Stanwood-Camano School Board special and regular meeting for 3.18.25

001e e e [Music] it's 5:00 the March 18th 2025 special meeting study session is called to order all of our directors are present Mary Evans K Foster and shriber and thank you to the staff for being here um you have the agenda before you um for the March 18 2025 study session is there a motion to approve the agenda for the March 18 2025 study session sove by director second by director King all those in favor say I I any oppose say no the agenda is approved all right I will turn it over to superintendent oel to kind of give us an introduction for tonight okay thank you I want to start before I turn over to um Ruth Floyd uh to launch into our our current budget position uh just to provide context around

002um being here tonight this is our third year of um third year in a row of budget reductions based on forecast um those forecasts change as the year goes on um but keeping in mind that that cycle that we've um we've began to carry out and just also that our our lens for making um forecasted reductions um circles around two things one is our strategic plan which we're in uh two two and a half years into and um were part of it was a big Community effort to to arrive at the Strategic plan that we um we know and our promis and then the other uh piece being uh the equity lens and when I talk about the equity lens I really think about the unintended consequence we want to measure everything that we look

003at um as a potential reduction and think about the unintended consequences that those reductions could carry um you know thinking about the barriers that those present um look at impacted groups uh within those um within the potential reductions and how do we mitigate and monitor uh based on on that lastly around involving others and this is the first step in that along with our our our labor Partners in the larger Community um uh next as well so with that I'll turn it over to um Ruth to start thanks Ruth yes good evening um my apology for my voice got a little bit of a cold so hopefully you're able to um I'm able to project enough and you can understand me um um we first wanted to go over uh the budget landscape excuse me

004and um to do that we need to First on page two uh look at we where we are estimating our enrollment will be and uh as you know enrollment is very important in the school district and that it it drives our staffing as well as our funding and so this enrollment projection is is um for Staffing and then we have another one uh that isn't listed here for funding purposes uh Staffing is based on October 1 FTE and then uh a funding is based on the annual average and the annual average is always a bit less than the October 1 FTE and so um uh the the team uh use this to allocate using our basic education models uh Staffing uh cons consistent with how we have in the past and um and uh you'll

005notice that the total is 4,694 FTE and that is about 14 higher than prior year oober it is though showing a reduction in elementary because we do have that kind of bubble or not bubble but um that depressed uh kindergarten uh last couple few years of kindergarten uh enrollment has been lower and so that's kind of working its way through the the elementary school and so we are seeing projecting uh lower enrollment in elementary about flat in middle and then a bit higher in in high school because there is a bubble Mo kind of moving through uh through high school now that as um according to projections so just a clarifly for 2024 2025 we are above budget for enrollment but we've seen continual decreases throughout the year is that sort of accounting for this

006trend in this as well yes so um the the side projection that I do for annual average for funding yes I anticipate that that uh decreases uh compared to the Staffing it's very common for districts to use October 1 for Staffing purposes uh and uh that's what we've been doing here as well nobody I mean like is this projected number accounting for that the continued decline of this year and then into next year for that projected October one yes so what how we do it is a roll up from October to October and so there always is a shift in the later months of the year uh but then it tends to kind of come back in October okay so that that's what we look at when we do kind of the cohort rollup we

007look at where from October to the next October so like where historically we've started each October yeah looking at fiveyear averages and so on how we how we retain or lose in the roll up of the grades perfect I just wanted to make sure thank you all right any other questions about enrollment okay um the next page three is uh looking at the current year and uh at the very top of the page you'll see that it's it's a very summarized version of where we and we began the current fiscal year on September 1 2024 at 8.5 uh million and where we anticipate ending this current fiscal year on August 31st of 2025 and then uh you'll see that the percent of Revenue on the side there as well uh we anticipate total fund balance

008to be about 8% at the end of this year um what you may be more more interested in though is that unassigned because your board policy says that we will have 5% unassigned in total and you'll see there that we have um uh a um kind of set aside that 5% minimum fund balance and then we have an additional 2.5% above that uh estimated um at the end of this year so seven total of 7.5% estimated and then the bottom of the page is just giving a little bit more detail on how that change uh between 8.5 million and 7.1 million occurred uh or is occurring this year um you'll see that in the middle of the page there's a 2425 budgeted expenditures over Revenue so that's the board adopted budget for this year you

009adopted a budget that was about 1.3 million revenues less than expenditures and then the other items on this list are those things that have the big picture items that have changed from the time that the budget was adopted um and most of these won't be any um surprise these um we have had increased special education as well as additional safety net revenues that we uh project that we we will have and by the end of the year we generally have to estimate what those uh safety net revenues are going to be in the in the spring almost to uh a year before we know what that dollar amount is going to be and so um this spring we realized that yes we would have some more some additional uh safety net revenues in the area's

010uh special education programs uh and then same with transportation we don't get our transportation funding until April of the year in which we're working and so uh we and we got some uh Transportation safety net funding as well which is good news and then you'll see under expenditures and other uses in addition to that uh board adopted deficit uh we had some salary and benefit increases um related to collective bargaining agreements and uh we have had some savings throughout the course of the year in non-salary uh non-salary costs so that brings us uh down uh to the 7.1 million that's estimated for the end of this year any question about the current fiscal year and how those changes are coming to be yeah on the reserves uhhuh um at b i attended a session on

011this stuff yeah and they were talking about the districts that are in trouble like Marysville and what happens to them and all that what they would like to see it have uh for reserves and so as I recall I mean 8% is good but they really like to see higher than that so I'm presuming should hang on to that this uh people in my position always you know would like that extra safety net because um a budget is a plan and it's always good to have some additional Safety Net in order for those for those things that you just can't plan for yeah because we're looking at cutting back so one reaction would be well we don't need that much but from what I heard that wasda I think we do yeah that's good thank

012is that a good seems like a good number to me what do you think I mean comparatively I think that um we have been very in this District we have been very good about maintaining our fund balance um you've seen other districts Even in our area that have not been able to do so and um even though we sometimes plan to spend some of our fund balance the the the team just pulls together and does what we can to save throughout throughout the year and that's what why we've been able to um continually have additional uh safety net at the end of the year in actuality compared to budget so that we have that flexibility to maybe not go as deep as we would need to do with reductions thank you and also is it

013normal for The Reserve balance to go down within each school year like it looks like it was down 1.4 um that it it can um of course we'd like to see it not so that you have even more flexibility but sometimes the uh reductions that we have to do uh in order to have no budgeted deficit is um just would be too too deep and when you do have a little bit of a fund balance it's um you know it it's a benefit to be able to rely on that a little bit so we don't have to go quite as deep as you might otherwise I think if we hadn't dipped into the reserves the last couple years we would have been at about 11% as I recall at one point we were at 11%

014but keep in mind that that is um at the height of the covid money and so um at the same time we were getting federal dollars some of our costs were lower and so um that was a temporary bubble that that many school districts had the eort let yes did not keep operating as if we were gonna always have that that's what T yeah well we've made reductions over the past three years you know to give an example our building budgets have been reduced um year-over-year and so um at some point you can't keep reducing building budgets and still operate um with especially with you know this l in mind this district has done the hard work that it needed to do in order to keep you know maintain yeah maintain where we are and

015um that's that's a testament to our district I'll say I appreciate that you're keeping the cuts as far away from the kids as possible that's as far away from the classroom as possible um all right page four is now looking forward into the following year and I know that I've spoken about this before but um these are estimates that um are constantly changing we do not have our state the legislature has not finished um we have until I believe it's um April 27th somewhere in there before they're done and so um we have a Governor's budget but we haven't had uh the senate or house budget come out and generally it's when the Senate and House budgets come out that we kind of start to see a coaling and some some consistent consistency in what

