001Good evening, everybody. Welcome to our regular scheduled board meeting on Wednesday, December 13th. Can you please stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance? I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the-- This is the fun part. Roll call, please. Director Tidholm Present. Director Hagos. Here. Director Alvares. Here. Director Petrini. Here. Director Vain. Here. And to my left is Dr. Duran, our superintendent. 1.4. This is approval of the minutes of the November 15th board meeting. I make a motion we approve our November 15th, 2023 board meeting minutes. OK, roll call. I'll need a second. I second that. Roll call, please. Director Hagos. Yay. Director Petrini. Yes. Director Tidholm. Yay. Director Alvares. Yes. Director Van. Yay. This motion passes five to none. Thank you. All right 1.5. This is election of our new board officers. But I just
002want to welcome our newly elected directors onto the board. That was a great event earlier, and looking forward to working with all of you. So with that said, I'm going to hand this over to Dr. Duran. Great. Thank you, Director Van. I'll start with just going over some of the election process for tonight. Before I open the floor for nominations, I'd like to review the election process. For each officer position, President and Vice President, I will take nominations from the board. A second is not required for the nomination, but it can be made. After all the nominations are made for a position, there will be an opportunity for directors to provide comments before voting. After comments have been concluded, the board will vote for each position in order the nominations were made. By law and
003board policy, the voting will be conducted by a roll call vote. The voting will conclude at the point when one nomination gets three or more votes. After the President has been elected, we will move on to the Vice President. In summary, for each position, there will be nominations, then discussion, and then voting. At the conclusion of the election process for all the positions, each new officer will have an opportunity to provide remarks. Election of the President. Nominations are now in order for the Office of President. Are there any nominations for board President? I make a motion, or make a nomination for Angelica Alvarez as board President. Are there other nominations for President? I'd like to make a nomination of Azieb Hagos. Are there other nominations for President? If there are no more nominations, I close
004the nominations for President. Would any directors like to make comments at this time? All right. Adriana, please call the roll for the vote for Director Alvarez for President. Director Petrini. Nay. Director Hagos. Yay. Director Alvares. Yay. Director Todholm. Yay. Director Van. Yay. This vote passes 4-1. To with that vote, congratulations on your election as President, Director Alvarez. Nominations are now in order for the Office of Vice President. Are there any nominations for Vice President? Can you turn? Hello, my apologies. I'd like to make a nomination for Joe Van for Vice President. Are there other nominations for Vice President? I would like to nominate Azieb Hagos as Vice President. Are there other nominations for Vice President? If there are no more nominations, I close the nominations for Vice President. Would any directors like to make any
005comments at this time? Adriana, please call the roll call for the vote for Joe Van for Vice President. Director Tidholm. Yay. Director Alvarez. Yay. Director Hagos. Nay. Director Petrini. Nay. Director Van. Abstain. No, hold on. Yeah. Yep, and with an abstain vote-- Can we hold on that vote? So the nomination would not pass by a vote of two, two, one. It was 3-1. It was 2-2. 2-2. It's 2-2. Oh, man. The re-vote? Yeah. Re-vote. OK, we will revolt the process. So Adriana, please call the roll call for the vote for-- Vice President. For Vice President for-- we're going to go to the next candidate. Correct? Was there confusion in process on the last one? I'm trying to-- We have two votes yes, two votes no, one abstain. So that vote would not pass, so then
006I think we would move to the-- if there was confusion in process, like if directors did not understand what they were voting on, we could re-vote on that. If not, we would move to the next nomination for the second Director. I make a motion that we re-vote for-- we redo what we just did. I second the motion. OK. We should do a roll call for that. All right. So justify the-- This is for the re-vote. Re-vote for Vice President for Van, Director Van. Correct. So roll call, please, for that motion. For the motion? OK. Director Tidholm. Yay. Director Alvarez. Yay. Director Hagos. Nay. Director Petrini. Yay. Director Van. Yay. All right. This motion passes 4-1. OK. With the four votes, congratulations on your election, Vice President Director Joe Van. I would like to report that
007the officers for the Board of Directors for 2024 are President Angelica Alvarez, Vice President Joe Van. I would now like to invite our newly elected officers, beginning with the President, to offer any remarks that they would like to make. So I want to thank everyone for their vote in confidence, and also, just to say that I don't take this position lightly. This has been a journey I've been on now for 14 years. I'm not the first time I've been President, but definitely every time is something new. Our district has changed and evolved, and so I'm grateful to have an opportunity to continue to lead, but not lead by myself, but lead as a board. So thank you, everyone, for your vote in confidence. Thank you. Director Van? Yeah, just I want to thank the entire
