001Good evening everyone. I'd like to call the meeting to order and acknowledge to water school districts. It's on the ancestral land of the Nolia Squatsen Island and Shah people. I thank these caretakers of the land who lived on and continue to live on the land since time in memorial. Please rise as I salute. Superintendent, has there been any changes or additions to the agenda since it was published? >> All those in favor approving the agenda as published, please say I. >> I. >> Agenda is approved. Let's move on to the meeting. Minutes reviewed. Minutes from August 2018 have been distributed to the board or deny changes or corrections. Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the minutes from August 28, please say I. Minutes are approved. Moving on to the consent agenda, the items
002on the consent agenda have been provided to the board. Are there any questions? Discussion? None. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda, please say I. I consent agenda is approved. We will now move on to public comment. Before we begin, I'd like to remind members of the public that if you wish to address the board during the public comment portion of this meeting, you would have needed fill out the public comment form available on the district website by 9:00 a.m. today. If you miss this opportunity, you're welcome to sign up for the next regular board meeting or email your comments to the board andor superintendent. Contact information is on the district website. received submissions. We had one submission. All right, we will now move on to reports to the board. We're going to
003begin with Megan Tawson, assistant superintendent, presenting on policy and procedure 2020 course design, selection and adoption of instructional materials. Um okay. Uh policy 2020 is listed um under WASDA as critical. It was while the policy was released in April 2025. It um describes the course design selection and adoption of instructional materials for for school districts. Um it was updated because Senate Bill 5462 that's most recently enacted by the Washington State Legislature. Um it its aim is to promote inclusive learning standards and instructional materials in Washington's public schools. The bill recognizes the importance of ensuring that our curriculum reflects the histories, contributions, and perspectives of historically marginalized and underrepresented groups. uh including but not limited to Native American tribes, African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian-Americans, Pacific Island, Pacific Islander Americans, women, people with disabilities, and neurodeiverse individuals, LGBTQ
004communities, immigrants, refugees, and English learners, and people from diverse religions and socioeconomic backgrounds. Um, it talks about ensuring instructional materials are age appropriate and representative of diverse communities and it establishes a screening criteria to al eliminate bias and discrimination in educational content. Um, I recommend that the board review this policy this month and um adopt it in our next board meeting. And this has both a policy and a procedure. Um there are a few instances where a school board reviews both the policy and the procedure. Thanks. >> Questions for you? >> I have a few. Um so uh the policy and the procedure were in place originally and so these changes are coming about as a result of the new RCW um that kind of specifies what needs to come up with a new revised
005one to ensure inclusive curricula. Um, so can you kind of go through the details of what the differences are because kind of noting in the the policy language changes? There really aren't many changes in the policy itself, it's essentially striking out a lot of the procedure language and so it seems like part of how this RCW will be implemented is in the procedure. Yes. Okay. So I guess specifically what is the because I will admit I don't really fully know how our current procedure works. So what is the substantive change that will happen as a result of this new procedure as compared to what we're doing now? >> Yes. Um that's a great question. So the the process that our teams are held to um follow um OSPI curriculum and adoption procedures including um their
006kind of like grid of like are these groups represented in the curriculum that you're considering adopting. And then this if you click into the board minutes and um open up the procedure you can see the red the red writing is the new of um this policy. So it includes um just read out this one part. Um people with various racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds, people with different learning needs, people with disabilities. Um it defines LGBTQ and people with various socioeconomic and immigration backgrounds. Um that is page three. Um and then um it also spells out um the process that the district takes when uh folks have questions about the curriculum like accessing the curriculum. Um and at the very bottom uh the protest procedure for core instructional materials that was different than um our past
007practice. Our policy had like a form that people filled out. Um and this new polic new procedure says that um a parent can just submit a written request. they don't have to bother them. And let me just add to that because I think we have this our instructional our instructional selection committee would get together and we're already doing this to I think that idea of choosing inclusive instruction materials that's already happening. That's one of the tasks that they have this expanded and more categories for that group to to kind of hold in their mind as they look at the curriculum adoption process. And I I think maybe part of your question I have to say is how will they look at this and determine if this is diverse enough, if this is equitable enough and
008I think I don't I don't know how to answer that question. I think some of the new language in here as it pertains to different groups until we end up in this process I think and we kind of start to learn as other districts and go through this how exactly will that work in practice. We already do this to some extent there. If you go back to the old language, we were already required to have curriculum that needs diversity. So I think we were doing that process around is our student body represented in this curriculum kind of through race and gender looking at the stories in the ELA curriculum. Do they reflect our student body? So that was already happening. This expands that out further and I think that would be how will we determine
009does this sort of reach that threshold? Does it possible. I think in this language there's a little bit of is it is it possible that the curriculum can provide this is that part of what your question is because I think it is complex. uh it's part of it, but um I think I'm I'm mainly curious about the mechanics of because it looks like the way the procedure works is that the instructional materials committee, is that the name of the group? Like that is the group that is and it it's literally listed in the policy and procedure. That group is the one tasked with >> reviewing the curriculum, going through just mechanics and that's the one that needs to have like parental representation teachers. Yeah. >> All of that. And then because what's interesting about this
010is the the policy is all about school boards will adopt you know this curriculum. Um, but ultimately there's a process that it starts with this group this instructional materials committee. They're responsible for going through and using that rubric, I guess, from OSPA and then making that recommendation to the school board and then the school board takes it from there. So, it's not necessarily any different than what we're currently doing. That's the process you use. >> Yes. And when we just adopted common lit, the um the instructional materials committee um found that the curriculum uh companies know what the laws are in each state. So they're like already explaining to the instructional materials committee, here's how we meet your state's requirement. Um and it's basically like delivered to them. >> I think during our process of
011doing this to the board, I think part of this with this being explicitly called that we need to share that information with the board. That part of going through that process and explaining what that was and what that looked like and the feedback that we receive just recapping that conversation. So what is the difference? Um there was a change in the groups that are represented in the curriculum because of the changes in the non-discrimination policy words um categories and then how um people if they have a question about the curriculum they want to view it or they want to protest it. That is part of the procedures. One more uh followup is is this something that only happens when like the district is going through its regular review? Um, so like will will this not
012apply until the next round of whichever curriculum is going to be coming out for review happens or is there an expectation that you have to go in and look at all of it and make changes. Now that's a great question. Um, I would probably reach out to our attorney on that question and I think they would interpret it as um the next adoption round. But I can get back to that will come because I think the idea protest there's a whole section on supplemental supplemental material selection. So I think part of this will be is there a protest around selection um but there's also I think request for review and removal. So that's also in this language. So I think that can come up at any time. So as we click in people learn about
013it, they hear about it and they want to kind of do this process file review process that we would have and that would not I'll have to look at this a little closer to see I think that can happen anytime. do the same thing or somewhere challenging a book look book in our library book in our process. Um we have a process spelled out in this this is a little bit broader to more curriculum and I think this does I think this new language spells out to >> I have another question. Um would you would you say that this protest procedure kind of looking through it. Is it more to just um make it easier to follow the process and clarify things or is it creating a little bit more barrier issue? >> Um I
