Each week, we highlight a different school or profession at Clover Park School District. Last week, we showed our #CPSDPride by giving a #SuperSchoolShoutout to Rainier Elementary School.
Rainier is one of the six CPSD elementary schools located on Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM). It is the school located farthest south in the district as it sits near the DuPont entrance of JBLM. It is also the CPSD elementary school with the largest student population.
“There’s a highly involved community here at Rainier which is very important to our school culture,” Principal Greg Wilson said. “We have high achieving kids, staff that work hard to support kids and families that want their students to do well.”
As military children, Rainier students move often and face obstacles that can make school feel challenging. At Rainier, the importance of teamwork between teachers and families to prioritize the needs of each child is key to student success. Principal Wilson and his team of educators make sure plenty of opportunities are provided for family engagement such as coffee with the principal, donuts for dads, art and STEM nights and other events, to make sure student and family voice are factored into school culture and decision making.
April is one of the most important months for family engagement as staff, administrators and community members rally around military children for Month of the Military Child to show their appreciation of the sacrifices these students make as their parents serve our country.
“The Month of the Military Child is a meaningful time for our students,” Principal Wilson said. “I love serving our military students and families, so we take advantage of every opportunity to make our students feel special.”
Rainier has big celebrations planned this April to show their appreciation for students. They will be commemorating the holiday with the USO, the JBLM Bigfoot Brass Band, Purple UP! Days, a military police-led bike safety course, student-led spirit days and opportunities for parents and families to cheer for students as they leave campus.
To continue our Rainier shoutout, we honored fifth grader Everardo Cantu Jr. Highly Capable (Hi-Cap) teacher Virginia Durr.
Everardo is a standout student for administrators and staff because of his focus in class and his academic accomplishments. “I like everything about Rainier because I feel safe, so I always follow the rules, finish my homework on time and pay attention in class,” he said. “My favorite subject is math because I like multiplication, fractions, decimals and just everything.”
The more challenging subject for Everardo is science because some of the concepts don’t come as naturally to him. However, he still enjoys experiments. “Even though science is not my favorite, it’s fun doing projects,” he said. “The best thing we did this year was a science project where we made our own hypothesis, did an experiment and found our conclusion.”
Everardo also loves PE and playing sports. He currently boxes after school and wants to begin wrestling in middle and high school.
In her second year at Rainier, Durr is teaching a fourth and fifth grade split class. She previously worked as a teacher in Arizona and the Department of Defense Education Activities in Germany before joining CPSD.
“I love being in green Washington and I love working with military connected kids,” Durr said. “These students require a certain skill set to make them feel safe and supported. After working in Germany, I have a lot of experience helping these kids and those who are facing a permanent change of station.”
Durr enjoys teaching a split class with Hi-Cap students because she can challenge them by providing enriching activities at every level. She has also organized many science-based field trips for students this year with the Pierce College Science Dome, Lakewold Gardens and the Nisqually River Education Project.
Go Panthers!
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