016the legislature is thinking and so all of this is based on um estimates and and you know ruths um you know maybe this could happen and maybe that could happenis football if you will yes so thank you for understanding that these numbers will change thank you for staying another year another question um at was of the legislative session they talked about um legislation that could increase their expenses without any funding being provided for that now there was a whole bunch of stuff that it was introduced but even at the up at that update nothing was had happened yet uh and uh things have been happening bills have been dropping out are we tracking what bills are going to maybe pass and what won't and and how that might impact our our finances absolutely every week

017um it started um quite robust what we thought you know some of those bills included quite a quite a bit of money for K12 education and as you know it's kind of moved through the process it's come down and down and so I I do have estimates on where they kind of sit now um so I'm very curious to see the the House and Senate budgets to see if anything is included in there but but the state also has a deficit of their own that they have to close and so um we needed to make a plan assuming there would not be additional reviews from the state one priority is education according to our it's in our state constitution uh to amply fund not adequate amply fund p12 education good one but they don't necessarily

018do it I mean we saw the difference in different categories between expense and what was being sent to schools so we and we had to make up the difference a note about that that um the 5 years ago uh the percent the state budget for K12 education was 52.4% and uh it's down to 43.1% that's a big over the state over 25% yeah so this and you you know we've spoken about the structural deficit of of the of the uh aborate funding and the K12 education funding and that uh you know Co kind of masked that for a little while and now we're we're back to having the those reductions all right page four uh 2526 this is a a kind of walking through where we think the deficit will be so purely looking at

0192526 revenues and expenditures and again in the middle of the page you'll see that we have to remember that we had a deficit in 2425 so we need to roll that forward for uh 1384 estimated deficit from 2425 rolls forward into 25 26 and then additional changes are added on top of that we uh believe that we will receive additional Levy revenue for a slight increase in enrollment as well as the per pupil allocation for our Levy is going up for um uh cost of living um I believe uh the um additional the per pupil amount that we get for uh our Levy uh increases based B on cost of living and so that's about $500,000 that's local money that's local money yes it is um and the voters approve um a a top amount

020of that for each year uh it can't go over that uh but uh we do um we do have uh anticipated that there would be some inflation every year and so this um takes into consideration that uh that amount and provides uh now if there's a decrease in inest evaluations then how does that impact the ly um the school district gets the same amount um either teer yeah so Evan School graphic it worked it worked up yeah yeah so we have two maximums the the major one is the voter approved amount we cannot go beyond that and then the state has a a calculation that they do that um provides the maximum according to their laws that we can um that we can collect and so if the state calculation is less than the V

021voter approved amount then we get that lesser amount and one of the reasons for our assess valuation going up hopefully is in addition to increasing property values which are not exactly doing that all them do construction and so how does that impact us you know that is calculation that the county does that can just it it can make a a Hu a small difference or a large difference depending on your own home and so it's very difficult for us to be able to say that one taxpayer or another May pay more or less because of the value of their home but how about the new homes like the Crosser from the high school that can bring down the cost for others yeah depending on the volume of new construction [Music] either way the LI the

022amount that we can collect is capped it's just how that spread out ACR the community and then um the next line is um we had a um as mentioned on the previous page we had additional funding for safety net uh because it is so far ahead that we have to project that um we wanted to uh bring that estimated safety net revenue down a bit projecting forward uh just to be a bit more conservative and also uh for some of the anticipated costs uh going down so safety net is a lever that says if costs go up then safety net could go up if costs come down safety net comes down so if we think costs are coming down a little bit because of um uh for whatever reason then we have to bring that

023safety that Revenue down as well and then uh down under expenditures we have uh anticipated salary and benefit increases including um the what the state flows through for ipd funding and as you know the state does flow through some money but that's on the the positions that they fund as well as the salaries that they fund and so the district many most districts um have a local cost to providing the ipd percentage to every employee so that's that and then uh positions unfilled or hired so this one is in 2425 we sometimes have unfilled positions and we get a sub that costs less than an actual position or we hire a position late and so um in the current year we had savings on that position because we didn't have to pay for them the

024whole year but then in the following year when you roll that forward you have to annualize that salary and so uh that is uh that 960,000 and then we also have non-salary cost increases and so those are things like um additional uh some risk pools so our insurance costs go up every year uh we anticipate having El an election possibly next year um we have some technology costs they um go up every year and software costs and as well as some devices that we need to replenish so when all of that is said and done um there is is an would be an anticipated general fund deficit of 4.1 million next year and uh the because we have that um that fund balance uh we're feeling like we uh can use about 1.4 million of

025our fund balance to reduce the need to make reductions next year we'll still make reductions and the reductions that we would need to make is about 2.7 million final number there any questions on that page that's an unpleasant P proof I know that page is unpleasant I know and the next one isn't really any better cuz it has the same number on it unfortunately it's not it's not I don't like this one anymore so uh page five is a summarized list of where um we have brainstorms some reduction ideas so uh these are is a this is a list of the 2526 preliminary expenditure reduction reductions it includes um some uh quite a bit at Administration and this goes uh into what Ryan was talking about at the at the beginning we really wanted to

026keep reductions as far away from the classroom as we can but as you know um the um the percent of our budget in administration is very small compared to the other areas of our budget the certificated classified uh maintenance lice and operating costs so um as um much as we um you know try to keep it away from the classroom we we can't completely go to Administration for for all of the reductions and so you'll see that Administration is about 994 th000 this does include uh some school supplies budget that uh we hope we can obtain a grant or something for to maintain that um is that the entire school suppli budget or just part no not is it the St Elementary School providing supplies for elementary school sorry that's what I is it that

027yes so everybody would have to go back to bringing their own supplies at element we have some contingency plans around that but um we also Supply through through building budget as well so yeah I hope that there will be other other ways to bring some of these things back as time goes on and we have more time yeah and what what's been the trend over recent years for the percentage of budget for administration as it there's some percentage here but it's come it's come down because um every single year we've had Administration on the list of of reductions and as a percent of their share of the budget it's much higher than the percentage on the other categories of staff and then uh what how do we compare to other districts I don't have that

028answer right now for you but um in my experience from just having been at three districts were very lean I think we cut 8% out of administration just last year and this number is about uh between 9 and 10% and year-over-year that's very difficult to to state yeah that's right year one was similar yeah all right um a some reduction in non-athletic siens at the school level what is it uh we don't have the specifics identified yet but the thought would be that um CL we would perhaps put a um dollar limit or a number on perhaps the number of clubs at a school and then if ASB fund wanted to pick up the difference you know to to add more clubs then they could also typical another District just curious why is it a

029reduction in nonathletic versus across the board athletic and nonathletic because if we're using that Equity lens we should be considering both or is there rules that say that we have to I know it's not a it's it's not a thing that we all want to talk about but if we are going to be Equitable we should be talking talking about activities in athletic equally across the board right one of the first things that we did was took a look at all of the um activities uh that were filled across the district both at middle school and high school and started to look between schools which which schools had had a particular activity and which didn't and um we're evaluating that right now as a potential for uh leveling between schools so there's the same opportunity

030at both schools so that's that's the start to that um just to maybe piggyback on her question is a stien set at a set amount that we pay like like it's it previously decided that this is what we pay for a stien or like per stien or could we say lower the stip and amount to like even that out so like you have the same number but maybe they get less right yeah good question um the stens are agreed upon in the CVA that's as far as as far as the amount what about the amount of people for staff that are included in that because I know like if you're talking about a larger program there seems to be a lot more paid stiens versus just volunteer parent right opportunity that is not um there's

031not a mandatory number per se for that it's allocated so um that's something to be considered something to be considered particularly between schools so you could just say that would be a potential uh leveling of siens just in general and it wouldn't have to specifically be nonathletic sens cor you could just say we're going to set a number of sions and figure out what that is yes this the sions non-athletic sions include for instance I remember when we were uh going over payroll some point I was asking what's that and that was for like basically a according to contract over a certain class size then to get a certain amount exra with that because second that's not that's not in this bucket okay that's uh work workload relief that's negotiated in our Collective bargain agreement

