December 18, 2025 VISD Regular Board Meeting

001Uh, at this time I'd like to ask for a motion to approve the agenda. >> Motion to approve the agenda as is. >> Thank you. >> I second it. >> Thank you. Uh, all those in favor of approving the agenda as written. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. Let's pass the agenda, please, and I'd like to proceed with a land acknowledgement. Um, the Vashon Island School District stands on the ancestral lands of the Swash or Swiftwater people who inhabited Vashan Moria Island since time immemorial. The donation land claim act encouraged large numbers of Euroamerican settlers to claim this land even before the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1854 extinguished native claims to it. The Squash were forcibly removed and relocated onto nearby reservations including Puallup, Visquali, Squaxen Island, and Muckleshoot. We acknowledge people of the

002Puallup tribe whose stewardship of and relationship with Bashani Island continues to this day. All right, at this time, uh it's time for public comment. Um do you have the sign in? >> Oh, no. >> Great. Uh while Peter gets the sign in, I just uh wanted to kind of refresh our uh sort of mutual understanding of public comment. Um schoolboard meetings are business meetings which are held in public. They are not meetings with the public. In order to permit fair and orderly expression of comment, the board has provided this time to hear appropriate comments from anyone attending the meeting. However, the school board does not respond to questions during the course of the business meeting. The board values and welcomes civil, respectful statements and thanks be and clear, concise communications that inform its deliberations. The

003board uses public comment period as an opportunity to listen to citizen concerns, but not to debate issues or enter into a question and answer session. No person addressing the board should initiate charges or complaints about individual board members or employees or students of the district. Such charges or complaints should be presented directly to the superintendent. If a charge or complaint is about the superintendent, please send your concern in writing to the board or request an in-person meeting or phone call. Speakers are encouraged. They're not required to provide the board with a written copy of their comments uh and other documentation. That's because we're all different learners. We take in information in different ways. So, someone wants to provide written something, we're happy to look at that another time. Uh please adhere to the following standards

004when speaking to the board in public session. Speakers may not address confidential student or personnel matters, but may submit such concerns to the board in writing. Please wait to be called upon by the board president, which is me. When called, please stand and face uh and speak to the board members. Please don't turn and speak to the audience or the camera. Please state your name and keep your comments as concise as possible for a maximum of three minutes. A timer will appear on the screen. Speakers may not donate or seed their time to another speaker. Speakers are expected to treat others with respect, confining their remarks to school board school district issues. Please do not use public speaking portions of board meetings to make slanderous, abusive, and personal statements against any individual. The board chair

005or any other board member may rule any speaker out of order who makes such statements. And with that, um, excellent. Um, I just want to say how much I appreciate people coming out in this weather. I know that this is a difficult night to be out in this and uh there are many other places people could be and your engagement in the workings of the school board uh and school district are important. Um confirming Julia that you do not wish to speak. I don't see that her name checked out. Thank you. Um I'm gonna do my best to pronounce your name and I apologize if I don't say it correctly. Sherry Lukino. >> Sherry. Um, so I would like Can you try to step me up at the voter, please? >> So I would like

006to introduce myself. I'm Sher Lino. I am a mother and a grandmother and a voting member of the Vashan community. I very much value this community and I very much value everyone's time that has been elected and has come here to take care of our kids. And I know um I know this has been a very hard time for everybody. Um, I just wanted to step up and remind everybody of why you came, why you're here, and that is to take care of our children, and to take care especially of our disabled children, which one of those is my grandson. And I just want to advocate for those children, for them not to be lost in the fray and for people to go home and sit with a cup of tea and watch it rain

007and think about why you are why we're all here. And that's to take care of these children. And I I counsel you all to um approach this with with good intent and and good purpose. and and I'm sure that you all can reach agreements on how best to help these children. And so I appreciate your time and I appreciate you all being here. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Please no applause. Thank you. Not meaning to be rude. It's just a matter of order. Thank you. Uh Alice May, >> Can we switch? I'm at the end. >> Sure. Can I go? Is that okay? I'm Kennedy Levens. >> Actually, you know what I'm going to do? Just to be fair, if you're going to I'm going to make my way down the list and

008so the next person on the list is I'm going to keep going down rather than switching people around. Great. >> Uh Amanda Curtis. >> Hi. I am here today as a concerned parent, voter, and a person with a disability myself. There is one minority group that any one of us could join at any time and that is people with disabilities. I know this all too well. At age 11, I went from being a straight A student playing in multiple sports to a student with a lifealtering disability. I am eternally grateful that the teachers and staff and school district supported me and gave me the accommodations that I needed without pushing back at every turn. Even though I had great support from my school district, something that has stuck with me to this day was the

009teachers and admin who were not supportive and who pushed back. I know firsthand how damaging that is to a child that is already struggling to get by. I cannot imagine how detrimental it would have been to me if I had faced the same level of adversity that a lot of our students, special needs students in this district face. Over the past five weeks, I have watched the district deflect the actual issue at hand, which is our children, our most vulnerable children, not getting the levels of support they need. I have witnessed the district bully and harass one of its own board members of a multi-disabled medically fragile child knowing that she came to this meeting mere hours after bringing her son home from a week-long fight in the hospital fighting for his life. There has

010been a lot of talk about a massive breach of trust. The true breach to me of the trust was not between the board and admin, but instead from admin and the board to the public and to our children. The board is elected and entrusted by the public to care for, protect, and give all our children what they need to grow, learn, and flourish in a safe environment. If even a board member's child is not getting adequate services, how many other children are being failed every day? This is a story that has been told repeatedly to this board of special needs children in our district not getting adequate supports. When is enough going to be enough? Our children are watching, internalizing, and learning from us every day. This district is incredibly lucky because we have amazing

011staff, teachers, paras, specialists who go above and beyond and they need resources to adequately provide the best education possible for our students, no matter where that student is on their journey. I strongly urge this board to call for and can you give me five seconds, please? >> Okay, this was my last sentence. Um, I strongly urge this board to call for and maintain accountability and transparency throughout the district in the care of our children and focus on the children, all of them. Thank you. Uh, to be um, good evening. My name is Tim. I don't want to be here. I won't be on my farm, but I think this needs saying. Um, I am a multi-disabled parent of a disabled child who goes to this school at Chiakqua. Um, my story is the opposite of

012what you just heard. When I was eight and disabled, I begged for help. No one believed that I was hurt, that I was really trying my best to read and to speak more clearly, that I was really trying my best not to throw things across the school room. I begged. Their response was be more likable. Later that day, I tried to end my life. Support matters. It is literally life or death. We are not being hyperbolic. We are not being accusatory. So today, I'm here to speak on behalf of my nine-year-old son and my friend's seven-year-old son and dozens of other unsupported students in our district. Emerson and Jaime's cases in particular reveal the systemic failures and how this district handles special education and student safety. How your administration refuses first, second, and provides support

013only last and only if we have the resources to force them to do so. Jaime is 7 years old and legally blind. His IEP contains over 30 accommodations, each requiring active adult support. On his first day back after surgery, Jamie eloped from his classroom twice, even with a temporary additional support in class and a surgically severed Achilles. His classroom is directly adjacent to the high school parking lot. Despite recommendations from his occupational therapists, vision specialists, and teachers that Jaime needs this support, the district has denied it. Your administration claims that because Family Link is a parent chorus program, they don't have to provide the same services he would get in a traditional setting. The law does not agree. Your administration knows this. And any educator who interacts with Jamie for five minutes is fully aware

014that he cannot access a classroom, any classroom, without support. Despite this, your administrator operated in multiple bad faith tactics and forced his parents to file a complaint with OSby to contest the support he clearly needs. That decision will come in February. It will go against the school, but it will be too little too late. My son Emerson has severe dysloonomia. For over a year, the school denied him supports. Even after a corrective action plan from Washington, they still denied him the rest he needed, limiting it to 5 minutes at a time, forcing him to march without his wheelchair. Two children, two sets of denied IEP violations and accommodations. You say you don't want to hear negative comments about staff, that you want us to go through the chain of command. We are doing that. That

015takes time. We need you to do things as well. Enact a policy that shows accountability and reporting. I want you to read the same court cases I have read and speak to the same parents I have spoken to. Thank you. >> Confirming Heather Baldwin, you do not wish to speak. >> Thank you. Um, uh, Kennedy. Hi everybody. Um I'm Kennedy. Um I have two kids at the district with IEPs. Um and this is our fourth year accessing special education services um on on that. And I just want to speak to um I want to speak in support of both the staff and the administrators that we have at this school. Um because I think we're all human but ultimately like in our journey with special ed which has had absolutely wonderful parts and also really

