Hello, I'm Kevin Morrison.
Welcome to SPS Now, where we let you know what's happening around
Spokane Public Schools and how it affects your family.
So let's take a look around SPS.
If you're someone who likes to get your planning done as early
as possible, you're in luck.
Calendars for the 2017-2018 school year and the 2018-2019
year are available now on the district website.
Just visit the address on your screen.
The moment many have been anticipating all year is on the
horizon - high school graduation.
You can find upcoming graduation dates and times at the address
on your screen.
If you have family and friends who can't make it to the
ceremony, remind them to watch our live stream of each event at
spokaneschools.org/stories, or on Comcast Channel 17.
Each event will remain on our YouTube channel for viewing
after the big day as well.
109 people are retiring from Spokane Public Schools this
year, and many of them attended our annual retirement dinner May
18 at Rogers High School.
We'd like to wish a fond farewell to these valued members
of the SPS team, who have given a combined 2,727 years of
service to benefit Spokane students.
Your impact both individually and collectively will be felt
for generations and we wish you a happy, healthy and safe
retirement.
Ongoing enrollment growth and class size reduction legislation
for grades K through 3 means SPS has started early planning for
the 2021 school construction bond.
That planning includes a committee that has been studying
the pros and cons of various configurations for several
months.
Over the past few weeks, other members of the Spokane community
have had a chance to voice their thoughts at a series of forums
at each of our six middle schools.
Thousands of people also gave input via our Thought Exchange
online survey tool.
See what we've learned so far, and where we go from here, by
visiting the address on your screen.
SPS offers a number of summer programs to students throughout
the Spokane area, and they're filling up fast.
Our science, technology, engineering and math camps are
open to all students in the Eastern Washington region
entering preschool through eighth grade this fall.
There are more than 25 different camps available in everything
from video game design to crime scene investigation.
We also have a broad range of athletic summer camps for kids
of all ages.
SPS students with a documented low-income status will never be
turned away for inability to pay.
Our Express Summer Program meanwhile offers full-day
licensed childcare with fun and enriching activities for
children ages 3 through 12.
Learn more about all of these summer opportunities and others
on our website.
I'm joined now by the newest addition to
the five-member SPS Board of Directors
Mr. Mike Wiser
Director Weiser thank you for being here.
>>Thank you Kevin. >>You were selected for
more than a dozen candidates to fill the
vacant position left by Bob Douthit
what made you want to apply to become a
school board member. >>Well I'll give you a
bit of the long story I suppose I think
might my interest started back when I
was in Chicago going to business school
and you know when you're in business
school you're trying to worry about
capitalistic endeavors and being
successful in business and so you also
think about how can I be engaged with my
community and give back a little bit all
the time.
Not just you know kind of at the end of
the year something like that with
donations so I got involved there with a
little bit of volunteering with Chicago
Public Schools which led into some work
with communities and schools of Chicago
at the time and then when my wife and I
decided to have a family and move back
to Spokane I just became more engaged
with my kid's education from you know
preschool co-op to to the parent group
at Franklin Elementary and so along that
time it was kind of a running
half-hearted joke I guess of, should
run for school board sometime and a
couple of years ago I kind of got a
little bit serious about how I should
really make a decision I got to do this
or not so this opportunity came up and I
thought well I'll put in an application
and it will be a good way for me to
write out why I want to become a school
board member and whether I get it or not
I would at least have that decision
point to my life of deciding to do so or
not so I put in the application and left
it up to the board to decide and again
it it goes back to wanting to not just
work for on behalf of my kids but do
something broader for the community.
