School Board Meeting: Retirements, Budget Home Link and Policies

The school board meeting on June 22^nd over Zoom began with a retirement celebration of several district employees, including Laura Gonzales, ALPS paraprofessional, Lori Offutt, CHS secretary, Helen Hoper, PD librarian, James Klarich, CHS math teacher, and Bob Fredrick, bus driver. Superintendent Tracey Beckendorf-Edou spoke of how the normal celebration would include handshakes, hugs, cake and photos. While this celebration needed to be virtual, she expressed the extreme gratitude which she and board felt toward these staff for their years of service.

Laura Gonzales attended the virtual meeting and mentioned her 21 years of employment with the district, working in many capacities over the years at the high school, middle school, both elementary schools and the Discovery School. With a tenure in Tonasket before that, Gonzales had an impressive career of 32 years in education.

Next the school board heard an update about the Home Link program from Terry Muscutt, who oversees the program. The current enrollment of 37 students is expected to be about the same in the 2020-21 school year. Home Link received accolades from the state this year for excellence in language arts curriculum and also attendance.

Looking to the future, the Home Link program hopes to grow its outdoor education options, enhance its math curriculum and utilize online materials more. The biggest change is that teacher MaryLou Bailey resigned and is moving away. Bailey built the Home Link program, which has impacted many local families. “I’m so grateful for the trust given to me to make this happen,” Bailey said.

Board member Judy Derpack, whose granddaughter attended Home Link, praised Bailey, saying “Your innovation and creativity were exceptional.”

Dwight Remick, District Executive Director of Finance and Operations, gave a budget presentation. There will be a public hearing about the budget on July 20, before the regularly scheduled board meeting, and the board will adopt the budget during their regular session.

Remick is tackling the challenge of budgeting for a “normal” fall, but also must build in contingency plans, so the district can react quickly to evolving state mandates.

One consideration is that enrollment projection is for 36 less students than last year. Remick showed a list of programs and their likely changes in expenditure. The most notable changes include a $200,000 reduction in State Handicapped. “We are re-aligning staffing to be more efficient but still meet the needs of students,” Remick said.

Vocational expenditure will be down $65,000 due to changes in staff and reduced equipment purchases. Food services will go up $20,000 to cover changes needed for health safety, including more time to prepare individually packaged food items instead of self-serve. Transportation will go down $40,000 because the district does not need to buy a new bus this year and that is the allocation for extra features required for buses that travel in mountainous terrain versus city driving, which is what the state funds.

Spending of CARES Act funds of $320,000 is still being determined. “Preliminary information is it will support personal protective equipment, expenses related to distance learning and other expenses caused by COVID-19,” said Remick.

The fund balance must be over 8.5% by board policy. Remick will work to put all the budgetary information into a F195 that is reviewed by the North Central Educational Services District, broken down into budgets for the general fund, capital projects, debt service, ASB and transportation, with a summary of projections for the next four years – a monumental task of number crunching and forecasting.

As for transportation, Beckendorf-Edou shared that the health guidelines will be manageable with the district’s bus fleet. Students will likely fill the buses from the back forward, wearing masks and leaving spaces, but allowing for siblings to sit near each other. The bigger transportation challenge is related to a potential shortage of drivers who are not high risk in terms of COVID-19.

In other news: The board approved the hire of Elisa Vasquez for IRMS assistant secretary position.

Policy review and approval was extensive. Among them, the policy on international exchange students was updated for the first time in fourteen years. Beckendorf-Edou said they hope to be open to exchange students next year, because those students provide a lot of value to their fellow classmates.

Additionally, the district is following new regulations from the state about student immunizations, requiring a medically verified immunization record before students come to school. The record must be a Certificate of Immunization Status (CIS) printed from the Immunization Information System.

The language in the co-curricular contract, which affects coaches and club advisors, was revised and approved to update sections about nondiscrimination, injuries on the job and stipend processing.

Beckendorf-Edou will be meeting weekly with a Reopening stakeholders’ group, made of up of students, parents, staff, community group members and Cyndi Garza as the board representative. “Every meeting we will be discussing a different reopening topic, including class schedules, food, transportation, health and hygiene, and academics,” she said.

Finally, the superintendent cautioned that the whole community and county must continue respecting health guidelines for the sake of students. “Reopening schools really needs to be in Phase 2,” she explained. “If we’re still in Phase 1, it will be much harder.”