common Planning Time: The daily schedule of the model enables Sojourner staff a common time to communicate, plan, organize and make necessary determinations for the day’s needs as well as to address larger, longer program needs and direction. The unique, dynamic instructional model requires daily communication and collaborative discussions to coordinate and enhance team teaching.
• Communication: While communication is an essential element in enhancing all instructional models, the dynamic nature of the Sojourner requires an exceptional level of staff, student and community dialogue. On a regular basis, instructional staff communicates, visits other classroom and/or teaching spaces, co-plans, etc., to facilitate the daily flow of the schedule within the larger direction of the instructional model throughout the school year and to support and learn from colleagues. This open communication system is a key expectation within the school.
3. MI Opportunities: A distinguishing feature of Sojourner is the system for engaging all students in a variety of MI opportunities on a regular basis:
• Opening: Incorporating the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence into the daily schedule and combining such physical movement with a welcoming, social beginning to every day, Opening brings the school together as a dynamic community of learners and caring group of human beings.
• MI-based pods: Pods are essentially equivalent to elective classes for students, a feature more common at the secondary level. At intervals throughout the school year, staff members offer various options for students to explore different interest areas such as poetry, dance, architecture, etc.
• Violin: Based on the philosophy and teaching methodology of the Suzuki Method, Sojourner students begin their music instruction in kindergarten and continue through fifth grade. Violin instruction is a regular feature of the model as a way to access and develop each child’s musical intelligence and to build and develop the character of every child to see and create beauty in the world around them.
• Orff Schulwerk or Orff: Orff is one of several developmental approaches used to provide music education to students. While violin instruction provides a focused vehicle for music development, Orff combines music, movement, drama, and speech into lessons that are similar to a child's world of play.
• Spanish: The development of every student’s linguistic intelligences is a central principle of Sojourner. This belief extends to early and consistent experiences for each student to learn to speak Spanish, a practice that promotes increased achievement in each student’s native language as well as greater global awareness and cultural understanding.
• Flow: Based on the work of psychologist, Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, Flow is the mental state in which a person is fully immersed and engaged in a selected activity. Work in the Flow room allows Sojourner students to participate in student-centered, inquiry-based activities of their own selection in an area that may be a strength or a need according to their intelligence profile.
• Organizational Model
As a North Clackamas district school, the Superintendent oversees Sojourner School. The principal of Linwood-Sojourner is the designated administrator for Sojourner, and the principal and the staff integrate the required components of a site council with unique features that support Sojourner’s distinctive instructional focus.
Principal: Sojourner shares both a campus and a principal with Linwood Elementary School. The principal of Sojourner is a North Clackamas School District administrator who retains all authority and responsibility for instructional leadership, supervision and evaluation of personnel and site management according to district standards.
Site Council: In collaboration with the principal, as a district school, Sojourner operates with a site council that is structured and which functions according to Oregon law. School site councils were mandated in 1991 by the Oregon Legislature with the passage of the “Oregon Educational Act for the 21st Century” (HB2991)which states that:
There shall be established at each school a 21st Century Schools Council. The 21st Century Schools Council, however, shall not interfere with the duties, responsibilities, and rights of duly elected school district boards.
Purpose
The primary purpose of the 21st Century Schools Site Council is to work in collaboration with the school district, school staff, and community toward the improvement of student performance at the school site.
Site councils are successful when:
• The district’s mission and student learning goals guide their work;
• The primary focus is on improving student performance;
• There is a solid educational basis as a foundation for collaborative decision-making;
• Site councils have the support of stakeholders;
• Site councils establish high levels of openness, teamwork, trust; and
• Site councils emphasize change with purpose, innovation, and creativity.
Objectives for Site Councils
• To place the overall interests of the students first;
• To help all stakeholders share responsibility for students success;
• To enhance parent and community involvement;
• To provide a forum for discussions on school success; and
• To promote positive attitudes toward public education.
