Colfax School Board approves teacher hirings, curriculum changes

Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter | Jun 29, 20170

Colfax School Board met Monday night and approved new curriculum additions, hiring of two teachers and the Jennings Elementary annual fall trip to Camp Grizzly.

At the start of the meeting, Superintendent Jerry Pugh introduced English/Language Arts teacher Kelli Cox who will come to Colfax after six years at Lincoln Middle School in Pullman.

Pugh also reported Michael Heitstuman of Pasco will be the district’s new agriculture teacher, replacing Rainey McKiernan, who submitted her resignation in May.

Heitstuman will be introduced at the next Colfax school board meeting July 24.

Brenda Kneeshaw, the Colfax curriculum coach, spoke to the board about proposed additions to curriculum. She said in 2015 the district adopted a Glencoe/McGraw-Hill sixth-grade math pilot for one year, then added a second year for the Washington state Common Core program. She reported that test scores showed the students were doing well with it.

In order for the district to renew its site licenses, it will now need to pay $556, Kneeshaw said. Site licenses refer to access to the digital materials used as part of the curriculum.

The new licenses would add the program’s course two and course three for seventh and eighth grade.

For high school Spanish Level I and Level II, teacher Stacy Aune chose a program which Kneeshaw said would cost $9,902 for textbooks, materials and a six-year site license.

The cost for each of the above could drop due to the opportunity to ship from a distribution center in Portland, Ore.

Finally, Kneeshaw presented the state Common-Core based English-Language Arts program which would cost an estimated $7,100 per grade, including textbooks, professional development webinars and more.

Kneeshaw has negotiated with representatives of the companies for better prices.

Boardmember Terry Huber moved to approve the curriculum adoption, and Robert Smith seconded the motion. It passed with a unanimous vote.

Also, the board approved the annual sixth-grade overnight trip to Camp Grizzly near Laird Park in Idaho for Sept. 13-15.

McKiernan was given notice May 9 that the district would not renew her contract. An appeal process followed, during which she submitted her resignation, effective at the end of the school year.