Wenatchee School District Board Meeting 2/24/26

001Now with more mic. All right. Good evening. Welcome to the February 24th regular board meeting for the Wachi School District. We are going to open the meeting with the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. DK Sunad. All right, we're now going to work through the agenda. Board, are there any proposed changes or modifications to the agenda? All right, hearing none, we'll move on to the consent agenda. The items on the consent agenda were sent to the board and posted online last week. The board has had the opportunity to review the materials and ask the superintendent any questions they have about any items on the consent agenda. The consent agenda for this meeting includes the minutes for the 21026 regular meeting, vouchers

002and payroll, personnel report, field trips, December financial report, and the February enrollment report. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> I move to accept the consent agenda as presented. >> I'll second. >> Has been moved by Mark and seconded by Julie. Any discussion? All right. All in favor adopting the consent agenda as presented, say I. >> I. Any opposed? None. All right. Motions carries. We are going off to bright spots. >> Excellent. Thank you very much, President Jackson. Our bright spots uh moment at each board meeting gives the school board of directors and I the opportunity to highlight a celebration in the district and honor the great work and educational experiences that are happening. We have a lot tonight, so we're excited about that. Thanks everyone for being here. But I

003think we need to start off with a Foothills Middle School ASB update. So, let's get the Foothills team up here. Thanks for being here, everybody. come on up and join us here at the podium. Yeah, they're here. We've got you right up here at the podium. Oh, look at that. You brought a little board. This is great. Someone may have to hold it and you can trade off and on. Foothills, thanks for being here. Oh, look at this. You have your matching shirts on. We love this. am the president of Foothills ASB. >> I'm the vice president of Real Rainbow. >> And I'm the treasurer. I'm Kayen McCarthy. >> Okay. So, one thing our ASB got to do this year is we got to go to a summer camp one ran by the AWSL program.

004And this camp was a lot of fun. We got to learn so much through this camp. We got to learn how to communicate with our peers. We got to learn so much through just so many leadership skills. and we were able to bring these skills back to our school. We actually had another one of these um programs, another training today at Pioneer Middle School. We had 95 AVID students there. We had four other middle schools. We had our ASP team there. We were able to learn these skills again and be able to be trained again. And it was such an amazing experience able to learn. And I'm glad that a lot of students were there able to use these skills and able to learn as well and bring these back to our school. Our a

005wait our ASB also holds very fun pep assemblies for our schools. Beforehand, we always greet every student that comes in with a welcome and make them feel very comfortable. Student council also participates in this and are always very eager. We get great feedback after each in each assembly from all the teachers and staff members. We not only just hold pep assemblies, but we also hold more respectful environment assemblies such as our Veterans Day and our MLK Day assembly. We also get support from our communities for those events such as our American Legion for our Veterans Day assembly and James from AWSL for our MLK day. >> Um, I'm here talking about the color run that we did. It was a really fun activity that we did. We did the color run to raise money for

006um stuff like PTO and our eighth grade celebration and it's where you like run in circles and stuff for run like you run while they splash color all over you and then that helped because PTO our eighth grade celebration for Slidewaters was helping towards and uh the PTO got us uh a mascot right. Yeah. And we raised $8,000. Uh, another thing our got to do is we had like a sixth grade open day where we had the sixth graders come in to school a day before. And I remember the sixth graders first coming in, they were very scared. They were very nervous first coming into middle school. And our ASB was really hyped up trying to, you know, get them all excited. We did a lot that day. We got to help out with posters

007for the teachers. We got to help out with a lot of things around the school. And we got much feedback from the teachers telling us that we did an amazing job. We also got to plan an assembly which was a lot of fun and we did a wonderful job at that from our feedback from our teachers. And I remember the sixth graders leaving and they were just so hyped up and pumped up and I could tell that they were prepared for the next day and I'm so glad that we were able to do that. >> We also have lots of celebrations at our school that have improved attendance. We only the people that are showing that they're ready to learn get to come to these. So, it's dances, carnivals, face paintings, video games, and a

008lot more. Um, ready to learn is you're in class on time, filling out your planner, and have regular attendance. And that's how you can attend these fun times. >> Another thing that's new this year is sword jackets. There's one per month and we give them out every quarter. these sword jackets. there. So, we do this thing called advocacy and we have um we have these traits each month that we learn about in advocacy and there's students of the month and then there's so that's like a group of students that they all chose for the like student of the month and then that month the teachers vote on one student for the month that chose the most out of them all and they win a sword jacket or like Yeah. our store jackets and that's who

009shows all the characteristics and stuff. >> Um, a couple of days before school we had we were able to tour around a lot of the students and a lot of the parents helping students with opening up their locker and just helping them find their classes. And this was a lot of fun and I'm happy that the parents they were very impressed with our professionalism and our maturity able to just show like how we ASB can help the school around and a lot of the students again were feeling prepared before school and we're just able to help our peers around the school. >> Any questions? >> Great enthusiasm. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Yes. >> Yep. We appreciate you being here tonight, Foothills. Thank you so much. >> Yeah. >> All right. Do we have Westside in

010the house tonight? Is Gwen here? Hey, Glenn. As you said again, my name is Gwen Costello. I am the vice president of leadership. And our last wellness day was on February 11th and it was called skills for life. And students had participated in five out of 14 of the workshops learning about car emergencies, car maintenance, basic first aid, house repairs, fire safety and preparedness, hiking, camping preparation and um growing a garden, child and baby care, and so so much more. There was 15 programs like I said and it was a big thanks to Ry's Towing, ASAP Plumbing, Cafe Bike Co-op, Le Schwab, Teams Learning Center, Wachi Valley Fire Department, Roxy Allen, Wanachi Valley College, and several several other Westside staff members. And on February 10th, we took three suburbans full just full of students on

011a trip to Perry Technical Institute in Yakama. And it was, I would say, a huge success. And Westside had a total of three students participate in this year's mock trial district competition this past weekend. and sophomore Skyler Simon and junior Maddie Sutton both earned best attorney witnesses. And the WACI purple team won second place and is headed to state in two weeks. So, congratulations to them. And we also wanted to wish Westside junior Maline Sutton best of luck as she competes as the state of the DECA conference this weekend. So, congratulations to Maddie. And finally, our annual spaghetti feed fundraiser will be on Thursday, May 9th in our cafeteria. It will be it will feature a silent auction, a live concert, and a live art auction as well. And we will have delicious dinner, spaghetti,

012of course, like we said, and all the proceeds will go to the benefit of um DeLa Zala, an 8-year-old girl who is a third grader in our district who was diagnosed with leukemia last summer. And we'll be sending invites to the cabinet and board to we just really encourage everybody to come. And I am so grateful that we are able to organize this this year. And any questions for me? >> You you answered my question. I was going to see when the spaghetti feed was, but so thank you, Gwen. We appreciate that. Yeah. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> All right. Wini High School. Thank you. All right, good evening everyone. Thank you for having me here tonight. This past month has been an an exciting and meaningful one for the students at

013Wachi High School with many opportunities to show our Panther pride while also giving back to our community. On February 10th, we hosted the annual litter box game, a long-standing competition between Wache and Eastmont, where all proceeds collected were donated to Ella, our Makea-Wish beneficiary. Our student, our spirit coordinators planned multiple fundraisers leading up to the game, helping build excitement and encourage student involvement. A fan favorite was pying administrators during our pep assembly, which brought a lot of energy and laughter to the event. Although we did not bring home the litter box trophy this year, we are incredibly proud of our students for showing up, supporting one another, and representing Wachi with pride. In total, Wanachi and Eastmont raised a little over $13,000 together, making a real impact beyond the game itself. This month, we also

