Community Member Teresa Hudson asked the School Board to consider the community's voice when educating students. 

Dr. Headrick read the proclamation and a brief 10 minute break was taken for refreshments for Board Appreciation Month. 

Wendy and Laura will hand out diplomas this year. Other Directors wishing to be present on stage can attend as well. Dir. Alexander said he would like to attend. 

Dr. Headrick summarized the student representative's notes from their January visits as they were busy with basketball games. 

Each of them were allowed to create their own questions for their school visits this time around. 

Chuks did an experiment where he went to his walk & talk dressed down, more casual rather than a more business attire, which he typically wears, to see if the students thought he was more approachable. Chuks said it appeared his casual attire made the students were more willing to talk with him. He asked Middle School 6th, 7th, and 8th grades how they felt they did in the 1st semester of school, and what their toughest and best classes were. 

Trinity asked 4th and 5th graders at Michael Anderson Elementary how they feel school is going, what could be changed and what they wished was different.

Ashley visited with 2nd and 4th graders at Hallett Elementary about having friends and feeling like they belong. She asked if they feel challenged with their learning, their plans for the future once they graduate and where their school could use improvement. 

Gabby focused on 9th and 12th grade at the High School asking about their suggestions for the school, how they feel the climate and culture are, their workload and how their teacher interactions are going. 

Christy Nauta noted there are quite a few openings within our District. She's beginning to work through the positions opening up due to current employees retiring (8), putting in for medical leave (3) and those who are military moves (2). 

The main focus right now is hiring a new High School principal. There were a total of 13 applicants of which, only 8 completed a full packet. High School staff have been coming to the District Office to do pre-screenings with a scoring rubric. Next week we'll have it narrowed down to 2-4 applicants and schedule interviews with that group for February 4-5 and a community forum on the 6th. 

We had an opening in our ROTC program but were fortunate to be able to use Col. Powell to fill in while we find a permanent person. There are a few potential cadets that are getting 8-10 weeks of on-the-job experience and have 2 Colonels with experience that are interested in the position. 

Assistant Principal, Justin Blayne was filling in for Dawn Eliassen while she attended the girls and boys basketball games. 

There are 50 boys on our basketball team, which allows us to have 4 full teams.

Girls basketball has 20 and 2 full teams. 

We have 20 wrestlers, one of which is a girl. She's really good and has beat quite a few boys in her weight class. 

Coach Gene was recently inducted into the WIAA Hall of Fame. 

Gene drives from Hayden Idaho at least 200 out of 365 days every year. During summer conditioning, he's here before the sun comes up to greet the summer cross country conditioning runners. 

We want to thank the Board of Directors for supporting our Gymnastics team. We have 4 girls on the team which would not be possible without the School Board's support. 

Winter sports is going well and we'd like to give major recognition to our coaches, not just winter coaches, but all coaches for supporting our kids the way they do.

Tawni Barlow shared some slides to help everyone understand what the Wellness Center is, the services it provides, its mission and vision, and how it benefits our students and our community. She touched on the counseling services and classes available through the Wellness Center. One slide showed how each service or group is linked together and provide supports for the students in our schools. Tawni's charts documented the percentage of students with disabilities within each building that are included in their regular classrooms during the day. The goal is for at least 80%, and we're crushing that, with the Middle School being almost 100%. Our numbers are trending upwards which is what we want to see. Tawni shared how many staff are on her team for each building and thanked them for the great work they're doing to get students screened and served.  

Rob and Josh Rux have been working with a local web designer to revamp our main website and building websites. It's been 8 years since we've done anything new. Trevor showed some school mascot mock-ups, school principals are working to get those nailed down. 

The school district is moving from Skyward to Qmlativ for student data. Our payroll officer came to us from a district that used Qmlativ for 5 years, so she's very familiar with it. The district team has been getting Skyward processes cleaned up for the roll-over. Staff training will take place at the beginning of August. 

Summer allotment of Chromebooks is in and ready for programming and processing for the 2025/2026 school year. We have our Chromebooks on a 5 year refresh cycle. 

The speakers in the Middle School multi-purpose room were placed where sound did not carry beyond the front of the speakers. This made it impossible for anyone standing to the side of the room to hear. We've mounted some new speakers in there and the sound is now excellent all around!

All but 2 of our school bus fleet have their WiFi mounts attached. Those 2 are still being repaired at an off-site shop, once they're back at the bus garage, we'll get them fitted. This allows students access to WiFi when traveling for trips, games, or just headed home. The next phase will be trackers for our buses through a program called Peregrine. Families and our transportation department will be able to see where a bus is at all times. That should help alleviate calls about buses not yet at a bus stop pick-up or drop-off. 

Lyra shared the goals of our English Language Program is to teach students skills in the 4 domain areas of "listening, speaking, reading and writing". The District is currently serving 24 students throughout our 4 schools. Students receive support in a regular classroom setting, and depending on the need, may receive additional small group supports. ELD identified students receive annual WIDA screening to determine if services are still needed. When new students enroll and mark something other than English on the home language form, the ELD team has 10 days to screen them for services. 

One month we discovered there was moisture under the flooring of the wrestling room. Chad Moss has been working with the ESD and Todd Smith from OAC to help identify what was going on and causing the issue. We've had a rather wet winter with a lot of rain. Several homes in our area with basements are dealing with the moisture problem. 

Mats were pulled out and the plastic barrier was removed along with paneling and pads on the west wall. Halme Construction drilled 3 inch holes in the concrete for a look at the sub layers, which appear to be gravel, so that's good. The west side has the most moisture while the middle has the least. Right now things are drying as the moisture evaporates through the drilled holes. We're waiting on solution recommendations from OAC and Halme, but it seems we will need to put in a subfloor to keep it from happening again. 

Dr. Williams-Gilbert and Dr. Headrick attended the WASA/WSSDA Legislative conference in early January. All school districts present wanted to focus on the Big 3; funding for special education, material supplies and operational costs (MSOCs) and transportation. Right now the House and Senate both have their own version budgeting for the Big 3. While either of their budgets might not be fully funding these measures, it is a step in the right direction. 

Dr. Headrick just completed her form for the Department of Child, Youth and Family (DCYF) in hopes of bringing another ECEAP program into Medical Lake. Regardless if we qualify for ECEAP through DCYF or not, we need to provide some early learning for our community. We'd love to have a transitional kindergarten (TK) program in Medical Lake to be housed at Hallett Elementary. Our current TK program at Michael Anderson is funded through the State, not special education. Our community has indicated an interest for early learning. We need to step into early learning options, need to provide this for our community, and need to be inclusive. If an ECEAP for us isn't provided through DCYF, we will add a TK at Hallett and another at Michael Anderson Elementary, which would give us another 40 spots for early learning.

My Walk & Talks are the same day and time every week. I'd love to have 1-2 Board Members walk with me. Let Sarra know the days you're interested in coming along so she can extend the time for those days.

Coffee at Roam in Medical Lake and Thomas Hammer is once a month. Ron has come to a few, but you're welcome to pop in. 

MISA Annual Conference is June 22-25. We have rooms held, so please let Sarra know if you're attending so we can release the rooms we're not using.