The Scoop: Collaboration, Feedback, and School Fun

The 2024-2025 Academic Calendar is Here! Stay organized and plan ahead with important dates for next school year! The 2024-2025 Academic Calendar is now available on the Oak Harbor Public Schools website for Parents/Guardians and community members at www.ohsd.net/calendars

Your Feedback is Important to Us We want to hear from you! It is important to keep families, staff, and the community informed while promoting the mission, achievements, and progress of Oak Harbor Public Schools. Please participate in this brief survey to help us evaluate and improve district communications with families. Take the survey at https://tinyurl.com/commssurvey2024

Strategic Planning Update Last week the Core Planning Team met to discuss the strategic planning process, review current products, and discuss upcoming steps. Facilitators from the Instructional Planning teams shared proposed goal area practices. On April 9, a committee of students, families and community members will meet to create a profile of a graduate for Oak Harbor Public Schools. Later in May the Core Planning Committee will convene to create a Promise Statement.  Stay up to date with the latest news at www.ohsd.net/StrategicPlan  Here We Grow!  We invite all Kindergarten families to attend our upcoming Kindergarten Orientation Night. At Kindergarten Orientation your family will receive a welcome packet, hear from school leadership, meet teachers, staff, and PTA members, learn more about the Kindergarten experience, and get in-person help with registration if needed. Visit www.ohsd.net/HereWeGrow for more info

Alumni Spotlight Special Edition: Oak Harbor Intermediate School In 6th grade, at Oak Harbor Middle School, graduates of the class of 2015 Matthew Sionson and Sierra Southwick were voted “Most Studious” by their peers. Today, both of them have the opportunity to help today’s studious 6th graders succeed at Oak Harbor Intermediate School. Like many Oak Harbor graduates, Sionson and Southwick were inspired to pursue a future in education within our community. At Oak Harbor Intermediate School (OHI) 21 staff members are alumni of Oak Harbor Public Schools. They were inspired by the educators who came before them. Read the full story at https://www.parentsquare.com/feeds/31055036 Share your alumni story and read more stories at www.ohsd.net/AlumniSpotlight

OHPS Earns Prestigious State Auditor's Stewardship Award Oak Harbor Public Schools received the prestigious State Auditor’s Stewardship Award, which was presented by State Auditor Pat McCarthy during last night's board meeting. OHPS received the award for their record of clean annual audits, model reporting and transparency in budget decisions. Congratulations to the Business Services Department on this achievement! Read the full story, including quotes from the Superintendent and State Auditor: https://tinyurl.com/stateauditoraward These Broad View Elementary students received a special honor, a Kiwanis International Achieving By Believing Award. The Kiwanis of Oak Harbor works closely with children in our community. They present certificates three times a year at every elementary school.  Read more about Kiwanis service projects with Oak Harbor Public Schools.

This week 13 North Whidbey Middle School students, along with dean Alin Kitchens and student assistance professional Sandie Belli, attended Peer to Peer (P2P) at NWESD 189 in Anacortes. These students all became certified peer educators to promote youth cannabis and tobacco prevention to others. As part of the program, they joined other middle school students from around the region to learn about health and prevention science, healthy coping skills, social norms, and the effects of cannabis and tobacco.

Nearly 400 Oak Harbor Intermediate School 6th Graders, teachers, and chaperones visited NAS Whidbey Island for a STEM Field Trip hosted by Fleet Readiness Center Northwest.  NAS Whidbey Island shared, "The STEM event exposes students to different careers and functions associated with the Navy’s mission at its only air station in the Pacific Northwest. Those activities included visits and briefings on a wide variety of occupations, such as engaging with a Growler pilot while checking out the aircraft, interacting with fire department first responders, learning about maintenance activities associated with Navy aircraft, and several other activities that occur at the base."

The rich diversity and culture of our schools is what makes us #OneOakHarbor  Oak Harbor High School multilingual students shared their culture and first languages with Broad View Elementary third graders last week. Ms. Grunewald's 4th-period class created children's books modeled after the Skippyjon Jones book series that alternated between languages (or code-switching) and used illustrations to teach the students words and phrases in Mandarin, Palauan, Tagalog, Marshallese and Spanish!   Thank you to the Oak Harbor High School students for sharing this experience with the third graders and a special thanks to the staff members who made this partnership possible: Mrs. Ronning, Ms. Gruenwald, Mrs. Hunt, Mrs. Tang and Mrs. Bain! From traditions to mouth-watering dishes, North Whidbey Middle School's culture fair was a success! Last night 8th grade students presented their cultural research and visual displays to the community. Thank you to all of the students who presented on their culture and traditions and to the teachers and administrators who supported with this impactful event!

Hand-in-Hand Early Learning Center participated in a Hat Day spirit day this week. Check out their photos on Facebook for all of the great looks! At Oak Harbor Elementary Ms. Miller and Mrs. Ritter's second-grade classes work together on animal research projects. The OHHS Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble attended the SJMEA regional band festival on Tuesday, March 28th at WWU. Under the direction of our new High School Band director Ms. Katie O'Shea, the students performed very well and both bands received a Superior ranking!  Way to go Wildcats!

New volunteer opportunities have been posted to the website and there are opportunities to help schools with athletics, military family events, book fairs, art and music programs, and more!  Building meaningful partnerships with our families and community is the best way to ensure student success. Every single one of us has an important role in supporting the children of this community. It's a spirit that we call #OneOakHarbor

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