Nine artists from Evergreen Public Schools were among the prize winners at the Southwest Washington Regional High School Art Show hosted by ESD 112 on Wednesday. 

Leading the way was Sam Angelo, a junior at Henrietta Lacks Health and Bioscience High School (HeLa High), whose piece, "Stuffed," earned one of 15 Regional Awards, given to the pieces with the highest average score from the judges. Sam and the other regional winners will represent the Southwest region in the annual State Superintendent of Public Instruction Art Show in Olympia.

Three EPS artists were among the 17 winners of an ESD112 award:

• Julianna Wolfram of Henrietta Lacks

• Yana Yunikov of Heritage

• Nikki Opryatova, Heritage

Also, five EPS artists earned honorable mention:

• Vanessa Quintero, Evergreen

• Mattilyn Reudink, Heritage

• Thy Nguyen, Evergreen

• Kimberlyn Aldous, Evergreen

• Andrew Gordon, Heritage

Burton Elementary School became the latest school in Evergreen Public Schools to move into a brand-new, fully-modern campus. 

On January 3, students returned from the holiday break and attended classes in their new campus for the first time. Their families and community members joined them and Burton staff for a ribbon-cutting ceremony on January 6.

"Burton Dragons, this space was created for you," Principal Becki Chase said at the ceremony. "You have always been shining stars, and now the building you're in is shining as well."

The new campus was funded by the Envision Evergreen bond that was passed by voters in 2018. The $695 million bond has allowed EPS to replace aging facilities throughout the district with modern buildings that will be able to serve students for decades.

I think you're here because your community loves you," Superintendent John Boyd said to students at the ceremony. "They love you so much that they voted to tax themselves to give money to be able to build this beautiful school for you."

Burton's new campus was built on the site of the old district offices, not far from the old 1970-era Burton campus. 

Students of Shahala Middle School art teacher Hilary Ireland were in a select group of 16 classes from all over Washington chosen to create ornaments for the Holiday Tree at the Governor's Mansion.

Ms. Ireland's students all made ornaments, and 30 were chosen to adorn the governor's trees; 29 were sent to Olympia (one student opted to keep their ornament).

Congratulations to these talented students artists!

Bill Culver thought his principal at Evergreen High School, Danny Orrantia, had summoned him to talk about an issue with an online training course Culver had completed. Instead, Orrantia brought Culver through the backstage of the Evergreen auditorium and onto the stage, where he was greeted with a blast of cheering and music.

The surprise gathering of his students, the school band and cheerleaders was to inform Culver that he had been selected as a grand-prize winner of the Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence.

The award brought a $100,000 prize for Evergreen's skilled trade program. Culver was one of 20 winners of a Harbor Freight Tools for Schools award, and one of five grand-prize winners nationwide. The awards were announced across the nation in surprise ceremonies on October 4.

Culver has taught in Evergreen Public Schools for 40 years, including the last 22 at Evergreen High School. In college, teaching wasn’t his original intended career, but he found his way to it.

“After nearly flunking out of the engineering program at Washington State University, I accepted that my math and science skills would not effectively translate to a highly technical degree program,” he said in his application for the Harbor Freight award. “A counselor introduced me to a career interest inventory. It highlighted what I already knew. I valued working with my hands. I took pride and satisfaction in solving problems by building things. That propelled me to enroll into the WSU College of Education and Industrial Arts. I loved it and quickly progressed to earn a degree and teaching certificate.”

He started his career as a woodworking and metals teacher in EPS as Cascade Middle School. In that era, industrial arts and shop teachers were isolated from other programs. But as career and technical education (CTE) programs became a bigger part of curriculum in all schools, he researched ways to bind his classes to those of a core subject. In 2010, he wrote a grant to partner with Contextualized Learning Concepts to launch a new program, Geometry in Construction (GIC), now a signature Evergreen program that he has taught in partnership with a math teacher for the last 12 years.

“The integrated two-period block enables students to apply and deepen their understanding of math concepts through contextualized learning,” he said. “Through project design, modeling, testing, construction and self-reflection, students touch, manipulate their application of dual course content. Given their age and developmental level, the GIC course empowers them to transfer their learning from cerebral to practical.”

