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Under new principal, Ockley Green moves forward
9/18/2018As she ushers a visitor into her office, Kristina Howard says to excuse the boxes and bags and plain walls. “I haven’t really had time to unpack or decorate,” the principal of Ockley Green Middle Schools says.
Other things have consumed Howard’s time since she started the job on July 1. Early on, she engaged in multiple listening sessions with returning teachers and staff to collect data and information. She used the feedback to institute a technology-based system that staff members hope will give the school some stability that can allow it to shine academically.
“We’re starting from scratch,” says Howard, who came to Portland from Kent, Wash., where she was principal of the Excel Public Charter School. “The kids are amazing, and the staff that stayed are amazing, and the families are supportive. They just need people to guide them in the right direction, and that’s what I hope we’re doing right now.”
Ockley Green was the first school to be converted from a K-8 format into a middle school as part of Portland Public Schools’ return to having comprehensive middle schools. The 2016-17 re-opening of Ockley Green paved the way for this year’s opening of Harriet Tubman and Roseway Heights as middle schools.
After having two interim principals, the Ockley Green community is pleased that Howard is committed to staying at the North Portland school.
“When I first met Kristina she said, ‘I’m here for the long run. I’m here to stay,’” says Richard Littledyke, the school’s music teacher. “That eased a lot of tensions.”
Although she relies heavily on data, Howard says listening to teachers and staff has just as valuable.
“I needed the narratives, I needed to know why,” she says.
The feedback told Howard that she needed to make stability and school safety her priorities. She has used a software program, Kickboard, that allows teachers and administrators to monitor and track behavior in near real time. Using a phone app and their laptops, teachers are able to award what are called “on points” to students or even an entire classroom, for positive behavior that exemplifies the school’s core values: caring, collaboration and growth.
Students will be able to use the points to bid at an auction the school will hold every quarter. Howard took feedback from students on the prizes they’d like to see, and their suggestions included bubble tea, Taco Bell, Starbucks, soul food, ear buds and movies passes. There are also plans to open a school store where students can use points.
The system also allows teachers to ask for immediate assistance, allowing Howard and her leadership team to respond much quicker than the old system that relied on a phone call to the front office and use of walkie-talkies.
The technology has helped Howard established clear lines for behavior, with rewards and consequences on both sides. As a result, the number of on points rewarded has steadily risen. Howard says the key has been the buy-in that she has gotten from teachers, in particular the returning ones.
“We’re all in this together,” Howard says. “I just told them that this year is all about growing, and everybody just has to continue to grow, including myself.”
The clear lines have also helped students get on board with the system.
“I can get the whole class an on point as a reward, and they’re buying into it so much,” says Littledyke, the music teacher. “I can see an immediate change because they’re looking for those things and showing the behaviors to get those points.”
Howard says she and her team – which includes assistant principals Regina Sackrider, Aaron Green-Mitchell and Joshua Zeller – have plenty of work ahead. The effort is similar to the one Howard made at Excel, where she had to rebuild a staff with high turnover. At Ockley Green, she prioritized getting her teachers on board by incorporating their ideas.
“The staff has been super positive and super bought-in,” she said. “And I’m asking a lot of them.”
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