014hosted another um important annual tradition, the Janice France talent show. This event provided students with the opportunity to showcase their talents in front of their peers while also earning awards and recognition. It was a fun and memorable night, and our activities coordinators worked extremely hard to ensure that everything ran smoothly. Through this event, we raised $2,900 for our beneficiary, Rodrigo, further reinforcing the importance of supporting members of our own school community. In addition to these events, ASB also supported a creative and fun idea proposed by the junior um senators called Build a Bouquet. Through this fundraiser, students were able to build their own bouquets by purchasing individual flowers for 50 cents each. The event was very popular among students and encouraged participation amongst all grades. The event um all proceeds from Build-A-B are going towards

015prom, helping the event more become more accessible and more memorable for everyone. Events like these create opportunities for Wachi High School students to be a part of something bigger than themselves and to work together toward a common goal. In addition, in addition to these events, throughout the month of February, we held three morning meetings and four senate meetings where student leaders collaborated, planned upcoming activities, and continued advocating for the student body. Finally, these experiences reflect dedication, leadership, and the school spirit of Wachi High School students. We are proud of the culture we are continuing to build and appreciate the ongoing support of the board, staff, and community and helping us provide meaningful opportunities for student involvement. Do you guys have any questions for me? >> Doesn't sound like it. Thank you so much. We appreciate

016it. >> Excellent updates. Always fun to have our high schools and a middle school. That's been fun. Um, and we also we have representatives here from our play, our spring play, The Importance of Being Earnest. So, thank you everyone for joining us. And is there a scene or something that we're gonna >> You can do it wherever you want. Yes. Just tell us what you need. This is great. Thank you so much. Thank you, Paul, for bringing everyone. Appreciate it. I have the greatest doubt, but I tend to crush them. monster. forgotten. Our principles not Your Christian names are still in an absolutely insuperable barrier. That is all >> our Christian names. Is that all? But we are going to be Christian this afternoon. Are you prepared to do this? >> Men are infinitely up.

017Darling, darling. >> Wonderful. Excellent. And are we uh tickets are on sale now? at whpresents.com. >> Perfect. >> Open first weekend is the 12th or the 14th and the second is the 19th 19th through the 21st. >> Wonderful. >> Well, yes, definitely. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I'm glad I'm not Sean. I don't have to follow that. [laughter] Uh Kim, do we have any public comments? says comments. >> Okay. Uh we're on to special presentations. Cory, back to you. >> Let's do this. Uh okay. Reflections uh from our PLC at work teams. Please welcome Eric Anderson, executive director of learning teaching in schools and a host of colleagues and supporters here amongst uh the audience. Thank you. >> We need a mic. We we saved Sean to the second presentation. >> I'm expecting someone

018I'm expecting someone to be like the theater mom we had that was like on her hands and knees recording because they were so excited. So, and may maybe a parasol a parasol would help. Just as you remember last year we uh we presented things from big six number three reading on grade level and this year our team is going to present information on big six number four which is our algebra ready. So that's really what we want to have the opportunity tonight to share with you. Um and you're going to see this from excuse me [clears throat] multiple perspective as we go through things. So again, what is our strategic plan big six outcome number four? It's students will be on grade level or beyond by eighth grade in algebra. And so typically we look

019at end of the year measures. You're very used to seeing those things, the IR scores or SBA math scores. And tonight really what we're going to focus on is kind of more of the progress monitoring measures. So what does that look like from kind of a more day-to-day uh action plan in our building? So, our common formative assessments, um, again, you can think of this maybe as a unit assessment. Um, again, many of them are broken down by standards, uh, as well at the elementary level. So, we're going to take a look at those. We're really going to dive a little deeper into that work specifically, and we're going to look at it from a varying, you know, kind of of various different outcomes. So, we're looking at it from the perspective of our district

020instructional leadership team, our principal and learning improvement teams, and then our teacher PLC teams. and you had an opportunity during the board workshop last month to really kind of dive in and see what that looked like at the PLC level. So, we're gonna we're going to share some of that, but you're going to hear more from kind of building and lit teams like what they're doing. And if you remember last year, we really kind of we had everyone up here presenting by school. We're taking a different approach today. So, we're going to again we're going to have people representing the elementary team, the middle school team, and the high school team to kind of sum kind of summarize things instead of going building by building. And then again, these are our collaborative teams. You're familiar

021with this. You know, as the school board and superintendent, you set that vision. We have our strategic plan, strategic plan, and then we have our district and instructional leadership team, our school level principal and lit teams, and then again, our PLC teams that sit at the school level. And again, we're going to start with our district instructional leadership team. So, they're going to step up here. And our great team of learning and teaching. My throat is dry, so I'm not getting emotional right now. I mean, I am emotional, but I it sounds like I'm really breaking up over this. And it's like, my gosh. Um, but I'm going to invite Amber up and our learning and teaching team to dive into the next level. So, thank you again for having us this evening. >> Okay.

022Thank you, Eric. Uh, good evening, board. Um, so I'm jo just going to start um by saying our district instructional leadership team, that's our principles, that's our learning and teaching team. Um, our all the instructional leaders of our district, we have been working really hard. We meet on Mondays at once, sometimes twice a month, and we have been ourselves um growing our knowledge um about math and how to best lead for um algebra ready. So we've been learning about these five strands of mathematical practices. These come to us through um a report um called called adding it up. It it was a 2001 report that synthesized decades of research around how students best learn mathematics. And we are studying that. And you can see the five strands of mathematical proficiency are one conceptual understanding, two

023procedural fluency, three strategic competence, four adaptive reasoning, and five productive disposition. And all these are interwoven together interdependently to build mathematically proficient students. And so through that research, we've we've built these on the right here. You see where we have the K1 2 5 and 612. We call these our math instructional core checklists. And they cast the vision for what that core instruction um what we want that to look like because it's based on the evidence and research. And um these we're really excited about the core checklist because they're highly supportive for our teachers and our instructional leaders to be able to guide the work um to be able to continue to lead and grow our system so that we have a consistent implementation of evidence-based um strategies or high impact strategies across our system.

024So that's what we've been busy doing. Um the K1 and 25 checklists were created um over the last three years and we're just excited this year to continue that vertical alignment to build to middle school. Our middle school teachers helped build the um the 6 through 12 gave feedback, looked at the research and helped put that together. And then um just this March, our high school team, and we have high school teachers here tonight to talk about their work. um they'll be giving feedback and building out that core checklist as well. So um and we also wanted to share tonight, we've shared this with you before. This is our implementation progression. We know anytime we're trying to move change, it doesn't happen in one year, two years, or it takes multiple years. And so this

025shows our phases of how we move change in the WACI school district. Just really quickly here, phase one is where we provide the professional learning and the practice and coaching. Phase two is the refine stage where we begin to say, okay, now that we've had learning, now we expect to see those the strategy. And then phase three, that's the when the strategies become habit and that's where we have a system. And when we have a system, that's when we um you know get all 100% of our students to algebra ready. And you can just see this represents the high impact strategies that our um building leaders last spring just just kind of did an estimated reflection on where their buildings were in terms of implementing these strategies. And you can see that all of our

