Wenatchee School District Board Meeting 4/23/24

001e e e sorry it it is 6 PM so I'll Now call this April 23rd 2024 regular meeting of the wachi school district school board to order we will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance stands na indivisible with we will now uh work through the agenda are there any proposed changes or modifications to the agenda none moving on then we will uh start with the consent agenda the item items on the consent consent agenda were sent to the board and posted online last week the board has had the opportunity to review the material and individ individually ask the superintendent any questions on any item on the agenda the consent agenda includes the minutes from the April 9th 2024 regular meeting the April 15th 2024 Workshop vouchers and payroll the Personnel report Surplus report contracts uh

002field trip requests summer Athletics February financial report the April and enrollment report and a school bus purchase agreement or approval do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda I move to approve the consent agenda as presented I have a second seconded so it's been moved by Maria seconded by Tucker um any discussion all those in favor say I I I all right than keep my mic on um we will now move on to Citizen comment if any member of the public would like to make a citizen's comment please sign up online 15 minutes before the meeting or in person paper forms are available at the entrance to the meeting room and can be completed and given to the board uh secretary Kim white unless translation is required each comment is limited to three

003minutes and Miss White will keep a timer that will notify you when your time expires if you need translation services from Spanish to English a certified translator from Cafe is here to assist um individuals that need translation services will be given four minutes to make a comment plus that whatever time is needed to complete the interpretation we have headphones available and will'll translate all English-speaking public comments into Spanish please feel free to use the headsets um on the back table Please be aware that the board is not obligated to respond to questions or challenges made during public comment and the board silence will not signal agreement or endorsement of the speaker's remarks uh we appreciate you being here this evening and would like to remind you that all public comments should adhere to the same

004standard of Civility that the board imposes on itself and that the board will exercise its authority to maintain order in a Content neutral Manning manner this evening with that being said uh Kim do we have any comment anyone signed up we do um I think we'll start tonight with um our online commenters um first up is Emily Bor oh all right m casses Mason if you can hear me can you unmute and turn your camera on please okay thank you okay good evening my name is Mason casses and I am a fifth grade teacher at Washington Elementary first I would like to acknowledge the many emotions that Columbia Elementary Community is experiencing as an educator I understand the value and importance of continuity in a family's School experience with respect to building Community friendships and

005social and acad MC skills it's with much consideration that I'm speaking today in support of making the difficult decision to close Columbia Elementary at the end of the school year keeping Columbia open for next year does not allow for the staff reductions needed to align the budget and will require drastic measures in the years to come if Colombia is kept open the resulting staffing issues and compounding inflation in the 2024 2025 school year will necessitate dramatic reductions for the 2025 2026 school year including a reduction in force for staff on continuing contracts will be cut based on seniority keeping Columbia open will also reduce the district's fund balance to be at or below the board designated 5% minimum which allows for fewer dollars to respond to emergencies such as a water main freeze or if

006for example the heating and air systems at the high school need repair the former emergency happened just this school year and the latter we know was a real risk of most concern to me personally is the risk of losing Elementary Vice principles Vice principles play in a central role in maintaining a positive School Community by supporting student behaviors among many of their other responsibilities losing Vice principles will reduce support for student behaviors which will negatively impact staff and student morale as well as student learning outcomes I urge the board to make the fiscally responsible decision to close Columbia Elementary and put wachi schools on a path of course correction rather than into deeper crisis thank you for your time thank you Elizabeth kazemba hello can you hear me yes okay my grandmother's favorite saying was

007actions speak louder than words it is a powerful statement and words that she lived her life by and that I try to live my life by as well the actions of some of the members of the school board and the superintendent's cabinet around the closure of Columbia Elementary have spoken far louder than any words that have been spoken to St or the general public we have offered you ideas and suggestions that are totally feasible and financially possible we have offered to create committees asked for time to speak at Schoolboard meetings and asked question after question with no answer those actions speak much louder than words two members of the school board were present at the budget committee committee meeting on January 18th public records show that you two fully supported the idea of closing colia

008it's stes that one of you said promote the closure as a good thing and all of the good things that will happen and we need to plan it and communicate it well do you honestly think this has been planned or communicated well everything done around this closure is the opposite of our District's mission statement the big six and the promise of transparency so far nothing so far has convinced me that this is a good thing or that good things will happen the announcement was made over this past weekend that Colombia's building would potentially be used as the new location for Valley Academy in the January 18th budget committee meeting notes state that this idea was proposed during that meeting one of you even said the message must be that we are moving things around to

009do a better job not just closing a school if that is truly the case then why should the students currently attending Colombia full-time all day every day be forced out and bust to other schools so their building can be used to accommodate 185 current and 25 weightless students who attend sporadically throughout the week how is displacing Columbia's current students a good thing or doing a better job what good things are going to come from displacing around 375 students and how does that ensure equity and inclusion for all students in this District please know and programs and positions can be reduced or cut to save money and balance budget and then brought back budget permitting schools cannot be and Trust very rarely if ever can be brought back your actions are speaking louder than your words

010thank you thank you Roxanna Vanetta good evening um poetry and Equity often walk hand inand because they both serve as vehicles for expression empathy and understanding poetry has historically been used by marginalized communities to amplify their voices and share their experiences poetry provides a safe and expressive outlet for children to process their emotions and experiences whether they're feeling Joy sadness fear or excitement children can find poems that resonate with their feelings and help them make sense of the world around them April is poetry month I scribe for students in TK through 2 grade I described for 11 different classrooms we wrote about what we know and that is Colombia some of these students have been here for years or their families have been there for generations and some of the students have been here for

011weeks or mere months some even like a week or two but Colombia is their other home so I want to read what uh I scribed for them because that was a lot of scribing and this is a repetition uh poetry that we practice at Colombia we play outside at Colombia we be kind to our friends at Colombia we hug our friends at Colombia we listen to the teachers at Colombia we listen to our friends's ideas at Colombia we do phology at Colombia we are respectful at colia we are the Cougars that's uh Kinder classroom second grade classroom at Colombia we have the four personal standards at Colombia we have Mr stuber at Colombia we have Miss Oaks at Colombia we now we have recess teachers at Colombia we have lunch ladies at Colombia we have

