001Okay, I think we're ready, Danny. Okay, good evening. I'd like to call this meeting to order. If you're so inclined, please feel free to join us in the pledge. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and >> to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. and I are the only ones doing that. Good grief. All right. Okay. On behalf of the board, I welcome all members of the audience to to this evening's meeting. This meeting is a working session of the board to conduct the business of the district. The agenda for today's meeting has been published and the agenda items to be discussed and or voted on have been studied by the board members. I would like to introduce
002the people participating in this meeting. Recording secretary Peggy King, Superintendent Dr. Justin Irish, board members Elizabeth Sootk, Han TR, Carson Sanderson, Kimberly Kelly, and I am Sandia Hayes. I am currently serving as president of the board. An agenda for this meeting is available online at boards and copies are also located on the table at the back of the boardroom. There will be an opportunity for both virtual and in-person public comment to be shared during the association and public comment portion of the meeting. Q&A members who are interested in viewing the meeting with closed captions are encouraged to follow the link on our website to the district's YouTube channel. The YouTube stream includes closed captioning for both regular board meetings and study sessions. Visit nsd.org and under our district, click schoolboard, then board meeting materials and
003videos. If you are here to address the board on agenda items, please sign in using the sign-in sheet on the table at the back of the room and take a number which corresponds with the line where you are signed in. The first order of business is the land acknowledgement and that is me. Uh we take this time to acknowledge that the Northshore School District occupies the unseated coast Salish lands that have been here since time immemorial. We honor the ways of knowing and ways of being of indigenous peoples and tribal nations who are still here and thriving in our district community. We also acknowledge that this is a working land acknowledgement that will continue to evolve as our partnership with local indigenous peoples and tribal leaders expands. All right. Next up is the approval of
004the agenda. Do board members have any changes to the agenda as it has been published? Seeing none, I will entertain entertain a motion to approve the agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Being moved and second, any further discussion, I will call for the vote. Okay, the agenda has been approved. Next up is the superintendent's report. >> All right. Thank you, President Hayes. Good evening, board. I have um some updates for you over since the last board meeting. I have had the wonderful opportunity to be mostly in schools over the last couple weeks and that's um the highlight of my of my job. So um schools I visited West Hill School I we all together were at the West Hill School um elementary for the schoolboard visit. Um as at North Creek High School
005for a formal school visit, Cottage Lake school visit. Um Lockwood school action plan visit. Uh the Kenmore Elementary School visit. Morland school action plan visit. Northshore Learning Options board visit that you all attended, Woodenville High School visit, Sunrise um school action plan visit, and Wellington school action plan visit. There's some amazing work happening in our schools, and it was wonderful to be able to be in classrooms and engaging with staff and students. I've also um just want to again thank our wonderful cabinet team who have been out and about almost every meeting, sometimes multiple times in the same evening or multiple times in the same day providing information to our community internally and externally about the bond and the libies. um we are in full on mode um engaging with as many people as possible
006and um and and they're doing an incredible job and um we're very fortunate uh to have a team like we have uh we've I've also had a great opportunity to meet with my student advisory board again and um at this meeting we per their request focused on our social emotional and physical safety. Um, so thanks to Tom Peterson and Carrie Campbell who are there to help provide a comprehensive um review of the physical safety of our buildings as well as the social and emotional um aspects of our um of of student safety. And then students provided some great feedback to us um mostly centered around their student um social emotional well-being. I've also uh had a great opportunity to visit the mock trials uh for our um high school students at um both High School
007as well as North Creek High School. Uh they had their u final exams and it was with uh at the courthouse in both broth. [snorts] Um and they were incredible seeing the students deliberate um and question witnesses and look at case law and engage in really meaningful relevant um learning. Uh it it was also and I I told the both teachers this as well. What was also really wonderful for me was observing the two high school teachers who were there, seeing them um coaching the kids um and smiling like ear to ear watching the the fruits of their labor um and seeing the kids in action. It was really one of the highlights of my week last week. Um and then had a great opportunity to be uh thanks to Grace here in the audience
008and the PTSA and um putting on our reflection celebration at North Creek High School this weekend. um again to see the pure joy for kids to see their awards and um and and uh see their artwork uh up and and published for all to see. So um and huge thanks to PGSA for organizing that and making that come uh bringing that to life for our kids and our community. So that's my updates for this week. >> Thank you Dr. Irish. Any questions? Okay. Uh so next up on our agenda is the Northshore spotlights is something um as a result of our board self-evaluation last summer that we um realized we weren't highlighting the good things that were happening and so we've added this to our once a month to our agenda. Um, I have a
