001told me I don't know this but someone did say that It's harder tables, I guess. >> Welcome everyone to the meeting. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Welcome everyone to the meeting. Thank you for coming. Um, is there any need for translation? Okay, great. I will accept a motion to approve the agenda. >> I'll make that motion. >> I'll second. >> Have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Motion passes 30. >> We will go ahead and move on to the student representative reports. >> Okay. Um, so right now there isn't much going on at OHS besides just prom
002planning for the seniors. Um, we're still in like the works. We're choosing between like red carpet and then like a night in paradise or something like that. I don't know. Um, and then we're having like our new ASB executive members join us for the next um, ASB meeting. Um, we're excited for that. Um, spring sports are off to a good start so far. I've been hearing like a lot of good news, especially Marissa's son, Hayden. And yes, so we're proud of like our students getting recognized in sports in a lot of places. Um, I did have some questions about um, substitute teachers in the district. I don't know like do they have like any sort of training or are they just like people who just like oh there's a spot open at this time just
003go in or >> Yeah. So substitute teachers in Washington state you have to have a certificate. >> Uh for many of our staff it's folks that approach the district they're interested in working as substitute teachers and so we assist them in getting that certificate from the state of Washington. Then we have an uh electronic system that teachers can uh identify days they're going to be absent. And then a substitute teacher also has a login to that system and can find an open job or an open position if they think they're qualified or if they the principal there are there are ways principles can control and teachers who can sub. >> Okay. >> But uh it's really that system that talks to itself and they are um trained by the district. They come in and have
004an onboarding. Um, if you have a teacher, let's say someone came in and said, "Hey, I really want to be a sub, but only in elementary schools >> and they did that for a year or two and then decided, well, I I'd like to pick up some days at um the high school." They could do that across the system, but they might not have been trained by that school or that individual. So, there may be some gaps there. What's behind your question? >> Well, so the main reason was uh I'm going to do a little story. It's because I'm more of like a story person. Um, I was in this fiber arts class and there was a student who has certain needs. Um, and she was really struggling with something she couldn't do. She, well,
005I could have helped her, but she was way ahead of me. So, I was like, there's a way I can help, right? I barely know what I'm doing. Um, so she was asking around and nobody helped her because everybody was just doing their own thing. Um, the substitute though, there was a substitute at the time. She just told her to watch the video in Google Classroom while she was like having a crash out. I think that's what we refer to that as. Um, and she was like getting really furious. And then I felt really bad for her. Like I didn't know what to do. So I also didn't just want to watch her just like that. So I tried asking her what she needed and I couldn't help her. And it was sad to see
006also that the sub wasn't trying to help her either. Just kind of let her happen while everybody else around her was just watching her be like that. So >> So just a couple things there. One is um in public board meetings, one of the things we have to be very cautious about is talking about personnel. Our personnel have rights as employees that we want to make sure that we protect them and protect our students. So in this instance, maybe after the meeting, you and I could talk a little bit about that and then I could help you connect with Mrs. Aerson over at the high school and we can talk directly about uh when that happened, what occurred and provide the feedback so that you know students get what they deserve every day when they
007show up. Um it's challenging when when teachers are gone. It's challenging for teachers to write sub plans. >> They don't love to be gone because the work still needs to go on and we are paying those people to be there and deliver a service and when they don't deliver that service, we need to know that. So you and I can catch up after the meeting. >> Okay. Sounds good. Do you have anything else? I don't have anything else. >> Okay, great. Thank you to our students for our student ref report. We'll we'll move on to recognition. >> All right. All right. Well, it's our opportunity tonight to, like we do at each meeting, to recognize excellence in our school district and people that are doing outstanding work for our students every day. And so, I'd
008like to invite Dr. Denise Mir forward to share a story about Scutney Springs. >> Is it working now? Perfect. I would like to invite Shelley Autumn to come up here with me. Um, I am really honored to recognize Shellyley and I've written some notes because I'm afraid I'm going to forget the best part. So, um, I want to recognize her for her exceptional leadership, dedication, and her commitment to our school community. Shelley embodies what it truly means to lead with purpose, integrity, and a deep belief in the potential of every child. Within her team, she sets a powerful example of leadership. She establishes clear expectations. She models best practices. And she creates an environment where every team member feels supported, valued, and empowered to do their best work. As an active member of our leadership
