Naselle school board goes to iPads

Beginning their transition to “paperless” board meetings, the Naselle-Grays River Valley School Board Directors used their iPads for the first time to conduct the meeting on September 21.

The board discussed implementing a policy to allow bilingual students to earn credit for knowing a second language instead of taking the few foreign language classes that Naselle offers. This would allow kids who understand and speak Spanish fluently (or any other language) to take a test and gain the credit for classes that would repeat material they already know.

Principal Karen Wirkkala reported that the school has conducted two emergency drills over the past week. Additionally, the University of Michigan has selected Naselle as one of 140 schools nationwide to participate in Monitoring the Future, a survey that tracks the behavior and attitudes of young people in relation to drug and alcohol use and current issues.

Last year’s state testing results were down from previous years. School administrators cited changes to the testing process, new math qualifications, and timing of testing as possible factors for lower scores. The entire sophomore class passed the reading and writing tests. All other classes had scores on par with each other with the exception of the fourth grade, where only one of 19 students met the state standard on the math test.

Wirkkala explained she had made staffing changes in response to the low fourth grade math achievement rate. The teacher who was teaching fourth grade is now working at the youth camp and the current teacher of the class has been alerted to the situation, said Wirkkala. She said she has confidence in the teacher and believes this will not happen again.

Wirkkala said the school currently has 290 students and has budgeted for 292 students.

The monetary settlement of the board in regards to a lawsuit filed earlier this year concerning open public meeting law violations has been paid in full.

During November and December, the board will meet at 6:30 p.m. rather than their regular seven p.m. starting time.