001Good evening. I'm going to call this meeting to order. This is a study session um where we just have a couple topics tonight. We're going to talk about um a budget update and we're going to talk about some planning around um the board's governance structure when it comes to reporting against progress for the district. So, I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to Superintendent Irish and we'll get this party started, I guess. >> Great. Thank you, President Cast. I'm I'm pleased to um welcome Deputy um Berg and um Chris Brenan is Bergie. I always say your name wrong. [snorts] Deputy Bergie and uh and Chris Brenan um to present on the budget. Have I been saying that long wrong all these months and you never corrected me? Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. [laughter]
002>> And how long? I just want to do a time check to be respectful of time. Or is are we trying to do this in how many minutes? >> Yes. >> I just want >> We have plenty of time. Okay. >> Yep. >> So, all right. So, yeah. So, I'll turn it over to you too, so I don't mess up your name anymore. Thank you, superintendent. All right, so off we off we go. I just stick with superintendent. Um off we go on to the agenda. So we will discuss uh these are the budget guiding principles that we used in 2526, but we need to start the conversation about are we is the board wanting changes for guiding principles as we develop the budget for 2627. So that we will review that. We will look
003at our budget development timeline based on the sessions that we have planned. We'll look at the fiscal update and have a review of our four-year outlook. Chris will be doing that and then we'll talk about a communication plan uh for the budget development. [clears throat] So these are this is for review and discussion. These are the guiding principles that the board adopted for the development of the 2526 budget. And so our question is uh as the board looks at these, is there anything that the board would like to change um from the previous year? We don't have to answer now. We can talk about with the next time we meet I believe will be in January. Uh but this is what we used last year. We still we don't have to change anything or we
004can change all of them. So it's really up to the board. This list is in line with what we've been hearing from the community. So I'm I'm good with especially the impact on the classroom the classroom sizes specifically and maybe I'm jumping the gun but this is very cuts focused on guiding principles and when you have a budget where you're making cuts and I am assuming that's not what we're about to see. Um, and then maybe there's a different way of framing some of these priorities so that it's not about cuts. >> So would an example of that be number two, we would say um restore lower class sizes to the extent possible. >> Okay. Or or maybe it it would be more helpful and make it a little more broader just to state the
005overall objective instead of restore. Just maybe optimize or that might not be the right word, but just to to allow for some flexibility as new taxes get passed or whatever. Like what is the objective there? [clears throat] Right? and like keep schools open doesn't make a whole lot of sense if we're not cutting. Right. So to follow up on that, um, Director Hayes has been asking for a conversation around what is the what is the ideal around schools, right? Like we know again if if Snowomish County moves the urban growth boundary, right? um things present ripples over time, but um maybe the school's conversation is around what are our kind of the optimal and how so we can try to know where we're going. >> Yeah. Best practices around school school sizes. Um with declining
006birth rates and changes in UG, we may be in a situation where we have schools that are too small or too big. Anyway, I don't know that that's part of budgeting guiding principles, but I think that's a conversation that as a board we need to start having of what does that look like so that we can give guidance to EDTF and capital as we go forward. >> No, Director Hayes answered what my question was. This would probably be the first year that Vice President Tac and I are not in a cut year. So, it would be nice to see what we've said budget guiding principles were in previous years when there weren't cuts just to get an idea of what we've prioritized in the past and what the community wanted us to prioritize. I don't
007think >> do are we ever not >> I think that we I think that was something that we started maybe in 2023. >> Are we ever in a situation where we aren't in need of more funding? I I'm not so sure. But I I I appreciate the the trying to sort of reshape the focus of it. you know things like um for example number two maybe optimize student experience educational experience in the classroom you know however that may be um maintain stability in um the schools I don't know how how you would [laughter] oh what am I doing um and with with respect to minimize reduction in force maybe again stable and maintain stability ility of our our staff and and uh teaching force. Um I think yeah to your point Director McGordy I I
008don't I'm fingers crossed knock on laminate that there there won't really be a a reduction in force necessarily with what sort of we're hoping the trajectory of the budget is this year. And so or the next budget is um so I'm wondering if if that is even something we need to um you know keeping schools open and minimizing reduction in force don't seem to be things that we're we're going to be um dealing with as much and so I don't know if those need to be a part of the priorities this time. Maybe put them in your back pocket just in case. Um and then the uh number two like you said there there's a different way to to state that in that you know we'll um commit I don't even know what the right
009way to say it is right like there's not but um yeah having uh like I don't know trying for class sizes that are more in line with best practice or something along that lines. Um, might be helpful as far as like looking at what the state or what the ideal class sizes for each grade band, particularly the like elementary classes and the some of the high school classes that have been kind of larified. >> So maybe equitable funding that aligns with best practice. >> Yeah. Oh, that's pretty. Good job. Did you have a thought, director, Tren? >> Mine was more of a wondering of if it's necessary and if we want to tie these back to the greater strategy for Northshore or if this is Yeah. the number one, right? Or yes, the strategic plan.
010But that's very that's like honoring the strategic plan. Do we want to tie some of like the sub bullets or whatever? Cuz all of this is supposed to technically honor two through eight, right? The strategic plan. We're just giving more color and detail. So I'm wondering if we want to tie it back so that we have a way to kind of say, hey, we accomplished one through eight. So it might be interesting to think about um our growth as a system to include um annual plans, right? And how maybe going forward how this might interact with that. Um, and maybe as that as that's still being developed, we don't have that answer yet, but I think it would it would tie in with what you're saying, Director Tran, kind of nicely keeping context in mind
011in more of the um medium-term. I hate to say short term, but kind of medium-term maybe. Is this helpful? Is this helpful for for the budget development team? >> Yes. Okay. So, I think that we have enough that we can go forward and refresh this document. Taking out three and five as I had those xed out. Reframing two. Um, and then maybe trying to align some of these with the building blocks and the strategic priorities. Yeah. Okay. Sorry, just an observation. Um, keep taking out three and five. Actually, I think those are pretty well covered in number six. >> Okay. >> It's Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you. So, this is the current budget development calendar. We're meeting tonight. We're reviewing the final 2425 numbers. We have uh our ending fund
012balance uh firmed up. We'll have our next budget study session on January 12th and then we will go into pretty intense uh budget development here at the office at admin where we look at developing central budgets. Then we're anticipating pushing the budget allocations or the school allocations for staffing out on February 27th followed by an April 27th budget study session from which we should know the impact of legislation and the legislative session and then June 22nd budget intro and the required public hearing followed by July 13th where we would hope that the board would then adopt the budget. So that's [clears throat] what this year looks like. little bit different and as you've said it's because we anticipate not having to make cuts for next year. Um and in fact trying to maybe make some
013additions which we'll talk about and see if that's aligned with what the board where the board wants to go. All right. So the fiscal update and the review for your projections and now it's Chris. Right. So we'll start with the first several slides will be on enrollment uh since that's the one enrollment is one of the biggest drivers of state funding. Um this chart shows our FTE history without running start and open doors. Those are sort of flow through uh programs. So that's why we're taking them out. Um October FTE was 21,449. Uh our budgeted AFT was 20,991. Uh we are 458 FTE above budget as of October uh and 123 FTE down from where we were last year. Um so as a reminder, we budgeted conservative conservatively with our enrollment because it's easier for