012Mrs the grass at Columbia we have guest teachers at Columbia we have friends at Colombia we have specialists at Colombia we have bathrooms at Colombia we learn at Colombia we have fancy water fountains first grade at Colombia we show respect make good decision solve problems be kind at Colombia we have recess at Colombia we share at Colombia we learn at Colombia we read at Colombia we have art PE music and library at Colombia we have lunch at Colombia we are quiet at Colombia we go home at Colombia we show respect to Mr Wiggins at Colombia we show respect to all the teachers I'm going to read one more because there's tons more at Colombia we have fish in our hallway at Colombia we have after school programs at Colombia we have soccer at Colombia we

013play with their besties at Colombia we do work at Colombia we do math at Colombia we do have specialists at Colombia we have many classrooms at at Colombia we have recess at Colombia we do I I ready Lexia epic and we have reading groups at Colombia we have Miss hefron at Colombia we have chicken nuggets at Colombia we have the four personal standards I could keep going um there's tons more but I just want to um reiterate that you know um can I get you to wrap it up because you're yeah just want to reiterate that um teachers at Colombia are speaking because that is who we are who we fight for and that is Colombia and these are student voices and they also need to be heard um and in case you were curious

014about a good poem or good um thank you we writer uh Amanda Gorman for the hill we climb if you're curious about poetry go check it out thank you Emily Bor hi can you guys hear me okay thank you sorry I couldn't be there in person Tate Alo members of the Schoolboard I want you to know that I believe in you I believe that you sought out your current position because you wanted to make a positive difference for children of our Valley you didn't seek a spot out on the Schoolboard because you wanted to take things away from our children and having to vote yes or no on a decision that would force young children to cross Fair Street in Miller Street during morning commute times but that is the sit situation you're currently faced

015with the wachi school district has presented what they say are two different choices in relation the Columbia Elementary close it now or close it later as several other people in our community have previously stated those are not two different choices the wachi school district has limited the options that are available to the school board and not followed through on your requests for more information throughout this process the school board has asked for more details on what other options had been explored but the wachi school district was only able to present a list of not recommended categories they have not done their due diligence to present you the school board with other viable alternate options they have not used standardized assessment to compare all elementary schools to be Equitable in their decision instead they seem to

016be dead set on closing our School Columbia Elementary throughout this process you have heard from parents and teachers about different ways this problem could be addressed such as partnering with local businesses realigning Staffing to student ratios creatively to Main maintain smaller schools and making cuts at the district office level however if you don't involve all your stakeholders in this process from the start how do you expect us to be able to help we've been told repeatedly how this bold action is desperately needed and that it is needed right now the main problem is that bold actions are only beneficial if they are the right actions the planned action of closing Columbia is about as old as the Seahawks being on the one yard line at the Super Bowl and deciding to have Russell Wilson throw

017a pass it was only the second down the Seahawks had timeouts in their back pocket that they could have used to slow down and make a simple yet wise decision to hand the ball to marshan Lynch Columbia Elementary is a lot like Marshon it keeps turning out yards worth of progress and results despite the many obstacles that may block its path or the path of its students in fact all you need to do as a district is hand them the ball and watch them go to work and Columbia like Marshon will continue to make you look good all the way to the end zone please don't overthink the basic decision at stake here if you in the business of educating children then you ought not to mess with your highest performing growth asset in that

018regard please vote no on May 14th and let Columbia the Columbia Elementary community help solve this problem thank you for your time thank you John Price IV and then Britney Stevens good evening Bueno snase uh this is my 12- year teaching and my third in wachi school district at Columbia Elementary I'd like to thank the school board and cabinet for listening tonight uh race and culture are extremely important to my family and I we take them very seriously my extended family is racially and culturally diverse and our family celebrates this I was born into a family of nerds and my parents are history Buffs I was taught early in life about the civil rights movement and the work of Martin Luther King Jr and others to bring change equity and equality to our nation when

019my parents realized my love for sports especially baseball they taught me about Jackie Robinson coincidentally my school my class of Scholastic News Social Studies lesson today was on Rosa Parks and the video that went with that lesson talked about segregation in public schools to propose the closure of a high lowincome high minority high growth school that will move these students and fill up two other schools and will disproportionately impact students of poverty and color without also proposing a full District reboundary to even out enrollment at the other elementary schools comes across to me as discrimination and segregation as a white male that grew up with white privilege this feels wrong very wrong California law is clear about proposing school closures with a significant population of minority students California mandates that an equity impact State assessment

020be done before school closures these metrics include the Capac of a school to accommodate excess students whether school programs will be provided at the same level at students new schools environmental F factors like traffic Transportation needs of pupils balance of student demographics and if closure will have a disproportionate impact on any particular demographic group closing a high growth High poverty High minority schools wrong and would be a mistake a huge mistake the good news is you haven't made this mistake yet and you still have to time to admit this proposal is wrong and correct your course of action which side of American educational history do you want our district to fall on the legacy of Oppression inequality segregation and discrimination or the legacy of change and equality what would Martin Luther King Jr say about

021your proposal What would Jackie Robinson say thank you for your time which just gracias thank you good evening I was UN a table I let me try that again I was unable to attend last week's public hearing uh but I did listen at home and I wanted to share a few takeaways as an observer the overwhelming resounding sentiment from Thursday night is that your community of stakeholders feels betrayed and ignored your staff parents and taxpayers have been begging for an open dialogue and a seat at the table for months it seems we all have the same goal in mind to see our students in public schools succeed unfortunately the way the district has handled the Columbia closure process has created an antagonistic and defensive relationship with stakeholders the district seems opposed to entertaining any ideas

022that don't come directly from the cabinet even though many people have offered a variety of innovative solutions that would keep schools open strengthen Community relationships and meet the district's goal of aligning Staffing with enrollment instead of exploring these solutions to determine their viability the district has used their energy to tirelessly convince the community and board that closing Columbia is necessary and inevitable I wonder where we would be today if different choices were made early on in this process if the district had created a citizen budget committee and allowed all stakeholders to work collaboratively to solve this Monumental problem the recent news of Valley Academy occupying the space of Columbia is upsetting and insulting and doesn't make any sense with the narrative the district has used to justify closing Columbia according to the OPI report card

