Keizertimes., November 27, 2020, Page 2, Image 2

PAGE A2, KEIZERTIMES, NOVEMBER 27, 2020
MHS makes epic moves to help
students rescue failing grades
BY MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
Comprehensive
Distance
Learning (CDL) has brought a
litany of challenges to the way
school is facilitated in 2020,
with one of the main difficul-
ties being poor grades.
In the beginning of Novem-
ber, it was estimated that nearly
half of the nearly 13,000 high
schoolers in Salem-Keizer Pub-
lic Schools (SKPS) were failing
at least one class.
“We had a very short win-
dow to train our staff on these
new platforms, and they did the
best that they could. The kids
did the very best they could
to figure it out, but sometimes
the reality is that you have to
walk through some adversity in
order to figure things out,” said
Erik Jespersen, the principal at
McNary High School.
However, thanks to an ag-
gressive approach to safe,
in-person learning, McNary
has been able to cut their failing
grades from 38% to 17% in the
last month.
Over a two-day period
(Nov. 9-10) McNary hosted a
total of 300 students in 56 co-
horts for in-person instruction.
Jespersen believes that those
two days played a huge role
in helping students turn their
grades around.
“The vast majority of the
kids just needed help with or-
ganization and accountability as
well as a little social-emotional
support. By-and-large, the kids
got the support they needed in
that face-to-face contact just
because they had a trusted adult
working with them for a little
bit of time. That was our secret
to success,” Jespersen said. “It
was a tremendous effort to have
as much outreach as we could,
with the primary focus being
on building and maintaining
relationships with kids more
than anything else.”
McNary has been doing lim-
ited in-person instruction since
the beginning of the school
year, but they were restricted
to just 200-250 students for the
week, with teachers working
with small groups of less than
10 by appointment only. When
in-person instruction restric-
tions began to loosen late last
month, Jespersen wanted to
have a larger influx of students
learning in-person.
“As the state allowed the dis-
tricts to be more flexible with
bringing in kids, we jumped on
that train immediately because
we already had all the systems
and safety protocols in place,”
Jespersen said. “We had the
mentality that we wanted to
have as many kids in our build-
ing as we safely could.”
Students that were strug-
gling in classes or didn’t have
the technology needed to access
their curriculum were the ones
encouraged to attend limited
in-person instruction. Special
Education (SPED) and English
Language Development (ELD)
students, along with students
on an Individualized Learning
Plan (IEP) have also been in the
building.
“We have always been very
strategic with which students
we brought in,” Jespersen said.
Kids were only allowed to be
in the building for a maximum
of two hours, mostly working
with teachers and instruction-
al assistants — students with
an IEP were able to meet with
their case managers. A total of
57 staff members were assisting
students in-person during the
two-day period.
“They weren’t going from
one teacher to the next teacher.
They were to go in, work with
a particular teacher, and then go
Keizer food bank will get $1K from Maps CU
selected
and
In honor of
$1,000 will be
their service to the
donated to the
Mid-Willamette
Keizer Commu-
Valley this year, 10
nity Food Bank
Maps Credit Union
in her name.
members have been
“I believe that
selected to receive
everyone
can
the first ever Maps
make some dif-
Community Awards
ference in their
from the Maps
community. I en-
Community Foun-
P. Tischer
joy giving back
dation.
Keizerite Patti Tischer was to my community and try to
one of the lucky members make a difference for others,”
Tischer said. Tischer is also the
current president of the Greater
Gubser Neighborhood Associ-
ation.
The Foundation will donate
a total of $10,000 to 10 non-
profits.
“In a challenging year, we
wanted to lift up our commu-
nity and celebrate the ways our
Maps members have been help-
ing in response to the pandemic
and wildfires,” said foundation
executive director Kim Hanson.
The winners, nominated by
the community and selected
by Maps staff, exemplify many
of the ways local residents have
helped one another in 2020 a
year when a pandemic and then
wildfires challenged the region
and state.
Maps Community Founda-
tion is the philanthropic arm of
Maps Credit Union, a mem-
ber-owned financial coopera-
tive with 70,000 members and
10 branch locations.
back out. So that’s how we were
able to have that volume of kids
and maintain all the safety pro-
tocols,” Jespersen said.
McNary ended up seeing
results from their approach al-
most immediately, which is a
credit to the resiliency of the
kids at the school according to
Jespersen.
“It’s resilience on the part of
our kids and our teachers and
staff. We deliver a constant mes-
sage that is coming from me
and our leadership team that
we’re not giving up on our kids
and we’re going to do every-
thing we can to support them,”
Jespersen said.
Jespersen also comment-
ed on how the culture at the
school over the years has helped
prepare McNary students for
trying times.
“We have worked hard the
last several years at McNary
building a culture where we
strive to be world class. It’s
something we talk about all the
time with our students and our
staff. I truly believe that some
of the work we have done over
the last several years is coming
to fruition in this time of cri-
sis,” Jespersen said. “I believe
that our kids know how much
we care about them and I do
believe that when you have that
trust in the adults you work
with, you’re going to do what-
ever it takes to be successful.”
Due to the two-week freeze
initiated by Gov. Kate Brown,
McNary will have to scale back
in-person learning significant-
ly — only 30 to 40 students
will be allowed in the building
over the course of the week.
Instructional assistants will still
be meeting one-on-one with
select students in-person or
over Zoom. While McNary is
being responsive to their cur-
rent reality, Jespersen is hoping
the freeze will end as soon as
possible.
“I’m hopeful that the freeze
will end soon and that we will
be back to where we were be-
fore because it was helping us,”
Jespersen said. “It’s the balance
of bringing in kids safely, hav-
ing staff working with kids safe-
ly and also making sure we’re
getting as much face time as we
can, because we know it works.”