001Okay, >> good evening everyone. Welcome back from summer break. Let's start our August 12th regular board meeting and a special budget hearing for the Wanti School District with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Uh just for roll check uh our fearless leader is joining us remotely from across the country mind you. >> Hi. >> Um we will now work through the agenda board. Are there any proposed changes to the uh or modifications to the agenda? Hearing none. I will now move on to the consent agenda. The consent agenda. Uh, the items on the consent agenda were sent to the board and posted online
002last week. The board has has had the opportunity to review the materials and ask the superintendent any questions they have about any item on the consent agenda. The consent agenda for this meeting includes the regular meeting minutes for June 24th, vouchers and payroll, personnel report, surplus report, contracts, and the May financial report. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Thank you, Julie. >> I second Julie's motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Thank you, Martin. Any discussion? All right. Hearing none. All in favor of of adopting the consent agenda as presented say I. >> I. >> None opposed. So, the motion carries. We will now move into the citizen comments. Kim, do we have any online? Okay. Okay. Um here given that we
003don't have any, we're going to move right along into our board budget hearing. The district has completed its 2526 budget and four-year projections and publish a notice of this budget hearing in accordance with RCW28A50550. The budget is on file at the district administrative office and a copy is available to anyone requesting requesting one. It is also available online on the district website. The board of directors has set August 26th of 2025 as a date for adopting the 2526 budget. Any person may may appear at the public hearing and be heard for or against any part of the budget. Sean Fitzgerald, executive director of business and finance, will provide a brief Oh, there he is. Will provide a brief overview of the 2526 budget. Then the budget hearing will be open for public comment. All right,
004Sean, we'll welcome you to uh the podium and uh thank you for running us through um the budget update for today and yeah, we're good to go. Oh, one small correction. I don't know about brief, but I will I but I will try to be brisk. >> Yes. All right. Uh me uh President Jackson, members of the board, and uh Dr. Calhard, it's great to be here tonight uh to present on the 2526 uh budget. Oh, technical difficulties. All right. Um so familiar slides. Um a lot of what you've seen here uh what you will see here tonight is uh very similar to what was presented at the June 24th board meeting with the preliminary budget. However, I will highlight the differences and any changes that may have occurred between uh now and then. uh
005as we're familiar with uh district operates under a fund structure uh on a a fund basis and we're organized under five funds general capital projects debt service ASB and transportation and each fund uh is its own self-balancing set of accounts that is designed to achieve a certain uh carry on specific activities or obtain certain objectives. Uh we're looking at the general fund makes up about 87% of the budget and the remaining makes about 30 13% in the last couple of years. Generally the general fund has been 90 to 91%. However, capital projects has taken on a greater role in the last year or two uh just due to the uh grant funding we re we have received from for the skills center. Uh first we're going to start off with enrollment. Uh looking at district
006birth rates. Uh again a slide you are familiar with uh dating back to our birth rates both for Chalan County and the Wanche school district area all the way back to 2014. Uh the difference between now and our June board meeting is we have our 2024 birth data. Uh so shout out to Marcy her with MGT consulting getting that from the state department of health. Uh so that's uh really nice data to have going into the next school year and that helps us update our projections and to be better prepared for what's coming. Um so we can see here when we're looking at our birth rates generally there's a correlation between our kindergarten incoming kindergarten classes and our birth rates. We start with uh and then we work five years back from the current year.
007So if we're looking at, you know, for example, the 202425 school year, that's based on 2019 birth years because we're assuming 5-year-olds are coming in to our kindergarten classes. So one of the biggest things we're highlighting for the incoming kindergarten class is the drop of 71 births from 2019 to 2020. Uh we're seeing there just in the bottom line 572 to 501. Um we can directly attribute that during the COVID pandemic. And then we see that continuing decline, not as much uh decline between 2020 and 2023, but still a decline in birth rates. And now with the 2024 birth data, we we're seeing an increase in birth rates. Uh which is a nice sign to see. Um whether that is a future trend remains to be seen, but it's nice to see an increase in
008birth rates after so long of a decrease. Um, but our focus using this birth data in the next couple of slides, we'll kind of look at our forecasting and seeing how this impacts both our incoming kindergarten classes and overall enrollment. Uh, here where we finishing off for this year. Again, we another familiar slide 2024 25 data has been updated with our July enrollment data. So, now we're including our summer school. We're finishing at roughly around 6553. Um so not much change from June. I think I had 6550 for June. Uh so we have a change of 3 FTE. Um but between 24 20 between 23 24 and our current school year a decline of about 205 FTE. Our enrollment in 201516 was 7655. So that's overall looking at a decline of from our peak enrollment
009in 1516 over 1100 FTE over the last 10 years 10 fiscal years. So here's our updated budgeted enrollment and forecast. So 202425 data is based on our July 2025 enrollment with the summer school data excluded uh just for comparison purposes uh for 2526 budget and the forecasting years. As you can see I've also added on now that we have the 2024 uh birth uh birth rates I've also gone ahead and added a 202930 forecast incorporating that data. So, as we can see with the declining birth rates and how that's impacting our kindergarten classes, we're looking at currently we have 435 FTE for kindergarten. Our expectation is that's probably going to decline down to roughly about 401 FTE and then a continuing decrease over the next um up until 2829 down to 386 with those continuing
010declining of birth rates and then an uptick in 2930 reflecting the increase in birth rates. And then of course when we're looking at our overall trends um down below uh difference between 25 26 and 2425 is roughly a decline of about 109 FTE. So again the combination of uh smaller birth rates leads to smaller incoming classes and again that continuation of larger graduating classes we have 499 for 12th grade for 2526 compared to 401 again that's a difference of almost 98 FTE um is also kind of contributing uh to the overall decline as well. So just kind of jumping back some of the analysis that we're looking at in our enrollment is overall a projection uh will continue to decline but valley academy may mitigate. So one of the things with Valley Academy is we're
011seeing an increased demand uh large registration numbers but we want to be kind of conservative with our budget uh just in case those things those numbers don't materialize. Uh so we are uh excited to see what our enrollment numbers will be for Valley Academy in the fall. Uh but keeping uh conservative approach at this time. Uh transition to kindergarten going back as discussed in June. Uh TK for 24 25 we had 60 students but then we're forecasting out 59 for the next uh 5 years. Just following the state legislature. they've capped our enrollment um at 2425 levels and then rounded down because we we didn't quite reach 60. We were at 59.85 FTE and then instead of rounding up, they decided round down. So, we're funded for 59 students going in for next year. Uh
012but we will have 60 students in our TK programs across four classrooms. And again, we're just assuming that's going to stay the same for the foreseeable future. Elementary classes, as discussed, graduating classes larger than projected kindergarten classes. Um, birth rates dropping by 71 from 2019 to 2020, but birth rates increasing in 2024, which are impacting and increasing our 2930 enrollment at the kindergarten level. Middle schools, again, charter and private schools offerings uh have an impact there. Uh, Pinnacles Prep is very popular during the transition between elementary and middle school. However, at the high school level, we still see an increase of kids returning from charter and private schools at the high school level. Um, and we're going to pay close attention to our ninth nth grade enrollment. Again, we want to be conservative in our
013budget, but we're going to pay close attention to our ninth grade enrollment levels and see where those kids are coming from at the start of the school year. Uh, running start uh smaller registration numbers compared to 24 25. We had record registration um in our running start. I mean we had 335 uh last year finishing in July uh for 2526 budgeting down to one more 290. Uh so again another area we're going to take a close look at but again registration numbers were significantly less than last year. And then again paying close attention to alternative learning and Valley Academy enrollment uh in the fall. Any questions on enrollment? >> Right. >> Uh Sean, are we seeing any um any projection projected changes in the initiative for both college and the high school or are we
