Medical Lake enrollment numbers hold firm

by drew peterson

Staff Intern

Superintendent Dr. Pam Veltri reported at Tuesday night’s school board meeting that the Medical Lake School District current enrollment numbers are steady for the 2013-14 school year including a pretty big increase in high school students.

“When you look at last year when we ended at the high school, our average was 529, but we ended at 512,” Veltri said. “And we are already up at 543 currently.”

Veltri explained that while an additional teacher was hired prior to the start of the high school year, it seems that every day there is a new student, which has caused a search for new staff members while also adding more periods at the high school level.

With the exception of Hallett Elementary, which saw a drop of 46 students to what Veltri attributed to not having the number of kindergarteners coming up that they used to, Michael Anderson, Medical Lake Middle School and the Medical Lake Alternative High School enrollment numbers have all been pretty stable.

Also taking place at the meeting, the board of directors unanimously approved Policy 3246 and Procedure 3246P, which outlined some minor changes in the reasonable force and restraining methods available, which only applies to students with IUPs or 504 planning because they have disabilities. Some things that will change are the restraint items and reporting requirements, which Veltri said Medical Lake follows strictly anyway.

The changes to the policy came about because there have been cases around the nation where school officials have abused the use of restraint.

“It’s pretty isolated but it happens sometimes,” Veltri said.

Also taking place at the meeting, the school board directors welcomed Felicia Jensen to the board after she was sworn in by Rod Von Lehe.