014don't think it presents any barriers. I think it just spells out like what if a parent had a question about something or was protesting something, what are the steps that we're required to take as a district um and what they would expect the next step to be? >> Thank you. So, uh, is there anything that we have to be of regarding, um, some of the guidelines here that might hinder our ability to help students their education such as test scores, that sort of thing. Sometimes public education systems can get caught up in the periphery and forget about our job is to teach. on this. >> I can't think of any right now, but um that's a great question. Um I might loop back to you on that one. >> One last question. There's a lot
015of me follow what uh what questions would necessitate changes in the policy because you're prepared with changes. She should be aware before the next presentation. I'm not able to be here tonight. >> I think they've been brought forward at all. I just want questions. You've not brought any material before the curriculum for review at all except for this last year. So these happen rarely if ever you want to know increase of this following policies. >> I I think that this policy asks that every time a school district adopts a new curriculum that we follow this policy of the center. Um, >> I can get guidance, but I don't think they're asking us to go back. >> I want to know when was the last time this district and how they went about it >> and
016the previous times before that as far back as you can. >> The um 612 common curriculum was adopted last year. >> Correct. any other time before >> like when did we adopt our math curriculum >> anytime you follow? >> Um I think the district has always followed 2020. >> So this happens rarely if ever >> it only happens when we have money to buy That's one of my questions to ask. Thank you. Okay. Next, we also have who will present the SRO contract renewal report. Okay. So, this is the review of our 2026 to 2028 school resource officer agreement. Um, we are asking the school board to review the the agreement. It is in full compliance with Washington state law regarding school safety staff and SRO's um including the engross substitute house bill 414 from
0172021 and house bill 416 in 2019. Some of the key areas of compliance are um that our policies and procedure um uh align with those two legislative actions that we um we hire SRO officers who have met the training requirements. um that we have an interlocal agreement with our law with our local law enforcement or whoever is providing the SRO's and that we collect data and we report out to the state each year um including our staffing levels, incident details and demographic breakdowns. My recommendation is that the board um discuss this 2026 2028 SRO agreement. This action will affirm our commitment to student safety, legal compliance, and community partnership. >> Questions? >> I just have kind of a general comment. I've been reading in the news that a lot of the school districts are asking
018for more local police participation on campus. And so I think The contractor we work with I was listening earlier at earlier meetings is that we have two officers then that's similar that's the same as what we had before and that there was some discussion that one might be uh from the city of Palm water and one might be the sheriff's deputies office I don't know if we made a decision on that or the on >> yeah I don't know if we we didn't have a conversation about sort of splitting those duties up. I think so. I did um you know once we into last year we knew this contract was kind of expiring the middle of this year and so as as everyone's aware going through some budget reduction this is a pretty a good
019healthy amount of money that we spend on that race and a shared cost that we do with the city but just kind of out of due diligence um I did meet with the sheriff's department just to talk to them about the possibility of of looking at you know providing are you interested in providing us quotes and kind of we already had um the city was sort of in the process of putting together what they were offering or what they were trying to increase cost and I met with sheriff Sanders and and he is not opposed to providing or working with the school district. What he didn't want to do is if you have an agreement if you have the city um you have an ongoing relationship with them and if that's moving forward he was
020not interested in competing with the city for this work. Um he also indicated kind of the timing for the sheriff's department wasn't the best. Um he has some young officers who've been kind of looking in process and training. So again, it's like if you ended up going back to the table, he said he'd certainly engage with this with this school board and with the district on providing that and he would make every effort to provide it, but he didn't really want to he didn't want to provide a quote or a proposal to compete with the city at the time. So I think any kind of idea of doing a split is yes, we do have a couple of that would be considered more county. Um there wasn't really any serious conversation about trying to split
021those duties up or anything. Certainly our I think our high school is clearly both of our high schools and middle schools are clearly in our city some water jurisdiction. We are a couple of our elementary schools fall outside of that but our SRO are have kind of a handshake agreement. I don't know with the sheriff's department. They certainly did a lot to those um those schools, provide conversations, provide some training. Um would help in uh if there are some legal things that they're dealing with, they would help often times if it got serious, they would turn it over to kind of the jurisdiction of the sheriff's department. But I can't recall in my two plus years now any of those kind of incidents happening out of school. So at this point, our city is able
022to ser questions or discussions. Uh so why aren't we so does provide this service for multiple school districts and would be willing to why didn't we at least second this contract has gone up significantly,000 level. Um, but why haven't we done some due diligence organization started with the students? So there's the president. Why aren't we doing that? with we've been doing budget cuts anyway more budget cuts this year. So why aren't we looking at this outer tax? >> Yeah, I mean we we certainly could do that. I mean, I feel like going out for bid, there really is only, I think, the two logical entities that could serve us in this capacity, which would be the sheriff's office and the city of water. Um, so I don't think we're necessarily obligated to do like a
023request for proposal. I did, again, I met with them to determine like, you know, he he rejected another school district recently. Um, he did offer to to put something in writing to reject me in writing and have take it to his group that would reject us, which is again, we didn't through that process. I can't 100% say that that would have happened, but he had indicated this conversation occurred with a neighboring district where his kind of group, I don't know if it's his sheriff under sheriff or group that they wrote a a formal letter denying um them to provide service to another local district. So I think basically he informed that if we want to do that, he could he could send their letter to. So at this time again he he said if if
024this contract if for some reason again I don't have any indication of of breaking down. We couldn't come to an agreement or if this board decides this is too expensive and we're not going to do this and you vote this down, we would look at certainly opportunities and I think sheriff said he sit at the table and look at what you can do but we didn't really get in the details of cost of what service we provide. We haven't gone down. >> Well, that's definitely first of all, why is this coming forward to the board so soon? It's not November, December. Is that right? >> We typically bring these these items before you, you know, a month in advance. >> You know, it takes months to get it done. It was approved in December. No,
025it's an election year a little bit concerning this fall. Um, no. I would think uh we have a session here in a couple weeks. I'm gonna share Sanders and talk about it and both you and Carlos can dive into who can do what. I have questions about $10,000 a year in case that's been happening for multiple years. Seems crazy. I also question about aligning this contract to our school year so that we don't have to school year that seems to make more sense. December was a political ploy for so yes I would like to see them come forward and I had other questions too as to why um I have the contract and the contracts are very clear as to what it covers. as to why the city of water and the police department show
026up at certain other events basketball events my initial understanding is that's contractus you have SRO officers acting capacity question. >> No, I would like to answer some of the other answer. >> Since I'm a financial person, my guess is that timing on the police department on a annual schedule. So at times with their That's true. Um, also, uh, this whether they show up or not, that's, you know, if they want to do that, all we're looking at is what the agreement says and what holding them accountable to the agreement. Uh, and this conversation happened in October when this contract was up, not in front of the board, which I appreciate that this is coming in front of the board. This This happened this happened over the Zoom call when we talked to the board between