014still kind of seeing how that's going to play out? >> Uh we're we're kind of seeing where that's going to play out. Yeah. uh transportation vehicle. Uh again, the purpose of the transportation vehicle fund is the purchase and maintenance of yellow school buses. And again, our primary for um primary source of funding is depreciation reimbursement, which we receive at the end of each school year. So, end of August, uh we receive our reimbursement from the state. Uh and then again expenditures are recorded not when buses are purchased but when they are delivered and again this fund makes up about 0.5% of our budget overall budget. Um so again no significant changes uh from June on our transportation vehicle fund. We have three buses arriving in se this September. Uh and we will not again will
015not be reimbursed until the end of August. Uh so what we're going to do to cover the purchase of these three school buses is do a temporary transfer from the general fund to cover the cost to pay for the buses. And as soon as we are reimbursed at the end of the school year, uh we will return that $150,000 back to the general fund ASB. So again, ASB fund, cultural, social, recreational or athletic in nature, studentled and it's optional, nonredit, extracurricular events. The funds here are legally restricted. So they can only be used uh for only ASB purposes. They can't be transferred to the general fund or debt service or to pay for a yellow school bus. Uh they are strictly for ASB purposes only and makes up about 1% of the budget. So we
016here we have our 2526 budget. Again, no changes to the budget or forecast from the June presentation. Um overall, although we're showing a decline in fund balance on a year-to-year basis, my expectation is that this will not be the reality. Um we've seen our ASB activity uh grow exponentially since um since even before the pandemic. um lockdowns. Uh but since uh returning to school pandem pandemic restrictions have been lifted, we've seen increasing revenue and expenditure activity uh yeartoyear. Um I know last during our last board meeting we were talking about uh reflecting on whether ASB activity has decreased but looking at the numbers although 24 25 numbers may not reach probably 23 24 has been our best numbers since before the lockdown followed by 2425 and it but just not quite reaching the same levels.
017Um so ASB activity looks kind of consistent and um although it may not reach the 23 24 levels uh it's still in comparison to prior years uh higher revenues higher expenditures much more activity. Debt service again use the principal to pay off our debt service. We have one outstanding bond paying off the principal and interest to that bond which expires in 2033. Uh last year we refinanced our one this one bond. Um so for the remaining eight or nine years of its life uh saving taxpayers about $6.6 million over the course of that time and the debt service makes up about 4% of our budget. uh looking ahead for both 25 26 and beyond. Again, no changes uh significant changes from our June presentation. Uh but again um looking at less levy collections um to
018or bond collections in this place uh to pay off principal and interest just because we have strong investment interest earnings and strong fund balance. So the goal just kind of moving forward is just kind of drawing down on those fund balance reserves slowly and then you know when the time comes and we pass a bond we're going to use the fund balance to structure bond debt payments effectively. Uh and that's going to help with um in in crafting tax rates. will be working with Piper Sandler, you know, in those cases and looking at using that fund balance to kind of craft um an even tax rate and strategize on those levels. Capital projects again purpose and background generally financed from the proceeds of sales of bonds, state matching revenues and special levies. Uh here we
019have our grant funding making up about 12% of the budget. Uh again, no significant changes from the June presentation. We've kind of outlined some of our possible projects we're looking at uh for this year. So 25 26 maintenance projects, uh boilers and controllers at foothills and perhaps looking at the elevator, replacing the elevator at the district office. Again, none of these projects are set in stone, but these are ideas that we are looking at for 2526. Uh primarily these would be funded from a $500,000 transfer from the general fund. Uh this is what we did for the 2425 school year to accomplish some uh preventative maintenance and emergency maintenance projects which which was very beneficial throughout the district. Um our largest expenditure is at the skill center grant. Uh again budgeting $12 million. We have
020a $14.5 million grant from the state. uh this project uh is 100% state grant funded and again we've put it in the 25 26 and the 26 27 years because that's where the funds are allocated and where the grant is it's over that 2-year period. So that's where the focus of the budget will be. Whether we'll actually spend, you know, $12 million this year will be spread more evenly across the two years kind of remains to be seen. Uh but we we have selected our project manager, we have selected our contractor and our architects. So they are proceeding accordingly uh with the renovation. Any questions on any of those funds before moving on to the general fund? All right. So again, the general fund is really accounting for everything that's not happening in the other
