001Welcome to our school board meeting. We'll start with the pledge of allegiance to the stands nation. Thank you for joining us in our midday meeting. Uh we appreciate the district for accommodating our needs as parents so that we can be available to our kids on these week nights. Um we is there any need for translation? Okay, we will at this time I will accept a motion to approve the agenda. I will make that motion. Do I have a second? Second that motion made and seconded. All in favor? I. Motion passes 40. At this time, we'll turn the time over to our superintendent for recognition. Yeah. I'd like to invite Carlos Gonzalez, McFarland Middle School principal, for a special student recognition. Hello, good afternoon everyone. Carlos Gonzalez, principal at McFarland Middle School. and uh thank you
002for this opportunity to provide this recognition to a very special group. I'm going to invite Devin Lewis who is our adviser for the technology student association at McFarland Middle School and then she's going to share really why we're providing this recognition to our team and to our students. Oh, I hate microphones. Okay, so Ethan is coming around with uh a little bit more of a description, but TSA is the Technology Student Association. It is a national uh student organization similar to like FBLA or FFA, and this is our second year uh going to state. Last year, we actually took five students to nationals. For those of you that were here, you approved our trip to Florida. Um and this year, they did phenomenal. We took a little bit different group um obviously because they're different
003kids, but they competed in different events. So there are 37 events that middle schoolers can compete in everything from fashion design to robotics, flight, uh you can see on there they did digital photography, on demand video, um amongst other things. And so this is here we're here to recognize the kids and their work in this because I really can't help much. I facilitate a lot, but they these are guys are the ones that ended up doing it. So, if they'll come up here, we also have a second uh we also have a second adviser, Miss Easy Holly. So, this is Ethan Wilham, Grayson Sams, Addie Russell, Maddie Camp, and Emiliano Gomez. They're a combination of seventh and eighth graders. This is Ethan and um Milo's second year. They both went to nationals with us last
004year. And then, uh we have three new students. So, Carlos has some participant awards for them from our state event. And then, as you can see on there, we actually had some students who did really, really well. Uh, the our tech bowl team got third place in state, and Addie is holding on to that trophy right now. And then, um, Addie actually got top four for digital photography. So, want to congratulate our team. We did get some state certificates just very recently and some state pins. Is that right, Devin? Yeah, I do. Awesome. And so just want to recognize Emiliano Gomez, Grayson Sams, Ethan Wilhelm, Maline Kemp, Adele Russell, and just uh congratulations to our team, a very special recognition and representing McFarland and our community so well. And uh it's also important to recognize
005and acknowledge our amazing coaches with Devin Lewis and Isabella Holly. [Applause] So the cyber security competition is that a competition to be able to hack or to prevent hacking? Okay. So what that was was I was given a uh like problem and I was trying to find a possible solution. So the steps in um that competition was I would take a test on cyber security how well I know what cyber security is and then after that I would be placed and then I would take a presentation like I am right now right and I would give a presentation about the problem and then I would be placed uh in ranking. Cool. And what is techb? I know you guys place really high in that. What is that exactly? So techb is a more of a
006game show type all technology questions in general. So we got questions ranging from medical to computers and even sort of biology. So it's just an allaround knowledge question. What were some of the difficult questions you got? Um, there was a couple ones like especially like what angle does a plane's propeller propeller sort of thing to what angle has to be to successfully take off and gain speed and stuff like that. And we didn't know that one. We're a little stuck on that one. They actually found out that it was a lot more of our seventh grade our eighth grade math and our eighth grade science content. So, congratulations you guys. Thank you. Yes. Way to represent. Miss Lewis, how was taking kids across the country? How was that experience? It was really hot in Florida
007though and I don't think we were quite prepared for how like you walk outside. Uh that wasn't in the cards. So she we they offered her spot to another team that was uh lower ranked for her. So our state can send three students from digital photography to nationals. And so with her being fourth, the third place person had said they couldn't go and then she couldn't go and so they just offered it down the list. Well, congratulations you guys. That's amazing. Really proud of you. So before we transition to a picture with our board um as is customary right with recognition I think it's important to thank our board for their support and to our district leadership but also to Amy Paris for her guidance and leadership around career and technical ed and um advisory
008programs like this to provide opportunities for our kids. And so again thank you to Devon and Izzy for their leadership at our school and uh developing the program like they are of course with amazing students that we have. All right, thank you very much. Thank you. Can we get a picture? take a picture. So, if you'll Excellent. Thank you. Thank you to our TSA students. Thank you so much. And while I'm up here, I do want to provide an acknowledgement to Devin Lewis. Devin, will you come up, please? Uh, this may this is actually a surprise for Devon. So, we used to do OSD challenge coin awards and but now this more of a building award. Something I do want to recognize Devon for is um she's been an amazing just workhorse at our building.
