A recent survey of families whose students are in grades 6-12 shows that the majority want their students to be part of in-person hybrid classes.

The commitment survey was sent to families by the Tahoma Teaching and Learning Department as part of the district’s research and planning for returning students to in-person classes in grades 6-12.

Tentative starting dates are March 29 for middle school, and April 12 for high school students.

The survey asked families to indicate their preference for either in-school hybrid learning or to continue in remote learning for the remainder of the school year. Of 4,640 responses so far, 2,658 (57%) chose in-school learning and 1,462 (32%) wish to remain in remote learning. About 520 (11%) of families have not yet replied to the survey. For parents and guardians who have not yet responded to the survey for your secondary student, you can access it in Skyward Family Access. If you do not respond, we will be opting your student in for hybrid instruction so that we can ensure we have enough space to safely meet social distancing and other protocols.

Middle school and high school principals and district staff are putting final pieces in place for school schedules, transportation, and safety protocols that will support in-person learning. Principals will share details soon with families.

We anticipate sending out information to middle and high school families opting for in-person/hybrid instruction next week that will include: A/B day assignments, bus route information and other details. For middle school FAQs, click here. For high school FAQs, click here.

Families will receive another survey today to gauge interest in creating an option to continue remote learning next school year as an option for families. Dawn Wakeley, executive director of Teaching and Learning, said some families have indicated that they want to continue remote learning next year for a variety of reasons, regardless of whether in-person classes are offered. The survey will aid the district as it makes plans to serve all Tahoma students for the 2021-2022 school year and beyond.

 

“Survey data from our families will allow us to design a Tahoma Virtual Academy that reflects community needs,” she said. It is crucial to understand the level of interest, she said. “As you can imagine, it will look different if we are designing for 50 students or 1,500 students.”  

Jack Lee, a recently hired fourth-grade teacher at Tahoma Elementary (TES), laughs as he talks about his students asking him to read Harry Potter so they can hear it with a British accent. They feel the accent will give the story an authenticity that they couldn’t get from their American teachers.

Trinity R. said “the first thing I noticed was his cool accent.” She is enjoying his class so much that she said all her siblings want to be in his class, too.

How does a teacher from London, England find his way to Tahoma School District? That was the easy part for Lee and his family. His wife is from Maple Valley and she was raised in England. Together they decided to have an adventure while their children were young enough to enjoy the excitement and at an age when moving would not negatively affect their education. Because the visa process is so lengthy, they started to prepare to move before the pandemic impacted the world. The Lee family is “loving life in Maple Valley, and plan to be here for many years to come.”

Principal Jerry Gaston learned about Lee from the parent of a former TES student. “We have a community looking out for our school even when their students are no longer here,” Gaston said. During the interview process, Gaston was impressed with Lee’s focus on students and being a learner himself. As Lee shared his views on teaching, Gaston said he just knew with Lee’s passion for learning, teaching and working with kids that he would fit perfectly into the TES family.  

Lee was a teacher in England for nine years, and also served as an assistant principal. Now he is learning the American school system and said he feels comfortable with the change. He said he has appreciated the positive and supportive team culture at TES. ”Everyone here is so positive and so nice!” Lee said. 

Lee’s fourth-grade class shares in the sense of adventure by doing virtual field trips to different sites in London. For shared reading time, they hear adventure and humor stories from English authors.  

“He makes math fun by playing games,” said student Levi M. Lee is “one of the best teachers I have had!”

Thomas H. said he appreciates how Lee stays focused on the lessons because it helps him to stay focused, too. “He is funny and I really like him.”

Not only do his students love him, parents are sending in unsolicited calls and emails to Gaston talking about how awesome Lee is doing. Even though in-person classes only resumed for fourth and fifth grades two weeks ago, TES already “feels like a special place,” Lee said.

Overall, Tahoma welcomed more than 50 new teachers and staff members at the beginning of this school year.

New carpeting, plumbing upgrades and electrical improvements aren’t often in the spotlight, but they’re important pieces in an ongoing discussion about potential capital projects in the district. Other key projects under consideration include HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) replacements, lighting projects, and improvements to roofing, parking lots and security systems. The School Board on Feb. 24 heard a presentation from Assistant Superintendent and Finance Director Lori Cloud about proposed capital projects.

Cloud worked with Supervisor of Operations Sean P. Kelly and Maintenance Specialist Cody Bowden to identify, scrutinize and refine the list of current and future needs.

