Whether it is raising student math scores, determining the best curriculum or even communicating with our public, everything in the Chehalis School District is data driven. In an effort to better communicate with our public, our district recently entered into a partnership with Educational Services District 113 to undergo an audit of our district communications. This effort, paid for by our Washington Student Achievement Grant funding, included a district communications survey as well as focus groups where we asked questions about their interactions with and understanding of our district communications. This data is influencing how we plan for communications with our staff, families and community moving into the new year.

Thank you to the more than 180 people who shared their thoughts with us on this survey and to the dozens of staff, family members and community leaders who participated in focus groups. Your comments and answers influence how we are shaping our communications in 2025. Here are some of the ways you talked and we listened:

I feel like I'm receiving too much information from the district and parents are too busy to pay attention to news on a Friday afternoon.

How We Are Responding: It's not enough for us to simply provide information to you. We need to provide it in a way that works for you. Starting in January 2025, our weekly newsletter The Milepost will be sent twice monthly on Wednesdays to allow our readers to feel better able to focus on the messages we send out.

Community members who are not district parents don't know what is going on in the district. I'd like to hear more about why community members should care or get involved.

How We Are Responding: Strengthening ties to the Chehalis community is important to us. Starting in 2025, we will be making a push to sign community members up for our mailing lists and to offer news that is useful for both parents and staff as well as community members. We have created a mailing list sign up that allows you to indicate areas of interest so we can tailor the news you receive to your preferences. Community members who are not parents or staff in our district can fill out that mailing list sign up here. Do you know a community member who you think would like to receive news from our district? Please pass this link on to them.

I'm still having difficulty understanding how to access and use ParentSquare and Skyward and the difference between these two platforms.

How We are Responding: It's important that parents feel empowered to use these tools. Starting in 2025, we will be offering monthly Parent Education Nights at the Olympic building offering help with all of your ParentSquare and Skyward questions. And because your time is valuable, we're packaging this tech help with other subjects tailored toward information parents can use to help their students thrive.

Please mark your calendar and plan to join us for Free Parent Education Nights at the Olympic Elementary building at 2057 SW Salsbury Avenue: