SCSD Regular Board meeting, 3.3.26

001and ready window. I will now call to order the March 3rd, 2026 regular school board meeting of the San Kino school board. Uh we have with us all of our directors and student adviserss today. So, I appreciate that. Hold on one second here. Today, we are offering two two opportunities for the public to speak. Comments specific to the consent agenda will be allowed prior to the vote on those items. Citizens who have submitted a request to speak either here in person or online during the public comment section of the agenda will be called upon uh to make their comments at that time, which is near the end of the meeting. Please stand with me for the flag salute. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for

002which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. You have before you the agenda for the March 3rd regular school board meetings. Uh are there any changes to the agenda? No. Seeing none, is there a motion to approve the agenda as written? >> Some approved. Second. >> Okay. Excellent. It has been moved by Director Olsen and seconded by Director King. All in favor of approving the agenda for the March 3rd meeting, say I. >> I. Opposed. That passes unanimously. Next up, we have the meetings for the February 17th uh 2026 regular school board meeting. Are there any changes or corrections to those minutes? >> No. >> All right. Seeing none, is there a motion to approve the minutes from the February 17th, 2026 meeting? >> So moved. >>

003Second. >> It is moved by Director Murray and seconded by Director Russell. All in favor of approving the minutes from the February 17, 2026 regular school board meeting, say I. I. >> Opposed. That passes unanimously. Next up is superintendent. >> Thank you very much. Uh five items on the superintendent report today uh representing I should say items across the spectrum. We're going to start with donations which Alexa is going to read in the one donation. >> The San school district received the following don $700 from the elementary district club to purchase online professional development resources for I Ready. Thank you very much and thank you to that booster club for their continued support. Next item on the agenda is the Cedar Home Elementary School data update by principal Colleen Keller. Hello, my name is Colleen

004Keller and I am the interim principal at Cedar Home Elementary and I'm more excited to be here today than I was in the fall because I feel like it's kind of my school now whereas in the fall I was still kind of learning about them. So, I've got some stuff I'm going to go ahead and share with you. um just foundational early learning, making sure that we are committed to a strong foundation for all of our students. And then if you haven't got to take a look at our AAP student goals in ELA, we're really working K through on decoding in an effort to help the kids improve on their fluency and their comprehension. And in grade three through five, we're working on vocabulary, background knowledge to improve on comprehension. And then um doing a

005lot with writing um whether it's informative or free write or just trying to get some more writing pieces in for our students. Um in math, we're working on improving their ability to problem solve within math and um showing growth on all of our classroom based assessments. So those are our eight AP goals and what we expected to see this year was students applying their decoding and comprehension and problem solving growth in reading, writing and math. Um increased confidence and engagement in learning. Um and then students reflecting and adjusting on their social behavior choices which we've just seen a lot with that this year. So that's been fun. So on this one, I have just kind of some sample data. That's the around second grade reading. Um, and you can see the reading accuracy. If you're

006looking at the beginning of the year and the middle of the year, you can see not a lot of change there, but a little bit of change showing we have fewer kids that are um at below or well below. And then when you look at the fluency, we're kind of in the same spot there. But I have some fun things to share with you as we move forward. Um, we're really working on our interventions talking about the multi-tiered student support. And at this point right now, we have K2 and three. I'm putting it down. Just realize the cursor is flying. We've got K2 and three all working on walk to read. So, we've got grade level teams that are spreading out the work and really being intentional about what they are providing for those kids

007that are are struggling learners. We have youly really great reading, read naturally, which are all kind of reading uh pieces to help out the read naturally being the fluency piece. And then my favorite thing, the student success team that we have is is just phenomenal. We have got it. So now we have a sub that comes in and we get to spend an hour and the families are invited and we're having conversation around what can we do to help these students. We've met with 16 families so far this year. Four have come back a second time for us to kind of look at things and we've seen amazing things happening through there. We continue to monitor our students who are receiving special services. And then our professional development is really around our MTSS around our

008AAP. This is the fun piece. Looking at the oral reading fluency for first through fifth grade, you can see huge growth that has happened. And um fluency accuracy is really around kids being able to decode words and reading the words accurately. And if they have accuracy, then it also helps with them being able to comprehend down the road. Um, fluency and accuracy kind of go together. If a kid's reading too slow, then it's hard for them to comprehend and keep track of what they've read. Uh, and accuracy does the same thing. And if you take a look at that, I I have some things kind of broke down. Um, I mean, we've got in fifth grade, if you take a look, 30 30% of the kids were uh at or or were below grade level

009um in the fall. And now we're down to 13% of the kids that are below grade level. Um, and if you take a look across the board, look at fourth grade, 92% of the kids are at grade level on accuracy around oral reading fluency. So something we're doing is working and that feels good when you're kind of seeing across the board what's happening within the school. So then going into math intervention, taking a peek, this is some sample data. We're looking at second grade. You can see the differences from the beginning of the year to middle of the year and then third grade. The differences again um really good change happening with the data there. Um, math tends to be a little bit harder to do interventions around. Reading seems to just be easier to

010find sources and things that are researchbased. The math we're still, I'm not saying we have it down perfect. It's something we're still kind of working on, but we are doing um student goal setting around fluency within math packs. Um, within our flex times, we're really trying to make it, we call it gamifi, we're trying to make it fun and exciting so the kids are getting that obviously down. Um, we're doing some small group guided review again, the SSTs, including family and having them be a part of it, which is awesome. We've got families willing give us what we need so we can practice a little bit at home without making it huge and taking up too much time and not just getting that family support and them understanding exactly what the kids are working on.

011And then of course the professional development that we're continuing to do around MTSS. Um so around positive recognition um we have the great grizzword that we're doing with students and you know what there's the nice thing about this is it's not like one defined thing teachers can find whatever kids are improving on and give them the great gizm word. Um and we do it about every other month. The other thing I didn't put on there but I'm bringing it here is we're doing postcards. They're going home to kids. Kids love to get mail and the postcards have been awesome and I'm giving them to staff so they get a little bit of their own little positive recognition. So, school guide recognition happening. Here's an example of all the kids who got it at our December

012um recognition. We have another one on March 5th if you want to come this Thursday. >> Yeah. >> So, come on up and see what we're doing. So, um, I'm doing behavior probably different than what Cedar Home has done in the past. Uh, we have really been explicitly teaching the kids about what our expectations are and really putting in guidelines so the kids know they need like those buffers when you're bowling and you think about, you know, you try to learn how to bowl. Um, and I'm putting everything into Skyward. So, that's where I'm getting my information. So, this kind of shows you from September to February where we are. um around behavior data. Um part of it is anecdotal as well. I've got the staff saying that they just see a different feel because

013it's been explicitly taught to the kids and the kids know kind of what the expectations are. Um but this gives you a general idea based off of Skyward what our data is looking like. January looks so good. So what we can see was different than January. Um, so we continue to expect to see this year is students continuing to apply their decoding and comprehension and their problem solving growth continuing in both reading, writing, and math and behaviors. Um, and increased confidence with engagement and um, sticking to the work that they're doing. Um, and then reflecting on social behavior choices and support within the district or within the community. by us. But that's my presentation. Do you have any questions for me or anything I can clarify? >> Um on myself, I still I still struggle

014with all the acronyms we have within the district. >> Uli, >> uh UFly, it's a it's actually a phonics reading program. I don't know what it stands for to be honest with you. >> That's done out of Oregon. And it's just a a researchbased really early phonetic program that is um it's no guessing at what you need to do. And it's been great because we've been able to train para educators are on it too. So they're getting a consistent education with it. It's really small groups. >> It's a supplemental tier 2. Um >> yeah, it's not a core. It's it's not what we're doing within core. It's what we're doing to kind of supplement for those kids who are struggling around decoding. >> And the PDW-MT iss >> professional development Wednesdays. I should know this.

