Jefferson, Oregon
Welcome to my blog! Jefferson School District is in the process of transforming into a future focused school district. This blog is intended to be one more way of communicating and showing all the important work being done in order to offer all Jefferson students a 21st century education, and a safe, inviting education.
Mission, Vision, Values!
Lion Pride Moment: We replaced the bleachers, resurfaced the gym floor, added new banners, and got volunteers to paint the walls – all before Basketball Season! Go Lions!!!
Our Student Based Health Center is Making Progress! This is our new Resource Room for our students in need
Third Annual Back to School Event!
This is Jefferson School District’s third annual Back to School Event!
This year, The United Way presented JSD with a $30,000 check to go towards our new School-based Health and Resource Center. They also participated in the event and gave away free toys and books to every student. All JSD staff came to support the event, wearing their Comunidad T-Shirts provided by our Latino Parent Club. Board members cooked and served hot dogs. Our local Fire and Sheriff’s Department partners were here in solid numbers, making positive connections with students. We gave out hundreds of back packs and school supplies, and the Lions Club gave out free reading glasses. Mariachi Alegria Mexicana serenaded the event, making it feel festive and fun. This was a well attended community event and showcased Jefferson at its finest!
Listen to J-POD!
Jefferson’s very own weekly podcast, running from late August to June. Superintendent Capener interviews staff and students to let our community know all of the great happenings at JSD 14J!
Follow us at: https://www.spreaker.com/show/j-pod
School pride doesn’t just happen. It takes intentional, focused, work by the adults to create an environment that leads to school pride. In the last few years, we had volunteers from Jefferson Baptist Church come and paint our District Office Complex; we put new bleachers in the high school gym and painted the walls; we purchased a curtain for the stage and made that space usable. We put in a new HVAC system and fans in the gym to control the temperature in our high school. We created the Jefferson Connected Campaign and put consistent signage around the district. We cleaned up our buildings – getting rid of clutter and making our spaces clean and safe. We converted an old, cluttered band room and turned it into a state-of-the-art School-based Health and Resource Center. The entire project was paid for with donations. Above is a picture of our new scoreboard. The old scoreboard was broken and looked horrible. Now our athletes can have pride in hosting visiting teams. Our next venture? Replacing our current track and field with a new turf field and new track. It’s going to cost a lot of money, but we can do it! Our students deserve the very best and they deserve to feel pride in being a Jefferson Lion!
Student-based Health and Resource Center
The pictures below show the progress of our School-based Health & Resource Center!
“Only when we meet our most vulnerable young people where they are, do we afford all children the opportunity to thrive” (School-Based Health Alliance 2022).
Anxiety and depression are so prevalent among teenagers today, and many parents are left wondering how they can help their children navigate their emotions. The mental health of our students is a top concern for JSD, and we reached out to Trillium Family Services to see if they would give a presentation to our parents. See the flier below for details.
Renovating our high school gym!
We replaced our bleachers in the high school gym this year, and over Spring Break, staff and volunteers painted the gym. Our gym renovation brings pride to our athletes and we are so thankful for our volunteers!
We are in the process of working with investors to build a School-based Health and Resource Center. This center will provide clothing and toiletries for homeless students and a place to wash clothes. It will offer medical exams and mental health therapy appointments. We are in the process of seeking donations and finding partners to support our center. A flyer is provided below, as well as a description sent to our donors.
Staying Future Focused with Stakeholder Input
At JSD, we are continually evolving and changing to meet the needs of our students and staff. We spent the fall 2022 listening and gathering input from stakeholders. We presented our integrated plan for board approval and public input at the March 2023 Board Meeting. The flyer below shows how we are shifting resources using our SIA and the High School Success grants.
Thank you to everyone who showed up to these events. It was wondeful meeting you and getting to know you.
We spent the fall revising our Mission and Vision Statements and identifying our values in a new Value Statement. This work involved participation from staff, board members, community members, parents, and administrators. The work they did was important because it sets the vision for our work, and helps drive our Strategic Planning. We are trying to prepare our students for a changing world and an evolving workforce. We believe the work done here was significant and very helpful.
Jefferson Connected!
Jefferson Connected has been our campaign and our marketing focus for the last few years. This focus was very important through the pandemic and allowed us to create a series of videos using the same name, as well as videos from me, so that staff, the community and our students could stay informed (Those videos are available on the Jefferson School District Website). We cleaned out clutter at every school, and placed consistent signage and logos throughout. We believe in a clean, beautiful learning environment and gives our students a sense of pride.