023Valley academy uh enrolls 179 students and only has nine classroom teachers didn't we say Columbia has nine open classrooms many elementary teachers have expressed to you their interest in creating Blended grade level classes to further consolidate Staffing it seems entirely possible to make more room in another building and bring Valley Academy into the same space if there isn't room for the entire population we could consider splitting the K5 and 68 Valley population and housing them in two different buildings I've had to have a lot of difficult conversations with my kindergartener about her school possibly closing down this year we have been positive and encouraging in the way we frame our conversations but I draw the line at having to explain why she is seeing other kids going to school at Columbia when she and her

024friends were kicked out this is not a good look for wachi school district this is not a decision rooted in equity and this is not an efficient use of District resources members of the board as the elected governing body of wachi school district you provide an essential outlet for the voices of the constituents you represent and you serve as the vital checks and balances system for district leadership the entire city of wachi it seems is begging you to hold the district accountable to make them do their due diligence and find a better solution you have faced moments of hostility and anger through this process which is often misplaced as a result of the lack of transparency coming from District leadership I hope you won't hold these moments against the public when making your decision I

025hope you will see that through the anger to a community that feels powerless unvalued and ignored I hope you won't ignore them I'm following up my comment tonight with a written list of money-saving measures that I am requesting to see vetted and thoughtfully considered by both the board and the cabinet and I look forward to your response and I gave that to Diana thank you thank you Eva Philippe then uh Dorothy Ferguson hello I am a student at wachi high school to preface this I understand that what I'm about to discuss is out of the jurisdiction of the board and I am bringing it to your attention in hopes of gaining support so I can further my Pursuit at the state level the current nutrition curriculum in Washington state is primarily focused on combating the

026rising National rates of obesity a disease which affects about 20% of teenagers in the US the effects of this generalizing approach present a serious issue the curriculum mistakenly applies the general principle that all teenagers need to eat healthier but in reality most are not at risk furthermore 22% of teenagers also have symptoms of anxiety when this vulnerable population is instructed to count calories watch their weight and restrict certain foods this gives their anxiety something to focus on in other words this leads to an eating disorder 80% of Eating Disorders go undetected even with increased awareness in the last few decades in its goal to increase decrease obesity the current nutrition curriculum is doing more harm than good instead of helping helping students care for their bodies is effectively ruining their relationship with food and increasing

027the spread of Eating Disorders a significant change is needed and the solution is to teach PE students to listen to their bodies and trust their natural intuition their natural intuition if students are taught how to listen to what their bodies need and fuel themselves with appropriate nourishment the two threats of obesity and eating disorders will be neutralized changing this curriculum will be an adjustment but it will lead to significant Improvement in the mental and physical well-being of young people the best option would be to model it after the principles of intuitive eating a term coined by Evelyn tbol and Elish rash with her book of the same title most recently released in 2020 the authors have also written companion books including the intuitive workbook for teens which includes reading material and activities that would translate

028easily to the classroom the scientific Merit of intuitive eating has been proven over by over 125 studies that have all been successful in proving the mental and physical health of their subject the curriculum includes 10 principles but only seven would be needed to incorporate into the new curriculum such as honor your hunger feel your fullness and coping with emotions in healthy ways and mindful physical activity it would be more help if students are taught to be mindful of mental and physical Sensations they will be more likely to develop regulated patterns of eating and activity which would be more successful than the current curriculum this all the curriculum also includes a principle that is honor your health gentle nutrition which already aligns with the current curriculum that discusses proteins fats and carbohydrates such as the scientific

029information this information should be given out without without shaming students or telling them that they are doing something wrong to ensure the most positive response the current Washington State nutrition curriculum is flawed and it is causing more problems than it is solving through the widespread and immediate implementation of the affirmation adjustments students will learn to trust their natural healthy instincts and treat their minds and bodies with respect this solution will confront the issues of obesity and eating disorders by helping students establish healthy habits that will endure throughout their lives again I'm just asking for support I understand that this is out of your jurisdiction thank you thank you hi I'm Dorothy Ferguson hi again oh first I want to congratulate you it looks like you purchased $48,000 new tractor that's exciting can I drive it

030I could be wrong and if I'm wrong please let me know because I don't want to give out inaccurate information um throughout this whole process I've been wondering who's driving the bus on this decision was to me it felt like it was unlikely that an interim superintendent in the first six months of their um job would take on um closing a school single-handedly sorry Corey that two board members threw you and your reputation under the bus Martin and Julie um it's really hard to speak out for children's safety or speak out against your bosses when they're driving the bus but I draw the line on silence when it comes to harming children um it didn't make sense to me from what I know about you Corey that you would um disregard children's safety so that's

031why I was wondering who's driving the bus so we have um so uh Columbia parents know what it's like to be silenced Cory and then Maria Miranda and Tucker we know that there are many ways that others silence people through how you conduct board meetings and never talk to each other or discuss ideas you should watch other Schoolboard meetings on YouTube because they discuss they share ideas they disagree with each other um it's very interesting Columbia parents advocacy group um we're each one voice but together we're over 2,000 voices and Tucker Maria and Miranda you're each one voice but together you're three voices the Columbia parents um advocacy group sees a need for independent Financial audit fraud is wrongful deception to result in financial uh or personal gain it's wrong to exploit children in the

032educational system I'm going to read a few excerpts from the budget committee minute meetings from January 18th and February 7th otherwise known as cutscenes or bloopers um the board members are the ones who um participate the most in the committee uh member meetings and voicing their opinions and their desires um according to the minutes um very favorable Reser reserves now we're dealing with a richer Surplus than we planned and an accelerated decline in enrollment over what we expected don't want to stash away favorable reserves concerned about closing a school too soon without notice to the community we're inefficiently running the ele at the elementary level we can do much more with our reserves and with we can do much more with our reserves with those children in the with those um okay sorry we can

033do much more with our reserves with those students in other buildings we need to plan and communicate well we're looking at other uses for Colombia this was in January before the announcement of closure such as moving Valley I you to wrap it up this we're using a a consultant okay political issue to have so much in reserves thank you $2 million unexpected Surplus next speaker please thank you Lois Ferguson then Monica Christensen my subject today is the written assessment of impact of closing Columbia Elementary School on students with d disabilities the data comes from the wachi school district's lre breakdown of elementary school schools the conclusion was that one closing Colombia will have a detrimental impact on Lincoln and Colombia's students with disabilities and two there is inadequate classroom space in Lincoln to adequately meet

