SCSD Regular Board Meeting, 12.2.25

001That is >> dead silence. She said, >> "I know the awkward the awkward dead I will now call to order the December to 2025 regular board meeting of the staff of commando school district board of directors. Roll call of the board directors present are Evans Murray King uh director Olsen who's excused absence. Today we're offering two opportunities to the public to speak. Comments specific to the consent consent agenda will be allowed prior to the vote on those items. Students who have submitted a request to speak during the public comment section of the agenda will be called upon to make their comments at that time which is near the end of the meeting. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic

002for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> You have the agenda before you for the December two regular school board meeting. Are there any changes to the agenda? Is there a motion to approve the agenda for the December 2, 2025 regular school board meeting? Cather second. >> Moved and seconded. Moved by >> Evans. >> Seconded by >> Murray. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. Those oppos say no. We pass now. The board has had the opportunity to review the November 18, 2025 regular board meeting minutes. Are there any changes or corrections to those minutes? Is there a motion to approve the minutes for the November 18, 2025 regular board meeting? >> Second. >> So moved by Director Murray and seconded by Director Kevin S.

003All those in favor say I. >> I. >> To say I too. So that way it counts. >> Oh yeah. Me too. Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. I too. >> All those opposed say no pass unanimously. >> Board has had the opportunity to review the November 18, 2025 special meeting agendas. Are there any changes or corrections to those minutes? Is there a motion to approve the minutes for the November 18, 2025 special board meeting minutes? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Moved by Director Evans, seconded by Director Murray to approve the amendments for the November 18, 2025 special board meeting. All those in favor say I. I. >> All those opposed say no. Pass unanimously. Please join me in welcoming John Russell as the newly elected director for district 1 and Charlotte Murray as a reelected

004director district 2. Sentennel will have the honor of administering the their o of office. >> Thank you very much. I'll ask Mr. Russell to join me at the podium. and say, "Thank you for raising your right hand. As the superintendent of St. Commino school district number 401, I will now administer administer the oath of office to John Russell. John, please repeat after me. I, John Russell, do solemnly swear >> I, John Russell, do solemnly swear >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> I will support the Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution and laws of the state of Washington >> and the Constitution and laws of the state of Washington. >> And I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office >> And I will faithfully discharge the

005duties of the office >> of the Stanwood Camino School District. of the Stanwood Camino School District. >> Board of Directors. >> District 1. >> District One. >> For the term ending November 2029. >> According to the best of my ability. >> Congratulations, DIRECTOR. [applause] reorganization of the board. >> Oh, yeah. One more. >> One more. >> Director Marie, can you please join me at the podium? [laughter] Thank you. Please raise your right hand. I will now administrator the oath of office to director Charlotte Murray. Charlotte, please repeat after me. I, [snorts] Charlotte Murray, >> I, Charlotte Murray, >> do solemnly swear >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution and laws of the state of Washington >>

006and the Constitution and the laws of the state of Washington >> and that I will faithfully >> and I will faithfully >> discharge the duties of the office >> of the Stanwood Commino School District >> board of directors District 2. >> District 2. >> For the term ending >> November 2029. >> According to the best of my ability. >> Congratulations once again, DIRECTOR. [applause] In accordance with board policy 1210, the board holds elections from among its members for president and vice president at the first meeting in December. These positions are for one-year terms. [snorts] Are they nominations for president? I would like to nominate Miranda >> and I will second that. By the way, are there any other nominations? >> You have to say, >> are there other nominations? Are there any other nominations? Are

007there any other nominations? Then Brandon Evans has been nominated for president. Do you accept this nomination? >> I do. >> And uh we've got a second. >> It has been moved by Charlotte Murray and seconded by the I think right to elect the uh Miranda Evans as president for one year. We will hold a roll call vote. Roll call vote. And please indicate I or nay when your name is called. >> John Russell. >> Hi. >> Charlie Murray. >> Hi. >> Grant Evans. >> I >> and Steve King. Hi. >> Polish says policy says that the new president back up here. >> Okay. Yeah. Let's see. Yeah. Congratulations, Brand Evan. You have been elected as president. [applause] >> Okay. >> Yeah. [snorts] >> Sure. Sorry. >> This is where it's a little bit >> awkward.

008Bear with us. >> You put the hammer. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, sir. >> All right. Bear with me. I get my feet back under me here. Uh, okay. So, um, now we get to move on to the vice president. Uh, are there any nominations for vice presidents? >> I would like to nominate Steve King for vice president. >> I'll second. >> Perfect. Uh, so are there any other nominations? Are there any other nominations? Steve King has been nominated for the vice president. Do you accept this nomination? >> Yes, I do. >> Yes. Perfect. Uh and Mr. Russell uh already did the second. Uh is there any discussion? >> No. So, it's been moved by Director Murray and seconded by Director Russell to elect Steve King as vice president for one year. We will hold

009a roll call vote. Please indicate I or nay when your name is called. Uh Director Russell. Hi, >> Director Murray. >> I >> Director King. >> Hi, >> Director Evans is also an I. Congratulations, Steve King. You have been elected as the vice president. [applause] All right. Next up, we have um the legislative rep. And sorry, it's a little weird on paper for me. So, all right. Are there any nominations for the legislative rep? I would like to nominate Charlotte Murray. >> I'll second. >> All right. Miranda Evans nominated Charlotte Murray. Are there any other nominations? Are there any other nominations? I know it's awkward. Sorry. The rules are the rules, guys. Uh Charlotte Murray has been nominated for the legislative representative. Do you accept this nomination? Excellent. Uh there was a second. Is there

010any discussion? >> I'd like to say that it is one of those areas that I have interested interest in. Um I just don't feel that I'm at that point. And I will talk to Charlotte about maybe me tagging along and helping them. So I I feel that that's the role that I'd like to do. >> Yeah. Excellent. And I think that there's lots of opportunities. Um, the legislative session is not just open to legislative reps, like it's open to any board directors. There are lots of school boards that send more than one director to to those days. Um, I know at WASA they talked about um a lot of uh they they kind of advertised all over like come to our legislative day. Um, if you saw any of those seats, but they're in the

011WASDA emails and stuff, too. So, those are all really good opportunities to kind of get your feet in to some of those issues. So, I love to hear that. Uh, any other discussion? No. So, it has been moved by Director Evans and seconded by Director Russell to elect Charlotte Murray as legislative representative for a 2-year term. We will hold a roll call vote. Please indicate I or nay when your name is called. Uh, Director Russell. >> I. >> Uh, Charlotte, you should abstain. Uh, on this particular one, um, >> can I make a correction? >> Yes. It's for a one year term. >> Yes, one year term. >> Oh, sorry. See, this is what you get when you read a piece of paper. Uh, for the one-year term, you are correct. Oh, to finish it

012out, right? To finish out the one for our legislative rep that is no longer with us. >> You are correct. Thank you. Uh, director K >> I. >> And director Evans is an I. Congratulations, Charlotte Murray. You have been elected as the legislative representative. [applause] And we are on to the superintendence report. Take it away, Mr. Obel. >> I will do that. Thank you very much. And um thank you for um this board for um congratulating our new member and our uh reoath of our existing members. So congratulations to both of you. Appreciate that. Um I'm going to go ahead and have student representative Alexa read the donations in as we start the superintendent report. school district received the following donation. $1518 from Ohio pile prints based on sales of school spirit wear. >> Excellent.

013Thank you for that uh donation to uh to the district. We appreciate that. Um it is night tonight with our shining star and school report. And so we're going to go ahead and start the shining star uh off with Dr. Hannah, principal uh to go ahead and introduce your shining star. Great. It is my privilege to do so. And I just wanted to mention that at A atlotti School, we choose our shining star by asking our fifth grade faculty to have a first consideration of students who've been with us for a few years. They then talk to other faculty. I just wanted to uh let everyone know that this student um was someone that uh uh came up after a long conversation about a lot of really fantastic students. So um I'd love to invite

014uh faculty who are here to talk about Mia Mia Yuchenko and that is uh her third grade teacher Bailey Kinker and her fifth grade teacher uh Carrie Tedro. >> Come on up. Oh, and too >> stand. All right. Good evening. My name is Carrie Tedro. I'm going to read. Sorry. And I am Mia's current fifth grade teacher at Llati Elementary. While I've only had Mia for the past quarter of the year so far, I've been impressed at Mia's determination and hard work. She's come here a couple years ago from the Ukraine where she's witnessed firsthand the destruction of war and the devastating impacts it's had. She's moved to America having to have having to adjust to a different way of living, a new school, u making new friends, learning another new language. She's how many

