What’s going on with the new ‘Innovative School’ at Woodside K-8?

By Sara Beth Williams–
After being selected as the San Juan Unified School District’s new innovative school site in the spring of 2023, Woodside K-8 staff and the Innovative School design team have spent the last year reviewing community feedback and collaborating with students to prototype innovative approaches to learning.

In an interview with The Sentinel, Deanna Victor, Innovative School Design Team Teacher Lead, described the new innovative school’s approach as a “shift in practice” versus a singular event.

“Any teacher could shift their practice and gather input from students, parents, community,” Victor said, adding that teachers can incorporate their own passions and the passions of their students into classroom instruction to create “more exciting” projects and learning experiences. “Anytime we can get more students engaged, they’re going to be excited about it because they’re going to be included.”

Woodside K-8 Principal Elizabeth Wahl called the new approach “a great fit” and said the focus of the innovative approach is encouraging students to design and prototype new ideas centered around three pillars: belonging and wellness, hands-on experiential learning, and leadership and connection.

“This is more of a way of co-creating things with students,” Wahl said, adding that the approach is a “huge shift” from the traditional structure of how education is taught in classrooms.

Wahl said the school implemented a Middle School Design Club, a group of seventh and eighth grade students who have helped develop new learning experiences and ideas to prototype throughout the year.

In a video posted on the district’s website, Victor said the design club was voluntary, and created a space for students to learn how to discuss and solve problems, generate new ideas to implement into the entire school site, and develop leadership skills to take into high school.

This year, with the help of community partner The Heights Church, a fenced off space full of weeds, dirt and broken bike racks was transformed into a gardening space. Students helped build garden boxes and planted a variety of native plants in the new gardening space and in other planter boxes around the school. Wahl said classrooms regularly rotate caring for the space, including setting up and cleaning up furniture and watering plants.

The school also brought in chicken eggs and hatched them during this school year.

“Our most disengaged learners were hanging out after school naming chicks,” Wahl said.

During the 2023–24 school year, the district also provided every Woodside K-8 classroom with interactive boards. Several teachers and students demonstrated how to use the 80-inch boards during class time in a video on San Juan’s YouTube channel. In the video, Wahl said the interactive boards have “truly changed the face of the learning taking place in the classroom.”

Victor and the Innovative School design team have been working together since 2022, she said, and conducted nine community feedback meetings at Citrus Heights elementary and K-8 schools in 2023 in an effort to gather community feedback on strengths, opportunities for growth, and hopes and desires for local elementary and K-8 campuses.

Related: School district seeks input on ‘reimagining’ early ed in Citrus Heights – Citrus Heights Sentinel

Victor said that, though Woodside K-8 was selected, other Citrus Heights schools are always in the back of her and the team’s minds. She said the team is brainstorming ways to continue to support Woodside K-8 while also moving into supporting other school sites in the city.

In a discussion on how she hopes the Innovative School approach will impact the rest of the Citrus Heights community, Wahl said she would like to see other schools give themselves permission to “step into a space” that allows for embracing curiosity.

The planning for and introduction of an innovative school site came in the midst of debate among the City Council regarding whether Citrus Heights should break away from the San Juan district and form its own Citrus Heights School District.

In March, the City Council debated the outcome of the Citrus Heights Education Committee’s report following a long-awaited presentation in a March 14 City Council meeting. Only five of the seven committee members were present to present. Among the absent committee members was Robin Stout, Superintendent of Rocklin Academy Family of Schools, a group of private charter schools.

The council agreed in March to move forward with pursuing collaboration and partnership with the district, rather than to pursue forming a new Citrus Heights school district.

Read more: Citrus Heights council questions report from education committee

Councilmember MariJane Lopez-Taff called the socioeconomic challenges observed by the committee “unchanging” and said that Citrus Heights schools “have been historically below average” academically. Lopez-Taff also called into question the lack of attendance data, and Mayor Bret Daniels expressed disappointment at the lack of budget and extracurricular activity data.

Preceding the education committee’s report, Wahl spoke to the council in March and called the partnership between the district and Citrus Heights “a very, very special thing” and also listed multiple community organizations who have come alongside to support Woodside K-8.

“There’s such a value added to having those [community] relationships,” Wahl said.