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Principals highlight student supports and school culture; district and association honor educators
Summary
Principals from Hurricane Elementary and Desert Hills Middle highlighted community, academic gains and social supports during the board's “What's Right” segment. The district and the Washington County Education Association presented Public Service Hero Awards to two educators and PTA council leaders outlined local programs.
At its March meeting, the Washington County School District board heard presentations from school leaders about programs and practices intended to strengthen school culture and student supports.
Kristen Brown, principal of Hurricane Elementary School, described the school’s focus on individualized student supports and community. Brown said staff sometimes provide direct assistance such as washing students’ clothing and backpacks, mentoring programs that pair older and younger students, and a “WIN time” intervention that ensures every small-group student is working with a teacher rather than a computer. Brown reported midyear growth measures showing 77% of students at typical or above growth in math and a 4% increase in Acadience reading proficiency so far this year.
Desert Hills Middle School Principal Ron Sharp described schoolwide emphasis on collaboration and caring. Sharp described a distributed leadership team that includes administrators, counselors, PLC teacher leads and support staff, and he highlighted programs such as a weekly recognition award (students meeting attendance, behavior and grade criteria receive local-business gift cards) and a “Hope Squad” peer-support program focused on kindness, bullying prevention and suicide-prevention awareness. Sharp said the school runs monthly homeroom presentations and sends content home to parents to reinforce lessons taught at school. Sharp also described “heroes of the week” recognition for nonacademic acts of service and noted a display recognizing those students.
The board also heard an awards presentation from the Washington County Education Association. The association’s vice president, Dr. Jake Shoemake, announced Public Service Hero Awards and presented honors to Mikayla Bambro, a language-arts teacher at Desert Hills Middle School, and Valerie (Val) Scott, a behavior specialist at Hurricane Elementary. Teachers, parents and students spoke in support: a fourth-grade student described how a customized schedule and supports developed by the behavior specialist helped him remain engaged in school.
A PTA council representative outlined activities across seven member schools (Crimson View, Horizon, Majestic Fields, South Mesa, Washington Fields Intermediate, Crimson Cliffs Middle and Crimson Cliffs High). Reported activities included a STEM-focused egg-drop fundraiser, kindness-week cereal drives that collected more than 300 boxes for a local food program, Lexia purchases for teachers, student dances and monthly lunchtime events at the high school. The PTA representative said the groups support classroom grants, teacher-appreciation events and family engagement efforts.
Board members thanked principals, educators, students and PTA volunteers for community work described during the presentations.