“Lori, Cody and Sean did a great job figuring out what the needs of the system are and what they will be for the next five years based on our current assets,” said Board Director Pete Miller, who serves as the board’s finance representative. “Some of the projects that we have in an urgent or high priority category have a long duration of time attached to them. We’ve got to get started on those now because it’s going to take a couple of years before they’re complete. If those systems are at risk right now of failure or major repair now, we’ve got to get started on those before they fail on us completely.”

Capital projects include construction and major maintenance, often referred to as "warm, safe and dry" projects. Funds that are designated for capital projects cannot be used for staffing or other day-to-day costs in the school district. Money in the district’s Capital Projects Fund comes from the 2013 bond measure, as well as from state matching funds, technology revenue, impact fees and interest.

The bond paid to build the new Tahoma High School and to build a new Lake Wilderness Elementary School. Both of those projects were completed on time and under budget. Other projects that the bond funded that have already been finished include safety and security improvements throughout the district; the addition of six portables at Rock Creek Elementary, Glacier Park Elementary and LWES; security vestibules at Summit Trail Middle School, CRES, Glacier Park Elementary, RCES, Shadow Lake Elementary and Tahoma Elementary; playsheds at TES and CRES; playgrounds at SLES, TES, RCES, CRES, and GPES; renovating the administration building at TES and more. More recently completed capital project expenditures included technology expenditures of about $4.7 million; the installation of modular classrooms at Cedar River Elementary for $3.3 million; and an upgrade to the TES septic system for $157,464.

Future facility needs were not included in the report to the board. The district’s Housing Committee is focused on student housing needs over the next 10 years and will present its recommendations to the School Board later this year.

The projects being proposed now for the board’s consideration represent all of the current needs for the next five to six years. They have been categorized as high, moderate or low priority. High priority projects represent an estimated cost of $6.9 million, and include:

The moderate priority projects represent an estimated cost of $1.6 million, and include:

Low priority projects total $597,128, and include electrical/lighting, parking lot improvements and miscellaneous projects.

Tax for all of the proposed projects is estimated at $768,643. The total cost, including tax would be $9.9 million. The district has an estimated balance in the Capital Projects Fund of $18.5 million. If the board were to approve all of the projects on the list, the remaining balance would be about $8.8 million.

Board members asked questions throughout Cloud’s presentation, for clarification and additional information. Director Val Paganelli asked Cloud for her recommendation about how much the board should consider keeping in the fund, as a general rule of thumb, for unexpected needs. Cloud replied that about $2 million would be sufficient for this fund.

Moving forward, Cloud will bring the projects to the board for individual review and approval when the district is ready to proceed. The projects proposed for the 2020-2021 school year are the high priority HVAC/plumbing work, the CRES lighting project, recarpeting RCES, the roof at SLES, pavement at TES and updates to the security system.

Are you up for the challenge of helping Dr. Emmett Brown save the time machine from Biff? If you’re a fan of “Back to the Future” like Summit Trail seventh-grader Cameron S. and enjoy solving puzzles, you might love the digital escape room that Cameron created for a local contest.

Students from Summit Trail and Maple View middle schools recently completed a Digital Escape Room Contest, which was held in partnership between the Tahoma Middle Schools WIN Wednesday Enrichment Program and the Maple Valley Library.  

The contest arose out of the middle school WIN enrichment class Digital Escape Room, which has had more than 80 students from the two schools participate. The class meets each Wednesday to play different digital escape rooms created using Google Forms and then students are given resources to create their own escape rooms. When playing the games, students and teachers analyze elements that go into a fun and challenging escape room. The Google Classroom has resources for making the games, including a storyboard for drafting, video tutorials and a collection of sites with puzzles, generators, riddles etc. that can be used for clues.

Escape rooms (not the digital kind) in general are a form of entertainment, usually with an overarching theme, that a team of players takes on. The game involves a series of puzzles and challenges that lead from one to another, and often the players have a set amount of time to accomplish the mission.

For the contest, the Maple Valley Library Guild provided a $50 Amazon Gift certificate to the top escape room. Tandra Solvey, KCLS Youth Services Librarian, along with the MV Youth Advisory Board judged entries and selected Cameron’s “Back to the Future” Escape Room as the winner. 

“I was a little surprised at first you could even do a DIGITAL escape room and was very curious about how it would work in a Google Form,” Cameron said. After he learned a bit more about how the forms could be used to create digital escape rooms, he said he heard about the contest and was “all in!”

Selecting “Back to the Future” was an easy choice for a theme, Cameron said, because he knows the three movies very well and has watched each movie at least 10 times. His familiarity with the characters, plot and favorite sayings (“Great Scott!”) comes through vividly in the game.

