School Board Special Meeting - March 15, 2025

001Well good evening or good evening good morning everybody. Welcome to our school board retreat today. Great seeing everybody this morning with that. Can I please have roll call. Vice President Tidholm. Present. Director Alvarez. Here. President Vian. Here. And Dr. Duran is he'll be coming down here very shortly to join us. Thank you very much. Well guys today we're going to start off with a team building. I just want to ask some two prompts here okay something that you're looking forward to today and name your one superpower that you have currently not what you want to have but what you currently have. With that I'm going to start I'll start that'll give you guys some time to to think about it. What I'm looking forward to today is to listening to our candidates come and speak

002not so much for a retreat but at towards the end of the day I'm really excited to see what our community our candidates come and to share about them. And one superpower that I have and this is amazing it makes my wife drives my wife crazy but I can fall asleep within 30 seconds of my my head hitting the pillow. That could be at home that could be getting even on a plane. I can pass out before they pull back out of the term. So that is my super director Alvarez. You're next. Actually we have the same not but the the same I think outcome of for today is I think looking forward to just hearing from the rest of the applicants for the board seat. So I'm looking forward to having deliberations today or

003or or maybe not deliberations but having seen what the candidates are so we can see hopefully a vision of what our board could look like moving forward and having a for the future a full board. And my superpower I would say is I love comfort food so superpower is making sopita de fideo and homemade flour tortillas. So when my grandkids come over my kids I love now that all my kids are adults I love having them over and as soon as I know they're coming or I see a car pull up with my kids I start whipping out the the flour making tortillas and the smell it just reminds me of my grandma and my mom and just it feels like home. So my superpower is is making tortillas flour tortillas at home. I am

004also looking forward to the candidates and moving forward with our appointment process. Excited to see the questions we have the answers that we get back and yeah what our board is going to look like going forward potentially. My superpower I would say is seeing the best in people which without very clear boundaries not so much a superpower but I've learned to really hone that and learn some discernment so I would say that is my superpower. Thank you very much Dr. Duran how about you what are you looking forward to today and what is your superpower? I'm looking forward to finishing my scone it's delicious thank you Holly. I think for me really looking forward to having you know full board and for us to continue the work in our strategic plan our goals the priority

005areas and just telling the story the good work that's happening is it is to fully fully believe that the work that we're going doing is having you know impact with our small measures knowing that they will impact our larger mess measures down the road and I think for me I think part of my superpower I think I'm pretty good at looking at both the strategy whether it's technical but as we think about you know the pieces that we're trying to accomplish realizing that no matter what we try to do you have to do it with people and so the culture part is really really huge and I think that's one of the things that I've been able to I would say is one of my superpowers thank you so much you guys like to join

006us Erin Holly so I'm looking forward to I'm not losing it uh so the planning for 25 I think uh I don't actually have something now really be ahead uh to the you I don't think and you got about every bit like that so there you go um and then in terms of my I would say I'm a pretty good editor but very details matter right uh so I also am excited about the planning part of it makes our but this year was so bad things mapped out happened gonna happen so crossing planning actually um and I have a new superpower of eating homemade flour tortillas so if that were offered I would take that until then I have an extraordinarily accurate it's a really freaks me out oh wait it's 4 33 time to

007go do something else it makes me be anxious that's great thank you so much so Holly's going to be our timekeeper moving forward um thank you everybody um one of the things that we haven't done in a while um is really to talk about our norms and just want to ground everybody and what what our purpose he is here for um and how we work together as a team and you know we see it on our agenda every board meeting um but I really want to call it out and just say it so we are all on the same page but also if there's any concerns or thoughts that we can express it so we can at least so I can know what your thoughts are on it and um what your lenses and just

008really what is our goal our goal is to focus on student achievement right every decision we make should prioritize our students best interest their success is our goal and the story govern with policy our job is to set policy and strategic direction the day-to-day operations are in the capable hands of dr. Duran and his staff respecting the hierarchy if we have concerns we shall we shall we should address them through the board chair who will then bring them to the superintendent but not directly the staff that is dr. Duran's role and responsibility this is really this next one is really important um respecting different perspectives let's encourage open discussions and appreciate diverse viewpoints while always remaining professional and civil next one is support board decisions once a decision is made we stand united even initially

009even if we initially disagreed we support the collective decision we still want to share all of our perspectives but understand as a board we stand united listen and actively listen actively and speak thoughtfully we should we should avoid interrupting each other strive to understand before responding and aim for productive discussions next is clearly communicate and do it professionally our communications should be respectful and fact-based whether we're interacting with fellow board members dr. Duran staff or the community this one is also huge engage the community we must maintain an open dialogue with parents educators stakeholders but avoid making individual promises or commitments and last but not least and I'll give everybody an opportunity to speak is no surprises let's ensure that all board members and superintendents are informed of important issues before they come up out

010in public I personally don't like surprises and just love an opportunity to share my thoughts and concerns around things and and kind of get ahead of things before they come out I know from when community members come and speak to me I share that with the superintendent so we can cover it and and come up situation or solutions so with that I open it up to the board and and staff and dr. Duran to share that any input can we add can we add some additional things to like um then no surprises sure um just thinking about um yes anything that uh we are um asked to do or if we're going to go present somewhere anything that we are asked I know that anytime I'm going to present even when it's requires of my

011job um I try to let dr. Duran know I know I've done some webinars um on behalf of PSESD but I always try to let dr. Duran know just because um even though I'm doing it under my job I know that I am recognized as part of my line and I know that there's always comes up something around a board and they will say you know I know you're part of a board or in full disclosure I know and it comes up eventually so I would say that to add um any in even in community sometimes you're asked to come and just uh present or um they're asked to sit on some panel somewhere um so I would add to to to this no surprises if you're asked to come sit on a panel if

012you're asked to represent uh your community even though you're not representing the board but you're being asked to come represent you know to come to your community anything you're going to be doing I would say that um even if it's not part of your job but just as a community member um that you let I would say the courtesy to let your board chair and dr. Duran know uh that you're going to be sitting on thank you is that it yeah okay I appreciate that and that that it gives everybody an opportunity to know what's going on out there and if it's a simple email or you know during your board reports right say hey I was given an opportunity or will be given an opportunity to speak at so and so that would be

013awesome thank you director Tittle I would only add it as a matter of managing am I still cutting out am I just not um but just a matter of like courtesy I mean not only with the chair and dr. Duran but with all of us just to know like oh I'm doing this and not have it pop up um but yeah I think it's something that we generally amongst us have done pretty well at just giving each other the courtesy to appreciate that I think our microphones just am I they just don't like us today okay that's all that I have thank you so much dr. Duran any input in regards to board norms and um no I just appreciate the conversations I think it's so important for us to you know I would probably

014but to continually go back and look at the policy you know I think that's one thing that you know um I may got this may not get this right holly but you know you explained it to somebody earlier this week and I really appreciated the the view but that policy is really the goal and the procedures are the how of what we're trying to do and I know as I look over this last year you know our policies are pretty clear and some of the things that we both have codified our values and beliefs of this community in this organization and the policies are really what drive our work and I think the policies are designed to move us forward not to to move us backwards and so you know I think we have to

015continually look at the policies to ensure that we understand them we have clarity around them where they come from you know because they're very important especially during these times you know when we're having many questions around you know where we're going to be going as a not only as a country but as a school district so I just really encourage that because all of it really lays out and in particular I was looking I've been looking at policy 1620 and just the board superintendent relationship and procedure that's in place you know and just um want to make sure that we're using policy to advance the work not to be used as a weapon you know against the work that we're trying to do and I think the other part with policy I think we've also

016know that there's a lot of them and you know every once in a while we find policies that we haven't updated recently and so we need to spend the time to think about you know when was that policy created what was the context during that time and what do we need now um I know we've had some of those conversations around even some of the work that we're doing with the equity policy we had leadership forum this week and you know every leadership forum we've been digging into it and and really thinking about it but that's a good example of a policy that continues to live and thrive in the organization because of the words that were created by this board and that's what we follow and adhere to that's all that thank you thank

017you so much greatly appreciate it I think in regards to policy as well we don't understand it or say you know what this doesn't that we have staff that will support that will help us go through it and explain it and if we need to update it then we we can look at updating this it is a living and working document so it may work with us work for us four years ago but I think times have changed we can look at it again and say you know what we need to make adjustment things of that sort and then Dr. Duran and his team will have to do how do we do it now so um thank you and I just want to add that even when we are in community I think it's so

018important for us to think I was just looking to make sure it was the policy 5000 or 6000 that reminds us that yes we are we have the opportunity to hear from community and to always keep in mind that yes everybody has freedom of speech but also to keep in mind that here at Highline that even policy 5000 really I was going back to just making it very clear that here in this district we want to acknowledge everyone is welcome and so just because it does give us freedom of speech it doesn't allow us for us to just give the freedom to let people either disrespect or not honor all our cultures and all our relations here so I just want to make sure that yes we give the opportunity to all in Highline that

019are welcome here in this district most of all that we also hold that respect and that honor that everyone is welcome here in Highline and that's why policy 5000 really explains it really well that we believe that this is a place where it leads to just being an inclusive supportive district so and that is important for us to keep in mind just just because we're out in community doesn't mean that policy still doesn't hold right anyway one for us to remind thank you very much so thank you for giving me an opportunity to really ground ourselves in in regards to our norms and what our purpose is in regards to that it's been a while so I'm going to bring that up guess what the year is almost over 24 25 just a few months

020away as a board previous retreats we had some board goals some things have changed so I want us to really come up with some goals that we can accomplish before the the year is over for the school year is over the ideas were crafting a shared purpose I know director Petrini brought that up at our one of our retreats and I thought we thought it was a great idea so I don't want us to lose traction on that another couple of other ideas was you know with the two new board directors coming on board what is that on board are going to look like how can we maximize our brain power team here to ensure that our board direct new board directors get the full experience and you know making sure that they're well rounded

021when they start then the last idea was around building that governance team that was one of another goal that we had I want to continue on with that is let's build that governance team even though it is the directors and their superintendent how do we look at what we have and either change it improve on it or figure something out as a team so that is you know June's going to come up very soon so I want to make sure that these are achievable goals any thoughts or ideas that you guys have can we review the goals that we already have in place and then that way and start theirs well we didn't have any goals that were set I remember at the last retreat we were sitting right here one was around building that

022governance model creating that shared purpose those were the two that stood out that I was like that we that those are achievable goals and then the third one was the new board so that's what I recall nothing was solidified I agree I think we didn't have anything set as goals but we had a list that I think some we were in agreement some we weren't and so I think I'd like to start I think let's not I think put ourselves in a place where like you say let's let's pick some goals that are achievable but also things that are going to move right to the next level of where we're at I know that we have a short time before June but yet we still have a lot of work to do and we also

023need to make sure that we're setting us up in a place where our new board directors that come on that we can continue where they can jump in and just kind of it feels like it's something where they can come in and on board them in a place where it won't feel like they're just jumping in and not understanding so we need to I think it's a like a fine balance that of goals that like some that they can a goal is to how do we onboard I would say a goal is to onboard them onboard our new board directors in a way that to be supportive of that after onboarding our new you put me on the spot I'm looking at the last retreat so I can come look at those those goals to