026buildings, they're in different places and yet we're all moving forward collectively to keep growing our practice. And that's just what this sh shows. And um next I'm going to pass it off to Lisa and Betsy and they'll talk more um more specifically about some the four key strategies. Um so here we go. >> All right. So within um the core checklist and throughout that implementation progression, you'll see our four high impact um instructional strategies. So those four which you've seen um in classrooms or um we've talked about or shared with you before are number talks um our explicit fact strategy instruction concrete representational and abstract instructional sequence and the three reads math language routine. And in addition to those strategies, we're constantly striving, our teachers are working so hard to create productive classroom environments where

027students feel free to take risks and learn from mistakes as they engage in learning about math. And that's really built on the backs of our PLC's and our guaranteed and viable curriculum, the assessments that teachers have created. Um, and that's some of the data that you're going to be seeing today. So, just a little bit more about those four highly impactful strategies. Um, number talks are a quick um warm-up where a teacher poses a problem and students talk about um how they're thinking through it. It's a mental math um uh um activity. So, the students will talk about how they got to their solution and then the teacher will record the thinking. So, it's a really great opportunity for teachers to record in different ways so students see different representations of how they might solve

028a problem. Um and then kind of along with that our explicit fact strategy instruction. Um we we don't just teach to memor teach students to memorize facts. So we actually are explicit in teaching them the strategies through providing some context first. So they kind of they have an imag they can imagine a story behind it. Um so we tell them a story and then we transfer the from context to quick looks. So, more of that representational part. And then we teach them a game. And so, they play games. And the important thing about the games is they're talking through their strategies out loud. So, teachers can check in and observe and and hear, do they have this strategy or not? And then other students can learn from each other. And um and then we assess

029and um and move on. So, um those are our two kind of main foundational routines that we have on that core checklist. Um in addition to those we've been really working hard to develop a vertical system of instruction and strategies. So at the secondary level in addition to number talks we've been and you can see there's also this has been happening at elementary and we're building off that this idea of concrete representational and abstract strategies to learn math skills and concepts. So instead of just here's the standard algorithm, go ahead and do it. We we give kids opportunities to build with tools to help develop that understanding of the mathematical concept moving to representational where they take what they built and they're able to draw it and then move to that standard algorithm. So really

030supporting the learning at all three of those levels and then also our three reads routine which is really um to bring down the cognitive load that students have when they're faced with word problems. So, we break that apart so they can separate the reading comprehension from what is it that I'm actually supposed to do mathematically when I'm looking at a story problem, which we can probably all remember feeling some anxiety about that. So, just a strategy to really help kids successfully conquer those problems. So, you might have noticed that Lisa and Betsy both said the word talk. And as we're thinking about all of our students, our language learners, they are learning intense academic vocabulary in their math classes, we're constantly coming back to our essential strategies, which is having students pair up with someone

031to talk through their answer before they're expected to share out. By giving them that opportunity, students are more likely to express what they're learning, to practice that vocabulary in a very safe environment, and then are more willing to share out. So they're engaging very highly in these math lessons. So now our principles will principal leads will provide an update on our big six outcome number four algebra ready. Hi board. Thanks for having us here today and thank you for the work that you guys do as public servants for our community. What you're looking at here is um this is a representation of our fifth grade CFAs. the first and third CFA that are um around multiplication and division. The blue bar shows last year's proficiency and the red bar shows this year's proficiency. These are

032first and third, so they're done roughly I think September and early November or late October. Um it's not really a comparison um of growth because these are two different sets of students as you guys know. Um but what it shows is surprisingly the the division had had a higher proficiency rate than the multiplication one. Um which I would have not guessed that. If I had to guess, I would have guessed it to be the opposite. Um what we're talking about today is in our elementary um admin PLC, we we went through all these questions and then tried to summarize the feelings of of all of our um schools. So this is kind of a conglomeration of all that stuff, but what are some of the students strengths that we're seeing in the CFA data? And

033again, the CFA is uh like Eric said, like a unit assessment. that's based on essential standards um and it targets one or two um specific standards that teachers have identified as the most important for the grade level. Um so one thing that we're doing is in our instructional plan there is built-in reteing. So, if you're working on a unit of multiplication, you work on it maybe for four weeks and then you have a week or two. It kind of depends on the calendar to um after you've given the CFA, take all of the students, reorganize them by who struggled with question one or who struggled with question two and three, and then retach to those cont uh concepts and then retest. So our principles felt like um a strength was this retach process and then

034the data demonstrate students are making growth after that retaching. Um also they're explicit. These are some of the strategies that that principles um said they observed and saw in classrooms that they're explicitly connecting area model to the standard algorithm alongside partner checking allowing students to choose their preferred method successfully deepening their understanding of multi-digit. That was on CFA 1. on CFA 2 around um division uh bridging concepts from similar visual reviews the hundreds tens and ones charts to the box method um proved highly effective served as strong transition step to the standard algorithm by breaking down larger dividends and making them more manageable. So, if you haven't seen division in this way, come by a fifth grade classroom in the fall. But essentially, it has students dividing um the dividend into the divisor like in

035smaller chunks rather than trying to do it all at once or from left to right as we learned a long time ago. Um the other part was success with challenging two-digit advisors heavily relied on accurate subtraction. So, we see this building on the, you know, the essential standard from second grade of being able to subtract two-digit numbers with borrowing and regrouping. Um, and strategic scratch scratch work, specifically creating multiplication menus, listing multiples, and utilizing base 10 math, multiplying by 10 or 100 to uh confidently estimate quotients. So when you're trying to divide something, you want to get your best guess to first multiply by to see how close you can get to the whole. So um the second part, what instructional strategies are PLC teams using to improve learning outcomes? The K1 and 25 math

036instructional checklist was what Amber was talking about at the beginning that there's a checklist now basically primary and then intermediate and then 612 is going all the way up into secondary. Um but we see a lot of anchor charts. Those are um important concepts that stay up on the wall so that students can revisit strategies or possibly vocabulary that go with the work. partial products, standard algorithm, area models and writing numbers neatly in columns and rows was something that people or um schools identified as as what a strategies that improve the outcome. Uh some schools gave additional time for this unit which was helpful and being flexible students were able to choose their own strategy to use to use. Um what are PLC plans to provide reach and or extension? Um teacher are using 3

037to 5 days for reteing. Some schools are supporting students in the home room with intervention specialist support. Some schools are regrouping providing intervention times. Some schools are providing projectbased extension to apply the skill. This is largely when we reteach or that reteing section we talked about. Um a lot of people would ask what do we do with kids that get all threes or have passed every section. So the idea here is they are also grouped into their own individual by skill by scholar group and they are applying um those essential standards through extension work and a lot of that is is kind of real world problems and word work around that kind of stuff. But our curriculum has a lot of that extension work that we don't often get to um in our tier one

038instruction. and some are pro providing more complex strategies for students who have met proficiency. That's what we were just talking about. Um what are we doing in the tier one core instruction to improve student learning outcomes? Uh we all have been working on the math checklist as Amber introduced with our teachers. Um we've had Lisa's been leading teams of teachers from every grade level through um guaranteed viable training. So they're talking about different grade level specific um training. So all a group of third grade teachers will get together and then a group of fourth grade teachers and we'll sub them out for half a day. So that's been ongoing. Um the intervention specialists met last week. Staying with our pacing guides has been very important. um just because we want it's it's imperative that teachers

