Centennial advances "Portrait of a Graduate" work with student-led design retreat, community forum set for Jan. 30

Centennial School District leaders and consultants from Performance FACT brought students, families, staff and community partners together for a two-day design retreat last week to advance the district’s Portrait of a Graduate and to draft an instructional vision and progression matrix.

"The students who were participants in the group really grounded and centered the work," said Lauren Hefty of Performance FACT during the Centennial School Board meeting that followed the Budget Committee session.

The portrait — developed during the district’s Roadmap 27 strategic planning process — identifies six broad qualities (for example, inquisitive and innovative; care for self; care for community) and associated attributes the district wants every student to develop from prekindergarten through grade 12. Retreat participants mapped "what this looks like" at early grades through high school and began translating the portrait into classroom instructional practices and demonstrations of learning.

Nut graf: why it matters

District leaders said the Portrait of a Graduate is intended to be the instructional "north star" that ties strategic priorities to classroom practice and student reflections. The design work is an early step in articulating what students will be able to demonstrate at each grade band and how schools will collect evidence of that growth.

What happened at the retreat and next steps

- Participants: More than 40 staff, students, parents and community partners took part in the design retreat. Students led portions of the work and emphasized reflection and demonstration of growth.

- Draft artifacts: Retreat teams produced an initial progression matrix and a draft instructional vision anchored in culturally and linguistically responsive instruction, relationship-centered learning, student voice and ownership, rigorous academic engagement, and community-connected learning.

- Demonstrations of learning: Consultants emphasized the move from describing the profile to requiring student-owned presentations of learning — opportunities for students to explain and show how they had developed specific skills over time.

- Public forum: The district has scheduled a community forum for Jan. 30, 6–7:30 p.m., in the Centennial High School community room. District staff said childcare and translation will be available. The board’s and administration’s goal is to collect family and community feedback before finalizing draft materials; staff will also review draft products with school-site staff in coming weeks.

Quotes

"We wanted to make sure that we these POG skills become not just teacher-known, but student-owned," a student participant said in a video shown to the board. Lauren Hefty of Performance FACT said the design retreat work will be shared back to each school site for additional staff review and community input.

Implementation and monitoring

Performance FACT and district staff said the Portrait of a Graduate work is tied to the district’s ongoing monitoring cycle, which includes trimester data summits and progress-monitoring surveys for students, staff and families. Consultants and district leaders said they will use longitudinal survey data and school scorecards to track school-level progress on strategic priorities.

Speakers

- Lauren Hefty — Performance FACT consultant (led retreat work and presented to the board); affiliation: nonprofit/consultant; first referenced Jan. 22, 01:11:35–01:13:00 (Performance FACT introduction).

- Dr. Katsuda — district leader (oversaw implementation framing; first referenced Jan. 22, 01:11:35–01:13:00); affiliation: government (Centennial SD 28J); role/title not specified in transcript.

- Principal Jeb Hubbs and Principal Miller — school leaders who will share and implement site-level review and student voice activities; affiliation: government (Centennial SD 28J).

Authorities

- Roadmap 27 (district strategic plan) — policy/plan (district-level strategic plan referenced as the origin of the Portrait of a Graduate)

Clarifying details

- Community forum: Jan. 30, 6:00–7:30 p.m., Centennial High School community room; childcare and translation services will be provided.

- Retreat participation: More than 40 staff, students, parents and community partners participated in the two-day design retreat; a third design work day is scheduled in February to continue drafting the progression matrix.

- Surveys and monitoring: The district will continue trimester data summits and administer progress-monitoring surveys to students, staff and community; a larger annual comprehensive survey will run in spring.

Community relevance

- Geographies affected: Centennial SD 28J schools and families.

- Impact groups: students, parents/caregivers, teachers, community partners.

Meeting context

- Engagement level: high participation from students and community partners; retreat described as student-centered.

- Implementation risk: low to medium — work is in design and pilot/progress-monitoring stages with additional site-level review planned.

Searchable_tags:["Portrait of a Graduate","Roadmap 27","Performance FACT","student voice","instructional vision","Centennial SD 28J"] ,

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