Improved school nutrition, an updated technology plan and an analysis of how mathematics is taught are some of the big issues South Whidbey schools will be looking at in the coming year.

Superintendent Fred McCarthy said the district will focus on those areas and several others throughout the coming year, and school administrators are enlisting help from the community.

“The work of the committees will help the district reach its future goals,” McCarthy said.

The groups — made up of school employees and volunteers from the community — include the Long Range Facility Use Planning, Nutrition and Wellness, Technology Advisory, Highly Capable Programs, School Board Policies Revisions and Community Engagement committees.

As for the nutrition group, McCarthy said the committee has already made some recommendations that the district has implemented.

“We replaced soda machines with water and juice vending machines last year,” McCarthy noted.

But there is still more to do. This year the group will continue talking about food service and the quality of food served for lunches and breakfasts, as well as ways to encourage physical fitness among the district’s students.

As for the highly capable committee, McCarthy said they will be focusing on ways “to meet the needs of our highly capable learners.”

The budget for highly capable programs is $20,000.

“Director Bill Humphries has been doing a good job with a limited budget,” McCarthy said.

“We are doubling that investment each year,” McCarthy added. “The key to our future is to have programs available to meet the needs of those students.”

McCarthy pointed out the gifted program budget is out of proportion with the special education budget, which is over $1 million.

Even so, the district plans to add to the special education program at Bayview School.

Another area of focus is the mathematics curriculum throughout the district.

“We want to see how we are teaching math in each of the grades,” he said.

“It is a way to tighten up our teaching methods and see where we are strong, as well finding areas that need improvement.

“Some feedback from staff indicates the math curriculum needs supplementing,” he said.

In general, district officials were pleased with students’ math scores on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, but are looking for ways to improve student skills even more.

This year on South Whidbey, 93.6 percent of the students met or exceeded expectations for reading. In writing, 87.1 percent met the standard, and in math, 70.1 percent met the WASL standard.

Statewide, 85.5 percent of students met standards in reading, 83.5 percent in writing and 53.8 percent in math.

The new year will also find the district negotiating new contracts with three of its four bargaining units; the teachers union, secretaries and para-educators and administrators.

The contract with the bus drivers and maintenance staff, all members of the Service Employees International Union, has another year left in the agreement before it is up for negotiation.

McCarthy said they will be bringing in an outside negotiator to help.

“The board and I will set parameters of what we hope will be accomplished, but I will not be at the table,” he said.

The negotiator, Dr. Pauline Cline, is a retired school administrator from Mountlake Terrace. Under her contract, she will be paid $1,000 per month for six months.

Gayle Saran can be reached at 221-5300 or gsaran@southwhidbeyrecord.com.