Board  Retreat Recap

Just before Spring Break, the ESD 112 Board of Directors held its annual planning retreat. This year, they had an opportunity to hear from ESD 112 safety, prevention, mental health, early learning and special education staff about the increasingly difficult challenges they face in supporting a growing number of students with social emotional needs. Jodi Wall, Mary Mertz, Denise Dishongh, Adam Scattergood, Deb Drandoff, and Wendy Silverthorne joined the board to share information about the alarming trends they are seeing and the services they provide to help address behavior issues, violence, mental health and crisis response.

Ocean Beach and Naselle school district superintendent Jenny Risner and Lisa Nelson participated in the discussion throughout the day and shared their own district challenges. Rural school districts do not have all the resources and services they need to fully support students with social emotional challenges. Our goal is to find ways to bring needed programs and services to our rural school districts.

Superintendent Tim Merlino also provided a report on the “State of the ESD.” He noted that the ESD revenues continue to grow at an average of 8.25% per year. We provide direct service to 6,459 students every day; the majority of the students we serve are vulnerable and at-risk. Districts are requesting more and more services from the ESD, especially in the areas of finance, HR assistance to help with staff shortages, safety/prevention and early learning. Our growth continues because of:

  • The expertise of our staff
  • Our ability to capitalize on opportunities
  • Improved collaboration among ESD programs
  • Continued collaboration among our districts
  • Our willingness to listen and develop business plans for ideas
  • Our ability to tackle difficult issues and challenges
  • … and most of all because we are good at what we do!