008board, as well as former Director Howell and Garcia for an opportunity for being board chair this past year. It has been a great opportunity for me to learn as board directors, but also meeting out there with our community, our constituents. Tough conversations out there, but it was good conversations around. And guess what. We didn't see eye to eye on a lot of stuff, but we did see eye on others. So thank you for that opportunity, and looking forward to this next school year, or this next calendar year as your vice chair. Thank you. I now turn the meeting back over to the 2023 board President Director Van. The new board President will start the role at the next regularly scheduled board meeting. Thank you, Dr. Duran. We're going to move on to our recognitions, our
009school presentation, Valley View Early Learning Center. Can I have Dr. Reinig come on up? Director Van, were there no changes to-- you skipped 1.6. 1.6. I apologize. I was jumping down to the next thing. Are there are any changes or additions to the board agenda for this evening? I hear and see none. Thank you very much. Thank you. OK, now to our school presentation. Dr. Reinig? Good evening, directors, superintendent Duran. It is my real pleasure to introduce you all to principal Kimberly Nelson from Valley View, who I believe will point out a wonderful crew of staff and supporters here, as she gives a chance to share about the exciting work that's happening. So welcome, principal Nelson. I first wanted to just thank you for allowing us this opportunity to share the great work that's happening
010at Valley View. Our staff is living the promise every day at Valley View and in Highline Preschool. And yes, I do want to introduce our team of people that were able to come tonight. None of the work that we're going to talk about tonight could happen without all the wonderful staff and families that are interacting with our preschool students every single day. Valley View is a special place because of all of these people. The last time I presented at the school board was in 2018. This is my 10th year in Valley View and in Highline. And in those 10 years, we've seen a lot of changes in pre-K across the district. We have adopted curriculum and an adopted aligned assessment, which was not happening prior to that time. Preschool is an incredible place. One of
011the ways that we're delivering on the Highline promise at Valley View and through our staff mission-- sorry, I need to just take a breath. We're delivering on the Highline premise at Valley View through keeping our mission and vision alive every day in the work that we do. We work with Highline's youngest learners to create respectful relationships, and set a course for the future they choose. Our members seek to interrupt racism, to teach children to be comfortable with their identity, and the identity of others. When I asked the teachers what they are most proud of and how we're living the Highline promise, they're proud of their collaboration and their teamwork, how they work together for every single student to meet the needs of the kids at our building. And our staff truly know every student and
012family by name, strength, and need. Our continuing promises and priorities are to create environments where our youngest Highline learners and their families have a safe space where they can build strong relationships and feel safe to be who they are. We welcome families to be contributing members in our school and community. We're able to meet these priorities by building a culture of belonging, utilizing innovative learning opportunities, where children can learn alongside their same-age peers, and honor every person's identity, language, and culture. One of the ways we work to build this culture of belonging is through our robust family engagement and our professional learning opportunities for all staffs. Classified and certificated staff alike learn together. At Valley View, in lieu of a PTA, we have a family committee. And that family committee is driven not by membership
013fees. It's driven by every single person in our building. And ECEAP is part of the committee and we invite people to access their opportunities in multiple ways. So one of the most important ways for families to engage at Valley View is through committee meetings. We prioritize offering a variety of opportunities to families to volunteer, connect with one another, connect with staff, create learning opportunities, and grow leadership skills. We set aside money that would typically be used for after school events or curriculum nights, and we ask families to decide how we would use that money. So families get to decide when we meet, how long we meet, how often we meet, what the topics are, if we need to spend money to provide child care. They have the decision making factor. At our first family meeting
014of the school year, we had over 112 participants. Having families involved in their child's education is building a culture of belonging. This culture of belonging starts with our recruitment and enrollment process. Our team spends countless hours in the community encouraging families to enroll in Highline Public Schools. As you know, kindergarten kids come on their 5th birthday, but preschool kids have families have the option to enroll. And so our families are out recruiting and telling them how wonderful it is to be part of Highline. During the process, families set goals beyond education. Sorry, I bumped it. Beyond education. Few examples are finding secure housing, bill pay assistance, acquiring employment, and so much more. The family support specialists help families find resources to meet these goals during their time in ECEAP. The staff at Valley View are
