Marysville schools superintendent Becky Berg said the district is covertly going after state funds to replace it.

“We don’t want to blow our cover too soon,” she said at a meeting of the two school boards Feb. 23.

The goal is to get rid of the cafeteria, where a deadly shooting took place last October, or possibly even redo the entire school, except for the gym and auditorium, Berg said.

“The kids are scared; they don’t want to go back to that place,” she said.

The cafeteria has been blocked up. The gym is being used for lunch, which is working out OK, except for the set up and tear down, Berg said. The district has received eight bids to replace the cafeteria.

The district won’t know about the state funds until June. In the meantime, the district will invest almost half-a-million dollars on pre-work planning.

Parks asked Berg what will happen at the old cafeteria site.

“It’s too early to tell,” she said, adding some people have mentioned a memorial.

In the meantime, Berg said experts are helping students heal from the tragedy.

“They’re helping kids not dwell on what’s wrong with them,” she said.

Berg said the district is on the fast track to hire a director of psychological services to help with mental health issues.

Parks said even though it has only been four months since the shooting the community needs to start planning on how to deal with the one-year anniversary.

“We will re-live the event all over again,” Parks said.

The leaders also discussed the district’s desire to use the state’s Since Time Immemorial curriculum to teach Native American culture to students.

State Sen. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, in 2005 led the way to a requirement for the state’s students to learn about that culture. The state developed Since Time Immemorial as a result.

The school board recently voted to start using the curriculum. The goal is to bring equity and justice and fix omissions, along with improving the partnership with the Tulalip Tribes. Topics have been assigned to grades. Kyle Kinoshita, executive director for learning, suggested forming a committee that would work with the Tulalip Tribes on the local culture to include in the teachings.

Tribal Chairman Herman Williams Sr. said there could be problems developing a local history.

“We have a strong foundation” in our history, he said. But “it’s embedded in people’s minds,” many of whom are gone, he added.

Parks contributed: “Whose history? His (Williams’) or mine?”

Kinoshita said he would like the tribe’s stamp of approval on the curriculum, but Parks said he hasn’t seen it.

“Who do I get it from?” he asked. It’s available online, was the answer.

“Our life is very complex. You guys don’t understand,” Williams said.

Parks said he got the feeling that Williams would want to be involved in helping to write the local part of the curriculum.

“Not necessarily, but I want it to be right,” Williams said.

District schools with the most Tulalip students then talked about how they are doing. Quil-Ceda Tulalip Elementary has 214, Totem Middle School 115, Heritage Tulalip High School 54 and Marysville-Pilchuck 58. There are 686 total Tulalip students in the district.

Principals Anthony Craig and Kristin DeWitte of Quil Ceda said referrals are down by half by using positive reinforcement like snacks and breaks to help keep kids in class.

“We taught expected behaviors in September,” and that helped, too, DeWitte said.

Vice principal Kathy Thornton said students with the most referrals are improving their behaviors thanks to special intervention. Officials said of the 530 students, 80 percent are in their seats learning, but others can still be defiant, disruptive and physically aggressive.

They also said problems with native students can develop when one stands up for a family member or friend.

“They’re not really mad at each other,” DeWitte said.

“They just don’t have the skills to solve that problem,” Craig added.

Parks said the tribes’ Early Learning Academy that will open in the future could be a “savior in education” because it will work with young children on those skills from birth.

At Heritage, Principal Shelly Lacy also talked about referrals being down, but that test scores also were struggling.

Berg said that has been an issue districtwide, especially after the shooting. The closer the school to M-PHS the more scores were down.

“We’re OK with that,” Berg said. “This won’t be the best year for test scores.”

Lacy said they are trying to change the culture at the school that if they are missing a skill they are “dumb.” They just don’t know the skill yet. They are using, for instance, personalized learning in math, making it more relevant to real life.

Berg said they are trying to intervene earlier to help students who are lacking credits.

“Even though some of them are struggling they don’t want to go anywhere else,” Lacy said.

Parks said he had hoped to visit every school a few times a year, but he hasn’t done it even once. He said this meeting had inspired him to get back to his goal.

“It is important for the kids to know education is important to our tribe,” Lacy said.

Assistant Superintendent Ray Houser pointed out that schools are using a 20-minute STAR assessment once every few months to try to keep students heading toward state standard. They are using the assessments to find out which kids need which interventions.

Parks asked why Indian math test scores were so low. He was told math scores are low for all students.

“So it’s not an Indian problem, it’s an American problem,” Parks said.

Tribal Treasurer Glen Gobin asked how native students can be graduating from high school when some of the test scores show only a sixth-grade level of understanding.

Houser explained the STAR assessment does not show how students would do on the state tests, only understanding of knowledge.

Lacy added that many students don’t take the assessment seriously since it’s not graded.

“They think, ‘This test doesn’t matter,'” she said, adding absentees also were an issue. “We have to do a better job of explaining why the test is important.”

Houser added, “We have to build a culture of, ‘Where am I at in my learning?'”

School board member Pete Lundberg said while STAR isn’t perfect it is better than not knowing.

“We were comparing apples and oranges and bananas and grapefruit,” he said. “At least this is real baseline data.”

As for the meeting in general, he said, “I can feel the caring.”

Berg said she appreciated the openness of the presentations, even though the news was not always good.

“Now we know what our dirty laundry is, and we can work on how to fix it,” she said.

Board President Tom Albright said, “We may not have it right yet, but we’re working hard.”

“We may not ever get it right, but we gotta keep trying,” Gobin concluded.