032and then what non Athletics do we have for after school clubs okay like that and then for the Athletics St the coaches and they're the coaches and most like bunch of football coach most of those like parttime just getting siphon or what or actually teach there's uh a number of different ways that that happens some um coaches have a full stien um some coaches split the stapen out between several coaches and then we have volunteer coaches as well and are we considering I know in the past where like at the middle school level in order to still be able to provide an opportunity there have been a joint effort between both middle schools to provide one team and that's still occurring okay yeah wrestling's an example of that all right cross country cross country so

033individual track team right yes all right and then under the human resources heading there um we have classifi positions days hours and other reductions so we have um some uh additional flexibility there as far as it may not be positions it may be um you know our just hours um and other other reductions there and then uh up to eight uh certificated Physicians pfte are those teaches and how many those we do the volunteering retirement of volunteering departures and how many do we have to notices to we're still getting um you know the attrition could definitely will have an impact and uh we just don't have all that information yeah so what's our deadline what's the deadline for not notices August 31st Oh I thought there was something in the spring or the plary if

034we are going to and right and if there's a reduction in force yeah employees need to be notified by law by May 15 and face do it need to do that looking likeon that would be what this I think they don't know because we don't know how many people have are planning toire or this says that there could be up to eight yeah I recall that there some other context there was a just in case notices were sent out and then usually didn't happen is that that frequently happens because the notice occurs in the spring and we may not be notified on a resignation or a leave or something like that until June or July has that happened with us in the past with our district program yes okay yes last year we had a

035potential reduction in course that we sent out letters and we were able to between all the resignations and the people leaving we didn't actually have to reduce anybody um involuntarily is what I what I remember happened right I wonder if you might have lost some people in the in the process like to get the notice they go find another job and then we didn't didn't leave we could have kept them that's a possibility that's why we do encourage people to you know notify us as early as their you know circumstances and will allow for that reason all right and then um we also uh can real realign how we fund certain costs and uh that is a a savings of $76,000 and so the total of all that is our um def or our um

036estimated reductions amount of 2.7 [Music] million these are very preliminary numbers um you know we're always uh looking for other ways to um to make the reductions that are needed and as soon as the legislature um comes comes through hopefully there will be something in there for Education that'll reduce this number as well J you to add on that no I'm um just want to talk about you know the potential um you know the overview of the required reductions so the potential for us to keep working between now and the next uh meeting which is April 15th and um there the potential for there to be a reduced educational plan at that on that agenda so I wanted to make sure that that was um that was out right now with that I just want

037to um reaffirm what's number three on the agenda and that's around um uh how we have gone through how we worked through this reduction process that doesn't differ significantly from years past but it does definitely align with what I talked about at the beginning of the uh meeting we you probably saw through this that the attempt to keep this as far away from uh students as possible uh is the goal and looking at what the what the impact of the student is um of course looking at the equity lens and and just pointing to the bottom which Evan will talk about in just a moment how we um involve others or make others aware about the position and the nature and which those reductions um have happened um so um that is that is the

038lens in which all of this work has been ongoing um over the last several weeks um as it has in the past one of the important things that that we've talked about before um is how uh the community and stakeholders are also aware of what um the ramifications are and then um the potential for the reductions how that impacts the district and Evan I want I'd like Evan to talk about the plan for communicating that uh briefly be mindful of uh time the two pages that I'd like to make sure we get to yeah so two years ago we went through this process for the kind of the first time in a couple of years and so people weren't quite familiar with the redu budget reduction process we asked people what they wanted to know

039make them kind of answer some of the questions those questions kind of helped us build a sever weekl long messaging campaign where each week we kind of started with some stuff they want to know each week built on each other uh we had good feedback people sense that they um learned about the process and kind of understood where we're were coming from last year we had reductions but they weren't as severe as the previous year and so we did a two week long messaging campaign um this week uh this this year uh I've got a kind of a three-week messaging plan um where we can kind of tell people kind of where we're at now um uh where uh kind of what's next and kind of answering some of the common questions that are out

040there for people um I paired them with Graphics that kind of detailed uh some of the questions kind of our Gap that we're trying to fill and how we're funded uh how we relate to other districts around our area and across the state and uh kind of where our expenses and revenues come from so people are armed with that information then they can kind of come to their own conclusions and have questions and and reach out and they're more informed uh because as you know when people don't have the information they can kind of invent their own they make it up and then you're kind of combating that as we're trying to deal a with a budget deficit so that's kind of the tentative quick plan and how strong is social media affecting this uh

041yeah so again when people don't have the information and they are left in a vacuum they kind of reach out and kind of fill it um and so we're there to kind of help fill them with some of the facts you can reduce some of the um uh misinformation that's out there on social media so part of the messaging campaign is the uh we we hit out with all of our families on the community via our email uh newsletters we'll hit social media and we'll hit our uh newsletters and all point or our websites and all point back to kind of the same message each week thanks EV yeah are there questions about the the overview of the budget um position before we switch to the I imagine that's going to be part of that

042whole state of the schools messaging that we're going out and sort of driving the campaign for it's a component of of it it is built it is a built-in component of under the heading of what's trending okay perfect um so then we thought that we could have a quick conversation about uh potential uh Levy uh Capital Levy and um we the first uh page let's see seven is um potential election dates over the next couple of years um if we chose to run a capital ly on uh in 2026 February date would need to have a resolution filed by December 12th which means that adoption of a resolution by the board would need to happen this octo late October or early November of this year uh for our February election date and you can see

043the other dates there as well Ruth to frame this a little bit seac um uh which director Evans and director King were at um went through a brief process around you know what does it look like for a potential Capital Levy and um what is the kind of appetite right now in the community for for a levy in of itself and um the feedback that we got um in the small But Mighty group was that we um need to know what projects um would be put forward on a levy what components U would would be in the levy and so that work is ongoing that work takes um some time to generate at the building level at the district level and then to get accurate costs to be able to put on ballot so so

044the reason that we wanted to have this discussion this early um is to be able to do that work so that if if the board decided that that wanted to go out for a levy that that um that work had already been done uh just to refresh um so just in case everybody doesn't know anytime we have anything on a ballot the school district pays a portion of that ballot right so whether it's a director that's up for election or we put a levy or a bond or anything on there pay our portion of that ballot and it's we are the only thing on that ballot we pay the whole expense of that ballot unfortunately so just to clarify we have two directors that are up for election November 2025 we have nobody that's up

045for election November 2026 though right so that would be if that were say our Target that would be the only thing that we had on there so it wouldn't necessarily save us any money if we picked whatever date in November it would just maybe be we would pay a larger or smaller percentage of the ballot depending on what else was on it it it would it would be that that's right um the the one of the reasons that um February was kind of highlighted is that that cycle that um between our EPO and you know potential capital projects and infrastructure safety uh Levy um and um so that's that's part of that but but that's a great point it's not free to run [Music] we and does it save a lot of money if we

046are piggy back on other things and and so but do we need to go solo because the percentage of the voters at those elections will vote for our things there's definitely statistics around um you know approval and not uh it there is the the cost is lower if we are on the ballot with other measures the more things that are on there the the smaller our percentage that we owe is the fewer things the more we owe all right and then uh the last page of the your packet is uh a very early projection of where uh using projected assessed value increases of 3% where our current combined tax rate would be in uh 2027 um um we would be anticipated to uh have an in a bit of an increase a very small increase

047in tax rate and so that's before we would add any capital capital Levy in into that um you will notice though that in 2028 there is a decrease in the overall tax rate due to some of our bond uh falling off so that a portion of the bonds would be paid off that brings the tax rate down leaving room for something another a capital Levy or something else so remind me just so that I make sure I understand so say we decided that this is what we were doing and we decided for funsies that we were running the April 27th 2020 or sorry the April 28th 2026 election when would be the first collection collection for that just to so I understand spring of 2027 spring of 2027 got it so that would okay the