014us to add staffing um as needed um rather than and then trying to reduce staffing after the fact um which is very hard. Um [clears throat] we adjusted staffing over the summer and at the beginning of the school year to align with enrollment as needed. Um so this uh but we are anticipating that we'll have some net increase to our fund balance due to higher enrollment uh by the end of 2526. >> Yeah. I just want to clarify most of it is pushed out in staffing. So it'll be a smaller impact, not a 400 student impact, but Riley. So we need to go through and make some adjustments. [cough] And this just breaks down the enrollment by uh grade level. So you can see where uh where we're above budget. So elementary, we're 197 above
015budget, middle 54, high school 207, and we're down 25 and running start. So, um, that's what makes up the 458. Um, and this is just a little bit more information on some other enrollments that we have. Um, CTE is broken up between middle and and high school, but the net between the two of those is right on budget. So, down 20 at middle, up 20 at high high school. Special ed is showing that we're down right now. 17 in preschool, 31 at K22, but that grows during the year. So, we're expecting to be close to budget. Um, and then, uh, transitional bilingual or English learners, um, that enrollment is up as you can see there. Uh, and we did increase our staffing for EL uh, to adjust for that. And this slide is just like
016a five-year history of our enrollment. You can see that our enrollment is declining uh gradually. Um but wanted to show by grade level. We're decreasing the most in elementary by about 8.5%. And that's mostly due to our uh our birth rates going down. And so those kindergarten classes coming in lower and lower each year. Um, and that's going to have a ripple effect as as we do long-term enrollment projections. And at middle school, uh, we're down about 1.2% over that time frame, but in high school is actually up 3.7. So those higher enrollments from when they were in elementary are now reaching high school. We'll see that for a little bit long. Well, it might start going down pretty soon actually because we'll we'll see in this next slide is that ninth and tth grade
017are our highest enrollment numbers. Um, so those numbers we're expecting to start dropping uh starting in 26 27. >> Yeah, you can really see the difference if you look at grade four at 1700. That's pretty typical until we get to grades 11 and 12 have running start kids kind of taken out of them. But everything else is 1800 1700s and then you get to fourth grade 1754 and then you can just see the immediate impact of of birth rate. And so we are going to see, we believe those continue to fall for the next few years. And again, we'll start to see those smaller cohorts pushing through to our middle schools and then to our high schools. So that is also being passed along and taken into account. We have the UGO going into effect,
018but we do have this going on. And so as they talk about boundaries, it's pretty complicated. Uh, and this is just our running start enrollment history. You can see we've been growing in running start since 2223. Last year we saw almost 100 student increase about 20%. This year we saw about a 6% increase. And just as a for a reminder um so our running start students the aortionment that we would receive for a student does that then go to the college [snorts] >> everything but 7%. >> Except so 7% of the aortionment we keep how much does it cost us? Is there is it 7% cover that or are there other expenses? >> I think it depends on how you staff. I don't know that it I don't know that it costs us anything. Um
019you just need to get your projection right. Right. So here we thought a running start was going to be a little higher. They actually ended up in seats in high school. That's better. The prior year it was the opposite. So that's what it really matters for our revenue projection. 7% typically covers including we include in the counselor case load running start students. So that 7% is really paying for those additional counselors to counsel them on their running start verification form and their course taking. So that is really where we're spending it in my opinion. Yeah, >> sorry if you can just go back and this is not budget related, more um just a curiosity to go up by 200 students in a few years. Northshore is known for its high schools. We do high school
020really well and we have amazing um college preparatory programs at our four high schools. So, I'm wondering if we have an idea why more kids are going to running start when we >> I think we also are kind of picking back up for where we before co >> Yeah, it's the bounce back from co. So, you can see in 2021 we have 513. I think there was a kind of a decline >> of of running start taking as we were coming back out and now I think kids are going back to it. So, so what I'm hearing if we had if we went back a little more precoid that this is actually a a normal number that we're looking at and that it was down during co >> I think it was growing a little
021bit each year up to that 513 number that you're seeing. Then we dropped off and now we're we're back up above the 513 number. So I think that might be a better comparison over the fiveear span. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, our transitional bilingual instructional program enrollment has been increasing. Um, and this is just the history of of that. Uh, we did anticipate um that enrollment declining. So, I think we actually budgeted for an enrollment decline because of some of the federal policies out there. Um it was pretty it declined a little bit but um pretty flat. So not as much as we we originally budgeted. >> And how state funding for transitional bilingual? >> We're going to see that in just a moment. Thank you, >> President Cass. [clears throat] >> And then uh
022last but not least, special education enrollment uh is another area where we've been growing as a percent to our total enrollment. Uh, so we're currently sitting at 14.4%. >> But again, when when the legislature came out and said, "Well, everyone is above and they're losing funding." That's not true. In Northshore, we were never at the cap. We weren't losing because of the cap. It's simply the allocation per pupil. I was just going to say a reminder for people at home that the preschool numbers are very low because we still need a bunch of preschoolers to turn three so they can enter the system. And so throughout the school year, kids will turn three and they'll enter the preschool. So the number will probably be closer more similar to 2425 by the end of the school
023year when there's been more three-year-olds >> somewhat. We are budgeting for a decline. We same thing birth rate and and finding those students. So, we've been kind of ticking down a couple classrooms each year since I've been here where we just haven't been finding enough littles, but we do gain enrollment throughout the year. You're correct. And uh we have a couple of areas other than basic ed where we have large funding gaps in state funding. Uh the the first big one being special ed. And so, I have to look at this because I can't read from up there. So, yeah, we're a deficit of about 21.5 million is what we've budgeted for 2425, which is very similar to what we we saw in 24 or sorry, in 2526, very similar to what we saw in
0242425. Um, so even though the state has been uh making some progress towards funding special ed, our costs continue to increase each year and it's just they're not keeping up. Yeah, next year this will look magically different from the accounting trick where technically we will not be able we will have to put basic ed funding to fill the gap through a formula and uh given to us by the legislature. So the gap in special ed will go away and the gap in basic ed will increase by the same amount. Just push one, the other one comes up. push one, the other one comes up. >> And as we all know, special ed is a part of those children's basic education, so it's still affects everybody. >> Absolutely does. >> Yeah. And that that gap in
025basic ed is close to 40 million just for frame of reference. So, just to put a pin in that when we're looking at this same chart next year, it's kind of like baseball stats where we're going to have to put an asterric if or we may just restate it like here's what it really is and here's how we're to report it. >> That that that would be yes, that's where I was going with that. So, next year when we're seeing this chart, um if there's some way that you can provide us that information so we can >> It's the same way with the MSOC categories. will keep track by category whether anybody else does or not. School districts are going to keep track by category. >> So the next biggest gap that we have is
