New student advisors attended their first Edmonds School Board meeting on Tuesday; among the items were eight consent items and three presentations.

Six of nine student advisors were sworn in, with the remaining three to be inducted at the Oct. 10 meeting. These advisors act as liaisons between students and the school board.

The student’s contributions to board discussions will provide insight and perspective for the school board and report back to fellow students about board and district work and decisions.

Though they are expected to attend all meetings and are bound by all rules and regulations of regular board members, they will not make motions, hold board offices or attend executive sessions.

The students sworn in were:

• Santiago Gonzalez-Coro, Max Lipscomb and Kevin Seng from Lynnwood High School.

• Tom Davenport III, Amin-Erdene Lkhagvasuren, and Viktoriia Mikhailova from Meadowdale High School.

• Amaya Brazil, Jesse Guasch-Pereira, and Vivian Guillen from Mountlake Terrace High School.

Among the approved items were the duties and stipend for the Move! 60, a before or after school exercise program for students in grades 2-6.

A statement on the program’s website states, “We want to let you know that due to a change in the level of grant funding we are receiving this school year, we will no longer be able to provide Move 60 programs at all of our elementary schools.”

Instead, the program will be able to provide funding for Move 60 at six elementary schools with the highest number of students who qualify for free and reduced meals. Those schools include College Place, Chase Lake, Cedar Valley, Spruce, Lynndale and Mountlake Terrace.

Also approved were the Voluntary Employees’ Benefit Association memorandum of understanding, the out-of-area assignment for certified staff and Lynnwood High School’s DECA students’ field trip to the Bellevue Hyatt Regency hotel for a weekend conference.

The school board also approved ESD’s continued partnership with Shoreline Community College for the Career and Technical Education (CTE) credit program, and it agreed to continue the waiver at Scriber Lake High School.

Presentations

Mountlake Terrace High School’s Chill Out robotics team and Lynnwood High School’s Royal Robotics presented their accomplishments as a combined team in FIRST Robotics, a non-profit STEM engagement program for youth worldwide.

The students won two robotics competitions as a combined team, a league first. The 2022-23 team roster includes Apollo Graves, Maria Gaviola and Simon Branch from Mountlake Terrace, and Norah Cook and Kevin Seng represented Lynnwood.

The teams promote diversity and hold outreach programs for grade school and junior high students. Cook — who is hearing impaired — said through a sign language interpreter that she learned of the team in 2021 when they had a presentation at the deaf and hard of hearing classrooms in her school.

The robotics team is open to all Edmonds School District high schools and free to participate.

Yume Alokoa and Mateo Castillejo of Terrace Park Elementary followed with a presentation “Sense of Belonging.” They said the school’s buddy system of pairing an older student with a younger student to help foster friendship and better support of coursework, social and behavioral needs.

They also explained how the teachers’ greetings made them feel like a part of a community.

Terrace Park Elementary School’s Edmonds School Improvement Plan (SIP) found that students have a downward trend of wanting to attend school. In the fall of 2022, 70.93% of students said they liked coming to school, but there was a downward trend to 69.41% in the winter and 60.84% in the spring.

Terrace Park Principal Rachel Torazzi said the school’s goal is to raise that number by 10% in the coming year. Part of the process is sitting with students during lunch and having group conversations to learn how they can enrich the school experience for children.

Public comment

There were written and live public comments during Tuesday’s meeting. The most prevalent were those concerning the robotics team.

“We received several comments in writing, all dealing with the practice space for the robotics team,” said School Board President Nancy Katims. “We received several comments in writing, all dealing with the practice space for the robotics team.”

Cynthia Nelson said that robotics is the athletics of the brain, and she thanked the board for providing them with a facility and American Sign Language interpreters. However, Nelson said she was concerned that the robotics team could lose their practice field while sports teams — such as soccer, football and tennis — are always assured a space. She asked the board to ensure a practice field for the STEM programs.

The school board’s next meeting is on Tuesday, Oct. 10. To view the Edmonds School District’s board meetings, click here. To view this meeting’s agenda, click here.

— By Rick Sinnett