WHITE SALMON — Newly elected board members Kris Ostness (position 1) and Matthew Byrne (position 2), and incumbent Laurie Stanton (position 4) were sworn in at the Dec. 14 White Salmon Valley School District meeting by outgoing Board Chair Alan Reitz.
Superintendent Rich Polkinghorn welcomed the new board members, saying, “I appreciate you both stepping into your respective roles and serving the White Salmon Valley community in this capacity. As your fellow board members can attest, the volunteer work of being on the school board can be very demanding, but it can also be extremely rewarding. Thank you — and all our board members — for volunteering to serve the students of White Salmon Valley School District.”
Stanton was unanimously elected as chair, and Peter Harkema (position 5) as vice-chair; Pat Dempsey (position 3) was unanimously elected as legislative representative.
Polkinghorn presented Reitz with a plaque, a parting gift in recognition of his past nine years of service. Stanton also thanked Tracy Rushing (position 2), who was not present, and Reitz (position 1), both of whom opted not to seek reelection.
Strategic plan update
Polkinghorn reported that work to develop a new strategic plan for WSVSD is moving forward, with the steering committee meeting earlier in the day. “Today’s focus was to review the input we’ve gathered thus far, mostly from parents and staff members in the form of surveys,” he said. “We read through the input and began to theme — or perhaps a better word is synthesize — the data to begin forming some board goals and / or core values.”
For phase two, additional meetings with students and staff are planned in January, as is a Latino parent night where “families will get an opportunity to lend their context, and hopes and dreams, into our planning effort,” he said, adding the district is on schedule to have a final draft before the board in May.
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