August 2024

We are so excited to welcome our students, staff, and families to the 2024-2025 school year!

While you were away, we’ve been busy!

• Our Maintenance and Custodial teams have been working hard all summer to make sure the

grass is green and the schools are clean. We had a number of significant projects completed

including some major repairs to aging HVAC systems. If you were anywhere near our schools this

summer, you likely saw these crews mowing lawns and moving equipment and supplies into our

schools as well.

• Our Nutrition team used grant money to host a three-day culinary training event, which will

bolster our scratch cooking and farm-to-school initiatives. The grant will also provide

equipment, like a new blast chiller, that will ensure food safety and allow for preparation of

large batches soups and sauces.

• Our Transportation team has been busy getting students routed, training new drivers and

making sure our fleet is ready to roll on September 4.

• Our IT team is, in some ways, busier in the summer than any other time of year. Hundreds of

Chromebooks are checked in, refurbished, replaced and reassigned.

• Our teachers have been engaged in learning and training opportunities since mid-August. Our

District Teaching and Learning team worked hard preparing Professional Learning Days to guide

our success in the coming year.

• Our HR team has prepared contracts and paperwork for hundreds of employees.

They have also been busy conducting interviews to make sure every team is full and ready for

school.

• Our new website is up and running!! We have been working on the District site and have most

of that information updated. Schools just began working on their sites in the past week. We’re

not quite there yet, but we are making progress and excited at the capabilities our new site

provides.

We appreciated the collaborative process that underpinned our bargaining sessions with both the

Ellensburg Education Association (EEA) and the Public School Employees of Washington State (PSE). We

were able to clear up some ambiguity and arrive at contracts we can all be proud of.

I hope you all have a safe and fun Labor Day Weekend. Good luck to our students who are showing at

the Fair, marching in the Parade, and enjoying all of the activities the weekend has to offer.

In the meantime, we are counting the minutes until we can welcome you back to school!

Your Partner in Education,

Superintendent Troy Tornow
troy.tornow@esd401.org