024bring back any other yeah I'm looking for that any thoughts director Fennel for me still still interested in board governance and since last year when I know I can't introduce me to school board partners I've been asking questions to Holly and Erin and Dr. Moran and speaking to you guys about governance model what that would look like the different options so still really interested in looking at that and I know we don't have much time until June and that's the whole process but at least getting started on that like intentionally looking into what the options are and then also onboarding our new directors and maybe involving well not maybe but obviously involving them in a process I know we had chosen one other person aside from me to really look into that maybe having one

025of them if they have an interest being involved also a little bit of team building a little bit of learning not to like just throw them off the deep end this is fun but yeah it'll be fun she said but I'm sorry but yeah supporting our two new directors so that they can thrive is kind of being thrown into this and then also being thrown obviously into having to run for this again I know it's going to be a lot but just supporting them as best we can while they learn this position I would say that one of the goals is to I think as a board again would be to I know that feel like we're hashing this out again but just to review so we're all on the same page around what our

026board roles and response I think I know we've done this once twice but I think as a board together next time is just I'd love how you started today kind of like going over what our board roles and responsibilities are I think bringing on new board members maybe having I don't know that I think it would be a good goal is for us to be on the same page about what that is I don't know I don't do that because I do think that connects a lot to the board governance work because I do think that you know one I think is just even understanding you know our current board governance model what is it what are the role the board members in in it and what are the roles of the superintendent and then

027as we look at other models to kind of have that as one of the lens around what's the board's role and what's the superintendent's role because they do change based on the the governance model that we do have in place that I think could be really helpful and then I think the other one that the one I've been thinking a lot about is has the purpose you know because I was I've been reading an article around it's the idea of me to we with a me to we with the board superintendent relationship but they talk a lot about you know the strong relationship between boards and superintendent lead to more efficient use of resources and just this idea that really needs to be centered around the work of our student achievement you know what we're

028trying to accomplish there and I think our shared purpose are our goals our shared purpose are the priorities that we have and I know we briefly have talked about it before but I think one of the ways I think for the board to really understand some of the work we're doing is if we can find ways to get you out in the schools to see some of the work around either secondary school redesign literacy inclusion or mtss because I think that will also help for you know some of your director reports on what you're sharing but I think that that would really benefit and you know and I think with the school visits we don't have to set up like a whole day you know the way we have our system set up we can

029identify like if it's a one two hour a day and I just think if you maybe saw one or two of the things that we're trying to do it'll just help to solidify some of the work we're doing to advance the student outcomes for all of our students and I think that would be really it's a low-hanging fruit in some ways in terms of what's not going to be a huge time commitment definitely some between now and June and you know maybe you all can choose it by the different priority areas or you can see an aspect of each each part of that and I think that'll also be really important for our new board directors that we as part of the onboarding process we get them and say when we talk about mtss this

030is what it looks like this is what it is and then you get that real conversation with people on the that are doing the work you know whether it's our teachers specialists or school leaders so I like that actually that was something that I was going to do my own personal goal um was to this year um be seen more in in in the school so I think having a shared goal forward for us to have a goal to to say I don't know if we even want to name it but to to visit schools especially where even presentations like the mtss that you mentioned but that they've offered to for us to visit to come see the the work that they're doing so then and if we know not necessarily because they're going to

031be coming in presenting but knowing that the work is happening for us to really hone in and ask those questions so that we can help them think about what else to think about as they come to presentations but so I would say uh I would be in agreement in having a board goal ask for us to to um uh come visit schools for us to really come see the work that is happening in action for us to really be um not just understanding the work that's happening but for us to really be in the know and be able to understand um as we are looking at you know not just the soups evaluation or whatnot but for us to be as they are presenting the work to us just have a better understanding even the

032culture of the schools walking around getting seen and also for the um staff to feel supported as well as walking them to get to know what personally um so I would say one of the goals is for us to to be uh visiting more okay got that so um thank you for those that have supported me and getting me the documents on what was um part of our uh the three three main goals that we were looking at one was research and governance models which we're going to continue on uh the other one was being a board of distinction if we can put a pause on that for a quick minute and then the third one was crafting a shared purpose which we're going to continue on so I think the only one that we're

033removing was the being part of the board distinction I think we can still have that in the back of our head going what have we done that has shrunken the gap from for our kids so I like the idea of coming and visiting our schools so would it be I mean there are four goals right now that were just thrown out one was crafting a shared purpose which I really love from a board next one is how do we onboard new board directors and then continue on with beginning of the the governance team building and then visiting being more present in our schools so would that be really high level and I can send that out you guys can send us some ideas on what that looks like um Aaron any thoughts on those just

034clarifying this would be by June 5 those those that is the four goals and so I would imagine there would likely be a board action report at the April meeting intro and action the discussion yes we'll we'll need to get that going sooner than later um and I would love make sure that our new board directors have an input on that um so by April that will look and I think one of the ones who we can do some mapping out of some potential visits and areas which would be easy and then I think a work with director to hit home to talk about the governance because I think to make it realistic by June then we could say like we will identify the different government models and and make comparisons you know because I

035had laid out a plan to look at the governance and it would it's it's going to be a long process whereas we're really digging into if we're thinking about changing every model but I think between now and June we can name the different government models and understand the differences between them thanks for the clarification on that dr. grant that is correct this is just researching the models that are out there um and seeing what it is um dr. grant was sharing with me the asa school admin um pamphlet here this last month and it is amazing it talks about board and superintendent relationship there was like four articles in there that was just huge but also optimizing board governance um so it's not just us it is across the nation on what what what's going

036on out there um we need to be able to be adaptive and evolve with what's going on so yes thanks for the clarification it is just looking at what models are all right so dr. grant we're going to need some support moving forward and and looking at policies and and all of that so all right is that are you guys good with that yes all right we're going to move on to our next um topic here this is kind of it's a nice segue planning for 25 26 and possible board goals um there's nothing wrong with rolling our 24 25 into our 25 26 board goals um this is just a conversation starter i'm going to ask a couple questions of for for to you directors um to support this planning um we can revisit

037these conversation at our june board retreat when we have our new board director okay a couple questions are what can board members do to better understand the work that to share at meetings or to share when we're out there in the community um one of the things dr alvarez was talking about school visits doing literacy walks things like that another question another prompt was what does the board want to share or showcase at board meetings i know that we have school presentations but and we have our uh budget discussions what are there data that you would like to be shared at board meetings or success stories or student experience or student voices those are really impactful um when we hear from our students our staff our communities so um but one last thing is what

038other conversations with the board like to have in 25 26 these are you know work sessions um and retreat ideas i know you're your wheels are turning right now so um for me i know there's huge conversation around literacy and it's something they were all obviously looking at and concerned about excuse me um i don't know how we can find a way to highlight the progress that is being made and the work that is being done in the areas we recognize we need more work obviously without constantly having the criticism i feel like it's incredibly difficult to recognize an issue and work on trying to resolve the issue which is trial and error it's not something that happens overnight when a small subset of the community is just very very dedicated to picking and poking

039it every little negative thing rather than highlighting i mean it reminds me of a child who is having some behavioral issues for instance rather than disciplining the child for doing something they should not be doing but rewarding them like i recognize you made this progress is a bit more encouraging and not only for the board but i think about what our children here um i mean our children are incredibly intelligent we were just talking about ai and chat gbt at our work session a couple of days ago and they see our board meetings i've heard from some of the kids the things that they've heard and for them to hear all the time that they can't read and they're illiterate and the statistics on what they are going to be and become that's not encouraging

040i mean the board aside but for our babies to hear that and just have that in their head um i mean and i know we can only control ourselves and the work that we do but highlighting the progress that our babies are making especially a lot of these children are in dual language classes i know when i went on the um the site tour and saw dr duran's sense class a lot of these babies are first second years trying to learn spanish and don't understand a single word and even my son he wasn't able to join dual language until halfway through fifth grade and we are not a spanish-speaking household so his grades plummeted obviously because his class is half of the day in spanish but he was dedicated and super excited to try to

041learn spanish so for these kids to be trying and putting themselves out there and just to constantly be told that they are illiterate and they are not smart and they are not going to be and they're going to end up in prison because of their scores um it's just really disappointing so we're not a bit of a rant but um how we can highlight like the progress that we're making while also recognizing that we do have work to do thank you so much for that so i would pose that to dr duran dr duran so when our community when they're looking at our test scores it is from a satellite up top right how can we share with our community um with dr rynek here just how can we share a lot of the success

042when we see achievement and we see progress from that street data data when we are having kids that may be three or four years behind their grade level but they're they're achieving one or two years right off the bat our satellite data is not going to show that but if we look at our street data how can we share with our community and um how can we share that with our community so they can see it and understand it because the success is happening in the classrooms it may not show it up top but how can we do that yeah i think there's a few different ways i think first and foremost i would steer everybody back to our annual plan report that we have online right now because that really does highlight some of

043the progress that we've made in the small measures because remember we have the street data all the way to satellite data then we have the map data and so when we look at the map data we're seeing progress in the small measures you know so i would encourage everyone to go to the website and look at that because as we talk about success and the progress that we're seeing it's done in a way that says here's the progress that we are making we are making some small steps and here are the stories that go with that because that's an important component of the work that we're trying to do and as i said earlier around my superpower is i think about it that there's a lot of technical work that we are doing but along

044that is that adaptive work the culture work that needs to go ensuring that they are nurtured and lifted up together and so i think our annual plan really does a great job around that the second thing dr ryan i've actually been looking at some different ways to add some additional measures in our strategic plan dashboard specifically you know we use you know i ready in majority of our schools not in all of our schools because again we have to think about the role of dual language and by literacy and how important that is because it is different but we have been thinking about how we can add another just another interim measure that's inside of there so people can actually see where we are currently with proficiency and growth and just in some of the

045samples that we've looked at on the proficiency example that you know you actually will see that there is some progress being made even this year and so i think that definitely speaks towards again small measures that we are and measures and impact that we're having right now that will impact the larger measures and then i think the third is kind of the going back to just even the board goals that i think is going to be real important for the board to come out and again to visit and see some of this work in particular with literacy because i know you know as i go about you know i've said this many times we talk about these great ideas these great strategies and these initiatives and these priorities that we're trying to do but for

046me i want to see how it's playing out in the classroom and when i go i see the work that's happening especially at the you know both elementary and secondary level but in particular the secondary level because that is such a significant shift to be thinking that all of our content teachers are teaching reading and teaching language that's a huge shift and i'm seeing it in in science classes that i've never seen before and so there's a lot of potential that's going to be embedded in there and then the final thing i'll just say is i really appreciate your comments director Titham because i do think there's an element around you know it goes back to i think the board and superintendent relationship that the more that we can work collaboratively together the greater impact

047we're going to have on student achievement and i do think there's an aspect of that for some of our community members is that i would really like for some of our community members to actually take the time to understand what we're trying to do because it's easy to throw rocks it's easy to criticize but come and understand the work that we're doing we implement the science of reading we're doing that with literacy we do direct instruction we do that all coupled with the dual language model and commitment that we have you know to our community and to our students and so it's important to understand that and to then figure out how can you help us with our students how can you support us because it takes a community to be able to do this

048work together and the more that we can have that alignment i think it will help us with our success so thanks for that last comment dr drenner what would that look like from our for our community to ask that question right um you know they can come and ask the the directors but how can our community truly engage that conversation in a professional and diplomatic way well i think one we've been trying to do that through the stories that we tell around the great work that we're we're doing um i think you know even recently we had a community member ask us around you know the role of science reading what we're doing there and so we can we can speak to that very easily around what we're doing because we do follow that but

