News & Announcements

The March edition of Community Connections is now available. This edition highlights a cool connection between Windsor ​Elementary and Westwood Middle School, ​the recognition of Cheney High School Director of Bands Josh Wisswell, and ​a survey to submit your choice of name for the ​new elementary school in ​Airway Heights. Take a look!

Click here to read this month's edition!

CHENEY, Wash. – The Cheney Public Schools Boundary Review Community Partners Team (BRCPT) reached a consensus on a recommended elementary boundary scenario during its meeting on March 16.

The updated boundaries are being developed in preparation for the district’s new elementary school in Airway Heights, scheduled to open in the fall of 2027. Our goal is to finalize the new boundaries this June, providing families with more than a year to prepare for the shift. 

Boundary revisions can be a challenging shift for families and students–especially those impacted directly by the change. A community-informed boundary revision process aims to address these challenges as best as possible.

The BRCPT–made up of representatives from each of our district’s three distinct communities, district staff, and administrators–held its fourth meeting on March 16. Across four meetings, the team dedicated hours to reviewing data, considering community perspectives, and mapping potential boundary scenarios. 

Guided by consultants from Teater Crocker, Inc., this work was grounded in balancing enrollment, supporting long-term stability, and fair access to programs and resources for all students. The team also collaborated with district specialists, including transportation, nutrition services, and student support services, to develop a comprehensive and thoughtful recommendation.

Before moving forward with a final boundary recommendation, the district is seeking input from families, staff, and community members. Two Boundary Community Feedback Nights will provide opportunities for individuals to learn more, ask questions, and share feedback:

• Tuesday, April 21 | 6  - 7 p.m. 

Cheney Middle School

• Wednesday, April 22 | 6 - 7 p.m. 

Westwood Middle School

Following the Boundary Community Feedback Nights, it will be determined whether adjustments to the draft scenario are necessary before presenting a final recommendation to the School Board of Directors for consideration.

For more information about the BRCPT and the boundary review process, please visit: https://bit.ly/4rKgptr.

 

 

After an extensive interview process, Cheney Public Schools is pleased to announce that Gabby Smithley has been selected as Principal for the new elementary school in Airway Heights, pending Board approval. The interview process included representatives from several stakeholder groups across the district and Airway Heights community.

Candidates completed a four-part comprehensive interview process that included teams made up of district leadership, school leaders, staff, and classified directors. Following the evaluation of feedback from those four groups, three finalists were selected to participate in a community forum at the Airway Heights Parks and Recreation Center, where community members and additional staff listened to each finalist answer questions. Feedback from district staff, participants of the community forum, and Airway Heights community representatives helped to inform the district’s decision to move forward with Smithley.

“We had a strong pool of candidates and a very thorough hiring process that included multiple interview panels and a community forum,” said Superintendent Ben Ferney. “Throughout that process, Ms. Smithley stood out for her passion for students and her clear desire to serve the Airway Heights community. Her leadership, heart for kids, and commitment to building strong relationships made a strong impression on everyone involved. I am excited to welcome Gabby as the principal of our new elementary school and look forward to the positive impact she will have on students, staff, and families in Airway Heights.”

Smithley is no stranger to Cheney Public Schools, as she has been working in the district in various roles for nearly a decade. From 2017-2023, Smithley worked as a  kindergarten teacher at Sunset Elementary, and in the final four years of her time at Sunset, Smithley served as the Professional Learning Community (PLC) Team Lead. In that capacity, she developed and implemented priority standards and unit plans for ELA and Math, analyzed data to plan intervention and extension, and designed End of Unit (EOU) assessments in both ELA and math. During the 2023-2024 school year, Smithley served as a principal intern at Salnave Elementary before returning to Sunset Elementary as Assistant Principal (AP) in July 2024. In her nearly two years as AP at Sunset, Smithley has led school-wide behavior systems to create individualized intervention plans, facilitated professional learning and staff development to improve instruction and student outcomes, and supported Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) and social-emotional systems to address student behavior and wellness needs, among other tasks. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Early Childhood Development and Education from the University of Idaho, a Master of Arts in Literacy from Eastern Washington University, and a Master of Arts in Educational Leadership with a Principal Certificate, also from EWU.

“I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to lead the new elementary school in Airway Heights as Principal,” Smithley said. “I could not be more excited to continue my career in this amazing community, with many of the students and families I currently serve. I appreciate my mentors, school leaders, and teachers who have supported and influenced my professional journey, preparing me for this next chapter. I look forward to building a team that fosters a culture of inclusivity, support, and growth, and I am honored to continue serving this community.” 

 

Reading instruction looks different at Betz Elementary this school year, and the shift has had a profound impact on the way students are learning. Known throughout the building as Viking Time, the school-wide system of intervention provides targeted, skill-based foundational reading instruction across grade levels.

