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Principal reports arts week, testing diagnostics and plans to reduce testing fatigue
Summary
Principal Susie described arts week activities, student transition events and a district effort to spread diagnostic and SAS testing to reduce testing fatigue, including consideration of moving some tests into March.
Principal Susie told the board the school had an Arts Week with multiple artists-in-residence (pottery, a Broadway-musical visit and a planned hip-hop day) and that the school held transition events such as a step-up day for students to visit next-year spaces.
The principal also reported the district is conducting diagnostic testing (i-Ready) and SAS state testing and is analyzing teacher feedback about test-related stress. Staff are developing a master schedule that could shift some tests earlier in the year to avoid a compressed 'testing season'; Susie said the district is considering moving certain assessments into March to spread out testing and limit fatigue.
Susie described classroom efforts to support students during test windows, including a cheer squad and desk encouragements assembled by counselors and teachers to help students reframe anxiety as excitement during testing. The principal said the district is emphasizing that assessment success is a schoolwide effort involving classroom teachers, unified-arts teachers, counselors and the nurse.
Other items in the principal's report included: grade-step-up activities where students visited pods and tried lockers, senior clap-out and service-day activities that engaged older students in school service and field-day planning, ongoing paraprofessional and teacher retirements (the principal said the district would mark over 100 combined years of service in a final assembly), and a wellness-committee plan to fundraise for a future track project through the NPTO.
Board members asked clarifying questions about the testing plan and timeline; Susie said staff were drafting a master schedule for August through June and that specific shifts (for example, moving a science or a math diagnostic into separate months) were under consideration. No formal action was taken; the report was informational.