009few things. I highly encourage the rest of the board if you have seen things um to let me know and we can shine a spotlight on those in future months. So, um it doesn't just have to be me coming up with what we're spotlighting. Just saying. Um, so this month what we are honoring is uh all of the people that support the whole community that we have so many different groups and entities that are caring for our people in the community. Um, we had a class at Leota that wrote uh letters to people in hospice in the last week that was just so sweet. Um, our Northshore Schools Foundation is working hard to continue their fundraising work so that they can support the whole students in our district. Um, our PTA was as mentioned down
010in Olympia on Monday. Um, a week ago advocating for our stu all of our students. Um, and then as was referenced, we have so many people working hard on our bond and levy. We had one night where we had 13 different presentations in the same night. We had 56 of our staff out doorbelling this weekend. Um and so just an expression of gratitude of everyone just really reaching out and embracing our community and taking care of everyone within it. So we thank all of them for that. Um next up is association of public comment. I am going to do an abbreviated version of the multi paragraph because I am seeing that we have some associations here to speak but no individuals. So um I will just say that the Northshore School District board of directors
011has set aside a period of up to 60 minutes to receive updates and comments from the district association leaders and community members. Uh I you people are going to be civil and respectful. I'm not worried about that. So, um we will just um move right into association comments. Uh and [laughter] I just Yeah. Okay. [snorts] Colleen Panto, Cascadia College trustee. Enrollment continues to move upward at at double digits, 11% increased over last winter. Cascadia is only one of three community colleges that continues to see this kind of growth. Cascadia served 573 Northshore Running Start students in fall of 2025 and Cascadia is serving 551 Northshore Running Start students in winter 2025. We are inviting parents of prospective students to a focus group on how we could improve our website to meet parents needs. If anyone
012in the audience would like to participate, please let me know. President Murray and Superintendent Irish are actively at work with counterparts. Wait, are actively work with counterparts to think about enrollment trends and we appreciate the partnership very much. Our next building is once again in front of the legislature. Any support you can offer when meeting with our representatives and senators is appreciated. Dr. Rana Hussein, electrical and chem and computer engineering faculty and vice chair of the UDub Seattle faculty senate has joined our trustees. We welcome this new perspective to our board. And finally, our student support event, Pay It Forward, is February 25th. You should have gotten an invitation from President Murray, and we hope to see you there. Thank you. >> Thank you, Colleen. Hi, my name is Grace Hurado. I'm president of Northshore
013Council PTSA. I got a lot of updates for you guys. Um, first of all, um, I am aware that this is National School Board Recognition Month. So, I wanted to thank you all for all of the time and work that goes into our school board um, to support our district. Um, we've had a few events lately where we've seen some of you you guys attend. Um, as Dr. Irish mentioned, we had our reflections reception at North Creek High School on Saturday and it was a great turnout. There were of all the entries submitted um from the schools, we our district sent 56 art pieces on to state to for qualifier for to see how they do on the state competition. And we also awarded 20 judges choice awards to art that stood out. And uh
014I agree with Dr. Irish. It was really amazing to see how excited these kids were. um to share their art with each other like, "Oh my gosh, you made it. So did I." It was really fun. Um and then uh as may have been I think was mentioned earlier, last Monday on Martin Luther King Day, our district sent 33 people, 16 of which were students to Olympia and they met with eight legislators and one legislative aid. Each meeting began with talking about the five legislative priorities of Washington state PTA and um then people shared their experiences of their impact uh of budget cuts and then the specific asks that were made to each legislator were to uh make K through 12 education your priority and protect us from cuts in the 2026 supplemental budget. support
015bills addressing the gaps in sped transportation and MSOC to match insurance and utilities inflation. Fix the burden created by um SB5814, which is the sales tax on services by exempting schools. And we also asked for no unfunded mandates in education this session. Each um each meeting was closed with a reminder that kids are an investment, not an expense. Our advocacy VPs would love people to join um our next advocacy coalition meeting which is on February the 11th at noon. It's on Zoom. The link for that is on our website www.norshoreccounsilptsa.org. Um, two other things we have with Northshore, Northshore Council PTSA and the Northshore Schools Foundation partnered to buy a parent eds talk license from parent map for our Northshore community. So, everybody in the Northshore community has access to these talks, including the recordings
016of it. Um, the next one coming up is on February 10th. It's from blowups to breakthroughs, a new way to navigate anger and kids with speaker Renee Jane. It's from 12:00 to 1, but there will be recordings available that can be caught on demand. And finally, I just wanted to remind everyone that ballots are due February 10th, and Northshore Council PTSA voted in November to take a position supporting passage of the bond and two levies for Northshore School District. So, everyone else should vote. Thank you, Grace. Uh for those just joining us, we are concluding public comment. He didn't want to speak. Nope. Okay. Um so thank you. Next up on our agenda is the adoption of the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Being moved
017and seconded, is there any discussion? just um remind anybody the highly capable program plan is yet another one of these performms that we check and uh it's a result of a law passed a few years ago that is now something we're required to do. Um okay, seeing no further discussion, I will call for the vote. Oh, thank you. And the consent agenda passes. Next up are action items. The first is the approval for a purchase of 1 million over1 $1 million from Emergis. Uh Dr. Irish. Thank you, President Hayes. On [clears throat] October 14th, 2025, the board approved a purchase exceeding 1 million for emerges with a total approved amount of 2,852,92.92. Subsequent act additions totaling $165,753 have increased the overall amount, bringing it above the $3 million mark. Emerges will be providing one:1 and