027a couple of the city council members and director Taylor and so I appreciate that it's coming in from the board now so that there is enough time to bring forth any concern rather than it coming in December and someone trying to make changes when so I do appreciate that. You're welcome. We also know, you know, this isn't this certainly isn't political from from my standpoint. Um, we do know that there's a board election. Two of you will not be running this this coming that that happens in December. So, your last meeting is in November. So, again, we tried again looking at trying to expedite this. And I also thought that this board um and I don't remember the exact meeting, but in the last number, you know, this came up in another meeting. So, I
028think I've heard both things and I certainly tell you tell us what you want to do. If you want to schedule a meeting with the city or the police department to do that, I guess I need some direction from the board. What would you like to do? >> Respond to your fast tracking. The fast tracking alluded to conversations before you fast track. Yes. >> I don't I don't feel the need for them to come in front. I trust you to work with them. >> So, we have been talking about this since the work session and there have been a few questions that have gone back and forth. If I recall correctly, the city had questions or talked about the data reporting requirement. And I see that in the memo here. Um, what's interesting is it
029says the district will continue to collect and report all required data. And I think it says that because I'm pretty sure the collection requirement, sorry, is something that we have been doing. So that part was unclear which was another reason why we're trying to ask about these things. Another question that had come up this kind of relates to director Taylor's question is is why is it that the SRO's will patrol certain school events or event where students are but not others that had come up in the last couple of months because of this question and referencing the contract and saying that's not their job and so it's confusing that's all is trying to get some some clarity about that not necessarily that it's going to in my opinion affect the contract. But all of this
030is just trying to be as transparent as possible so everybody understands what the limitations are for Santro and all the different roles that they and I did um you know we we had discussed um board leadership to kind of pursue some additional language where upon request I think I I proposed some language to the city and to the police department that was to the effect of upon request of any that we have um again whether it's talking with kids or whatever. Um and so that kind of out of that request was a meeting with the police chief and city manager. We kind of talked through that and they were pretty adamant to separate I think as as director Taylor really references SRO duties and sort of their duties as um patrol and sort of in
031that disagreement they weren't they didn't want to language in here that talked about patrol and wanted to separate that. Partly it's like when we call 911 for an event, it isn't necessarily others are going to show up. It's it's just anyone from the police department or even if we request we want if we request we want police officers at Friday night's football game while our SRO may be there or they can choose to be there. And that's exactly how that works in this, but if we requested say that they charge us to to have officers we pay for to be there, it may be. So I think that was sort of separating really the SRO and what that contract and what this outlines in their duties in that capacity of serving us in that role
032with our schools and some of these other events. They were they were open to having a further conversation with the city manager and the police chief with the board on events and open they indicated at the time I haven't connected with them to say that >> those are my questions Kevin why are you show this you brought up here today be clear because again this contract if that's our paid you are Kevin that's this is the concern this is actual money and we need to be and yes I would like to come forward. I'd like to know how we process this out. We don't have to RFP it, but there's only two people or two agencies to do it. Should be pretty clear. We should be getting the value of our money. It is a
033lot of money just to kind of take whatever they get. We should be able to ask questions about um I'd like to just say so I don't I don't really care if it's the sheriff's department or the home city police. I I don't care about that, but I I do think we have some responsibility to explore because I mean you talked about it being a lot of money $67 for officers. Yeah. So, um it's a decent amount of money, but um Sheriff Sanders doesn't force him to give us something proposal. So, he's not willing to do that. And essentially, which is fine, but I think it's our responsibility. Anything else? >> Thank you. >> Okay, next we're going to jump in where Assistant Superintendent and Kira Ecker, director of financial services, present with financial services
034update. almost. >> Good evening. All right. So, we're going to be looking at the September 2025 enrollment report. >> So, this is our the slide that we seen every month um all last year. Uh I didn't change the slide. It's all um structured the same as it was last year just for that consistency. Um you can see that our Our FTE across um across board is down um it's in the top that top graph um which excludes start and skill center um that does include daily we are down 122 activity um from last September um down below in that bottom graph you can see I've broken up the first line there is budget um and we have um 510 10 budgeted at uh markets and 344 of those are students other than school district students.
035So 166 are um budgeted for that was about the average of last year that was at market. So you can see in September we had 374 students or FT at market and FTE that was of our school students. Um running start this is a little confusing. Um 225 is what we budgeted that includes our students as well. But um 96 that 96 number there is the students that um are enrolled at New Market right now. So there's a full-time running start students that does not include any of the um proposal activity that will start to have all all year and all month and um both with us and at um colleges. >> Correct. Yes. So on our count day we counted 96 students that had been um fully enrolled full time at colleges for that
036were not in our our classes. >> Correct. Yes. >> But I want to kind of give you an idea of where we were and that's close to where we were at the end of last or in September of last year. Um I believe it was about 89 students that we have 184 A FTE and then our full K12 um working order is 54 5,5 and then I just threw some some additional slides up here to show you the differences. Um I just mentioned that the difference between September of last year and this year 121 FTE and again FTE is fulltime um fulltime equivalency. So it's a little bit different account. It's actually students, enrolled, and um everyone has different schedules. So, you can see our K pay um K through 12 and how it's it's
037spread out um compared to budget as well. So those numbers do not include um running search or so um yep the next slide is budget I lost the budget. Um so here you can see the difference between September our average for this month and around for September and where we're at budget. So we are 92. Um a lot of that is with kindergarten just for the amount of that we um we did lower that number from previous year's budget and adjusted it to our average for 425. But still questions about question. >> Yes. Um, so the concern I have with the kindergarten is that we had a pretty good transition to kindergarten program and yet that didn't translate into getting kids more excited about kindergarten. That's what I'm worried about. And do we have any
038figures? I don't think one can possibly check and see. Do we have figures on how the transition kindergarten they actually enrolled in our district? I want to see how happy. >> Okay, definitely we'll know that and bring that information back. >> I think we talked about this at the work session in a previous meeting, but those kindergarteners are the ones that would have been born right around. Correct. So, I think we're anticipating somewhat of a shrink just maybe not as much. Correct. If you look at that, we had a study done that pretty early last year and I think it does rebound after two years. I I don't know if we're going to bank on that. I think you'll probably see our budget next year just because of this. So, we'll probably be staffed for
039that. I think this number is that fair to say we haven't got that far around that but I'm going to say this is a little bit more surprising and we are still trying to dive into I think part of your question is we don't really know who are we have a handful and I'm pretty confident those kids are there but that isn't necessarily an indicator of like all four year olds across the entire and where did they exist? So I don't I don't necessarily kindergarten numbers things that we necessarily were counting on we knew existed out there that were coming based on some information that we had based on some historical trends but I think was one of those unknowns the impact that I again we had birth rates and different things we thought and
040again I don't think we're alone in this I've heard this sort of across across the some statewide numbers across the state down here. Are you saying that indicated there's any discussion my concern. So my next question I I remember hear like questions for sure. Um my biggest question is the 9394 whatever that 93 number is that's a million dollars. What are we doing right now today? This is September. You are a million dollars off right now. It's not going to get better. You can look at the history of all the numbers in the enrollment of the budget. What are we doing right now to prepare for the million dollar plus cuts we are going to have to do in addition to what we already planned to continue this budget deficit? >> Well, you know, we
