001foreign thank you in addition animation I'd like to table information foreign very nice Chad all had an experience about and I went to their trading in those kinds of events recognize also take a moment to recognize the work that happens in this room from our student reps but also that occurred at wasda and so having the opportunity to be around the three of them for an extended period of time I learned a little bit about them and I wanted to share that with the rest of the community and with with the rest of the stakeholders in the district so I'm going to start with Jaden who's our newest member and uh yeah I'm not sure why she's covering her face over there because I didn't sense any shyness in the vehicle or in any of
002the sessions but what I appreciated about Jaden was the energy that she brought to the conversations it can be difficult when you're new to a group or new to a team to insert yourself and to share your opinions and your ideas and she didn't have an issue with that I was impressed by her initiative and her willingness to contribute her thinking and her ideas to to the work of the board and I look forward to her time which is going to start here in just about a month or so but I really wanted to acknowledge her commitment to attending that training for meeting a bunch of new people and for sharing her voice when she was there so special recognition to Jaden for her efforts there Gael who's been with us for just a time
003and I think it was his first opportunity at wazda and what I have been able to observe in watching him not only there but particularly at our site visits his thoughtful approach to this work he's a note taker he thinks through what he wants to share he looks for perhaps items that others of us aren't looking at because he's not afraid to challenge those things and so I appreciate the way that Gael approaches the work and the maturity that he brings to his role as a student representative the other piece I would share about guy out we had an evening of Spirited competition and I appreciated um not only his thoughtfulness and willingness to challenge but also his his limited ability to trash talk I appreciated that as well so that was that was a
004fun part of our our trip for Elise Elise has been at this for a bit and I think we should recognize and acknowledge her experience and what she brings to the table having been through a number of state level trainings and opportunities to help lead this work for other student reps and that to me demonstrates an interest and an initiative that is unusual among students not only to to put yourself out there to be a member of the the board in your community but also demonstrating a willingness to do that in a larger scale we've seen a lease in breakout sessions at the National Conference we she had an opportunity to be on the main stage at the state level conference with just three other students and for those of you in the community who
005weren't able to be there and watch Elise share her story she represented Othello so well and I was really proud of what she shared and how she shared it so I think this might be the only time we get the three of them together in this sort of capacity and I don't think we're going to take a picture tonight because we didn't prepare any of them for that and I don't think Elise would take when wearing a blanket but I uh I do want to make sure that we all acknowledge their commitment to this work their commitment to communicating with other students in our system and we should all be proud of um what they bring to the table so special shout out to those three tonight [Applause] now absolutely I I uh kudos to
006all three of you uh Elise you represented well like Pete said uh Jaden I don't know why you're getting embarrassed there's no none of that in you I look forward to your interactions here in about a month like Pete said and continue doing what you're doing uh it is very evident that you you bring your heart to this you bring your your passion to this and that's what we need uh those those that are seeing you I hope Jaden's taking note um the way you guys have carried yourself and and she'll be a a fine example of that I'm sure thank you thank you I appreciate you recognizing that Pete that I was wondering you know I didn't see any teams here or nothing I'm like okay what are we doing tonight but no definitely
007merited recognition thank you guys appreciate you very much uh moving on to item B3 uh board member discussion uh director Stevenson is there a ledge report no new updates I know we were going to try and see if we could meet with our new um legislative representatives and Senator but um I don't know how many of you were able to meet the senator our new Senator was actually at wasda at one of the vendor booths um and so um got her email address personal not the legislative one which I was like yes so um but still working on getting those contacts to respond all right very good moving on we do have a was Daniel conference debrief uh Jen just because you're at the end there you can you can start it off and I
008would ask our student reps if you got something you want to mention here if you want to wait till your uh your your reports however you feel more adapter comfortable that's fine love every year I always love going to conference so many great breakout sessions and Lead uh keynote speakers and all kinds of different things [Music] Elise and the other student reps had an amazing session to talk about some different things there was a bunch of things that from that like the cookie for your thoughts once a month at lunches would love to do that and maybe alternate to board members and and not just at Othello High School also go to Desert races go to the Middle School maybe every other month or something go to elementaries or something I and maybe we'd have
009to do that in a different setting instead of at lunch or something but um so amazing things there um went I mean there's just so many great how to address biases um different things about equity and different ideas um educational Equity leadership uh love light and insight and there were I loved it one of the things that one of the sessions said that I was like oh that's just really similar to what we have as as like our slogan at many of our campuses every student every name every day and I was like oh I love that I mean like I've always read I can't even tell you what ours is now every student every day I I can't remember um but I'm always like oh yes that's that's so important but the every name