Responsibilities
To the extent practical and within the policies, vision and goals of the school district, school site councils include:
• The development of plans to improve the professional growth of the staff;
• The dispensing of Professional Growth Funds from each buildings allocation;
• The improvement of the school’s instructional program;
• The development and coordination of plans for the implementation of programs under the Oregon Educational Act for the 21st Century at the school site;
• The administration of grants-in-aid for the professional development of teachers and classified district employees; and
• The development of annual School Improvement Plans.
Site councils shall not have the authority to override contractual agreements, administrative rules or regulations, or board policy, without the approval of the superintendent and the board, respectively. No council shall have the authority to expend funds other than the Professional Growth Fund, 21st Century school grant monies or other grants, unless authorized by the school board.
Duties
Specific duties of site council include:
• Developing building site council roles and responsibilities;
• Developing, for review by the school staff, an election process, bylaws, training, and processes for collaborative decision-making;
• Developing and contributing to a school improvement plan;
• Maintaining an updated school profile;
• Supporting staff development for school priorities;
• Ensuring that the Open Meeting Law is followed;
• Communicating the activities and decisions of the council; and
• Establishing operating procedures for the site council (decision-making processes, communication, elections, meetings, and bylaws).
Membership
The 21st Century Schools Site Councils will be composed of teachers, parents or guardians, the principal, and classified district personnel. The council may also include persons identified by the school community as having particular benefit for council memberships, such as business representatives, community members, students, or other district staff. The membership shall be composed as follows:
• Not more than half of the members shall be teachers elected by the teaching staff of the school;
• Not more than half of the members shall be parents/guardians of students attending the school elected by parents and guardians of students enrolled in that school;
• Community representatives may be appointed by the site council;
• At least one member shall be a classified employee elected by the school staff; and
• One member shall be the principal of the building or the principal’s designee.
The Site Council will annually elect a chairperson who will conduct meetings and work with the principal to align site council work with district policies, vision, goals and operating procedures.
Term of Office
The term of office for all members of the council, excluding administrators, shall be determined by each site council and included in the by-laws of that council. Elected members may be re-elected for consecutive terms.
The membership year shall be July through June of the following year, with new appointments and elections to the school councils being determined no later than September 30th of each school year.
Council Meetings
School site councils are required by state law to comply with the open meeting laws. To be in compliance, follow these guidelines:
• All meetings are open to the public and all persons shall be permitted to attend any meeting. The site council voluntarily may allow limited public participation at their meetings.
• No quorum of the council can meet in private for the purpose of deciding on or deliberating toward a decision.
• The meeting site must be accessible to the disabled and interpreter services must be available if they are requested.
• Public notice of the meeting is required. The notice must be “reasonably calculated to give actual notice to interested persons…of the time and place” of the meeting and of the “principal subjects” that will be discussed at the meeting. Including advanced notices of the meeting in newsletters and posting them on bulletin boards within the school should be sufficient to meet this requirement.
• No special meeting can be held without twenty-four hours notice unless there is an emergency. It is unlikely that any site council business would be in the category of an emergency.
• Written minutes that “give a true reflection of the matters discussed at the meeting and the views of the participants” must be kept and available to the public within a reasonable time after the meeting.
• The minutes must contain the following information: members present, all motions and proposals and their dispositions, votes (consensus decisions), and the substance of discussion.
Code of Ethics
Site council members will:
• Be non-judgmental, respect confidentiality, hold constructive discussions, and reach decisions through consensus; however, if a vote is necessary, all council members are equal and can vote (other than the district liaison);
• Respect and recognize the rights of students and all district employees;
• Avoid discussions about individual persons (parents, students, district staff);
• Identify all agenda items and/or issues with which they have a possible conflict of interest; and • Focus on school-wide issues and what is best for the school and its students.
Role of the Chairperson
The chairperson of the site council is elected by the members of the council and serves a one year term. The chairperson has the responsibility for:
• Establishing the meeting agenda;
• Assuring a comfortable atmosphere;
• Managing the time during the scheduled meeting;
• Assuring there is a recorder or secretary keeping the minutes of the meeting and that the minutes are published in a timely manner;
• Allowing input and involvement by all members of the council;
• Identifying the parameters of the site council responsibilities;
• Clarifying and summarizing during site council discussion;