009Uh last year she with half of our building took on standardsbased grading to pilot it last year. She was also one of our empower coaches. This year she continued as the empower coach and she's been serving on our uh SBG leadership team in our building. Um she also is very very productive and helpful with our stat which is uh what we do for interventions and incentives uh preparing our targeted list for teachers on who we want to provide these supports to. Um not to mention all the stat slips whether they're incentives or for intervention and uh everything else that she's done as you guys can see around TSA in the building to continue to develop a great program and uh she's been an immense support for our staff. So, not to mention on weekends when
010I drive by McFarland on weekends, she's there on Saturday and Sunday and I've I've tried talking to her about that. And so, this is a this is a a lady who goes above and beyond for McFarland. And so, it's only fair and appropriate that we award her with a a challenge coin, which I did have in my pocket. There it is. And so, So to Devin Lewis for going above and beyond for McFarland, our staff and our kids, congratulations and thank you very much. [Applause] Thank you for that. That's always our our favorite part is when we uh have students here that we're able to listen to their stories and when we hear stories of excellence from our staff. So, thank you so much, Carlos. Appreciate that. Um we are going to move into hearing
011from our other students, our student reps. Do you guys have anything that you would like to add? Uh track and field. I think almost all of our relays and seven of our kids who participate in the distance and sprinting made it to districts. So, this Friday we'll be going up to Ephrada and then actually we're doing pretty well too. We should be in regionals statebound. Hopefully you'll see us. Um other than that we have our family feud assembly this Friday as well which we're going to miss unfortunately. But if you guys would like to attend you guys are welcome to. That's going to be just a bunch of games. It'll be family feud kind of like the show. Um there's no Steve Harvey unfortunately. Um but yeah it'll be really fun. You guys should all
012come. Great. Thank you. Um last last week on Wednesday we had our AVID night award and each of us got an award for AVID. I was most organized student and you can say I was um AVID student of the year. Wow. Best all around. Yeah. And I got best tutor. Wow. Good job. Excellence from all of our student reps. That doesn't surprise me one bit. Great job. Thank you guys. Um, we will move on to board member discussion, starting with our legislative report from Director Gerber. Okay. So, I do have several things for legislative report today. Last time we met, the session had just ended and we didn't quite have all the details yet of what had been passed and what hadn't, but now we do. So, I'm going to share some things from WASDA.
