Shoreline School Board Meeting Summary June 1, 2015

Meridian Park Students and Art Docent Trish Norton
 present “Our Shoreline” in the style of artist James Rizzi
to the Shoreline School Board June 1st.

By Marianne Deal Stephens

The June 1st Shoreline School Board Meeting covered so many items that the packet provided to members of the Board ran to 381 pages. The summary of the meeting will appear in four parts, with a general overview plus three separate articles on Business and Operations, Equity Committee Recommendations, and Recently-Approved Secondary Curricula. The general overview follows. 

Consent Agenda: Computing, Change Orders, and Camps

The June 1st Consent Agenda, which was passed without review or discussion, included:

Approval of an Interlocal Cooperative Agreement with Northwest Educational Service District for services from Northwest Regional Data Center.

The District uses software that requires external support and processing. (Families see one product of the external processing when they receive student report cards.) The agreement, which includes provisions about confidentiality—the district maintains ownership of the data — outlines an annual fee of $41.41 per average annual student FTE, which comes to an estimated $377,659 for 2015-16. 

Acceptance of gifts from Shorewood Boosters.

$12,875 for Hydration Stations and outdoor ping pong tables, and $33,828 to various sports and clubs for everything from performance flags to blenders. Funds were raised at the annual Shorewood Booster Auction. 

Approval of $106,095 in change orders for the nearly-completed Shorecrest High School project.

Items range from a retaining wall to signage to “infrastructure for science room autoclave.” 

Authorization for Budget and Construction of Safety and Security Systems.

The District will implement electronic access controls at Brookside Elementary and develop a schedule for doing the same at all remaining District facilities. Both everyday and emergency procedures will be streamlined and more secure. The funds for this project, which is authorized to have a total budget of $1,000,000 come from the 2006 voter-authorized Bond. 

Approval of Extended Field Trips.

Requests this month: Shorecrest to State golf tournament; Shorewood Basketball to camp in Bellingham; Shorewood Cross Country to Camp Casey and a Nike meet in Portland; Brookside Elementary 6th graders to Camp Orkila. 

Book Presentation by Meridian Park Students

Several Meridian Park students in various grades, led by Art Docent Trish Norton, described their study of Pop Artist James Rizzi. Rizzi’s “fun”, “bold”, and “crazy” art of New York City inspired the students to create their own art depicting Shoreline. Their art was compiled into a book, and the students presented a copy to the School Board.

Policies Updated

Director of Categorical Programs and Superintendent Intern Ellen Kaje presented a first reading of policy revisions. The suggested changes, which reflect current terminology and practices, will prepare district policies for OSPI review in 2015-16. Eight policies—including #2160 on the Education of Students with Disabilities, #3115 on Homeless Student Rights, and #3210 on Nondiscrimination — will undergo revision, and two policies will be rescinded since they are covered by other policies. The community can look up policies online: Shoreline School District Policy Manual.

Approval of New (Mostly STEM) Courses

The Program Alignment and Coherence Team evaluates proposals for new courses, recommends or does not recommend a pilot year, and then after the pilot year, decides on a final recommendation. Course approval does not necessarily mean that a course will be available; academic offerings vary every year based on enrollment and student requests at registration. PACT approved the following courses: AP Japanese; Chinese Mandarin 2; Walking/ Yoga; English 12; AP Computer Science A; Intro to Engineering and Robotics; Exploring Computer Science; Robotics 1 and 2; Technology and Innovation 1 and 2. 

A sample of PACT’s course evaluation. This middle school Introduction to Engineering and Robotics pilot course enrolled 41 female and 137 male students. See Intro to Engineering sample. 

Board Reports and Communications

Director Richard Potter noted that Shorecrest and Shorewood school marching bands and drill teams participated and placed in the Victoria Days parade (see SAN article ). Debi Ehrlichman enjoyed the final Shorewood Culinary Arts Dinner and the Shorecrest Interact Club Dinner. She noted that the Lake Forest Park Rotary recently hosted Shoreline School District Homeless Education Liason Pamela Kinnaird (See Homeless Education). Director Ehrlichman extended congratulations to “all students who are graduating, and all who have won awards” in sports and other competitions. 

Director Dick Nicholson, who is a retired accountant, is the Board Representative to KCDA (a procurement cooperative owned by public school districts) and reported that we are “on track and on budget”. Outgoing Student Representative Nicola Gerbino volunteered at Highland Terrace’s recent Art Walk and watched state tennis and baseball events. President Mike Jacobs, an avid baseball fan, noted that though the state final baseball game did not go Shorewood’s way, the team did very well. He praised the Shorewood Girls’ Fastpitch All-Academic team and noted that the district is “on the ascendancy” sports-wise.  

Superintendent Rebecca Miner introduced new Shorecrest Student Representative to the Board Rachel Semon. Rachel and her soon-to-be-selected counterpart from Shorewood will share the student seat on the School Board for the 2015-16 school year.