001e e yes we're now going to work through the agenda board are there any proposed changes or modifications to the agenda all right hearing none I will now 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 had about any items on the consent agenda the consent agenda for this meeting includes vouches and payroll cont tracks field trips and the marsh enrollment report do have a motion to approve the consent agenda I move we approve the consent agenda as presented I'll second all right has been moved by Martin and seconded by Julie any discussion yes several board meetings ago I caused A disruption by saying
002if there's something interesting in the consent agenda the board might bring it to the attention of the community and actually there are three quite interesting things in the contracts this time there's a very small contract of yoga for the students in the juvenile detention center uh it's a reminder to us all that we that the district provides education to these students and it sounds like a well-considered addition to their program it's some years since I visited it but I was very impressed by the quality of the Education Service in the uh Juvenile Detention Center the second one there's a contract for Designing development and employing two clean building standards for wachi High School uh it reports that if we don't meet these standards we could result in $444,000 in fines next year what's interesting is
003that the work will be done by outside Consultants plus with wh wachi high school students in the Advanced Energy Management CTE internship program about which we've heard so much so we see our own students coming back to do consultancy work that can potentially have a major impact on the school and the third one quickly is uh we approved the uh Chromebook part of the uh device replacement this is the other big bill on the iPads but what I want to comment on is when I was first on the board we did not have 100% coverage of devices when that was achieved in covid it was a big question is now you've got a heavier maintenance and approval commitment for your materials and supplies and te technology how can this be done and the only answer
004is with effort and careful management that's the end of my discussion on the consent agenda thank you Martin all right uh all in favor of adopting the consent agenda as presented say I I I and opposed motion carries all right before I read all the all right no citizen comments so I will not read the long boring uh legal and I will let uh Corey take over with the superintendent report no special presentations perfect there we go we're done see you April April fools I love it all right well thank you uh president Jackson uh throughout the year we have asked uh students and staff particularly those from Levy funed programs and opportunities to join us here at our Schoolboard meetings uh for for the entire year it's been great um and tonight we have
005teacher coach and uh restructuring Committee Member Ruben Hart uh here with his mock trial team or members of the mock trial team I don't think the whole is the whole team here no this is a good snippet of that group thank you all for being here uh tonight and representing um uh we'd love to hear from a few of your students about the impact that uh experiences like mock trial has had on their uh student experience thank you for being here and we welcome anyone who is uh prepared to speak to join us uh at the podium and please feel free to all go together for Collective support and unity yes love it yes right there yeah thank you that's okay I got my mock child voice okay so hi my name is maisa McKenzie
006and I'm the mock trial president I've been participating in mock trial for three years and mock trial has opened many opportunities for me I got to meet people in the legal system other teams that have the same interest and create a team Bond but most importantly I found more confidence in myself when I joined mock trial I was really shy I couldn't bring myself to talk in front of people and at the first practice I was trembling at the thought of even giving a speech or even performing in front of people but as I kept going to practices it started getting easier I found myself being able to present in front of the class without being scared and sorry and I even got to introduce myself to people without any hesitation not only did I
007find new confidence in myself but I also found my passion I was in awe of the mock trial process and since that day I knew I wanted to be in the legal field after graduation I plan on going to WSU to pursue a degree in criminology and with the support and challenge mock Tri has given me I wouldn't without the support and the challenge mock trial has given me I would still be the shy timid girl I was in sophomore year who didn't have a plan for her future now I would like to share with you more about the mock trial itself so mock trial is when a group of students take upon roles of lawyers and witnesses to perform a case our job as lawyers are to we give we get a case which
008includes witness statements exhibits inur instructions and create a good argument for our side while the witnesses Jobs is to memorize their witness statements and to create the best argument while answering the questions these cases are made up and um are can go between criminal and civil law but they're mostly made up or based on true events this year was based on a person that broke into a property to get his RV back and it is a criminal case that is using the necessity defense to create our case we started to read through Witnesses statements and we and created questions to ask them to extract the information we needed for our case after that we go to speeches there are three speeches involved in mock trial first is the pre-trial this is where we argue the