049we also had again have a couple that with the work we do for our emerging bilingual learners um but i would just ask that you know community members that wonder about that take the time to ask us around what we're doing take the time to learn and that can be done through questions i mean we're happy to sit down with community members and help them understand the work happy to show them some of the work we're doing and literacy in the other areas and then i think the conversations and then what can you do to support and help us so we'd be really open to have those type of conversations beautiful and i think the community needs to want to have those questions and that intention i think if every time we come with these

050beautiful stories um they're turned around and made ugly it's counterproductive so if that intention is not there to genuinely want to see progress as opposed to essentially what it feels like is wanting us to fail just to reaffirm whatever confirmation bias is there um that's not something that we can control so i think the community needs to do some reflection on why they are so invested in our children and literacy and the success of the children in the district and once they figure out their why figure out what that really looks like for them um and have their own their own reflective moment as um as to how they can help us succeed because as dr durand said throwing rocks is not it's not cool one part i'll just add is that i was really

051excited this week we had the family action committee which you know is one of our major strategies that we have for family community engagement and our family action committee this week got to hear from really key people in our in our organization everyone that's leading out the work around secondary school redesign literacy inclusion mtss budget and family community engagement so everyone did a presentation but then the community members and broke into small groups and so they literally are now going to take deep dives into literacy into our priority areas in the budget and family engagement and i was just as i was able to sit in with the mtss group and just the questions that they were asking the input they were providing to us around just the language that we use to describe the

052model um they're going to help us change that so it actually makes more sense for our parents which i think is powerful but i was reflecting afterwards around wow this is just a great way for our community members to really learn about the work that we're trying to do so it's not this mystery around what we're trying to achieve and so i think the more that we can have that type of opportunity in a way to help people understand because i know many of the members of the community that were part of family action committee this is new for them you know we throw out these terms in education mtss literacy secondary school redesign but what does that mean to a family what does that mean you know for the students that they have in

053our school system so i think we're going to learn how to better communicate that to our families who have our students who have their students in our schools thank you dr and so one of the things that you just brought up a great it just popped in my head and we had a work session around tss and we we received a lot of information directors did but it wasn't so well attended from our community would it be a proposed that we set some time apart during a board a little a board meeting that we'd have a presentation it really is a shortened version of that so our entire community can hear that maybe not the same day but at a future event because that is you know making sure that we have that platform to

054share with our community when we have a full team here as well as the community so it could be an idea that we can bring forward it's definitely one we can think about i think it's very similar to what we're doing now with the monthly budget updates just really to provide level of transparency with our community and again that came from you know our community members input that said that you know only being able to provide input to the budget process one time a year didn't make a lot of sense and so we're trying to provide more opportunities so that if someone sees something in our budget questions wonders our suggestions for how we could further invest you know that's welcome in any one of our meetings so that's one of the things we're doing

055so i think we can definitely think about that we could look like and you know within our cabinet meetings we have a monthly strategic meeting so we've shifted in some of the meetings that we're doing to focus in on one of our priorities so maybe it could be something that follows after that monthly time that we have with cabinet and we think about how do we want to commute this out to the community and then have that followed up also with you know communication that comes out so people say can understand especially in our four priority areas and what we're trying to do that would be great um i also want to share something else when we have these these report outs or the presentations it doesn't always have to be peaches you know it's

056okay to share the stuff that is not working that we're looking into not everything is going to be great but knowing that we're working on it and making those changes is going to be as powerful as well so um so thanks for all of that one of the things that dr gerand was discussing earlier this year was you know the state of high line what does that look like how how do we showcase what is going on um within our district and i know a lot of our cities we were a lot of our cities are doing a state of the cities the port of seattle just did theirs as well so what how can we do that um i know that one of the proposed from dr gerand was to do that so dr

057gerand what are your thoughts and how would you like to present um that to our community yeah i still think it's a good idea you know i know we originally had talked about possibly doing it this year and bargaining some time in may but um after doing some reflection thinking about it i actually would be more interested in doing it at the beginning of the year um i think that would allow us to be able to have some of the most current um satellite data as well as our map data and you know kind of almost a preview to our annual report we can take the data that we have and we can really speak to you know the successes and the challenges that we have so i think it'd be a great way for

058us to start off the school year um you know if the board decides to um go for a levy you know that could be a conversation that we can have around the levy and what that means we will also very clearly know by then what the state has done in terms of any additional funding for us um it could give us an opportunity to do a little bit more reporting on our finances for that year and what we're anticipating so i think it'd be a great way for us to kick off so i still like the idea of it you know i think the timing of it in may was kind of a little bit of a challenge but i think if we can wait we also have you know hopefully a full board by

059then and so we have board members you know involved with that but still work with it to target you know key members in our community you know whether it's um elected officials key community members so that people can really understand the work and we can just launch the year off in a really great start knowing that that also is going to be the last year of the strategic plan and so we can think about maybe how we can start to highlight and preview how are we going to go back and gather more information from our community around how we've been doing these goals what other ideas suggestions that we have to improve and do another modified version of a listening tour as i did when i first started in the school district so that would

060be my suggestion and would ask for you know you know supporting that to thank you directors comments questions i think that's a good idea i think being strategic about when we set these especially the state of highline would be important because if we're going to be going out for a levy being really clear where we're at in our in our district is important so others can hear and get the support i've heard people are interested to hear where we're at but we want to make sure that it's the right timing as well and having a full board is important as well so i am all for waiting for us and i and i also feel there's something about having it when school starts having that i think that yeah the take off of having a

061just the the excitement about starting the year having a full board will be exciting as well so i'm i agree with the timing i mean given the lack of a full board and then off here with that i i support that so that's great we're we're not voting on anything but dr duran i think uh based on what we're hearing is something that that we should be looking forward to and that'd be a great idea with all of the directors better data but also looking at our our strengths and successes from when uh from everything i think that that'd be great yeah and i'll just say in the spirit of accountability also you know i know it's one of the items i had identified in my evaluation so you know what i propose to do

062is actually to still have some kind of an outline around what that state of um i think could look and get feedback from all of you around what you would like to see in that but i definitely will have an outline of what that could look like you know we have a really good model from the port of seattle that we saw that incorporated both you know people speaking as well as you know really strong videos so you know we can continue to not only have the numbers but tell the story around the work that we're trying to do so i definitely will commit to having that to you by the end of this year about fireworks too fireworks thank you so much for that um you know just carrying on with our planning for

06325-26 um board goals dr duran and director alvarez was talking about proposed levy going out there you know one of the things that we were talking or i was just thinking about is how do we engage with our civic community and share the learnings i know that the state of highline but also presentation during board meetings you know we all speak to our electeds out there and one of the ideas was was going to council meetings going to the our cities and having that five or ten minute during council meeting and just presenting and sharing that with them going to their space having that that was one idea the other idea was really bringing our elected officials here right and having a small group having our city managers having the mayors and just come here

064so we can do just a round table of and sharing with them in more of an intimate setting so we can bounce ideas back and so those are the two ideas that were out there what are your thoughts i prefer i prefer the round table i think it's great to speak at council meetings and whatnot but it's not incident they have a whole agenda there's not really time to engage i think having the round table would be more productive i think it would also help just in building relationships and getting to know people putting faces to names just being able to have that conversation thank you director alvarez i also say that leveraging relationships you already have is great as well so if you already have relationships continue to cultivate those and then bring along

065and be the bridge so if you have tips like for instance i know i have a few i don't have that many but i do have a few bring along like invite joe or invite dr duran as i said up you know like coffee with friends and then as well it's an and it's not a either or it's an and so bring along other friends and maybe my circle of friends could get bigger you know like before when you used to have like you know people like man i have 10 likes maybe i'll have 10 friends and i'll invite joe or dr duran so i i think it's a great idea having you know like the having them inviting them or having the circles and stuff but i think just having continued to cultivate those

066because i think personal relationships go really far so if you already have those just um to be the bridge to duran or president van and invite those and then we can make it as we move forward thank you so much for that i i totally agree um so we just threw a lot out there erin in regards to 25-26 goals um i know where we need to look at what our year at a glance is going to be so i would really want to incorporate those but also holly this is in your realm in regards to our policies what are the really really really old ones out there that we can kind of look at we need to make changes on or what is coming up so we're being useful of our times and efficient

067so erin what are your thoughts on that i think what i'm hearing is that for the june conversation the year at a glance should include not only the policies that we know of but also the work sessions that we love but also the opportunities that have been here perhaps that i'll come up with a different column name or some engagement pieces about the microphone so i can bring that back in june and take what i've heard here in terms of the board goals for 25-26 yeah that's not really my i'm not good at that but i'll work on it um that'll be my 25-26 goal so so for the board goals i think what i'm hearing is that the board action report for 24-25 will include the four that we talked about that will be

068set to be reviewed in june of 2025 but likely many of them would continue into 25-26 so that they're sort of multi-year goals and perhaps the board would be okay with sort of even identifying that in the board action report that they're multi-year goals and then would you like to include the the conversation that that just had some of the civic community engagement in your goals for 25-26 or is that something that you'd like to see on your year at a glance and then have an additional conversation in june to finalize directors what are your thoughts on that i would like i personally would like to see the those as the civic outreaches part of the 25-26 with sooner than later especially with the proposed levy that that is going to become and i i

069want to showcase what is working in our district to our directors agree disagree agree simple i agree as well i was just trying to figure out how to add uh no we don't we we can you know this isn't this is an open conversation and if they're i mean we can have it up on the dais um just send me an email or whatever and we can make those adjustments um but this is just an open conversation on where we need to be where we want to go where we need it i'll do my best to capture what i think i heard um for the june conversation you'll see a board action report um on the april agenda for 24-25 and then in june i think it would be great to go ahead and um

070have a discussion if the board would like to and set your 25-26 and that way they can you can get started on those like it and erin i'll help you with that i took notes too so from a policy standpoint i think that there's i'd love to see two things in preparation for the june retreat one is i will commit to going through our policies you know we have a lot and to be perfectly honest with you depending on what you end up deciding for your governance model may actually help dictate what policies we need to have versus what should be jettisoned because different governance models treat policies differently um so with that my inclination is to and please tell me if you disagree with this my inclination would be not just to look at

071the date of the policies because we've got a bunch of policies from like the 80s that deal with stuff that frankly i don't even think should be at the board level um some of our series 9000 around um construction and some things like that um but what i think would be more important is to think about what are the policies and there's probably you know eight seven nine some number like that that are really directly implicated by our strategic plan and our goals it will really help move our move our system forward that would be important for the board to have actual conversations about as opposed to the technical policies that frankly we can do as staff and bring forward to you but don't necessarily need actual board involvement if that makes sense um i'm

072thinking about some of the technical policies where like the rcw has changed the state law has changed on how much you can um go out to bid for there's not a lot of discussion to be had about that is the law has changed we got to comply with the law as superintendent rechdal said yesterday follow the law follow the law and if you're still confused follow the law um so that's going to be a goal of ours but i would also let so so that's my one thinking is to focus on the policies that are really going to move our work forward but then i would really love to have a discussion in june or prior to june with the board directors on what are the policies that you are seeing that really needs some

073work or where are you seeing there that there's holes where's something missing um knowing that we've got some flexibility obviously we've got the wasda model policies and those are the ones that the state's saying you you need to or maybe you should have but we've got a lot of flexibility if there's other ones you know many years ago we created the bilingual biliterate policy to be reflective of the strategic plan we have a policy on pbis which was reflective of the work that we were doing at the time um so what are the policies that you all see either as wow that's ancient and horrible and please make a change um or where there's holes it'd be a great discussion i i appreciate that um um we just had our ai work session and after