015And that's a multi-tiered student supports. >> Got it. Okay. >> Sorry. >> And you guys may have told me all this before and it just >> No, it's all right. It's all good. >> We're all learning. >> Yeah. >> The CBAs you guys are using, are they inhouse developed? Are they a different source? What are you using? >> Well, they're in-house developed. So, per grade level, they're they make a decision about what they're using and they're in it's based off of like within Amplify or within uh math expressions themselves. So, they're not creating themselves. They're finding something to use and then determine it based off of that. >> And then across grade level. Yes. >> Common assessments. Yes. And then >> um what constitutes a behavior incident? Is it an office referral? Is it a

016>> So, that's a good one. So, um I I am in the belief that you have to record everything because if you don't know what you've done before, you don't know what your next step is. So, I it's everything. So, the staff I I don't have a specific way I ask them to give it to me. They can email it to me. We have a little slip they can fill out. They can come talk to me. I try to make it just super open that everything comes to me or to Miss Londonorf who is our behavior specialist. So between the two of us, we put everything into Skyward. And that might sound excessive, but um I've got a deal with Toshi that when they roll up to sixth grade, certain things fall off. So I

017don't want like a history following kids or somebody to form an opinion based off of their elementary years. Elementary is where they're learning. I call it like puppies in a in their litter, right? They're kind of climbing on each other and picking at each other and learning how to be social. Um, but I do put everything in because it lets me know, did I contact parents? Didn't I contact parents? Where did it happen? Was it in the lunchroom? Was it in the classroom? Was it at recess? Was it in the hallway? What time of day was it? All of that information I can have there. So, if I see a pattern or I see a trend, then I know what to do with that information. So, I know that's a long answer, but it's I

018have to have some way to gather and know what am I >> the answer I wanted. >> Okay. All right. It is it is a lot. It's a lot of work for me and it's a lot of work for my for Miss Lowdenorf. But, um the other thing that's good about it is um teachers and staff who deal with those kids get a notification that a an entry has been put in and they can look and see. And I think um I think it helps the staff to feel supported too that there was a conversation and I always put in there also sometimes it can be just a conversation and that's what the consequence is but sometimes it's problem solving or an apology or whatever. So I just feel like you need to be thorough.

019>> The other thing that I've seen principal Keller do is identify trends and areas that need support and go out and specifically teach in those in the classrooms around those areas that need support. So, you know, fourth grade, we were having some issues in there, and I created a um a slideshow and went out and talked to them about um words, just words that they're they throw words out there, not thinking of how hurtful it is. So, giving them an education. I mean, I've I've done education around the nword and what the nword means and why we can't use it. We can't just assume kids know this stuff and then be mad at them. I mean, you you have to you have to give them you have to educate them so they know what to

020do different. And I think a lot of times as adults, we're just assuming these kids know these things. They don't. So, we have to take intentional time to explicitly teach, model, follow through on these things. And it's it's made a difference. I've seen a difference with that. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Interested in two of the interventions you mentioned. >> Okay. One of them is the uh what to read for K through three. Can you tell me more about that one? >> Sure. So, um I kind of leave it up to grade level teams because I've learned after being in education that a top- down model doesn't necessarily work. The teachers need to believe in what they're doing in order for it to really work and be something. So, walk to read is where

021that grade level team, so say it's the kindergarten team, we've got we've got um three teachers in that group. They look at the data and determine which kids really need the help and then um instead of one teacher being responsible for all the levels of where the kids are, they're leveling the kids out and they walk. So like if it's a low kids that are the struggling readers and they need phonetics that they're in one group and they walk and they go to one teacher who's teaching the youth Y that we were talking about earlier. And then if it's kids that are on level then they might be working on fluency. And if it's kids that are at a higher level then they might be reading books and and answering questions and doing comprehension that

022way. So doing a what to read model really just allows um the best use of time and planning, right? Instead of a teacher feeling that they have to plan for three or four different groups, they're planning for one group and they can be intentional and they can be more thorough in what they're providing. So that's what a walk to read or walk to math would look like. Okay. >> And before I ask the second question, I'll just make a personal comment about me in second grade. I wasn't much of a reader even though my mom had a BS in elementary education >> and but Mrs. Cobb my second grade teacher podcast >> and that really turned me on to reading it ever since then I read a whole bunch of stuff. >> Yeah, that's awesome.

023>> And my second question is about the SSTs which sound very good. >> Yeah. >> But I had some questions about them. You mentioned for the uh reading that you had 16 families of which four returned. >> Yeah. So, a student success team uh consists of myself, our our counselor, um and then our MTSS person, which is Katie Pickroll, the classroom teacher, and sometimes it will include other people depending on why we have them coming to the student support team. Teachers fill out a form and give us data and tell us all the interventions they've already tried, but they're still struggling. And these are kids who haven't been identified as needing special services, right? So we get together as a group for an hour and have conversation about their strengths, their weaknesses. The parents are

024there. They can give us a little, you know, we learn information about a little boy who was having some struggles with social that we didn't realize that maybe was impacting the academics that we had brought him to. Um it just ends up being this open conversation because we tell the parents all the time it takes a village to raise these kids and they're not in it by themselves. And then what we do after looking at data and stuff, we have conversation around kind of more tier three. What else can we do for these kids? The tier two wasn't working. What next? And it it's so varied what we've come up with. But it's been awesome because as a team we've been able to, you know, I've got a little bit of paradigm, 15 minutes that

025they could meet the do one-on-one working on math fluency facts. Um, and 15 minutes one-on-one is a lot. A lot can get done. It doesn't sound like much time, but if you're doing that four days a week, it's intensive help that we can get. We've got parents on board saying, "Hey, can you send home some readers that are at their level because we don't know how to pick them?" Yep, we'll do that. We send them home with them. Um, it's just such a great We've got counseling services out of got people lined up with counseling services. Um, we have parents who are taking kids maybe to the pediatrician because they're realizing maybe something else is going on. It's just a brainstorm of the minds for those. So, we had we've had 16 teams that we've

026met with and then we have had four teams that four of those families we met with again to look at the data and determine next steps. And then the 16 teams would seem to be a fairly small percentage of the total number of kids families. >> Right. It's 16 families. >> Much smaller than the yellow and red on the bar grants. >> Right. >> And how do they select it? Self- selection. They perhaps willing to do it or staff capacity because you're so staff intensive. >> No, we've literally met the need of every single teacher who's brought it to for us. So the teacher determines which kind which kids need more >> right. So every single teacher who has brought a kid forward there needs to we have SST their kids. None of them are

027just hanging on a docket. These are the ones these teachers know very well and are determining we need to do something more with it. Doesn't mean I mean certainly you're going to have other kids that are on that thing but the teachers feel like what they're doing is working and they don't need to do that extra piece. >> Have they been able to track the impact of the SSTs? Um, well, for this year, right, I've only been here a year, so it's like, yeah, absolutely. We've got kids who we're not worried about anymore that are back up to level to where they need to be. And remember, we're not talking about just academic kids. We're talking about social emotional. We're talking about behavior. And if you don't have the social emotional behavior piece taken care

028of, you don't have the learning happening. So, you know, some of these conversations are literally about behavior because we have to get that piece handled and taken care of before they can do the the learning the academic piece. >> Any other questions for me? >> Yeah, sure. >> So, going back to your SST, um just curious, I know you're bringing the families in and you're bringing in all of these other people to make assessments. How about the student voice? Are we actually sitting down with the student and talking to them and saying, "Hey, how how are you feeling about what's going on?" And, you know, do you see things that maybe we're not seeing that you want to share with us? Because it feels like we're we're talking about the student, but the student's not