048Fe for the February like a February 10th 2026 February 10th or April 28th 2026 we would start receiving collections in 2027 spring and if went August or November it would be the same the same yeah anytime in 2026 we start colle in spring because we can get I believe November is in time to get it certified I'd have to check on November but I um at least February April and August is enough time to get it certified for uh collections in 20127 what's the time sequence between property values changing and it affecting the assessed value and that then that impacting us takes a while doesn't it so are we lagging a year lag yeah okay and so because it has been going down some I think so how's where are we in terms of that

049yeah so um you'll see on the last page that 2024 uh was certified and it was 4.83 increase in property values and uh will we would see the that in the 25 Collections and so it's just a rolling rolling year and then it's anticipated to go down this year to 3.8% and then again 3% and going out any further than that it's you know it's just in crap what's that Timber column question Timber assessed value it doesn't affect uh our district very much it's more for districts that um have a lot more Timber than ours and there's yeah then there's State Timber as well as Federal Timber uh taxes one one thing to raise is and maybe why both of these fit well together is the in the absence of our expired capital projects and

050Technology Levy two years ago those items um have been absorbed by the general fund so it is um compounding what we're seeing right now in the reductions that we need to make because we still have to maintain technology and provide um you know provide technology we still have maintenance to do Capital maintenance to do in the district and so that that um absence of that Capital Levy that we had for you know over 13 years is um is being seen now in our general fund so and and um the the model that has been used in the past to have a cycle between the elections of the EPO and the capital capital Levy um has worked has worked well in the past um and just something that maybe need to explore is there any other

051is there any questions for what is thetive 27 that we're getting that much less than we got last year or um I'm not quite sure about that it must be a um a change in because there's refunds and so on and so sometimes uh they could I don't know are they taking back the the timber excise tax probably but like I said it for our district it's very small so it wouldn't have much of an impact I think there was a drastic cut in the funding federal government um in the timber uh in the previous year that was a big too yeah some some surrounding districts that got timber timber funds at no long it was a big deal yeah I think they had it I'm pretty sure it was the federal government that that

052cut that it was the Federal Timber money that dropped pretty dramatically yeah so it's very imp for some districts remember there was a couple on the peninsula that were very up any other questions thanks thanks Ruth for this question come on we're almost done I promise thank youw thank you there being no further dis than the March 18th 2025 study session is a journey e e e that's had good evening at 6 o' I'll Now call to order the March 18th 2025 school board meeting Sano School District directors all five of our directors are here director Evans director Murray director Foster director King director shriber we have both of our student Representatives here this evening Luke and Elizabeth um today we're offering two opportunities for the public to comment comment specific to the consent agenda

053will be allowed prior to the vote on those items citizens who have submitted a request to speak during the public comment section of the agenda will be called upon make their comments at that time which is near the end of the meeting uh would you please join me in the pl of [Music] allegiance conratulations to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for [Music] all thank you we have the agenda before you for the March 18 2025 regular school board meeting are there any changes to the agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda for the March 18 2025 regular school board meeting is written appr by director Evans second by director King all those in favor say

054I I all oppos say no that passes unanimously the board has had the opportunity to review the March 4th 2025 regular board meeting minut are there any changes or corrections to those minutes is there a motion to approve the minutes for the March 4th 2025 regular board meeting some by Murray and seconded by director King all those in favor say I I oppose say no that passes unanimously it is time for our superintendent's report thank you I will start the superintendent's report uh this evening with donations which will be read in by our student repres Representatives Elizabeth and Luke thank you our first donation is $1,854 70 from this gadget symy to cover the transportation costs of the Stan Cano School District Elementary School fifth grade field trips to the MC entire Performing Arts Center

055in Veron Washington a donation of medical equipment and supplies to support special services from William and K Adams Val at $ 8859 thank you thanks to the skatchet Symphony and also to a longtime former employee K Adam for the K Adams for the donations uh this evening uh I'm happy that we will be returning The Shining Star Award as one of our ways to celebrate how we keep students at the center of the work that we do and we celebrate them these Awards recognize students who are shining examples in the schools in which they attend tonight we'll actually recognize four different students with The Shining Star Award and first I'd like to call up uh principal shereé almanza assistant principal Christy oan um from Port Susan for their shining star hi everyone wait till this

056there we go katien will you come up and join us all right like I explained to you and your mom on the phone um our staff nominates students and then and it was a landslide um kayen it was obvious that he is our shining star I have a few things that our staff wrote about Kaden um that I'd like to share with you Kaden is always encouraging he helps me and other students Kaden can work with anyone he is a positive or he is positive and kind he goes out of his way to say hello during the day Kaden is a student who works hard each and every day even during his absences he remains committed to staying on top of his AC academic responsibilities Kaden is so deserving of our Shining Star Award he

057is a hardworking student and a great friend to others always always willing to offer a hand or a warm smile Kaden is incredibly resilient and is a student that never gives up he always has a positive attitude even when faced with some difficult challenges and is a true inspiration to anyone that knows him way to go kayen you're going to read the other two all right kayen is an excellent student who always works hard class and outside it to complete his assignment he's also very kind in his classmates and is always willing to lend a helping hand the biggest thing for me would be Cadence's unshakable optimism every single day he comes to school he has a smile on his face and great attitude and bet we can see that smile right now kayen is

058an awesome student and an even better classmate and a friend to his PE he is an attentive responsible student that positively contributes to our class he asks great questions and truly wants to learn kayen is a caring kind and respectful that is always smile I appreciate his thoughtfulness and opportunity every morning when you come in you make it a better place so thank you thank you for what you we've got a couple things that we want to make sure we give you and uh and a picture with the board for sure but is there anyone that you brought see you like to introduce um I brought my mom uh my first grade teacher Mrs Barry um my Auntie Lisa my grandma and grandpa and my stepdad Todd [Music] all right we got this beautiful certificate

059shining star certificate of achievement to you uh looks really good on your refrigerator and the board congratulations thank you we've got some gifts for you here what you want a one solid chice right there front center everyone else gather around you might have to turn your shoulders and squeeze in a little bit and if there's mom come on oh yeah we got to squeeze little more R get over [Music] here there we go you there you take yeah you go to town all right look at all right one two three perfect congratul this this is the best part of the day by the way all next I'd like to uh welcome to the podium principal Todd clunt uh for the church Creek Campus shining stars oh you want me to announce you I brought with

060me the voice of Lincoln High School Lincoln Academy Mr C Marcus there you all the way in the back all right you get to come in the middle all right Marcus Woods uh Mr C's got some words I actually prepared remarks w't take up too much time uh I'm happy to introduce everyone to Marcus woods tonight to receive a shining star war from Lincoln Hill High School Marcus started his personal Journey with us at Lan academy uh during Co and has overcome numerous personal challenges in every aspect of his life to put himself in a position to earn his diploma in a few months and several of these have been related to external factors that were outside of his control but I am most proud of Marcus for how he challenges himself every day and

061sets an example of perseverance that's one of our three peace pride perseverance progress uh he sets that example for everyone including me uh he is an accomplished illustrator uh as with anyone who excels at their craft he consistently challenges himself to improve his technique develop a distinctive style through experimentation and improvisation his art brings joy to others every day through meditation and studying practice he's learned to disengage from the noise around him and focus on putting himself into a state of mind that will help him be successful with his tasks and his personal interactions that day uh his calm demeanor brings peace to others his greatest strength prob his greatest strength is empathy um Marcus recognizes that we all strugg uh with something and um no effort to improve oneself is ever wasted he can

062be supported to a fault placing the wellness of others before his own and sometimes we remind him that we must stand so that we might help to live someone else his actions unfailingly reflect kindness toward others um we all deserve joy we all deserve peace we all deserve kindness we all deserve to know someone like Marcus and I wor that sometimes he doesn't believe that about himself so Marcus if I make quote one of your favorite books from our English class we accept the love we think we deserve uh I hope you believe that you deserve the love from everyone on the linol hill staff in these past 5 years leading up to this recognition of you tonight you make us all proud you're infinite congratulations that's my father those are my brothers my sister

