How a Kindergarten Center is Amazing with Jessica Cabeen Transformative Principal 099

Overview:  Woodson has been an all-day everyday Kindergarten Center for the past 11 years.  In the past 4 years enrollment has fluctuated between 360–425 students (currently about 385 with our preschool class).  51% of our students are students of color, and we have a 61% free and reduced lunch student population.  We have 16 sections of kindergarten this year–13 on the traditional school calendar and 3 on the modified (year long) calendar as they feed into the modified calendar elementary school.  We have been a PBIS school for the past 5 years and this year we were award a “School of Excellence” award by the State Department for our work in established strong tier one behavioral supports for all students.  This year we have implemented a behavior specialist position as well as being the second year in our bi-linguage reading pilot in which we have a spanish speaking paraprofessional front loading reading instruction in home languages of a sub section of our EL students.  Last year we tried a new venue for Parent Education via videos of local “celebrities” and teachers role playing activities that parents could do with their children to prepare for K.

Bio:  This is my 4th year as Principal of the Woodson Kindergarten Center.  Prior to this position I was an Assistant Principal, Supervisor of Special Education (all in Austin MN) and Special Education Teacher in Saint Paul MN.  Besides being the Principal at Woodson I am a facilitator for the Minnesota Principal Academy out of the University of Minnesota in units surrounding literacy, ethical leadership and RtI.   This year I am also a presenter for the Minnesota Department of Education in their P3 Principal Leadership Series.  I have started a blog.  

Provide appropriate staff development

Provide flipped PD
Teachers leading PD (play center activities)

Solid Understanding of developmental milestones

Become friends with the experts
Adjust schedule for success of students
School time: 8:30–2:05 with teacher prep time after school.
No specialists to reduce transitions for students
Teachers run everything

Parent Engagement

Connecting with Parents
Packers in Training
Being a partner
Community initiative for kids to be ready for Kindergarten, so local celebrities get in on the action for “Ready, Set, Go”
Make videos for parents

Be more knowledgable about preschool options in the community

Meet the pre-k providers and respect their work
Give parents information about Pre-K options.
Service learning opportunities for former students.

Principal’s academy

Professional development for principals, in a cohort.
Principal as an ethical leader: just, fair and caring
How to deal with Social Media issues
BIFF Brief, Informative, Friendly, Firm

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