April 23, 2024
Dear Parents, Guardians, and Patrons,
I hope this update finds each of you doing very well. We are now in the last quarter of the 2023-2024 school year and there is a lot of things that I want to update. First and foremost, there is a lot that we all have to be thankful for and it is important that we remind ourselves of that fact on a regular basis. Every day there are positive things happening with our students in every school. Make it a point to talk with your son or daughter on a regular basis about what is happening in their lives at school and otherwise. We must celebrate our students and their accomplishments and achievements.
I also want to thank our many volunteers who help our staff, students, and schools on a weekly basis. We currently have 226 volunteers who have gone through the background checks to become volunteers. While some go through the process of becoming a volunteer to attend a single event with their child, others volunteer on a regular basis. Either circumstance is appreciated, and it is important that you know how important and thankful we are for the time that you do volunteer. We could not do all that we do without your involvement.
Math Curriculum Adoption
We will have a new elementary math curriculum to begin the 2024-2025 school year. The math adoption went through the Instructional Materials Committee (IMC), which is a process that involves multiple stakeholders including district staff, parents, and school board members. This process lasted a little over a year and the final decision came after teachers and classrooms had a chance to pilot the top two curriculums. These both met all the standards that were used to evaluate the full list of curriculums. If you have any questions about the curriculum or the process of adopting the curriculum, you can reach out to the elementary school principals or our Executive Director of Teaching and Learning, Mike Merrin.
Reclassification from 1A to 2A
The WIAA reclassifies high schools for competition every four years. The process recently occurred, and Sultan High School will move from 1A to 2A due to student growth. In response to this development, we applied to remain in the Emerald Sound Conference for one more year and we applied to the KingCo Conference. Unfortunately, both applications and the subsequent appeals were denied as the Emerald Sound Conference did not want a multi-classification league and the KingCo Conference cited increased travel among other reasons for the denial. As a result of these decisions, we will compete as an independent during the 2024-2025 school year and apply again to a conference for 2025-2026. We have a full football schedule for next fall and our current Athletic Director (AD) is busy scheduling other sports schedules until his tenure as AD ends on June 30, 2024. When we post the opening for a new athletic director, it will likely involve leadership responsibility for 6-12 athletics and K-5 activities and the important developmental connection that exists between them.
Post-Bond Survey
I want to thank everyone who took the opportunity to vote in the February 2024 bond election. In an effort to gather feedback from the community, we have created a short survey. Please take a few minutes to complete this as it will give us valuable input. The survey will be open from Tuesday, April 23rd to May 14th, 2024. While the vote did not go the way we hoped, we must get as much feedback as possible from the community. Please click on the following link to take the survey.
Sky Valley Transportation Cooperative Facility Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Saturday, April 20th, 2024
We had a very exciting ribbon-cutting ceremony this past Saturday. The facility was open for tours from 11 am to 2 pm and there was a short ceremony at 11:30 am and recognition of the many people who had a hand in making this community asset a reality. All citizens in our community helped make this happen. We built the facility under the umbrella of a transportation cooperative whereby we take care of and service the buses for the Skykomish School District. The result of this is that the community has a new transportation facility that cost about $8,500,000 and will be paid off at the end of 2026. Of the total cost, the state paid about $4,000,000 and local taxpayers $4,500,000. You can visit our website at the following link to see receipts for the project. Here are a few photos from the event.
SafeStop
We have great news that the SafeStop program has returned! It runs every Friday night from 6-9 pm at Sultan Middle School. There are many fantastic young people participating in this program and your willingness to serve as a volunteer for this program is important. The flyer advertising the program is attached here and instructions on how to get involved can be found here.
Freedom from Cell Phones and Social Media
We are receiving encouraging data that the restricted use of phones and social media on our campuses is having a positive impact. Last year, as of March 15, 2023, we had 130 reports of wellness issues from students that could reasonably be connected to at least some social media or cell phone use on our campuses. Fast forward to this year and by March 15, 2024, we only received 10 wellness reports. This confirms what we know about the impacts of social media and cell phone use. As adults, we must take note of the impacts cell phones and social media are having on young people and monitor what we are modeling for them.
Sultan High School HOSA Team
Our amazing HOSA teams finished 2nd, 3rd, and 4th at state this year. First place went to Puyallup High School which has over 1,700 kids in grades 10-12. At Sultan High School we have about 600 students in grades 9-12. These 12 students (3 teams) have been invited to the National Anatomy Tournament that takes place in June in Las Vegas. This past Sunday, they had a cornhole tournament at the Startup Events Center that TurkPrideTV streamed – check it out here. At the board meeting last night Brandi Varnell, Health Science, Sports Medicine Teacher, and HOSA Advisor, shared with the board that they were able to raise enough money to go to nationals! Good job everyone and thank you to those who donated to the cause.
Update on Winter Storm Damage
As a result of the water damage that occurred this past January due to frozen pipes, we will be replacing the gym floor at Sultan High School. Following the event, there was ongoing debate regarding whether the entire floor would be replaced or part of the floor. The current floor is the original floor that was installed in the 1980s when the high school was built. The new floor will be installed by the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year to the same specs as the original floor.
Sincerely,
Dan Chaplik, Superintendent