015languages do you know? >> You're learning Yeah, she's way ahead of me. Um, I am so impressed by Mia's perseverance and resilience. She truly enjoys learning and being a part of our community. She's always extremely respectful, kind, empathetic, and just a good person to be around. She's creative and has a artistic hand with drawing. And I'm excited for her to receive this award and feel she is one who truly deserves it. So keep working hard and dream big. The sky's is the limit. [applause] >> Okay, my turn. Um, I had the absolute pleasure and honor of being Miss Mia's third grade teacher. Um, and I could not say enough positive things about Mia to allow you all to understand just how awesome of a kiddo she is. She is creative. She's kind. She's insightful. She

016truly cares about her classmates, her teachers. She will remember things you tell her and check in to see how it went. If we're chatting in the morning, I tell her I'm excited for something, she's going to ask me about it the next time she sees me. She checks on to see how my dogs are. She tells me about how the other teachers are doing. [snorts] Um, she is truly a spectacular student. Um, when she was in third grade, I remember one thing specifically. She had come back from winter break and I had multiple multil- language learners that year and so during morning meeting they kind of started to ask to be able to share in some of their other languages right and I remember distinctly she came back from winter break and Mia knowing now

017English quite fluently I'd say and Russian and Ukrainian right three she came back from winter break saying yeah I spent some of winter break learning Japanese I was like mania just to be the learner that you are. I can only imagine the amazing things you're going to accomplish in your lifetime. And I'm so excited to continue to get to cheer you on. Thanks for being awesome. [applause] Is there anyone here you want to introduce tonight? >> My mom. >> Your mom. Hey. All right. Mom. [applause] All right. Why don't you join us right over here? Will you get some pictures and and a couple other things? Come on over, Mia. >> All right. So, you get to find your favorite spot on the wall and sit down. You got to push really hard when you

018find your spot. Pretty good spot. I like it. Okay. Good job. Uh, we're going to take a couple of photos and we have some other gifts for you before you go. Okay. We'll have you go in the middle there. >> Let me step out in front. We'll put people behind. >> Put you in the front. >> Yeah. >> Get on in there. >> You have to. You can come closer if you want. >> All right. Right here. Right. One, two, three. >> Perfect. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> And then I also have here >> congratulations. [laughter] >> [applause] >> I mentioned it before, but if if you are here to see Mia or if you're Mia herself and want to go home for dinner, it's perfectly appropriate to right now. No problem. Congratulations. Thanks. Thanks again,

019Mia and family. Uh, next up on the superintendent report is the Utselotti Elementary School report by uh, principal Dr. Hannah. All right. Uh, I just want to start off by saying, you know, I've got a few minutes here. Um, but there are so many fantastic things happening at Oslotti School and I just want to invite anybody at any time if you want to come and visit and check out the great things that we're doing. Um, we just never have enough time to share out all the great things that are happening at San Kino School. So, if you hear something that you're interested in, give me a call, shoot me an email, come on by and uh see the cool stuff that we're doing uh at Saladi. I'm just so proud to be a part of

020this community and I'd love to share more, but I will try to get to the good stuff in just a few minutes here. Um, you see our concert going there. Uh, Miss Gates somehow magically like all of our music teachers in the elementary schools pulls together uh concerts of literally hundreds of children um and uh does so uh with just such uh grace and ease. And it looks like uh the children have been practicing for months, but of course they're only there 40 minutes a week. We have to remember. So, um I'm really proud to see that image as a start. Um the second slide, uh >> you've got the >> Oh, I do. You said that, Evan. Clear as anything. >> And top one. >> Is it on? >> It might not be on

021on the side. Yeah. >> Thanks for your patience, everybody. Oh, I saw the red light. >> Oh, did you? >> Yep. >> If not, we also [laughter] >> if you've got the deck there, we can >> There we go. >> 10 of them. There you go. Okay. So uh you know underscoring the strategic uh the element of the strategic plan around foundational early learning is what we emphasize here in the elementary school. Uh strong foundations and that's what elementary school is all about. Strong foundation uh for lifelong growth and opportunity. So that's why yeah the next slide's great. >> That was me just testing it. >> Oh you're going to be my assistant. >> I'm going to stand right here. Uh so I wanted to explain a little bit more. I don't I looked at

022it this evening. I don't know if that goal is very clear about literacy improvement. Uh from the beginning of the year to the end of the year last year there was uh 46% of our students at the beginning of the year uh were scoring in the um not yet proficient either below or well below benchmark the beginning of the year last year. By the end of the year, we moved that to 33%. So, it was a decrease of 13%. Um, the district average was about 8%. So, we were really proud of the movement of our students uh to proficiency. So, reducing the needs improvement and non-proficient readers by 13% beginning of the year to end of year. Um, so in order to improve that by 20%. Uh, 13 if you're doing the math with me,

023uh, 13 uh 20% of 13% is is 2.6. six. So, we need to drop uh 15.6% from beginning of year non-proficient to end of year. So, that'll bring us and we've actually started this year at 38% of our students are uh below or well below benchmark again compared to 46% last year. So, we're going to go from 38% to 22.4%. Um we're going to reduce that number significantly then by the end of the year. So I have faculty here who happily I don't have to look at right now for that ambitious goal. But um I c I have to say and actually they're involved uh Carrie directly in some of the strategies that I mentioned tonight namely uh homogeneous groupings of students to to bring them to proficiency. So we'll get to that in a

024moment. uh around math. I know that this goal is a little bit less uh uh quantitative, but I still think it's really important and it does come from an analysis of state assessment scores where it's clear that students have to improve in their problem solving abilities, which means that their uh all of the um uh standards for mathematical practice like persevering and solving problems, attending to precision, uh analyzing arguments, all of those are the things that we need to work on for our students. in order for them to do better uh on state standards and then eventually obviously state tests around state standards. So we'll talk a little bit about that goal as well. And finally, our SEAL goal will be measured by our ability to reduce the number of students and incidents that are

025uh reported in our Skyward uh uh our online environment that that report sort of um acute or um outside the classroom discipline referrals. So reducing those 30% from end of year last year to end of year this year. I have a little update on that. So talking about the strategies on how to get there. >> I know where you are. >> Since we're I have a quick question, >> please. >> I'm brand new learning acronyms. What's >> all right? Thank you, Director Russell, and I apologize. I should make that more clear to everybody. Um is social emotional learning. So all of those really important elements of students learning to self-regulate and have emotional regulation, impulse control uh so that they can learn. Um we don't do any academic growth unless uh our animal brain is

026okay. And so um we have that on the front burner uh at it really makes a difference. Um thank you. Um so lots of acronyms on the next slide. I apologize. Um, let me just briefly say that that first bullet under literacy is a set of complimentary uh curriculum elements to our CKLA program. Um, and they allow for all of our students to grow in the ability to learn how to read. That's what's common about all of those is it's teaching students to read. Once we get to third grade, we have to have proficient readers. So, Heggerty is a phronological awareness program. UFly is anchored. It's the University of Florida literacy initiative. Um, fantastic phonics programming. Lexia is an online environment. I just wanted to shout out to the booster club and the staff for

027helping to fund those programs. Um, in particular, Lexfore 5. um and they were uh instrumental in partnering with the booster club to support an online uh subscription that uh is for every student in the in the building. I can talk on and on about Lexia, but uh we got I'm keeping an eye on the time uh here. We also create uh when we say homogeneous groupings, we talk about what we're talking about is groups of kids who have common learning needs. So across and I was thinking of Carrie because fourth and fifth grade just started having students from all fourth and fifth grade classrooms get mixed up and redistributed into new classrooms in order four times a week to get the instruction that they need. So instead of having learning need A, B, C, and

028D in, you know, Mrs. Murray's class and learning need AB, C and D in Mrs. Evans class and in Mr. King's class, let's put the A's together and the B's together and the C's together and have Ms. Murray do one, does Evans do another? And doing that uh four times a week really leads to a lot of growth. Um around our SEAL goal, I'm going to hop over there because uh we have were so fortunate, not last summer, but the summer before to do um a full school uh training, 4-day training in the responsive classroom approach. uh just a a really research grounded approach to SEO that leads to higher uh outcomes academically. Um so we're in year two of that implementation which is kind of the hardest year. There is a sophomore slump. People

029come firing out from year one and almost everything. Uh year two is challenging to keep the the um authenticity to the program going. Um, we're anchored to a text that actually the principles have just rebooted as a as a learning community, the power of our words. I would really suggest taking a look at that text. We do textbased discussions and faculty meetings from that text. Um, and learning walks will be a part of both math practice learning and responsive classroom SEAL work as well. and learning walks or teacher rounds are a way for teachers to give collaborative feedback to one another on their practice. So, you're going to see a slide about that in a moment, but it's also mentioned under our MAP uh goals as well. I just want to give a recognition to