010that that was like that hit me um so uh loved many of the Keynotes like I just eat it up I love that stuff all those different sessions and if I don't like one I'll just walk out and find one I do like so I'm going to save the majority of my thoughts for student rep reports but I think so many of the breakout sessions were good I wanted to go to too many so some of them I went to the beginning and some of them I left and went to the end so um I think that that was really good and I loved loved loved the what was the doctor guy that was the keynote anyways really liked him Dr Brown there you go that's good but I think it brought up a lot
011of points that for myself to know and for that I could share with others so good opportunity uh well I really enjoyed the experience with you guys you know having time to share with you guys and getting to know you guys a little better uh breakout sessions were great I was kind of nervous because I don't know what to expect you guys kept me calm and you know I went in there I took my notes like I always do uh I got a little something for my report uh but yes one wonderful experience especially with you guys and you know have a little trash talking and you know having dinner with you guys is fun that's real fun um it was a very a good experience I I wanted to have a big kudos for
012Jen she represented as well also by being recognized for her work and I I think we all forget how much extra time that you do put out and we really do appreciate it thank you um that was kind of special we had two that were right up the front that was really kind of very neat but um I think we learned a lot of different views both both ways that not I didn't agree with everything but that's okay I didn't speak up um probably um our time together that we we were together was was really fun I did have a lot of few laughs I think they could work on their meals a little bit more though at the convention center they were um they weren't colorful enough anyway but yes it was very new
013it was a great experience to be with everyone director Jones before you start is there the need for Spanish translation I'm sorry I didn't ask at the beginning Dorothy thank you for being here I'm sorry I just now saw you back there uh some of the breakout sessions especially that I went to uh they had some really good information but when I went to them uh for example strategic planning and they talked about the steps in the procedure I could set back and actually go we've been there we did that we're we're on a good direction with a lot of our things that we we've got going already and I was 30 impressed with that you know to me it's like everyone says what's so hard about these conferences is is the Myriad of opportunities
014and the such diverse topics I'll I agree with something Sharon said I don't I didn't agree with some of the stuff that was presented but that's okay I think that's the world we live in and learning to be open to adapting to different things different points of view and everything else is something that a person's always going to learn about um but the fact that we're able to go to different ones and then it was kind of coincidental that some of us we were all drawn to some of the same ones uh some had to do with finances some had to do with Equity some uh we're just general academic stuff and uh it really brings it home to how diverse this whole educational or academic thing is and sometimes we we tend to just
015try to Bubble it into Reading Writing and and math which are extremely important but there's a lot of other things that factor into those so the fact that we have an opportunity every year to attend these uh conferences I think is money well spent on behalf of the district uh you get an opportunity to learn immensely and I had a great time uh and I don't think it'd be fair if Jaden you don't come up to the mic and tell us what you thought about the conference you're here tonight so I don't like to put people on the spot but you're up they're wrapped her but watch thoughts I just wanted to like second what Ken said that I several sessions I found myself walking out of because I was like oh we already do
016that and I don't need to hear it again so I just wanted to give our board props for so many things of that we've already taken care of and we do very well Jaden Hale she will be our new student rep in about a month or so um so sorry I wasn't prepared he's going to fix it um I think that it was a really good opportunity um just to be able to go out there and not only make a deeper connection with you guys but also have a deeper understanding about what not only our school is working forward to you know having the belonging the belonging of you know everybody feeling like they have a voice and they're here and they really speak I think that was a very big topic for me um
017and I just think that it was a really good opportunity for me to just not only just go but I don't know it was really fun I liked it um the things that were spoken about they were they were really they were really big and I think they needed to be spoken about and it was really it's a good opportunity awesome thanks for taking the time to join us appreciate it do we want to hear Pete's version of I was gonna oh sorry yeah I appreciate that um I will Echo a couple of things that I heard from the board one is around uh discomfort right that um I think for each of us when we're challenged and forced to grow or think about how we view the world um that's accelerated when we're uncomfortable
018a little bit that's what I tried to recognize from from Jaden she was stepping in into uh something that might be uncomfortable with people she didn't know but she embraced it and also when you when you hear things that maybe you don't agree with in a state as diverses ours is different there are people from the western side of the state it was a state level conference it either affirms what you believe or pushes you a little bit to think about what you believe so I appreciate the people who have the courage to get up there and say what they needed to say and for us to all Wrestle with the ideas and Concepts that were shared as it relates to the breakouts the one particularly in around strategic planning that Ken mentioned was particularly
