October 15, 2002

Dr. Alison Olzendam

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

College of Education

668 North Riverpoint Boulevard, Box B

Spokane, WA  99202-1662

Dear Dr. Olzendam,

San Juan Island School District is pleased and honored to submit this proposal, “An Island of Opportunity” for your review and consideration. Our proposal thoroughly documents our long term vision, our near term goals, our staff’s commitment and our community’s engagement and support for a High Tech High School. Beginning with our community forum on August 20^th and including the many discussions with our Steering Committee, we believe we have identified several important community projects, all worthy of Gates funding.  These projects meet critical and identified needs of our community and our students.

Finally, we offer a concept, a “Center for Student Action,” a Center that will sustain these efforts beyond the term of the grant period. Our community is unanimous in their support of our proposal. Please take special note of the numerous letters of support and the extensive signature sections.

We believe that our approach to school-community collaboration will be a model for the rest of the state, if not the nation, and we look forward to exporting the best of our “lessons” to other interested schools and communities.

Of course, we stand ready to answer any questions you may have. Please feel free to contact me at any time. Furthermore, the key personnel outlined in the “Contact” section are available at any time to explain or clarify further details of the Grant.

Your Initiative has mobilized a conversation between our school and our community. We now have clearer goals and expectations, and a clearer vision for the future here on San Juan Island. We thank you for facilitating this.

Respectfully,

Michael Soltman, Superintendent

San Juan Island School District

How to Build A Community

Turn off your television   Í   Leave your house

Know your neighbors   Ë   Look up when you are walking

Greet people   Í   Sit on your stoop

Plant flowers    Ë   Use your library

Play together   Í   Buy from local merchants

Share what you have   Ë   Help a lost dog

Take children to the park   Í   Garden together

Support your schools   Ë   Fix it even if you didn’t break it

Have potlucks   Í  Honor elders

Pick up litter   Ë   Read stories aloud

Dance in the street   Í   Talk to your mail carrier

Listen to the birds   Ë   Put up a swing

Help carry something heavy   Í   Barter for your goods

Start a tradition   Ë   Ask a question

Hire young people for odd jobs   Í   Organize a block party

Bake extra and share   Ë   Ask for help when you need it

Open your shades   Í   Sing together

Share your skills   Ë   Take back the night

Turn up the music   Í   Turn down the music

Listen before you react to anger   Ë   Mediate a conflict

Í   Seek to understand    Í

Learn from new and uncomfortable angles

Know that no one is silent, though many are not heard

Ë

Work to change this

Thanks to the SCW Community for this text (Syracuse Cultural Workers)

“An Island of Opportunity” Grant Request

San Juan Island and Friday Harbor High School

Executive Summary

The High Tech High – Friday Harbor High School

Friday Harbor High School (FHHS) is ready, willing and able to make the necessary improvements and changes needed to make a small high school educational program relevant and personal and innovative.  The staff is willing to build upon present programs that work and are successful and develop new programs that will further ensure that all students leave FHHS prepared to face the challenges of a redefined world.  Today’s curriculum at FHHS cannot be predicated on yesterday’s realities, so it will take a staff that is willing to ask questions, rethink options and choices, create fresh ideas, and reexamine old “habits of doing things.”  This staff will be able to do just that!  Programs and changes that have begun at FHHS and are working are: the Advisory Program, the Accelerated Reader Program, multi-age classes across all disciplines, hands-on active electives that include internships and work experience, student choice in elective class formation, and student leadership development in TIP, ASB, and classroom organizations.

In addition, practical strategies from other dramatically improved schools will be utilized, as appropriate, by the staff in order to make sure that every student is able to meet the Washington State Standards as assessed by the WASL and other assessments.

As we develop innovative personalized learning experiences at FHHS for staff and students alike, we will forgo anonymity and embrace mutual respect.  Listening and speaking, forming multiple relationships, serving the common good for all, and reflecting on our progress and programs are all research based practices that can transform our school.  Focusing on one student will enhance our entire community.  And paying attention to the context in which the sense of community at FHHS is being formed affects every member.

The Community Project – San Juan Island Community

The Community Project piece of the “Island of Opportunity” Grant is the art part.  Art is often unseen; it is found in what is felt, heard, and experienced.  Although FHHS is a place for students to learn content knowledge, it is not possible to exclude the whole student from the learning process and the learning experience itself.

Proposed community projects and critical needs that are matched with students passions and skills and ambitions will bring to students a sense of belonging and empowerment that will influence their ability to succeed and participate in all other areas of school life and their ability to allow teachers in content areas to influence them.  The community project will also influence students’ ability to reflect on and relate their learning to their own lives.  This active and giving participation, which comes from the community project experience, increases student’s abilities to participate in all areas of their life and their education.  When students see themselves as members of a community with something to contribute – their self-confidence, hope, and motivation increases exponentially.

The letters of support and signatures from the San Juan Island Community speak for themselves.  This community believes that there is a direct relationship between the Community Project and the classroom and the art of reflection, the Senior Culminating Project, which together adds depth and service to the common good and allows students to leave a legacy behind upon graduating from high school.  These interwoven elements encourage a community of care in which everyone reaps the rewards of the collective efforts.

Connecting Schools & Communities Initiative

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary

Introduction – “Why San Juan Island”

Connecting Schools & Communities Initiative

ATTACHMENTS

Attachment            1            Superintendent Letter & Board of Directors’ Letter

Attachment            2            Graduation Requirements

Attachment            3            Friday Harbor High School Tech Matrix

Attachment            4            Technology In Progress (TIP)

Attachment       5          Purchase/Replacement Plan and Inventory an Computer Configuration Plan and 

                                    Map, Hardware/Software

Attachment       6          Senior Culminating Project

Attachment       7          Steering Committee Membership

Attachment       8          Family Resource Center Grant Application

Attachment       9          Community Council Responsibilities

Attachment       10        Draft Student Contract

Attachment       11        Washington State University Cooperative Extension 4-H Program San Juan County

                                    Grant Application

Attachment       12        Request for Support Form

Attachment       13        Brainstorming Results from August 20^th Forum

Attachment       14        Key Personnel

Attachment       15        List of Community Mentors from Internship Program

Attachment       16        Community Letters of Support

Attachment       17        Signatures of Support

Attachment       18        Service Learning Workshop