First, I wanted to thank Fidalgo Island residents for their tremendous support and generosity in overwhelmingly passing last year’s school levy with one of highest approval percentages in the State of Washington. Our community not only provides support to educate our students, but holds us accountable to see that each student leaves our schools not only College/Work Ready, but with the necessary skills and knowledge to compete in a global economy.
This continuing support is enormously important, as the district has faced significant challenges over the past few years, focused primarily around declining enrollment and school funding cuts from the state.
Despite these challenges, the district continues to push forward to ensure students are meeting our goals of becoming School Ready, Transition Ready and College/Work Ready. To that end, we are fortunate to have staff members who have worked hard to pursue and obtain grant funding that has allowed us to maintain/expand valuable programs for our students. Two of note:
School Ready Project
Over the last three years, the district has benefitted greatly from a grant from the Gates Foundation for $500,000 focused on the implementation of programs, staffing and resources to reach our School Ready goals. As a result of the efforts and expertise of our staff, the Gates Foundation has committed to two additional years of funding, which will be used to continue our programs and provide in-depth training and resources on “best practices” with our pre-school through grade three teachers
Teacher/ Principal Evaluation Grant
The district was awarded one of four state grants and began its work with a two-day conference in early August where the Governor’s Office and Superintendent for Public Instruction gave us our charge to create a new evaluation model for the state. Our teachers and principals embrace this challenge and are committed to developing a model that improves instruction and student achievement.
Thank you Anacortes for your continued generosity and support of our staff and students.