Wenatchee School District Board Meeting 6/4/24

001e it is 6: PM so I will call this June 4th 2024 meeting at the wachi school district school board to order we will begin with the pledge of allegiance of Ali EST uh we will now work through the agenda just briefly before we get to our special presentation uh the first item is the consent agenda the items on the consent agenda were sent to the board and posted online last week the board has had an opportunity to review the materials and individually ask the superintendent any questions on any item on the agenda uh this week's consent agenda consists of the minutes from the May 28th 2024 regular school board meeting vouchers and payroll Personnel reports s Surplus report contracts and the 2425 B schedule do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda

002I move to approve the consent agenda as described second moved by Martin second by Marina any dis or Miranda I'm sorry any discussion hearing none all in favor I and any opposed and Tucker we see you online thanks for joining um next up then is our before we move into citizen comment we'll move into our special presentation okay excellent well we can you can see that the house is packed with our retirees and our families so thank you everyone for being here um words cannot express the depth of our gratitude uh for your dedication to our students our staff and our families uh and to the school district no matter what the role in our system uh your efforts have been uh your efforts and what you have poured your hearts and souls into has

003been critical in shaping young minds fostering a love of learning and nurturing the potential within each student your commitment has spanned years filled with countless late nights early mornings and unwavering passion for the education of our youth the impact that you all uh have made goes far beyond the classroom and building walls you've been mentors confidants and pillars of support leaving a mark on generations of students faculty and staff your legacy will continue to inspire as we strive to carry forward the torch which you've so brightly lit we celebrate your well-earned retirement and wish you all the joy and fulfillment in the exciting new chapter to come may it be filled with Adventure cherished moments and the continued satisfaction of a life dedicated to making a difference so thank you all very much you can

004give your ourselves a round of applause and we will we'll continue okay we're good uh we will continue with a a presentation tonight not all of our retirees um are here and present but we have a a wealth with their families and thanks for coming and and sharing and we have uh we have leaders department leaders and building leaders that are here to share a little bit about their retirees as well so we're going to start off tonight with Columbia Elementary oh I'm sorry and the microphone's right over here Diana is gonna get into position for a a picture opportunity hello everybody ready nice to see you uh my name is SC Stewart I'm the principal at Columbia and this is Tammy Linsky she is the music teacher at Columbia for the last 25 years

005and before that in Chalan yep so I don't it's a long time I know the um I'm supposed to say a few words about Tammy I don't know how long I'm supposed to go um so I can go really short or long but I I'd like to go long because Tammy is uh the type of educator that is extremely special um and that you don't come across very often um or you come across very often but she really stands out um Tammy when she I first came to Columbia Elementary School I had this a um a staff member at my old school in Yakama who was very nice and to your face and then when you weren't around wasn't very nice at all and when I first met Tammy I was like maybe she's a

006secret agent too I I because I'd never tamy is so nice but the difference is Tammy's nice all the time to everybody and she's an amazing human being that gives to this community well beyond what she does at Columbia she is regularly out in the evenings all school year long um she might be playing an organ at a church she might be accompanying uh a student in the high school that's going to state for a vocal performance she might be helping out the um District uh play or um musical she might be giving individual lessons for free she gave them to my own daughter just because my daughter asked her and she said of course and that is who she is uh to her core she's the best of all of us and it was

007really cool to like to get to know somebody that you're like man I want to I want to be like her when I grow up just because of how kind she is and it and it carries over into the classroom it doesn't matter the most challenging Behavior student or academically challenged student all the way till the easiest student she was the exact same way to everybody and um one thing Tammy would do with students who needed extra support she would seek out ways to hey Sai I got an extra 15 minutes here can you bring that student in I might be able to get him on the piano and get him interested in that and that extends to what she did with strings and I could go on and on because this is just is

008that enough okay I'm sorry she would never toot her own horn because that's not who she is but um she really is the best of us and thank you for all you've done thank you you can just do a quick picture of the two of you together and then we'll invite you to shake hands uh next up we have a few uh retirees at the district office so we'll have Mike Lane jump up here first thank you thank you it's my pleasure to be talking about my friend Ben far Ben can you come on up and join me uh it's my pleasure to be speaking about Ben um Ben was hired in 1999 as a swing shift custodian at Foothills Middle School he then went through a couple of reorganization structures around uh where the

009custodians were and landed in 2016 where he currently is which is splitting his time between the district office and Castle Rock Early Learning Center uh now one of the things you learn in principal school is that when you go to a new school the two most people most important people that you meet on day one and develop relationships with are the secretary and the custodian uh and the reason for that is that those two people more than anybody else have the pulse of the entire school and they know exactly what's going on and they also make invaluable daily contributions to the creation and preservation of a safe warm and welcoming environment so much of Ben's work actually occurs beyond the school day so it might be easy to miss uh the fact that his contributions

010pay huge dividends to the culture of our school district men's dedication hard work and unwavering commitment have made our school district a better place for generations of students staff families and our community members beyond the physical upkeep Ben has been a beacon of kindness and support for anyone who crossed his path whether it was lending a listening ear or offering a warm smile he has touched the lives of countless individuals leaving an indelible mark on our school Community Castle Rock principal Janice Schartz has this to say about Ben he is so fantastic and considerate I often work late at the office and I always appreciate that Ben stops by to check in he asks about my kids and how the job is going he's been such a kind and fun person to see at the

011end of a long day he will be missed Ben congratulations on your retirement we wish you uh your days filled with family and friends and spending quality time in your shop I will miss you uh professionally and personally uh and if you need any help finding homes for all those guitars you're constantly working on you know how to find me right all right and then sorry okay next we have uh another district office retirement and Sean Fitz showell oh no no sorry no no Mike you stay up there sorry I I'm gonna I was gonna talk about Valerie gray but I'm not seeing am I seeing Val am I missing Val let's just all hold I can come back up if she if Val GES okay yep and in the meantime we'll have Sean Fel

012come on up all right Marsha Reed come on down so Marsha's been with the district for 12 years and in that time she has been in the role of accounting specialist and what she excuse me and what she specializes in is making sure the bills are paid and people and and we got all the invoices so keeping track of that and uh that's not an easy task uh there's a lot of paperwork and there's a lot of uh people skills involved working with staff and working with vendors making sure we have accurate information and uh making sure everything's done timely and orderly and so I've only had the pleasure of working with Marsha for the last two years uh but I did speak with some of her colleagues who have been here uh with her

013uh since she started and a lot of things were very common in what they said um her when it came to her work it was accurate and reliable and she took pride in it and she was always going above and beyond and making sure uh she everything was in order and we were getting the things done and done right the first time um and then on a personal side people just thought she was a great colleague with a great sense of humor and always enjoyed working with her um Mara you've set the bar high and we're going to miss you and uh um and all you bring to our staff and and uh and the office as a whole um just to share one story with you just one story um and just to see

014what the things she had to uh deal with we were uh a few months ago she had uh we got a Amazon order of uh seven wheelchairs um except these seven wheelchairs uh they were supposed to arrive three years ago and uh we had a need for him three years ago um but uh thanks but no than we're good right now we don't need them now and so Mara got on the phone with the Amazon vendor and uh we were quickly able to return I believe four of them uh but the other three they just insisted we keep uh they were filled by outside vendors and they didn't want them back um but Mara she kept at it and worked and worked months and months on hand and they finally took those wheelchairs back so

015yep it's just some of the things Mara has to do every day um Marcia thank you for all your hard work um and uh just being a great colleague and cooworker we're going to miss you sorry excellent congratulations next up Lewis and Clark hello I'm Angie I'm the assistant principal at Louis and Clark and I would like Vicki Reed we are celebrating her today so come on up so Vicki Mr abula and I almost got into a fight over who got to be here to celebrate you tonight I won so um Vicky has been a part of the wachi school district since 2005 and I don't even know how many of those years were at Louis and Clark uh since 17 since 17 but I had the privilege of seeing her every day she started