Safety at JSD!
Safety is a top concern for us at JSD. We are being extremely proactive in preventing violence, lowering behavioral incidents, and supporting the mental health of our students. Below is a flyer we published for the Jefferson Community, explaining all that we are doing to keep kids safe!
Hope Squad
Several years ago, a student at Jefferson High School brought a gun to school and took is own life. This was a devastating event that impacted and continues to impact so many of us.
Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for youth ages 10-24. On average, every day, there are 3,703 suicide attempts for students in grades 9-12. More than 1 in 5 LGTBQ+ youth attempted suicide in the last year. JHS is no different from other schools in that we have many students struggling with their mental health. We wanted to be proactive and do something positive that our students can do to help. We are bringing Hope Squad to Jefferson to help make sure no other JSD student attempts to take his or her life.
Hope Squad is a school-based, peer-to-peer, suicide prevention program, that trains and mentors students, who were nominated by their peers, to perform intentional outreach with fellow students. These students watch for and refer concerns. The organize Hope Week with school-wide activities. They are NOT trained to be counselors or therapists.
Willamette Career Academy
Jefferson School District has been an active supporter of the Willamette Career Academy from its inception. Currently 18 JSD students participate and take classes at WCA each week. WCA offers courses in the following fields: Cosmetology; Health Services; Pape Diesel Technology; IT Computer Science; Construction Technology and manufacturing.
Equity – Ensuring All Means All
The word equity sometimes gets caught up in politics and can be a loaded word for some people. At its core, equity in Jefferson means that every student is valued and respected. Every student receives the support they need to thrive. We have provided professional development to our staff over the past several years on how to be aware of their own implicit bias and we built foundational knowledge around equity. We have since partnered with the Regional Education Network (REN) in helping us develop a Latinx Parent Club. Now, equity is included in conversations every seven to nine weeks as administrators work with their staff on their strategic plan goals. This is focused on equity because we look at data to drive our decision making, and in the process we look at all struggling students and talk about how we can better support them. This is equity in action because it is focused and intentional!
Below is an article I posted on our website for staff:
All Means All!
by Superintendent Brad Capener
Any parent who has had to send their child off to Kindergarten knows how hard and stressful that experience can be. As parents, we hope that our children will meet friends, have fun learning new skills and ideas, and connect with their teachers.
The transition to school can be harder for some, but our children are resilient and their teachers are amazing at making every child feel special and valued as if they were their own.
As children progress through the grades, the awkward transition to school fades away and is replaced by routine schedules and expectations. Our hopes as parents, however, do not change. We still want our children to feel safe, valued, and loved. We want them to feel a sense of dignity and respect. We want their teachers to know them like we do, and support them through challenging assignments or situations they encounter during the day. We give over our most precious little souls to the school and hope they can flourish and find their way.
Unfortunately, the reality is that some students of all ages struggle at times. They may struggle with relationships, or being accepted; they may struggle with learning, with anxiety, fitting in socially, or feeling accepted and noticed. They may feel different because they are of a different race, or perhaps they are learning English and they don’t feel accepted by their peers, or understood by their teachers. As they get older, they may struggle with their identity and they are looking for acceptance among their friends, their teachers, and sometimes at home. Social media plays a much larger role in our children’s lives today, and many children experience online bullying or receive really hurtful messages from classmates. The reality is that no child goes through school without encountering challenges of some kind.
Schools are institutions of learning, yes, but they have evolved into much more than strict conveyors of knowledge. Teachers know from research, for example, that students are more open to learning when their basic needs are met. When students feel safe and valued in school, they are more able to engage and find success in their classes. Bad behavior generally decreases, allowing teachers more time to teach when every student feels like a valued member of the classroom, and their basic needs are met. In short, every school attempts to build systems, routines, programs, clubs, activities, sports, and rules to make sure every child feels that sense of belonging and safety; valued and respected; seen and understood. Our updated Vision Statement, in fact, reads, “Together, we inspire, empower, and prepare all students to succeed.” These are not just words on paper. This is our calling and we educators take this to heart.
As an educator, we don’t want any child to feel marginalized. No girl should have to feel devalued or less than others because of her gender. No child who speaks another language as their first language should have to feel inferior due to that fact. No child of a different race or lived experience or culture should have to feel marginalized or like they don’t belong.