>>Great and you know I know that it's only
been two months you've only been in the
office for two months what have you
learned so far. >>I've learned that I will
never learn it all,
the scale and the scope of the district is
immense but it's been a lot of fun I've
been following the advice of staff and
of my fellow board members on how to
ramp up and how to connect with schools
and get a sense for the district so I've
met with a lot of the superintendent's
leadership group to understand
everything from at a high level
everything from purchasing and school
support to the Ice-T system finance
but probably the most final course is
going out to schools and each board
member has ten or eleven schools that we
don't use the term school buddy but I
would kind of think of it like that if
we should be going there once or twice a
year to these schools in our list and
get a sense for that community in that
school and what the challenges are that
those educators face with those parents
face and kids and also what what
successes they've had so that's been
been really really cool and then also
again not it's not unique knowledge
to board members but just the the size
of the district has been perhaps not
surprising but when you think about
adding up all of the the number of you
know 3,000 teachers and a thousand
support staff and another thousand
part-time you know substitute sorts of
staff you got 5,000 people working for
the district you have 30,000 students
each of those students has a parent or
caregiver so you start adding those
numbers up pretty quickly and you pretty
quickly I think get to something like
on a day-to-day basis 70,000 members of
our community being engaged with Spokane
Public Schools or affected by it which
is a third of the community not to
mention all the former graduates and
taxpayers so I think what's what's
really hit home is just that level of
impact that our school district has with the
community. >>Scalability is always
something that I think that most new
school members communicate is a
kind of a little bit staggering after
they've been a member for a while and
that knowledge will just continue to
grow I'm sure as you do it for somebody
who doesn't know and we get this
question quite a bit I know
at Spokane schools what does the board
member actually do? Good question so I'm
learning that as well but I think the
basics are pretty clear in terms of the
the overall board has some certain
responsibilities primarily that's to
hire and evaluate the superintendent and
I think the one of the first boards,
school boards that was created when our
country was founded had think of three
or four different responsibilities, hire
the superintendent, have a building and
provide firewood and so I haven't had
to cut any firewood yet but
we have been again gets back that
responsibility working with the
superintendent and being a governance
team to set priorities to set goals to
evaluate goals and that's really what it
comes down to for the board and then on
the superintendent side it's her job to
implement to manage and oversee the
day-to-day operations. >>Going forth what
what's going to be your guiding
philosophy moving forward with school
board decisions that you may have to
make. >>I think the number one has got to
be really related to SPS' model
excellence for everyone I think that every time
the school board makes a decision it
should be with the thought that this is
going to going to help all students
across the district's improve in their
achievement of their own unique goals. I
think it's it's easy oftentimes for a
any company or large organization
to do a great job with 80 percent of
their customers or constituents really
really hard to get out the remaining 20%
who have probably lots of different
unique needs and I think we every time
we make a decision we need to be
thinking about those unique needs of
different sorts of students that we
serve. >>That's a good philosophy to go forth
for this community that both you and I
have grown up in, great well thank you so
much for being here today and I look
forward to moving forward with you and
the rest of the school board as Spokane
Public Schools does move towards
that excellence for everyone. >>Thank you
very much Kevin.
you too.
Spokane Public Schools partners with Durham School Services to
provide transportation for over 800 special education students
and 6,000 regular education students every year.
As part of our ongoing effort to increase system efficiency, all
eligible bus riders in Spokane Public Schools must register
online in order to ride the bus this fall.
Visit the address on your screen to register before June 30.
You can check your eligibility there too.
No computer?
Stop by your neighborhood school through June 20 to use one
there.
After June 20, visit the SPS administration building at 200
North Bernard.
Specific bus route information will be posted by the second
week of August.
Parents of bus riders will also be pleased to know of two new
ways to view your student's current location.
Beginning this month, parents and guardians of all K-12 bus
riders can track their child's bus using a GPS-based app.
Durham Bus Tracker helps gauge how far the bus is from their
student's stop and estimate when the bus will arrive.
And this fall, all SPS bus riders will have a free Z Pass
card.
Students simply tap the card on a reader as they enter and exit
their bus.
Parents and guardians can download an app that will let
them track where and when their student got on and off the bus.
Learn more about all of these exciting new changes by visiting
the web address on your screen.
I'm joined now by student advisor to the
board Clara Coyote whose appointment
began last summer and ends in July,
Clara welcome. >>Thank you so much.
>>So you're a senior at Ferris high school
why don't you tell us a little bit about
your activities there. >>Sure so one of the
main things I do at Ferris is I
participate in choir and we have a
really robust music program at Ferris
and so I'm in two choirs the Canterbury
bells and the symphonic choir and the
Canterbury bells just one second at
state which, so excited about and then
some other things at Ferris I'm the
president of the German club and I have
an German exchange student right
now actually she's really fantastic and
I'm the president of the National Honor
Society where we do sort of community
service and then probably my most fun
activity is I do improv comedy with the
Desperados at Ferris High School. >> Wow I
had no idea now for the uninitiated why
don't you tell everyone kind of what the
student advisor to the board actually
does what are your actual duties? >>So
on a very basic level I go to every
other board meeting there's two board
meetings per month so I go to one and my
partner Holly goes to the other and I
sit through the whole thing but I also
get a little slot of time to speak on
really any important matters I can think
of in the school district it could
pertain to sort of a theme of the night
like grades or valedictorians or it
could just be really anything I've
noticed from month to month and then on
a more general level I listen to my
peers what's on their minds I ask
questions I connect with the leadership
at my school and I just try to be a
voice for the student population.