009reason for certain um pieces of evidence to be emitted this year was the um defendant's prior criminal record and second are opening statements this is where we get to share the case with the jury for the first time that was my job as a defense attorney this year and I loved it and third is our closing statement closing statements wrap up all the information and evidence presented in the trial and we would get to discredit the other sides for the last time mock trial challenges students to get out of their comfort zones and think out of the box it also teaches students not only legal skills but also the importance of dedication time management and teamwork so in conclusion my time at Mock Trial has impacted me for the better I've gained more information of
010the legal field improved my confidence in public speaking but I also get gained Unforgettable memories thank you wow very well done thank you so much we appreciate that yeah yes you're in good company here so thank you so much she is Right This is complicated good evening may it please the court Council and members of the wachi school district school board my name is Lizzie pitsinger and I am a senior who is graduating this year I've spent the past three years on the mock trial team and I've loved every minute of it but when I first joined the team I had no idea it would impact me as much as it did I've Ed as a defense attorney all three years I've been on mock trial and we've made it to State and place in
011the top 10 every single year I've been participating each year I've learned the ins and outs of what it means to defend my client and usually the jury ruled in the favor of our team I also played a prosecution expert all three years and that taught me a great crash course on how to act like I know what I'm talking about I mean seriously if any of you need a forensic analyst or a medical legal analyst or even the director of house and urban Services come to me because I know just about everything for the madeup city of alai City Washington this year I was actually recognized as the recipient of the Robert J Brian in of Court scholarship for my ethics professionalism and civility in the courtroom I was the only recipient of a
012scholarship at the Montreal state competition and I am beyond blessed to have received that in addition me and James KY another student from wachi high school tied six ways for best witness in the state I am beyond honored to have received these achievements and I could not have done it without mock trial I've learned more from this program than any class could have taught me yes mock trial taught me the way Court works but the skills I've inherited from mock trial go Way Beyond the courtroom I have become a strong and confident public speaker I have developed the ability to stand for my beliefs and opinions I grew the self-confidence to defend people who don't have anyone to defend them and I've even got a better understanding of the career I want to go into
013and I'm planning on minoring in law diversity and Justice at Western Washington University next year the mock trial program is easily the most beneficial experience I've had in my four years of high school so to conclude my time with you here tonight I would like to personally thank attorneys Colby camaron and starle Smith judge Leslie Allen County Commissioner Tracy Brandt and most importantly Law And Justice teacher Mr Ruben Hart had it not been for their incredible coaching and their help in making this program possible I would not be as well prepared for my future today I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to learn and develop the skills that I have through this program thank you absolutely incredible thank you so much we appreciate everyone being here did you have anyone else that wanted
014to speak this evening or is that everyone's like no those were great yes and and those were great thank you so much for uh for being here this evening thank you uh Mr Hart for leading and guiding our students on their extracurricular Journey um and we wish you all the best of luck in the future as well so thank you you're welcome to stick around but you're also welcome to get on with your evening as well whatever works for you thank you so much all right and next up we have uh executive director of business and finance uh Sean Fitzgerald who will be giving us a budget update on the and a legislative update as well and it leaves just Sierra thank you for being here Sierra we appreciate it all right our our loan
015superintendent advisory council member we appreciate you being here right good evening uh president Jackson members of the board superintendent kalahar here to present give a second update on the legislative session in Olympia the just again our kind of background slide I last did a presentation uh my first legislative update was on January 28th so we were about two weeks in to the legislative session which began on January 13th uh we were in a long session this year so it's 105 days um so we're starting in January and ending in April 27th barring a special session so again background special sessions if the legislature does not come to a uh final budget resolution by April 27th they would enter in a special session and that would go for another 30 days regardless if they came up
016with an earlier compromise they have 30 days to Hash it out and they would keep going additional 30 days if they cannot come to an agreement until a budget is passed uh benefits of a long session again focus on longer lar you know larger long-term funding decisions they're working on the two-year budget bium the drawbacks is we don't know it makes it difficult for our own budget planning because nothing is finalized until the end of April and so what we're kind of just waiting for the legislature knowing what their final decisions are until the end of April or early May to help us with our um budgeting for next year and then just adding you're going to see in the slide show a lot of quotequote dead bills um and so these are bills that