016off in our cafeteria meeting greeting the students and taking little cards or I mean she was always great at helping us find ways of being better at what we do and always had a smile and something kind to say to the kids always helpful and then we got rid of that system and um everybody got to have a free meal so then Vicky started helping us um monitor the kids during um lunch and then also being outside on the playground and she is just always calm cool she's always there for the students to be a listening ear to meet them wherever they're at to help them solve problems um she is so amazing and we are super fortunate because not only did she retired but she is back volunteering and not only that she brings

017her husband so we have an extra person out there so that's even better you know so we get to still see her each week and she's still out there and um she has a chair that that she sits in the kids snow to come and talk with her and like all grade level she when she comes she's there all through the recesses so she is just continually building those relationships from kinder to fifth grade and just amazing so we are fortunate that we still get to see you each week and that our students and our staff still get to have the pleasure of being with you so congratulations uh next we have our maintenance and operations Department uh good evening everybody I uh Joan Griffin if you can just come on down um Jones worked

018for the school district for eight years and in that time she's worked only at Lincoln Elementary um so she's been like the one constant custodian that we've had there since uh we rebuilt Lincoln um I also in my time here um had the pleasure of hiring her she was my first hire when when I came to work here at school district so um kind of a special moment uh to see somebody bring them on and then let them kind of like go off into retirement so um Joan's kind of one of those people that she's really dedicated to her job um I think if you ask anybody that works in her building they'll tell you that they definitely know when she's gone and they really appreciate when she comes back um and that's just uh

019the type of person that she is she's just got that dedication she's hardworking um she's going to be sorely missed Whoever has to replacers has got some humongous shoes to fill so uh Joan congratulation on your retirement and be on on behalf of the district thank you for your 8 years of service let's see next up we have Mission view principal Jeff Jagger all right Miss Jamal don't you just love her I don't know if I need my microphone um yeah Mrs chamal has been with the district 21 years and I believe 20 and a and a half or at Mission view so we've had her the whole time quite the blessing to have as we all know we know who really runs our schools and that's the office managers correct office managers and assistant

020principles are running the show so we've been the privilege to have Mrs chamal at the head of our ship for 21 years so it's Tradition at Mission view we have a poem prepared for Miss chamal so if you would like I would I would like to present it to you I hope to get through it calm kind and committed that's our alland chamal from family Advocate to office manager this Senora can do it all patience is her Mantra and helpful is her style a Skyward Problem Solver and a and bilingual all the while she takes her job most seriously every detail she attends the right arm of the office on whom everyone depends even when she's busy with the jillion things to do when a child or adult interrupts her she stops to help them

021through some people just have warmth and love the kind that makes life good new employes and the long-term staff are touched as only Alejandra could her personal faith and integrity inside and out of school Alejandra this is very cool as you take this retirement step know you are loved and kissed there's so much more for you to do but ad Mission view you'll be missed prepared by GG Shaw yes thanks for sharing us all these years Ben we so appreciate you and her uh Lisa Douglas [Music] ah this is GNA be a hard one so Lisa Douglas 36 years all at Mission view how do you top that I could be up here all night speaking uh so again you heard me say that it's tradition Mission view we do a poem Lisa chose not

022to but you know what sometimes you got to do it anyway so this poem is not presented or prepared by gig Shaw it's presented by me so please be polite Lisa Douglas yes that's with an SS there's kids in the room so I can't say anymore you have been our Rock the past 36 years coaching younger staff and the principles you've been quite the peer you will forever be re here be remembered for your sigh which raised its head every once in a while truth be known you had a point but all you had to do was smile you've done an excellent job of teaching them all they all will remember how you touched them him my son being one taught by you he had a ball you brought new meanings to many things one

023of them being putting my big girl pants on I'll try to keep it clean when there are problems to solve in the schoolhouse you were the one that could always be counted upon and then there were those caramel apple suckers that would prevent a few words slip out but let's not talk about that having you here at Mission View for the for the 36 years was our brother we commend you for your leadership positive relationship dedication inspiration flexibility collaboration and of course humor Mr St Gene knew the impact you would make and you have become that mission view tutor it is now time to spend time with your own kids Cam Haley and the GRS and of course gar your life will now be filled with ball playing and raising rigs Thank you Lisa Douglas

024how to do okay next we have our director of special education with the presentation Miss is them come on up Kathy mon te AKA Mrs M i for the longest time didn't know how to say her last name she was just Mrs M um Kathy has been um serving our district as a special education perah for a long long time um throughout her 35 years of service to our school district she has supported students across many of our buildings including Sunny Slope Mission view Lincoln Washington she danced in the Middle School world for a little bit with Pioneer and Orchard and then found her longtime home for the last several years at Newberry and she has worked to support many of our students with disabilities across um many different settings with diversity of needs many

025different special education teachers teams different administrators flexibility and adaptability are um key traits for educators in general I would say probably a really big one when we talk about our special education pairs we ask a lot of them um and we put them in in situations with demands to support students that um really require that flexibility and that adap ability and Mrs Z has been a amazing example of that throughout the years um I talked to a teacher that has worked with her for a while and she shared with me and wanted to make sure that Mrs M heard that um her compassion and her kindness and caring for students was evident every day in the work that she did to take care of students and her experience and love for students has been missed

026and will continue to be missed congratulations on your retire ir and we will miss you very much uh next up Orchard Middle School uh I am Josh etson the assistant principal and I'm excited to bring up Perry this is Perry Roth there are many s's that we will talk about job related in a moment but what I want to highlight about Perry first is just the human interaction part when I think of my interactions with Perry it's a lot of conversations about air filters biking to work and the joys and struggles of owning an RV and I just really appreciate the human part of it like this is a retirement from a job but it's humans who do jobs and you exemplify that we are humans and we want to interact on that level so

027getting to the s's Perry is very skilled as a custodian you do lots and lots of things and then you do even more that you didn't know that you were going to do and he's always had a safety lens that helps ensure safety for his team for the adults and for students in my time here we've talked a lot about snow and what impact snow has on our building and on whether or not him and I are going to be tired in the morning okay smoke where's that coming from and how do we adjust okay Parry is steady and that is the even Keel whatever's coming our way we can get through it whether it's a planned event that is much larger than we planned it to be or whether it's something that has come

028up at the last moment that steady approach is very well appreciated and then stories Perry has them and he's willing to share and they always have a part that makes me either feel like I need to be riding my bike to work more he or that I missed out on some of the skills when Perry can share that he has them because I don't the last one is summer we have one more summer with Perry and he'll be his retirement dates at the end of the summer and summer is one of the most challenging time for custodians there's so much to do and there's so many assistant principles coming saying is this going to be ready is this going to be ready did you plan for this and Perry comes back to that steady what

029ever comes our way the first day will come and we'll have done our job incredibly well Orchard's going to miss you Perry okay Ron Brown is up there with some technology retirements so the theme the theme I've heard so far is that uh we are losing a lot of incredibly uh nice kind people with a lot of integrity and that is hard to replace uh and I'm going to speak about two individuals who exemplify integrity and they will be sorely missed by our technology staff uh so I want to bring up Craig Stewart first I'm not a Storyteller but there's a there's a few things I wanted to say about uh Mr Stewart Craig is a incredibly steadfast employee uh over 30 years of service for wian schools he's our computer repair technician and if

