MEDICAL LAKE — The school board celebrated the end of the 2020-21 school year at their June 22 meeting. Members reminisced about a successful last week of school and graduation ceremony in a year defined by the COVID-19 pandemic. In true pandemic fashion, the school received a half million sanitizing wipes that were supposed to arrive in October just in time for school to let out.
The board heard two new policies for the first time. The first one applies to non-resident students and the lengthy appeals process that follows a rejection. The new policy allows a parent’s appeal to go straight to the Superintendent instead of being passed to a principal and eventually the school board.
The second policy is statewide and deals with school discipline. It hopes to make the school climate more supportive and maximize instructional time for students. Instead of a discipline matrix where one transgression has a defined disciplinary action, this policy encourages more intervention before removing a student from the classroom.
Both policies were approved. The disciplinary policy will have a final approval in July followed by an August training for admin. The board also heard a second reading of policies regarding schools’ social emotional climate and emergencies.
With the approval of the board, the school district will be integrating new curriculum into their classrooms. Grades K-5 will get Great Minds, Wit and Wisdom, an ELA curriculum that incorporates both social studies and science and pairs with the district’s phonics curriculum. Grades 6-12 will be introduced to the TCI (Teacher Curriculum Institute) Social Studies Curriculum, which is an inquiry-based system focusing on primary sources from multiple perspectives.
The school district reserved around $200,000 last year so they could invest in the new curriculum. According to Assistant Superintendent Kimberly Headrick, this has been a long time coming.
As a new curriculum is approved, an older one goes out the door. The district gave the go-ahead to surplus outdated Houghton Mifflin K-5 ELA materials from both elementary schools. A district-wide surplus of obsolete technology such as old wireless access points was scheduled for last year until COVID-19 got in the way. It will proceed this year.
Changes are coming to school lunches as well. All students will receive free lunch next year. While middle and high school students will be returning to the cafeteria, elementary students will be eating lunch in the classroom.
Riley Kankelberg can be reached at riley@cheneyfreepress.com.
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