017haven't passed uh in one form or another maybe they haven't made out of committee due to lack of Interest or they just don't have enough votes to pass however although bills are technically dead they can return in some one form or another either in a new bill or parts and segments return so even though the overall bill is dead certain segments can arise during final um budget reconciliation process in the last month so we have these things called necessary to implement budget items that do arise so really nothing is truly dead and nothing is truly passed and finalized until the budget is approved by both the house and the Senate uh so just kind of an update on the areas of focus so first off the state budget shortfall so this was a big discussion
018going into uh the legislative session we were hearing early projections between 10 to 12 billion uh we have from the governor's office it could be up to 16 billion and we had it down to 6.7 billion so we had this wide range of projections that were coming out um recently in the last couple of weeks they've kind of narrowed it down to A9 billion budget shortfall uh based on the most recent uh revenue forecast so that's what they're kind of working with right now and then we'll go into more detail um special education people transportation we'll delve into detail all the bills uh on this slide here so we'll jump into special education so the current bill uh 5263 coming from the Senate uh this is a very promising bill for special education funding um
019it condenses the funding model we had the two-tier system you can see up there about how much time a special education students spends in the general education classroom and they get additional funding if they're in tier one unless funding in tier two this bill would condense it to make it one funding system increase the funding and then also get rid of the current enr enrollment funding cap so which is set at 16% so right now I have here uh 14.8% as of February uh since I submitted this slide we have our March apportionment so now we're ticking up to 14.85% um there were also two proposed house bills more limited just kind of increasing funding maintaining the two-tier system not lifting the cap uh those bills aren't dead so this bill has been here since
020the beginning it's still progressing and it's still being talked about Sean real quick but again the house bills might come back like if based on the budgetary needs or is that like they're dead dead well possibly I think anything this the Senate bill is the currently one outstanding so when it's going back between the house and the Senate being debated it could be altered amended and could reflect and it could reflect some of those things that were proposed in the house bills that language could come back but corre this bill is what we're looking at correct okay thank you uh M Sox so Material supplies and operating costs always something we're paying a close attention to so there was a Senate bill and a house Bill uh the Senate bill is still being discussed its
021original proposal was a 10% increase in an annual adjustment based on ipd or the implicit price deflator which is one of the um inflation measurements that are used um that are calculating inflation uh and is also used currently by the legislature for on the salary side uh so this would also tie it to MSO as well the current model is a very ad hoc they just kind of decide what they want inflation that increase to be each year uh so this would be a welcome uh change because then we would know with certainty what the increase would be and also it would be en tied to a uh realistic inflationary Factor uh so again original proposal was a 10% increase uh again as we've been talking about due to kind of budget constraints uh that
022proposal was been reduced down to 6% but we're still seeing uh the annual adjustment tied to an inflationary factor which is welcome uh there was a more ambitious one on the house side a 20% increase which was quickly uh modified to a 3% increase and kind of reflecting more of the current model uh that one did not progress so again the current model the current bill being debated is the Senate bill and again language could arise amending this uh but that's what they're currently working with uh Pupil Transportation uh these bills are generally uh proposed during the legislative sessions as for where we always kind of see um insufficient funding for our transportation um operations that's why when we're you know when we're going out and running the levy we're talking about how our uh
023Levy funds help uh fund our transportation operations and these bills uh were introduced to review the current mut funding model because there was uh uh there is a consensus that the current funding model isn't working uh and they wanted to address a new funding model but however again although there is this discussion and consensus about meting a new Transportation model uh neither of these bills progress very far during the legislative session So currently the current model will remain in place for the time being uh School bonds uh so again um there's a lot of talk about school bonds again uh again looking at simple majority 50% plus one and eliminating the 40% validation requirement and again this would have been a constitutional amendment and then needing two-thirds approval about the house house and the Senate