018some twoon-one behavior technicians and board certified behavior analysts for special education services for multiple students at various locations. Services are noted in students individualized education program and we recommend your approval. >> Thank you, Dr. Irish. Is there a motion to approve? [snorts] >> So moved. Seconded. Great. Being moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? >> Um, this is [clears throat] a uh one of those things that uh continues to be needed for our students that have complex behavior needs that um can't be met by just classroom teachers. and um requires specialized support and so it's a good thing that we are doing this >> and I think this is under the sales tax on services. >> Oh, that's the that's what it is. I was like why like do we all of a sudden need
019more services? No, it's the sales tax. >> Another example of an unfunded mandate. Uh, and it's like an it's like a retro it's revenge. [laughter] Yeah. So, yes, we will um be paying 10% on that 2.8 million to the state. >> Is the second one sales tax as well? I didn't >> uh No. >> Yes, but not on services. It's not services. Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yes. Okay, a little editorializing there for all our viewers at home. Um, seeing no further discussion, I will call for the vote. And that action item passes. Next up is a an approval for a purchase of over a million dollars for [snorts] buses. Dr. Irish. >> Thank you, President Hayes. For your approval this evening is the purchase request for over 1 million to Bryson and Northwest Bus.
020Upon approval, the transportation vehicle fund will replace fleet buses that are nearly 20 years old by buying three used buses in mint condition um and eight new buses that will be put on the depreciation schedule. Um I also want you to know that uh of our fleet, we have about 160 buses. 120 are diesel, 14 are gas, 20 are propane, and six are electric. I bring that up because there were some questions in some 211 meetings that I had with you um in regards to that breakdown as well as this information has been provided um in the Friday brief uh last week and we recommend your approval. >> Thank you. Uh is there a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Being moved and seconded, is there any discussion? Buses are expensive. [laughter]
021They are. [snorts] >> What What kind of buses are these ones? I see mint condition and new buses, but are they are they gas, they propane, they >> That is a good question and I don't have that information in front of me. >> I'm sorry. I'm sorry to spray that on you. I just [laughter] once you named all the different types of buses, I thought how are we expanding our fleet? >> Yeah. [laughter] [snorts] Um I believe given >> believe they're gas >> they are gas given the price electric is about twice as expensive as diesel. >> Um I did have a question again maybe u in addition to what when you have someone that actually knows what they're talking about what kind of buses there are instead of supposing um the typically the timeline
022for new buses is quite long. Um, I'm imagining the used ones we get to take possession of pretty quickly, but what how long do we have to wait for the new bus? >> It typically based on my past experience, and I don't know in specifically here in this region in Northshore, but in my past experience, it's up could be up to a year or more >> um by the time we order a bus and have it delivered. >> Okay. And it looked like from um the update that it was uh at least six months longer for an electric bus than a diesel or other gas conventional. >> Correct. >> Okay. All the exciting topics tonight. Any further discussion about buses? Seeing none, I will call for a vote. Okay. And that passes unanimously. So that
023concludes our action items. Up next is a policy governance review of goal one succession or the early years. We had a robust and very thorough study session on this goal just before this meeting. Um so if you want to pull out your little sheet of paper with a review on it. We're going to start before we um have a motion. We're going to start with discussion. So thoughts that people had um based on the information we received both uh last week in paper and then what we heard earlier this evening. Don't be shy. You always look right at me. >> Well, you're just at the far end. >> I know. I I know why you went first now. [laughter] Um uh so my discussion is that this is my favorite goal personally totally biased. Um
024but one of the things that I really appreciate about this is looking at the way that we are working really hard to meet the needs of the youngest learners in the district and doing our best to find ways to set all of those kids up for success as they move through the programs. Um, and looking at, you know, um, you know, when you get fresh kids in, you can't really predict what they're going to be like. And, um, especially in our preschool programs, there are some really nice assessments and ways of teaching kids that seem to support all different kinds of learners. And so, we're seeing really nice growth while kids are in preschool. Um, and that's translating into more success for those kids in kindergarten settings, which is what we want. Um, and then
025thinking about this looks at and helped us ask the questions about like how are we supporting kids as they move through kindergarten and through those elementary grades. And um, you know, at we just had our study session. So, uh, again, want to thank all of the teachers who are doing the work, but as well as the district staff who compile those reports and look at the data and really help dig and find the places where the district could improve or where the district's really performing well um, and supporting students where they're at and where they need to go. >> On the line. All right. Sweet. All right. Uh, goal one, focusing on the early learners. We had our study session earlier today and I just wanted to thank again Dr. Dunham and Dr. Foster for
