Tumwater School District eyes defining community service procedures  

The Tumwater School District (TSD) is considering adding procedures to its community service policy to provide consistency and clarity for students and  families.

TSD Assistant Superintendent Meagan Dawson discussed how Board Policy 2414 (Community Service) needs accompanying procedures.  She made her remarks at a TSD Board of Directors meeting on Monday, Oct. 26.

“It talks about how in Tumwater, we expect students to do community service as part of their high school graduation plan. It also talks about how the board recognizes students for their achievement in community service and currently, we do not have a procedure that accompanies the policy,” Dawson said. 

Dawson said the district intends to weave various strands together into a unified framework that reflects the intent and vision of Policy 2414. That includes the strategic plan, portrait of a graduate attributes and graduation requirements 

Dawson said that there are several barriers to the community service hours requirement for students, as some do not have access to transportation, have jobs after school, and funding for coordinators has decreased.

Some nonprofits also have age requirements for volunteers, or require a parent or guardian to be present. School staff also felt responsible for supporting students. 

“We want to do more in terms of helping students get those hours. So some of the things we did over the last year is we digitized all recording of hours into SchooLinks, which is the platform we use for the High School (and) Beyond plan,” Dawson said. 

Aside from SchooLinks, the district also focused on making the hours meaningful and creating levels of hours, such as in a video game, instead of focusing only on one number.  

In the levels of service, Level 1 has a total of 20-40 hours, Level 2 has 40-60 hours, Level 3 has 60-80 hours and Level 4 has more than 80 hours. 

The district has also removed the nonprofit requirements and made all volunteer hours eligible to count, as some students spend hours helping a neighbor in need, assisting a grandparent after surgery and volunteering for a teacher after school. 

In Policy 2414, there is a quote on how the board will implement an incentive program to recognize students for achievement in community service.  

Each spring, the school board would invite 12th grade students to share community service stories. In June of each year, five to 10 students who exemplify the spirit of Community Service and Portrait of a Graduate would be recognized. 

“We look forward to discussing how community service can be thoughtfully integrated into our existing student learning systems while supporting the district's vision for college, career, and life readiness,” wrote Dawson in a memorandum. 

Community service is not mandatory and several districts do not have it as a requirement anymore. Each school district, however, can impose local requirements, as there is no model policy from the Washington State School Directors' Association.