Waitsburg School Board November update

WAITSBURG—The Waitsburg School Board met Wednesday, November 18, for a regular board meeting. The board met via Zoom conference call.

During the meeting, secondary principal Stephanie Wooderchak reported that the secondary staff has been having conversations about moving back to online learning should the circumstance arise. She said if the school goes back to online learning, teachers would likely go with smaller ‘pod’ classes instead of having the entire class online at once. The pods were popular with students and staff.

Secondary students are being offered a “Destress Recreation,” taught by Ms. Pradere. The students are learning survival skills, like fishing and fire-making. Many of the projects can be found on the school district’s Facebook page.

Wednesday afternoon targeted assistance has been well-received by students. Wooderchak reported that they had accommodated all students who have asked for extra help with their coursework.

A new round of voting has begun for the Dayton-Waitsburg Athletic Combine mascot after students expressed that the February 15 election felt rushed and unfair.

Board members expressed concern about the small pod classes discussed during the secondary principal’s report. The board members expressed concern that teachers might not be able to finish the required curriculum with time constraints. They questioned how that would affect students’ future education.

“I think we are going to continue seeing the ramifications of COVID-19 for years, starting with the kindergartners on up,” board member Christy House said. Wooderchak noted that these concerns are looming over Waitsburg School District and districts across the nation.

During the Elementary Principal’s report, Principal Mark Pickel shared that parent/teacher conferences were going well.

The district is getting ready to send out the December newsletter, and it will have all of the details for the winter spirit week. This year, there will be no holiday program, but each grade will share a performance with their families through ClassTag. These performances will not be shared on social media.

This month the staff participated in a virtual professional development class through Curriculum Associates, focusing on reading data to better understand where students are in their education.

Chromebooks that the school ordered earlier this year are finally stateside and headed to NexGen to have programs loaded on to them before distributing them to students. Pickel said he is very excited to get borrowed laptops back to neighboring districts.

Pickel reported that Marci Jo Lanning, the preschool teacher, will be leaving following Christmas Break to finish her teaching degree. A job listing for the vacant lead preschool teacher position has been posted, and Pickel hopes to interview and hire someone following the Thanksgiving Break.

Switching to the Superintendent’s report, Superintendent Pickel said that he had emailed a shortened version of Governor Inslee’s recent mandate, focusing on the K-12 exemption. He said that kids have been great about masking up and following distancing guidelines.

Superintendent Pickel said that Educational Service District (ESD) 123 Loss Control visited in October for a safety visit. He said they allotted an hour and a half, anticipating getting through the high school facility and bus barn. They ended up spending an hour and a half going through the science lab at the high school and a bus. Improper signage was the biggest thing that was found, along with labeling cleaning solutions and spray bottles. The district is working with ESD 123 to correct all issues. The rest of the safety visit will be finished at a future date when coronavirus restrictions allow.

Special thanks were given to the Waitsburg School District custodial staff, with Pickel saying they are doing a wonderful job and ‘working their tails off.’

“They have been going as far as wiping all of the walls down,” Pickel said, reading from a long list of tasks the custodial staff performs daily. “They’ve been doing a really good job making sure that they are attending to our staff needs and our student needs.”

Following the holiday break, Waitsburg teachers and staff will be spending time switching over to a new student management system, Cumulative. Pickel said that there are many similarities to the current program, Skyward, but that Cumulative is more user-friendly.

The school board went over the first and second readings of school policies. Before adopting the agenda, Superintendent Pickel requested to add a first reading of social media-related policies.

The board entered into an executive session before adjourning the meeting.