Blaine School District

Point Roberts Primary

Experiences Science

The children at Point Roberts Primary discovered the power of air as student teacher MyraJean Marshall lead them in an experiment using balloons and a string track. First they made predictions, recording them in their science journals, about what would happen when balloons filled with air were released into the “racer” (a bag mounted with a straw on the string track). They discussed variables, wondering if the volume of air in the balloon would matter and if the color of the balloon would matter. In teams they conducted the experiment, measuring the distance the balloon racers traveled, recording their results into a data table. The class then shared their results and drew conclusions about air and its properties. The students realized that air is a powerful thing! It has pressure and can create force and motion. Thanks Mrs. Marshall!

Parent/Teacher Conferences Approaching

November 19, 20, 23, 24 and 25 are the dates for this year's Fall Parent/Teacher Conferences. Conferences will take place for all students in Grades K-8. Students at these grade levels (K-8) will be dismissed at 12:50pm on these five days. Students at the 9-12 level will be dismissed at 12:50pm as well on Wednesday, November 25. We encourage each of our Primary, Elementary and Middle School parents to take part in this very important process.

Long Range Planning Process Underway

The Blaine School District Board of Directors will be initiating a Long Range Planning process during the current school year. The process is intended to assure for both program and facility goals at least five years out, and will serve to guide our program decision making process into the future. It is the School Board's intent to actively involve both parents and patrons in this Long Range Planning process. To the end, we have scheduled three Community Forums and would encourage those with an interest in this work to be in attendance on one of these three evenings.

The Community Forums will take place from 6:30-8:30pm on Wednesday, November 4 (School District Office), Tuesday, December 1 (Birch Bay Village) and Thursday, December 3 (Birch Bay Bible Church/Jackson Road), date to be determined (Pt. Roberts Community Center).

Please watch for additional information regarding this process on the Blaine School District website. Thank you in advance for your continued interest in, and support for, the quality education of students in our collective communities.

Remember you can guarantee your child's college tuition with Washington's Guaranteed Education Tuition (GET) Program. For details and to enroll online visit www.get.wa.gov. Questions? Call 1-800-955-2318 or visit get.wa.gov.

2009 WASL Scores Show Year-To-Year Growth At Multiple Levels

Once again in 2009, the Blaine School District experienced substantial gains in student performance on the WASL

at a significant number of grade levels, when compared to prior year results. In addition, students in the District are performing at or above State of Washington averages in 15 of 19 combined grade level and content areas being tested.

(click for additional detail)

The percentage of students meeting standard in reading increased at Grade 3, and also at Grade 6, by 17 and 14 points respectively, with gains were also posted at Grades 4, 5, 8 and 10.

The percentage of students meeting standard in math increased at Grade 5, and at Grade 6, each improving by 10 points, with gains also posted at Grades 3 and 8.

While the percentage of students meeting standard in writing did not increase substantially, overall scores remain consistently strong at the three grade levels (4-7-10) that participate in this portion of the state assessment.

Most noteworthy in the content area of science was a 22 percentage point gain at the 8th grade level.

With respect to Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), there are four specific areas, district-wide, where we did not see students reach state and federal performance targets for 2009-10. Special education students did not meet the prescribed targets in reading or math at both the Elementary School and Middle School levels. While the District as a whole met AYP at the High School level, Blaine High School students specifically missed the AYP prescribed targets, in the content area of math, in the “All”, “White”, and “Low Income” categories. It should be noted that these results could change when the scores of those students retesting this month (August) are calculated into the overall summary.

Additional AYP information can be accessed on the Blaine School District Web Site @ www.blainesd.org.

Across the District, our teachers, support staff and administrators continue to work extremely hard to provide students with the highest level of quality instruction. Our two year emphasis on math instruction, K-12, is showing solid results, with particular significance seen in the gains being made at the earlier grade levels. We are indeed experiencing success in building a solid foundation for future student growth in math.

As we transition to a new state assessment system in the 2009-10 school year, we remain confident that the high quality instructional programs that our students are experiencing will continue to be validated by common, mandated measures of academic performance.