Tonasket School District

Powerful Teaching and Learning

The curriculum adoption schedule was recently revised. The schedule is as follows:

The Rural Alliance meeting last Sunday/Monday. This was the first meeting of a superintendent cohort created by the Rural Alliance and funded by a private foundation grant. The goal is to create a statewide superintendent professional learning and support system. This meeting focused on bargaining, building positive relationships, and managing upcoming initiatives.
On Thursday I attended the monthly Okanogan County superintendents’ meeting. We discussed truancy committees, regional employee contracts, the proposed school employees medical plan, and the regional awards banquet.
The district and PSE reached a contract tentative agreement on Tuesday. The next step is for it to be ratified by both groups. I am excited about the foundation that this contract tentative agreement lays for our future work together. Realizing that this has not been an easy task for all of us, I appreciate the efforts and time that was invested by staff to get to this point.

Work is being done on timelines for the capital levy projects. Discussions are being held to determine more specific funding needs and facility specifications. I attended a CTE meeting on Wednesday where we talked in detail about the shop expansion. We will soon be gathering quotes on the roof project, determining an architect for the entryway remodeling and choosing an ESCO (Energy Service Company) for our HVAC project.
The Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) committee meetings have been postponed until January or February. I have been working with the area school districts and the ESD in a monthly Okanogan Pod Crisis meeting where we are developing a common county-wide emergency process. Instead of the work of both groups paralleling each other, it will be beneficial for the county plan to be further along or even closer to completion in order for the district's EOP to be in line with the regional plan.

I was able to spend some time in the buildings this morning (Friday). A highlight was being part of a film that several students I met in the HS Hallway were creating. We discussed specifics of our English as a Second Language program with Tyler Graves. I will be sharing our ESL program specifics at the next regional superintendents meeting.
Attached is a great article titled, “Creating a Culture of Customer Service” from the magazine SchoolCEO. I encourage each of you to read it and reflect on your level of customer service in all areas of your life. His comment about culture, “It’s treating everyone maybe better than they expect to be treated” was one of his most powerful statements in my opinion.

Enrollment for December is 1,098.06 compared to November which was 1,108.79.
The elementary school started their Spelling Bee tournament this week. Grade levels 1-5 are competing. Good luck to the students!
A reminder that next week's school board meeting date has been changed to Tuesday, December 11 at 7 PM.

Board Policy Updates. You can click on the link below to view the policy and procedure updates:

2020 Procedure: Course Design, Selection and Adoption of Instructional Materials
4500 BP: Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Drones)
6220 BP and Procedure: Bid Requirements
6230 BP: Relations with Vendors
6610 BP: Surveillance Cameras
6630 BP: Driver Training and Responsibility