WCUUSD Curriculum Newsletter

Hi, WCUUSD educators--

Yesterday was the final day of my stint as co-Acting Superintendent. And last night I finished reading Lonesome Dove, which was quite a commitment (843 pages, to be precise).

While these endings are somewhat bittersweet--sharing the role of Acting Superintendent with Alicia Lyford was a joy and finishing an epic Western that had been on my "to read" list for decades was deeply gratifying--I am very excited about what these endings mean for new beginnings.

I can't wait to dive into some important work that I've been putting on the back burner for the past two months (read the newsletter below and you'll get a sense of what I mean!), I look forward to collaborating with our interim superintendents, and I am most excited about spending more time in our schools with you all.

And I can't wait to start the next book on my bookshelf...

Warmly,

Jen

The purpose of Curriculum Council is to promote the coordination of our curriculum across our district to support instruction and inform professional learning so that every student has access to engaging, relevant, and culturally inclusive universal instruction and support.

Curriculum Council is comprised of teacher leaders and administrators from all of our schools. We strive to create a representative group, balancing roles, subjects, and grade levels. We also strive to ensure that there is a mix of experienced Curriculum Council members and folks who are new or newer to Curriculum Council. Please look for a posting to serve on Curriculum Council this year in the days to come.

Please reach out to Jen Miller-Arsenault at jmillerarsenault@u32.org with any questions or concerns.

• Principals and teacher leaders from each building are members of Curriculum Council. Stay tuned for more information next month.

On October 7 the Education Quality Committee will take a deeper dive into our Spring 2026 data, this time with a focus on the performance of subgroups. We will examine results based on gender, economic status, race and ethnicity, and special education eligibility. Like last month we will review i-Ready math results, i-Ready reading results, and Acadience K-6 Reading results. The full slideshow is still being developed and will be shared in the next newsletter. Below is a preview.

The Humanity and Justice Coalition had its first meeting of the school year on Thursday, September 24. It was so great to get together!

We worked on our goal for 2026-2027. The current draft of our goal is: To continue to support the codification of practices and processes that increase and sustain student voice within educational equity. Some of these practices and processes include but are not limited to the implementation of student led equity audits as well as a commitment to continued implementation of the Educational Quality Standards through Collaborative Conversations. We hope to finalize the goal at our next meeting.

We are looking for more members--especially students! We are planning to attend the upcoming Club Fair at U-32 in an effort to share our work and recruit more members. We are also thinking about how to ensure that our vision statement--both the original version and the middle school version--are more universally known.

Going forward HJC will meet on third Thursdays from 12:30-1:55 p.m. at U-32. There is a virtual option for those who need to access the meeting virtually. Please reach out if you are interested in learning more about HJC.

Great news! Shelley Vermilya, our former humanity and justice scholar-in-residence, is offering a 3-credit graduate course entitled Humanizing Our Praxis through Vermont State University.

The course will meet virtually from 4:30-6:30 p.m. on October 14, 21, 28, November 4, 11, 18, and December 2. The course is open to PreK-12 educators.

You can find much more information about the course, including the syllabus and the registration link, here.

Here is this year's LCAP. Please review it for the grade levels you serve at your earliest convenience.

The fall assessment window closes very soon!

Stay tuned for more information next month.

Just a reminder that the AOE Weekly Field Memo contains great information. You can subscribe for the Weekly Field Memo and/or Press Releases here.