School board acts on career/tech policy

The Wahkiakum School District (WSD) Board of Directors listened to reports and approved several items at their October meeting on Tuesday.

Policy 2170, regarding Career and Technical Education, has been under discussion for a couple months. It was finally adopted along with some procedures drafted by the Camas School District.

“This policy is basically just saying that we have a CTE program,” Principal Stephanie Leitz said. “And our CTE program is an exploratory program that offers kids a variety of pathways and experiences to allow them to understand industry standards around different types of careers that are available to them. Forestry, agriculture, welding, those are the areas that Kyle (Hurley) is certified to deliver CTE instruction in.”

“I think we need to go ahead and adopt this and the Camas version of procedures which is basically a cleaned up version of our procedures,” Director Paula Culbertson said. “When you apply for a grant that has to do with our CTE program, OSPI wants this procedure to be adopted.”

“I think there are all kinds of things opening up,” Culbertson added. “I don’t want the district to be left behind on some of this stuff.”

Leitz agreed.

“We want all our kids to have the same advantages here that they would have had if they had chosen to go somewhere else,” she said.

Superintendent Brent Freeman discussed a policy written in 1995 regarding rental fees for for-profit organizations, after a conversation was started in September by a local woman who wanted to use school facilities to offer Zumba classes. He suggested that they review the policy and update it by January 1, 2019.

“We need to come up with a fair pricing structure,” Freeman said. “We can’t undercut other local businesses.”

The board approved travel for a couple of overnight student trips coming up in November and December.

On November 5-7, 16 students will attend an intervention/prevention summit in Yakima followed by a night at Great Wolf Lodge. The event is mostly funded by the Wahkiakum Community Network.

In late December, the girls and boys basketball teams will travel to Colfax and Colton for a tournament.

Though the school district had moved their bank accounts to Bank of the Pacific, their credit cards were still at Bank of America. The board approved moving the credit card accounts to the Bank of the Pacific as well on Tuesday.

There will be two Veterans Day assemblies at the school this year. At 10 a.m., Wahkiakum High School students will honor local veterans. Three people who served in Vietnam are expected to talk. At 1:15 p.m., fifth graders will hold an assembly of their own at the grade school.

The board approved an application for a $4,000 Perkins grant which will help the district purchase items to keep the shop up to industry standards.

Freeman said that he, Duncan Cruickshank from the Town of Cathlamet, and others had been collecting data as part of plans for a grant application to make lane changes and create a crosswalk on SR 4. They are also hoping to install more sidewalks around the school campus, and he needed board approval to sign a right of way agreement with Washington State Department of Transportation. They granted it.

“The crosswalk on SR 4 is the most important of all these pieces for safety,” Freeman said. “We’ve already had over 1,000 crossings this school year, of kids walking back and forth over the highway.”

Freeman said that the Washington Association of Maintenance and Operations administrators are hosting a visit to schools in southwest Washington, including WSD this week.

“After the McCleary fix was put in to place, people realized they need to do something else,” Freeman said. “Some are looking at getting the legislature to focus on capital projects, particularly for small, rural, poor schools.”

Leitz noted that it was time to apply for accreditation again.

The next board meeting is scheduled for November 20, at 5:30 p.m.