021funds. So any ordinary, normal, and recurring operations during the school year. So here's a breakdown of our 25 26 budget revenues. Uh so overall our total revenues 133.5 million. Uh again if we're looking at our state revenues both general and special purpose if we add those together makes up about 74% of our budget which is on par with what generally the state average is about 75%. And again, state revenues are primarily driven by enrollment. Uh so we can see as the importance of our enrollment is related to our funding revenues. Uh followed by federal special purpose. So this category is made up of our title programs uh LAP bilingual. Uh we'll be paying close attention although we were paying close attention to it in July. Uh we'll be this will be the area that will
022be most impacted. um if there are any federal uh funding cuts uh in the upcoming federal budget. And this this is the revenue source we'll be paying most close attention to uh in the fall when the federal government completes its budget. Uh local taxes uh that >> can I jump in here real quick? >> Go ahead, Tucker. >> Um so I see that you know that's 12.3% for our uh federal financing right now. And I know that they, you know, we had in July we had 2.1% kind of floating around as what we're where we're going to be. Are we worried about additional cuts? You know, I I realize no one really knows anything, but is that something that's kind of on your radar that that 2.1% could change to more knowing that 12.3 is
023our total federal budget or federal funds? >> Yeah. So for the 25 26 school year, um we are not concerned at this time. uh that was kind of what was occurring and what we were planning during July. Uh but we've been assured by OSPI that we will the funds have been released and we will receive those funds for the 2526 school year. Moving forward though, our concern now is for the 2627 school year and beyond. And so right now we're waiting for the federal government is in their budget process right now uh because of their fiscal year begins in October. Uh so again like our state legislature they build on a 2-year bianium budget. Uh so what we're looking at is when they complete their budget will there be funding uh for these programs for
02426 27 and beyond? >> Okay. So I guess more more of a question is is that I think the the concern obviously is that we're not going to have the funds that we did we were we in July we're worried we weren't going to have for 25 26 we probably won't have those in 26 27 are we worried worried about additional cuts as well? >> Um there's always there's there's the possibility um sure >> at the level of the 2.1% uh we're not seeing that if there are it would be much less than that. Okay, awesome. Thank you so much. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And I think something to add on, I mean, we'll return to this as well with the federal spending, but I think one of the another issue is not only the
025fact that funding could be just cut through the budget process at the federal government level is the fact that the federal I mean, there are still a lot of federal grants out there that are being funded. However, the kind of the share of the overall pie is shrinking and the competitiveness of obtaining these grants are becoming more difficult as more school districts are looking at trying to obtain the same grants because they're looking for funding as well. So we can't take for granted that fund federal grants that we have received in the past on a consistent basis, we may not be able to receive them just due to the demand and the applications and the competitive nature of these grants uh with so many other school districts looking for funding as well. And then moving
026down along next line item local taxes 15.7 million again almost 12% of the budget vast majority of local taxes that is our EPO levy and then rounding out the remaining I mean 1.5% is uh you know local support non-t tax those are kind of fees and charges and you know things that we kind of trickle in across the school year. uh other financing sources, $150,000 that would be the return of the money from the uh transportation vehicle fund and then just a smaller miscellaneous amounts uh making up the remaining categories that make up about less than 1%. expenditures. Um so again, regular instruction 44% of our budget. So BEA, our basic ed, alternative learning, and open doors uh come in about 59.7 million. So making up almost half the budget. Uh that's followed uh significantly
027behind at 16% which is our support services or district-wide support. So in that category we have maintenance and operations, food services, transportation, uh district office, um anything else that doesn't fall in those particular categories listed up there. Uh followed closely behind by special education at 15% or 20 million. Um and again highlighting compensatory education, uh 15.2 million or 11% of our budget. Again, this is where we're budgeting our title programs, lab, bilingual. Uh these are the programs we're looking at. Again, as previously mentioned with Tucker is, you know, this is the area we're paying most attention to for 2627 beyond. Uh because if there's no funding in these areas, we would have to reduce at the expenditure level at this line item. Uh vocational education. Uh this is where our CTE program is. Uh so
028making up about 8 8% of our budget. Other instructional programs um a lot of this is capacity. Uh so capacity is put in here but it's al additional budget capacity but also you'll find AVID highly capable some of our smaller um grant programs are in here as well. Uh skill center uh following along at 2%. Then we have other financing uses or transfers out. So again $650,000. So, the breakout of that $500,000 uh transferred to the cap capital projects for maintenance and then $150,000 to the transportation vehicle fund. Uh here's looking at appropriations from just a different perspective. This whereas previous slide was based on program, here's we call it our object code. That's how it's broken out in the accounting manual. Here it's more salaries and benefits and MSOC or material supplies and operating
