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From local leaders and hometown heroes to breaking stories and in-depth conversations, the KMAS Podcast brings you the voices that matter in Mason County, Washington. Hosted by longtime broadcaster Jeff Slakey, each episode dives into what’s happening around the Hood Canal—government, education, small business, the outdoors, and everything in between.
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Well, on the phone with Superintendent Wyeth Jesse, the Shelton School District. How are you doing? Happy Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving, Jeff.
You had a school board meeting this week and installed the new member. Is that right? That is correct. That's right.
We, two incumbents, and yeah, we have a brand new board director. So it's really exciting for us. How much work do you do with that new member? Obviously, we know Matt Wielander retained his position, but it's Andrew Wilford.
He is the newest member on the Shelton School Board. What is the process now for him to get up to speed on all the things that are, now that he can kind of see, I suppose, a little more behind the curtain than when he was just a citizen in the district? Yeah, you know, every situation is different for us because people have different skills and experiences. And for pretty much everybody, regardless, who come on, they're just, again, school districts are complex, Jeff.
There's a lot going on. There's a lot of rules and regulations behind the scenes people are not aware of, and you've got to follow a lot of things, and things are always adaptive. And then you've got 4,500 kids and 600 employees.
And so there's just a lot of things at play on any given day. And so, because they don't really do the day-to-day, but there are situations that they have to be made aware of on top of what it is that they're just trying to run. The policy procedures, rules are followed, budgets are kept.
Those are their primary responsibilities. And someone like Andrew coming on, his own story is he's been coming to board meetings pretty much since I've been here. And so he is aware, and he's worked for the school district, and his dad did for a long time.
So he's got some familiarity with the Shelton community, with the school districts, how school districts are, the procedures, which are really key. So he's got a lot of those things down that I think are going to be really nice for him to on board, and he's already received some training on top of it. So, you know, we're advantaged in that way.
Watched a little bit of it on Mason Web and lots of community comments still on the Mountain View situation. Anything more on that? No, I just, you know, again, this is a situation I think was really trying to keep a small level. This is really not about any particular person.
This is really about our need to be a nonpartisan organization and really just trying to keep things focused on students and out of the game of politics as much as possible. It's everywhere, right, Jeff? Politics are at play at all times, and I just don't need it to serve as a distraction from the work we're trying to do with students. We'll keep going on it.
There's, you know, I just let people know, you know, we're going to keep following those rules on, you know, whatever you are on the political spectrum and trying to, again, keep things as minimal as possible without, you know, trying to create a bigger issue or diversion away from what it is to serve the students each and every day. A little break here for Thanksgiving. Winter break will be here before you know it.
What do you talk to the teachers and the staff overall on keeping the focus going towards the end of this year? Oh, wow. Like, there's, you know, that's the thing that is probably not all that appealing to people in this day where a lot of people are seeking a lot of drama and interest is just following a strategic plan. Like, what's our plan? Keep it focused, make it doable, and keep working on it.
And for us, high quality literacy, safe and welcoming environments, college and career readiness, and effective educators and leaders, right? And so, you know, we keep focusing on those things. People know that. Stay the course, make slight adjustments based on the data that we have and what students need, and we'll be a lot better for it.
The more we introduce this change and turmoil or adding things that's just not really practical for people because this change just takes up a lot of time and energy. Sure. We've had quite a few of these community forums now.
We have three left, and they start to get bigger because of the size of the student population. Oakland Bay Junior High is coming up, Shelton High School, and then a joint with Choice and Cedar. I think these have been really good to kind of explain to the people there listening and the folks who download the audio kind of what's on in that school.
What are you hearing? Oh, I love that, Jeff. Yeah, no, this is, you know, again, we are a school district here focused on students. We have eight schools, and that's a great place to kind of start and end as far as they're concerned because what, you know, parents and the community are really vested into schools, not so much school districts.
We've had that conversation before, and so you're right. Like, what's going on at Bordeaux Elementary? Yeah, we're three generations in. My grandkid goes there.
Yeah, that's crazy. And I would like to, you know, find out more, and I really love the new counselor there, and, you know, I love what they do for some of the after-school activities, and my kid is reading, and, you know, like, you know, they have a play production coming up. All those things are the intimate stories that involve people's day-to-day lives, and hearing them, and what's going on at the schools, and why it works the way it works, and getting updates.
That's really interesting to people, and so, you know, I really appreciate the opportunity that you're providing us, Jeff, to getting that information and visiting each school to tell the story of going on there because that's what a bulk of the community really wants to hear and learn about. What, as we are here, it's Thanksgiving week. Do you have anything you want to share about gratitude for the folks in the district office, or what you're also seeing out there with the principals and all them, or anything like that? Yeah, ironic that you bring that up.
Gratitude's the virtue I've been working on this year. That's actually something I've borrowed from Squaxin Island, and, you know, that they center a lot of things around gratitude, and I am too, and I'm just really thankful for the ability to educate these kids. You know, I think we, you know, get a little lost in our, you know, day-to-day being professionals, but it's also think about the ability to influence 4,500 lives on any given day, and when you start to piece that together over years and watching kids, individual kids, grow and love to learn and build strength and independence, and then go on to amazing outcomes when they graduate from the Shelton School District.
I mean, I'm lucky. I'm lucky to be part of it. I just met with a young lady yesterday at Olympic Middle School.
She was reading. She's like, oh, I'm reading in here about cufflinks, and I thought of you because you dress up, Mr. Pesci. You know, I'm like, I was like, well, I don't really wear cufflinks, but here's what they are, and she's like, you know, and I got in this whole conversation with her, and she was just delighted to make a connection.
She was learning about the world. I don't know if cufflinks are centered to it, but it was in that moment for her, and so it was just, you know, those are the cool little moments that turn into, again, over years producing magical students. I mean, like, Jeff, I just got one more story.
Last night at that board meeting, there were two students, two seventh graders that were reading their writing specifically about a realistic fiction story that they wrote about climbing Mount Everest, and both two students received intervention. They are still getting support, and they sounded like they were easily in high school, if not into college-level writing, and it was really captive, really just a showcase of the work that's going on at OBJH and for our students that have, again, built skills over years because of the areas that we've been focused on, and that's what I'm grateful for is to see those moments and to share in those moments for these hard-working students. Well, I'm looking forward to having that forum on the 16th at OBJ.
It's going to be a good one for sure, and to hear more from principal there, Mary Ann Marshall, plus you and some other staff for that forum as we continue on. I'll leave it with that. You have a good holiday, and we'll be back at it here into December already.
Awesome. Thanks, always, Jeff, and enjoy your time with family and friends. Thank you.
All right, take care.