030Stacy Langer for leading our faculty meeting on October 22nd. uh she did such amazing work with her faculty as a prior math instructional coach um around uh teaching towards habits of mind and problem solving and higher order thinking. So she's uh launched we're going to do January 17th follow through on that and begin our learning walk. I just wanted to uh say thank you to some corporate sponsor um for having uh uh been in partnership with Dreambox which is an online math learning program. Um they are uh able to fund free subscriptions uh to school districts all over the country thanks to uh contributions from um it's corporate sponsorships, private donations and things like that. But Dreambox is another environment that I really strongly encourage you to look into. It's really amazing. Um, very quickly,

031I also want to say thank you so much to the Olsen Family Foundation for supporting [music] a recess grounds improvement. Um, we have a significant grant to do a really impressive overhaul of the recess environment. Um, I am almost out of time. Uh, Mr. Roel, it's still 10 minutes, right? >> Yeah. Keep going. >> All right. Okay. Um, I just wanted to highlight what we're anchoring and this is the next slide which of course I'm going to click to. All right. Um, when we do uh when we use data to inform what we're doing, these are some of the elements that we're going to be using. MClass and Dibbles is obvious, but Selexia and the Dreambox under literacy and math, those are those online environments. They have a progress monitoring tool and both of them

032are smart programs. So they're responding to the children's responses and they're giving the next prompt based on what the children have done. Not just what they said, but what the wrong answer was and how long it took them and then the next prompt is in response to that. So it's always just right at that edge of their zone of proximal development to get the right answer. Um, so that's just an exciting uh data source that that we're using this year. Um, again, I just wanted to show you on the next slide uh this um ability for me to track the faculty and how frequently they're progress monitoring students. So this is how many students are being progress monitored at the well below stage. So you see up at the top left beginning of the year

033level. These are all the students who are well below. They should be progress monitored every two weeks. And I got I just I just popped it in here showing how frequently they're progress monitored. Not surprising that we're not doing any until like late September. But this is where it is that children who are well below are being progress monitored. And I can find out exactly who hasn't been progress monitored yet. This is just one of the capacities of the MClass environment that's just really exciting. I wanted to show you uh the anchor for the learning walks that I talked about. Um the ladder of feedback to faculty. Um just you got to have something really simple if you want to have teachers visiting each other's classrooms and giving each other feedback. Uh the latter of

034feedback is a great anchor and we'll be using that again for both math practice and for uh SEAL practice as well. Uh have a group of teachers and again one of the frameworks is called teacher rounds. It's just like physicians rounds where uh you know we go in as a whole group you ask some clarifying questions you express what [clears throat] you value maybe state some concerns and make some suggestions. The research on how effective this is is really powerful. I see a um kind of a high sign or half of a one from Mr. Openell. Yeah, >> I stretch my nose. >> Oh, okay. Fine. All right, fair enough. Um keep going. The one of the uh frameworks that uh responsive classroom offers is the kaleidoscope um which is um a again a peer

035feedback framework for the responsive classroom practices. So you can engage this uh framework. It's an online tool and then people can visit each other's classrooms, evaluate one another's practice, give each other feedback. Um, so that's a really great tool and relatively inexpensive, which is rare. So, um, yeah, we're really excited about using that as well in our learning walks. And then finally, um, just some elements of our community engagement. Um, we had just another fantastic Veterans Day assembly. Um I want to thank so much the host for coming down and doing the um display of the colors. You'll notice there a very small version of the drawing of the recess uh the playground improvements that uh again are supported by the Olsson family foundation. Um it's even cooler in full size. We had the full

036renderings just sent to us. Um, and I want to thank uh so many people. Uh, Kevin Cruz for being on site to help us noodle on all the impact that this would have on the grounds. Um, and Mr. Rob for being somehow squeezing in time to be at those meetings as well. Um, I think it's going to be a really exciting project for the the grounds at Upselotti. Um, just another really fun moment. Um, how do I run this? >> Press the little play button. Oh, you can do it. Okay. This is just our trunk or treat that live. >> And I just want to uh recognize all of the family volunteers who drove their car in one of the most torrential. We were all there for October 31st. Torrential Halloweens. Uh we backed all

037the cars up against the the overhang um at the school and everybody popped up their decorated uh trunks and backs of their trucks and we still had a fantastic time. So, thanks to all those family volunteers that somehow found time to do this. It was just amazing. It was about 25 cars. I think it was really fun. So, last uh just kind of as a summary statement, what we expect to see this year, we hit that one too. Pretty pleased. Thanks. Um I think that the the sort of overarching vision is to deepen deepen a culture of teaching and learning. Uh getting to higher order thinking. Um getting to you know authentic feedback peer-to-peer teacher toteer walking the talk meaning that we're going to be learners learning about learning. Um we have uh a real

038just real uh unrelenting focus on kids who are not yet proficient. Um and using all those auxiliary tier 2 literacy and numeracy programs that we just named Dreambox Lexia. Um and again through the initiative of our teaching and learning team, Jennifer and Colin leading the whole district in consideration of how we ensure that students are independent and engaged and involved in their learning because when that happens um real learning actually happens as opposed to just doing tasks. So um it's a final image of some smiling kids at us. Uh, I want to just highlight the top left we have Friday recess dance parties at Salotti. So if you want to come on a Friday, recess time, there's a lot of music being played even when it's gray and raining. That was a sunny September day,

039but we'll we'll do it any Friday. So, um, that's it. And we'll take whatever questions. >> Does that include you for dancing? >> OH, YEAH. IF I can get out there, absolutely. Yeah. I know more about uh K-pop demon hunters than I ever thought I would. So uh and all the songs >> question >> I think I think there's vocabulary I still need to learn but I when you talked about u progress monitoring how what what exactly is progress monitoring how how do you do that is it a testing program is evaluation >> how do you do those sort of things >> yeah uh so uh it has to be quick because it's you know just what it sounds like it's progress monitor Um, happily, especially with literacy, early literacy, when kids are learning to

040read, there's some really important indicators of how they're doing. So, the speed with which they can name letters, the speed with which they can name letter sounds or make those sounds, blending sounds together, nonsense words. You're doing the instruction and then you're just really taking the dipstick and finding out how they're doing. and depending on how they register on those progress monitoring tools will hopefully alter your instruction. So, it's really like diagnosing instructional need and prescribing instruction. It it's it's a real physician metaphor of progress monitoring. Um, when you do that really close, then you grow. I mean, it's it's amazing once you get a culture of progress monitoring going. Um the hardest thing for most schools just like as it is with ours is finding the time to do that because we have a

041model where we're doing direct service to kids all the time. So to figure out a time where you can break off do the progress monitoring in order to inform your instruction. We don't always build that in. Um somehow the faculty magically pull that off better than I ever could imagine. But um I hope that that makes sense. >> Yeah, it does. And and I appreciate that especially especially getting that you have faculty that that tie into that that are finding ways to accomplish it. That's that's greatly appreciated. >> Yeah. I'll say >> so I have a couple questions. Uh you call it homogeneous groups. I'm guessing that's the same as small groupoup learning that the other schools talk about different vernacular. >> Um on your on your thing uh your example was fourth and fifth

042grade works together. Um, does that translate across other grades like K1, two, like the other grades are working together as well? >> It does. And I want to um just give a shout out to Katie Pickroll as uh the MTSS person for >> say tiered systems of support. >> That's right. Yeah. Um so Katie as we you know think about all kids getting common instruction core instruction and then there's other tiers that children have and often it's two or three additional tiers and so there's a multi-tiered system of support. Um Katie has uh uh designed a schedule at Cedar Home for many years and we've uh stolen her this year. Um or sharing um and uh she brought a schedule where uh those two there's two grades that are in common schedule all across the

043school. So K and one, two and three, four and five. Um and they have a common instructional schedule and so yeah, they're doing groupings as well. Um, I only mentioned four or five because I happen to know that they just started this week. Um, doing those common groupings. Um, but I know that the other grade levels are doing the same thing. Yeah, >> I think that we have a little bit harder time and I'm I'd love to invite faculty up because I must say Dart. >> There's one. She's still hanging back there. >> My gra um that what's more difficult is the math groupings. Um, and we do have a a a premium on literacy learning. I mean, I think that we're common to a lot of districts where that ends up being in the

044competition between the two core disciplines. Edging out a little bit, you know, getting kids to learn how to read is urgent. Um, otherwise you can't do the math, can't do the problem. Um, so we I feel like we got a lot of good energy there. I'm trying to figure out how to do that kind of homogeneous grouping in math to the same degree. We have um a teacher who is uh a K through three class size teacher both with us and with ELJ who foolishly revealed that she was um the math curriculum leader in the Spokane school district. and she's been connecting with our gened teachers uh in her free time to talk about how to do that kind of kind of work in uh in math as well. >> Okay. So, that was my