041continue to watch spending whenever we can. We have plans we have plans already in place to continue to cut spending throughout the years, but we continue into what we do and that's been our plan. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Absolutely. >> Yes, absolutely. We are um you know still travel. Um we are um you know any extra items that um are needed there are um our uh supply budgets are continuing to decrease. We're just really every every uh purchase is scrutinized and um we have a lot of controls in place and I'm also budget closely. >> Thank you. The last thing I had and this was a conversation I had with Kevin earlier this week that we were gonna mention it. So I'm gonna let him answer here in public. You you indicated that we would
042look as to where these high school figures obviously specifically. >> Yeah, I think um I know there's our team's looking out just to see if there is are there other options that people are pursuing and then reaching out if we know homeschooling. I think we've heard some trends more nationwide that I don't know about locally um moving to home school. We will that's sort of a lighting piece where they have to tell us they have a period of time to tell us that they're home and they register. We get that we do get that information for residents. So we'll be pursuing that. We have a team that's already met on just looking at alternative options. I think some of this data we will we will kind of dig through this. We don't have that at
043this time. So we're looking at working through that to sort of where this went be looking at seniors, where are they going? Um, and what can we do about it is really the question. Should we be looking at standard programs, hybrid options? Um, and I think that that isn't going to come from us. We will be reaching out to parents who haven't kind of opting out of our local school district to find out what can we do to to bring them back into the district. What are those programs offerings? We have some sort of beliefs that people are looking um online is still prevalent. We thought that I think at some point that that would be fine. It's it's flattened out, but there's still a desire to offer that. We also wonder if there's more
044an option to be hybrid where there's some parts of coming into the school and some not. And so we're looking at can we offer that? Will that be something that we draw? So we'll be engaging that this year not only at um I think often times we talk about at a secondary level, we'll be talking about it So what are some options? What would that look like? So this board that seems like a lot. I want to see where people are going. I want people to bring them back. >> Yeah. Well, we know that the things that are 85% of our budget 80% 75% of our budget is people. So that is in essence that's where this gets kind of what it takes our district into kind of right now that's those are always really
045difficult things to do once we start this school year obligations that we have and just kind of just sus giving us a chance to sort of come up with a plan of if we're going to reduce what where can we go back to some of the work we did last year. So we continue to sort this out. Are these trends going to continue over the next couple months? So, but it is definitely not lost on us that we have to have a plan to question on that too. Um, can you offer up any kind of comparison local statistics? Like I mean by% how much they're down or are they up or how do we compare? Are we better off the other whether they count. >> I have not looked into other districts in the area,
046but I certainly can to figure out. >> I would I would think that that would be just interesting to reflect on a greater area issue or something entire region. easier than us. >> Absolutely. Yes. And I can touch base with them and get that information. Absolutely. >> I don't think it's necessarily >> I'd be interested in actual September. One thing I did want to point out is that the demographer that that worked when we're talking about um tender enrollment um they did recommend a flat to flat enrollment. They didn't see the the increase and we actually were more conservative in that and and dropped it down even further. So um you know this is this is a huge anomaly that we weren't expecting. We're conservative as we could have been. So it is very surprising.
047>> Just on that point, let's take a look at that data with just looked like overt. So you know historically we were actually very conservative about the pay number when you're talking about a fake cohort of sub400. Now look at all those subsequent cohorts, right? This is sort of like there's a seismic shift happening in the so we've got some anecdotal evidence in the community about what's going on, but this isn't like some slight people are changing their behavior about the educational choices they make for their 5-year-olds in this district. This isn't like, oh, we're shipping housing, you know, this is not that. This is um making this like, you know, five or 10% off. This isn't even close to any of the substance. So clearly something has shifted in terms of kindergarten income. Good
048evening board members. Um my pleasure to uh speak about the topic of annual accept excess levy certification that happens uh with the county each year. There's no action item this evening. Um, but it's minor things as you can kind of put this on the agenda for the discussion point and asking to create some materials that might prepare the board for a subsequent top. So, but we're clear that there's no um so in your packet um I've prepared a memorandum and I've also prepared which goes into uh some depth and then I've also tried to create a PowerPoint that you now see up here. There is a few slides. Because we're not taking action this evening, I will sort of briefly recap what I've created for you. This is sort of a resource maybe for yourselves
049and members of the community. I believe we're going to post this to our website. Um but I won't go into great depth on this unless the question is taken. Okay. Um there are three slides here. Um Let me just um Can I do that? >> Yeah. So, three slides here. Um the first illustrates sort of uh historically the relationship between um uh the certified levy which is represented by the orange bars um and the amount that the district actually collected historically. And you can see going back in the time that those two things have been pretty close to the same but not exactly the same. And then as you get out there in the illustration for calendar year 2026 you see three bars. Um and I'm going to sort of walk through what those three
050bars mean in this in this next slide. But but just to orient yourself easily, uh the orange bar reflects what the voters voted on for calendaring their 2026 the last time they authorized levy. The um the blue bar represents how much the district would be allowed to collect under the legislaturator's revised um le cap and the gradient bar for lack of a better term represents um the biblical picture here. Um so you know there's quite a going on here. There's law, there's math, there's a number of different angles that you could look at this. I tried to create two slides that sort of create a very um simple and easy to understand walk through uh that basically say the following first that the board does this every year. Board has to certify uh collections every
051November to the county and you take a resolution uh typically every year. you probably don't even remember that you did it, but each November, you do take a resolution uh that gets sent to the u clerk certifying amount of time. Um in the past, the law has capped those policies in a way that prevented certain districts from collecting all that voters authorized. Someone is not unique in that. Um and this this cap in the law has applied to all districts, but Seattle school district was always an exception. They were always allowed to collect more of what their voters authorized and I can't really find any policy rationale for that but I guess the reason I do see that is part of the discussion about the change in the law allowing the rest of the state
052to collect in a commensurate amendment to how Seattle flights on a per basis obviously they collect a lot more money overall but on a per so what the law essentially does is create like a stairst step in so gap include districts like home water and basically 292 business uh and Seattle uh shrinks over time such that eventually everybody's on a on the proverbial or even 20. And so the bottom line really is is that historically um in order in a number of districts across the state taxpayers have been paying less in tax than they actually voted for. many may come to as a surprise to many that in fact will have been happening. But under the new law that tax break that has been occurring uh will sort of expire gradually in that stairstep fashion.
053Uh and the calendar year 2026 is the first year that this new law applies. Um so that might sound like a bunch of technical language. So I thought what are the things that you want to know for tax bottom line? So, I give you some key facts here. Uh, the amount that the voters approved last time um, currently my being in the district or two years ago was $26.7 million. So, if you looked up on OSPI website, you looked up what was on the ballot, what was pulled out, you see. Um, the it's I've heard people say incorrectly that the new law allows the district to collect all of what was approved. That's incorrect. Um the district would not be allowed to collect all that was authorized. That would be one about $1.2 million less,
054you know, little wiggle room for the fact that you're like half of the fund on a basis as just so we have to sort of think about that going forward as well. Um the projected state for people cap so you said the per people in order that this uh for 26 you have 24 25.4 million and that would be $3,800 per student more on that one. So you you seem to indicate maybe I read you seem to indicate that number of people depend on local dollars. >> We have more people we That's what I >> section for that. >> Okay. And then there's less time >> truly. And I'm going to use a really bad example student that shows up also gets what we're projecting the numbers. That's not there's some technical exceptions to that.
