The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON—The Dayton School Board convened a regular work session at 6 p.m. on February 2, 2022. Although both in-person and Zoom participation by the public was available, the meeting was sparsely attended by the public.

There were two topics on the agenda this evening for discussion.

The first topic for discussion was the sexual health curriculum. This topic consists of sex education for grades five through twelve and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) for kindergarten through third grade.

Senate Bill 5395, passed by the Legislature and Washington voters in 2020, went into effect on December 3, 2020. It requires all public schools to provide comprehensive sexual health education by the 2022–23 school year, with some requirements beginning in the 2020-21.

Superintendent Guy Strot explained that all public schools in the State must teach the subject once during the fourth or fifth grade, twice in middle school, and twice during high school.

Strot said the community forum slated for Tuesday, February 8, 2022, in the High School Auditorium would discuss sex education and social and emotional learning as the forum’s only topic. Anyone interested in learning more is encouraged to attend.

The school will notify parents in writing at least one month before teaching a program in sexual health education. The district will make the materials for the programs available to parents, including making the material available electronically. Any parent or guardian who wishes to have their child excused from the planned instruction may do so.

A committee of about nine community members will be formed by the district to help shape how the training is conducted in the Dayton schools.

For the remainder of the meeting, Strot gave a presentation on the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), a framework to target support to struggling students with early intervention. This framework addresses both academic performance and wellness. He said that all districts within the state are moving to implement this system by 2028.

The evening’s topics were presented to the board solely as background training and did not represent any change in policy or present any policies that the board voted on. As a component of MTSS, Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) were also explained by the Superintendent.

The board made no decisions during the meeting, nor did the Board engage in any substantive discussion or debate during the meeting and adjourned at 6:45 p.m.