045follow-up question is that it the the intent is to be there in other subjects because I just saw on your thing it just said in the literacy section. So, >> but you're building towards it in math. Yes. Okay. And then on your other slide slide I don't know what but um it said uh that you were checking to see so the goal was u staff was supposed to check um progress monitoring every two weeks for those students who were well below um and obviously based on your chart that's not consistently h happening. So like when or where or how are you providing that feedback to staff like what does that look like? um to circle back to make sure that we are meeting that standard that we've set for them. >> You know, in in

046fairness, um you might have uh a it's almost certainly logistical I would $1,000 that the and then some might be say progress monitored. You'll notice that this is every week here. Mhm. >> So you might have somebody who is progress monitored in the week of 1012 to 10:25. We wouldn't expect to see them the next week. >> So I would be like 50%. You would do half of it one week but another week. >> So if we're inching towards 50% that's pretty good. >> Okay. >> Um and >> thank you for that clarification. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I also think you know there's always the um there's always good reasons you know. Um, I think that sometimes there's students who are presenting in a way where it's like we're going to do more harm than

047good in in doing it this time, so maybe we'll put it off. But I think by and large I want to see 50%. If it dips below that, then I'm like, what's going on? You know, and uh I actually don't need to do much of that monitoring. I think that people see the value in this and uh and I'm glad they do. >> Perfect. Thank you. Anybody else? Great. Thank you, Dr. Har, for the presentation ON [applause] it right there. >> Oh, okay. >> Next up on the superintendent report is our transportation report per policy 6600 by our fabulous transportation director. >> Uh, you're off one. >> I am off one. Angie, is this just a dress rehearsal? >> No, we're going. Thank you. Uh our October financial report uh by Ruth Floyd. >> Good

048evening. I'd like to go over our October financials um through the second month of the fiscal year. Uh enrollment FTE was 4,657 at the time. That was seven under budget and about eight above the prior month. Um, keep in mind that October is historically the whole watermark for the year. And so for context context, uh, December enrollment was down about [snorts] 21 from October. So you can see that, um, it does decline throughout the rest of the year. Uh, state aortionment revenues were paid 8% um, which through October totaled 17% which is approximately how much of the year has gone by for that those first two months. uh revenues and expenditures year to date increased the prior year as expected. Uh and payroll costs as a percent of budget through October are lower than this

049time last year. Uh and non-salary costs are running higher as a percent of budget uh than last year. Um mostly this is due to risk pool costs uh going up. um legal costs and special ed contracts also have increased this year and uh we paid quite a few of those out in the first couple months of the year. Um the manager's report it reflects uh 13.9% remaining after expenditures through October and then also that includes um taking out salary and benefit incumbrances for the year. uh fund balance uh report is showing um $8 million or so in fund balance which is slightly lower than the prior year. You can see there on that second line and uh also because budgeted revenues increased uh that percentage of fund balance as a percent of revenue also declined

050um by about half a percent compared to the prior year. And then the budget summary just similar uh a little bit different look at uh the expenditures. Um it's the MSOC or non- salary costs are as I discussed running a bit higher than expected for the first two months. Uh but uh if it may be just some timing uh because preliminary November MSO costs are actually lower than the prior November. um having uh an additional month to kind of take a peek at as I'm presenting the prior month is kind of helpful to just give you some context that um even though I'm socked through October seemed like it was running a little hot November um came back down a bit and then fund uh the budget status reports general fund we've been discussing already

051uh capital projects fund fund balance is uh ended October at 3.7 million um about flap from the prior month. Debt service fund uh reflects tax collections. Um and then uh as you know December bond payments will come out in December. And then ASB fund uh shows typical revenues and expenditures for the year. And uh transportation vehicle fund balance is fairly flat. We still have that incumbrance waiting for delivery of school buss. Then uh budget capacity uh reflects some carryover adjustments uh special education contract increases as well as um offsetting partially those contracted increases as reduction in salary and benefits. Um which is the positive number that you see there from the bottom. Uh and then our food services report uh shows expenditures outpacing revenues uh through October October but that is expected uh in the

052budget and then the average daily participation for breakfast and lunch are a bit higher than last year's October report uh but uh catering is under last year. That is the last page of the report. I'm happy to answer any specific questions you might have. Um just to clarify, so we're currently under our budgeted enrollment. Uh December is the last month where we get like our budgeted amount and then January they start the true up process which historically has been a benefit for us but this year it will not be. We're just we're on track to like manage that sort of retraction of money because it would be getting less then. >> Correct. So we um knew that enrollment was uh under budget in the fall and so we were able to pull back on two

053kindergarten classes and not hire those. Uh so that helps. Uh we also held back on another 0.5 position and um we have been you know diligently watching the budget and making sure that if there's any savings that we can uh find that we do that uh just to make sure that our cash flow is okay once that true up happens. um because the revenues that you're seeing here, the aortionment portion of those revenues are based on that higher enrollment and as you said in January that will be that um true up will happen and the revenues will decline a bit. >> Okay. And then um I don't remember the numbers but I know when we talked about our budget last year we talked about excuse me we're using so much of our general funds like

054one million of our general fund. Does this mean we're gonna have to dip more into that? >> So, we the budget uh had about 1.4 million use of fund balance [clears throat] and um we are looking at it being perhaps a bit more than that. My hope is that throughout the year, as happens in in prior years, we're able to realize some savings from um unfilled positions and um you know, every department or school not using exactly 100% of all their money that's allocated to them. That normally happens in every school year. And so my hope is that you know once that all is said and done we will meet our budgeted uh reduction of fund balance uh meaning the 1.4 million rather than a bit more than that through October it was looking like

055what may be more than that but as I said November I was pleased to see that the end stop costs were uh came down. So when when do we traditionally would see that that that that trend is happening that those savings are coming through? When when in the year do we start to see that? >> Well, it's projections that I need to do assuming and make some assumptions about how historically how much we spend based on prior year uh history and trends. And so I can be surprised when when I make a projection and I think that we're on track to, you know, uh, spend at [snorts] a certain clip and then, you know, maybe I just didn't know that a department or a school had something planned later in the year that they hadn't

056done later in the year, the prior year. And so it's it's a little bit of an art um figuring out how how that is all going to end. But as we get more months under our belt, that becomes clearer and clearer. And especially after January, once the aortionment trs up, I'll be able to really take a a very close look at that and make sure that my my projections are looking to be on track. >> I've been I've been impressed when when I wasn't sitting on this side, sitting on the other side. Um I've always been impressed by how you do your numbers and calculate. I have a lot of confidence in you being able to do that. So, >> I was just curious on how how do we look at that? >> Yeah, I

057look at about a fiveyear trend of how we've we've spent um based on the number of months that have uh gone by and then as I said, it just gets better and better as I have more history. >> Thank you. Just a quick comment on enrollment as as it's uh down again this month. We'll have the November enrollment report u presented uh at the next meeting but um looking at the called the P223 report yesterday we are down um one or two students per grade so it's not a a lump in any grade level like we might see later in the year in our with our seniors. Um fourth grade had four uh but other than that each grade level had one or two headcount. So, um it's not uh like we're seeing it in

058one specific area um across the district. >> That's across all the schools >> across all the schools. >> So, one or two per grade level across all schools. >> So, we have any big bubbles or bubbles that are coming through? >> We do have some bubbles, but we don't see we didn't see the the drop in enrollment um from November to December. Uh Carol >> concentrated wasn't concentrated. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Ruth. Appreciate the report and um we'll continue to do the monthly financial reports um as uh we want to make sure not only [clears throat] this board but um our community knows the state of uh you know our financial position for the district. Next up uh is Angie Okconor, our transportation director. Thank you, Angie. >> Thank you guys. I

059just want to say thank you guys for letting me present this evening our transportation update for the district. Um just want to point out when I think about the engagement as the commitment that we've [snorts] made to our students in the strategic plan I believe it aligns with our transportation department and the community that we get to serve. Our department right now has 75 employees. We have um approximately 39 contracted bus drivers. We have substitute bus drivers. We have mechanics. We have bus paras secretary dispatchers and our router. Uh we right now have 61 buses that includes big and little. Um and we have two full-time mechanics plus one part-time mechanic that um do all the maintenance on that. Um and we are transporting approximately 3,400 students each day. So, our transportation team, uh, we

060have ongoing training for new bus drivers so that we ensure that we're meeting the demands of the district. Uh, we also are engaging in um training and professional development for those drivers that we have currently um to make sure they're enhancing their skills and keeping up their safety practices. Our coverage um we've continued to successfully cover all of the academic and sports trips without using charters along with our um our routes, our two routes daily. So that's a big deal. That's huge for us. Um we uh it really just demonstrates our our dedication in our department. I really really feel strongly about that. Uh our community engagement, we have had many many opportunities to participate in uh community events with our buses. We use our vol our drivers as volunteers. Um not only do we