034students IEPs there are 24 grade level classrooms the district needs 25 classrooms the district has talked about serving students in the pods otherwise known as hallways I volunteer at a school I sometimes do my work in a pod it is a small table in chairs in the widening of the hallway directly across from the boys and girls' bathrooms Lincoln Elementary the school with the lowest student growth scores has 71 students with IEPs Lincoln has the highest percentage of students with the highest special education needs Colombia has 59 students with IEPs Lincoln and Columbia combined could have 101 students to 13 30 students with IEPs within adequate classroom space at linin at Lincoln to adequately meet all students IEPs if the board goes forward with closing Columbia Elementary wachi will be the first school district to

035gentrify a school evicting the students who are mostly minority from the third smallest school to provide a better building for the smallest School Valley Academy please do not vote to close Columbia Elementary and since I have a minute uh Julie I'd like to let you know that people are not opposed to the girls softball field what people are opposed to is the way it was funded with Levy for learning money from the general fund rather than the capital bond for building fund was a loan from the general fund to the uh Capital fund ever considered instead of just taking the money straight from the general fund um Monica Christensen I'm um wachi Education Association president board cabinet and all educators of wachi school district I do believe the proposed closing of Columbia is a sad

036event is it something the district ever thought they would have to do no of course not however unfortunate circumstances have warranted a drastic rethinking of what needs to happen in order to bring the district back to a healthy level of financial stability which includes the proposed closure of Columbia Elementary I am not here to promote the closing of or the keeping open of Colombia that is not the purpose of this public comment no matter the decision that is made on May 14th next year the students at Columbia are going to be well cared for they are going to be taught well by each and every educator that will have the privilege of inviting them into their spaces whether that be at Columbia if it stays open or any other District school our district parents need

037to hear this message our students need to hear this message the students will Thrive because our district educators are highly qualified to teach all students our teachers will lift these students up and help grow them to their full potential to say anything less does not promotee confidence in our school system other District colleagues and administrators and it has the possibility of doing harm to the Future Health of the district emotions are high and I know there are a lot of feelings of betrayal hurt and anger towards the district I understand that anger and disappointment but there is a difference between anger and disrespect unfortunately those High emotions have devolved into messages of disrespect and unkindness towards a district and Elementary colleagues in other buildings I believe District students are all of our students all kids

038are are ours no matter which school they attend if the decision to close Columbia comes to fruition what better messaging to all students all parents and all colleagues than to say look at the new opportunities ahead for us look at the opportunities to broaden your circle of friends and to make connections with more caring adults think about the new experiences you will have how exciting it is to think about what we can share with our colleagues and what our colleagues can share with us think about all the students we will have the opportunity to impact the possibilities are endless if the messaging is changed to the positive I will say this again each and every educator in our system is capable and qualified each one of us believes in our abilities to reach students at

039the core of their needs and each one of us is willing to learn and grow in our craft in order to better meet the needs of all of our students we are all Educators and Learners and we have a responsibility to remind our students and parents that they are strong and capable and they will be well cared for no matter which school they attend we need to remember that we are the community of wachi school district and we can and will do great things when we work together thank you thank you Michaela Salgado and Aaron garinger good evening we've been told over and over that this decision hasn't been made yet however there are budget committee minutes from January and February that clearly show that this decision wasn't already made back in January by a

040minimum of two board me Members Martin and Julie I really hope that's not true those who are in the budget committee know exactly what I'm talking about do not pretend to be caught off guard by the announcement of the decision as notes from your meetings show otherwise it baffles me how during those budget meetings the committee was already discussing and looking for other uses for Colombia before we were told about the possible Colombia closure yet when we asked if this had already been discussed we were told it had not yet been discussed this is very deceptive how are we supposed to believe that this decision hasn't been made when there are notes that show that this has been discussed prior to announcing it to the public in no way does this show transparency and in

041no way does this show that you are listening to families community members and staff makes me question was the cabinet and budget committee set on moving forward with such drastic changes without following the 90day process do they even know about the 90day process it sure didn't see any I sure didn't see any mention of the 90-day process in the budget committee notes why so much secrecy these notes tell me that yes they were planning on moving forward with the closure and that they were not aware of the 90-day process but oh wait someone brought up the 90-day process and everyone from the cabinet retracted what they said to us on January 19th that that this Columbia closure was a done deal this makes the seem that they are only doing this process to make it

042seem like they're being compliant and following in the RCW on May 14th a very important decision needs to be made Tucker Julie Maria and Miranda are you going to use your own voice are you going to blindly follow Martin and Corey when it comes to this making this crucial decision I know I've been standing before you countless times and I will continue to do so because I stand and I a voice for my students and our families I work for my students and my families not for the district you were elected to represent our students and families not the district again will you use your voice you were given as a board member or will you follow Martin and Corey into the darkness thank you thank you I'm going to remember this time good evening

043I'd like to take a minute or three to talk about what our priority should be here in the district it feels to me like in all this discussion about budget cost savings we've forgotten why we're here I mean I get that these are all difficult times and finances are tight that message has not been lost on me I've wondered since January 19th if clo closing Columbia really is the best and only viable option we've asked for proof that hasn't happened board members have asked for some different options to vote on that hasn't happened you said in your written statement on page seven that you had to explore all possible options to reduce the budget did you though did you really sit down and explore all the possible options or just the ones that wouldn't be

044recommended I think we all know the answer to that question so not being the kind of person to sit around and wait until it's too late for someone else to do something I could at least try I sat down with a close friend and we actually looked at an alternative could we actually do what I've been saying from the start and align Staffing to enrollment without closing Columbia I've got great news you can and I brought the proof concept tonight I lovingly dubbed it the cougar plan with it we'd be able to keep all the elementary schools open while still aligning Staffing levels at each building to keep our school communities smaller and not negatively impacting the lives of our students and families by shipping them elsewhere interestingly it would end up actually saving more

045in Staffing costs and would leave the burden of bearing the brunt of the budget mistakes and negligence to the adults of the wachi school district and not the kids or the parents were here to serve also there would be fewer classes on overload next year than the projected amounts in the written analysis it's a lot of information to pour over and I'll be honest it's not perfect there are higher class sizes than some of us have right now and there would be some combination classes to mitigate low enrollment in specific grades we were concerned about the impact of combination classes on learning but what we found in research so far lists the social emotional benefits of a multi-age classroom which sounds positive to me will it be easy no is it doable completely is it