024before it would go on to a general election uh to pass for a simple majority uh there was a lot of discussion uh and it was also invol revolving around the impact of uh School impact fees um which are set by county or you know your counties or your cities um our area does not have impact fees for schools but it would be an additional assess charge during new construction that would go benefit the schools so there was discussion about um between Republicans and Democrats like hey you know we will um Republicans were like hey um if you get rid of impact fees uh we may consider this bill uh so there's a lot of but the um concern was also like well if we take away impact fees uh how would that affect uh
025School District funding and so there's a lot of back and forth there and so despite a lot of discussion right now there is nothing uh suggesting this is going to move forward although these bills are dead again they could return in some form one form or another during final budget negotiations um but at this time the current model remains with the super majority and a 40% validation uh requirement transition to kindergarten uh so a lot of interest we're taking in these f bills uh so there were two bills 1450 and then the Senate Bill uh both proposing kind of restrictions and requirements on the TK program both of these bills die and so we're like okay current model remains in place but at the time when I was submitting uh this presentation for the board
026packet a new bill was proposed HB 2012 and it's very simple it would just backfill the funding shortage uh for 2425 and uh cap TK enrollment at current 2425 en rollan and that's just the language of the bill so that's the one currently being discussed and we're paying close attention to in regards to our transition to kindergarten program because currently the 2425 is not fully funded correct the money from the state to our district not not necessarily our district but all Statewide all Statewide okay yeah so okay thanks uh also discussion uh raising lid and also modifying local effort assistance uh there were three bills proposed all trying to address um increasing Levy lid uh increasing funding for local effort assistance um very complicated and you know anytime you try to change these things there's
027going to be lots of moving parts and lots of discussion these three bills died uh however um again between now and when I submitted this U um Pres presentation for the packet a um new bill has arisen discussing increasing Levy lits so there's still ongoing discussion about increasing the levy lid local effort assistance so yes these three bills are Deb but the discussion uh is going to remain until April 27th on these matters clean buildings energy act uh a couple of bills were proposed um one was if District showing a financial hardship would qualify for an exemption so in this case an exemption would mean failing to pass a bond or a capital projects Levy to uh address the clean building energy act uh com you know you know to comply with the clean building
028energy act um that bill did not um move forward uh and so the current one is just discussing compliance with alternative metrics and extensions for reporting so those are kind of the main issues that have arisen during the last two months since the last legislative update we are entering the final month we got about less than four weeks to go and again the budget can be finalized by April 27th barring a special session and things are going to be moving fast again just since I submitted this presentation and last week you know the house and the Senate released their budgets there's been a lot of talk back and forth uh so we're going to see a lot of flurry of activity over the next couple of weeks um before the budget is finalized any questions
029I don't know whether you can comment on this you talk about House and Senate and Reconciliation in this last month there's kind of a third player on the sidelines sometimes with a veto pen uh is there anything that you're hearing about the governor's office I I know that there seems to be a difference uh in some of the announcements on the deficit in agade correct yeah I mean again I think the governor's office was definitely proposing a much larger deficit projection model in terms of you know from the governor's office it has been more favorable 2K12 trying you know addressing budget in addressing the budget deficit to avoid any impact to K12 funding I know recently in the last week with the house and the Senate releasing their budgets there's been kind of a slew
030of uh new tax proposals both from the House and Senate side to address the the budget shortfall and um although I think Governor Ferguson just came out today in opposition to the proposed wealth tax um so that's kind of the current talk right now thanks Sean thank you appreciate it okay move into some action all right so no discussion so we're going into action so policy second read and reinstatement so we have have uh second read on 55 policy 55 uh policy 3210 uh 5010 and to reinstate 2410 and I would just love to say a few words before you move into your motion just really quickly just just quick explanation before we get into the motion that will be on the table which will include approving three policies for second read and then reinstating
031our original High School graduation policy without the addition of having uh our students sit or take the smarter balance assessment as part of the graduation requirement uh process I just wanted to share a little bit about why we looked into this change um and first and foremost we know as a school district uh and as a board uh that there are there's more to learning and more to academic growth and more to the student experience than just standardized testing however we also know that that testing is part of the process and currently how our state gauges learning uh meeting standards and growth and it's true that our students can navigate through life and post-secondary education without passing this assessment but much of the work that we do in aligning our classes to grade level content
