Building on improvements to move NHS forward

Dear Parents and Community Members,

               I am excited at the opportunity to introduce myself and share my first information letter with you as I am soon to assume my role as Principal at Newberg High School. After having been hired in March I have been tasked with gathering as much information as possible on our operations at Newberg High in an effort to be as proactive in my preparations for next school year as possible. To this end I have spent two days per week at NHS between April 3 and May 23 doing the following activities:

• Conducted comprehensive data research and analysis on NHS
• Had over 100 individual conversations with NHS staff members
• Explored options to address school wide needs with groups of staff
• Presented potential solutions to identified needs and solicited feedback from staff
• Facilitated the hiring process of our new Assistant Principal, Alaina Santana

The information I would like to share with you is a result of these effort and includes what our first steps will be in the fall of 2014, how we will slightly reorganize our efforts at Newberg High for the 2014-2015 school year, and why we feel the need to make these adjustments going into next school year.

Our first step will be reorganizing our administrative, counselor and secretarial support teams. This reorganization will take the following shape; simply, that one counselor and one secretary will remain in the small school offices while the administration will share a central office and continue to use the small schools offices at times for various functions. Please know that students will continue to check in at their small school office for attendance and counseling services and students and teachers will continue to be scheduled into courses based on the current small schools scheduling model (most of this has already been done for the 2014-2015 school year).

This restructuring will also allow us to begin addressing a few initiatives of immediate importance. First, this model will provide administration the frequency, proximity and pooling of administrative resources to quickly streamline our support of students in all of their endeavors, in efforts to meet all of their needs, and in hearing their collective voice. Secondly, this move is also a prudent step that will help us in our efforts to meet all of our contemporary school wide needs, provide for equity of stakeholder voice, and will help us ensure consistency and accountability in all of our approaches and responsibilities. Meanwhile, this is also a small enough step that the new administrative team can partner with stakeholders in identifying and deepening our understanding of the powerful practices already in place at NHS while also determining what the future model will look like as we seek to continuously improve.

Thus, it is my expectation that we continue to honor the body of work that has been done at NHS over the past decade, work that has clearly improved NHS, while we also identify, address and hold ourselves accountable to continuing to move NHS forward in meeting the current demands placed on us as a school.

In closing I would like to thank all of you for your ongoing support and patronage of NHS. I have been very impressed with the people, potential and opportunities that exist at Newberg High and in the Newberg community. I have felt very welcomed and my wife Julie and I will proudly move into our new home in Newberg in a very few short weeks! If we have not had the pleasure of meeting please know that we look forward to making your acquaintance and becoming your neighbor!

With Tiger Pride,

Mark