Newsletter

We held our final meeting of our Facilities Advisory Committee this past Tuesday. At this meeting, the committee focused on refining the wording of our formal recommendation to the board; a recommendation that supports consolidating our schools into a single, unified K-12 campus to better serve students and ensure long-term sustainability.

Our next steps include:

• Completing conceptual studies for Columbia High School and the Henkle/Wallace Intermediate campus with our architects

• Publishing a draft of the facilities plan for public review and comment

• Reconnecting with our financial consultants and finalizing cost estimates

• Engaging with bond counsel

• And ultimately, preparing a board resolution for consideration of a bond for the February 2026 ballot. The filing deadline for that election is in December.

Over the past several months, our Social-Emotional Learning Curriculum Advisory Team has reviewed and piloted four K–8 programs: Thrively, Caring School Community, Second Steps, and Character Strong. After thoughtful review and discussion, the team reached a unanimous recommendation to adopt Character Strong as our SEL curriculum moving forward.

This recommendation directly supports one of WSVSD’s key strategic plan goals... To prioritize student and staff safety and wellbeing as a critical component of a thriving school community. Specifically, it fulfills our objective to provide social-emotional learning through intentional curriculum adoption and implementation.

The recommendation was approved by the board of directors at our May board meeting. This curriculum will be implemented beginning Fall 2025.

Each year, the Washington State School Recognition Program highlights schools that demonstrate exceptional progress in key areas of student success. For the 2023-2024 school year, 16% of schools received recognition. All Washington public schools are eligible for the honor.

Schools can be recognized in three categories: Closing Gaps, Growth, and Achievement.

• Closing Gaps: Schools in this category have made significant progress in areas identified for improvement in previous school years. These areas may include English language arts and math assessment scores, English Learner progress, or graduation rates.

• Growth: Schools recognized for growth have at least one student group that has shown some of the state’s largest annual gains across multiple measures, such as attendance, assessment scores, English Learner progress, graduation rates, or the percentage of ninth graders who successfully earned all their attempted credits.

• Achievement: These schools have the state's highest performance in at least two key areas, including attendance, dual credit completion, assessment scores in English language arts or math, graduation rates, or ninth-grade credit attainment, and are above average across all reportable student groups on the 2025 Washington School Improvement Framework.

No matter how a school qualifies, it’s a huge honor—one that takes a dedicated team of educators, administrators, and support staff to achieve. And of course, let’s not forget the students who show up every day to learn and grow!

On May 9, 2025, the Mayor of White Salmon officially proclaimed the day as "CHS Knowledge Bowl Champions Day" in honor of our state champion Knowledge Bowl team. The mayor invited the team to be recognized at the White Salmon City Council meeting last night, where all members of the state team and several of their parents were in attendance.

Congratulations to our champions: Milo Hoppus, Travis Rodgers, Jackson Cieloha, Garrett Kock, Anders Daly, and Kristina Barkhimer. If you see any of these outstanding students around, be sure to congratulate them on their impressive achievement.