029in the conversation. >> No, that's a very good question. So, I do think it might be a good idea to maybe pull them into the SSC. some of it's adult conversation that you want to be careful. >> Well, and I just wonder if you know maybe maybe before it becomes an >> SST is a teacher having a >> conver I'm not sure of an SST that's been formed where the counselor hasn't had a conversation with the student prior to that. >> Absolutely. All of that happens well before the SST, whether it's conversations with me or with a teacher or we haven't we've had one-on-one conversations with parents or we've gotten counselor involved. So SST ends up being kind of the accumulation of okay, what we're doing or not isn't working. Now what type of thing,

030right? So we don't include the kids in SST, but they are included in all the steps up to SST. Does that make sense? So, we're actively asking our students. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Absolutely. >> And then how are we are we going back to the student and and saying how is how are the things that we've changed for you? How is that working? >> Yes. Depending on their age, right? >> Right. I mean, granted, your earlier learners may not be able to to verbalize >> um that, but as they're moving up >> towards that brave I kind of actually I think that starts in third grade personally. So third, fourth and fifth are very much involved in the conversation around how things are going. Um they're a part of if we put a chart

031in place where we're trying to help a student, they're a part of that decision of how we make the chart and um you know what might be something they're trying to earn or whatever, right? So absolutely they're a part um and depending on the student in K12 there can be some conversation too. You just kind of have to read the kid and know really what they're ready for. But yeah, >> just one question from me. So some of the other schools have talked about some success with their walk to read across grade bands. Do you do them just in the individual grades or is there consideration to to share grade bands? I would love for it to be grade bands and it's something that we are having conversation around and especially with the midyear data

032because our data is not all pretty. I'm not going to say it's all great. There's there's definitely room for growth. >> So right now the way that we have the flex teams are it's called our flex time when we do that because we have it for bath and reading. We have it set up so it's K1 2 3 4 5 with the intent of that happening. >> Okay. Um, I just need to make sure that if I'm asking for that, that I'm also be able to provide the resources they need to make that work and the support they need to make that work. And so, even though we've had the conversation around it, not everybody's on board yet. So, not saying the conversations are done because they're not. We've got plenty of time. I'm still

033a firm believer in um as a leader I need to make the staff feel confident and believe in what we are doing. If you do a top- down approach and just say okay we're all doing it whether you want it or not. It's human nature that you're not going to necessarily get the full thing for it. >> You're looking for buying. >> Yeah. Looking for buying. Absolutely. And um and and it's a I will admit it's a little hard being in the interim role because I'm not here next year. So um so the conversation might look different from me than what it would have been had I known I was going to be here for an extended period of time but we're having really good conversation and we got people rethinking things as a result

034of some conversation we had around our data last week. >> Okay. >> So that's how we got kindergarten on board now. they're on board to do it and I think I might have fourth and fifth on board. So, so give us some time. I think it will happen. >> Thank you. >> So, I'll just take the opportunity to thank Principal Keller for stepping in in the interim role. Uh this year we did, you know, go ahead and offer a continuing position, but she hasly uh declined. >> I haven't regretted being here, so I don't want you to think that. But I am counting down my days. >> You you definitely have led without uh missing a beat. So, we appreciate that and appreciate I know the staff does as well. Just as an update, we

035um have screened applicants and have our first round of interviews on Monday of next week for the Cedar Home Principal position. So, thank you part of that process. So, hope we get somebody in. That's great. Thank you. >> Thanks. Appreciate it. >> Next up on the superintendent report is the January financial report by Ruth Floyd. Good afternoon. Um January is the fifth month of the fiscal year and the one where current year enrollment uh adjustments are made to our aortionment which we've spoken about before. uh enrollment annual average FTE was 4,647 in January, about 18 below budget and about three under last month's um annual average. State aortionment revenues uh were paid at 8.5% and the total for the year so far through January is 39.5% of our aortionment received. uh payroll costs as a

036percent of budget through January are lower than this time last year 39 versus 42 as you'll see at the bottom of that sheet and as anticipated non-sary MSO are now running ahead of last year um we last month we had talked about some timing of running start payments that uh hadn't gone through uh this year compared to the prior year. Um and then the manager's report here uh reflects 11.5% remaining after expenditures and encumbrances in January. Our fund balance is uh was at 6.5 million in January. uh now slightly lower than the prior year to due to the expenditure timing I referred to before as well as the true up of enrollment uh in the aortionment calculation. Uh much of the core enrollment reduction uh however is offset by higher running start and open doors

037enrollment. Uh the running start expenditures lag those revenues though. So we may see uh as we start paying the bulk of the uh fall and winter payments and then spring following uh in the actually those aren't paid until the summer uh we'll see that fund balance decline until larger tax payments are received in April and May. This is our object summary. salary and benefits are uh in line with expectations. MSTOC MSO the non-employee costs are still running a bit lower than expected partially due to the timing uh previously discussed and then partially due to savings measures that were um are being successful this year. Uh fund balance status reports general fund again reflects that 6.5 million. You'll notice at the bottom of the page uh there's a note that uh we had an issue with

038our incumbrances this month. Uh they are understated in this report and will be corrected next month. But if you look at the prior page uh the object report those have the the true incumbences there. So if you want to refer to that uh capital projects fund budget status report um fund balance is 3.7 million debt service fund is at 1.1 million and ASB fund is at about 890,000 and transportation vehicle fund balance is fairly flat at 850,000. All right. And then our budget capacity reflects just minor adjustments for the month and all of them uh have offsetting revenues. And then food um food services is uh showing a similar deficit to the prior month. Nothing um major has changed there. Happy to answer any questions. >> Thanks Ruth. I think um you you pointed out

039that MSOC has been running um behind overall making cost cutting. You did put in your comments that in January it was it was 27% of the budget. I'm assuming that there were some large payments or things that that contributed to that or what what was the purpose of that comment? The Mox in January 2020. Oh, that was 2025 in the budget. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, that was back >> Comparison. Got it. >> Yeah. So we kind of look at that to judge are we moving. We want to look at the percentage because the dollars most often are going to be higher >> um because of uh costs costs go up every every year. Um however when you look at the percentage of budget spent that is your reference when you look at the current

040year versus the prior year about whether we're running behind. Ruth, earlier you talked about the ASB account and trying to suggest more spending. >> Yes. >> Any success there? >> Well, I think that um they definitely are changing their mindset about the ability to spend the money. Now, they do need to stay within their budget, >> correct? this year. And so I think that um we'll make additional gains as we build the budget for next year, which hasn't begun yet because we're still do we have new um advisors on No, not quite yet. >> The election's pretty soon though. >> Elections soon. >> Anybody know? >> Is anybody know? >> Uh yeah, we have people who like >> anybody up here. >> Oh, anyone up here? He's asking who >> and I I don't know.