032and to common core standards are to create guaranteed and viable curriculum that helps our students compete academically across the district across the state and Across the Nation so when our students Do not sit for standardized assessment it puts us at a disadvantage in knowing accurately where we we stand and where we need to improve to ensure we are engaging our students at a level where they can enter a global Workforce and Thrive um these words from the office of the superintendent of Public Instruction students in high school all students regardless of which graduation pathway they intend to complete are expected to take the appropriate Smarter Balance assessment in English language arts and math during 10th grade and to incorporate their results into their high school and Beyond plan test refusals penalize schools and districts students
033who do not test are counted among the number of students who do not meet standard this is reflected in our accountability index schools and districts that fall below a 95th percentile participation rate on States uh test jeopardize eligibility for any state and federal Awards or recognition so I just wanted to share that and clarify kind of our stance as a board and as a as a district on the state assessment before uh before you throw a motion in there thank you all right do I have a motion to approve the policies I move that we approve policy 5005 employment and volunteers disclosure certification requirements assurance and approvals policy 3210 non-discrimination policy 510 non-discrimination affirmative action and that we reinstate the policy 2410 graduation requirements to the previous version last reviewed on March of 2024 I'll
034second it I'll jump in here okay it has been uh moved by Maria and seconded by Tucker um anyone discussion uh thank you uh Dr Kart for providing that um explanation um and for and for taking the time to insert the um the OSI guidance and the impact that um the SBA uh of of students not taking the SBA has on um on the district I think we as a district can continue to advocate for all of our students to take the SBA um without making it a requirement or violating it all right all in favor of adopting the policies as presented say I I all right no oppose motion carries and now we get to the superint report let's do it okay excellent um just uh wanted to State uh last week at our
035March 25th school board meeting uh we heard from representatives of several of our communities local athletic programs about the district's uh facility use fees and the impacts uh or experiences with our newer rates and the newer processes and we want to thank everyone for their time and for sharing their thoughts and experiences with us and even though uh our system is or was in a need of update it is not our intention ever to alienate uh our local athletic programs or create barriers uh to student participation due to unrealistic costs um in the process our team will continue to work through the refinement of a process and a cost structure that allows the school district to recoup its actual costs in a fair and reasonable way uh in doing this work we will continue to
036partner with our community to create great Feer programs to develop strong Panther Athletics there will be more work and information to come uh in the near future on this topic so thank you for that uh and then I just want to add a couple of uh fun events that I was able to go to in the last little bit there um last Thursday we had a great migrant night where Nancy and and Alfonso they always do an amazing job welcoming our parents and families and making sure there's great entertainment uh the main program was Safety and Security uh or sorry student safety and communication Ron Brown and Tom K we walked our families through an informative slide deck that included things like parents Square online and Internet safety and uh uh district and building drill
037protocols for uh staff and student safety was great and then after that I walked down to the main gym and watch the uh wi High School dance team and their final performance before their send off to State at Yakama so that was a great uh presentation as well I'm always amazed I don't know last time everyone's seen the dance team but they are tight and it's very I mean they are in sync and uh I you just don't mess around with the dance team they are taking care of business uh we also had a restructuring committee last week um on Wednesday where we spent some time uh talking about um all things restructuring but we talked about a a stem School presentation that Jake bule shared with us uh from late January uh much of
038the conversation focused on the importance of capturing the interests of our students in Early Middle School um if possible and uh so you we have another meeting that will come up in May and we're going to spend some time working on Marcy's presentation from last week um because that's very uh pertinent to the work that we're doing at the restructuring committee uh and I just a celebration we had our project review committee meeting last Thursday um where representatives from Clash group and myself presented to the Washington state project Review Committee this was a new one for uh superintendent kalahar um we had a 20-minute presentation uh 15minute Q&A and then 10 minute of public uh comment during this time and uh the board unanimous unanimously approved uh the progressive design build project for our technical
