Schools
Issaquah School District: School Board Meeting Updates: September 22, 2021
The Issaquah School Board held a regular meeting Tuesday, September 21 at the Issaquah School District Administration Building. The meet ...
September 22, 2021
The Issaquah School Board held a regular meeting Tuesday, September 21 at the Issaquah School District Administration Building. The meeting was broadcast live on the ISD YouTube channel, and a recording of the meeting is available.
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The following is a summary of the topics the Board and district staff discussed and action the Board took at the meeting. It is not an official record or meeting minutes. To review official minutes from all board meetings, please visit our board meeting archive webpage.
- Julia Dorn, Briarwood Assistant Principal
- Jordan Frost, Assistant Director Student Interventions-Compliance
Superintendent Ron Thiele updated the Board on COVID-19 mitigation in the Issaquah School District (ISD), followed by Board discussion. Thiele opened by sharing a recap of his visits to schools where both students and staff are excited to be back to full time in-person learning. Despite this, current concerns include many job positions being unfilled, oversight of COVID prevention strategies, and behavioral challenges. We celebrated 15 successful days of the 2021-22 school year with limited COVID cases.
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Deputy Superintendent Dr. Josh Almy shared additional updates regarding COVID cases, the new dashboard to be released next week, COVID testing and the application of the “Test to Stay” program.
Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Donna Hood shared updates regarding the the verification of vaccination status of all ISD employees. With a deadline of October 18, we currently have 92% of teachers and 87% of paraprofessionals verified.
Executive Director of Operations Martin Turney shared that initial planning has begun to offer vaccines to students ages 5-11 when made available to the public. There is a planning meeting this Friday, September 24 with Costco, who we partnered with this past spring for a pop-up clinic. Listen to the full discussion on planing for a potential pop-up clinic on our YouTube channel.
In an update regarding High School level education, Executive Director of High Schools Andrea McCormick shared that there are naturally more close contacts in club and sports as they are not in a classroom environment, and that some sports naturally lend themselves to close contacts. Next, she discussed cancelling traditional Homecoming dances at our High Schools, and instead offering unique Homecoming experiences to better limit close contacts.
School Board Director Sydne Mullings reiterated that mitigation strategies are important outside of the classroom as well, encouraging families to ensure these layered COVID prevention strategies are followed everywhere. School Board Director Dr. Harlan Gallinger shared cases in King County have been going down the past two weeks.
Mullings further asked for clarification around staffing ratios verses class size as those two items are different data sets. The Board requested that our District staff explain class sizes in simpler, more straight forward language instead of providing the mathematical answer. To listen to the full discussion on class size versus ratio, please click here.
Thiele shared that after the last Board Meeting it was clear to him that we would not be running a Levy in February 2022, and instead run a Levy in late April or August of 2022. Questions important to early planning are:
- What levies should the package include? The package could include EP&O (Educational Programs and Operations), Capital/Technology and/or Transportation levies.
- Duration of the Levy? Usually 2 or 4 years. If a Transportation Levy is included, that would typically be for 1 year.
- What is the timeline? A springboard will be created in early to mid-November as a foundation to the community input and committee process. In late January 2022 Thiele will bring proposals to the Board.
- The Board may want to review enrichment from the 2020 replacement EP&O levy. This work will be discussed again at the upcoming Board retreat. To see a list of 2020 EP&O Levy items with updated estimate costs for the 2021-2022 school year, please visit our website.
School Board President Suzanne Weaver shared that there are a number of items that one might expect to be covered through basic education funding, but are not. Based on this there is a limitation on what true enrichment can occur. Gallinger asked to review the budget to see where our federal, state and levy funds are all going so that we can best prepare the levy asks. Mullings is hoping for a brief presentation from each program or activity to understand the need for the additional funding beyond what is provided by the state.
Director of Capital Projects Tom Mullins, presented an update on various active construction projects in the District.
- Cedar Trails Elementary is up and running!
- Cougar Mountain Middle School is being impacted by the carpenter strike. There are certain jobs no one else can complete outside of the union carpenters.
- High School #4 and Elementary School #17 - at this time, based on comments from project stakeholders, we are withdrawing our SEPA threshold determination for the project in order to address that feedback. We will still start construction in the spring of 2022 for this project, with a fall of 2024 opening.
- Maple Hills Elementary remodel and full HVAC system replacement is progressing well.
- Beaver Lake Middle School is getting HVAC upgrades, music storage, a covered play area and new flooring/finishes.
- Holly Street Campus Early Learning Center’s remodel is progressing well.
For further information on ISD construction projects, please refer to the Capital Projects webpage.
The School Board reviewed and modified the draft letter to Governor Inslee and Superintendent Reykdal regarding Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding dollars. To listen to the conversation and watch drafting of the revised letter, please visit our YouTube channel. A motion was made and passed for the Board to approve the letter from Weaver and Board Legislative Representative Gallinger to Governor Inslee and Superintendent Reykdal, as finalized during the meeting.
Listen to Thiele’s recap on current works in progress on our YouTube channel.
As a friendly reminder, the Issaquah School District will send official District communication using only the channels listed below:
Other Facebook accounts or groups, websites, or media channels are not operated or endorsed by the District.
You can view recordings of this and other past board meetings on the ISD YouTube channel. You can also see future meetings on this channel or via Zoom. Check the District website for more information on attending meetings, giving public comments, or reading the minutes of past meetings.
This press release was produced by the Issaquah School District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.