Medical Lake directors get security updates

Some fun preempted the regular routine of business at the March 27 Medical Lake School Board meeting.

Staged at Hallett Elementary School, fourth grade students under the guidance of Terri Remendowski showed off work they had been doing with Guided Language Acquisition Design (GLAD) strategies.

Their program gave the board, staff and the audience who had gathered in Hallett’s library an informative glimpse at the lifecycle and circular journey from birth to death of the Pacific salmon.

Tami Earthman recapped the school’s Pirate Family Title 1 Literacy Night earlier in March that drew in excess of 600 students, parents, staff and Eastern Washington University football players for the fundraising activity that collected $850 for various activities.

Superintendent Tim Ames briefed the group on a variety of matters, perhaps one of the most timely and noteworthy being the changes of building security. Work is ongoing to begin the changeover to have all main entrances in district schools become safer with the installation of security vestibules.

Among the amenities, the project would offer video security and the ability to identify and deny students who have been known to have been suspended access to buildings. An initial figured floated at the meeting indicated the cost to be about $400,000, monies that will be derived from the recent passage of an educational program and operations levy February 13.

Ames also brought attention to what has been a very successful month for the district, and its high school.

He led a contingent of district staff and officials to Washington, D.C. to meet with members of Congress on behalf of public schools and to try to keep the federal pipeline primed with funds. Maybe the best takeaway was the timing of the trip, which happened in between two of the nasty Nor’Easter winter storms that recently belted the Northeast.

Ames also spoke about Medical Lake High School which earned a state robotics competition title, and tennis player Noah Ray, who was singled out by KXLY-TV as one of its “Shining Stars,” a program that spotlights student-athletes from area schools.

The district’s director of teaching and learning, Kim Headrick, reported on what were termed an impressive participation rate of 98.6 percent for recent parent conferences. She also presented an update on the ongoing assessments, the next of which will take place in May.

“I’m really pleased,” she said. “Kindergarten through grades one and two have had nice gains.”

Another notable set of numbers came from Chad Moss, director of finance, who reported that district schools are aging gracefully. A third-party inspects buildings every three years and it found wear and tear is pretty typical.

The high school showed “Not much of a change,” Moss said, noting the typical areas of concern are roofs and carpets. The newly remodeled middle school was is pretty good condition. The most notable report came from Michael Anderson Elementary on Fairchild Air Force Base where the inspector said, “It was the best 15-year-old building,” they had seen.

Moss also reported that nationally there was a small, 2 to 3 percent, increase in impact aid dollars. This money helps fund programs in districts that serve the population on nearby military bases.

The district is also studying what is being called the “Medical Lake School District Prestigious Award.” It is an honor that could be bestowed on a variety of contributors — short of having a building, or portion thereof, named for someone — and would be the responsibility of a committee within the community.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].