New school, new name: Edmonds School Board approves ‘Salish Middle School’

Updated to correct that the new name is for the middle school being built in Lynnwood. College Place Middle will retain its existing name.

The Edmonds School Board Feb. 25 voted 3-2 to adopt “Salish Middle School” as the name for the new school that will be built in Lynnwood. School Board President Nancy Katims and Board Director Keith Smith voted no.

At its Feb. 3 study session, the Board received five recommended names from the School Naming Committee: Golde Creek Middle School, Heritage Park Middle School, Salish Middle School, Sdohobsh Middle School and Yusawiac Middle School.

Board Director Carin Chase first proposed the Salish name with support from Directors Hawk Cramer and Thom Garrard. Cramer said the name “honors” the Salish Sea, which is critical to the entire ecosystem.

“It also honors the people who managed the land for tens of thousands of years before white settlers came,” he said. “And if you look at the length of time they were managing it and how well they did on it, I think that’s something that might deserve to be to be honored.”

Garrard said that many local places already have “colonial” names, such as Golde Creek, Puget Sound, Lynnwood and Edmonds. “What did the people who were here first since time immemorial call those places?” he said. “If it was possible to discover one of those names, it might be difficult to pronounce for our community, but I think Salish hits that sort of middle spot, and so I’m in favor of that.”

Katims and Smith favored Golde Creek, with Smith stating that Golde Creek runs directly through and alongside the school property with visible wildlife. He said students will see and experience the creek daily, which is a major local ecological feature.

“There are other schools that I feel would be more appropriate for the Salish name, primarily because they have a view of the Salish Sea,” Smith said. “This school is very far from [the sea], but there is a very clear geographic landmark there [Golde Creek]. It’s not about honoring Golde Creek or anything. It’s about acknowledging that this thing is here and that our students will be part of their elementary school or middle school experience for the [entire] time there.”

Katims said Golde Creek clearly best matched board policy calling for a name tied to a geographic characteristic in the area of the school.

Because of her strong interest in climate and environmental issues, she said she prefers Golde Creek.

“It really is something right there for the kids to see, where they can go and be very active with interacting with that particular piece of amazing ecology and learning about it,” she said.

Chase said that even if the school is named Salish, the District should find ways to acknowledge Golde Creek and the Indigenous people onsite in the future.

Budget report

The Board heard a budget report for December 2025 from Executive Director of Business and Finance Lydia Sellie. Sellie reported that the District made its semiannual principal and interest payment on outstanding bonds with the next payment due in June. 

She highlighted that the District’s Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML) premium increased on Jan. 1, and because the state program is funded on a calendar-year basis, the District must estimate the rate nearly a year in advance.

“I believe the state put into a program that is inadequately funded, so they keep raising the rates for employers,” Sellie said.

Regarding the general fund, Sellie said that revenues and expenses remain stable with no sharp increases or decreases in any major category, and the ending fund balance for December is nearly identical to November’s. 

However, she noted that enrollment for the 2025-26 school year is the lowest since 2022 with fewer students compared to previous years.

Finally, she said that the District is applying for more state special education safety net funds than originally budgeted, which likely corresponds to higher special education expenditures. She plans to factor both the additional revenue and related costs into the next month’s general fund presentation.

Student Advisory Board member Ismail Elbibary asked what “full-time equivalent” (FTE) means when it comes to budgeting and why it is important.

“The state doesn’t fund on head count,” Sellie said. “The number of students they fund depends on how much time the students actually spend in school. So if you spend half your day in high school and half your day at Running Start, the funding is going to be different. That’s how we receive our funding from the state. It’s how much time you guys spend in school.”

Student math presentations

Earlier in the meeting, four Mountlake Terrace Elementary students demonstrated to the Board how they teach math to their classmates, with guidance from Principal Keira Anderson. In one exercise, the students presented four sets of algebra equations and asked the Board to repeat the equations with them and solve for the unknown variable.

“This year, one of the new things we do every day for 10 minutes is called daily routines,” said second grader Faven. “In our dual-language classes, daily routines are in Spanish.”

Fifth grader Eliza said that daily routines and quick practices are about students leading the learning. “A student guides a class using visuals on the slide to help everyone participate,” she said. “All students answer together using hand motions to show their thinking.”

“Daily routines are really important. They help us understand what numbers represent and how numbers work,” third grader Maija said.

“Daily routines are only used in kindergarten through second grade until now,” fourth grader Alejandro said. “All grades use something called ‘quick practices’ – or in Spanish ‘prática rápida’.”

After the presentation, the Board thanked the students for their work and some commented on their strong speaking skills.

“What I appreciated is your clear diction. In other words, every word you said was very clear,” Garrard said. “Sometimes when kids are presenting, they’ll start off strong and then go [mumbling sounds]. But that wasn’t the case with you guys, so it was great.”

Principal Anderson said the school saw a 12% increase (representing 42 students) among fourth to sixth graders performing on grade level and a 14% decrease (47 students) in those two or more levels below.

Under its “math theory of action,” Anderson said the school aims to increase multilingual students’ scores from 14% to 25% on the Smarter Balanced Assessment. For students receiving special education services, the goal is to raise proficiency from 32% to 45%.

Anderson credited the school’s four strategies to improve students’ math and learning skills:

• Protecting Tier 1 core math instruction time.
• Embedding daily routines and quick practices to build foundational skills.
• Strengthening standards-based backward unit planning.
• Using assessment data to differentiate instruction.

Anderson said that students at Mountlake Terrace Elementary speak 21 different “home languages.” One hundred students receive multilingual services, and about 110 receive special education services.

“Our school is very diverse, and [is] a Title 1 school,” Anderson said. “Our teachers work very hard to make sure our students get the support they need.”

She said she will return to the Board in March to analyze student progress and plan for the next steps.

Legislative report

During the Legislative report, Garrard said that many bills died in the Washington State Legislature last week, including Senate Bill 5918 that would have added funds for school materials, supplies and operating costs. He added that the expansion of School Employee Benefits health care coverage for substitute teachers did not move forward.

However, he said several bills are still moving forward, including:

• The sales tax bill – which would exempt school districts from paying sales tax – because it could be treated as “necessary to implement the budget”
• A bill regulating AI, biometric data, facial recognition and surveillance of students

Garrard said the state is proposing to cut $14 million from the K-12 education budget, including transition to kindergarten, levy equalization, the BEST program for early career educators and a reduction of Running Start maximum FTEs from 1.4 to 1.2.

“I think one thing this does is underscore the importance of our community having supported us so strongly in our recent levy,” Katims said. “We’re already devastated by the loss of state funds year after year, and the fact that they’re not even close to fully funding. But with the support of our community, we at least have that as a foundational piece to help us through these dark times from the state.”

In other agenda items, the Board voted unanimously to approve:

• The constructability review report for the College Place Elementary and College Place Middle Schools replacement projects.
• A contract award to Wayne’s Roofing for the Meadowdale Elementary School roof and gutter upgrades project, funded by the 2024 bond.
• A contract award to Wayne’s Roofing for the Terrace Park Elementary exterior cladding and roof project, funded by the 2021 levy and the 2024 bond.
• A bid award to Balfour Beatty Construction for the covered play structure at Edmonds Elementary, funded by the 2021 Levy.
• A contract award to North Coast Electric for the secondary LED lighting project at Mountlake Terrace High School, funded by the 2024 bond.

The full Board meeting is on the school district’s website.