The program has not just been popular, but highly successful. At the end of each school year, student feedback surveys on GIC have consistently produced satisfaction scores of 85% or higher, and before the pandemic, the survey show 81% of students either considering or strongly considering a future in the construction trades.

“For some, trades will be a career path,” Culver said. “For all, it provides an approach to work that fosters creativity, adaptability, and the capacity to apply core principles to engineer solutions. This serves them across evolving careers regardless of workplace and practical DIY skills to apply as adults or property owners.”

September 9, 2022

The 2022-23 school year got started with eager students and inspired educators reunited for in-person learning, the first real "normal" start in three years! 

What did the first week look like? The EPS Community Relations team, cameras in hand, branched out to all 38 of our schools to take a look. We saw Board members join principals in welcoming students on Day 1, and Superintendent John Boyd continue his personal tradition of riding a bus on the first day. 

We saw students greeted warmly as they got off buses, and watched as they were expertly directed into buildings by student Safety Patrol members. We peeked into classrooms, checked out playgrounds and gyms, and gathered the snapshots. Check out our Facebook page for all 38 posts.

August 29, 2022

The future arrived at two Evergreen Public Schools campuses, and it was glorious. Wy'east Middle School and Mountain View High School held ribbon-cutting ceremonies to commemorate the opening of their brand-new, fully-modern campuses.

"This is, objectively I would say, the most beautiful middle school facility I've ever seen," Kate DeWein, Wy'east Principal, said at the school's August 25 ceremony. "It's a privilege to be here to welcome our students and families." 

The ceremony at Mountain View included rousing music from the school band and was followed by tours of the campus.

"It truly is amazing that our community felt we had to make sure that the education that's happening at Mountain View, that the building matches the education, and that's what we're seeing here," Mountain View Principal Charles Anthony said at his school's August 26 celebration. "We'll have high standards here, and we'll make sure that we're making out community proud."

Both campuses were made possible by voters approving the 2018 Envision Evergreen bond measure.  See the Envision Evergreen webpage for more information on new campuses and other work made possible by the bond.

Watch: Video Mountain View ribbon-cutting ceremony

Watch: Video of Wy'east ribbon-cutting ceremony

To EPS Staff and Families,

As part of our promise to have a transparent and inclusive process, the Evergreen Public Schools Board of Directors wants to share with you the steps we are taking to confirm a permanent Superintendent. 

In October, we will solicit input from students, staff, families and community members on the  expectations of leadership for our district. Dr. Tammy Campbell, the CEO of Scholar First, has been hired to guide this part of the process. Dr. Campbell is the former Superintendent of Federal Way Public Schools. She now consults with school districts across the nation, coaching and providing guidance to superintendents, school boards and senior leadership.   

Interim Superintendent John Boyd remains a strong candidate to fill the permanent role. Superintendent Boyd fully supports this process. He has continuously shared with the Board his belief that there should be a full evaluation of the needs of the district and his performance before we make a decision on a permanent Superintendent. 

On Thursday, October 6, Dr. Campbell will host listening sessions with students, families, staff and community members. Dr. Campbell will accumulate and evaluate input from these sessions and report back to the Board of Directors. Once Dr. Campbell presents her findings to us, we, as a Board, will decide on next steps.

There will be two Community at Large listening session opportunities on October 6. The first session will be via Zoom at 3:30 p.m. The second session will be at 6 p.m. in the Evergreen room at the Administrative Service Center. Russian and Spanish interpreters will be available at the 6 p.m. session. 

Staff will have three listening sessions on October 6. Zoom sessions will be available at 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. There will also be a 2:30 p.m. session in the Evergreen room at the Administrative Service Center. 

The Board is committed to an extensive and inclusive process to identify a permanent Superintendent who can successfully lead Evergreen Public Schools. We thank you for your understanding, patience and most importantly for your participation in this process.

