Redmond school board talks finances, new bond try

The Redmond School District is evaluating what they’re going to do next after a $70 million school bond measure failed in November.

The district was going to use that money for needed repairs and safety measures at several schools.

After Wednesday night’s school board discussion, its clear the district will be bringing another bond to voters in the near future. The board will just have to decide when and how much the bond will be for.

“Sooner is better, because there is still some wind left in the sail on the positive side,” Superintendent Mike McIntosh said. “But we don’t want to go off prematurely, so we will try to cross all of our T’s and dot our I’s.”

Now the school board will weigh the different election dates on the calendar to bring a measure back to voters: either May or November of 2019 or May of 2020.

The board has not indicated just how much the next bond will be for, either. They’re set to make that decision at their January meeting.

The school board also approved a change to its science curriculum.

The idea behind the new curriculum in the elementary schools is to give students a chance to have more hands on learning.

Linda Seeberg, executive director of academic programs, said the new Amplify Science program focuses on merging the typical textbook learning and a more hands-on learning approach to allow for students to apply what they learn in class in real-life situations.

She said a committee of teachers already have been utilizing this program in their classrooms.

“Kids step in as scientists, and they tackle real-world problems,” Seeberg said. “They use science processes, investigation and research and comparisons, and all of those different kinds of scientific processes to build models and figure out solutions, and so it has them actively engaged.”

Seeberg said they’ve already put the curriculum out in the schools on a limited basis as part of a pilot program and have seen great success so far.

The school district said it’ll be doing a soft rollout of the new program across all elementary schools..

They’ll be training teachers in February and slowly introduce the program before it’s fully implemented next school year.