026in transitional bilingual instructional programs or English language learners. Um we're spending almost double what we get in state funding. Um that gap is right around 5.2 million for 2526. And this is uh just an update to the slide from uh our study session last time uh showing you uh budgets and actuals over over time. Um and just remember that in the budget we have a $25 million uh capacity that's built into there. Um and uh what you see on here is uh exp expenditures exceeded revenues from 2122 through 2324 and we spent down fund balance during that time. The fund balance is the line that you see on there. Uh we went from 39.5 million at the end of 2122 to a low of 8.2 million at the end of 2324. And at the end
027of 2425, we uh with the reductions that we made over over that year, uh we started to rebuild our fund balance and we're ending at 16.6 million um which is uh 9.4 more than what we budgeted it to be at 7.2 and then we're projected to be at 12.5. What are we spending that on? >> We'll see an update on that in just a m in just a couple more slides and we'll get into that more deeply. >> Thanks. >> So, real quick, this is just a summary by activity. Um, [clears throat] most of our expenditures are for teaching and teaching support about 75%. Uh, followed by instructional administration, which are principles, that's the orange at 8%. Uh, custodial maintenance and grounds at 5.8. 8% is the light blue. Uh then transportation at 3.3% the
028green and then nutrition services central admin and other support services are all around 2% and then utilities at 1.6. >> Sorry, back at the slide 17 being at 16.6 does for our fund balance does that mean we're off the watch list? >> No. Okay. >> What does it take to get off that watch list? Well, they keep moving that um they put in an edit. So, when we report to the state, we have a mandated set of reports and there's a system that you report all your numbers into and as any they validate data and they can send you um fatal flaw errors or they can send you warnings. And we got a new warning all of a sudden that said our fund balance wasn't at 6%. [laughter] Yeah, that was news to everyone. I
029don't know when they decided to put that edit in. So, we haven't talked about it with the state yet or not. So, we're a ways away. All districts got the surprise alto together. When we all submitted, we all a lot of us got that edit back and as we asked each other about it, everyone's like, none of us knew about it. I mean, it's fine for them to set it. It would just been great if they would have told us that it was going to get set >> and I and I think fund that percent of fund balance is part of the overall how they determine whether or not you're on the watch list. So, >> it's a major component. Um, I'll just say we'll talk about cash flow in a moment as well as
030more information. We need that number to be a little bit higher to not have to for sure take a loan again. So, we're not quite there yet. We're getting there. We've made good progress, but we're not there yet. It really probably needs to be in the 20s. Yeah. >> Uh and then one more uh this is our expenditures by object code and really what is 87.4% of our our expenditures are for salaries and benefits. The rest um what is that 12 12.6% 6% is on >> uh material supplies and operating costs. Um >> we are the highest. >> So we're highly leveraged on >> we kept people as may I know that we had to cut but we kept a lot of people and so we're highly leveraged. That percentage is higher than any of
031our peers still uh as we as Chris did some looking at a bunch of other districts. We're still that percentage is the highest. Usually you're around 85% or so. Somewhere between 80 and 85 is pretty normal. Um, so we're still high on that category, which means we've cut everything else we can think of besides our people. >> [clears throat] >> And this is a picture of our overall actuals for 2425 uh since we closed the year. Uh if you remember we ended um last year uh up a million and uh so that that flowed through to our beginning fund balance for 2425. Um and then our revenues and expenditures were lower than budgeted. However, those numbers included the 25 million in capacity. So we were actually uh 11.4 4 million more in revenues, three million
032more in expenditures for a net increase of 8.4 uh million dollars of revenues over expenditures and 8.4 as a result of conservative budgeting. Um we got extra $2 million in safety net funding. Uh special ed enrollment was up last year. That was about 1.2 1.5 million in revenue. Uh we had a $1 million of one-time funding from OSPI for the extra $50 per student. Uh our rental income was up last year uh close to a million and then we our our grant funding helped cover more costs than what we budgeted. Um so like Head Start, we thought there was going to be a gap in funding. Uh they gave us more money. Uh similar with Evergreen Mental Health and stuff like that. >> Yeah. So, Director Tran, this really answers your question. If you shift
033over to the right side of the table, the table on the right, when we budgeted, we knew that we were going to come in better than the 8.2 or our ending. So, we knew that we were going to come in somewhat better. And at that point that we were developing the budget, we thought it would be about 12.5. And so, that's really what we anticipated at that point in time. And so and then now we know that we're at 166, right? So it's it's continuing to improve u and we update those projections on a regular consistent basis. So the next time you see this really will be probably after legislative session where we have a good idea about where we're going, what happened during session, um where some of our costs have been, have they
034resolved the sales tax thing? There's oh so many variables that sit in this number, but all to say that we're pleased that we're, you know, we're $4.1 million above when we were first doing budget development back in the early spring. >> Yeah. So, the only update to the 2526 is reflecting what our true beginning and ending fund balance numbers are. We're keeping revenues and expenditures the same at 464.4 million. Um even though we're we're sort of expecting to see uh that revenues will again be higher than expenditures by the end of 2526 and so we're anticipating that we should >> we might see expenditures too if anything else surprises us. Who knows? There's there's been a lot of >> I know >> this um and this is just a breakdown by all the different fund
035balance categories uh what our 2425 actual numbers were versus what we said our 2526 beginning fund balance was. Um so you can see that our unassigned minimum fund balance is 10 million 10.4 4 million uh which is about 2.3% of that 3% minimum fund balance policy. >> And then our total ending fund balance is 16.5 million. That is about 3.7%. So we're a ways away from apparently the state's new standard of 6% as well. And so we're just to give you context like we're still working on it. We're still in financial recovery as a district. We're still needing to be conservative. We're still needing um to watch everything that we spend money on at this point. >> Really quick question. Do you have any idea if more districts were added to that watch list because
036of the increase of the the percent threshold of the fund balance? >> No, the 6% was new from that too. Just new new. >> Okay. I'm just wondering if there are more districts that are >> I think there might be next time they run it. They haven't They won't run it until March is when it's usually updated. So, they ran it. We were on it. We knew we were going to be on it. Was no surprise. They do their edits for the F-196 and things like that. Usually in the summer and so that's when that was kind of the timing of that issue. So, I I am I am not all at all certain exactly what that means or the background. I haven't had a chance to call and ask about it. I think the
037other thing that we're going to see is there's a lot of discussion about changing the conditions that put a district in binding conditions. So, if you have a negative, you can have a ending fund balance that's positive total, but your unreserved can be negative. That was us a couple years ago, frankly. Um, you're going to go into binding conditions. So they're talking about more financial oversight just so that districts what they're hoping for is that districts can identify that there's an issue and start to work towards financial recovery more quickly assuming that they can. Yeah, >> this is basically the same slide that we shared at the budget the when we presented the budget uh with just with updated fund balance numbers. Um and this again assumes that we pass our levy in February and
038start collections in 2027. um that our enrollment will continue to decline gradually and that the state IPD will be minimal less than 3% in any given year. >> So this is what it's like if we continue to do what we're doing today with the class sizes that we have today. We'll talk about what some of those other scenarios might look like in a moment. And this slide is is honing in on our ending fund balance and what that looks like over the four years and how that relates to our 3% fund balance policy. Uh showing that um we don't quite get there at the end of 26 27 even though we think we might. Um and then for sure being there in 2728 and 28 29 again assuming the levy dollars are are in there.
