Be Positive, Be Grateful, Be Involved, Be Flexible

~ Christopher Reeve

"October is Disability History Month -- schools find that annually recognizing disability history throughout our entire public educational system, from kindergarten through grade twelve and at our colleges and universities, during the month of October will help to increase awareness and understanding of the contributions that people with disabilities in our state, nation, and the world have made to our society. The legislature further finds that recognizing disability history will increase respect and promote acceptance and inclusion of people with disabilities. The legislature further finds that recognizing disability history will inspire students with disabilities to feel a greater sense of pride, reduce harassment and bullying, and help keep students with disabilities in school."

~ Helen Keller

October is also Principal Appreciation Month - Your principles have been working incredibly hard over the past six months to design, deliver and continually modify the education program for our students so that we can have the best possible education experience for our students. Never in the history of education has their job been more difficult. Please take a moment this month to let them know how much you appreciate what they are doing!

* The school board Work Session scheduled for Wednesday, October 14th has been canceled.

• Tonasket High School graduation rate for 2019-20 was 94.1%. The overall District graduation rate (which included Choice and Outreach as well) was 92.5% which is an increase from the 86.6% rate in 2018-19. These numbers represent incredible work by our high school staff but also are made possible by staff at all levels of our education system. Great work Tonasket Team!!
  
  
• We are excited to have our grades 6-12 start in a hybrid schedule next week. I feel like we are having our first day of school over and over again! We have a good plan to meet our students’ needs and to provide many layers of safety protocols to minimize the risk of COVID spread.

The school board has formed a committee to look at long-term budget planning. They will be building a group of around 10 on the committee to look at our current budget and plan for the future needs of our district. Part of the process will be to prioritize our programs and activities in order to be ready if any more cuts are needed in the future and to look at structural changes in how we operate to minimize costs. Our first meeting is scheduled for early November.

• The district office team has started a book study in Jon Gordon’s book The Energy Bus. In our discussions on the book yesterday one of the comments that spoke the most to me was that we get to choose our attitude every day. Too often we let our circumstances dictate our attitude and we do not have to live that way. I needed that reminder!
  
  
• The high school held another Virtual Spirit Week, THS ASB Reach for the Stars! They asked students, staff, and community to submit photos participating in the spirit days to their email or add it in a comment on their Facebook or Instagram pages. What a creative way to connect!

Supt’s On Virtual Community Connection on Wednesday had 13 people join our English session and 15 participate in the Spanish session. I greatly appreciated the opportunity to have a conversation with members of our school community. We had great questions and comments that have already had an impact on our work. As we continue on throughout the year holding these meetings, my hope is that we can continue learning from each other as we work to perfect our new education methods. The next Supt’s On conversation will be held on November 4 starting at 5:30 with the English session and 6:30 with the Spanish.

Our FTE enrollment for October is 1,051.97. We built our budget on 1,040 FTE.