039skills center and uh We've uh since then put out with Diana's help some rfqs for design and construction teams so very excited about that movement there so and that's it for me awesome thank you thank you Corey Martin I'm G let you start this time you're stting I mean it's it's been a very busy week seems like a month okay so I'll go backwards uh this morning was the kickoff day 1 of April and the first day that all the Western Hills Trails were open for the fifth grade science project so over 500 students from Mission View and Newbury and these extracurricular activities often involve The Independent School St Joe's and Riverview were there um and it was uh with their adult instructors and their chaperon and wsd staff and this was their program today
040I said I would show it and the other schools will be there tomorrow and on weddings day and then the other grades will feed out through April and May uh on Sunday there's the final games and awards for the uh Indo football or soccer league um and uh which is a lot of fun and people were there but I think this was I want to say this is a one form of response to what I often hear from community that they're interested in healthy activities for out of regular school hours especially in the winter when outdoor is not possible and something I forgot to say about six weeks ago um actually I'm just adding lib the new mower snowblowers were there when that got uh and the operator said it was amazing and it saved
041him a ton of time and so the money that was spent on the equipment was definitely performing um wintergard Saturday uh won the regional event and you talk about the dance team too just awesome um and what I want to say is extremely well organized they' done things like figure out how to get the gear off the gym floor about twice as fast as before there were hundreds of people from all over the state visiting many of whom said they were spending the night and going on to do tourist things here and it was great atmosphere great sportsmanship and happy spirits and it really uh was very impressive to see that on Sunday oh Saturday uh then we go back to Friday night the Mariachi program I'll let other people say more about Mariachi I
042just want to say that was awesome seeing uh so many students last year I think they got more people on stage than I'd ever seen before this time they couldn't even do that they had the younger kids in the orchestra pit the older kids off stage and they rotated them in and out and ran a really slick program and if you watched everybody playing together um the there was the level of performance given the wide of skills from STS to Advanced and so many people with so few days was just extraordinary so um that was a great project and then the day before there was the Mariachi porch and Corey was there too uh that was when you we learned that there were more than 500 students there were students from King County and the
043coast for the first time ever and appreciate the uh instructors and teachers who came mostly from Seattle and further field um and um but what I wanted to say is it was a good good example of how fortunate the school district is that we've got really good Partnerships um the outside people who came to see Mariachi included mayor porier and councilor quas and you know their idea of of of partnering and the importance between Civic and School District was something there I just wanted to say that that was uh enough for one week one month but uh all on a theme lead you to filibuster the uh citiz or the the comment section all right Maria um not much I just want to say thank you to all the community volunteers regarding the events that
044were held here in miat this weekend uh that Martin just mentioned I know a lot of parents and community volunteers uh unfortunately I couldn't attend the tour on Friday Thursday at the college I think I saw um but it was nice to see the mayor both Mayors um both superintendent uh community and I know um Chris KY did an amazing job organizing and supporting director Cortez um so anyways thank you to all our community and school volunteers yeah I don't have much to add H congratulations to the color guard on their title um one more event that uh I think was a success was the math is schol for the elementary kiddos at foill last Friday I saw a lot of smiling faces my daughter participated and Sunny Slope did pretty well but I know
045there's a lot of visions and um it's amazing to see so many kids and volunteers engaged in in that project um and I just appreciate your message to the community about working on continuing to refine our processes and taking their feedback into consideration and I think that's that is a healthy partnership to to support I am impressed with the amount of things you guys would talk about when we were just here a week ago so yes thank you to all our volunte years and and uh hopefully everyone's able to take advantage of these things now that that spring is springing um and other than that I think it's time can I be out of control on one other thing because when you said there were so many the Regional High School Art Exhibit is on
046at the Museum and the beauty of bronze exhibit is on so and it's on I think till fairly for another few weeks in April so yet another activity for everybody in this crazy time when when you're no longer on the school board will you come back and just be our event coordinator I would appreciate the Martin's Roundup will just be like special presentation at the end okay anything else all right now we're going to do their executive session so the school board will now recess into executive session for a period of 60 minutes until 7:39 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 RCW 42 3110 this is discussion will be closed to the public the Schoolboard
047is not expected to take final action following the executive session think we can do it okay let's say 46 so I can do math more easily and then and let's go till 7:25 all right e e e okay we're going to extend to 7 for 15 minutes for till 7:40 e e e okay uh executive session is done and a Jour cool all right e