019powerful for me because it's where we're at we're at a point where we're about to launch into about a year-long process to really think about what's going to guide our work for the next you know five to seven years and that's going to require a whole lot of voices those in this room but hundreds of others in our community to make sure that we get that right and so it was nice to hear from a school district a large system like Everett I think was the group that presented to hear them describe how they went through that who helped them with that work and to into the things that we heard are it's very similar to the plan we're putting in place so that was affirming hey we're on the right track let's keep going
020and think about how we push that work forward so I really appreciated that opportunity the other part that can happen in those kinds of settings and we do it as an administrative team though is the connections that you make in the car just having conversations about your life knowing what's happening with your families uh talking what we we had lunch and talked about to Elise about where she thinks she might go to college we talked with Gael and learned more about his family we learned about Jaden's High School experience and what she's got going on those interactions are are important as well so I appreciated everyone's commitment to to signing up and to going this year that was a new experience for all of us so I wanted to thank you as well for taking
021the time out from your own families to to spend a weekend learning a little bit more about your role as board members one last thing that I did want to talk about is the topic which Jaden had mentioned of belonging I would like to thank you Pete for putting together a trash talking opportunity for all of us to be able to to do like there were so many different personalities that came out that like I've been with many of you for a long time that I was like I didn't know that part and that I don't really care if I win or lose in some things and some things I have to win but not that time um I just didn't care so it was really that was a really fun different aspect than just
022let's go out to a dinner afterwards which is what it's always been so I very much appreciated that opportunity thank you Marissa we wouldn't be fair if we don't let you speak yes because you did join us and and you helped us get our room you were very oh we had great room thank you yes we have enough in our rooms we have never been at the Grand before we've always tried to get in and we've always had to go at like the historic Davenport and you're welcome big long walks it was so convenient to walk across the um a great time with everybody I love getting to know the students Jaden of course hung out with them a little bit and so that was awesome the team building event that we obviously had a
023great time at the breakout sessions that I attended were really good one of them that I really enjoyed that I took a bunch of notes on was the strategies for bonds and levees and how to make them pass so I took a ton of notes and I plan to go over everything with Pete just so he's got it too so anyways Noah's good great experience I loved it all right thanks for joining us all right moving on to item B4 student representative reports all right well this works because it goes right into what I want to talk about um one of the sessions that I went to was leveraging student voice on your board with Logan and just from wazda he does the student rep Network I'm sure you all know who I'm talking about
024um he so kind of during the session well mostly I spent the session giving other boards information on what we do so I just wanted we're awesome that's basically what I'm saying because everybody came out to me and asked me questions from Main stage so um that was really good but Logan brought up some good points that I just wanted to um let y'all hear because I know I was the only one that was there um and they don't necessarily have to do with just student voice I think they're fitting for anything um so one of them is knowledge is power and uh to go with that no one knows everything but together we know a lot so as a board when we all put forth our knowledge we get a lot more out of
025it and then the next part was to recognize the power of yet because I mean we're awesome right but there's stuff that we can do and so recognizing that we haven't done it yet but we can still do it um that was kind of I mean there was other good topics from that but just that the biggest point that he made obviously based off the title was that student voice is important and sorry um so that kind of went with what I said on Main stage and then I just wanted to reiterate it here in our own boardroom and then um also I wanted to bring to the board's attention some complaints that I've got from Mostly students but also a few community members that came to me but I mostly want to bring forth
026the student ones but just that there's been some issues at the high school with um um hold on I wrote something out on my phone let me pull it up um uh just regarding our gendered or non-gendered bathrooms that there's been issues with the gendered bathrooms with people or yeah individuals of the opposite gender going into their non -assigned bathroom so like females in the mail bathroom are males in the female bathroom and um so some students were upset by seeing this um and then asked to use the non-gendered bathrooms so then people that felt like those bathrooms were for them complained that other people were using those bathrooms I don't know just some stuff that's going on at the high school and yeah that's it for me oh well I got a chance to
027go to um a breakout session that was about creating safer spaces for lgbtq youth and uh they gave us oh he gave us this um like survey about uh statements and how they applied to like our campus like um so I read through it and I came up with some questions and I decided to ask them to Mrs Atkinson our principal and uh so the first question I asked her were if there were any policies that explicitly protect lgbtq students from bullying harassment and or discrimination uh to which she responded all students are protected under our policy around harassment intimidation and bullying uh if there's ever if there is ever anything that happens to someone they just have to report it and the administration will investigate it and address it uh the second one was
