001[Music] he [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] hey [Music] hey e e I would like to call the meeting order to the microphone um and acknowledge that the T Water School District sits on the ancestral land of the Nali spon Island and J people I thank these caretakers of the land who have lived on and continue to live on the land since time immemorial please rise as Z Ste leads us in the flight sleep superintendent baton have there been any changes or additions to the agenda since it was published no changes or additions to the agenda right all those in favor of approving the agenda as presented please signify by saying I I all those opposed agenda is approved as presented now we'll move on to meeting
002Minutes review um has uh the minutes from the January 23rd and February 13th meetings have been distributed to the board are there any changes or all those in favor of the of approving January 23rd and February 13 meeting minutes please signify by saying I I all those opposed meeting the minutes are approved now we'll move on to consent agenda the items on the consent agenda have been provided to the board are there any questions or discussion all those in favor of approving the consent agenda please signify by saying I I all those opposed the consent agenda is is approved as presented now we'll move on to student reports um the question for February is what efforts are being made to celebrate diversity and ensure Equitable opportunities for all students how are diversity and Equity efforts
003impacting students day-to-day experiences who would like to go first hello uh the first question that I asked our student body was do you feel like tum water is inclusive for all 24% said no and 76% said yes I asked what efforts are being made to celebrate diversity and ensure Equitable opportunities for all students uh T High School incorporates several efforts to promote inclusivity cultural responsiveness and equable opportunities for all students students have access to clubs that celebrate and support minority groups such as the GSA which is the gender and sexual sexuality Alliance and cultural Affinity groups fostering a sense of community and belonging semi-weekly meetings provide a space for students to discuss challenges and successes ensuring their voices are heard the school also utilizes V visual representation including posters flags and picture walls to acknowledge
004and celebrate diversity particularly during designated Heritage months like black History Month these materials help create an environment where students feel seen and valued announcements in the school's publication the palen Highlight diversity related topics and events further reinforcing an inclusive School culture uh I asked the students what we can IND what we can do to improve some of these efforts and they said promote inclusive events in small businesses improve teacher discussions on equity and equality increase awareness through posters announcements and assemblies uh recognize more cultural holidays with possible days off and take stronger action against ha speech um that's all for me good evening as far as equality and inclusivity are concerned Cascadia High School is home to one of the most inclusive communities I've been a part of in the T School District I've attended
005Cascadia high school for about two full school school years now and I've have yet to witness any form of violence bullying or harassment our other student representative Natalie Jennings has attended the school year a year longer than I have it shares the same experiences one traditional way Cascadia High School makes an effort to support diversity equity and inclusion is by providing a diverse variety of clubs so that every student can find something to participate in the club options are theater and film games of chance turkey and bacon Dungeons and Dragons walk and talk with the school counselor and a bipod Club one of the more significant factors contributing to tadas and T of environment is the strong student teacher relationships because teachers and students Shar a mutual respect for one another it creates a comfortable
006environment where students genuinely enjoy coming to school to see their friends and teachers the common consensus regarding of students regarding this topic is that Cascadia High School welcomes and accepts all individuals regardless of student culture or identity at Black Hills High School students feel a sense of belongings students are off okay students are offered with clubs on every other Friday we have about 30ish different clubs that vary from very different top different topics at Black Hill High School admin is very supportive and students almost always feel conf confident going to talk to them and feeling like their problems do get resolved with that being said almost everybody at Black Hill High School do feel a sense of belonging and a a sense St all right thank you students um so now we'll move on to
007public comment before we begin I would like to remind members of the public that if you wish to have to have addressed the board during public comment portion of this meeting you would have needed to fill out the public comment form available on the district website by noon today if you miss this opportunity you are welcome to sign up for the next regular board meeting or email your comments to the board and or superintendent contact information is on the district website Becky I know we received submissions uh Becky will so Becky will read off your name and then you'll have three minutes lindsy Fields can someone see if Lindsay Fields is out there hey Becky too L price just just suggest have just call two at once and so we have someone waiting to go
008yeah yeah thank you okay TAA hog he Mr Ric I will email you the list thank you my name is Tila Hogle and my pronouncer she her um is a privilege and honor I to serve on the board of piz clatch and work in three schools throughout th County and the reason we are in the schools is to counter the effects bullying has on lgbtq Youth and to keep them alive we know that suicide rates are higher among lgbtq Youth and that is why we are in the schools and this is something the school recognizes and um we really appreciate and I know the students appreciate us being there um in regards I was coming to discuss bullying and I think we all know what bullying can do um you know just over a year
009ago next Benedict had died after being beat up in the bathroom just for existing and you know here we just have a trans student in Shelton enjoying five minutes of trans joy and this is the kind of response it feels like is coming from the school district is to eliminate trans people or trans girls from girls Sports and and I don't think segregation is the solution to an equity problem around this um I know it's hard to teach at a time when when bathrooms are blocked in Congress and now a basketball court in kwat high school for a young girl I just have one question how many trans students here play on WIA teams in Tom water and is it worth creating an entire policy for that many I don't think you're protecting the safety
010of any by eliminating the right of a trans student to participate in sports thank you thank you Sarah comes up I just want to remind people if you haven't had an opportunity to address the board this is not a time for a discussion with us this is a time for us to listen so if we don't answer it's out of disrespect it's it's because it's our turn to listen good evening my name is Sarah wall and I am a parent of three children in the tat School District Two of which who have graduated and one which is currently enrolled I've been observing the recent online conversations about trans players and was really concerned with some of the comments I've seen including some very derogatory comments about transgender students and athletes there are already issues with
011harassment and bullying in the schools if we listen to these voices what are we encouraging it seems that the Tumwater student who sat out of the game with Sheldon as well as the Shelton trans girl who played are being used as political ponds to further an adult agenda anytime these discussions rear their head harm is done to the transgender community and I want to encourage you as a school board members as you navigate these issues to remember to cultivate a culture of respect kindness and empathy to all students including our amazing trans kids my intent in speaking today was to provide support for these trans kids that may be hurt by these conversations and include you to do the same I see that you are looking at passing a resolution tonight that will support and
012approve WI a amendments seven and8 which will remove transgender girls from playing on our girls teams the reasoning your resolution States is that the current policies are not safe or fair I would like to ask that prior to approving this resolution you ask yourselves if you have done enough research on matter or if you are making decisions based on political and parental pressure what evidence do you have that the transgender students are creating unsafe gameplay are the trans students more likely to cause injury than than their cisgendered counterparts I hear about protecting biological girls in bathrooms and locker rooms have there been assaults documented uh from trans girls in these environments are there solutions that don't involve removing a previously held right to play because in my research I have not found the evidence to
013support your assertion that trans girls create an unsafe game also have you done the research to show that it isn't fair in the incident with the Tumwater Shelton game the trans girl played five minutes and tumat won the game fairly are there many trans girls who have created unfair playing situations in Washington are there other solutions that don't involve taking this right away from the trans girls also this will will this create an unsafe situation for our trans girls will our trans girls be safe on our men's teams why are girls safe to play on men's teams but it isn't safe for trans women to play on girls teams if you cannot unequivocally say that you have done the research to support your assertion that trans girls are creating unsafe and unfair environments please either
014vote this resolution down or delay it while you complete research on this matter please allow students to play ball and please stop putting please put a stop to parents questioning the sex of students please support staff members in investigating potential bullying incidents if we allow bullying on the courts we are encouraging it in the classroom as well a culture of supporting trans kids thank you [Applause] Jeff before you start what is the what's the can we shut the door okay can we shut the door then can move farther is really distracting to can we shut the doors it if if you're if you're streaming can you step away from the door yeah thank you thank you team effort thank you all right Jen good evening and thank you for your service to our community my
015name is Jeff lawyer and I live in unincorporated thiren County I'd like to talk about allowing trans girls to to play sports you see this is not just an academic exercise for me I have some skin in the game I have two young granddaughters who will attend Washington State schools where and I quote Public Schools must allow all students to participate in physical education and Athletics that correspond to their gender identity unquote I want my granddaughters to be as safe as possible but I also hope they'll play sports and if possible they might compete with or as transgender athletes the two issues commonly brought up against trans athletes are number one what about a very large strong trans girl dominating Andor bullying he's just my friend that I discuss this with specifically mentioned soccer where
016there's a lot quite a bit of contact he was afraid of cisgender girls getting hurt second what about the unfair advantages of trans girls might have over cisgender girls granting them more trophy scholarships Etc first I'd like to emphasize the fact that studies show apprx at least 50% of trans youth attempt suicide imagine having a 50% chance of coming home to find your child suicided regarding the issue of trans girls dominating and or bullying I have personally known many trans girls and women and I have only known one whom I thought might dominate in sports because of her sheer size and strength I've known many cisgender girls and women of which I can could say the same when I coach my daughter in soccer we often saw unusually large girls but the opposing dealers dealt
017with that taking advantage of the weaknesses that came with larger size mostly less agility or redouble team them for instance and rules exist in all sports to reduce the risk of harm to smaller athletes I don't think my granddaughters will be in significant danger because of this policy regarding the issue of unfair advantages the fear I have of my granddaughters possibly losing some games trophies or scholarships is insignificant compared to that of them or their friends suiciding should they turn out to be transg I don't have a problem possibly granting some trans athletes some advantages given the enormous challenges faced by them and the incredible hope it can give to trans Youth and saving their lives all sports are inherently risky but we balance the incredible benefits for our children against those risks I believe
018that the benefits of allowing transgender girls and women to participate in sports far outweigh the risks I proud you Jeff it's your time good evening I'm John Kelly I have a grandchild who splits his time between Olympia and tomw water thank you for your service tonight I hope that when my grandkid starts playing team sports the coaches will look out for every kid's safety including my grandkids and that they'll ensure safety by looking at the kids height weight musculature that's what makes for safe Sports when I was in high school I was about as tall as I am now uh quite a lot sker um and if I'd gone out for football I would have been mashed to a PO by guys twice myself son nobody would have stopped me but if I had been
019a girl twice my size they would have put me on the girl scene and then I would have mashed other girl into a PO what is wrong with this picture you see what's wrong nobody ever got their arm broken by a chromosome separating kids by their sex doesn't keep them safe we all love our children and grandchildren we want them to be safe and I think the district has been doing very well so far by treating them as individuals and going with kinesiology and Common Sense not with politics I appreciate the district's treating students with respect including transparents in accordance with state law and common decency so far the radical rights talk of safety and protecting our girls in sports is a red herring it's a deception it lets us reject the rest of their
020hateful reric and accept this one little thing that seems kind of reasonable and tomorrow there will be some other little thing and we've said yes to the first thing so now it's kind of hard to turn around and step by step that's how we get the USS so I will I hope you will I hope you will vot down this resolution tonight thank [Applause] you good evening board members and community members I initially signed up to speak tonight to express my sincere thanks to the Tumwater school school district for standing with Shelton's transgender player and upholding their legal right to participate in the recent girls basketball game I also commend the district for investigating the bullying and hate speech directed at them by some tomw water players however during my research I came across the
021proposed changes to the WIA rules as well as tonight resolution supporting a ban on transgender female athletes this proposal directly challenges the inclusive values we uphold in Washington state Washington's law explicitly prohibits discrimination based on gender identity superintendent Chris Rik doall has made it clear our schools will stand against discrimination and hate and only an act of Congress not an executive order can override Washington's laws let's be absolutely clear hate and fear are like a disease infecting our communities and harming not only transgender youth but all young people our responsibility as Educators parents and Community lead leaders is not to perpetrate fear but to Foster knowledge empathy and respect if we encounter something we don't understand we must learn grow and model the values we claim to teach our children are watching this proposed policy
022is not just a step backward it mirrors the same flawed reasoning being used to justify racial segregation in new sports decades ago in the 1950s black athletes were excluded under the guys of fairness with claims that their so-called biological differences would ruin competition these arguments weren't about fairness they were about exclusion and fear and they were wrong now we see the same logic being used against transgender athletes despite a lack of scientific evidence supporting claims of unfair Advantage they're being told they don't belong and let's be real suggesting an open league for transgender and non-binary youth is nothing more than a modern-day version of saying black leagues and segregated bathrooms were sufficient during the Civil Rights era this proposal isn't about protecting fairness it's about policing identity in Washington state where our laws promote inclusion
023this policy directly contradicts both our values and our legal protections 50 years from now people would look back on this debate the same way we look back at the segregation of the past the question is where will you stand I urge this board to reject this discriminatory policy history will remember the choice you make today thank you [Applause] hello I'm Micky Matson I am a Head tennis coach at a neighboring District due to recent events both in our W and a JB uh tum water basketball game I want to discuss trans athletes I want to make it clear I'm not an expert I'm still learning but I am knowledgeable I'm currently majoring in biology and was once a high school female athlete who computed with and against trans athletes I want to remind everybody this
024is US versus them or I'm right you're wrong when it comes to discussing children there's no dignity in that everyone wants safety and fairness in sports and in life my goal is help ease the burden that fear places in our hearts when we're facing something new we protect children only when we arm ourselves with knowledge not when we pressure our schools to make peace to decisions the parents and athletes who are outraged and driven by confusion I want you to know I understand anything that shakes our world view is scary anything new is tough but I want everyone that transgender people have always existed in fact the term was added to the Marin Webster dictionary in 1974 long before this isgender term in the 90s in some indigenous tribes trans people were referred to as
025true Spirit trans people just haven't always felt safe to come out in our culture as a biology major in a coach I won't claim that biology is irrelevant when it comes to sports but I will offer this biological sex is not strictly binary there's also not enough science to support to claims that boys are stronger or faster women have historically been left out of exercise science and studies assume to just be smaller men or that our menstrual cycle takes you data um they're now finding that actually not only can we compete with men but we can dominate them in sports regardless we're still missing decades and centuries of research on female athletes I also want to inform everyone that biological sex can be considered bodal but not stly binary this means their Canon often is
026overlap in dimensions of sex Continuum inex folks are an example of this in sex folks are neither male nor female but the cons sex interx smokes make up an estimated 1 to 2% of the population same as trans folks so why is no one bringing them up in this conversation you can guess that inex folks are often left out of the exercise science too when we begin to Banning trans children from Sports citing sex we open the door to begin to question every child are they girl enough we get to a slippery slope of continuing to violate human rights of violating our state and federal Constitution I want to encourage the school district to not F that mistake I want to remind everyone that in your anger we are still discussing children we are discussing
027human beings who have always and always will exist I also want to remind everyone that it was not too long ago white people were scared of people of color in schools also citing faulty biology it was harmful this all stands to prove that in order to truly protect children we must open our minds and arm ourselves with knowledge we only harm when we ban what we do not understand please do not hesitate as forces thank you [Applause] good evening my name is Gabriel I am I am Tom's FFA president I've been to a meeting prior to this where you guys discuss to your body during this meeting you guys you guys stated that you were going to be as clear as possible started contradicting your old things because of this students like myself who came
028wanting answers never got got those because they could sorry because you guys didn't communicate clearly with us audience as a school school board it is part of your job to make sure we students are taking care when it comes to our academic Le but to be able to help us academically you need to understand the effects of your decisions that the effects of your decisions have on us we students are paying for your decisions with our teachers in the past meeting students spoke about their thoughts now I may not know the full story of your decision plenty of students saw eye rolling flares and overall uncon fessional behavior from this side of board before the meeting about 18 students emailed you to get their voices out and those who got responses Scot dear student thank
029you for sharing your thoughts and those who done sorry thank you for sharing your thoughts I appreciate your perspective all of your actions have shown us you don't care about thiss if you did you would have listened you would have been clear in communication respond to emails with more than just two sent I understand that Finance was an extremely important Factor at the moment but because of this you guys have turned a blind eye towards the students because of this Blind Eye there has been more bullying and harassment a lot of students struggle with grades and their mental health in the past meeting there was a conversation about perfect graduate what the perfect graduate looks like you said the perfect graduate would have support every form of support you are taking away from the students
030talk about programs and sorry uh programs like fres without fresh experence struggled um was struggling to be able toate or may not find the motivation to graduate you should be aware of this by now because St she spoke up at the last you said you keep this away from the classroom while keeping away something from away some sorry gel take a deep breath you said you keep this away from the question oh can you can you try to put the mic down also so oh sorry you said you keep this away from while taking away subjects that seems find enjoyable andov I hope you guys actually put this speech into consideration when thinking about your future decisions thank you good evening um I'm Amelia Dasha I go to tomw high school I was here at
031the prior meeting to discuss the budget cut and I was on I was here on behalf of fresh now I'm here on behalf of my community and the students that I go to school with among other things I have not seen much progress progress or progression in anything that was listed or um okay okay the last meeting I was more here on more than just behalf of fresh fresh was a program that is inclusive and supportive of not just kids who struggle with things but also a community that includes the lgbtq and others and seeing how the last meeting went and the reactions we got from people like Gabby said we had received certain notes from other people not just us we OB ered ey rolling size looking away no one on the board except
032for Ty and Jill gave us any reaction or any like any seemed to care to want to protect and be there for the students there was no claims or actions to protect the students there was a what can this be what can be done to help the budget that we made the mistake of we have not gotten any communication of what we would provide and saving money for by cutting fresh or what would like what that would do for the community as a whole we haven't been nothing has been communicated and this is only done this was only done because a of a mistake that was a miscommunication in the beginning of the year and it is not fair and I believe that we all need a chance to get to be actually heard cuz
033from my perspective I do not feel heard by the board and I think that we need a proper and actual chance of being seen and actually heard not just listened to because you guys say that you are listening but you are not listening you are just hearing our words you will not put it into the perspectives of the students and along with all of these people I believe that we all deserve the right to be able to be safe in our community and have the chance of actual education and the chance to graduate [Applause] Becky did we find lindsy Fields by CH I don't want to lose oh oh oh got it okay so I didn't read that part okay never mind sor hi I'm Heather Dober and I'm a second grade teacher at Michael
034T Simmons Elementary and tonight I'd like to start by expressing my disappointment in the financial decision to hire Mr Ric as the superintendent of finance and operations this year from my understanding after email communication with superintendent bogatin regarding this matter in late August the position was hired after interviewing for the executive director position and determining the job that previously was done by one person was big enough that we needed two highly paid Physicians to do the job I can't wrap my head around p in the midst of a budget crisis that the board admittedly has been aware of since last spring why was a position that is paid at a salary of $28,000 a year HED this salary is equivalent to nearly three and a half provisional teachers many of whom are losing their positions
035in the coming school year we are spending more money on our finance department than ever before while trying to cut our spending elsewhere I'm trying to make it make sense and I can't was this a board approved decision throughout the last several board meetings of the reductions in staff were being discussed I kept hearing that it's a difficult period for all of us and that we're all hurting but at the end of these meetings those of you guys making the decisions get to walk out of this room and you don't go back to the places where we feel to hurt the most every single day and when I say we feel the hurt I mean literally mentally and physically just yesterday I was sitting in a meeting with a few colleagues including administrators who had
036bruises from bites as well as scratch marks from a student issue the day before we are hurting the tumat school district motto is continuous student learning in a caring engaging environment but I need people to know that in kindergarten first and second grade classrooms throughout the district rarely is learning continuous because of the behaviors that we have disrupting our environment day in and day out at MTS this year our group of kindergarten students have required extra support since the school year started we had to fight to get extra support staff when our building administrators were responding to Radio Calls for 85% of their day these students who have exhibited behaviors such as hitting kicking punching eloping into parking lots spitting and property destruction are going to roll up into two and a half First St
037this is a logistical nightmare they are going to be in a split class this is terle first children and teachers alike the behaviors mentioned are not unique to some of our kindergarten Stu students as they happen in first and second grade too the severity changes from day today no matter how strong your classroom management skills are we cannot meet the academic needs of these students while also trying to manage student Behavior just this week as a student who was disregulated was leaving my classroom one of my students a seven-year-old let out a sigh of relief and said now I feel safe let that sink in our kids are five six seven and eight and they don't feel safe in their classrooms and there's nothing that as their teacher can do about it we may be
038saving money by cutting their teachers but are we going to have money for the lawsuits for the kids that are loping into our parking lots and the ones that are physically injured by others Ryan Mareno Marino Julie Ramsey oh Jo okay good evening my name is jly Ramsey I'm a parent to four Town Water School District student I implore you to reconsider the decision to cut the director of percussion position held by Mr kith Mitchell and keep him in his current long-standing role words cannot fully describe how much his contributions have meant to our family over the years my kid brother Dylan who turned sporting next month had the opportunity of having Mr Mitchell as his percussion instructor when he attended T High School more than 20 years ago even back then I recall my
039brother telling me about his amazing Dr instructor who not only Tau him about percussion but him inspired him to set goals Beyond High School be a Dependable person and improve his self-esteem my brother still speaks of him fondly to this day now years later my own son Jaden Ramsey a sophomore at Black Hills High School is also a percussionist Jaden and his fellow percussionist love Mr Mitchell so much and also look to him as a mentor and role mod Mr Mitchell is the glue who helps hold things together from a logistic standpoint of every single concert and performance the sheer amount of percussion that must be transferred and set up correctly and safely and every performance is all coordinated by the director of percussion Mr Mitchell uses his personal truck to haul the equipment trailer
040and spends hours each week instructing students um which provides a tremendous support to other band directors in our district as well Mr landowski Mr Harper Mr kinman Mr McDonald Etc um they're already spread paper in and I cannot even imagine how much more challenging their jobs will be if Mr M position is cut from a musician standpoint please understand that percussion is such a niche component to any music program teaching percussion music techniques equipment arm uses and requires specialized professional to impose these additional duties on other band directors would diminish the band's director's capacity to devote time with the hundreds of other band students that they teach there is a reason why so many parents want their children to attend CR water schools and a big part of it is because our music programs are
041some of the very best in Washington State I can assure you that Mr Mitchell's role and support to his music department colleagues is the biggest reason why tomw water schools continue to lead this state in music performance year after year after year because Mr Mitchell goes above and beyond so often he not only supports percussionist but he also supports band members and their families keeping the director of profession position funded will continue to support all other District music music educators to thrive in their jobs as well his role is invaluable and cutting this PR would deliver a devastating blow to the district music departments thank you to your [Applause] you Catherine Pearson Catherine Pearson I'm reading a statement from my child Lucy Pearson um hello my name is Lucy Pearson I'm currently in my second
042year at Central Washington obtaining a degree in music education as this message is likely being read I'm about to perform as a professionist in a concert at for Central Washington's symphonic band so far far it has been the time of my life and I have learned so much about performing and teaching and I am excited to one day have a career in music education my progress and excitement for my future would not be possible however without the strong music program and Educators in t in the T School District it is difficult to convey to people who have been in this area for their whole career but the music program here is something special without the music teachers here including Mr Mitchell I would have never known what to play for my addition how to prepare
043for music at the and how to prepay for music at the Colgate level even more importantly than that the music programs here taught me how to connect with a team and a community commit to practicing for excellence and believing in myself and my abilities music teachers are really at the heart of this process and even in the midst of funding and staff cuts it is really a mistake to dis to diminish the experience for future students I hope the board understands how much this program means to both current and former students and the community at large thank [Applause] you um I would also like to speak for myself um my name is Kate Pearson um many of you may have known me when I was here as Katie folk um I am the mother of
044three well three students who are in or have graduated from the tomw school district I have a junior who is in the choir program and has been since he was a sixth grader um he is on the Spectrum and being part of the choir is one of the things that keeps him going back to school um it has taught him more about being able to take feedback and Learn and Grow than any of his academic classes um it is a struggle that he is personally invested in I am also the proud mother of a seventh grade flute player who stays after school two nights a a week so that he can be part of the jazz band he played a Solo in front of high school and adults this year and I hear him practicing
045late into the evening every night so that he can be better thank you [Applause] K thank you everyone um if if you did not get a chance to speak tonight you're welcome to send an email uh to us or sign up for a public comment at our next board meeting so now we're going to move on to report to the board and John Neil Tom water Middle School principal will present his school Improvement plan wa is this is this Lindsay but so when your name was when your name was called you you didn't yeah it's loud yeah where where is she on the list what number okay you we can listen to you hold on a moment s there you go okay thank you um I'm here today not only as a dedicated staff member
046at Michael te but also as a deeply concerned parent the proposed restructuring of our six current primary classrooms in first and second grade uh excuse me into two first grades two second grades and a first second split for next school year raises serious concerns for both students and staff while I understand the district faces difficult decisions I must stress that this plan will be devastating for our students and create an impossible situation for teachers our current kindergarten and first grade students require an extraordinary level of support despite our best efforts we simply do not have the capacity to meet all of their needs building administrators have been stepping in regularly but even with their help the demands far exceed uh sorry far exceed what is manageable last month it was shared uh here from the
047principal at Peter G that she had to fish out pull-ups from the urinals from kids in first grade who are not coming to school potty drink we are seeing more and more children arrive to kindergarten in first grade without being potty trained despite having any medical reason for a delay these challenges require increased support not fewer resources so Beyond Basics writing skills we are also experiencing a huge increase in the need of managing extreme student behaviors in the K2 classrooms as an educator I see the strain this places on our teachers and as parents I am terrified for my own child because this split will affect my kid too how would you feel if your child came home and told you that they had to do a room clear because another student was throwing chairs
048or flipping desks how would you feel if while eating once another student looked at your child and said I hate you how would you feel if your child told you that nearly every day their class was disrupted by students yelling making loud noises or behaving in a way that made it nearly impossible for for the teacher to complete a lesson without the constant interruptions this is the reality of our children and our teachers are facing and it will only get worse if this restructuring moves forward the needs of our youngest Learners have changed dramatically and instead of adapting to provide the necessary support we were proposing a model that will stretch teachers even thinner a one2 split will force Educators to balance two entirely different curricula while simultaneously managing leers that already overwhelm a single
049grade classroom this is not sustainable it is not what's best for our teachers and it is certainly not best for what for our students I urge you to reconsider this plan and seek Alternatives and PRI prioritize safety stability and education for all thank [Applause] you I'm sorry what was what was your name again you didn't say Dana basan thank you all right John come on got to grab the microphone so you have 10 minutes John okay try my best all right thank you for having me tonight I'm John Neil I think it maybe the first time I met some of yall I'm new I'm new to the I'm new to the building not new to the profession I haven't had the opportunity to speak at a board meeting for four years uh and when I
050was in fan got to do all the time last four years I hadn't had the chance so I appreciate um the opportunity to talk about all the amazing things that are going on at TMS with you all and hopefully uh answer some questions as we go so again my name is John and if you seen our U that's the wrong one that won't work um if you've seen our school Improvement plan it's laid out in in mpss fashion so we're thinking tiered um tiered approaches so tier one what um all students get tier two uh what some Su students may get in tier three and more indiv individualized U um support around Behavior attendance um academics and U so if you have that paper document you will see that I tried to to u to
051to uh to make it work in this sort of in this sort of environment so tier one at at TMS we're really thinking about that in a new way um again this is something that all all students get this means in in our case all means all so um often times uh you hear about students in special ed refer to as special ed uh students students in MLL as MLL students at TMS everyone gets year one uh support because everyone is a genad student so that's s that's sort of our frame and it's it's it's it's a little bit new to our school it's something that I'm passionate about and something our team is passionate about in implementing um uh whole uh full at TMS uh one thing that's been an interesting um an interesting
052move is the fact that we're building this while flying it but I I can um happen to say that we'll be able to share some uh some cool results here tonight I'm doing it again this is what I'm thinking about all right so um one thing that's passionate um I'm passionate about it our our our SBA uh results I come from a a background of of intense School Improvement and I bring that with me everywhere I go I'm the M competitive and and I'm competitive for our kids I want our kids to be able to put their best put forward I think that we can um all sit in here and argue the merits of of theba and other um high stakes assessments but it's how our kids are judged it's how our schools are
053judged and I want our students to be able to put the best foot forward whether it's on their on their classroom assessments whether it's in theirl uh screeners or it's in the uh in the SBA or the WCA now the thing about SBA is the fact that this date is a year old and it's only uh it's only two-thirds of of our of our current um um students so when you think about SBA um we sit above the state average and I know that's that's that's not our our goal is not to be State average our goal is to is to um promote growth which I'm more interested in and preny amongst our students but this is a good start a good starting point for us um you this is all um public facing data