Sincerely,

Ginny Gronwoldt, Evergreen Public Schools Board President

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Следующие шаги в процессе определения суперинтенданта на постоянную должность

Сотрудникам и Родителям учащихся школьного округа Эвергрин,

В рамках нашего обещания обеспечить прозрачность и инклюзивность в этом процессе, Совет директоров государственных школ округа Эвергрин хочет поделиться с вами шагами, которые мы предпринимаем для выбора суперинтенданта на постоянную должность.

В октябре мы проведем опрос мнений учащихся, сотрудников, семей и членов сообщества в отношении требований к руководству нашего школьного округа. Доктор философии Тэмми Кэмпбелл, генеральный директор Scholar First, была нанята в качестве руководителя этой частью процесса. Доктор философии Кэмпбелл - бывший суперинтендант государственных школ Federal Way. В настоящее время она консультирует школьные округа по всей стране, инструктирует и дает рекомендации суперинтендантам, членам школьных советов и главным руководителям.

Временный суперинтендант Джон Бойд остается серьезным кандидатом на постоянную должность. Суперинтендант Бойд полностью поддерживает этот процесс. Он постоянно делился с Советом директоров своим мнением о том, что должна быть проведена полная оценка потребностей округа и его работы, прежде чем мы примем решение об утверждении суперинтенданта на постоянную должность.

В четверг, 6 октября, Кэмпбелл проведет встречи с учениками, семьями, сотрудниками и членами сообщества. Доктор философии Кэмпбелл соберет и проанализирует полученную информацию и передаст ее Совету директоров. После того, как Кэмпбелл представит нам свои выводы, мы, как Совет директоров, примем решение о следующих шагах.

6 октября пройдут две встречи с широкой общественностью. Первая встреча состоится через Zoom в 15:30. Вторая встреча будет проходить очно в 18:00 в аудитории под названием Evergreen в Административном центре школьного округа. Русскоговорящий и испаноговорящий переводчики будут присутствовать на этой встрече в 18:00.

С сотрудниками будет проведено три таких встречи 6 октября. Сессии через Zoom начнутся в 7:30 утра и в 16:30. Одна из встреч будет проходить очно в 14:30 в комнате Evergreen в Административном центре школьного округа.

Совет привержен обширному и инклюзивному процессу выбора суперинтенданта на постоянную должность, который может успешно руководить государственными школами округа Эвергрин. Мы благодарим вас за понимание, терпение и самое главное за ваше участие в этом процессе.

С уважением,

Джинни Гронволд, президент Совета директоров школьного округа Эвергрин

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Pasos a seguir en el proceso para nombrar al superintendente permanente

Personal y familias de EPS,

Como parte de nuestra promesa de llevar a cabo un proceso transparente e inclusivo, la Junta Directiva de Escuelas Públicas Evergreen desea compartir con ustedes los pasos que estamos tomando para designar a un superintendente permanente. 

En octubre solicitaremos la opinión de los estudiantes, el personal, las familias y los miembros de la comunidad sobre las expectativas de liderazgo de nuestro distrito. La doctora Tammy Campbell, directora ejecutiva de Scholar First, ha sido contratada para guiar esta parte del procedimiento. La doctora Campbell fue la superintendente de las Escuelas Públicas de Federal Way. Actualmente consulta con distritos escolares de todo el país, entrenando y brindando orientación a superintendentes, juntas directivas y líderes.

El superintendente interino John Boyd sigue siendo un fuerte candidato para ocupar el puesto permanente. El superintendente Boyd apoya totalmente este proceso. Ha compartido continuamente con la Junta Directiva su creencia de que debe haber una evaluación completa de las necesidades del distrito y su desempeño antes de que tomemos una decisión sobre un superintendente permanente.   

El jueves 6 de octubre, la doctora Campbell organizará sesiones para escuchar a los estudiantes, familias, personal y miembros de la comunidad. La doctora Campbell recibirá y evaluará los aportes de estas sesiones y se lo comunicará a la Junta Directiva. Una vez que la dra. Campbell nos presente su información, nosotros, como Junta, decidiremos los próximos pasos.

