March Madness takes over in Washtucna school
Last updated 3/9/2021 at 11:51am
WASHTUCNA – Kids in Washtucna Elementary School are excited to start spring sports, and looking forward to doing a March Madness event.
"Everybody's going to get to draw a team, and there's actually just about the right number for our students and our staff, because there are 68 teams," Principal Michael Amend said.
The NCAA Division 1 men's basketball tournament is a single-elimination tournament of 68 teams competing in seven rounds for the national championship.
"One of the things that we have found here, and I found in my four years with Spokane schools is, March is one of the worst discipline months of the year, across school districts," Amend said. "Christmas break has worn off, spring break has not arrived, and February and March don't have a lot in terms of breaks. So we are very intentional around having celebrations, to keep spirits up for teachers and students. This month, we are doing a pie day celebration, St. Patrick's day, and the March Madness."
Amend said teacher Lora Hille would be taking over the Culture Club to organize more fun events.
"If you look at a calendar of national days, there really is something every day that you can celebrate and some of them are really fun. On National Kazoo Day, we brought kazoos in for all the staff to serenade the kids as they were coming in," Amend said. "Just little things like that. Every once in a while, to give people a shot in the arm. Because teachers are working really hard, and kids have a lot going on. The distance learning is not easy. And, you see your friends get quarantined, or a teacher's got to be gone for quarantine, so to just find fun things to do is a really good deal. And it's helped our attendance, so that's good."
Amend said while school districts "pitched attendance data to the curb" last year, Washtucna's 2018-19 school year showed less than 73% of students attending regularly.
"Over one-quarter of our students were missing at least 10% of their school. And it's really hard to gain ground if that's the issue," Amend said. "Right now we are really close to 90% of our students attending regularly, which is a big deal for us."
Amend said a few students were still choosing to learn remotely, but the vast majority were in-person.
"It's taken different families different amounts of time to be comfortable with it, and to jump back in. And there are still some that are not quite there yet. That's perfectly okay. That's why we offer the online piece," Amend said. "The culture piece is just another way to help with the attendance. People work hard. They need to have some joy."
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