015innovative thinkers. We have over 124 preschoolers with IEPs at our school. And in surrounding districts, these preschoolers would be served in a developmental pre-K classroom in a separate classroom. At Valley View, through creative thinking of staff members, collaboration, and continued efforts, students have the access to general education curriculum in the least restrictive environment, meaning each child has access to learn alongside their same-age peers. We work hard to honor our family's home language. We do this through offering interpreters at all school events, no matter the size of the group. We've often had coffee hours where one or two families come, but there's an interpreter ready to help support them. Through our ECEAP budget, we're also able to provide bilingual instructional assistance for students. They're there to interpret the instruction from the teacher to the student in
016their home language. We prioritize hiring multilingual staff members with a focus on those that are former or current family members. Students come as early as their third birthday. Their futures are wide open and full of promise, and we cherish each and every child that comes through our doors, and we work to keep the possibilities wide open. Valley View has an impact on the system through rigorous instruction and opportunities for students to learn in all areas of development. Our school-wide data from 2022 shows growth for students in every area of development. Rather than show you charts and graphs, I wanted to show you, tell you some stories about what makes it so great at Valley View. I'd love for you to know that students often start as scared three-year-olds, and leave Valley View strong, independent learners
017ready for kindergarten. At Valley View, we have the opportunity to support all learners. We use tiered systems of support, and if a child is still not meeting their age level expectations, we can meet and help the family to access specially designed instruction through special education processes before they enter kindergarten. So those students are entering kindergarten with a strong instructional plan in place. Another amazing impact that the Valley View system has on Highline is through our hiring practices. Valley View staff are impacting our youngest learners in so many ways. This is an example. It's a fun example of one of the incredible humans that works at Valley View. She was a ECEAP student at Valley View. She's gone on to graduate from Highline Public Schools, and is now back as an assistant teacher at Valley View.
018Now I wanted to share with you. We had an opportunity to ask some of our family members what made Valley View so special. I want to share, have them share with you. When I sent my kids here to Valley View, I feel like I'm sending them home, not like somewhere else. So my first, my second, and now I have a new baby, I will send him again here. A big part of it is parent meeting. I'm always attending for parent meetings. I have great experience, all the family and teachers. Valley View inviting lots of guests was a great experience. So I have been learning a lot through my daughter. I have been every time I got here. I have something to learn. So sharing experience, family and community get together, we have a great engagement
019with teachers, the school principal, all the crew. I would like to say thank you so much. I really appreciate all you guys are doing here. You guys always remember, or the teachers that work with my student always remembers my daughter's name. Even people that I didn't know that worked with her call her by her name and always make us feel really welcome. And I just want to share that my first daughter came four years ago, and I came back this summer or fall. And I was surprised how everybody welcomed us, remembered that we used to come here, and remembered that Victoria was a baby. And it made me feel really welcomed. By my knowledge, this is special, yeah, special for me. They help the kids. There's safety. Everything what they are doing, I'm very happy.
020Looks like more than the parent, more than the parent, really. Just, I don't have a word to explain. When I send my kids here to Valley View, I feel like I'm sending them home, not like some-- They say it way better than I ever could. So with all my fumbling, that's really what makes Valley View special. So celebrating successes is easy to do. There are so many things to celebrate about Valley View. The staff are dedicated, skilled teachers. They create learning experiences, no matter the situation. You'll see some examples here of teachers taking a moment. We call these intentional teaching moments when you're transitioning from one place to another. You can see them actually using those opportunities to teach instead of just wait. We have tons of community partnerships, thanks to the hard work of
021our staff that are out in the community, reaching out and talking to folks on how we can better support our family. And that's all. Doesn't quite sum up what Valley View is, but I'd love to take questions and comments from the board. Thank you. Directors? Questions? Go ahead and start. I just have a comment. Thank you so much for all you do. You're right. Those are our earliest students that we have, and preparing them for the future that they will be choosing. And what an opportunity and to see the partnerships that you have out in the community, and for kids to see what's out there, as well. So just thank you for all you do. I know working with little ones is not easy. I've raised four of my own, so I can't even imagine
022having all the babies there. But it must be fun and, also, just your patience. Thank you. My niece goes there, and I actually forgot her name for a minute there, but-- But we remembered it, and we knew her teacher. I remembered, so but in regards to the culture of belonging, one of the things I do ask her a lot is, how do you like school. She goes, I love it, but it's too short. That means that she wants to be there, and she enjoys being alongside the instructors, as well as her classmates. So hearing that from her from where she was before, it was really great to hear that. So I appreciate what you do. And I will be in there and see how she's doing. Thank you. As you know, we're working on growing