013Wazda is a big help to schoolboard members in kind of going through all the legal stuff and what applies to schools and what's going to be important for us. So, I'm going to read a little bit from their summary. Um so with the funding for K12 increase came to K12 in the amount of 2.46 billion which is good but about 2.09 billion of that is just maintenance level um increases so not as much as they were hoping for but definitely some and so we are happy with that. Public public education share of the budget dropped slightly from 43.4% to 43.2% 2% but key investments include 321 million for special education, 79 million for MSOC, and 113 million for local effort assistance. Um, so those are all good things for us in our district. Some of
014the notable cuts that WADA mentioned, um, there was a cut of 138 million in OSPI grant eliminations, so grants for dual language, grants for homeless student support, things like that. Um, there was a cut of 8.4 4 million from the ESD and reductions to career connected learning and various administrative functions. Um transition to kindergarten funding is capped now. Uh we'll talk a little bit more about that later. A saving the state 74 million. Um so you know good and bad save for them. Um and then they sent out kind of a bill summary and I just wanted to highlight a couple of those that that will affect us or that could affect us. Let me get to that. Okay, so they sent out a bill overview from all the things that do directly affect school
015systems and a few of the ones I wanted to highlight. Um, one of them is about the transition to kindergarten program. It caps the TK program at the 2024 2025 enrollment levels. So districts currently operating TK program, which we do, uh, will receive continued funding. So that's good for us. We're still um doing TK program. Will that have any big effects to our TK program from that? There was some conversation this year about expanding the TK program to include a dual language specific one over at Ludakaga. And so Jennifer Garza, Christina Benjamin, Dr. Meek, and others, Jessica Shank had been working on that project, but that that funding source isn't available. So if we did decide to do something with early learners, it would have to be a different model at Ludaka. That was the
016only really local impact. Um the next one was about safe and supportive public education systems. Um there's a few notes to that one. One of them is that it requires school district well it requires schools public schools to prioritize protection of student safety access to a discrimination free academic environment access to the program of basic education and privacy. It makes changes to the rights of parents of legal guard uh parents and legal guarding guardians of public school children. The OSPI is now directed to establish a process for receiving and investigating complaints alleging willful non-compliance with certain state laws and permits. It slightly changes the list of protected classes and non-discrimination provisions and those are some of those um changes to the policies that we've been uh discussing recently that have come up in our in
017our board meetings. It also establishes a statement of student rights and associated duties for school districts. And it establish establishes a retaliation retaliation protections for public school employees supporting students in the exercise of their legal rights and performing work in accordance with certain requirements. So, so those are some of the things that have been reaffirmed or more specifically outlined as far as which rights are protected and retaliation for those kind of sticking up for those rights. Um, anything on that that affects us directly as far as anything that's happening? Yeah, most superintendents have been receiving updates from OSPI that really say take a wait and see approach and so I think as these things become finalized, OSPI will push out recommendations for us. So we we've just been hanging tight until we hear officially this
018is the direction we're going. Um another one is about special education funding which we've mentioned it does increase the special education funding multipliers uh which is something that we had taken interest in. It used to be 1.2 and well okay hold on there. So they they used to split them into prek and K12 students and they each had a multiplier. They combined them and made the multiplier higher for both. So that's good for our special education students funding for that. Um the other one of it is about MSOC um you know increasing allocation for that. Again they did more than the maintenance but not as much as we were hoping. Um special education funding. They kind of changed some of the requirements for reporting um your special education students and the funding and how that's
019how long you provide um special ed education support for those students. And then there was one in K12 education funding which requires superintendent of public instruction to convene a a K12 funding equity workg group to analyze options for revising K12 funding formulas. So the the OSPI will need to um you know make a work group to analyze equity and how the funding um affects that. I think those are all the ones I had highlighted that I wanted to bring up. Oh, there was also one about that had to do with competency based learning with um allocating funds for that. Competency based learning and standard based grading aren't the same, but they are related. So, I'm not sure if that's going to affect us or not. It could down the road, but yeah, it wouldn't affect