030you think back 30 years when we were repairing computers he was one of the first that really dove into that work and he has been the sole repair uh person for wachi schools for the past 30 years so I don't know I think I counted at least potentially a 100,000 computers he might have repaired over his career in wachi schools uh and if you remember covid we had a few devices to hand out and repair when they came back so uh I can't think of anything better than somebody that just stands with Incredible Integrity you'll be sorely missed uh you're a valuable team member and if if anything I can say about our staff and especially Craig and and the next gentleman is uh do it do it for the kids whatever it takes we'll

031find a way you just tell us what we need to do and we will make it happen because it's about the students uh it's not about us as employees and he he said that in many different ways every time he interacted when given a directive uh or interacted with other staff members so uh incredibly honored and privileged to to stand here and say a few words about Craig Stewart so you'll be missed and thank you very much for your service and enjoy your family and your retirement I'm gonna miss that guy uh another another individual who's leaving us uh after almost a Dozen Years Jeffrey scon over had the honor and privilege of working with Jeff uh throughout his career WI a school district and again it's it's another person that I can't think of

032someone who has more Integrity uh and he is in charge of our Safety and Security Systems uh and that that means a lot to him it means a lot to our kids and our staff uh to to take that responsibility of all our alarms and burglar alarms and fire alarms uh and our control systems and cameras and he is the one person that does all of those systems for our school district uh he'll be truly missed uh and but again someone said it earlier I think Josh said it it's about relationships in our business and we we can replace skills we can train skills we can't train uh the The Human Side of what we're going to miss with Jeff and Jeff will do anything you ask and he'll say it with a smile and

033he'll get it done and you'll know that when he walks away you can expect it to happen so uh he's just one of those great people so I'm super excited he's going to go quad every other week and be up in the mountains and enjoy the outdoors with with his family so I'm very excited for him but I'm very sad for us and hopefully both of those individuals come back and visit because they are they are definitely a part of our team forever so thank you Jeff for your time transportation is next jensy hello Mr Pedro where are you no one would know just last week we were crying together in my office when he handed in his uh retirement but uh some big smile um I've had the um privilege of working with Pedro

034just the last four years of his 24 year career here so I took an opportunity to ask our fellow staff what they would describe Pedro in in one word um and some of them that they came up with was fascinating I don't know caring considerate funny committed generous thoughtful adaptable kind-hearted a hero altruistic and the best one that I got today was he's just Pedro if you know Pedro you know that he is just Pedro so aside from all the sentimental words that describe you Pedro I would like to add jokester shortly after I came to the team I was fairly new and you came up to my window in my office and affectionately called the window the complaint window so multiple times a week he would barge into the office lean on the window

035seal and say I have a compl complaint where I would say that the department was closed still to this day we joke about the complaint window that really doesn't take complaints so Pedro we are thankful for the years of your of you transporting our students the hundreds of athletic and field trips you have driven our monthly staff meetings where we can always count on you having just one more question and knowing EX exactly where you have been in our building because your trace of Clone is there I know that this was not an easy decision for you I hope that you find peace with your decision and you enjoy time with your family and friends in the coming years thank you for your dedication to student transportation our transportation family and the wian school district

036you will be missed but not forgotten by your transportation family hold on I'm gonna go got it [Laughter] okay Valley Academy of Learning hello I'm Shelley jeling I'm the director at Valley Academy of Learning the hard thing for me is that I only had the opportunity to work with Tammy for one year because this is my very first year at Valley Academy of Learning but I cannot tell you how much I have learned learned from this amazing lady she has been in education for 41 years she you know a lot of times when you think of someone who's retiring and I know this is not any of you guys in here but um because we have all these amazing Educators and so many people I've worked with in here um but she is one that

037has never burned out um she ended her year this year with a bang she decided that she was going to have a play at when High School um that had all of our kids in a drama class doing everything from building the set to doing the lines to singing and dancing and um making costumes she is someone who just has tireless energy um she is someone who decides all of a sudden in her last year that she's going to make this team of Engineers and they're going to go over and do the future city of wachi or and do this amazing stuff um they do this present ation and kids are just looked on As Leaders she's the type of person that is till the last minute very available and wanting to Mentor um so

038much that I hired somebody new for her role um and immediately that person is going into some fraternity leave and so I was like tamy because we are in Alternative Learning education it's not easy to learn and I was like what do you think and she said yes and I'm so thank she just is that person um she is there for everybody she brings a joy um through the building not only is it that she's coming through um in her body but she also brings a wagon of things every time she walks through the door of whether it's Donuts or cookies to um make the students excited it might be a whole thing of costumes because someone donated them and she's bringing them into the building um to props for something that she's teaching um

039engineering or stem activities she's got it all and um we're just thankful to have her in our building I'm thankful to get her back for a little bit of time um but 41 years in education um what a feat and we're just so thankful to have had her at Valley Academy for the last six years so um congratulations Tammy I do not really know how we're going to fill your shoes um but I don't have to for too long next year I get you back for a little bit of time okay thank you when aie High School thank you Eric Anderson principal Wane High School we've got three retirees this evening that are here and I'm going to start with Laya CA come on up Lyla now I'm just going to share with you this

040is not L's normal speed just so so you know one of the stories that I mean sticks out of my mind please come up here is the first time I met lla when we were one of my mentors shared with me early on like an administrator never moves too fast in the building because teachers think or any staff thinks the building's on fire right like you got to move at a good Pace but you can't move too fast L moves as a pace like the school's on fire everywhere she is going so she stands out in my mind that's the first time we met I'm like I'm gonna introduce myself right now like hey how we doing and Lyla is an amazing individual who is going to be missed at wachi high school she cares

041deeply about our students and you have worked at every ranks of elementary middle and high and work with a ton of students and take kids where they are doesn't matter where they are where they're coming from what their current situation is this individual just loves on them and we that is going to be hard to replace obviously because it is tough to watch you move at the pace that you move and touch as many kids that you've touched over the years in our system and L you're going to be missed greatly yeah I well I know you can come back and help you're welcome to come back you got it well congratulations on your retirement thank you thank you all right next is Mr Todd busy so I don't know if I'm just not as

042observant as I should be but when you and I talked this fall about you retiring I looked at you like are you old enough to retire my friend and you said yes I know you are now but you you shared with me 33 years at that point in time and then you shared your age and on my mind about exploded because I'm like man I need to look as good as you do when I'm your age I'm just telling you right now after 33 years of working with kids in math and science Todd has has been in leadership in our building as a department head and it's not often that you get people that are diving back into math I'm just going to share that as well so Todd was with us working hard in

043science and was like you know Eric I'm thinking maybe ma back to math what do you think about that I'm like absolutely let's do this uh and Todd's done a fantastic job working with our students taking a lot of leadership within the department worked with students at all levels in math I can't even imagine the number over those 33 years that have moved on to higher level math onto engineering um and you're going to be missed my friend so thank you very much all right Mr Tom balme here so Tom if you don't know this hosts Gatherings at his house specifically for the math department and I got invited one year which was awesome uh pool parties to be exact which I was like wow this is fantastic we got people in bathing suits sitting

044down around a pool dipping their feet in we got dogs running around it was a whole lot of fun but what we found through that particular evening the first time that we got together was that we both enjoyed a certain type of beverage and an Amber specifically so we were chatting about this and then lol and behold the next time I saw Tom he's bringing me a six-pack of something I mean just just a regular beverage obviously but I mean just something to enjoy and we then enjoyed back and forth I was down in California happened to find his favorite uh beverage yes down there and I brought that back for him as well so we've had this ongoing relation ship around this uh and it has been a ton of fun and you have