023ECEAP, so we'll work on that for you. Thank you. All right. That's it. Thank you very-- I would invite any of you to come and see the magic that's Valley View. I didn't do it justice, so thank you for having us here. Can you introduce your team? Yes. Individually? So we have Kristin Wells is our ECEAP manager. Janelle Penny is our instructional coach. Andy Yarbrough is our office manager. Linda, Elmore and Rosie are our family support specialists. And Ellie is just a friend of ours. And Sue Blazic is a developmental pre-K teacher. Angela Cassidy is an ECEAP teacher, and she works in our integrated program. So she has all different kinds of kids. And Vicky Burns is our deaf and hard of hearing teacher. Not that she's deaf and hard of hearing, but she serves
024those students. And Mara is a developmental pre-K teacher, as well. Thank you so much for being here. Now we're going to transition to our scheduled communications. On behalf of the board, we would like to thank you for coming and speaking this evening. Our norms and rules will be posted on the screens there. There we go. Please be mindful that you're here to speak to the board and that there may be students here, or watching, that are paying attention to your words. In addition, the board will not be able to respond directly to you about your testimony during the meeting. Thanks for coming and speaking. Our first speaker this evening is Damian Rossi Bucio. Hello. My name is Damien Rossi Buciccio. I'm a long Burian resident, and I have a son attending a private school within
025the Highline School district. I'm here to speak about school safety, but specifically HB12 30. HB12 30 was passed into law and signed by Governor Inslee in May and became effective July of '23. Within existing resources, each school district that maintains a website must post a prominent link on their home page and the home page for each school within the district to make information from the Department of Health about substance use trends, overdose symptoms, and response, and the secure storage of prescription drugs, over-the-counter medication, and firearms, and ammunition available through their website and other communication resources. Researchers at the University of Washington found in 2018 that 63% of Washington firearm owners did not practice secure firearm storage. And nationally, about 50,000 children each year are brought to emergency rooms after unintentionally ingesting a medicine when a
026caregiver was not watching. Researchers estimate that one in three Americans with children have at least one firearm in the home. About 75% of children aged five through 14 with firearm owning parents know where the firearms are stored, and more than 20% of children have handled a firearm in the home without their parents' knowledge. Highline School district has not updated their website to meet these requirements. Seattle School District has. North Shore School District has. I ask the district to take immediate action to comply with state law. Thank you. Our next speaker is Patricia Bailey. School board policy, Highline school board policy 32-11, named "gender-inclusive schools" states, "It is safe and free of discrimination for all students." Is this policy inclusive of students of faith, or is it a civil rights violation? The list of terms in
027this policy reads like a statement of belief or religious creed, which seems to contradict all the major world religions of which many students are a part. For example, number one, assigned at birth maintains that the sex of a newborn baby is arbitrarily assigned at birth. This is antithetical to the belief of most religions. Please note ambiguous genitalia is a very rare congenital condition of less than 0.1%. Number two, gender distinction from sex, states gender expression pertains to preferences and personality, regarding behavior, emotions, dress, grooming, interests, and activities. This requires the teaching of rigid stereotypes regarding what constitutes male versus female behaviors to compel students into this belief and gender confusion. Number three, transgender. The word "transgender" is said to describe a person whose gender identity and/or expression is different from that traditionally associated with their
028sex at birth. This is where the idea of being born in the wrong body comes in, the apparent religious notion that a female can have a male soul and vice versa. Affirming that a child's body is all wrong and needs drug surgery and lifelong medical interventions is the exact opposite of what most religions would consider compassionate or to be true. All students need to be accommodated, and the school should be free of religious prejudice. Policy 32-11 needs to be corrected to be inclusive of all students. Thank you. That concludes our scheduled communications. We're going to move to our superintendent's update. Dr. Duran? All right. And I'm going to need to go back to the voting process for the election of Vice President. So I want to go back to the election of officers for Vice
029President. During the election for Vice President, there was some confusion about the initial vote. There was a motion to redo the vote for Vice President vote. That motion was seconded, however. When I called for the re-vote of Vice President, I erroneously asked for a vote on the candidate, rather than on a vote on whether to do a re-vote. After confirming with Bordley and Sons to make sure there is clarity among directors about the votes, I'm going to call for a vote on the first motion to take a re-vote on the Vice President. The outcome of that vote will dictate the vote that comes next. Make sense? So just to clarify-- And just to clarify on the record other end, is that correct in the last motion was-- the last vote was for the motion? Correct.
