During the superintendent’s report at the Oct. 27 school board meeting, North Wasco County School District (NWCSD) Superintendent Carolyn Bernal presented the NWCSD Division 22 Standards for the 2021-22 school year.
“We are compliant in all areas except three,” said Bernal in the meeting.
According to the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) website, Division 22 standards are educational standards set by the Oregon legislation or State Board that must be met “in order to be a standard school district,” with the purpose of ensuring “every student in Oregon public schools is provided with a baseline level of service.” Every year, the school board must hear and approve the district’s Division 22 standards and assurances for the previous school year before the district submits them to ODE.
According to the Division 22 standards report, NWCSD was out of compliance with the physical education requirements for both Elementary and Middle grades, being short approximately 30 minutes of the required 150 minutes of structured play time in and out of the classroom per week for elementary grades, and approximately 36 minutes of the required 180 minutes of required physical education per week for middle school.
According to Bernal, while being of compliance for last year’s 180 minutes of required physical education time for middle school grades, ODE has also increased that time to 225 minutes for the 2022-23 school year. Director Adrian Lopez commented on the significant rise in minutes, saying, “That’s a very big increase."
“They’re (ODE) getting a lot of feedback on that increase right now, so we’re hoping that maybe they’re going to, maybe, perhaps, stay with the 180,” said Bernal.
“There’s a variety of things that go into the different schedules in both the elementary, and I know in the middle school, it’s a staffing ratio issue we have going on, so we are looking at that and examining it,” said Bernal, who noted the district is looking into different ways to potentially increase times at the elementary level through methods such as structured play time during recess time or movements teachers can apply in their classrooms, but there will likely need to be additional physical education teachers added at the middle school in order to be in compliance with the required minutes per week.
“We’re working on it, we have a plan, and we are working collaboratively with all three elementary principals and the middle school principal,” said Bernal.
The last standard in which NCWSD was out of compliance for the 2021-22 school year was in their suicide prevention plan. While the district was in compliance with suicide prevention training at the middle school and high school levels, staff at the elementary level had not received the same level of training. According to Bernal, that training has now been added and the district is now in compliance with that standard this school year.
“We are already in compliance with the 22-23 school year, as it has been added to the six plus hours of vector training all staff must do,” said Bernal, “so that one has already been checked off for this year.”
In other business, the school board approved the authorization of up to $140,000 from district ESSER III funds for the purchase of a food truck for The Dalles High School. The authorization is made in congruence with the recent construction of a student pavilion on the campus.
The decision to purchase a truck — which was originally authorized for the amount of up to $100,000 by the school board during the previous fiscal year but did not take place as the district was waiting for the for the construction of the pavilion, according to presenter and Chief Financial Officer Kara Flat — was made with the purpose to provide additional lunch seating options for students at TDHS, due to the limited designated seating currently available on The Dalles High School campus.
“If you’ve been to the high school cafeteria — which is one of the reasons we could really use a new high school — there is no seating, so giving students some easier options because it’s also an accessibility issue, to be able to get in and get your meal quickly, so having two points of service might be better for students to access, and we can have different options in both areas,” said Flath. “It will require a little more staffing, but we also are CEP — Community Eligible Provisions — so we provide free meals to all our students, and we would have to meet all the nutrition guidelines.”
Director Lopez inquired about the number of students a food truck would be able to serve. According to Flath, the goal would be to serve at least 100 students, though the number would depend on where students choose to eat, as TDHS has an open campus at lunch time. “It’ll be picking the right options of where they (the students) want to eat, but our goal would be 100,” said Flath, who also noted that the truck could also be utilized for concessions at district events. “We also would have a food truck that we can also use as concessions in other places, but still have to meet the nutritional guidelines to keep the meal compliance.”
According to Flath, at the time of the Oct. 28 meeting, the district has two leads on food truck, one for the cost of $107,000, and a second for $140,000, should the first one not work out, with the goal being to have a truck purchased and up and running by January.
In a motion made by Director John Nelson, and a second by Director Lopez, the approval was passed unanimously.
The entire Oct. 28 meeting is available for viewing on the NWCSD Facebook page, and YouTube channel D21 Media Channel.
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