026being the leads on this and providing insight and preview into the report. It's a very comprehensive report that goes into the goal itself. As far as meeting the goal, I I feel like there's some discussion to be had first. Yes, I feel like it's met. I think also there's a discussion to be had amongst the board members regarding the metric for success as we discussed. Um I noticed that there's a lot of the district is great as at raising the average and raising the ceiling. Um, and perhaps this is not just specific to Northshore, but it's a trend throughout the nation and possibly the entire world, but the the disparities and gaps widen even though the average is increasing. So, something that we may want to discuss as we talk about strategic goals is when
027we're looking at what qualifies as success and what those metrics are. Should we be looking at the average? should we be looking at the ceiling, the floor, the disparities and the gap. So, um it's definitely something that I'm thinking about and we're able to think about that because the staff brings us the data and the students behind the data we get to see as well. So just trying to keep it grounded with the human touch because we do get presented with a lot of numbers but there there's a human behind every decision that we're making. Um so I appreciated um that a lot of the students come to us already with a really good skill set um ready to learn um in kindergarten. Um but that looking deeper into the data, you find that those
028who um do not come to us ready to learn struggle possibly and may continue to struggle. Um and so we would need to focus on working with them in the earlier stages before they even get to kindergarten. um and reminding our legislators that funding for um early education, early learning is critical to the success of the K12 education experience for these students. Um is something that we should all be focused on thinking about. Um I appreciated that a lot of their assessments were um play-based um as more age appropriate than like sitting a kid down and trying to make them test when they are wiggly preschoolers. Um, I also thought that um [snorts] it's hard to find, it seems like it's hard to find the students who need to be enrolled in our Ready Start
029and Head Start programs and um trying to find more ways to reach out and identify those students so that they can have a better chance of coming to us ready to learn um is another thing that uh may need to be thought more creatively about. Uh well, as uh one of the newest members of the board, I think that for me, this uh study session was really important. I get to meet um more of the people that are sitting um in these administrative seats and um working with our teachers who um I don't get the privilege of getting to see day in and day out and hearing their stories through them. um and being able to look at this data as as you know teacher coming from outside the district and having some experience with
030that but looking at data that's you know not my own um and asking tough questions and having people be really receptive to what those questions are and um how we are prepared to answer them or unprepared to to know the extent of how to answer them. um particularly when we're looking at discrepancies among um gender and race and uh lowinccome our our ELLs or our sped students and and all the different ways that we are um as a district our teachers um our additional programming staff including our relationships with our like zero to three so that we're supporting them before they're even getting into school. um all these different facets of the things that we're working on and the things that we're thinking about working on moving forward. Um and and one of those things
031that I I I think was really important is thinking about as some of the other board members have mentioned our discussion on what is readiness. um are we looking at readiness to learn versus readiness to perform? And is that a metric that we think is, you know, equitable across all of these different um demographics? Um or is this something that we want to reevaluate moving down the line? >> Thank you. I don't have a whole lot to add though I have a a wondering that um some of I strongly suspect that some of the students that are qualifying that are not attending are out of fear um of attending and um there's not a whole lot we can do about that um other than get furious but um I'm wondering if we are thinking about
032that. I I have to believe that there will be a time where our kids will feel safe to come to school and what work we will be doing to help catch them up and be ready for them and embrace them and yeah. So, it's just a wondering out there. I don't expect there to be a solution yet, but there has to be a day where our kids can feel safe to come to school again. Um yeah, and otherwise um it is um our one goal. Well, we've got another one, but that it's kind of except for the third graders free from state and national requirements and we can determine what um we're measuring and what success looks like. And so it's really delightful to see us take um doing it in a way where it
033just doesn't gloss over and we're doing great that we're really um being intentional of what what do we want kids to be able to do um in those uh three to eight [snorts] range and um how do we how do we measure that? So really appreciate the work. Um okay so uh this is this is our first goal as a team. Yes. Yeah. >> Um I just wanted to add because I thought about it after I had stopped. Um I think we are doing a good job of identifying students in expected locations. It wasn't to say that we're not doing that, but like how do you reach the kids that you can't reach otherwise was more what I was thinking. >> Okay. Thank you. So, uh anything else? All right. So slightly different than the
034um performance uh parameters that we've done a couple times. So we got that down under our belt. So this one um we have again three options. Uh our choices uh to vote on are um based on the information provided. We find the superintendent reasonably interpreted the provisions of the relevant goal policy and the district is making reasonable progress towards achieving the desired results called for in the policy. Um or uh option two based on the information provided the board finds the superintendent has failed to provide evidence of reasonable organizational progress towards achieving the desired results. um or three the information provided by the superintendent is insufficient for the board to decide whether reasonable progress has been made. So given that is there a motion? I move that based upon the information provided the board finds