009team, Shelley consistently brings thoughtful insight, innovative thinking, and solutionoriented mindset that helps guide our school forward. She holds herself and students to high expectations and the results are evident. Her classroom consistently demonstrates strong academic outcomes, a reflection of intentional instruction, care, and a dedication that brings that she brings to her work every day. She truly sets apart what truly sets her apart is the depth of her commitment to students with exceptional needs and their families. Shelley goes far beyond the expectations of her role supporting students not only academically but al also emotionally and at times financially. She has spent evenings, weekends ensuring that her students and their families have the resources, care, and support that they need to be successful. Her compassion and advocacy remind us that education is not just about instruction. It's about
010relationships, trust, and believing in every child. Her leadership, generosity, and heart make a lasting difference in our school community. It is with great pride and gratitude that we recognize Shelley for the incredible impact that she continues to make in the lives of our students and throughout our school. So, with that, >> for your coin, >> thank you so much. Yes, >> that was really hard to stand through, but I really appreciate it. Thank you, Denise. >> I mean, every word. >> Well, I couldn't do it without a very supportive admin. So, thank you so much for being such a wonderful principal. >> Well, we make a team. >> Yes. >> I know it would be awkward to stand there while people say nice things about you, but thank you so much for being here and
011for all you do for the students and staff over there. >> Thank you. >> And I think we want to take a picture. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, thank you again for being here. We are going to move into board member discussion. I'm actually going to start that off with legislative report. So, one second. I'm going to pull something up. The legislative session is over now. They passed a bunch of stuff and a bunch of stuff failed. I'm going to talk a little bit about how that affects schools. Okay. So, I have just some some outline, a little bit of an outline from WASDA about what they're saying about the legislative session. Um Oh, you're good. They didn't send you anything. Um some of the things that they some of the positives
012they wanted to highlight. Um there's been a lot in the news about this millionaire's tax. One of the positives that was highlighted was that um the this this tax exempts public schools, school districts, and educational service districts from all sales taxes created by this um um millionaires tax. So that's good for us. They was able to prevent a lot of unfunded mandates, which was a big thing for them. They didn't want new bills passed that had that put more strain on school districts. And though they weren't able to stop all unfunded mandates, they were able to um stop quite a few of them. Another thing they pointed out that was a positive was there was some new new funding set aside for small school modernization. Now, small schools, that's like very small schools. That's smaller
013than us, but still a positive that it was set aside for helping um schools around the state. some of the setbacks that they outlined. Um the LEA local effort assistance funding was decreased by approximately 25 million to reduce in next year's calendar year funding increase per pupil decreases from $250 per pupil to $150 per pupil. So that's not good for us, not good for any of the schools really. Um how how will that affect us uh directly? Dr. press or or >> Amy, if you come to the mic just to make um so the 150 per student versus the 250 per student, so that's $100 per student. So that's about $450,000 that we're budgeted to receive that we're not going to receive. Okay, thank you for the clarification. So, that's not not, you know, not
014great for us. We were obviously hoping for a lot for an increase from the state. Another um one that they pointed out was the trans the transition to kindergarten funding was also cut. We don't think that it's going to affect our district. One of the um caveats they put in that was that it won't affect places that are called uh childcare access deserts, which Oello doesn't have a ton of options for that age of childcare. We don't think that's going to affect us, but still not good for a lot of TK programs around. And then another one that they pointed out was a decrease in funding to so there there's a fund to um cover like the depreciation of school buses and that funding was decreased as well. So yeah, not not great for that.
015U do you have any comments on any of those before I move on? >> Uh maybe just a couple about the TK situation. um the percentage of cut that they targeted. Again, they were pretty mindful about also saying rural spaces and uh spaces that were pre-K deserts, um students in particularly title one school districts with high needs. We check all of those boxes. So, we continue to be hopeful that our our TK is going to be um left alone, but we won't know that for a month or two. Uh the other part about um I think the the mindset that they went into this with was it's going to be devastating and in some of the webinars Amy's been in and others I think it's just like well it was just really bad, right? We
016still got to get after it but that we're not excited about where we're at. What I think is going to happen with Mox and all those other kinds of things are what we're seeing with fuel prices. What's that going to do to other u purchases that school districts have to make? How's that going to impact other industries? and this this continuous cycle of escalating costs. So again, not great news, but um we have some reserve. We're in a position to address some of the deficit that way and then begin to plan for next year and what might be deeper cuts. Um was also provided a short list of the bills that did pass that do um directly affect school districts. Uh one of them is a prohibition on certain restraint practices. There's one for like
017terminology terminology changes for non-citizen students stuff for military in military family enrollment special education evaluation report timelines evidence-based literacy requirements post-secary financial aid eligibility review and deficiencies and programming changes in public education. So those are some of the things some of the ones that WA pointed out that do affect school districts. And then as Dr. Press said um Amy has also been um you know attending a lot of this these legislative session updates and she sent me something that I wanted to share from her meeting. Um yeah so the her organization described the legislation as deeply disappointing for K12 education lawmakers failed to fund basic key education needs such as MSOC transportation special education and substitute teacher costs. This lack of investment effectively amounts to a cut for districts. Emphasize we emphasize that districts will