063my same process good pick a spot on the day right on yes All right one two three good congratulations [Music] congratulations Mr CF hey everybody uh this is Charlie Frederick's bills um so you know Lian Lian can be a unique place because it's a small school and so uh somebody like you know Marcus who you just saw will come and maybe be here for five years I don't know how Charli how long Charlie will be with us Charlie just came as an eighth grader but uh when it was revealed that we were doing this award again it was pretty unanimous like it was unanimous uh everybody put Charlie's name out there because uh it's hard to go to a new place and try to figure out how you fit in and that's that's kind of

064what middle school is anyway um but to switch schools and to try to figure that out with a bunch of new people in a smaller environment with a bunch of high school students around could be really difficult um but it Charlie's a cool kid she's got uh style for days and she has a great way about herself uh that engages everybody um and she's developed into a leader she's a classroom representative for Lincoln Academy for the ASB student council um which is uh that's a rare thing to be able to sit in those student council meetings with high school students and kind of see how that operates and uh hopefully at some point maybe uh continue that but we're really proud of Charlie we're grateful to have her at Lincoln Academy and we hope to

065continue to see her for years to come and develop uh the relationship with her so congratulations Charlie this is Charlie I brought my mother my grandma and my sister [Music] one more all right just so everybody wanted a certificate of achievement for your refrigerator at home your mom will wanted okay [Music] give you too many things anyone else all right you got to squeeze in there you go one 2 three good congratulations Monica McDaniels going to join us up here I'm still here Maus how did get out I don't know how I facilitators years of experience [Music] all the way over you come to theid there you go i' like to thank the board for this opportunity to recognize our shining stars tonight um it really is the best part of the night and we

066should know because we're on again later so um the the staff at Saratoga school um came together and and talked about who we would um nominated for this and it was everybody everybody chose Maxx and um and so we put together some some thoughts and so I did write them down so allow me to to speak here okay it's a great pleasure that that I introduce Max as this year's recipient of The Shining Star Award over the past three years we've had the privilege of Watching Max grow into a thoughtful hardworking and positive student he's always easygoing willing to collaborate with anyone and brings an unwavering positive attitude to every task Max is a student who never hesitates to take on challenges even those he finds difficult whether he's struggling with a task or helping

067others he approaches everything in with a smile and a determination to succeed Max's kindness and willingness to help his peers create a supportive and encouraging environment in the classroom he has a unique ability to lead by example whether it's offering assistance to others encouraging participation or guiding his classmates through activities his dedication to improving his reading and writing skills despite challenges has been inspiring to witness Max works hard and isn't afraid to ask for help when he need to this demonstrates maturity and self-awareness this success would not be possible without the dedication of Max's family they have been a constant source of support guidance and advocacy their commitment to his learning and growth has made all the difference and they deserve to be recognized for the hard work and love that they pour into to

068him and his education Max is truly shown this year not only through his hard work but through the leadership and compassion he shows to everyone around him it's been a joy watching him grow and I'm proud to honor both Max and his family for their dedication positivity and the light that they bring to his educational Journey I'd like to introduce Miss McDaniel uh my brother uh my mom and my dad right [Music] on big smile on face than your D who's that my grandma your grandma all all right we're going to give you your start here here you be some goodies congratulations sorry there all right all right that puts me on this side if we're constructed four right yeah all right so all you find scoop there you go I like the scooch good

069all right ready one two all right you got one yeah good [Music] well that is always the best part of our meeting and congratulations and thank you to the families for all the work you do um we have some more business to conclude but uh for those of you that came to see our shining stars feel free if you want to take a short break here we'll give you a minute or two if you want to leave or you're welcome to stay for our exciting reports thank you all and then he oh Contin [Music] okay thank you once again for uh celebrating our students um and keeping them at the center of focus for why we're all here um during the day and and this evening as well I want to welcome back up to

070the podium Tre almanza and Christy aan for their school Daya and achievement report for hses in middle school this works yep all right well thank you thank you for having us here and hearing about what we're doing at Susan it's been an exciting year um we've got a lot of accomplishments and um we are yeah just looking forward to sharing it with you I'm gonna skip over this one all right um at the beginning of the year what we expected to see uh with all departments working towards common goals we broke our AAP down by every single content area um and so they had common goals through teaching strategies and assessments and we are at this time able to see the results um from that so it is exciting um our winter reports and how

071we are and where our growth is is um is something that we're excited to share with you meaningful assessments will provide students with the opportunity for continual growth toward standard closing the achievement achievement gap for all students I think I talked last year about um our leveled assessments and um how in math we are working towards all students being able to access their learning if I remember correctly from last spring and this year we've really put that into place so it's been it's been really exciting all right so um like sh was saying we brok it it into our different content areas so you'll see goals from each of our different content areas today that they are working on um and so this is our literacy AP um group and so you'll see it's actually

072this is sixth grade oh no so this is a ace paragraph and so that's really be able to um answer a question and be able to site their um evidence and be able to explain it and so then it kind of builds up and this is actually some student work samples of what that Ace looks like and then um they started to move that into like the 15 boxes organization to make sure that they are pulling out their evidence and being able to support their thinking and um showing what they're thinking and so this is our growth um the H ofh is our literacy um curriculum that we adopted last year and so you'll see at the beginning of the year that's our data um from all of the kids and then sixth grade seventh

073grade eighth grade and then you'll see a nice progression for our middle of the Year data from everyone and then the sixth seventh and eth that you'll see um you know that above level getting higher and then our below level getting smaller which is what you want to see I think that's my favorite part so yeah like she said you see the um the levels getting closer and the Gap closing and more students going to approaching on level and above level so it's very exciting um our math this is where the leveled assessments um happened and I asked our teachers to really look at their gradebooks and figure out the class average for assessments um I didn't put a comparison to past years but the average on assessments are above a 70% so um some

074of our lowest students who have not previously um been successful in the math curriculum are now finding success and persevering through the problems with the ability to uh do a Sixpoint question seven-point question and eighto question so they're able to access and show that they are progressing toward standard or are making progress um where they're at with every single content um or every single standard that they have taught so far so super excited about that science um they are working to pull evidence and then explain their thinking and so when we talk about our Science and History departments it really does um support math and Ela so our science being able to take evidence pull it and then explain their thinking it really will help our math scores increase and it has helped um them

075be more successful in the assessments that our math department is doing so it really does pull it together yep and so that connects us back to our um history and so they are also using that Aces um strategy that are language arts teachers uses but then they also have like extends like how to start your paragraphs how to incorporate their evidence how to layer that evidence and what that looks like and so really um building um their writing skills up um as they progress and even our health computers and band um they're getting involved and so they're having them track their progress um talking about how they're doing um setting goals to uh setting goals based on their data how are they going to progress and so we have every single staff member a part

076of our AAP and all working towards um making growth and seeing student uh achievement throughout throughout the year so for 2425 level assessments are being administered and include smarter balanc assessment type questions and our progress monitoring has shown Positive Growth trends for students uh this information provides our teachers with the with the information to continually move all students towards grade level standards uh we spend our pdws bringing work samples talk about our work seeing where we need to go where the struggles are um our our schedule is set up for common planning and so it's really been a collaborative process to um support one another this year any questions are these kids getting grades AB C D or yep well that's great yeah thank you I just want to thank you for the work we've

077been doing in your mental school um as as a parent who had a child who had issues with mathematics having someone at the home who understands the challenges and is able to hopefully break things down in a way that all students are able to access is impressive I actually really think like one of the things that I appreciate about your presentation is how like we always focus on math literacy but you really built on how all of the other classes support those same goals and the same like the test scores and so it is the whole school effort and I genuinely appreciate the way that's sort of outlined and definitely highlighted here so thank you for that I don't know if you guys already went over this but um for besides the SBA what um

