2025-2026 District PD - Welcome Back!
Section: INST20260005Summary
Commnets
Strengths:
Responses: 141"N/A"
"Short and sweet"
"Helps prepare"
"Love the chance to get excited for the school year."
"good info"
"Energy "
"Brava!!!! One of the best openers ever....I laughed a lot!!! Great humor. "
"It is nice to have a director who believes in systems."
"Shout Outs"
"Organized "
"Positive start to kick off the school year"
"Important info shared."
"Very relevant"
"Loved the celebration focus. Great energy."
"Was engaging "
"Promotes treating all students with respect and safety."
"Thank you for recognizing Sage Hills and PUD for supporting us! Sage Hills has gone above and beyond! "
"Efficient job"
"LA planeacion y medicion del tiempo "
"Great energy in the room! Good recognition and cheering for each part of our district. Great recognization of community partners."
"It was fun to see the entire staff in a good positive attitude."
"Thank you for celebrating!"
"Good moment to become involved. "
"It is always great to see everyone the first day - pumps you up "
"Opportunity to connect with community resources"
"Kory, you're ROCKIN' it - Loved the energy!! "
"It was WAY too loud!!"
"Very interactive & fun!"
"This was an incredible welcome back session. As someone coming from out of district as a new employee I was very impressed with the positive energy I felt in the room."
"Foresight and practice"
"Sage Hills Church!!"
"Great day - very positive and useful information!"
"Peers have shared that they appreciated that there was not the appearance of new mandates and initiatives coming from central office. "
"Well organized. "
"Well organized"
"This was a fun welcome back!"
"Great energy!"
"Thank you for sharing sponsor information and celebrating those community members who we can say thank you to as well."
"helpful for me to get engaged in the school year"
"I appreciate connecting as a district. "
"got nuts and bolts the first day!"
"Great sequence and timing for relevant and authentic content."
"Fun"
"Dr Kalahar is an excellent public speaker!"
"Positivity"
"Worksheet Highlighting our own strengths was good for reflection"
"Loved the way that all the schools were acknowledged in different ways "
"Knowledgeable "
"N/A"
"N/A"
"Helpful reminders of what best practices are and how to apply them are always helpful."
"Kory's enthusiasm and the community partnership celebrations"
"Na "
"So organized, efficient, and clear! Thank you Shayne and Kathy!!"
"N/a"
"Great lively welcome back Kory!"
"Clear and important information that will be needed for a successful school year 25-26"
"N/A"
"Craig and Elissa did a great job. Many people enjoyed the community building activities and felt like they would apply them to their classrooms. "
"Clear expectations on no phone policies."
"I liked that the kickoff was high energy and focused on recognition of groups, individuals or schools. Great community support and breakfast spread."
"Everyone was very well celebrated! "
"appreciate recognizing community sponsors"
"Great communication "
"enthusiasm! "
"Good job presenting."
"clear"
"Focusing on celebrations and motivating staff for a welcoming high energy return to school"
"the usual"
"There were several strengths, such as the organization and small groups. "
"Informative "
"Informative"
"Informative"
"Security "
"Security "
"It was a very positive atmosphere"
"free food"
"I really enjoyed the staff and school shout outs as well as recognizing community members. I liked that we didn't really talk business too much, just celebrating each other and being back. I think we needed that. Thanks! "
"None"
"Food and community fair is really great in bringing people together. "
"Awesome energy this year!"
"energy"
"shout outs"
"Very informative"
"We got a clear answer for how the new phone policy will work and how the Admin staff plans on supporting us. Thank you!!!"
"Nice energy and collaboration with/celebration of the community. Thanks for inviting students to perform."
"I loved taking the time for celebrations and shout outs."
"na"
"Thanks for the great start."
"The day was great! "
"Presentation had high engagement. I enjoyed how student strengths and activities were showcased. "
"Hope and optimism "
"Target points, appreciation recognition"
"engagement"
"I found this course helpful."