018need a stronger more vocal grassroots advocacy strategy during the interim and heading into the 2020 2020 2020 2027 session. So um a lot of thing a lot of not great news for us but now that this session is over we move back into the advocacy phase and the planning phase. um organizations like Wazda and Wasow help us out a lot with that and so we will be um keeping close with them and seeing what we can do for our district. Any questions or comments about the legislative reports? >> So when you were talking about on a scale of 1 to 10, where do you kind of see where do you when you're in that those meetings, where do you kind of feel that >> like Dr. Pratt said, it could have been worse. Okay. >>
019But yeah, nothing really went the way that they were hoping it would. Um, at the beginning of the session, the these organizations had a, you know, the attitude of like, we hope that they don't like it's everyone's just saying, well, don't cut from us and every everyone's saying, you know, don't don't cut from our specific area. And, um, yeah, we didn't get any of the increases that they were hoping for. Um so yeah, like like they said, we'll have to increase our um advocacy and legislative stuff in between sessions. Anything else? >> Yeah, I think on a on that scale that you put out there, um higher ed um had a very difficult time. Some of the programs and offerings particularly for marginalized students are going to be gone. Um Big Ben put out a
020video a week or so ago about the TRIO program. It's been there for over a decade. Everyone's gone. uh you you might have participated in that or know some students that have. Um it's it's gone away at many of the universities and colleges. Um the ESDs, who are regional entities, I think there's nine in the state of Washington that help school districts, particularly smaller school districts with support services. They've had significant cuts um more so than I think the school-based ones, but everyone's in that cycle of already being um pressured by escalating costs and now expecting or hoping for some new funds and it just didn't show. Um so now we prepare and it's yearbyear, right? We we hope that you have for some school districts who don't have a reserve going and be very
021challenging year and then will more pressure be put on Olympia to respond. I maybe and I'm not sure how in in the weeds you are with this but I'm not sure what happened to mental health supports and those kinds of things if there were cuts in those areas as well. >> We uh like at least in the public health realm where I work where I work it was a 25 million cut. So I'm like I hope I don't lose my job either. Well, I understand the the stress of all of it. >> You can come work in a fellow though. Maybe we closer. >> I don't All public health lost money. So, I don't know if they'll give me a job. >> Um, anything else for board member discussion that any of the board members
022had to bring up in addition to legislative report? >> Um, was it true that running start was also getting cut? >> You know, I also heard that, but I haven't heard anything official about that. >> It's just a summer school portion, right? >> Yeah. So, the way that they count running start students, they have some enhanced funding for students who um uh take Running Start and sometimes you can do that in the summer as well and the state would help pay for that. Really, the portion that went away is the summer school part of it. >> So, I know we had some students who did some summer school running start this year. They're in your class. They're your age. They're seniors, but they've already graduated from CBC. They're already done with their classes because they
023took them in the summertime. those options are going to go away unless the students and their families decide that they're going to pay for them. So, talking about those hits to um to higher ed to Big Band and to CBC and those the our partners around um Running Start, lots of program cuts there that are coming their way and that's one of them. >> So, those summer school running starts going away completely or just the state funding for it? >> I think I believe the funding for it, but they're still going to offer courses and a kid could take those courses. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Okay, thank you. Um, anything else in port discussion? I see a note here for third grade reading. Is that >> uh that note for third grade
024reading was uh something that uh director Prow asked me to put on there. So, I think we just hold it and maintain it uh to the next meeting. It's really a discussion about a broader discussion about providing data to the board and that was what was going to get the conversation going. So, uh when she's able to return, we'll uh talk through that. >> Great. Thank you. Uh we'll move on to required approval required approvals. I'll accept a motion to approve the required approvals. >> I'll make that motion. >> I'll second. >> I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> The motion passes 30. >> And now we'll move on to superintendentformational items. A couple items in there this evening. One is an administrative update. Um I wanted
025to provide the board and the public an update about um an administrative decision with our uh preschool leadership. Jennifer Garza's transition into leading our tech services um here in the district um created that opening. So we uh had a series of interviews last week um panel of about 10 staff um had the candidates meet with the uh staff at the preschool and we made a selection and it happens to be one of our own. Um Amy Palmore, who's been with the district, I think 25 years, she talked about uh has worked at multiple elementary schools and um had a variety of roles, is currently the dean at Wahitas and uh so she's going to step into that role. Um she's very excited about it and we're excited about her um the quality of candidate that