041>> Um can you just remind me what enrollment equates to? So like one student equates to dollar amount. >> Um revenues that we received. >> Yeah. >> Okay. It is approximately 11,000 plus. >> Okay. >> FTE. >> Yeah. And we we've traditionally I don't know which we traditionally have gone fairly conservative in what what we think our FTDs are but we we are still running a little bit behind that number that but that's kind of that happens sometimes is we're not that really that far off. >> We had kindergarten kind of come out of of left field this year. So we are are running under because of kindergarten, but you'll note note that the other grades are helping to offset that a little bit. >> Yeah, >> we do try and be conservative. >> Well,

042it's more of a comment than in support of how we usually do those numbers, but there are still sometimes that things come come in that just that we just didn't expect. >> Exactly. I think this is the first time I've been on the board where the true up was a negative truck instead of a positive. >> Yeah. I think it's because of that conservative. >> Yeah. >> And I also want to clarify that the 11,000 I mentioned is basic. >> Yeah. >> So we get additional forever. >> All right. Thank you. Yes. >> That relates to my other question that is so called a number of 18,000 for student. Is that counting the other things residing on top of the 11? >> Yes. when you add in the additional supports that we received for students

043with special needs and highly capable and and I don't I'm not sure if uh that included not only state funding but also federal funding. So there are many different ways to look at per pupil allocations. >> I also understand there's a gap between the 18 and 40,000 where the state steps in for high cost students. Does that >> are you talking about special education safety net funding? I guess that's >> high cost. Yes, we're in the middle of uh the application process right now. Unfortunately, safety net is one of those that where we get reimbursed at the very end of the year for the cost that we've already put out prior. >> Thank you, Ruth. Appreciate the report. >> Thank you. >> Next up is Evan Cwell, director of communication with the communications update. All

044right. Thank you. I'm gonna talk about some communication stuff. Um I don't think I have any acronyms in here. I think we're I think we're going to be good. Um so we like to tie a lot of our stuff to our strategic plan and our strategic plan drives a lot of our stuff. Fortunately for me, communication is littered throughout our strategic plan. Uh so it touches almost every little bit of it. Um, so it boils down to basically making sure that every stakeholder and every bit of it is informed and is confident making decisions based on what we give. So this uh is around board policy 4,000. I get to give my annual update on communication this year's successes. Uh we've had some AI chatbot uh roll out which I'll get into later. uh I've

045used data to kind of expand our audiences and uh you can see we'll talk about some of the growth that we've seen. So first up is our website. What you'll what you'll not see is the behind thes scenes part of our website. Um when we switched to Final Site, we uh switched to a new vendor. Uh it allowed us to seamlessly put a lot of our P pieces in the background into one. So we can now make a post or a calendar update uh in one spot and it will instantly go to many spots. So replacing a lot of work that was done in schools and by different individuals uh in-house here at the district office by just a few people freeing up time for people to do other activities. Uh hopefully that is translated

046into also people getting what they want wherever they want it uh quickly and easily. Uh people are finding stuff with fewer clicks according to our website data which is good. Our top pages continue to be jobs, calendar, and menu items and that is one, two, three, a large gap down to four, five, six, seven. Wait, I that I moved on way too fast. >> Um so our newsletter, so each school sends out a newsletter each week and we do as a district level about 70% of the people that get it open it up and engage with it. Uh in addition, we have our two subscription newsletters. Uh so our community connections which mirrors the Friday message that goes out uh and it goes to community members who wouldn't otherwise get that. So they can sub

047subscribe and still follow along with what goes on in schools. And the Spartan Sports Report, we've crossed a thousand subscribers for each one of those. So we're reaching uh even more people with that one. uh our mass messaging is following a cadence now that I think has become uh useful to our families and our community. People will receive emails for routine information. When there's kind of an important update that people want to know, it's an email and a text. And then when you get to the emergency level, it's the the whole shebang, the kitchen sink. Um so that we're not doing phone calls and push alerts when yearbook orders are due. So people are knowing that we're getting important information and getting to them the right way. Um and then we are responding as quickly

048as we can with information we can when there are important updates for emergencies to kind of cut down some of those uh rumor mills that might start and they start quickly in this day and age which can also inundate uh secretaries and our office staff with phone calls and uh other weird requests. Uh right now ongoing throughout entire month of March is our annual community survey. So quick plug please take that. Um last year the results from that uh showed a lot of different things that helped drive a lot of decisions we made. Uh texting people people preferring that they get text messages increase sharply. So that's going to be interesting to see if that continues to increase with this year's results. we because we don't send out the family newsletters each week via text,

049but maybe that's something we think about doing in the future and this is where that survey data can help us. Um, it continues to show that people prefer to get our information in a variety of ways. So, when I'm out there talking in the community, uh, people sometimes come up to me and go, I love that message about the CTE program. Thought it was great. I always follow up with, where did you see it? and they look at me like, uh, of course I saw it on Next Door or of course I saw it on Facebook or of course it was in my email or on the website. Um, because everyone is consuming that information in their way. And so it's more important that we make sure that we send it out in every avenue

050we can because you don't know where these people prefer to get their information. Uh the other thing is two-way messaging which I will talk about later but we're going to roll that out to staff all next school year. Some of you are familiar with an app maybe called Remind or something similar uh where staff or coaches can use it to communicate with uh students. This way it's part of our Sano app. it uh fills the public record requirements and so we retain all that and we can uh control it and kind of see it from our desktops or our phones. So another uh box checked and it also seamlessly fits into the our existing uh content management system. So this is a a quick little graph month by month uh social media reach combining our

051our different social media platforms. You can see kind of still see steady growth generally speaking. Uh you never know what kind of catches people's attention and you see a spike. Uh so you can kind of average out over time and see the direction we're going. Uh for example, we've seen 1.5 million Facebook views so far. just the school year. Uh data continues to show that people like seeing photos. Uh when we try and do videos, they get very little interaction. We uh just maybe hundred or so views and when they view it's for three or four seconds. So if we were that tells us we're going to devote a lot of time and energy into making a video and people aren't watching it or interactive that maybe not the best use of our time and

052energy. So this is where data kind of drives up. Um going to the um survey. >> Yes. >> Is there any questions on the survey as to if you interact with it's you know is it bandwidth is it you know those different reasons. >> We don't have a video specific question often but if the data keeps showing that then maybe that's something that we can dive more deeply into for sure. Um, so we average 79 posts a month, uh, looking back the past year. And then, uh, you can compare it to some of our neighbors there. Thankfully, some of the social media platforms do this for me. So, I'm not sitting there stalking other school districts. It's it's on there. Uh, but you can see, you know, compared to some of the other ones, we're

053we're making sure we're getting our information out to people however they want it. um our website interactions as well. You can see that it started to increase when we switched to final site. And I don't think uh ane like anecdotally speaking, I don't think it's because the website's so much different or people wanted to come back and check it out. It's that it ties into so many of our other pieces. So our website feeds I mean our newsletters feed the website. The app feeds the website. It draws people back. the website becomes kind of a resource hub and our other platforms push people back toward and so it seems to be working. Um each week all of our newsletters message out to nearly 18,000 people and we have sent a lot of emails this school

054year. Uh a lot of texts and a lot of mobile wishes. Some of you have interacted with Sparty. Has anyone anyone not give Sparty a test drive? So, he's our new AI chatbot. And when you go to the website on your phone or on the desktop in the lower right, you ask him any questions. We've got, you know, more than 2,300 questions asked since it got turned on in, I think it was November. Um, and here's kind of an example of some of the questions we're getting there, and they can range from pretty simple to kind of more heavy. And Sparty has successfully pointed people in the right direction in a lot of these areas where they would have called a principal or an office staff and maybe not got returned right away or uh

055they didn't quite know the answer but Sparty will connect you to the answer. Uh the supporting board documents uh policies or anything else. Um, it is strictly an AI that's on our website. So, you can't ask it to tell you a joke. It'll it will it'll say, "I can't do that." Um, so it's just it's a very helpful tool that I think a lot of people have, uh, taken advantage of. So, uh, looking forward, we're going to continue rolling out the two-way messaging. We're testing that with a couple of, uh, small groups this spring to make sure that we have everything dialed in. So when I come around and teach staff how to use it, I know what I'm talking about. We kind of play whack-a-ole with some of the issues that pop up there.

