Be Positive

Be Grateful

Be Involved

Thank you to the staff that created opportunities for us to honor our Veterans this week! And, our utmost gratitude to all of our Veterans who have done so much to protect our freedoms!

Work on the shop and modular have both started this week. Dirt is being moved, and we should soon see forms for concrete.

• We continued with SBAC testing this week with make-up sessions.
  
  
• Several administrators participated in a training on Threat Assessment. In addition, our ESD has a lead person working with school districts to better handle school-based threats, and this training is part of her work.
  
  
• Administration met with Jordon this week to discuss forming a data team to help build a more accessible and useful data system. Kristi K. and Jordon will be leading this effort, but we will be seeking input and participation from other staff as we move this initiative forward.

The board met on Wednesday to discuss running an Educational Programs and Operations (EP&O) Levy in the special election in February. The board will make the final decision and set the rate at the November 29 meeting.

The board also decided to open the board meetings for the public to attend in person and is requiring those in attendance to wear face masks and social distance. Following the distancing guidelines, the capacity in the boardroom is 25 people. If we exceed the capacity, the board will meet in another location in the district to accommodate everyone. We are asking anyone planning on attending in person to pre-register with Janet Glanzer by phone at 509-486-2126 or by email so we can determine the size of the venue required: jglanzer@tonasket.wednet.edu. Your contact information will be kept for 28 days. The board meetings will still have a remote option.

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” by William Arthur Ward

Gratitude is one of the few things in life that almost everyone can agree on. We teach our children, we talk about it especially during this season of the year, and we even have a major holiday devoted to it. Gratitude’s amazing powers have the ability to shift us from focusing on the negative to appreciating what is positive in our lives.

Good luck to the girls soccer team at their 2nd round of State. They take on Kalama at 12 pm Saturday. Below is the link to Saturday's game:

We missed one more grant award in last week’s Weekly Update: Getting the NCEF $300 Teacher Classroom Grant is Jackie Glliddon ​​for her Hydration Project. She expresses appreciation to Kelwy for encouraging her staff to apply for the grants. Those efforts paid off well for the middle school.

The coaches' contract negotiations will continue on Monday morning.

• Mandatory COVID Vaccinations for Students Questions
  

1. Recently it was announced that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine received conditional approval for ages 5 and up. With this announcement, many are asking if this will soon be required for all students similar to the MMR vaccine. Currently, Washington state does not require children be vaccinated against COVID-19 to enter school, and all I have heard so far lead me to believe that the vaccine will not be mandated this school year. The Washington State Department of Health and the state Board of Health will tell people if this changes in the future.
   
   If the vaccine is required, it will most likely have an exemption process similar or possibly more flexible than the process for staff. In the past, other school vaccines allowed exemptions for medical, religious, and personal reasons. The personal exemption was removed several years ago. Conversations at the State level on children vaccine mandates are also including what exemptions will be allowed if the vaccine is mandated. Superintendents are very engaged with the state organizations on this issue, and I encourage you to contact the Governor, State Health Department, and OSPI to share your thoughts and concerns on this topic.




• Board Policy and Procedure Updates (Link Below):
  

1. 3220 BP/P Freedom of Expression

2. 3241 P Student Discipline

3. Form 3241F1 Discipline Matrix

4. Form 3241F2 Continuum of Discipline Responses