This week, as island kids and teachers head back to school, The Beachcomber covers significant stories about our local school district.

The first seems to be unqualified good news: McMurray Middle School has instituted a new, data-driven policy restricting the use of cell phones by students during the school day. This change is increasingly being championed nationwide to improve concentration and learning, boost mental and physical health, and reduce pressures caused by social media.

McMurray’s “Away for the Day” policy is sure to have a few hiccups along the way, but the benefits of the policy far outweigh the known harms caused to tweens and young teens by excessive cell phone use. We hope that it has an added benefit — guiding the students toward the higher goal of self-governance in the use of electronics. After all, they won’t be kids forever, and plenty of adults also now struggle to put down their phones.

Spending blocks of time without phones buzzing in our pockets sounds like a good idea for all of us, right?

We’re also pleased to report that all students at Chautauqua Elementary School will receive free lunches in the coming school year, thanks to state and federal funding that removes the barrier to low-income families of having to specifically appeal to the district to have that cost waived. Making the district’s delicious, made-from-scratch meals available to all greatly helps fulfill the district’s stated goals of equity for all.

News from the district’s business office is also, in a different way, encouraging.

Certainly, it is disappointing to read that for the first time in almost a decade, the district received a less-than-perfect result on its annual audit by the State Auditor’s Office. But it should not be surprising to anyone who has closely followed decisions made by the district in the recent past regarding its business office staff.

The problems in the business office date back to the 2022-23 school year, which saw the departure of two key business office staffers, Matt Sullivan and Kay Adams. The duo had ably served, respectively, as the district’s longtime executive director of business and operation and its finance director. Together, they were responsible for the district’s achievement in receiving eight perfect audits during their tenure — a stellar achievement that reassured the public that the district was wisely stewarding its tax dollars.

But when Sullivan announced that he would leave the district to accept a similar role at Mercer Island School District, Superintendent Slade McSheehy made a mistake in eliminating his important leadership role — instead promoting Adams to a new role overseeing the district’s finances on her own. Her choice, a couple of months later, to join Sullivan on Mercer Island, was completely understandable — the pair had worked extremely well together.

McSheehy’s next move was not to backtrack and reconsider his decision to downsize the business office, but rather, to hire a new finance director, Kim Mayer, to essentially manage the extremely complex job of keeping track of the district’s finances on her own.

The results of that decision are pretty much spelled out in the state auditor’s finding: the district erred in understaffing its business office, not providing sufficient training to Mayer, or providing adequate oversight of her work.

But in her work with the district, Mayer did something very right by reaching out for help from staff members of Puget Sound Educational Service District. These PSESD staffers took over communication with state auditors and also helped develop the school district’s 2024-25 budget.

Now, the district and PSESD have entered into a relatively low-cost contract to ensure oversight of Mayer’s replacement, Cassie Zizah, in the business office and prepare regular reports to the school board of the district’s finances. At recent school board meetings, PSESD’s finance director, Justin Lanting, has exuded competence and reassurance that the district is now on a better financial path.

We wish Mayer, who resigned from the district in August, the best in her future work, which we hope will include the support she deserves.

And we’ll keep watching the school district’s finances, of course, is as our duty as local journalists.