Superintendent Becky Berg, assistant superintendent Ray Houser and director of counseling Josh Webb were set to visit Nov. 3. Cost was almost $1,919.

The three expected to talk to Umpqua officials about lessons learned and what to expect in the days, weeks and months following a shooting.

Five Marysville-Pilchuck High School students died in a shooting Oct. 24 of last year. Ten people died in a shooting near Roseburg at the college Oct. 1.

“Although we were just meeting their leadership team for the first time, their faces looked very familiar,” Marysville Superintendent Becky Berg said Nov. 5. “They looked like we did a year earlier: exhausted and still in a bit of disbelief.

“Our hope is that we were able to provide some practical advice, but perhaps more importantly some understanding and kinship during the worst of times.”

Another request was approved for almost $83,000 to send 100 students and 13 chaperones to Disneyland April 4-10, 2016. The students are in jazz concert and marching bands and choir.

At the meeting, Jack Monpas-Huber, director of assessment and student information, talked about North Star Indicators.

He said the three areas of focus are attendance, achievement and graduation.

Regarding attendance, he said unexcused absences are down slightly. He added that’s a good sign because studies show, “The first twenty days of school are critical.”

Attendance figures show students go to school more often when they are younger as numbers fall in the higher grades.

In academics, Monpas-Huber said the goal in reading is 100 percent at the end of first grade, and right now just 50 percent are at grade level.

He said the indicators correlate strongly with how a student will do in the spring when taking state tests.

He said reading skills improve every year until high school, and they it really spreads out. By 12th grade, some students are reading at standard but others are at eighth-grade level and a few others a even fifth-grade level.

As for graduation rates, Monpas-Huber said Marysville is in the 50th percentile in the state at 70.3 percent, compared with its goal of 85 percent.

“It’s a little discouraging considering our focus on this,” he said.

Also at the meeting, principal Dave Rose and staff talked about the School for the Entrepreneur at Marysville Getchell High School and Principal Kelly Sheward and staff talked about Marshall Elementary.

In the Marshall powerpoint, school officials talked about the goal of getting 95 percent attendance at each grade level, decreasing late arrivals and decreasing early dismissals to keep kids in school learning. The school specifically is targeting students with the worst attendance to try to hold them to one absence a month.

They also talked about how they are focusing on using technology as much as possible, and relying less on paper.

To help first-graders improve reading skills 20 percent, they are using intense intervention for 30 minutes four times a week.

And they are having a schoolwide focus on math, encouraging students to talk about it so it makes sense.

At MG, staff talked about how test scores are below standards. Part of that had to do with low participation so teachers are focusing on four things:

Respect, Engagement, Courage and Responsibility.

By changing the culture of the school in those areas, students learn that even if a test doesn’t count for a grade, it is important to do your best.

Staff said the Positive Behavior Intervention System is working and that students need PDF, for playtime, down time and family time.

Students also are sharing senior presentations on what they have learned, and also talking to younger students about what they wish they would have done.

School Board Member Pete Lundberg said he’s proud of MG for continuing senior presentations.

“Some are giving it up. I wish all were doing it,” he said.

Staff also talked about how many students have to get themselves out of bed and to school each morning because their parents work nights, some having two jobs. So the school has staff at MG as early as 5:30 a.m. to help kids.

Staff also talked about keeping an eye on freshman because if they fail even one class it can lead to problems later.

“In ninth grade the clock starts ticking,” school board member Chris Nation said.

Berg said it’s an early warning indicator if a student gets an F in ninth grade. She said discussions are going on to possibly allow some credits to be valid from eighth grade once the graduation requirement increases to 24 credits needed for graduation.

“Then there’d be some room for error in high school,” she said.

They also talked about trying to get more kids to think about higher education, and bringing graduates back to talk to students about the need to get serious about school to be successful.

“That has more impact peer to peer than with a teacher,” Nation said.