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Muddy Creek charter director reports enrollment growth, test-score gains and policy overhaul to Corvallis School Board
Summary
Muddy Creek Charter School’s executive director, identified as Sarah, told the Corvallis School District board on Jan. 16 that the school renewed its sponsorship, serves 108 students with 18 staff and reported notable year-over-year test-score gains after adopting new curricula and strengthening place-based instruction.
Muddy Creek Charter School’s executive director, identified only as Sarah, told the Corvallis School board on Jan. 16 that the school has renewed its sponsorship contract with the district, is serving 108 students with a staff of 18 and has shown notable year-over-year academic gains.
Sarah said the school’s “at a glance” performance showed unexpectedly large improvements; she described approximately 33% growth in ELA and substantial gains in math and science, calling the results “amazing and surprising.” She also said Muddy Creek adopted a new literacy curriculum and piloted Big Ideas Math across grades.
The improvements, Sarah told the board, came as the school focused on place-based and project-based learning, strengthened teaching consistency and adopted new curricula with the goal of improving progress between grades. She credited teachers’ commitment and said the school remains somewhat short staffed this year, noting it is down about 2.5 classroom aides because of budget cuts.
Muddy Creek described several ongoing and planned efforts that it said support students and safety: a perimeter fence and renewed attention to standard response protocol drills, a JEDI (justice, equity, diversity and inclusion) committee that will begin training, and continued place-based projects including salmon monitoring, school food drives and a garden-based observational art project. Sarah said the school’s student body includes families from Corvallis, Philomath, Monroe, Lebanon, Albany and a small number from Salem.
On governance and policy, Sarah said the school worked with the Oregon School Boards Association (OSBA) to replace an out-of-date policy manual. She described receiving a comprehensive OSBA policy package, reviewing it, and adopting new board policies as a group over the past several months.
Sarah also described daily collaborative practices staff are using, including a collaborative problem-solving model, and ongoing connections with district staff: Muddy Creek’s principal, counselor, dean and MTSS coordinator attend district principal/dean/counselor meetings, she said.
Board members asked about volunteer and partnership opportunities; Sarah invited College Hill students and others to participate in listed projects and offered follow-up contacts through her and Aileen for logistics.
The presentation concluded with Sarah offering to answer questions; board discussion then continued on other agenda items.
Muddy Creek’s presentation was informational; the board did not take a formal vote during the segment.