061get to go have fun and participate in these, but we get to positively promote our district and we're a billboard on our school bus list. So, it's super fun to have the community come see our school buses. Um, also get to kind of recruit some new drivers possibly or employees in our district. Um, and just kind of get let them kind of get the feel of of of it and how much we enjoy our jobs and enjoy what we're doing. Um, our mechanics here are part of our team. Uh, they continue to work hard each and each and every day to get 100% inspection. When we get our state patrol inspection, we continue to get 100% on that. Um safety for them is um top priority in our shop. It never ever ever leaves a

062shop unless it's 100% safe for our students. Um next is our bus routes. Uh we are continuing to do daily um adjustments to improve efficiency and reduce costs where we can um our funding but by ensuring that all of our routes are managed by bus drivers in school buses. Not only is it safer for our students, but it helps secure funding when possible. So, um, also in our routes, our snow routes are complete. Um, they are updated. They've been posted on the website and communicated to families. And this just really helps with the preparedness of the winter conditions. So, that's that was a huge huge thing this month. We just got them. Um, our new buses, they will be delivered next month. They uh bumped it back to January 26. We have three new big

063typeD route buses coming this year. Um, expanding our fleet with new buses helps to support our TDF along with making sure that our students are always safe in buses that are newer and um they're just safer. They're updated. They're newer. They're not they're not running rampant and ragged. So, we're excited to see those new buses. >> Can you tell us what TV is? >> TBF is a transportation vehicle fund. >> Yes. Sorry. I know. >> No, it's good. Uh the parking lot, we have our new parking lot. Uh I know a lot of you who drove by it this summer, probably saw it with no buses there. It was really odd. But the asphalt is finished. Um it's it's all laid out and this will ensure the longevity of our parking lot now. So, it's

064much better and much safer and it looks great. I >> mean, it doesn't bounce and squeak. >> No, there's no watering out of it. Fantastic. >> Yeah, we love it. So, um, again, I just want to say thank you, um, to you guys and our community for supporting us and and the work that we do here for our district. So, you guys have any questions? >> I had one. Um, I know you kind of I think you kind of touched on it, but I was just kind of curious. I know that we do account for how many kids are riding buses. What is our year-over-year? >> We're right around 33. It's between 33 and 3,400. That's our student count. So, usually pretty average. >> Yeah, we we go up and down and up and down,

065but our um the fall count that we just did, I was going to write it down because I'm going to ask the exact I can't even email you if you're curious, but our survey report was right around the it was like 33 something. So, um which is about average. So, and I try and decrease. >> Yeah, they do. And we try to we we pick the the good writer writer weeks, too. We go through the entire month and we add it all up and make sure that it's that we're getting the appropriate time. So, >> did did I hear somewhere too that we we had also planned that kids weren't on the bus for a certain length of time too and how you did your routes? >> Yeah, we worked on consolidating some routes. We

066look at them and um on paper, this is without stoplights and traffic and the horrendousness of 532 right now. On paper, none of our students are routed for anything over an hour on paper. There are a few exceptions. We have out of boundary schools. We have some students in special placements um like Elder Bay and they might live out at Warren Beach and so they sometimes are on the bus a little bit longer than that or um we've had just a special special um they're out of boundary schools. It's what they need. So they are a little bit longer, but when possible, whenever we can, we're we're adjusting. And then even if we we need to do some readjusting, the beginning of January, we always look at all our routes again and see where we

067can we put out a map and we decide where we can cut and where we can make it work to cut on the driver time but cut on the the students time on the bus. So we do that each January the crowd. So >> just out of curiosity, you said we have two and a half mechanics. Do we have like just enough work that we just keep two and a half mechanics busy or do we use like cont do we contract other >> We are very very um self- sustained really down there. We um we don't we do send a couple things out um we've had a lot of warranty work that we do send out because it's more cost effective especially with that. But um our mechanics do 90% of our work um in

068a lot of their stuff and they also do all the maintenance for all the vehicles around here. They work on the lawnmowers and everything else that you see those two and a half guys keep everything in our district running. So the um oh gosh the uh generators they keep them I mean they do everything. So they we're really really lucky to have the guys that we do. So >> perfect. I guess my question was kind of the opposite is like do they have capac like I know some other government agents like if they have a if they have a mechanic they maybe take in work from other places as like a you don't have to know. Yeah. [laughter] Okay, that was kind of my question is like we have the work to keep them all

069the same. >> We have the work. Yeah. And we do keep everything in house because it's more cost effective. >> For sure. >> We always have work. >> They're never They're never just >> I like it. >> You mentioned we're getting some new buses. Can you just compare those to the ones that we will getting rid of? >> Currently, we uh this year we I don't remember if it was the meeting last year. We surpassed one bus. It was a It was a big type D bus. We have a couple Once a bus falls off depreciation, which means it's not bringing any more money to the TDF fund. We decide if it's going to be cost effective to keep or um we're going to get rid of it and either surplus it or trade it

070in. We [snorts] keep as many as we can on the road until it costs more than it does to keep. And so, right now, we aren't getting rid of any buses. We are talking about trading in a couple of smaller type A buses that are just um they're starting to become kind of nickel and dime and we don't want that. So um currently we're just getting those three buses in. We aren't getting rid of anything for those three buses. So >> we'll have more capacity. >> We well we've shifted some stuff around and with the the way they've redid the parking lot they kind of helped us out with some extra parking. So and we do have some buses at Elder Bay and Atalotti. So that helps us at transportation to more more space. Fantastic.

071I just want to say thank you to you, Angie, for your leadership around the the transportation department and to that picture up there of the whole transportation team. Uh you know, they they are uh the lights are turning on around [clears throat] 4:00 in the morning and not not till 6:00 sometimes at night to get all the students home uh safely. We you know, we we have conversations about last student home. Okay, we can we can sleep now, right? So, no, thanks for all your hard work. Appreciate it. [applause] >> So, the last item on the superintendent's report is uh my 100 day report. It was an item that I had um promised when I put my 100 day uh my 100 day plan out this summer. and uh the the board has a copy

072of it. It's also online for a few more days maybe uh to reference, but I'm going to talk through uh some of the tenants of the 100 day report um right now. So, as I've moved through the first 100 days, my focus has been on stability, strengthening trust, and making sure our systems, both instructional and operational, are clear, consistent, and financially grounded. Although today marks really 11 months, uh this report was promised when my 100 day goals were were laid out this summer. So I wanted to make sure that I delivered on that and is meant to reassure the board and the larger community about your selection uh to hire me as the superintendent for the district. You'll see that on the next three slides I've uh clipped the objectives from each of the phases

073of my entry plan. Uh some of the evidence of the forward movement is visible. You can you can see it in the district and some is made through um qualitative metrics. Um you'll likely know that in addition to listening and relationship building that has happened, I spent considerable time refining our operational practices um continued to review budget routines and the structures that keep our schools running. We have very strong people, qualified and committed employees in this district, in every area of this district and and I can't say that enough and strong systems in place uh and we remain committed to tight financial oversight like Ruth talked about um this evening even in the midst of inadequate funding from the state which results in a heavy reliance on our local community to operate our public schools.

074And I'm not bashful about saying that. This means continuing our regular budget monitoring, aligning our practices and our resources to our strategic plan, and ensuring that every dollar that focuses that we have focuses on learning and is essential for our school operations. At the same time, I know that the last couple years have brought some turbulence for staff due to continued reductions and tightening of budgets and spending. that's evident and happens uh when those situations rise. One of my priorities has been clarifying who owns instructional components within the district and support systems so that when staff reach out for help, they receive consistent and timely feedback and responses. We've worked to clean up inefficiencies and streamline processes not to add tasks which can often happen in a leadership change uh but to remove unnecessary directives

075that uh so that we can ensure the instructional time is maximized and stays protected. So in action that's meant reducing and redesigning the central office structure. So each leader owns clear systems that looks like um what you've heard tonight already, our multi-tered systems and support team. That's our teaching and learning department, our student support services and our and our special services or special education department. This reduction in change was driven by budget constraints and needed reductions as we moved to align our district to the MTSS model. So lastly, as you know, significant leadership changes and reductions in buildings took place and I'm proud of the work our building leaders are doing to shoulder that um change and the gain and that gains are being made. So, this is phase two, and you've heard me talk

076a lot about the first months in a number of different ways through my weekly updates or Friday family messages or or community connections um about the school visits. I continue to remain committed to my um my philosophy of every school every week. It keeps me connected to not only uh staff, but also the students. Um I I'm a deep believer in that as a leader and I continue the open conversations that initially and continue to be. They weren't about launching um an overbearing amount of new initiatives like I talked about earlier about listening being transparent about our financial picture and about strengthening confidence in the supports that staff and community should expect from this district office and your district as a whole. Phase three, October through November. We've uh identified areas where clearer procedures and