045mentored a number of our Math teachers I mean over and over I would say that as people kind of think about Tom it is as a mentor to our younger younger staff in our building he really takes that time to get to know our younger staff to invest in them um and really dive into that work with them so he's going to be miss greatly in our building and has taken the lead in Geometry for a number of years and I don't know how many in here would say that geometry is your favorite class ever High School okay maybe a handful or two back in the but I'm saying majority it's not exactly what they're dying to get into and Tom loves that Conta content and loves the kids in that classroom and they're typically

046our younger students and does a fantastic job with it and my own students also were in your classroom so my own daughters were there so much appreciated my friend you're going to be missed thank you Tom excellent um I am here representing Winan Valley technical skills center so Terry come on up here so yep Pete was not able to join us tonight but he prepared some words so just imagine I'm taller and more tan um and then it'll be Pete so we'll just go from there okay um so first of all Terry you are a rock you are grounded and you are steady you have impacted all types of students not by giving them technical trade skills all the time but by coming along IDE them individually and helping them find themselves this doesn't happen

047by you telling them how to live and be better but by showing them through your actions you have not just been a mentor to our students but to Pete as well uh there have been many times when Pete has questioned his Effectiveness as a leader and a person and in many of those moments Terry you came alongside to share a word of wisdom and kindness and Pete knows that these gifts and actions will not stop once you retire from the WAN School District whatever your next role will be or Pastime or activity or whatever that might be Pete knows that it will continue to be a blessing for others so thank you Terry fik one of these Terry these guys want to shake your hand okay I just want to thank everyone for coming tonight

048uh and for bringing your family and your support and your people um we have uh we're we're going to transition a little bit so it's a great time if you did not want to stay for the rest of the board meeting we would completely understand that but we're going to transition to Citizen comments so uh if you'd like to uh sneak out you're welcome to do that thank you oh and retirees make sure you grab your clock over there um I know you've been been eyeing those uh with desire so grab those bad boys on the way out so thank you very much and we'll transition to Citizen comet okay we are ready e e e all right it it's a little quieter in here now so apparently no one wants to spend the rest

049of the night with us um so uh appreciate the service of our retirees and now moving on to Citizen comment um I can read the whole script but I'm being told that we don't have any citizen comment is that anyone moving on then um we'll move on to special presentations part two yes and I will invite our executive director of learning and teaching Heidi busk up to uh begin our presentation looks like the mic did not stay the way I wanted it to stay so I apologize for that thank you Heidi there I think I've got it we're good to go it's gonna fall again all right thank you wasn't that lovely tonight oh my goodness what a great celebration all right well um good evening we are excited to um come back to you

050tonight and share about our multi-tiered systems of support with the focus on high cap and the highly capable program tonight in the wachi school District we promise to build a foundation of diversity equity and inclusion from which each student emerges Future Ready diversity for students means I am seen Equity I will Thrive and inclusion I Belong One way we are living up to our promise is through our multi-tiered systems of support or layers of support for our students we ensure our students have opportunities to Thrive by providing tier one first best instruction with differentiation using evidence-based best instructional strategies in every classroom for students who need additional time and support to reach or extend on our priority standards we provide additional layers of support our district highly capable program is part of our multi-tiered systems

051of support and is one of the many ways we are fulfilling our promise our highly capable the mission of our highly capable programs is to provide services that acknowledge and address students diverse Advanced learning needs now I will turn the presentation over to our wachi school district highly capable coordinator Kathy Moody to share information about our program and how we serve students and the Equitable identification practices we have in place in our district that work okay thank you um we appreciate this opportunity to share about highly capable programs as part of the multi-tiered system of support in the wachi school district in Washington for highly capable um students access to accelerated learning and enhanced instruction is access to a basic education which is right in line with our promise we begin with the definition of

052Highly capable students will'll review the identification process and share the range of services provided to students with Advanced learning needs so the state of Washington provides a definition of students who are highly capable and the wachi school district uses that same definition that you see here we know that our schools are filled with potential and we also believe that every student has potential the definition for students who are highly capable are students who perform or show potential for performing at significantly Advanced academic levels compared with others of their age experience or environments and so as this definition States these are abilities are seen within students General intellectual aptitudes specific academic abilities and are Crea productivity within a specific domain such as reading or math and highly capable students are present in all populations of students

053um several important items are bolded at the heart of the definition we're comparing students with others of the same age experiences or environments students are identified for services based on strength areas or domains reading math non-verbal which is a visual spatial problem solving ability or a composite of these this is a long-standing practice in the wachi school district it's now been adopted by the state and identification by domain is now required at a minimum for reading and math um we'll go through the identification process next one of the imperatives from the state is that District practices for identifying the most highly capable students must prioritize Equitable identification of low-income students basically the identification of Highly capable students should roughly match the demographics of the student population in the district um although this slide uh you

054might have seen it before in various iterations it remains consistent for this process this continues to be an area of growth for us and addressing barriers to equity has been a long-standing continually evolving process in the wachi school district and it's what happens during each of these stages that makes a difference so the public notification uh is annually inside wachi uh in the inside wanci schools um is mailed to all households and is published online this communicates to all our families that services are available that students can be referred for screening and it includes a timeline for identification activity um this and all other highcap Communications are printed in both English and Spanish um in an effort to remove barriers for families as those are the two primary languages um here in wachi uh referrals

055referrals can be made by um teachers by parents um and by community members typically these are made in the elementary years um we do have a referral process as required however requiring referrals for identification is a huge barrier in reality because we look at every student every year it has the same effect as an automatic referral so what this means is is any student can be identified without a referral because we look at every student every year that's what we mean by Universal referrals um for permission to assess when we do receive a referral for a student if additional testing is necessary a letter goes home asking for permission to further assess a student and our additional assessments can only be completed if that letter is returned if permissions aren't returned then we cannot assess

056a student and what we've implemented in the last couple of years is follow-up phone calls um to determine if parents have any questions we have a bilingual staff member who helps us with these as well and to provide explanations for families um this has increased the response rate for testing permissions so we're pretty much at very close to 100% now um screening and assessment um we already use achievement data from I ready multiple times a year as well as Smarter Balance assessment scores and wedita scores um to provide student data on language acquisition if additional screening and assessment is needed we use cognitive data from the coat screener and um this testing well we also do the full coat this testing allows students to receive testing instructions in their native language uh it's in the

057primary grades it's not reliant on being able to read in English and that's what we use when we do Universal screening on our Focus year at second grade um and for example this year we tested students with instructions in English Spanish Vietnamese and Mandarin um and they hear the instructions through headsets uh non-verbal testing is also considered in the identification process that's another component of the coat and any testing um occurs during the school day so Transportation isn't a barrier this seems really straightforward um and it's been our district practice for many years but the reason I bring it up is because in other districts um the practice has been to have testing on a Saturday to require a a referral to require parents to drive their students to a central location um we have

058um a new Universal screening requirement this year um we've screened once at second grade the new law this year says we need to screen outer before second grade and at or before sixth grade um we're universally screening all students with I ready through grade eight and looking at um Smarter Balance assessments through high school but our second additional Universal screening is now fifth grade to look at students as they transition into middle school and we'll be using the smarter balance assessment um for that um the multi-disciplinary placement committee um is a group of professionals um Artic the composition of the committee is articulated by the state and um we spend time um learning about the types of data calibrating our review of data and follow a protocol there's some Equity moves involved in this process

059as well we use local Norms so that students are compared to other students who are similar as our definition um suggests um so we look at uh norms for students from title schools Norms from students from non-title schools um and we're looking for students who are roughly at the 95th percentile or higher in their school compared to similar peir student names and identifiers aren't visible to the committee so that eliminates any unconscious bias um and we're looking for mounting evidence that students need Service uh we identify for um domains of strength so a student um doesn't have to be strong in every area but if math is their jam we want to serve that um once students are notified as needing Services a notification letter goes home to parents or Guardians explaining the process and

