Sunnyside school board goes to head of class

Extra learning has paid off for the Sunnyside School District Board of Directors, which has been named a 2008 School Board of the Year.

The award came from the Washington State School Directors' Association during its annual conference Friday in Spokane.

"We're all thrilled," said Joanne Kilian, whose 31 years on the board make her the longest-serving member. Others are Stephen Carpenter, chairman, and Lorenzo Garza, Miguel Puente and Rocky Simmons.

Three school boards were honored, with Sunnyside winning the award in the medium-size district category. Kent and Bridgeport are the other winners.

The Sunnyside board was singled out for participating in several programs aimed at overseeing improved student learning, researching best practices of other boards, focusing on data in setting policy and allocating resources, and involving the community in decision-making.

"We're asking teachers and students to learn new things, so we decided to model that idea and work hard to learn new methods ourselves," Kilian explained.

Recipients submitted essays describing what the school board has done to improve student achievement.

"Once in awhile we'd think, 'Why haven't we gotten this award yet?' because we're doing some really good things," said Kilian. "And we finally got it."

* The complete Boards of the Year essays are available on the WSSDA Web site at www.wssda.org (see article under "What's New").