News & Announcements

 

As part of the Community Eligibility Provision, or CEP, every Cheney Public Schools student can receive one free breakfast and one free lunch each school day, regardless of household income. Our district is able to participate in the CEP following the passage of RCW 28A.235.300 by the Washington State Legislature in 2022.

But free meals are only part of the picture. 

Depending on eligibility, students and families may qualify for even more benefits, like SunBucks (Summer EBT), waived extracurricular fees, community discounts, fee waivers for college applications and admissions tests. Completing the Benefits Application also helps secure important funding and resources for schools across our district. 

So, how do you know if you qualify? You should complete the Benefits Application if any of the following apply to your household: 

• Your household income is at or below the amount listed for your household size in the chart below; 
• Your household receives Basic Food, TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), or benefits through the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR);
• You are applying on behalf of a foster child who is under the legal responsibility of a foster care agency or court.

The Benefits Application must be completed annually, so even if you were approved for the 2025-2026 school year, you must submit an application for the 2026-2027 school year. 

The application takes about 10 minutes to complete. Taking a few minutes to complete the Benefit Application can help your family access additional benefits, fee waivers, and discounts while also helping Cheney Public Schools receive funding and resources that support students across our district.  

To qualify for these additional benefits, families must complete both the Benefit Application AND a Parental Consent Survey. Visit the Nutrition Services Benefits Application and Consent to Share webpage for more information. 
 

 

The Association for Learning Environments (A4LE) is a national non-profit organization dedicated to improving learning environments across the country. Washington state is home to one of the largest A4LE chapters in the nation, and each year, the organization selects a Washington school as the beneficiary of the Day of Service, an annual project that brings together sponsors, volunteers, and the greater community for the purpose of improving learning environments for the selected school.

This year, Betz Elementary was selected as the recipient of the 2026 A4LE Day of Service. The project stemmed from concerns about the amount of mud students regularly tracked into the building after recess. 

“When [Superintendent Ferney] came for his listening session, there was a teacher who shared, we’re getting new carpets this summer, getting a refresh from the Bond, and there was concern because we have these muddy spots,” Betz Elementary Principal Mary Stoyko said. “We have a full section over there where the grass doesn’t grow, and so there was some concern about keeping that new carpet fresh.”

Following those concerns, building and district staff began discussing ways to solve the problem and better protect the school’s interior. Those conversations eventually reached Steven Clark, an architect and associate principal with Integrus Architecture. Part of the Progressive Design-Build team designing and constructing Cheney Public Schools’ newest elementary school, Skyway Elementary, Clark recognized the need and nominated Betz Elementary for the 2026 A4LE Day of Service.

When Betz Elementary was selected as the recipient earlier this spring, an initial site assessment was completed on April 20, and the scope of work was finalized to include site preparation for outdoor walking surfacing, general landscaping, playfield cleanup, and reconfiguration the outdoor play area. With support from local and regional sponsors—including Coughlin Porter Lundeen, Garco Construction, Rice Fergus Miller, Skanska, and the Washington Chapter of A4LE, which donated funding, materials, tools, and lunch—community volunteers and industry partners came together on June 6 to transform the east playground, which primarily serves preschool, kindergarten, and FAC students. 

“That is one of my favorite things about working in Cheney, especially at Betz, is just how our community does show up,” Stoyko said. “I sent out a reminder today, and people have just been showing up throughout the day, ready to work and take care of our school. It’s so fun to see kids take ownership, and also families just coming here to help out.”

The Day of Service provided a task for everyone. Some volunteers filled wheelbarrows and hauled playground wood chips nearly 30 yards from the blacktop to the play area, while others spread the wood chips in an even layer across the playground. Representatives from Integrus, Garco, and Skanska worked together to establish a border around the play area and prepare the grass space for a concrete pad, while personnel from the Maintenance and Operations department were on hand to help deliver and replenish materials throughout the service day.

“It’s really great. It makes us feel good inside; we’re giving something back,” said John Boatman, an A4LE Board Member and School Connections liaison. “A lot of architects and contractors, and people who build and design schools, as well as the school district folks themselves, like to see the fruits of our labor. That’s why I think we’re really passionate about doing this type of work, especially here where we can see a lot of the students that we’re going to directly impact. This just makes your heart grow.”

Several Betz Elementary students were in attendance, putting in some major elbow grease during the Day of Service. Elijah Pfaff, a rising third grader at Betz, wanted to make a difference at his school, particularly for younger students.