029costs. So again we can see the bulk of our budget is related to salaries and benefits over 80%. Uh if we removed capacity from the budget that would probably increase it to about 83% of um the overall budget as well. Um, again, if we're looking at transfers out, again, that's 650,000, only about 0.5% of the overall budget. And then if we're looking at travel or capital outlay for additional equipment or vehicle purchases, both of those are less than half a percent of our overall budget. Uh, looking at the overall budget and forecast. Uh, so here we see an increase. We're looking at uh fund balance of 13.6 million to start off with and then a decrease of about 2.5. So expenditures are going to exceed revenues uh roughly by about 2.5 million. Uh that would
030take us down to 11.1 million. And then looking at the future years um based on both again the increase in revenues uh due to the EPO levy um combined with budget reductions that would put us um for 2627 roughly about $238,000 change in fund balance. So again we see that gap uh shrinking significantly between revenues and expenditures uh between 2526 and 2627. Uh but when we get to 2829 again we're seeing the increase in um again expenditures start exceeding revenues and again that's just inflation catching up uh to our revenue sources. So we are locked we passed our four-year levy. We are locked in for that amount. That amount is not adjusted for inflation but expenditures operate on an inflationary basis. So it's like we get this reprieve, we we close the gap uh but
031then it starts to widen overall uh as the years go by. Um another highlight is focusing on the minimum fund balance. Uh we've had discussion about increasing from 5% to 6%. uh looking at the overall when completing them between June and August uh looking at the numbers we saw you know beginning fund balance I was looking at kind of starting off at 13.8 kind of revised that down to 13.6 six. Uh we about received about so it was about a $200,000 adjustment revision down and that was due to one we received $150,000 less in uh safety net funding than we budgeted and then uh there were some minor adjustments just um aligning kind of miscellaneous grants revenues and expenditures was about additional $50,000. So, taking that down another $200,000 and then looking at our original
032proposal, the preliminary budget had about a $2.1 million decrease. That's increased up to 2.5. So, right now, just kind of looking at the overall budget. Kind of want to take a wait and see approach in the fall, see how enrollment numbers come in, see how assessed value numbers come in, and then we can revisit this um the matter of increasing the minimum fund balance from 5 to 6%. Because if we were looking at the additional breakdown, if we take minimum fund balance, that's 6.7 plus that unassigned, that's about 6.3% right there. Um, and then as we go from year to year, we can see we know when we increase 5 to 6%, it's about 1.3 to 1.4 million. So if we see like 27 28 or 28 29 we're looking at oh if we're increasing
033if we increase the minimum fund balance additional reductions are going to be necessary in order to maintain that. So again going to wait for the fall kind of see where the numbers play out and kind of revisit this matter. Uh but for budgetary purposes we're sticking with the 5%. uh assumptions and methodology. So again, continued enrollment decline projected, but we want to pay close attention to the Valley Academy numbers and how that will impact uh federal funding and certainty. Um we're going to be paying close attention to the federal budget process. I have again better answers in October, seeing how this going to affect 2627 funding and beyond. Local effort assistance again fluctuates annually. We don't have a crystal ball. Um and we got to pay close attention to the impact of assessed value and
034enrollment on our funding. So as assessed value increases and enrollment decreases, we lose funding. Um so we want to pay close attention to that. Uh we're also operating under the assumption when we say no significant state legislative funding efforts. I mean, our expectation is operating under the assumption that there's not going to be a state bailout or a massive increase in funding uh come the spring. Uh we just got to operate um with what we have and um you know, if there's additional funding, then it's windfall, but we want to be conservative here. uh budget reductions again year-toear as we have declining enrollment. We want to align staffing to enrollment and so that will be an as we see declining enrollment we'll be doing that on a continuing annual basis. Inflationary factors uh IPD is
0352.5%. Again like the state funding like the state legislative funding efforts we don't know what the the state decides what our inflationary measure will be next year. Uh so it could be 2.5 it could be 3.2. Uh we'll just have to wait and see, but the number is 2.5 and that's what we're operating on. And again, we also budget for 100% staffing. Again, we want a conservative budget. Even though there's turnover throughout the year or you know, staff isn't fully employed throughout the whole school year, we operate under the assumption that we are fully staffed uh from September through August. And then another thing we're looking at is K3 class size compliance. So again, we receive additional funding on smaller class sizes. Although the state doesn't look again, the state doesn't look at individual classes.