055I think one um so the other thing is and the memo goes into some detail about this um but under current law um it's essentially a tier cap really three tiers now think about Seattle but basically two tier so um uh districts that are tend to be above average let's say property values um portions of the size of the district tend to be subject to the per pupil cap and districts that are perhaps uh on the other end of that spectrum so maybe they don't have below average property on a per thousand basis tend to be subject to the rate cap. So there's a there's two different caps applied and then it apply to all district and whichever limits taxes the most whichever is lower is the enforced standard in each district. So I thought
056it was helpful for everyone understand that in order it's pupil but you know when you're at your law conference and you're talking to your colleagues you might be sitting there that are you know, dealing with a rate cap and you're trying to explain what you guys are dealing with and they go, I don't know what you're talking about. We you have a totally different cap and that might decide to be the case. Um, so the the the rate cap in the law is $2.50 per thousand. Um again without doing a huge recal but just sort of looking at our basic model you're projected to be about it gives you a sense that we're well below the rate. This is the kind of thing you can take as deep as you want to go. So I've
057included some resources in the equipment. There's a website there that's hyperlink. All you got to do is click on it. So it takes you dashboard where you can see oh I want to compress or whatever it'll let you specify districts and take a look and I've also included a website that did a pretty good nonpartisan job of most frequently asked questions about educational program and operations and I've included that as there's no action items so I'm just available for your questions and I hope this is um so it's no secret that water has typically more for students for house students since we have the periph $3,800 per student. It doesn't matter if that is a district student or down district. been some changes in the law. Um out of district, it's it's not a clear
058part. Um but yes, in most cases, if we have a student from that transfer to us, we get that student because I I have heard the argument that when the um we don't get the wedding money that student but we get a short some kind of shortage of funding when that student comes into the district. Yeah. So if you'll stick with me because there's some merit to that. So we don't get more money when a student answers the door. So let me give you a scenario. Okay let's shows that the that the water school district voters had not authorized a local election. Just for a thought experiment a student transfers into our district, you get no additional money. The only effect of the student in is that it raises the cap by one. It allows
059you to collect that which you've already raised. Make sense? It doesn't bring money. It allows you to collect what's already been authorized. And that's that's a that's a significant difference. So if you're a district that's already collect authorized, you don't particularly care as students transfer in because you're not getting from a financial standpoint. You're not getting additional people levy dollars with that student. You're already collecting the maximum that you can in that scenario. But in a case like waterers would authorize more a little bit unlocks right. So in our district just to be clear our district we bring in students not I'm not sure I can click off all the individuals but there are some >> so just a comment I was one of those people that didn't fully understand the um that we were
060not collecting. Now we can collect our full amount. So I remember in the budget discussion seeing like the graded line that I didn't I didn't understand that. So >> um so this is very helpful. It's also it's kind of scary to think about what uh if that cap hadn't been raised. >> It's a massive difference. If that was the assumption though and preparing the budget because this our budget that we approved was prepared with the assumption that we will we'll be able to go ahead and like the board will certify and go forward with that which is going to result in a tax increase for voters. hard to say. >> Yeah, I think veracular is important because people like it allows the district to collect what's already been voted on and that's that's a little
061bit of a nuance. It does increase the authorized but it does recognize that not all of >> the tax collection. >> It's an expiring tax the way that we have like people that do my job What's the most sensible way to explain this? Because a tax increase implies that somebody took a vote, you know, to raise the tax that they've already voted on. There hasn't been any vote. They've already taken the vote. They've already authorized the le nothing's changed about any of that. We don't need to answer that. How are we going to communicate that? That's different than what they've been doing. City of water is talking about increasing county. We are increasing their taxes. like you said it's gone very >> right and I think um if I'm correct that the creation of these
062materials was intended to be sort of a first step to have a transparent conversation with this I'll say I've actually been through this once before um this particular scenario um and it's good to be able to that you know, uh there's no value in getting competitive with us to just tell people like this is exactly what's going to happen. Um the materials are all up, you know, I'm here to answer questions. I put my phone number on the website, you know, um and um you know, and we have a capital levy to run in February as well. And so just as people are doing the tax bills, they're going to be asked to vote on a capital levy. And this is I've thought a good deal about um do that too. So some of these
063things don't have you just do the best you can to be transparent with with your citizens and taxpayers and um we'll try to gloss over it to say this is what it is. This is what it is. So, I hope that these materials help. >> Thank you very much. >> Comment when I clicked our students when I clicked the button sent wrong link and foration about tonight's meeting. So I think um is prepared to have DJ statement or DJ's here. Either one. >> He's not here. So you have a you if it's okay before we do action items. We can do it right before the job. Thank you. I promise. >> Hi, I'm Katie Gates. I teach at Peter G. DJ couldn't be here. Yeah, as Kevin said at the link, um DJ's the president
064of the He says, "Good evening to the Tom Water School District board of directors. Uh DJ's the Tomwater Education Association president. Um I want to to thank the Tomwater School District bargaining team for their commu commitment, communication, and collaboration throughout the collective bargaining process. Wendy, Megan, Chris, Misty, Ben, and the rest of the district bargaining team. I know John was on there from Middle School at times. Um thanks for um remaining open to positive dialogue and forward momentum throughout the bargain. Rhonda, Katie, Lori, Chris, and DJ. and the rest of the association bargaining team are thankful for the honest conversations at the bargaining table as the association and district established a common pathway for moving forward together. These are challenging times in public education but these are also hopeful times in public education. There are
065times when establishing a way forward through the bargaining process becomes a pathway for rebuilding, reconnecting and realigning. the Tarter Education Association members ratify the uh contract tenative agreement with a 98% approval rating rating uh this evening um DJ just asked that the board of directors uh respectfully uh approved the Tomwater Education Association collective bargaining agreement in recognition of our collective bargaining process. Thank you. Okay. So now we will move on to action items and have no Murray, director of capital projects, present resolution 032526, the 2025 2031 capital facilities plan. >> Thank you and good evening. This is a presentation of the capital facilities plan for formal approval. This is the same plan that presented September 11th during public hearing. The only change is they just substitute last October headcount enrollment numbers for those past that
066did show us slight decrease especially in the kindergarten previously discussed but the rest of the plan including the proposed impact fees $5,81 for single family homes and $1,48 Any questions for me? Entertain a motion correct. >> I move that we adopt resolution a resolution by second. >> Is there any discussion? All right. All those in favor of adopting resolution 032526. Please signify by saying >> IO resolution is adopted. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next we have Megan Dawson, assistant superintendent will present on the OSPI OSSI 2526 grant for Cascadia school. Thank you. Um so as you guys know the office of uh OSPI puts out their OSSI cycle and it was released. Um so we are in the process of submitting our grant. It uh supports schools who are identified for comprehensive improvement
067and it provides targeted funding and technical assistance to help schools implement evidence-based strategies to improve student outcomes, close achievement gaps and strengthen instructional leadership. Uh Cascadia High School uh has written their OSSI grant in their SIP and their school improvement plan focuses on enhancing instructional practices through professional development, increasing student engagement and attendance and expanding access to academic intervention and services. Um also strengthening family and community partnerships. Uh the full uh 21page uh school improvement plan is available um at the URL code which is in linked into the memo and based on the alignment of the high school's school improvement plan with OSPI's priorities I recommend that the school board formally approve the OSSI fit for the 2526 school. >> Any questions? you didn't want to discuss and and it resulted in a different graduation.