026we received. She'll be before the board probably at the next meeting to introduce herself and let you know about that part, but she just transferring into that position. So I wanted you to be aware of that. I was able to meet with their uh staff at the preschool on Friday. John Weisman and I went over and we made that announcement and walked them through some of the next steps. We'll be meeting with Amy in the next couple of days to plan out her entry into that position. Uh the next one is around calendar changes. Uh so if you remember at our not the last board meeting but the one before when we talked about some of the workshop outcomes, one was the placemat and how that might become a regular part of our meeting. So
027today's the launch of that. One of the important ones though was the board calendar and how that paired with in enhanced and increased participation in particularly city council meetings. Two pieces to that. Uh if Marisa, if you would call up the calendar itself, you'll just note that I think it's on pages three and four, the highlighted ones, those are the meetings that would be changed for this school calendar, for this board calendar year. And so there's just a handful of the of them on there. and you'll see that noon designation on just a couple of those. So, that's something that the board has to consider. One of the pieces in your policy review for this evening, though, is around uh board policy 1400, which is the meeting times that requires the current board policy indicates
028that our board meetings will be at 7 p.m. on the second and fourth Monday. So, the adjustments, Do You want to call that one up? Um the adjustments to that policy um I think are up tonight for a first reading and then potential approval at our next meeting and then we would approve that new calendar. So just wanted to make sure that the public saw that was a continuation of the conversation we had a few weeks ago and let you know why that modification was necessary. Formalizing the work from the workshop and putting our stamp on it. This is what we're going to do. So, we have to formalize like the exact time it's going to be every month. >> We want our board policies to be accurate. Absolutely. So, Dr. Meek brought it up
029and it was indicated that you can see the first line there, right? We're going to meet at 7 p.m. >> Uh if if someone new moved into the community or someone from the outside, a vendor was saying, "Hey, I wonder when they meet and and decided to show up and we weren't there." There's also all the um RCWs around proper posting of meetings and location and time and whatnot. So, we should bring it in alignment. Okay. >> Can I add one more thing to our discussion tonight? >> Yeah. >> Um I wanted to share that uh Dr. Meek and I got to meet last week about the future ready schools recruitment and um we tried to be really strategic on um some additional invitations to the community around um inviting them to the table. Um,
030and so he um was gracious and made an invitation because I said that I would um personally go and invite folks, but we um wanted to hit people of small businesses, people of faith, um parents especially, people who are in civic groups. Um and so if you also know people outside those groups or additional people that you want to invite, please let me know. I have the invitations and I can make contact with them. Um, I'd love to do that for the board and for the future ready team. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah, our last meeting was um just a quick comment on it. After the levy, you know, you get through that first part and say now the real work begins of preparing for um putting something else in front of our community
031and it's going to require um a lot of good thinkers. So, thank you for taking that on and and helping us think about the makeup and the size of the group. And was there the the financial report the board financial report? Is that you as well? >> Uh that's just typically on there for the board's review. >> Okay. Yeah. Okay. If there no questions. >> Okay. For policy review, there are several there that are first readings. So review those and then we will be approve approving them next week if there's no changes. Um do we have any public comment tonight? No. Okay. Okay, we'll move on to upcoming events and board self assessments. There's a um special board meeting on March 30th for student board rep interviews at 11:00 at the high school. Spring break
032is coming up. Then, of course, we have our NSBA school board conference which most of us will be going attending. So, we'll be we're excited for that. There's a regular board meeting on the 13th. I think it's the day after we get back from NSBA. and then a Ludicai visa on April 20th and another board meeting on April 27th. Um, many other upcoming events to add to that future ready schools meeting. The next future ready schools meeting is April 16th. Great. >> And when is prom? When did you say prom was going to be? >> It's I I don't think it's chosen yet. May >> I don't know. Let me double check. >> Oh, May 16th. May 16. >> No, that's on May. Okay. >> Yeah, on a Saturday. >> Then when you And you'll
033choose the theme by when? >> Um, well, there was a prom meeting at 7 today, so they're discussing that. Yeah. With parents, so they probably couldn't like come to a conclusion of what the theme's going to be. >> Awesome. >> Yeah. Okay, for board self assessment of the meeting, um missing board members, which is a a con to be clear. Um >> our recognition was very nice. It's always um such a blessing to kind of see teachers just pour more and more into kids and building those relationships and um so yeah, thank you for that. Anything else for self assessments self assessment of this meeting? >> Thank you for not making the legislative sound so depressing. >> Yep. I do what I can. Okay. Um if there's nothing else, we're going to recess for 5
034minutes before we readjourn for executive session for 50 minutes. It'll be to discuss the performance of a public employee, but no action will be taken following the meeting.