Weekly Update from the Superintendent

Dear students, staff, families and community,

The first day of school finally arrived!  It was a delight to see so many smiles and the excitement that a new year brings!  Thank you for sharing your children with us.  Baker is ready for a great year!

Fall is full of activity, so be sure to keep up with your school’s news by checking the websites, Facebook, and making sure we have accurate contact information for emails and robocalls.  Another great way to get connected is by joining PTA and other parent booster clubs.  Even if you are too busy to volunteer time, joining these groups helps support student extra-curricular activities.  Next Wednesday, September 7 the annual FFA New Member Meeting/Social will be held at 6:00 p.m. starting in the auditorium and transitioning to rooms 701/702 at 7:00 p.m. The Mount Baker FFA is top-notch and nationally recognized.  There are so many opportunities for students to engage in and learn leadership skills.  Our FFA students learn so much and have a lot of fun while they are learning and serving the school and community.

Enrollment appears to be growing, but we won’t have accurate information regarding who is not returning for several days.  We are bringing in some extra support for classrooms that exceed thirty students and/or are deemed in need of some additional assistance to start out the school year.  Please know we will be watching class sizes very closely and making adjustments as soon as we can determine the true number of students enrolled.

Our staff kick-off was Monday.  Our professional learning focus was on safety.  Lieutenant James Triplett from the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office led us through training for dangerous situations that we hope to never encounter but want to be prepared.  We will continue to work with the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office in conjunction with our neighboring districts to make sure we have consistent protocols in place for all kinds of safety situations.  We know that establishing positive relationships with our students and families is the best and most effective way to keep our schools safe.  The social emotional wellness of our students is at the forefront of our work, but it is good to know that we have plans in place if needed, and the local law enforcement is well trained and able to act quickly if we should ever encounter a potentially dangerous situation.  Student safety drills will be trauma informed.  Should an emergency situation occur, the District will communicate with families regarding pertinent information and reunification.  We don’t advertise information that could compromise security on our website.

School Board Meetings will continue to be held in person with the option to attend remotely through Zoom.  However, the format of the Zoom Meetings will shift to Zoom Webinars.  This will allow people to attend meetings remotely, but comments including chat will not be available. Anyone who would like to engage in public comments will need to either attend in person or send me an email with the comment that I can share on your behalf.  The change is due to an unfortunate event that occurred at our last meeting.  An unknown group of people “zoom bombed” the meeting with extremely inappropriate content.  I am confident that this group is not associated with Mount Baker School District or our community.  I believe it is a group of people who troll board meetings to cause disruptions.  I apologize for the inconvenience but we can’t risk that kind of disruption to happen again.  You will be able to join remotely by using the link that we provide at least 24 hours before each School Board Meeting.

It is nice to see more and more community events returning.  Next Wednesday, September 6 the Columbia Valley Connections Committee that meets monthly in Kendall is hosting a free community taco dinner at the East Whatcom Regional Resource Center.  Use this link for more information.  I hope to see some of you there.

Go Baker!

Sincerely,

Mary Sewright, Superintendent
msewright@mtbaker.wednet.edu
(360) 617-4600