Diane Lauer had a driveway moment, listening to a story on Colorado Public Radio about a camp for dyslexic students. It got the Assistant Superintendent of Priority Programs and Academic Support thinking about what St. Vrain Valley School District could do.
She called her colleagues together. “I walked into that meeting and said, ‘How are we supporting students with dyslexia in St. Vrain?’”
They studied what the district had done for dyslexic students in the past. They researched available funding streams. They tapped parents of dyslexic students to form a taskforce. Together, they hatched a 3-year, comprehensive plan to provide universal screening, progress monitoring and additional targeted support for students who have characteristics of dyslexia.
It’s one of several examples of how the school district has worked with the community to leverage resources and create innovative approaches to some of the biggest challenges students face.
“Generally what I’m most proud of is the people in our community and the way they have coalesced around educating all of our children,” said St. Vrain Superintendent Don Haddad. “Every stakeholder group is all-in, in terms of education for all students. This is reflected in their actions. It goes well beyond words.” Other examples abound:
District leaders formed a taskforce with Latino parents to address emerging and persistent stress and needs after the 2016 election.
The district launched an “In Focus” program to provide mental health supports in K-8 schools. The program uses mindfulness strategies to tackle such issues as how stress impacts teachers and their students.
The district is serving more students with autism and social-emotional needs, and paying for the services with the savings associated with not having to bus the students to special schools outside the district.
A new partnership with the Lena Research Foundation in Boulder and the OUR Center in Longmont has launched a new initiative to improve kindergarten readiness by encouraging parents to talk more with their children. “LENA Start” features parent classes in English and Spanish that employ LENA “talk pedometer” technology to measure how much parents are talking with their children, and how much children are responding.
District leaders worked with scholars at CU’s Bueno Center to develop a new biliteracy curriculum piloted in all of the district’s low-income schools.
Lauer gives St. Vrain teachers credit, too, for teaching a strong, standards-based curriculum. Each teacher receives 2.5 hours of professional development per month to collaborate and deepen their practice.
“They’re very professionally minded educators who value that time to collaborate and to improve their craft,” Lauer said. “I think that has a dramatic impact on student achievement.”
Superintendent Haddad said everyone in the school district has worked hard to build a culture of collaboration and innovation, both inside the district and with community partners.
“When you’ve got an entire community bought into our children and our schools, you can achieve amazing things,” he said.
by Chris Barge
