Superintendent Mark Mulvihill begins the conversation previewing the upcoming IMESD conference which will provide training for school boards. It's this Friday/Saturday at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton. He then shares his thoughts on Gov. Tina Kotek creating the Early Literacy Educator Prep Council, which is aimed at raising the bar on elementary educator preparation for reading and writing instruction. Other topics discussed are school assessments and an update  on efforts to get lawmakers to restore the shortfall in funding for the early intervention/early childhood special education program. Mulvihill also talks about high schools and middle schools being short on officials for athletics. He also talks about how through 2019 new kindergarten students going through what's described at gentle testing to determine if they were ready for school, how that has changed and the new ways being explore for starting kindergarten students.