078other testing programs do you use for uh collecting data you want that yes so we have the hmh for the um for English is kind of our other big one that we use okay thank you and I continue to hear great things about your music program there a lot of kids comeing from everything else thank you awesome thanks for the report tonight we appreciate it we appreciate the uh student samples that are that are evidence in the slides as well so thanks for the great work you're doing lastly uh principal Todd clunt and Lead Teacher Monica MC Daniel are going to present um the Alternative Learning Experience report which is uh required annually by policy 2055 um our alternative or Choice programs um our schools are are an essential part of our district and um

079about 6% of our students in the district opt for one of the programs that's going to be talked about tonight that's the uh what we call Al or Alternative Learning experiences or Choice programs yeah hello everyone um guess I have to talk my okay um we are we'll be back to our school report uh later on uh probably I think around May is our school report but we're going to talk Al tonight um oh I I've never actually used this is it just the no there you go all right uh as you can see our district promise what those the pictures you'll see a lot of pictures today uh throughout our school so it really is uh empowering our students the um these are our four schools uh but we're only going to talk about

080a portion of what we have on campus you've all been to our campus beautiful campus the most beautiful alternative experience in the state of Washington um but our Al is really going to focus on Lincoln Hill High School and the alternative Al experience here and then Saratoga school is what we're going to talk about okay before we uh get too far in I just want to give a quick um definition of what Al is Because unless you're in the AL world you may not know exactly what it is so um it stands for Alternative Learning Experience and um really the biggest piece of that is that all are part of students education is outside of a traditional classroom setting so um it's a public school that's still subject to the rules and regulations governing governing

081governing Public Schools um overseen by a certificated teacher and each of our students has an individual um written student learning plan unique to their needs um in our programs um we support the overall goals of academic achievement so we do focus on standards and grade level expectations we provide learning options for students offer high quality courses and materials and provide alternative um an alternative to a traditional route and keep students engaged with schooling and on path to graduation sorry we even counted these slides just to make sure any not supposed to speak I will tell you um what Monica said to diverge a little bit is uh I would like to personally thank her for and a lot of the staff at Lincoln I spent my first 30 years in traditional schools um and moving

082to the alternative World um for would not be my last year is has been quite the experience in compliance and the work that they do not only to provide the experience for kids uh and many many kids in this District but do it the right way and comply with what the state uh requires it's an amazing uh building and so and a beautiful building as you can see there again um so we have two teachers uh that provide we actually started the year at 6 um with 42 uh students in our remote program uh we increased uh by another seven students each point1 is 7 students that we provide that to uh and the remote uh program really es and flows with students um as they uh move uh on track to graduate um and

083typically we favor seniors obviously and juniors that are trying to maintain being on track to graduate and over at the Lincoln Hill Side um like uh Todd mentioned those are mainly um Juniors and seniors and those are take they're taking remote courses so they're checking in with an instructor once a week moving over to the Saratoga side we're a parent partnership program and I would like to just acknowledge and recognize that we've been in the district for 20 years this is our 20y year anniversary many people in the district probably didn't know we existed until um 2020 that was a big year we really grew then um I have been uh fortunate to be a part of the program for the last um 13 years so we have a total of six teachers on staff

084which is equivalent to 4.9 FTE so not everybody is um a full-time teacher and um yeah that's our staffing and just a little um visual here on how things operate in an alternative program like a parent partners ship program so this is looking at the Saratoga side um every new enrollment goes through a questionnaire kind of like an application process because we do want our families to know um what our what their commitment level is and the requirements it's um I kind of joke around that we're we're kind of um bringing on new teachers with every parent that is is part of our program so there's a little bit of an interview process there um it is a choice program so we go over the choice uh the program requirements and then talk about their

085specific family and student needs and um how we might fit that for them um then we go into an individualized curriculum meeting and we look at the students strengths and challenges um the parents strengths and challenges what they can teach what they want more support in um we look at the students learning style if an online course might be better for them or a textbook um and then how much parent teacher support they're they're looking for um so that's the first part of our enrollment process and then the big kind of mushy um piece over there is where all the Learning Happens so um our students are learning at home most of primarily with the parent as a primary instructor um they attend once a week onsite enrichment classes with our wonderful teachers a lot

086of them are here today um each week um for that meeting they have a weekly review so we're going over what they've completed at home if um some of their work samples we're documenting that that's part of our compliance and requirements for the state and um our monthly progress we don't give um traditional grades in our K through 8 program we have um each of our students has a written student learning plan and so their progress is determined by how they're meeting their goals um for each month um we then um throughout the year have various forms of assessment data that we collect so we we do map assessment which is measures of academic progress we do that at the beginning middle and end and we share those results with families um right away so

087um those are we don't have to wait for the following school year to get those results um we have EXL that we use with our families and we have diagnostic tests that we use with them um because our families are doing different curriculum it's really important for us to have some common benchmarks that we can look at together um there's also the classroom based and um homebased assessments that are part of the curriculum and of course our State um smarter balanced assessments our students participate in that as well um and then just as in any learning environment um we Monitor and adjust so we can provide supplemental materials um create a individual skill plan in EXL um create progress monitoring if needed and create intervention plans if our students are not making um adequate monthly

088progress we um it's required that we actually set up a plan with them and see if um we can make that happen so yeah so some of our um just for this year some of our numbers in October our head count for students was 222 um we we usually talk in the in the terms of headcount even though we do have some part-time students because each one of those students really is um is is an individual student that we work with so 222 students in October we've kept that um pretty steady average about 223 um throughout the months and U are around that right now and uh with our student or student to teacher ratio it's about a little over 45 to one right [Music] now so you'll notice remember this is just our remote

089program and uh you'll see uh in February we actually added a point1 so we're at 49 uh students now and um consistent and you can just ask St high school they're constantly wanting to have kids in the remote program and we just don't have opening so we've got a lot of kids that are really getting after it and and earning [Music] credits I'll go ahead and go over the written student learning plans as I mentioned each of our students has a um written student learning plan that's developed by the student and the teacher over at Lincoln side um on the Saratoga side we um are also in collaboration with the parent that's part of that um they're based on on on the Lincoln Side based on transcript evaluation their graduation plan the number of credits

090that they need to uh meet the graduation requirements um on our our side our high schoolers um we do have ninth and tth graders um that would be the same for them but our K8 students we're looking at um they're based on their grade level and their education plan um Lincoln Hill High School is also working on high school Beyond plan and um all of the learning plans have a final approval by the certificated teacher I can do this yeah you're going to be proud of me um the uh the weekly check-ins uh really they want to be face Toof face they can be Google meets but the state really requires that uh that Weekly check-in um the uh at Saratoga the the on-site enrichment and the score classes um are there once a week

091many of you probably been to the school uh Monday Tuesdays Thursdays or Fridays when students are there and they enjoy being on campus um the monthly progress review did you want to do that sure you do a good job thank you very much um the monthly progress review as we talked about before um learning progress reviewed monthly by the certificated teacher and that's based on the students individual um goal areas in in each of the um academic subjects um the schedules can be accelerated maintained or modified to promote success so we have students working above grade level we have students working um at grade level we have students still working to catch up and fill some um holes that they might have had previously and um sorry students access state and local assessments of course

092that's okay um the uh the big thing that I learned my first week on the job from Monica and uh and ch in the office sunberg at Lincoln is compliance uh you have to make sure so a review of things and um in planning and process is not just a terminology we use it uh the church Creek Campus it's required by the state of Washington and so the annual School Improvement planning process is is a big deal the state requires that U you have that and and that you review it obviouslyi um and the wall of the State Association are constantly look at things that we have a good relationship there we attend the Regional Conference we send some people to the state conference this year it's constant feedback from parents and we get it

093daily we get a lot of parents um as their total and they drop off and pick up and they come in for meetings um with their teacher and S Lincoln um we're constantly in touch with parents and so we get a lot of feedback from the public about our program thank you yeah it is there's the this is the state chess tournament Mr B one of our teachers I think Mr Schmid at St High School uh is the the adviser and so we held this at um at church Creek campus in the main gym uh and had everybody from around the state at the stage Chester this pretty cool picture Evan cwell took so thank you for that any questions several one you mentioned that Lincoln was remote learning there's a yep for alternative for

