School Board adopts new rules regarding absences, classroom management

Following up on the Aug. 21 school board meeting regarding policies related to absences and classroom management, the Cascade School Board has approved new rules in those areas. 

Cascade Superintendent Bill Motsenbocker said Washington state has the second highest absentee rate in the country. 

“Most people at OSPI (Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction) believe it is not because we’re the second highest. It’s that we are doing attendance differently that everyone else. So they’ve changed a few things,” Motsenbocker said, at the Sept. 11 school board meeting. 

In the past, if a student was not in their seat, they were unexcused until the school found out it was an excused absence. Now, it will be done differently, Motsenbocker explained. 

“If you know a student is on a volleyball trip, a basketball trip or knowledge bowl, then they are not going to be marked absent at all,” Motsenbocker said. “Then the office does not have to call the family and get an excuse in the box because you can’t mark them excused until then. The new policy and procedure reflects how we’re actually going to take attendance.”

School related absences will be fairly easy, he said. In regards to the classroom management and corrective action, Motsenbocker said he went back and made some changes. 

“One of the items that is a huge change on students suspended from school is the fact the school is still responsible to provide instructional services to those kids so they don’t fall behind,” he said. “What we’ve done in our district is we’ve identified educational services will be provided after the third day. Kids can usually manage despite getting assignments to keep up, if they’re not far behind.”

If a student is suspended from school a week or two weeks, a long term suspension, those services will still be provided in a different location and a different method. Some school districts have done away with school suspensions, he said. 

“They have converted sometimes two and three classroom into areas where kids who are undisciplined are in those rooms with teachers. They are not circulating around the regular high school,” Motsenbocker said. “Because of the new law, you have to provide services, so let’s do it in a way that is most convenient for us. That would be not having multiple teachers going to the downtown library working with kids for two hours, but actually do it right on campus.”

Motsenbocker said they do not have many suspensions in the district, so it is not a huge issue. The district is moving to the guidelines the state is recommending. Some suspensions are required by law, such bringing a gun school. 

Even in those situations, he said the district still has to provide service to that student. The other item was the policy that came out from WSDA (Washington School Director’s Association), Motsenbocker noted. 

“If a student is in in-school suspension that they can attend single classes. If they didn’t get in trouble in wood shop, they could go to wood shop then come back to the suspension area,” Motsenbocker said. “We modified that. Kids can actually got to single classes with principal approval. If Elia (Ala’limia-Daley, CHS principal) and Mike (Hill, former CHS vice principal) thinks the student shouldn’t be out in the mix, they won’t go anywhere. They used to do that the middle school I worked at in Pullman.”

If the student was taking a science lab, that is really hard to reproduce, he said. If the student did not get in trouble science class, then the student could be allowed to do the lab. Those kinds of options are available. 

The policy was also changed to make the superintendent the hearing officer. The way the policy was written, it was supposed to be the executive director of student service, which CSD does not have. 

“We had an item we need to move in that was part of the law. It adds back the stay provision for a long term suspension, if the parent gets an hearing request on time. You back off the long term suspension until you get an answer from the hearing. Once you get an answer to the hearing, you move forward,” Motsenbocker said. 

Board member Brenda Biebesheimer asked if a parent is challenging something, does a letter go home? Motsenbocker said the parent contacts the principal first. If the problem cannot be solved there, it goes to the superintendent. 

Board President Carrie Sorensen asked if the district could keep doing things the old way. 

“There is not a lot of change to what we are doing. We’ve been making some of these changes. The letters are all updated in our system,” CHS Principal Elia Ala’ilima-Daley said. 

Motsenbocker said they will still do the calls home. 

“The impetus is to try and keep kids in school as much as possible. There were some schools using short and long term suspensions for items that really shouldn’t used for. If you get a kid that is tardy six or seven times and they decide to suspend the student until the end of the semester. At a high school level, now they can’t graduate with their class,” Motsenbocker said. “What is keeping you from school rather than a discipline type thing. If have a safety issue, a violence issue or a weapon issue, no question. The law tells you what to do, but not with tardies.”

Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.