028if we have gender neutral and or private bathrooms and changing areas and she said that um all our bathrooms in the Portables are General neutral we also have gender neutral bathrooms in the Ag Building and the bathrooms in the uh 300 uh between Miss Ireland and lavinos are also gender neutral and they're in the process of putting some in the gym area so there's options for uh the um the people uh the third one being is there any training uh and support for all School staff on intervening in bias based lgbtq Boolean and she responded that teachers are trained to report awe and to intervene for any bullying and the last song is about uh if the school's athletic teams are inclusive for transgender and non-binary students to choose a sport team that most aligns
029with their identity and she said that yes they are and that Miss McCartney would be a good person to talk to so to which I would um try to see if I can talk to her tomorrow uh but I also wanted to take these questions because I think this uh these answers are great uh but I would like to take these questions to elementary schools uh middle schools and not only talk to like other principal but students and uh their staff so that's that's what I have for my report thank you for that any comments from the word okay moving on to item C1 I'll entertain a motion to approve tonight's required approvals I have one question feel free to I do I would like to second but I have some questions I know that
030we've been asked to approve a boiler replacement at Othello High I just have some some specific questions about that um so what is the life um let's see what's the right in biology it's called life cycle what is the correct term in maintenance circles same thing life cycle okay what is the life cycle of this type of boiler that we currently have and how old is our current okay so it's right there right so um even though it's near the end of its life cycle is it already having problems yes okay two boilers currently that that service the majority of the High School main building okay uh from the kitchen area all the way to the girls locker room uh one of them is currently not functioning we're trying to repair it make sure we
031can get through this winter but we're running on one boiler so um I mean definitely a necessity it sounds like um and that we do have the funds from a specific location to cover that and that was my other question was what area does this boiler service and you answered that thank you attention Commons senior Hall main gym so probably half of the entire campus square footage yeah yeah right okay great yeah bids came in at about half of what we originally budgeted for for it and they're about a hundred thousand under what we projected the cost to be when we went out for bid so so if if and when we approve this tonight what's the timeline for having it installed currently right now in talks with the contractors we want to wait until
032spring so we don't school so but we're gonna once this is approved we'll reach back out to them they'll get all the equipment ordered all the parts we're gonna we're gonna get that either staged in their facility or at our facility so it's ready to go if something happened to what we have and we have to address it that we have the things ready to go great awesome okay I'm ready to second okay motion's been made and seconded to approve required approvals all in favor aye aye any opposed motion carries four to zero moving on to item C2 superintendent informational items if I could just uh take a moment before we jump into some of the procedural ones there I do want to step back to gael's report and to elise's comment about some concerns
033that have been shared with her by community members and by by students particularly regarding bathroom use and gender identity it's certainly a can be a challenging topic for for folks to discover but I think it's um to discuss but I think it's our responsibility as Leaders to demonstrate a sense of listening and compassion for for folks on either side of this issue it's a very complex one I would encourage those folks who reached out to Elise and and perhaps Elise can relay this message to them to reach out to the administrators at Othello High School and and share their concerns the answers are found in providing additional Clarity and education for folks around what the state of Washington requires us to do for every student that comes to a public school and there are some
034guidance and guidelines that people just aren't familiar with and and part of our responsibility is educating them about our responsibilities as administrators and as Educators Gael asks some very difficult questions to that principle and um I I didn't know he had done that I hadn't heard those responses but she responded appropriately she responded the way we would expect our administrators to respond I'm so confident that the people the administrators at each of our schools would respond to those students and community members that have the questions that came to Elise and so I would encourage them to reach out when we talk about belonging when wasda talks about belonging that means every kid in our community every kid and our responsibility is to make sure that we're considering those that are uncomfortable with what they're seeing
035or feeling but also those that are uncomfortable with expressing what they're feeling and how they're feeling it's very complicated work and it only it only hap it happens in the best way uh when we have authentic conversations about it um when we're willing to challenge each other's thinking and we do it in a respectful way and so again I would encourage you at least a respectful way starts with sharing your story sharing your question addressing the issue with the folks that are putting those requirements into place and with that kind of clarity we hope would bring enough comfort for everyone involved so encourage you to reach out to them and and if they're not comfortable reaching out to the school directly certainly at any point they could reach out to me here at this at