060this spring uh we began the the process to um connect with all of those families either in person over Zoom or having a phone conversation just to explain identification and services and then um if students are served outside of the classroom we do need permission for services so um this is a list of um addressing equity in identification and we've really covered most of those throughout um going through the process but I want to highlight the importance of communication and several other areas as well um this year informational presentations were provided to all elementary certificated teaching staff um to communicate current highcap definition processes and review services and part of the presentation including sharing the culturally linguistically economically diverse scales which looks at highly capable student characteristics from diff from a different lens and um

061these are research scales that identify sets of characteristics commonly seen in high potential Learners um we've also had a present at multiple um wsd migrant multilingual family nights each year presented at an epic preschool um family night and shared information on the radio show um hosted by Mr Lopez on Lazada um we are continually seeking and adopting additional ways to remove any barriers for identification and to provide services to students at the end of May there were 884 students grades K12 identified for highcap services which is about 13 and a half% of the district po student population um this shows by uh grade level and you'll notice the primary grades there are many fewer students it makes sense because we have less information about students at that point in their career um second grade looks

062unusually low in number and that's just because their um identification meeting is later in the year so this was the end of May and we just had their meeting this afternoon so we'll be adding another 30 to that number and in the next couple weeks um we'll be uh H graduating about 95 students from both high schools um so the number of students we serve is always in flux throughout the school year depending on that identification timeline so services for highcap students um it's part of basic education and part of multi-tiered systems of support so it's a respon posibility that's shared by all the staff throughout the WAN School District um students at all grade levels receive Services first in the classroom through differentiation differentiation can be subtle and it's not exclusively limited to students

063who are identified for highcap services different content process or product can be adjusted to meet the needs of students first best instruction is designed with all students in mind and differentiation is part of the planning process um additionally um another layer of support are opportunities um for extension or acceleration in a walk two model students receive a daily dose of instruction targeted to their level and when intervention and extension happens within a single classroom student groupings focus on instruction at students levels in Middle school and high school um there are accelerated courses available to students um this might include an accelerated math pathway Advanced courses in high school college in the high school advanced placement and running start and although I serve as the AP or advanced placement coordinator for the district that is just

064one of multiple Advanced options for acceleration um there are some unique highly capable program opportunities at Valley Academy of Learning students have an individualized students learning plans and in all the other elementaries there are pullout Services provided by a highcap specialist once each week for students with identified strength areas such as math language arts and visual spatial skills there are also offerings in high school through an elective course called directed study where independent studies available for Motivated self-directed Juniors and seniors additionally um there are services or programs provided outside the Traditional School setting such as competitions like math is cool mock trial knowledge Bowl um theaters and oportunity service organizations and collaborative Partnerships with industry available through our CTE offerings Amber Burks our mtss assistant director we'll be sharing some information about how we continue

065to build capacity uh to provide services that meet the needs of our highly capable students thank you Kathy um so I'm going to finish out the presentation tonight um with an overview of how we have been supporting Educators with strategies to help um the to help meet the needs of highcap students and all students across the classroom um we intentionally selected the strategies you see here um we call them our wachi school district essential strategies because they are essential for our highcap students and our multilingual learners but they're excellent for all students um we selected these strategies because they are applicable to all content areas and they are evidence-based um those strategies are the levels of questioning with varied levels of cognitive demand um Rich academic discourse academic vocabulary and reading grade level or Beyond

066texts so um this year we provided districtwide training in August in October and during our Monday morning lid opportunities learning Improvement days in addition our district trainer team has been very very active and successful with supporting teachers through coaching in the classroom and during our um Monday morning collaborations so um providing systems level professional learning um is is a real key component of our plan um for ensuring that high highly capable students and all students have access to accelerated learning and enhanced learning opportunities um where they receive that all throughout their day as Cassie C Cathy mentioned with the multi-tiered layers of support um and we know this is a key part of our plan to deliver on our promise that all of our students are Future Ready um so we thank you again for

067this opportunity to share tonight and want to just close by asking if you have any questions I don't have questions I just want to say thank you to the team um I think um last several years I've been advocating for what are we doing to reach um all students our numbers have been disproportionate um of our student ody um what are we doing how are we reaching all families I see Kathy um at a lot of District events and community events so thank you for for um you know making sure that our community is aware that we provide services but also into looking at the just different multilingual skills um the family M um are pack migrant nights and all of that I think it's making an impact it's probably too soon to see the

068uh you know the impact that the Outreach is having um but I'm looking forward to say you know a year or two down the road to look at the demographics of the students High cap serves um and this is is just a great example of how our leaders are um you know building that foundation for uh based on our our our strategic plan and our promise so thank you thank you Maria and I wanted to make uh very similar comments to Maria's but I think amplifying them in a slightly different way first of all yes I also thank you for what you're doing uh it's a very complex set of regulations and statutory requirements it's a very complex training and effort and looking for referrals and doing across a very n large number of areas

069and I think it is extremely encouraging to see that um but for all those efforts uh there's a social inertia that we live in uh how do you find everybody who has a hidden talent and it's related to equity it's related to engagement and uh thank you I have the 2122 data which was given to me because I was sitting in on a seminar on this subject I don't know if you've got more more than that but um it's uh I would like to see uh perhaps the board uh or more people have an opportunity in the future to either have a work shop look at the review look at some disaggregated data over a period of time um and I'm just G to give one little um speculative thing the data I've seen and

070I've seen it elsewhere is the migrant group is plus 2% more than the average in participation is that because we have a lot of Migrant tradition and programs and then you see other groups where you would predict it from demographic and social data as to where the imbalances are um so I I think I I wanted go back to the start thank you very very much the school district and everybody for doing this I do think that um it is a really tough road to climb but it would be very good to look at it as a review aspect it's written in the policy that we do an annual review an annual review that gets down a little more into the nitty-gritty over time and maybe we'll get some insights as to how to spark

071um engagement even more than you already are thank you thank you Martin I don't have any questions but I just want to say it was helpful and informative and I was I'm glad to hear that we are looking and screening at all levels because I I do being a parent remember what it felt like to feel like in second grade your student hadn't been picked and now were they forever not going to be looked at again or whatnot I just kind of trying to figure everything out at that age um so it is great to know that they are there's constantly an eye on them and and looking for potential that may develop later or kids who may have not been interested before now developing more interest later so um I'm glad we have that

072option thank you for that Julie Tucker anything from online take it as a no sorry no thanks for asking I just want to finish by thanking Kathy um personal thank you Kathy this is a passion project for Kathy Moody and um you job well done yeah I I second that as well thank you Kathy for your passion and I can attest uh to all of the presentations that she did at the at all the schools because I always feel like you were either when we were doing the budget conversation like and Kathy's up next and I was like oh my gosh she is just hitting all the schools so thank you for that and uh yeah well done thanks uh next up we have executive director of business and finance Sean Fitzgerald thank you and

073good evening president Norton members of the board and superintendent superintendent kalahar I'm here T tonight to present on the 20242 preliminary budget presentation which is known in the school district accounting world as the other funds which consist of ASB capital projects Debt Service and transportation vehicle um this naming no way diminishes is the importance of these funds but they are generally dwarfed by the general fund and wanted to focus tonight on these funds uh for the district and the board uh this will be the first of three presentations on the 2425 budget which will take place between now and the budget adoption at the end of August uh the numbers tonight are presented are preliminary and subject to chain based on the final budget uh to begin again just the district fund structure uh follows