074reading that policy going wow that really needs to change so i i am going to ask dr gerand to really ask our cabinet and the people that are doing the work to look at policies that drive their work and say you know what this doesn't make sense or can we adjust this and and bring that to us to say you know what directors this is a proposal this is it's not working or whatever but i i would not only rely on the directors on looking at what the gaps are but also looking at our cabinet and our team going help us out help us drive that change and to move that needle yeah i was gonna ask i mean i know it's a huge ask but if cabinet could sit down and look at policies

075and how it affects the work and if we can get a list of policies that are just completely obsolete due to change in legislation or the times as well as a recommendation of things that might not really align with what we're doing now things that could use an amendment things that just aren't flat out working like if we can have it categorized with recommendations because we can sit down and look at the policies in our position but i mean as i will admit freely regularly i am not an expert in any of these jobs so while i'm here for the oversight it my eye is not going to be the same as somebody that's actually doing the work so i think that would be great to hear from the different departments i mean just like

076what we are doing and what we could digest because i know like the conversation's been had the like our policies are just all over the place and haven't been looked at for a while um but yeah i think that would be really helpful to clean that up but also it's kind of unrelated i apologize ajana is getting ready to go get lunch and i am going to put in a starbucks order for her to pick up can i get anybody else a coffee no holly erin you know we're live on tv so if anybody wants to send in their orders damaris can i get you a coffee the order go ahead and order well thank you so much i just wanted to add that um although um just to be clear that you know i

077think personally i appreciate you guys's expertise and although i know that i can distinguish by you guys's suggestions i can make my own decisions and so i i think there's a lot of times that i've heard from public that although you guys make recommendations that we have to adhere by your recommendations and i think that i just want to make it clear to the public as they i know they're watching that is you can recommend but i get to make i do have a brain i get to make my own decisions so and i appreciate because like uh director ted home was just mentioning you guys have been doing this for a really long time i don't um i do trust i trust until i can't trust you but i also appreciate that uh this

078is something that you guys have um have the best interest in our district and our students uh and so do i and uh when you come uh when we ask for your expertise i also take the time to do my own research uh and something i had talked to um um erin about not too long ago is that there's times when uh i do uh do a lot of research in fact those times when i spend a lot of time too much time and i go down the rabbit holes and then i come here and then i'm like okay i think i've got it um and then other people ask questions and i don't but i think uh there are other questions i think that um get answered but um i don't always formulate them

079in a way that i feel um are in these um how can i say word them in a uh educational or uh jargon but i appreciate that i know that jennifer always cut cuts me some grace and all of you uh that you guys get to know where i'm coming from and what i'm saying with all of this is that i appreciate your expertise and and when i do ask questions it's not a a place where i got you it's more of a i'm just trying to understand and so i appreciate that um um that we're able to have conversations about where is uh where is the point where i'm trying to get clarification about more about an understanding and not where i'm trying to find some holes where you guys are not doing your

080jobs and and in all of this it's it's i think that in order for us to further all the work of of um the district and to get a better place to who doesn't want a district to thrive and who doesn't want all our kids to be at grade level i think unless um i don't know i have not found a parent yet to this day to say i want to be in a district where our kids are failing i could think all our parents want better for their kids and so do we and so how do we work together to make that happen and so um i appreciate all you guys time and effort that you put into this and so for the rest of the directors so how can we continue to work

081together to make sure that we're striving to make sure that we're getting there in the fastest way as possible so uh appreciate you guys this time and and um to continue to give us the information and for us to continue to push you all to help us get to where we want to be thank you and i just want to add the olive cabinet and dear adriana for putting up with us are greatly appreciated and i know that i probably engage with you two more just in terms of coming to you with questions and not only do i value and appreciate your input but i need it i i mean going into some of these conversations and not having the expertise or the law degrees and the years and years of experience i would be

082a fool to think that i know better than you and at no point have i ever thought that you were trying to dictate or regulate and i appreciate every time i scream help both of you coming to our rescue and giving us all the good relevant information and even at times when it might not be completely accurate i mean being humble enough to say that you were incorrect um because like i was saying earlier just in terms of where we are um to hold people to their mistakes it's just it's just a really sad thing that i think the human race has this habit of doing um and nobody thrives if they're just stuck in that place so i appreciate you both and i greatly need you and you dr doran thank you so much

083directors um holly for the input erin for the just the guidance on this we're gonna move into a fun policy this is a great transition 1610 um this policy is on conflicts of interest that is important to our board members to be just really aware of i hand this off to holly just got my password on the first time that never happens anymore that's very exciting for me i apologize um can i just add uh director alvarez i really appreciate your comments as well as yours director tidholm and one of the things that i think is fair to say is we are all in our jobs because we love this work and we love what's happening in this district and when you ask us questions from the dais it's an opportunity for us to talk

084about our work and to talk about the good things that are happening so i don't think there's a person among us who views when we walk up to that podium we're wanting questions we want to talk about our work i could geek out on this policy stuff forever usually people don't let me do that but i could and so just please know that we welcome those questions we welcome the opportunity to take a deeper dive into our work um based on your questions so policy 1610 do you all have copies of that is there copies okay perfect this is a policy on conflict of interest it's actually not one that we've really talked about a lot or maybe ever um but it is an important policy and i do want to call out before we

085even get into it i want to call out director alvarez because you were you embodied this policy a few meetings ago when there was a grant that had come up that was coming through the esd you recused yourself from moving on to consent and then you recused yourself um for the actual vote uh because it was through the esd which is your employer and even though i don't think you were really involved in that grant it was really important for to to name and recognize this is my employer i'm not i'm going to step out of this um so i just wanted to name that you embodied this policy before we even had this discussion well in full transparency actually was involved in it at my just at my employee uh we had conversations about

086it and at some point i was going to be on that team to be honest and then um i had moved teams and so i wasn't but i knew about it i knew about the work and i had been involved in part of the work at the beginning and then was moved teams and i was no longer but i had known and in previous times i knew about some work um and anytime i knew my if anything came about with the esd i just didn't want highline to miss out on a grant just because i was anytime the esd would come up i just like i don't even want any part of it just because i knew that if if for some reason someone came to and wanted to pull it and say i tell

087it up with that grant and they called it we might get that grant and i just part of it i did yep that's perfect um so i have a question about process would it make sense to take a minute or two and read through this or do you want to just talk through it talk through it okay let's talk through it um so i you have the policy in front of you the general gist of this policy is if you've got an interest in something or you could be seen as having an interest in something you would recuse yourself from votes and you would let the public know um what those potential what those conflicts are can you clarify the post you like oh i'm interested in yes i can uh so this would be

088like a fiscal interest your employer you own stock in a company so you know if you own 50 percent of this of the pearson textbook company which that would be an interesting conversation to have uh we probably shouldn't vote on us take buying textbooks from pearson um so if you have if you have money in something if you're employed by someone um if you're going to gain basically from an action that the board is going to be taking because of what you have in your personal life that would be a conflict of interest or a question um years back uh maybe about six years ago my husband or maybe about seven years my husband had a a company um a painting construction company and there was some bid going out um to paint some buildings

089or something and my husband was going to put out to bid for highline and i was on the board and i said maybe it's not so good that you put out a bid because it was a substantial amount of money he had a big crew and so we decided not to put out a bid for it because i felt like it was a conflict of interest my husband putting out for a large amount of money for him to campaign for the building because what happened if he won that bid and then he would campaign and then of course somebody then would say well they only won that bid because angelica was a board president at the time and her husband want the bid and then there would be some public records requests and some an

090investigation and though even though he wouldn't have gotten it because of me because i don't get involved in that but it could be perceived that he got the work because of he was would that be something that could be perceived not really i would have to take the time to go do a little bit more research but in general that's exactly the kind of thing that you would want to disclose there are bid processes that sometimes can shield um someone from you would need to disclose but you would be able to be shielded from the decisions that were made but that's exactly you would you would want to disclose that 100 yeah yeah um the other question i had you had said around personal interest but it's also would it also apply to like interest

091of a company like if you're trying to promote a company or specific product conflict of interest all apply to that would also apply to that correct like if your company sells something or if you're trying to get visited by a product or something like that absolutely yeah anytime you're if you're influencing a decision of the board or decision of the district that would be problematic um so so basic the basic of this i'm already hearing some things that this is another policy that's fairly old and i think does need to be updated um i had an edit a little while ago 2012 um but i think that was its only yeah so it's based back to 1983 well just you know i'm getting old it's the decades fly by now um i think this this

092could definitely use some cleaning up and some clarity around some of these specific examples there's a also a comment at the end in number six that talks about the director or officer having a only a remote interest in a contract remote is not defined although it is defined in law and rather than having someone to figure have to figure out how to go find the right statute i would propose that we would define that in this policy both seattle and tacoma have defined it in their policy and it makes a lot of sense other districts have updated their policy more recently than this and we could definitely use some of those examples to update this yeah and we've also seen since last year or so of um situation happening in neighborhood districts their spouses of

093have had some influence on policies uh needed because of conflict of interest um and having some uh ended up being a uh in the paper and stuff i don't uh so uh i think it's important for us to really uh take a look at this but i'd like to go if it's okay with you if we could go through number one number two number three and then have some specific questions that we're not balancing i can already i have yes let's do it number one contract purchase of materials or activity paid for from school funds if the total volume received by the district officer or business does not exceed fifteen hundred dollars in a calendar month and the district will maintain a list of contracts under this paragraph can you give an example of that

094can i give an example i can give it because i was you know i had some time off so i was been reading a lot of the wasda policies in regards to what that constitutes let's say that i wanted to become um you know a coach for a high school team if i can i can be a coach if the reimbursement does not exceed the fifteen hundred dollars yeah and that it's part of the contract and everybody understands that so that would be an example that's actually a perfect example and i feel like that's the kind of thing we should throw into the policy because that's we have in fact had board directors who have done coaching um and this is yeah one of the things that i love about highline is the community nature

095of highline and this board and so it's very reasonable for a board director to also coach or tutor or correct um and in in part of what was it was showing was coaching but also being a substitute or a bus school bus driver the whole bit you know chipping in wherever they can to support and erin and i have both worked uh for districts where the there were board directors and their spouses were employees and you have to disclose but but that's okay i mean we're a pretty big employer it's not it can happen so so that's one that's a great example we will so we'll put that example in and then again it says maintain a list of all the contracts covered under this so we would want to just note director van coaches

096soccer at taii so everybody knows about that number two where i'm moving on i'm looking at you all number two is a technical one that i actually want to go back and see if that's eligible for a larger school district i think that may be one of the ones for a small school district so designated as a clerk or purchasing agent at the prevailing hourly wage i'm not sure if that applies to us say that again i'm sorry yes so the the basic thank you no director or superintendent this does quality this does apply to the superintendent as well may benefit from a contract made by through or under the supervision except as follows so except you could be a coach as long as you don't get more than 1500 dollars in a calendar month

097you can be a clerk or purchasing agent that would help fill some of the business services vacancies maybe um number three is being employed the spouse of the superintendent or director being employed as a substitute teacher on the same terms as everybody else and you can see if you're looking at that but for folks watching from home the superintendent has to find that that we need more substitute teachers in order to allow the spouse of a director or superintendent to be a sub it has to ensure that substitutes are assigned to available positions in a fair and impartial manner so that basically says your spouse or partner can be a substitute with the district as long as they go through the normal process of becoming a sub get assigned through the normal process of becoming