054that I pulled off of the ospi um report card um there there's Trends there that stand out out out to me and our team at at TMS there are certain subgroups that outperform others we're really looking at lwi income students um Hispanics um students and um um uh uh low income uh Hispanic and all students so um these are all uh forward facing data that you are welcome to look at um again this is last year we really were focusing more on what has become this year this is the I don't know if you're familiar with the state U with the Wasington state Improvement framework this is where I live a lot of my life as I grew up as a as a as an assistant principal and a principal for the last eight years
055th th this is the this is how our our schools um are measured against other schools um in the state it's a it's a one through 10 desile score the more blue score you have the more um high score that you have when we get into the orange um are those um those places where we need um we need to look at Improvement now again this is actually from from 2023 the 2024 run has not even run yet so this is not even looking at last year's data um this usually comes out the first week uh week of March this is something I Google um constantly and that web page has not been updated yet but this year this data is two years old and this is why we were um we were designated School
056of of improvement in um students in the students with disabilities category as you can see um lots of blue um there um we see with with our students with disabilities that's orange our El there are orange and our Hispanic and low income have more orange than we want now the real work is is is is is making sure that we're moving those kids and what I appreciate about the the school Improvement framework it not only looks at proficiency rates um proficiency rates are relatively um uh stable it looks at that growth that grow percentile the ELA and and mass uh medium growth percentile no matter where our our our students are it's our charge to move those students forward as measured by those High um impact uh um assessments is also um in there they
057really cool is attendance as well we'll get to that as we Mo have five minutes oh my goodness all right so I I knew this was going to be a problem so when we think about our our our goals and I'm sure you've seen our our school um Improvement plan it's in a tiered approach um our main um instruct goal is with the main business of what we do is teaching and learning out that's that's where that's how I see myself I know that's a radical that's a radical thought but I see myself as as someone who's there to support um teaching and learning um our goal is to move off this the uh the was State School Improvement framework um I've been very deep into that uh framework at at other schools we are
058currently at foundational supports but I do think when we Implement what we're doing we will see growth a little bit off of that framework um all teachers in our school have and I'm really proud of this have um have created um uh common expectations around writing every every class in our building um uses what's U uh the framework of C so claim evidence and reasoning um to attack writing whether that's in English in science and social science and even math and PE so it's something that we are really thinking about because when you when you deep dive our our data the the low hanging FR is in that right and we'll get to that right up here so the focus on theba so last week we spent we were going to snow day got us
059on our act day but we we we we actually talked about this in our in our yesterday and there and our teachers are working on it tomorrow and and on our act day coming up in March um for example we're great readers our our our reading scores are really great however our our in our writing we we we lack um and you think about not just writing but in in informational text and and argumentative we lack well be um uh behind our narrative writing so we're really going to think about targeting these these these these little hanging fruit um prepping for our um SBA that's that's new just new the some of our team but it's something we're doing um schoolwide and making sure that we're U we know we know it's on that test
060and making sure that we're um preparing our students in the best way possible and we we're we're looking at intentional rostery we uh run the assessment through home rooms so making sure that that our teachers can actually intentionally choose students who they want to test with them to set them up for the best round of success um that didn't come out very well but that shows our um that shows our current grades and and again one thing that that um that people will um say is well if we have 80 long story short there 80% of our students have a and B's and people will say well if we 80% as's and B's on Sanders based tradings where it's 90% um summative and 10% formative why is that the case and that's because we have
061several um opportunities to retake um um our assessments assess in multiple ways um assess assess one specific standard at a time whereas when we're when we sit for theba we're doing something completely different that we never asked them to do except for that one time a year and they get one shot out of so that's um we're we're 80% A's and B's across the board and if I hope you have a copy of this I'd be happy day well when I when we transition it from Power work it works gole Google messed it up so this was not John I just wanted to me you can blame me that's mine I'll I'll it was not him like I I sometimes I show him on a PowerPoint sorry about that it's it's it's working on this
062one but doesn't matter our second big um our second Big Goal around um around school improvements around behavior is one thing that was sold to me when I came in is uh John we need to really think about um those uh those uh behaviors that distract from teaching and learning in the school and our goal was to um decrease Defiance not non-compliance and disruptive behavor the big three in Middle School by 25% and we've implemented a tiered a tiered structure that's headed by our ntss data team that meets weekly um I know I'm I'm I'm skipping some of these things but some of the results will show through the through the first um semester a decrease of over 300 office referrals from last school year interesting thing is we have more we have less referrals
063but more interventions one thing that I promise my team and my families and my and my students is that we're going to protect the the learning environment so we for every referral that comes in we look our team looks at that and we um we um try to deliver the most appropriate consequence involving our team and parents and um uh students to make sure that if we have a behavioral infraction there's some learning that comes with it and we can move forward with it so we are finding some success and hopefully um that continues in the second semester you look at our at our discipline um proportionality which is something that is super important to us our white students make up 70% 60% of our population and 70% of the girls um which is which
064is different than most schools I've been in but that's just where we are one thing that really stands out out out out to us as our as our area of need is our special education uh students who make up 177% of our population but almost 40% of our referrals um that's that's something that we need to change and we need to really dig into and I've got some some as well our most common behaviors there they are disruptive conduct inappropriate language and non compliance we've often people think about middle school and fighting there's 16 instances of fight so that's eight ppes and 15 Vape offenses which are relatively low but we would like that to be to be zero um attendance is something that's probably our most challenging U thing that we that we work
065on um what we're really trying to do is focus on those tier three kids um and and our as well as our tier one um Universal interventions we have weekly meetings with our with our with our um with our mtss team and counselors with students our uh Community um engagement bars are working well here with our Mr Paris our assistant principal and our Mrs Str our attended secretary John I'm GNA ask you to wrap up I'm G to wrap up but I'm going to say one one exciting thing um one thing that's important to me is hope it's one thing that I we lead with it is Hope and one of my goals were um to get the um uh because we measure hope through Panorama to make sure that we have that to 70%
066we almost got there at 68 and and we plan to get there um during the Spring assessment and how much we belong at our schools also our goal is 70% um we're seven and that's up 7 and 9% from last year and we're and we're going to we're going to make it one thing I'm I'm going to finish with these with these two things here um cell goes past our uh our students as well and involved staff our certificate I don't I did not bribe them or anything like that but 100% of our of our certificated staff um feel like it's a positive work environment up 29% from last year and are classified are feeling Bel love too so I'm excited about that I'm also excited about together who's coming up next week we have
067courtne in our in our building who's just a rockar and I just hope she can come back because she's not just their um she's a member of our mtss team that really supports our kids um and families and that's really cool about Tom water I'm glad that we have it and then finally um one thing that we talked about is that that um how do we what do we do to to support our students um with disabilities one thing we've been invited to do is um participate in uh in es 113 sponsored um uh work on inclusionary practices which is around the book Street data so we just jumped off with that last week and we're just excited about what comes next I'm sorry that's what I've got so I'm John thank you do question
068does anyone have a question yeah I was gonna say one question we'll let Darby ask one question actually I don't have a question I just wanted to compliment you on um the Deep dive into the data this is really impressive and having that level of specificity focusing on learning is fantastic thank you mhone microphone John I appreciate that we talk a lot about data so thank you all right thank you thank you John next up is Sierra Abrams and Stephanie Lopez will be presenting on together you both also get 10 minutes I yes I am the person that will scroll yours because I don't have a flipper for you so let me know as we I'll move you along here okay great make sure you hello I'll hold it all right well thank you so
069much for having us here today just want to say thank you to all the board members and everybody in attendance it's very exciting to be here it's such a well attended meeting and I feel the passion of everybody for the Youth in this community and the families in this community and we're here to talk about what we feel really passionate about um so we work for together my name is Sierra Abrams aushi or they pronouns and I'm one of the co-executive directors hi my name is Stephanie Lopez she her pronouns and I'm school's program director awesome and we operate the community schools program in tomw water and have um for over 10 years so this is year 11 um I'll just briefly talk about what you know we don't have to go through all of
070this obviously there a lot of words but basically what Community Schools does our mission and our values and the model is to bring Community into the schools and to create a community Hub at the school site so that every student can feel safe and valued and threat and all students feel that way regardless of how their showing up in school whether they are homeless whether they have food to eat at home we are providing the necessary basic needs for them to feel ready to learn um yes so over 10 years our budget has grown from 100,000 to 800,000 um we have a split relationship in the funding um so this year we've raised 63% of the funding um and the district has amazingly contributed 37% of the funding um one of the been outcomes of
071Community Schools as a national evidence-based model is um graduation rates and that was where the initiative started in tumat was the um District wanting to improve graduation rates and there was work being done on that internally and we uh they looked to us as a partner to help um bridge that Gap and so as you can see here's some data oh don't schol you um so when the when the program first started that was the graduation rate so we split it into overall and mckenny vento and mckenny vento um just for everybody is um the homeless student identification so this is homeless students so we started it was 36% graduation rate for mckenny vento students 75% overall and now we're at 91% overall and 77% um Canen vento which is incredible and I think we