016hard parts. Um we have I have always felt like every person involved in my son's uh education really wants what's best for him and is really doing their best to make that happen. And there have definitely been times when my husband and I and my son's uh private therapist and my you know my um and his therapists in school and his teachers and his Jenna teachers and the administration here have had different ideas about how to best serve him and um that we had um have had conflict over that and we have um had to work through that as a team. Um, and it was definitely not easy, but it was something that we um I I always felt like every party was coming to um really wanting to serve Vlad and trying to figure

017out how to best serve him in this school specifically in a way that that would be sustainable for, and I don't mean sustainable like cheap, but like sustainable like something that the school can do and that is is going to be successful at and the best way for him to be successful. ful that makes sense. Um we uh we went through a process of about a year with like a lot of meetings and a lot of emails and a lot of documentation and a lot of data and a lot of back and forth and um ultimately um I learned a lot from that. I think one of the biggest things um you know the outcome of that was partially that we got some compensatory services because the district looked at what we were saying and

018said you know you're right we weren't doing this thing that he needed to access his curriculum for a long time and partially we didn't get some of the compensatory services that we asked for and also partially um we uh the district agreed to do some of the things that we were asking uh and they have done that and then also we had to trust them when they said we don't we know you're asking for we don't think this is actually what's best for your kid and we also had to say like okay like we're partners you listen to us and we're listening to you and we are trying to find a solution together and um I feel that for lad for my son that um that has resulted in um him having I think he's

019doing great you know he has a really strong foundation it's something that is workable for everybody and works for his both general ed and works in every every setting at the school Um and uh and I also feel really confident that if something is wrong or something's happening that we have a lot of trust and partnership with his team and um and we can solve that together. So thank you for listening. >> Thank you. >> Alice Alice May. Hi, my name is Alice and I have two kids at Shitakqua. Um, I also sub there for two years. Um, I just wanted to start with a few things I've been seeing improve like since we've been there. Um, my child's reading and writing minutes now take place in his general education classroom. Uh, the school has

020made efforts to make engage more volunteers. Um, the speech therapist is now in person. think there are more speechto text opportunities. Um I want to call out but one of us the strengths of our program is that our staff and our board are members of our community and our neighbors and are deeply invested in the success and the need of our kids. And I know we hear this over and over again but um our schools are deeply underfunded. Um funding for prek to 12 education has decreased um from 52 to 44% since 2018. Um and the basic operating costs have not kept up with inflation. Um despite SB5263 special ed is still severely underfunded and the burden of these def deficits fall most heavily on the families that need the most support. But there are

021things we can do. We can collectively advocate, engage with PAVE with the Washington Education Association, help develop legislation legisl advocacy priorities and go to Olympia and ask for more funding. On a local level, there's plenty we can do. We can take advocacy training through ARC or COPAC program. If you know someone that needs extra support, go to an IEP meeting with them. Find ways to connect with families that you don't know. families that are not here, not on CPAC, not on the board, not on Facebook. I guarantee it will broaden your perspective and may even change your thinking. I know it has for me. Do you speak another language? Volunteer to translate for ELLL. Feed those families. See those case loads? Do you have a nursing license? Brandy cares for many medically complex students and

022stretch thin. Sub is a par so they can have days off and kids can still get their minutes. This is not possible for everyone, but if you do have free time, advocate for those that do not. Understand the breadth of need. Get to understand the community and what the needs are. Not to make yourself feel bad for wanting the best for your child, but to broaden your perspective and better serve everyone. Because of funding and because we are a rural isolated island, we are a mutual aid society. If you involve yourself meaningfully at a grassroots level, there are improvements to be had. Shame is cheap. It isolates people that need meaningful in-person connection. It makes good people lose sight of their values. Shame doesn't bring anyone to the table. We lose out on other people's

023perspectives. We lose out on empathy and the help that other people can give. Connect. Listen to others perspectives. Collaborate and meaningly problem solve with people in person. Then ask questions and hold them accountable. Engage with these values and we can get better outcomes for everyone. Thank you. Megan Splinain. Okay. Um I believe that is the end of our list at this time. A reminder that we do have a second period for public comment at the end of the meeting. Um we don't necessarily have a formal sign up for that. Um but we can certainly set one out if you would like. Okay. Um moving on to the uh consent agenda. Um as this is I believe the wording on this is correct. This is a second uh class uh district which does not mean we

024are second class in quality. It is a statement about the size of our district. Um uh hearing. If there are no objections I would like to uh suggest that we approve the consent agenda as written. Hearing no objections, let us uh approve the consent agenda as written. Uh and let's move on to the report section. Um thank you. Um so the first up is my item, the superintendent search update. Uh just a reminder that we have suspended the superintendent search at this time. Uh normally uh Martha, the co-chair, and I meet with our uh search representatives from HYA every week. We have stopped doing that. Um they are available to us though at any time. Um really could not have asked for better partners in our search. They um will certainly continue to field people

025who are interested and people who have questions. People continue to watch our meetings even though the search uh has been suspended just so people have a sense of sort of uh who we are and what our values are. Um the way we conduct ourselves and also sort of the the flavor or the vibe of our learning community. Um, we expect to pick back up with HYA in the early spring. Anything I'm forgetting, Martha, on that front, >> you're doing well. Uh, we can always reach out to them if we have questions. Um, and they really, as I say, couldn't have asked for better partners. Um, normally the next section would be um student word representatives, but we are without student board representatives tonight um due to illness. >> Due to illness. Yes. Um, next up

026is uh national policy updates and that's from Dr. Rojo. >> Thank you. So um as all of us likely know the department of education at the federal level um is in effect disbanded and those uh duties continue to be delegated to other departments which makes navigating uh federal education very difficult. Uh so that That's not new, but that is continuing to be um it's ongoing and it's concerning at the state level. Um if anyone listened to Chris Rael this week, that came up as a topic. Uh the federal budget is a continuing resolution at this time with the January 30th deadline. It's unclear what they will do about that federal budget. Um they could have another continuing resolution. um actually have a budget or face a shutdown again. Um the uh direct impact for us

027is the federal grants. There is a very clear expectation that they will be declining for the 26 27th school year. We don't know what that means, but we know any decline is a problem uh for our district. Uh I also wanted that this is more of a state issue. Um and you're going to be dealing with your policy about who what roles board members may have. Uh there are proposals at the WIAA again uh this year that there are actually 35 proposed amendments. Um and a couple of them were brought forward by districts again regarding restricting transgender athletes participation in sports uh to the sex assigned at birth. Um there are several other amendments and other issues that may be um our board members are interested in. So I would direct you to wa.com. There

028are proposed amendments. Members of the public can see them as well. Um, and uh, you may have an opinion about those. So, I would encourage folks to take a look at that. And that's all I have for updates on policy. Thank you. Um, uh, at this time, uh, we'd like to welcome Heather Ericson, director of the AL program, to present a report to us. >> I'm Heather Ericson. Um, I am the program manager for alternative learning that includes family link and student link where every student is welcome known and treasured and graduates confident and confident to thrive in a future that they imagine. This report is a reflection of the 2425 school year that we're just able to present at this time. So what links is we're an individualized learning program. What this means is

029that we meet each student one-on-one to craft and guide learning experiences that the student carries out mostly independently or um with their parents for our younger students. We provide curriculum and on-site learning opportunities. We support parents and provide community. Our teachers work with students and families to develop an appropriate written student learning plan for each student and adapted over time as the student grows. We have like I two programs like I said each with its own service model depending on the the stage of development and student link that is our um alternative high school which is 9 through 12 obviously and um those students meet independently with with the teacher um with a certificated teacher for one hour weekly to evaluate the weekly assignments and plan for the next uh chipping away at the 24

030credits required for graduation. Student link. Students also meet with tutors to help with academics. In family link, the family meets with their teacher once a month and then makes weekly contact to communicate some of the week's learning. The con this contact can also be made during our enrichment workshop. So, our staffing is a combination of district employees and contractors who come in to help in our um with our tutoring at Student Link and with our enrichment workshop programs. We also work alongside um Bashon Allied Arts with with the Bashon artists artists in the schools and the Bashon nature center. I have listed there our staffing that was last year. There's been some small adjustments but it's mostly the same. Um I have the chart of our enrollment for last year. Um so I have it

031listed by family link as L and student link as SL. Um you might notice that the FTE is lower than the headcount due to um shared students. So some of our students um do take a class or two at another school and that that's why that FTE is is lower in some cases. Um this I'll just say this year generally speaking in September our numbers um are lower and and gradually increase throughout the year. Um, student link for the most part stays pretty much constant because um, just because of the demand and that we're generally a full program. Last year we did um, sort of overflow into and had a um, a family link teacher take on some of our high school age students to just to accommodate that need. So last year we celebrated

03216 graduates and um they all have a plan for what's next and 70% of those students um had plans to enter college of trade school. We're just deepening our understanding on how to best connect our students to next steps after college after high school. We encourage students to attend both um the annual career fair and college fairs. Um, in family link, we are very proud of our enrichment workshop program. We had workshops three days a week that continues this year, three days a week throughout the year for our K8 students. These multi-age workshops are broken down into three age bands, K through two, 3 through 5, and 6 through 8. Every offering is optional. These workshops are very popular and well attended this year. Last year we offered art book club, science, math games, nature

033and fitness writing which is um an institute excellence in writing curriculum, Washington State History, Bashan Nature Center joined us for a workshop, music, gardening, game club, ukulele, fitness, and our annual egg drop. Those are all happening again this year. Not well not there's a little bit of a switch up but anyway um our annual spring culminating project that's what we do in the springtime with our um partnership with Bash Island Artists in the schools. Um last year we worked with Mick Kman and Mick led our students in a physical theater project that included improvisation and engaging the body and creative expression. The project instilled self-confidence, teamwork and empathy. Mick will be returning this spring for a similar project. It's the you just kids you just never know what you're going to get. The kids loved

034it and um they absolutely love having the opportunity to perform on the VHS stage. Super cool. Um okay, Student Link learning labs and clubs. At Student Link, there are drop in group learning opportunities that meet once or twice a week. These can be a part of a um part of a credit that they're earning or it can be just for fun. Some are led by staff and some by students. And this over the past year we offered science lab, cooking and baking, guitar, open art studio, history and geography lab, dungeons and dragons and then we partner every year with Vasha nature nature center for our annual chumchuk and that is a an adventure off island where we um partner with the port of Tacoma and the pa tribe and um we take a huge enormous

035pile of of um spawned chum corpses and we throw them into the river. Um it just um brings the nutrients back to the area for um more bugs and then more fish eat the bugs and it's just all of that. It's really a great opportunity because uh people from there's engineers from the port that come, there's people from the tribes that come and talk to the students about um occupational opportunities um in those fields which is really cool. Um, okay. So, in closing, I would like to just um invite the board. These are the invitations that um it's they're listed there. Uh the physical arts performance via uh partnering school uh with Mick was is going to be at the BHS theater on June 11th. You have the details there. The U family link egg

036drop, but again, the details there and our student link graduation. >> Thank you so much. Um, have any questions for Heather? >> First of all, you just made my day by telling me that Nick is coming back. She changed our lives last year. So, excited. >> But real questions. Um, the FTE versus the headcount. >> Yes. >> Um, does that include kids who have special needs both in the school so that they wouldn't be in the FTE, they would be in the full headcount. Is that correct? >> They're in the headcount. They are not in the full FTE. Yes. >> Perfect. >> Because they they're claimed under that category. >> I thought that was the case. Mhm. >> I have a quick question. Is that okay? Um uh you said something about the enrollment numbers

037tending to go up after September. Is that typ Do you have a sense if that's um families who maybe tried homeschooling on their own and then decided they need some support? Are there kids in a traditional public education setting who for whatever reason it's not for them? And then do you have a sense of where these kids are coming from is my question. >> Right. And that's a very good question. Um like if they're just shifting in district or if they're actually coming from outside the district. Um I think it's a little bit of all of that. Um definitely at the end of the semester there could be well you know what this we want to try something different. This isn't really working for our family. But um then again we have people that have

038been trying to homeschool and then just feel like I can't you know they just want some support. So I I think there's a little bit of all of that. Any other questions you have? >> Okay. Thank you so much. Appreciate your report. Thanks for coming. >> Uh, all right. Moving on to the monthly budget report. Cassa. >> Okay. I'm going to go a little bit out of order from the agenda just because it makes more sense to do it chronologically. So, we're going to actually start with um the fiscal year end for 2425. Okay. Um, so this is an overview of what our general fund fund balance looks like. Um, our total revenues were about 28.5 million with total expenditures of 27.8 million. Uh, we did exceed our appropriated budget by 774,232. Um, and I'm

039going to get into that here in just a second and explain that a little bit better. Um, we had a beginning fund balance which is over 2.6 million. Um, we have an ending total fund balance that's about 3.3 million. Um, our food service inventory is accounted in that. That's um about $6,000. We have our um chirp reserve that's there for 280,000 and then our minimum fund balance um which is new for us um since last year at 2.9 um leaving the undesated fund balance at just a tiny bit over a million dollars. Um a few notes there. So again, we did exceed our uh appropriated budgeted amount. Um really we should have completed a budget extension by July 31st. Um at the time when we did the review, it looked like we did not need

040a budget extension. There were a lot of invoices that came in in the month of August uh that were unexpected and had not gone through our procurement process. So there was no PO in place meaning we had no idea that those funds should have been encumbered and that was um really gave us no visibility into the transactions that were coming that has uh been corrected and I don't foresee that being an issue moving forward. Um so we put those process improvements in place to mitigate the overexpenditure we're watching really closely. Um we also have other processes that we implemented last year that I've talked about since I started that are continuing. Um, all of those things seem to show that we're really stabilizing with our spending each month. Um, and I think we'll have a

041really good idea when we we get to that July 31st deadline if we'll exceed what we put in our F95 or not. Um, I've also included uh what the revenue looks like from year to year looking from 2324 to 2425. Um and then it's broken down a little bit uh by each category there and the percentage of changes also included. Um as a reminder the 3000s um are where we get our basic ed and special education aortionment. Uh 4,000 revenue represents um special education, learning assistance, highly capable transitional bilingual and food services. It's uh 6,000 that's our federal title grants. 8,000 is our ECAP program and 9,000 is the transfers that we do from capital project funds for those tech levy salaries. I've also included the general fund expenditures and what those differences look like

042from year to year. Um as well as the categories and the percentage change. Um I will also kind of remind that we did a lot of right sizing of where things should be as far as the budget uh for this year. And so we'll kind of continue to see those things fluctuate a little bit as we sort of realign um in the correct categories to reflect our actual spending. Um and then we also have our other funds and what their fund balances are at the end of 2425 with a comparison to the prior year and what their percentage changes are. Um just noting their in debt service fund that looks pretty high. Uh but we did pay off our QAP bond on December 1st. So, uh, we got confirmation that everything went as planned. Um,

043so that's nice that will be off the books and, uh, we'll start prepping for kind of the next phases of of what that will mean for us. But that was really great for us to kind of see the sun setting of the QC scabs. Um, and just a quick audit outlook. Um, I have heard from the state auditor's office. They've, uh, I, uh, sorry, indicated that they want us to start the audit in January, which we are prepared for. I've actually already submitted quite a bit of documents for them, including our schedule of expenditures for federal awards and our notes to our financial statements as well as most of the backup for year end and August reconciliation. So, uh I think they'll have plenty of time while we are out on winter break to review

044those and ask me what else they want to go over. Um the good news with our overexpendures is that it will not result in an audit finding, which is good news. Um but I do expect that they will probably include it as an exit item. uh we did have to include a letter with our uh F196 that stated what happened and what we're doing to mitigate that moving forward, but I think all in all we're in a really good place and we're ready to move forward and hope we have a quicker audit than last year. Any questions on fiscal year end? >> Thank you for everything. >> Of course. Yeah. Um if if you articulated this and I I apologize to understand. So um the overspending okay that in terms of I understand what you're

045saying in terms of the timing and also the processes and and so not worried about having a game but I guess what I'm wondering is how do we then absorb that or work with how does that impact this current year's budget? >> Yep. So really that just shows in our fund balance at the end of the year. So that means kind of the overspend came out of the fund balance was there. So we're kind of starting with the clean slate and moving forward. >> Just to be clear, those uh expenditures came out of facilities and levy dollars. And so the levy will cover the expenditures um for that and we have the levy funds to pay for that. But what Cassie has done and I support wholeheartedly is you must not you cannot spend money

046unless you put in a requisition to spend money. That requisition gets approved, a purchase order is issued and then you spend the money and then we pay the bill. And what had happened prior to my arrival and unbeknownst to Cassie was that commitments were made and expenditures happened um and things were done to the facilities. It's not that the work wasn't done, it just should have had a process behind it and so we have put checks and balances in place so that will not occur again. But yes, the levy funds will cover the expenses, >> of course. >> And they were appropriate, by the way, to the levy. >> so then you do feel like it's the right size at this point moving forward, correct? >> Yeah, I think we're in a good place. I

047mean, we obviously don't want to overspend what we said we were going to in our budget. Um, but I I don't think it will be an issue moving forward. I also think the new processes we started last year and just I think reiterating what the correct process is this year over and over and just keeping that reminder has made it so that we have really good visibility over everything that we're spending and I feel really confident that that department in particular has the right people in place to be doing that work. >> Question then the 6,000 um it does look like that number went down pretty substantially. Did we lose a specific federal funding that affected that or are we looking that we're going to continue to not have that? >> Yeah. So, kind of

048going along with um Dr. Mocha's national policy update, the same thing was happening last year. So, we did receive a little bit less in federal funding, we do expect that continue as she as she said. So, it was just overall with those federal dollars, we received less of them. Um the good news is uh with the exception of one of our grants, we were able to claim every single dollar and so we didn't leave any money on the table um and we were able to utilize those for the purposes that we wanted to and um we um you know claim that money as well which is a really nice thing. >> Thank you for that clarification and thank you for all you're doing. That's been an uphill battle and you've done a great job at

049it. Now we'll move into the current fiscal year and we'll take a look at the month of September. So September was our first operating month of this fiscal year. Um you can see there from the chart our revenues came in at um 6.79% and our expenditures were at 8.05%. Um our fund balance and general fund is more compared to the prior year to date. Um we have lower revenues and higher expenditures compared to September of last year. Um we do have our transfer of credit card revenue that's going from general fund into ASV. Um it is in process but we're doing that on a monthly basis. The revenue in September um we have to remember is um our basic aortionment that is based on our budgeted aft. Um so that will true up again in

050January. It also includes um food food service and fee collection revenue. We're doing u monthly inter fund transfers from capital projects fund. So that was completed in September. We'll see it posted in October um because um if we all remember we're usually one month behind on everything at a very minimum. Um our expenditures are slightly less than the normalized projection for this time of year which is 8.3. So that's I think a good way to start out the year. We're not quite um at that 8.3 um but they are higher than the same uh last year. Um in capital projects funds the revenues are higher uh based on tax collection. Um we are directly charging expenditures to the capital project funds this year which is new. So that will really also help with um tracking

051those levy expenditures. Um getting things encumbered and really knowing where we're at there. Um and again we're doing the transfer salaries monthly. So it was transferred in September and we'll see it in October. Um debt service is performing as expected. ASB has a little bit lower revenue and higher expenditures than the same month last year. Um, but we should, I think, see those revenues really stabilize since we're doing the credit card revenue transfer on a monthly basis now. And transportation vehicle fund is performing as expected. Um, so scrolling down a little bit, we've got enrollment. Um, so you'll see that um, we have our sort of red dotted line there and our enrollment is the blue dot on September. So, we did come in in September lower enrollment than what we had projected. I think

052we've probably talked about this. Um, but it's you can see it represented here. Um, and then we've got our comparison of funds, which is what beats those charts up above. And, uh, as Justin loves to say, we're going to scroll through the budget status report because they just make us do it. It doesn't tell us anything that we really want to know. Um, even though it does, um, I've just kind of condensed it so it's easier for us to read. Um and then we'll kind of look at um where we are in our system to the county. Um so general fund is balanced in the month of September which is great news. Um the same is true for capital projects fund for debt service for ASB and for transportation vehicles. So we had a clean

053month in September and everything looks really good. Does anybody have questions on September before we kind of move into October? >> I had sort of a this is maybe a super obvious um answer. When we realized that our projected enrollment was um off, I'm assuming that happened so far in advance of anybody spending money as if we had these other >> portion of coming through. And so we've not there was no um sort of short burst of overspending for children that did not appear. >> Correct. >> Yep. Um >> we actually held a position in obeyance uh did not fill a kindergarten position uh based on the enrollment projection. So no, we didn't spend that salary right right there. Um, so we have we have an adequate fund balance to minimize the impact and we've

054got a better system going forward. We've already started our budget discussions and enrollment projections and uh expect that they will be closer to on target. It's not going to be uh easy, right? we go into this budget knowing that we have fewer students and hope to do any reductions through attrition. Um but I can't promise that until we really get into the heart of the matter. >> Um I just kind of collapsing this with the enrollment report. I was it's just this is curious just about where you're positioning things because the high school uh vocational ed was one of the areas that had a seemingly significant drop but CTE had almost a parallel significant rise and so is that just a difference in how we are um where we are inserting those or are those

055two separate issues. >> Okay. >> Yeah. student choice >> and I think we'll probably see more of that when they switch semesters in January. Um there's usually well I've only been here a year but we did see a shift from the first semester to the second. So I would anticipate we might see something similar. Um that's also the time frame that we really see a portionment kind of where those things are adjusting and then we make a little bit of program changes if needed. So I would expect CTE is one of those that we might see some more changes to as we get into the the new calendar year. So it's not that you've shifted in how you categorize >> no entities. Okay. >> Right. Because in my mind those things are perhaps the same.

056>> Well, it was more that one drop and the other rise were almost parallel. So I thought maybe it was a recateorization. >> Yeah. >> For vocational ed versus CTE. I mean they're kind of interchangeable. >> Yeah. I think um the difference maybe would be if running start was in there, but um I I don't know that that would have a impact of this. So, yeah, I think it's it's probably more just maybe a like you said, maybe a schedule. >> Yeah. And again, we uh you know, looking at the trend lines, looking at the survival cohort model, looking at a straight rollover, looking at the average of that, we we know that our enrollment, uh at this time, we're projecting at least 20 down from where we are. Based on just the simple fact

057of how many we graduate and how many we anticipate coming in in kindergarten, um even with the uh you know, the commuter bump that we get in sixth grade and so on. So we will be conservative in our budgeting for enrollment um because you know as you know we have to make commitments to our staff miday and so we will be conservative in that so that we are able to manage the budget and manage class size. Um so it's it's a process as you know and it's very uh labor intensive. So, we starting that process soon as we get back from I mean, we've already started it inhouse, but we will start the process as soon as we get back in January with going out to buildings and talking to staff and all of the

058pieces that go along with that. >> So, I'm question about September. I just want to make >> No, no. I was just saying we're presenting September and talking about next year already. So, >> that's how much thought we're putting into it. And that's Cassie's life, right? It's the budget she just finished. It's the budget we're in and it's the budget she's planning. So that that is the life cycle. >> Any other questions about September before we move to October? >> Great. Okay. So October is our second operating month of the fiscal year. Um revenues are 17 and a half% with expenditures around 16%. Um the fund balance is more in general fund compared to the same month a year ago. Um slightly lower revenues um slightly higher expenditures compared to October of last year. Again

059that credit card revenue is being transferred from general fund to ASB. Um again October is based on budgeted AFTTE. Um our local revenue from food service and fee collection. Um, I'll just kind of note there we see a pretty big boost in local revenue in September because we have athletics and ASB and all of those things. So, um, it dwindles down quite a bit in October. Um, I think if if I am remembering correctly, we had about $28,000 that we transferred for ASB in September and October was only 12,000. So, um, it's a pretty significant jump there. Um, so we are just slightly over the normalized projection of 16% for expenditures, which um, I don't know if you guys remember last year, but we were pretty much over by quite a bit most of the

060time. So I think that we're in a good place here for October. Um, capital projects is holding steady. Again, we're directly charging those expenditures and just doing our salary transfer. Um, and a quick note there, um, the way that we're set up, we cannot directly charge salaries to capital projects. And so that's why we do the transfer with the county every month. Um but we are able to actually directly charge our expenditure. So that helps out quite a bit. Um debt service is performing as expected. Um ASB has a little bit lower revenue and higher expenditure. Um we're keeping them going with their credit card revenue transfer as I mentioned. Um and our transportation vehicle fund is performing as expected. Um so now we have two blue dots on our chart that are underneath the

061budget line which I don't think is a surprise. Um we're we're staying um really right there uh the same as September, just a little bit lower. So um again, we're not going to really see that start to shift too much with our funding until January, even though we're prepping for it. Um the next page is our um comparison from year to year with all of the funds, which is represented in the charts up above. And we've got our budget status reports um which are consolidated for you so that we don't have to go through it line by line. Um and then we'll look at our Skyward system compared to the county. Um in general fund, we do have a reconciliation item. Um that is a comp tax that was paid out of general fund that

062should have been paid out of capital projects. So we have a transfer that's in process that should reconcile in November. Um and in capital projects, it looks like we have a pretty big reconciliation item. Um it's $2,760. Um that's also a transfer that's in process that has to do with um a capital grant that we used for an air quality assessment. Uh when the aortionment report came, it was in general fund, but the county deposited it into capital projects without any in any indication they were going to do that. So we're just correcting and waiting for the lag time to pass. So that again that should reconcile in November. Um debt service is completely balanced. Um there is a little bit of a reconciliation item in ASB. Um we have switched to in-house production for

063our own AC payments um which are like electronic checks. Um it looks like we're having a little bit of a duplicate issue with that showing up in our general ledger. And so um I'm working through that. I think that's what this is associated with. So I'm still kind of digging through to figure out what's happening there because we saw it happen in September which I was able to correct but it happened in October. So, um we're digging in to figure out how we can make sure that doesn't happen moving forward. Um >> Cassie, would you kind of explain that? What was it for? >> So, we have a a data processor that we use which is NWRDC. Um they were the ones that would submit our ACEs for us. um they're no longer supporting that

064and so we were asked to move to in-house AC production by August. We didn't quite make that deadline just because US Bank was a little bit behind, but now we initiate it here ourselves rather than sending sending it to NWRDC to initiate it for us. So we kind of eliminate the middleman. Um it's really better for us because then um we're the one that has control over pushing the button. Um one interesting thing is that we can't do payroll and pay out our um accounts payable at the same time. So it really helps with the communication between those departments to make sure we know what their timing is and so they're not we're not duplicating that. Um so it was no additional cost to us. It was a little bit of a lift on our

065part to actually get in touch with US Bank. I think it took about nine months to finally find someone to connect and help us. It was pretty excruciating. Um and then NWRDC was still really helpful to set up Skyward because they're our Skyward support. So far, it's been um pretty good. I think um for the most part, we haven't really had too many hiccups. Um I think that they just really want school districts to take ownership of that and I I think we're capable of doing it and it's it's fine to do it that way. So, um it was a little bit of a change and it took a little while to get there, but we made it. So, yeah, thank you for asking. Um uh and really everything else looks pretty clean. um nothing

066off in transportation vehicle fund. Um so we're just um holding steady and business as usual as we move to November. >> I could just be missing something like looks like it's $5,000 off. Where's that 5,000? >> Oh, I just typed the wrong number in there. Sorry. I will correct that. >> That was it or I was missing something. That would be the one fund that almost nothing will ever go through because we uh contract out our transportation. So, I will fix that. Apologies for the the typo. Yeah, it's just that I typed it wrong in my highlighted color. Thank you. >> Any other questions about October? >> Okay, thank you. >> Um all right, moving right along. Um now we move into the discussion portion. We have quite a number of items. 10 11 uh

067for tonight uh resolutions and policies both. Um let's start with resolution 827 180day school waiver for the 2526 and 2627 school year. >> Thank you. So, um, the rules at, uh, the state level allow for us to apply for a waiver for the two professional development days that we provide for teachers. In essence, what that means is they approve those days as long as we meet the requisite number of hours for our students. They will approve those days. It requires a board resolution. It allows us essentially to have 178 days of school for students, which means in the event of inclement weather where we have to close and we typically will extend the calendar, this gives us two more days to potentially not push us into the following week in June. Um and it also

068for both years um allows us to potentially stop midweek in that third week of June and if necessary we could go to the end of the week if we had two beyond the 178 days. So for example, if we had four closures instead of just two, we'd need to make up two days unless they were they happened during an emergency statewide emergency like we're in now. Um, so if that makes sense to you, it it really is just uh allowing us to do what we are allowed to do, which is take two teacher conference days. Um, there's always one in October, one in March. It's a full day, no school for students anyway, but it allows us to count that towards the 180. It requires your approval. So that's why this is on your agenda.

069And >> this will show up for an actual vote on the 22nd of January. >> That's correct. Any questions about that? Concerns. Okay, moving on. Uh, resolution 828, the Impress update. I'm not sure if Cassie or Joe is going to cover this one for us. It's her show. >> Um, and good evening. I forgot to say that before I started earlier. Nice to see you all. Um, this is a resolution that will um take our Impress fund from 15,000 to 5,000. Impress is a strange Italian word that essentially means we have petty cash. Um I took accounting one uh at WSBO earlier this year and no district has a $15,000 impress fund. It's really just too high. So I'd like to decrease it to 5,000. The only thing that we really um paid out of

070that fund last year were uh fingerprints to OSPI which we have moved to invoicing on which is a much better process. Um so this will allow us to uh take it down to $5,000 and it should be plenty for us to take care of any incidentals, but I I don't expect that we would need to use this really very frequently at all. >> Um so this when I when I saw this so this is not related to the fund balance we're talking about. Okay, that's when I saw this. >> Yep. It's a completely separate bank account. Um, so I'll essentially do um the journal entries in the system to make it go down to 5,000 and and we'll do some movement, but no, it won't impact. >> No, this is good news. This is cleaning

071up things that should be cleaned up. So, thank you, Cassie. >> Any other questions about impressed? >> Can I clean up that last sentence or is it time to stay in a meeting held on December? >> Thank you. You got that? >> Okay. Uh, resolution 829, declar declaration of surplus. Is this yours? >> It can be. Um, or it can be Cassie's. There's basically surplus that we have to declare because it's no longer useful for us, but as you know, we can't just throw away things that may be useful for others. So, it goes to a surplus. If other districts don't want it, then it goes to surplus sale where people can, you know, pay a nickel on the dollar for whatever it is. But this is how you get rid of surplus items. >>

072And should we expect to see this every year at this time? >> Multiple times a year. Great. >> It could be. Yeah. And you have that policy on for consideration as well. Again, it's just making sure that we're dotting eyes and crossing tees and getting rid of things that uh that are potentially useful. I mean, again, there are some things that are just trash, right? Like textbooks, they're 30 years old. You don't surplus them. Nobody wants them. You, you know, you recycle them. Or items that have no real value. You know, computers that are ancient. Some districts want them, some people rebuild them, things like that. So, you may get pennies on the dollar. Um, but it's things that are no longer useful for the district. It's not that we're trying to get rid of

073things that are good things and we just don't want them. So, >> so then does this come up every time we have stuff that's going to surplus and then that one through three lists what we're surplusing? Is that right or is it just generic? >> No, that's what we're surplusing. And you can often times you can go to other districts websites and look at what they're surplusing and realize that you may want some of those things. It's kind of like when the you know government surplus or auctions or things like that. Um I say it tongue and cheek multiple times a year. We try to consolidate it so that it's once or twice a year so that our staff are not dealing with, you know, having to do auctions or showing people what our items

074are. These are small items. Um, there are districts that sell vehicles. There are districts that get rid of buses. There are districts that, you know, have multiple kitchens and re redo their equipment. We're we're on a much smaller scale than that. Any other questions about that one? Okay, let's move on to updated policy 5400, personnel leaves. This is an Amy one and with your permission um there's a lot of consolidation that is happening among the policies. Is it comfortable for you if I just kind of work my way through the policies or would you like me to review them one by one? >> Um I think it's I'm okay with going through them. My I I did have an overall note that there was a lot of I think we >> broadly have decided to

075eliminate sort of the gender binary in all of those and there's a lot of he she and reference to consistently she about pregnant people when we get to that person so that part so that can all get >> Thank you. But anybody else have an anybody have an objection to Amy just kind of holding this next chunk lovely um thank you for that. It's a couple of weeks ago I was looking at one of our leave policies, realized that it was significantly out of date, which then caused me to look at our lead policies in total and realize that we just had a lot of updating to do. Um there are some uh practices that we don't do, different practices that we have been doing. Um we have COVID language. So there was a whole

076scope of things we just needed to address at the minute. So Peter and I sat down and pulled all of the policies and took a look at them and this is the outcome. Um 5400 personnel leaves. It is very straightforward. We have changed uh number two to reflect the fact that we do allow people to take leave in increments of one hour. We don't require half day and full day. um and that we no longer have COVID leave nor do we require people to be vaccinated as we did during the co period sick leave um the contents is very similar. the language and the way it was expressed was different enough from our existing policy that we just pulled the full WS to policy and struck our prior policy. Uh we still it is still

07712 days of sick leave each year for employees. The way that sick leave can be utilized is the same. Um the parameters that are in place for people that are not covered by collective bargaining agreement are still the same. It really was just a language and a legal reference update on uh I know this is a small thing on the page three. Uh it says um uh somewhere in here it says oh top of top of three it says something about first paragraph at the bottom it says written notice to insert contact whomever that should be let's update that >> it's a new a new position in the district. Um, moving to 5403, we have moved family leave to a different policy and we have changed this to emergency and discretionary leaves. There was sort

078of a combined policy originally. Um, and again speaks to what what would qualify for a family emergency leave, domestic violence leave. again just bring us into compliance with current law. Nothing startling in terms of changes to practice. Okay, small typo and I don't know this goes to something that came up the other day that my I for fonts tells me that at the bottom of page two on this one it says February and the thing after it is a capital I and not the number one. somebody. >> I don't know. >> Obviously, I didn't prove all that. Well, >> I don't know why that >> a lot of things my middle-aged eyes can't catch that one. >> Uh, three, the third line up from the bottom of page two. >> Did you find it? >>

079Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. Long as he has Thank you. I know it's very picky. Thank you. >> Um 5404 we now have family medical and maternity leave all combined into a single >> Hang on Amy for a second. It because of 5405 can be retired. >> Oh, thank you. >> So that requires board action to retire policy, but it's all covered in 5403. And on that same note, we are also requesting to retire policy 5402 because 5402 has been folded into 5404 that we have just reached. >> Um so this was um adapted to recognize the fact that we do have paid state and family leave. Now um our former policy did not address that. It speaks to the intersection of the state paid family leave and the federal um family leave act. Um the

080family medical leave has not changed significantly. Uh maternity leave again this is compliant with state law and federal law and it is simply again addressing PFML and combining multiple policies into a single policy to simplify. >> Um, on this one, uh, I don't know, this isn't a straight just word for word change. On page four, it says the district will grant leave upon the same terms to male employees as is available to female employees upon the birth or adoption. Could it just be to >> employees of all genders? Yes, that would be. >> We need to go. We need to go and just correct gender. Thank you. All of this. >> I'll stop. I'll stop now. Yeah, you can remove the pronouns, but the maternity leave part for the actual uh disability and that refers

081to her and she >> and I think that's probably appropriate. But if you want us to change to they or them, that's perfectly fine as well. >> I think they them would be appropriate just because they can bear a child as >> I don't want to. Yeah, true. So we could just do the they them and make it neutral. That would be okay. >> I just have seen other places get into arguments. Want to make sure you're good with it. >> Don't want to argue just >> perfectly fine. >> Don't want to make it for everyone. >> Yes. >> Great. >> And the final policy 5409 is um new related to new state law um offering people the opportunity to take a day away. it would be unpaid but take a day away to um

082practice their individual belief system and it's two days per year. >> Any questions or thoughts on that one? >> All the questions you answered Amy. Thank you. Oh, you're welcome. Um and we'll see all these on the 22nd. Does that sound right? >> Great. January. Yes. Yes, Jake. No one will be here. It's a Tuesday. All right. Uh now we move on to the decision section of the uh agenda and another sort of long list 10 or so. Um starting with policy 10005 which is an update key functions of the board. Any questions discussion? We had our work session about all of this the other day. So seen this all before and the board had several days hopefully to look through and make sure you're all the changes you requested are reflected. Uh do we

083uh question of the order of things. Do we need to vote on each of these as they as we go through them? I would you would suggest that you do that? Yeah. >> Great. And at this time I would like to uh request request a motion to approve policy 10005 key functions of the board. >> I motion that we should approve uh policy number 10005 key functions of the board. Is there a second please? >> Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Excellent. Policy 005 passes. Moving on. Policy 1210, annual organizing, sorry, organization meeting. Um, I believe I reflected what was discussed uh in the items in the order. Hopefully I captured what you said. And the main things that changed, we're adding uh Oh, it says warrant office. I think

084it should say warrant officer on the bottom of 1210. >> Correct. That's a typo. >> Number 11, Peter. >> Okay. Um adding the WA rep and a policy lead. Is it lead or leader? >> Your call. I'm not the grimarian. If anyone here is the grimarian, it would probably be between Martha and River. I don't know, Jess, if you have that refer to to River because I think it doesn't matter. >> I like I like leader because uh Americans shorten everything and it kind of bugs me. That's just it. >> All right. Any any further thoughts here? >> The more important issue here is that you have >> that's the only important thing. The only good part here, the two uh the two roles that have not been selected, um we can put that on

085for your January meeting, correct? >> That this policy was approved. >> Uh great. At this time, then I'd like to uh call for um a motion to approve 1210, the annual organization meeting policy. >> Thank you. Can I get a second, please? >> Second. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor of passing 1210 as written. >> I I Any closed? Great. Motion has passed. Um next upsc is not my favorite. >> Yeah, it takes it's kind of being slow. Um policy number now another update 1400 meeting conduct order of business and quorum. Again I hope that I've captured what you were looking for for this. I put in a description of each type of meeting. Um I yeah I appreciate the description. Um it's pretty straightforward. Any questions or further discussion here? >> Folks

086feel satisfied. Great. >> Um, great. So, at this time, I'd like to call for a motion to approve 1400, meeting conduct, order of business, and quorum. >> I approve 14 conduct order and quum. >> Thank you. Can I get a second, please? I'll second. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor of passing 1400? I I any opposed? Fantastic. 1400 passes. Uh next up, uh policy 1630, evaluation of the superintendent. >> Not that we had any nothing changed. Changes here. >> Um so great. At this time, I'd like to ask for a motion to approve 1630, evaluation of the superintendent. It's my turn to work in mine. Um, I'd like to make a motion uh to approve policy 1630 of valuation with the superintendent. Can I get a second? Please second the motion. Thank you.

087Uh, any discussion? All those in favor of passing 1630 say I. >> I. Any opposed? 1630 passes unanimously. Uh policy uh a new one, policy 1815, ethical conduct for school directors. Think there were any changes in here. Okay. Uh at this time, I'd like to call for a motion to approve 1815, ethical conduct for school directors. Again, I'm sorry. Uh, a motion to approve 1815. Thank you. A second, please. A second. Thank you. Uh, any discussion? Standing. All those in favor of passing 1815, ethical conduct for school directors. >> I I Any opposed? Passes unanimously. Number 1815. Uh, policy number, this is an update 1820. the evaluation of the board also here called board self assessment um now called board self assessment excuse me this uh I don't think we had any changes from the

088workshop >> no just a comment that if you haven't done so already that please complete the board self assessment so that you can get a baseline of where you are and perhaps set goals for where you want to be um sent that out to you last week hopefully have done it. If not, I was hoping by the end of business tomorrow that it would be in and then you would get it back in a year. >> Did anybody else get stuck 34 of the way in and it just died? >> Probably the land. >> We're going to blame the weather. Absolutely going to blame the weather. >> Yeah. >> Will we get something uh when we get the results back even though we have a slightly different board than when we did it last time?

089Will we get some comparison to the last time? >> I don't know if you'll get trend data, but perhaps, but um I can find out. >> We'll we'll see when we see. Uh great. So, at this time, I'd like to call for uh a motion to approve 1820 board self assessment as written. >> I motion to approve policy 1820 board self assessment. >> Thank you. Can I get a second? >> I second. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor of 1820 board self assessment say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Thank you. 1820 passes unanimously. Uh a new policy 1821 standards for individual school directors. Uh I received a question from a board member when we were here last week regarding the legal references on this policy. I uh went to WASDA. Essentially, it's

090based on the RCW that you see there. And um as you know, WASDA is the state's arm that governs school boards. And they have um the schoolboard standards that this reflects. And so I put that in the policy. So if folks want to refer back to where it comes from, it's there for you. Thanks for doing that. Uh folks are feeling like we can move on to a vote. I'd like to uh call for a motion to approve 1821 standards for individual school directors. I'd like to move that we approve 1821 standards for individual school building directors. Thank you. Can I get a second, please? Second motion. Any discussion? All those in favor of passing 1821 as written. standards for individual school directors say I >> I any opposed passes unanimously. Thank you. 1821 >>

091uh new policy 1825 addressing school director violations. Don't see any changes expecting anything different here. Um, all right then. Can I get a motion to approve 1825 addressing school director violations? >> Yes. Um, motion to approve 1825. Thank you. Can I get a second, please? I'd like to second 1825, please. Any discussion? Okay. All those in favor of uh passing 1825, addressing Director violation say I >> I any opposed >> I will still say nay based on >> understood and noted um 1825 uh passes um uh tonal shift here uh policy 6881 disposal of surplus equipment and raw materials We still missed that one here. We've got a typo in there. We will fix it. It doesn't change the It's under item A. It's an I instead of a one. We will change that. It

092does not change the policy, so you can still act on it, but we promise we'll change it before it gets posted. >> All right. Uh, can I get a motion to approve 6881 disposal of surplus equipment and/or materials? >> I motion 6881 disposal of equipment and materials. >> Can I get a second? >> I second the motion. >> Thank you. Uh, any discussion? Great. All those in favor of passing 6881, disposal of surplus equipment andor materials, say I please. I >> I. Any opposed? >> Okay. Thank you. Uh you um moving on and Dr. Mosha just reminded me we do we will need a roll call vote for this next one. This is the extension of interim superintendent Dr. Joe Mosha's contract. Um as we discussed in the uh work se or the special meeting

093the other day um it did increase number of work days um effectively reflecting um the reality of what she's going to end up working this year and just codifying it in the contract. Um and an increase of her daily rate by $100. Um other than that the rest of it uh is rolls over from the previous contract. Anybody have any questions, comments. Great. So, at this time, and with Lucier here, we're just gonna move on. We don't need to get her. Great. Fantastic. This is roll call. I wasn't sure. Thank you. Um, great. At this time, I would like to call for a motion to approve the uh interim superintendent contract for Dr. Mocha. Motion to approve superintendent contract. Can I get a second, please? Second. >> Thank you. Uh, any discussion? Great. So, at

094this time, uh, Jessica Adams, do you vote to extend to approve the contract for entering the superintendent? No. >> How do you vote? >> Oh, how do you vote? So, sorry. How would you like to vote? >> Is that an I question or yes, >> it's yes or no? >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Thank you, River Branch. How would you like to vote on superintendent's contract? Yes. Martha Woodard, how do you vote on superintendent's contract? >> Yes. Now, do you ask yourself or I do I ask you? >> I would like to publicly declare that I vote yes to approve Superintendent Moch's contract. >> Okay, there you go. Thank you. >> It's entirely possible I'm never going to get better at that. >> No worries. Okay. Uh that ends the decision portion

095of our meeting. Uh that being said, this is an opportunity for a second round of public comment. Um people uh who already signed in, I don't know that we need your names again. If anybody new wants to make public comment, we would like to names before doing so. Would anyone like to make public comment at this time? Yes. Would you please stand at the >> And will you uh Your name was here. I'm not going to check you off. So this is Julia. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> So I wasn't planning on speaking today. I am not concise by nature. So my skills do not lend itself to this type of format. Um but there are a couple things that were not addressed or that are of primary concern to me and I'm going

096to stick to one today. And that is that um my understanding of the school board and I researched every law governance recommendation, OSPI recommendation, everything else. um which I did many years ago and I did again recently state that a school board's goal and aim in addition to instituting policy and compliance oversight with budgets and all the things that were discussed today. um is also to investigate concerns brought up by the community um and to look for issues actively of compliance with regards to systems happening within the school district. Um, and I've heard a lot from friends, um, from what I have seen and heard about schoolboard meetings and people's comments about their interactions with the district about this huge issue with special education and the Van Island School District. um issues of compliance. Um

097obviously there has been a lot of stuff going around about disciplining people talking about it properly, improperly, whatever. I don't really that's not my fight. Um, but I don't hear anything and I've been listening for 11 years from my school board, which obviously that does not include specific members because they're all new members from when I started watching this body that address this problem. I don't see any um indication and maybe it's behind the scenes and it just needs to be made more public but I am not seeing any oversight indications of investigation and oversight of this process for which privately I hear a astounding amount of concerns and issues coming Personally, I saw the post that was made and it made me feel less alone. Um, because I do not feel like our community

098even wants to address this problem and I feel like it gets shoved under the carpet and everyone is written off as being angry or emotional or wanting things that they can't have or budget this or what have you. And I am wondering where the responsibility to engage with the community and investigate concerns that are coming from a lot of different people are for this board. There has been no mention of that during this entire process. >> Thank you. >> Any public comment at this time? I would like to second what was just said um and just thank you guys all of you for being here. I know we all want the best for our kids and we need to look at the kids who have the most to lose from the school failing them. And

099unfortunately that is our disabled children. And I really call to just take this holiday break to really sit with that of there are multiple families that have reached out either in board meetings or on Facebook or by email or going to parent advocacy meetings because they need help. You have parents of disabled children screaming for your help. And what we're witnessing is the parent that screamed the loudest getting attacked and making it feel like it is not safe for any of us to ask for help for our kids. And that's not that's not what I want to see as a mom. And if I would have seen that when my mom fought for me at 11 years old, I do not know if I would be standing in front of you today because I do

100not know if I would have made it. Thankfully, my district didn't. But the people that did push back, the people that did question the legitimacy of my disability because it was invisible to them put my life at risk because I was already barely holding on. And I don't want to see any child in this district or any other one, but especially this district where I know you guys care so deeply about these children. And I know we have such incredible staff, teachers, parents, specialists, everybody who works so hard for our kids. And we are begging you. We need you to help hold everyone accountable for protecting the most vulnerable of our children. And I just I want to say thank you again because I know how much you guys care. And I sincerely hope that

101we can all work together to find that answer to not put any of our kids at risk because that's what's happening right now and it's hard to watch. Thank you. There's no other public comment at this time. Um we know um the superintendent report is next. Thank you. So as you know we are right up against our twoe holiday break and I hope folks will be enjoying that. The district will be closed for the most part until January 5th though uh we will get payroll out so that will happen. Um the district is working on safety plans. We had a full staff training for the 612 staff on um it was actually called the civilian response to an active shooter event. Um it happened prior to our most recent tragedies in our country and um

102it's just continues to be very sobering. We've updated our safety plans. We have the K5 trained with the same training on January 30th. Our plan is to uh update um our staff training for tabletop exercises, not engaging students. They already have enough um of the trainings. Don't want to terrorize them all the you know that much more. Um it's just a very um It's just tragic. I I have no other words for it. And the fact that we have to do this continuously um is difficult. 10ear facilities planning update. Uh invitation went out to our various community groups. We have three team meetings that are happening in the new year. The board's representative to that team has been Martha. Those team meetings are going to be all-encompassing. We have over 40 members who will be

103attending and part of that team and it has everything to do with learning about what this architect engineer owners rep team has been doing along with the smaller group of individuals from the district and then where do we want to go? How do we want to take what we're doing forward and creating a 10-year plan? um they will update the board on March 12th with all of that information that is gathered and then this spring um the board will engage with the information and make a decision on how it may want to move forward potentially a bond or something along those lines. So um the board self I already asked you to make sure you complete that. Um, we have good news and bad news on some grant applications. We applied for and received a

104$48,000 grant for cyber security upgrades, which is very good news. Goes along with our safety planning. Um, and Stephanie Spencer and John Stanton applied for that and we received it. Unfortunately, we also found out that the $1.6 6 million grant we applied for for the solar upgrade that had major community member input, letters of support from lots of our community organizations as well as our our local tribal folks. We put that in and really expected we'd get it and we're very I mean kind of gutted to say that we did not. Um and so it's back to the drawing board. um we could try again next year, but a lot of effort was made by a lot of people to try and get that to happen and it did not. So, I'm sorry about that.

105Um so, back to the drawing board. That's all I have for an update. >> Sorry. >> Yeah, it's super disappointing. Um okay. Uh at this time I believe we have uh board director remarks. Anybody have any remarks this evening? Adams. Um thank you. Uh I want to take a moment to ground us in why this board exists and who our work is for. At the center of every decision we make are the students of this district, their safety, their learning, their dignity, and their futures. Our responsibility is not to narratives, not to noise, and not to comfort, but to the children and families who depend on us to lead with care and integrity. That responsibility requires accountability in our actions and transparency in our processes. So families can trust not just what we decide, but

106how we decide it. Families advocating for their children, including when those families serve on this board, strengthens our work and keeps students at the center of it. Stories are told, narratives take shape, and sometimes the truth is quieter than the conversation around it. I'm not here to relitigate the past. I'm here to focus on the work ahead and the students who deserve our full attention. Leadership is not measured by words, but by deeds, not by applause, but by courage, not by contention, but by service. And the true measure of leadership is not how loudly we speak, but how faithfully we act for every student in this district. I will continue to approach that role with clarity, humility, and an unwavering focus on students. I will listen when families feel unheard and question when systems fall

107short and make decisions guided by what is lawful, ethical, and in the best interest of our children. That is my commitment and that is the work I intend to keep doing. Thank you. Um on the fly, but um uh I'm not going to read the whole statement that I had written, but I wrote a statement the other day. Um and I'm trying to have that statement also adjusted and be informed by what's transpiring. Um, I want to thank those who spoke. Um, I do believe that we need to hear and consider each perspective. Um, and I care deeply about the concerns voiced. Um, and I hear that folks that there are some folks who don't feel heard um, and that they feel like they are representing many. I have been grateful for CPAC. Um I

108found CBAC to be a strong challenging and sustained advocacy um consortium for students and families accessing services. Um they provided they did an extensive report with qualitative and quantitative data. Um they have been a resources a resource for parents and families um and identified a lot of areas to address. I take those seriously. Um, in my background, at one point in time, in another lifetime, I was director of services for students with disabilities and went to the mat for those students as a professor in a field with physical components. I taught film production. I've worked with students needing access to accommodations of all types. Uh, the access matters to me, always has. Barriers to access matter to me. um where we need to do more. I believe every individual on this board is open to

109sitting down and talking with community members. Um I know there might be disagreement as to recent challenges in the district, so I'm not going there. Um, for me, um, those are not about making sure we're meeting the needs of parents and families, although I know many of you disagree with that. Um, a common thread of what has been said today and that I'm that I'm hearing and reading about um, has to do with listening and this reflects some of my thinking tonight. One of the sites of challenge we navigate as a board is that there are aspects of a situation, topic, or initiative that we can, should, and must navigate in the public. While at the same time, there are aspects of the very same situation, topic, or initiative we are legally, and ethically bound

110to navigate behind closed doors. The totality of some situations cannot be fully shared. At the same time, you, the public, must be able to trust in how we're navigating. We must extend the greatest transparency possible while knowing that in some cases that is not full transparency. That gap is ripe for misunderstandings, misinformation, and an erosion of trust. My hope is that when these ga gaps arise, you will seek us out as many of you have. In a recent post, it was asserted that we, the board, are seeking to limit input and participation. I believe me that that's a gross mischaracterization of this board. At outset of the meeting, I was also questioning whether or not we're listening and prioritizing. A priority of this board has been the involvement of the public, a true involvement. I'm

111speaking solely from myself here. Um, in referencing my path, I want to say that a primary motivation for me in running for the school board was that participation of the public was truly and solely performative in my experience. um it was not substantive. And I'm going to give one quick example. Um I went to a meeting that was explicitly set up to ask for community input. That was what the charge was. Uh we listened for about 40 minutes and then we were told um that the individuals there needed to leave in 10 minutes so we could all just mingle. I asked could we instead so we can hear each other's questions because otherwise we're not going to get to everyone. Could we ask questions and have responses and listen to the responses in case some

112of us had the same questions. Um the initial response was no. A couple of other individuals advocated as well for that. Um and so there was a relenting. This was a nighttime meeting. The uh the response to that in relenting was, "Okay, well, you know, you just need to know if you're going to if you're going to give any feedback, it has to be in by 8 in the morning for us to consider it. I'm a single mom. I was going to be getting home around 8 8:30. I was going to be going through bedtime rituals by the time my child got in bed and by the time I got up and got them off." What that said to me was that there was not the interest in really hearing the public. And that was

113a that was a final catalyst for me in terms of running for office um because I was hearing that from other parents. To me, we're fortunate to be in a district in which families care deeply about our schools and are willing to invest and time, energy, expertise, and resources. Our school district is, in my opinion, the heart of our community. As such, we are our best expression when folks are involved and invested. This board shares the perspective that we can and should be listening to and conversation with and informed by our community. In that spirit, we actually doubled the public comment time months and months ago. It was standard in this district and many others to have one moment for public comment at the outset of the meeting. We added a section at the end

114so that folks unable to make the beginning of a meeting or who might be prompted to comment after an agenda item was covered had an opportunity to speak. And yes, we limit public comment time to three minutes per individual. That is standard. The dominant reason is so that everyone who wants to speak has a chance to speak. Um so we don't disenfranchise the public in that way. It's not intended to limit speech. It is about trying to find the right balance. And I'm not arguing that we have found that balance. I am stating that there is a commitment to public involvement in forming our guidelines. I'm almost done. At the outset of the tenure on the board, I'm just gonna bug Woodard Armenta and I and the only reason I'm refusing the four of us

115is because this was a year and a half ago before Director Adams came on the board. Um the meetings actually began to run much longer and had greater participation than I had ever experienced here and that was something that mattered. Um, as a board, one of the most fundamental reasons we chose the s I'm trying to skip pieces. As a board, one of the most fundamental reasons we chose the search firm we did for the superintendent search and that we will be with going forward was that they offered the greatest number of opportunities for community input and opportunities in person. They offered alternative locations so that uh it might invite a greater ability to speak freely if that was a barrier in terms of location. They identified other barriers to participation and proposed ways to

116minimize or eliminate those barriers. We carefully read every letter. For some of our ongoing community partners, we have designated board representation. Um, I could say more, but I just want to reaffirm we do not want to limit your involvement. We do need to think about structure and practices that invite participation and make sure as many as possible can participate and allow us to also cover the other work of the district for which we are legally bound. aspects our schools need us to cover in order to function as a district budget etc. Um there's a lot more but I'm going to stop there. Um because I think it it veers off I think this is the bigger container to me. Um if we are going to negotiate challenges uh we have to be able to listen

117and we have to be able to communicate. Um, and it is my hope that we can create mechanisms for that so that we are doing so in ways that are conducive uh to honoring the investment that people do have in our kids and families. Well, I I'm going to kind of speak off the cuff. Um, as you all probably know, I was a teacher in this district for 33 years. I've given my life to this district. I ran for school board not because I had an agenda, but because so many of my fellow professionals asked me to. And I really appreciate what I've heard tonight about um the dedication of the parent educators and the teachers in this district. um they are the heart and soul of this district as an institution. Um, it is

118really important for all of us to hear from every single constituency. And I can tell you as a public school teacher, I saw and got to know all all sorts of different parts of this island, parts and needs of this island. became profoundly impressed with what the district does with what's just incredibly so little. When I first started teaching, I came from a state that had more cows than people. And they funded their schools three times more than Washington State. I've always thought of us as a liberal state. Like it'd be almost like if you put Louisiana state funding. Sorry for any of you from Louisiana, but uh you may know their reputation for not supporting education. We have a dedicated community here that helps us bridge the gap between the just absolutely unconscionable funding

119in education that has gotten worse since I started in 1981 and it's only gone downhill. And I can tell you that all of us superintendent, uh, school board members, teachers, we lobby hard to try to get what we need. And um I am I'm glad that they gave a little more funding in special ed. It was a slap in the face as to what they did, but that was the only um area that was increased this last term. And uh I thought it was bad as a teacher, but I got on the board and started going to Olympia and seeing how this our state functions, dysfunctions. And I've got to say, every single one of us cares. Every single one of us wants to do our best. And I know you don't want to hear

120that we are limited. And I just would like to throttle somebody that is not giving us enough money. And it I'm not making an excuse. I'm just saying we're doing really the best we can and we want to hear from you and we truly care. And that's all I got to say. Um, so I have something prepared that sort of speaks to the moment that we find ourselves in. And I I'm I'm conflicted about whether to end with that because whatever I if I say something after that, that's going to be all that is left in the room. So I'm going to let leave with the potentially less controversial things. Um, I attended the monthly OSPI briefing a couple of days ago. Um, there was ongoing conversations about declining enrollment. Um those official numbers are

121not going to be released until January, otherwise I would have brought them here tonight. that there was some really good discussion about um declining birth rates and uh sort of numbers uh data around transfer to public school and home school about why some of our I know this is an item of particular interest to you River um why we're you know so some of the declining numbers do include people who are choosing to continue to homeschool and um folks who are choosing to send their children to private school all of that data I think is really important and really valuable as we go into budgeting season and being rigorously honest about the state of our declining enrollment and it will continue to decline and we need to plan accordingly and hopefully those numbers will be

122made public uh in January as uh superintendent Reichdoll said. Um coming up in January we will have a work session among other things to do kind of a debrief of what happened at WADA. Um I think we all found it to be incredibly valuable. So we're going to spend some time sort of bringing forth the stuff that we thought was useful maybe some you know ideas innovation to bring um to our to our district. I thought one thing in particular that I certainly took away is that we are grossly underutilizing and under listening to our student reps. I think um they have been um to for us to more sort of robustly center their experience and their voice and their impact um moving forward is going to be really really valuable. I intend to attend

123the regular meetings of the student word reps. I was able to listen in on a conversation that I couldn't attend uh this month just talking a little bit more about AI and the future of AI in this district and student learning and it was really very interesting and helpful to me to listen to student voices on that front. I just want to say I'm really looking forward to hearing a presentation from Dove in January. Um, I want to really emphatically thank the community work group uh for their tenacity and commitment to this work um after a profound breach of trust um and the repair and way forward um being led by Dove feels very meaningful to me and that statement should be in everybody's inbox. Um, one of the things I need to say sort

124of at this moment that we're in feels a little bit like the elephant in the room in that people because um, and I appreciate that you took the post down when I when I asked you to. I appreciate that, but there are there is language that was used in that post that I feel like a lot of people have not seen or do not understand the severity of it. The board of directors did not censure Director Adams because she engaged in advocacy. The board censured Director Adams because she made an allegation against a district employee that would be inappropriate in any context. Namely, and I'm going to say this really explicitly, that an employee of the Vashon Island School District was quote choosing to try to kill my child rather than accommodate him unquote. The

125comment itself violated district policy and the posting of the comment on social media defamed that employee. Because of the manner in which Director Adams acted, her conduct was not protected by law and the board was within our rights to censure her. And I need to be super clear about this next part. If it is normalized for a board member to accuse a staff member in this manner, we have lost all credibility and hope of trust with our team and the wider school community. That's all I have to say tonight. Uh it is 7:52. I don't believe that we made any public uh commitments at this time. Does anybody feel that that's incorrect? I don't think we need anything to follow up with on that front. All right, it's 7:53 and uh this meeting is adjourned.