"I really enjoyed the entertainment given by our students. The energy was great!"
"Teamwork, energy, focus. FMS is the best!"
"N/A"
"Kory's address to the whole district staff was the best school year starter I have been to in YEARS. I loved the enthusiasm, focus on positivity, celebrating each other, and recognizing community partnerships. "
"Overall information that was shared. "
"Stay focus on continuos improvement/ confidence/ Motivation."
"The hype of excitement by the super intendent was awesome! "
"very useful"
"Engaging"
"Great energy and yummy food! It is evident that much thought was put into hosting a very energized welcome back!"
"Organization"
"Focused; not drawn-out"
"Collaboration and topics were relevant to our job."
"The energy and focus on celebrations! "
"Admin SUPER prepared and made it really fun. This was the BEST Principals day I have ever been to!"
"Positive energy!"
"Great collaboration opportunity "
"Great knowledge"
"Color guard was awesome"
"Good goals. There were opportunities to check my learning with short quizes."
"Great to see everyone back."
"Great information, stayed on track, good balance of heavy subject and mind break fun. "
"Very celebratory which was awesome"
"Well organized and prepared"
"Great information "
"Good"
"Good energy"
"They tried to honor our time throughout the day and keep it positive. "
"Time to work with teams- both vertically and horiztonally"
"N/A"
"Great Collaboration"
"Clear"
"With great deference, it is with profound appreciation that I must articulate the preeminent virtue of this particular scholastic endeavor. The most considerable strength, or more precisely, the linchpin of this course's efficacy, emanates directly from the meticulous and highly proficient organization of the professional development registrar. The singular and superlative quality of this academic offering is, therefore, a direct and undeniable consequence of the registrar's unparalleled administrative scrupulousness."
"The presenters"
"Interactive, engaging, informative"
"Well organized "
"Hosts gave very helpful information that I will be able to implement at my job site"
"Engaging "
"The material was streamlined. "
"Very direct"
"Time management"
"Time management"
"keeping the information current to what is happening in our time and situations we could encounter at work."
"learned new changes to this year, got to collaborate with other teachers"
"Inclusive able to recognize small wins vs big wins."
"N/A"
Suggestions:
Responses: 101"N/A"
"N/a"
"It just wasn’t a good use of time. "
"none"
"Some people are larger than others. Not all people can fit in the theater chairs. Please have folding chairs ...maybe 1 row behind the last row and then along the wall before the highest level. Multiple people I know sat on the stairs or stood because they could not fit in the chairs. Myself included."
"Na"
"PLEASE a PD that applies to us ALL since we are ALL together Certs and Classified. "
"None"
"Keep up the energy and engagement. "
"None"
"None"
"Their isn't equity for the conservative values and beliefs compared with progressive values in issues of gender identity. Many conservative values are just consider wrong because the are not compatible with progressive values. This is not inclusive."
"Next year, if we can, let's not schedule picture day on day one. Let's wait two or three days so we can give a good amount of notice."
"mas dinamicas "
"Make it more meaningful to staff at the beginning of the year when there is soooo much to do, this was an hour of time that teachers could use to be in their classrooms preparing for the year tather than cheering"
"None"
"none"
"NA"
"Stop having a kick-off that has nothing to do with the jobs we do in the district. The two hours spent there could have been spent getting ready for the school year. "
"None"
"None"
"none"
"na"
"N/A"
"none"
"I would like a scheduled block of time to meet with music team. "
"it was a good, productive day."
"We need more time in our rooms to set up, organizer for a new year, work on lessons, setting up Google Classroom...all the things that need to be done on an individual level to start the year. I have 2 preps, one of which is new and need more time to wrap my brain around. Also, time to revamp syllabus, and other beginning of the year items."
"None at this time."
"Allow for more time for the community fair - wasn't able to talk to all the booths"
"None. "
"n/a"
"Have a Wenatchee Tribe land acknowledgement. "
"Please do not allow loud noisemakers. It was unpleasant. Make in meaningful for everyone. Classroom teachers especially have so much to do that while this was fun, it was not really a good use of time."