The new program was created in part by a district-wide shift in intervention, and an eagerness to learn what was preventing students from reading at grade level.

“Last February, when we learned about the shift in intervention model, we started a cycle of inquiry to learn more about the forces that were preventing students from reading at grade level so we could develop a theory for improvement to implement this year in lieu of the traditional intervention model,” said Betz Elementary Principal Mary Stoyko. 

Stoyko, along with Betz’s Guiding Coalition–a representative leadership team–studied the building’s existing situation and worked to identify the problem they were trying to solve. As part of the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle of continual improvement, the Guiding Coalition analyzed existing data and found gaps in foundational skills that exceeded the capacity of their Tier 3 system. The group worked together and developed two theories for improvement: 

Theory 1: If we work with a coach or consultant in a systematic and ongoing format, Tier 1 instruction will improve, resulting in fewer students requiring intensive interventions. 

Theory 2: If we provide systematic, targeted, skill-based intervention on reading foundational skills, students will be proficient, fluent readers. 

“While Viking Time is a result of Theory 2, its success hinges on the implementation of Theory 1,” Stoyko said. “After Guiding Coalition developed the theories for improvement, all staff were invited to join a resource selection team to determine which intervention resource most closely aligned with our students’ needs.”

Viking Time brings students from different classrooms—and even grade levels—together into smaller, skill-based learning groups. Students walk to the classroom where they will receive targeted instruction (sometimes their own), and for 30 minutes each day, teachers focus on building specific skills with those students. For students who are not in need of reading intervention, Viking Time serves as independent work time. 

“We look at a list of children and where they’re at, and we divide the groups up by that,” said Cindy Tilque, a Betz Elementary teacher. Tilque, a veteran teacher who has been at Betz since 2000, was initially resistant to the shift in instruction. 

“I’ve been here a long time, taught a lot of years, and it was hard for me to let go of my reading time because I have been very successful with it,” Tilque said. “I had to let go of things that were dear to my heart. But I thought, I’m going to give it a try. Mary [Stoyko] said we’ll see results of it in the next year or two, so I said, ok, I’m going to do it.”

Instead of years, the results started to show within weeks. Based on winter iReady Diagnostic data–a benchmark assessment taken in the fall, winter, and spring–the number of second graders reading at or above grade level increased 15 percent from the fall. In fifth grade, that number jumped almost 20 percent.  

When Tilque’s second graders were introduced to Viking Time, she started to see results. Second-grade iReady data shows the number of second graders reading two or more grade levels below grade level decreased by 18 percent, from 38 percent to just 20 percent. The data is showing, Viking Time is working.

“Students are growing at an accelerated rate, which is critical to closing the achievement gap,” Stoyko said. “Quantitatively, based on iReady Diagnostic results, students accessing Viking Time have achieved a higher rate of growth from fall to winter this year than they did in the entire 202-2025 school year. Anecdotally, teachers report an observable increase in participation, confidence, and ability to access Tier 1 ELA instruction.”

“In my other assessments I’ve been doing with my class, I’ve seen great growth,” Tilque added. “We just recently did a fluency test, and I was so excited to see how much they have improved in a short amount of time. I think it’s spilling over in all of the reading areas, and also in their writing and sharing…I don’t hear anyone say, ‘I can’t read.’”

For fifth-year Betz paraeducator Stephanie Lindsay, the growth in reading ability and personal confidence has been amazing to see.

“Overall, it’s been really positive with students,” Lindsay said. “You watch and see where they start, and there’s not a lot of confidence at the very beginning with some of the students. But once we start reaching the end, you can see that they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh. I understand. I get this.’ We’ve had a couple of students that have had that aha! moment, and now, they get excited every day to come to Viking Time. Just that epiphany for them has just been amazing.”

Paraeducators like Lindsay are an integral part of Viking Time, and its early successes. 

“Resource Room teachers and paraeducators are a part of each cross grade-level Viking Team, bringing a wealth of knowledge and expanding our ability to group students by skill level instead of program,” Stoyko said. “In a traditional intervention model, a single interventionist can serve about 35-40 students, K-5. The collaborative aspect of Viking Time allows us to provide targeted intervention to 50-60 students per grade band!”

The growth in reading levels in the 2025-2026 school year has been incredible, and it is a direct result of the entire Betz staff’s hard work, commitment, and dedication to continual improvement. Stoyko and Betz’s Guiding Coalition will continue to review data, make adjustments, and study results as the year progresses. Viking Time is a great example of trying something new, reviewing, and making informed decisions about how to move forward.

“It’s benefitting the children, and that’s why I’m here,” Tilque said. 

 

WIN Academy principal, Stacy Delcour, and WIN teachers Susan Brown and Hayley Rayburn, continue to implement new ways for students to thrive. The most recent brainchild of the instructional team is called a Passion Project. Introduced this year, Passion Projects are one of the many shifts the small staff at the alternative learning program have implemented since the program opened during the 2022-2023 school year. The project aligns with WIN’s alternative learning model that extends learning beyond traditional classroom settings. For sophomore Mark Oboznyy, Passion Projects opened the door for a real-world video collaboration with Cheney Public Schools. 

