Schools boss shares 2022 goals during Cd'A visit

COEUR d'ALENE — Sherri Ybarra wants to rekindle interest in forestry.

As some of her goals for the new year, the Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction said she hopes to focus on incorporating more forestry into education. That’s not the end of her list, either.

She also wants to start all-day optional kindergarten in the fall and create resources for students with dyslexia while adding more focus on civic engagement.

Ybarra traveled to Coeur d’Alene last week to meet with Craig Foss, a state forester at the Idaho Department of Lands, and discuss how they could get more forestry education information out to the field.

“In Idaho that’s one of our pastimes, that’s what we’re known for — forestry and agriculture,” Ybarra said. “So I know we need to talk about it more.”

Ybarra said that about 20 years ago, there was a lot more outreach around forestry products. Lately the focus in that area has been lost.

The superintendent and foresters talked about strategies for Ybarra to gather information for teachers to participate in forestry classes and send that out in her weekly newsletter as a reminder that the programs still exist.

Ybarra also said her meeting with legislatures, including Senator Jim Woodward, to talk about the education budget was important to her so she could ask to bring back the conversation for having all-day optional kindergarten.

The superintendent said she requested the item to be on the budget as it was something people were very interested in and supported last year, but lost steam when the legislature had to close down for COVID-19.

“We’re going to need to have some legislation but there are several people interested in it still this year,” Ybarra said.

The goal is to start the program in the fall of 2022.

Ybarra said she also hopes to work with legislators on resources for students with dyslexia. The idea was presented to her by students at the first meeting in September of her newly formed Student Advisory Council, containing 13 students from districts in all regions of the state.

The group includes Bridget McNamee, a fourth-grader from Dalton Elementary School in Coeur d’Alene.

While Ybarra said she had thought the kids would be focused a lot on COVID, the fourth-through 12th-graders wanted to talk about advanced opportunities programs, college grants and dyslexia.

“I thought that was interesting,” Ybarra said. “They were very thoughtful about what they wanted to talk about.”

Ybarra said the students knew reading was a huge initiative for the state of Idaho and had several classmates or siblings with dyslexia that they wanted to discuss how to help learn better as reading affects every aspect of their education.

“Idaho is known for being last, last for funding, last for achievement,” Ybarra said. “The kids took that very personally and said, ‘We’re not going to help our peers do better on assessments if we’re not addressing these underlying issues which affect kids’ abilities to read.”

Ybarra said Idaho is one of the only states in the nation that does not have any legislation related to dyslexia.

“The kids were spot on,” Ybarra said.

While the conversation isn’t fleshed out yet, Ybarra said support could look like training, funding, or maybe just having a dyslexia handbook.

“We really need to do something because the kids are really focused,” Ybarra said. “You aren’t going to close that achievement gap if you aren’t helping those kids who are struggling.”

Ybarra said one of the students in the advisory council brought her a piece of material to show her what it was like for someone with dyslexia to try to learn to read.

“It was very fascinating,” Ybarra said. “The kids really took that to heart.”

Ybarra said for other goals for 2022, she’d like to see some standalone civics standards for students.

“I really want to see more of a focus on civics, especially where the nation is right now with politics,” Ybarra said. “There’s so much division around education, and I think our students need to be well informed and civically engaged.”

As far as masks, Ybarra said she thinks it’s important that local school boards represent the wants and needs of their community versus her opinion. She said as each area has different levels of infection rates, they need to each do what is best for their community.

Ybarra said she also wanted to give a shoutout to educators because Idaho went from 31st in the nation for achievement in 2016 to 17th in a ranking by Education Week released in September.

“So exciting,” Ybarra said. “I’m super excited that we just ranked as 17th in the nation.”