098a sub and aren't given any sort of preferential treatment i think the one word that stands out to me in number three is the word insufficient if there is insufficient amount of team or employees out there that we can't this this would be like resort yep yep exactly as long as we know we have a sub shortage which we do talk to kelly kelly if you're watching sorry uh number four is again about hiring um before a spouse of the superintendent or a director is employed the directors are advised of who else has applied for who else is qualified and we can't discriminate against anyone on the basis of their family relationship which is a good thing but all employment decisions are made on the basis of choosing an applicant that furthers the best interest

099of the district same really as with number three if your spouse is applying for a job you go through the normal hiring process with the exception of that you get told there were this many applicants for this position and and here's what here's what is how many applicants and and uh that no one was discriminated against again that the normal process for hiring was followed despite the person being a spouse uh and number five person employed by the district as a classified or certificated so if you are already an employee before your spouse becomes a director or the superintendent that contract that you have can be renewed again under the normal course of business so as long as your contract is renewed via the let's say you're a teacher you're just part of the normal

100hea contract you're not getting anything different or additional or less um you can continue to be an employment excuse me you can continue to be employed uh if your spouse becomes either the superintendent or a director question on that holly so i understand let's say the cba comes to uh just a renewal this next year and would the director need to recuse themselves from the the vote but if the cba um affects their spouse um i was just reflecting with my uh seat mate over here on because we have dealt with that before you would want to disclose that your spouse was part of that contract a hundred percent from the very beginning um we've seen directors deal with this both one by abstaining but also occasionally by voting with i think the one of

101the questions that i would have if if if it were me is is my spouse one of 1500 employees covered by this contract and i'm not benefiting any more or less than any other spouse of a teacher let's keep with the teacher example um and that nothing is being carved out for my spouse that's different based on the contract then you know disclosing but voting is probably fine i think if you're you know if you were talking about i don't know if the superintendent were wanting to bring forward an extra service contract for me and my husband was on the board that would be weird if if he voted on that right because it's it's me and one person yeah and i would be being treated differently than other school district employees so it's a

102little bit of situational but at a minimum you would want to disclose that your spouse was in that in that bargaining unit for example so just to clarify so it would it it would still give you permission to be able to vote as a spouse i mean we can it would be case by case for sure based on what the contract was that we were talking about and if there were questions we would definitely seek outside counsel okay um and so that would be one of the things where again you always want to disclose every time even if it's you know one cent is is at issue um and then again if there's questions we would seek outside counsel based on the individual circumstances uh that were in front of you so context context matters

103right if you're looking at 1500 employees that are part of that agreement versus maybe five um that totally it wouldn't yeah absolutely context is definitely definitely matters in that we just learned that we did although i was going to say that context is queen but i didn't get to write that slide and then the last one number six um is the one about having a remote interest in a contract and it's disclosed basically what that means is i've got a little tiny little bit of interest um and it's really not going to do anything for me so i'm telling you all about it um i'm disclosing it but i can still vote on the item i think it just makes sense to define remote interest because that's a very weird term um so chat gpt

104agrees oh yay thank you chat gpt but they are not always correct 99 percent of the time but it is smarter than us i mean sorry just might have to beg if it's agreeing with me i feel like it you know it's right right um so then you can see this it goes on don't be influenced to the earlier question that was coming up um don't attempt to influence a board action affecting employment status of people um hiring establishment compensation again this really just needs to be redone and cleaned up some of this language the other thing that we need to do and i used copilot to do this yesterday was to start a form that the directors would do um annually and then if any new director when any new director comes on board

105that would publicly disclose these things that would then be kept on file in dr gran's office um but i didn't want to bring in a form until we had this conversation um just to hear what your questions were because i think on the form we could oops i don't know where my form went on the form we could also list some of the examples so that it's really clear you know for example if you were if you were a coach that's okay just disclose it so yeah so the only thing i'd add is that uh once we have a revision of sort of where we where we think we're going to go this probably is a good one that we would want outside council to review just to make sure there hasn't been any new

106cases or new case law that guides this in one direction or another um so we would just want to get this one um reviewed also in the spirit of our last work session with artificial intelligence we created an agent in copilot and basically i've uploaded all the board polls in there so i asked the question what suggestions would be made of policy 1610 consultative interest so there's more up to date and current to any new laws so it definitely provided some ideas and suggestions they're one of them which holly just named around this kind of review and approval process a more rigorous review disclosure requirements training and education so very healthy kind of thing about this and um we'll have to dig deeper into the law portions that may be up to this 1983 and

107revise more recently i feel like there may have been some new laws since 1983 i didn't need that i didn't need ai to figure that part out though the agent he created this is what i mentioned at the work session that i used i used the copilot agent he created for the school board documents to create what we might look at or avoid in an ai policy it's really cool i want my own agent we can find figure out how to get you an agent so my thinking would be that i would we would do a revision of this send it to outside council create a form that includes some of these examples because i think this is helpful and bring it back to you would you want to see it i guess my question

108i'm asking a question i don't know the answer to always dicey as a part of the june board retreat or would you want to see it just have it come forward to you for introduction once we get everything looked at or i would like to have more of a discussion at it at the next retreat okay and then we can move it to intro or whatever the board desires at that perfect and i would just say i think rule of thumb is like for this conflict of interest if ever in doubt ask absolutely ever in doubt just ask and even if clearly if you have a doubt or think about asking it's because there's um a little bit of a something's telling you and i think that's my rule of thumb for anything is like

109there's ever a question or a doubt is like because something is telling you so i would just say go with you or well some people have or some people have this i'll leave it alone so with ever a doubt you are always better off to disclose that you have even like i said a one penny interest in a company or an organization and to just name it then to not name it always better to say it correct okay well then we will work on 1610 bring it back to you in june uh with revisions and with a forum and kind of as a okay great here's what we think should be discussion and then we can get it on the whatever upcoming agenda and then it will also be in place for the fall and

110everybody will be will be able to be up to speed well this is great um at this 1610 has been on um on a retreat agenda it's been on there for a while and i think this is perfect coming on because we we do have applicants that have spouses that work within the district and it's kind of solidifies this kind of codifies what what we're doing and just protect the district but also the director yeah and something that just came into my mind when we think about you know the conflict of interest it doesn't necessarily also have to mean that they are spouses or but i think that many of us especially that work out in community have partners who who work for partners of the that are partners of the district um that may

111come up for um grants or something that are working with the districts that also can be a conflict of interest um and so just thinking about all those little nuances that um don't come up until they come up and so uh i think it's a perfect uh opportunity for us to review this policy and then really bring it up so i think that i love bringing this up our next retreat then by then we'll have all new board members on we'll be able to go through it together the new revised one that will co-pilot my or a new agent might be able to give us new ideas but i think um this it's perfect time all right well we are 12 minutes ahead of schedule here this is great um any any questions or any

112additional comments to what we've discussed this morning okay well i hear and see none we're gonna break for uh lunch here um we'll reconvene at 11 30 and we'll start our interviews with uh district four and district five so with that said let's go lunch yes we get to eat well good eat good morning we're just coming back from break um welcome everybody to our board vacancy interviews thanks so much for being here this morning um dr gerand just to the right over here as well as director tidholm and director alvarez um we're going to start with the first round or the second round of interviews for district four and then move on to our new district five candidates we just want to make sure that the community had a voice in our process through

113thought exchange we invited input onto those questions and ask them from a variety of groups from there we identified key themes and created questions making adjustments for clarity into voiding duplications we asked the district four candidates these questions during the first round and we'll use those same questions for the district five candidates today in addition to some others so we will now interview district four candidates first and then district five um and then we'll do that by alphabetical names so we'll get started with district four we came back from lunch by the way from break hello how are you doing thanks i'm doing okay thank you so much for being here today i'm gonna ask you three questions and then give you an opportunity to ask the board some questions um there's not a time

114limit per question just a total time limit in order to be fair to all the candidates you'll hear a timer when the 15 minutes has expired so this is an opportunity for you to share a little bit more about yourself on the on the second round so the questions in front of you are in front of you so if you'd like to read along the first question is as a board member you will hear from many members of the highland community sometimes with diverging opinions how would you handle this situation and keep the superintendent and your fellow board members informed um so i think that this is something that will happen um i was here earlier for the retreat segment of this board meeting and um i have to say that i'm in agreement um

115there is a lot to gain from hearing from community and from hearing the areas of growth that we need to lean into as a board um and i think it's also important to balance that with the areas of progress those stories of family and student engagement and achievement that's really important um to give um foundational understanding of the data that is out there for everyone uh to make sense of um i think part of coming on to the board at this time in this context where there's an election happening in november so there's a brief time to build relationships with board members i think i would lean into really strengthening my communication and my relationships with you and the other directors so that there is opportunity to share what i'm hearing from my perspective as

116a new board member and from my district into the space thank you so much for that question number two while you are appointed to represent a specific district each of us represent the district as a whole known that we have community members that span a wide range of beliefs how would you balance listening to constituents and acting in the best interest of this entire student body that's a really good question um i spoke of this a little bit in my first interview in february i also heard it reiterated today earlier in the board meeting i think there's a common um shared value uh that we all have as people in the highland community as residents and as parents or caregivers of students we all want our kids to thrive to feel seen to be held

117and recognized and i think that that's the common thread that we could build off of we're all in it for the success of our children and our families and that's pure and there's no other way to go about building consensus in relationships than leaning into those shared values i think there are some similarities across the districts there are some differences that matter of course in terms of geography and in terms of access to resources and other opportunities but i think it's important to also hold on to those the similarities that we see across of the districts and i think that there are some common um main ideas that that that we could focus on i think about environmental equity when i think about our district we're in south king county we're exposed to a lot

118of environmental impacts to our children's health that's a common thread that we could build off of um also investments in our community south king county is um an area of the county that we can advocate for more access to to resources and and decision making thank you so much for that question number three two-part question here how would you approach being a new board member and what would you do in your first 30 60 90 days um i think that this is a really um important question and one to reflect on the 30 and the 60 90 days there are some differences in those um stages but there's a common thread and that's to learn and and build relationships and i don't think that that's contained into the first month or the for the two

119months or three months it's it's it's an it's an ongoing process um but for sure the 30 days that would be really invested in learning about the board policies and governance model um i heard earlier this morning that you all are leaning into those conversations uh throughout the year and into 2026 which is really important 2025 and 26 um i was being into also um being present in community and in schools as part of my onboarding learning from frontline staff educational staff and support staff and families and students and then at the 90 day mark uh do a self-evaluation as to what are my areas that i feel that i'm well versed in as a new board member and what are some areas where i could continue to ask for support and collaboration with uh

120you all um on the board thank you so much for that now we have approximately 10 minutes remaining um of of this um interview i'm going to give you an opportunity now um to ask the board um directors any questions that you may have in regards to what's going on so the floor is yours and the directors i'll give you guys both an opportunity to answer those no fighting over those questions so there we go okay well thank you i did have a set of questions i think many of the questions that i had were answered in the earlier morning session about the goals of the board for the rest of the year and upcoming years i heard you all respond to that um i know that the strategic plan is up for an update