039Uh, and this is what Jolan was alluding to earlier. Um, this is our fund balance projections by month. Um, we used to be concerned about um March. Uh, but we we think we've uh we're not going to have an issue this year. Um but June is still a possibility where we may need to um rely on capital projects funds to um just to borrow money to get by. Uh is projecting right now to be negative 5.1 million. Um the state has said that they supposedly we're going to be able to get some of our safety net funding before the end of the year. So if that does happen that might solve the June problem, but uh we haven't heard any new information on that yet. So improving. Before we were seeing three months negative. The
040biggest month was over $13 million. But we will likely bring a resolution to the board in February or March asking for um security and making sure we have a plan in place to pull the trigger if and then we need it and then we go into this monitoring phase. So that is what I would anticipate bringing forward to the board is another resolution tomorrow hopefully for the last time. Yep. So um one just a reminder to anyone watching that uh when the levy passes in February we will not start collection until 27. So, the increase in dollars will not assist us next year, so to speak. I have a wondering, and I don't know if you think this is even feasible, but in an effort to keep our legislature off of adding new things to
041our plate, do you think we could get them to return back to a 112th? Nope. Okay. Absolutely not. They're having a budget crisis. They did it before. They pushed it when they had a budget crisis. They started to do it again and make it worse and everyone came unglued this last session about it. I just don't think they're in a place money-wise where they can do it because they have to book a whole bunch more of expenditures into the current state fiscal year and that's what they can't afford and they have another gap called sales tax revenue. >> Yeah, I understand that. So it feels like that [snorts] for OSPI we should not be penalized in terms of being put on binding conditions or watch lists because the state has made a decision to balance
042their own books by not giving us 112th each month. So I don't know who we go to with that information and say, you know, >> yeah, I think it's it's one sentence really, right? We have to borrow because of the way you've structured the payment system where you've loaded it to your advantage for the state fiscal year, thereby disadvantaging the school districts and those with c tight cash flow can't make it without without borrowing. I'm I'm stuck on that 6%. Um isn't I mean one I keep think can they do that? Just just do it. Um but it seems to me that that's to a certain extent another unfunded mandate. I mean that extra 3% of our bottom line has to come from somewhere. I mean, if if we can't spend it on on our
043schools and our teachers and our kids and it has to be in that bottom line, >> I don't think they're saying that you can't. I think they're just saying that they're going to trigger an edit and a warning that you have a low fund balance at this point. That's what it means. You know, if you the smaller you are as a district, the higher your fund balance percentage needs to be. If you're a little district, you need 12. you need 12 because of how math works in those little districts. And the bigger you are, right, the lower the lower you can try to take it and we've seen us struggle. Um, so we'll see. I also remember when they were going after our fund balances, they thought they were too high and they were going
044to use they had a whole thing where they were going to try to come after our fund. So they just whatever works to their advantage pretty much is how this goes. I think the next slide is just a picture. [laughter] It's it's a picture of of this year and and the three years out and just how we um what we're anticipating today. Chris informs me this is my part. Um, so, yep, this is just a look at what we have as for class size in 2526. And so, as you'll recall, we increase grades 4 through 12 by two students. And so, grade four used to be 23, now it's 25. And so, if in fact we undertake reloing those class sizes and restoring lower class sizes, this is our current estimate about cost. And so
045if you go back to the previous slides, you'll see right now we don't have more than $3 million. And so it's going to be a balancing act, right? Right now, um 6 million is a stretch for us. So I think that we need to carefully see how our levy comes in. We pass it. we firm up our estimates and then decide if that's something that the board wants to prioritize um how far can we go and really using a needs-based approach to decide where we what order of restoration that might look like and so that will be something that um we're undertaking with our principles to work on what that might look like um but the board this This is really where the board would need to weigh in about is this this is a
046priority. You've talked about it in your budget guiding principles that sort of thing. All right. And this just tells you so if we reduce by one, what does that mean? Um we still would would struggle a little bit, right? we would we would go down for a couple years until that full impact of the higher levy comes through for us and that really is in 2829. So remember the levy policy says there's a big jump up and then there's 3.3% increase plus consumer price index until we get to the last year and then that increase is another $500 plus CPI for that year. So it takes us a little bit where it would take us back down. Um and that's if we reduce class size by minus one. So these could improve if in fact
047we do in better, if in fact some of uh our expenditures end up going away, things like that. But this is current state of of where we think we might be. And that's reducing all class sizes by one that were lifted. And then if we go to the second page, and this just says obviously doing all of it is something right now that doesn't look like it's within our means. So this is going to be a continued work in progress or a continued area of focus um based on what you've just talked about in your guiding principles. All right. So, the communication plan uh ATM is how we talk internally to each other, directors and principles. So, we're communicating our budget and this in set of information to those folks. We also have these study
048sessions. We have PTA PTSA meetings as requested. If we're requested, we go out and kind of talk about the budget or session or whatever they might want to hear about. We have labor management meetings where we're communicating with our labor partners. We do have monthly financial advisory commi committee meetings as well. And then the superintendent generally talks about the budget as part of his student advisory committee where I'll go and do a presentation to them. So those are all the different forums that we're really relaying information out to various parts of our community both internal and external. pondering. Um, so if we go back a couple slides, um, yeah, that's a good one. Um so with the declining in birth rates causing class the cohorts to decrease. We will see a natural reduction in numbers
049of students enrolling. And if we what what is the financial impact if we keep the same staff for fewer students but we're receiving less funding because we have fewer students. >> Yeah. This takes into account changes in enrollment. So this fund this staffs a class size ratio. >> Okay. >> Right. So for every 22 K through K2 students you get one teacher. So, however many 22 sets you have, that's how many staff you get. >> Okay. >> Um, but it does not otherwise we'd be staffing at 17 to one >> or something like that. Way past what we could afford. >> Okay. >> So, it adjusts to the enrollment. >> Okay. >> So, and that's okay. Just as a pondering because I don't I don't know if we would have this off the top of
050our head right now, but you know there's an attrition rate of retirees and you know teachers who move. Just wondering how that attrition rate compares to the decline in enrollment or if it's something that we should have conversations about in our communities that if if the decline in enrollment is different from that natural attrition rate, you know, it's that's what makes that reduction in force conversation a little complicated. Probably typically our attrition is higher so and it covers it, right? So the bigger of a district that you are, you do riffs, but it might be one or two and it's typically at high school depending on what classes they want to offer. And maybe before they had two world language teachers that taught these languages and now they only need one or they need to
051because they needed to add that elective somewhere else. So, like North Creek started fashion design and they added that class and they decided not to do something else instead. That's where it could impact you and that's not truly a riff. That's kind of based on student interest and how many electives you really can run. Um, but attrition to attrition will outpace our enrollment. So, that that's what we anticipate. Otherwise, we would be saying something different. I think that concludes quick to the end. I think that concludes our budget information. Thank you to Chris who's done a great job all year. Okay. Anything else from the board on this topic? I I will sound flip, but I'm not meaning to be flip. I am serious. The work to get us to this point where we're not