077timelines will improve uh efficiencies and strength strengthen consistent uh consistency across buildings. That work is underway and it's that designed to protect both our taxpayer investment in our schools both operationally and as and structurally and the long-term health of our uh and of long-term health of our schools as well. And it is also to shield staff both certificated and classified staff wherever policy allows from the noise of outside issues that can create a a deviation of focus away from serving our students. So you will see a benchmark in this slide uh around the strategic plan update which is forthcoming and in motion and as well as initiated a capital levy uh for longer term stability. So the first 100 days were focused on deepening trust trust in our operation and direction emphasizing clarity to systems

078and expectation and aligning people resources and priorities to our strategic plan which has and will continue to happen. Continues to rely on our hope and expectation that the state restores stable funding to public education that keeps the cost escalations that we're seeing across the district and operations. things like insurance quadrupling, utilities doubling, and commodities continuing to um move upwards. Uh so that deeper reductions do not affect our classrooms and our students. Over the past 11 months, we have intentionally moved the district into a position of stability and forward momentum. As we begin our strategic plan updates and continue the levy work, I want to be clear, my work is to ensure safety um in our systems, stable, efficient and sustainable work so that we can fulfill our promise of empowering every student. Thank you. >>

079Questions? >> I did. >> Okay. Uh [laughter] Um, historically, uh, when we've had like staffing restructures, uh, there's like a I don't want to call it like a tree, but like a staffing tree that kind of shows where everybody lands, what their role is, and what sort of job titles or duties fall under that? Do we have one of those that we could get? >> Sure. We have an organizational chart um that um that outlines just what you were talking about, kind of the hierarchial structure. Sorry for not articulating that well. Uh [laughter] that structure uh uh so that both staff and community um uh know who to contact. >> Okay. >> And what that organizational structure is and it's actually on our website, but I'm happy to grab it. >> Could we So if

080it's on the website, could I perhaps I'm guessing the archived one is not. Would there be a way to get one that sort of highlights >> I mean obviously we have different people in their roles uh but and we've sort of shrunk down our district office staffing. Can can we maybe like just highlight the changes to see like what that looks like if like my concern is, you know, I I understand budgets and shrinking down district office staff and all of those things, but I also know that when I first came on the board, one of the things that was a concern for me was how many hats everybody was wearing. And if you're wearing too many hats, you can't be effective at any one particular hat. So, I just want to make sure that

081we're not sort of maybe sliding too far back in that direction as well where we're just stacking hats on people's heads. So, I'd kind of like to have an idea like a visual. >> Absolutely. Um >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Actually, and we've been tracking that um change that that delta each year for the last five years uh around uh positions not only at the central office but in in buildings as well. Uh so we're happy to produce that um as as a model moving forward. >> That'd be really great. Thank you. >> I think along those lines is my thinking what the question Miranda asked is we have so many very positive people within our district and in that competency sometimes we give them another half and another half but it kind of masks what

082really should be maybe individual jobs or individual rather than just giving it to somebody who's fill in that gap. We as a as a board want to make sure that we're staffing adequately and don't just >> um you know put another hat on somebody because they're confident. >> We've got some really talented people within our administrations. >> Definitely appreciate that. And I would say that it's across the district. I think about you know our our pair of educators that are um you know split between several different classrooms or our our our teachers that are you know a 1.2 to FTE our uh principles without deans in the building this year. Um so so I just appreciate the comment there in recognition that um the district is running lean um in an effort to preserve uh

083fund balance and and um in and in light of the the um the structure of public public education funding right now. So appreciate that. >> Any other questions? Thank you. That ends superintendent's report. >> All right. Figure out where I'm at here. All right. 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. This is not the portion of the meeting for open public comment on items outside of the consent agenda. Uh that is coming up soon. Um, we'll start with are there any board directors who wish to pull any items from the consent agenda for discussion? >> I have questions on the resolution on item number two, resolution 2025, uh,

0842026 to close accounts for middle schools and set and penny cash amounts for others. So, I' I'd like to request to pull that so we can have a discussion and pass that. >> Yep. Okay. So, we will pull consent agenda item number two. Any other? No. Uh, is there anybody in the audience that would like to speak on any of the items in the consent agenda? No. All right. So, uh, my question to you is, um, is there a motion to approve to approve consent to agenda items one and three through six? >> I'll second. >> Okay. So, it has been moved by Director King and seconded by Director Russell uh, to approve consent agenda items one and three through six. All in favor of approving those items 1 and 3 through six, say, "I."

085I >> I >> opposed. Okay, that passes unanimously. Now we will talk about consent agenda item number two, which is the approval of resolution 20252026-00006. Impressed accounts, what are they? What do they mean? >> Uh impressed accounts are basically bank accounts at a local bank. Um, as you know, our exeicio treasurer is actually Snomish County. That's where we keep all of our funds. That's who invests our money for us so that we can earn a little bit of interest. Um, but school districts are allowed to have separate bank accounts at a local bank to um help um, you know, make things more uh, quick and easy for doing small refunds and this and such. uh to parents who request a refund or other small payments um at the school level or at the district level.

086>> So like we talking like booster club reimbursements or we talking like I paid for a sport and my kid didn't play it like >> correct. That's exactly it. So, a pay-to-play uh fee gets paid. Uh they uh were ended up not participating or they got cut from the sport, something like that, we would refund that. >> So, these are but it sounds like it was a very low usage. >> Yes. At the middle schools, they hadn't been using them. Uh and if they needed to, uh if they have a need for that kind of thing, uh they would send the request up to the district office. We have an a revolving in breast account at the district office that we can write checks to families. >> So by closing these accounts or doing whatever,

087it's not we're not saying like, oh, we can't pay money people money back. It's just it comes from the district office instead of the individual school. So we're just moving it to one larger account instead of multiple funds. >> Correct. Yes. And then just to clarify, the petty cash >> petty cashache also is uh considered an impress because it's outside of our treasures office uh the treasure uh stomach county treasure and uh each of the schools listed on the resolution uh have $100 that they uh keep in a locked location so that if uh they need to make either make change or have to um do um they could do a refund in a pinch like the middle schools now that they don't have a bank account. They could do a refund. Uh that kind

088of thing. P buying a um postage uh just small purchases that are needed in the moment and quickly. >> And then they would submit that bill to or that receipt to >> they submit it to the district office. accounts payable then reimbures the petty cash. >> And so the 3,000 from each of the middle school ASB, will those dollars go back to those ASB funds specifically? >> Yes. Right now they're kind of at the district level under a separate general ledger account on the asset side of our uh trial balance or balance sheet. And so that would go back to the uh it's just basically cash sitting out there. So it's not really revenue to the schools. It just is available uh for uh those schools to um budget in a future year to be

089able to, you know, spend money a different way. It's it's still available to them to spend. It's just cash sitting in a different location and then it goes back into the treasur the treasurer's bank >> side of the ledger. So, those are funds that can carry over because I think maybe I'm wrong, but I think we should what we're trying to get a handle on is if a school thinks that they have, you know, 3,000 because it's been sitting in the bank account and then if it gets rolled into the to a ledger or line item, does the school still have that money considered as far as a carryover to use it for those type of things? These are basically reimbursements is what you're saying that that account was used for. It was reimbursements, but

090the reimbursements then are an expenditure that they budget for. So they they always had the $3,000 budgeted to spend. It's just that now the cash is instead of coming from a local bank account, it'll come from the treasurers. So it's an asset, not an expenditure. >> We're just moving banks. >> Yeah. >> So it's kind of an accounting thing. So the cash instead of sitting at the uh heritage bank, it'll be at the county treasures. But either way, the schools could spend the money if they budgeted to spend the money in their ASB budget. >> So how many accountwise, what how many accounts does that leave us after then if we're decreasing? Um it leaves us with two impressed accounts. [clears throat] Uh one Stamino revolving fund for 10,000, one Stanwood High School ASB impressed

091account for 15,000. Uh and then we have a bank account for payroll depository bank account and then we have an accounts uh fiscal depository account. Um, so we still have significant >> we will still have significant accounts at >> Heritage Marit as a sponsor. I want to make I want to make sure that are we pulling all of our stuff and and that kind of thing. No, we would still all of our outside of the treasure banking is uh with be um with heritage other than um our procurement cards is added to >> and just maybe this is an assumption on my part. My assumption is the reason for consolidating this is I'm guessing they charge us a fee for each account that they have there. And so if we're not using them, it doesn't