121a renewal soon so i also heard about your plans to engage with that um so i'm going to lean into the latter half of my questions that i had and it's more about sort of individual views of you as directors and the superintendent um so at the end of your terms or um at the end of the school year or however it is that you want to measure uh your phase or the amount of time but what are some really important and key achievements that you want to see in your experience as a as a director as a leader and then for the district i can start us off um i would say i am most senior in age and in time on the board um i've been on the board now uh for a

122couple of terms and i feel like at every even after every year on the board um i do a lot of reflection around you know should i run again should i you know what is what is my next year look like um i love the opportunity to continue to build like you mentioned about relationships to me relationships make the world go round because there are a lot of things that impact um our district our students our families and i feel like um as long as we can keep an open conversation and an open dialogue whether we agree or disagree as long as we have a conversation we can figure out how to move things a lot of times when conversation uh breaks down we become paralyzed and then nothing happens and that's the worst thing

123we can do so i feel like for me i measure things around how can we keep things moving um and i feel conversations and relationships um are important and are key so and i think i also look at um where are we uh as far as with our board goals where are we with uh measures of progress in our um in our work that is being done we know there's still a lot of work we know that uh and even within our own board and even i think for me i find it really important whether i agree or disagree with my superintendent that relationships matter even with him because he also needs to feel that in order for him to do his job i am not um one who if i can't support him in

124doing we as a board i think i need to step back our job one of the main ones is to hire um a superintendent and it must be with trust absolutely to keep uh in many words uh and you know kind of in check as to what things are happening in the district but also to empower him and and give him the opportunity to make those bold um uh moves in order to continue to move our district forward and not to for him to be always thinking like i'm not able to do this because i don't have and so if he feels like he is uh doesn't have what he needs to make those decisions to in service of our kids in our district and our staff then we are prevented really in movement of

125our district right so i feel like that's how i measure like my growth and myself is like am i being someone who is preventing our district from moving forward or am i someone who is um asking the right questions but also helping and move them i hope that kind of yes and just for the record that was director alvarez since you're not on the screen yes director alvarez thank you thank you director alvarez and what's your name my name is vice president tid home thank you to answer your question um the end of the year i measure it um making sure you know taking a look at ajona and making sure i did not give her too many gray hairs throughout the year means that i did a decent job at least not that you

126have any gray hairs but i also would reflect on what director alvarez said does our superintendent feel supported do we have collaboration are we on the same page we have goals obviously so looking at the data has the data improved and i mean it's not something that happens overnight you know what are we doing i think they our cabinet and superintendent's really good well i don't think i know they're really good at keeping us up to date on what they're doing and how it's working and how they intend to pivot if something isn't working i also have babies at all levels of the school elementary middle and high school and i spend a lot of time um i am the self-proclaimed cool mom so i spend a lot of time at the schools just hanging

127out with the kids and at the different sporting events and a lot of the kids that even know me in the community don't know my position on the board so just talking to them like how are things going oh well you didn't like lunch that day well tell me more about it but really hearing like on the ground level how things are going from the students as well as the administrators and relationships relationships are really important with the students with our staff members with people at the schools at the district office and also with the community and elected officials and really trying to move forward and support and collaborate and advocate for different legislation that's going to support our babies thank you i'll finish off with this um you know our directors shared a lot

128about relationships that does matter i'm from the private industry so kpis mean a lot key performance indicators and in our communities looks at looks at that as well we did share a lot about our satellite our map and our street data but in each one of those we see progress right so how do we share that and show that success every stage or every area is going to look a little bit different but the needle is moving one of the things i look at from success standpoint it's not just our current students that are in the system now but it's our students that have already graduated um director alvarez says she's been in here for quite a few terms so when she reaches out to former graduates to ask where they're at and see that

129success but also see those struggles that is our gauge what are we working well what's not and then we bring that back to our superintendent said you know what this is what they said that kind of changes our our our path sometimes but there there's good and bad in that so i look at what we have now but what has also left our district and say did we do it right did we do right by our kids so that ends my my answer we have two minutes so you have another question that you would like to ask what are the top three qualities that you are looking for for your next director from district four i would say um collaborator um centering our kids and our families um and also looking for what's the where

130is our district going next i would also say collaboration is incredibly important to me as well as kindness somebody that can be kind regardless of the situation even if you are genuinely wronged treating people with respect is really important to me and then also somebody that understands that you know nothing um i mean not to say that i want to fool but somebody that comes into this understanding that whatever research you do and believe me i did plenty of google research and i had plenty of conversations before i got here but you really know nothing until you get in this position and you're in different situations and you start having to make these decisions and really just being open to understanding that you have to come in here with a clear mind and a clear

131slate but also obviously bring your experience and your expertise as a person as a parent community member degrees all of that and kind of just take that in collaboration to learn the job thank you those two and then mine would be to challenge us do it professionally and diplomatically there are things that we're doing well there are things there are opportunities but challenge us to become better i think that's what i would wow thank you so much thank you oh that concludes it thank you so much can we please have a round of applause for dr espinosa good morning how are you doing good morning i keep on i keep on wanting to say good afternoon for some reason but still morning so thank you so much for being here i'm going to ask you

132three questions and then give you an opportunity to ask the board some questions there isn't a time limit limit for a question at all just a total time limit of 15 minutes in order to be fair to all candidates you'll hear a timer when the 15 minutes has expired so the questions are in front of you if you want to follow along president van just for the record this is district four candidate um kenneth camp thank you thanks for clarification your first question as a board member you'll hear from many members of the highland community sometimes with diverging opinions how would you handle this situation and keep the superintendent and your fellow board members informed well i think as a board member that's it's understood that you're going to get all sorts of different opinions

133and philosophies coming at you but we're pretty much ruled by our policies and those policies state that we're supposed to work amongst ourselves and be in contact with the superintendent so how i would handle it would be you know the most professional way you can is by being informative to each and every person understanding that everyone has different opinions and those opinions don't necessarily mean that you have to agree but you do have to consider thank you so much for that question number two while you are appointed to represent of a specific district each of us represents the whole district as a whole knowing that we have community members that span a wide range of belief how would you balance listening to constituents and acting in the best interest of the entire student body that

134honestly i mean our job as a as a board is to is to take into consideration each and every district even though we're responding to our constituents and in particular as a whole body we need to look at the highline school district not just our our specific number four number five so taking that into consideration would be you know working as a person who goes between each and every district and looks at a whole picture the broad picture of what is best for the district as a whole not just your constituents and not just your the people in who have different opinions but looking at the whole broad picture and broad strokes looking at what's best as a board and then coming to a collaboration for that thank you so much for that so this

135third question has two parts here how would you approach being a new board member what would you do in your first 30 60 and 90 days well i think the hardest part about being a new board member is trying to immerse yourself into into the the new atmosphere so i think the first 30 days would be a learning curve it'd be asking questions and if if you let down your pride enough to be able to ask questions then you can learn from the people who've been doing it for some time 60 days i think would still be part of that learning curve would be learning procedures and how to speak intelligently at the board meetings and then 90 days would be really trying to immerse myself in learning all the policies that i possibly can

136committing them to memorization and learning how those work with state laws and then what our authority is to either write policies amend policies and do things like that but that all comes with learning and asking questions and trying to be as open-minded as appropriate as possible thank you so much for that response here so we have about 13 minutes remaining of of the time here with us i'm going to give you an opportunity to ask a couple questions to the board okay so i'm gonna give you the mic and there you go all right well my first one i mean i it's kind of a two-part question and this goes out to anybody who wants to answer um and maybe all of you want to put some input into this but um horse man says

137every addition to knowledge is an addition to the human power also thomas carlyle says a person without a goal is a ship without a rudder how do you guys see in the future as we look towards educating our district and going for academic achievement balancing between only going for a goal and not understanding that you need to also enjoy the ride of the of the cruise but also reaching out for a goal so you're not just all passion and no no destination thank you so much directors so um it's perfect timing for your question kenneth today we met and we every uh year we meet and we set board goals so we each have um our own um would say personal goals as to and and you know sometimes like as to why you want

138to join on a board or your own personal goals or achievements of what you want why you're doing what you're doing when i started i had kids in the in the district now i have grandkids that's how long i've been on the board but i think that and then we measure you know we measure what our goals are like but i think you're absolutely right you know if you don't have a goal to measure is how you're going to be uh supporting and leading a district so not only do we uh get together and as a board set our board goals but we also meet with our uh when we have our um retreats as we meet together to set the board goals our superintendent and um part of cabinet sits with us so we

139can uh also um in collaboration and and we have part of our uh retreats with our cabinet and we get to set a unit some of our goals uh they have we ask for their input as to how we are going to be i guess working on some of the goals to really look at our educational goals and moving the district and closing achievement gaps and all of that so we're not setting them blindly some of us require some of them to bring in data so we can look at the data and say what where are those gaps so we can really be setting intentional goals so and it's not just about how we feel or you know what our intention is but setting some uh goals that are going to be uh supporting our

140students growth as well and for the record that was director albert thank you thank you my name is vice president tidholm and um for me sorry um i mean we have fun clearly as you can see with each other i think we have a pretty good relationship amongst ourselves and we like to pick at each other here and there kindly um but for me i know that there's a lot of talk these days about focusing on literacy and getting back to the core of education and while i think these things are very important um i i personally you know being a social worker being a mother i like the human centered approach i heard somebody say that if you ever wondered what you would have done during the civil rights movements take a look at

141what you're doing right now today and i think that our district as a whole does a really good job on standing firm on our values and our morals and supporting our students and our community 100 unapologetically and i mean especially with like the social emotional learning um we do a really good job and are pretty far ahead of the curve in supporting our babies that way and there's a lot of talk about social emotional learning and what it doesn't it doesn't look like but what it looks like for me what it looks like for me is when my first grader was really struggling with some emotional things and got upset and through a chair in class rather than suspending him and putting him to tension he was pulled to the side in a corner in

142a room with somebody to have a conversation about what's going on why did you throw that chair and he was able to articulate i'm really frustrated and then okay we can have a conversation what are better choices that we can make when we feel these big feelings and how do we apologize to people that might have been scared or upset about that and maybe in the future you let us know i'm feeling a lot of things and we will have a safe space for you to go sit um because we want our kids to do well and we want our scores to go up but if kids are throwing chairs and getting suspended they're going to come back to school and keep continuing this behavior it's not going to change anything as opposed to getting

143to the root cause and how to actually support them as a whole holistically with the human-centered approach thank you thank you so much and then i'll just finish up on that um in regards to our goals you know we work with dr durand to set smart goals what is our stretch goals versus what our realistic and achievable goals are um our our stretch goal is going to be 100 at everything but it's what is our realistic and achievable goals and those may differ from one person to the next but guess what when they make those incremental changes we're going to celebrate them we're going to celebrate them with our students and our staff right um so that's how we set our goals and that's how we set our successes right at the end of every

144year one of the ways that our board and our superintendent and our staff gets rewarded is when we see our kids cross across go across that stage and receive their so talk about goals that is my success our success story and that's how um that's how i determine our kpi so okay with that you can ask a second question we have about another eight minutes or so uh no i mean uh when it comes to emotional development as opposed to along with academic achievement i believe that those things should be in tandem and you um you explain that you know as a as a young child i don't believe in detention as well but i do believe in consequences and so uh the pulling aside and and being able to articulate is good in a

145first grade setting but as far as a high school setting that has to evolve how do you guys uh put forward policies that will because i don't think detention as a high schooler is a great thing either or suspension but there's got to be some sort of uh correlation to being able to have the rest of the students achieve their academic goals while getting this person on track to make sure that they can achieve academic goals as well and be good in the community thank you directors love that question this is vice president tid home having experience working in law enforcement assisted diversion programs as a social worker i am a huge advocate of restorative justice but i also understand that there do need to be consequences people can't just be allowed to do whatever