068This is great. Yes. Thank you. >> I just have a question about the um the requirement for the grant which is to link the SIP to the Washington school improvement framework. And so that's the um the scale data that OSPI uses to basically identify schools that need supports. And um in the English uh language and uh math, the focus area is proficiency because that's the definition of the measure. Correct. Like the SBA scores, the focus is on proficiency. >> Yes. And just as a reminder, proficiency is level three. >> Okay. >> All right. Question. >> I have a question about when you were asking participate. >> Yes. So the school improvement Yeah. The school improvement framework is tied to the uh basically the the state plan, the state educational plan. And this is the data
069that gets run once a year. It goes through and it has the different measures that have been established by OSPI in the state plan. And one of those measures is proficiency on the SBA and math. So yes, and that's how the schools get identified in the first place is if they score low on >> and I believe we're already entertain a motion for I move we adopt high schools school improvement plan for the 2016 a clarification on the motion the school improvement plan or the 256 plan >> I'm sorry I'm reading the recommendation and it said uh approve the school improvement Yes. Okay. Okay. My script says grants. >> No, no, no. It's okay. I I can go either way. I was just >> All right. School second. Any further discussion? All those in favor
070say I. I. >> All right. The school improvement plan is and Wendy Brownley, executive director of human resources, will present the 2526 water education association for the bargaining. Good evening. Uh tonight I'm excited to bring forward the ratified water education association contract for your approval. As you heard say ratified with a 98% success. Uh this is a one-year agreement that reflects months of thoughtful discussion and collaboration between the district and the TEA. Some of the most significant changes include a salary increase tied to the state's IPD, an adjustment to the long-term substitute rate, and the new flexibility for certificated staff this year with the data they may use for preparation or cash out at the year's end. We also reached an agreement on a new evaluation form for our ESA staff. In addition, we developed
071several um that are going to be um continuing our joint work to uh do some important work between the district and TEA on um I think four differentus if I remember correctly. Um yeah and so I also want to um just the reason I'm doing notes today is because it's late and I don't want to look at anybody's name. So I want to take a moment to recognize the TEDer education association marketing committee for their professional respectful and collaborative approach they brought to the table. So please join me and Angel Grimer, Ronda Crawford, Lorie Tibbitz, and Chris Hudson for their hard work and commitment to finding solutions that serve both students and staff. And then I want to also publicly thank our uh the district's bargaining committee and um Mr. Ber, John O'Neal, Minkle, Ben,
072and serve as representative. So um again, I'm just asking that we approve the 2526 contract. Any questions? I will entertain a motion for action. I move that we approve the 2563. All right. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor of approving the 2526 TVA collective bargaining agreement, please say I. >> All right. It's approved as presented. Thank you. And more action items. So Megan Dawson is going to present a second read on policies 2230 transition to kindergarten program 3143 notification and dissemination of information about student offenses and threat of violence or harm and 3210 nondiscrimination. Thank you. Um so 2230 is the transition to kindergarten policy. Um I brought this forth last month. Um, it basically gives us guidance as a district of how do we be sure that our program serves eligible students
073for for how does our program serve eligible students of all abilities who need additional preparation for kindergarten. Um, we follow state compliance RCWS. Um, we ran TK last year and we're continuing to run it this year. Uh, it goes into detail about eligibility and enrollment and then how we assess the students and how we report out. Um, my recommendation is that the school board move forward with approving policy 2230. Uh, I'm hoping we can kind of do these as a slate if possible. >> No, no, we don't. Okay. Um, so we'll do one at a time. We we also need to add one another from the script. Um policy useful school facilities. Yes, I think that if I can wing it. >> Okay. So, we'll so we'll proceed with 2K one first and then we'll
074move on to the next one. So, all right. Any questions on TK? Motion for action. >> Make a motion to that policy as >> second. >> All those in favor of approving policy say I. >> I. >> All right. Policy 2230 passes. Next we'll do 3143. Yes. 3143 is the notification and dissemination of information about juvenile offenses and threats of violence or harm. Um it gives the audit findings and legislative response about how school districts were responding to um student criminal offenses and it put forth recommendations on how school principles and school districts should handle um both their legal responsibility um and concerns about violating student confidentiality. Um, House Bill 1191 brought forth the improvements and this policy um provides consolidation and clarity. Um, it supports compliance and it also protects student privacy in certain
075situations. It ensures staff are appropriately informed to maintain school safety. My recommendation is that the school board um approve policy 3143. Any questions for 314? entertain a motion for action. >> Recommend we approve policy 3143 as presented. >> Any discussion? All right. All those in favor of approving policy 3143 is presented say I. >> I. Passes. Next we will do 3210. 3210 is our non-discrimination policy. Uh this was brought forth by WASA in July 2025. It reflects um our district's ongoing commitment to equity, inclusion, and legal compliance. Um the policy was updated to emphasize students right to an education educational environment free from discriminatory harassment. Um in the markedup version, you'll see that it adds the categories of ethnicity, homelessness, immigration or citizenship status, and neuro diverence. Um, under educational impact, um, my memo points
076out that it promotes student well-being, it empowers staff and administrators, gives clear guidance for reporting and investigating, and resolving complaints. Um, I would recommend that this board approve policy 3210. Any questions on entertain a motion for action that we adopt second? Any discussion? I've been advised to abain from policy. >> Any other discussion? All right. All those in favor of moving 3210, please say I. >> I. policy is adopted. So, uh the last one then 4260 is the school facilities. Just as by way of refresher, policy 4260 uh pertains to facility use by outside groups. This is a policy change clearly adoption of the model within the modifications by the district. The most significant change is that in that first section of the policy um it makes clear various categories by which the district will
077not discriminate in facility use including race, religion, color and other factors and then that model policy amendment incorporates four new categories, gender, homelessness, immigration status. Any questions for none? I will entertain a motion for action policy 426 facilities as presented. Second. >> Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of adopting policy 4260 please say I see passion pass. >> Okay. Thank you everyone. We will now move on to the superintendent. >> Thank you. Um I want to start out this is we kind of talk about doing a strategic spotlight and this month I'd like to just call out our Black Lake Elementary Services team. So um this was just sort of how students were were greeted by them. um their one of their cooks, Norma Hansen, created this beautiful display that says, "We feed
078the cutest bees in the hive." And so has the flowers and honeycombs and all those great creative touches that she put in there. Um this reflects our strategic plan by a commitment to nurture and a safe and welcoming environment for learning and work. And one of the things that I'm trying to kind of highlight in some of this, you'll hear more about our strategic plans between some of our work sessions and really in the academic side. This is where we also um every department creating goals around our strategic plan. Every whether you're a food service, a custom of building the ground team, HR, business services, they are all creating goals and action items related to this. And so again, I wanted to kind of point out some of these things that have a direct relationship
079to our strategic plan. So great job, Black Lake. This month we do celebrate from September 16th or September 15th to October 15th um Hispanic Heritage Month. a time to celebrate the vibrant cultures, traditions, and countless contributions of our Hispanic and Latino Americans in our schools, communities, and nation. This year's theme is honoring our past and defending our future. It invites us to reflect not only on the deep cultural roots that shape our communities, but also the ongoing resilience and strength of our Latino and Hispanic families across generations. In our area, everyone's invited to attend Lula Fest, a free community uh festival. September 27th from 1 to 8:00 p.m. is kind of around the historical Capitol Theater in downtown Olympia. So, um I welcome everyone to attend that. And I just want to again say let's