030So just to clarify, we're re-voting. We're starting kind of from scratch. We're going to start first on voting on the motion to re-vote. OK. So I had made the motion, original motion to re-vote, and then I think I had a second. So then do we call a roll call on that, or? Roll call on the motion to re-vote. Just to make sure we're clear on the whole process. So please call the roll call, Adriana. OK. Director Hagos. Nay. Director Petri. Nay. Director Alvarez. Yay. Director Tidholm. Yay. Director Van. Yay. This motion passes 3-2. Thank you. Now we will move to the election of the Vice President. So Adriana, please call the roll call for the vote for Director Joe Van. Director Alvarez. Yay. Director Petrini. Yay. Director Tidholm. Yay. Director Hagos. Nay. Director Van. Yay.
031This motion passes 4-1. Thank you. Congratulations on your election, Vice President Director Joe Van. Thank you. All right moving on to superintendent's update. First off, I just want to welcome our new board members to your first meeting. I look forward to working with you on our strategic plan goals and the work that we're trying to accomplish to ensure that we focus on our students, and the experiences, and outcomes that they have, and improve them in the best way possible. So welcome. Secondly, I just want to say we have hit number 15 for the staff meetings that we've been doing. And I really want to just thank Jeff Bends, President for Highland Education Association, for his partnership. It has been a really great experience to go out and meet with every school staff, share with them
032our strategic plan, the recognition program we have called Living the Promise, give them some updates on our budget, and to then get some input from our educators around what they think we can do, as we think about some possible budget reductions. So we really feel they've been really successful. Every school staff is so unique and just different, and just appreciate that connection that we're able to make with them as we go do those visits. But again, thank you, Jeff, for your work. I know it's been many, many days, and mornings, and afternoons. And Dr. Reinig's been there with me the whole time. And cabinet goes, and we do a really great way of sharing information about us. I also just have to say that, on Monday, I had the opportunity to go to Noche de
033Mariachi at Highline Performing Arts Center. And that was a wonderful night. There's a picture up there where we had Cascade Middle School students, Highland High School students, and Evergreen High School students who are participating in the mariachi program. And for me, it was just a super proud experience. Many board members were there. My family attended, and it was just a really powerful experience to see the students up there who were learning new instruments and new music. And it was such a diverse group of students that were there. There was so much pride that was demonstrated by the students, the teachers, and the families that were there. It was just a great experience. So we have a little video clip where you can see some of the amazing performance that we were able to witness on
034Monday. Wow, that was amazing. It was great. Yeah. It's really great. I know at different times, we have to make difficult decisions with staffing, and I know that can be really challenging. We heard some of those earlier in the year. But anyway, when we create these type of opportunities for our students and open up to all of our students to be able to participate, they learn more about each other's cultures and experiences. And it just was a really proud moment for me as superintendent of the district. I'm really grateful for being here for all the work that you've done, and our team. And the teachers were amazing what they're doing, and really want to thank Azteca Restaurant because they have actually contributed and bought the [SPEAKING SPANISH] The bows and I think it was the
035belt, and the-- Yes. Yeah, they purchased those for the Highland High School students who really appreciate the community partnership. And just grateful for that experience. That's all I have tonight. Thank you, Dr. Duran. We're going to move on to our school board reports. No legislative reports this evening. Let's start with our director's report. So I'm going to start to my far left. I don't have anything to report. Just happy to be here. All right. Thank you very much. Director Alvarez? Just to say that I had the opportunity, as well, to be at the first mariachi night is what I heard. So I'm expecting more and more mariachi, and just to see the progression. We saw 6th grade, we saw the Evergreen, and then we saw Highline. And just to see that from where they started,
036it was just incredible. You could feel it in your soul when you were there. And I heard several people even singing along, some family. It was just like being outside at some plaza somewhere in Mexico, or just hanging out. It was just incredible the feeling there. Also, wanted to talk about we had College Con that was held earlier this month, and it welcomed more than 300 families. The event held great based interactive workshops for students and families, provided hands-on guidance in college and career planning. And this was free entry. They provided transportation, meals and childcare. It was successful by removing many obstacles, making it possible for many of our families to participate. And just, College Con, I wasn't able to attend this one, but I attended last year's. And just an amazing place to see
