Special School Board Meeting
MERCER ISLAND SCHOOLS
At a Feb. 26 special meeting of the school board, representatives of the Mercer Island Education Association (MIEA) met with the board for an hour-long discussion that touched on state initiatives related to funding and on staff training on how to manage inclusive classrooms, among other topics.
Officers of MIEA, which represents both classified and certificated employees within the school district, shared information about an initiative titled Washington Investing in Schools and Education, which the union is supporting.
This initiative seeks to change the 60% supermajority still required in Washington state to pass school bonds. Under this law, which has been in place since 1952, dozens of local school bonds fail every year despite earning more than 50% of the vote -- including, in April 2025, Mercer Island's proposed bond for finishing the middle school rebuild and updating accessibility, HVAC, and other features at the high school.
The board is unable to take action during linkage sessions, but most board members broadly voiced support for the idea behind this initiative.
MIEA President Sally Loeser also raised the question of whether increased support was planned for teachers implementing new, more inclusive programming. She said that teachers were not given advance warning of some changes made in fall of 2025 and that teachers needed extra time and preparation to do the type of collaborative work and planning that the new programming calls for. “We need better communication about what is coming. We need better training in order to deal with what is coming," Loeser said.
During the second hour of the meeting, PTA President Sarah Karim and President-Elect Debbie Nelson presented a list of discussion topics gathered from parents. These topics included how new literacy programming is being introduced across elementary schools, and the question of whether a family could ask to transfer to another school that already had the new program, for example if their child was dyslexic.
However, the topic that sparked the liveliest discussion was that of technology. Karim and Nelson reported that parents were concerned about iPads being distracting both in school and at home; about students figuring out how to bypass content filters; and students complaining of headaches from excessive screen use. They also reported that broken keyboards and missing styluses have left some students completing their math work by drawing with fingers on the screen. Technology director Andreeves Ronser responded that replacement keyboards and styluses are now available. He also noted that based on parent feedback, content filtering has been updated so that certain sites that contain educational games are no longer available outside of school hours.
The PTA representatives asked that the district bring back the former technology advisory group to review some of these issues. District staff seemed amenable to this idea.
In other school board news, the board and some district administrators visited Mercer Island High School on Thursday, March 5, touring the school in groups and attending portions of 8 or 9 classes before meeting with students and community members.