052doing cuts is huge. And for the all of us that have been doing this for several years where we were looking at this very ugly red number that we had to deal with to have a session where and I know how conservative you are that we are not going to be doing cuts that really is phenomenal. So, thank you because I it's been multiple years of work to get us to this point. Okay. All right. Well, then I guess we can transition. Thanks so much. Yes. So, then for the next part of the study session as Jolen and Chris are packing up. So there when the board did our board retreat and talked about objectives for the year for the board, something that rose to the surface was to talk about how to um consider
053optimizing monitoring reports in a way um that might match board needs and staff ways better. But we didn't exactly quantify what that meant. And so now that Superintendent Irish is also doing a lot of work around operationalizing the strategic plan in a new more efficient way, it seemed like a great idea to kind of combine those topics. So did you have an introduction you wanted to help us with to kind of frame that conversation? >> Yes, absolutely. Is this working? Yes. So what I am recommending we do moving forward is is really um to address two questions and I um and I want your feedback on these two questions. Um and then to process to have a subcommittee from this group to process those two questions or more depending on the discussion today. Um and
054so so my proposal is that we have two board directors and I think Han and Elizabeth were recommended um to meet with or volunte uh myself to meet with Jolan and to meet with Obie and other cabinet members as needed um a few times between now and spring to unpack these two categories that I'm thinking of or more if you guys have other um ways to help guide us. So one is to think about um are there monitoring reports or parameter reports that we want to redistribute similar to the discussion we had two weeks ago around parameter 9 and how we might redistribute parameter 9 into goal reports and or HR reports um and or um in or instead of redistributing some of them we might synthesize or combine some um that might be needing
055a refresh. So that would be one task of this subgroup. The other task would be clarifying expectations and alignment with the AOP and the revisioning of the strategic plan. So thinking through some of the things I've heard board members say is, "Wow, that was a really long report. That was we didn't need all of that data. Um that's a lot of work for your team. Maybe we only need this much data." But we as as on the executive side of the house don't really know what your expectations are and so we throw everything in the kitchen sink into that report because we want to give you more than less. So um so it might help everybody to have some clarification around what it is exactly you're looking for in those in those reports. So those
056are the two categories that um I would think this t this group would unpack. So, first thoughts on the concept of this of this advisory group um or this work group. Are you okay with that? And then two, are you okay with these two tasks that we have? Just to be governance geeky, we we haven't really within Northshore done much subgroup workg groupoup work. And so the goal there would be for some lovely perhaps volunttold because they're really perfectly aligned to do this work representatives of the board to to take all the input from from our conversations together and synthesize that. So you know similar to how we support the the goal reports, right? it's not so much about the individual board member as being a conduit for the rest of the board and help
057just help streamline the work. So if that helps, you know, answer the questions and you know answer Dr. Irish's questions and also think of questions you might have on how what would support you in doing that. What kind of information from the rest of the board would support you being able to come in with that filter? You know, what what would you like to to know from everyone in order to to do that? Um so to explain to those watching why um Elizabeth and Han were selected, they will um they are continuing and they are the two board members that have had experience with these uh monitoring reports. The two new ones joining us in a month don't even know what they don't know at this point. So um they are perfectly aligned to go
058in and say uh this is what this was useful information. This might have been more that I something I may have skimmed over and it'll be a safe place to let people know that you had may have skimmed it rather than done the deep reading. Um I will own that I'm a little worried that I get stuck of well this worked so why would we change? So that's that's why they they were selected. I would really encourage that you take advantage of the two exiting board members and what they have found as valuable information and maybe what they didn't put a whole lot of time and effort into reading. Um because uh President Cass is right. We've never it has been a long time since we've had a subcommittee. So you get to kind of
059lead that way of how to make sure the rest of the board feels included in that work and um yeah >> so some of the the ways in which we can process this in a small group and then bring those recommendations to the larger group I think one reviewing the past reports um have access to the past reports say what what worked and what didn't work um there might be some work so I asked uh Dr. Thomas for example to take parameter 9 before now between now and January take parameter 9 think about where it would fit in the different goal reports um and the HR report and monitoring report come to me with your recommendation I will bring that to this team to then unpack so there could be it could be that this
060subgroup of people have work in between meetings where we're uh because we might not do it all cons together at the same time so you know we then think about you know another cabinet member might take that on. So um so that that might be ways in which we process it. And then in regards to just clarifying what expectations what what the expectations are in each report, I think it's going back to the past reports and and revising and thinking through what was what was helpful, what wasn't helpful in those reports. And that would help us narrow down what is needed. And then we could take notes on that and kind of put a little I wouldn't say a rubric, but a you know some kind of a more more clarity around around what that
061is. So that's that's the initial thinking. Um, for those I I don't know if any of you have done like smaller group work stuff, haven't Okay. So, it's not something that we really haven't done. So, so now have has your previous boards have they done the small workg groupoup stuff like this uh where you have just a couple of board members who are doing the work and then what is uh that look like uh reporting back to the group. What is like what's the sort of structure and um like when did you do it during a study session? Did you do it like at a board meeting? Was there a section of time for that? like what what did that look like? >> So, I've only done it with the board president and I um
062in in my previous district. Um and then we would bring it back to a study session. So, we want to be able to have discussion and um ask clarifying questions and Yeah. And then it would go obviously to the um any changes would you would have to vote on. Yeah. I think the two questions that were posed are helpful to guide some of the work. I think for the purposes of making sure that we stay on task is having a core why are we doing this work and why it's important so that we continue down that path because I can see scope creepage on this pretty pretty easily. >> Right. Right. Right. Yeah. So that actually let's just brainstorm now. Why why are we doing this? >> I was going to ask why did this
063come up in the first place? >> Yeah. What problem are we trying to solve? >> Well, I mean I think I can help answer part of that question. I think it's uh sort of an amalgam of things that have come up over the past couple of years, particularly when looking at um replication of work, right? So, a lot of these reports often have components that are also replicated in other reports for other purposes. And um it's uh there is potentially times when work is being done twice with uh different purposes in mind and so there's um extra work being done when there doesn't necessarily need to be. Um, also just I know that you and I have commented publicly about the timing of reports and and how um different pieces of things were out of
064alignment as to when they were being reported versus when information was helpful or um you know we were uh talking about something prior to having the report about it. um which makes it harder to know whether or not we need to change anything about the parameter. Um and then to your point uh you know looking at our work and are the things that we're looking for being encompassed in something else that's also being reported on if that makes sense. So efficiency I think is the the short part of what I just blabbed on about. >> That makes sense. I think efficiency not just from the board's viewpoint, but also efficiency from the administration's viewpoint so that they're not doubling up on the work. Um yeah, doing more with less. Um, and even if we did
065get more, it's still about efficiency. And another that made me think I just pulled up um, you know, just because it helps me. I pulled up the monitoring report on the instructional programs parameter from October 13th because, you know, here's a 14-page report. Pretty complicated topic. Um, something I'd be curious for people to think along, and this is what got me thinking about it along the efficiency line is the granularity question is this is a pretty granular report and when you have a district our size, there's a lot of work. You know, for the board's perspective, it probably would be helpful to understand whether this is a level of granularity that we need. And I would I would just strongly suggest a different format in general. the blue text is incredibly difficult for my eyes