020our work currently, but there are there have been projects and pilots across the state that they have been funding, and it sounds like some of those are getting pulled back. Um, so those are all the bills that were passed that I wanted to highlight that may affect our district directly. One other thing I wanted to mention. Um, you may or may not be aware that, let me get the correct wording here. So, um, a couple weeks ago, the US Department of Education and the US Department of Justice joint task force began an investigation of numerous Title 9 and Title Six complaints against Washington State Superintendent Public Instruction Chris Reichdoll. So, they've opened this investigation into them. uh the OSBI did respond um and and it's the same as what kind of what we've been talking
021about where the state thinks that the state laws supersede the federal laws. The federal says though they don't and so that's a oversimplication of it but they there is an investigation into it now and we will be keeping an eye on that because it could affect um our federal funding and um just what this the federal level and the state level come to agree on on those rules. So anything else on that? uh not on that part in particular. I know that some of the folks who reached out to uh the federal authorities and the department of ed were Washington school districts who want some clarity around this and there have been some that have been at the front of this. So we again we'll continue to pay attention to it. I do want to
022add one piece about the funding part. Um about 10 days ago and in in the last three days I think in the spokesman review there was an article on Tacoma public schools. So a very large system um anticipating a $30 million shortfall next year. There have been, you know, five or six school districts on the smaller end across the state who have run out of cash. When one of these big guys goes down, then we're going to see if Olympia is really going to step in and respond. But, uh, Tacoma is in a very difficult spot. And, uh, the services they'll be able to provide and try and maintain and honor those contracts is going to be very difficult. It'll be interesting if there's any more energy if someone like that near Olympia with that
023many students generates more noise than a smaller school district. That was my next question. Now that the state budget has been passed is and you're already in the planning for next year in the budget and we've had to take some cuts, what that's going to look like. Do we get a little bit of a reprieve or are we going to have to dig a little deeper? Yeah, certainly Amy and her staff, they they look at those projections and try and determine what it's going to mean for us. uh the the the items that came through, as Aaron said, there were small increases in in special ed and a little bit of MSOC. It wasn't a whole lot of money, but it will allow us to go back and and take the pencil notes that Amy's
024made and say, "Well, maybe we can save here and save here." Um, so know that we were going to do what we did this year, which is be very careful about any cuts we announce, announce them early so people can prepare, and make sure that we're being good stewards of the funds. So, we're glad to see the enhancements. We're glad that we have some reserve that this board and other boards have been smart about that, but those are going to shrink this year and continue to shrink until the state intervenes. Uh those are all the updates I had for legislative report. Okay. Thank you. Um next on our agenda, we have the middle school site visit which is scheduled for Monday, May 19th at 8 am. We'll meet in the library. Uh President Prow, I
025do have a comment about that. Two logistical pieces to be aware of. That day, uh, Principal Gonzalez and I will both be out of the district. Uh, Will von Brock, who is the, uh, new principal over at McFarland and Jessica Shanker, assistant superintendent, they'll manage the flow of the meeting and the logistics, but I just wanted you to be aware of that that I'm not available that day and Carlos isn't either. So, I just wanted to know how that day was going to roll out. Okay. Okay. Uh it's it really is kind of a if you remember our experience at DOHS where it was led by principal Aerson and Principal Tovar it'll be like that but we are going to include some staff feedback components for the board to interact with. Okay. Um our next
026item is our district 2 vacancy and um we need to kind of discuss what what our plan is moving forward with that. whether we're going to keep keep district 2 the way that it is or if uh director Petta had had talked about stepping out of his district which is a at large position and into district 2 which is where he lives that would open up an atlarge position for someone to run for. Um so maybe can you walk us through the logistics of that Pete? Yeah. So, we had a conversation with the folks at WASA about uh the appropriateness of that and the legality of it and it certainly is something that other school boards in our state have done. It is legal to do that. It really puts a ton of pressure on