>>Fantastic and you do a great job of that
as well. >>Thank you. >>How did you come into the
position what is a process exactly?
>>I learned about the position online
it was posted on the Spokane Public
Schools website and so first I sent in a
written application ahead of time just
sort of detailing my activities why I
wanted to be a leader within the school
district and then I was called in for
interviews and so I sat in front of the
school board and the current standing
student school board representative and
they just asked some, you know pretty
general questions and yeah then that
same night I got the call that I made it.
>>Great so tell me what have you learned
in this role about the school district
that maybe you didn't realize before.
>>I've definitely learned that people have
great intentions always from bottom to
top and really the barriers come in
details and communication and so
sometimes as a student it seems like
nothing is changing and no one's
listening but to be at the top of the
leadership and to hear those
conversations I learned that everyone
really wants the best for students and
they're constantly looking for new ways
to help but the process can be really
time-consuming and so we don't always
see the change even though they care and
they want us to have the best. >>I
think that reach out to the constituency
such a broad base when you're talking
you know probably 60,000 plus parents
30,000 students 5,400 staff members
you've got to listen to a
lot of voices so is there anything that
really surprised you that you had no
idea once you became a member of the
board. >>Wow what really surprised me I
think is people don't necessarily know
what the school board does exactly
and you know some people
don't quite realize the process or
exactly what basis I think a lot of
people don't realize they can go speak
to the board themselves they think that
the board might be sort of aloof or
doesn't have time for them but they
really do and I love I really loved
hearing community members come and speak
and give individual stories. >>So that
reach out the different ways that they
can reach out it's probably the biggest
surprise to you that there they are
available. >>Exactly. >>And accessible and
anyone can come and speak you don't even
have to be a student you don't have to
be a parent
I know people came and spoke just about
issues that were concerning them at the
time you know what kind of education are
students getting on this topic or
that topic even just inquiry it doesn't
have to be the biggest issue in the
world or like a national you know topic
of interest just that the school board
is really there to listen. >>Great well
thank you for your service to the school
board and to the district and we wish
you nothing but the very best in your
future and look forward to coming back
as you move on. >>Thank you.
On each episode of SPS Now, we take a moment to highlight our
community partners.
This week, we'd like to celebrate Hoopfest for the many
ways they support and encourage students through Ignite
Basketball and other youth programs.
SPS Superintendent Shelley Redinger recently nominated the
organization for a Community Leaders Award through the
Washington Association of School Administrators.
>>We are a 501c3 nonprofit so it was
founded 1990 the organization and this
whole thing was formed around what has
become the world's largest
three-on-three street basketball
tournament. Coming up in a few weeks
the anxiety is up but you know 6,000
plus teams they roughly estimate about
a quarter of a million people in
downtown Spokane on the weekend about a
for to six million dollar economic impact
to the region so it's a big event
there's nothing else like it and what
that event has allowed is the
development of organization around it it
allows us to do a you know a program
called ignite Basketball Association
which is an outreach program in
partnership with Spokane Public Schools
that allow sixth seventh and eighth
graders you know engagement through the
game of basketball it really just kind
of gives them something to do on a
Saturday night when they could be out
doing other things and maybe there
aren't quite as productive. It's free to
be young athletes we encourage and invite
families to be a part of those nights we
typically invite some type of community
leader or organization to come in and
speak to the families and athletes and
then we play hoops Fest and
three-on-three basketball. I grew up in
the game I love the game it opened up I
can't even tell you how many doors in my
life because of the game so I think it's
a great way to engage for a number
reasons for the most basic reason,
physical activity just getting kids out
and moving and healthy you know
team-building learn how to interact with
other people how to share goals how to
communicate that we're all just a small
piece no matter if it's in our classroom
in our family in our community in our
neighborhoods we're just a small piece of
a community and I think that really gets
encapsulated in sport especially team
sport and then I think one of the
greatest lessons you learn in sports is
how to deal with adversity you know how
to lose how to pick yourself back up
when you when you get knocked down
because life comes at you right? It's
always coming at you even the best
basketball players in the world only
play it for a finite number of years you
know before you know your body changes
you can't quite do it at the level that
you'd like to but those lessons that you
learn the sacrifice the goal-setting the
teamwork how to communicate how to
interact with people certainly, how to
overcome adversity and what your
character is made of those are types of
things you can apply it across the board
throughout your entire life.
