MARYSVILLE – The Marysville School District has decided to ask the state for a two-year delay in requiring students to earn 24 credit to graduate from high school.
“It’s in the best interest of the students,” Ray Houser, assistant superintendent, said at the school board meeting Feb. 9.
The district gave the State Board of Education a number of reasons why a delay is needed, even though it would only increase the credit requirement by one.
“We had a significant tragedy that set work back,” Houser said. Also, “there’s inequity in the high schools; they don’t look alike right now.”
He added that more teachers will be needed.
Superintendent Becky Berg said a lot of planning and communication needs to take place before 24 credits should become a requirement.
School board member Pete Lundberg added, “Support must be in place to help students who need it.”
In other school board news:
• Shelly Johnson and Brandon Carson, two coaches at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, were honored. Johnson was named to the Washington State Athletic Association Volleyball Hall of Fame for coaching 20 years at M-PHS and obtaining a 415-115 record, including a runner-up at state. Carson was named state Football Coach of the Year by the Seattle Seahawks.
• Marysville-Pilchuck co-principals Rob Lowry and Deann Anguiano and vice principal Lori Stolee gave an update on their school. Anguiano said teachers are working collaboratively on classroom assessments and that students in biology and math are receiving extra help if needed. Stolee said a multi-tiered matrix of behavior expectations and systems of support is being developed. “We plan to teach expectations to kids on the first day” of school, she said, adding mental and emotional needs also are being addressed. Lowry said students are learning the eight basic questions of “elements of thought” so they can analyze and have a deeper understanding and full comprehension of material. Berg said: “Thank you on so many, many, many, many levels. You have rallied the students and staff emotionally and spiritually to keep that school moving” since the shooting in October.
• Board members Chris Nation and Lundberg talked about a recent trip to Washington, D.C., to talk to U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen. Lundberg said the federal government looks like it finally will update No Child Left Behind. “Both sides want change,” he said of Republicans and Democrats. He and Nation also pushed for 40 percent funding for special education students, a law passed in 2004 that still hasn’t happened. Lundberg said Marysville’s district now gets 17 percent. Nation said they expected a blockade like last year, but “it’s a different atmosphere this year,” he said. Hopefully we will “get more opportunities for children.”
• Athletic director Greg Erickson presented awards to “Get up and go” winners: students Terrell Rosario of Liberty Elementary, Chirag Mahant of Grove, Stacy Chermomor of Cascade, Carson Serge of Kellogg Marsh, Mariah Ferrell of Allen Creek, and fitness teachers Shawn Sparks of Liberty, Todd Smith of Kellogg, Cathy Johnson of Allen Creek, Ross Hawkins of Cascade and Gayle Bluhm of Grove.