146they want to do regardless of their emotional state so i have been very intentional and done a lot of work in my time here on trying to connect our law enforcement partners with our schools and to repair the relationship so that if there is an issue at school rather than calling 9-1-1 and having the police kick the door in they can actually call the corresponders directly which can which is including a detective and a social worker who will show up and already have relationships with the schools and have conversations with these kids i also sit on a steering committee for this program called link which offers like wraparound supportive care for the children so that they get intensive case management and resources if they're struggling at home and they need rental assistance or food or

147whatever that might look like that's contributing to them being stressed and acting out at school giving them the wraparound care giving them legal support if they end up in a legal system giving them incentive to stay out of trouble like connecting them to different partnerships if they like dance or an internship helping them write their college applications but different things so that even if they are involved in the legal system they have support so that they're not cycled through the system because a lot of these kids frankly they're making these choices because they see it at home or they just don't have the support at home so that they have you know a a supportive person and group around them so that they are dealing with the legal consequences but also has something to fall

148back on so they're not just making the same decisions thank you and i think i'll add to that i know that um years back we changed our policy so we didn't have just automatic suspension so we have uh cut down on the out of school suspensions to in-school suspension so instead of having an extra time to be home doing nothing having in-school suspension so they could catch up on some work and also they that is a consequence so um i feel that now having extra additional um i guess support in schools so while they do have consequences they're also not being sent home to do nothing yeah and that was director albert and director albert right so we got about 30 seconds left and i'll just end um with this is that we we evolve

149right um with what vice president tidholm said is this working alongside our subject matter experts out there going what's working uh we look at what other districts as well as other states are doing so we are evolving i believe that consequences from a first grader to a 11 12th grader is going to be vastly different so just being able to work alongside but also listening to our students what works for them but also hold them accountable we all have kids that are in the system and i know when i was when i was younger what what could have changed my pathway and and just talking with them and understanding to make that all right thank you all right thank you so much well that concludes our district four interviews can we please have a round

150of applause all right we're going to move on to our district five applicants we have two and we'll get started with those come please have a seat we're going to be interviewing interviewing megan demarotes for district five with that said welcome today thanks for being here i'm going to be asking you three questions and then give you an opportunity to ask the board some questions here your interview is in three parts total of about 20 minutes the first part includes 20 questions you'll have one minute to answer each one of them just correction president van the first part includes six questions i should read this all the way through yes the first part includes six questions you'll have one minute to answer each of those questions those questions are in front of you if you

151would like to read along in order to be fair to all the candidates you'll hear a timer when your time to answer it has expired for each question so the first question is this theme is coming from our principals how do you find how you define equity how do you imagine this would look like in high line schools and how would you leverage your position to fulfill high lines problems okay thank you so much for having me here i am incredibly nervous but to answer the question um in in this context my first thought about equity has to do with students and ensuring every student has access to high quality education despite the situation they're born into i also think about families and ensuring all families are able to access information resources and opportunities provided

152through the district and ensuring that all district employees feel heard seen and considered in the same way or in an equitable way as a board member i would support this by supporting policies and strategies that allow for different approaches based on the strengths and needs of individuals president van one second please sure no problem okay moving on to question number two this question thing comes from our community the board has one employee part of the board's role is to hold is is to hold the superintendent accountable by evaluating his annual performance what are some academic or other data points that are relevant relevant to that conversation um i think first of all i would trust that the superintendent has been thoroughly trained and vetted there's years of education that going into that go into being

153in that role they go through a national search process they go through an intense interview process and are then hired based on the fact that their values are aligned with the district so i think as a board member i would want to be setting policy that guides the work of the superintendent towards the expectations that they're expected to fill so um that would those those i think are pretty clearly lined outlined in the strategic plan i think in addition to those measurable outcomes that are outlined is listening and um hearing from staff students and families and how they feel the superintendent in the district is doing in um advancing the strategic plan and meeting the highline promise thank you so much this third question comes from our superintendent student leadership team what is a pressing

154issue within the district that you believe needs to be addressed i would imagine that a lot of the changes that are taking place at the federal level um might be very unsettling and topic of conversation amongst the board right now the dismantling of the department of education the funding of programs that promote success for students in highline as well as funding for the district and just how do we ensure confidence in the community that they will continue to be able to serve the way that we have said they'll be served that they're safe to come to school and um yeah i think i think there's just going to be a lot of continued conversation and contingency planning around that okay thank you fourth question fourth question comes from our teamsters as a potential school board

155member how do you intend to engage with and support classified staff i think listening and supporting classified staff it's in the same with the same level of respect and consideration as any other district employee i deeply feel and understand that the work of classified staff is foundational to the success of our students in the district thank you so much fifth question comes from our family action committee what do you feel that are the most important qualities and abilities in a superintendent i think that that aligns with the qualities and abilities of any leader across sectors that they are able to recognize strength in others and empower them to take action that they inspire others that they're known and trusted in the community that they are able to listen and seek out diverse perspectives especially people

156who might not currently be at the table um and that they're also able to see the bigger picture and bring together all the moving parts and a way that is going to be able to move the mission and strategic plan forward all right thank you very much last question this question themes are from both the highline education association as well as the superintendent student leadership team how will you ensure that school board policies uphold the rights of students to feel safe welcome and valued and ensure that each and every student gets a high quality education i think the key to accomplishing a goal like that is to ensure as a board member ensure that i'm upholding policy and supporting the work of the superintendent and district staff to fulfill the highline promise to know every

157student by name strengthening thank you well this second part of your interview includes two additional questions and an opportunity to ask the board some some follow-up questions there's no time limit per the question just a total of about eight minutes the timer will beep at the end of the eight minutes so the first question is why you're you are appointed to represent a specific district each of us represents the district as a whole knowing that we have community members that span a wide range of beliefs how would you balance listening to constituents and acting in the best interest of the entire student body i think that i would enter conversations with an open mind and as a listener i think that more than my i i would let district policy guide me in conversation with

158other board members and collaboration and communication kind of guide how how we take that feedback and where we go with it thank you very much question number two is how would you approach being a new board member what would you do in your first 30 60 and 90 days interesting um okay i would i'm i am very excited to learn more about what it looks like to be a board member and um so first 30 days i would love to talk to as many people as i can to get a clearer picture of what that looks like i'm definitely deferring to the experts who are currently on the board um and i i think 60 days starting to jump in more and 90 days you know i would hope at that point having a really

159clear uh involved vision and and being part of the decision making process thank you very much so i'm going to give you some time here to ask the directors any questions that you may have so or is yours okay well there are a million so um i i guess one meet one question i have is just as as a board member um what what are have you been able to accomplish that you're really proud of that keeps you driven and to continue to do the work i'll jump in um my name is angel who am i every single time i forget to say my name is angelica alvarez um director alvarez um i would say one of my biggest i feel like for me accomplishment has been able to see i think uh having the

160seal of bilig by literate bilingual by literate that was signed on years back was something that i was really proud of uh i think coming from a state where you were actually paddled for speaking spanish to coming to having that uh just stamped on your uh diploma that you are able to that you graduated being bilingual by literate um having being part of that was like huge for me just personally but uh then having it uh seen and as students walk across the stage for me was just like i every time i see go to graduations and see the kids walk across the stage it's just it it just fills my heart and to think that you know a lot of them no one knows what it what it took for some of our students

161to walk across the stage knowing that i've known some of the personal stories where some of them have had to work two jobs some of them have quit school and come back and you know for some it's they say oh i was thriving when i was going to school and some of them were barely surviving and to see some of our kids in the big old smile and just you know the happiness that's so for me just seeing some of our kids walk through the stage and knowing what they had to go through my name is vice president sid home um i am just starting my second year my first term so i'm so relatively new to the learning curve but one thing that i was intentional about when i came on was going to

162serve lunch at all the schools um and really showing my face not only in my district but my district within the district but throughout the district and having been incredibly involved in my baby's education from day one and i currently have a sophomore so we've been around for a little bit um a lot of the kids in the community already know me so to go out to the schools and to different community events and to speak to the kids and at graduations and for them to either know me or hear my story and where i came from um i think that is the most impactful it literally brings me to tears for the kids to see me in this position and to have a different perspective on their future and the potential and really encouraging

163the civic engagement my son loves to come to board meetings a lot of people say that i use him for my campaign but that baby used me and if you met him you know so just having the baby see me in this position and see them light up and know that they have an advocate and that they have a voice and learning how to use it has been my most proud moments thus far thank you so much but i'm gonna add on to that i think uh vice president hit home said it that word that resonates with me is impact being impactful when you can go out to our schools and seeing our students working alongside dr duran and our staff seeing that impact but like i shared earlier is not just what is in

164the district but our students that have left timeline right that graduated where are they now where are they at now and how did we impact as a parent of two kids that graduated our impact was great there were some things that we could have worked on and i shared that with dr duran and we made some changes so learning from what we are our past students have have done moving it to our future students so um being able to learn from our past so any other questions that you would like to ask thank you all very much for that um another question i am letting my nerves get to me a little bit um i just am wondering when you started in this role what was something that um what's something that's come up that

165you're really passionate about and have to continue you have to make sure you continue to stay focused on it great question i will add um when i first started one of the things i really um this is director alvarez i don't um uh was about uh continuing to engage our community into our process and and hearing their voices and um just the transitions either from early learning or to into our district or just the transitions that they move on and there's times when i get so focused into what's happening that i forget um and also to always mention i don't always mention about you know what i bring or who i am as you see i don't always even talk about who i am my name but and what i bring we all bring our

166life experiences and our stories and a lot of even members of our community or even board members from each other forget to talk about who we are you know and what we bring i have over 30 years experience working in education i have a master's in educational leadership i currently work in education and a lot of people don't know that and so and what i bring um and so i think i don't uh talk about much about that because i always was brought up that you stay humble and don't forget you know where you came from and so i think that that's something i forget to bring even into our conversations and uh and i think it's important that people hear that um a lot of i get questions about you know at times like

167we need people on the board that's in education and i'm like yeah we do and i am um so i think i always try to bring back about yes uh and thank you thank you do i get an answer are we just done for time i'm gonna give you 30 seconds thank you joe for me director who are you i wasn't done yet thank you director van my time hasn't started yet president van i am vice president tid home for me it's empowering the babies of civic engagement i will try to be quick but one of my favorite quotes that i've heard is to say that you empower somebody means that you hold the power that when you leave the room you take that power with you so for me it has been empowering these

168babies in teaching them and creating space and removing barriers very intentionally and leveraging my position and my power to do so so that they can be empowered in themselves and use their voices and encouraging them to do so um like i said a lot of the babies in the neighborhood know me but a lot of them outside of my neighborhood don't so if i'm at my kids basketball game i might start chatting with the kid and ask them what they like and they find out who i am and get scared but i encourage them to reach out because we listen um and some of them actually will reach out and send emails or come speak at board meetings um so that's my passion projects i apologize that was longer than 30 seconds well thank you

169so much uh can i please get a round of applause for megan thank you oh that's it okay oh my so the alarm went off my apologies um for the third and final part okay this is an opportunity for you to share a two-minute description of why you are the best candidate to be appointed to the role of the board member there you go thank you i'm going to read this um so in summary i'm driven by equity and have experience that will allow me to effectively contribute to the work of the district expand on that i don't know if i'm the best candidate i just met blaine he seems really great um i hope this process provides you with enough information to choose the person who would be best to work in collaboration with