046better for the elementary age kids of this District without a doubt I paired this proof of concept with the idea of merging Valley Academy into an elementary school I chose Columbia just because it's a school I know well but it could be done at any number of elementary schools in the valley that have enough space they could keep their program enhance offerings with more Specialists and have a facility that looks and feels more like a school because it would be here I am saying this again but this time with proof closing Columbia isn't the only option we spent less than three hours hours from start to finish to figure this out what even better ideas could the committee of experts come up with to solve this budget crisis without losing sight of who we want

047to be as a district I know I'd like to find out shouldn't you vote to keep Columbia open and let's figure this out together thank you can you drop that off with Kim right you know an's going next right an young and then Jessica ' Conor all right good evening Bor I want to take a minute to talk to you about Lincoln quite a few years since I've worked there but I am confident that what I saw in my Year's teaching there still holds true today what I saw was a school full of dedicated hardworking teachers and staff who love and nurture their students I say this because I want to make it crystal clear that the problem I want to talk to you about is in no way a reflection of Lincoln of the

048staff at Lincoln but we all know that Lincoln has a demographic much like Colombia they have low many low-income students English language Learners and minority students I think we can all agree that extra care should be taken when we make decisions impacting students who come from marginalized and vulnerable populations such as these I have real concerns about what will occur at Lincoln if Colombia students are moved there I of course don't know the exact demographic breakdown of the students slated to move to Colombia but I do know housing trends for Colombia's boundary what I know was backed up by tools online that examine housing Trends a map that examines housing by race and another that analyzes housing um by cost indicate that students from Colombia's boundary assigned to Lincoln are statistically far more Latino and

049their housing costs lower than those slated for Washington one can surmise from this that the students who are being sent to Lincoln are cific significantly higher percentage Latino English language Learners and lwi income than their counterparts going to Washington this plan appears it will be making Lincoln's demographics become an outlier in our district at the same time it will be the largest Elementary School in the district at over 600 projected students in attendance Lincoln will be at 114% of capacity according to the capacity numbers on the presentation slides from the facilities committee meeting in March number one highest School number one largest Elementary overc capacity something doesn't add up research tells us that students who are relocated from school closures see a drop in academic achievement it also tells us that schools at receiving that

050students at receiving schools also see a drop in academic achievement so we're pushing forward with a plan that makes our largest Elementary also our highest need School while knowing full well the move will harm their academic progress I haven't heard of drastic increase in supports for Lincoln or for students at Lincoln if this plan goes through supports that will desperately be needed if those goes through there will be negative academic effects on students from all three schools but the resulting demographics that Washington appear they will much more closely align to those as our district as a whole while the demographics at Lincoln will pull further away from those of the district I don't believe this plan is the in the best is the best for the academic gains um overall for any of the students

051involved in the three schools but the impact on Lincoln students both current and projected is disproportionately detrimental to our V vulnerable students and quite frankly in opposition to what our district has always stood for thank you whoops okay hi Jessica mom wife Fanci resident two weeks until the real decision is made or has it already been made and we're all just waiting for the 90day period that's required if you ask some of the parents at drop off pickups not just at Columbia ask the community members or even the people in this room I bet you the majority of us feel like you all have already made your decision that we're wasting our time our breath our energy up here talking into the void that continues to scribble on their little yellow pads our time would

052be much more appreciated at home with our families it's heartbreaking to feel that some of y'all don't seem to give a piece of pie about such a delicate and important matter an education a young child's education I drive my kids 7.7 miles and 1.3 miles of school every day to anache public schools at this point in your game I'm contemplating driving 45 minutes 27 miles to Waterville I'm contemplating private school as if I could afford that or even homeschool I'm not sure I can handle that but I'm thinking about it does that make me part of the problem or part of the solution I think we should all be part of the solution don't you I stand here tonight as I have every couple of weeks since January because I get the ability to the

053same reason I take my kids to school every day I volunteer for field trips and parties but I get these abilities because I make sacrifices elsewhere I don't have a big house or a new fancy van but I have a home and a vehicle and most of all I have lots to love for my family and others and I want to be part of a solution so to a lot of of of us others here we can't be any part of a solution if there isn't honest clear communication please vote no on May 14th and ask what voting no would mean for the next year the community's questions are not getting answers we're getting the same slides and the same lines there are solutions there are ways to save 2% of our budget without closing

054a school Edmund School District 10.6 million shortfall they cut programs and staff the district invited families to participate in a budget simiz to identify spending priorities they went into the year with a $15 million shortfall Yakama School District where I'm from $14 million shortfall red reduction of 75 and a half positions including at the district office went into the year with a $20 million shortfall topenish School District $8.6 million shortfall cut 48 positions including the district office has a budget advisory committee all central office admin all the Department admin have reduced salaries and benefits not one of these three schools closed a school or not one of these three districts closed a school not one and I have like the quotes where I SED that um again as I stand here feeling defeated I'm asking

055you to please vote no on May 14th and ask what happens next year if you vote no when you vote no how do we solu be a solution together we can do this thank you thank you that's my last one thank you everyone um we will now move on to our presentations first up we have an ASB update we have the high school or Westside yep good evening my name is Frank panta um the timings in between my updates have felt odd almost like this one came a little sooner but as always I'm excited to be here and update you on what's been going on at Westside um our leadership Club is hosting our e8th annual spaghetti feed and silent auction on May 23rd our recipient is Cooper Bowman who's a middle schooler at Pioneer

056Cooper is battling stage two Hodgkins lymphoma so we'd love to see you all there we're currently accepting donations for the silent auction and tickets for our spaghetti feed are $15 for students 15 for adult five for student and three and under his three and hopefully donations should be getting wrapped up soon our leadership Club is also hosting a ProMag again this year on Friday May 10th the theme is Space Odyssey our yearbook was finalized and submitted last Friday we want to thank our teacher Heidi Monroe and the Yearbook staff for all their hard work we had staff and students also participate in a second culture workshop with a representative from awsl and students are are working on new ideas for our school culture on April 10th we had our presentation to our regional accreditation company

057there were three focus groups students staff families and all the presentations went really well we'll know our final score later in May that is all I have for you any questions thank you thank you for your time thank you thanks Frankie good report okay next we have a uh just uh some words about teacher appre appreciation week which is coming up uh in May so as teacher appreciation week is upon us uh once again during the week of May 6th to 10th I find myself reflecting on the in valuable contributions each and every one of our teachers make on the lives of their students understanding the demands and the challenges that come with the territory um but knowing the measurable rewards that accompany our teachers as we know teaching is not merely a job it

