MARYSVILLE – The Marysville School Board doesn’t want to talk about it.

But at the state school directors meeting they are going to share lessons learned from the Marysville-Pilchuck High School shooting.

“I hope nobody else has to” deal with something like this, school board member Chris Nation said at a district work session June 1.

Superintendent Becky Berg said, “Our firsthand experience will be valuable” to others.

Nation and fellow board member Pete Lundberg said reading a book about Columbine meant so much to them after the fact.

“I read it with a lot more focus,” Lundberg said.

Nation said: “The same things happened. So many coincidences we didn’t know before.”

Council member Bruce Larson said the tragedy at Oso just months before actually helped Marysville be prepared for its own tragedy.

“I don’t know if small communities ever think about that,” he said.

He added that the school board should share internet resources that can help when such events happen.

Lundberg said even with training and planning people have to be flexible.

“It happens when it happens,” he said, adding many Marysville leaders were out of town when the shooting occurred.

Nation added: “You need to have backup plans to the backup plans. Things keep coming up that aren’t taken care of.”

Also at the session, Ray Houser, assistant superintendent, talked about the idea of having an alternative learning experience through Educational Services District No. 189. The goal would be to give students who drop out the chance to get a GED or work skills.

“It’s in the best interest of the kids,” Houser said.

He said some of these kids have to work, have young families and some have addictions.

“It’s certainly the last chance for some of them,” he added.

Houser said the students now are placed at Mountain View High School, even if they’ve never gone there.

“That hurts their graduation rate,” he said.

By having the students attend the ESD instead, it will take 18-24 kids off of Mountain View’s roles, improving that graduation status.

Also, Principal Kelly Sheward talked about Marshall Elementary School. The school matched 50 students with low reading scores and who come from poverty to intervention programs. She said previously they had collected data, but not analyzed it. Using intent instruction, the students have seen more than 70 percent growth.

Sheward said it’s hard to get parent involvement at the school. Because many are in poverty, they work two jobs.

“Work on the variables we can control, not the ones we can’t,” Berg said.

At the board meeting, six students were honored as School Bus Safety Poster contest winners. Co-Op second-graders Adina Paquette and Kaytlyn Duran were first and second while Pinewood’s Carol Ruch-Brown was third in Division 1. In Division 2, Co-Op fourth-graders Kyla Tucker and Kaylie Butler were first and second while Quil Ceda third-grader Bryce Mizell was third.