170the other board members to support the superintendent in their work to uphold the highline promise and move the strategic plan forward i believe my values align with the values of the district and in combination with my dedication to uplifting student family and community voice i'm a strong candidate for the role most importantly i'm driven by the belief that is a as long as a child or person's outcome can be predicted by the situation they're born into there's work to be done i'm deeply committed to equity and believe in the transformative power of education to break generational cycles of poverty i bring a unique combination of experience with me to this role as a parent of three children who attend school in the district a community member and a professional with a master's in social work

171i've been working with young people and families in and around the education for 15 years i'm a former district employee having been the college and career specialist at highline high school and learning through internship coordinator at big picture high school i ran an after-school tutoring program and oversaw the family resource center in the seattle housing authority community in high point my husband's a former district administrator having been part of the founding team of big picture high school and middle school in his current role he coaches district leaders across the nation further enriching my perspective of challenges facing districts as well as increasing insights to the district operations and its strategic planning i'm currently employed as the director of college unbound washington over the last two years i have successfully launched college unbound in washington state

172navigating higher education policy and state authorization while making adjustments to internal systems that have been thank you thank you so much can i now get a round of applause for megan thank you thank you so much thank you thank you can i ask for journey to come back to help me out well good afternoon welcome blaine holand for district five candidate thanks so much for being here today so your interview is in three parts for a total of approximately 20 minutes the first part includes six questions you'll have about a minute you'll have one minute to answer each question the questions are in front of you so if you'd like to read along in order to be fair to all the candidates you'll hear a timer when your time when your time to answer has

173expired for each question so we're going to start off with the first question this question comes from our principles how do you define equity what do you what do you imagine this would look like in the highland schools and how would you leverage your position to fulfill highland's promise well thank you everyone for that question i'm happy to be here i think first and foremost acknowledging that inequities do exist and addressing those disparities is crucial we all live in a very diverse district and making sure that we have students feel safe valued successful and our job here is to make sure that they have the tools necessary to achieve those thank you second question comes from our community the board has one employee part of the board's role is to hold a superintendent accountable by

174evaluating his annual performance what are some academic or other data points that are relevant to that conversation thank you for that question for dr durand i would like to be looking at some key performance indicators monitoring the strategic goals looking at the dashboard on what what we are given um a great example would be um i would say looking at absenteeism um so we can actually have data points um the ultimate goal though is to build trust with dr durand um we need to work together um so everyone succeeds in the rules that is crucial because the board and working directly with dr durand is vital thank you the third question comes from our superintendent student leadership team what is a pressing issue within the district that you believe needs to be addressed thank you

175for that question um i think there are a couple major issues um the feeling of belonging i looked at uh sort of the kpis online of where the gap to goal is for the goal and it looked like that was a pretty big discrepancy but we have to also look at the budget that's going to be a big thing that we have to address as a community um as a board and collaborating working together to fix those is going to be crucial thank you this next question comes um theme comes from our teamsters as a potential school board member how do you intend to engage with and support classified staff thank you for that question um our classified staff are the backbone to our district without them we we would not be able to properly

176educate and teach our children of the community and i would love to take my two-year-old on a bus i would love to take her to the cafeteria and collaborate and talk to the teamsters and work together alongside all of the board members to create a better um i would say working relationship thank you this next question comes from our family action committee what do you feel that are the most important qualities and abilities of a superintendent thank you for that question i think the two most important aspects for the superintendent to be able to achieve is building relationships within the community and logistics relationships would be open lines of communication visiting schools visiting with parents visiting with students logistics obviously would be the smooth operation of the district the handling of the budget working with

177his cabinet or her cabinet and i think looking at macro versus micro issues is vitally important from the superintendent's standpoint thank you so thanks so much for that and that's uh this is the last question that comes from both our highland education association as well as our superintendent student leadership team question is how would you ensure that school school board policies uphold the rights of students to feel safe welcome and valued and to ensure that each and every student gets a high quality education that's a great question thank you um i would say i have a lot of experience of balancing different needs across different um different people different groups um different entities and i think talking with educators talking with the teamsters talking with the administration the board dr duran that is how i

178think we would be able to collaborate and i would also learn there's a lot of experience on this board and i think we have to work together and i would love to learn more from everyone on the board because there are a lot of experienced people thank you so much for that so that concludes our our first part the second part of your interview includes two additional questions and an opportunity to ask the board some questions there's no time limit per question just a total of about eight minutes the timer will beep at the end of the eight minutes go so first question is while you're appointed to represent a specific district each of us represents a district as a whole knowing that we have community members that span a wide range of beliefs how

179would you balance listening to constituents and acting in the best interest of the entire student body thank you for that question i think that i would be leaning heavily on fellow board members dr duran the community as a whole because ultimately we want to make sure that our students are looked after i would want to be looking at equity and making sure that every student does have or is achieving the highline promise of knowing their name their strength their need and achieving whatever they want to do after they graduate or move on to anything um but i would be able to hone in and spend time with everyone involved um because it's all about learning and listening to students and faculty and everyone so thank you the second question is how would you approach being

180a new board member what would you do in your first 30 60 and 90 days thank you for that question um i i come from the private sector led a fairly large sales team and i would always ask this question i really like to look at it from you listen you look you learn and those are the three l's the first 30 60 and 90 days however you need to also be reaching out to everyone involved you want to create relationships with all of us on the board dr duran and ultimately i would be wanting to spend time in schools sit down have weekly or bi-weekly or once a month coffee meetings and just listen and then i would like to spend more time learning the rules of governments or the governance the policies that

181we have in place thank you so much we have approximately six minutes left and this is an opportunity for you now to ask the board directors some follow-up questions that you would like to hear from them so i'm mike is yours you have about six minutes awesome thanks president van to i would say dr duran what are your biggest strengths and weaknesses so me i'll be interviewed again so i was thinking strings we actually talked about that this morning at the opening of our um board retreat today and it would tie director van aster on our superpowers were so probably for me i think some of it ties into i think building relationships you know but i also feel that from a system perspective i'm i'm really good at being able to look at technical

182aspects of the work that need to be done coupled with the holistic cultural aspect around how everything that we do is human center we are in the human development business so being able to lay out the strategy while still thinking about the culture and the work that we need to be doing to ensure that people are coming along with us and are brought into the vision around what we're trying to accomplish here and highlight i think from uh i would call more so challenges and opportunities is how i think about it you know and i would say that um you know we have a long ways to go in terms of the work that we're trying to do to achieve for our students we're nowhere near the pre-pandemic levels that we have from achievement levels

183so i would say just the opportunity to keep digging in keep learning lean leaning in and learning from other places around what we can do to be better um i think a really great example of that is that recently the nape um scores came out you know and of the over 12 000 school districts in the united states 140 of them were identified as actually being where they were prior to the pandemic so really we've been digging into that and just learning what were those districts doing i mean think about that's like barely one percent of the school districts in the nation are where we were pre-pandemic so it's a really rare situation to be in that place but i definitely want to be learning from those other districts and seeing what we can do

184to adjust the work that we're doing here in highland awesome thank you for that response uh president van what um what drew you to becoming the president of the school board i was told um our directors appoint the president of every year so i was given an opportunity with the blessing of our two directors as well as the other two former directors to represent the board wonderful thank you um director alvarez since you've been on the board for roughly 15 years is that accurate um i would love to learn so much and hear your story i've been told by a handful of people about your story um and what what things do you bring to the board that others do not i would say that my name is angelica but as director alvarez thank you

185yeah um i would say that one of the things that um we all have and i keep saying unique stories and i and i try to say all the time that our stories are important so uh to be honest when i first started on the board i didn't come uh and i never even been to a board meeting before i got elected and i feel like the only reason i came on there was a group of parents uh and i will say latino parents who felt uh they needed some representation and i didn't even know what it took to be on a board i am not originally from washington i thought you needed to be a washingtonian you know born raised knew nothing about politics about politics and i think my story comes from just

186a minute yeah so my story comes from not that i think everybody comes not that others can't come and others can bring but for me was about just uh having representation on the board uh and being actually kind of well and told to come uh and bring um representation on the board but again i think everybody can bring their own stories uh but for me it's my passion to be in service of uh and i think uh others can bring the same but staying humble and i think learning from one another i still have so much to learn that's a wonderful response um director did home is that correct um thank you all for being here home yeah um i have one question for you what do you see is the most pressing issue within

187the school district at this moment besides the unenrollment uh moving to the private sector and also budgetary constraints outside of those two what do you see i'll say we're actually doing pretty good in terms of budget compared to a lot of other districts thank to thank to our lovely superintendent who yes we're doing pretty well um i think the biggest issue for me i mean there's so many different pieces but ultimately the community the board the superintendent our babies all having the same goal of wanting to succeed and to thrive and not everybody being on the same page as what that looks like but more so not being on the same page because i mean we all are not always going to agree but the contention that it's not a focus on the main goal

188but some people just standing hard on how we get there and not being amenable to any kind of pivoting um like we all want the same goal can we come together collaboratively to get there because nobody wins when the family feuds thank you for that thanks for everyone for being here today as well all right blaine so for the third and final part of your interview please share a two-minute description of why you're the best candidate to be appointed to the role of the board thank you for that question um i come from very humble beginnings um i am the only member of my family to graduate from a university uh proud huskies i sort of wore my purple today because of that um i worked pretty much full time from the moment i was

189able to actually work i set out a goal um roughly when i was in eighth grade um that i wanted to move to cf i like the diversity i liked the people i really loved the music too uh and i worked and worked and i i was in a public school um and eventually in 2004 when i was very i was still pretty darn young uh i moved here um i dragged along my brother and didn't know anyone um i wanted to build a family i found a community that i really loved um like i said i went to the university of washington i started at north seattle community college um in political science and economics um and i met my lovely wife who is a teacher within the district of 10 years i have

190a two-year-old and i want to make sure that i'm ingrained within the community we moved to north hill in 2022 um and i think that with my experience of understanding listening learning um is vital to a position like this um trying to leave things at the door and make sure that you focus on the children the families the communities the stories that they bring to the table it it doesn't really matter sort of like what you brought up it doesn't really matter about yes thank you all right well thank you so much can i please get a round of applause for blaine well thank you so much that concludes our interviews today um thank you for all the candidates for being here and we truly appreciate your willingness to step forward your commitment to our

191schools and our students means a lot so the board plans to vote on the new appointments on march 19th at our next board meeting the oath of office will likely be on march 24th the new directors for district four and district five will serve until november of 2025 election that's when the newly elected members will take their oath again we appreciate your time and your dedication for being here today uh but now the board's going to recess into executive session we don't anticipate any action being taken at the end of the executive session so i move that the board immediately recess into executive session for 60 minutes until 1 43 pm in accordance with provision of rcw 42-30.110 the purpose of the executive session is to evaluate the qualifications of candidates for appointment to elective

192office do i have a second a second all those in favor aye any opposed we have none thank you everybody for being here the board is now moving into executive session directors can i please have you up in the olympic room please you're good all right well good afternoon everybody thank you so much we are done with our execs executive session um can i please have a motion to adjourn i make a motion all in favor i second you can't second your own motion okay um can i please have a motion to adjourn i'll second all those in favor aye all right i need uh consensus can you please say aye hi any of those opposed we have none thank you so much um we are adjourned