027Director Pruneda. He ran for a spot. He won that spot. He doesn't have he's not up for reelection and so he'd be taking a bit of a risk on that um to to fill the board up. I think we waited for filing period to end to see if anyone was going to step in and and no one has. So, we'd have to consider um he would have to consider seriously giving up the spot that he earned and stepping in this other one to keep the board whole, which I think the community and and our staff would be receptive to. He's he's sort of taking one for the team. Then it's a matter of us going back to some of those candidates who don't reside in that district to see if they're continue to be interested
028and would become atlarge members. Um that's sort of where we're at. My next step was to reach out to the ESD because by June 9th if we don't appoint someone they're supposed to. What I'm not certain about is are they going to appoint someone who doesn't live in that district and really what are the parameters? So I'll get some more guidance from the ESD unless you know this conversation changes that direction. Well that was my next question. If so if they appoint someone June 9th is the day but they would normally choose from our candidates. Right. Correct. When I' when I've monitored this in other districts, it's when the board got stuck or um they couldn't make a decision between two folks. This instance if we don't have any applicants at all, if we don't
029have any qualified applicants. That's the question I need to go ask. So my question would be is if would have to actually resign his current position and then we would have to open it up again for applications and then we can accept them. Are our point? how that would work exactly but we can do it really really fast. The direction we received is to have the conversations in public like this be very transparent about it. Isaro has started that conversation publicly. So he's been very open about it. Um we could um he he would have to vacate the position in one board meeting. He could vacate uh the board could go into executive session to consider him as an applicant and he could be reappointed to another seat in the very same meeting. logistically we
030could do that because there's no other applicants there right now. Correct. So it's it's legal to do the the where you run into um concern especially around filing and election time is is the board not being transparent. I think in this case we've been overly transparent and very clear that the goal is to have a board of five and we have someone willing to step into a little bit of danger with their own seat to take that on. So I I don't have any concerns about that with the community or the staff. uh it's just a matter of do we give it a little more time before we make a decision. So district two if a person since the filing period is up for this election cycle. So district two actually wouldn't be up if
031we appointed anybody in two more years when the new election cycle for that for position comes open. Yeah. I don't know if it would be the next election cycle, which would be about 15 or 18 months from now, like next November, or if there's a special election. In fact, I'd have to get the details on that foraro, but it wouldn't be the November one. He wouldn't be up that time. Yep. Okay. an interesting strategy that he did share which is why Isaro is taking some risk here. There have been boards in Washington that do what you're doing, go into executive session and don't vote him back on. So, it's not it's not a it's not a an easy decision. I'm not too worried. Yeah, I got in here because of the people that voted for
032me, not because of the previous board. So, that doesn't scare me one bit at all. I just I just thought it was an interesting strategy, but I mean I don't think that's where we're at. No, no, not at all. Um, okay. So, that's something I guess we need to really consider as a board and uh Director Petta needs to consider. I just would like a little bit more information, Pete. But I'm I'd like to hear what Ken asked, the answer to Ken's question. Y of when you would have to run again. Have to run again. Yeah. And otherwise for me it's it's whatever it takes to help out. Okay. I will uh get some more guidance around the sort of election cycle and the timing of all that and then uh get that to the
033board and we can share it in in our next board meeting. We still would have some time if certainly we might have individual conversations you and I JR about the logistics of it. But I'll get that information and then we'll be ready for the next board meeting. Do we still have two board meetings before June 9th or just one? So I have a If we were if I was to switch then would I have to file to run for this year June 9th as a board of yeah I think that if you were I think if we were to appoint you into district 2 you would be secure and you wouldn't have to file until May of 26 um is my understanding that you would file in May of 26 and run in November of
03426 and then that okay so I could be totally wrong but I think is that what What happened with Kelly? You get appointed and then you have to run as soon as there is an election available. You have to run for that position. So if we appointed you next board meeting, you would have to run May of 26, do the election November 26, and then whenever that Chris whenever Chris's original four years was up, you'd have to run again. So it would not secure you for four years. It would just secure you for the remainder of Chris's term. So technically speaking, two years. Two years. Just one year. Just one year. You'd have to run the next year. You'd have to run the next year. You'd have to run back to back. Back to back.