035that the superintendent has reasonably interpreted the provisions of the relevant policy. >> Second. >> Okay. Uh being moved and seconded. Any further discussion on this? Okay, seeing none, I will call for the vote [cough] and then um everybody got out the piece of paper gets to fill that out, which is so much fun to have everybody watch you write. Oh, when you're on a not on the agenda, you don't see the page. >> Yeah. Okay, I'm seeing people wrapping up their writing. So um the monitoring report for goal one um has passed with the superintendent having re reasonably interpreted the provisions of goal one. So thank you very much everyone. Um just to point out normally at this point with a parameter we have a section to um review the parameter itself. uh we don't
036do that with our goals because those are part of our strategic plan and they really don't want us mcking about mid mid stream here. So um that's why we don't see that for goals unlike our parameters. So the next um up is uh board reports and communication starting with new business. Do board members have any new business? No. Okay. >> The only thing I'm thinking is is there any planning we need to do for the 29th at this point? >> Ah, that is an excellent question. So, there are three of us heading to Olympia. That has been published as a public meeting. Um, but there are three of us heading to Olympia on Thursday. I have not received any information as to what meetings we have scheduled. So, that just came in today. There are
037you you're meeting with five legislators out of the nine. Um, and that will uh Peggy can get that to you tomorrow >> once we get it from Cliff. So, he has not given us the names or the Yep. But he's got us five. He got five appointments. >> Okay. We'll we'll weasel our way into a couple others. Um, uh, so the if you go to the WASDA page, there's a whole 8 to 6 PM thing. I don't know that we need to spend 10 hours in Olympia on Thursday. >> I will not be there that late. There are other things I need to do that evening. [laughter] >> That's that's good to know to >> Yes. >> because we had talked about partic, you know, possibly bringing a two-year-old along with us. So, uh, how
038long do we we think that we might be >> Well, when we find out the times of the five meetings, um, we'll >> Yeah, that Yeah, that'll >> Yes. So, we'll um plan on uh there's a room in the >> new legislative building or something. Yeah. >> Yeah. There was some room that where WADA was and WBO are hosting and so we'll plan on meeting there about 15 20 minutes before the first meeting. Um, >> ideally I'd like to be back in this area at 6 PM for my own personal things, but you know, we'll see. >> Yeah. Um, and then we will just leave after the last meeting. There there are I think most of the agenda that's listed on the website are hearings and unless any of us are planning to testify in
039those hearings, we don't need to stick around >> on on the schedule day for through OSDA. >> Uhhuh. Um, well, I have it pulled up right now. Uh, 8:30 to 9:30, public education rally at the steps. 8 to 10 is the House Education Committee. 10:30 to 12:30, Senate Early Learning and K through2 Education Committee. 2 to 2:45, School District Connections and Learning. 3 to 3:45, Legislator Q&A. And then 4 to 6, House Appropriations and Senate Ways and Means Committee. >> Yeah. So well um this is you're volunteering to go down. So you do what you need to do to balance your life and e extra work here. So we'll like I said we'll meet um about 15 20 minutes before the first scheduled meeting with the legislature and then we'll just play it by ear
040as we go along through the day. Um, ideally we can get we can stay through all five meetings. Sometimes they tend to be on the little on the later side, but we'll we'll do the best we can. I will say there is um not a lot of parking, so just be mindful of that. And the lunch options are limited and expensive. So, >> uh, so are we we're driving separately? >> It sounds like people need to do that. Yes. >> And that's fine. >> And we're we're trying to at least arrive by this 8:30 start time or just as soon as >> when we get the meeting times of our legislators then the earliest. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yes, please. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> So I'm I'm having a moment. I'm uh finally putting
041something together. Peggy will send the uh schedule to the three of us and then we'll say meet at this spot >> 15 minutes before. How's that? There we go. >> And probably give yourself at least 15 minutes to park and maybe a little bit more to walk to from wherever because it was a fair walk back. >> Yeah. >> Um to the where the van poolool was when we were leaving at the end of the day last week, Monday. >> Yeah. Okay. [snorts] And it is public education day, so it'll be more than just us. It's also the WA and a variety of organizations. So, it will be good. And it'll be raining and all the fun things in January. >> So, wear good walking shoes. >> Okay. Thank you for that. Any other new
042business? Are we signing up for any of the other last um uh what it's most important meetings? >> What matters most? Thank you. >> Uh Peggy can get you those dates. Uh I think I only have one left. So >> yeah. >> Yes. >> So we'll put a reminder out to you all. >> Um and that's that's a great segue. Um my one new business item is that we and it's just going to get worse through June. Um have received a number of invites to all sorts of different things. Certainly um Cascadia mentioned an event at the end of February. Um please anything that's out other than district, let Peggy know if you will be attending so she can start counting. Keeping track of all the cats here. I think we discussed it last school
043board meeting that the two of us are attending Nusa but no one else is so we don't need to do a public >> correct but but please anything that you [clears throat] get invited to let Peggy know and then if it's less than three we're good and if it's more then she [snorts] can publicize it. Would it be helpful to even encourage parties that invite us to things, encourage them to say, "Hey, >> Peggy manages, >> you know, and just and just say like, hey, can you just send this directly to Peggy?" And she'll forward it to us. So then that way she's >> That is a great idea, >> right? Because then I think it cuts out the choppiness of that. >> Yeah. Lesson learned. Always loop in Peggy and don't touch her documents.
