School board considers 2-sport athletics

The Wahkiakum School Board asked district coaches to propose how student athletes could participate in two sports concurrently. The board continued the discussion it started in November with parents Lamar and Wendy Blix whose sons, in junior high and high school may want to play both baseball and track.

The board met Monday, electing Lee Tischer as chairperson and Tina Schubert vice-chair. Superintendent Bob Garrett swore Tony Boyce into another term, since he was unopposed in the last election. School board member Tina Schubert will also be sworn to a second term in January. Schubert, who is clerk/treasurer of the Town of Cathlamet was attending a city council meeting Monday.

Lamar Blix asked the board to allow dual sport athletes in the spring season, reminding the board that students wanted to play two sports when he was in school.

Blix said, “Grades are my number one priority. If the grades fail, they’re done.”

The board discussed how students would make required practices, and whether their choices would affect the team. A coach is required to supervise practices similar to those of other athletes. A student needs ten practices to qualify to play baseball, and ten to play track.

Tischer asked that a qualifying grade point average be included in the policy.

The Blixes require their children to have “higher than all B’s or they don’t play,” Wendy Blix said. Garrett said district policy required a 1.75 grade point average.

“If the coaches are willing and you have dedicated kids, I’m in favor,” Director Mike Quigley said.

Elementary and middle School principal Theresa Libby and other staff visited a school piloting the No Excuses University program in the Bethel School District.

“We were impressed with the school, how businesslike it seemed. In the hallways the kids seemed to know their purpose,” she said.

Libby said the program fits with the Turnaround Schools curriculum in use locally. She said staff was considering the noise level in the cafeteria and in the halls.

“We’re talking about restaurant manners,” she said.

The board passed a resolution applying for an energy operational savings improvement grant through the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The district is undergoing an energy audit to see whether the buildings can benefit from lighting, heating, water consumption that would create significant energy savings that the grant would cover. Bonneville Power Administration is doing a similar audit for the district, and BPA will review the audit conducted by Ameresco Quantum, an energy savings company.

Washington OSPI is adopting new evaluation models for teachers and the district will have to select one. High School Principal Dan Casler and Libby attended meetings in North Thurston School District, which has piloted a proposed evaluation system for teachers.

Casler said North Thurston school district administrators have spent about 14 hours per year on teacher evaluation in the new plan. At present, teachers are accompanying Casler into other classrooms to observe. “Then we look for what we can implement in our own class.”

Another measure of student satisfaction with instruction relates to the numbers of students choosing to take computer based classes or ALE.

Some students take ALE classes because classes won’t fit into their schedule along with four years of a foreign language or mathematics. Casler has been surveying students, and intends to get more specific information, since 75 percent of the ALE classes are English and history classes.