039are working in the exact same area. So when they come together in PLC or in those informal PLC times when they get together if they're teaching the same concept and struggling with the same issues it helps if they're all in the same place so that they can discuss ways around that and strategies they're using to get by it. Um basic fact routine implementation is another thing that we're using um in our tier one and then implementation of the three reads protocol for intervention and extension. Um this it's kind of varied by school. Schools are in a in a different place for I would say for for this math tier 2 and three. Um, but some of the things that are being utilized is reteing by skill by scholar. Again, that's where you regroup kids into

040their area of need, utilizing their IS staff. Um, scheduling time in the master schedule for math intervention. That's the first step is having a space in the master schedule for it. And some schools are utilizing the bridges math intervention curriculum. I think that's the end for me. Questions? All right. Wait, I have a question. >> Yes. >> Um, [clears throat] I mean, it's just amazing because even I was still learning with like the basic borrow count. Um, what are we planning to do with parents to help them understand this so they can help their kids at home? I assume something. Well, there are um our math units have like a parent letter for every unit, but I would say this is ch it's challenging because a lot of the way that math is taught is

041very different from the way a lot of parents learned it. And a lot of people um have clung on to the procedural way that they learned. You just follow the routine and you get the magic right answer or not as opposed to understanding conceptually what you're doing. Um and a lot of those I mean a lot of those strategies I breezed by but they probably didn't mean a lot to you. But if you go back and talk about things like um see here, so we're talking about stuff like the box method. We're talking about multiplication menus. We're talking about utilizing hundreds, tens, and ones charts and base 10. All of that stuff is I think parents do have a hard time helping their kid with because they're like, "That's not how you do it. you

042just divide into the into the 1,000's place and then the hundred's place and then the 10's place and kids are like no actually you can just you can break it up into six chunks and do you know in smaller bites and parents are like well that's you know so it's a good question Caroline I don't know the answer completely but there our um our curriculum does provide family letters that you can send out every unit >> yes so I was just going to give some of my my experience on the parent side feedback because I actually have a fifth grader right now too. Um so first if they don't have a sibling that can help. I don't even try. Um I have learned that between what I learned back in the day and the the

043philosophies behind math have just changed so much. And I appreciate our teachers sending either very straightforward homework that is just repetition of what they've been doing in class at home and being very open and accessible if there are issues or struggling being able to reach out and work with them in the school. So it I I have felt that it takes a lot of the pressure off the parent to um kind of understanding that things have changed and if I even try and muddy the water, I'm doing worse. And I dare not say, you know, use AI or Google it. I just say ask your teacher. This should be s similar to what you you've been doing in class. The worksheets are pretty pretty friendly. Like I said, we have the benefit of an older

044sibling that's kind of been through some of it. But nine times out of 10, we're like, you know, we we'll write a note to your teacher, have them work with you, and it's been great for for us. So, >> and as a person with a fourth grader, I would say that there's been a lot of Googling it and then say, is it like this? And then it's not like that. But then we get like mastery involves teaching as well, right? So when my student can calm down and sit back down with their snack and then explain to dad why they're wrong there. We've gotten to a place where like I'm learning fourth grade math. Um, but yeah, there's a lot of tools that that you guys are giving them, not only not only for math,

045but also for social emotional learning, so they can take a deep breath and be like, "We need to leave this conversation now, and we'll talk about it later." Um, or mom will come. But, um, but the the internet has been a great resource, but I think that teachers have done a phenomenal job of of giving the students different strategies because I've found my two students learn in very different ways. And so leaning on different strategies has been really helpful in the Jackson household. >> Yeah. Generally the the way that the what I think is hard for both um families and helping their students is a lot of times the way and the way that it is in the standards is what we learned is the standard algorithm. And that's generally the last thing presented after

046we've developed all these strategies to break this down. um in a lot of different ways before we say, "Okay, stack up the digits like we did back in the day." Um and you know, some kids do prefer that way, but again, when you pres when they've mastered all these other strategies, it's a real mix of who chooses what to get to and to the end. So, um but yes, don't all parents are most parents are feeling the same way. Some teachers feel that way, of course, because they were all taught math the same way as most of us who are over a certain age. So, oh, this is quite the topic. I It [laughter] >> YouTube is your friend. um because that's how so Noah went through third grade during COVID and so we did

047a lot of I did a lot of YouTube videos on learning how to teach um this newer concepts but one thing I found interesting was that we um what I heard was you know choose the method that works best for you number line base 10 number trees but then what I was seeing in I ready um in I ready and their their diagnostics was that they were presented with the different methods. So when a student is hearing choose the method that works best for you that you feel more comfortable, but then you're being tested on these four other ways. That was really interesting to me and a little bit um I mean I everybody knows how I feel about standardized test. Um, so you know, but I I just found it found it very interesting

048that you're still going to be tested on these 600 different methods to do multiplication, but pick the one that works best for you. Yeah, I I would agree with your assessment. >> Yeah, I'll just kind of I've had that same experience where you're you're told it doesn't, you know, in some ways they're told show your work and whatnot, but they really are we evaluating the work or we evaluating the answer because if you just want to get, you know, choose your way, then it's we're just looking at the answer. And I think that has been confusing on some assessments because then students are graded down for not showing their work, but they got to the right answer. And so it's how are we bridging that? You know, if I don't need to do all these

049steps, why am I getting a, you know, a lower assessment score for not doing all the steps when when I still got the right answer? And that's a little disconnect that I've seen in some of it be in part because there are so many strategies and we're trying to do so many different things, >> right? I agree with that. I think the idea of having students solve in multiple ways ideally is to check their answer with the other strategy and see if they arrived at the same outcome. But again, sometimes students can just tell you the right answer, but they're not willing to put down the work that we want to see to to assess their thinking. Um, and that's where she was someone was talking about number talks and a lot of that is

050best done verbally and re and generally we start off tier one math instruction at elementary with a number talk or at least try to several times per week. And that's when you can really sometimes pull out that thinking of a student that doesn't want to um represent it with a paper and a pencil. But it's it's that strategy I think is is integral because it provides a really low bar for people to enter into the world of mathematics if they don't feel confident. And um if you if when you board members are doing a walkthrough, if you ever have an opportunity to see a math talk, it's about supposed to be about five to seven minutes. And I think it would be fascinating for you to to watch a group of students do that in

051the classroom. >> You're up. >> Good evening. At the middle level, we're going to focus in on eighth grade. So the data up here is from our first formative assessment this fall first quarter and we're excited at the middle level across our three schools. Last year we had 39% of our students meeting proficiency on that first assessment and this year we had 60% of students meeting proficiency. We know it's a different group of students but we feel like this is the cumulative efforts growing in our system the work that's being done um throughout our system. So seeing 60% of our students meet proficiency um showed quite a bit of growth for us. So we're excited about that. This standard focuses on solving one variable equations. So you know our professional learning communities um come together

052to discuss and analyze all of the assessments that we give to our students. Um, similar to our elementary colleagues, we are providing reteing and opportunities for kids to retake the assessment if they didn't meet proficiency the first time. Similarly, we are also providing students an opportunity to extend and to earn a level four beyond proficiency. We've got some kids that know this standard and are ready to show us how they can apply it in real world problems in a level four. Um, one of the exciting parts about our teachers coming together after an assessment is to really analyze what are the student strengths based on our instruction, based on this lesson, where our kids excelling. And so, for example, in this first assessment, our teachers were able to recognize that students knew how to apply