074a governmental accounting system which is organized and operated on the fund basis and we Define the school district accounting manual defines the fund as a fiscal and accounting entity with a self-balancing set of accounts for the purpose of carrying on specific activities or attaining certain objectives and for our matter tonight the district utilizes five funds the general capital projects Debt Service ASB and transportation vehicle as mentioned before the general fund is our largest fund and makes up about 90% of our budget and the other funds make up about 10% and just for context transportation and vehicle uh makes up about 1% as does ASB and then Debt Service and capital projects each make up about 4% which that's how it kind of comes out too uh we're going to start with our transportation vehicle fund

075and the purpose and background uh Transportation vehicle fund is used for the purchase and repair of yellow school buses and is primarily funded by the state reimbursement depreciation model uh which allows the district to replace aging buses with new ones expenditures are recorded not when bus are when buses are delivered to the district not when the order is placed uh we're going to start with our 23 24 year end projections and let's see if that we got our red not working all right um and we'll just kind of walk through where we were budgeted and where we expect to finish by the end of August uh so to start off with um our revenues are finishing higher than expected uh we received more from our state depreciation reimbursement and it's a nice surprise and I

076think this is likely due to just the delay and receiving a bus we were originally supposed to receive a bus last year and it came this year so I think that might have affected the funding model uh so it's more of a timing difference in that matter uh when we get to the expenditures we finished better uh than budgeted uh by almost $80,000 and a lot of this is due to um the actual price of the buses coming in less than the quoted price which was nice so roughly they're about $55,000 in savings and the extra difference was just about $20,000 or so of just capacity that was just budgeted in case of any sort of uh actually if the opposite have occurred if there are some unexpected expenditures that may have occurred but the

077opposite happened so all in all uh very uh nice way to end the year and we're going to see an increase in the fund balance um so our expectations were going to finish higher uh than budgeted um moving on we're seeing the uh preliminary budget for 20425 and also the forecast as well uh from 2425 up through 2728 that's encompassing the whole four years um so and then comparison to where we're going to finish for this year um so when we're looking here um our again our main Revenue sources um we're getting interest earnings from our investments in the local government investment pool which is a nice little source of Revenue uh followed by the state depreciation reimbursement set by OSI but you'll see here we're doing a large amount of expenditures in our bus

078purchases so these have already been reviewed and approved by the board this last year just because of the timing delays it takes in receiving a bus but we have five buses on order which we expect to arrive in the 2425 school year um and we're utilizing we have a large kind of fund balance to utilize and so what Transportation has been doing is in addition to replacing aging fleets which the depreciation reimbursement model allows us um we're also looking at um building capacity for both General Ed and also our special education we've seen an increase in our special education enrollment and that has led to Greater demand for special education buses uh so these purchases allow us to meet those needs um when we get into the forecast um basically we're following the depreciation model

079from OSI and what they project we were going to receive for these years um but as you can see our expenditures and bus purchases are decreasing um as is our fund balance um but what we're kind of looking here for now for our forecasting is again maybe purchasing about three buses for the next for 25 26 and 26 27 so that would be two General Ed buses and one special ed bus again um maintaining the fleet and building capacity Ure we're meeting those needs and as we're aligning ourselves more with the depreciation model we're going to back away from purchasing about three buses so we're probably going to look down to maybe just two buses so again it's in alignment just with replacing aging inventory as opposed to expanding the fleet any questions on the

080vehicle fund I I have a question sure so we've been talking a lot about declining enrollment and then you just mentioned increasing capacity it might be just my own ignorance is are we over capacity for our busing or are we just can you help me understand that like declining enrollment but additional capacity sure so we um in the one hand although we have overall the I'll Focus two parts one special education enrollment Although our general education enrollment is declining overall we are seeing our special education enrollment increase so that we need to make sure we're meeting that demand uh the general education side the capacity is there in case a bus breaks down so if one goes down it can be out for several months so we want to make sure we just have a

081couple on spare uh that are there to be utilized in case of emergencies or uh athletic events uh so that is what it's there for great thank you great question uh ASB so the ASB here our asba fund is designated for as activities or events which are cultural social recreational or athletic nature and must be optional non-credit and extracurricular this fund is financed from establish Ling and collecting fees fines and donations uh and enrollment plays no part in the funding portion of this uh funds are legally restricted so they must be used for ASP ASB purposes only and specific to that activity of if specified and then again for context um just for 23 24 purposes it makes up about 1% of the budget uh so here we are our 23 24 yearend projections um

082and so again ASB is normous it's like despite not meeting um the budgeted uh amounts we're continuing to see um the ASB fund grow and continue to grow we're seeing lots more activity uh and again this is the best year since before the lockdown so compared to the 201819 school year uh this is probably the best year since we've had three years of consecutive growth in the ASB fund and uh we're Contin continuing to see that grow as revenues uh exceed expenditures uh so in all in all a positive outlook a return to pre-pandemic activity uh and student involvement and again uh just with the preliminary budget and the forecasting um our expectation is we're going to continue to see ASB activity to grow return to pre pandemic uh activity levels and again even if

083they don't meet the budgeted amounts uh we're still seeing growth because of revenues exceeding expenditures and the activity in all of the uh different areas whether it's Athletics or clubs or private donations and again when we just forecast test it out we just kind of leave a balanced approach um in um our expectation as each year goes by any questions on ASB I do actually and my questions on that one are directed more at student behavior and opportunities and extra extracurricular because the numbers are small and as you say we're coming out of complete turbulence so um this is a second time tonight I'm being demanding but I'll try to be sympathetic um so also to understand what does general student body cover so general student body covers everything that doesn't fall under those other

084specific categories so the largest revenue Source in a general student body would be like the ASB card okay so it' be ASB type functions yes okay um and again in that area we were very much under budget this year and then you're assuming that everybody's going to fire on all cylinders forever more and also that it looks like there's a surplus every year in the forecast is that uh how much of that is financial and how much of that is consciously trying to create culture in the um schools I would say on the forecast side that's I mean when it comes to the ASB budget this is prepared by the individual schools and then it's you know starts with the clubs goes up to the school principal and then it's aggregated on our half um

085when we combine the budget we combine all their budgets to the total one for one that ultimately gets approved by the board Finance is looking at this for reasonableness so I'm looking at from entirely Financial reasonableness perspective um as opposed to where we're seeing it I think it breaks down depending on the school activity that's a perfect Financial answer and thank you very much for that but I think I would like to put on the table as we go through this next year uh let's look at the schools and in operations to see what's peing students interests what's working and you know because to me the behavioral and activity aspect of it is um what is probably most important yeah Martin asked my question and and part of my followup question is drilled down into

086that because I'm I'm guessing that the general student body budget amount was based on prior year sort of activity budget kind of consistent so to me I'm looking at that as a pretty big variance to this year and the first question I have is okay if that's based on general student Behavior more than Athletics clubs something like that was there something we missed putting on somewhere was there a big that that's my immediate reaction now this is peanuts in comparison to the entire budget so I don't want to dwell on it but it it is a massive bar variance and it seems like if that's just based on student Behavior what did we miss this year that caused such a big variance I guess which I can go back which variance the uh the um

087between budgeted and projected the general student body that just it's so off it kind of looks like did we miss a function was there a bad turnout at a dance what was what was you know just trying to understand that a little better yeah and I can drill down and get further detail on that I'll pick it back on that uh because in this consent agenda we looked at the uh the fees the fee schedules for next year and it did make me wonder uh seeing there the ones that there are um I guess fee waivers for such activities or Serv um ASB or what what not um it made me wonder and I've asked this question before how are we getting this um how are we getting out this information to our parents that