“I wanted to help out at our school because I go here, and I hope the preschoolers and the kindergarteners get to have a playground that’s not for big kids.”

Keeley McPartland brought her two sons to volunteer, and for her, it’s more about ownership and leaving things in a better way than you found them.

“Because our youngest is still here, I’m hoping he can see when he comes out to play on the playground, ‘I helped do that,’” McPartland said. “To, kind of take ownership because not every simple public place is done by one person; it’s done by a community. It just takes all of us to work together.”

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. 

Leadership comes in all different forms, and in kids, leadership helps to build essential life skills like confidence, problem-solving, and empathy. At Betz Elementary, anyone can be a leader, and fifth grade students are encouraged to step out of their comfort zone and embrace leadership through Generation Alive.

Per their website, Generation Alive (GA) is “a nonprofit organization in Spokane, Wash., that is activating youth to lead with compassion.” Betz has been partnering with GA since 2023, and it is becoming a routine part of the fall semester. Any interested fifth graders complete an application process, including a form and a short essay on why they want to be part of the program. Once they have parental consent to participate, GA advisor and Betz fifth grade teacher, Nicole Williams, accepts them for the Action Team on a first-come, first-serve basis.

“This year was really great because they’ve seen this, and they’ve gotten to participate,” Williams said. “They were really excited, and they came in with ideas already for the skits for the assembly, game show ideas they wanted to do, and how they could do announcements differently.”

The 2025 Betz Action Team had 22 students, and they began weekly meetings in late September to map out their fall assembly and December food-packing event. This group of students learned about community needs, the meaning of compassion, how to inspire their peers to serve the community with them, how to fundraise and advocate for causes they care about, and ultimately how to lead their Generation Alive community service project.

This year’s group of students even created a rap song, complete with lyrics highlighting food insecurity, leading with compassion, and leadership. Click here to view the video.

“It surprised me how well they did with it because they were really like, we decided to throw together this rap,” Williams said. “When you listen to it, they had all the food insecurity things, all the strong messaging that needs to come with Generation Alive, and so then you’re like, wow. This is something they're truly interested in because you can tell they put all their energy into it.”

Students participating in Generation Alive also learned about their leadership style, including their personality types and preferred working style. GA breaks it down into four easily digestible groups: lions, bumble bees, otters, and golden retrievers. Students learned more about themselves, how they operate, and their strengths.

“It’s really fun when they start using the language,” Williams said. “They know who they are, and ‘I’m going to go find an otter because an otter is going to help me have these skills.’

So, when you’re building your team, you want to have all those personality leadership traits, because if you’re all lions, are you going to get something done?” Williams continued. “The kids grab on to this, the student-friendly terminology.”

Williams saw the growth throughout her class, and she saw peer understanding and acceptance flourish. One fifth grader in particular who made big strides with Generation Alive is Calen Angeles. Oftentimes viewed as more playful and goofy by his peers, Calen learned more about his own personality and leadership style through GA. Over the course of the fall, he blossomed into an unexpected but powerful leader.

“Seeing him go from someone that I think a lot of students view as just silly to like, oh, he’s very serious, he has a great work ethic,” Williams said. “Just kind of changing the perspective of his peers toward him was huge…In this arena, they realized he has a valuable skillset, and they asked, ‘Can he be at my table?! He knows what’s going on!’”

Calen’s leadership was especially important during the GA food-packing event. He is organized and has an attention to detail that is unmatched. Where some of his classmates struggled to remember the table setup, he was able to replicate it with ease.

“He looked at the display table when we were setting up, and he set up his table no problem,” Williams recounted. “That’s how he processes. [Students] were like, wait, I’m missing this? And he was like, yeah, you’re missing the green scoop. You’re missing the red scoop. He could just look at their table and know.”

“I feel so much like a leader and everything, for my group,” Calen said. “Packing up the food and everything, it was just the best.”

This year, Betz raised $2,008.83 during a six-week coin drive, providing over 8,000 meals for the community. On Dec. 4, the GA leadership team led Betz students through the food packing event, measuring and packing apple and cinnamon sugar oatmeal for the local food bank.

“The community service project is invaluable,” Williams said. “I think the whole school, raising [money] to pack the food and seeing the Cheney food bank here to get the food, knew they were helping to feed our community. That was really special to them. Both components are just really huge, so I cannot promote the program enough.

…When students are passionate about something, it’s amazing the product they produce.”