SPRING 2024 NEWSLETTER
School calendar for 2024-25 and 2025-26
At our most recent school board meeting, the Board of Directors approved the WSVSD Calendar Committee’s recommended school calendars for the next two school years. There are some notable changes from prior year calendars.
First, the committee agreed to move early release from Wednesdays to Mondays. This will provide more instructional time throughout the school year, more consistency with every Monday having some kind of calendar event (holiday, conference half-day, or early release), and would bring more consistency for both staff and families.
The second notable change is the committee agreed to make the Wednesday before Thanksgiving a non-school day. Students will attend two days of school the week of Thanksgiving, then have Wednesday - Friday as non-school days.
Finally, the committee built five snow days into the calendar. As has been common practice in WSVSD, if we did not use snow days, these days would be no school days for our students. This will hopefully allow for a more predictable last day of school.
Both calendars can be found by following this link.
Career and Technical Education (CTE) Rural School Cooperative
At the most recent school board meeting, Superintendent Polkinghorn shared that WSVSD is pursuing a partnership with Educational Service District 112 (ESD) to bring an additional six CTE courses to Columbia High School next fall. Students enrolling in the courses will participate virtually with other students across Klickitat and Skamania Counties.
Next school year the CTE Rural Cooperative will allow students in our region to enroll in the following classes: Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science, Computer Software Design, Information Technology Fundamentals, Medical Pre-Apprenticeship, Careers in Education Pre-Apprenticeship, and Financial Literacy with Algebra. The CTE Rural Cooperative is being designed to expand upon the original courses to create CTE Graduation Pathways.
Look for the courses in the Columbia High School Course Description Guide later this Spring.
Safe Routes to School
WSVSD is asking each family to complete only one survey per school. If more than one child attends the same school, please fill out the survey for the child with the next birthday from today's date. Here is a link to the survey. Thank you.
White Salmon Valley Education Foundation offers youth fifth annual career day
The White Salmon Valley Education Foundation (WSVEF) held its fifth annual career day at Columbia High School on March 27 for students in 8th - 12th grade. Several local businesses and organizations hosted booths at the Career Fair. Other local business partners presented information related to their career pathway to students in small groups. WSVSD is grateful for our local business owners and community leaders, and partners who were participants in this community event.
WSVEF Executive Director Kylie Uffelman shared, “Observing the enthusiasm, curiosity, and connections formed between our students and local professionals reaffirms our dedication to funding and promoting career exploration opportunities for the children in our schools.” The WSVEF continues to be an outstanding contributor to the enrichment of WSVSD students' educational experience. Thank you to the event organizers and business participants for bringing this event to our students. WSVSD is grateful and proud of the partnership between the WSVEF and the district.
Knowledge Bowl, Mock Trial and Future Business Leaders of America
The Knowledge Bowl team competed in the regional tournament on Monday March 26, placing third and qualifying for the state tournament. Milo Hoppus, Travis Rodgers, Alexey Bayazitov, Graham Beck, Jackson Cieloha, and Kristina Barkhimer then went on to compete in the State Tournament held March March 22 and 23 where they placing eighth.
The Mock Trial Team placed second out of 11 teams in the district tournament held February, 21 and 22 and qualified for the state meet. Eleven team members were nominated either as best lawyer or best witness and Victoria Bayazitov was chosen as one of the three best witnesses of the entire tournament! The state meet was held on March 22 and 23 in Tacoma. The team finished 20th and had three team members (Victoria Bayazitov, Luke Harrison, and Noah Slayton) nominated as best witness and one team member (August Peterson) nominated as best attorney.
FBLA
On Friday, February 2, the Future Business Leaders of America participated in regional competition at Columbia Basin College in Pasco Washington. The team took home 16 first place finishes, 19 second place finishes, and 16 third place finishes. In total, 42 students qualified for state competition in 74 different events! The team will compete at the State Conference on April 24th in Spokane.