044>> Just put some color in there. It's pretty. >> Okay, that's great. And then that brings up my final count. Again, adding things to the calendar um because it wasn't in we weren't invited to it, but the regional meetings WASDA has uh in the spring regional meetings. Um and so they are up uh on their website. Why they can't let us know? Um, so DA director area 2, which Northshore is in, uh, is scheduled for Wednesday, April 29th, I in the Tacoma School District, which is a [snorts] ways away. >> Maple Valley. >> Yes. Um, so we'll let Peggy know if you're going to be attending. Um, just something to ponder because we're at the very north end of DA2 and the just on the other side of the border of DA1. DA1 is being
045held in Arlington. So that's not it's kind of a six one half a dozen of the other. Um, and that one is on April 20th. So we can either all go together, we can divide and conquer, whatever. It doesn't matter. So, just putting that out there that that's coming up. And I know all the things. >> Did they say what time of day that is? >> It's 6 p.m. >> Okay. Uh, and they usually some local cooking class provides does the meal. So, there's dinner provided usually about two hours. Typically done by 8. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. >> Should I do legislative and fed updates here? >> Go for it. >> Okay. I wrote it up so that I would try not to forget things on the state legislative side. Um the 2026 legislative session has
046started. It is chaotic, but it's a controlled chaos. It started January 12th. It's a short session this year cuz it's an even year. So, we'll see it ending March 12th. So, everything is going lightning speed. Some things that we need to consider as a district. There's a large volume of bills that are going against um a multi-billion dollar state revenue shortfall for the next at least four years. So, we are not expecting to get anything extra from the state. In fact, as Grace pointed out, we're asking them to hold the line, and that's kind of the bare minimum right now. And part of holding the line is making sure that we get the uh exemption passed in HP 2257, which concerns the tax exemption. We're looking at getting the verbiage updated. Cliff is working hard
047on that. It's not looking like we'll get the update. um department of revenue is pushing this bill through and they have already accounted for the revenue that they would gain from the taxes from the school districts. So um there might be a few uh things that can be adjusted but it's not of nominal value. Um, WASDA's also doing a great job of tracking over 80 education related bills and there are some new investments uh even given with that backdrop of inflation and budget constraints. Um they have also taken WAZA has taken a con position to the governor's proposed operating budget because it does not fund school districts priorities and proposes cuts to programs districts rely on including transportation or transition to kindergarten. We're just talking about early um early education, right? And local effort assistance
048um LEA. And at the same time, WADDA is signing PRO on the capital budget, which includes important funding for school facilities such as the small school modernization grant program. Um, a key priority this session is MSOC funding. That is Senate Bill 5918. That would increase MSOC allocations by $100 per student or 100,000 per district, whichever is greater. And um I have created a legislative tracker, but I highly recommend actually going to WASDA instead because they'll have, you know, a a wider breadth. What I'm tracking is narrow. It's specifically Northshore. Um and sometimes I get things ahead of WADA. Sometimes they get get updates ahead of me. Um and then federal Okay, so that's state legislative update. The federal legislative update. Um at the federal level, the US House passed a bipartisan um 2026 funding package
049for the Department of Education. overall funding is slightly below current levels, but most major programs are are actually holding, which is shocking to me. [laughter] Um, Title One and IDEIDA special education funding remains stable. Um, which will obviously provide some predictability. It doesn't address the structural underfunding, which means it doesn't meet inflation, but it is staying stable. Um, Congress is also considering charter school expansion legislation. This is just something that I wanted to for us to keep an eye on. Um, these bills, you know, there's no immediate operational impact um to Northshore, but it's just something we should probably monitor. [snorts] Um, in the Senate, there has been bipartisan attention on student mental health, technology, social media, and AI, including concerns about addictive algorithms and device use during the school day. And this mirrors the
050changes that our district is looking at and what we're navigating through at the state level and [snorts] um a particular bill that's coming through to mandate that all schools restrict um mobile device use that is I believe getting a verbiage change as well. So um Northshore though has our our mobile device um uh policy that we instated. I believe we signed it last year. So, um we're we're we would be fine, I think, just reading the the bill. Um and then finally, the US Department of Education is encouraging districts to make better use of Title One schoolwide flexibilities so that we would reduce administrative burden on them and allow more coordinated use of funds were eligible. So, [snorts] um, I'll be continuing to track both the legislative and the federal developments as they happen. There's