036They look at your kind of aggregate aggregate whole enrollment uh versus your staffing at the K3 level. Uh so as enrollment declines there and we look at our staffing, you know, we may receive increased funding um just with the decline at the K3 level. um MSOC disclosure uh as part of RCW28505. Uh this is a required uh slide to uh be disclosed at the board meeting and essentially showing the state MSOC funding versus what we're actually proposed to spend for MSOC and ensuring that we're allocating all MSOC funding that we receive from the state uh for MSOC purposes. Uh so here we have uh almost $10.4 million in state MSOC funding and district proposed to spend for MSOC which would be state MSOC would be 13.5. So we have a difference of $3.1 million. Uh
037so since we anticipate spending more than what we've received we're in compliance with this RCW. Uh wrapping up with fund balance again um fund balance is the district reserves or savings accounts and not everything in the fund balance reserves can be used at any time. Here is our breakout of our beginning and ending 2526 fund balance. So we have our restricted amounts for carryover skill center and food services. These cannot be used for any other purpose but these areas. uh followed by non-spendable which is in inventory and prepaid items again kind of related to food services. Uh then we have our committed fund balance. This includes our transfers of for the transportation vehicle fund and capital projects and also additional funding uh remaining to offsetting future budget reductions. And then um we have our unassigned
038and unassigned minimum fund balance there as well. So we can see the increases the differences between the beginning and ending will ultimately impact at the the expectation is it'll impact only at the committed level and at the unassigned level. Um so we see that decrease of roughly about 2.5 million and that would come from both the committed and the unassigned um fund balance reserves. Any questions on fund balance? All right, last but not least, budget timeline. So, we're at um August 12th. We've had our public hearing and then we'll have the adoption on August 26 uh which will be plenty of time to uh for Dr. Kalahar to sign or for the board to approve and then Dr. Kalahar to certify and submit to OSPI by August 31st. Any other questions? >> I do have
039one, Sean. Um, we've gone through in July the ESD review. Uh, was there anything interesting in their feedback? >> I think, um, their feedback was expected. I think they were seeing the same, they shared the same concerns that things that we're seeing. So, I think the large thing is like again paying attention to our fund balance reserves. we are drawing down $2.5 million uh projected for this year. That's no small matter. Um they're also concerned about they wanted to make sure we had a plan in place um especially during July for the the Federal Reserve whether we're going to receive the federal funding or not. Um also wanting us to pay close attention to our K3 class size compliance as well. Um those were kind of the big three things that um jumped out to
040me. All right. Thank you. >> Thanks, Sean. Just want to give Sean uh and his team a shout out. Um this is a lot of work that leads up to today, the budget hearing and then obviously the the things that are necessary afterwards with the approval from the board and then sending it off to OSPI. I was just chatting with with Sean at probably about 5:30 and it's like this this is kind of a crescendo for him u on the year when it comes to budget and the work that he's done to take all the inputs that come into the district and use those to really drive the budget and help the budget um you know be where it is right now. I think the stability that we have is um greatly appreciated and I
041know our community and our school board and our staff appreciate that too. So thanks Sean. Thank you for formalities of the budget hearing and to acknowledge Jenny's presence here. Uh the 2025 budget hearing is now open for public comments. If you haven't already submitted a public comment form, please do so now and give it to Kim. Following comments, Dr. Kalahar or Mr. Fitzgerald will have an opportunity to reply. Kim, do we have any online comments? Okay. Hearing none, the budget hearing is now closed. So now back to our regular board meeting. Our next order of business is our action items. Today we have two action items. We will start with the collective bargaining agreement for the PSC Wanche bus driver. >> Excellent. Yeah, just a quick summary there. The Wanchi School District has concluded negotiations
042with our bus drivers association for the agreement that expires on August 30th, 2025. We are seeking the board's approval of this contract at this board meeting August 12th, 2025. Um, all of you have had a chance to uh review a copy of the completed contract uh with the agreed upon changes. >> Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve the CBA um as presented? Move to approve the collective bargaining agreement between Wanachi School District 246 and the public school employees of Wanachi bus drivers for September 25 through August 28. Thank you, Julie. >> Second. >> Okay, I have a motion by Julie and a second by Mark. Any questions or discussion? Uh, shout out to uh the bargaining team from both ends. Um if no further questions or discussion, all in favor of of
