TSD Board Special Meeting - February 13, 2025

001e e and have there been any changes or additions to the agenda since it was published no changes all right all those in favor of the agenda as presented please signify by saying I I all those opposed the agenda is approved as presented now we'll move on to reports to the board and assistant superintendent Megan Dawson and performance fact will provide a strategic Plan update I chess hi I'm pleased to provide an update on our ongoing strategic planning process in partnership with performance fact um especially given our current budget challenges in tum water this strategic plan will help us prioritize our spending and focus our vision on the most important cornerstones of our work as Educators and as an overall District um m is here from performance fact um I'm going to have him go

002first because he has a flight to catch and um he he has a hard stop in 30 minutes and then I'll give you a little bit more context okay everyone it's nice to uh see you again will I be able to project my screen uh Megan I think so I think Becky can make you a okay I think you should be able to there you go okay you yes yes yeah thank you thanks for giving us um some time to give an update I recognize that you have some very important decisions to make tonight so I wouldn't take too much of your time what I thought we'll do is to help me spend about 3 or 4 minutes just going through the process one more time we Shar that with you the last the last

003time we to the born then give you an update on what's been done to date and spend a couple minutes talking about the next steps overall I want to begin by saying um we've been really thoroughly impressed and I enjoying working with the district we find uh D water folks very good natured that's the phrase that my team and I uh came up with to describe our relationship with you and it truly is a real honor for us to get a chance to work with you the work is going very well it's moving along you know quite fast uh quite uh rather quickly and within 6 to 8 weeks I think we should get to the point where we can wrap it up uh so the the two documents I'm going to go through first

004one is the overview PowerPoint let's see can you see my screen theart my still Yes okay great and just a quick reminder about what CI role it's the blue circle that I want to point your attention to uh we PR ourselves on being a facilitator meaning we here to guide not to command or control we have uh ideas we can bring to the table but you are not obligated to accept anything we say you will just invite you to uh give a fair shake and then decide on what makes the most sense for your District uh this being facil as a guide is a c piece of how we approach our relationship with our clients why plan it's about alignment one all the arrows going in the same direction towards common goals and if you

005want alignment especially of all stakeholders we have to involve them in the plan together so the way we've done that with your approval is through a series of teams the C planing team is the C of the all the other teams the all the other te revolve around the cor planning team it's also the most diverse of all the thingsam we have we have students we have teachers parents community members administrators and so everyone all constituent groups are representing C planning team and and the other teams also um have diverse stakeholders except for the 11:00 team the instructional Focus team that one will will Reserve just for teachers and teaching uh all of us have a role to play in student learning but we feel that teachers and uh effective teaching are the most powerful

006components so we reserve the instruction Focus team as the soul as a team that's primar responsible for shaping Al own instruction we've had a series of meetings of convenings since the last time we met with you the C fing team which has about 40 people if I recall correctly then uh that's one that's the most diverse because we have students on on the team been teachers parents coming FKS administrators that team met for the first time in Jan 21st all day from 8 to 3:30 I seem to recall and again next day on the 22nd so the C planing team started with two full days and then they had a half day today the instruction fusting which again is mostly teachers that's about 25 people I think about 19 short day they two met for

007two full days on 27th and 28th of January and then they met again today in the afternoon so February 13th in the morning was the co planning team and in the afternoon was instruction Focus team we've also had a two-hour session with the group we call the alignment scene uh I turn in sheet I Define them as the I describ them as the movers and shakers so you have your uh the police department the fire department governmental officials highed uh those are the C organiz was represented in the alignment team and then two weeks ago we held a family SL Community Forum in town it's the largest that I've seen in a long time and I've done this work for more than a couple of decades now uh more than 60 people showed up on

008a cold um Monday night to participate in ch 27th uh event and um in subsequent meetings we share with you the ideas that came out of that lead so the process started oh I left up the students we met with students also uh I think 49 students 24 Middle High School and and 25 middle school students I believe so that should be a this as well and we have other sessions plan for them so the effort to engage the broader communi um it's in full swing when we done the plan will consist of three main parts clarity about what want for students clarity about to Happ instruction so that most students have access to Quality effective instruction and then clarity about the infrastructure that we must put in place so that instruction can propery well

009and more students can be successful more quickly so these three components really Define the output that you can expect us to of their prod and have samples of plants correct yes I thought I'll will give you a chance to look at some of the example points from other districts the one on the screen this three and the scen happen to be feder way which is in Washington state nor kit also in state and Yakima places we've worked in recent years but each one of you should have some samples of some PL B or a couple minutes two three Ministries R them and if you have any questions or suggestions about what you like and what you don't like U i' like to hear from you and then we will continue um after your comments so

010look at those samples please there's looking there's two different versions one of you're looking at like a full plan that is sort of long version of of the plan and then you're seeing couple of the other ones are kind of the snapshot kind of plan on a page or it's like a full page um that kind of covers the Highlight so I think there's you have both those versions in front of you we will have and performance back will provide that for us to a long version of this plan and then we'll also have kind of a shorter shorter version that we'll be able to share that's that Kevin yeah yeah you have the that's dig version that's and you have full version uh is it is it possible for us to like take these

011home and then give you feedback you again because I'm a processor I need time to there's a lot there's a lot here so maybe that's a good thing that's a great idea absolutely does anyone have comments I think in essence these initial are just sort of what what you can expect that also kind of the completed project is so it's not again some feedback on what do you want to see in this plan I think we'll be helpful as you continue Mo through this process yeah one of the reasons for showing different PL is the except for the four page plan which every District gets a copy of the longer plan we we work into shape what makes sense they intentionally different Yakima had a lot of detail in B for example fedway had only

012a 16 pager Yakima had uh well about 20 Pages cancer city had well 60 pages so we work with you to flex the finished product to what F your context so at at what point will we be getting into the specifics of like the the goal areas and kind of and a half a day and a half a minut and a half I'm going to I'm going to share with you what's been done today okay any other comments about what the Finish bar could look like please feed back anyone comments thank you okay we we'll get you we'll get your comments thank you it's great okay so I want to switch next to just showing you the work that's been done it's intentionally in rough form because we want to devel the process that we're

013going through there's no part of this plan that's final yet and what we do is to work with one team take that team's output keep it in a back pocket allow the next team to tell us what they playing and then we show them what the pr te did and then we take that we take to the next Gathering of folks again we don't show what been down first we let them do their own thing and then we show them want you done so the it's by design that we have not polished the work because the conversation is going on I want you to get a view for that what I thought I do is give an update on two parts of the plan the part of the graduate and also the go and me

