School Board Meeting Focus on Food Services and Athletics

The school board meeting on Feb. 8 began with an update about food services by director Colin Levi. Levi explained how, since the pandemic began, food services has switched to a brown bagged meal model, with the district delivering meals to multiple drop off locations daily, including to a few remote homes.

State allocated funds for school food service has changed as well, reducing the red tape, and enabling the district to serve bagged breakfasts and lunches simultaneously. Also, the state is reimbursing 100 percent of the costs of meals at this point.

Now that schools are in hybrid mode, bagged meals are distributed at the school at the end of students’ half-day sessions. While there’s still some scratch cooking, the food services team is also creatively using up surplus from last year, and their new purchases have focused on items with individual portions, like mac and cheese or fruit in cups.

Levi explained that Food Services of America, their vendor, was bought out, becoming part of U.S. Foods. This has led to complications, including missing items from orders and product shortages. “It’s been a bit rough,” Levi said.

But Levi also complimented his staff, saying, “They’ve rallied from day one, having to shift and learn new ways. They’re fantastic.”

The district has served over 26,000 meals this school year, compared to over 60,000 meals by this time last year. Number of breakfasts has remained almost steady; the difference is a large reduction in lunches served, due to fewer people in the buildings to receive lunch.

Board members and superintendent Tracey Beckendorf-Edou thanked Levi and his department. Board chair Trey Ising said, “We all appreciate your efforts. You’ve done the district proud.”

Next up, athletics director Dominique Coffin informed the board about the upcoming start of sports. Coffin has been working very closely with other regional athletic directors to come up with a unique plan to allow for good competition while minimizing travel and working solely within the region as designated for the governor’s reopening phases.

This North Central Region is made up of 28 high schools, which are now grouped into four tiers of competition, which vary by sport. CHS, for instance, despite being a 1A school, will bump up to Tier 1 in sports like girls’ soccer, because it is highly competitive and therefore can compete against the larger schools.

Another element of the plan were the new seasons. The first season, for fall sports, starts on Feb. 22, later than in other parts of the state, because of our region’s inclement winter weather. Immediately following six weeks of fall sports is a six-week season of spring sports. Spring sports were given the “best” position to compensate for their absence last school year. After spring sports, if allowed, will come five weeks of winter sports, which are indoors, and therefore higher risk. If, for health concerns, winter sports shouldn’t happen, spring sports will have an extended season.

As long as our region is in Phase 1, fall sport athletes can only practice, except cross country can host races, which are deemed safer than face-to-face competitions. There is also an important phased-in approach for spectating. For the first two weeks there will be no spectating. Then there will be a cap of 200 people, including athletes and coaches, at an event. This assumes entering Phase 2 and a resumption of competition. The exact system of allocating tickets is still to be determined. The hope is that by “Seniors’ Night” at least parents of seniors can attend a culminating event for their son or daughter.

To help fans, the Booster Club purchased and installed two Pixellot AI cameras at the PD stadium and in the CHS gym. “It tracks the ball as athletes play. It also projects the score,” said Coffin. The video footage will be live-streamed for home viewing.

Coffin and Beckendorf-Edou acknowledged that discussions around this regional planning was contentious, however, the priority was always for the student athletes to get a chance to play safely. They want to avoid what could happen if a large number of spectators congregated during the pandemic.

Most middle school sports would be allowed a short season of four weeks each. Fall sports, beginning in April, will be followed by spring sports. Competition will solely occur between the three similarly sized middle schools from Cascade, Chelan and Cashmere. Winter sports and soccer (which is absent from Chelan and Cashmere) are canceled.

The board thanked Coffin for his positive energy and hopefulness during this challenging time for athletics.

Items related to personnel included approving several retirements. CHS secretary Kathy Wendlandt will retire after 31 years in the district, and first grade teacher Mary DePaz will be retiring after 34 years. Their dedication was applauded. Also Brooks Murphy will retire as the intervention specialist at CHS. New hires include part-time inclusion specialist Ben Sunitsch, CHS halftime assistant cross country coach Cesar Mendez, CHS JV volleyball coach Anthony Mora, and CHS assistant girls’ soccer coach Stephanie Zamudio.

Beckendorf-Edou and Brett Johnson, Special Education Director, shared news of receipt of an Inclusionary Practices Project grant of over $126,000 from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). Inclusion in relation to the schools refers to providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized.

“The goal is inclusion so that the majority of the students are in a general education setting 80% of the time or more,” said Johnson.

Brett Johnson and P.E. teacher Micah Rieke won another $5500 grant from OSPI and the Washington Traffic Safety Commission for bike support for the fleet of bikes used in P.E. classes. The funds will cover tune-ups, tires, tubes and two adaptive bicycles.