080continue to work together to create school environments where every student feels seen, valued, and supported achieving their fullest potential. Again, very much in alignment to our strategic plan. I'm pleased to share that the Tom Water School District has once again been recognized by the best of South Sound awards as highlighted in the Olympian this year. Four of our schools received honors as um and so I want to just reflect the outstanding commitment of our staff, students, and broader school community. Black Hills High School received the gold. That was the second consecutive year that they've received the gold award. Come middle school received the silver. New Market School Center silver and Black Lake Elementary the bronze. These awards are based on community nominations. Have over 331,000 votes passed across 215 categories. This recognition underscores the strong
081community of sports for our schools, the positive impact our teams have in the South region. We are incredibly proud of these schools and their continued excellence. So, we celebrate and reflect on the hard work and dedication happening throughout the district. I wanted to point out that September also marks attendance awareness month and this year's national theme is here today ready for tomorrow emphasizing the critical link between consistent attendance academic success and future opportunities. Chronic absence remains a serious concern across the country with nearly one in four students affected. In Tumb Water, 29% of our students meet the definition of chronic absence which is defined as missing 10% over the school year. So that's roughly two days per month and that that really goes for any reason. So we kind of call chronic absences through the
082national count of city campaign and resources. Um our educators, families and community partners are encouraged to work together to raise awareness, implement positive strategies and improve attendance. This includes some universal support that promotes belonging as well as team targeted interventions for students. And I know all of our teams as a part of our strategic plan talks about attendance and so we'll see some of those efforts going on throughout the district. And lastly tonight, I want to share a student report. And so I don't know if you might have seen this. This is Eva Shaw. She is a Twater High School student and winner of the Timberland News Library level up at the library challenge. Eva is a regular at the Tumbwater branch and she uses her passion for video game design. is a a a
083program called Blender, which is a free 3D software to create or level up library submission. Um, I wanted to show she does a little bit of an interview. If you're watching, there's a little delay for >> I go to water high school. I am parttime at New Market Skill Center, but I'm also parttime running start at SCSC. The library that I is temporary library. I I do a lot of random theme ads and things on my YouTube. So, I just thought it was one of those. I was like, "Oh, this is a cute little project." And then I was like, "Wait, this is for Timberland and I wanted to do a project this summer." So, that was it was kind of like, "Okay, let me see what I can do for it." I am in
084computer science and game design class. So, that was kind of like that's all I do at the library. I will come here. I will work on games. That's And then I was like, well, what else do I do at the library? So I kind of made a big list of everything I do at the library that focus at school but also at home and stuff. I approached it similar to how I approach games. You want to start with a game design document. So it was kind of similar. I was like what ways could I interpret this video? And then I would go okay this is all of the frames that I'd want for this video. And then I started just like labeling it. I was like okay these pieces look good here. How do I
085think it should move on from there? I've had to learn over the last school year all about Blender which is a 3D modeling service I think and that is what I learned how to model and animate in uh just that process of finishing the first scene and then seeing it come together and I'm like oh I could actually probably do this and complete it in I think just competing and putting yourself out there is a really important skill. I almost didn't even make the deadline, but I was like, I will try. And I did it. And I'm I'm happy I won, but I I also think a lot of them were really awesome. So, congrats to everyone who even competed. Just doing it helps build some confidence. >> Would you like to see your first
086and I thought it's like it's good to highlight some of our students. I think sometimes, you know, our our students get a bad rap sometimes just in media and I think it's a great example. Um, our kids are ready to take on the world. And so she's a great example of that. Here is her submission. [Music] >> Whether I'm waiting after school, in my home, or I'm visiting with my family, the library provides resources to help me, no matter where I am, get things done. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up. Okay, now I'm going to tell you about all the benefits that I use while I'm at the library. Each month, I get free printing after school projects. It saves a bunch of time, but also money when deadlines hit. [Music] I also place holds on
087textbooks and novels that help me in school. I love the ease of online requests and in library. [Music] From home, I log into TRL's online library for research tools, ebooks, and also homework to help. Even my mom will love through the library. She uses genealogy tools to trace our family tree. She's discovered stories about my great grandmother settling to Washington and family or records we never knew existed. Okay, getting back to what I was saying. [Music] Timberland Library isn't just a business or a few buildings. It's a launch pad, a story hub, a memory keeper, and it's how I level up. [Music] Thank you, Superintendent. We'll now move on to the board member reports. Director Adams, legislative report. >> So, I'm the legislative rep this year and um one of the groups that's very important
088to school boards is the Washington State School Directors Association. They act as a heard that proposed model policies and stuff for the school board to review and go and see if we want to adopt etc. And they also help provide guidance on uh teaching us about how to uh make good judgments on policies and procedures and stuff. So on Saturday they had their big general assembly um and they had 124 delegates log in um and this is where they reviewed and voted on priorities for the upcoming legislative session. The idea there is it will set what the school board should try to lobby their legislators, their representatives um and hopefully help the school district have improvements. Um Melissa here and she wasn't just representing us but she is the presidentele. Okay. And so that's a
089big thing for our board. Um some of the main areas of course that the association is is focusing on is these are things that we I don't want to say suffered through but anyway like different things that we've had to have some challenges um and so we want to have the legislature focus on this. So one of the items uh that we want to focus on will be increased budget stability. There's Ben. Yeah. So I think Ben would be a supporter of that um among all of us. Um school funding for basic education which seems like that's been a goal for um more money for transition to kindergarten which kind of a new item. Um, but I think that I think we had good results from that funding, more funding for early learning, uh, increased
090support for school safety. And these would be things such as pedestrian paths, uh, safer bus routes, etc., things like that. Um, increased uh, dollars for multilingual learning, increased stability. Again, that's another issue that we the flow of is really import because we have certain things a little bit uh less kind of condensed and get it spread out over the school year. I think that would help and increase support for student health. So those are the areas that would the list is long when I was little from Santa. mother would tell that needed to scale it down and that might be my recommendation number. Um, and that's what they're going to do. Exactly that. We're going to uh go through uh these different proposals and try to narrow it down to fewer number. Um, the other
091uh area that they focus on making a representative for school boards is increase support for school board uh continuing ed and uh professional develment. I think that's always important because it's certainly good for uh distant school board members and new school board members to learn about the their jobs handling policy and procedure monitor superintendent. Um uh another thing I I found that they were important area that they focused on was uh increasing the routes to teacher certification. So they're they're trying to increase the availability of teachers so we can get more teachers to help with educational process. Um, and one that they voted couple that they voted against I thought was kind of interesting. One of them was they voted not to provide increased protection for school athletics professionals. Um they said that the general
092vote of those 120 something people was that they prefer to keep that at the local level at the school districts themselves to decide what kind of protection might be needed for the uh professional the professionals who help the athletic stuff. Another one that was brought and that was turned down was a uh focus uh on climate change education. I was somewhat surprised by that. Um I think World War II. But the idea was is that they voted that instead of supporting um climate change education specifically that the general consensus was that they wanted us to support science fundamentals. I think to help students have a broader based uh education in science and hopefully that would translate to better education better. Um I know one of our prior school board members Scott He was always thought