058is a passion that drives one to inspire and nurture Minds even in the face of adversity from early morning spent prep preparing lessons to late nights creating papers your dedication knows no bounds you're not just Educators you are mentors counselors and even caregivers to some degree the demands of teaching can sometimes feel overwhelming especially in today's fastpac and everchanging educational landscape you juggle multiple responsibilities from fostering a positive classroom environment to adapting new technologies and teaching methods to also regulating emotions yet despite these challenges you all persevere with Grace and resilience always putting the needs of your students first it's essential to take a moment during teacher appreciation week which we still have a couple weeks um but to acknowledge and celebrate this incredible work that you all do your impact extends far beyond the

059walls of the classroom shaping the future of society one lesson at a time you instill not only knowledge but values such as empathy resilience and critical thinking which lay the foundation for a better tomorrow on behalf of all former Educators parents and students who Li whose lives you've touched I want to express my deepest gratitude for your unwavering dedication and commitment to the noble profession of teaching your passion enthusiasm and love for your students does not go unnoticed so during the special week coming uh in May uh may you feel appreciated valued and celebrated uh for the remarkable Educators that you are so thank you teachers for all you do you add so much heart and soul to the education in our school district so just wanted to share a few words um as we

060we have a couple weeks until that uh moment happens but I wanted to get it um here at one our board meetings so we can just share that and next we have uh Janice wz with us our special uh education director she's here to give us part two of her special education uh presentation thank you Janice for being here with us and we are ready for uh part two okay now I'm good all right Ron I have a link on one of the slides will I be able to click on it with this do hickey I can let you know okay thank you okay I'm ready okay thanks for having me back um I talked with you guys a couple weeks ago about just kind of our inclusion of Journey Across the Wii school district

061and then just I wanted to share just education on special education and kind of where we were hoping to kind of move forward so this week I'm going to share with you all um what we would like to see moving into the 2425 school year as far as not a shift in a model because how we deliver special education services is dependent on a child's IEP so their individualized educational plan but how we're going to utilize our special education staff K8 so we're talking our elementary and our middle schools right now um and how we're going to be able to support a provision of a Continuum of services that I spoke about a little bit um we'll look at a little bit more um for all of our students across all of our campuses maybe

062there we go okay so I'm going to start with this slide that I shared with you um a couple weeks ago and it was on the research of the the benefits of inclusion and the reason I wanted to start with it is that I wanted to point out and highlight the point um about inclusion being a system of changes and modifications in content teaching methods approaches structures strategies and education to overcome barriers with a vision to provide all students an equitable learning experience so inclusion requires that we evaluate our organization and our practices in order to provide inclusive educational experiences we spent some time as a district and specifically a learning and teaching team this year looking at all of our district support staff in order to best support inclusive practices um and as you

063can see there's several benefits to inclusive practices not just for students with disabilities but our ml Learners or students that are um coming for from many different backgrounds and we have a diverse student population in our district so the benefits are are many um in the 222 3 school year uh the cabinet members I believe I was not in this role at that time um that the cabinet members and some other staff did some listening and learning walks across our buildings and as we had kind of moved through that progression of our inclusive um Journey H and kind of closed out our um alternative programs our structured Learning Centers and our Learning Centers across the district um we we have had some challenges students have begun attending at their neighborhood schools we've also had many

064many wonderful benefits of that but um there have been some challenges so some of the common themes that came from those listening and learning walks um are listed here for you and that is that students are now in their neighborhood schools and with that comes the question of what is a Continuum of services at these neighborhood schools now um and then in some instances what's the purpose of some of our more impacted students who are accessing um a grade level classroom what does that look like for them um and then uh gened teachers asking for more clarity on the intended outcomes for students that are in their neighborhood schools and accessing those class rooms um and then kind of what it's looking like that expanded grade level in peer exposure while we're also looking for

065ways to fill those gaps as we're talking about students that are impacted by a disability and then special education teacher roles and what does the training and support look like as we're growing and developing our special education teachers many of whom are um very early on in their career um and so what that is looking like for them and then how we are maintaining and taking care of our staff so that we can continue to keep them and grow them and have um experienced veterans teachers to support as we bring on new ones um so these have been at the center of a lot lot of um our work in our department and a lot of our conversations as a district through this year and then looking forward into next year as some of the

066changes that we'd like to to look at we'll come back around to them at the end um this is going to be the link Ron um that Continuum of services up at the top yes please thank you I'm in my and then maybe if you'll um enlarge just a little bit thanks um so what we're looking at here is a um document uh that we have developed this year to try to provide a common understanding to Define what a Continuum of supports and services is for students so that we um as both special education staff general education staff administrators um all levels of building support can know what that term means and what these Services look like for students um and as you'll see we have included High cap um one thing that uh I

067think many people don't think about is we often have students that are um twice three times four times exceptional um and qualify in many areas of of service and needs and that often is we have students that are highly capable and also qualify for special education in different areas and so when we're talking about a Continuum of services we we're talking about that a student doesn't live in one area they don't live in one box there's not one location that best serves them and supports all of their needs we are looking at each individual need and where and how and what that service looks like for them across their education um so then next you're looking at general education I borrowed some beautiful um Graphics from topenish school district they have done a lot of

068work over the years um on their inclusive practices and have been so wonderful to collaborate with myself and a team through this year um and they gave permission for us to use these beautiful Graphics um this one I like a lot it really points out that as um students receiving special education services they are general education students first and those Services can be delivered at Tier 1 2 or three in the general education setting uh again returning to that idea that special education is a service and um not a location and we are looking at how to best provide that that service for them continuing on another area along that Continuum of services we're looking at accommodations so many of our students who qualify might be accessing some different accommodations often at this um area

069on the Continuum they are working towards the same out outcome so accessing the same grade level standard uh what the expectation is is the same we're asking them to ultimately produce the the same as their non-disabled peers just a little bit to see that visual run thank you a little bit more little bit more perfect um and this is a really good visual um because it shows that um that line of that grade level standard and so student is working toward that standard with some different supports in place in order to access that um but ultimately again working towards that same outcome as they non-disabled peers and so this one is really really nice um a lot of classroom teachers and we're just talking good instructional practices many of these things are often seen in