037families really wanting to have input and where their children are being guided to for college, or career, or technical, or wherever they want to go. But just seeing the involvement of the families, so I just wanted to thank, also, I know [? Keisa ?] and her team around making sure that the needs were being met for families as far as, also, the connection and the messaging in to our families, as well, so they could be there. So thank you to everyone who put it on. I know that Jeannette and her team also are the ones who put that on. So I just want to thank them, as well. It's an amazing event. That's all I have. Thank you. Director Tidholm? Yeah, I also had the opportunity to attend the mariachi concert, and the children were
038amazing. My little one's decided that he's going to join the band now, so that's super exciting. And I also was pleased to attend White Center Heights Literature Night. I'm sorry. And there was some community partners there, the White Center Library Seattle Humane Society, as well as Sheriff Patti from King County Sheriff's Department. She read a book. They had some animals there that the children got to pet, and they all got to take home a book, which was amazing. Thank you very much. Director Hagos. Literature Night is a big hit always, so I'm glad that happened at White Center. Also, so I went to College Con, and you've already said all the words that we needed to say about College Con. But it was really nice to see families having conversations with their kids about being
039future ready, life after high school, and what that's going to look like for their children. So it was a beautiful sight to see, and I'm glad I was there. Thank you very much. I was also at College Con. It was a packed event. So Dr. Hagos and I were able to speak to a lot of kids and ask them what they want to do after high school. And go down that pathway. That is a question that we ask our kids, but we should also be asking them, how do you want to be. What kind of person do you want to be after college, to be future ready? So it was great to see all of our students, our staff supporting our parents from finances to just career selections and stuff. So thank you all for
040doing that and putting that on for our kids. Sure. Just to add to that, all of our eighth graders today just finished up visiting the University of Washington. So I got some pictures yesterday of the students on campus walking around the quad there, and then actually being in the classroom. So a real big shout out to Jeanette Bland for Sativa for all the work that they do to support our students. That's a great opportunity for our students to be able to be on the campus. Thank you so much for that. I also had an opportunity to sneak in on one of Dr. Duran's staff meetings at an elementary school with Jeb and team. It was great to hear the truth that was coming out of our teachers. Good, the bad, and there are some opportunities
041for us. So it was amazing to have that experience and to be actually standing in the back and just to listen. It was really impactful, so thank you for that. And that concludes our director's reports. OK, move on to our consent agenda. Can I please have a motion to approve our consent agenda? I'll make a motion. We approve our consent agenda. I'll second that. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none. Thank you. Nothing removed. And we're going to move to our action items. 8.1. This is to approve the '23-'24 classified substitute salary rates, effective October 10th, 2023. Any comments or questions? OK, I hear and see none. Can I please have a motion? I move that the Highline School Board approve the classified substitute employee salary schedule for 2023-2024. And I'll need a second.
042I'll second that. Roll call, please. Director Alvarez. Yay. Director Hagos. Yay. Director Petrini. I can't do this. Yay. Director Tidholm. Yay. Director Van. Yay. This motion passes five to none. Thank you. 8.2. It looks like our Valley View team has left, but this is to approve the use of Department of Commerce grant and district funding for the Highline School District Valley View Early Learning Expansion Project. Any questions or comments? Just a question. Thank you, Scott. I figured I'd make you get up at least once a meeting. But just wondering, I see it's a big expansion project. So are we building-- clearly expanding it. But what is happening with that money? So the recommendation from staff is option B2, which is the three room modular building with restrooms included. Additionally, this will have pathways where the
043current portables are that are going to be demolished. It'll have ADA approved pathways between that building and the current Valley View site. This also includes moving the school bus drop off location from where it currently is co-mingled with the parent and staff parking lot drop off area down to it will come in off of Military, and have a separate loop to separate that traffic, a huge issue for parents, for families, and for buses every day, twice a day. So that's, overall, that's what it is. It's also compatible to future planning. OK. If Valley View, if and when Valley View is replaced, this will actually integrate into the new facility. OK. Perfect. That was my next question around, hopefully, someday we'll be able to get them a new building. And how will this be? So you
044answered that. So thank you. Absolutely. Any other questions or comments? OK. Can I please have a motion? I move that the Highline School Board approve the use of the Department of Commerce grant for $776,640, and up to $3,030,000 in district funding for the Highline School District Valley View Early Learning Expansion Project. I'll second that. Roll call, please. Director Tidholm. Yay. Director Alvarez. Yay. Director Hagos. Yay. Director Petrini. Yay. Director Van. Yay. This motion passes five to none. Thank you. Our intro items tonight, we have a couple presentations. This is 9.1. This is motion to approve the dual language grant and heritage language grant. Yep. I'd like to call up Adina Thea who is our Director of elementary language learning to the microphone to share a little bit about this one. Welcome, Adina. Good evening, Dr.
