The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON-Associated Student Body (ASB) Vice-President Kira Boggs shared that group's activities with school officials at last week's school board meeting.

She said the ASB has raised $500 for the Cush Family, who lost their home in a recent fire.

A tropical poster-making contest for all the classes is currently taking place. The winners of the contest will get to wear "beachy stuff" in the commons.

The ASB has been meeting regularly to work on the outdated school constitution. High School Principal Kristina Brown said she will review it when they are done, noting it will be "a fairly new" document.

Principal Denise Smith said the elementary students are working hard, benchmarking for iReady for math and English, and said their growth is "amazing".

Superintendent Doug Johnson presented Principal Brown and Principal Smith with banners from the state recognizing the Dayton elementary and middle school as Schools of Distinction.

He also presented the Board of Directors with certificates of appreciation from the Office of State Public Instruction, and he presented Director Katie Leid with an Advanced Leadership Award for attending the Washington Association of School District Administrators Fall Conference.

The YWCA has asked for permission to provide middle school youth with a 14-week program about relationship-building. Information about the program will be sent home to parents, Johnson said.

Johnson said the District had applied for a couple of school modernization grants, but the applications were denied. Because of that, the list of capital projects will need to be reprioritized, perhaps moving the irrigation system upgrade to the bottom of the list, in order to have money to repair the sloped part of the high school roof.

Johnson said those repairs will cost sixty to seventy-five thousand dollars more than originally budgeted.

"There is no question, we have to get the roof done," he said.

He also said the radiator that provides heat to the basement will have to be replaced at a cost of around thirty-five thousand dollars.

Johnson said while both the Dayton School District and the Waitsburg School District have policies in place regarding student conduct, there are a few areas of dissimilarity.

He told the directors that a single document covering student conduct in both schools would be important step in developing a "we" culture between Waitsburg and Dayton.

Katie Leid will meet with Ross Hamann at the Waitsburg School Board to discuss that.

Position 3 on the Dayton School Board of Directors has not yet been filled and Johnson said the District might host an open house for people who are interested in learning more about the Board.

District Business Manager Paula Moisio said the District is four months into the school year and revenues and expenditures are steady.

At their next workshop, the board of directors will look at guidelines on how to conduct a search for a new school superintendent. Superintendent Johnson will be retiring at the end of the 2020 school year.