Tendremos dos sesiones para escuchar a la comunidad en general el 6 de octubre. La primera sesión será a través de Zoom a las 3:30 p.m. La segunda sesión será a las 6 p.m. en el salón Evergreen del Centro de Servicios Administrativos. Habrá intérpretes disponibles en ruso y español en la sesión de las 6:00 p.m.

El personal tendrá tres sesiones el 6 de octubre. Las sesiones de Zoom estarán disponibles a las 7:30 a. m. y a las 4:30 p. m. También habrá una sesión a las 2:30 p. m. en el salón Evergreen del Centro de Servicios Administrativos.

La Junta está comprometida con un proceso extenso e inclusivo para identificar a un superintendente permanente que pueda dirigir con éxito a Escuelas Públicas Evergreen. Agradecemos su comprensión, paciencia y lo más importante su participación en este proceso.

Atentamente,

Ginny Gronwoldt

Presidente de la Junta Directiva de Escuelas Públicas Evergreen

Dear Evergreen Community,

As we start the 2022-23 school year, we want to let you know that we will be able to continue to offer all students in Evergreen Public Schools free breakfast and lunch. 

We are able to do this because a percentage of our families fall under an income threshold for the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which is part of the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Child Nutrition Program. By being eligible for CEP, our district will be able to give students free breakfast and lunch for the next four years, until June 30, 2026. 

The USDA had made free breakfast and lunch available to all students nationwide during the COVID-19 pandemic, but that service has ended.

In EPS, each student will be able to get one free breakfast and one free lunch each day. Middle and high schools also will have additional items that students can purchase, either through their food service account or with cash. You can access your student’s account through the Evergreen Public Schools payment site.

Because all students will be able to get free meals, families will no longer have to fill out a free and reduced meal application. This application, however, was an important data gathering tool that allowed us to make sure families received all the services they are entitled to, based on income. 

To make up for this, we will soon be asking you to participate in a new family income survey. This survey is a vital tool that will help us make sure families have access to such services as academic and enrichment programs before and after school; fee waivers for college and admissions tests; resources for classrooms, teachers and children; and more. Please look for an upcoming message about the survey.

Thank you.

John Boyd, Superintendent

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Уважаемые семьи учащихся школьного округа Эвергрин,

Перед началом  2022-23 учебного года мы хотим сообщить вам, что мы сможем продолжать предлагать всем учащимся государственных школ округа Эвергрин бесплатные завтраки и обеды.

Мы можем это делать, потому что определенный процент наших семей не достигает порога дохода в соответствии с документом Community Eligibility Provision (CEP),который  является частью Программы детского питания от Министерства сельского хозяйства США (USDA). Получив право на участие в CEP, наш округ сможет предоставлять учащимся бесплатные завтраки и обеды в течение следующих четырех лет, до 30 июня 2026 года.

Министерство сельского хозяйства США предоставляло бесплатный завтрак и обед для всех школьников по всей стране во время пандемии COVID-19, но эта услуга закончилась.

В нашем школьном округе каждый ученик сможет получать один бесплатный завтрак и один бесплатный обед каждый день. В средних и старших школах также будут дополнительные продукты питания, которые учащиеся могут приобрести либо через свой счет школьного питания, либо за наличные. Вы можете получить доступ к учетной записи вашего ученика по ссылке: Evergreen Public Schools payment site.

Поскольку все учащиеся смогут получать бесплатное питание, семьям больше не нужно будет заполнять заявление на бесплатное и льготное питание. Это заявление, однако, было важным инструментом сбора данных, которое позволило нам убедиться, что семьи получают все услуги, на которые они имеют право, в зависимости от их дохода.

Вместо этого, мы скоро попросим вас принять участие в новом опросе о семейных доходах. Этот опрос является жизненно важным инструментом, который поможет нам убедиться, что семьи имеют доступ к таким услугам, как академические и развивающие программы до и после школы; освобождение от платы за колледж и вступительных экзаменов; а также ресурсы для классов, учителей и детей; и многое другое. Пожалуйста, не пропустите этот опрос, который будет отправлен вам в ближайшее время..