070place in classrooms um they're also often what you find in many iups as far as accommodations that support access for students with disabilities and so being being aware and having that common understanding that these supports are part of special education services and part of specially designed instruction um is important for us to all have that common understanding continuing next up you see modifications when we're talking modifications um we might have students that have a different objective that they're working towards um so they could be working within the standard maybe not on the grade level standard but on a skill working towards um this is great alignment with some of the work that our District's been doing um in general over the last few years I know that our grade level teams have spent a lot

071of time delving into their unit planning and doing work around smarty goals and what is 100% of your class you're you're striving to get to and um that's wonderful work in general but when we talk about students with disabilities what's so fantastic is you're finding that access point for students in your classroom that might not be right at that sixth grade level um standard but you've found a point where they can work alongside their peers and that they could possibly find some success as well so right below that visual is a just a nice little concrete example of so I might not be doing 2 by two multiplication but I can't do multiplication if I can't do repeated addition um so working on that skill in math is working within that standard working toward that

072standard and is something that could be accommodated and modified for for me to still access time with my peers um and a goal that I could be working towards okay next up we've got more modification um so one of those points that was brought up at the learning and teaching walks was about um the goal of Why students might be in a class if they're level of need is maybe significantly higher than um their peers or they're working significantly below grade level um and and I get it you know we're we're all teachers we want to see students in our class and there be meaning and purpose behind their time there and we want to be able to support their growth and their progress um and so when I think about this one and especially

073the visual that's attached with that one it's really the Special Education team and that child's IEP team having Clarity on what is their purpose and what is their goal and so I might not be doing eighth grade Algebra um but I might be working on what it looks like to be a student um and working on my own individualized math assignment I might be working on transitions I might be working on what it looks like for me to access different environments in the school um but that Clarity is important and defining what that goal is and then having in place what those supports are for that student to do that um but this is just a really good starting point for our staff to have common understanding on the why and then the next one

074doesn't have a great picture sorry I'll work on that um alternative is most modification um topenish was a really great um one to kind of talk with even at this level many of their students are still accessing grade level classroom rooms they've been doing a lot of work for about 10 years though so um we need some time um our system is going to um get there and I I'm fully confident that we will but at this level there might be opportunity that some students might need some time in an alternative setting um to get some instructional um control around different skill sets to get some one-on-one time to work in a smaller group and maybe they're working on more adaptive skills um life skills social skills um different things that maybe can't or are

075not right now as accessible in a grade level classroom so that being said that's our Continuum of services and like I said any one student wouldn't necessarily live in one spot in that Continuum depending on the disability and their IEP and their levels of needs um for any qualifying area they could be dancing all over that that Continuum at any point in their day and in their education okay we can go oh already there thank you okay moving on what you see on this slide is we currently have a document um that is our building roles and responsibilities that we developed when um we hired uh bcbas into our district our board certified Behavior analysts and the goal with that document was that we were bringing in additional staff members to our system that had

076not previously been a part of that and so we wanted Clarity on what their roles would look like and so we laid out our special education teacher and case manager rules what we have done some time spent some time doing this year is really looking at what those rules are and you'll see that there's about five kind of main hats or buckets there supporting inclusionary practices uh designing and monitoring that specially designed instruction collaboration with grade level teams around content and standards an IEP case manager and then that par education facilitation within each of those there's just some highlights within each of those highlights there's many many other things this is very much a broad stroke currently each of our special education teachers and case managers K12 tk12 all of them are asked required and

077at some point having to do each one of these duties um that's a lot a lot of hats to wear a lot of plates to balance for sure um what our hope is is to try to focus a little bit more going into 2425 um so that we can build some skill sets of our teaching staff and allow um teachers to become experts in little bit narrowed field uh and support staff and students um a little bit more efficiently so boy this is the roles that we are looking at for next school year special education case manager a special education inclusion specialist and a special education learning support teacher I'm going to skip to the next slide because I like to look at it on the triangle was a lot of work to me um

078so I'm very proud of it um so when we look at the case manager and the inclusion specialist they are paired together because the work that they do will support the majority of students on case load and I'm going to talk to you um shortly about the LR breakdown of our buildings currently and what I mean when I um am talking about the majority of our case load um so what did it's doing here is it's kind of teasing out those five different kind of buckets that we looked at previously and allowing our case manager to really focus on the case management and educational plan duties that are involved in each student with an IEP so the development and the writing of the IEP the meetings that go along with that uh attending evaluation meetings

079um sharing and disseminating information to staff being kind of that lead contact on a students IEP um and then the staff collaboration as far as ensuring that we've got meeting notices going out management of their IEP classroom support on ensuring that their implementation of the IEP do the grade level teachers have the IEP um and the information that they need to be able to implement the pieces of that IEP that are applicable in their setting and then our inclusion specialist pairs alongside them with the lesson development um with in collaboration with those grade level teachers so a big piece of their work will be um a a member of that PLC team uh ensuring that they're learning those standards learning those units participating in that planning uh they will be supporting uh the resource creation

080uh materials creation reviewing and collaborating on plans and units and then as uh students IEPs dictate their may still be uh direct instruction provided via those inclusion Specialists our third role is the learning support teacher the bulk of this teacher's role will be around direct instruction and lesson creation along with management coordination of Paras case management duties as well and then inclusion and collaboration what I'd like to point out at this point is that the learning support team teacher is doing a little bit of both of those other two roles reason being learning support teacher is likely going to be providing a lot of that Continuum on that lower part of the Continuum that we looked at the alternative the higher modification um they will case manage so the case management duties the IEPs um

081are students that are accessing 0 to 39% of General education but they will provide services to any student that requires that level of support per their IEP so one thing I want to make very very very clear this learning support teacher is not a program it is not a placement as a staff member that is a member of our Special Education team that will be providing the support along the Continuum for any student that needs that level of support they will support the case management of our students that are accessing less because likely the design for their educational plan will be a little bit more unique as our system continues to grow and what our inclusionary practices are for students that are accessing less right now this is the LR breakdowns of across our current

082elementary schools and currently for our middle schools um the LR one so in the blue is students that are accessing general education 80 to 100% of the time 40 to 79% is your next I didn't match my colors up very good I'm sorry um and then your next one is 0 to 39% I did go ahead and throw TK in there um though TK models after our preschool program which is a fully inclusive program they try to stay pretty balanced as far as that ratio um and then other can look like a few different things some of our um preschoolers as they rolled up into kindergarten um their IEP reflects a different LR setting right now um that is a little bit unique and we're just waiting to to correct those so um what I