092really make sense to keep an account that we just keep getting charged for over and over again. >> Yeah, there's a monthly fee for the accounts. >> Okay. >> And it sounded like too that part of that was processing that it could be processed there was an impression it could be processed faster like you said somebody comes in your system that we have now in the school district those refunds can be processed pretty quickly as it is, >> right? just go in and you guys can issue the checks through the the draft or however however you do that. >> Correct. It's that's the beauty of an impressed account. It can um the checks can be written on the fly. I'm the signatory person who signs off on it as the approver and uh and then

093you would see it as the board when we do a warrant to reimburse the impressed account. So yes, it it definitely is a quicker process for those smaller items. >> Yeah, I can see from the the customer service point of view is if a parent is coming in or a parent wants or a student wants that refund back, you don't want to have anything that would cause any sort of delays or or impression of hey, you got to go to the school >> Yeah. >> school district and all that. The process is still going to be pretty smooth for for those to happen. >> Yes. I wouldn't imagine there would be a hardship. who these um impressed accounts are helping to um pro you know provide it quicker to them and uh the district office

094that actually the uh we've been doing this also with the elementary schools and there have not been any complaints about the turnaround time to send the request up to the up to the district office >> and we're not having any issues with pay cash at all the different schools as far audit. >> No, in fact, um the dis the audit the state auditor does a surprise petty cash audit or impressed account audit. Uh they pick a school and they will go there and confirm and then we also at the district office do an internal surprise petty cash audit of one or two schools a year as well. So we do monitor that. >> Any other questions? Now I'm going to make a motion if you're ready. >> All right. Is there a motion to approve

095consent agenda item two? >> Um I'll move. >> I will. >> All right. Uh so it has been moved by Director Russell and seconded by Director Murray. Um all in favor of approving consent agenda item two say I. >> I. Opposed say Nick. Passes unanimously. We have no old business. Uh we on public comment uh we have zero public comment as well. Um sounds good. Uh topic scheduled for the school board discussion. So it looks like we have one item. It is our first reading. I think it might be our third first reading [laughter] of revised board policy 3241 student discipline. This is the policy that we had our um study session on. Um, is there any additional discussion? Uh, taking a look at it, it looks like all of the, uh, changes that we

096requested in regards to staff authority, uh, were put back in. Any other discussion or anything you want to add? >> I'd just add that, um, we did run the revised version with the staff authority put back in through our legal counsel and they said there was no issues legally with amending it that way. I think for me it's a matter of me just trying to process it really fast. Um I missed the I missed witnessing the study session you have on it. My first couple readings I was a little bit confused. So I think the what would help me is is the rest of you guys read read through what what we have now. mean this is our first it mean our first reading and if if there are other issues because the second reading

097we would actually pass it correct >> right so we discuss it now and then it goes onto the consent agenda in our next meeting >> so I I guess part of I don't you guys have done all the work on it and a lot of work on it um and so I'm not up to speed on it um I think when I try objectively look at it and read through it. I think there's some points in there that are a little bit confusing and um I don't nec all of I've been trying to catch up on all the policies all the policies that we have there are very few that would touch students every single day. This is one policy that would touch students every single day. >> So to me um to me um

098It's kind of a it's kind of a cross between a policy and a little bit of procedure in there. >> So once we have a a policy in place, then they will have the procedures. Um there is a proposed procedures that we did go over in our study session um that I'm sure uh sorry um that Mr. Elvin could get for you. I would um really suggest going back and watching that study session. Um um if you have specific questions, I know this one is really daunting though because there is a lot of strikethroughs. Um one of the things that I would say that we sort of talked about the most in our study session is it didn't necessarily it looks like it removed a lot of things, but really what it did is it

099it moved it from one location to another. So, it kind of flipped like if you look in the like this top section, the introduction, philosophy, and purpose part of it. Um, like a lot of that they they just moved stuff up into there. Um, and then one of the big things that we did talk about in our study session was that the original proposed one did remove that staff authority section. Um, and we didn't care for that. So, um, like Mr. Obnall said, we had it put back in. Um, and we had that run through our lawyer. Um, this is a policy that is um, a proposed change from WASDA, but it's also um, due to updates from some of the RCW. >> Yeah. And, um, these were supposed to be uh, the RCWS changed

100in 2024. Um, so we are a little bit behind the times on getting it approved. Um, but not to say that we want to rush you or anything. if you have additional questions um you know or if you had something specific I would I would love to to chat about those. Yeah, I think I think that's part of the challenge is when you have somebody coming brand new onto the board >> and you come across something like this that's fairly significant >> and I want to defer to to the experience that you guys and work you put into this and but we also can only talk in a public forum you know when we were all together. So that's that's what makes it a little bit of a challenge. I think that the questions that

101it raises to me um is that we and some of this may be answered in the procedure part of it is consistency across the district. >> I can talk about that. In fact, the the recommended procedure um by WASDA like director Evans said clears up some of that. Um they also have a a matrix that um that was actually in one of the sessions that we the law session at was conference uh two weeks ago um that I think provides clarity for school administrators on what is appropriate discipline for certain actions that that wasn't um typical prior to this and that had gone away actually. So that that um being back in there and being a form that we can reference, our school administrators can reference after the policyy's passed uh will provide clarity. >>

102Um one of the things you're correct, we cannot meet as a large group of people outside of the public meeting. However, if you had specific questions on this, um either you and Mr. Obnell or you myself and Mr. openell could arrange a time to sit down and go through um some of the documents that we went through through our study session um and maybe get you up to speed on that. We're not actually voting on anything today. What we're looking for is just um consensus if we're going to move it forward to a second vote >> or a second reading, which would be when you would vote on it. Um, so it's kind of one of those things where we have a little bit of time where if you had questions, I would love to

103schedule a a session where we can walk through what we went through in the study sessions. >> I think that would be helpful because I think it's the historical context or content the context that I'd like. So, I think it would be appropriate for you as as as the board president and Ryan if I came in and met with you and you guys could bring me up to speed of kind of the history and content. >> I'll start with providing the packet that that the board had at the study session for you to review and then we can set up that time. >> Okay. >> Does that work? >> Yeah, works for me. >> Okay. And then maybe just um email once you get the packet, maybe just email some available times >> to Mr.

104Oven and myself and we can get something on the schedule to to make sure that you feel comfortable um with that. Uh and then you would also again just because it's moved to a second reading and it's on the consent agenda item just like we did today you could pull it and ask additional questions then if you wanted to as well. >> This this is helpful to have this type of discussion across so that I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Yeah no problem. Um, so I guess the question is, is there consensus to move it as a second reading? >> Yes. >> Okay, perfect. So, we will move that to a second reading. Thanks. >> Um, next up we have our student representative reports on school business. We only have one student representative all bright

105and shiny here today. Take it away. >> Okay, my report today is really short, like not really short, but short. And basically we have a group in ASB that is finalizing our winter wishes which is kind of just like eventually leading up to winter break and that could be like lunch activities um and all that kind of stuff which we're hoping is done tomorrow or Thursday. And then we've also created an assembly group that is planning our assembly for the 19th. Um, and we reached out to JJ, which was our night guest, who came in and kind of taught us like things that were inclusive and engaging. And we reached out to him to see some games that we can use for our assembly because we wanted to have games that were more inclusive and

106engaging for students because usually it's like the same students that come down for those games. We're trying to get more people to come in and kind of get that engagement going. And then I am working with the middle school on getting reports. I kind of had like a little block, but I'm getting that fixed and I'm hoping to have it for the next board meeting which will be in January. And then as for students, um I've seen a lot of engagement in my classes and I've seen less people in the hallway when I go out and also the semester is going to end like pretty soon. It's at the end of January. So, I think it's good that students are staying like strong, especially for like the three weeks that are leading up to winter

107break and then even coming back like still engaged and strong for like the last month of the semester. But that's all I have if there are any questions. >> No, I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Uh, all right. So, we will dip into board director uh reports on business conducted. Uh, we will start on the end. Director Russell, I know I put you on the spot. Your first meeting and your first >> um first of all, thank you to to everybody. Um I truly appreciate being welcomed onto the board. Um and everybody has been very supportive. Um, literally within a week or so of of the election, um, Ryan tells me, "Oh, by the way, we've got you signed up for the Washington State Director's Association, um, conference, and we need you there, especially

108on Thursday, which is the, um, new board member boot camp, which sounds kind of ominous, But they didn't make us run around the room. But uh we did we did go through a lot of things. It was quite eye openening. I learned a lot of things about open meetings and um but I think the real takeaway is is really finding ways to revitalize your board. Make take the enthusiasm that's in your board and your staff and the community and find ways to apply that to to making our students better. And there were a couple things that distinctly stood out to me that I kind of wanted to share with you guys. One of them was one of the presenters came up and and talked about a human doing versus h human being. And human doing

109is is resume. It's I ran on my resume. You know, I ran on my experience, who I was and things like that. Uh that's the list of of your kind of your accomplishments and things. And then there's human being. And human being is, you know, I'm I'm the son of Sandra and Keith Russell. I grew up in Washington State. I've got two grown daughters. Um I got four cats. Um those are the things that are the human side. And if we try to find more pieces of our human connections um in this community, I think a lot of the other things will drop into place. So I I really took that to heart that that's that that's really we're trusted with we're trusted with human doing but decision decisions shape the lives of human beings

110and that's [clears throat] something that we really need to keep um in in contact. Uh the other one was the principal of of um Ruby Bridges Elementary School which is Northshore School District. Um her name is Kathy Davis I believe if I got that right. and their school, they built a brand new elementary school because of of development in the Northshore School District and COVID hit and so they had a brand new empty elementary school and so they had to figure out how to connect to their students and in that process they learned things that they've carried over since they reopened the school. Um they do a lot of things that I thought were we don't necessarily have to go duplicate them but I think it really makes a sense of what a community is.