053inverse operations. They were using the distributive property. They knew how to combine like terms. um students, these 60% of students who met proficiency showed their work. They were able to justify their thinking um and they were successful in navigating multi-step equations. So, um it's important for our teachers to spend that time really analyzing where our students where are we getting it and where do we still need to grow. Um it's also important in those meetings that we're monitoring our different subgroups. I know this board has asked a lot of questions over the years about our multil- language learners and how we're serving students um that are served with an IEP. And so our teams are very intentional of dis segregating the data to see are we meeting the needs of all of our learners including

054those two subgroups. Um obviously we want to reach 100% of proficiency. So we also have conversations on how are we going to improve our learning so that all kids are meeting proficiency so they're all algebra ready. So in our tier one instruction across our three middle schools um we've reflected on what we feel are our instructional strengths and um those essential strategies that we've been talking about for the last few years. We have those happening in our classrooms. There is explicit academic vocabulary and discussion happening in all of our math classrooms and we are beginning to incorporate those number talks that we've been hearing about. And what's exciting about that is it's increasing student voice. We're hearing students talk about math and students applying academic vocabulary and sharing their strategies with each other. And we

055are also um among our schools all diving into that three reads protocol which is taking a complex math problem and really breaking it down um through this protocol that we've been learning. So that's happening across tier one for all kids. And then all of our schools also have a model for intervention. It varies among our three schools, but all of us um have targeted interventions for those students who are not quite meeting proficiency yet or who are served um with an individualized education plan for their math needs. And we also wanted to talk about how we're accelerating in the middle school. So at 8th grade, most of our students are enrolled in eighth grade math, but across our district, we have 121 eighth graders who are currently enrolled in algebra. So that is exciting that

056we have um an accelerated pathway for students who are ready for it. And then districtwide we have 21 eighth graders who are currently enrolled in geometry. So that's out of 489 of our total students. So that is what is happening in eighth grade math across our district. Do you guys have any questions about eighth grade or middle school? Do they have to choose between algebra or geometry? How does that decision get made? It's based on data. So we um will look at students generally as they're coming into sixth grade, they can begin a sixth grade accelerated pathway. And so depending on where their data what their data looks like, we will place them into um an accelerated sixth or accelerated seventh and then it goes to algebra and then geometry. So the kids that are

057in geometry already took algebra. Yeah. Yeah. uh seventh graders. Great. Thank you. >> Hi there. Donna Moser, principal at the high school. We are talking just about Wachi High School. So, I thought it'd be great to bring some of our teacher leaders from the math department. I have Mallalerie Near, who serves as our algebra 1 PLC leader, and Kim England, who's on our LIT team. So, they're going to join me in discussing algebra ready. So, as we know, we're trying to get that done by 8th grade, but we want to share with you what we're doing at the high school level for the students that still need more time and support. We'll go first. Okay. Yeah. Hi, I'm Mallerie. Um, I teach algebra all day long. So, I guess algebra that I'm going to talk

058kind of like the now they're in algebra. Um, and share a little bit with you guys. So, we kind of debated on what data to share with you all and we kind of felt like our first unit was the best one to share. So, we we pulled that from the fall because our very first unit essentially is eighth grade math and most of it is eighth grade math. And so, as you can see up here, we um tested our first unit and 79% of our students passed unit one. And then we thought it'd be kind of cool to compare that with our semester results. So, we looked at who actually passed first semester algebra because we just finished first semester at the end of January. And interestingly enough, 79% of our students also passed algebra.

059So, what that told us is if a kid is showing up algebra ready, guess what they're doing? They're passing algebra. So, that was very logical. So, that's good. That's a good thing to kind of see. Um, we also put some numbers up here just to share that there are kids showing up that are already done with algebra coming out of middle school. So we have 85 students currently in geometry and 24 students who are taking algebra 2. All of those students are passing those courses at the this time. Um most of them with A's and B's is what that looks like. So I guess what we can say from the high school level is if kids are showing up ready um then they're they're succeeding and they're doing really well and they seem to be

060doing great. So I think that's super cool. and then current realities. We thought it might be nice to kind of just share like what is happening um what we're kind of dealing with. Number one, I think this is huge. The phone policy it's awesome. I mean that alone I personally like I just huge difference huge difference in engagement. So, um, that's that should be big and bold and like flashing up there, but um, and I could just end on that to be honest. It it's making a huge difference. Um, but some of our like things we're struggling with. So, the students who aren't showing up algebra ready, um, some things that we're kind of dealing with, we've shifted to the sixth period schedule again. So that change in schedule, we're on year two now, um

061has given us some challenges with having PLC time, enough time to meet, um enough time during the day. Our pacing, I think, is a huge challenge for us. Um we have a lot of algebra to teach and time is limited. So for those kids that are showing up that aren't algebra, our time to intervene is is is really limited. So that's where we're we're struggling. Um, we're also know we we also put a couple other things up here. Attendance is a is a factor. If you look at our attendance, it is a challenge when you miss math. Math is a subject that builds. So, you miss a day, you show up the next day and you're like, "What's going on? I don't understand." And um, shockingly, kids aren't doing the makeup work. Even though we

062have things on Canvas and we have things available, um, they're showing up and not doing that. So, that's been a challenge. um attention span. We we've just noticed that the attention span of our students um and their working memory seems to be a struggle as well. And then current reality is AI is a thing and you know we can't control it what students are using at home. So although we do send them home with work to do, I think they're coming back using AI. So uh that's a challenge for us as well. And then we put inclusionary practice up there, just meeting the diverse needs, focusing on our ML students, our IEP kids, our all of our different kids, and just figuring out how to meet all their different needs in our sixth period day

063with our time, with our pacing, with our content is is a challenge, truthfully. Kim. >> Um, but we definitely have seen some growth and so we're excited. Um, just between last year and this year, we're seeing more kids that are uh willing to uh just show some engagement, more engagement in the learning process in our math classrooms. And that's um super exciting to see. Um they're they're also coming in with more skills. Uh just just some the basic integer operations that we've had to spend a lot of time at the beginning of the course teaching. They're they're coming in showing that they've they've retained um more of those skills and uh solving equations. Um this is the fastest year I've been able to make it through our unit one. just kids showing up with some

064of those um uh equation solving skills to be able to to to show that they are they are algebra ready and being able to graph points, graph lines. Um we know they're practicing those things and so it's good good to see that uh coming together as well. Um instructional practices strategies that our PLC's are using, we're working on those. the we've got common pacing calendars and we're we're checking in every Monday with each other to kind of see where we're at. We've got common assessments as well that we're utilizing so that we can um be on the same page there as well. and um we're able to to meet and and talk about kids that are struggling with different concepts, talk about different strategies that uh we're seeing be effective in our own classrooms and

065being able to to share that with each other during our PLC time. Um as well, we've got lots of different accommodations that we offer kids. So, uh, we've got, uh, every kid in algebra 1 can use a note card, a 3x5 note card, um, just to give them a little bit of confidence that they've got some example problems they can kind of look at as they're doing their tests. Um, they've we've got extended time. We've got, um, small groups in in different locations for some smaller for some different testing um, settings. And then, um, we've got we've got some awesome interventionists that are helping us as well. So, um, we spend time in our PLC's on Mondays looking at our tier three kids and what strate what, um, standards. We want to make sure we're

066helping develop them and and they can get pulled for part of the the math time to be able to um, develop that skill more. And um we've got a math specialist that's also able to pull groups um both ones that are for kids that are struggling with a certain concept and then kids that we want to excel and and be able to extend and move ahead. So we're able to utilize our math uh interventionist quite a bit too. >> Okay. And from a building level, we just I just wanted to highlight a few things. From the building level, it's important that we uh we address that students might not be algebra ready coming to the high school. And over the 14 years I've been at the high school, even in the assistant principal role, my