In Public School, we take all children. We say to our parents, ‘trust us with your child. We will prepare them for life and treat them as the beautiful human beings they are.’ Schools are places where teachers walk alongside every child and meet them where they are. If a child goes by different pronouns or identifies differently from their given identity. If a child struggles with houselessness, or if their parents live the migrant lifestyle; if a child doesn’t have enough food at home or the ability to do laundry; if a child struggles with learning disabilities – we take them all and we say to them, ‘We love and accept you for who you are. Come and be learners with us. Trust us to lead and guide you.’
Our teachers are amazing, caring people who put your child front and center every day. Our administrators are also caring, passionate people who build systems and lead to make sure our Vision statement is more than just words on paper.
In closing, parents, thank you for entrusting us with your child/children. We are working hard every day to make them feel like valuable, contributing members of our educational team. We are working hard to prepare them to be literate citizens who are prepared for a rapidly changing world.
Sincerely,
Brad Capener, Superintendent
Jefferson School District 14J
Strategic Plan – A Vision for 21st Century Learning
Social-Emotional Health – Resources for Jefferson Families and Students
Bond Construction & Facilities Improvement
When I arrived in Jefferson as superintendent in 2018, the district had passed a Bond, but construction had not yet begun. Steering this work from beginning to completion, under budget and on time, took a lot of work, but the outcome is amazing. Our new middle school and our new wing at the elementary school are beautiful and Jefferson students are in beautiful spaces and have pride in their schools.
We also built a new FFA barn using High School Success Grant Funds!
Volunteers from Jefferson Baptist Church came and painted our entire District Office Complex. It converted an old battleship grey/blue group of buildings and turned them into beautiful tan with purple trim. This is about students having pride in their schools!
After Bond Construction was completed, JSD has been making the high school a top priority. One of the many improvements we have made to the school involve the replacement of the bleachers in the gym, as shown below.
Achieving Incredible Results for English Learners
I wrote the book below to help ESOL Directors and administrators working with English Learners. So many people are placed into leadership roles without a solid understanding of language acquisition or how to best help ELs achieve. I was hoping this might be of some help to someone.
Data-driven Decision Making
When we talk about student academic growth, it is really important to have data in front of us to help guide the discussion. When we don’t use data, we resort to our hunches and best guesses. One of my goals since 2018 when I began as superintendent, was to have every school using formative data and meeting regularly to have discussions about that data.
And then COVID-19 happened!
We had to learn how to teach online for the first time in history. Now that COVID-19 is behind us and we are in person, we have moved quickly to embrace software that will enable us to have these conversations. We use IXL at all three schools. The elementary school started first and is using it regularly. The middle school is now using it regularly in math, and the high school is beginning to use data in certain subjects. Jefferson is becoming a data-driven school district and this will make a significant impact on our ability to serve students!
The Importance of Teaching History and Civics: it’s the story of who we are
Writing is my hobby. When I go home I sometimes write to relax. I wrote this book because I have a passion for US History (I was a high school U.S. history teacher). I believe history is one of the most important subjects to learn because it is the story of us. It is who we are as Americans. We need to pass down to our children the story of who we are because it gives them their identity and purpose. This book is available on Amazon and on Barnes and Noble.
Brad Capener is a former history teacher and author who looks critically at how U.S. history is taught in our high schools. His book, Do Your Students Know Who They Are? is designed to promote dialogue and critical thinking among history educators and inspire change.
Contributing Voices Conference
I organized this conference for three years-in-a-row when I worked at Salem-Keizer Public Schools as the ESOL and Migrant Coordinator. English Learners, migrant students, homeless students, Native American students, and refugee students all gathered on a college campus for one day and had a series of interactive workshops that focused on them and their importance to our community.
As humans we are all connected by the power of stories. This conference sought to inspire these students to create their own story. To honor who they are and the contributions they have to offer. While we as a society often discount and marginalize the stories of minorities, I wanted to give them a day of celebration!
Migrant CTE Summer School
Preparing students for a career and providing them with rich experiences connected to industry, is vitally important. While I worked at Salem-Keizer as the Migrant Coordinator, I partnered with Chemeketa Community College to house our summer school and offer college credit for CTE classes. I had high student participation and involvment and this program, which lasted several years, helped many students focus on their future, perhaps in ways they would not normally seek out.
I partnered with Chemeketa Community College and created a summer school program for my Migrant students that offered four different career and technical education classes.
Superintendent of Jefferson 14J – Oregon
Brad Capener 