056Um we'll again analyze the data from this uh survey that's gone out to everybody and see if there's any tweaks we need to make and then using all of our reach continue to try and push up the things in our strategic plan and build that community engagement in areas that are important. Evan, while while you since you said strategic plan, um I wanted to point out that if you have taken the uh survey, you may have noticed a couple of different questions. We try and keep the questions the same so we can um note patterns over the year, but a couple of questions related to the strategic plan for when we start to do our revisioning of the strategic plan uh later this spring and uh this fall. So those are embedded to be able

057to get community feedback from um from as many people as we can. >> Yeah. So, please spread the word. Make sure people take it. It's open all month. Um, it's been open a couple days and I think we're at only 40 responses, which is a little low for kind of a kickoff, but we'll keep pushing it. >> Okay. Sorry. Go ahead. I was going to say uh on the website um management in content, how do we how do we actually do that? Is that inhouse with you with a vendor? Do you have a staff? What how do how does that how does that work out? It's dead in house. I am the staff. >> Yes. >> So when links when somebody reports a dead link or dead material or or material, it's you that ends

058up having to go in and >> Yes. And if you if you do encounter one of those, it takes you to a page that says, you know, oops, there's been a mistake. Please report it. And there's a button goes straight to me. I fix it. I try and get it as quickly as I can. So >> Okay. >> Yeah. And then uh just a really um a quick comment is I I do really like the idea of of establishing a digital two-way messaging that is that is within the compliance and such. I think there's a need for that and then how you know telling students that their practice is canceled or things like that but they have that safe environment to do so. So I'm all for that. >> Yeah, we're very excited to get

059that up and up and running. So following up on that, how will you ensure that that tool is not used inappropriately and doesn't violate boundaries? >> Um so it's it operates we have it set up to operate where it's um students can't message each other. >> No. Yeah. I'm thinking teacher, coach, all student. Yeah. So, um, so all that stuff is accessible by you, >> by Yeah. us office. >> So, it's never it's never a private chat between you, you have the ability to go in and look at what's been reported or communicated. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> I actually think it'd probably be better because right now like band uses this thing called band, volleyball uses, track uses god knows how many apps I have on my phone for so many things. So, I think

060it probably the absolute intent behind it, right? Unify and have >> even I could delete half of the stuff on my phone. I'm really excited about that. >> So, is there a policy that we have that is pushing us in this direction with procedure or do we need to be thinking about putting something in place to help facilitate this? It's going across the board. >> Yeah, this will help facilitate, you know, a common platform across the board. And I think it's driven by uh our requirement to be able to retain records that are created on time uh by employees um and under under those parameters in the P. >> It follows the same basic structure as you know email or another it's just a different medium how it gets gets sent out. I was just

061wondering if we needed to make amendment to any policy to incorporate that into >> Well, it would be student it could be >> communication. Yeah, student communication. It's adult to student communication. That that may be something that we want to make sure we're on on the right on the right standing for that. >> I actually think we have that in in several policies. There's there's a couple that are out there. Um and um this is definitely a benefit to employees, to coaches, and to families as director Evans just just talked about, but I'm coming closer into uh line with uniformity, but also retention of records as well. >> But you rais a good point. We'll I'll we'll look into it and make sure that it's we have something established in this. >> Yeah. Just kind

062of make sure that we're covering it. >> Great. >> Policy. >> Yep. Thank you. Do we have a way to capture? So like say somebody goes to Sparty or one of our sites or whoever and they ask a question and we don't have that information up there. Like do we have a way to capture like how many people are searching for that that we don't have it? Like are we using that to to inform like what information we should add or >> let me give you an example. I I I do get to see every search from Sparty and see his responses and see what's working. So for example, one of the questions uh was asking about our uh SRO, like who's our SRO and what and we realized that nowhere on any of our

063websites do you have any information about Deputy Mccuri. So uh built a quick page about our SRO, you know, what they do and all that stuff. And so now that's available because Sparty kind of pointed out that gap. >> Excellent. >> Evan loves Sparty. >> Any other questions on this? Um do just one last one. Do you would you have any way of knowing I guess maybe from the survey demographics of how people you know you were talking about everyone gets their information differently. I was just wondering if there was a way to see what maybe the trends are or you know different generations of people accessing anything in a specific way. >> Yeah. Yes. There are definitely different platforms that trend different ways, but there's there's not a really stark difference. Um, Facebook tends

064to be a little more female oriented. Uh, Next Door tends to be a little bit older than our median age, but it's not not crazy high or crazy low or crazy. >> Okay. Thank you, Evan. Evan's going to actually stay up for our next presentation and Evan and I are going to talk briefly about the safety and infrastructure levy and analysis analysis of those uh results. So, we are going to review the the levy results, the cost structure and next steps for us with regard to levy and levies and focus um we're going to focus specifically on what was in this levy and make sure everyone has a clear picture of that uh moving forward. Just a reminder that this work aligns um directly to our commitment to safe uh inclusive learning environments. And you're

065running the slides? Yep. Thank you. >> All right. So, as you're probably aware, the levy passed overall rate of 52.63. Uh, the difference between Stanwood and Kamino was kind of negligible. Kind of saw the same trends in Stanwood as on Commino. But I like to say that does not tell the whole story. Um, if you factor in the people who did not vote, this is the entirety of uh this graphic is the entirety of our voting population in our neck of the woods. And you get to 00 people voted yes no and 60 almost 62% of the people did not test it out. Um that's actually down from two years ago when when we ran our EPO levy. Uh Stanwood particularly saw a decrease in turnout. So interesting data from there. Uh the piece that's

066really interesting to me is in January you may or may not have seen our messaging or or heard about the postmarking issues from the post office. I know director Russell raised that question as well. Um because the post office was saying that they can't guarantee that your ballot will be postmarked in time if you vote, you know, one, two, three, maybe four, five days before election day. We tried to message that to people as best we could. We didn't quite know the impact of that. Um as you can see in in this election 24, we had 22 that were marked too late. This time we had 268. Uh if you look at Snomish County as as a whole, in 2024 there were 67 ballots that were marked too late and this year 3,970. >> So

067there's obviously an impact and so it'll change how we make sure we message people using dropboxes or vote early if they want their ballots to be counted. Um, as for us during our campaign, we uh Ryan and I either tag teamed or split up because we had double booked for 60 different presentations uh out in the community. Website saw a lot a lot of views. Most interestingly, the 41 seconds per visit was by far the highest on the site. People take usually it's in the like the two to six second range on on the site. So, that means they're consuming information. Um, I don't think people didn't know what they were voting for. I think people had all the answers to the questions and, uh, we continue to have zero PDZ complaints. Um, that this

068one has a acronym. >> Public disclosure. >> I want to know. >> Okay. Want to point out that you used the acronym AI earlier. >> Oh, darn it. All right. Well, can't be perfect. >> So, uh, we had zero, uh, PBC complaints. uh some of our neighboring districts uh had some so it's and I refresh that page every day. They there were dozens of complaints across the state. So it's not something that's rare. That's somewhat common. So it's good to stay on the right side of the law and we continue to try that every every time out there. >> So this next slide is a slide that you've likely seen before. It's been in in many of our publications and and is in all was in all of our presentations and it um is a

069reflection of what we heard from the community uh and reports about you know tax increases and uh so we listen and the the last four years on the right hand side 27 through30 is what I'd like to reference and that is structured so the local tax the local tax rate is flat and we tried to really um a amplify that point because that was what the community asked for back in 2022 that that we have a flat predictable uh total tax rate that the community can plan for and count on. Um that's not, you know, that assessed values that many of us have gotten back here recently. Um uh doesn't take that into account, but there's no sudden spikes as far as our total our total rate. And so we prioritize that community feedback um