035Oh, nice. Yeah, that's okay. Fun. Just out of curiosity, how many times can I run? Maybe it be like Trump, three, four, five, six terms. Just wonder. So, we don't have a term limit. All right. Perfect. Let me clarify that. Why would it What was the backto-back conversation about? So if you're appointed, my understanding is that you have to run in the next available cycle, right? So he would have to run in he'd have to nominate sign up in May of 26 and then there would only be one year left on the term. So he'd have to run again in 27. That's accurate. I have another question. So is it all three you guys have to run come November? We're all running this year. Yeah. This year? Yeah. And then cancel. Then when are you
036up for reelection again after that? Or do you get a fresh four years? The four years. Yeah. Because this is the end of Jen's right. Right now is when Jen's would have ended. Okay. Yeah. So four years. So then it would just be you, Ken, that we would worry about come November. Ken is not did not run for his position. So there's two people running for Ken's position. They'll be in for four years. Four years. I'll be in for four years. Aaron will be in for four years. So, whoever wins their the race in November will be locked in for four years. So, it's it's district two and you're at large position. That would be iffy. Right now, you're still locked in for two more years. I'm not unless you switch positions. We're gonna It's
037what it looks like. It's It's what I guess. So I I just asked them about the dates on we actually have a board meeting on June 9th which is that that deadline date. So we could give it until then and then do it on that day if no one else applies. Right. I have had some interest from a couple people that live in district two. So I don't I don't know that it's like dead yet. Um so let's give it a little more time. I just want to get I just like I said at the end of the day when I came up with the idea and I talked to Pete it was just to try to help us find somebody that I don't want to force anybody into a position. I want them to
038be here. Yeah. No, when you force somebody to do something, it's not it their heart's not in. You want to be able to you want to be here. So, well, and as we all know, this is a huge time commitment. Well, it's and then you you have there's there's some major things coming up in the next two three years. So, so yeah. Okay. Anything else? We will go ahead and move on to required approvals. So, at this time, I will accept a motion to approve required approvals. I'll make a motion to approve required approvals. I second though. I have a motion and a second. All approved. I I Any opposed? Motion passes 40. Um, I will accept a motion to approve required approvals early accounts payable warrants 2. I will make that motion. I'll second
039that. I have a motion and a second. Um, I'm drawing a blank. I'll approve. What am I supposed to say? You're going to restrain for yourself or for the to consider. I'm trying to ask if everyone approves. Oh, what do I What am I supposed to say? You mean what you just did? Like any All in favor? Thank you, Ken. I'm sorry, guys. All in favor? I um I will abstain. Motion passes 300. Sorry about that. Um we'll move on to superintendentformational items. Yeah, just two items this afternoon. Uh the first one is around standardsbased grading. uh Dr. Meek, John Weisman, and I had an opportunity to meet with some staff members who have been using Empower uh pretty consistently this year. We also had an opportunity to take their very same courses and clone
040them into a a platform, well, Skyward platform to um see how it compared and what the teacher experience was like. We got a a lot of feedback from them. Uh Dr. Meek and White John are going to meet with um the MMS staff this week on Wednesday I believe uh in an all day session to get feedback on standardsbased grading at the middle school and then on the 20th uh next week uh we'll be meeting with the high school staff. We've we've met with the teachers association and we said hey we're going to need every teachers prep at the high school on Tuesday to give them an update about what we've learned and what we want to do next. have a really good idea of what we want to do next that I can share
041with the board. My interest is in waiting until I share that with the teachers if you're okay with that and trust me to go out and I understand where many of you are and and many of our families and students. It's been a really good process. We've learned a lot along the way and I I think um I'm encouraged about where we're at in the process. So, I'm just asking you to give me a little bit more time. We'll be doing that on the again this week in McFarland and then the 20th the full staff day at the high school to announce some of the improvements and enhancements around that project. Okay. Uh the next one uh we've had a few announcements across the school district in the last 10 days or so. So I've