072all should be proud of that um because that was a community effort so y all right so uh the schools that are pictured here are the school buildings that we have onsite case management um we have Resource Centers in the school buildings that have um they are staffed with our with our people and they have clothes hygiene supplies food lots of different things random stuff that kids need um and we provide the comprehensive case management uh for the students in these buildings um we do serve all the schools um in some capacity in tum water we we'll talk about this more later but we do client assistance rental assistance which is a really transformative and important part of our program and we do our best with the capacity of that funding to serve every single
073School in the district um yeah so I'll just talk the headings of these ones like I said case management and that is intensive wraparound support um advocacy and mentorship making sure that students have the access to the services that they need you know following them on their career path or their study path um giving them advice things like that Crisis Support um that's a lot of what we do is we you know we heard a lot in public comment about the crises that are happening in our school buildings and so we are there as a member um like I said previously Courtney's there in TMS as part of the ntss team um housing and basic needs that has just skyrocketed as you know we're aware of the housing crisis homelessness crisis in our community locally
074and nationally and so we have really stepped into that um need and provided a lot for that um language inclusivity is something that we're really proud of we have bilingual Spanish speaking staff on our team and we've done a lot of work to make sure that um new families that maybe have immigrated here or Spanish speaking families from here are able to be feel like they belong in the district just like everybody else and so we've been working really closely with the ml program at the district um doing uh translation of things and interpret interpretation of things um you know just making sure that everything is accessible um for those families and then like I said the Resource Centers is a big piece of the work that we do physically at the schools you can
075scroll now thank you um yeah so I'll just mention here like I said the outcomes that have been proven with the model itself Community Schools is attendance and graduation rates and in school engagement um so I just wanted to highlight those on this slide but you can keep it moving um so here's some quotes um in the materials that were provided to you there was a lot of testimonials from school staff um that were so graciously provided to us so we thank them so much for supporting us um and giving the US these testimonials but this is just a snapshot um Stephanie arer is going to read two of them and then you'll hear from Sydney in a second um her voice will be here and so um I'll read Heidi who I think is
076also maybe here um without Community Schools program support many students would grapple with critical barriers like Transportation housing food and clothing insecurity student attendance would suffer and few of our students would graduate this one's from Emily Weber th counselor together bridge the gap between basic needs and student School Success without programs like together Tat's families will be faced with a lack of resources in their time of need we are faced with a critical decision about continuing our District's partnership with together it's time to back up with the claims that we support our students and show that it isn't just top right next slide please another big piece of what we offer is that we work around the clock um we don't we're not tied to the school schedule so our day does not end when
077the bell rings and we work during breaks and in the summer um we worked a lot during the pandemic when um obviously school was operational but there wasn't a building to go to and so that was a huge gap um so that that is big for families um we do a lot of work in the school break during winter time making sure people's heat stays on making sure they have food um in general but also so they can do some celebrations um so this is a big piece of that we are here for them um the whole thing all right um this is last year's impact so we case manage 260 students and families we do an annual golf golf tournament which I know some of you attend um that raised $20,000 that's the number
07897 mckenny Bento students supported with case management um so last year we distributed over $100,000 in client assistance funds so that includes rental assistance utility um car repair you know that's very broad um so that doesn't just include rental assistance and then the rental assistance piece was 60 families at all the schools and I really want to emphasize that that funding is funding that we um generate um on our own so that's Community donation um we have partnership with the help us move in Foundation that matches that funding and then we receive grants um from th County um and I think this is a really important piece of what we do because we're keeping fam's house in tum water in their community in their District they don't want to leave to fine housing somewhere else
079they want to stay here they love it here um and this is we have districtwide events um we do the box of thanks meals in partnership with for the love who is an amazing partner um does so much for our community um we do our sports physicals events that we coordinate so 113 um sports physicals were provided for free um last year these are all going to come up again this year and then we do immunization clinic um in partnership with the Department of Health um and this is open to everybody in the district um yeah these are impact stories and I'm running out of 10 but we will read these also um when a student's family received a notice to vacate their home of 10 plus years years the mother who was the main
080provider for their family ran into difficulties securing rental due to her credit history working with the single mother together leverag their resources and we connected her to additional Community Resources to support her with rent food medical needs and employment strong strong Partnerships are a Cornerstone of our work one key partner we connected this family with is the firefighters Community Foundation who leverage funds to cover a week's day at a hotel so this family five was safe enabling them to catch up on other bills while searching for housing as a result this family is able to purchase a home in thirsty County Sting and maybe we'll skip the other one so that we have time for signant to talk um this is a picture of our wonderful team just so you can see their faces um
081yeah and I think that's that's it um and I'm back uh they asked me to do another little statement um I don't think they realized I came even spoke on my own but that's awesome and I have it written down so that I can get through it quickly for you guys I'm here to talk about the together partnership again I've been in the district 22 years now and I was at tomw Water High School um previously when this program actually started since moving to Peter J Schmidt which I'm a counselor there now I worked with a few different Community Partners but at every level I have partnered with together to help ensure families get their needs met whenever possible we all know that when students come to school having had a safe place to sleep
082gloen their bellies in a sense of security their AB ability to learn is at their highest as Educators we can only control what happens during our school hours once a student leaves we don't have that same ability the partnership with together creates a bridge between school and home it provides a dedicated individual who can connect with parents Guardians assess their needs and help them get the necessary support that they need my role is to meet students where they're at school supporting them socially emotionally and academically but this extra Outreach is essential together provides assistance that a school district cannot and should not including rental assistance access to food pantries connections outside of of the community with resour NES right now I've been working closely with my together partner Diana to support a family this student
083is the youngest in the family and we have worked with all of their older siblings the student has significant Behavior needs and our team has struggled to communicate with the parent due to the language barrier requiring translation services this has been made difficult to or this has been um very difficult to create a strong connection with this family during our weekly together meeting I shared this challenge with Diana who had a previous relationship with the parent due to housing support she stepped in immediately being B bilingual Diana was able to communicate directly with the parent allowing us to hold several team meetings uh with her fully involved she is now going um to the home and helping establish a behavior chart that closely mirrors the one that we are using at school because of this
084partnership we have seen significant improvements in the students's behavior and strengthen the home to school relationship I count stories of families who have received housing food car assistance through together which has helped create more stable home environment in turn the stability shows um or allows students to come to school ready to learn instead of being stuck in a state of fight or flight I cannot emphasize enough how essential this program is to the work that we do I know that together costs the district money each year but as mentioned last time I encourage you to take a broader view of this issue without together families who rely on this support May struggle to meet their basic needs and could ultimately decide to moad The District in search of resources elsewhere by investing in this partnership
085we are not only supporting IND ual students but also strengthening our entire School P by keeping families connected and engaged together keep students in the district which in turn impacts on our enrollment and as we know enrollment impacts funding I do want to say when we talk about like homelessness sometimes in our brains we think about downtown Olympia or um you know these these pictures homelessness is not being able to uh get your car fixed and you have to decide to make a payment to get alternator and then you can't pay your rent and then you're behind and then you have an eviction notice it's sometimes choices between um you know getting food it's it's simple it's not these these massive homeless stuff that we're talking about this is where together has partnered with us
086and really allowed people to stay in our community and I just I can't even tell you some of the stories I have so I'm a huge advocate of this it helps me in my job obviously as a school counselor and I will you know Step Up for them all the time thank you thank you I can allow it depending on how I'll allow one question all right I don't have a question I just have a comment and it is that um I am the Cascadia High School representative so I see every day students different students not even the same students visit the resource center and I think it helps them get through day every single day so I can put together program great thing it should definitely thank you so much thank you thank you
087serious um than for having us yes thank you um next is Rob LA and Nick from the inner city transit come on down good evening you have 10 minutes perfect okay uh perfect so uh my name is Nick dearis I'm the marketing communications director for uh inter city transit uh don't worry I've been called much worse uh with those pronunciations that spell Lang just gets me every time uh originally uh as you look at the deck tonight um and we can we can sort of go through it a little bit but uh it it will suppose that we were maybe a little bit more a few weeks ago in how some of this stuff would be implemented um but know that uh things are continuing to evolve and change in the world of funding uh
088both state and federal uh just another a number of different uh things we're trying to balance as we think about how we imagine a better bus system here in our community uh inter city transit has the pleasure of being your local bus service here at TH count uh as you probably know we are still a zeroair system folks on and right for free since 2020 uh it's a wonderful place to work it's a wonderful community resource it's a source of civic pride in our community uh for the incredable bus service that we have and so we're we're really happy to be here to talk to you tonight uh the goal of tonight's conversation is really just to give you a heads up about where we're headed um and give you maybe a little bit of
089History we can sort of scroll through uh we'll follow these a little bit um so back in if you if you go all the way back to 2016 inner city transit was facing pretty significant budget like Transit agencies across the state who were facing really difficult decisions about what kind of service we could put out the and so uh the organization I'll say we I wasn't here I've only been here for about two years um but uh but the organization went out and conducted a road trip throughout the community and talked to the community about what kind of bus system do we want in our community to be able to service those who need it and uh overwhelmingly uh the community asked for a transformational bus system uh service that went longer uh more places