070to avoid sudden sudden spikes. Um it also prioritizes long-term stability across the EPO the bond educational programs and operations levy, the bond and this um capital levy over the next four years. So that was feedback directly taken from the community and um we um have it as a deliberate financial strategy that we're implementing moving forward. Next slide um is a is a slide you may have seen before as well. it is um if property values stay the same. This would be the the rate for each of the following years. But we give an example of uh in 2029 a $500,000 home would pay approximately $200 roughly per year, $17 a month. Um we know, you know, like Evan would often say, we have $350,000 homes and $2.5 million homes. So this is just an estimate

071for 2029, but it gives an example um of that. And we also know that an important qualifier is that if the if the assessed values are adjusted, that doesn't change the amount that we collect where our total collection is around 19.2 million. If the assessed value goes up, the actual rate would go down and be reflected in that um in that mechanism. and and um you know we're we're providing for um conservative understandable projections around this uh in that in that previous page. >> Yeah. So that's key to point that is different than how state property taxes work. Many of you have it your state the state portion of your property taxes increase. This local school levies stays roughly flat. Um it adjusts every year to kind of make that equation work. the those local

072levy dollars stay local, the state property taxes uh go to Olympia, get into a big giant pod, come back to us and package and basic education and some other things. Whereas the local levies, you know, exactly what has been approved and what it's going to be spending for. So, those are some of the differences that we were trying to highlight when we're out talking to people uh in the community about this. >> Just to clarify, we don't get all that money back. >> Yes. the first chunk like the the state the state >> chunk we don't get all of that back like the local levy stuff we get all that >> other stuff we don't get all of that back so you're not >> comes with strings attached and other things >> and some of

073it disperse out to other school districts across the state as well >> we don't get it all back >> um really want to take every opportunity to make sure that people uh that think they might qualify for property tax exemptions reach out to the county assessor and um uh see if they can qualify. So 61 and older uh your income is at these thresholds these local school levies you can have the tax exempted from. So please make sure you try that out. Both counties say that there's thousands of people in in our in the sandwich community that could apply but haven't done this. >> And there's a formula to that. It's not just a straight like I make $75,000. there's a formula of costs and and all of that other stuff. So like if you

074you think maybe there's a chance at least the question medical expenses a whole bunch of things that can help you follow up. >> Um this is once again a list of uh some of the projects out there five to 10 projects per uh site. Um they are once again critical projects you you'd see that there's not an I would say a non-critical project on this list. Um we will be pulling back together uh CFAC and CPAC around both budget and um discussing the the levy as well. Um we have a tenative prioritized list year-over-year that matches the rate. Um but that is um we will um investigate the prioritization of that as well. Um and just these are all critical. So we want to we want to thank the community for realizing that. And then

075uh next is our educational programs and operation renewal. It seems odd that we would start talking about that already. We are on a two-year cycle. And the reason I want to point this out is that um we have been on a two-year cycle for a long time in this district that we rely on local levy unfortunately um because of the state allocation doesn't provide for the things that are needed in both the capital levy and the EPO levy. So you'll see that the EPO um accounts for about 16% of our revenue and that comes due in 2028 and we will continue to uh talk about the need for that um and um what what that encompasses moving forward up until 2028. >> What's that little dark gray splitter? >> That's the other capital. Yeah. Okay.

076>> Well, that's the other section that doesn't fall into local levy, federal funding or uh state funding. It could be grants, could be other revenue that we take in. >> Oh, got it. Thank you. >> Building rental stuff. >> Yes. >> So, uh, a year from now when we start seeing some of these projects around the capital come out, uh, I will use the communication tools we have to start highlighting some of them and you'll see our little bug thanking them for supporting this these projects. So more shout outs to our community for supporting our list. >> So just for this just for everybody to put in the record for the community and such levy money is money we obviously can't spend until we actually get it in. So what's what's the first draw or

077what's the first for on this calendar now? What's when's the first time our levy funds will come in? It's uh later in the spring of 2027 will be the first smaller payment uh that we can start to anticipate using. >> So that's that's one of the first time we'll be able to use the money that came from this levy. So I think that's important that that people understand that >> that's a good point director. >> Any other questions? >> Okay. Thank you Evan. Appreciate it. And that ends the superintendent report. >> All right. Okay. Thank you, Superintendent Alban. Now, we will now move on to the consent agenda. Anyone in attendance may speak to the items contained in the consent agenda and only those items contained in the consent agenda at this time. Uh, are

078there any board members that wish to pull any of the items on the consent agenda for discussion? >> I would like to pull item number six purchase authorization. Okay. Item number six. I got to make myself notes. Okay. Anyone else? All right. Um, sorry. One is math is hard today apparently. Uh, there are nine of these things here. Okay. Let's see. Are there any uh people in the audience that would like to speak on any of the consent agenda items uh 1 through 9? No. All right. So, is there a motion to approve consent agenda items 1 through 5 and 7 through nine? >> Second. >> Okay. So, it is moved by Director Murray and seconded by Director Olen. All in favor of approving consent agenda items 1 through five and 7 through nine say

079I >> I >> opposed. That passes unanimously. Uh so we will discuss item number six. Take it away director Murray. >> So I just wanted to have a little additional um discussion around the ordering of purchase. um these purchases don't happen in this particular uh budget cycle, but wanted to talk about how that works and um how Senate Bill 6260 that is um expanding depreciation schedules for uh large buses from a 13-year to a 15-year depreciation schedule. how that will overall affect our potential budget um to purchase buses. >> Okay. Yes. So um depreciation the way that it works is that we have uh small buses and large buses. They have different depreciation schedules and a lot of that is um uh we get it on the back end. There's a balloon payment in that

080depreciation schedule on the back end of that schedule. And so uh we get our allocation that will be received in August of 2026. We received that allocation in February or we received the dollar amount of the allocation in February to be received in August. However, uh Senate Bill 6260 takes the buses that are on our current depreciation schedule and uh would recalculate everything on these longer um schedules. And so if we were scheduled to get a balloon payment in August for a bus that's falling off, it would then be pushed off either for two years or seven years uh for the small buses uh because it would be a uniform 15-year schedule. And so we didn't feel that we could confidently say that this purchase which is scheduled to be um the buses would come

081in in next fiscal year and we would pay the bill in next fiscal year. We couldn't conf confidently say that we will actually have that $900,000 in depreciation in August of 2026 because of this recalculation of our depreciation. So, we are requesting to give staff flexibility to um approve up to the seven buses that are referred to and then as we get more information from the state on whether the legislature will um implement this in the budget, this budget savings for them, but it's a reduction in our transportation vehicle fund for us. If they implement that, then there will be some time for the state to provide the uh depreciation payments, the updated um depreciation payment amounts to districts. And we wanted to be able to act on that as soon as we get that

082number, be able to act on it as soon as possible so that we can get those buses ordered because they're needed um as quickly as we can get them in the fall. >> Well, and it does take time to get those buses. So we need to make sure that they arrive during that fiscal fiscal cycle. Yes. >> Uh another comment and and remaining germanine to the topic around 6260 is the the fiscal implications to our general fund to extending the depreciation from 13 to 15 for big buses and from 8 to 15 for our smaller buses. the um the upkeep, the maintenance that has to happen over another seven years essentially using the buses for uh double their lifespan that we've had them in the past will be a significant um implication to our general

083fund budget over the course of our the life of those buses. If the transmission goes out, if a if a engine goes out, tires, all would be that are not covered by transportation. >> Thank you for that. >> Not to mention, they get less fuel efficient over time, do they? Huh? >> Not sure about that. >> Presumably, >> there's an exponential increase in maintenance costs as they age. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Ruth. Appreciate it. Anything else recommend? >> No, that is all I know. >> All right. Is there a motion to approve consent agenda item number six? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. So that has been moved by Director Murray, seconded by Director King. Uh all in favor of approving consent agenda item number six say I. >> I. >> Opposed.