088um to our students that are in need are are I guess do do our families know that we have such fee waivers or um you know I just experience for my child that Orchard especially now that you know middle school and high school this seems to be a little bit more activity than at the elementary level um it's I can't recall seeing anything in the fall packet saying you know um Financial supportive available for whatever it is so it made me wonder given also with sports um and the house bill that you know came into play a few years ago what are we doing to reach out to promote um and I know there's a fine line between between you know really serving those students that are in need we have a qualifier um but

089what are we doing and and is this can can we change this um by doing a better job promoting that I mean I don't handle the community ation aspect I know that kind of falls to the school level but I can definitely follow up on it yeah I was just going to say we can we can get that information for you Maria yep Debt Service fund um so the primary purpose is just to pay off the principal and interest of our outstanding Bond and the district has one bond which was passed in 2014 and refinanced in March of 2024 which will save the district taxpayer 6.6 million over the next 10 years the district will fully pay off this bond in 2033 again just for context we're making up makes up about 4% of the

090budget uh revenues uh primarily comes from our property tax levy and we do receive some investment interest income uh expenditures follow a fixed Bond schedule and pay off the bond principal and interest uh there can be some sort of some fee underwriting fees transfers um that occasionally pop up but the primary focus is Bond principle and interest and then we have our fund balance which are our reserves uh which can be used to pay off the debt uh lower the levy collection amount uh here are our budget versus projections and so you can see if I can get to the you had a lot of activity uh that occurred during this year and that and this reflects the bond refinancing so at the beginning of the year we were not expecting uh to do a

091bond refinancing and so that's why it's zero but during the activity during the year and the opportunity presented itself between January and March we pursued it and so basically what we see here uh with the 53 million and the 52.7 is essentially the refinancing with essentially the old Bond quote unquote old Bond uh being removed and the new refinance one in the system and essentially we're just acting as a pass through here because the county treasure is our bank and so what we're really seeing here is the county treasure activity uh just moving between uh the moving the funds out to an escro account and vice versa uh but overall we're meeting our principal payments and as we can see here we're seeing a difference in our interest payments versus what was budgeted again this

092is due to the refinancing so we paid about $800,000 Less on our second interest payment uh so that's why we're not um that's why there's that variance there um but overall and then we're seeing a large increase in our fund balance because of this refinancing with that said moving on to the budget and and forecast uh with this increase in fund balance what does that mean and with the refinancing so for next year we are looking at a lower collection amount because our principal and interests have decreased on the refinancing and we're going to be utilizing our fund balance in the tune of about 1.2 million dollar and drawing down uh this will lower tax rates uh for our uh Local District taxpayers uh because of the refinancing and as we continue with our forecast

093uh we're again um the levies are uh$ 500,000 to $300,000 lower uh than what we were going out for this year just because of the refinancing and then every year we just kind of re-evaluate our fund balance and where we want to be uh is it do we want to continue to draw down on the fund balance in the short term or maintain it in the long term uh when the district goes out and passes a new Bond there's a um you have a tendency to there's going to be that increase in tax rates so you can utilize your fund balance to help offset maybe some of those increased tax rates temporarily if you adjust to a new Bond um so but um right now we're just kind of taking a very conservative approach and

094evaluated on a year-by-year basis any questions on debt service capital projects all right so the purpose of capital projects is buying or construction constructing major Capital facilities including land equipment or building construction it's financed from bonds capital levies the sale of land and investment interest income and we'll just move on here with our year end projections so basically what we have here is this large variance is due to this is essentially just budget capacity was making sure we anticipated any sort of new Revenue sources that we might uh take into account um during the year um that we weren't expecting at the time of the budget um right now we have about $284,000 that's investment interest income and the sale of the mission view parcel uh we also have a CTE Grant which is restricted

095for CTE purposes which we received during uh the middle of the year and then we have our transfer from the general fund of the $4 million to fund the softball field now drawing your attention I'm increasing this to 5.5 for a year end uh because one of the issues that may arise between now and year end is unexpected uh costs in terms of the construction of the softball field um so right now um when we went into the year our expectation was $4 million at the time the contract was approved in April we were looking at 4.7 so an additional transfer from the general fund by year end uh would act as rather an insurance policy to cover any unexpected costs that might occur between now and the end of August um that doesn't necessarily

096mean we we will incur these costs and if we don't then they revert back to the general fund but it is there to act as kind of a safety valve in case there are any unexpected costs um that will be presented to the board as a board resolution on the June 25th meeting and just uh wanting to present that to you now um or if you have any questions now or in the 3 weeks between the next board meeting again we haven't identified any costs or possible cost overruns but that would allow us again as a kind of an insurance policy and if we did that it would essentially max out our expenditure budgeted expenditures uh for this year is I had a quick question about that sure um if we transfer money from the

097general fund to the capital fund can we transfer it back if we don't use it or is it now just in the capital fund it automatically reverts back if it's unused okay thanks yeah uh so here is our budget for 2425 um so you can see here um the state special purpose it's like that's um we have 3.5 million that adds up to 14.5 million over four years that is the taex center grant that we received in funding this year and although right now do we anticipate you know we just received the funds right now the planning but we are just budgeting it in there to recognize that we do have the funding whether we spend $3.5 million probably not but it's going to be in there just to ensure that there's capacity in meeting

098any needs and this could turn out over our forecast I mean it could just it could be 1 million next year and two and then grow exponentially as we have more construction projects it may occur over more than four years but right now we just want to budget it so that the district recognizes that we do have this Revenue available for the tech center and that it would only be used for the tech center um and those expenditures it would likewise mirror as well if we spent x amount of money for the tech center it would be reflected here so they have the budgeted funds available uh for whenever they need uh the other thing I want to draw attention to is a transfer from a general fund so our expectation is that the softball

099field will be completed by the end of August we haven't heard a difference in the timeline that we're on time but we still have this um general fund transfer of $500,000 and right there is this would be used again as an insurance policy we don't have our only source of Revenue right now that's coming in to the capital projects is investment earnings um and we have limited fund balance and that's not a long-term sustainable plan for the capital project so we'll need an alternative Revenue Source uh in order to cover any again unexpected uh emergency repairs that may occur next year uh so this would give authorization uh to our maintenance and operations Department if there emergency repairs like if an hfac system goes down or something like that that they would have the funds

100available if need be uh and again that would require a board resolution but that would also be uh included probably in the budget adopt budget adoption resolution as well so those would all be together so again the board has time to reflect and consider uh their options on the capit capital projects transfer I do want to comment on the capital project again and thank you for the explanation of the skill center because that that's obviously the big item but the thing that uh I want to raise as uh something to work on right now is the fact that there are no sources and there are no reserves in the capital fund and if those hypothetical 1.5 million and then half a million come out of the um general fund that's going to eat into the

101general fund reserves and we need to have be upfront about what that means um so I would like to see um thoughtful work into and things like potential cost overrun on the softball field there are other Athletic Facility things that are likely to be needed in the next five years there are failing heavy equipment that could happen it all could be changed in in major investment but just in terms of survival investment uh there is that issue and uh I think as time has passed it's become more and more critical for the school board as for the school district um there are other Alternatives from to using the reserves in the general fund uh theoretical as far as I'm concerned and I and I'd like to learn a lot more about them there's the P

102potential of death there's the potential of Capital levies on smaller amounts I think that I would like to see some thought going into that and I'll leave it at that point we are planning the general budget this will in the short term this this concept has an impact on 2425 General budget and it's something that either um in one form or another I think we need to harden up the Alternatives all right last slide is our budget timeline uh so tonight we had their preliminary budget presentation on the other funds uh this will be followed by the Pres preliminary budget presentation on the general fund on the 25th uh the budget uh the preliminary budget is due to the ESD by July 10th uh for their review and feedback uh after we do that we'll

