Heading into the 2022-23 school year, there’s a great sense of optimism within the Seaside School District.

It was woven into Superintendent Susan Penrod’s presentation at the district’s annual welcome back breakfast for staff, held at the end of August.

Penrod shared a quote attributed to educator Colleen Wilcox, a Santa Clara County Superintendent of Schools, who said, “Teaching is the greatest act of optimism.”

In her speech, Penrod went on to elaborate what optimism looks like for various stakeholders in the district. For educators, it means a focus on wellness, more time to collaborate with colleagues and additional support.

For students, it means a focus on student voice and intervention support. For community members and families, it means partnerships and liaisons; habitually gathering their thoughts and ideas; and a continuation of in-person learning.

“To me, optimism is about hope, because it’s the hope that the things that we had in place that provide normalcy for our staff and our families and our students, we can get back to that, while at the same time continuing to reflect on what we’ve learned over the past couple years,” Penrod said. “It’s kind of the culmination of those two things.”

This feeling of optimism was witnessed by Seaside High School and Middle School Principal Jeff Roberts as they started welcoming students back after Labor Day.

“The overall vibe is really positive and markedly different than the past two years, both from staff and students,” he said. “It’s tough to pinpoint what that feeling is; it’s just really, really different and really, really positive.”

The past two school years were dominated by responding to COVID-19 and managing guidelines around the pandemic in order to keep students in school as much as possible, while mitigating health risks. That involved managing face masks, appropriate social distancing and keeping students in small cohorts.

“It was a lot of work,” Roberts said. “With that not as a piece of the puzzle anymore, we can kind of get back to teaching and learning.”

At Pacific Ridge Elementary School, Principal Juli Wozniak said they are excited to resume assemblies, have more field trips and invite parents and community members back into the building to volunteer. Pacific Ridge can also have high school students volunteer in classrooms.

She was happy to see more than 50 percent of families — across classrooms — show up for Pacific Ridge’s open house Sept. 1.

“I’m hopeful for a really positive school year,” she said.

A focus on wellness

As part of cultivating optimism among staff, the district is augmenting its focus on wellness and health. They held several wellness-related events and activities last year, funded by a grant from the Oregon Health Authority’s Oregon Educators Benefit Board. This year, they’ve established Wellness Wednesdays on the first Wednesday of each month, and they invite staff to participate in activities.

On Sept. 7, the first Wellness Wednesday, the district organized a hike at North Coast Land Conservancy’s Circle Creek Conservation Center, which was a chance to get outdoors, spend time together, and introduce this resource to teachers who might want to use it for health- and science-related field trips, Penrod said.

“We’re excited to have those events more often,” she added.

Meanwhile, they’re intentional about conducting surveys with staff to gauge their well-being in the workplace and how the administration can better support them, Penrod said.

Although the grant funding expires at the end of the calendar year, Penrod said the district plans to continue supporting the wellness program, “because it’s been so successful.”

“We are in the process of seeing what that looks like,” she added.

STEAM at Pacific Ridge

The elementary school has added two new positions to assist with student support and enrichment. After sharing a family resource and community partnership liaison for K-12 last year, they now have one dedicated to their building.

The liaison’s job, according to Wozniak, is to “help eliminate any barriers to students accessing their education” and provide the support they need to do so.

“It’s nice to have someone here full time to help with that,” she said.

Additionally, they have a new teacher who will lead a science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics class as part of the school’s specials rotation.

“It’s just something we’ve really been working toward as far as integrating more science and technology and engineering into our programming,” Wozniak said.

They also are continuing their ‘What I Need’ classes, which they started last year and have since refined. Through the program, students get 30 minutes per day with a different teacher in their grade level for reading intervention and enrichment. Students are placed with a teacher depending on their specific skills and needs.

“It’s nice to be able to start earlier in the year and be able to share students in ways that best meet their needs,” Wozniak said. “Because of the past few years being just so different in education, we’re really wanting to fill those gaps and get those kids to that point so that in third grade, they’re reading to learn.”

New campus celebration

A grand opening celebration for the campus on the hill will be held Friday, Sept. 30, in conjunction with the homecoming game. The celebration kicks off with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Seaside High School gymnasium. There will be scheduled and self-guided tours of the new high school, middle school building and the renovated elementary school from 5 to 6:30 p.m.

The homecoming parade also will take place at 5 p.m., starting at the former Seaside High School building, heading south along Holladay Drive, and ending at Broadway Field. The homecoming game and barbecue starts at 7 p.m.

Former Seaside superintendents Sheila Roley and Doug Dougherty — who were instrumental in planning and starting the new campus build — will take part in the ceremony.

“It’s been a long and very worthwhile process,” Penrod said of the construction project. “We’re reaping the benefits now.”