>>For the past 25 years, the Spokane Scholars Foundation has
honored our county's best and brightest students in English,
Fine Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and World
Languages.
Scholars are selected by their respective schools, then compete
for cash awards given to the top four students in each of these
categories.
Since its inception, the Scholars Foundation has honored
3,200 high school seniors.
Joining me now are four award winners, here to discuss how
their high school experience has brought them to this point.
Welcome everyone let's quickly have
everyone introduce themselves and then
tell us what your plans are after
graduation Grace we'll start with you.
>>My name is Grace and next year I'll be
attending Northwestern University. >>My
name is Chris Matsumura and next year I plan
to study physics at the University of
Southern California. >> I'm Allie Pinnock
and I plan on studying chemistry at
Western Washington University.
>>Fantastic, so as you prepare for the next
steps what are you most proud of so far
in your 18 years. >>I would say I'm most
proud of my work ethic because
throughout high school especially
freshmen and sophomore year it's kind of
hard to look forward to senior year and
see how everything's going to come
together because sometimes you work
really hard and there's not a lot of
recognition but this year it's been
really cool to see how how all my work
has kind of started paying off with
college acceptances and scholarships and
everything so that's been awesome to see
for me. >>Chris? >> I think that my drive
towards physics has my greatest
accomplishment I mean sometimes some
classes weren't offered by my school so
I would go out so study on my own I
think I'm just that process of being
able to study on my own not have someone
look over my shoulder telling you what
I'm doing is right that's been a big
part of what I've done in high school. >>For me it's
probably my involvement in the arts like
choir and theater um I started out with
basically no experience in either of
them and it's been really fun to grow as
both a student and eventually as a
leader and I think that's helped me with
a lot of my other things in life.
>>So you've each touched on it briefly but
how did the high school your past four
years kind of helped create the point to
where you're at now? >>For me in my high
school career I've had a lot of teachers
who have challenged me a lot and kind of
pushed me out of my comfort zone with
different projects and different
curricula so even though sometimes I
didn't want to maybe explore different
subjects or do difficult assignments
it's really helped me to broaden my
scope
of interest and also at the same time
kind of narrow in on the things that I'm
really passionate about. >>I think of four
years of high school prepared me very
well, for awhile I took classes at Gonzaga
University and I got to see how how all
my work of high school prepared me for a
university level classes and especially
on many of my teachers to work not only
to help me no more but also and become
smarter and reason at a higher level now
instead of just um knowing more facts or
knowing more solution procedures I feel
like I can actually reason at a higher level
>>I'm kind of the same as Grace I came
from private school so high school is a
completely different experience than
what I was used to but I was able to get
along really well with my teachers and
they really pushed me towards success
even if maybe I was dragging my feet a
little bit and I'm really glad I was
able to get that experience. >>Very good
here's a question we often ask students
who just see they have come into a
transition or leaving a transition
during their their time in Spokane
Public Schools, so I guess I'd like to ask
if each of you as you're leaving our
district, Grace if I were to ask you what
would you wish you could have told your
ninth grade self what would it be? >>I
would tell my ninth grade self that even
though things can be challenging and be
difficult it's important to not get down
on yourself and keep going and then also
that even though school is really
important and it's important to do your
best it's also important to be kind to
yourself and have fun a little bit and
make those important friendships that
you're going to have for the rest of
your life.
>>Well I definitely don't have the big
life lesson to tell myself but I would
probably want to continue taking
clarinet lessons. >>I would tell myself
to relax a little more especially later
on because things get really stressful
in that junior senior year so I'd tell
myself to just lay back and try to have
a little bit more fun while I'm getting
all that stuff done. >>Great good advice
from all of you and I want to thank you
all for being here and I want to thank
which you on behalf of Spokane public
schools and I'm sure all of your
teachers and all
the staff congratulations
and we wish you nothing but the best in
your future. >>Thank you
Thanks for watching, Spokane.
This show is available alongside our other SPS programming at
spokaneschools.org/stories, and it will air again on Comcast
Channel 17.
You can learn more about anything mentioned during the
show by visiting spokaneschools.org/SPSNow.
We'll leave you with some footage of Shaw students at the
Harmon Skate Park last week.
Thanks to a partnership with Spokane Arts, four professional
muralists visited Shaw classrooms this winter to talk
about the creative process of a public artist.
Students created their own designs then worked with
practicing artists to add some color to their neighborhood.
Until next time, good night and have a great week.
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