WHITE SALMON — White Salmon Valley School District (WSVSD) board members unanimously approved the contract between the district and the White Salmon Education Association (WSEA) at the Aug. 22 board of directors meeting.
The bargaining team met five times and was made up of WSEA members — Peter Knowles, Jill Chance, Beth Sauter, Megan Sheffels, Jenna Mobley and John Hallead — and WSVSD staff — Superintendent Rich Polkinghorn, Columbia High School Vice Principal Kelly Hume and Henkle Middle School Principal Brian Morris.
WSEA had ratified the contract earlier in the day, Polkinghorn said.
He said many changes were made to the contract were “non-substantive,” like cleaning up outdated laws and replacing gender references with non-specific terms, and then highlighted the most significant, such as the hiring language in Article III (employee rights).
“[In bargaining], there’s always a little bit of give and take at some level,” Polkinghorn said. “And I don’t think anyone walks with getting everything that they absolutely wanted, but it was fair.”
The contract can be found on the district’s website, wsvsd.org (click the School Board tab and the Aug. 22 meeting link).
The board also approved Resolution 23/24-09 recognizing Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 as National Hispanic Heritage Month. Polkinghorn said that approximately a third of students in the WSVSD identify as Hispanic, a little more than 10% of staff are Hispanic and “our Hispanic community is a prominent part of the White Salmon Valley community, so we’re asking to pass the resolution to honor the many wonderful people and contributions of the Latino community, both here and in our state and the nation.”
The resolution passed unanimously.
The board unanimously approved the 2030 Strategic Plan, which is available as a PDF on the district’s website (click the Strategic Plan tab for the bilingual document). The plan identifies the district’s mission, core values and beliefs and key indicators for success.
“We have still a little more work to do within the strategic plan because the plan itself is ready to go, but in order for us to make these goals and objectives happen, we still have some work to do internally on our own action steps,” Polkinghorn said.
The board complimented Polkinghorn on his work in implementing a strategic plan. “You and your staff spent so much time listening and I think putting together a plan that a lot of people have bought into, the community has gotten opportunities to give feedback and be a part of this,” said Director Matthew Byrne (District 2). “So I congratulate you and everyone who’s been involved.”
The board also unanimously approved a grant application to help fund the district’s 2024-2025 State Transitional Bilingual Instructional Program. Hume presented, saying there are 170 students in the district’s bilingual instructional program district-wide, and the funds will be used in the classroom to support paraprofessionals as well as development opportunities and to refresh the curriculum.
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