“I just started brainstorming in my head about what I could do, and a ‘Back to the Future’ Escape Room sounded cool to me,” he said. “Then all the ideas came together and I made the escape room. ... I was super surprised when I heard I had won. I put a lot of effort into my escape room but there were tons of other escape rooms from lots of other people and I didn't think mine would be recognized by the judges! I was really excited and told my family the news!”

Although Cameron has never been to an escape room in person, he said he has always wanted to give it a try.

Notable mentions in the contest went to Dhairya A. (MVMS 6th Grade) for “Kidnapper’s Escape Room;” Sarah Jane S. and Lydia T. (STMS 6th Grade) for “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring” and Evan L. (STMS 6th Grade) for “Mandalorian Escape Room.”

Summit Trail Future Ready Librarian Loretta Baker said that she proposed the Digital Escape Room as an enrichment option because after the shutdown last March, she hosted several with MVMS Future Ready Librarian Patty Stillmaker and Solvey as a “lunchtime in the library” session. “The students that participated enjoyed the games. There was a public library in Pennsylvania that created a Harry Potter themed escape room using Google Forms that became very popular.” To give the Tahoma students more examples, Solvey created an escape room based on “Zelda, Breath of the Wild,” and Baker made one based on the series “Stranger Things.”

“The entries included some creative steps and the winning escape room was very well developed in storyline as well as clues,” Baker said. The judges’ notes on Cameron’s game said: “Exceptional! Links to all images, covers copyright concerns. Different scenarios for wrong decisions. A lot of work went into this and it shows!”

If you would like to check out some of the escape rooms from the contest, click here:

Kidnapper Escape Room 

Next week, March 8-12, marks Classified Staff Appreciation Week in Tahoma and throughout the state of Washington. To each of our classified employees: Thank you for the tremendous work that you do all year round. We can’t wait to celebrate you next week. 

For those who may not know the difference between classified employees and certificated employees, classified employees perform a wide array of jobs such as, but not limited to, paraeducators, bus drivers, nutrition services, secretaries and clerical positions, nurses, custodians, technology team members, EEP and more.They are represented by the Public School Employees of Washington (PSE). Certificated employees include teachers, psychologists and a few other categories.

“Tahoma’s strength has always been the amazing people who have made the choice to be a part of creating a special place for kids. Our classified staff are an integral part of this. In a year where predicting anything has been a challenge, our classified staff have responded with resilience and flexibility every step of the way,” Superintendent Mike Hanson said. “To say you are appreciated is an understatement. We are blessed to be partners with the hundreds of people who continue to put kids first. Thank you.”

School Board President Katrina Montgomery echoed his thanks, and said “Classified employees are an extremely large part of the glue that keeps our district running. These dedicated employees deserve to be recognized for their commitment to our students and system. The Tahoma School Board appreciates each and every one of our classified employees for all they do and the positive impact they bring to our system each and every day. Their support is critical to student success and the exceptional education we provide in Tahoma.” 

Tahoma PSE Chapter President Ruthie Mackie said that PSE will be recognizing its members next week in special ways, in lieu of the usual Classified Appreciation Dinner.

“Tahoma has over 500 classified employees. Classified employees are essential to our district by keeping buildings functioning, and supporting our teachers, families, and students to be successful,” Mackie said. “Classified employees are indispensable to our Tahoma School District.”

Next week, the district will highlight a selection of individual classified employees. PSE is also planning giveaways/prizes for its members. We look forward to the 2021-2022 school year, when we hope social distancing and other restrictions will be lifted and we will be able to gather for the annual dinner in their honor.

In the past year, just as students and families adjusted to changes due to COVID, many -- if not all -- of our classified employees weathered changes on the job. Just one such job is that of the paraeducators working with the district’s RAP (Reading Assistance Program) and MAP (Math Assistance Program) students.

“It has been a year of incredible change for our intervention programs. Last spring when we switched from in-person learning to remote learning, the RAP Paras embraced an enormous learning curve,” said Deanna Sund, one of the district’s reading specialists who works with RAP paraeducators and students. “In a matter of weeks, the RAP paras (remotely) learned to navigate video conferencing programs, use interactive visual lesson templates, and to navigate between web-based resources while simultaneously learning the nuances of teaching students remotely. Throughout this time, it was inspiring to witness the level of teamwork and flexibility they demonstrated, not only among school teams, but between buildings.”