042invited um Carlos Gonzalez and Will von Brock here. I just want them to share a brief message with the board to talk to you a little bit about their personal and professional transitions and and just to have us welcome them to a new seat on the bus. So, I'd invite Carlos forward first and then Will right after him. Yeah, it's been an eventful two weeks. Um, I had a meeting with Pete and uh, he shared this idea with me and after going back and forth and how to expand on this idea, um, he asked me if this was something that I would do and, uh, specific to what is now being titled the director of athletics and student engagement uh, for 712. And so I I I know the athletic director position is already a
043a it's a big task, but uh factoring in the really cool work that's coming around student engagement and what we can do to tie in powerless to powerful into standardsbased grading 21st century skills that uh aligns to the strategic plans future ready goal um and how to expand on that and creating more afterchool opportunities for kids. um and doing everything we can to just improve student outcomes first through athletics and see how we do with that. But I'm I'm excited about this opportunity and this this next challenge. Uh it's been an amazing eight years. Uh I learned a lot at McFarland over the last eight years and the last three years as a principal. got a lot of people to thank. Of course, Pete, um Jessica, Amy, Josh, Meek, John Wiseman, the rest of our
044principal PLC group, uh to prepare me for this next challenge. And so, um but I'm also I I think McFarland's going to be in really good hands with Will, who's going to take it on as the the next principal moving forward. So, I want to thank Pete for his trust and support and confidence in this new leadership opportunity here in our school district and being able to serve the kids in this way. Um, and to our board of course for your support as well. So I if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer. You're moving is the 7th through 12 you said for the library director. So the one I right now we have one for middle school for high school students. We're going to combine into one now. Correct. Is your office
045in both of them now or do you kind of move around? Um, my understanding is the current tech building that we have on OS campus is going to be converted into the new hub and so I'll occupy a small space in there and work with the athletic program between MMS and OS but it'll be under OSD since it's 712 not just OHS or not just MMS it'll be for both. Are you also coming I understand now that the athletic director also takes care of discipline for that. Are you on that as well now or is that going to go back to the other assistant principles? If you're speaking about um accountability for student athletes, yes. If it's student discipline uh as part of the regular school day, no. That'll still live with the assistant principles
046at Oll High School. Yep. You're always good with questions. Yeah, he is. You remind me of my son, Elias. He's He doesn't stop, but you're good. I appreciate it. been told the same. Thanks, Miles. All right. Well, thank you, Carlos. And um similarly, Pete approached me. Um I don't know, time's kind of a blur recently, but um sometime back about this pos this position as well. And so I'm really excited um to step in at McFarland. I feel a little in between both places right now, but excited for McFarland and the announcement that we made at Hayawa as well this morning, which which they're in really really good hands. So, um I've been working on that transition. Um I was in McFarland all day last week on Wednesday and Thursday meeting with staff. Um so
047teachers were able to come in and sign up for times to come in and meet. Um and we just asked some questions about what what they're proud of, what's going well, um what they would start or stop doing. Um, and then some specific things around standardsbased grading and some other initiatives. Um, I'll say I was excited for this position and I'm more excited now after meeting with staff and hearing their energy and their momentum. Um, really really good group of staff that are really have a readiness um uh they're they're really primed. They have a tolerance for change. They're ready to go and move u um and they're really excited about that. Some really strong foundational structures in place um around discipline. a lot of momentum around the work that was done with cell phones
048this year um and things like that as well as around standardsbased grading and stat. While there was input in that, there wasn't a really loud cry to say, "Hey, let's get rid of this stuff." It was we have foundations in place. Let's continue down that road and and take next steps. So, we're going to just step in and and and do that work. I'm really really excited uh to to be a part of it. I'm grateful for those that are giving me this opportunity and I I think there's a ton there that can happen um with our staff at McFarland. So, so I'm excited. Who's taking your spot there at Haywat? I don't know if they've done yet. Yeah, Miles with his questions again. No, that's an excellent question, Miles. Um, we've been working uh