"N/A"
"N/A"
"Na "
"N/a"
"Need more hours to complete all these assignments - maybe 4 or 5 hours given for classified instead of only 3"
"None"
"The raffle takes too long"
"N/A"
"Maybe a brief explanation of how we would set up a push in."
"Show highlights of achievements or proud and fun moments from each school or organization from 2024-25 school year. A compilation of pictures submitted by each school would be fun to watch as a video. "
"no suggestions"
"None"
"none"
"Can district, bus transportation, nutrition and new staff have a different staff picture day, maybe on the second day back. The line gets pretty long and we end up missing the community resource fair, breakfast and/or part of the all district assembly?"
"None. "
"None"
"Focus on including videos according to the position "
"Focus on including videos according to the position "
"Opening day is really geared toward extroverts. It is extremely loud. Just keep us introverts in mind. There also was no direction given in terms of district goals or aims. "
"I would really love it if there would have been drip coffee there, becuase they line was so long and I was not able to visit any of the vendors. "
"We could not make it in the auditorium, there were not seats and waiting for the food trucks took over 45 minutes. "
"There was not enough room in the auditorium when I walked in. It didn't feel welcoming. It was standing room only in the lobby. I heard ZERO of the whatever happened in the WHS auditorium. There were over 30+ employees out in the lobby who didn't hear or see a single thing. It's time to do something different for a "welcome back." My suggestion is to just do a district zoom at each building's staff get together in their buildings. 15 years of this is enough."
"None"
"As part of the startup days please include several hours of time for paras to have time in their buildings to prep for the year. "
"none"
"None. "
"Practice presentation a bit more to time with slides. Give more time/heads up for preparation if you want teams to represent in a cool way."
"To go over the districts vision for the year."
"na"
"N/a"
"none"
"None"
"The horns and speakers were too loud and created a "chaotic" environment as opposed to fun and entertaining."
"None"
"N/A"
"N/A"
"more trainings "
"None"
"No group seating"
"None at this time"
"More time available to get documents ready for parents would be wonderful (for Meet & Greets)-also more time for teachers to collaborate about former students and behavioral or health needs."
"None"
"Bring back Mariachi! "
"Way too many courses required for safe schoools. Maybe substitute teachers could only do half of the training."
"None"
"none. "
"N/A"
"N/A"
"Little more prepared "
"The opening day at the highschool did not feel very much like an opening day. I felt like we did celebrations as a roll call, but there was no sense of who we are as a district, what our focus was, what is important to us. I didn't feel it was a good use of my time. "
"N/A"
"This was nothing but an awards assembly. No new information was given and some of the awards were 2 years old. This wasn't a "workshop""
"Extend the time to collaborate and fit in all the activities"
"No"
"Please don't say crescendo of awesomeness anymore. "
"None"
"I believe everything was perfect no modifications that need to be made."
"Less time "
"None."
"Bring back the t-shirt cannon "
"None."
"N/A"
"I don’t have any"
"I don’t have any"
"No sugestions"
"N/A"
"N/A"
Questions:
Responses: 69"N/A"
"N/a"
"none"
"Why when you have all staff together, cert and classified do we not do a PD that affects us all and would apply to us ALL like BEHAVIORS and how to support each other in this area. All hearing the same information and what is expected at the same time. "
"None"
"None"
"None"
"Are we getting more PD as a district?"
"none "
"NA"
"None"
"None"
"none"
"na"
"N/A"
"none"
"None at this time."
"none"
"none. "
"N/A"
"N/A"
"Na "
"N/a"
"N/A"
"N/A"
"None"
"no questions"
"No questions"
"nope"
"None. "
"None"
"see above"
"None"
"none"
"None. "
"Without increasing staff workload a lot, could you ask for some of our examples of awesomeness (or whatever) for opening days? Would love to see quotes."