090more often better span frequency as we talk about those things uh and that led to proposition one prop one was a vote of the the community here on uh additional sales tax Authority for the organization uh to be able to provide better service throughout our community and uh we're happy to say that it uh it passed overwhelmingly it was 67 68% somewhere around there uh where the community was excited about new transation system and trans system also say here today we're talking about our bus system system we're a much bigger organization than than just the buses you see drive down the road B pool uh par Service as well as our walk uh system and programs where we work with schools uh to speak kids about active Transportation uh as well but so then uh
091as we were getting into implementing uh some of the pieces of prop one I think everybody's familiar with the pandemic that we had right theid that uh and that disrupted a whole lot of plans for a whole lot of organizations including City Transit uh we had implemented the zeroair pilot uh back in January of 2020 got about two months in and then the whole world shut down and changed and so the organization was really required to Pivot pretty rapidly and how they provided Service uh as well as uh some of the implementation of some of the things that we wanted to do so instead of getting more buses more places more often all of a sudden we were doing appointment only transportation and radically changing the way that we addressing the community TR needs uh
092it also changed significantly uh as the Dynamics in our community change uh my wife is a state employee she doesn't go to the Department of Health headquarters and fact very few people do it they're probably going to end up giving up one of those RS eventually uh but our community has changed in in the transation needs there's still pretty significant demand for our fix R system and our system um but now we are at the place where we can really start to re Envision uh what could a more productive system look like that is built uh for our community and for the future and uh so as as I'll pause there and turn it over to our planning director Rob to start to talk about what our vision for the next really year of service
093changing to thank you Nick um so yeah I have the the the pleasure and responsibility of being the planing director at inter Transit kind of the Chief Architect if you will behind uh the route system schedule stops Etc uh it's a large fun puzzle uh if you're the puzzle type um one of the areas of emphasis and I know we're short on time so just get straight to the punch points here uh it's important for us to be out talking with uh the community and uh happy to be here this evening with School Board because one of the points of emphasis as we look to redesign Transit service in the community is to find small adjustments to the service that are meaningful to students and families uh little routing adjustments application schedule adjustments that can
094make it um easier more convenient maybe reduce uh a bus connection uh to get to after school activities um you to make it easier to get to spscc start uh things of that nature um the attendance boundaries have been uh a significant contributor to helping us kind of shape the designs that we've been working on um so we're excited to engage the the community uh in this conversation um as Nick alluded uh the the script that we are trying to follow is written in pencil um you know we are uh just like so many other Juris following what's happening um in state funding Federal funding uh so to the extent that we can plan in this environment uh we're attempting to do so all that being said uh the community can certainly expect intering trans
095it to be um doing exactly what it is that we said we would do a number of years ago which is uh redesign the bus system to go more places more often uh and important to know that that uh students and families are a significant part significant influence um of of our work um with regard to P Water uh we have a few different locations for service that um we'd like to draw attention to and whoever running the slides are doing a great job I am not following along very well um I okay so this particular slide talks about the emphasis on the corridor now that's a reference to way State Avenue 4th Avenue harison Corridor but also uh here's our Capital way Capital Boulevard continuing to hot upper you know frequent service when I
096say small adjustments so for example if you ride inter Transit today uh getting from one side of IV to the other on an inter Transit bus can be a little clumsy so looking to remedy that that a trip from the west side of Tom to the east side can be done without a trans um the College Street kind of uping frequency um no you're do doing great here's that that the attendance boundaries as I as I reference so uh sincere in in our effort to to to really do what we can uh to make adjustments to Transit service that are are meaningful um Black Hills High School has certainly come up a number of I've been in inter city transit for eight years it would take um I was just coming on right when the
097road trip was was wrapping up uh and um I can tell you that that I've had many many conversations with uh parents and other Advocates um who are eager for public transportation to serve black d High School uh better um I think the next slide here we go this is the punch right so the challenge that we have been facing as a public Transit Agency is just the road Network um we're we're only as good as the road Network and in this portion of Kmart um the absence of the road network works against us so uh as as development uh occurs that's where opportunities uh exist um with the announcement of the hwat Costco uh wanting to relocate that is fting for us in the sense that it brings new changes to the road Network
098and as there are changes to the road Network we are able to be more for families and and students um so I certainly would hope uh that um the community recognizes that Interstate Transit uh is is is we would love to be able to serve more uh to puls High School uh and and the reason why we're not closer to that particular High School is simply a function of the so I like I said I think there are a bunch more slides uh which you can really consider as background this is kind of an interesting thing as you think about as we think about this next Reas and there are some missing links in our service delivery and I think particularly for me um exciting that that rund down Henderson by Pinger part connecting to
099the backs side of of some of those HW water campuses uh for state state off uh as well as some new potentially Express Service uh out of lacy up to JBLM servicing the base uh and uh up to Lakewood but uh I know we're we're short on time and you've got a whole lot going on tonight and so I just wanted to say this is the start of the conversation not the end of it uh there are going to be multiple times and opportunities for public feedback engagement uh I tell folks even if you've never set foot on one of our buses you are a funer if you buy anything in our community you are a fun of our system uh supporter of our system we thank you uh is a wonderful uh organization to
100be a part of and a wonderful community service and so uh we will continue to be engaged there will be information on our website about these service changes uh and again uh if you look at the deck itself it it leans a little bit more toward the September timeline uh some of those some of this may be a little more iterative over our next several s changes but happy to always answer any questions or folks want to follow up you know how to find this thank you Cas you had a question do you have a question I do I well yes you've touched on it and it's no surprise but we are funders of this system as well so you've expanded service to tomw Water Boulevard that is getting closer um but I really think
101the kids at Black Hills High School need this bu really impa get that verified is there a reason why get roads the road's not going to change it's a Rock Road so more houses might go in that's looking that's the case what do we need to do as a board to be a bu high school well I'll let Rob talk more specifically about it but uh turning buses around is the number one problem for bus Mobility uh and so some of the difficulty that we're running into in the road Network down there is the lack of safe uh convenient turnaround spaces uh to be able to move a inity or closer proximity so I think as Rob talked about that potential development that starts to look a lot more like a lot of Left Right
102turns that we can make or protected turns uh to be able to turn the bus around and make that ter yes and when we talk about uh you know operability and and maneuvering and such um there's a difference between you know making an unprotected turn once or twice a day day and make it an unperfected turn 60 times a day um because that's when we look at designed transit system we have to look at it with that level of resiliency um and and so it takes that that supportive infrastructure um neighborhood streets parking lots things of that nature just aren't as Transit supportive as you know an arterial Collective roadway roundabouts and so forth so um I I I don't I'm not holding on to the magic answer of what the school board could do
103if I had that I would have revealed it a long time ago um uh we are somewhat you know waiting for to government that's really what it comes down to that that the city of t water um helps bring to pass uh as they work with with property owners um and and as that development happens we as the Transit Agency you know get to participate in the development review we get to um request conditions on development that are Transit suppored but it's really just a waiting game thank you so much for coming um it sounds like also talking there was one question already I'm sorry we're behind you um but uh appreciate that that you came to talk to us we're always interested in Black service um but maybe it's a conver it's also a
104conversation through T um in development so thank you so much thanks okay Cara AER Director of Finance Financial Services will present a a January 2025 financial statement for the February 2025 enrollment update you too have 10 minutes I'm just gonna hold this good evening okay so through the um couple sides of our our uh January financial statements our budget status report um so as we talked at our last meeting um we are in our general fund have gone into um our negative cash status um there about 175,000 negative in January and um we'll be this month have uh gone ahead and done our our cash um transfer from capital projects um doing a section that I'm working with the county to to get that moved um so that we will be cash positive moving forward
105um we do see a a fund balance of just under 500,000 there and that is as We Know last few months about how fund balance is is separate from our cash balances um those are other um you know fund balances also inventory um you know other um other reserved items that we've had um which goes up and down next month um but is separate from that cash balance so um that's in the general fund and this is just our our programs I was going to kind of skip to um some of the other fund balances um here you can our our salary and benefits expenditures the difference um between the two years um at this last month at 8.1 million to salary benefits which is one of our largest one of our largest um expenses
106um and that has that's what we've been addressing with our um reductions um to try to get that get those C benefit um expenditures down each month um and our material supply operating costs at five a little bit higher and that's just based on when we paid our bills for this year for this month um so our capital projects fund is at 3.6 million our debt service at 2.5 million in bance and um ASP that um just under a940 um and that's also to win the when our ASB students when students spend their money in the ASB um also then in transportation vehicle fund we at 1.3 million and as you know that's um what we have to spend we uh spend that money specifically on buses can only spend um the money in tvf
107on um actual school buses so we do have some on order and that one very go very F all right that is our is there any questions for me I'll tie the first question since I tooking do you have any questions okay okay okay so this is our febr February enrollment um the slide looks a little bit different than it has in the past few months and we added some um some sections to kind of explain really where we are our different categories um and how that ties to budget so the the top in the gray area that is just K12 this is just our K12 12 numbers and i' I've broken it down below in the chart um so the K12 total um we are um our K to total is is down um
10840 from last month so we did see a reduction um in FTE um you know looking at the specifics there were some students that um like homeschool some of our our K12 um bir and mortar students actually went to um AOE programs um and so you know there's just there's just been a shift since the beginning of the semester um you can see that First Column you can kind of as we're talking about budget and um forecasting a budget that First Column will show you where we're at as far as what we're what we've budgeted for for this year and then um how it's compared to you know each month um our average uh our average FTE for the month or for the year currently is down 64 um from budget so overall um our