051just a lot going on. So, if there's, you know, additional legislative priorities that you all have, please let me know. I can add it to our NSD tracker. And then any bills you'd like us to weigh in on. I have signed pro on a couple bills on behalf of the board including which includes the MSOC bill and um I believe the HB uh 2020 uh 2257 which is the the tax exemption bill. >> If you ever think that it would be helpful to have more than one representative for our district to sign onto a bill, let us know. >> Yeah. How does that work, President Hayes? Um, for the most part, just seeing that Northshore has weighed in, sometimes they do count, like, oh, we've had 500 people, but Wazda will let us know if
052it's something where they need a full court press on. [snorts] >> Yeah, they'll send it out to the legislative reps and say, "Ledge reps, you need a signp on behalf of your your school district." I haven't seen something come in this session where they're asking for bodies and more people yet, but definitely we'll bring people in as needed. [snorts] Okay. Um, seeing no further new business, I'm going to move us to board member reports. And first up is Director Kelly. Uh since uh last board meeting, I went to our site visit and Northshore Learning Options uh which was pretty exciting. Um mostly because it's the first time that I've been back in classrooms since I was in classrooms as a teacher. So that was pretty exciting. Uh and some of my forest school kids attend
053this. So I get to hear from the kids and also the teachers. Uh, so it was it was pretty it was pretty exciting to walk through the rooms and see the creative ways that our students are engaging um in non-traditional classrooms. Um, I I keep thinking about that super I think it's super sleuth or something um class where the kids were coming up with their own codes and one of the kids was using the Mandalorian language um as Star Wars was the theme of my classroom for a couple of years. So um it's very on brand for me. Um, and so it was really great to meet the teachers and see the students and uh have the opportunity to sit in small circles with students and hear, you know, what they like about their schools
054and what they'd like to see improved in their schools, which was remarkably not recess. Uh, as one would think. um that the the they as usual the students had such um insightful things to say about how we can improve their schools and what they they um love about their teachers and their curriculum. So um I just feel very fortunate that that was my first school visit that I got to attend. Um, and I appreciate uh the principal and all the staff that um put in all the time and effort to to host us. >> Thank you, Director Kelly. Up next is Director Sanderson. >> So, on the 12th, we did the study session for the budget. On the 13th, I did the I participated in the schoolboard visit at West Hill Elementary. Um and one
055of my observations during um that visit was uh a pareducator working with two students in a fifth grade classroom at the level where they could participate with the class so that they were able to continue um working with the other students and being in a um inclusive environment um but had the assistance that they needed to um take care of their own needs and also participate. Um, I've gone to I've attended um on the 15th uh the Northshore uh schools foundation board meeting. Um and then on the 19th I had the privilege of attending my first PTA advocacy day at the state capital and I got to meet with personally um all but three of the legislators. The one and one of their the legislative assistants uh one of the meetings uh kind of over
056overlapped so I didn't meet the other two. So, um, but it was kind of fun to put a face to the name of people I've been talking to in the past. Um, as well as just hear, um, students from our district speak eloquently about the challenges that they have experienced in their classrooms, um, when funding isn't, um, at least adequate. Um, on the 20th, let's see, coordination meeting. Uh on the 21st I attended um an NSEA lunch with um Dr. Irish. Um on the 22nd I participated in um the schoolboard visit to Northshore Learning Options. Um and I think the biggest thing that I walked away with from that listening to a student who had um just been in the program since the fall was she felt like she got enough attention because there were
05712 students in the class. And if we could somehow magically make smaller class sizes um for everybody, I don't know that she would have necessarily felt the need to change schools the same way. And so how can we make that available to all was kind of the lesson I walked away from there. Um on the 24th I got to walk through um the Northshore PTA reflections celebration. Um, and there were many times when I looked at art and was amazed that something was of that quality was produced by students so young. Um, there was one in in particular that I looked at and I was like, that looks like they cut it out of a picture book page. Like that kid could have a fabulous career as a um, illustrator for children's books. And that
058was great. Um, I'm I'm still thinking about the u the curious bird that you pointed out to me, Dr. Irish. Um, and then I ran over quickly to the Northshore versus Bothel High School um, girls basketball game to listen to a quarter of the band play and playing their halftime show. Um, and then the goal session just before this meeting. >> Thank you, Director Sanderson. Up next is Director Tran. >> Cool. Uh, Monday, January 12th, we had a closed executive session on bargaining parameters with all the board members present. On Tuesday, January 13th, we uh most of us visited West Hill Elementary and the feedback. There's three points that I wanted to bring up here. Uh West Hill is doing an amazing job with their recess teachers. I don't know what they're doing there, but
