The Edmonds School Board of Directors held two celebrations during its June 11 meeting to recognize students’ contributions during the 2023-2024 school year.

First, the board recognized the student advisors and student board members who had served as non-voting school board members since being sworn in during the Oct. 10, 2023, meeting.

School Board President Nancy Katims thanked the students on behalf of the board and Superintendent Rebecca Miner for their willingness to serve as advisors.

“Having student advisors being a part of our meetings and discussions is a vital link in grounding our work where it matters, which is for all the students in the district,” Katims said.

The students honored were:

Lynnwood High School:

– Santiago Gonzalez-Corzo 

– Kevin Seng

Meadowdale High School:

– Neha Jain 

– Amin-Erdene Lkhagvasuren

– Viktoriia Mikhailova

Mountlake Terrace High School:

– Amaya Brazil

– Vivian Guillen

– Magdalena Kedzierski

“We greatly appreciate the time, energy and thought that you’ve given to your role as a student advisor to the board,” Katims said. “Your insights and perspective helped to inform many of our decisions this year.”

Next, Athletic Director Angie McGuire recognized spring sports student athletes.  

Among the highlights McGuire provided: Mountlake Terrace High School’s 4×400 relay team earned first-eam all-Wesco honors and won the district championship. The team also broke the school record in the 4×400 relay and will compete at the Nike nationals in Eugene, Oregon.

Mountlake Terrace’s Brynlee Dubiel also received first-team all-Wesco honors in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles.

McGuire said that during the Wesco South 300-meter hurdle finals race, Dubiel caught a hurdle and fell. Despite the accident, Dubiel won third place and qualified to run at the district level and Nike Nationals. 

“It was really one of the gutsiest performances I’ve ever seen in any sport,” McGuire said.

McGuire pointed out that Dubiel was a sophomore this year and said, “We’ll be hearing more from Brynlee.”

Some athletes had to miss competitions, which lost them points in Wesco rankings, but the reasons were quite impressive, McGuire said.

Lynnwood golfer Stacey Lee received all-Wesco second-team honors. McGuire explained that Lee missed a tournament because she is also a cellist in the Cascade Youth Symphony and had a conflicting schedule. Further, Lee finished 14th out of 70 golfers at the district meet and qualified for the state competition on the day she took her AP English exam.

McGuire also recognized Edmonds-Woodway’s baseball team. The team won the Wesco championship for the second year in a row with a 13-1 regular-season record  and took third at the state tournament with an overall record of 21-6.

In other business, the board reviewed the first middle school health curriculum update in 25 years, with a presentation from K-12 PE and Health Teacher on Special Assignment Jenni McCloughan.

From June 2023 to May 2024, McCloughan worked with a collaborative group of Edmonds School District teachers, staff, students and community members to select the core of the middle school health instructional materials.

The teachers unanimously chose G-W Publisher. They found that it was user-friendly, suitable for translation, integrated well with the district’s Canvas program, had a strong representation of the district’s students in lesson images, used inclusive language and was compatible with Google Docs.

The budget includes teacher textbooks, 600 digital student licenses and teacher training. A five-year bundle is $62,678, plus the training, which is $3,500. 

The new materials will align with the Washington State learning standards for health and the national health standards from SHAPE America. No board action was taken on the proposal.

Oak Heights Elementary School students Joselyn, Camilla, Trinity, Kajsa and Milli gave the last school presentation of the year. The five students explained how they have made their school more inclusive.

The school has a group of fifth- and sixth-grade students called Friendship Helpers, who help younger children with reading, math and word study. They also assist kindergarteners and first graders resolve conflicts.

In addition, the school launched Kid Councilors in February 2024. Proposed by Kajsa and Milli, the program involves fifth-and sixth-grade students helping younger kids at recess to address “kid-sized” problems.

Thirty-five students volunteered, so both winter and spring sessions were created to give everyone a chance.

Following the student presentation, Oak Heights Elementary School Principal Jessica Asp provided the school’s improvement plan. 

The school increased student reading proficiency from 32% in Fall 2021 to 50% in spring 2024 — just 9% away from the school’s target — as measured by i-Ready assessments.

Asp explained that the staff created focus word lists for grades K-6 and aligned instructional resources, assessments and tools. The staff then reviewed the data and adjusted the instructions according to the three tiers the students fell under in fall 2023: at grade level (28%), one grade below (33%) and two or more grades below (39%).

The staff was also able to identify multilingual learners’ reading struggles and create strategies to help with word retention.

In spring 2024, the numbers showed improvement, with 50% at grade level, 28% one grade behind, and 22% for students two or more behind their reading level.

In other business, the board:

– Passed the intent to construct and the construction contract award to Cornerstone General Contractors of Bothell for Brier Terrace and Meadowdale Middle schools. The project has a preliminary budget of $20 million for architectural design and preconstruction services for both schools, funded by the 2024 school bond.

– Awarded to Coast to Coast Turf the contract for track improvements at Brier Terrace Middle School for $542,845 and at Meadowdale Middle School for $541,926. The projects are funded by a levy approved by district voters in February 2020 and will replace the tracks around the school’s football fields.

– Approved the amendment for a guaranteed maximum price with Spee West Construction for the Oak Heights Elementary School replacement project. The request is for $87 million, including all project costs and sales tax. This amendment will set a maximum price for the project and give Spee West contracting authority. The new building will have a 620-student capacity.

– Approved delegating regulation and supervision of extracurricular activities to the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association. As members, Edmonds schools will follow the WIAA rules and regulations.

– Approved Superintendent Rebecca Miner’s contract extension to June 30, 2027 as a consent agenda item. The contract amount is for $320,000.

The next board meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 25, at the district’s Educational Services Center, 20420 68th Ave. W., Lynnwood, WA 98036. 

The meeting can be watched online by clicking here.

To view the meeting agenda, click here.

— By Rick Sinnett