109P 12 is down 64 from budget so we you know we've been monitoring that each and it's up a little bit from at the semester so um is there any specific questions I can answer about any moment any questions there there can be more than one question she doesn't own all of 10 minutes so any other questions just a clarification uh so I'm looking at February 2425 act and 5652 you said we are down 60 from our projection is that right um so we're down 64 from budget for our our average AF and that's how we're paid in a portion is off the average so we track that pretty carefully any other questions thank you assistant superintendent will present on the budget timeline where's Ben stuff Ben stuff was right in that row is is
110that is it underneath okay yes Megan or Dawson would you like to go next uh since superintend will present the first reads for policy 3205 policy 3115 policy 3116 and policy 4210 first reads mean that um Megan will be presenting it to us and if there are any changes um she will take it from us or you any and then bring it back to us for second reading on the next meeting go ahead and thank you I'm Negan Dawson assistant superintendent of teaching and learning and I have first readings of um four polic I think I changed it to five um so the first one is uh policy 3205 um this policy realigns the 2020 Federal guidance on um Title 9 rules which mandate that um all school districts revise their policies and procedures related
111to sex based discrimination and these changes are aimed at enhancing protections for students and ensuring a fair and Equitable education environment for all do you want me to go through all of them and then um questions yes yeah and then policy um 3115 is um support for students who are experiencing homelessness which um we basically um often refer to as Mento act um so it supports the it incorporates the latest guidelines from the 2019 was the sample policy um supporting our most vulnerable students and these changes are essential for um not just updating our policy but also submitting our OSBI program review policy 3116 is students in foster care um this uh board approval encourages us to address address the unique challenges that are faced by students who are in foster care um students often
112have frequent Mobility this disrupts their education and H's academic success and timely graduation so by collaborating with child welfare agencies um our district aims to remove these educational barriers through things like streamline enrollment um record transfer processes and setting up transportation and policy 4210 is regulation of dangerous weapons on school premises um adopting 4210 is essential to ensuring the Safety and Security of all students staff and visitors on school premises um things like mandating gunfree zones signs and reporting violations the district can effectively enforce this policy and create a safer educational environment um it also um has stricter Provisions for an added layer protection by minimizing the presence of weapons in the workplace and educational settings um 4210 is is the policy um for visitors staff adults um there's other policies in under students that
113are obviously about if a student were to bring her weon into school and any questions for Megan on those four policies I have a question about uh 3205 so at the last meeting I believe there was a a mark of 3205 and this is different can you describe the differences yes um so 3205 um was in limbo um because the um federal government had adopted um the 2024 Title 9 regulations um and then it went back to the 2020 Title 9 regulations due to federal court cases and wasda we were waiting for wasda to update their U model policy and um um in the meantime we the town Water School District were responsible for submitting our program review and because the policy was in limbo they asked us to submit um the 2024 Title 9
114UM policy um knowing that Wasa was going to then go back to the 2020 and that we were going to be going through this process again and they stated that both in the program review and on the zoom video so the the one right now is the to point2 yes and I have two documents that I can provide to you um for over like the next month before we do second reading um the the first is an article from wasda about what does 3205 and 3205 P um spell out in terms of title n and then there's also um a a five-page document that charts the changes of the Title Nine rules between the 2020 version and the 2024 version I think there's 27 um categories all right any other questions so maybe Friday or
115Friday you know definitely thank you any other questions on any other cles as you're going through you have suggestions that to mean before our next meeting all right thank you again thank you now then R assistant superintendent will present our budget timeline has 10 minutes okay uh good evening board members it's uh my pleasure to um give you an overview of the budget timeline overall and where we sit in that timeline now uh my understanding was that this should be a short General overview and then temp for questions so my presentation is short but a way to think about um where we at is that in a typical budget cycle budget development really ramps up about now but because of the district's um the extreme Financial presses the district was operating under and conditions of
116being cash negative into the district you've already done a considerable amount of budget work uh in terms of a resolution A and B on January 23rd February 13th that is obviously not typical for a budget cment so under normal circumstances boards would start work session about now just wanted you to have some context since this is our first cycle together you can think about the rest of the year as built around two um public hearings on the budget and four work sessions on the budget okay let's start with the work sessions so you've already done um your first work session on January 9th you'll would call do when you discussed at length your your fiscal goals and discussed options a and the and the extent of the reductions that would be necessary to achieve those
117goals that was that's just consider that uh work session number one okay remaining are three work sessions now at least in concept what we're trying to achieve is in work session number two to give the board a sense of a preliminary Revenue Outlook now in reality a lot of that is from predicated of where the legislature is in their work so what we do is we do the best can to give you the best information you have depending on whether we s the legisl is close to a deal or you know in some years they go into long session and they're far from the deal we'll know more about that when we convene on our sit and talk about it but it'll be your first taste of what in our attempt to sort of read
118the KE leaves of the legislature and get a sense of there could be more funding less funding uh or essentially the same at the March 27th board meeting um we will do I would hope to do every year which is we'll do a midyear status check on our current year budget not next year's budget and we'll talk about what has been the impact of all the various cost reduction initiatives that we have undertaken in so we'll run you through what are we seeing in terms of where we at with non-salary expenditures and overtime and travel are these things down as we would expect them to be how far down and give the board a sense of what progress is to date um as a result of the superintendent's October initiatives uh to Institute spending caps
119in the current year then moving into April you're into work session number three now here's where it gets um important in terms of the web State T So this year legislative sigy die is scheduled for April 22 um for all the years I work there I would say it was about half the time they finish right on time half the time they went into a short special session some I was there there were two three special sessions so it could be that when we meet on the 10th we've got a really good sense of what this is to import it also could mean that we're just as far away um but it's very important because the legislature is by far and away the state by Far and Away the largest um funder as a school
120district um but at that point we'll talk about our best information to date on Ro then we'll start to talk about expenditure so now that we have now that the has made a series of decisions about Staffing for 25 26 it's the April work session where you start to get a sense of um how much progress you could expect to make against those goals we established uh at the January work session then the May 8th work session is the final work session for the board in the mom process at that point we're essentially putting together all the major factors of public enrollment enrollment projection um expenditure projection based on uh based on the personnel file that would have been compiled by that plan remember that's all very fluid right now youve all made your decisions
121about the reductions but the Practical implications of which staff people are impacted is playing out over the spring as we learn more and more about that we know um what the actual budget impact is know just the position we know the person and therefore have a better sense of of the savings it will be achieved by the decisions by the board once we get to the summer um now you're talking about the public care okay so what I'm accustomed to and what I have built into the board's T um and you presumably follow inless board changes it is law requires one public hearing before board unops a budet I have always uh felt like that was inadequate and felt soon is necessary usally the public hearing that occurs at the August meeting when the board
122is considering adopting by that point most of the significant decisions have been made so it's a final opportunity for the public to weigh in but that feels like not a sufficient time and also not in spirit full transparency so historically what I've done is front loaded uh public hearing number one uh at the June board meeting that is the board meeting before the district sends its budget to the Education Service District for technical review and then we come back after that technical review the budget is put before the board at the August board meeting and it is a second public hearing so you could expect uh two public hearings and because you've had one with the consideration of each of your Staffing resolutions you will have had four open public hearings in the budget development
123process where the law requires one in most districts going do so I think that that's a good over towards full transparency and cultivating as much public comment as we can and building awareness of the district fining Geor so that's what you can expect in Broad Strokes from now uh until budget adoption and happy to feel any questions that the board members have any questions they do um I've seen some public comment comments out from the public why are we spending money on a parking lot or why are we p through building why are we placing um broken equipment in buildings and stuff to and a little bit on the differences between so the financial emergency that the district finds itself in right now is the general fund um The General fund um accounts for the
124operational expenses of the district you can think of it in simple terms as uh school supplies and salary benefits associated with all the staff that serve our students um right now and I knock on wood as I say this but the capital fund uh in the district is actually in pretty good Financial stad right now in fact it is a loan from the capital fund uh that is allowing us to pay each month so some of the projects that you might be seeing are capital projects uh minor or major but nevertheless capital projects that the board's approved and expects to continue until they they say otherwise uh that we continue to implement through our approved budget so if it's part of an approved budget in the capital fund uh it will continue not necessarily the
125case in the general fund obviously we had to make midyear reductions uh have departments redo their budgets mid here um because it was clear that the revenue was not sustainable in the facility or the the capital projects fund is uh the work that is outlined there is comes from our Capital facilities plan yes we develop we get community feedback on yes on how we want to spend the people that voted for the levy support B they include at a high level I believe what some of those projects are um in that Levy and people have the opportunity to comment on those and then ultimately the voters approved that plan so is it fair in a sense to say that we're doing the work that the voters approved um initially at least a high level absolutely
126when the district goes to the community for a capital ly with that they list um a general overview of of the projects people think of capital projects as major major project like building a school but they can be uh smaller projects as well um Renovations fixing um so it doesn't have to be large necessarily to qualify as a as a capital project so uh the things that you see happening in the district are pursuant to an approved budget and a levy that was put before the voters for those types of funds thanks and we're borrowing from the capital fund to pay for operating expenses but those cannot legally be paid for operating expenses because of the rules of the capital project and we're going to have to pay that loan back yeah to be clear
