Teacher contract ratification must wait

One of the Medical Lake School Board’s major action items on the agenda for their Aug. 28 meeting will just have to wait.

But in the meantime, the board did a lot of unanimous “rubber stamping” of a variety of matters and heard numerous reports on the eve of the start of the 2018-19 school year.

The big item on the agenda was board approval of a three-year collective bargaining agreement with certified staff. For Medical Lake, “On average it was 9.67 percent new money,” Superintendent Time Ames said in an interview late last week.

The approval was tabled until the Sept. 25 board meeting because a final meeting of staff to discuss and presumably approve the deal was postponed.

Classified staff ratified their deal already, but the delay, Ames said, was due in part at least to union president Ryan Grant wanting to address each building’s staff on an individual basis.

With that set aside, the board heard a brief report from school resource officer, Spokane County Sheriff’s Deputy Travis Pendell, who said he’s established many good relationships with students due to his presence at the high school. That has led to better trust outside the school year when he runs into students in a variety of community settings.

Among the notable board policy items discussed was a new open campus policy at Medical Lake High School that went into effect on Aug. 29. While approved unanimously, the change which allows students to leave campus during lunch breaks, has the ability to be rescinded, depending on behavior.

With a statewide teacher shortage plaguing districts, there have been hires made who sometime do not have specific subject matter endorsements. The board approved allowing four current staff members to teach “out of their content area” but the district will work with these individuals to see them through to receiving proper certification.

A wide variety of furniture was approved for surplus, including exercise equipment that is upwards of 20 years old in some instances.

The board also accepted a donation of $25,000 from the district’s insurance provider, Ace American, that will be passed on equally to the victims of an April car crash involving high school track athletes where one student died.

In Ames’ monthly superintendent’s report, he brought the board up to date on improvements made to the restrooms at Holliday Field. Since the facility has such limited use — about three months a year — more extravagant remodeling was not conducted.

Ames also told the board about new LED lighting in the high school parking lot, and the effort to repair the floor in the high school cafeteria. “There’s no duct tape,” he said.

With fall sports at hand, Ames provided participation numbers for different varsity teams. Volleyball was at 33 and football between 60 – 65, up from last year. Girls soccer was hovering about 18 – 20, down,”But some may come late,” Ames said. Cross country had 35-plus.

The board and Ames later met in executive session for the superintendent’s annual evaluation, later sharing that he received, “A really good evaluation,” from his bosses.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].