But it turned into a debate about how the shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck is going to figure in to those results.

Kyle Kinoshita and Cinco Delgado, both executive directors of learning and teaching, talked to the school board.

Kinoshita said some students lack spark and are going through the motions.

“How do we get them engaged?” he asked at the Dec. 8 work session.

Assistant Superintendent Ray Houser said: “That’s a great question, one we struggle with every day.”

Delgado said they still expect gains, just not as much as before.

“It’s not a regular environment,” School Board Member Pete Lundberg said.

Superintendent Becky Berg said there needs to be a focus on mental health: for each student, each teacher, each building.

Kinoshita said the district is getting books about what happened after Columbine to help answer some of the many questions following the disaster.

School Board President Tom Albright said M-P students may have been knocked off track academically, but they are learning valuable life lessons.

“They are now prepared for something we never even thought of,” Board Member Bruce Larsen said.

Prior to that, Kinoshita talked of a rubric that is available to help schools grade themselves on reaching goals.

“Teachers should be excited about it,” Lundberg said. “It will help them know what to do.”

He added the data needs to be meaningful, set to standards. “Otherwise it’s just data,” he said.

School Board Member Chris Nation said administrators have to be aggressive in setting goals.

“They can’t be nambie, pambie goals,” Berg agreed.

In other school board news:

• Elections took place and the officers will stay the same. Albright said they decided continuity was important, especially after the Oct. 24 tragedy.

• Dolly Haakenson of Community Aid Coalition of Monroe presented a handmade quilt to the district. She said an inmate at Twin Rivers Correction Center made it. She said his kids once attended Marysville-Pilchuck, and the violence there affected him so “he did the only thing he could.” The master quilter is a mentor to nine other inmates who use three sewing machines in what is basically a storage closet. She said the quilt is similar to Navajo sand paintings that stand for “healing and comfort.”

•The district decided on a bid by Advanced Cable Technology of Marysville to put wireless in its schools. The bid was $397,060, compared with $564,470 from Pacific Communications Cabling. The goal is for the project to be done by Feb. 28, but it could slide into March or April because of the age of some of the schools, officials said.

• Regarding graduation rates, the district is at 74.5 percent on time and 77 percent for five years. Nation asked how do we reach the other 23 percent? “That’s the question that keeps us all up at night,” Berg said, adding the district is trying many types of intervention. One has to do with contacting families when a student is absent three days, instead of waiting 20, so they don’t fall too far behind.

Houser said students can take six years and even longer, up until age 21, to graduate. Even a 22-year-old who was in school at 21 could still get a diploma. Lundberg said he wants to help students not only to graduation but beyond. He would like to see counselors work more with students on their futures.

• Allen Creek Elementary School Principal Janelle McFalls gave the board an update on that school’s improvement plan. They are trying an intervention that looks something like the “Survivor” shows. Students with behavior and emotional issues work together and communicate to the point where they learn to self-regulate. It is helping to build positive relationships.