045Duran. Good evening, board members. So my name is Adina Thea, again, the Director of elementary language learning and the Fine Arts. I'm here to tell you a little bit more about the dual language and heritage language grants. So I'm first going to start out by talking about, sorry, the dual language grant. Lower the microphone just a little bit. Yeah. Thank you. I usually have to do that move it down a bit. Sorry, I was scared to hear my own voice so loud. Dual language, first of all, it is a basic ed program. And the majority of our general ed, the costs that go with dual language are covered out of our general education curriculum costs. But in our language learning department, helps cover to cover costs for translations specific dual language professional development, and other
046specific resources that aren't covered by basic ed. So we cover all of those more specific costs for dual language through our Title III and STBP budgets, which also cover costs for all of our language learning programs. The dual language grant that we just received is specifically designed to help support schools that are still growing their programs, as well as supporting other supplemental dual language costs. So this year, much of this grant is going to go towards translations, mostly from our new science adoption in elementary for Vietnamese and some Somali, and then also supplementing some secondary new curriculum and translations. The Heritage grant that we have supports our heritage language programs at the elementary level. And so in Highline, this supports after school programs in languages other than the languages of our dual language programs that
047represent the languages of our students. So this year, this is going towards supporting our Somali Heritage language programs and the Kamai, from Cambodia, language program. Somali is our third largest language spoken other than English in Highline, with Spanish being the largest language, and then Vietnamese being the second largest language, which is why we have, so far, we have dual language programs in Spanish and Vietnamese. So we currently have seven elementary schools that are offering after school Somali language programs, which is awesome. That has been increasing in the last few years. So this program is hugely appreciated by our Somali community. We have two other schools that run a Kamai Heritage language program. And in addition to just learning the language, this program, all of these programs, are taught by our paraprofessionals, our bilingual parents. And
048this also covers training for them, curriculum, professional development. And also, we do family events, which our community is just immensely appreciative of. So we're super excited to have these grants, and I'm open to questions. Directors, any questions? Just one question. Off the top of my head, as you were providing your presentation, thank you for kind of sharing more about this action item, or this introduction item. I'm curious to know, what are our top five languages in the district? Because I know that we've got English, but then we've got Spanish, and then we've got Vietnamese. And then we have Somali. And then is it-- what? Can you say that language again, that last one that you-- Kamai. The Kamai. Kamai. Yeah, it's from Cambodia. And then I would also say that Dari and Pashto have taken
049a big increase in competing with, I think, it's Eritrean, the Ethiopian language which is also there. So the Ethiopian languages is Amhari, or Amharic. And then the Eritrean one is Tigrinya. But I'm not sure if they've made the list, so I'm just curious. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. I do have one question. And this is more of an operational question in regards to the combined grants for both of them. It's about $70,000. And that is for the '23-'24 school year. So for PD and the support, is that sustainable after this year is over and the grant goes away? Is that sustainable in regards to the PD and things? So far, this grant has been a repeating grant that has been occurring every year. And it has been confirmed that it's coming out next year, as well.