“When we were approaching our year anniversary of passing the November 2024 bond package, we were brainstorming ideas about how to share updates on construction and highlight completed projects with our greater community,” said district communications coordinator Jenna Larson. “Video was going to be the best modality, but to really showcase the completed bond projects, we needed to get up in the air.”

A drone was the most realistic choice to produce quality shots from above. Cheney Public Schools owns a drone for use among CTE programs across the district, but Larson was hard-pressed to find someone to operate the drone during the typical school day. Delcour recognized this was a perfect opportunity for Oboznyy’s Passion Project to take flight.

“We as an instructional team had been talking about, how can we give students the opportunity to earn competency-based credits through different projects that they can come up with,” Delcour said. “What was really cool was the timing of us sitting down and talking about what it might look like, came at the same time that [Mrs. Larson] was looking for somebody that could do some drone footage for the district, and Mark had randomly brought his drone to school and he’s like, ‘Hey! Check this out! This is super fun!’ And, we all kind of put it together and were like, why not? Why not try it.”

Oboznyy had previous experience operating a drone, having picked it up as a hobby a few months prior. He taught himself how to operate his drone, download files, and edit short videos on a mobile device. The hobby aligned perfectly with WIN’s Passion Project.

“He asked if he could make a video for us, and for our school,” WIN Academy teacher Hayley Rayburn said. “To see his interest come into the classroom was great. Then our principal, Stacy Delcour, knew that [the district] was looking for somebody to help with drone footage across the district. So, getting him to connect to that and set that up, and see his excitement because this is something that he really wanted to dive into but didn’t necessarily have someone to lead him through that experience quite yet.”

Delcour and Rayburn connected Oboznyy with Larson, beginning with an initial project kickoff meeting on Oct. 30 to set parameters, expectations, and goals. Further planning included video shot lists, locations, schedules, and permission from buildings for filming. 

“My perspective, through email and everything, I learned how to talk with a contractor,” Oboznyy said. “[This process] showed me how to properly talk to a contractor. That’s something I learned.”

The film crew, which included of Oboznyy, his brother Matthew, Rayburn, and Larson, took about four hours to capture video at Salnave Elementary, Cheney High School, Windsor Elementary, Sunset Elementary, and the construction site of the new Airway Heights elementary school off of Craig Road. It was nearly perfect filming weather, with sunshine and no wind, ideal for operating a drone. 

But in mid-November, it was cold, and that presented some unforeseen challenges.

“When you’re moving the [joysticks], if your fingers shake a bit, it ruins the whole process,” Oboznyy said. “So, you have to be super slow with every movement. When it was cold outside, my hands were shaking, so it was super hard. You’re using like, six fingers at one time, so you have to know where you’re moving them. That was pretty hard, but it was fun.”

“I think it’s what we all dream of, right?” mused Delcour. “Being able to bring the real world to the kids and have them see that what I like to do is actually something I could do for the rest of my life if I’m intentional about it, and if I learn skills that go into it. They get the opportunity to get their hands dirty with it, which I think is so important. We forget that students really have that need at all levels of their education.”

Once filming was complete, Oboznyy was responsible for uploading the footage to a shared drive so Larson was able to access it for the final video. The drone videos were of such high quality–think 600 thousand to one million kilobytes–it took quite a bit of time to upload. Then, it was time to tackle the next step in the project: editing.

Oboznyy’s editing experience was limited to phone applications, so he was eager to learn more about the program Larson uses in her position, Adobe Premiere Pro. After shadowing Larson during an editing session, he had a better idea of the start-to-finish production process for a professional video.

“I think it went well, and plus, editing the video with [Mrs. Larson] was pretty fun,” Oboznyy said. “It showed me how it works and different [programs] and everything.”

The final video included the drone footage that was shot by Oboznyy, along with interviews and supporting video footage that were produced by Larson. For his contributions, Oboznyy was credited in the video, story, and subsequent social media posts. Plus, the video is a nice addition to his growing professional portfolio. As it relates to course progression, completing the Passion Project earns a half credit toward an elective course. In Oboznyy’s case, the Passion Project provided a different and exciting avenue for learning.

“I like that we’re doing a Passion Project, and doing something that I actually like instead of doing something that’s not really fun, but I’m doing just for the grade,” Oboznyy said. “I like that I got to do droning. It was a pretty long project; I’ve been doing it for a pretty long time. That’s pretty cool.”

For a look at the final video that Oboznyy helped film and produce, please visit youtube.com/@cheneypublicschools, and click on the Bond Update: One Year Later video. For a fun look at Oboznyy’s experience filming, click here!