Changes planned for Wahluke elementary schools

MATTAWA — Elementary school will look a little different in the Wahluke School District this fall. District officials will divide elementary students by grade levels with each of the three elementary schools housing different grades.  

District Superintendent Andy Harlow said Mattawa Elementary will house transitional kindergarten and kindergarten classes. First through third graders will attend Saddle Mountain Elementary and fourth and fifth graders will go to Morris Schott Elementary.  

“We’re calling it a reimagination,” Harlow said.  

If the change doesn’t work as district officials expect, the district will return to the previous grade configuration, he said.  

Previously each school housed kindergarten through fifth grade, and Harlow said the new configuration is designed to make better use of the district’s teaching staff and available resources. District officials think it’s also a way to maximize Mattawa’s strengths, he said. 

“We’re taking our best resource, (the) small community, and we took our kids, we took our staff, and we divided them up,” Harlow said. “We divided them up into three different buildings, with limited resources. It just didn’t make a lot of sense.” 

The school selection process didn’t go by neighborhood, he said, and it was difficult to ensure consistency across a grade level. 

“We can better guarantee equity around all (students at the same grade level) getting the same thing, because now they’re all in the same building,” he said. 

In addition, the change will make it easier for teachers to work together. 

“We got to the point where teachers (said), ‘Well, I’ll team with my building, but I don’t want to necessarily go team with the other two buildings.’ Well, how do you have quality collaboration if you aren’t all together and on the same team?” Harlow said.  

Among other things, a kindergarten-only building will allow more focus on students who are just learning what school is all about.  

“We really liked the idea of a smaller group of kids, introducing them to the school district,” he said. “We’re going to do some unique things, like home visits, parenting classes, and just welcoming every student (and) parent to the Wahluke School District.” 

About 200 kindergarten and transitional kindergarten students will attend Mattawa Elementary.  

District staff worked on the proposal, and the transition, throughout the 2023-24 year. Not everyone welcomed it. 

“There were some people that totally got it and were fine with it, and there were some that were really mad,” Harlow said.  

But district officials noticed something when talking to parents about the proposed change, he said.  

“What made me feel confident we were on the right track was, as we met with parents in the community, we had parents say — and this was multiple locations, so multiple schools, multiple nights  that we met with parents — parents would say things like, ‘Oh, I can’t have my kid go to that school because they’re not smart enough.’ And my team would say, ‘What do you mean by that? And (parents) would say, ‘Everybody knows that school isn’t as smart as this school.’ When you have that in our community, where schools are perceived as not as good as another school, that’s really concerning,” Harlow said.  

Along with the change in elementary locations, teacher training will change districtwide. Classes will start two hours late each Monday, but other training that required classes to be dismissed have been eliminated.  

“No more random early releases during the school year,” Harlow said. “Every Monday it will be a two-hour late start, and then we will go to school Monday through Friday. So we think that’s a victory for our parents, because it’s consistent.”