Thursday, March 28, 2024

School Board discusses various future possibilities

Jan. 28 Meeting

Posted


    The resurrection of the conversation surrounding the Beaver Valley surplus property, noting some milestones for the Cascade athletics and a guest speaker from the Upper Valley Museum - these were just three of the many elements in the second school board meeting of 2019 on Monday, January 28. This meeting brought forth several possibilities, not quite cemented, but could be on the horizon for the Cascade School District.
    One upcoming component that may be weaved into Cascade curriculum is collaborating with the Upper Valley Museum during the course of the museum's relocation. Upper Valley Historical Society president, Matt Cade and city council member, Margaret Neighbors, pitched their idea to incorporate the museum aspects into curriculum.
    "We value the history of this town and we want to make sure our kids understand the history," said Neighbors.
    Cade elaborated on providing assistance to the district with informational speakers, schools participating in walking tours and using the schools as a temporary resting place for some of the exhibits that would be in limbo during the move.
    "In our plan for moving the museum, we will probably be in a phase where we will not have the exhibit room open," said Cade. "As we do, we will need to provide a safe environment for our exhibit pieces and talking with the superintendent (Bill Motsenbocker) just exploring the possibility of maybe introducing some of those exhibits into the school."
    The exhibits would be essentially different styles of poster boards, each with different information about a different point or moment in the course of Upper Valley history - such as "The Quiet Period" right before Leavenworth transitioned into the Bavarian theme.
    The ability to freeze time over the evolution of the community and share it with some of the youngest community members was the main theme of the pitch. Motsenbocker stated that despite curriculum being pretty packed full for the students, he would try to find a way to blend certain aspects into the curriculum without shoving something else aside. He did state that he would be happy to house the artifacts around the District office and possibly some Cascade schools.
    "We would be happy to increase the number of artifacts and photographs in this hallway, so we will make that commitment to you right away," said Motsenbocker.  
    Next up on the agenda was Athletic Director, Dominique Coffin, giving an overview of the athletics within the district (both middle and high school), upcoming changes for athletics within the state and how the honor code has unfolded since tweaking it.
    Some milestones mentioned: the Cascade High School cross country coach Dayle Massey was the 1A State Coach of the Year, the Cascade High School girls basketball team got their first league win for the past four years and the Cascade High School wrestling team took home the first league championship this year since 1987.
    "Our new code went in this last year, approved by the school board in the summer. We lowered it to a percentage for your first athletic code violation (rather than the previous code which if a student violated the code in the form of getting caught drinking, they would not be able to play a sport for the season), I think it was something good and something needed," said Coffin. "It was kind of tough because kids that are getting athletic violations are kids that need that support (sports and coaches) the most."
    An upcoming tweak for district athletics to take into consideration for future seasons is the amendments made by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association. Hard numbers was an amendment the school district was hoping for - which means that a school that is Cascade's size will not have to play a school where the enrollment is double instead of forcing 60 teams into every division. Socio-economic factor was something the district was not shooting for, but still came to fruition - however much the percentage of Cascade High School students receive free and reduced lunch is over the state average of students who receive free and reduced lunch will then distort the actual enrollment number (i.e. if its 10% over the average, they will then shave 10% out of the enrollment which could push the school out of 1A into a 2A division).
    "It will be interesting to see how it will all unfold," said Coffin after explaining Okanogan may drop from the Caribou Trail League and Quincy may be an addition due to the amendments.
    The last item also looked to the future, but was something that has come up at past school board meetings. The Beaver Valley property will be surplused and put back on the market, but without the stipulation of the play field. The Cascade School District has decided they will take responsibility for the play field and the buyer will just purchase the 5.3 acres of property.

Other business attended to at the meeting:
- The district nNotification of juvenile defenders was a policy requested to be approved meaning that a district wide notification must be released when a student joins the district with a past criminal history.
- Interviews and interrogations of students on school premises was a policy that allows administrators the ability to end interrogations or interviews of students on school grounds if they see fitted.
 

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