By Steve Powell
spowell@marysvilleglobe.com
MARYSVILLE – The school board will be asked Monday to adopt new school boundaries starting in the fall.
The boundaries recommended by a committee include:
Totem: Marshall, Quil Ceda Tulalip, Sunnyside
Marysville: Grove, Allen Creek, Cascade, Shoultes
Cedarcrest: Pinewood, Kellogg-Marsh, Liberty
MG: (Cedarcrest, MMS) Pinewood, K-M, Liberty, Allen Creek, Grove
M-P: (Totem, MMS) Marshall, Cascade, Sunnyside, Shoultes, Quil Ceda
The Marysville School District will allow current high school students to keep going to their school of choice, and provide transportation.
Middle school students, however, will not have that option.
That has been a major point of contention with parents the past few weeks, since the plan was announced. Another major criticism came from Sunnyside-area parents who didn’t want their kids to go to M-P because it is farther away.
Assistant superintendent Scott Beebe, who facilitated the boundary committee, noted the distance differential is just 1.3 miles.
Both high school and middle school students can file for in-district transfers, but they would not be provided transportation.
Speaking of transportation, the district expects to save up to $1 million over the next three years in transportation costs by no longer offering students of a choice of which high school they will attend.
The goal of the district is to have two equal comprehensive high schools.
The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. at the district board room.
Also at the meeting, the board will address the vacancy of vice president Tom Albright, who has resigned for health reasons. They also will look at the facility committee getting back together to look at other options because of the recent failure of a building construction levy.
They also will look at naming the throw facility at Quil Ceda Stadium after former M-P track star Jarred Rome, who died last year. In other measures:
•Assistant superintendent Lori Knudsen will talk about the need to recruit bilingual teachers to Washington state. She notes that there are more students of color than whites at M-P, and that Marysville has fewer bilingual educators than Everett, for example.
•We Do Dirt is donating more than $2,350 to help pay for Marysville Middle School lunches.
•Travel requests include more than $15,000 for nine staff from Quil Ceda Tulalip Elementary to fly to Phoenix to the Native American Student Advocacy Institute. Two others would go by vehicle for almost $2,640. Also, 23 MG students would go to Spokane for a Future Business Leaders of America conference for more than $11,500. Among the items on the agenda at the 4 p.m. work session Monday, Beebe will talk about the Equity Committee, which met six times to develop a policy.
It was noted that Deborah Parker, director of Equity, Diversity and Indian Education, has resigned because the job was “too big.”
Staff includes five Native American liaisons, 1.5 in Spanish and .2 Russian-Ukraine.
Their goal: How can schools affirm identity, celebrate diversity, teach justice and inspire action among students?
They asked for teachers to use cultural instructional strategies and to engage family and community.
Other aspects:
•Identity: Helps students be self aware, confident, take pride in family and have a positive social identity.
•Diversity: Embrace it, use language that respects differences and make caring connections.
•Justice: Recognize unfairness and understand it hurts.
•Action: Empower students to act with others or alone against prejudice and discrimination.
