The Chelsea School District’s reimagining of the Portrait of a Graduate logo going into this school year didn’t stop there. The effort and commitment in bringing about what that logo represents takes place in the classroom each day.  

This is evident in recent reports coming from school district’s building leadership.

Casey Wescott, Principal at North Creek Elementary, said in his recent report to the school board, “Our commitment to embedding the Chelsea Schools Portrait of a Graduate (POG) into daily instruction continues to grow stronger.”

 “Not only are individual classrooms incorporating POG in their lessons, but we are also recognizing and celebrating its importance across grade levels and as a school community,” Wescott said “This month, we have focused on the theme of being a “bucket filler” and are concluding our bi-weekly emphasis on the POG characteristic of Communication.”

The school district defines the POG this way:

“Our Portrait of a Graduate identifies the skills and attributes we believe are critical to ensuring students are future ready. Built collaboratively by the Chelsea School District and community, it serves as a guide for work and decision-making in all aspects of the organization.” 

South Meadows Elementary School Principal Katie Spisich said they continue to highlight POG on Fridays with “Caught Being Positive.”

This year she said South Meadows “added an opportunity for teachers to nominate each other for embodying P.O.G. traits. We share these over the announcements and in our weekly family communication.”

Spisich highlighted some specific ways as to keep the POG in mind:

● They created a POG board at South this year to bring more awareness to their weekly competency and highlight students.

● The literacy team has been working with North Creek Literacy to plan and develop professional development focused on the science of reading.

● Teachers met on October 1st for their first Literacy Lab Day, to review and analyze new Acadience data.

● The school improvement team has met twice this year.

● The Student Leadership Team is up and running, we had such a high number of student applicants that we added a South Clean Up crew, who will help with trash pick-up, recycling, and our hammock garden.

In highlighting some goals they are using with the POG, Chelsea High School Principal Amanda Clor said during their beginning of the year professional development, “CHS staff worked together to create our building goals in this area.”

“Building Goal #1: By the end of the 2024-2025 academic year, building principals and staff at Chelsea High School will analyze state and local assessment data, including SAT or PSAT results, to identify students needing additional support or enrichment. The goal is to achieve a 5% growth in student performance, as measured by SAT or PSAT assessments, from the previous year’s performance to the current year’s results.”

“Building Goal #2: By the end of the current academic year, each teacher will develop and implement one lesson per trimester that will integrate at least two key competencies from the Portrait of a Graduate.”

When looking at the logo there are three words that stand out: Academic, Social and Emotional. As seen in their reports, each school building is finding ways to address these in order to achieve one of their bigger goals, which is aiming to “nurture in supporting growth of the whole child.”