050So hopefully, sustainable. But yes. Thank you very much. Thanks for the clarification. Appreciate it. Intro item 9.2. This is motion to approve resolution 01-24 for the Trust for Public Land Conservation Easement at Waskowitz Outdoor Education Center. I'd like to have our Chief Operation Officer Scott Lowden come up and do a short presentation on this one. Thank you. Got him up there twice. All right. Thank you. I apologize last time for not starting out with a thank you for the opportunity. It's great to be in front of, for the last time, President Joe Van as he moves on to his new role. So thank you for your year of service as President and what you continue to do. Thank you to Angelica as incoming President and the willingness to take on that role. I really appreciate
051your commitment to the district. Aziab, welcome back. Director Hagos, welcome back, and to our two newest members Director Petrini and Director Tidholm, welcome aboard. So it's official now. So 9.2 is a resolution that we put in front of the board. This has started in 2022 with a conversation with the Trust for Public Land staff who came to us and asked about our level of interest in getting involved with the Trust for Public Land lease. The land identified is at Waskowitz Outdoor Education Center. It's the 300 acres that's on the south side of the south fork of the Snoqualmie River. So it's not the entire Waskowitz property. It's just what's on the south side of the river. The opportunity here is, well, I'll just start out with, there's two phases. Excuse me. There's two phases to
052this process, and we're in phase one right now, which is to bring the whole idea in front of the board and to share the opportunity to create what, in my mind, could be, should be a trust fund, and when we're done with this, that has a fund that lives on in perpetuity to support camp Waskowitz, or Waskowitz Outdoor Education Center, both through generating funds from an investment program to support either minor capital improvements, or scholarships for those that can't afford to attend, but we really want everybody to attend, along with different opportunities. Again, what happens with the money if we get to the end of phase two is a second board decision. So we would be coming back to the board at the end of phase one if we're ready to move to phase two.
053So phase one includes, by approving phase one, the board gives us permission to have the Trust for Public Lands move forward with a very comprehensive-- basically, it's a land appraisal, but it's everything above the ground. It's nothing on the ground. With that appraisal, then the Trust for Public Lands will come back to Highline School District with a number to tell us what they value this lease at. The lease would live in perpetuity, meaning there's no end to the lease. So we would lease, basically, the timber to the Washington State or the Trust for Public Lands. And the intent of that is to protect that property both from its the mutual intention with district staff and TPL to protect this natural resource, be protected and preserved for education outdoor recreation, wildlife protection and conservation purposes. The
054district maintains ownership of the land. If we were to decide to sell the land at some point in the future, that's very viable to do. But the lease would stay with the land and with the new owner. So it protects that natural resource in perpetuity. The advantage to this, it's similar to sort of doing a reverse mortgage. But we're not doing a reverse mortgage. We maintain 100% ownership of the property. But what we do get is probably about 75% of the value to maybe a little higher now to use as we see fit, which is where I mentioned the trust. Then because the property will sell for a lesser value if we chose to in the future, we still keep the money we get right now plus whatever the sale would generate. So you end
055up with the same total value for the property if the choice did come someday to sell that property. We don't have an exact number. Right now, we know King County has just over $8 million set aside for this, for the purpose of the Trust for Public Land lease. So I'm not committing to that number. They're not committing to that number. We need to do the appraisal next, which with your approval tonight, we can move forward. They can move forward with that appraisal. We are not committed if they come back with a number we're not happy with, or the board decides they don't want to go forward with this, we can end that at that point. Thank you, Scott. Any questions or comments? I do have one in regards to the-- will we have a number
056before the next board meeting for action? We will not have a number by then. It's going to take a little while to do the appraisal portion of it. But taking action at the next meeting is actually what allows TPL to go forward with the appraisal process. They can't appraise until you guys have approved this piece of it. OK. And after that time, we'll still have the opportunity to not sign if we don't want to. OK. It's 100% decision at that point of the board. And we'll come back to you with phase two of this process. OK. Thank you for that clarification. You hit it on the head when you said 100% ownership of the district still has 100% ownership of the property. So that's it for me. Any other questions? No. Directors? Quick question. Is
057there a cost associated with that appraisal? There is a cost, a significant cost associated with that appraisal, but it's born by TPL, not by the district. And that's why they won't move forward with that piece of it until they know we have a commitment. And you mentioned two phases. What was phase two? Phase two will be similar to a property sales agreement, only it's a long term lease agreement that is, by law, board decision, whether we sign on those or not. So that phase two would be bringing the final documents with numbers to the board for their either approval or denial. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much, Scott. You're welcome. Intro item 9.3. This is motion to approve the contract with Musco Sports Lighting, LLC through KCDA for the Sunnydale Tennis Court Lighting
058Project. No presentation on this, but any questions or comments? All right. That concludes our introduction items. Any items that you would like to add to the consent agenda? Hear and see none. OK. But before we adjourn, thank you so much, directors. We will be going into a closed session for approximately 60 minutes per RCW 42-30-140 after we adjourn the regular board meeting. And now, I am going to ask for a motion to adjourn. I make a motion we adjourn. I second that. All in favor. Aye. Any opposed? I hear none. Thanks.