ML school board hears of assessments and finances

The Medical Lake School Board had a full agenda at its regular monthly meeting Tuesday, Feb. 26, when they considered variety of topics including policy revisions, special education successes, and a legislative session update from the district superintendent.

The board approved three policy amendments relating to career and technical education, highly capable students, and excused and unexcused absences.

A bid and proposals policy was considered and passed on first reading for future passage.

Assistant Superintendent Kim Headrick discussed the results of a resent skill-based assessment that helps district personal measure and understand if the various efforts being made to teach students are paying dividends.

"This one shows some improvement at the district level," she told the board of the most recent assessment.

Headrick noted that students in the fall generally tested below national markers in various academic areas, but by winter tested above.

In addition to assessing teacher effectiveness, the assessment also helps identify students who need additional help or intervention.

The board also received an update on funding projections from Finance Director Chad Moss.

"We've found that (projections have) been pretty accurate," Moss said. "Total revenues this year are trending to be up. Expenditures are looking to be pretty much on target with the budget."

Moss noted that special education was below projections due to enrollment changes, but expressed overall confidence in the direction district finances were taking.

Superintendent Tim Ames noted that the district's early intervention numbers had fallen as a result of positive special education efforts.

"Our kids are doing better in the intervention and not qualifying for special ed," Ames said.

Intervention is different than special education; kids who fall behind in a subject receive additional one-on-one or small group instruction until they demonstrate that they meet educational standards.

But in a case of success leading to financial challenges, Ames noted that special education funding, a separate pot of state-allocated education money, is based on enrollment numbers, not individual need.

"It's great that we're getting these kids caught up," Ames said. "But it cuts your special ed funding."

Board president Rod Von Lehe asked how students in intervention were evaluated.

Ames replied that they are reassessed and, if they test to standards, graduate from intervention. The goal, he said, is to discover gaps early and intervene to get kids back on track in their classes.

Board vice president Peggy Schweikhardt asked what issues special education students have.

Tawni Barlow, district special services director, replied that some disabled students would always require a full level of support.

However, other students may not have special needs, but just develop slower than their peers in certain areas. Intervention increases their rate of learning - sometimes it doubles, she said. When intervention is intensified, and teachers come to understand how a particular student absorbs information, student's ability to learn accelerates.

"The light turns on," Barlow told the board. "It's really amazing."

But Barlow noted that the current state funding system handicaps success. The intervention work special education staff performs requires the same staffing level to do the work.

Barlow noted that some kids need more help than others, which makes the per-child funding mechanism used by the state inequitable.

In a follow-up interview, Ames said that MLSD has two deaf students on its rolls, but because the district doesn't have a program to help them, it contracts with Spokane Public Schools for those services. The price tag is $60,000, unfunded costs that are much higher than standard special education funding. The district must absorb the cost.

But there have been successes, and the special education student head count is on the decline. There are discussions within the school district to use special education and intervention staff differently, such as asking them to split their work between each program rather than one teacher focusing on just one area, according to Ames.

"But we aren't to that point yet," he said.

Moss noted there is a bill in the Legislature to increase the special education multiplier - the additional funding per special education student the district receives above that of a typical student - which will help, he said.

"The dollar amount is what you really look at in how much you spend on special ed," Ames said, verses the number of kids in the program, which is how the current funding model works.

Von Lehe suggested the district should be receiving an incentive bonus for every student who goes through an intervention program and then back into the regular classroom.

Ames provided the board with an overview of the byzantine legislative efforts that school organizations across the state have been tracking during the current state session.

As might be expected, key issues involve funding.

The Legislature is struggling to deal with the unintended consequences of their solution to the State Supreme Court's 2012 McCleary decision, which instructed the Legislature to fully fund basic education.

While the so-called McCleary Fix satisfied the court's requirements, it sent many of the states school districts - especially rural districts - into a fiscal tailspin.

The short version for Medical Lake is that the school district's budget will remain intact for the next couple of years as the state legislature works on a fix of the McCleary Fix, but come 2020, things will get dicey, according to Ames.

"I'll start to generate some fiscal concerns," Ames said in a phone interview later.

Lee Hughes can be reached at lee@cheneyfreepress.com.