Oregon Spotlight: How Mountain View Elementary Created a Caring School Community

Tell us a little about yourself, Mountain View Elementary, and the students that you serve.

I am the elementary school principal at Mountain View Elementary School in Corvallis, Oregon, within the Corvallis School District. I have 11 years of experience in elementary education.

At Mountain View, we embrace the opportunity of serving an entire Title 1 school with free and reduced lunch. The community is predominantly white and rural, with a significant portion facing generational poverty.

Consequently, navigating these challenges fuels my passion for creating systems and supports that prioritize the most marginalized groups within our school community.

Navigating these challenges fuels my passion for creating systems and supports that prioritize the most marginalized groups within our school community.

What is the most rewarding part of being a principal for you? 

I love being a principal. It’s my dream job.

One of the things I love the most about being an educator, and a principal especially, is that we are the holders and keepers of students’ and families’ stories.

The other part I love about my work is creating structures and systems that hold the most marginalized groups of people at the center of what we do, centering the experiences of those who have been the most pushed out of the conversation and building from there because then everyone can succeed.

I love…creating structures and systems that hold the most marginalized groups of people at the center of what we do, centering the experiences of those who have been the most pushed out of the conversation and building from there because then everyone can succeed.

How did you first become interested in the Caring School Community program?

Our district implemented the Collaborative Classroom ELA suite Collaborative Literacy back in 2018.  

About a year into the implementation, we started to learn about Caring School Community. I became interested in Caring School Community because of the word “community.” Community is about bringing in everyone together and learning from each other.

Moreover, I think what really drew me into Caring School Community is that aspect of meetings—circling together as a group to have a daily morning circle and closing circle, and class meetings.

Those are all pieces of Caring School Community and all those pieces are really what bring folks together in community, which is what we’re about at our school.

How long has Mountain View Elementary been implementing Caring School Community? Tell us a little about the implementation.

We have been implementing Caring School Community for five years now.

I would say it has gone from learning the pieces of the program, with the manuals out on our laps, to looking at how we implement morning circle, class meetings, and closing circle, to then internalizing the components and embedding those within our practices, and then finally using those same structures to choose topics that match our students’ needs.

What are you noticing as your implementation has grown and matured? 

Reflecting on our journey with Caring School Community, I’ve observed a profound shift in the dynamics within our school community.

Dialogue has become more open and constructive, allowing students and staff alike to express their thoughts and concerns respectfully. Accordingly, this shift towards inclusive discourse has dismantled hierarchical structures and fostered a culture of mutual respect and understanding.

Dialogue has become more open and constructive, allowing students and staff alike to express their thoughts and concerns respectfully.

How does Caring School Community work with your Collaborative Classroom literacy programs?

The lessons in Being a Reader and Being a Writer [which together comprise Collaborative Literacy] include specific guidance for building community—giving and accepting feedback—and creating a safe environment where students feel comfortable in sharing their learning journey. 

Furthermore, the lessons in Being a Reader and Being a Writer support the social-emotional learning focused lessons in Caring School Community and vice versa. Also, pairing SEL and English language arts enhances, nurtures, and ensures that building a caring school community is student-centered.

What do you appreciate about Caring School Community? 

I really appreciate the vertical alignment and progression of skills that are explicitly taught to students, from kindergarten through fifth grade.

We have expanded the weekly secret or spotlight student lessons to include staff. As a result, these activities have humanized individuals within our community, fostering connections based on shared experiences and identities beyond their roles within the school. These initiatives serve as powerful reminders of our common humanity and the shared goals that unite us as a school community.

These initiatives serve as powerful reminders of our common humanity and the shared goals that unite us as a school community.

What do Mountain View Elementary teachers, staff, and community appreciate about Caring School Community?

As we’ve implemented Caring School Community throughout our school we especially noticed the vertical alignment and the strategies that kids learn. In the younger grades, students are really learning about self-awareness, how they relate to others. And this learning slowly shifts into more social responsibility and social awareness as kids get older. 

For example, the strategies like turn and talk to your partner and face them and look them in the eye. I can see those strategies being used across our entire school. And as it has built up over the last five years, I see students in older grades, like in our fifth grade classes this year, automatically use these strategies.   

Our teachers and staff have also started to use these same strategies. We use a lot of the strategies in our staff meetings. For instance, if we’ve had problems or concerns come up as a staff, we come together to have a meeting about thatso the structure is just like the structure students are using.  The staff is learning, contemplating, and refining procedures, protocols, and SEL practice.

How has Caring School Community shifted teaching practices and/or professional learning in Mountain View Elementary?

The implementation of Caring School Community has been instrumental in shaping the inclusive and supportive culture at Mountain View Elementary School.

Moreover, by prioritizing community, empathy, and dialogue, we’ve created a learning environment where every voice is valued, and every individual is seen for their unique contributions to our shared journey of growth and learning.

By prioritizing community, empathy, and dialogue, we’ve created a learning environment where every voice is valued, and every individual is seen for their unique contributions to our shared journey of growth and learning.

What thoughts or insights would you share with a school or district considering Caring School Community?

If you are a district considering implementing Caring School Community, I recommend using the Caring School Community guides and implementation resources. I found the Principal’s Leadership Guide to be really helpful.  

To begin with, start with your staff first. Meet in a circle to create the vision, mission, and your school norms. I used the Caring School Community implementation resources and activities with my entire staff for the first year of implementation and revisit and repurpose the activities every year.

Additionally, throughout the Caring School Community implementation process, I’ve really appreciated that I can use the structures that classrooms are using with our staff, and model the structures with our staff. 

Related Reading

Teacher Spotlight: Emily Pedersen, Corvallis School District, Oregon

How Sierra Nevada Is Reducing Disciplinary Reports with Caring School Community

On Demand Webinar: Implementing SEL: Finding Success, Avoiding Setbacks