New grant to power Medical Lake STEM projects

Yoga pads, not yoga pants, will be a term discussed around the various schools in Medical Lake in the next five years.

At its Sept. 19 meeting, the district's school board heard about efforts to successfully reel in $1.3 million in funding that will help power the integration of new technology in the teaching of STEM subjects, science, technology, engineering and math.

Amidst a few chuckles in the room, board president Rod Von Lehe read the long-winded name of the funding source, the Department of Defense Education Activity - or DoDEA for short.

"The real easy name for it is the Career Success through STEM grant," district Superintendent Tim Ames said.

The money, which will be distributed over five years, starts its journey at the high school and works its way down to the middle school and finally Michael Anderson Elementary on Fairchild Air Force Base.

"Hallett (Elementary) is not included in the grant but our practice has been that Hallett will participate," Ames said as they free up additional technology dollars.

The primary focus of the use of the money is career and college readiness.

The instruction will be done in part with a new piece of technology called yoga tablets Ames explained. "They're called yoga tablets because you can flip them and do all this stuff."

The first year is for planning, which includes logistics such as rules of use and staff development. "We'll get that all settled," Ames said.

Kim Headrick, the district's director of teaching and learning said that a current STEM grant fits well into the new funding, where "Our focus is returning to science, that was the real essence of our first STEM grant." The timing is right considering there is a new science assessment that will be initiated in the spring of 2018.

How are some ways this grant will be integrated into the district? One might be at the middle school, which is piloting a new math program that is digitally based.

"We need to take a look at what are the next level of materials in terms of meeting math standards; what is it we need in terms of engaging our kids in terms of digital access," Headrick said. "The grant opens the door to a lot of conversations."

Acceptance of the funding was just one of the complete slate of agenda items where the board gave unanimous approval.

The first year of the grant funding will be one of charting some new paths, developing the curriculum, staff resources and rules.

In other items before the board, Ames spoke of recent contract negotiations that took place between the district and classified employees.

A team of five negotiators from both parties did not face each other from opposite sides of the table, but rather sat side-by-side. Ames termed the time the best negotiations he's experienced in his long career in education.

"Significant time was spent cleaning up language that was antiquated, or did not make sense," Ames said. They borrowed some language from the certified version when it came to leave policy.

Other adjustments came to pay, where Ames said, "We start out really well with our pay, but after five years, 10 years, the end of 20 years we go from being at the top to the bottom."

The board heard about details on policy items No. 3115 related to homeless students and 3116, which deals with students in foster care. Among the items offered for surplus were four buses, and even the old shoulder pads from the high school football team.

The board meets next on Tuesday, Oct. 24, at 6 p.m. at district headquarters.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.