School Board Meeting

DAYTON–The School Board were advised of Hot Poetry winners; approved the CTE plan;

High school English teacher Martin Surridge announced that out of five winners, three Dayton seniors, Justina Abrahamson, Solomon Brenner, and Logan Berg, won the Pacific Northwest Hot Poetry Contest. The other two winners were Washington University students. Their poems brought awareness to the cleanup efforts at the Hanford Nuclear Site. You can read their poems on page 7 of the Dayton Chronicle.

Sam Korslund announced that six student athletes have qualified for the regional track meet, and will move onto the state tournament. Girl’s softball most likely to head to districts. The high school baseball team earned the April Team of the Month from the WIAA. They also had two golfers qualify for districts. “So out of all four spring sports, we are going to districts in all four of them,” said Korslund. “It’s a great way to cap off the year.”

The board approved the Career and technical Education (CTE) plan Keely Grant presented. To acquire additional funding, OSPI requires the plan must be in place. “We did a heavy lift early on and got our food class, science, financial literacy, family health, and advanced digital art class approved by OSPI,” said Grant. In addition, the group looks to increase the work-based learning opportunities.

Dayton now has a total of 27 credits that students can earn in those classes providing an additional pathway to graduation and obtaining early college credits before graduation. The board approved and signed off on the CTE plan during the action item agenda.

In other business, the elementary school had their Cinco De Libro event that was a successful event that had approximately 200 people attend. The PTSO and the Boosters hosted the Third Annual Mother Son dodgeball tournament this month. The event offered an option to pay five dollars to buy yourself back into the game if you got out, and principal Amy Cox announced that she heard this raised over $1,300 at this event. The kids will be participating in multiple field trips coming up now that the weather is better. These will include a trip to the fish hatchery and the courthouse. Some of the elementary staff will be participating in dyslexia training.

The school has completed the state and federal audits and will be having their exit meeting soon. The school did very well in their audit with only a few minor notes and changes to make but nothing that will require additional follow ups.

Superintendent Rich Stewart stated to affect the best use of the newly passed levy fund, a group of staff will work a list of top priority items to tackle over the next four years. They are looking at safety, visibility, and technology needs. One example is to finish the elementary fencing which falls under both safety and visible work needing to be done. They are also continuing to find grant funding to complete all the projects on the list.

The board approved an ASB extension which allows the ASB to increase their cap on funding to access money for end-of-year activities.

The school district approved the OSPI emergency repair grant to allow release of fund for the boiler project. They asked for $957,000 in order to look at all aspects of the boilers and heating system.

The board approved the second reading of six policies of which one included a change based on an update to RCW 49.44.240. It states that it is now unlawful for an employer to discriminate against an applicant for employment that tests positive for cannabis during the hiring of a new employee. The school currently does not do pre-employment drug testing. Once an employee is hired if they are suspected of use during employment, they can request a drug test and then act where needed.

The board ended with an executive session to review the performance of a staff member. No action was taken after the executive session.