067goal always is how to support a student to graduate and how to keep a math story going. So, if you're coming in and you're still not feeling comfortable algebra ready, how in four years can we get you to the pathway that you want after high school? So, we do a lot of work to make sure we have courses available for students who need more time and support past that nth grade year. Our math team offers a bridge to algebra 2 class which allows a student that maybe struggled in algebra 1 but kind of skimmed by, got through geometry, still wants to go to a 4-year or start in college at college level math. We have um some safe havens for them in that manner. Same thing with Westside. We do our best to get students

068ready if they plan to transfer to Westside to get their algebra and geometry done, but not that's not always the case. Al uh Westside has some great options for students who might learn in a different more smaller environment to get through those challenges. We do put uh some of our high poverty money of course into this goal. We have a math interventionist that's funded from that. We work directly with learning and teaching and beg for their time to help make sure our teachers have time for the guaranteed and viable to sit and really collaborate around the day-to-day management of those students. We also work really hard to hire pair educators who are comfortable in math classrooms. Um, as you can imagine, I don't want to go in the math classroom and teach math, so don't

069hire me. But there are some amazing staff that we have that work collaboratively to meet those inclusionary needs uh for our students served on an IEP as well as our multilingual learners. Uh you the district did help us this year. Our algebra numbers were quite high. Uh we we were able to add some FTE to try to keep those down around 25 which um seems doable but still very challenging. But we really appreciated that support. I think the biggest takeaway from the from the leadership team is we really are trying to focus on how to keep students in those core classrooms, those tier one classrooms. How do we push in? How do our case managers for our IEP students come into that classroom and help a teacher so that they get to stay with those

070um model students that they need to learn side by side with? and then also try to target some small groupoup pullouts. We also have two tutors after school since we do accelerate math and and students of all grade levels are taking all different math. We have um two tutors in the pathway center that help all students after school. And I think that's it. Any questions for us? I don't have questions. I just I appreciate the the current realities that you guys are dealing with. Um I mean these are you know you're talking about attention span we all know what why we are where we are right the short attention spans it's constant scrolling um and some of them are like that for example is kind of out of the control of the school district. Um

071yeah kudos to you guys for trying to address this. I'm not sure. It's just Thank you. I mean, it's Yeah. So, >> taking phone policy though, like it honestly like having that policy because the engagement has gone up, you know, they're talking to each other more. So, I do think it's a little bit helped with that just like they're like, well, on my phone, so I guess yeah, let's do that. Perfect. Thank you for your time. I just want to thank the entire team for the presentation tonight. Um, it's sometimes I think from the board perspective, it's sometimes challenging for us to see the lagging results that come from state assessments and smarter balance assessments and for us to to see those results at the end of the school year or when we talk about

072our strategic plan. that when we're able to see the work that's happening in the classroom without always being there. Our learning walks are great. We get to see these uh situations, but it's great to see the leading indicators that the CFAs, the work that's happened in the classroom, the growth, even though we're experiencing a lot of those on different class, different grade bands and um different student groupings. It's just really powerful for us to see this work. So, thank you for that presentation. Um and we appreciate everyone's time. So, yeah, thank you. Okay, it's time, Sean. Um, let's have you come up. Our executive director of business and finance, uh, Sean Fitzgerald, on part two of a three-part series on the legislation. Right. This is good. This is the where we leave a cliffhanger. >>

073Yes. This is Yeah, it's a good one. >> Yeah. And we all know in trilogies the third part is the weakest. So, you know. All right. Well, thank you everyone. Um, good evening, President Jackson, members of the board, Dr. Kalahar. Um, we're here on to just give an update on our state budget and, um, jump right into it. So again, background again, we're in the short session at 60 days. Started on January 12th. Regular session will end on March 12th. So we have three weeks remaining. Uh and has been moving fast. Um so just kind of give an update on some of the bills. So one of the bills we were paying attention to was this SE eligibility expansion. So essentially uh benefits uh would be extended to um employees um who worked 630 hours

074in the prior year and return to that same type of position with any employer. Uh so this was really going to impact you know for example substitutes uh substitute teachers or you know employ you know year one employees and there was a lot of push back from WASA and school districts because considered this an unfunded mandate um one because it's like you're presuming that the 630 hours has already happened and then it was kind of unclear whose responsibility it was to track the hours of these employees. So, it's like in the school district's position, it's like how are we tracking these hours, especially if they didn't come from another if they aren't in our school district, maybe they're coming from another school district, maybe they're coming from a different place entirely. Um, so a lot

075of those questions were raised. Uh, so these bills both in the House and the Senate, they did not pass. Um it's just though um there is discussion however about probably seeing this bill in a different form uh in the 2027 legislature uh material supplies and operating costs uh Senate Bill 5918. So again, this would uh kind of give a one-time uh boost to MSOC uh limited to $100,000 per district or in your enrollment, whichever is greater. Um however, there are a couple of amendments uh that so that language is still this bill is still ongoing. It's still being discussed. Uh however, there are a couple of adjustments or amendments to the bill. Of course, the biggest one is the ever ongoing continuous discussion on tying MSOC to an actual inflationary measure. Uh the legislature is

076very hesitant to do this. Every time a bill is proposed, there's usually something like it's tied to IPD or CPI. this year was turned to uh again tied to IPD um which is what we use for um what the state uses for our salaries and benefit or just the salaries um but they remove that in an amendment. So now the what we call the backend approach remains so essentially when all things are said and done they kind of look at okay what's left over what can we use to fund MSOC and then they just kind of plug that number in. So generally that number that they do plug in is less than IPD. So again although we do get funding increases for MSO uh they do not keep up with inflation. Uh Senate Bill 6113

077and House Bill 2257. So again another bill we were paying attention to. This relates to the tax on school districts related to professional services. So this bill was passed last year. Uh this year uh WA was and school districts came back and uh lobbied for an exemption on these services because these were um again additional costs to school districts. We weren't paying taxes on this in the past. Now we are. Uh in both of these bills now uh exemption language has been added to both bills exempting school district uh from these taxes. And so really right now between now and the end of the legislative session, it's just ensuring that the language is clear that school districts are exempt. So for example, I forget which I think it's the Senate bill, they talk about the

078exemption is for elementary and secondary institutions. It's like we'll just say educational school districts or something. Let's just be clear about it. So really it's a lot about just word smithing and ensuring those exemptions are clear. Um, and that again would be a welcome benefit uh for the school district. >> Sean, will that one be immediate or are they phasing that out over a couple years? >> That's a great question. I would I would assume though that it would take effect um I'll look into it, but it depends on what the passage of the bill. Gotcha. >> I haven't seen anything where it's going to say, "Oh, it'll take effect in a couple of years." Gotcha. >> Uh but I'll do a double check on that. >> No problem. Thanks. Uh so here we have

079our house joint resolution and senate joint resolution. These of course uh another annual ongoing discussion is reducing the bond threshold from the supermajority. So again one proposed resolution is lowering it from the from 60% to simple majority of 50% plus one. Then we have another one reducing from 60 60% to 55%. Uh and basically there's been no discussion at all on either of these resolutions. Uh they were introduced at the start of the legislative session and there has been no discussion. So in other words um you know I not anticipating any big changes on this. Um technically these bills are not dead until you know the legislature closes out. the fact that there has been no conversations since the beginning of uh since January. Uh I'm not going to get my hopes up on either