066to read. But yeah, >> uh >> I was going to say I also think doing this work align with uh taking a look at how some of the district's work has been previously kind of siloed where people are doing the same work twice with different lens. And so uh thinking about it in that way is like how does one piece of work inform another? Being able to bring things together uh means that you aren't reporting on something in one way for one thing and reporting on it in another way for another thing, but you can report on it once for both. Um but I I do agree different font color. >> That's an easy fix. >> Yeah. [laughter] So, one of the things also that we've been talking about over the last four months is
067focus. And um we talked we've talked about and surfaced this one. We're in an underresourced industry. Um and we're continuing to be more and more underresourced. Um, we have a strategic plan right now that has five goals that are of equal value and weight across all five goals. And I think when we look at best practice around strategic planning and operationalizing strategic planning, it's nice to have clarity around what are our priority goals and what are our just ongoing operational goals. Um and um and it could be uh a discussion later that we identify out of like like in this instructional report you're getting everything in the kitchen sink. So do you need everything in the kitchen sink? We're going to have to answer that question. Or do you want to just be do you
068just want to report on what has been the priority work of the district, not everything that the I mean all of that stuff is going on and all of that is great. um and but yet what is the what has been the the focus where have we been putting 80% of our energy not just the 20% to maintain things so those are things that we have to discuss and think about >> um so two two thoughts what I would envision the north star to answer your question about what is the problem we're trying to solve is this report am I getting the information I need to be able to determine detine that the superintendent has met the requirements of this parameter. And so that's what I would be looking at when you're looking at the
069monitoring reports. Do I need all of this information to deter to ascertain that um the superintendent I'm just picking P6 that the superintendent has maintained a culture that treats all people with respect, courtesy, and dignity and and so forth. Right? is this information and is it meeting the seven bullet points? That's I think that's how the lens I would look at it through and if there's you're receiving information that you're like I didn't need to know all that and I would have been able to say yes or no that this was happening. Um I don't think we need to vote on what goes into a monitoring report. We didn't vote on it originally. I think they can you can just bring a recommendation. here's what monitoring reports will look like and it's helpful. >> Yeah.
070>> Might I suggest too because of of how it's structured, you know, the um option for the board to find that there's not enough evidence presented that the first goaround with this kind of gray that option out and give feedback. And I don't know if if how that feedback loop might work, but also just to help calibrate for the first year. Sorry, >> but rightly so. Um, so I I was kind of thinking about this about um the reason to do this and and and how to approach it and um one I think it's it's fabulous. I mean it's um policy governance and all of this was in place when I came on to the board. Did we have these all the parameters spelled out and in place? >> When was that in? >> So,
071>> um because we did a few just before your election, some key ones that it the sitting board members wanted to tackle, but there were still some that you got to help. >> You just remember the fun brain fog. Um yes. So, it's you know, and then thinking about historically, right? I came on the board and not that long after we went into a worldwide pandemic and then we had our superintendent leave and then our superintendent left again and um there's just there's been a whole lot. So we we've done one refresh on the strategic plan. We're about to launch into another one and as we discussed before this is this is a good time to think about it. how are the the parameters playing into, you know, what what's laid out in the strategic
072plan and what we're really looking for the the district to do and be and and represent. So, you know, it's it's a it's a I guess an opportunity to open the window to look at at all of it. I mean, consistent format, you know, in the parameters as well as the the reports on the parameters. Um, I I must say that um, one of the things I certainly loved about your your predecessor was the willingness to be completely transparent, give us everything we could take, you know, everything that, you know, might be relevant. Um, which was fabulous, but you know, I agree it doesn't necessarily have to be all of the details all of the time in every report. as long as there's, you know, maybe references or links or knowing that there's the availability,
073you know, if we need greater detail, um, that we can then get it. But I think the idea of a sort of a refresh and a rethink about the parameters, what we need in the parameters, you know, do we want to keep them, you know, defining the same things in the same way? And that leads into strategic plan. And to your point, because you brought up something that I was thinking about was or a question I had for people who have been doing this for longer than I have in this district, is is has there been a time when we needed the kitchen sink to be reported on? Was was there were there things that we didn't know or you know like that then that's why we are uh asking for people to to like
074bear the souls of their work every time. I would say in in my time on the board, there has been an evolution in Northshore in general to a more sophisticated district where it used to be one reason um a lot of things were structured is when we, you know, had three high schools and right lot not fewer programs and um no equity policy certainly no strategic plans. you would get a lot of your information anecdotally kind of in the ether about how things were going and that just didn't work anymore. And so, you know, the perhaps the pendulum swung a little bit too much the other way where how, you know, that's maybe the question to solve. How how do you help a a board perform oversight in a in a sophisticated district? And we
075love the sophistication. But then when um you're asked questions by community or you are you know trying to you know evaluate even you know trade-offs and budgets or facilities or what have you like you need that context. So how do you support the board work? And I think one reason why this was so detailed is that not having that information caused a lot of unintended consequences where different board members had different information or um there were assumptions made perhaps and it sometimes leads to personal friction. So, so in that vein, thinking about um how we can maintain that transparency of access to information. Um but then also thinking about how to align that work with sort of the um change in structure that we're having systemically right now. Like thinking about like how can we
076utilize the annual operating plan in some of that parameter work because that's you know that's a a good way to organize what is happening. Um, and then yeah, thinking about how how to put things into alignment so that it everything makes sense together. Like I think a lot of the reports that we have they're not disjointed per se, but uh it's not always clear how one thing fits into another. We need a crosswalk. [laughter] I love a crosswalk. And I would say the the complication in my analysis as I've as we're trying to operationalize the strategic plan. The strategic plan as it exists right now is rightfully so very focused on student outcomes and the instructional side of the house. there isn't a component of the strategic plan that's focused on operations or stewardship or
077um you know the and so all of the so in so I could take the parameter reports and if a parameter report is focused on instruction I can find where it immediately aligns in the strategic plan um and also where it might be duplicative of the goal reports but what we don't have is a crosswalk we there's no way to crosswalk any of the parameter reports that are operational or stewardship in nature. And so um and so that might be something we think about when we're refreshing the strategic plan. Um is to and then so I have in my annual operating plan right now that the cabinet team and I are drafting out. It's almost like there's two plans. There's the plan that's align with the strategic plan and then I've asked for additional boxes
078to align with the other parameter reports. I don't want to make them one. Yeah. Um so to to follow up um yes and we've had to director McGordi's point about the continuous crisis opportunities placed in front of us and and there there were we we had the gun shooting um creating concerns and about safety. We had we ran a bond that that became the focus was how was it going to keep kids safe? We had students walking out clearing. Well, anyway, having these allowed us to demonstrate to the community we were staying focused on educating kids. We we were able to run a parallel track of we are addressing whatever the crisis dour is and we're still educating kids. And so that's the key to these to the parameters and the strategic goals. And yes,
