Lake Pend Oreille school board approves prom, school bus purchases

Lake Pend Oreille School Board trustees heard updates from Washington Elementary, approved an off-site prom and approved the acquisition of two new school buses at their meeting Tuesday night.

Natassia Hamer, principal at Washington Elementary, said that the school has been in the process of identifying learning gaps created by the pandemic. There are some areas where students will need more time to work on specific subjects she said, but also significant growth.

Based on MAP testing, the area where students in grades two through six needed additional support the most, was in math, Hamer said.

“In math, our projected proficiency is 40% [on the ISAT],” Hamer said. “As a staff, we did not like that. So immediately we decided what we’re going to do to support that learning.”

Toward this end, the school purchased IXL Math for grades three through six, Hamer said. Using that program will allow teachers to tie learning goals directly to the standard where individual students are struggling. In addition to learning interventions, the program can also be used for general practice.

In English Language Arts, students were projected to be 63% proficient on the ISAT

Test, she said.

“We usually shoot for 72-75%, at Washington for ELA, so we’ll take it, we’ll work with it,” Hamer said.

Hamer also noted that for the past year, the school has been working with Kaniksu Land Trust for outdoor learning at Pine Street Woods.

Students in first and second grades attend Monday, third and fourth Tuesday and fifth and sixth Wednesday.

The idea was first brought up in the summer of 2020 when it was unclear whether students would be able to meet in-person at school. The program is currently limited to children along the bus route that connects with Pine Street woods, and some whose parents drive them and other students.

“We'd like to expand that program. But right now it's an opportunity for kids to have an after-school activity,” she said.

The board also approved an off-site prom for Clark Fork High School students.

Juniors Cole Reuter and Caiya Yanik attended the meeting to request permission for the event, which would encourage but not require masks, and include temperature checks and provide hand sanitizer. Two chaperones have been designated, Yanik said.

The board also approved efforts to purchase two new type C 71 passenger buses. Trustee Gary Suppiger requested the board look into buses with seat belts.

“School districts in the state including Coeur d’Alene are now purchasing school buses with seat belts,” he said. “This current board supported an [Idaho School Board Association] resolution at the ISBA convention.”

However, the district had previously considered the added financial cost of buses with seat belts, and also found that because of required reinforcement for the bus floor, it would be impractical to install onto current buses, said Chair Geraldine Lewis.

Because of this, she recommended doing more research for future purchases instead of amending the current action, which was unanimously passed as written.