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Vancouver schools report 72 August professional-learning offerings; districts set October training dates
Summary
District directors reported dozens of August professional-learning sessions for teachers and paraeducators, large participation numbers across subjects, and scheduling for October systemwide learning days focused on school-directed improvement plans.
Brian Graham and Chris Giannotti, district directors overseeing secondary and elementary professional learning, told the Vancouver School District board that the district ran an intensive set of professional-learning events in August and has planned additional systemwide days in October.
Graham said the district coordinated two back-to-back weeks of professional learning. He said the week of Aug. 11–15 included optional courses funded by educators’ professional-learning dollars and a second week (Aug. 18–22) that coincided with contracted staff return. “We had 72 offerings in the month of August, 72 professional learning offerings,” Graham said.
Presenters described the range and scale of offerings: - The multilingual department’s “7 steps to a language rich interactive classroom” drew about 130 participants and was incorporated into new-educator training. - New-educator orientation and mentoring served about 78 new educators. - A Cardea partnership delivered affirmative-consent and bystander-intervention training with roughly 35 participants. - A community-based science mini-unit training engaged about 35 participants for third- and fourth-grade teachers. - Career-technical education (CTE) summer initiatives had 95 participants; a Paxton Patterson STEM training provided hands-on CTE experiences. - Special-education summer summit attendance reached about 310 educators representing PreK–12 roles; VAPA (arts) training hosted about 85 attendees. - Interim assessment-block training for grades 3–8 and selected secondary staff drew about 250 participants as more schools signed on to pilot the platform.
Giannotti said districts used partnerships and cross-department coordination to broaden offerings: “This week is where staff come back and are on contract,” she told the board, describing role-embedded training for paraeducators, librarians, transportation and maintenance staff, nurses and counselors.
Graham and Giannotti also previewed October professional-learning days: Oct. 10 will be a state professional-learning day and school teams will work on school-improvement plans and PLC time; Oct. 17 will be a state waiver day for coordinated, job-alike professional learning aligned to the district strategic plan. Giannotti described a postcard and a later visual catalog that will list course IDs and require registration so the district can manage space and capacity.
Board members thanked staff for the scope of offerings and the visual planning documents. The session was informational; no board action was taken.