014of Student Success the portrait as you probably know is one way of articulating the uh pwn community's vision for what we want our graduates what we want to know what we want them to be able to do what we want them to be like the kind of people we want them to be especially as they get we prepar them for a world that's rapidly changing and will remain even more so uh in years to come and in coming I thought I share with you this also the top 10 skills that businesses around the world uh anticipate for 2027 this is a report by the world economic Forum based in Switzerland and the number one skill is an analytical thinking number two creative thinking and so on and you see it's the mix of cognitive skills

015some self efficacy skills and te technology skills and some what they call working with others uh skills so keeping this picture in mind um we can now look at what the the planning teams have said up to this point in specifically for Tom water so when it comes to the portrait of a graduate the blue column is award produced by the C plan team the team that is most diverse the red column is what was produced by the teachers the teacher and they in to each other oh can you see my screen no oh no can see your face thank you new share sorry about that I just saying something thank you thank you so you can see the person of a graduate we work first with the cor planning team and we ask them

016if we could articulate what our students should be like and we have no more than five we tell qualities what would we want those qualities to look like you make it a little bigger I'm sure can I was trying to make it fit on one paper I think they want to be able to read it so done thank you okay but let me walk walk you through this F uh this very first draft on the 21st of January the C in said we want them to be responsible Community Builder we want them to be creal thinkers curious creators Etc when the teachers did did that this the second column the red column is what they came up with and I need that on the screen let me know he won to scroll any you get

017to share is the first group The Core core planning team is the blue and the instructional Focus team is the red any other observations yes yes so this represents what we would like a portrait of a graduate to be that's correct the qualities are essential traits that it should possess is is a working draft then when they came to get when they came back today we asked we gave each team the previous page and we said now let's do a second rewrite and you can see the edits that were made uh so for example they what in green is what they settle on what the settle on between 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. this morning at noon we brought a teachers back and we show them what was done between 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.

018and this this is their feedback about what the morning team said and that's how the process evolves by and large they not too far apart and the main ideas they have differ of opinion about what to call certain things and differences in language for the main the five main ideas of responsible thetic Community uh Builder and the other four are fair common across the um the5 Team the two teams is there anything that you will expect to see that you don't see yet no thank you good so that's the first part of shaping what we want to what the outcome for our students ought to be this are vision for them then we say now let's make that Vision a little bit more concise by talking about by setting some goals for our students go

019of SCH success and finding some measures so we took to an exercise a database where they through consensus no voting allowed they defined four goals for St success goal number one and goal number four are sometimes describ as the book ends very much like the bookends the book uh the bookshelf behind me goal number one is about a strong start for our students in PK through three goal number four is a strong finish for our high school students so they're ready to graduate ready to rock and roll as I like to call it I mean she so goal one and goal four look up the book ends of the four goals we have and between those two book ends there's one goal goal number two that is the social emotional Development Goal and as a

020second goal goal number three that's the academic go so the four goals they came up with which are to the posture that I shared earlier on story strong start Strong Finish Well adjusted whole well uh Happy engaged and our safe kids and then the academically uh profession student those are the four goals and each of those four goals has some specific metrics and these are the metrics that will make up your dashboard the indicators of progress that will track over time to figure out how how well or how costly we are achieving the goals that we set out so portra those measures Define what we want for us students I leave this on the screen these were also edited stilling on I think this was the this was what they started with today yes and

021this is um the two side by side and then they started um editing so two different starting points com mer mer one so my um my comment is I I actually I I really like the goals indicators because they're very clear and specific and related to you know educational outcomes and such that we have been talking about a lot so I'm really glad to see that in there I like the you know the pipeline approach of focusing on strong foundations and culminating graduation and postsecondary experiences um the the one area though and and that's what I was kind of curious about the portrait of a graduate if it's um primar the vision is there are a lot of things that are in there that are phenomenal elements that we want our students to know and

022understand be Global Citizens what not but there isn't really a direct link to the measures here for that so that was part of my question around like the in between the theory of action of if this is what we want our graduates to know and understand and be able to do at the conclusion of the T water education and what then are the actions and activities that would align to that vision and then how does that directly link to the specific measures that have been established here so again I think the measures cover academics very well but there's quite a bit more in the port of a graduate that is less measurable excellent thing uh I want to go back to the PO Point uh than raising that question I wasn't will we get back

023today but I'm I'm glad we're there when it comes to the uh the the ad action the one second the analogy we make is to have us imagine that we want to build a house and I can build a house only foundations we need one Foundation that's about teaching and learning we need one Foundation that recognizes that schools can't do it alone One Foundation that's about investing in people and one about making sure all the PES come together so we offer this four criteria as a way of thinking of the architecture of our strategies like which I believe is what you referring to then the uh planning teams the T teams took these four plan English Factoria and they came up with academic language for them and what they came up with I think it's

024same SL I'm going do so these are the four components that they came up with you my screen with the uh pill Kevin do you see the yes yes okay so what day propos is that we get really good at differentiated and C responsive instruction strong relationships with families and Community shared responsibility for resource Focus collaboration and the C of excellence and accountability so these are the four building blocks that they propos and then for each one of those building blocks they not say we're going to use same building blocks for all the goals but what we do depends on what the goal is so for goal number one strong foundations these are the two strategies that this team recommended it's not finalized yet um but they divers resources for pre to three differentiated curriculum

025and so on and each of the gold teams came up with similar uh with corresponding strategies for their goal but all of them are built on the same foundation so it is these four ideas that unifies everything we uh in our education system but how we implement or what we Implement to show differentiated and responsive instruction will be different from of for strong foundations versus with Goal number two or go number three number four but all of them are premis on the same for building blocks or for for uh does I begin to answer your your question please yes uh very good thank you thank you I didn't think we'll have enough time to get it they they got a lot of work done in you know two two and a half days this is

026moving very fast and um I've been very very impressed questions do you have any any more slides no that that's really all that I have for this evening thank you thank you so much thank you muchu thank you very much I appreciate your time yeah have a safe light and good luck with your deliberations thank you thank youby so a couple other follow-up pieces um for the public and for the board is um on our main District website at the very top there's a link that say iic planning 2425 um there is analysis of our student data that we took about three months to gather it's a 35 page document that talks everything from our kindergarten Readiness to our K12 learning and engagement our educational attainment right forear grab rate and our students access to

027high quality curriculum and instruction um and then you'll also see all of the work that the people have done in the sessions their handwriting their posters their notes their quotes the everything that the parents said and the community members said at the um asho dinner night um that is all like a record a running record um and that is called work to date so people can go on there and read that um and then I'll keep the board updated on our next steps of J January February March and we'll wrap up um the first week of April thank you any questions for thank you this is exciting um so now we'll move on to public comments um before we begin I'd like to remind members of the public that if you wish to have adjusted

028the board during public comment um during this meeting we would have need to fill out the public comment form available on the district website by name today if you miss the opportunity you are welcome to sign up for the next regular board meeting which is in two weeks uh or email your comments to the board and or superintendent contact informations on the district website Becky I know you received submission so I won't even ask that question so this is what happens if You' never done this before um Becky is going to have the timer there you have white uh so as soon as that goes off I'm going to gather you and you need to be done because we will be done in in 30 minutes if you go over time you're taking time away

029from other people so um again if you don't get through everything then email us you likely have written it down so just email back to us and and being respectful of the other people that that are speaking after you so Bey um s thank you good evening I'm Christ in I've run fresh for 9 years serving 300 youth in tum water maybe more we were established as a partnership of the city of tumat the school district and Grub our mission is to help struggling students re-engage and succeed in data told yesterday nearly 90% of fresh students go on to graduate this is incredible because when they arrive up to 80% are not on track students come to my program worn out not believing in themselves not to mention failing classes many suffer poverty depression addiction

030homelessness poor mental health yet they leave fresh more successful more prepared and with greater agency to forge a positive future without fresh will these students drop out what is the plan to support the students who need it most students from all three high schools run the fresh farm just down the road this Farm has provided 13,000 pounds of food for our community since Co including students families seniors and the food bank students in the fresh summer program can earn money and job skills I built fresh to be sustainable because struggling students need a place to land fres is that place two years ago fresh was $440,000 in the black an additional $75,000 Grant allowed 585 students to see outdoor science at the farm last May plant sale grosses 10,000 a year and the city gives

03110,000 a year plus student FTE and CTE funding despite these numbers budget short pole is the reason to cut freshh much of summer program is Grant funded the district took money out of fresh and has not taken adequate action to get Grant funds reimbursed this makes fresh budget look bad for the grant state of Washington rco is standing by to reimburse another $42,000 the district just needs to provide them paperwork if the district needs money why not take these steps I'd like to know for fresh what exactly is the shortfall why cut the program which yields results gets kids to graduate feeds our community and brings money to the district to support these efforts I'll never forget one of my star students so bright so hardworking so dedicated she was supposed to give a speech

032to city council and I suggested we invite more people from her school she said oh no Kristen everyone thinks I'm a bad student she was not a bad student no one had believed in her yet thank you thank you CHR [Applause] good evening everybody we know Staffing is the greatest expense for the Tom School District the cost is an investment in the growth of our Tomer students and Community School Districts cannot operate without staff who provide the educational programs and support for students program and Staffing decisions made by the board and the district are value statements which impact students and the community directly in very real and tangable ways the district website States quote each day our staff of just over 800 employees carries out our mission to provide continuous student learning in a caring

033engaging environment our academic focus is to help each child succeed by setting achievement goals and then using data to closely monitor progress and adjust instruction to do this we encourage and support staff collaboration and professional development we strive to create a safe supportive environment in which all students feel connected and valued while they grow academically end quote the district cannot accomplish the mission and focus as stated by reducing Staffing it takes dedicated staff to provide continuous student learning in a caring engaging environment the reduction of programs and Staffing in the district will negatively impact the ability to monitor student progress and adjust instruction the reduction of programs and Staffing in the district will negatively impact collaboration and professional development the reduction of programs in Staffing the district will negatively impact student safety and support the

034reduction of programs and Staffing in the district will negatively impact students feeling connected and valued the reduction of programs and Staffing in the district will negatively impact the ability of students to grow academically these impacts will be felt in devastating ways at every school within the district that is why we the Tom water associ iation of par professionals Tom water office professionals Association and Tom water Education Association presidents urge the board to decline reduction in educational program resolution number two and search for other ways to balance the budget Staffing is the greatest expense for the Tom School District Staffing is also the greatest investment in our Tom water students and community stand before you today in solidarity and Together As We rise jointly in opposition to the reduction of programs and Staffing in the Tom

035Water School District on behalf of the employees of our three associations we are the Tom water community and our community for years has been defined Upon Our Public Schools it's the core of who we are reducing Staffing reduces our community thank [Applause] you hello my name is Don Brewer I've had kids in the school district since 2009 my comment today is this I support establishing safe fair and equal opportunity for biological females in the tomw Water School District in classrooms bathrooms and on any Court field and track where they compete as student athletes I want to make it crystal clear that my support for biological females is not perceived as opposition to any student athlete who identifies as transsexual over the last three years my two have communicated their discomfort due to their perception that

036going to the bathroom was not safe as a result of biological males identifying as female being allowed to use the female bathrooms however due to the controversy surrounding the issue and the perception that one marginalized group is being favored over another we have remained silent for fear of being accused of bigotry as the as the basketball boosters president I have a pulse on on the on the feelings and beliefs of many parents parents want to know if it is the belief of this board that the beliefs and feelings of one category of student are more important than another it wasn't that long ago that protecting the physical and mental safety of biological females was of utmost importance in order to create fair and equal opportunities in academics Athletics and the professional job market it is

037the opinion of a large portion of families that the feelings and beliefs of the tat girls who decided not to play last Thursday are just as important as the trans athlete who decided to play parents also want to know if it is now the policy of the TSD to not recognize the physical and biological distinctions between biological males and biological females it have been known by science for centuries a study that was completed by the US Military Academy identified 120 physical differences between men and women the average female Soldier is about 5 in shorter than male counterpart has half for body strength and 34% less muscle mass it is because of these differences that distinctions and standards were established for biological females in order to provide safe spaces so that they could Thrive compete in

038a fair and equal environment please clearly communicate the policy of the Tumwater School District regarding the inclusion of biological males in the safe spaces dedicated to biological females let us know if you are going to began the extreme practice of investigating students who are accused of misgendering and then classifying it as harassment intimidation and bullying please let us know so that we can make decisions as to where we think our daughters and granddaughters will have the best opportunity to thrive and succeed thank you my name is indeed Dale Reeves I've been teaching for 37 years in which 30 years at Tom Water School District I want to bring your attention to an unjustifiable termination practices by the T school district and help School Board become more effective and efficient problem solvers moving forward no one

039can deny the value of co-curricular activities and sports and education the value that bring to all our students I want to share my experience that happened this Tuesday at Black Hills High School at an impromptu meeting with director Bramley and assistant superintendent RAR at Black Hills I was brought in I was told I'm immediately dismissed or let go of my position that I felt for 27 years at activities coordinator and director but I asked the immediate question why the response was restructuring I said who's making the decision they said the team I said what team it didn't include any names this is a huge red flag and it doesn't show transparency the next question was asked was the administration certification Pro process is the most common process around the state not in tat School District

040you have a huge history of amazing activity directors and uh athletic directors okay doesn't happen here we have great staff next question teachers cannot evaluate other teachers in supervisory roles in the history of pum Water School District that is not the case I've been doing this thing for 27 years and know other people that have doing it many many other years and it's always been a supervisory role like teaching these are not true facts and this is provided by district office um employees okay so my question is this in reflecting on this experience not one of us and this includes myself the athletic director at Tumwater High School Activities director at Tumwater High School and athletic director at Black Hills High School not one of us was contacted once not once nor were any of

041our principles contacted asked for input that is sad not one of our students was asked for input that is sad that is not best practice and our district office should be held accountable and I would expect director bear to ask some questions because that is not how we treat people and family continuous learning caring and engaging environment that's what's happening thank you for this opportunity this is a fantastic District I want everybody to understand that uh it's hard to watch what's going on and that you can't put a finger on it but you have a p on it there's a lot of people do a lot of great things I listen to Dale re Dale re and I came at the same time I see what people do in the community I see what people

042do in the schools I think what we need to understand is that there's a lot at stake here and my heart goes out to people who are losing their jobs it's not an easy position for the administration but I just ask for people to be transparent I think that's the one thing people are asking for um like I said it is a tough situation the boards are a tough situation Community is a very supportive Community don't ever underestimate the the support and willing support that this community gives to us the board the administration or schools there's not a better community in the state of Washington CL water I want everybody to understand that we are aching right now but I hope we all can look at this and try to figure out what's best for

043everybody but that also takes transparency and it takes time and it takes compassion I want to thank you community of tar for being the community you are that you we are not us I want to thank the board for listening I want to thank Mr B for hearing me I want to thank you all [Applause] I those my name is k is a learning of a voice is very eye open when people can hear that you want to make a difference it tends to make them want to listen fres shows that kids have a voice they take what they learn and they f with it in such a positive way instructors are teaching kids how to become young adults and how to become better people some of these kids come from disadvantaged and broken homes

044and they are products of bad relationships with their environment and fresh it changes these kids lives it is incredible to see how much they can change just from the singular program I've seen some kids come into this program with not much light or Joy but once I S complete the program I've seen so many be able to smile again to be happy and the differences in their moods attitude and outlook on life is just in just the first few weeks it's an incredible thing to witness however these kids come into whenever these kids come into fresh they leave wanting to graduate stop the addiction stop looking for the acceptance from others and start to believe who in who who they will be in who they will be becoming in the future before I joined bres

045I was going down the r pack and I was using drugs and everything can doing pills smoking and even drinking every day for months I would never participate in my school or in my home life I was Stelling multiple classes and thinking I would never graduate high school when I knew my entire life that's all I wanted to do it was it was I've always wanted to graduate high school because I the first person in my family to do so and um after fresh now I will be graduating an entire year early in my junior year during fresh I had the opportunity to witness so many different kinds of people who have completely different stories and backgrounds who have changed my life forever these experiences and skills that I've gained from fresh the fresh program

046have already gotten me super far in life without fesh I believe kids would never understand what it means to be held accountable for the ulture learning to love strangers without having any sort of backstory or opinion on them and having trust in others and in the process of the unknown having the will to learn about something you might not that you might want to take with you for the rest of your life I've gained the confidence that I never knew was a been helping me make friends but also leaving people that I know that wouldn't be good for me in the future coming to that conclusion I've learned that when you when you open and apply yourself knowingly that it won't always 100% go your way because everyone has their own needs and wants and

047where mine and I know that mine might might not be the top priority but with that I think it need to be a great consideration about keeping the Farm open as long as possible for the future generations to come to make help and make a positive difference in their lives and in others and in the community itself and thank you [Applause] good microphone pleasement y okay all right hello my name is Ezra ly I'm a certified teacher and Par educator with the fresh suar program I am here for the students who have participated in the fresh program in the past and for the students who will hopefully be able to participate in it in the future the fresh program is unique it teaches students how to plan a garden how to take care of the

048soil how to tend for the plants but more than that students learn how to take care of each other this type of community building program is integral to Growing Minds as they learn to be farmers and entrepreneurs fresh students build confidence and resilience I was able to watch students who would never think to stand up and talk in class gain the confidence to ask questions share ideas and collaborate with peers this is no small feet I had the honor of working alongside students as they harvested crops to share with their neighbors every week in The Fresh Market sand to give back to their Community just an example in one week we harvested over 50 pounds of cucumbers um providing alternative programs like fresh is how we can contribute to a stronger future it's how we

049can provide our youth with the building blocks for collaboration and compassion which we so desperately need right now funding programs like fresh lets our students know that we believe in them that we support them and that their voices are important and heard [Applause] hi good evening I'm Pat May of pwat and uh father of two graduates of some other school district um you know I was involved in helping create the fresh program and I'm really here tonight to ask you to reconsider cutting that program uh you've heard some of the stories already tonight so I won't repeat it but I'll just say you know when when we started this program I was thinking well this was sort of program and uh we give them TOS of various facilities around and maybe Inspire them to think

050about a career in public service government because we're having trouble finding employe frankly as you can tell this program there way more it's really deing kids confidence in the ability to to handle many difficult issues and and and bringing that paycheck home during the summer has brought respect from the in many ways uh it's made a huge difference for many kids lives um you know one kid in particular I remember coming back and after being in the program and uh coming back the next year for the graduate and just saying uh I wouldn't be here I wouldn't have graduated I think there are very few school programs that you can say directly impact the ability to get graduation from increase the graduation age and I know that's an important measure for you in terms of

051exp and so I just ask that as you look at your Cuts this evening think about all of the impacts not just on graduation rates but all the other benefits that that this program has had over the years uh city has invested a lot of resources in it as well so I think it's just a tremendous program and I hope you you think about keeping it going because I think important thank [Applause] you um my name is Georgia heling I'm a 10th grade student and fent he attended this year's fresh summer program and is currently attending fresh school year at K High School his speech will be about how fresh has impacted meet what it has done for students past present past and present and what will do what will what it will do for

052future students have given the chance I always felt like there was a role for me in a leading position but I never would have had it in me to give myself a chance if it weren't for fresh when fresh introduced leadership Physicians to SFA I with everyone in the program enough to give it a try whereas if fresh had not to war my community I would have not believed in myself enough to try and become the vice president every year a new Fresh Community is built and many students in the same position as myself had the chance to open up and develop new fonds of their peers in a way that no other program could replicate from the teamwork built by the demand of the farm to the days in the classroom where everybody shares

053amongst each other feelings and opinions they might have never been comfortable with sharing in additional classroom crash is also a program that provides additional credits to students who need it for students who might have felt chopped by the bounds of a additional of a traditional school day and who couldn't do it the way their teachers expected them to it is much the same for me for last year I was struggling to keep up with the workloads my teacher gave me but when fresh cut it in half I felt in control G and now my grades are better than it have been in a long time having fresh taken away would mean many future students will struggle with grades their work and conditions in ational classroom without fresh many future students won't be able to make

054up credits without fresh many future students could never have the opportunities presented by this program without fresh many future students may never find their passion for agriculture without fresh many fure students would be great leaders may never realize their potential this is why fresh is so important it is a key part of many people's lives and is influenced where they may go later in their careers fresh could mean between graduating and not graduating please hear my words and take the speech into consideration before finalizing this decision fres is something that shouldn't be lost thank you okay yeah for yeah that would be great I'm a student at fresh I go to tomw high school 10th grade I joined fresh during the summer of 2024 going into it I didn't really know what I was getting

055into I didn't know the community I didn't know anything about anything I was also very shy I was that I wasn't prepared to be around people but as the first week in the first week and everyone was so calm and the three people that had been there before the pickles were very welcoming and showed us all around they showed us how to settle in they were very welcoming and they made it a very calm and very comfortable place to be and then when I started the school program the first day was a little bit awkward but I saw people that I knew and it wasn't that awkward because I was around people that I was comfortable with and I knew I wasn't going to get judged by and then within the first couple days of

056school summer school fresh cheese we got close with all of the other new students and we all became really good friends I have a good bond with all of them and to have other students have the same opportunity that I had to come out of my shell to have a chance to change and be a better person to have that loss would be really hard to watch because I know for me and my C is that it has been a tremendous change in my life it's been a big impact it's helped me out through so much I've been so much better in school I can focus and I know that I'm going to be okay and that I can graduate I was struggling with school I still do struggle some but I've been way better

057and fresh has helped me tremendously with that and I think other students deserve that opportunity just like how I did and the rest of my peers and they deserve have the chance to have a community where they are welcome and they are heard and they are [Applause] soon all right thank you everyone um now we'll move on to action items um so Ben R assistant superintendent will present the reduction educational program resolution number two resolution 08 425 so as he makes his way up there I I wanted to just start tonight before we turn this over uh to Ben know this is uh 18 months on the job a little bit more than that I came into the sh Water School District last year um knowing that there has been some Financial um concerns um

058I had watched two years ago um the budget this conversation at the board level around budgets and making sure they're watching things there was ongoing conversations about monitoring and income balance they ended up Staffing um at a 98% level so I came into the district last year knowing it's like all we need to be watching our financial situation and kind of along the way it's like kind of promising messaging that we were getting around enrollment around finances around any fund balance um enough to prompt us to look at uh curriculum adoption process and um we we hired some staff in needed places throughout the district by the end of last year towards the end of last year probably March of last year um some of the financial information coming and just started presenting quite a

059few questions ultimately diving into some things made a pivot and and starting to come to a realization that we were on a path of spending um considerably more than what we were bringing in from the state we ended the year having to um do a budget extension we came into kind of the full end of the year that kind of Ben has come into and we had to end up um taking a resolution to borrow 7.5 million to cover expenditures in the last scho year so the situation I walked into wasn't nearly what I anticipated the board became aware of this towards the end of last year um there was some conversations about why aren't you making immediate Staffing reductions and this is a conversation in April May of my first year superintendent and I

060think the message I gave to this board at the time was I need to fully understand this that there's I've been meeting with our representatives and um I am in alignment with DJ around you know people and our staff with a heart and soul of this we don't do this work without our staff and so I and again also it's like gosh this has been an up and down roller coaster of finances so I wanted to make 100% sure that the information that we have is accurate so we weren't going to make any drastic changes as we done into this school year and I think I told this board now we're going to have to let me get the facts of bringing on some excellent people who are going to dive into this and we

061are going to have to make a course correction as we figure this out it's gotten to a place today um January we are now cash negative so we actually have to borrow cash to pay with this great staff that we have um we had to borrow from ourselves to be able to do that I think probably for the first time in some water history and so the situation the financial situation is much worse than I even anticipated coming in last year and finally finally uncovering it towards the end of last year and into this year and when staff make up 85% of our budget um it is all about people it is all we do our work through the people of this District this is the last thing I want to do in my second

062year on this job is to sit before you and recommend Staffing reductions I here and I appreciate I appreciate our students being here I appreciate their compassion this is not process and we do not have um staff that I can just like easily wave one and just like we can we can do without these folks the sad reality is we are not funded for the staffing that we have to the tune of at least $4.5 million so that's just to just to break even and now We've ran our kind of bank account into zero um and we'll get more information from then about that that we have to borrow and that isn't a sustainable practice for us we have to have money at that I'm sure our staff that are here want to get paid

063on a monthly basis and so we need to be able to kind of Rectify that so that's really this is this is all difficult conversations difficult decisions um and we are here to be transparent and share this information and how we've gotten to this place and again I think we want to be open with this where we've gotten to today again I just want to recognize that this is like this is not an easy process not easy decisions I appreciate the advocacy I appreciate the people are here and sharing their concerns and I Echo the concerns around the state of Washington funding public education and I am there fighting for you on the legislative side of things I wrote a letter to our legislative ways and meance committee today on three bills um this week

064um fighting for additional funding for the school district and for for all students of Washington so we are continuing to fight and it is something that um again a really really difficult situation for this team for this community to be in um and it is again not to point fingers and blame it is a situation that ultimately has taken some years to get to but we are committed to doing this and building a positive path forward and I'll leave it at that and turn this over to assistant super can give you little Bard details and some Contex thank you uh good evening board members um I will be presenting to you on um resolution 08 425 in your packet and I believe you have three essentially three documents you have the resolution itself um you

065have exhibit a u which is an indication of the positions of non-renewal for next school year again I want to emphasize the point I made the last board meeting that uh none of these are in effect immediately no one was told that they would be immediately dismissed to sarly dism this is all as it pertains to the 2025 26 school year um and you also have a summer memo in your your packet explaining some of this i' first like to um uh for those that are new to this conversation uh bring everyone up to speed up where we're at in this process as the superintendent and the board have been working on this since late September um when the superintendent communicated to the entire community and uh implemented midyear cuts and in October 11th memorandum

066to all schools and departments requiring 10% cuts um and then uh through a series of Workshops superent the board uh the district was directed to prepare structural reductions for the budget for next school year it also became evident in the fall uh that the district was going to have cash liquidity issues we started working on that little early almost as soon as the school year started and what you see up on the screen is the latest information we have about cash in the bank everyone in the audience can relate to this even ter if you have a personal um bank account um and it's not all that different for a school district and so the month of January um as predicted is the first month that we are literally passion so what does that mean

067everybody probably wondering well you know as a person if I don't have uh any money in my bank account um that means I can't pay my bills exactly uh in your case you would probably have to look at a payday loan or keep a loan from somebody that is what the school district did um School District used a mechanism in law to be able to loan money from um money reserved for capital projects uh for the purpose of allowing the district to meet its month-to-month obligations so that is what is happening right now so as you'll see starting in January we expect the district will continue to be negative through February and March this year uh the annual Spike that you see in April is when um the district receives its property taxes uh and

068then a slow decline into the summer so we expect to be negative this month at least through March potentially through June at this point we are projecting year positive but that also is not a 100% guarantee this has all put the board in a situation of having to set some early and difficult budget parameters for the 2025 2026 school year and many of you may have joined the board in their uh January 9th uh budget work session in which they uh chose between three options um in terms of the extent of the cuts the reductions um and the ultimate goal of these reductions in terms of the timetable for fiscal recovery that meeting occurred on January 9th shortly therea a series of budget principl was established and the superintendent was Ted working with his team

069which is us uh to develop Productions that H those targets and so here we are today this is the second resolution that is responsive uh to the board's charge from January 9th I can provide a brief overview of the exhibit itself uh several board members before the meeting asked for um an update of where we are at in terms of the U relative Savings of resolution number one relative resolution number where that puts us in terms of our overall Target so it's my intention to do that now so resolution number one represented approximately um $2.5 million in total savings 2.3 million of which was for the listed staff positions um $210,000 um was associated with the recommended col freeze for staff next year and an additional $115,000 was associated with the the pay cuts for

070administrators the furlows we are not adding that to this number because that's a that's a one time number and ultimately not a continuing number but that is also part of resolution number one this resolution resolution number two uh comes to approximately $3.9 million and so when you take the savings of resolution number one and number two our anticipated um uh reductions in non-salary areas and then accounting for a cting Theses in the current year the net result of these actions is 6.54 million which put you right about exactly where uh the board discussed option uh on January in that work session um couple of clarifying points one of the things that what the board emphasized during the uh budget principles discussion was trying to keep C away from the classroom um trying to have a

071sense of proportion about where these production would came manifested in a couple ways one was starting in the central office at Support Services that's where the work started actually the work started with the a non-salary reduction in October that was the first action the second action was the central office reductions uh last month uh but here's one way to think about it so if you went to the state's website today and just looked up what percentage of the overall TR water budget is associated with activity 27 with is De that would be about 57% of the budget the the total Cuts right now comprise about less than 35% of fut so in proportion those reductions are not quite half of that percentage but close so that you can see that there is evidence of the

072fact that the just the board tried to keep those touches far away from activity 27 i' like to go over a couple of the highlights um from the exhibit itself there's a couple things from the exhibit that might sort of on its space um not be into it so I make sure that for the inance of transparency that people understand what it means a literally none of the positions listed were similar sarily dismissed nobody was given notice on a day that they were um they were fired ined in fact all of these pertain to the next contract period um and in fact the employees that were contacted this we before Lo through the fact that although many of these positions are recommended to be reduced from the budget many of the individuals that hold these

073current May in fact land in other positions in the district um particularly you know classifi them as very likely to be the case um and so it's important that get a statute between positions and people in this um there is a a list in here are two athletic directors and I think somebody looking at that sheet might think about veric directors how is a high school going to function without ver directors that is not in fact an elimination of the function of an athletic director this is a proposal to restructure um the athletic director from a full-time teaching position to an administrative position and we are seeking to go to a model that you see is a little bit more common in peer districts uh where Athletics and activities are combined in a role understand

074there the history of this District where that the director title may have in the past Tau some taught some classes might have been part-time teacher sort of evolved to the point where that that role is a full-time role and for that reason uh some healthy questioning about where whether it fits in teaching contract when they in fact do not teach uh that that role is not a teaching role um so again reading it on the face one might assume that Sports better or athletic directors are not going to exist in fact that that is as it pertains to those rules as they currently exist um the second maybe um clarifying point I may may make is as to the fres program um I'll just say with regards to that that the fres program represents both

075a robust summer program uh as well is a school year program nothing in this resolution pertains to the summer program um that is not what is that issue here what is that issue here is the school year contract and so um you may have further questions about this and it can be that same time but part of the you know there's nothing about this that any of us relish but there was an important part of this process about class SI for all classes and in some cases we're asking uh our excellent teachers in t water to take on larger class sizes um again not as it pertains to the summer program but as it pertains to the school year program um the fresh program we have been able to sustain very low class sizes in

076the fresh program and that that's a good thing but that is also something that we feel like we can no longer sustain and we have a different opinion about um the uh the funding account for covering the cost associated with program so by your vote of this resolution it doesn't mean that there won't be a fresh program in any form in the future it doesn't have anything to do with the summer program it does mean that for 8.5 student FP for 17 head students we will not have a full-time teacher a full-time class speaking of class and to the that won't be a structure that we will continue with in that and I say that because the more we learned about the program it is very cool everybody understands that it's that's a new program

077for kids they they like it um and be great to find a financially stable way to continue to do those types of activity projects I got student just c um at this time I think maybe I would first pause and ask if there are a question specifically that the board MERS would like to could you explain the changes in the M the NL absolutely yes if I may I'm gonna Le on my expert colleague Dr Dawson thank you um so I'm glad that you asked this question because um creating program for multilingual Learners is an incredibly important part of any school district um I have I do have experience um running federal and state grants for districts and overseeing tbit programs uh in other districts um so yes we did have to make the difficult

078decision to eliminate two District MLL positions um but looking ahead I'm excited about redesigning our program um uh the OPI director Kristen CI she and I have worked together on other projects so I've reached out to her and um I want to be sure that when we redesign our program we're not only meeting State um Grant guidelines but we're exceeding the state expectations and um I'm really interested in how we meet and exceed the expectations of our families and our students like what kind of program do they want us to give done um and when we do that we're going to be looking at um how do we maintain or enhance the service that our n all students currently receive um how do we build in professional development for all staff um so that when

079students are in core content classes they're in programs where language acquisition strategies are used on a daily basis um and then looking at MLL schedules um what courses are they taking do they have Equitable access to um the kinds of classes that non- MLL students have you know based off of their language levels do they have access to appropriate opportunities for academic success graduation and their Pathways after um graduation so I I just want to thank everybody for their dedication and hard work through this process and I do want to point out that every staff member in tum water is valuable they do valuable work we honor their work we um this is in no way shape or form saying that their work wasn't important I know that their work is important and I know

080that um we're going to navigate these changes and we're going to continue to provide an excellent experience for students and Families questions um so it's been raised several times uh looking through these positions and all of this work is important and we've heard from lots of people um talking about the impact to with these positions going away um what's going to happen to that work and so I'm hoping that um you all can speak a little bit about what is the plan for where that work is going to go and how that is going to be handled absorbed if I can speak to that a little bit um first of all so um director bonley and I have SP a greater part of the last couple weeks going around and trying to meet with the

081impact that people before they heard about it at a board meeting and and um and this obviously was a common theme in those conversation like people obvious means to rece but also there's a lot of affirmation of the the value and importance of the role that they fill in water and know we wanted to be clear with people that we're not going to be able to continue to do all the work there is a reality to this that these people were making valuable contributions to the district to kids and you can't just we have to keep it real that is going to be an impact to District I'm not going to stand up here and say that all the work is going to be real allocated and this sort of of fin you know this

082sort of Staffing impact is going to be into a district and you're not going to see the income we absolutely we'll see the in and that is in part you know validating and valuing the work that everybody um all these impacted individuals have done it's matter every one of these programs matters um that said there is sort of a parallel process here where um we're having to go through and sort of separate out in an exting Way by way this is not all what anyone had in mind for their assignment this year but um to sort of separate out those things that we are legally obligated to fulfill um and make sure and I think Dr Dawson just sort ofed to that just now but to be in touch with our byc Regulators to make

083sure that as we're redesigning some of these programs um that we remain in compliance um but they can't require us to spend more on these programs than they come right that's ultimately what we're talking about and um and we're confident that we can do that just because we're in a region where all the other districts are going through something very similar and so uh we're not alone in this uh went sort of a little further ahead than us is going through it um and they're all having to go through and sort of ask these regulatory questions like you know you re so far that you're putting yourself har way in some way from a regulatory standpoint so we're very aware of that and being very um deliberate um in our due diligence on that I'll

084just add you know countless numbers of our staff are coming and saying like we we see these you see the reductions what can I do to help you and they're offering to sit with us to ask that what can we do to help where can I take up I'm willing to take on whatever you need to do so you know this is a group of of folks that are resilient and we work through this and and I we have we have a lot of work to do just sort of figure out um just what he was talking about what are the requirements how are we going to best do this what are the things that we need to do make sure that we continue to serice the students families of community so it is work

085that though we we will do and we have the staff that said we want to step up and do that it I'd say it's fairly early in the here in February so we have work to do to really kind of study that and explore that and figure that out in the coming any other questions that I could respond Dr Taylor you have any questions uh no no questions I it's it's hard to hear uh through this so I understand the the frustration I went through a few weeks ago but no questions for me will we be able to make a comment later in yeah you can do one now we can once to pass the discuss I have a question so just a hypothetical if we were to even try to avoid cutting anyel at

086all is there any way possible that we could even do that if we cut every single thing that was tied to a salary is there is there I mean it's not even it's not even possible is that correct I don't believe it's possible not even get anywhere close to that no this is a this is a conversation that we have a lot so just to give you and so the first thing that typically people say is you know they look at the amount of the budget for non-salary things and they go just just got all out like you know is like doesn't seem all that complicated until you start going through the list of the what is the bul of that um you'll remember at our uh budget recruit meeting uh work session on theet

087we worked for now the top 20 times two or three of those you can really actually we don't have the option to not pay $1.85 million for our insurance as we can increase our deductible which we have already but we are essentially obligated to be insured as an owner that's one of our largest cost we do not have the option to not pay South the sound uh the flow through uh running start which is also one of our larg C do they not have the option to pay for healthare you know on and on um once we got down the list to ones where we told like okay here's a policy decision we can make where we can actually start to influence um some of these non salary costs with things like we can choose

088to engage or not engage the services of the Educational Service District those are can be fairly expensive we have just spent two weeks literally going line by line of every spent Us in the last three years and we've c a good a third of those off and so we're going to have to figure out a different way um we can control how much we spend on legal fees to an extent to an extent and we are down this year on that appreciably we can to some extent to some extent uh we can put limits in um for over time although some of that is contractual as IED um so it is not as simple as simply just going to the part it looks like a large chunk of the budget just don't do that in

089the um because many of them are either entirely non-discretionary or they some shap of essentially it might be the alternative is more expensive one of the things that was interesting been shared a while back that you we're looking at energy costs my C just try to save on energy and actually we've accomplished some of that but um basically we down in energy use but up in energy costs Just Energy cost but our actually use is down so that's kind of frustrating so you make these efforts and it's still C plus fuel f for the nutrition program we are actually going you know line by line but the expense of these things is up so you can for down res we up we are looking at everything and I just want people know we're looking at

090you know I think just recently a list of every copier in the district and and and analyzing that I we haven't made any decision about that like what's the cost of that can we be more efficient how do we do that what's put the structure together you know it's it's not going to save it's not the savings of hundreds of thousands it's in the tens of thousands and that's but again I know that all adds up and so we are looking at all of those options um as we kind of continue to explore we're trying to get to this some big picture here and then we'll continue to explore kind of Department by Department um looking at every cost that we can that and save a question for Ben all right thank a motion action

091and we approve resolution 08 2425 educational Support Program second second it's been mov second is there any discussion on this Miss discuss you get to discuss comment so I want to thank you all for your comments um I know it's this is a big crucial deal for all of us um the unfortunate truth is that there is only so much money our district is short 4 and a half million bucks at least what is before us is a heartfelt situation we can't print money unfortunately we can't even do that in Monopoly and life is much harder than for us money is a scarce resource that's a comment that my backman is economics and that many textbooks as the first sentence is a scarce resource that is very unimportant because we're all people you want to

092do what best for people the district is faced with the ravages of inflationary costs the wor we've had in about 40 years we're all still feeling that and the effects of covid-19 on society so we still haven't recovered from that it takes a minimum of five years we CL now because of those and because our enrollment has come in expectations our district were facing a financial crisis a real financial crisis and this is not what I signed up for but here I am I'm here to help if I can um but we have to make some very very difficult decisions that I can't even difficult bottom line is we're dependent on money from the state and ly money from Golden tax payers that's all we have so it forces us to make cuts um and

093hopefully those can be temporary Cuts you cannot just volunteer to take a cut and pay I'm a volunteer I don't take anything but most of us here we need the money to live on to provide for our families but unfortunately sometimes we have to tighten our belt and look forward and as I say hopefully that this is temporary we can move on and just please that first priority serving the students any other discussion so I too wanted to share some thoughts just in response to a lot of very valid questions and concerns about the cuts and specifically the comments regarding the impact of the quality of educational experiences and the support um that going to experience so as others have stated like to be crystal clear it we are fully aware it's always going to

094be better to have more people around to provide that support and and this is not you need school districts that is the case everywhere but in unfortunate reality we only have so much money that we can pay for these Educational Services that we provide and so there's there's kind of way been thinking about there's really two significant factors that throughout this whole process we've been talking about that has contributed to where we are today um the first again has been brought up many times the state only gives us so much money for the things that we have to pay for um assistant superintendent Eric has gone over that in great detail and has spoken several times about the inadequacy of the state funding formula which is controlled by the state legislature the other thing that

095has been going on is the costs of our operations have increased substantially over the past few years we've talked about insurance we talked about MSO Transportation but I also want to make sure that we understand across the board that the costs of our contracts have gone up the costs associated to reaching successful agreements to operate have increased our Personnel costs are higher than they probably ever have been definitely than a few years ago and you know as Jill mentioned our biggest fund driver students that number has been completely flat for a course of time and so we have not received any additional funding to support those increased costs by way of enrollment so again The Bleak reality we don't have enough money the only route to go is to downsize and then have to do

096the best that we can with what we have left again not unique to school districts I've been a state employee for 18 years I've been through two recessions one of them caused by the pandemic massive cuts to the state budget that came as a result of those things I was fortunate enough to have been able to keep my job but there were a lot of people that weren't and we had to kind of watch the degradation and services that went along with that you know kind of back to my question earlier which is what's going to happen to that work well it's in some cases it's just not going to get done or it's going to get piled on to other people that are already overwork so it is a just a very challenging situation

097and so my point is we've heard from a lot of people regarding the impact of the decisions and the impact of service and students and you're right you're absolutely right this is going to be difficult to navigate not only for the people that it's directly impacting but for those that are left behind they're going to need to figure out how to do the best thing for kids with the resources that we have with so the last thing I'll say is that all of your input and voices are important heard and we absolutely see you we definitely see you we have an obligation to not leave our most vulnerable students behind through this new strategic plan as well as goals that we've already established and are not going anywhere that is the expectation of the school

098board is that we will prioritize our highest need students as we continue to work through what this future with limited resources Dr Taylor do you have anything to add to the discussion uh yeah uh can everybody hear me okay say it somewh yeah all right goodar um yeah well first I just want my apologies for not being there in person coming off with pneumonia and then and then I back to clue on it here so probably just better for me to stay home here so wanted to pass that information along uh good points uh by other board members uh about this process in the impact um some of the you know repeat some of these but we're we're a district in a declining enrollment um and that's one of the reasons is to to why

099we're here uh the state funding formula obviously is is it's highly flawed um and and it's really important I think that we all come together and Advocate and and really reach out to legislators they are the ones that can make the change here we can react and and move levers that have been pushed about weeks um but ultimately that funding formula is is flawed and and Ben mentioned some of the things you know the insurance being one and other mandatory type things that we just we have to pay period you know we have to pay to S energy to keep the lights on so um the the materials and and operating costs why that that is gone you know those costs are a lot driven by inflation and and I think everyone has a fairly

100good idea of what that's been like over the last couple years um I kind of wanted to point back to our January 9th meeting uh Ben mentioned it briefly I believe as well to earlier around presenting three options to the board um getting feedback from board members on on which option they preferred um there was an option a option b and an option C and and I believe most board members were were comfortable with being and striving towards c um options A and B I need to to point out that um they they they were not do those options don't meet or or at least plan especially a and likely B and um those don't meet our minimum fund uh balance policy and so even with these cuts um we are not going to be

101able to meet our minimum fund balance policy and that and that's going to have an impact in a way um you know that impacts our bond rating on how much we get a return on on the community's local Levy dollars um you have a lower Bond rating because your minimum B balance is lower you're not going to get a better you're not to get as good return as you can almost dollars same thing for you know a rainy day or and that's kind of vague but it's specific to emergencies so uh when we got hit with snow a few years ago that was a huge cost there wasn't a account for you can't budget for those things Transportation fuel which you know can change in a heartbeat over a matter a couple months and just

102sink a budget um you know I think just this week we had a made a water emergency at one of the schools one of the pipes froze um Little Rock elementaries been hit with several of these flooding and and things you just can't really plan for so we we we chose an option that still doesn't mean our minimum fund balance and so this is going to we we tried to spread this um you know it's a hurt is what it is and we're trying to spread it out and so the path that we've chosen which is it's it's it looks pretty severe again it doesn't get us to that minimum fund balance we want so I just kind of want to point point out some of those other things that are going on I think

103Ben and Kevin did a good job of explaining other things you know that the question is why aren't you looking at other things well I believe they have they they've checked a lot of different ways to reduce not in people or positions and um every time that I ask a question uh you know why why are we why are we removing this position did we consider any of these options and I feel like I'm I can ask those questions but at the same time the options that they present back are well they're even worse and so um it I think we've done a decent job of trying to spread this around keeping it as far away from the classroom as possible but we're not going to ass anybody here yes this is going to impact

104kids in the classroom and we're going to just uh have to figure out a way to uh get better at this I'm going to revert back to Rick mg grass comment around you know this is a great District we can come together and we can get through this thank you thank you Dr um rather than kind of Stu as um I think for me being the newest board member um there certainly isn't something I look forward to uh coming on to the board to to do and and immedately have to come up with these resolutions to have people that are careers um I do want to say that I think it's really important that that people continue to come up and have these um conversations in the public forum here and to email the board

105and um I I think I really I really appreciate and part of the reason why I join this board is because I'm from here I I have a passion for come world to and I hate to see so many people hurt um but uh you know it's a strong Community Liv here for most of my life um I know a lot of the people that are affected by this um we'll get through it together um it'll be hard I hope that you know I'm holding out hope that something amazing happens so that um things can be adjusted a little bit um there position so to be reped but those of things but um yeah I just I feel for everybody involved and affected by this and I know that we've got some really intelligent hard

106and people um behind the scenes that they're punching every number that they can um unfortunately there's just no way to avoid some of these um expect we have to make to spend less money than over in the end so uh I appreciate everyone's comment especially the students um thinking back I I don't think there's a chance that I would have come up to speak publicly so um for anybody that that's it I always all this is probably going to last because everyone has said almost everything that I wanted to say um you took my last one I thought I'd be the students but u i mean just G think this years ago um for for speaking but I um want everyone has kind of said it but I'm just going to say say them by

107name um superintendent bogatin assistant superintendent um R and dawon and Dr bonley I think I've spent a lot of time with them in the last couple of weeks um I don't Kira I don't know your title assistant director AER Kira AER director AER um all of them I've spent a lot of time with them in the last couple weeks and I have full confidence in the work that they're doing around this work I appreciate the um uh the passion they have put into this and the caring that they have put into this um about their this follow employees in this District I know it's hard um I under I understand that those conversations have been hard but they've been really leading them with their hearts because they care about this community um and so I

108just wanted to say thank you to all of you people because been a lot of time with you I I I know that it's um it's hard to make these um decisions but I know that you've done so um thinking about students so thank you um is there anything else before we take the votes um I I would just say one one thing as the newest member again just I think going forward it's like like Kevin said earlier um there was some we didn't really know what was going on with the budget before um last year before my time here there was some numbers that people didn't know um and and Kevin did a very good job of hiring from um really good folks to straighten up folks a little bit and get us some

109corrected information and I look forward to once we do get past this being able to put together a budget that we can stay on and being able to have numbers that we can count on and that we can avoid ever having to be in a situation thank you all right now it's time for the votes um all those in favor of approving reduction educational program resol number two resolution 08242 pleas signify by saying [Music] I and see all those um all those apprting resolution passes so now with no further business coming for the board the regular meeting ised at 7:59 p.m. e