103be provided with their feedback and make any changes if necessary based on that feedback and review um I believe then we'll have two August board meetings the first meeting will be a public hearing um again that will do a presentation again it'll be a combination of both funds tonight and the general fund based on the estd feedback um again and chancef for public citizen comment and highlighting any changes or concerns that maybe the EST brought up and then last but not least be at the second board meeting in August would be the budget adoption at the regular meeting which would come in the form of just the board resolution uh and then of course that have um we aim for the end of August because by state law the budget is Du uh to Opi

104on the last business day of the fiscal year which is August 30th any questions or comments thank you thank you Sean moving on to superintendent report yes okay we'll jump in here um just want to say a few words about the passing of Barbara Tilly um she was a such a generous and passionate spirit in our world of Education U many of my interactions with uh Barbara were through either wanci rotary or through the packaging friendship uh service which served our homeless students in The Valleys Valley for years and years um she was instrumental in the planning and the organization and loved to stay in the background but we know that without her vision and her determination to serve that many programs uh would not have lasted as long as they did she was just

105a ray of Hope and light uh for our community and for our students in the wih school district so I just wanted to share that moment um it's also a very exciting time in the wih school district for lots of reasons um a lot of it has to do with uh the ending of the school year last week we had our migrant senior night uh last Wednesday um and then we have some graduations that are coming up we have skill Source uh tomorrow night uh we have our Wan Valley transitions uh program on Thursday wachi high schools on Friday and then Westsides will be a week from today and their first time at the Town Toyota Center so we're excited about uh those coming up also you've seen some information about our free summer meals

106uh out there so the district along with Community partner Small Miracles will continue to offer our free summer meals to students Monday through Thursday starting June 24th um the wih school district will provide no cost hot breakfast and lunch at Mission view uh Elementary and Small Miracles will have grab and go sack lunches at the wian area parks um I had the privilege of um well a couple of things privilege of uh interviewing and uh introducing our new uh school resource officer Edgar bras uh we have been some changes we've had some Chang in our school resource officer ranks officer steel and her family will be relocating and her position will be filled by Officer Edgar baras and so we're excited about having him um he's been on the police force for uh for three

107years he grew up in cashmir he's committed to making an impact on our community through our youth um he is passionate about giving back and mentoring and uh he he's fairly youthful himself I told him I was glad he could grow a beard or else he might be the uniform gives it away but otherwise he he'd need a hall pass um but his youth allows him to build uh relationships quickly and he hopes to earn the trust of our students and families quickly for the fall um and this was this is an ex an interesting little bit of Statistics um that was shared with Jim B today in an email said in the last 11 years the Panthers have a big lead over their follow uh fellow League members in the number of times placing

108teams in the top eight in state competition so it's an interesting statistic but then it said goes on to say the purple and gold have earned top eight positions 31 times with the others uh trailing U Moses lake has done it 18 times Eisenhower 13 West Valley 13 Eastmont 11 Sunnyside 11 and Davis 7 so it's an interesting bit of Statistics there and I kind of liked it so I just wanted to share but that's it for superintendent report moving on board communication started Miranda I have none tonight a short week Tucker do you got anything I wasn't able to do it in person but congratul congratulations to all our retirees so thank you for your service but sweeton I think that was a wonderful uh time with retirees today and I know it's repetitive

109but let's uh celebrate it and thank them um Corey did the same thing I did AP geography interview on and the question one of the questions is what can people do to help get a bond to modernize wici high school three sophomores were my uh interview group and they had already done their AP exam and this is an example of the fact that this district has the broadest and deepest range of high achievement educational subject matter available in the region and to see that and you know to sit down uh with young adults their civic awareness their civic maturity they're caring and something I thought was kind of interesting they want to be proud of their home school that was one of the key things that we're thinking about is what is this place like

110I want to be proud of it but anyway that's an example of educational Excellence that uh we got to enjoy and I also um and I think Maria you also wanted to pay tribute to Barbara Tilly and so yeah you can go first and I'll go last yeah no I mine will be brief I actually had the honor of working um with Barbara Tilly here on my capacity as a School District employee um she was heavily involved with your com in here at district office whether it was on packing friendships or with little miss little miss East Cascade and getting information out to the buildings um and then just out in the community her heart was in education um it her children wrote a great obituary um to honor her and um again I just

111knew her from her volunteer work but she has an extensive history with matu school district and um you know Earl is is still around and um we'll make sure that this gets out to Earl okay good because I think this is very important and where she was a person I wrote with great determination and no Fanfare and went about doing good which is pretty much what Corey said and packing friendship is how we in the school district mostly relate to her and something special about that that is a project that found the gaps in the services Saturday Sunday when there no school meals summer when there no school meals and uh and also as a Heritage for Barbara it's continuing it's in the blood and in the culture and in the air in this Valley

112now it's a tradition of doing it small ver Miracles is a later generation of a similar idea um and but this morning at the uh inter agency uh meeting uh there was no speak or so people asked our family advocates to explain their work and that's a link to uh packing friendship because the people who very quietly and unobserved put together the food on Friday night in a way that is discreet and anonomous and they go to the right people and they it works those are family advocates um and they uh they Supply and connect every imaginable kind of need within the schools uh as a result there was a large round of applause in this room at about 11:00 this morning for the work of the family advocates and their peers in the school

113district and I think it's good for everybody to know that um so that's a link to Barbara the Heritage goes on and great work thank you everybody I have nothing it was a short week so um if that's it for board communication we will move into executive session uh the board will now recess into executive session for a period of 30 minutes until 7 or 8:25 to evaluate the qualifications of an applicant for public employment or review the performance of a staff member and to consider the selection of a site or the acquisition of real estate by lease or purchase when public knowledge regarding such consideration would cause a likelihood of increased price and to consider the minimum price that which Real Estate will be offered for may be offered for sale and or lease

114when public knowledge regarding such consideration would cause a likelihood of decreased price pursuant to District policy number 1410 and RCW 4231 1110 and VAR subsections these discussions will be closed to the public the school board is expected to take final action following the executive session e e e the board will be exp extending executive session for an additional 15 minutes to e e e let me know when uh the school board will be extending an executive session for 10 minutes until 8:50 e e e so we are back it's 8:50 from executive session um over the course of the last few weeks we've had the opportunity to meet um and evaluate our our superintendent's qualifications and I believe we have a proposal related to the superintendent contract yes and I'd like to make a motion

115to authorize the negotiation of amendment to superintendent agreement superintendent agreement to remove the title of interim and extend an additional one-year term to expire in 2026 I will second that motion it's been moved by Miranda seconded by Maria do we have any discussion I'll I'll add some discussion um you know I think the extension of the the ability to enter into contract negotiations um to amend the current contract um and extend to an additional year allows for us to continue with that stability um that we uh we've been needing with just multiple superintendents in the last several years so um thank you um Corey thank you for the board for you know working together on this I agree with that this is a long-term um decision we can amplify discussion later on at the Action

116meeting yeah I'll just add for for maybe people who have forgotten we entered into the two-year interim contract in part because we were facing an election where it was potentially very very likely that a whole new board maybe not very very likely but there was a potential that an entirely new board would be uh in place in in the first year and recognizing that the limited experience in the role and I think it's been you know a sort of what we expected in a first year but I I think we feel comfortable uh with the direction we're moving and um and we do need to have some stability over the next few years so this this feels like a a right decision if there's no further discussion I will call for a vote all in

117favor I any opposed oh for the record Tucker Is With Us by phone and I did here and I from Tucker so I I believe that means we are unanimous yes thank you so we will look for that contract then um at the next meeting and with that meeting adjourned