059that seems to be a good model for a lot of our schools to follow. The classroom, one of the classrooms that we visited, I was just floored at the fact that there's only they only needed six desks. I mean, the students were able to move around and it was that type of controlled chaos that I really appreciate and that sense of movement that students get um instead of being kind of chained to a desk uh not that they're chained to a desk, but um being stuck in a desk all day. And then um the [clears throat] last thing I mean this is seems to be a reoccurring theme when we visit schools is the students really really appreciate when there are people who speak their cultural language. Um previous school visits when we had school
060board members speaking in Spanish to some of our Spanish-sp speakaking students their eyes lit up. And at West Hill, we had a young man with um who's Vietnamese who was just super excited that another board member could speak with him in Vietnamese. I mean, he just was jumping for joy. So, um it means a lot when our teachers, when our when our administrators and folks um kind of come from different backgrounds and can kind of match up with the students. Um, Thursday, January 15th, I attended the Citizens for Northshore Schools um as a liaison. The yard signs are placed. We provided um info. Well, by we, the folks attending from the Northshore administration provided info and then um there are countless numbers of info sessions planned and and already executed and ballots are mailed. Uh
061the same evening I jumped over to the Northshore Council PTSA to prep for Day on the Hill which was Monday, January 19th, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Um it was nice to see the resolution pass on the floor the Senate floor and um speak with all the legislators, listen to the students, listen to the legislators provide information on what's happening with the budget. there's a lot of action around [clears throat] um that house bill um for tax exemption and it's uh primarily communication between legislators and the department of revenue at this point. Um I want to thank the Northshore Council PTSA for organizing a very impressive agenda with our legislators. It was very impressive to the Washington State PTSA. um enough so that they pointed it out during the during the um visit. [snorts]
062Uh Wednesday, January 21st, we had our first weekly legislative and federal policy meeting with our advocate Cliff, Superintendent Irish, Deputy Superintendent Bergie, and President Hayes and myself. um just aligning on all the action that's happening um at the state level and the federal level in terms of policy that could affect K- through2 public education. Uh same evening attended the superintendent student advisory board. Just want to reiterate the students did a wonderful job of giving feedback and the session was primarily about social emotional learning, mental health priorities and um safety for them. Um, and again, thank you to Tom [clears throat] and Carrie for for um hosting that. Thursday, January 22nd, attended the NLLO school visit with um most of the board here. Just again, I value being able to sit down with students and listen
063to them. It's um we were in a group of I think it's seventh and eighth graders. one is completely remote and they came in um for their services, their special ed services and it it happened to align with our visit and they only come in about twice a month um because that's that's all they need. Um and they're getting full support that way which is very impressive. Saturday, January 24th, um I went door knockocking with NSEA WA as a resident of this area. And then uh [clears throat] shortly after went to Northshore Council PTSA reflection celebration. Um once again, thank you to the Northshore Council to Grace for putting on such a wonderful um art show and opportunity for the students. That concludes my report. >> Thank you, Director Tran. Up next is director Sotek.
064>> Just ditto all the things. Um on January 13th, I missed the school visit unfortunately because I had a sick kid at home, but I made it later that evening to one of the bond and levy presentations at Kimmore Elementary. So, I got to see our district admin in action giving a really umformational report about what people are voting on. On the 19th, I joined PTSA Day on the Hill with other board members. On the 22nd, I also joined the Northshore Learning Options campus visit at Bear Creek. And on the 24th, I ran into director Tran at the PTSA Reflections um celebration at North Creek and you know, ditto everything everyone said. Um, we have amazing artists in this district and um, it was really fun to be able to see the videos of uh,
065people performing dances for the celebration or further reflections. Um, we got to hear some music by students and of course see all of their artwork. Um, and again I echo what what was said like I I saw the ages of some of those kids and it's really really impressive. Um, I don't know I don't know what they're feeding those kids but they're really good at art. Um, and um, then today prior to our study session, I worked with some of our lovely admin to prep for our goal three presentation which is coming up at some point. Um, and that is it. >> Thank you, Director Sotag. I don't have too much to add. I was at the West Hills School visit. So, thanks to all of everyone there for putting together a great presentation. My
066cultural connection, I spoke dinosaur with one of the kids in my group. Um, and then I attended uh three PTA meetings uh to be there as backup for information on the bond and levy and then attended the Northshore Council PTSA meeting. That was my first as the liaison. Um, and then I got to see former director Amy Cass unfiltered and a little spicy [laughter] [gasps] as she presented on school funding. Um, so um that's it. Does anybody have anything else want need to add? All right. And I am going