Delta Elementary School
Delta Junction, Alaska
Delta Junction, Alaska is a small community of approximately 1500 located 50 miles North of the Alaska Range at the confluence of the Delta and Tanana rivers and at the North end of the Alaska Highway. We have beautiful summers and cold, windy winters. Delta Elementary not only services Delta Junction but also Fort Greely, a missile defense base located about eight miles from the school. Much of the security force on this base is from the Puerto Rican National Guard, so in addition to the normal diversity that comes from military communities, we have a very high population of Spanish speaking students. Delta Junction has a very high Ukrainian and Russian population as well. This makes our little prek-5 school of 360 students quite diverse, which we love! Our staff is comprised of 24 certified teachers and 23 paraprofessionals and support personnel. Many are Russian or Spanish speaking to aid in servicing our ELL population.
Our preschool is a special needs preschool. Children must qualify to attend or be chosen from a lottery of “model” students. It has a staff of one special education-certified teacher and two paraprofessionals that run two sessions with approximately 12-14 students per session.
To meet the needs of our rather large population of special needs students, we have two certified SPED teachers and nine paraprofessionals to provide services and inclusion. These students are an important part of our school culture and are loved and respected by the entire population. They are integrated into the classroom whenever possible and the entire school is educated on the importance of inclusion and respect for all students regardless of disability.
Delta Elementary is well known for its positive climate and high standards for all students. In order to better meet the needs of Delta Junction/Fort Greely’s struggling students, Delta Elementary has adopted a program called MTSS (Multi Tiered System of Support). This is a framework where we can provide specific intervention to students academically and social/emotionally based on their individual need. Three times a year, each student at Delta Elementary School is given two screening assessments (MAP and DIBELS) to determine his/her reading and math performance in addition to daily classroom assessment. We use this data to determine if your child is at or above grade level academically (Tier 1), needs some additional intervention to get to grade level (Tier 2), or if significant intervention is warranted (Tier 3). We also monitor all children for social/emotional issues (behavior with peers, depression, anger, adherence to school rules, etc) and do the same thing. Students who show no or minimal SEL issues are Tier 1, students who have more but manageable SEL issues are Tier 2, and students who have a difficult time controlling their emotions and/or impulses are Tier 3. Students who have an IEP for academics are exempt from this process because they already have an intervention plan. Every student in Tier 3 for academics, and Tier 3 for SEL will have an I-Team meeting scheduled for them with the parents, the teacher, our reading interventionist (if needed), and the counselor and/or principal. In this meeting we will discuss the child’s situation and what interventions we can create to help them. These interventions will be recorded and the child’s progress will be monitored. DES has an outstanding intervention team with years of experience who will be a key part of the child’s system of support. Additional assessments may be completed in order to inform instruction and intervention. It is our goal to provide the best instruction and materials to help your child succeed. When your son/daughter’s performance is similar to their on-track peers for several weeks, we will notify you of the next steps (e.g., discuss when the intervention will be discontinued). We will continue monitoring your child’s performance to ensure they no longer need the additional support. If the support is not helping your child improve, we will adjust what we are doing in order to help him/her and notify you of the changes in intervention. Your input is welcome at any point in the process. Our timeline is for all students to be assessed by the end of September, and all initial I-team meetings completed by the end of October.
Our school has also made a commitment to differentiate instruction in the classroom. Our teachers are implementing rotational grouping and personalized instructional techniques to not only give targeted instruction to students who struggle, but to students who are advanced as well. We have chosen a high rigor math and ELA curriculum with a personalized component to aid our teachers in facilitating differentiation.
A few years ago, recognizing that there is more to education than the 3 R’s, we set a goal for our school to become more focused on educating the “whole child”. We have found creative ways to offer music and art instruction to each class through utilizing the community and our own limited resources. In addition, we have an amazing physical education teacher who sees each class twice a week. Our half time school counselor services all of our tier three SEL students, and partners with a child/family development coordinator to teach social/emotional lessons once a week to each class as well as handle our MTSS documentation and I-team scheduling. We have a non-certified librarian who sees the students once a week and has them participate in a variety of activities based on local events and Alaskan themes as well as seasonal happenings. She also runs a school-wide reading program/contest that lasts the whole year and is extremely popular. If reading goals are met, I have had to participate in some very undesirable activities at our monthly assemblies such as eat dog food, kiss a pig, sit in jail, and get pied in the face to name a few. The library hosts two book fairs per year and the annual Battle of the Books contest as well.
At DES we are committed to offering as many activities as we can schedule. We reach out to the staff and community for people who are willing to share their talents and time for the betterment of Delta’s children. We host a Nordic ski club, rocketry club, Robotics team, Lego league club, yearbook team, Ididamovie club, Little Dribblers basketball league, youth wrestling, Jump Rope for Heart, a science/engineering fair, and other activities which include all learners exploring their abilities.
Community involvement is a priority. We have a website, Facebook page, and digital highway sign that are updated daily. Each teacher has a class media page that they use and weekly newsletters. Information is also sent to the paper and local websites weekly. We host parent/teacher conferences twice a year and have a goal for at least 90% attendance, which we either reach or are very close to reaching each time. We host a variety of community events as well such as a Trunk or Treat event, Christmas Art Gala and concert, STEM night, literacy night, a spring concert, Husky Hustle 3K race, rocket launch day, field day, and an end of year picnic.
The number one reason why DES is so successful however, is the high-powered teachers and support personnel employed here. They are nothing short of incredible. They are fully committed to educating our community’s children to the best of their ability, which is vast. Once they set a goal, nothing will stop them from reaching it. They are passionate, driven, and demand excellence for themselves and each other and are using all of these tools to fill holes in learning, keep students who are on track progressing, and making sure all social emotional issues created by the pandemic are addressed. Because of them, Delta Elementary really is a place where “Everything is Pawsible” (our motto).
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