Schools ponder strategies for making up flurry of snow days

The Lind and Ritzville School Boards met on Feb. 25 for their monthly meeting, with a host of items on the agenda.

LRMS and Lind Elementary School principal Cindy Deska reported to the boards that the elementary school’s Family Math Night has been set for March 25. Deska said they’re trying to do the math night in connection with the book fair, so they can have Book Fair Family Night that evening as well in hopes of getting more people to shop at the book fair and help to increase sales.

Deska also reported that students have recently finished MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) testing, and showed the board members some samples of how the schools have been tracking individual student data. The data tracked where the students were in the fall compared to where they are now in the winter.

The data also tracked and compared where the students should have been at the end of both the fall and winter with the students’ actual progress. The examples Deska provided also included data on where the student should be by the end of the school year. On the whole, Deska said that most of the students made “great” growth when looking at the data, although some students didn’t make it to the next level.

Deska also notified the boards that testing for the schools’ English-language learner students had just begun, which will determine if those students are able to exit the State program they’ve been enrolled in.

Deska said that the schools have “a high number of kids” who have been in the program longer than the State thinks they should, which is why the focus has been on helping the students who have been in the program for six or more years. Deska estimates that about 40 students district-wide are currently in the program.

Ritzville Grade School principal Tom Arlt reported that the school’s enrollment is holding strong from preschool through sixth grade at about 226 to 227 with the recent addition of a new fifth grade student, which he said was good news. Arlt also said that preliminary projections for next year’s kindergarten class showed that next year’s class is probably going to be large with somewhere around 34 or 35 kindergartners.

Arlt also shared that RGS’ Spring Family Night will be held tonight, March 7, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Each grade-level group of teachers will choose an activity to do for those in attendance.

In an effort to increase the school’s community engagement, Arlt reached out the Washington State Patrol’s Ritzville detachment about a WSP program where officers from local detachments will come to schools and give safety talks to students.

One of the officers was recently at RGS, where they gave a safety talk to kindergartners about the importance of using seatbelts and being safe while in vehicles. The officer also joined the students for lunch that day. Arlt said that the officer will be giving a different safety talk once a month to students.

LRHS principal Kevin Terris reported to the boards about recent staff safety training that’s been conducted, and thanked superintendent Don Vanderholm for his leadership in the training. Terris said that the staff members have been sorted into four different teams: a supervision team (which all staff members are on), an evacuation team, a reunion team and a first-aid team.

During the training, Terris said that each group became familiar with their duties and responsibilities and that the staff is excited about the team concept and the direction of these newer ideas and strategies for approaching school emergencies.

Terris also notified the boards about academic and attendance interventions he and the school counselor have been working on to identify students who may need additional social, emotional or academic support. Terris said they are trying to build some systems for the students, parents and staff to identify those students in a preventive way, rather than in a reactionary way.

A process has now been set in place for teachers to notify the school when they think a student is struggling socially, emotionally or academically. The goal is for the school to catch those problems early on.

Terris said he’s met with about 10 students and their families in the last month to discuss the students’ academic and attendance issues. The goal of the meeting is to identify the barriers that are keeping the students from getting to school and finding ways to work with parents to work around those barriers in a non-punitive way.

The issue of snow days was brought up by Vanderholm at the meeting, who said he’s been asked questions about what the district’s going to do. Vanderholm noted that the State made waivers available for school districts to use during the week of inclement weather that occurred across the state in mid-February.

In a news release on Feb. 12, Chris Reykdal, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, said that state law allows the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to waive missed school days that were missed while a state of emergency was in effect. Governor Jay Inslee had previously declared a state of emergency from Feb. 8 through Feb. 15.

“However, there is no legal authority to waive the mandatory average of 1,027 hours of instruction for students,” Reykdal said. “Even when a waiver is granted for missed days during a state of emergency declared by the governor, school districts are required to meet the average total instructional hour offerings.”

Three school days were canceled at Lind and Ritzville schools during the state of emergency, and Vanderholm noted that two snow days were built into the school calendar at the end of the school year, June 6 and June 7. Vanderholm said that the schools could use those two snow days, and then apply for a one-day waiver so students and teachers wouldn’t have to come back for another school day the following week.

However, school has already been canceled another day since the school board meeting, so it is presently unclear how the district will move forward with its plan to make sure the mandatory average of 1,027 instruction hours for students are met.

Vanderholm told The Journal that the district wants to wait until the bad weather subsides before making any firm decisions on the matter. During the board meeting, Ritzville Board chair Layne Iltz had floated an idea of extending the school day by 15 minutes to help make up for lost instruction time.

In other news, both the Lind and Ritzville boards unanimously approved to surplus the district’s 2006 International 41-passenger bus, as well as approving the purchase of a Blue Bird 71-passenger propane bus and Micro Bird G5 30-passenger mini-bus this coming September.

The boards also unanimously approved the Lind-Ritzville Cooperative School Agreement and the Lind-Ritzville Transportation Cooperative Agreement. Furthermore, the boards unanimously adopted the Cooperative Emergency Response Plan and the Cooperative Strategic Plan.