094the AL portion of it Y and we've got you know inperson classes too and so the AL portion that we're funded for is just the remote piece and Saratoga is basically homeschooling with one day a week or one time a week on on the the campus and the rest of so and and so the Lincoln version of that are they what are they doing compared to Saratoga yeah so that's a good question um Saratoga does have kindergarten through 10th grade and so our K8 program you're right it does look a lot like homeschooling but as I mentioned one of the biggest differences is that we are a public school and so there are um rules and regulations that we have to adhere to with public um public funds and and all of that so it's

095not um traditional homeschooling that that families do but we are fortunate to partner with a lot of families who have chosen to homeschool and um and have chosen that route and sometimes they'll partner with us for all of their child's education and sometimes portions of it so do you have any data on what they do after they age out of the seroga program for too yeah that's a good question too we have um going into 11th and 12th grade um many of our students will um enroll at St high school and go um straight to running start and so continue their education through through a college um some will um many students um kind of do a mix of kind of shared enrollment their nth and 10th grade just to kind kind of get their

096their feed down at high school and try it out and do some um the biggest thing is that these students have learned that there's some options for for Learning and so um so we have students who share enrollment and then go into stard high school or they finish at Lincoln um traditional linkoln 5day program or they might finish with the Lincoln remote program if they enjoyed the the online and that work for [Music] them on that running start yeah do that have limited eligibility and cost more or the running Start program can anybody do that or is there a certain amount that that's a really good question for somebody who knows running start that is not part of our program but I I did watch some um some some videos about it I don't have

097a high schooler but yeah I I think you have to have a certain number of credits to be eligible and then um that's right yep certain number of credits uh GPA achievement that has to be met um and the the cost is conver through the enrollment process at at the high school but as many students that want to do it can do it yes oh that's good that's good no limit that that that are eligible to right thank you do they all go to C or some go to schet yeah both both well I don't have a question I know you have great subies out there but better than that you have a great program there and i' like to thank you and all of your staff for the wonderful job you're doing and just

098special thanks to Tom for your many years of service thank you thank you thanks thanks for your leadership getting them trained up on yeah right thanks for your leadership to both you and for the staff who are here and not here tonight for for their work and um also thankful for the community's continued commitment to providing options for all students in our district to access the school that works best for them so thanks once again that's the end of the superintendent's report all right thank you superintendent over we'll 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 is time this is not the portion need for open public comment on item outside of the

099consent agenda that ising soon are there any board directors who wish to pull any item from the consent agenda for discussion are there any people in attendance that would like to speak to any of the items on the consent agenda okay see no one is there a motion to approve consent agenda items 1 through 11 so L by director King second second by director Foster all those in favor of consent agenda items 1 through 11 say I I any oppose no and that passes unanimously we have no whole business to discuss we are up to public comment citizens wishing to address the Border ask to submit Online requests using the public comment link in our website or by email 2 hours prior to the board meeting start time for those attending the meeting in person

100request forms were available in the boardroom for submission prior to the meeting start time citizens who wish to provide documents to the board directors will hand them to the reporting secretary for distribution after the meeting and the board president will call upon individuals who have requested to speak during the public comment section of the agenda individuals will state their name from the record and will be allowed three minutes we have two requests for public comments tonight to be respectful of our speakers please refrain from responding to the comments of the speakers as a matter of order because this is the board's business meeting the board is providing an opportunity for the public to comment however the board does not create discussion on those comments within the meeting as they are not part of the agenda

101comments will be followed up on after the meeting if that is appropriate when it's your turn please state your name for the record you have three minutes to speak there's a timer on the screen there the yellow light means you have 1 minute left and the red light means that your time to address the board is up so our first speaker is p sh I'm Pat shanesy from commo Island last time I spoke in front of this board I mentioned my 21 Grands who still live in the school district most of those will never attend our stanet schools again what I neglected to mention was a huge shout out to Dr Colin Ryan who has taught my friends and myself many things about this District we've been meeting with Colin for once a month for

102about 2 years and very much appreciate all the time he has spent with us and all the things that we have learned and thank you to the rest of the administration who helped to make this happen so col thank you for all your time that you spent with us while we've learned so much from Colin we've also learned a lot from attending these board meetings and amazing how much a person can learn by simply sitting quietly and listening a perfect example at a board meeting held not very long ago I listened to our directors speak very highly of Mr Ryan ovenell and his abilities to lead this District a unanimous consensus yes that means all five agreed that MR ovenell's Title should be changed to superintendent and that in addition to the current contract that

103expires in June of 2025 Mr oeno would be offered a contract for our next full school year as well there was even discussion that this item should be listed on the consent agreement section of the next board meeting so it could be officially voted on I didn't learn any anything about that in the last board meeting there was not any discussion about it and it was not on tonight's agenda so my question is what happened between the February 18 meeting and last meeting on March 4th this whole thing sort of smells and it feels really icky so I'll ask again what happened I'm pretty sure I can make a good guess or perhaps I could make a bunch of false accusations release a series of misinformation smear someone's good name or get in someone's face

104that's not my style and that's not how I roll so I'll just sit here patiently and hope that soon someone can give me answers that I'm looking for because I'm not about to give up on our kids are you thank you thank you our next commenter is seart hunt [Music] my name is steuart hunt I'm here because of a confrontation of ethics and truth I have a specific concern and I could have emailed the board which I did three times in February and received but one thank you so here I am I recognize an honor not focusing on a specific member of the school board but you will see why I must and the everage herald front page story of February 22nd a board member dragged me into the story and said that I attended

105two meetings of Republican women but did not specify if there were city county or state meetings or when since that didn't happen ever I contacted the command Island Republican women their attendance sheats do not list me they have never seen me at a meeting which would have been obvious as I would have been the only male in the women's group as a political agnostic I have never attended nor joined a political party in the article the board member in print made it sound like an accusation belonging to a political party apparently a specific party curiously political parties are not even mentioned in the United States Constitution I then must ask what was the purpose of this lie and where did you get the idea what happened to trust but ver verify did you ask or

106did you just make it up was it your intent to harm me why drag me into your personal drama the same applies to the reporter Jordan Hansen he trusted this lie but did not verify then put it in print just to be clear I don't care about the contrived accusation I care that you lied in print now the problem just to the community since you told a Whopper going forward how can the public believe anything you claim or say once a lie is told going forward we have no idea if what follows is Truth or Fiction everything will be questioned that is not a good position for an elected public official to use your phrase this is really icky it then appears director Evans since you have created both mistrust and distrust you have two

107options one you can recant and apologize in public and both the standard comma news and the ever Herald for two you can resign your position one or both finally can we then expect the Stanwood commo news to give this story the same importance as they have other stories about the school board that would be [Music] professional speakers thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us today we'll now move on to to topics scheduled for school board discussion we have one topic this will the legislative session update and I will call on our legislative representative to leave that off thank you first i' like to say it's an honor to be the legislative rep I've enjoy every minute there are this my first report this year there are was this three big

108priorities for funding number one is funding for special education number two is transportation for students looks like we're getting a new bus so that's good topical and thirdly for inso which is materials and operating expenses so I've been advocating and calling and testifying excuse me and promoting the idea that they fund those for us in other news I'd like to make a statement regarding House Bill 1296 and Senate Bill 5 181 initiative 2081 commonly called the parents Bill of Rights was adopted as written by the legislature in 24 and laid out 15 rights for parents and guardians of public school students the State Court ruled that I 2081 was constitutional as written at the time Democrats raised concerns about the Law's broad language and its potential to limit health care for lgbtq and youth they