043adopting the agreement say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Next up, we have the resolution 02-25 request requesting a waiver of the minimum 180day school year for grades K through 12. >> Excellent. And just a quick summary there is um annually the Wii school district submits a waiver request with OSPI and then further uh to the state board of education for having three days for parent teacher conferences um so that we can have a check-in point with parents that is early enough in the school year to allow not only for conversations but for uh academics assessments intervention extension support celebrations. So the first part of this process begins with the approval of the resolution here from the board. >> Fabulous. Do I hear a motion to approve the adoption of the of
044resolution 0225? >> I move to approve resolution 0225 to request the request of a waiver of the minimum 180day school year for grades K12 under WAC 18018040. >> Thank you, Martin. I'll second. All right, we have a motion by Martin and a second by Julie. Any discussion? All right. All in favor of of adopt of adopting resolution 0225 say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Okay. Perfect. Motion carries. Moving right along. Our next order of business is the superintendence report. >> Excellent. Thanks everyone. Um I just wanted to share a few words about um the conversation that uh we've had here tonight about July. Um it was July was intense this year uh for us to um we had been s signaled um as school districts and as um uh superintendent that there was going
045to be a concern about federal funding in 2627. We knew about that. We had talked about that. We had kind of expected it. But to have the funds not be released on July 1st was very interesting start of uh of July. And then I remember the following July 7th meeting where uh Superintendent Chris Wright Doll said, "You should prepare for your budgets to not receive these funds." And so that led us down the road to spending from July 7th to the July 25th reducing $2.7 million um on paper theoretically uh in our district. Uh and it was very challenging. So, I just want to compliment our cabinet team um and uh and for our team and special programs. I just think back to uh Tim Shepard as our state and federal programs director and he
046was vacationing in uh New Orleans and we had to schedule a couple Zoom meetings between excursions and naps and happy hour or whatever along the way. But we're like, Tim, we got to meet. And then Por Sean is in Nebraska visiting family and I think we literally had four uh one-hour meetings uh on in four days in a row. But we had to do that work right because that's that's what's happening. So it was a very unprecedented July and I just wanted to share that uh experience with not only the board but the community because we're doing we're doing the right thing for uh our fiscal responsibility. Uh and then the funds were were released on the 25th of July which kind of concluded that 15 day or I guess 18day chaos. Um but uh
047we do we do still need to think thoughtfully about what next year brings. Um that's still as we talked about 2.1% of our budget or two or equaling $2.7 million this year whatever that equates to next year. Um but just doing that due diligence is very important. the exercises and the practices that we went through will be hugely beneficial for us in our planning uh this spring. So anyway, um on to more positive things. Um I before I leave that topic, I do want to add um that this was a statewide and a national issue and concern. It was not just the Wachi school district. Any school district that relies on title funding were in the same position uh during this July. And so weworked with with Quincy and with East Wanache and some of
048the other places um as thought partners to to do some of that work. So um but we do have some exciting things uh that I'd love to talk about. Number one, we have a board workshop on Monday um where we're going to talk about the Wanche School District facilities committee report that was uh delivered on June 24th um and uh ideas and thoughts around a new Wanche High School and some additional HBAC units across the district. So I'm excited about that work. Uh we also have uh August 19th uh next Tuesday is our district opening day. So all of our board members um are obviously invited uh to Wanchi High School. 7:30 starts our community fair. 8:30 starts uh the welcome back assembly and we've got a great uh program for you and we are
049starting what hopefully becomes a new tradition. We're giving out some community partnership awards that morning. So we're excited about that. Um and then of course a week after that school starts. So, uh, we do have another board meeting, uh, in between there on the 26th, but the 27th is the big day. So, we're all getting very excited and that's plenty for the superintendent report. Thanks, everyone. >> All right, board communications. I'm going to go to my right, Mark. >> I just finished up the short Shakespeareians play with music theater, and it was great to see a number of Wachi School District students there. Uh, and they're all excited about the upcoming production that they'll be putting on this fall. >> Well, I visited the final day of summer school. A lot of planning went into