080of these resolutions related to bonds. Uh maximum and minimum fund balance. Um so this bill is still ongoing. However, there has been some changes since my first update. Uh the first big change is the maximum amount has been removed. So it'll be solely focused on minimum fund balance. Uh and then the beginning the start date of this bill has been moved up. Originally I believe it was the 203031 school year but it now has been moved up to the 2728 school year. Uh but they have just set out again minimum fund balance standards depending on our AAFT. Uh so we'd fall in that first category. is 6% at least 6% of the district's prior year state aortionment. Um and the bill has kind of changed from kind of being kind of punitive to school districts

081to be kind of more like a early reporting trigger for uh school districts that are in financial distress. Uh so it's like again if you fall below those balances uh then it triggers additional kind of formal financial reporting requirements to OSPI. Um but again seems like this bill is moving through and um um we'll be curious to see what the final one will look like um by the by mid-March. >> Quick question. Um if the limit would be based on the the prior year's state aortionment technically that would be might be less than what a true 6% fund balance looks like. >> So correct versus like would our 6% of our state a portionment match 6% of total expenditures. So in this case so at right now they're giving us the leeway just saying it's

082going to be set at least 6%. So I'm anticipating we would look at okay you know we're having our ongoing discussion about our minimum fund balance and so for example 6% of our total expenditures maybe that equates to then seven or 8% of our prior year state aortment. So we'll probably when we whenever this bill passes and we take a look at the numbers, it's just assuring that the numbers our fund balance total fund balance number uh meets meets the same the same amount regardless if we're using revenue or expenditures. Uh HB House Bill 2551, so maintaining financial solveny of school districts. Uh no change to this bill. It's still moving through the through the process and I haven't seen any amendments to this bill uh related to the sale of school property to alleviate

083financial distress. Um 2116 updating school enrichment funding. So there was a proposal to increase the levy rate from 250 to $3 and then also to increase local effort assistance from $1.50 50 to $2, which I was more interested in uh because local effort assistant is a nice chunk of revenue we receive from the state. Unfortunately, this bill did not pass. Um and so again, it's just going to be a wait and see situation with local effort assistance. Um it's kind of one of those things that we're hearing talk about proposed cuts to local effort assistance and what u that discussion is relating to is that last year the legislature uh provided a funding increase to LEA uh but it was only good for two years and they promised to come back this year and look

084at and say like hey you know do we need to continue that increase because that increase boost was basically kind of an inflationary adjustment. but it was only good for two years. And so this bill was kind of addressing, hey, why don't we extend out the in the inflationary boost uh past those two years and that's where it kind of stalled. And that's where it's kind of like where you hear the proposed cuts to LEA and the you know proposed uh budget savings in that respect. Um, so again, one of those things we'll probably hear again ne for the next couple of years, especially as we get to 2028 and because that'll be year three and we'll have two years of that boost and then we'll see what kind of where the legislature goes with

085it. Uh, bus depreciation. So again, another discussion area where uh the legislator is cons considering reductions and this is by just uh extending out our bus depreciation or our bus bus replacement cycle. So right now whether it's an 8year bus or a 13-year-old 13-year bus, all buses would been now be on a 15-year replacement cycle. So for context, our smaller kind of type A buses, those go eight years. Our larger buses, our type C's and type D's, which you generally see and make up the vast majority of our bus fleet, are uh tied to the 13 our 13-year replacement cycle. So extending it out two years, um long-term impact, it's hard to say, but again, it's it's going to be um it's two more years than anticipated. we have to keep these buses. Um, and

086again, maintenance costs, all those things kind of add up. Uh, so again, another bill we're paying close attention to. Transition to kindergarten. Uh, so another legis legislative session, it's time to talk about how they can roll back on TK. Um so last year you know they put a cap on the enrollment and just this last week uh they the legislature unveiled some new kind of income threshold requirements to TK. Uh one of the uh requirements they have thrown at is the uh students have to qualify for free and reduced lunch status and um as a barrier to TK enrollment. Uh so right now we don't require that as a registration. Um if we were looking at okay if they implemented it immediately what would it look like? Well right now 27 of our students are

087free and reduced lunch out of 58. So a little less than half of our students. So it raises two questions. One 27 out of our 58 is our full free and reduced population. or we just have other students who just haven't filled out that form because it isn't necessary. Um so again, another bill we're paying close attention to and if you know this becomes one of our requirements then you know we will be when TK registration comes out we'll be requiring you to fill out this form uh to see the impact on this as well. uh income tax. Uh so again, the uh income tax on earners making a million dollars or more is moving through the legislature. Uh so 9.9% tax on AGI above $1 million. Uh so right now the discussion is where

088will the tax revenue go? Um, I anticipate this bill is likely going to be passed and signed and there will likely be a constitutional challenge to it, but um, the fact that it's kind of moving through the legislature, I think it's going to also survive a constitutional challenge as well. Uh, so the question is kind of where will this tax revenue when will it take effect and where will the tax revenue go from it? Uh so in summary again, SE expansion did not pass but likely it could return in some form next year. Um promising outlook on the sales tax tax exemption just kind of seems to be in that word smithing process. Um unlikely to see any change to the bond supermajority from this legislative session. Again keeping a close eye on the MSOC

089increase. Um any increase is welcome. Uh but again it would like to be nice to see it actually tied to keep up with inflation. Uh and then also of concern that we are still paying close attention to is those cuts or um kind of restrictive requirements to TK uh local effort assistance and bus funding. And yep. So here we're on the second meeting. Uh next meeting will be March 24th. Um by then legislative session should have concluded on March 12th. Um so by next month at this time we'll have probably uh the legislative session wrapped up and kind of know where the final standing of these bills uh land. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. All right. Well, um, good news is no discussion. We can move straight to action. So, we're doing the

090policy second read. Um, you want to go through them, Cor? Are we going to We're second read them. We're good. All right. Cool. What's that? >> Yeah. >> Move to approve. >> Yeah. Do I have a motion to approve the second read of policies 324156022? >> Move to approve. >> All right. Has been moved by Maria and seconded by uh Julie. Any discussion? All right. I'm going to say a quick thing unless All right. Uh just because this was this is 6022 is our minimum fund balance. Um, you know, we talked about this uh a lot and I think we have a lot of uncertainty in the school districts the last few years and I don't see that changing going forward. So, I think that, you know, it's really responsible of us to look at

091how we're taking care of our staff being that that's 85% of our overall um operating budget. And so I want to say, you know, think that that giving us a little bit more buffer um in these unexpected times really does give us some some options that while we have the money protecting it makes sense. So uh all in favor of approving these policies say I. >> I. Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. Great. Um public school employees collective bargaining agreement. Do a motion to approve the public school employees collective bargaining agreement. I move to approve the collective bargaining agreement. >> Right. >> Second. >> All right. Has been moved by Caroline and seconded by Mark. Any discussion? >> I just want to thank um both sides of um the bargaining teams for their work um

092put into this. I know it took a little bit longer than I think anybody uh wanted. Uh but I'm glad we are at this step um proposing this CDA. >> Yeah. I I just want to echo that too because I know this one took an unusually long amount of time. So, I just appreciate the parties continuing to work through it, getting back to the table and um and getting something that I hope works for both sides. >> Yep. All right. All in favor of approving these uh the bargain agreement say I. >> I. Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. So, that moves us to the superintendent report. >> Motion carries. Right as Kelly walked back in. >> Yeah, >> they approved it. This is good. Yes. All right, we got this. Um Okay, I know.

093Yes. [laughter] No, thank you though for the accolades. It was longer than expected and u we appreciate both sides um in the end. Uh superintendence report. Lots of amazing things happening. Lots of things to celebrate as we're closing uh winter athletics. We had wrestlers and some swimmers and divers go to state. Um tomorrow is the sports awards banquet. Um, so that that all is happening and then right around the corner we have spring sports uh getting ready to get started which is wild. Um, Maria and I were able to go to well not only go to but we we were judges for the Janice France talent show. Uh, Mark was in the audience and his daughter was uh uh was on stage. So we saw some amazing acts. It's great to see um the dance

094performances, the ASL performances, duet um couple singers with acoustic guitars and then some rock bands. So, that was fun. We had a great night. Uh Diane and I were able to meet with a Winnier executive board um a week ago yesterday and shared a one pager and just overall bond information. So, we spent about 50 minutes with the team answering questions and clarifying um how they can help and spread um the factual information that the school district is able to actually share. Um we just had a great time and it was um it was fun uh just to kind of kick some of that off. Uh and then for our superintendent advisory council meeting, uh we met at Westside High School last week, which was great. The idea there was our students from Wanche High

095School wanted to see um they just said, "How can we see a newer, more modern school um that is easy for us to get to?" And so we thought, well, we can go to Washington, we can go to Lincoln, or maybe we can go to Westside. And so we went there and then um we actually had um the team that is at the high school right now uh doing the educational specs conversations, zoomed into uh our SACE team and talked with the students about the spaces that they enjoy, the spaces that they find awkward, the spaces they don't enjoy, all of those fun things. It was a great presentation. Tucker was able to be there for that and I think it sparked some some things in Tucker's head because he wrote a thesis the next

096day. It was great. So, you haven't I haven't gotten it, but I'm excited. >> Heavy editing. >> Um, >> anyway, it was great. Um, and it was really kind of the beginning of our engagement process that we're excited about this spring and it was with our students. So, we're pumped about that. Um, and then I was able to sit in Diana, did you make it out to any of the Edspec conversations today? Yeah. Two. Okay, perfect. And I made it to one as well. Yeah, it was it was good. It was great to sit in and hear um hear our Ed Specs team talk with teachers and I happened to sit in on a science conversation. So, they were talking about all the things with science and lab space and storage and all of that

097great stuff. So, it was really cool to see that. Um and then, uh let's see. I'm thrilled to announce Donna Lemon as our principal at Mission View Elementary. Um she's been serving as assistant principal the last 5 years. Um and has been part of that amazing culture there. So, we're just excited for Donna and the staff at Mission View. And that's it. >> Right. Thank you. Uh Mark, you want to start us off? >> I don't have a ton this week, but thanks for everyone that came to the Janice Friends. That was super fun. And I would say if anyone hasn't gone, you should go because it was a great showcase of a student-led event sponsoring other students. Uh and it was fun to see all that creativity. Uh Sean and I and BJ Coons

098got to attend the soccer the Sunday soccer uh middle uh little leagues um at Footh Hills Middle School uh on Sunday and um that was my first time um there and experiencing the whole setup, the teams and I was very very impressed um just all the parents that were there, the amount of students um and um I'm assuming our their parent coaches, volunteers um that are coaching the teams and also the um the partnership with the the local businesses for their donations um of prizes. Um I'm assuming this all work is put in by Alfonso, Mr. Lopez. Um, and I just want to give them a lot of kudos for um, creating this this this great opportunity for our students. Um, seeing the turnout and the community involvement that goes into it. Um, and of

099course our families. Um, you know, I don't have to tell you guys what sports does to our community. Um, but what a wonderful additional opportunity for the winter months where our students are not able to be outside um, burning off some steam. Um but yeah, I was very impressed. I was happy to help um recognize this the the teams as their season ended and um big kudos to the district for supporting the work and to all support all the work. >> Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. >> Thanks. All right, Caroline, >> I was busy. Um I've been to almost all the schools now. Um I've I'm just missing PAIO High School Westside and Mission now at this point I think. So headed there two of those on Friday and then had to rearrange some. Um but I'm

100just it's great going into the schools. I love chatting with everybody. I've had a couple of principles who are like let's walk like show me all the classrooms. Um actually when I was at Foothills uh I was walking past and saw Susan Younger teaching and she was my fifth grade teacher. So, we interrupted her class and she gave me a big hug and one of her kids flew out of a seat and it was like, "Oh, yes, middle school. I remember this." Um, but just huge thank you to all the principles for being so open and sharing concerns and positives with me and then, you know, us collectively um and opening up their space. Um, you know, uh, Mr. Allen at Foothill said that uh he introduced me to one of the kids as one

101of his bosses and I was like pretty sure we work for you but you know that's okay. So it's just it's nice to have such a welcoming and collaborative community. >> Julie >> from me just um congratulations to all our winter athletes that are wrapping up their seasons. Um great job for the athletic department just in general. I think they really made a a big effort to get other groups involved. We saw a lot of youth nights at at activities, recognizing staff, uh, officials, things like that. And and so it's really neat to see these additional things on top of everything. So, you're drawing more people in. We saw a lot more band and and other activities represented this year. And so, I think that's that was a really fun environment to to see. Um,

102at least for sure it showed on the basketball side. and I know we were doing other efforts of wrestling and and other activities. So, um that was that was a fun way to to be more involved in the winter and congratulations on individual athletes that had great seasons, teams that went further than they've gone in several years. So, that was that was pretty exciting. Um congratulations to Parker Avery for being selected. Wachi High School's Apple Blossom Princess. Um, so and looking forward to spring sports and my high school senior's very last season competing for this great school. So, little little emotional on that one, but we'll make it. >> All right. And I wanted to congratulate all our math was cool participants. we had last week was the fifth grade math is cool competition and

103um the teachers and parents I talked to were all really impressed with all the work that they did their kids did and it sound like it was a really um well-run operation. So, I wanted to say thank you to both the teachers and the staff that support the programs and also um to the team at Math is cool that that run the competition because it's really cool to see there to be a final thing that we're like you learned math really well and now show us. So, that was cool. And then um jazz workshops going on right now um for the middle schoolers and it's really again another cool thing that volunteer Mr. Samberg Mr. Stanberg's dad started it. Um, and it's still going. And so, um, all five days middle schoolers get a chance

104to meet with professional m jazz musicians and, um, learn from them. And then the the the pros put on a performance at Thursday at 7:00 in Eastmont this Thursday. And then Friday uh, at Wanachi High School at 7 p.m., all of the middle school students will participate in a performance. So, you can go and see that if you'd like. Uh and then um Caroline reminded me I had my last meeting last week with uh Mario Aila at um Louis and Clark and we talked a lot about the dual English program and I know that's something that we've been talking about as a district but it really was great to see under the hood to that program and um talk with him. So that was a really a great meeting. So that is our regular board

105meeting time. But we have an executive session. Um we're going to 15 minutes is that so we're going to the school board now recess into executive session for 15 minute period until um to evaluate the qualifications of an applicant for public employment or to review the performance of a staff member. Pursuant to district policy number 1410 and RCW423110, this discussion will be closed to the public. The school board is not expected to take final action following the executive session. All right, we're all finished with our ex session and the meeting is adjourned. Thanks.