079there's a lot to them, but even during pandemic when we're remote, we're still talking about our facilities and technology and budget planning because that was still work we had to do. Um, and so I just want to don't throw the baby out with the bath water here, right? We have to keep monitoring and looking and making sure that we're reflecting on those things as Yeah. >> And let me add on that before. Are you okay, Hun, if I jump in on that? Um, yes. And I think that it goes back to the with the why. You said something that I needed to write down. One of the primary reasons of why is not just efficiency, it's about alignment and um and nesting the work. And so um so it's not duplicative, so it isn't um
080over the top or we're not and we're really focused. And so um the parameter reports as they exist now are great and they do keep a pulse on the system and now it's just a matter of how do we make sure that everybody finds meaning in it and it's a part and it's aligned with the day-to-day work that we're doing and also um doesn't we don't get mired down into the details of it. we're staying focused on at the end of the day when I have you know one hour when when my let's say my team has one hour to do something and there's five hours worth of work to be done what are we going to focus on and what are we going to give up and these parameter reports and the strategic plan
081should be the ones that guiding that work and so um and and that's the reality in an underresourced industry is you're constantly choosing every day I have five hours worth to work, but I only have one hour to do it. Um, [snorts] so that's I think if we could think about it from that lens, um, and that it's nested and aligned. So, so I'll just do a a visual of kind of what I'm thinking and then we're going to let Han talk because um so like for example uh P14 um has all the things and but each year what we we as a board need to know fluctuates, right? So during COVID, we needed to have an understanding of HVAC systems and um how they were operating and and air quality and and capacity for
082six feet distancing and all those things. And so we flexed during CO. We didn't say, "Oh, we're not uh we're we're not uh approving this parameter report because you didn't talk about these things because we didn't really have kids in buildings." But we we said here's what we're doing with the facilities and here's how we're you are meeting the overall making sure that they're safe and properly maintained. Right? So I think that's kind of the vision I would have of this is how do we create these parameters that can flex and that we are getting the key information that that actually kind of bleeds into some of the points that I wanted to bring up and it's not actually points I have more questions than I have points to make here and it's mainly because
083we're in this exploratory phase of both defining what the purpose is which I think we're starting to converge on a why around efficiency and alignment uh alignment specifically around you know seeing that throughine or the crosswalk that both of you were talking about between the annual operation plan and the district strategic plan um and then the realignment after we update or look at the district strategic plan. My questions are are more around uh and we're we're probably not going to know the answer, but I wanted to get kind of cataloged uh groupings of questions, which is the history, which is what we're kind of getting from the three of you here, the the Northshore specific history, right? Um and to be continued because as we go through this, I'm sure I'm going to have more
084historical questions. And then how do other districts do it, which Dr. Irish, you're bringing in some of that perspective. And then of course we have folks here who have connections with other districts, work with other districts. It' be wonderful to hear what they do. Um if they do anything at all is why I assume >> there's just a few that do this. >> Okay. All right. So we're leading the way. It's cool. It's good. I love this. Um and then there are also I heard themes of how we want to receive this information. Not just when, but how. Because all of us absorb information in different ways. Some of us are fine reading like blocks of of like a 10 or 14 or 20 page report. Some of us might actually appreciate going into the
085details when we need it, right? Just not at that moment when we're trying to like five minutes before the schoolboard meeting. It's like ah too much detail. Um didn't quite get to that document. Uh then also the format if we can keep in mind just kind of opening up it doesn't have to be in a document and this is where it gets ambiguous and it can get a little bit uncomfortable is hey we all absorb information different ways what are some other ways um what are some things we can leverage whether it's technology whether it's um you know something else a social aspect what are some ways that we can absorb this information where it may not have to be a document and that might actually save the administration some time so they don't have
086to type things up. Um, and one of those ways that I was pondering um, as I'm jumping a little bit forward to solutioning, I don't want to do that. I'm more trying to be retrospective here. But one of the ideas that I thought of is if we can have alignment and have that crosswalk and through line between the annual operational plan, the district strategic plan, then we can come up with a checklist that the schoolboard members keep throughout the year that align with, hey, you're going to go visit this school. here are some things to keep in mind that will help inform you of um of uh when when you're filling out the goal report later on. Right? So, it kind of offloads some of the work from the administration to say, "Hey, we went
087and did this many school visits. Well, most of us would have been on it to observe some of these things and just aligning it with board activities." um which sounds I make it sound way easier than it is probably going to be to execute if we go that route. Um, so that kind of combines the the information like the detailed information with the way things used to be done anecdotally, right? I think there's a nice marriage that we can kind of come to. >> Okay, don't kick me. But I just had an aha. Um we of course we just did it whenever we have a monitoring report we review the policy and once a year you know you do the the reading of all the policies right just mostly for the B's and RS right
088because we don't look at those on a regular schedule to make sure our policies and practices still align but we've not approached it from the lens of a refresh like we did for the measures of the strategic man, right? Like and and something that occurred to me also thinking back about the history is the system is very much working as designed because we created a checklist. That's what we made in these parameters report. These were a checklist of informations that we knew sometimes we had anecdotes of information the board didn't have that caused dysfunction for the system that would end up impacting students and we didn't want that anymore, right? We wanted to stop that dysfunction and so we created a checklist. So guess what we get? We get a checklist. So you know if
089this is when the kick kicking might happen. But if there's an a desire moving forward to think about it as a refresh, you know, one way to approach that and which might bring in more um you know different types of data besides the checklist of analytical data. Um, you know, something that I, um, am super curious about because I learned about is is the art of and science of crafting good questions, right? Because we created a checklist. So, what if it was more around questions that instead of the what's the the why it's, you know, like I of course I just pulled up. So what if they're make they're clear and concise and purposeful and there could be fewer that would and then would allow for the flex over time depending on context. But that's
090it's a lot of parameters to refresh and that's hence the kicking. But I just want to throw out there like I think it it's um again we were addressing a need at the time and um the district is just so much more mature organizationally now. It's my turn. Thank you. Um, so two things have come up for me when we've been talking is thinking about a refresh is also I think valuable in thinking about to um Hans's point uh how the information is presented. Um and is there a way to create more access for the community that's more digestible? um thinking about those grocery store moments. If there's accessible information, well, actually, here's a nice digestible piece of information that you can access and understand the good work that the district is doing in a
091way that um people understand who aren't sitting here having discussions about policy at 7 p.m. on a Monday, right? Um, and then the other thing I was thinking about is thinking about underresourced. When those reports were being initially requested and written and when we came up with that checklist, how many more people were working and doing the same work in the admin building than they are now? How many more people? >> It was 2016, so it was a smaller organization, but to your point, then they got really big. Yeah, to your point. >> Well, and and like you said, there's there's more going on in the district and there's more work being done in different ways than when in 2016, what is that nine years ago? Um, so like thinking about it from that perspective
092is that like a lot has changed in the district since then. And I know we've updated the policies uh or the parameters over over the years and changed this and that or like modified them, but I I do think that uh to your point, a refresh at least in like Yeah, there you go. Um a a refresh might make sense and keeping in mind that alignment piece and and how can we make things fit together. So we are getting the information um you know just in case something needs we need to know about something um then that information is available but then also thinking about digestible right is a balance >> oh no um okay so a thoughts and and I I am recognizing as I'm going to be continuing with this work that I