036the district office and we could help help them understand or get I could get some additional um context about what they're sharing with you okay all right um as it relates to my items uh the first one is really the experience at wazda we have this on the agenda before we went to wasda but there's an additional opportunity with with uh Wasa and wasbo and it's a legislative conference I think on the hill they spent a day there kind of training and talking through some of those conversations then and I believe there are individual meetings perhaps in the in the evening it's a one-day event in February and I didn't know if there were any board members that were interested in participating I'm interested in going and learning about that I didn't know if any
037of you would be interested in attending I definitely would I would because during this time too it's also in session and a lot of our legislators are there and it's a good opportunity to sit down with our legislators too at the same time so I would definitely be interested depending upon the date yes I mean like I know that you put it on but that's close to Sandhill Crane Festival and that's a crazy time for me so um I need to to check some more things but reach out when you're making final details so I can see if that would work or not it would be awesome if we took some students can I add to you please I was just going to bring up last year Logan invited me to that opportunity and I
038did bring it to the board but I was going to encourage Gail and Jaden both to reach out to Logan and also to talk to Pete because it's it's an awesome opportunity I did it remotely last year so and as I recall from the invite there's a spacing limitation as it relates to student reps so if you all are interested we'll make sure that we we reach out I'll have Marisa formalize some of the details and reach out to the board members but I I guess the conversation we just had around um bathroom use and and issues around values and how people view those kinds of things those kinds of decisions and determination are made on that hill and so is it our responsibility to make sure that the voice from across the state is
039being shared there so we'll again we'll give you the details and reach out to you about that opportunity so we'll uh we'll send it to everyone and then look to hear from you the last item on there is really about um Pro con committee appointment we didn't have anyone reach out about either being a pro or con for the the levy that's upcoming but at this moment you would have approved those individuals or we would have submitted those names for you to consider none came forward so we just this is really a formality that we've included this document in the board minutes so that we can share that with the county and the levy can move forward what happens if there is never a pro or a con what does because it said that you
040had already reached out to Heidi hunt what's next so when the ballots come out there can be a pro and con statement from someone who's been appointed if I recall with the last Levy a levy or Bond we had one pro statement but no con statements it was just left blank So based on on the lack of folks coming forward to to write either a pro or con statement the ballot would just come out clean there wouldn't be any statement on either side thank you for that clarification okay moving on to item E1 policy review there are several dops that our first reading don't know if there's anyone who made any notes I know there was some questions director Steven said on one of them don't know if you got those answered or if this
041is where they was at um no it wasn't with this it was something else but I don't remember what that was now okay so if there are no more requested changes to these it right it was it wasn't a 1-0 it wasn't the 1000 series it was a 2000 Series yeah and it's not on here so you can have a conversation right with superintendent if there are no other recommended changes to these these can be put in consent agenda for the next meeting they all looked great I thought it was really a lot easier to read so thank you if you love The Record if you're partaked in that because it was it just was just like it was there instead of reading stuff that you're kind of thinking I'm just not sure but no
042so thanks if it was you well and another thing too is I pulled it up on my phone and could actually read the agenda and and click through the things I don't know if that was something that you had learned too because before it was so glitchy like if you went if you made it too big and then you couldn't and then it like oh my gosh it's so it was so a disaster I love that I could read it on my phone because it's so before it was so non-friendly but I don't if that was you thank you if that wasn't you thank you thank you to whomever so much better all right yes if these dops can be in uh in consent agenda for the next meeting Marissa thank you very much okay
043moving on to item B2 board self-assessment meeting we actually talked about a lot a lot of course that would have been great to have had a school report but that's amazing that we can do it all and have student recognition [Music] great input by the student yes yes tonight I think participation is about well balanced again the agenda put together addressing pertinent items future opportunities for legislative things great things it was like a conversation versus not like a meeting well I mean obviously it's a meeting but it was like back and forth I don't know that that's a perfect way to say it you're right it it felt more like a conversation than being in a meeting I was glad the majority of us were here well attended meeting and that we have Jaden getting
044ready to step into big shoes appreciate it thanks for being here any other observations Pete anything you'd like to add I'm sorry Dr Perez is there anything you would like to add I'm sorry I told myself on that Dr Perez I I guess I would um Alicia's comment is interesting I the there is formality and an agenda to these kinds of events but when it feels like a dialogue in a conversation um I think that's a good place to be so you know a 40-minute meeting where we talked about some topics that were heavy and some learnings that we've had and some future work um I think it was productive but I really like that way of framing it as uh it was a conversation awesome great meeting guys and moving on to item G1
045the board will recess uh into an executive session for 15 minutes to discuss the performance of a Public Employee no action will be taken following the executive session uh 7 37 we will reconvene at 7 40 in Pete's office uh to those here thank you once again those listening thank you as well uh we are