049down this road for a few weeks now and you know, you're never really certain until things start to line up. So, this morning I was over at Hayawa. I was there Thursday all day with Sandra Villa. We did interviews with 40 or 50 staff members. felt really comfortable with the the transition we were recommending at Hayawa. And so we went back today and announced that. And so the next principal at Hayawwa will be Eliza Fish. She's currently the assistant principal over at Scutney. Um so principal Fish now we we we she was at Scutney this morning with Dr. Meek sort of disconnecting and having I think an emotional moment with that staff. I think it was really wellreceived. They were excited for her but bittersweet right now someone new to come in. I was at
050Hayawa with John Weisman and Sandra Veril and we were able to make the announcement to that staff. So, um Eliza Fish will be at um Hayawwa tomorrow morning at 8 to meet the staff and establish that. And then I believe she'll be there Wednesday all day to do what Will has done and that's have one-on- ones with individuals and with grade teams and and she'll be there over um the next month several days. We'll able to release her from scutney to go do that. And uh and so your next question, Miles, is well, who's going to replace her at Scooty? Eventually, we get to the end of the available pool and people that are interested. So, I'm not sure yet, but um I'm really excited for Eliza. I'm really excited for Will and for Carlos
051mostly because I'm excited for our kids. I think there's putting people in in places where they can be successful and they have demonstrated success in other parts of our district. I'm really excited about the team and the way that it's coming together. So, but Eliza Fish will be the next principal, and you'll hear from her probably at the board meeting on the 26th. Other questions for these two? Many on the board are probably too young, but I'm having a a Chips feeling here. Ponch and John Baker, remember that show, Ken? Remember that? Sharon remembers. You've called me a lot of things, people. That's a new one. Thank you, Officer Gonzalez and Officer Von Brock. That'll that'll be Thank you, guys. Yeah. Oh, I Same. Well, same. You are John Baker, just so you know. John
052Baker. All right. You were the handsome one. Just put it that way. Well, uh, thank you for that, uh, President Prow. Again, a little bit of humor there, but exciting opportunities for our our system, for our leaders, for our kids, and um things really coming together well. So, thank you for letting me share those superintendent information items. Thank you. Okay, we will Did we have any public comment? No comments today. Okay, moving on to upcoming events. We have our MMS site visit like we said earlier and then our regular scheduled board meeting on the 27th at 1 pm. Um, nothing between now and then. That feels odd for me. The 27th is a Tuesday. Better make sure I know that. Because the 26th is Memorial Day. Okay, got it. Anybody else? Okay. Um, we'll move
053on to the board self assessment of the meeting. Student recognition. Um, I did I should have mentioned this earlier during board discussion, but we had a employee appreciation or teacher appreciation week this last week and uh, we did um, barbecues at all the schools and I think every barbecue had a had a board member or two, right? And it was it was great. It's always fun to be at the schools and to be with the teachers and yeah, it was really it was really awesome a week. Yes. And thank you to the district office for all the hard work that they put in to make those happen. I know Marisa and Cynthia are really the MVPs of the barbecues. But um just appreciate the effort everybody puts in from buying the food to cooking it
054to setting up the tables. It it takes a village. So thank you to everybody who contributed to that. for a little maintenance group in that too because they they haul those things all over the place. Yeah. But it's one of it's it's the week I look more forward to all year round. You get to see everybody. Everybody's got a smile. Y just another congratulations to Miss Lewis for her challenge going as well. Even since I was a mess, I saw that kind of workhorse energy. She did um I believe it was called maker space with us was kind of still when her transition got out of she still had to provide for us. You know, clubs and activities weren't as active then, but she was on it. I'm excited to see what's going to go
055on with the, you know, the movement of of our administrators and and the progress. We'll see in the schools and the sports. Uh good uh board member discussions today with Aeron's report to the open position. really well planned agenda. Anything else? A busy time of year for school as we get closer to graduation. There's lots of events. Big thanks to Tia. She's out and about taking pictures like every night for an event. Yes. Thank you. Okay, we