093have to not be the old crabby person but um it's going to be hard. It's going to take some work. Um but a couple things one again from experience we know that any information data has to be presented to the whole board. So we can't rely on data where one or two board members were at a school and that's what they saw. We all have to receive the same data. Um trust me it creates massive problems later on. Um, two, reminder that all of this is part of the superintendent evaluation. And so, keep that lens of whatever data you're using that it needs to be then part of the evaluation. And again, trust me, you do not want to go back to subjective. I would be in a fetal position in the corner of the
094room. They're they're horrific. Um, refresh of parameters. Let me just prep you. It's 2 to three hours per parameter of work and we already are going to have a composition of a board where we're struggling to get school visits and the board meetings and study sessions and all the already expectations. So, I'm not saying no, but I'm just making sure you're going in it with eyes wide open that it's the thinking about it. Um, and then just kind of a chicken and egg question. If we're going to refresh the parameters, then should we be changing the monitoring reports? Might I make a suggestion? Again, just kind of thinking about the availability of our lives to do this that as you go through the work of talking about the monitoring reports. If you're like you know
095what this bullet point and this parameter is not really something that we feel super valuable then bring it to the board and we can bring forward that parameter and have a discussion on the dis and just say you know what we're going to remove this bullet point and then it's not a whole sitting down and hours of writing and staff is not freaking out because they don't know what next is coming. So that in the in the meantime kind of >> refresh could just be a haircut, right? >> Well, I I would suggest as you're going through the monitor report and and I truly believe our technology do need does need a whole refresh. I think the 10 years ago what the way it was written. So that may be one and maybe we start
096there and then go oh my lord this is a lot of work. I think the rest of them are fine. [laughter] So you are you and I are thinking a lot alike when it comes. So when I think about the backwards plan that I've shared with the five of you um that chart that I created by December of next year, we need to have enough data to help inform what the refresh of the strategic plan is going to look like. So if you think about the chicken and leg chicken and egg um one is these parameter reports could be data to inform the priorities of the strategic plan as well in addition to everything else right so that way this refresh of these plans are what is guiding the focus of the strategic plan or
097if it's the other way around we build the strate we refresh the strategic plan which I'm imagining the refresh of the strategic plan is not going to be throw the strategic plan out and start all over. It's going to be a haircut um adding some things or you know focusing some things that then um what what I think so it might be two iterations where we then look at whatever that final product is do a crosswalk and I think what's really important is if there's an outlier right now there's lots of outliers between the strategic plan and the parameters there's a lot of things that do not align um so the good test of whether or not this is working is when we do a crosswalk of the refresh refreshed strategic plan and the refreshed
098parameter reports. What is what is an outlier? And then we need to ask why is it an outlier and do we need to then let it go or do we need to build that into the strategic plan? Um because there should not be anything that's an outlier that is distracting the organization from doing and and the people in the organization doing the work. So that might be so we might do this work. We do a refresh. we do a refresh over here and then there'll be a second year refresh a minor one you know like minor tweaks to to align I don't know um or um yeah >> liking the haircut metaphor maybe we stop stop using the word refresh because I don't I'm not hearing uh we're going to completely redo all 14 parameters
099right >> desire some tweaking absolutely yes okay Yes, we're not redoing. No, that's not the goal is to find I think it goes back for my I will say my my hope and I'm hearing this from many of you. My hope is that there is a crosswalk that prioritizes the work so that as the leader of the organization I can when my team comes to me and says Justin where do you want me to focus my time? I've got again five hours of work in one hour to do it all. I can say I can look at that crosswalk document and I can say this is the highest priority. You're doing this and you're letting these four things go. And then I know I have security because it's my evaluation as well that I can
100say when I let those four things go, I'm not going to be it's not going to be a I'm not going to have a con a negative consequence because I'm doing what the board is saying is a priority. So, I'm I'm building on the tweaking haircut. Um, and again, take take this with a grain of salt, right? But when I when I'm looking at again the instructional programs, you know, and if maybe crosswalking will help with this sorting, I think there's just a lot of bullets, right? And so that's that's um what and I don't I don't know the best way to approach that to make it so you're not having I mean we we were we wrote them from scratch that's why it was two to three hours per I hopefully that scale of
101effort would not be necessary to look at you know under bullet one there's it goes a through I right like there probably hopefully could be just some that right that it it's just a level of granularity that perhaps Now we we know enough. We know enough and that um but >> yeah I mean it's interesting if we did a crosswalk of A through I and then looked at the outcomes in this in the strategic plan. They're both worded differently but I bet you they all say the same thing. I'm the meaning the content and then there's going to be the outliers. So that might be one way we start is let's look at let's take all the outcomes on the strategic plan put them here take all the parameter expectations put them here identify where
102they come together and then look and then tweak the language so they align and then look at the outliers and it's probably all going to be in stewardship and maintenance and all of that stuff and then we might just until we do a full refresh of the strategic plan. That might just be another that might be where it doesn't doesn't match up. >> I like the idea of creating common language between them so that the alignment is apparent. Um, and it it just reduces that duplication of work, right? Because if we're doing the same work and using different words, then we're doing the work twice and we don't need to. That is what I have noticed. Yes. Yes. >> Do the three of us have good direction? >> I think so. I think if I
103were to summarize this, we have three key words for our problem statement. the gain in efficiency through focus and alignment. And then our two major more wordy problem statements that are more detailed that kind of give us some guidance outside of the two questions that you asked at the beginning is the problem statement number one is board members need to determine if the superintendent is meeting goal reports to your point and need pieces of information at the right time in the right way. And then problem statement number two is help prioritize the work of the administration. So that that's the focus part. So those are that's what I'm getting from this conversation. Is this aligned? >> So then I'm going to open up a can of worms and our six minutes over. We have the
104five goal reports also and should those align. Yeah, I have listed here a crosswalk between student outcome, annual operational plan, district strategic plan, goal report and parameters. >> Go for it, Amy. >> If it helps, if you go back to, you know, because we we had to make our own type of policy governance in Northshore, but if you go back to the original structure, the goals were the ends and the parameters are the means. So maybe what can help is it a parameter should help inform the means to get to the goals which is where the the shared language will come into that piece. And so anytime there's a change in the strategic plan or the words in that document or the strategic the goals anytime that changes then we need to then make push
105the changes in language across the reporting structure so that all of everything's uh speaks the same way. Yeah. >> Yes. Yes. The little achies are all together in the nest. >> It's like defining task force and advisories and [laughter] >> Oh, you're making my heart happy. [snorts] >> Right. Sometimes you have to go slow to go fast. Okay. All are happy all our happy phrases. Okay. And and thank you for that. um you know pulling the synthesis on that was super helpful. Y'all y'all are very qualified to do this workg group by the way. >> We are watching and we are learning. Well, I'm watching and learning. I don't want to speak on your behalf. [laughter] See, policy work is fun. It's fun. All right. Any stone left unturned? Not today. Okay. All right. Then
106we can Thank you everyone. That was super helpful. And I think that's great. We will adjourn.