084That passes unanimously. Uh next up we have public comment. Just as a note, citizens wishing to address the board are asked to submit online requests using the public comment or link two hours before the board meeting start time. If you are attending our meeting in person, uh we do have request forms in the back. They're always over there by the door. Uh they just have to be turned in before the meeting starts. Uh and you would turn those into our lovely reporting secretary, uh Stacy over here. Um we will call upon the individ individuals who have requested to speak uh in the order uh that they submitted their public request. Um you will state your name for the record and you will be allowed three minutes to speak. We do have one public comment request

085today. Um as a matter of order because this is a board's business meeting. The board is providing an opportunity for the public to comment but the board does not create discussion on those comments within the meeting as they are not part of the agenda. Comments will be followed upon after the meeting if it is appropriate. Uh just again your reminder is when it is your turn to comment you state your name. Um you have three minutes. There is a timer. When it hits yellow that means you have one minute left. Uh red means your time is up. Um our first commenter is Josie Dere. Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you today. My name is Josie Dere and I'm a writer and an author and I'm an advocate for children with disabilities and

086I worked on the local level, the state level. I worked with uh SAMA and I worked with the CDC and um I wanted uh my subject that I'm talk want to share is this >> um is the idea of settling with the newspaper. Um I have spent um 16 months researching. I have um a chronological order of a documentation that this is a little tiny piece of it. And uh if um I'll just begin. An effective newspaper does not make itself the center of the story, sue the district it claims to support, or pressure the district to pay its legal bills. A scholarship is a worthy idea, but it should be funded entirely by the Stanwood Commino News because they missed the story. After the September 11th crisis in Julie's classroom, she asked to file

087a grievance. The union president Naida Goldstein never filed it. On October 17th, board president Al Shriber asked Dr. Rumba what was being done to protect students and staff at Ulleti. Dr. Rumba ordered an investigation but quietly shifted its focus from safety to classroom discipline. Two things are clear. One, according to record request, there was no grievance filed against Dr. Hannah until February 2nd, 2025. Two, Dr. Rumba's instructions to the investigator was classroom disciplined. On October 30th, Wendy Monty was a volunteer at Elsa Levy Elementary. That afternoon, she walked into Julie's classroom and was horrified by the chaos. She documented what she saw and sent it to Rumba and Shriber as the whistleblower's letter. 5 days later, Dr. Rumba resigned. On January 26th, the investigator released her summary and Ryan Ovenel announced that the violations against

088Dr. Hannah were not substantiated. Then on February the 2nd, >> thank you. >> 5 months after the fact, am I done? >> Yeah, your time is up. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Ryan. I know that you are the new superintendent. I appreciate what you do and I hope to work to make the school stronger and with the legislature on the research that we've done. >> Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us today. Uh we will now move on to the school board discussion. We have one topic. Uh it is a first reading of revised board policy 2320 uh regarding field trips, excursions and outdoor education. Any thoughts, questions, concerns? >> It looked like the my understanding was that these are alignment to stop model policy district processes. >> Correct.

089>> Thank you. >> Yep. Nothing crazy. in child of will and the usual the usual updates that we see. >> Uh any uh cons uh goodness gracious uh do we have agreement to move it on to a second reading? Consensus. That's the word I'm looking for. Holy bucket. >> I'm I'm fine with >> Thank you. So we will move that to a second reading. Uh next up we have the student representative reports on school business. Who's going first? Yeah, I can remember. >> All right, take it away, Alexa. >> Okay, so High School has now began sports which started yesterday, all the practices and trials and this and um this past February we have been working on our executive elections. They started the 16th, which is where we had our candidates with their packets and

090their signatures. And then the following week, we did their interviews, which our seniors, interviewed them, and just made sure that everything was smooth. And then this Friday, we will be having our speeches at our assembly. However, our seniors will not be attending the election assembly. They will have their own assembly where they discuss like what um plans are going to be going on throughout the rest of the year. which is like prom and just like that stuff. And then we are hosting a pickle ball tournament which is new. We did not do it last year, but it will be held on March 20th after school. And we have signups online this week and then next week we'll have signups going on at lunch just for those who can't access the forms. And then our girls

091basketball team has been working hard and they are now heading to the skate which is tonight but the game is at 900 pm. So, and as for what we have coming up this month, we have the pickle ball tournament, girls basketball, executive elections, um ASB is having our middle school leadership campus fun too. As for powder pup, which is like a flag football for the girls, we are still working on getting a date around that because a lot of the sports will be heading to state and that just kind of conflicts. So, we're trying to work around that. And then we have to decided on April 18th for our date and we'll be presenting the themes to the students at the assembly this Friday. And then we have class selection which will be later this

092month. And as for student life, students have been engaged and participating and continuing at a good pace as we head into March because March is the month with like no breaks. It's just straight going on. It's just like students have to keep working hard for that. And then we have our Mom and Mia tickets still available online and the first show is this Friday if anyone wants to come and see. Our students work really hard. So >> that's everything I have for you today. Thank you, >> Patrick. >> Um, the last few weeks we've had numerous opportunities for students to shine. During the Valentine's Day week, um, our sweet notes fundraising was a huge success. Like Hill students created various notes and leadership arts and they said their book for the notes and leadership students

093worked to create packages to deliver them. 90 were sold for a dollar each. So we raised $90 total. um which is an exact time of last year's sales. The same week we had our spring ASB elections and I was reelected ASB president. Um thank you. >> Um a few weeks ago we celebrated our second quarter pride, perseverance and progress awards as well as recognized first semester content awards. Each teacher honored one Lincoln Hill and one Lincoln Academy student for outstanding performance in their individual content area. A week earlier, we also had our animal display competition where students designed animals in C plus and designed like wooden animals in C plus and staff, students and a professional voted on their top three awards. There were some amazing as well as diverse creations on display. It was

094hard to decide. We have we have confirmed our schoolwide field trip to the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle on March 31st. So, it'll be a great opportunity for all Lincoln Hill students to get out and have fun on our last full day before spring break. Overall, it's been a great few weeks celebrating our students and seeing talent and engagement in many different areas. And this follows is Port Susan's next update for the March school board meeting. Um, girls for athletics, girls basketball didn't have enough girls between seventh and eighth grade, so teams were confined with SMS this year. The season is going great so far. Salem United wrestling is going strong. In terms of clubs, Soap Fox Derby is starting up this month. Dungeons and Dragons is finishing up and writing club is continuing.

095Activities, we had a rose fundraiser in February that raised $234.18. We have a spirit assembly to wrap up the third quarter on April 3rd. Leadership classes have been invited to the high school on April 1st for leadership camp. Academics in language art we in language arts we have been doing novel studies. Eighth grade history classes are studying Supreme Court cases. Also, community members came to demonstrate pickle ball for PD classes this past week. And then finally, for arts, we have a spring band concert on the 26th and spring choir concert on the 31st. >> Thank you. Uh next up, board director reports on business conducted. Uh, director Russell, >> uh, we had the wonderful opportunity as we published out um to the community that the board um met with the I think it's the academic

096advisory group and split into two groups um two board members on each group and we toured the uh some of the classrooms in the high school got to see math uh being taught CTE. We we dropped in on Darl Mine's class and and saw all the things that were going on in the activity. Then we came back and met with the student leadership team, if I got that correctly, and and had a really good engagement with them. Um we kind of felt bad we kind of ran out of time. It was it was going really really well. So I I enjoyed that a great deal and got a lot of information um from that experience. And then the other thing I got to attend this week was the FFA prime rib dinner and their auction,

