The Canby Education Foundation, tapping resources from generous local donors, has awarded a major new grant to the School District. The purpose is to help coordinate better use of Canby’s community resources to focus on a key district goal—improving middle and high school students’ critical thinking abilities. The idea took root from the work of the 112 member Canby Vision Team last year. That team identified developing critical thinking skills as the top priority for our local schools. They also identified the need for the community to “step up to the plate” to share responsibilities for ensuring student success, going so far as to develop a “Community Compact” that described specific kinds of responsibilities that business and other community leaders, parents, students and district staff should carry out.
The Canby Education Foundation is aware of the negative impact of losing of more than 20% of Canby’s teachers and scores of school days over the past 5 years. Seeing no immediate relief in sight, CEF decided to take action to help bring this new vision of community support to life. Superintendent John Steach said, “I can’t thank the Foundation enough for this grant! While I wasn’t here last year to watch the Vision Team’s work, the phrase I’ve heard most in describing their work is the need for ‘co-laboring’ with the Community (working together) to help our students succeed as adults. The work supported through this grant will help us achieve a major system-wide goal for our students.’ Dr. Rex Hagans, Chair of the Canby Education Foundation Board added, “Our grant will provide the initial resources to help the District and the community build a much more extensive and coordinated system for the use of community expertise to help our middle and high schoolers prepare themselves as good critical thinkers and problem solvers. We envision mentors and tutors from all sectors of the community working with our students to augment our teachers’ efforts to develop the understandings and 21st century skills needed to cope with the reality of constant change. These include ways to skillfully examine data; carefully listen, study and evaluate solution alternatives; and develop creative innovative answers to real world problems. We envision students learning directly from Canby’s rich array of talent in businesses, government agencies and non profit groups about what it really takes to succeed in those places. We also envision parents and families playing a key role in reinforcing the importance of this work on critical thinking. All of this will not happen with just good intentions. It will take sustained effort and support. We invite others in the community to join us in investing time and financial resources to bring this vision to reality.” The District will shortly issue a job announcement for a Coordinator of Community Based Learning Resources. Hagans and Steach said, “A skillful and savvy people oriented Coordinator will be the key element in making this a big success for our students. We strongly encourage those interested in the position to apply.”
For more information about how you can give to the Canby Education Foundation to help them continue to support our local school system, contact Mary Walsh, Executive Director at 503-263-8299 or go to the Foundation’s web site canbyedfoundation.org.
The Canby Education Foundation in conjunction with the Vision Team met in October 2011. The focus of the work session was community engagement in teaching critical thinking and the enthuasiams and cautions as the Community Based Education Facilitator, Grace Saad, begins working. Below is a summary of the work session. Next steps include a Design Conference scheduled for mid-November 2011. View PDF
CEF is pleased to announce that Grace Saad has accepted the newly created position of Community Based Education Facilitator. Grace will forge alliances with the community and business partners that provide volunteer services and support to the school, students and families, with a focus on critical thinking skills.
We are excited to announce the speaker of our Spring Fling fundraiser will be the accomplished writer Phillip Margolin. Phillip grew up in New York City and published his first book The Girl in the Yellow Bikini in 1974 which was later nominated for an Edgar Award for best original paperback mystery. Since then he has written over 19 books and short stories including The Last Innocent Man, which was made into a HBO movie. Phillip is currently the president of “Chess for Success” a non-profit charity that uses chess to teach elementary and middle school children study skills. He is also on the Board of Literary Arts, which sponsors the Oregon Book Awards, The Writers in the Schools program and Portland Arts and Lectures. Buy your tickets now to hear him speak at Spring Fling 2012.
Annual Fundraiser with Canby Telcom
Willamette Valley Country Club
Reception at 6 pm, followed by Buffet Dinner at 7 pm
Speaker: Phil Margolin
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Your participation will support the Canby Educational Foundation’s efforts to enrich and enhance the education of students in Canby’s public schools.
Individual tickets are $50.
Gold Table ($1,000) and Silver Table ($500) Sponsorships are available and include: dinner for eight, table marker with name/logo, special mention in the program, recognition on CEF website, and continued publicity in CEF articles.
Please contact: Mary Walsh, 263-9299 or 516-2631 for further information
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Alter Wiener, author of 64735-From A Name to A Number, a Holocaust Survivor’s Autobiography. He lived in New York until the age of seventy-three when he moved to Oregon and met a Holocaust survivor who urged him to join the Oregon Holocaust Resource Center. Mr. Wiener has shared his Holocaust experience with both students and adults in Oregon and Washington. His book has been called ‘an uplifting and poignant account’ and ‘among the best of its kind.’
The Canby Educational Foundation gratefully accepts donations of any size to support its efforts on behalf of the Canby School District. We will mail a receipt to you for your tax records. Please send donations payable to the foundation to: Canby Educational Foundation, PO Box 1271 Canby, OR 97013
If you wish to explore the possibility of making a longer term commitment to the foundation through planned giving options, please contact us at 503-263-9299. We can provide contact information for professional services that will explain these options to you.
