One School

One Team

One Purpose - Student Success

Safety and Security Upgrades:

Our school safety and security would be improved by installing a new electronic key system and access controls for our exterior entrances and altering our entryways in the elementary, middle, and high school. The remodeling of the building entrances will establish a route that requires visitors to check in to the office to be cleared before entering the general building. This ensures that all visitors are accounted for and have proper identification. Currently, visitors can walk right past the school offices.

Entrance remodel examples for the ES:

• Janine McCormick is teaching a computer science class through the TEALS (Technology Education and Literacy in Schools) program. Through TEALS, Janine and her class are paired with trained computer science professionals from Microsoft. She is team teaching with the volunteers who interact with the students through video conferencing. This is a three-year program in preparation for the HS to be prepared to offer AP computer science. The remote TEALS teaching team will be in the district Friday, October 12 and will be teaching Janine’s first-period class in person that day.
  

• The North Pod crisis meeting consisting of area districts, Oroville, Tonasket, Omak, and Okanogan, was held on Wednesday at 9:00. This is the first meeting we’ve had; they will be held monthly. The goal of these pod meetings is to mold our current Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) and emergency “flipcharts,” (typically found in classrooms), together into a similar document to increase plan uniformity, consistent language, etc. amongst our pod districts. We have a committee setup to start work on our EOP on October 16.
  
• NCESD had two of their staff members come into the buildings to complete our first “intruder” audit. They were checking to see if staff members made contact with folks who haven’t check-in to the office. They handed out gift certificates to those who noticed they weren’t wearing a visitors badge and made contact with them. In our schools 8 staff stopped them, but around 20 staff did not stop them and direct them to the office. No students stopped them and directed them to the office. We will continue this test of our visitor system at a later date and compare how much we have grown in this area.The ALE will be going through an audit next week. The auditor’s office informed us that they will be looking at enrollment reported for the Outreach Program in the 2017-18 school year.
  
• At the Rural Alliance meeting in Spokane this week we discussed the following:
  

1. Grant opportunity for expanding early childhood education

2. Reform efforts led by the Center for Reinventing Public Education

3. Agile Education Systems and System Change

4. STEM Gems Project

5. Project-based learning and Summit Basecamp

6. College in the Classroom

7. The Rural Counselor Network

• At the Okanogan County superintendent's’ monthly meeting on Thursday, we discussed the new discipline rules and the need for more staff training, staffing for next year, the definition of a school day state committee, and SEBB (new health care plan) implementation.
  
• Capital projects levy presentations were given this week to the ES staff, transportation, and the PTO. In the next couple weeks, I’m scheduled to meet with all the staff. The levy election is on November 6 with ballots coming out October 19.
• Janet Glanzer has started coordinating the submission of competitive grants and we were awarded the first one we applied for! We just received a grant for $51,000 to install automatic door openers in the buildings. Great work to all that helped on this grant!
  

• The board meeting next Wednesday will be held at the Wauconda Hall at 7:00 PM. This is the third meeting the board has held outside the board room. The board has previously met in Aeneas Valley, Loomis, and Havillah. Next April, the board hopes to find a location to meet in the Pine Creek area. The board values these opportunities to connect to the communities in the outlying areas and welcomes suggestions on how to better connect in the future.
  

• We are currently advertising in district for a SPED para within the to fill a vacancy created by a resignation.
  

• October enrollment is 1,114.39. We are down 13 students from last month, but this can be typical for this time of year. We have budgeted for 1,080 so we are currently well above that number.
  
• The General Election is coming up on November 6th. If you have not registered yet, the last day to do so for mail or online registrations is October 8th. Here is the link to register online: