December 13th 2018 VISD Board Meeting

001and beautiful [Music] yeah [Music] okay because Springs not going to be here until for the nominations and I want us all to be here can I can we flip two with three so we do public comment first sure and I'm for a second okay thank you sorry I'm late okay so sorry is anybody here so just stand up state your name my name is Camille Reeves and I'm just here as a concerned community member about the potential for gun violence in our schools and how we plan on preventing that I think there is definitely concern amongst the student body that I interact with I'm a private music teacher so I have kids who go to all three schools in the districts and also staff members obviously they're part of the community and that I know

002and I don't feel that the leadership particularly the high school you're not really sure what's going on at the middle school but at the high school I am afraid that the leadership is lacking in terms of finding actual preventative measures to take I know I spoke with Danny Rock a couple weeks ago and he talked a lot about intervention and my feeling is that's maybe too late I also wanted to read a quote from a student of mine who wanted to remain anonymous that wanted to speak for the student body he said when you were the principal of a school you were responsible for making sure the student body feels safe it feels really awful to feel like our fear and comments are being disregarded it's completely understandable that we can't know the details of

003any certain situation but at least listen to what we are saying and acknowledge that your students are not comfortable I think a big thing that I keep hearing from the kids that I interact with is that they do not feel safe and that the assembly that happened after this did not make them feel safe the emails that went out didn't make them feel safe and their concerns have been expressed to administrators and they have felt disregarded so I asked that at some point the board members take maybe a little more leadership because we're not seeing it from the school administrators anybody else Oh No okay all right well welcome everybody thank you everybody for coming tonight also so I would like to welcome our partners in education I've given them pretty much the time they

004need tonight and I see some teachers in our midst and so just to know I don't remember I did see this on a YouTube video when I was applying for this position it was it was about this time that things were happening and I was like I needed to learn all about this district do you come up and tell something about your program a little bit or do you just kind of go right into your PI Awards okay let's do that all right I want to make sure that I'm doable my name is jenna rakes and i'm on the pi board so it's Oz and Carrie and we're here to present the board with our what our donors were able to fund this year which was we love the number 500 and our sorry five

005hundred fifty five thousand five hundred and and requests this year than last and this is actually about $13,000 more than we donated last year so or that our donors gave last year more grants that were funded by husband granting with a very simple mission we grant money to teachers and to other people in the district who would like to enrich the curricula of enriched learning experience for their students and every year - this year we were able to fund 41 grants and we like to recognize three grants one from each school that we felt were our favorites the ones that were you know the most enriching the most imaginative the most the grants with the most drugs or you know the the ones are one of the most innovative and so we have our teachers

006here from we have from Chautauqua and McQuarrie and that Vashon high school and if you guys would like to introduce yourselves and talk about your grants and I would say the one at Chautauqua is really interesting this year we there were three grants that worked in tandem and so we asked all three teachers to come but we get one standing so why don't you start mr. Morris and I teach second grade here I have been trying for several years to do something with that courtyard that's outside of the second grade wing in between the cafeteria and the second grade wing it's a little bit of a no-man's snowwoman zone and we would like we teachers who blanket it and I know a lot of teachers in the school would like to make it more usable

007and in particular for students who don't want to be in the rough-and-tumble loud playground have a place to be during recess and hopefully a covered place so that's coming in the next couple years some kind of cover so right now our grant is three grants one for tables to go in that space and one for a rock river that that students can add their rocks to and one Tara Brenna who's going to be doing art with the entire school to cover the wall that faces our classrooms yeah great go ahead eighty I'm any Holmes and I teach at McMurray and this year we asked for a PI grant to grow our food program so last year we had a brand new food program that actually came from our special ed team and it was meant

008to be an inclusive class to teach her life skills to students and it became wildly successful all across the school so we've grown it this year and I get to teach food 102 which is going to be a multicultural look at food so it's still a very inclusive class we are still going to teach it in the LRC that we have big dreams of moving outside of the LRC someday maybe even building an outdoor kitchen is our eventual vision that we have but the money that we are getting from pipe this year is going to help us buy things like standing mixer blender and a demonstration mirror so we can make the most of the space that we have and then we are using also some of the funds to help with buying some of

009those specialty ingredients since it's multicultural and we're gonna have really cool cooking adventures thank you yeah I'm Andy Calendar I teach mathematics at the high school and I have always been very interested in answering the question that my students ask what am I ever going to use this I'm searching for many years of what what that looks like and I finally found at the summer through it's called the stem guitar project and it's organized by the National Science Foundation and I attended a workshop through them the summer farofa week and I built say actually I brought it with me builds guitar kiss and then so I went and spent a week in Minnesota at the end of it so the idea is that you're teaching the the mathematics of and the science learn how Qataris

010work and how are they're constructed and this is something I want to do with with the students of Bosch on high school so this it takes about 48 40 hours to build this it's kind of a three piece kit there's the body and there's the neck and the fretboard and and all the metal components are separated but there's there's a tremendous amount of mathematics and music theory and in construction and it's it's Michael we kind of bring those all together and create a course at the high school that will that will run for a semester next year so I'm a little bit of a musicians like I play and I want to teach the kids to play the guitar state builds in class the money from pi is gonna help buy five kits that will

011build these and the startup tools to equip the shop to do it we have all the big power tools but there's a lot of just specific tools needed for a guitar building that will am i moving at so plenty I'm piling it next semester I'm with some of the pathway students with blue gram and with Eric in the shop at the high school and then again trying to get to get enough money for bed if you're interested in any of the other other of the 41 grants that we gave that we're updating the website in the next couple days so check there and you can see a full list of all the all the grants that we've given this year for this year schoolyards ability it is a great place to donate still wanna donate

012we would love your donations and to include you in this school years funding of these amazing projects so your money goes right into the school why don't you get on like here and then maybe oh I'm so sorry did you wait till Monday to cash that thank you so much Jenna I was talking with him before my grants came out he said I was gonna do that and I was like no no I have a couple more things just a an update I know one of our goals and priorities is communication and so I have to agree that basically a fairly short no I always question sorry then it was sending up two families essentially drawings upon their experiences what works for them what doesn't work in terms of how's our email working are we

013messaging too much not enough buildings phone calls what we'll do then is share that with the administrators and how's our website because of my own but essentially mmm part of part of this is just getting a pulse of what's of what's happening with our parents and family also part of this is asked directly about how we communicate we're going safe good feedback for us I was intending to get the survey out by this week and so that we could have it have it completed give your parents enough time before the holidays but my admin team hasn't had enough time to really look at it because whatever happens in that survey this probably an expectation that we're going to do something I want them to be in front of that tool and have some conversation as

014a group so we'll probably look at at our first meeting in January and then send out the survey but again the goal is then probably some time little towards the end of June or towards in your schools send up survival again to bolted episode just let you know that's happening mmm if you if you know I have already shared with you but there's you should see a copy of our draft form of the bisd 2019 legislative parties in there dan hasn't printed in my mind it looks like this I've modified it's time to have some red red bullets here to talk about a proposed solution I kind of sound a little again from MPs ESD and essentially this is the tool that that we're going to use for to advocate for for our district with

015our legislators anytime we're down in Olympia or connecting with Joe or Joe Fitzgibbons or Eileen or the the Education Committee and so essentially this outlines our critical issues and then if you see down the bottom there's some there's some question about well we just passed our bond we don't really have a lot of facilities things happening right now or even next year and it's the idea that simple majority at any point in time would be helpful for us and this might be the year that it could happen because of the makeup of the House and the Senate so we want to push for that and anytime we can update basically the construction formulas that would again you know save taxpayers money and save less money in the long run as well so we all these

016issues right here are probably not new to you but if you look at the other surrounding districts fairly similar but what we did was that we put some context in probation island and so and I have shared this with our B a and B SP we haven't we unfortunately were able to meet today with SEIU folks or leadership VA has already indicated that they're going to sign on to this in partnership with us and BSP gave some indication today that they would you know most likely do the same but since we just met with them today they're going to go back to their members I'd like to push this to a final draft probably sometime mid next week so that then is a bet and I can have it and you can have it it

017can be kind of in use then but right now it's still draft I don't know if you had a chance to look at it but you can probably look at it you know some of the time I think I share it with you but all right is there anything that stood out to you immediately that you want me to to take a look at or that you think you should be emphasized more or less or any other feedback that you want to give me right now on it captures everything that wasn't you know we've been talking about through the foundation and it's I like the fact that it incorporates a more personalized element from you know the actual district here and the needs so we'll be interested in having it when it's finalized for the

018foundation in them yeah I don't have any occurs to me right off the bat I have a number of questions and comments now start now or we can don't go with that otherwise that's okay it's the legislature off the hook a little too much program okay I was like doing that in the Clery litigation and the flurries that plaintiffs were saying you really should if you're gonna require lower class sizes you should you should pick up that ensuing construction costs in other words no unfunded mandates right and I've just got skipped over nothing happens but but I could this in and special ed stuff both that being able to levy funding to make up for what the legislators not doing that's all at least contrary to the spirit of McCleary and I would like to

019and I can make concrete suggestions on that if you want but then also a question you know when you talk about I know but we need more councillor money for councillors etc it isn't clear to what extent this is just you know our choice like having an extra AP class and to what extent is necessitated by laws or caseloads and whatever I think that should be clarified okay I did have something in here about current stocking letters are already looked below national recommendations I did have those recommendations but I didn't want to I only get so much space yeah it's are these nine and a half so kind of coming from 12 to your right I mean at least within that area every in all my experience we've never funded at the the national rank

020novels and I think you know just I mean in terms of the rhetoric about it they live he's the governor's budgets talking about a huge chunk of money for like mental health you know what is that counselors counselors any other comments or feedback no thank you yeah that's right come to do okay and just to I had a quick updated here about that access to the field I know you probably already know it but just as a board meeting I want to make sure that everybody is aware that hopefully sometime in January we'll get the actuator installed and that will have that morning time open from 5:30 to 7:00 if you do read the Beachcomber there was an editorial in there and then a another editorial there was some a few members of the community

021who wanted access at three o'clock I write letters to the editor so they I know they wanted that that early-morning access in the morning because they work and that really is that's a that actually truly is more of a question for Park District not us however I think there's still some perception in the community that we are you know they don't understand that we have a lease agreement and I tell but it's also I think very difficult for even if we were I probably it would be difficult to try to provide that kind of access at that hour in the morning so I understand that they used to be able to do that I don't know how we would accommodate a three o'clock in the morning but they did mention that having a keycard and

022being able to do that and that could be something that when we go through a review process because that's what I promised you know we would do this and then have a review process that if that is something that looks more viable and that we can do some kind of hybrid that we can do that just not let you know that that's kind of where we are with that because there was some Beachcomber I wanted to just give an update here my only other update is just that just a reminder about our upcoming events on January 8th we have our work session where John Walsh will be coming and then January 10th we have a PLC leaves dinner and then the 24th is an executive session before the board meeting to do my major evaluation

023and so we'll start planning for that probably this upcoming Monday just start talking about with the board chair and the vice chair to start to talk about what that process is gonna and certainly I'd like to you to know that you can reach out to them or myself or suggestions or comments on that so that we're prepared on the 24th to do it and not on the 24th to decide how to do it right that's my report okay will do it's very spring we flipped nominations and then we'll do yeah right now what you're just doing board members remarks and then we will go back up and do nominations okay I would like to think it's been a it's been it's really an honor to be board chair for this past year and vice chair

024of the year before there's a really great group of people and it's really it's really enjoy it's just so it's just um thank you thank you I just not a biggie but did you might see the Newberry Siddal you probably are the Melissa I don't even but then you're gonna go yeah yes yes me yes yes yes all right [Laughter] you like to say I won it at auction some high school kid I think made it super cool because I thought maybe someday I'd run for office huge shoes to fill those about so I'm glad that we're all still working yeah so if like the next six months of level through the process I tried to remind myself Robert's Rules of business order and so we do our best the next is nomination for Vice

025Chair era nomination I nominate Reagan okay let's do the roll call from sort of a theme in yes yes yes yes yes all right we have a nomination for the legislative representative yes yes yes I mean yes congratulations thank you very much uh do we have a nomination for the WIAA representative Toby I think yes yes yes do we have a nomination for the VI EEM hey mister what is the Ashlyn Island Emergency Management oh I think they would be good at that [Laughter] yes yes all right we have a nomination for the bachelor on Commons representative I think spring drink I second that yes yes yes all right there's one more nomination for the board representative national Island Schools Foundation and it has to be yes yes the formalities are complete we now have

026a new school all right so the next item on the agenda is a discussion item there's two policies in front of us one is for policy 2023 regarding digital citizenship stage you're gonna present this so when you take a look at this document you know they'll think of some time ago this actually shouldn't be second this discussion should be decision right because in the second reading I'm a can't be second reading in discussion right so I wasn't sure then if you one discussion on on this one I apologize for that but Dan had made some edits and you'll see them crossed out red and underlined and so this could be any second reading we're not people that problem with wait do we see these edits previously and Dan wasn't here isn't that what happened there

027hasn't been any you know justjust just uh just dance edits that represented that that meaning it damage okay so if there's no discussion we can we can make it a decision if there's discussion we keep it here it looks fine to nice an emotion from a second up I'd like to seek evidence for allegedly sign of the time so this is gonna be little bit different if we're gonna make this a decision we can go ahead and vote on that yeah so all in favor of deciding to accept the edits all right well then let's discuss policy 6000 including your packets is policy 6000 this is the initial policy here 6000 series no support which is mainly financed over the last couple months you've touched upon the topic about our 5% plan balance policy on

028page 2 at 6000 it reads I would see the district will maintain members are the fund balance of no less than 5% the current fiscal year budget expenditures the end Reserve ending fund balance will be preserved as an emergency fund this policy was adopted in 1989 we had some changes updates to it 2015 specifically around timing and adoption of budget and over the last five years I've been here the one item the auditors have continued to bring up as we've discussed is the level of our fund balance they would like to see a significant increase three to four million of fund balance we just have the discussion that's that's fiscally prudent on either side of the coin but I want to bring this in front of you to engage in the conversation the discussion of

029what is a reasonable fund balance leave the school is recovery probably novice if I'm 19 I regard to overhead cost whether that be personnel benefits to costs of electrical utilities whatnot so I believe that that 5% needs to be increased when the attachments provided with you is the fund balance comparison show you can pull that up and what it is is our policy states at this number right here which we all you all adopted is our kind of a static number of what our expenditures are our 5% which is that first number at 1.1 million right there is what evil we've seen by year end of our for fund balance policy included below here not fuse is the 1718 expenditures not the expenditures among three revenue actuals and you can see the Evan flow of

030the revenues versus expenditures you go through a typical year given that beginning of each year we have a funding rounds we've met end of August being in September that 1 million 1.3 million where with a 5% stands so we have money in the bank but as you can see throughout some of the months especially the months where taxes are supposed to come in our local levies around the end of October November and around the world made you start to run a thinman you know in our bank account if you will because we cannot receive those taxes until the end of those months Portland is an organization working monthly payroll expenditures of around 1.2 million and monthly em sock it everything flows greatly month-to-month but around 200,000 or so is the average so the simple math

031err tells us that you know about fund balance policy of 1.1 million is not enough in the we months to get us three million times it does enough because we start to spray these months so I think I've spoken enough but my kind of request of you is is it viable is it feasible for us to increase our fund balance policy I think you know six to six and a half is probably reasonable and fair that's that's the table I've set for the discussion in this place questions well how would you see is getting to heaven a 6% in one jump yeah I think we would if that's the question is the $100,000 question I think every year we spring pants you know look at our encumbrances towards the end of the year not spend

032money here in some projects or activities that we thought we could use in the general fund and or we we never truly expect all of our expenses any given year and the EM Sox ISIL so it's maybe in the black that we then save and put into it the other answer is we need to budget next year in 1924 money to put aside four or five percent or in this case box B six and a half six percent funny balanced policy so that I don't think we've ever budgeted specifically for fund balance at the time I've been here so those the answers if we adopted it it will east show a good sign of faith to our auditors that we are aware of this we are knowledgeable when you're trying to go for in this

033direction is any kind of penalty for setting it at six back and then not technically you know our our our break terms they would at least no I don't think so answer question they're trying to adjust to the growing expenditures that we do have a near here basis and we're moving in that direction I think it's a it's a good sign to the others it isn't that healthy lot of tourism interpreted and I'm kind of interested in how you know how it might work I know you know I wouldn't be possible instead of target six six and a half percent what every day that each year we're gonna go an extra you know X fraction of both point it's not worth that yeah we could attach the - I guess bi w or C very

034new growth you know cost of living if you will we could do that that's a possibility I feel like video creeping up on it a little bit like that up and trying to do it get there it's just pragmatically how can we do it and sustain it without no penny buddy got more than we can chew right at this moment I mean things could change of the whole fiscal picture next year if the legislature well the question is whether there's a recession next year the same dancing it again and the requested is whether they'll be written next day you're ready also if you if you have some type of step process to the six and a half it doesn't mean that if we find ourselves we could we could go above you know we don't

035always have to say that the policy so stepping would not be we would not be prohibited as well and we were able to move quicker in that direction wasn't here I'm assuming that 5% probably hit those monthly expenditures fairly well it just hasn't been revisited since then as we've grown do we have access to what other districts percentage level is would be interesting to know against our peers I'm most districts that I know are probably in the 8 to 12 range and then depending on where they are with their long process and their bond rating they may even be higher than that but they still live it's late after the pay increases to the last year no that's a good question I don't know it just seems like we've had we've talked about this we

036were just hitting this perfect storm of pay increases drop in enrollment you know coming to this realization we're not we're dealing with a old number that needs to be revised and it's just this that's a challenging moment mm-hmm the way I looked at the fund balances partly like the line of credit to deal with uncertainty and also the timing of revenue in and and expenses out and we're in a period of uncertainty greater uncertainty now than we were or have been in the last few years for a variety of reasons but that that alone makes me feel like our fund balance needs to start going up we can find ourselves up tribute aside from the honors everything you're saying your London on seem to be increased is and in April I believe we were really

037strained by around six thirty and sixty thousand dollars is given Bank of course now April many hits and this massive influx our local tax dollars from King County were flush till next year but what scared us a little bit so he needs to be revisited so what is the process going forward so Matt I can work on I hear that there's maybe a preference to step up instead of one one step and then we can propose some language in the policy to reflect that and then bring it back to the conscious given all the uncertainty to set ourselves up for a big job if we if we can make the big jump that's wonderful but as far as the policy reading soon will be in the budget process where are you are kind of the

038owner and then that will give us some direction secure definition what we thank you Matt for doing us right next up I can find under the agenda some decisions so which we did Steve's on here do a shelf at up next meeting or deceit is he up against some deadlines or he needs to do we know if he's meeting his fundraising challenges you know we can set this aside for now maybe a walk it maintains our guns sound yeah do that exactly good okay let's go to the next one since mr. Lebowski chair just remember real schoolers yeah Harry so um I would like to request it go I'm through the first process of getting the pre-approval and now it's like the to get the okay to start enrolling students in a 2020 trip to

039Costa Rica just like the one we went on last year and the one that will be going on this year with a couple different stops but we'd have to exact same tour company back same tour guides a bus driver that we've had so can I ask you something personal Oh how do you think when I'm going to be interested in is when you come back from this trip how this one compared to last year [Music] but how how I mean the first trip there were and so what is the timeline I mean well time she comes back it wouldn't be it's already Oh should possibly be so it's just as add something to the thanks because we did do so soon we did do some survey and I did get some I got responses back

040I got 26 responses back and 511 from Washington DC of aid from Japan one from China a trip or two from the just to summarize the first question was about satisfied with organization and planning and we had 92% of those parents say that they were to the five part they were so and then one parent one parent at the 34 level and then communication from the school about the trip we had at the four and five level 20 of them said that they were satisfied at the five memo satisfied with five at the four level this one was which I think the board was very interested in was what parent satisfy was student safety during the trip we had 96% of that group so 25 of them there was one that answered before level and

041and then satisfied with educational outcomes we had 22 of those parents 84 percent said that they were satisfied with the educational outcomes the four percent said that they were and then another feedback was amazing opportunity while playing EF did an excellent job apparently managing our travels my son had this experience mr. Wilders amazing teachers fantastic as well as by disappearing tribute chef Rome I wish there's more participation my parents to help fundraise so we didn't get a lot of a lot of comments on how to improve and I think is because most of them were satisfied that was 26 percent up to the parent emails and so so we know they so that just gives again it's a it's an idea about how the parents felt about those specific topics which were the ones that

042I heard patient outcomes and safety communication we've had a few preliminary discussions where we talked about our philosophy on the international travel at the middle school and I don't really feel like we've ever had that conversation and come to some kind of decision about that so I still I still feel like I haven't really explored is that what we want to continue to do and it these trips keep coming up every year and there has to be a planning process there has to be timelines and they kind of just keep coming up and we haven't really addressed you know what our overriding philosophy is on international travel in the district whatever it may be that we continue it may be that we don't want to do it with the middle school and maybe some other

043things but we don't haven't really had that conversation and we keep proving trips so that's that's my only discomfort that discomfort and I'm about to say you know when I when I read the tour itinerary for this you know if I was just didn't know you and didn't know anything about anything it reads to me like it's a vacation I don't I don't see the education in just there described tour itinerary you know we travel we explore a village we visited national park we go in a canopy tour you know there's a waterfall trip and that all sounds fantastic but it doesn't tell me what the kids are learning in those environments I mean I can I could go on vacation and do those and I would learn something but I don't know why I'm

044sending a class of kids from our district there to do those things turned in and submitted their a homestay last time I know yesterday oh I'm just looking at you need to prevent oh oh so that that's just on there because that's just like it's part of the standard form oh I get it sentence about home sales and service target so when we go into the villages we get we spend a day at school half a day at a school where we work with Susan elementary school and they talk to us about how they learn and what their educational challenges are and and and then we go into other schools are usually connected to a larger like homestead kind of thing and then we see the families who we share a meal with them while

045they talk about their meal customs I could feel like we come to this moment and plane we have she's done all this great work and she's ready to go and she wants us all to say yes and we don't want to be the big bad and say no but at the same time I don't feel like we've resolved what our school district philosophy is on the International Travel overall but especially at the middle school level so I just feel like I feel like I should say yes but then I still am like well we never have the actual decision about what what is it we want accomplished is what we're doing accomplishing that is it appropriate for every grade level mm-hmm I don't feel like that's my hesitation here on this sort of continually approving

046these in this moment without having like a conversation about it except for in this moment where I'm being the big bad saying I agree on that but I think in this specific again it's in the movement you know like we have no basis for saying no I propose we make it an agenda item for January and I would also recommend that we approve this trip given the amount of work and I think there's something to be said to that I know there's the out of country travel this is an explorative correct so for me in terms of educational outcomes it's a pretty strong compared to the other exploratory trip this is pretty pretty low bar yeah so so I'm just I'm just uh we don't we know I don't I don't feel like I'm you

047know we're scrutinizing you know our other programs to this degree maybe we should that could be something but I feel very positive about kids traveling with her and with her chaperones yeah and in last year I mean last year was a success and I think what's nice sort of the sound sort of odd but last year it was it was such the novelty and sort of shiny new thing it was they're like whoa and I think this year it's sort of simmered down a little bit which is which is sort of what I wanted it to do because I want kids to be like hey I'm gonna do cooking and it's gonna be really fun decided we're gonna prove it we had some discussion but we were gonna wait till she came back for me

048there was a quest to get the input yeah so actually my timeline for sharing that survey was that I was gonna be sharing it with our board a new board chair and vice-chair during our Monday meeting so we could prepare for the next January board meeting it just kind of happens the timing right we're kind of it takes time just gonna survey together it takes time to give it and get it back and so it would have been excellent for that to happen in front of us but it didn't here we go and we didn't need with the middle school team and with the high school team and yeah so so that's sort of a separate conversation from Aaron you have to be think any peg wall will you talk about honest I think ourselves

049so yeah I mean I think we all should have shared that discomfort because we want to feel really clear about it and it's just like part of it is not having all the information that would help us feel really like we're making a decision like decision but I'm just sort of sitting okay with that because at least okay I think everything's there we are following the plan that we've honed over the last five years or so we have what I consider a pretty perfect number of 12 kids christen dalam is going to be attending this year Heather jurors decided she couldn't because of conflicts with softball she's the head coach so she felt she needed to be there so I like what we're doing we've got last year the staff told me that they would

050prefer not to have all the leadership senator did one or two students that they would prefer to share the leadership so a couple changes so this year we have 12 kids every single student has a bulleted list of responsibilities that they are doing everything from somebody who is and one of things we're doing if you went to the debate forum we ended up showing a video that one of the seniors have put together on a lark last year and it looked as if all we do is go to San Francisco and have fun and somebody asked afterwards so did you attend classes because they're not there so this year what we're doing is I have a team of students who are putting a documentary together probably 10 to 15 minutes which will actually take into

051account all various aspects of the trip the goal of the trip is pretty singular it's to strengthen the staff and turn them into into real journalists who are able to do good work to continue the good work they're doing here and so we have a budget I think it's going to be challenging to meet the numbers that we raised last year but we're going to do the best we can we've also tried I've tried to limit the amount of the amount of fundraisers so that we would not all be exhausted by the time of the years over in particular me and not want to do it again so I've tried to make sure it's a balance the tickets are a bit more expensive the tickets for 576 as opposed to 76 last year so but

052I guess what I'm saying is overall I feel as if things are under control that's organized the itinerary is being created right now by by the student in charge of that we have the plane tickets are purchased we have we have co-stars who are in charge of fundraising and organization and and so the idea is to get them to take the leadership but provide the safety of it supervision very questions redeye pretty directly comfortable too like last year's yeah we are doing when we go to New York we do read I yeah what that means is which is what I you about 10:45 and they sleep on the way that means you have to pay for so we will arrive at about 6:00 in the morning and they're going to be exhausted and hopefully ready

053to go to sleep by the time we get back to the place where we're staying we'll stay at a hostel if we can but if we can't we stayed in two years ago we stayed in a wonderful apartment in Harlem and it was wonderful just down the street from where Bill Clinton's office was it was it's just I love the multicultural sort of atmosphere of Parliament gonna recommend we don't go to the same place we went last year in San Francisco we do that again found out afterwards it was one of the most dangerous places in the city but the kids handle it well so the system works it was it was what determines that when you do this trip my nose is like a week or two before spring break yes so what determines

054it is when the convention is held okay um and it's a National Convention so Columbia is used to doing it and Nationals classic press holds it all over the country so depending on what you're going so we could end up in Dallas the following year we could end up in Minnesota it's just that's the way it works like the distribution of leadership I'm just gonna say the same thing yes it's a great way to get them all involved I mean realize that the reasons I started the trip in the first place was to give a chance for the upcoming rising editor to actually have the experience of leading and be in a situation where they had real-world consequences if if things did not happen so the whole point of this is to easily prepare kids

055not just in terms of education but also in terms of journalism but also in terms of teaching them to lead I would argue that I mean for instance we are choosing our editor-in-chief for next year they've already submitted applications and we have three juniors who are applying and two sophomores as far as I can tell and they will go through an interview process with you know Danny Elana myself John Reese and Heather jurors so they are they are as sophomores and juniors facing one of the toughest interviews they're going to face and even if they don't get it do you think they're afraid when they go to a college interview after going through that I don't think so so it really works in terms of preparing kids to deal with the real world and that's

056one of my goals and I think I'm talking about there's no further discussion do we have a motion so a second all in favor all right me opposed go forth to New York thank you very much I really do appreciate the support the board and superintendent and the administration gives for this trip it really means a great deal I mean anybody who's putting an extra time to make these trips happen you and Sarah all the work that's a bomb it's really appreciated these opportunities yeah that's gonna be a fun thank you thank you sir thank you all right reports Randi is up for projects so we have secured a grant for the playground and we are moving forward with that work and scheduled for demolition during winter break and they're sorry midwinter break and then

057the week following that when kids are back we will be building their new playground so we wanted to do the destruction while they were gone and creation while they were here my daughter just told me that there's this one bar on the playground it's a different way it's a great segue into p.m. this is an old play toy that's out in the kindergarten playground so it'll be good to get that out and to get a currently safety certified safety installed playground in place for the kids so one big change that you're going to notice in addition to the playground is that we're pulling out all of those rubber tiles and replacing them with wood chips similar to what's in the extension of the playground that we put in the rubber tiles well they are they

058are nice they are a very expensive solution and what you have there now is actually hazardous because each one of those tiles is cupping and so and that's the kind of the cheap version of the tiles I think to do it right you have to spend it could be about thirty thousand additional dollars to put rubber tiles back into the playground so so where are they gonna be riding there they can still ride on the grass I don't actually see trikes out there very often no you don't have enough left over but you know we can't get the fall zone out of that right so when you put play toys in than have any height to them you have to create an adequate fall zone so we'll have 12 inches of those wood chips that

059provide the resiliency in kids fall is what's the replacement cycle on wood chips you know as long as we maintain the really positive grand news that we have there you don't really have to pull them out and replace them you just kind of add to them and I would think about the same room cycle is the replacement of your play quipment every 10-15 years we come in about every other year refreshing they're blowing leeches but the you know the woodchips are at $3,000 option versus the $30 pretty good pretty good answer you'll see the exterior paint plays to me a couple touch-up things but basically we're just trying to close out of his contract now you'll notice it in this update there are a number of contracts that are in closed out and I thought

060I'd just give you a quick description of that before we can release retainage on a project we have to have authorization from Employment Security the Department of Revenue and Labor and Industry and there are documents that the contractors have to file with each one of those the most challenging is Labor and Industry which is the prevailing wage piece and so each of the contractors and subcontractors that they worked with have to file certified wage reports that then flavor and industries verifies that they didn't pay prevailing wage and gives them that's called an affidavit of wages paid so you know that always takes months for everybody to get all of that paperwork in and done which place working sorry the wall outside where they all stand and kick the wall we do depend on what to

061do art solution to that clay has come up with a colored putty not a putty but a call that will match the wall color so where they are peeling that paint off the caulking we're actually going to apply a layer of caulking over the top of it that matches color that you can't peel that's the first part of that and then at that big long wall where they're all lining up and envy their meat against it Kevin's crew is gonna do a small planting bed that keeps the kids off the wall perfect and then we'll touch up the paint [Music] furniture we still have some parts and pieces that are missing we have a load coming in January 4th during the break that'll be replacement of some broken lights and pieces and we're still waiting

062on replacement chairs which will be after the first of the year at McMurray locker room upgrades are complete still well received and we're just waiting again a closeout documentation McCrory the window replacement we have a couple of windows to replace over the over the winter break it's a long story but there's some trim pieces and windows that need to come out and be put back in so that'll be done over winter break as well as the balance of their punch list items continuing to work on a paint solution for McMurray I haven't finalized anything yet and again we'll wait and see how we do with funds when the rest of the projects are all wrapped up we still have some furniture there as well to be replaced the turf and track I think we are

063you know we're 99% they're basically all the basic order is done all of the punch list work is done we're working on as built drawings to get into the county for our clothes out of our grading clearing and grading per minute FieldTurf has a couple of repairs to do in the turf which they'll do after the first of the year we have some a little bit of settlement and a couple of the drainage trenches that they're going to come back and fix but overall it's great we've been watching it really closely with all the rain and it seems to be performing really well in the storm system is performing just as we expected so I noticed tonight the lights are on and it's raining and there's still people out there so it's fun to see

064one of the last few items at the gym that we had you had authorized as part of that gym maintenance funding was replacing the exterior walkway lights with LED LEDs and those go in started today I think so we'll have those in in the next week and then our last item when those toilet partitions in the boys locker room the high school sign the planting has gone in for that so the last time you'll see it on our list that work is complete building K all that work is complete and the building is really it's really looking fantastic on a sidenote is a cap tech project over winter break we have a carpet going in three of the classrooms so the library the study hall and the classroom will get new carpet she'll be a

065huge acoustic improvement and then we're also doing new roller shades on all of the exterior well we say getting those motions we are not we have a vendor coming on the same people who did McMurray are going to come in and do those so it was sort of good for building people yeah yeah so it's gonna be a real building by the end of five and the winter break that will be fun and for the maintenance shop our septic design has been submitted and is under review we've submitted a conditional use permit and that process is getting underway and we're scheduled in January to sit down with the architect and I don't hear back up on our design and get going from a budget perspective really nothing has changed except that we continue to pay

066out more money you can see that the value of what we have committed is about as a little over eight million we have ten point five so we're still in really good shape there are a few pieces to that in addition to the maintenance building but we are still holding our full budget for the maintenance building and there's we're positive on the balance of projects not by much but we're still within about debt and then I was noticing as I put this together it's pretty impressive that we've been able to do 15% of the bond funds have been spent on island that's been [Music] thank you Matt you're up for your portion which I think research with enrollment is the Rosie those were early in the month in December enrollments only you want to point

067out that the budget documents and reports by widest certification they just came back from the OSPI those are in front of you the enrollments are down to one FTE for dissembler I wish there was better news but there is not anecdotally we've got a couple more families to move off island in our district and they're seeing - each one continue on the point now that you're 29 students its million dollars what question I have matters who you saw the a net increase that family Lincoln students make is the kind of the dollar the dollar value per student the same at the different grade levels in the different schools were haven't we said early digesta is web statement per student allocation to other schools and what we're seeing also is some use the guys go over

068a link but there are new students to do some of these numbers reflect a move from the high school to there's something difference though isn't there between the funding between us - I'm sorry sitting isn't there some difference between the apportionment that we confer is slightly there and we've and we've shifted some teachers over to follow the is that right over to student a milling no no [Music] so all we can do is wait and hope for it we get more students is really no recruiting or anything we think that might help Rebecca you know college you know so Rebecca to go back to her a request and even though we say no she's actually contacted them and I let them know his mid-year is a good point yeah kind of semester break so she's

069gone back to all the ones that were denied effectively and invited them to come back and I think she said she has one or two that have already replied back to that so for kindergarten any grade yeah any of those any of those who had requested she had I think reached out to him we just got we have nothing I'm violent annoyed to bring more on finally there was zero waitlist for offense with high school there was two several months ago at the middle school I believe he invited was extended I don't know I don't mean quiet of those kids they just hear about it out sir did we recruit those in our they won't for like for myself I have a meeting with Amy McNabb who's a you know parent she reached out to

070me she was at the legislative the library at the library meeting mm-hmm and so when she heard our discussion about our budget she reached out to me and we're meeting on Monday to because she has some ideas about ways to the CRU student I don't see that happening for this year but I see some planning for next year and at the same time too I want to look at how word when we recruit her this is part of the racial equity report later but I want to see how we're recruiting students from all demographics because even I'll just share with you my I was sharing that I was at a basketball game and how we had a pretty good team fielding and we're gonna do pretty well and she was kind of lamenting that where

071she works in High Line at Evergreen high school their sports suffered tremendously because all their students get recruited to private schools most scholarships and then they no longer attend and so I actually felt you know I wondered what honestly our role was in that process in recruiting students and so there's something that I want to ask him kind of looking to myself how do we get if we're going to recruit students how do we ensure like all of our programs that were looking at all students and not just our or maybe our more affluent I don't even know if that's currently what we're doing but it's something that I'm inquiring about in the old situation of having waiting lists of people or people wanting in and then we can take and now this is the

072first cynical had to think about recruiting again but that pilot component is obviously the faucet we confessed evil eyes and there's another parent Kippy Joe who's connected with me she's one of our drivers yeah she has six students who have been she also has some [Laughter] one cheery topic I'll help too yes oh thank you okay so our new superintendent has been doing a fantastic job of leaving this group this is not the chilliest of meetings that I have had the privilege of sitting in on but it is a you know I mean I everything is up for discussion and you know every you know they're just any idea anybody has and so we've been working off of Matt's f19 5f projections and just figuring out what just assuming we get zero from the legislature

073this just assuming we don't get anything and that basically our enrollment stays 29 point not 3-2 below normal what are we gonna do and so each each school I mean yeah each building and you know at that team so if Kevin's team Slade's team all have to have are looking at their own budgets and really thinking about what they can do to shift things around or what you know I'm sort of what that looks like and it and at this point it's still fairly nebulous I mean it's still sort of theoretical at this point but I'm thinking that we're gonna get starting to get a little bit more specific as as the clock ticks on we've been meeting we've met four or five times more times we may may not meet next week and yeah

074it's there there there sobering meetings yeah so but I really appreciate I will say that I've been I have really really appreciated the thought that has gone into this but with all the principles and all the directors and everybody you know in the questions that people are asking the work that people are putting into it and and then with Slade just really being very transparent and saying this is what we're going to do and so he's gonna even talk about this but sending a letter out to the community just say this is what our process is we have you know we're in communications with all three unions we're you know it's working together as much as we can you know this is this is what we're up against so no one is surprised when we

075get to when we pass the budget that hopefully no one says how did this happen so that's my take on it now I just add that in terms of communication we we met with DEA labor management earlier this week we met with PSP today and it was our hope that we were going to meet with SEIU as well today but they had a cancellation for us so we're gonna work to try to figure out how we can get you know the same information to all of our leadership for our bargaining members we've identified at this time if you've seen the document projected reduction of 700,000 again looking at every program every building district office to ground to facilities our buildings we anticipate that because we've done so much cutting of em socks that most of

076these reductions will be in programs and staffing I think today when we met with VSP we we also shared that there some of us have gone through this experience before and you may have as well and it's not it's not good but it as always our intent once the the legislature and you know passes we're in a new biennium so we'll get a budget hopefully knock on wood by April 28th and hopefully we'll see more money and be a and more money in special ed and perhaps at capital gains and who knows right but it is our hope to be fairly bring everybody back if we do have any reductions in force the the goal for our groups right now is by January's end to have some firm more firm decisions about programs some staffing

077right now we're we're in a process of exploring ideas and options and the principles working together and I'm having some individual meetings with the separate groups to have a better under so we're just in the process again our goal is to be very transparent so all of our documents that you can see we're working from are available for or anybody and so and again we're trying to do a lot you know in an odd year it's it's hard to talk about fund balance because we know that's you know critical to our to our health as an organization and at the same time be looking at reductions so I understand that I understand there's a disconnect and so I'm going to try my best to be as transparent and give as much information and communication as

078possible like you said these aren't great conversations that we have they are fairly so green and I will say I'm very I'm very glad that actually every program and every building Hannibal is not only pitching in and collaborating together with that work but they're also I became deeply for their people so I haven't heard any kind of disconnect or disregard for for the programs and people that we have here because it's it is what makes us so we'll continue to probably bring you updates you probably once a month on how things are going and then and then meanwhile we are talking about my woman Clare Wilson who's that on the education the committee at the Senate who was a former school board member I'll start now that we've this that one pager is close to

079being finalized hopefully I'll be able to send it to her next week and say okay you know so so it's sort of this to prom one is worst-case scenario that we have to do and there is really hopeful that maybe we can get a little by exactly right exactly well thanks for articulating in the process and being transparent as you go are there any questions from board members right now just depressive I think it all stems so just like we discussed you know when we get to the point of knowing what's gonna be coming soon what's gonna be going outside of staffing probably we should make an effort to communicate to the greater community you know what those changes are gonna be so ok I mean everything is transparent available for somebody who makes the

080effort to come and look at it but a lot of the community won't make that effort and think well let me cut by surprise or may well have you know a New York reaction of the extent to which we can communicate more broadly that this is what's happening I do have a meeting with Susan with the Beachcomber next Wednesday just as part of again our responsibility for communication the foundation stars out there for a year talking about this coming down the pike and I think maybe 10% of you guys should know is that the board have a chance to review what before when the final recommendations their decisions have been we find out like like what's that process well what's the role the board in their process yeah yeah it's my understanding that and maybe

081this is something that we learned together you know how has it been in the past that you have worked with hiring decisions and in reduction in force decisions well before the decision but usually the board gets the information so late there's no right way to really discuss it or come up with alternatives I would personally like to get it early enough to actually have a decision process rather than a rubber stamp so maybe we could do it yeah yeah that's that would be a yeah but then typically there's the set of recommendations or the package direction sure that comes forward and then give a chance to review and ask questions right yeah but but but my point is historically that tends to have them so late all board members get frustrated right because we don't

082have time to do anything other than what's been recommended and it would be nice to [Music] brings us you know this is this section of the budget you know but this is such a different year that it's not quite the same as you saying okay I mean this is no this is different yeah I don't imagine like I think just having adequate time to really feel like we're doing due diligence to review it but it can't imagine really having strong opposition to whatever is presented to us because they'll be had so much thought and work that was put into it no it's not yeah the update right so again I'm this is work that excites me me in general if you remember our priorities kind of you know seeking out student voice and building student

083leadership and then connections and resources and capacity amongst our staff and some of the key things that are happening right now that excited me the most we have continued to meet with question on friends of the family and we continue to learn a lot in that group and we have a monthly meeting scheduled for that I was able to consult with nickim and he's definitely let me know that he's available you know for consultation he feels we're what we're doing it because I kind of gave him there you are our history and he knows a lot of that but where we are right now and moving the racial equity worked into our PLC's I'm not having a separate work being done he even believes that can he concurred with with that idea of getting some

084continuity as well and having each each building have have planning documents I will say that that work PLC's probably struggle to meet on a regular basis and and try to get everything that that building needs to be done and all the decisions by that needs teacher leadership and input accomplished but I'm I'm I did sit in on a couple of those equity teams at the elementary and middle school and that was great the high school kind of has a slug in a a smaller group that's a they're they're larger PLC group did not have the capacity to to kind of share that same kind of Drive but they are still on their way and have been exploring some some resources in West Seattle I will say that uh we're about to for an XP DD

085in January we're gonna have VA is they have bless you they have some folks coming in they're called hard work and it's racial equity training that they're gonna bring to the middle school and Elementary specialists and high school specialists that want to attend and what excites me probably the most is I've invited Stephanie Spencer and Kevin to lead some of the work with that we had that we began last year with meeting with students and student groups we we've learned a lot probably from last year's experience and what went well and what didn't go well we've gotten some feedback from students and some parents about about their experiences but I I when I asked Stephanie and Kevin to just to step into that role they as Kevin told me he he feels that it's a

086calling of his and I think both these they're they're extraordinarily committed to this work and because they have the relationships in the buildings you know already I think that worked perfectly right for that so they're gonna be meeting with racial equity teams probably in January to get feedback from them because one of the things that we took a left turn on instead of they're going the right way was that you'll kind of again that intent well intended but the impact of some of the work we did last year the collaboration wasn't as strong as we would have liked it to be so because we have Stephanie Kevin's leading this that will already I've heard you know feedback from that I meant and from some people that that's that's really gonna be a great contribution on

087our end so the idea is to follow up with the students and what we did last year but also to kind of set a new stage on how we are getting that student voice if there's space because if you don't know Kevin coaches right now so he has a lot on his alum in his place so that workers probably know he's met with Stephanie a couple times but so that's we're gonna start probably after coaching season ends which is gonna mid-january that's not about right but Tenzin right okay right so but again I'm just very very excited one of the other things that buildings don't quite have the capacity to do right now is really look at that data on how our students of color participate in our programs and so Stephanie's been working with

088Cheri skyward and finding ways to build groups named sherry skyward yeah sherry skyward SS and so we so we're gonna build in ways that we can take a look at our our clubs our honors AP classes our band program and really look at that data and see how our students represented in those programs so that's that's something that buildings is very difficult for them to do so that requires some central office support so Stephanie's going to be involved with that also but that kind of data is alongside of the achievement data but also the discipline data because when we look we had we do some things because of the Civil Rights requirements so but the things that I just described her in an are in addition to that so that's very exciting also Chautauqua just

089bought purchased some books by Robyn D'Angelo if you don't know who she is she's amazing and they're doing a book study which will then they will become teacher leaders and lead PDD in there with that book called white privilege wait white fragility yes sorry and let's see there's other things that are happening the Billie's but that's kind of in a in a nutshell what's what's happening right now we're making progress towards these goals ultimately you know what I want to see is Stephanie when we're it will be able to get some data at the end of this year how it comes from us guys always tricky filters in the EBS but again our goal is for when we come back to that student achievement data that we saw Stephanie use in the beginning of this

090year how we see that gap doing this and that's that's the cycle that I want to close up I don't know how well we've done that in the past of taking a look at this and then do things and in the next year or the next opportunity take a look and see how you know do what we do helped so that's that's exciting to me that we're that we're really on track to continue that right now so I just gonna say it what wow this is a priority for the board and has been and personally I think it I believe is extremely important I'm glad we're doing it I like the rigor of structure around it I I do get concerned about the capacity issue of the different resources within the buildings because we asked

091all employees to do so much it's just something I want to be cognizant of that people are you know have the capacity and in the enthusiasm to do it well and maybe part of the feedback loop that we use to continue to hone or look for the external resources help or you know just so you know are frustrating right right you have to yeah do you think have Adina's really helpful because then that can demonstrate you know illustrate it's not just that this is luxury that we're doing this work but oh these are some of our kids who are struggling the most and we have to do this work you know and so I think I really appreciate what you're saying Toby but I also think there's so many intersections and intersectionality there with the

092work there already is doing to serve every student right especially our so yeah it's capacity issues for sure but I think it's just part of struggling the achievement gap there's that's the data I mean and it'll be helpful to see that and it's not just oh we're doing this but oh these we're doing it because the data tells us look at that yeah and that's the way and my goal is to make it better for our students of color and hopefully the data will reflect that I always get a little they haven't been very close to everything that's been happening and Rachel I think in my senses it's still kind of ramping up and and getting to the point where it can be truly effective but I always get a little nervous but you know

093especially since we are predominantly white district that it ends up being a bunch of predominantly white administrator just congratulating themselves with having everything like what you program that is not really engaged in by the students of color and they don't feel like it's actually making a difference for them and then they have ownership of it and feel better about it just cuz we created it doesn't automatically mean that it's going to accomplish what we wanted to accomplish so having the data is one thing but also having the feedback from the the student of color community that they feel like it's actually improved things yeah for them and their parents industry not and that's something I know we don't have a lot of time that just that this systemic I think addressing through the systemic institutional

094racism and closing the achievement gap and then what students report off and there's this disparity there because we may well first of all Nikken said he's never seen that district be able to close the achievement gap so that's what we're we're not forgetting about more climbing that we're gonna climb but the students will report that things feel harder because when you're doing racial justice work there's always opposition you know there's always Martin Luther King who every but like the vast majority of people disagree with him so there's the tension with this is the work we're doing and we're watching the data and work and the students may say my life's gotten harder since you started this work but so I just I have to point that out because I think when Slade mentioned though there's

095lessons learned that some of the students had said I don't I don't know my this is you know it's a more uncomfortable for me we want to send our students safety but we also know that it's gonna cause discomfort for everybody or we're not doing the work so I always try to remind myself like that this one doesn't actually measure you know the other can I just ask if we were making progress on identifying sort of ongoing leading and because I know we talked about I feel like I keep it nice and you know something I did but I'll take a look I'm just pretty sure I yet but we're sitting in your garage okay so there's a week there's a monthly meeting and they had asked that we kick it on that Friday and

096I actually have a scheduled for ya so I know yeah and we used to me every to two months the larger medians said yeah because I have a nation of capacity I mean I feel like everyone thought every two months was plenty yeah okay no the was the conference update no which one of you were looking at both of us are I was just read that for me and it's going to that meeting is always the time to connect with other superintendents obviously and what you learned is not always in a session and so the primary topic for for me when I visited was a lot about bargaining still and people share experiences and what we'd like to do better of course I learned more scary things at the law conference in front of it

097it was it was good I thought it was gonna be a lot of redundancy but there was not and so it brought some reinforces back for me about all the public records alive to me and having a conversation with Joanie about what we how we take care of that because there's a lot of entrepreneurs up there who like to send public records requests to districts with only the aim that we fail in that request and then they can take us to court in seuss so it's happening more and more frequently so it's something that that were that I was made aware also I think the legislative focus was significant in that conference and that's where I think you just duked it out with I don't know how many reps folks buttons about was a like

098look at us we're a small district in a large district area right we're both very active we we were their first session and they're at the end of the session and then yeah on Saturday make you know in a great another great session but that was on probably social justice racial justice issues but we were you know and then booking it to to the effort to get back here but ya know it was he was good I so I am also not only am i any religious under Brett but I am the I am on the FRN which is the federal represent the representative networks so I'm a part of a smaller group of school board members who deal with the Fed level yeah exactly um so I will probably end up going to visit

099my father in Washington DC in January and while I'm there I will meet up with other school board members and go and see famila and various other people and say thanks for all your work you know by the way [Laughter] my friend Dan says unfunded mandates could you explain to me about that it's Jan you know this is in February yeah and so then then there's a lot of talk about going down to the Olympia in January which one would be very fun to do as if someone said like really like that's your bad fun yes that is really fun oh so so that was great to see it was good to see some other reps and school board people that I have met the times being there but one of the ones that I

100one of the things that I went to which was I'm really sorry that Kevin's not here but I'll meet with Kevin and Margo January was going to Riverview they did a great presentation student reps and they've been doing it for years and so they had some really good recommendations about like how to really use their student and really get student voice and you know and it was funny who the woman who spoke in the very beginning about gun violence in the high school how kids feel like they're not listening um someone said the stat of 43% of students think that adults listen to their suggestions come till less than half of kids feel like they're actually being listened to I actually think 43 is kind of high I would think it's lower people really think

101listen to um many way they had some they had some good suggestions one was just a swearing in ceremony you know like we all got sworn in and so I was like yeah we can do a swearing in ceremony when they come in I mean that you know this is a real this is the real deal and in anyway so I'll write something up and send it out cuz I don't want to waste our time right at this great moment going home but it was it was great and they were there's this one guy Danny Edwards who's great he's very funny he is very enthusiastic about this and he was just like this is the best this is the best thing you could ever do for your district and they had both of their student

102reps talking and they were great they were really great you know in the end the junior was a little quieter than the senior and the senior was just like so let me tell you about what this is all about you know I think this just it was it was really great to see that empowered and I you know I was thinking about when Stephen Detweiler I'm talking about empowering students this is a fantastic way to do it so I feel like we're we're we're getting there you know we're on our way and so it was good worth it thank you I'm sad what's up my favorite part of the whole experience was finding my wallet and that I didn't actually leave it on the plane right getting to the docks and going I have my