109vowed to take future action if necessary in 25 Democrats dropped House Bill 1296 and on Thursday March 13th it moved out of the house the bill will undo several provisions of the parents Bill of Rights which was passed last year Bill 5181 is Sim simar to the house bill I urge members of the community to study these issues carefully and notify your state senator and your representatives and School Board El let oh sorry of how you want them to vote as a legislative session moves forward we're past the Midway point and it it's over 4:27 that'll be the end of it um my role as director of the stan commo school district is to encourage you to stay a breast of discussion stay AB breast of the discussion for many reasons but it gets a

110little more complicated at this point if the if Washington state law is not compatible with recent mandate the recent mandate issued by the new secretary of education Linda McMahon Federal funding of school in Washington state state may be at risk and one way or another we have to find a way for that loss revenue and that usually means additional taxes consider these things carefully that's all I have to say on the issue thank you director director King you also attended a legislative meeting you want to have any comments yeah well that was I mentioned last okay any other comments on the legislative session currently going on I did have some questions on um any of the ones about funding um obviously we had a budget meeting earlier was there any like forward progress or any

111momentum in a lot of the the funding mechanisms that we were looking for or have they I know that uh Ruth indicated that they haven't proposed like a specific budget yet but any talk on that it ends 427 and I did my homework so you should do your homework oh oh I don't know it's not over I attended too and at the time at the time of the conference there there had been no action in the legisl at all nothing was out committee Etc I think there's been two steps since then what gets out of committee and what dies but I don't know the details of the aftermath of that confence but there were some bills we're going to increase our expenses without any extra rence so so they don't pass in I think that's

112kind of what I was asking for I know there's a couple like s of bills in 52 63 it talks about special special education and stuff like that are those like any of those those all like all ready been kicked out any of the ones that we were looking for that wda was specifically advocating for I mean I thank you for my information I also read my advocacy one I was asking if you had any additional Insight thank you right the three priorities should I metion tell you again what wasw is promoting no I'm asking you if there was any movement or any of the ones that we were specifically advocating for that had funding mechanisms built into them have moved forward or if we've specifically already rulle them out I look for that kind

113of thing in the articles I read but they weren't not what I read was not comprehensive it was like certain things that I didn't recognize any special ones of the ones I saw mentioned that it been dropped out and that's what counts is the which ones didn't make p out committee Etc I don't know and we should know more and also there were 500 well over 500 bills so it's very comprehensive and it really requires a lot of study and homework and it was a long session this year is a long session so all right moving on to student representative reports on your school business who's going to go first on Thursday the 13th our most recent ASB meeting took place in which we discussed upcoming events such as our corly pancake breakfast serving our

114students in the morning during advisory along with this we also started planning for our spring social opening to all the students on Friday April 25th as well as a spirit week of students are looking forward to a short schedule near the beginning of April as conferences are April 2nd and 4th and during that time we will have a half day schedule for those days shortly after that is spring break from the 7th to the 11th after April students will be focusing on their requirements for being on a path to graduate getting in their assignments working on their High School Beyond plan taking spring a SBA testing beginning Monday May 12th if they're not already done and doing credit retrieval if they need to and with that that's pretty much all there is to say thank

115you Luke uh as for samood our ASP class is been busy with facilitating and managing a variety of activities for our students families and community members these activities will allow our students to thrive and flourish as we look towards the conclusion of our school year and Beyond many teachers have been utilizing Hands-On creative activities as a means to engage the students uh a class that really exemplifies this is Mr Ingram's physics class in their vehicle competition that they've been doing Ingram students have been creating cars that begin from rest break and stop before hitting a wall all while not breaking the egg that prot prudes from the front vehicle this project challenges students to use design principles with purpose and to understand how laws of physics apply to the world around them meanwhile in our

116ASB class we are as busy as ever Executive Board elections are coming up at the end of this month where students will elect their 2025 to 2026 school year officers including our president vice president secretary treasurer and public relations officer next month students will elect their class officers including their class presidents vice presidents secretaries and treasurers simultaneously we are preparing to hold a middle school camp at our campus for students in leadership classes at Port Susan and St middle schools to learn about the leadership program at shs other upcoming events we are looking forward to include thriftwood our annual talent show and our too dance this may our school has been at the Forefront of many many successful activities which you've probably heard about over the last few weeks this last Saturday was our last

117performance of our musical The Adams Family this musical performed and put together by students at shs was widely praised for its comedy music and acting last Thursday one of our highq teams Advanced to finals where they will compete in this Thursday for a shot to compete against teams at the national level regarding sports Spring sports are beginning to kick run and swing off yesterday girls tennis took on Arlington and emerged with a strong 7 to zero Victory last Friday boys soccer won 6 to five against Arlington and today uh earlier today actually our girls golf is taking on Arlington boy soccer is facing Everett and girls tennis is going against B haror this Thursday Spartan track and field is hosting their annual jambur in the wood at home and this Friday boy soccer is facing

118off against limbwood at home and I would like to thank everyone in this community for their continued support of our students and our activities thank you thank you stud Representatives well now move on to items brought up by board directors director Ed do you have anything to report on SC uh I don't just another busy season for everybody wrapping up one sport that leads into the others congratulations to all of our sports teams that uh made it to State this year and the supporting I love seeing band and cheer go down and support our um girls basketball team it's again that full Co of pece where everybody sort of supports each other and that's really great to see um yeah no thank you than you direct direct um I as well would like to thank

119all of the or congratulate all of the teams um that made it to State um but also I wanted to touch on we had our academic committee meeting um which was very good and we talked about how um data is analyzed and perceived and um got some really great feedback on how we can improve data points that are being published on our website so that they're more understandable to the general public um and also so was great number thank you well I went to that was it was very [Music] fun we car pulled so we saved some money and it was enlightening the other thing I just had a quick question as I see this envelope is this from the student Representatives because this came in our email that was this is something we've already

120been email oh okay anyway thank you for all coming I think parents rights are important so I hope you guys will think of how you feel about it since we represent the community thank you direct Foster direct King yeah attended the C uh meeting and looking especially at the um residential housing projects that are happening especially in our Northeast or Andross stre from the high school many many hundreds of new housing units and uh and then we talked about for ly and and uh it's that's been a special interest of mine because I see what's going on up around the most size conversation Etc uh also attended the um academic committee um and U and that's special interest too and that was impressive to I saw there the good things are happening and and so

121I'm looking forward to good things coming out of that improving uh not just our Cor academics uh but broad spectrum including multiple paths to graduation thank you Jordan King I had the privilege of watching the last performance of The Adams Family the High School Musical at the um High School pack there which it was packed out and I understand it was packed out most of the evenings there they did an excellent job um and the teacher did David Sims who has been their director of the plays for the past 30 years I guess and D ronning the music director did an excellent job and they kind of started together they've been doing it for 30 years but this was the last year for uh director Sims in directing the plays uh he'll continue teaching but

122he's retiring from play directing also the director area one regional meeting which is the first of 12 that was that puts on around the state uh was very good in Bellingham I wish we all could have been there but uh the purpose or the theme of the whole thing was called leading with purpose and that's what we discussed there and one of the questions that we were asked to discuss in that was um say asking myself my colleagues in every discussion how does this impact Student Success and everything we do on this board is focused towards the student and that's the question that we should be asking on everything we do and I'll give the last word to superintendent overell who attended the Friday night um reforms and thank you there's as director said there's

123just a lot happening in the district right now both with Athletics and activities and in the in the classroom so it's it's an exciting time as we uh move into spring um I just want to say congratulations once again to our our shining stars although those are the students who were selected by uh by staff um there's many many um Chinese stars in each of the schools and and um I it is the best part of my day to be able to visit the schools every school every week um to to see how staff are impacting um the lives of the students and moving forward so thank you all right that uh the board will now move into an executive session to review the performance of a district employee until 7:45 and we will reconvene

124at that time in the journey so we are moving to Executive session thank you all for being here e e e we just took a few off okay it's all good okay right in time 7:44 we live [Music] okay the board has concluded the executive session and we are now adjourned okay