Wenatchee School District reviews Education Northwest equity audit; board urges data follow-up and implementation steps

The Wenatchee School District board spent the second half of its September workshop reviewing an equity program audit conducted by Education Northwest. Superintendent Corey told the board the audit team “collaborated with district representatives, school board members, educators, students, families, and community members to explore the extent to which conditions, opportunities, and resources in 5 focus areas are accessible to all students.”

Why it matters: board members described the audit as a valuable baseline but noted the report is about three years old and asked staff to produce updated, disaggregated data and more rigorous follow-up steps to measure progress and guide implementation.

What was reviewed

Corey summarized the audit materials available to the board: a full 160-page report and an 18-page key-findings summary the board discussed in the workshop. The audit examined five focus areas: access to learning opportunities; instructional practices and policies; curriculum; discipline; and hiring and recruitment. Core methods included student-level data analysis, interviews and focus groups, surveys of students/educators/families, curriculum review, and staffing-data analysis.

Board concerns and themes

Several board members said the district must pair the audit’s recommendations with current data and a formal follow-up schedule. “We have to come up with an approach that's feasible and practical and has enough substance to stimulate the kind of review and action that we need,” Martin, a board member, said. Martin urged regular, board-level follow-up and more useful disaggregated data rather than waiting for lagging statewide data. He also recommended focusing on signals and clues in available data rather than expecting immediate, definitive answers.

Board member Maria highlighted differences across grade levels, saying elementary and middle grades show stronger curriculum representation while high school course offerings and syllabi remain less consistent. Maria said the audit “provides a baseline, but it doesn't give us a full picture of where we're at now” and noted that the report is three years old.

Discipline and data

The audit reported higher exclusionary-discipline days for some student groups. Tucker, a board member, called the discipline findings “eye opening,” noting the potential effect on attendance and students’ ability to learn. Staff told the board the district has updated discipline procedures in response to changes in state law and is preparing a policy update; Amber and other leaders reported the district has recently trained administrators and provided new discipline guidelines to building leaders.

Hiring, curriculum and family engagement

Board members said the district shows strengths in CTE and accelerated pathways, and they identified opportunities to improve recruitment and retention of a more demographically representative workforce. Mark, a board member, cited research summarized in the audit that students of color benefit from teachers who share their race or ethnicity and urged continued attention to recruitment strategies. The district noted recent administrative actions: switching to a new applicant platform (Red Rover) intended to reduce barriers for job applicants, continued partnerships with Wenatchee Valley College, and programs to grow local teacher pipelines.

District directions and next steps

The board directed staff to bring back (1) updated turnout and equity-related data dashboards, (2) more concrete curriculum-adoption timelines — especially for social studies at the secondary level — and (3) a proposed schedule for board-level follow-up tied to audit recommendations. Staff described a new small-delivery team (“delivering on the promise”) convened to align district DEI efforts, professional development and leader capacity building; Amber, Britney, Alfonso and Josh were named as part of that team.

No formal vote or policy adoption occurred during the workshop. Board members asked that the district present clearer, recent data — including OSPI disaggregated data where available — and to bring a revised discipline policy to the policy committee in October.

Ending

The board agreed to continue the audit follow-up work and to receive periodic updates on implementation progress and data metrics. No new policies were adopted at the workshop; work remains focused on collecting updated evidence and translating audit recommendations into measurable district actions.