Although creating connections with students and families is not new, doing so remotely certainly was, but intervention paraeducators were up for the challenge, Sund said. “Students are growing as readers and have been excited to meet and read with their instructors as well as to share the joys, sorrows and happenings in their lives- ranging from pets, to books, to brothers and sisters. These connections have also enabled parents to informally observe lessons and ask questions to help support their readers at home.”

Reading Specialist Natalie Stumpges agreed, calling RAP paraeducators “nothing short of amazing” during remote and hybrid learning. “From the moment we closed schools last year to now, they have taken every shift in instruction and schedules in stride and with a determined focus to help kids. They care so deeply about the students and families we work with and it is evident in every lesson they plan, every conversation they have with kids and every email they send home,” Stumpges said. “March 2020 was the first time any of them had ever taught a lesson online. But they dove in to learn this new technology so they could continue to work with their students. They never skipped a beat when it came to delivering skilled, focused and individualized reading instruction for every single RAP student. On top of all that, they put relationships first when working with kids. Not only do they value the relationships they have with students, they are building trusting relationships with parents, too. I am honored to work alongside these highly skilled and deeply invested reading instructors.” 

Program Coordinator for MAP Tiffaney Martin said she would echo the sentiments shared about the incredible year of change, and level of adaptations that were made by MAP and RAP employees. “Teams were very busy learning new technology, and then transitioned right into teaching in a completely different setting. This was not an easy feat! Teams’ enthusiasm and drive to continue this amazing work, and to make meaningful connections with families is very moving. The level of collaboration, teamwork, and flexibility they had, and continue to have is inspirational,” Martin said. 

“As the MAP paras continue the hard work of remote teaching, they do amazing work to inspire and engage our students in creative and unique ways. Throughout this experience, paras have been going above and beyond to find the best ways to support students and are always exploring new strategies to find student success. Staying positive, making connections, and having patience beyond measure when new learning is challenging is one of their greatest strengths!”

Photo courtesy of Cari S

Tahoma Elementary fifth-grader Olivia S. reads out loud to her 22-year-old pony, Spirit, from "Ponies of Chincoteague."

Olivia has been around horses her whole life because her mom, Cari, competed in dressage. Riding since age 3, Olivia now takes lessons and rides two horses, Spirit and her mare, Godiva. "I love to build a bond and then my pony Spirit will trust me even more than he did before," Olivia said. "Since he is missing an eye, I love to take extra great care of him. That includes loving on him and reading my favorite book to him."

Cari shared that this is one of the ways that Olivia spends her spare time during school hours while she is in the remote learning model.

We would love to highlight other amazing experiences that our remote students are having. If you have a photo of your student that you are willing to share, please send it to us with a brief explanation at TSDMessages@tahomasd.us.

On Thursday, we emailed a letter about reporting absences, accessing testing for students and other health and safety protocols. If you missed it, here are some of the key reminders:

Due to the district’s remote/hybrid learning status, our Teaching and Learning staff members have been working to revamp our assessment protocols and timelines for highly capable testing for the 2020-2021 school year.  

Nominated students in kindergarten and grades 1, 3 & 4 will most likely be tested in small groups. They will wear masks, adhere to social distancing, and follow any other recommended safety measures at that time. These tests will take place on computers at testing locations yet to be determined. 

The nomination period for students in kindergarten and grades 1, 3 and 4 will occur from March 8-31. We anticipate testing these groups of students on Saturday, April 17. Once the nomination period opens, the nomination forms will be accessible on the highly capable page of our website. 

During its regular meeting on Feb. 23, the Tahoma School Board heard mid-year reports from department directors related to non-academic annual goals set by the board. Among the areas covered in the report were updates on student facilities (housing), equity, mental health and wellness, and communication.

The School Board also heard an update about returning more students to in-person learning at middle and high schools, which is scheduled to begin March 29 for middle schools and April 12 for high school.

The board also held a first reading of changes to Policy 2107 (Comprehensive Early Literacy Plan) and Policy/Procedure 4300 (Limiting Immigration Enforcement in Schools). It voted to retire outdated policies 3144 (Release of information concerning student sex or kidnapping offenders) and 4314 (Notification of Threats of Violence or Harm).

The board also reviewed procedures 4218P (Language Access Plan), and 5010P (Nondiscrimination and Affirmative Action).

The School Board held two recent work-study sessions on capital projects (Feb. 24) and its annual meeting with the PTA/PTO Round Table on March 2.

Tahoma’s Safety Committee met recently, and heard updates about drills, training, the radio system and more.

Drills at buildings may look different this spring, so that students and staff members can adhere to safety protocols such as social distancing. For example, fire drills may be conducted on a classroom basis rather than the whole school at one time. Or, a building may choose to do half of the students in attendance at one time. All required fire, lockdown and shelter in place drills will still occur.

The committee discussed the possibility of a tabletop exercise about reunification, which will be followed by a full reunification drill when health and safety protocols allow that.

A regular monthly test of the emergency radio system was conducted.

The Safety Committee includes district safety officers, local police and fire representatives, administrators from each building and department, and a School Board representative.

A recent assessment of indoor air quality in Tahoma School District buildings resulted in a “near perfect” score, according to a report from the Puget Sound Educational Service District’s Workers Compensation Trust.

The only area marked for improvement is about the need for a district policy on indoor air quality. Otherwise, Tahoma is meeting all air quality standards measured in the audit, which uses standards from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Health.

The report noted that Tahoma has stepped up its efforts to maintain high indoor air quality during the coronavirus pandemic by changing filters more often and by using filters that are more effective against the virus.

While some Tahoma High School athletes have been participating in pre-season conditioning in past weeks, Season 1 sports will begin practice next week. Athletes and coaches will still participate in health and safety protocols such as daily health screenings, wearing masks and more.

Another important safety regulation set by the North Puget Sound League is that there will be no spectators at competitions, whether indoor or outdoor. All home and away games will be streamed live for parents/guardians, students and community members who would like to watch.

For schedules, visit the Tahoma High School Athletics website at https://tahomaathletics.com/. The link to watch all home and away contests is https://justagamelive.com/clients/tahoma-high-school-wa.

Season 1 sports include cross country, football, girls and boys golf, girls soccer, girls swim and volleyball. Season 2 includes baseball, fastpitch, boys soccer, boys swim, girls tennis and track; it runs from April 12 to May 22. Season 3 includes boys and girls basketball, gymnastics, boys tennis and wrestling, and runs from May 17 to June 26, although gymnastics will begin May 10.

At the middle schools, seventh and eighth grade soccer begins March 15. For more information, click here for Summit Trail or for information about Maple View, click here.

Students from around the district are refreshing the window displays next to the Board Room in the Central Services Center (CSC). Students, club members, staff and volunteers will be updating the window displays monthly. 

Visitors to the CSC building will be able to see THS’s Bear Metal team’s robot on display for the month of March. They are also displaying their professional quality parts machined on their Computer Numerical Control (CNC) mill.

Summit Trail Middle School’s Green Team is sharing its award-winning Celestial City model. There is also a pamphlet for the team’s outreach activity next month.  

Visiting CSC will give people a view into schools and student activities. Please note that access to the building is currently limited to employees and people attending meetings; also, a health screening is required. 

Tahoma secondary students will be participating with other students across the state of Washington in a COVID-19 student survey this month. This is intended to help inform local, regional and state level leaders on how the pandemic is affecting our students’ mental and physical health, life, and learning experiences. This will help gauge the level of student need and resulting investments with federal, state and local resources. The survey will be completed in class between March 15-26. The survey is completely anonymous and voluntary. Students are even able to skip individual questions if they wish. Students not participating at all will have an alternate activity. The survey includes questions about social supports, remote learning experiences, mental and physical health and substance use. Anyone with questions may contact the Tahoma Teaching and Learning Department or the District Wellness Coordinator. Additional information will also be available on our Teaching and Learning website.  

Tahoma’s School Board Directors were invited to record videos of themselves reading aloud to students for this week’s Read Across America festivities at elementary buildings. In most years, the directors, superintendent and special guests from the community visit Tahoma classrooms to read to classes. 

If you and your students missed any of the videos and would like to catch up, here are links:

(Although some of these videos are addressed specifically to Polar Bears, the directors recorded videos for other schools as well).

In addition to an increased focus on a love of reading, some buildings also hosted spirit weeks with dress up days. Cedar River Elementary combined Read Across America with Kindness Week, for example, and Monday’s spirit day was “Wild About Kindness,” with students and staff wearing animal-themed ears, shirts and more. At Glacier Park, students dressed up as book characters on Thursday. And at Shadow Lake Elementary, the Tigers celebrated with the always popular “crazy hat/crazy hair” day. 

Free meals being served curbside, for Tahoma students and any children 18 and younger, via a USDA program, at Tahoma High School. For times and other details, click here.

To check out what's on the menu, click here.

First THS football game, viewable online, 7 p.m. vs. Kennedy Catholic High School.

First boys and girls golf match, viewable online, 3 p.m. vs. Mount Rainier High School.

For additional district events, click here or visit your school's website.