North Beach High School Principal Brett Mackey has announced he will be leaving at the end of the school year to return to the Spokane area, where he is orginally from.
“I grew up on the east side and this opportunity came up to get back to where my wife (Lisa) and I grew up,” Mackey said in a phone interview. He will be the assistant prinicpal/athletic director at Newport High School, a Class 1-A school with about 300 students in grades 9-12, located north of Spokane near the Idaho border.
The North Beach School Board of Directors was told of his resignation April 18 at the regular board meeting, prompting several comments about his longtime service in the district. Mackey was not at the board meeting.
“He’s been in the district 16 years,” noted Assistant Principal Wendy McCoy. “He started as a substitute teacher, then signed on to teach P.E.”
“I think most staff would say there hasn’t been a leader in the building like him,” McCoy said. “We’ll miss him and the staff will miss him. … There’s not anyone more dedicated to the kids here.”
Mackey’s resignation takes effect June 30.
“It’s probably one of the toughest decisions I have ever had to make,” Mackey said. “I’ve developed so many awesome relationships with so many people, from teachers to past administrators, kids of kids that I have taught. It was not an easy decision to make, for sure.”
District Mission Statment
After three community sessions, a group of teachers, citizens and North Beach School District administrators — along with assistance from a few students — have drafted mission and vision statements for local schools.
First-year North Beach Supt. Deborah Holcomb said the sessions are designed to “help us reset and move forward as we do some strategic planning for North Beach School District.”
The process started with questions based on the idea of a “world cafe” where everyone participates equally. The first goal was to conceive of what characteristics the “ideal graduate” from the district would have in four to five years of high school. It continued last week with the creation of the following statements, which may still be modified before completed.
The modified mission statement now reads: “To nurture, motivate and graduate critical thinkers who are respectful leaders, skillful communicators and contributing members of the local and global communities.”
Another statement favored by some involved in the process said, “Our students are goal-oriented, independent, resilient and adaptable risk-takers who believe in their power to embrace learning, excel and own their future.”
A final session has been set for 5 p.m Tuesday, May 16 at the High School.
“We want to think about what competencies we want our graduates to have when they leave North Beach High School — when they leave North Beach school system,” Holcomb said.
Other concerns were what sort of reading competency would be expected at the elementary school level: “Should they reach reading mastery by third grade, going from learning to read to reading to learn?”
Once the statements are completed, the goal will be to come up with a plan to prepare students to meet those concepts and competency expectations.
Holcomb said she crafted the process specifically for the school district.
“This is really an opportunity for us to define who we are, so there are no right or wrong answers,” she told the group.
Developmental screening
Free developmental screening for children ages 3 through 6 will be held Tuesday, May 9 at Pacific Beach Elementary School and Thursday, May 11 at Ocean Shores Elementary School
The North Beach School District is seeking children ages 3 through 6 who may be in need of special education services, and who may need to be screened for possible disabilities or learning problems. The screening will cover vision, hearing, speech/language, motor, learning, and social skills.
To schedule an appointment, or for further information regarding the screening process, contact: Deb Hughes, North Beach SD Special Services, (360) 289-5835.
Board elections
Elections will be held in November 2017 for District 1, 2, 3, and 5 School Board Directors. The overall district recently had its boundaries reviewed to give better definition to where the individual board members must reside to be a director. Areas 3, 4, 5 are in Ocean Shores, while area 1 goes from Ocean City up the beach to Moclips, and area 2 largely includes Copalis Crossing and the area east of State Route 109.
The district now has a color map that shows the boundary areas in case there is any dispute. The biggest change is in Director Area 1, which now extends along the entire North Beach coast from the Ocean Shores city limits.
“It’s all clarified and clear now,” Holcomb said. Filing for the open positions begins in May.