103wallet and it's not because we were both in the backseat and her phone was ringing in the trunk and at the same time I was thinking I just left my wallet the reason why I said there's no that's a great travel partner so thank you guys you are good you know it's fun good trip okay all right we have another report for the vaginal high school site tour that was awesome so spring that I met at the high school with Patti good morning I I intentionally waited for the high school one because partially sophistry vincent's I'm going to be mostly at the high school the next couple years and I felt like I really didn't know a lot about some of the aspects of it I knew there were a lot of great opportunities for

104motivated kids but I was particularly interested in our special ed community and kids maybe you aren't so academically motivated and what the opportunities were for them there beyond just the straight special ed teacher and parent educator program and I was pleasantly happily surprised to find out there's actually quite a bit of thought towards the kids who need to graduate but are not maybe academically are looking on to a traditional four-year university type thing and so I learned about the pathways program which is something they offer there for students to get through high school on it kind of a different pathway with more of a pass/fail and participation orientation which I thought I mean that's that's great that something like that is available because there's a lot of kids who aren't playing the academic game and

105and still need to be successful in life and need to find a way to get through it and then be set up for later success maybe after high school so I was really impressed with that I am also impressed how thoughtful and intentional interconnected a lot of the programs are there it's clearly something that they have set up and tweaked and worked with and they're still in the process of evaluating and adjusting and so I felt especially with their new-hire a special education teacher there my guess is just totally crackerjack and they love her that everyone's feeling very encouraged and better empowered about the special program particularly at the high school which has been a little bit challenged until lately so as a special and parent and for them to have a special I community

106that was my big takeaway it was fun to hear from the kids I think we virtually had kind of an abbreviated sessions we've met another place but I'm hearing from the kids is always good and we've learned that they don't like blog at all you like to see things they like to sleep in I think recently at Seattle Times report now at least our first mention how people have already asked me are you gonna propose that so but anyway break up the kids it's fun to go into the shops I have been in the shop classrooms and went shop and the jewelry making and see that kind of tools and opportunities those kids have to do those kind of things and yeah I think it's a great school I think that was that was great

107there weren't too many more things I was going to add about sped other than I think we got that presentation not too long ago unmet so it's probably still pretty fresh in your mind but just reminded how the focus is really include inclusivity and rigor and increasing rigor and that math seems to be working the best and it was helpful just to understand for me kind of numbers of like okay our kids and there's just a small group of self-contained kids right yeah I feel like I got a little bit more comfortable with some of the lingo you know with attached to special ed and and the difference between like an accommodation or a modification just little things like that it was it was very enriching to hear more about it and that it's going

108really well but some of the things with the students that I thought was interesting you know we asked some questions like maybe we should adjourn in general their experience and if they felt like it was positive and you know as sort of that Oh everything's sunshine and unicorns and rainbows and then we I got into it more and it was like well sometimes you know well there you know sometimes maybe we feel disrespected or sometimes there's it can seem like the participation is weighted too heavily in your grade and if a teacher doesn't like you so it was felt like a more real conversation with them when we kind of got past that and there was one guy who was a senior and this was a leadership class and he he kind of gave the

109long view of like oh you know most of the other kids were younger and but I've sorted the good and the bad but it was really kind of a balanced view I think most of them felt like hey we have it pretty good here and it was a predominantly white class you know of our kids so it's interesting to go to our CTE classes and with lots of males and the CTE classes and a lot of male teachers and so I felt a little like mmm this is interesting you know what can we do about that but you know woodshop and entrepreneurship and computer sciences are generally heavily weighted with males but this the entrepreneur class was exciting and Nikki was doing this thing and the relationship that he has created with those students in

110journey Mia it is reflected in who shows up and signs up for his class because there were a lot of the kids from journey man taking that class and and it was cool to just see them all engaged and these young lots of young male Latino um men so anybody that was interesting that I was like we kind of had worked on recruiting females into these classes and and then just lastly some of the things Danny said you know he had a little time left yes what do you think is something that you could work on you know the goals were really free for the high school they set out was racial equity and and special education that's the focus but he said you know separately communication and mentioned them I mean I think that

111you know always comes up as an area where there can be improvement you know communicating internally and externally and so I think there's lots of discussion already there happening and just lastly we talked quite a bit we we didn't get as much time of the students probably because I was had so many questions about a standard based grades and and now that I'm a parent halfway through you know freshman year with my students there was just something to understand and I think lots of the conversation was very reassuring and that it's part of junior age and to really refocus a shoe on standards-based grades and understand how that's working for us what does that transition what's the plan how are our tools you know that we're using like skyward you know lining up so just

112learning more about grades and where the different teachers are was really interesting healthy conversation I think and I think stay tuned for that um so things kind of I perceive it more as a conversation about the limitations of skyward to facilitate that because it creates a lot of misunderstanding and frustration that perhaps there would be I think more acceptance of it by that by a large of the tool was better to reflect it right it wasn't a conversation about whether we are home favor it was we are all were the trains left the station but it's sort of having some trouble the engine's going need some leadership i yeah there's a lot there and thankfully let's do some some you've gone through that process at the district we've had some good conversations but like I

113said overall just if he does a parent fantastic we have the consent agenda hi any opposed all right reach that was easy item eight new business new business we need to discuss tonight only just we remember to put out of out of I'm sure you travel have it in okay it's the first public comments reminding me that I'm I've lost track of where we are in our safety evaluation process and what the next step is with that can you remind me so that we were seeing kind of said now I'm gonna have to look at my notes to give me that look like me the hell is she talking about you might be using this language I'm I might call it something else yeah it was like if it's definitely kind of a district-wide look

114at our safety protocols and procedures and improvements and practices or whatever you're doing something like that where were we're looking at our discipline procedures I don't remember conversation to me but it it's like we have a safety yeah I knew we were talking to people about running because maybe that's maybe this is another competition we haven't had yet that I keep thinking where we have had a conversation about that but maybe we should have another one yeah I mean I recall similarly to what you're saying that there was going to be something it was strangely taken away we knew Michael why do I need that on a YouTube video I remember being at a meeting and hearing I mean lots of conversation about yeah I mean we got this whole faith discussion where we're talking

115about are we gonna do the metal detectors or the resources that's no we're not going to understand all right there look at what we do do and our cameras and our staffing whether our our method of addressing safety is more mental health and councilor face which I think it is versus hardening you know the physical location and have we ever come up with a final I don't know what they did on if it's a resolution policy resolution I don't know what it is where we turn we determine this and we're still letter questions in the community about what we are doing for safety close that loop no I think you're right the thing is it's one of those classic communication things where where lots of stuff has been happening there people have been there's been

116a lot of conversations about safety and we're not poking our heads above the hole to tell people that oh yeah no we're work this is a concern we're taking this very seriously we're doing yeah it's to part it's it is it's communication but it was more of AI think it ready yeah that was that the PS ESD component that was that part which which you have been I mean that that happened so it sounds like it might be beneficial to and you forget I saw some light about threat assessment and all that down yeah it feels a little um fractured I think in our understanding because ya know if you want me to provide a report that might be nobody questions what you're doing no I was a substitute it works