"None."
"na"
"N/A"
"N/a"
"n/a"
"None"
"N/A"
"N/A"
"not at the moment"
"Is this evaluation JUST for the morning? Or all day?"
"ok"
"Still a little confused about the parent drop-off/pick-up situation. Hopefully, it will get sorted out."
"None"
"None"
"None"
"none "
"I wonder how many people love the loudness of the band. While I know I do, some don't and I hear about it. Never going to please all just something I wonder about."
"N/A"
"N/A"
"Na "
"N/A"
"No"
"None"
"Not at this time."
"None"
"None."
"None."
"N/A"
"None"
"None"
"none"
"N/A"
"All of my questions were answered during the orientation."
Comments:
Responses: 85"N/A"
"N/a"
"none"
"Thank you for clarifying the phone stuff, I like we are not to warn nor play it. "
"Please show us that you support us with student behaviors. "
"None"
"None"
"Thank you "
"Thank you"
"Thank you!"
"Me gusta mucho aprender diferentes maneras en las que los alumnos aprenden "
"Thank you for the food and good vibes."
"Well done. Staff were energized for the boring stuff that came later. :)"
"none "
"NA"
"None"
"Enjoyed all information. Thank You."
"Thank you! "
"I wonder, for our only time when all district employees are in one space, if there might be additional ways to utilize time well and connect staff to their own mission/vision for being part of WSD."
"none"
"Thank you!"
"Loved the focus on celebrations!!"
"N/A"
"none"
"Thank you for an upbeat start to the year!"
"great first day!"
"Great use of time! Thanks for balancing the fun with the strictly business!"
"Happy new school year! - and - Science Resource Center Rocks!"
"none."
"N/A"
"N/A"
"Always helpful to get refreshers."
"Na"
"N/a"
"Very uplifting during hard times... thank you!"
"Thank you for providing relevant and important information. "
"N/A"
"Thank you for the training."
"Looking forward to the new school year. Please give the paras a decent contract to truly show the district's appreciation for their paras. Thank you for your support."
"looking forward to the 2025-2026 school year!"
"I feel like the teacher kudos could be done at the building level and that when we have the whole group together we should use that precious time to discuss goals, vision and strategic plan. "
"Good job!"
"none"
"None. "
"None"
"This meeting was not the time for GEM Awards....that is a waste of many peoples time. "
"None"
"Classified staff are important. Please show us your support by offering a contract that reflects our worth. "
"Parking is such an issue at this event. It is so difficult leaving the parking lot. Consider having some alternative transportation to the event (link bus partnership?). Any positive feelings one has during the welcome back celebration quickly fade when having to deal with the parking lot madness."
"none"
"This is my first full school year and super excited!"
"Thank you for your hard work."
"None."
"na"
"N/a"
"n/a"
"Thank you for bringing us together every year. It is nice to see all of us together. "
"Rock on!"
"N/A"
"Thank you, Sage Hills Church for all the amazing food and drink. What a blessing. "
"fun and interesting"
"Not sure of the goal of the morning? Just to reconnect and celebrate?? If so, it was fine. Afternoon back at our building was great. Jennifer did a great job of taking the district information and adapting it to our needs. "
"Crowded"
"Thank you, everyone, for all that you do. I know you all work so much overtime. You are appreciated."
"Thank you for not trying to tell us how great things are in the education world right now or focus on things outside of our control."
"None"
"None"
"Thanks!!"
"Great!"
"N/a"
"Na "
"Thank you so much for all your support."
"Again, I really appreciate the focus on allowing us time to work with our teams. "
"N/A"
"Thanks"
"No comments."
"None"
"None."
"None."
"N/A"
"Comfortable and friendly environment "
"Comfortable and friendly environment "
"I think that the issue of our undocumented families, our protocols with ICE, should have been reviewed. I think there should have also been something sent to families to ensure they know our policies and procedures."
"Great content in each course"
"N/A"