111Um their kids uh all know what their vision statement is and their vision statement is fairly simple but it's very profound to me. It is you are a learner, you are a leader, you belong here and that's it. Um, the other thing that they they state they have they I I don't want to use the word mainstream because that's not really the right word, but they have a significant population within their school of of what we would generally say students that need special needs. And their approach is presume the competence of students and the grown-ups. And in doing that, you are always presuming that that student is is is going to be competent to the best of their ability. And and that to me really really sunk in. That's a different way of thinking. And

112then I thought of all of the examples that I know within this district and we have people that are doing that. They believe in the competency of their students and and those students shine. So I'm not saying that that's something we're not doing. And that's just something that I I recognized it or I saw that in a different light. Um the other thing on that is that we don't we do not get to redo any minutes of their educational journey. That's an that's a really important thing. It's it's easy for us because, you know, we've been around for years and we have years of experience and we know that things come and go and everything else, but if you really think about um a kid in a classroom, we don't get that minute back. So,

113we got to maximize working with that student every single day. We can't give up the the we can't sacrifice their minutes that they need. So, I thought those were all cool things that I took away. I was really impressed. Ryan, thank you for for signing me up. Um, thank you all of you for supporting me there. Um, it was it was I wouldn't necessarily think changing, but it reinforced and enthus made me enthusiastic for running for this position. And I'm really really excited of where we can go and where we can be. So, thank you. Thank you. and thank you for letting me go through that speech. >> Thank you, uh, Director Murray. >> Okay, I won't take as much time. [laughter] I know we're uh we're a little over tonight. Um, but I will

114say that um, a lot of the things that Director Russell mentioned, I also had notated in my notes of um, our our time together. But I also sat in on a legislative session and uh uh fiscal uh school district uh financial health session with the with superintendent. And so there were some interesting things talked about there um around birth rates and um you know the potential loss of of federal revenues and and a lot of things that we're really needing to probably think of be thinking about hard about the next six months or so as we're, you know, starting to navigate and and figure out what is going to be there and what isn't. in the near future. Um, you know, it it really made me think about, you know, how are we spending our

115dollars? How are we keeping our dollars as close to the classroom as possible? Um, so looking forward to having more conversations around that. Um another session that I actually sat in on also was um supporting postsecary um which had some really interesting um discussion around uh you know our where our students are going after they leave the K12 system. And um a couple of the takeaways that I got from that is that um adults need to talk about what their paths are. So our teachers are anyone our volunteers that are interacting with our kids really need um to share their experiences with our kids because they're not getting they're not having the same experience we had when we were in school. they're not having a chance to go out and have that first job necessarily

116before they graduate from high school. they talk, you know, we talk about, oh, going to college or doing CTE or, you know, apprenticeship or any of these different pathways, which are all fantastic, but at the end of the day, it's hard, I think, for our students, um, which I would appreciate hearing your view on, um, is at the end of the day, our paths are not straightforward. I mean, I think about all of the jobs that I've had in my lifetime and all those experiences and I think our students need to hear from us that it's not a failure to start in one direction and have to branch off in another direction. So, um they talked about having um students or alumni come back to school and talk, you know, years later and talk about

117their experience once they left the the school system as a possible um way to kind of also share that experience which I thought was really good. Um, as far as the legislative session, um, it was pretty much the same, you know, talking about the big three with MSOC, special education, and, um, I'm trying to think what the other one was. I can't remember right now. Um but the big takeaway that I got from that session is um I am looking forward to building um kind of a mentoring program for anyone who's interested in being the legislative rep on this board. Um because I think it's important that everyone is an advocate. No matter, you know, whether you're a parent or you're a board member or you're a staff member, everyone's voice needs to be at

118the table and expressing what is going on in our school system um to our legislators and they need to be hearing from all of us at this point and how important it is to fund public education. Um lastly, don't forget um Giving Tuesday is today. So make sure you go out to um our wonderful SCAP um website and make sure you give. There are several um opportunities to support our schools and I know I've done my job today. So um thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, director King. >> Okay, I'll give you about 5% of what I was going to do just to get on some high high points in maybe more in January, but I I focused on artificial intelligence, especially at Boston and did other things too and especially was impressed by a

119presentation by the Quincy School District um in central Washington by mainly by the superintendent. Um and related to that though um you may recall the book study that we did some months ago on the subject of smartphones impacts on kids and policies and so on and the book that we read by Jonathan Pet title was exit generation subtitle why smartphones are causing epidemic of mental illness etc. Um I'm on his mailing listing now for like newsletter stuff and he just recently put up one on AI with a giant you or not red flag or orange flag you know caution flag on that topic two maybe potentially worse impact on kids than the smartphones and so any more about that later but I but recommend is use get it through sub subsack back um and uh

120and then he actually was his essay on the subject followed by essays by three or four others on the same subject. I recommend that. We'll talk more about this later. >> Thank you. Yes, we will have um on our next uh agenda, we will have like a section in our uh school board discussion of [clears throat] what were your learnings or your biggest takeaways from the WAZDA conference. Um so we we try to generally split up and everybody goes to as many of the different sessions as possible and then um compile all the information and come back and share it. So um more to look forward to on on that. Um, and uh, make sure you bring all your notes and stuff for that meeting. Um, so you can talk about that. But again, it

121would be your your learnings, your wonderings, like your biggest takeaway that you took from from that conference. Um, I also thought it was a really great conference. There was lots of people there. I got to have people that I haven't seen in a minute. Uh, which is always exciting. Um, it is always worth the investment uh, in our learning. uh if if we're going to call everybody a lifelong learner, we have to be committed to being lifelong learners ourselves. Um so I think that it is a great use of our funds and time as school board directors to go to that. Um we do want to remind you that we have a board study session next week on the 11th. Uh it is our board training where we're going to go over all of the

122requirements for our open public meetings act and our public records act. uh so we can be up to speed on that. We will have a uh really delightful lawyer Charles Leech coming uh to give us that presentation. Uh also coming soon to a theater near you, there will be a study session where we go over our board goals. Um and we actually get some goals on the board. Uh so we can be up to speed there. Um I will make sure that everybody gets sort of what our last known goals were um and sort of where we're at. Uh I think that is important as a board to have goals. One because our policy says we have to and two uh we drive the vision of the uh school district. Um and if we're working

123on our new strategic plan and updating that, it is important that we start at the top with our goals. So that will be coming sooner rather than later to get that squared away for us. Um those were all of the things that I think I have other than also a huge shout out Giving Tuesday. Do it. Do it. Mr. Alone, >> it is my homework still tonight for Giving Tuesday, right? So, um just the incredible amount of resources that that staff provides our our community. So, I'm shamelessly promoting it as others have done as well. I want to call out um a change in the arrangement of the this dis. And although Patrick's not here, you'll notice that Alexa is at the center of the dis. And that is intentional because we um we put

124students at the center of all of our decisions. And this is not only a um uh image of that, but it is um what we intend to continue to do in this district. And so, thanks for being willing to uh to sit in the middle, Alexa, uh and being brave for doing that. We appreciate your insight and your work. Um along with this the study session on the 11th, we do have a a CFAC our capital facilities team is Thursday night. Um we're going to review the levy components but also our demographic study that was has been mentioned several times um uh recently that which helps us to determine boundary adjustments that may be needed and uh enrollment projections as well. And I'll just continue to thank this community once again. Um it was a

125long meeting tonight but a worthwhile meeting and um a lot uh that's happened and discussed and we don't typically do two-hour meetings but you you've held out and it just um I think is indicative of the the commitment of this community and just want to say thank you uh thank you for that and happy holidays. We will see you in January for most of you. >> All right. Well, as there is no further business, the December 2nd, 2025 regular school board meeting is adjourned. Happy holidays. Uh, don't