A7 • Friday, April 19, 2019 | Cannon Beach Gazette | CannonBeachGazette.com
When board games are part of the curriculum
By KATHERINE LACAZE
For Cannon Beach Gazette
For kindergarten stu-
dents at Seaside Heights
Elementary School, home-
work each week is pro-
foundly simple: Playing
a board game with their
family.
Each kindergarten class
has enough board games so
they can be rotated among
the students on a weekly
basis as part of game bags,
which also include proce-
dure sheets, game instruc-
tions, and a refl ection sheet
where the students can pro-
vide feedback.
The practice, which was
introduced this year, meshes
with the school’s goal of
approaching each child as
“a person fi rst, and a student
second,” Principal Julie
Wozniak told the district’s
board of directors during a
presentation at their meet-
ing March 19.
To introduce board
games as a learning tool
and age-appropriate home-
work, the school held a fam-
ily game night in January.
About 80 people, or 23 fam-
ilies, attended.
“It was a rousing suc-
cess,” kindergarten teacher
Jocelyn Milliren told the
board.
The program was ini-
tially sponsored by North-
west Parenting, and the
school has since received
other funding to ensure
the kindergarten classes at
the Heights have enough
board games for each stu-
dent to take home a differ-
ent one each week. All the
board games are age-appro-
priate and culturally respon-
sive, with instructions in
both Spanish and English
so they’re accessible to the
diverse families served by
the school district.
The benefi ts for the kin-
dergarteners, the teachers
believe, are numerous: sup-
porting
social-emotional
learning, teaching students
to express and manage
SEASIDE SCHOOL BOARD
Meet the candidates
on Tuesday, April 30
Cannon Beach Gazette
Katherine Lacaze/Cannon Beach Gazette
During a Seaside School Board meeting March 19, The Heights Elementary School
kindergarten teachers talk about how using board games as homework for their students
helps engage families, teach age-appropriate skills, and bolster social-emotional learning.
their emotions, encourag- ple hobby and can benefi t they aren’t bound to a cer-
ing them to engage in coop- classrooms and society as a tain date, but the properties
erative play, and introduc- whole.
become surplus when “we
ing them to the concept of
cease to occupy them.”
In other news:
friendly competition. Board
• The elementary schools’
• The board approved to parent teacher organiza-
games also teach the stu-
dents about following rules, designate Gearhart Elemen- tions hosted a Bollywood
taking care of materials, tary School, Broadway Mid- dance night at Seaside
and maintain-
High School
ing focus on a
on April 5
“WE’VE NEVER HAD PARENTS
task.
at
Seaside
Addition-
High
School.
COME TO US AND SAY,
ally, the pro-
Prashant
‘WE LOVE YOUR HOMEWORK
gram encour-
K a k a d ,
ages family
founder
of
SO MUCH, WE’RE BUYING
engagement,
the
Port-
and the stu-
land-based
IT FOR CHRISTMAS.’ ”
dents
have
company, and
Kindergarten teacher Betsy Mahoney
responded
dancers Brit-
positively.
tany Newton
“ We ’ v e
— who hails
never had parents come to dle School and Seaside High from Seaside — and Elliot
us and say, ‘We love your School and their associated Miller spent hours teaching
homework so much, we’re properties as “surplus” as of more than 1,000 students in
buying it for Christmas,’” fall 2020, when they are no kindergarten through eighth
kindergarten teacher Betsy longer in use. Superinten- grade a dance routine. The
dent Sheila Roley said once students then demonstrated
Mahoney said.
The
program
was district properties become their routines during a com-
recently featured by The surplus, staff is authorized munity Bollywood Dance
Tabletop Game Talk pod- to dispose of them — or in Night, put on at Seaside
cast as an example of how this case, work with a Real- High School the evening of
gaming transcends a sim- tor to sell them. Roley said April 5.
Cannon Beach, Seaside
and Gearhart residents will
get a chance to hear what
this year’s school board
candidates have to say about
the Seaside School Dis-
trict’s key issues. They’ll be
attending a forum on Tues-
day, April 30, at the Broad-
way Middle School Library
in Seaside.
District
Superinten-
dent Sheila Roley shared
the importance of the role
school board members
serve. “We would really
like our great community
to have the opportunity to
see the candidates and hear
from them, their perspec-
tives on how to lead our
schools.”
The American Associa-
tion of University Women
has always been involved
with education, Seaside
president Cindy Gould said.
“If we have a strong educa-
tion system, then we have a
strong community,” Gould
said.
Board members make
the community even stron-
ger, she said.
“Part of our mission is
women and girls, but edu-
cation is our biggest thrust,”
the association’s Karen
Beck added. “It’s part of our
mission statement.”
The event is organized
by the Seaside Signal and
the Seaside American
Association of University
Women, and will be intro-
duced by Cindy Gould.
Roley will offer remarks,
along with members of the
high school’s Associated
Student Body.
Signal editor R.J. Marx
will moderate.
Two of three open seats
will see competitive races
in the May 21 election.
Three candidates — John
Dunzer, Sondra Gomez and
Jeremy Mills — have fi led
for the Zone 5, Position 1
seat.
Seaside’s John Dunzer,
a retired corporate execu-
tive, is now employed as a
greeter at Walmart.
Jeremy Mills, a Seaside
resident, has 11 years as
an agent with State Farm
Insurance. He is currently
a member of the board
of directors of the Sunset
Empire Park and Recre-
ation District.
Sondra Gomez is a
local operations manager
at Vacasa and served in the
consulting offi ce at the Sea-
side School District from
2016-18.
Shannon Swedenborg is
the sole candidate in Can-
non Beach’s Zone 1, Posi-
tion 1. Swedenborg fi lled
the board seat after Pat-
rick Nofi eld stepped down
in Cannon Beach. Over
the past two years she has
been a substitute teacher
at the Heights Elemen-
tary School and Broad-
way Middle School. She
taught high school biology
in the Renton, Washington,
School District for 10 years.
Also in an uncontested
race, Mark Truax, president
of the board and holding
20 years experience with
the school district, is run-
ning for Zone 4, Position
2, based in Seaside. He is a
Seaside High School grad-
uate and Astoria fi refi ghter.
Gould said she hoped to
hear ways in which board
members could help meet
the needs of underfunded
schools and to value educa-
tion locally.
“What I’m hoping for
are candidates and board
members, as we’ve always
been fortunate to have, who
are very focused on the best
interests of all of our kids,”
Roley added.
The election takes place
May 21.
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