Tonasket School District
Weekly Update ~ 10/26/2018
"Focused on Learning and Linking Learning to Life"
One School
One Team
One Purpose - Student Success
SCHOOL DISTRICT GOALS:
Powerful Teaching and Learning
Stewardship
- Ballots are out for our Capital Project Levy and my last presentation is on Tuesday with Kiwanis.
District Culture and Climate
Based on concerns expressed over the past few years I am researching fragrance/aerosol policies to propose to the school board. Some organizations have a fragrance free policy and others provide guidance and a less restrictive limit. I would appreciate your feedback on this issue prior to formulating our own draft district policy to take to the school board.
Over the past few weeks, our school and community have been impacted by several student issues ranging from the death of an elementary student, drug use, depression and self-harm. Our counseling and administration teams are working hard on these issues; both the immediate problems and the longer term proactive activities to help our students and community with these difficult issues.
Full-time mental health counselor from OBHC on site
Counseling help from OBHC and/or other districts brought in for specific incidences
White Hatter student presentations and parent presentation (social networking dangers)
Ron James, Best Choices Assembly - last year and coming again soon
Renewed emphasis on social/emotional health in all staff training, and teaching the Second Step Curriculum and Why Try curriculums.
Hours of individual student counseling/coaching by staff
Currently revamping our Child Study Team processes to better help staff with student behavior issues
Pursuing grants with partners like North Valley Hospital for programs targeted at nationwide opioid epidemic
Increased security with cameras in buildings and buses
Training in Threat Assessment
SafeSchools Alert an anonymous tip reporting service accessible from our web page
Rewriting our emergency operations plan
There is more but this list is getting long.
Examples of measures that have been taken or are being pursued:
Parent and Community Engagement
- Wednesday’s monthly migrant/bilingual was another success. We had an excellent health fair for the hour before the meeting started and gave free dental, diabetes and eye screenings. Flu shots and useful information was given to all families that arrived early. The meeting started with a fun STEM activity from Emily and Cari, lighting ghosts on fire and watching them "magically" (I'm sure there was some science involved) float into the air. Kathy Gardner then gave an explanation of some of the changes with the food program and why it is important to keep funds in their children's account. Ric Escobedo joined us from our ESD to give parents some information about our region's health resources. John McReynolds then distributed a survey from North Valley Hospital in order to get feedback for their strategic planning process. A representative from Molina healthcare spoke briefly and then Orlando from Family Health Centers gave some very useful information to parents about upcoming classes and events coming up in our area.
Next month’s meeting will be on the 4th Wednesday of the month, due to Thanksgiving break. Kristi Krieg has offered to cook a Thanksgiving style meal, with help, and the focus will be on recognizing and preventing drug use in our community.
Other
- Congratulations to our girls soccer team who finished the year as 3rd place in the league. District tournament starts Saturday at 1 p.m. in Tonasket as the girls host Manson in a loser-out game.
- Congratulations to Cross Country. The boys placed 2nd qualifying them for the State Championship for the 5th year in a row as a team. The girls team finished their season 2nd in the league and placed 4th in Regionals just missing qualifying for State by one place!
- We received an ADA Grant from the State of Washington for automatic doors for $51,525. We should have these installed over Christmas break.
- Both the ES PTO and TMS are holding fundraisers, you can find more information in TSD General on our school email and Facebook.
- This week was National School Bus Safety Week, thank you to our transportation department for all you do.
- Board Policy Updates. You can click on this link to view the policy updates:
- Policy 3410 Student Health
- Policy 3412 Automated External Defibrillators
- Policy 3414 Infectious Diseases
- Policy 6210 Purchasing Authorization and Control
- Policy and Procedure 6500 Risk Management
Capital Projects Levy Information: Ballots Are Out - Election Day - 11/6/2018
How much will each proposed project cost?
Costs were estimated by contacting several contractors in our state or region that perform similar work. In some cases, multiple estimates were obtained. Schools must abide by prevailing wage laws so often it costs more for us to do a project than what one can do in the private sector.
- Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Estimate– $1,500,000 for the entire project.
- Remodeled School Entry Estimate – Approximately $200,000 per entry (3 X $200,000 = $600,000) including cost of architecture, engineering, new doors, locks and remodeling of entry way.
- New Exterior Door Locks Estimate – $100,000
- Elementary Roof Estimate– $500,000
- Technology Upgrades Estimate – $100,000 per year
- New Shop Building Estimate– $1,000,000
Link to Prevailing Wage: What you need to Know ~ WA State Department of L&I