050this year's program. Timetable and transport designed to fit family needs, such as a middle school program and an optional extended day to 300 p.m. Successful recruitment and planning to boost actual attendance to about 200. I saw enthusiasm and very impressive learning in science, math and English language and also formidable intervention that generated catchup improvement in light in writing. My term on the state migrant education committee ended at the end of June. For six years as a WACHI board member, I have volunteered support to multicultural and migrant education and afterchool programs. All of these, plus summer school, were targets of the federal executives's announced intention at the beginning of July to withhold congressionally budgeted and approved 2526 funds from five civil rights programs that included these and summer school, 6.8 billion nationally and an estimated 2.9
051million from WACI school district. I am highly grateful that at the end of July after bipartisan opposition from many US senators a 2526 funding was distributed so that at today's budget hearing we look at a 2526 budget that is similar to June's preliminary plan. These civil rights programs remain existing law, but law for which Congress is in the process of choosing not to authorize expenditure in the 2627 budget. These next comments are personal from one board member speaking as an individual. It's my take on things. I have always held the oath of office to be my duty compass to support the constitutions of the United States and the state of Washington and to promote the interests of education. I bring motive and a mindset that we occupy a shared world. What we owe each other
052is a phrase that reminds us that there are stages, circumstances and times in our lives when we receive from others and also times when we are the givers. I have publicly said that a mutual benefit approach always creates the greatest total combined well-being and will be superior. Applying development economist knowledge objectively. My opinion is that defunding these civil rights programs is harmful nationally and locally to education and to the economy and to the social health of communities. I hope that civic and business leaders and the officials we elect will recognize this and find the moral courage to advocate for the programs and the students and the communities that they serve. Thank you. >> Thank you, Martin. Julie, >> make me go after that. >> Jeez. Um everything Martin said. No. Um, I also I just
053want to thank the the district for getting keeping families in the loop with the communication. I I feel like sometimes we go into summer and we don't hear anything until the week before school starts. And I think a really intentional good job has been done from the minute school was over through the summer just a reminding of the federal funding issues and and um letting us know that it had been restored. So, taking some of the the nervousness off off families in the district, but also some of these getting back into school communications that I've already started getting have been very helpful, although they burst my bubble that summer's almost over. It is it is really great to get um the notices from the high school about activities and things coming back in and how
054to be prepared for the school year. And I I feel like um the platform we're using now is very you can look at it if you want. It's a little bit more user friendly and and helpful. So, I appreciate that from from a parent and community perspective. Um excited for the school year to start. Excited to get the spring activities or fall activities going. Geez. Um it's been a long summer. And uh just a a reminder, we've got a lot of students that'll be um showing animals and livestock and things in 4 at the Waterville Fair coming up, which is before our next meeting. So, I put it out there. And then Cholan County is right after that um after school starts. So, um, get up to see the fair, support some of your FAA
055kids and 4 kids and anyone else that's looking for something fun to do this summer. >> That's better, Julie. Good. >> Tucker, >> thank you. I uh I'm glad I did. Uh, Julie took the bullet for me. I don't have to follow Martin directly. Uh I wanted to say thank you to to the Corey and the cabinet and the special uh programs team because I know that July was really hectic guys and and that was supposed to be your break and it turned out being you know far busier than expected and I think that you know having done that work you know hopefully we'll see that funding in 26 27 but if not you know you you did a lot of the of the prep so hopefully next July you'll have you'll have a little
056extra time. Uh, and Maria, thanks for running the meeting for me because uh it would have been really hard to do that via Zoom. >> Not a problem. Um, I'm gonna echo what uh Julie and Tucker said about keeping the comm uh the communication lines open about, you know, uh the funding um situation um and as we go into the new academic year. Um, just like Martin said in those last couple paragraphs there, um, as from a from a personal perspective and opinion, I fully um, support what Martin said. Um, and I do hope that our representatives at the local, state, federal level um, see the impact that uh, potential budget cuts um, cost will cost um, especially on our protected status uh, student communities. Anything else for the good of or of the order?
057All right. Hearing not, uh, it's 6:51. This meeting is journal.