093that science was getting neglected some. So I was heartened that there was a realization that we do need to focus on science. And that's pretty much it. The next step is now is going to uh kind of go over things, narrow it down, and I think we'll probably end up with five or six areas of focus. And then that will be my job then to report that. Any questions? >> Yes. You said that the So this is the WASDA the general assembly. >> Yes. Their annual general assembly where they vote on priorities. >> So the WASDA general assembly voted on the athletic training. Well, the specific thing was is to uh so what happens is different school districts boards presenting proposals and uh one of them was to they voted not to provide increased protection
094for school athletics professionals >> and I also they wanted it was athletic it was like referees and stuff they wanted to expand the definition beyond athletic professionals, a good term, but like um like a mock trial judge, you know, like other adults who are coming in and um you know, serving students in the same way as a referee would you get the language. I I just wanted to make that just adding that that that was part of it too that the title was about athletics but then they start adding on all these other athletics coach since that was part of the conversation as well. >> So follow up on this one. >> This is the current the current position is still there. It just they just wanted to add other people to it and the
095other people didn't get added to it. >> Yes, we did. >> So the original position went forward. >> Uh the new position did not >> want to keep it at the local level. >> Okay. That and that's what I want to come back. >> So I will that we have number 27. >> I only saw the high level so I didn't I will dive into the 27. My qu it's not you guys to answer. I just think it's ironic that a state association that all voluntarily join the WIAA every single May which I fully applaud. They asked that actually came up. They said we don't need a presence. >> That's smart. So, so then I guess we need to go to WA and say no actually you don't have a local position. But it seemed
096like maybe it was doing maybe some districts were trying to strongarm WIA in some type of manner essentially through WA and then got rejected. >> Oh yeah. I I don't know if that happened, but I think it was really about adding to the officials that are covered by WIA. So, it went beyond 27. >> Yeah, look at 27 added language. >> So, um thanks Jill. You so you described they um in WASDA, but you voted for some water, correct? >> Correct. >> Okay. So, is we it's the school boards. It's not a a day. Okay. >> Yes. And so when it comes time to the narrowing down, we also get to come up with our And so are we going to receive some information from you? >> I said I'll give a presentation again once
097they're supposed to be. >> Yeah. The final list. Yeah. >> Okay. So will that be at the I mean >> it could be the next meeting. session coming up in October or it may not be dependent upon >> when is it new. >> We we we just got an email that says so we get to prioritize and tell law what the priorities are then they're going to tell us what our votes are. I think that's what they'll be asking about. They're going to send that out to us for us to >> provide input to you. >> Yeah. So, so then >> Okay. So, yeah, >> preiminary. >> Yeah. So, if you can send that to us so we can provide feedback like we've done in the past. So, then each board member is able to
098weigh in on what Tom Water prioritizes for our I'll move on to comments about two minutes and like first jump right in first uh Kevin let me tag along to some of the school visits uh as the school year has started um and so I have visited about half of the schools and it's amazing how much our teachers and principles already know about the kids that they have and I was there in the first week uh standing in front of Peter G, walking kids in and um there's just a lot there's a lot of families in our in our staff know who they all are already. So, it's that is a really nice thing. Also got to see the two lunch situation at To Middle School. It switched from 3 to two. Um and we
099were worried about there being too many kids. There's a lot of kids in the commons areaing that everyone is figuring it out. Uh, so that was also fun to watch. Uh, yeah, it's been great to finally took Darby's advice and went to a spin meet and went to one last week and it was really great. I got they uh was watching some races and then everyone gathers around the diving area like everyone watches all the divers. There's like five or six out of 30 40 kids that are there and everyone is sitting around that dive pool watching um these dives and um uh Lily, one of our former schoolboard uh uh student reps is is one of the divers. So, it's fun to um watch her do her thing. I had to imagine um having
100to twist my body around to do that. So, uh, it's been great getting out and seeing kids in their classrooms, but also in >> I want to thank our bargaining group. Thank you guys for being with us. I appreciate it. It's a long commitment for sure. we forget about it on the side. But does a good great job at CA as well too. Um um I am very much looking forward to our SRO discussion and our book session. I will help facilitate that as needed. I'm sure Jan and Jay would be more than happy to come in and talk about this great program. Um there are some things happening in our district for sure. People getting back to school very excited positive stories and several kids what their favorite subject is and picking out lunch
101and PE and music library. It's math. So I was very glad to hear that math favorite. Um some other Bad things I've noticed that things are terribly in this district pretty much you know election campaign signs destroyed and stolen vandalized people slandering candidates former teachers physically and verbally assaulting campaign teachers discriminatory speech it's not a And I say we should do better, but I don't know how we do that other than calling you out and having everyone else say this is enough. Stop the ridiculous people. Um so I just uh again thanks to the bargaining team I know how stressful and long that process can be but that's done with. Um the other thing I wanted to say is as a father of four kids I'm excited to have some school on summer break. Um
102but uh just going to the the strong start um with the teachers just at the beginning of the year and just continue to be blown away by how fantastic my kids teachers are. My kids teachers as far as um sessions went blown away by how how much fun my kids have going to school and learning and the teachers have just been outstanding. So um I love I love the fact that the other I went to a Black Hills football game and football game in the last couple weeks. So good to see the community coming out to the football games. That's kind of the big event around here in the fall. So excited that it's everyone's back in school next football season and fun to see both high schools out there. And then the last thing
103just a quick When we were talking about the SRO thing, I mentioned it was a $610,000 sum um in the threeear contract kind of get two officers that is two officers, but I want to clarify school district still pay 610,000. So there's there's still two police officers. It's actually$1.2 million to cover these two officers for the next three years. Um, and we are getting a good deal to pay for one of them, but we still have a responsibility to the public to look into options. So, I'm looking forward to that as well. Um, and >> I'll just be very brief because you had a lot for me already. Um, I do want to and very very impressed with how very hard very working so well to help us All right. Um, so I want to
104extend my gratitude to uh Ben and his team for um always bringing in such great financial information. Um, fiscal stewardship is one of the core functions of the school board and one of the goals that this board in particular has had for many years and we've worked uh really really hard to be as transparent as possible over the last several years about our situation. Um, I might argue that that's one of the one of the positive things that has helped some of our our situations um and our contracts and stuff is is just making making all of that as clear as possible and I think that team has done a phenomenal job. Um, I really appreciate the extra information that came tonight. Um, the ley certification as it was mentioned is something we always do,
105but there was a little more of a highlight to it because of the policy change this year and Like I've mentioned in previous board meetings, um, one of the reasons why it's really important for the community to be aware of this is because this is a like an actual impact change. This is something that doesn't just impact people in the schools. This is literally a taxare um thing. And so um, I look forward to continuing to encourage people to learn more about that. Um, I'm also looking forward to the October work session where we'll have the opportunity to do a little bit of a deeper dive on some things. Uh, one of the things that we're going to talk about, we're going to wrap up kind of a final wrapup of our existing board goals
106and kind of a revisit to the student learning goals that we put in place a couple years ago. And um, part of those is again I keep talking about the SBA data because that is directly tied to our goals and I will a little uh a little preview. Um I I went and looked and did a quick comparison already and we're actually uh looking pretty good. So I'm excited to have that deep dive and talk about that more successes. All right, no further business coming before the board. We are adjourned at 7:15.