127the loan is legal yeah the loan is isal yes but but you know like I was just going to say we can't use capital projects money to pay stuff but we are because we had to borrow from it but we have to pay that money back because we can't legally use that money yes technically the way that the law thinks about is that um the general fund is borrowing cash and repaying cash One Fund another so the law doesn't think of it's us using the capital fund to pay property expenses is a cash loan and then that cash becomes operating cash and then the operating the general fund can be used to C so it's so I know a lot of people here this is not an illegal loan but it's certainly not a desirable
128L it's not it's not a sustainable model uh for the district thank you um I I asked for um assistant superintendent Ric to present this budget timeline based on our students um asking last week what did all of that mean um and so I just want to let Gabrielle and Amia know that I heard them at the last meeting and that was the first step was because that is the first step in budget Tes to talk about the positions that need to be cut the budget still has to Britain and there are still lots of opportunities to talk about what is in the budget so thank you it was obviously I did not explain that well at the end of the meeting because we heard public comment today but um that was that was the
129reason for this is to let the public know that there are plenty of opportunities to comment on the budget coming forth and the early timeline of those resolutions was really done as an as an act you know to give people the most time uh early notification the most time to plan if they are in thank you any other questions or comments all right thank you sir now Wendy Bramley will present a second reading of the following policies a policy 5050 contracts policy 5240 evaluation staff policy 50 or 5400 Personnel leads and policy 549 unpaid holidays for reason of safe or conscience good evening thank you um again this is the second reading of this so we did have this um a month ago when I brought the first reading for all of these and these
130four policies are all essential policies in the wasda model um the three of them were policies we didn't have which are the um first or the contracts the evaluation of staff and the unpaid holidays for reasons of Faith consent the personal leaves one was just a um an update where it took out the requirement of of being uh the co vaccination so um I guess I would would ask before I just keep going through all of them since we went through in last month if there is anything specific you would like to know um about any of these any questions on these everyone had a chance to look and under there any questions I see the question thank you Wendy uh I'll entertain a motion for Action please four of these policies I'll make a
131motion to pass policy 50 policy 5240 policy 5400 and policy 549 as presented today second to um pass policies 50 5240 5400 549 is there any discussion all those in favor of passing these four policies please indicate I saying I hi all those oppose same name all right policies 50 5240 5400 and 549 are approved presented thank you now mean doson is back to is at second reading on policy 3210 non-discrimination thank you uh in January I brought forth first reading of policy 3210 non-discrimination um while yes it was driven by the 2425 state civil rights review being conducted by LPI um wasda did publish significant changes and these updates serve to ensure that the policy is consistent with federal and state requirements um it's also our commitment to providing a safe and equable learning
132environment for all students um and so I'm seeking board approval at this February 27th meeting um also the the there's a document that I think Becky handed you that shows the um mark up version with the changes on the side um that most of those were done in 2024 any questions from me then yeah um so my apologies I I think I I had to leave early at the at the January meeting and so I may have missed this um so is is this the same markup copy as was in the first read the first read um didn't have this marked up version it only had the final version okay so so there were so there there were no changes is between the first read and the second is that accurate the first right the
133first read that was presented is the same as this Mark up version it's just that it was all edited again and the changes that were made were made rapidly to align with4 or 2020 um wasda published the um the new version I think in December 2024 um and then and then we brought it forth in January any other questions I have i' like to see the changes and the final so just I I agree I apologize it the formatting wasn't the way we liked it and then we only put forth the other one and so we want to make sure you had the marked up version and going forward it's it's going to be the mark version with the red Stouts like you're used to yes I apologize for that no problem Rel I noticed
134oh there we go I Rel 321 3205 and the and the reference 10 to 3205 3210 um and so my thinking is we might be getting theart before the horse a little bit on this um and I I would agree with you Melissa that I would like to see the correct the changes marked so we can see the differences but my thought is maybe we ought to table it for another month so we can coordinate a little better the 3205 and the 3210 does that put us at risk for anything so we wait until we um pass Five we've already submitted our program review okay so this can wait until okay is everyone comfortable with cs do someone like to make a motion to we haven't made motion at all never mind no all right
135right so we'll see we'll have this to other four the next one all right M and then you'll be able to supply us Thea marked up versions so we can see the changes I don't know if you got the paper version but I do have this yeah you probably need some time to look over it thank you all right um now we are on uh action item Washington Scholastic Activities Association policy amendments um before we get to that uh I'd like to um make some comments so uh there's not a staff presentation I'm going to open up the discussion I'd like to open this discussion by saying I have significant concerns about this resolution the resolution is passed would direct staff to support and approved WIA policy amendments 7 and8 both of which would limit
136participation in GR sport Sports to students who use biological sex as female and not honoring a person's gender identity if it differs from their biological sex as mentioned before I have a number of concerns about this resolution first gender gender identity is a protected class here in Washington protected classes include race and color national origin religion and Creed sex gender identity sexual orientation veteran or military status disability and use of a service animal all of these classes are protected from discrimination any prohibition against a student playing in sports based upon gender or gender identity is against the law in Washington state while we begin serving what when we began serving on this board we all took an oath to uphold the Constitution and laws of the United States in the state of Washington to my
137knowledge neither of those have changed voting for this would be against the oath I took to act in accordance with the law because this is a state law there's a process to change laws and this process is outside this body's jurisdiction until those laws change it is our job to serve students in accordance to the laws exe executive orders must work in conjunction with the laws and do not see proceed or negate the laws that are currently on the books the Amendments referenced in this resolution are in conflict with current Law And even if the amendments were adopted WIA cannot Implement them I question why we would Direct stff to encourage WIA to go against state law finally most importantly I'm firmly opposed to this resolution because of the message it sends to our transgender
138students here in the town Water School District since 2016 I've advocated for students staff and families here in town school district and to have a space to be their authentic selves and to live the life that they were meant to leave live transgender students are a part of our district and I'm concerned that this resolution communicates that we do not see these students as eable part of our community we owe it to all students to take time to sort this out and find a way so no students are harmed we owe it to our students to figure out this way to make sure everyone can be included and model how we can find a solution together um before a motion is made I'd like to provide an opportunity to our students to speak on this
139topic as they cannot contribute to the discussion after the motion is made hi I'm Sydney and I go to T water uh when addressing this topic as a tum water transfer athlete and student representative I feel as though the administration in t water is nothing short of the best for every single student in the school Zach sudman Marty Reid and Lisa Pereira as the leaders of the school have the most genuine and fullart intentions to guide the students that enter the school into the next phase of new lives through hardships like the recent actions in our community I have never failed to feel supported by this Administration through teachers counselors our athletic director Jordan McGrath L ladies our janitor Rick and our attendance lady Laura Hagen I moved here my sophomore year and it immediately
140felt like home tomw high school and the adults in it have grown to be my second family and for that I am forever grateful I just want to say thank you to the administration within T high school for always being in every single student's Corner making our community a and Society a better place and making tumat feel a little bit more more like home every single day this is not just a school it's a family from the bottom of my heart thank you I would just like to say I joined the school board for me to get my voice heard and I want to say we hear your guys' voices and thank you for speaking out because that is what I am here and that is what we are here to do is represent the
141students whoever you are we're representing you I honestly think that it is a little disgusting that we even have to decide on a yes or no for this question it should be obvious that we should not pass this but thank you right I will now entertain our motion for action we do discuss motion make a motion to pass resolution 0942 second it's been moved and seconded uh now it's open for discussion like go first discussion I'll say something I want to thank everyone for com be a rock I don't know how to use a microphone I used to play the clarinet how dull was that right but anyway sorry for anybody in the van um I really enjoy it anyway so I want to thank everyone for your comments very good learning experience for us
142all I think um we have one problem that we face right now and that is the situation called in the executive order okay as board members we are we take an oath that we will follow the Constitution not only in the state of Washington but also the Constitution of the United States and this is what makes things so hard for members like myself is that federal law there's such a thing in the Constitution are in six which says that federal laws have Supremacy over state and local items the problem is is that an executive order although it's not a law from Congress it has the force of the law so we have a conflict between our state rcws and our Federal Constitution we may not agree with the executive order I think probably a lot
143of us do not agree with the executive order regarding men's and women however there historically almost every president has had executive orders Franklin Roosevelt had over 3,000 the most famous uh executive order is uh Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and to me that that's one of the most important ones ever so my point is is that a lot of us may disagree with the executive order but us as school board members were caught between a rock and a her place we have an oath that we must follow the Constitution yes we do we are not we're not a state unto ourselves we're a state of the union of the United States and that's the problem that we face so I just want to make that point that it's it's great to have viewpoints but we also
144have to follow the law and and that's as I say what what our effort is that we can change the law okay um um and it can be circumvented through congressional action and possibly judicial action too but I just want you just so you can see our perspective of the conflict that we're facing why this is the very very difficult time for us because I support different viewpoints I support Divergent ways of living but it it's very tough for me again I'm I'm taught between not a rock but a boulder okay and a hard and that was just the way it is at this point in our lives we are part of United States of America no we're not GNA do this thank you are there any other CLS all right all those in favor
145of resolution 09245 please signif by saying I I all those opposed say nay nay I'm ab and then Jo was all right uh motion carries so so now we'll move on to the superintendent report now we'll move on to the superintendent report you want to for minutes okay we'll adj we'll adjourn for 10 minutes all right we'll recess for 10es human are e [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] he hey [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] he [Applause] [Music] he [Applause] [Music]