Спасибо.

Джон Бойд, суперинтендант

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Estimadas Familias de Evergreen,

A medida que iniciamos el año escolar 2022-23, deseamos informarle que ofreceremos el desayuno y el almuerzo gratis a todos los estudiantes de las Escuelas Públicas Evergreen. 

Tenemos la posibilidad de llevar a cabo este programa porque un porcentaje de nuestras familias se encuentra por debajo del nivel de los ingresos para la Provisión de Elegibilidad Comunitaria (CEP, por sus siglas en inglés), el cual es parte del Programa de Nutrición Infantil del Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos (USDA). Al ser elegible para CEP, nuestro distrito podrá brindar a los estudiantes el desayuno/almuerzo gratis durante los próximos cuatro años, hasta el 30 de junio de 2026. 

El USDA había puesto a disposición de todos los estudiantes en todo el país el desayuno y el almuerzo gratis durante la pandemia de COVID-19, pero ese servicio ha terminado.

En EPS, cada estudiante podrá obtener un desayuno y un almuerzo gratis cada día. Las escuelas secundarias y preparatorias también tendrán artículos adicionales que los estudiantes podrán comprar, ya sea a través de su cuenta de servicio de alimentos o en efectivo. Puede acceder a la cuenta de su estudiante a través del sitio de pago de las Escuelas Públicas Evergreen.

Debido a que todos los estudiantes podrán obtener comidas gratuitas, las familias ya no tendrán que completar una solicitud de comida gratis o de precio reducido. Sin embargo, esta solicitud fue una importante herramienta de recopilación de datos que nos permitió asegurarnos de que las familias recibieran todos los servicios a los que tenían derecho, según sus ingresos. 

Para compensar esta situación, próximamente le pediremos que participe en una nueva encuesta de ingresos familiares. Esta encuesta es una herramienta vital que nos ayudará a asegurarnos de que las familias tengan acceso a servicios tales como programas académicos y de enriquecimiento antes y después de la escuela; exenciones de cuotas para exámenes universitarios y de admisión; recursos para aulas, maestros, niños; y más. Esté atento a un próximo mensaje sobre la encuesta.

Atentamente.

John Boyd, Superintendente

August 17, 2022

Meet our newest district leader, Dr. Charlene Williams. She joined us in June as Deputy Superintendent for Teaching, Learning and Equity. Dr. Williams brings a proven track record of leadership in equity and successfully improving student outcomes to her new role supporting Superintendent John Boyd.

Dr. Williams is no stranger to the EPS family, as her two children are Heritage High School graduates. She comes to us from Camas School District, where she has been the Assistant Superintendent since 2016. Dr. Williams led Camas' school improvement process and facilitated the district’s first equity policy. In addition, she supervised and supported secondary school principals. 

Dr. Williams began her career as a high school math teacher in Greensboro, North Carolina, before moving to Portland. Dr. Williams spent several years with Portland’s Opportunities Industrialization Center (POIC) and Rosemary Anderson High School as a faculty member, principal and eventually Director of Education. She joined Portland Public Schools as a high school principal and served in that role for five years before becoming the district's Senior Director of School Performance.   

Dr. Williams completed her undergraduate work at North Carolina State University, earned a master's degree at Wake Forest University and a Education Leadership Doctorate from Lewis & Clark College.  

Christy Dunn, a math teacher at Heritage High School, is the 2022 recipient of the Educator of the Year Award presented by the Evergreen School District Foundation.

Dunn, who has taught in Evergreen Public Schools for 11 years, received the honor from Superintendent John Boyd and Principal Derek Garrison in a surprise ceremony on June 6. Emerick Construction presented her with a $500 check for classroom supplies.

Dunn was praised for her outstanding commitment to her students and school, and her tireless energy as a teacher.

“Christy puts her heart and soul into teaching and cares greatly for all her students,” Cheryl Garland, Heritage payroll secretary, wrote in her nominating letter, "I see Christy going above and beyond daily for her students, other staff and all of Heritage High School."