What to expect when going back to school

Students, parents and teachers are making final preparations to go back to school, buying school supplies and new sneakers while marking back to school events on the calendar. As schools open this fall, there are some changes to schedules, programs and policies in the Medical Lake and Cheney school districts.

The Medical Lake School District is relocating and expanding its after school program offered in partnership with the Medical Lake Parks and Recreation Department. The expanded program will be held at Hallett Elementary, located at 524 S. Hallett Street.

Medical Lake Superintendent Kim Headrick said the district has been interested in expanding the after school program because child care options are limited in Medical Lake. “They were running a small program at City Hall,” she said. “We knew there was a need.”

The program provides video games, arts and crafts, board games, homework help and more. “This is more of a child care type program,” Headrick said.

The program is similar to the after school program Fairchild Air Force Base offers at their youth center for students at Michael Anderson Elementary, Headrick said. “This basically mirrors that,” she said.

The program accepts students in grades K-5 and costs parents $7 per day. However, the need for more slots was so great, the program is already full. The city does have a waitlist for interested families. The city can be reached via email at recreation@medical-lake.org.

Headrick said she’s not surprised that the expanded program filled quickly. “That’s kind of what we were expecting,” she said.

The Medical Lake School District has also used a combination of state and federal funds as well as money from its levy to expand its Early Childhood Education program for children ages 3-5 to a full day program. Previously, preschoolers only attended for a half day. “Now everyone is full-day,” she said.

The district has offered a full-day transitional kindergarten at Anderson Elementary for the last three years, Headrick said, and those students had better skills and were more ready for kindergarten than those who attended half-day programs. “Our primary responsibility is that those students are kindergarten ready,” she said.

The district is also launching its Home Connections program, which provides access to curriculum and teachers for homeschooling families. “We have a selection of curriculum we will provide them access to,” Headrick said.

Families can also have access to credentialed teachers to make sure the students are on track. Students in Home Connections also have the option to participate in district sports, music, art or after school activities. The program also offers monthly field trips and regular activities for homeschooling families.

Medical Lake High School principal Jeremy Vincent said he plans to meet with the parents of incoming freshmen to pitch the school’s College in the High School program, which is now partnering with Eastern Washington University. The program is similar to Running Start in that students can earn college credits for classes, but those classes are taught at the high school by high school staff, though some classes are available online.

Vincent said the program allows students to earn an associate’s degree without ever setting foot on a college campus. “We’re really going to talk about why stay at Medical Lake all four years,” he said. “It’s a great program.”

Historically some students have decided not to participate in Running Start because they don’t want to take classes on a college campus and miss out on the traditional high school experience, Vincent said. The College in the High School program allows for that experience, he said, including sports and clubs.

“You still have your counselor,” he said. “You still have all the support. You still have that  high school experience.”

The high school is also starting a new competitive cheerleading program and the new shop teacher has plans to partner with the Future Farmers of America program, Vincent said. He hopes to provide opportunities to appeal to every student and said he encourages students to get involved in at least one school activity.

“That’s how you plug them in,” he said. “That’s how you keep them here.”

The Medical Lake School District will welcome students back with a free Back to School event from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 21 at the Wellness Center, 317 N. Broad Street. There will be free school supplies while supplies last and free hot dogs at noon and 4 p.m. while supplies last.

That same day the district will also offer free haircuts to students from noon to 4 p.m. in the Medical Lake High School cafeteria, 200 E. Barker. The haircuts will be provided by students at the Paul Mitchell school. No appointment is necessary.

Headrick said the haircuts had to be moved to the high school, which is across the street from the Wellness Center, because they are so popular. Overall, the annual Back to School day has been popular with families, she said.

“It’s a community building event,” she said. “It builds excitement. It’s also one less stressor for our families.”

Like several other school districts in the area, both the Medical Lake and Cheney districts upgraded their online parent portal from Skyward to Skyward Qmlativ. The same program is also used to manage payroll and human resources in the districts.

The program should be fairly easy for parents to use, Headrick said. “For the most part, it is very similar to what we’ve had in the past,” she said. “They don’t need new logins or new accounts.”

The program interface looks a bit different, but there aren’t really any new features, Headrick said. “It’s just a little bit more intuitive,” she said.

Cheney Superintendent Ben Ferney said that while the switch took extensive planning for nearly a year on the district’s part, parents shouldn’t notice much difference. “It’s still Skyward,” he said. “It is more user friendly.”

One of the biggest changes in the Cheney School District is the alteration of the start and end times at four elementary schools by 10 minutes. Classes will begin at 9 a.m. and end at 3:30 p.m. at Sunset, Snowden, Windsor and Betz elementaries.

The times were changed to accommodate bus routes, Ferney said. The middle schools, high school and Salnave Elementary all start at 7:50 a.m. The buses would have to complete those routes before leaving for routes at the four elementary schools and there simply wasn’t enough time, Ferney said.

“It was hard to make that happen in the morning,” he said. “It was just a traffic issue trying to get back in time.”

If it was difficult to pull off in the morning, when the buses had an hour to make the turnaround, it was even harder in the afternoon. The upper schools and Salnave released students at 2:30 p.m. while the four elementary schools ended at 3:20, leaving only 50 minutes. Buses were routinely late to pick the elementary students up, Ferney said.

“Our goal is to have the buses there when kids get out, but kids were waiting 12 minutes,” he said.

Running each route four times a day is a massive undertaking in a district that goes almost as far as Rosalia, Ferney said. “Our geographical footprint is 380 square miles and our buses travel over 5,000 miles a day,” he said.

The new start times will be in effect Monday through Thursday. Fridays are a late start day and those times will also be adjusted by 10 minutes at the four elementary schools. “We hope it’s not too much of an impact,” Ferney said. “Hopefully that 10 minutes is enough.”

The school board voted at the end of June to alter the district’s cell phone policy after receiving input from parents and students. “We had one, but there was no procedure in it,” Ferney said. “We needed to get more specific in a few areas.”

In general, cell phone use will not be allowed during the school day at the elementary and middle schools. At the high school, students will be allowed to use their phones during passing periods and during lunch.

Ferney said he hopes students will take the opportunity to engage in more conversations with each other instead of being engrossed by their phones. “I think there will be some adjustments,” he said. “I think in the end, most of the time, it’s been met with success.”