097their fundraising auction. And having attended these through the years, I think this was the largest one of the largest groups we've ever had of people within our community who came to the auction to support um paid tickets for their for their dinner and came to support the FFA. And uh FFA is um is is has a lot of activity within our CTE um programs. Uh the kids are learning agricultural, sales, speech, all of those type of things go along with that. And I think it's really valuable to see how well our community supports that. So good week, >> director Olsen. I had the opportunity with director Russell and two other of you uh to attend the academic advisory committee and tour those classrooms. I think one of the the remarkable things for me is to

098be able to walk into the CTE classrooms especially and see students absolutely self-directed working on projects. Um in fact in the welding classroom I was hardressed to find Mr. Maine. um he was in there but but it didn't matter because every student had a task, they were engaged in the task and working on that. Um and then he did help some with he was evaluating their wells and giving them strong feedback about things that were working, things that were differently. A lot of expertise there. And then same thing in the cooking classroom. Chef's outstanding um and the students again how he put them in teams and and the responsibilities again just amazing. Now it was February obviously it would not look like that in September but all the work that happened in September October to

099get to this point is telling um and very very similar the math classes. So very solid instruction occurring. >> Thank you Dr. Mark. So ditto everything that they um absolutely always enjoy getting in the classrooms and especially seeing CT. >> Um I am going to kind of change the focus a little bit and talk about the last nine days of session. Um we are really fastly approaching the the last day of session which is March 12th and at this point um budgets have been approved or been approved on both sides the House and the Senate and so now it's the negotiation the big negotiation um and there are a lot of things there's a few positives but most of the things unfortunately seem to be more on the negative side as far as funding for

100our wonderful education system. Um they have um both budgets have cut local effort assistance which doesn't affect us nearly as much as it does other districts potentially around us. Um the House and the Governor have um cut 25.1 million and the Senate is actually looking at uh cutting 59.1 million which is double what the House is recommending. So there's obviously a big gap there in finding what the medium is. They're trying to talk people into not cutting um is kind of a priority. uh transition to kindergarten, which does affect this district, is uh huge. Um the House again and the Senate are between 19 and 19.5 million in cuts. The Senate must cut 32 million. So, um that would hugely devastate our programs here. Um so we we are closely watching that and asking um

101that you know they reconsider that. Um the other piece which we kind of touched on um a little bit earlier is the bus depreciation changes. That's that's also a huge thing that could potentially affect our district. Um and so um really wanting to um relay that this is not this is a this is a program that out of all of the things in in education at this point in time, this funding model works. It and and so the fact that they're wanting to change it at this point in time is very very disappointing. Um let's see what else to So basically at this point we are just trying to mitigate loss in in income revenue for our district. Um other things. Um also wanted to remind uh that the scholarship deadline for the all of

102the big scholarships for the high school is Monday. Um and so um and I think that's I will stop there. >> Thank you. >> A lot going on. >> Yeah. Dr. Kate. >> Yeah. about my tour of the high school classes with the group academic advisory team was a very special time. Uh visit visited my group visited four classrooms uh two math and two uh CTE impressed all four but I want to comment especially on two of those. Uh, one was the math class. When I was a kid, 1960 roughly in high school, I was one of those STEM kid before the word was invented. Science, technology, engineering, math, that was me, science club, math club, physics, physics, chemistry, etc. And uh, so I had special interest in that. And at the classroom, we visited

103John Piggrat. He uh was one of four nominated from Washington to send teachers for national presidential award and I could see why from what I observed behind me in that classroom fairly early in my our time there they broke up in small groups like two or three students each two guys behind me I couldn't believe the level of that discussion about what was being taught way better than anything I've experienced in school myself in math just amazing so I can see I got that award Uh the other one was the Derl man's shop at mechanics and interesting things I learned there included and oh by the way he's very busy involved many many week evenings during the week with things related to students different things that he's involved in uh but also uh his students

104could get certified as a certificate as well and it gives them priority to get into an independent program sounds very valuable and also he's aware that a lot of employers want for c forklift certification they can get that through our school too and so that's valuable stuff also I like to talk to some of the teachers more so I actually ask him being a very busy guy how he could squeeze me into a schedule before we get out of time and so again that was a really great experience I've been involved in the academic advisor for for a while, but this this was the high point, I think, so far. >> Thank you. Uh well, I was the slacker that didn't go to the uh the advisory committee. I was in Tacoma, so I will

105I will own that wholeheartedly. I did not go. It sounded awesome, but uh >> at state wrestling. >> Yeah, I was at state wrestling. I was other places. So, sorry. Next time I'll go next time. I promise. Um a couple of things. I also uh went to the FFA dinner. But one thing that I wanted to highlight there is that yes, that was an FFA fundraiser, but just the teamwork there. So the FFA auctioned off items that were created by our CTE students, right? Like they made tables and chairs and all kinds of cool stuff that they could auction off there, right? Also, our culinary club made the food for that, right? And they did they they made um six desserts or something and they auctioned those off and I think they made $500 or

106something for the culinary club with so like it's not just for the FFA like it just shows that like our community like supports each other, right? So like they brought in other clubs and and they all sort of work together to get a really great outcome for multiple groups there. So, um, while it's amazing how much money they have to pay Aaron, I think just the teamwork and the camaraderie there across the groups is awesome. Um, I will say I did email out um some information on the 35 proposed WIAA amendments. Um, that vote is Oh, man. Um, >> yeah, it's the 17th. Um, so it does have some uh like some talking points or some just sort of highlights in there and there is a sheet where if you have thoughts or opinions and

107you wanted to send those back to me. Um, again, I do have that advisory committee uh where I put my advisory vote in on the 17th at 5:00. So, if you have any questions or you want to talk about anything or if you have opinions on those, feel free to get those to me by then. Um, I did also send those out to uh Miss Ammonson, our athletic director, and Superintendent Elvinel for feedback from them as well. Um, and last but not least, if you have thoughts, opinions, questions, concerns about some of these Senate bills or House bills or uh suggested budget cuts or all of the things, um, I feel free to email me, but I'm not the guy that can help you, right? So, uh, go out and talk to your legislators, send

108them emails, tell them what you think about it. Like, tell them what your impacts are, how you would feel, you know, that's going to impact our schools or things like that, right? Like, go to the people who are making those decisions. Um, and let them know how you how you feel about that and and what that means to us locally, right? Um, this is the time to have your voice heard around those. make sure you get out and and you share that information um with those those legislator people who are currently making those decisions. That is my soap box for for that. Superintendent. >> Nope. I agree wholeheartedly with that. Um it's the busy month started with the FFA primary dinner. So just to echo what was said, I think it's a a great sense

109of community and I'm sure we'll see that the next two weekends at Malam Mia as well. Um, uh, tickets are selling fast for that. I'm excited for that that performance. Over 50 students, I think, uh, involved in that, 50 plus students. So, that's that's significant. Um, Dr. Smith and Patrick and I are going to be going to the ESD for a student leadership conference on Friday. Alexa has double booked herself, which we completely understand and uh, are fine with, but we're looking forward to that on Friday, that engagement for Patrick with other student representatives from throughout the region. Um we have our next academic advisory committee on the 19th. We invite all that are here to uh attend that. And um we'll also have a seatback facilities advisory and sepback budget advisory the week after.

110An email will be going out on that tenative 24th. Um and at our next board meeting, we have a study session that will be um publicized around um the budget um all of the implications being measured that were talked about here today. they're significant um as well. So just um a lot of things happening in March, end of March. It's a busy time. Um but just thankful for the progress being made from students and staff and the board of directors in the district. So appreciate it. >> I heard really good things about uh that ESD meeting with the student adviserss at the WASA conference. So I'm really excited to get some feedback on that. Uh with there being no further business, I will now adjourn the March 3rd regular board meeting. See you.