083wanted to point out here is that the majority of students in our school district and in our system across rk8 are in that 80 to 100% LR which means they are spending the majority of their day with their general education peers that is a wonderful celebration and we should be very proud of that um what we want to do and what we should recognize here also is that this is why that inclusion specialist position and that case management position will service a large portion of building case loads um and why it's so important because the majority of where their services are occurring and what they're trying to access is that grade level content and so we are needing to focus some resources and some time and support on how we are working alongside our classroom

084teacher Partners um to ensure that we have um Equitable access and appropriate um opportunities for our students with disabilities while also addressing their IEP goals oops and then my last slide I think it's my last slide no I have one more this slide is those same three roles and um I added in a column for our general education teachers I think it's very important that we keep in mind that when we're talking about students with disabilities they are general education students first and these classroom teachers um many spend more of the day with them than our special education teachers they know them well they advocate for them they are standards and content experts and they are valuable members of their teams um so when we talk about roles and how we're going to support a

085students's educational plan it's important that we are looking at all members of their team par of considerations um I think it was Martin that asked me last time um we have many many Paras in our special educ tion Department across K8 currently as we have moved to more inclusive practices across our district and students have gone to their neighborhood schools there has been an increased need for Paris support as our system is trying to catch up with how to support them across these buildings um and with that comes a needed support for Paras uh Paras have to have schedules Paras have to have the materials they need to support the students we're asking them to work with um somebody has to to develop the lesson materials there has to be oversight and systems in place

086um for Progress monitoring so that we know that the Paris support is actually accomplishing uh what we've put them there to do um so the changes that we are looking at implementing going into next year uh with our staffing rules will support uh a better facilitation of our parent Educators and hopefully and be able to help address um retaining them and providing better more meaning support for our students this is my last slide um and then I just wanted to answer those considerations from the listening and learning walks and so when we talk about neighborhood schools we have defined a Continuum of services with a common definitions and examples we are addressing the Continuum of services with clearly defined roles and responsibilities for our special education staff we are being very intentional with our staff

087roles and our ability to provide teachers and opportunities for students to access grade level content with their peers and being provided a Continuum of services we have defined these three roles in order to Target our training and our support for teachers as we build a special education staff that are quite new still um and then we would like to continue to provide more focused um training for them in order to Target their skill set and provide Clarity uh for each of them and have a consistent clear support for our par Educators um all of which uh have a direct impact on our students growth and success that is all I have for you I think yes questions I can maybe answer or get back to you on I have one I don't know if it

088can be answered or it's for a different staff member so continuum support I know that was like brought up brought up continuously in the presentation and that's fantastic my question is what is the Continuum support to help advocate for the families outside the classroom for like I know some students need that extra assistance maybe with technology reading or writing purposes I know with in other schools or um with Educators advocating or educating families to continue practicing these Norms with the child outside the classroom so then that can develop a positive routine for ongoing learning in and out the classroom is that something that's currently worked on or something to be drafted with with the teachers for these for our other students as well are you speaking about kind of that home to school connection yeah

089and so what we're doing at school and that carryover into the home excellent point um I I would say that I feel that a lot of that is done via the IEP process um I think that there's room to grow with that for sure my hope would be that again with these defined roles and that case manager role and that focus and that contact person that we also start to see an increase in that family connection and relationship with that one person um My Hope also is here over this next year and the following um that we could start to look at how we start to bring our special education family advocacy group back which was a thing preco um and it is just not one that has become a thing yet so um but

090good feedback for sure thank you I have a question um when I'm on campus I'll often see students being teachers in special education um sometimes it's being a stimulus or morale and incentive or another time I was part of a little Trio where one person needed help with math and one person needed help with Spanish and they helped each other um to what extent in your program are students supporting the inclusion model and what can be done to encourage it I guess and what might be dangerous about letting it run but I I sometimes think I see that on campus I would say that I see it a lot more at our preschool um program because it's a part of the the leap model that is a for our preschool the peer modeling and that

091interaction um I definitely would love to see it grow and flourish throughout our system more there is a lot of research behind uh the benefits of peer models um and that just interaction for the prompting and also that we're not ending up with students that are prompt dependent on an adult for the entirety of their life um and so it's something to definitely continue to grow in our system I don't know that I necessarily believe personally that there is a detriment to it I think that there's things to be aware of and cautious of we don't want it to become another student's sole responsibility for the education of another child um but we also don't want to create create a system where kids are not encouraged to interact with students with disabilities I mean I

092have always worked in districts that worked towards inclusive um practices and I've always placed my personal children in the classes that were co- talk classrooms or student or classes that were a little bit more the 5050 ratio because I do see a benefit for them as well as the students with disabilities the modeling The Compassion the empathy um that a lot comes from that so I I think that there is more we can do as a district especially when we talk about diversity equity and inclusion there's benefits on both sides thank you I guess I have a comment more than a question this seems fairly I mean first of all it's essential I think um super supportive of this model and excited for the students for it but it seems very staff heavy in in

093order to work effectively and I'm concerned with our budget situation do we have the ability to have the staff to have this run between the peras and all of the case management um to provide the supports both to the students to the teachers and even to the extent we have to reach out um to help with families at home do we is this realistic can we successfully do this and if we have any questions or concerns what is our monitoring plan to how do we adjust um to make sure that that we are fulfilling the students needs yeah no great question um we actually have been able to work out what the Staffing will be within my department for these rules with um just retirement that is not being filled um with positions that have

094left with reorganization of of different roles so we are not seeing a huge increase in Staffing um as far as to fill to fill these rules my hope is um that as we get going as well that we're able to eventually see a decline in the amount of par Educators that we have to staff um because we will build our system and our capacity um I not anticipating cutting people um but I am anticipating that just kind of naturally as we have resignations which we normally do um that we'll be able to just kind of move through through the process um we are going to be filling uh three new search positions but as I said um those have been captured with other positions that are being vacated um and not going to be an

095additional add to to the budget and just to clarify that is coming through special ed fund correct yes ma'am I just want to um acknowledge that you acknowledge that this inclusion model is something that um could work with other uh student populations including our ml Learners is something that um I when Bill um Eagle was here I said okay well how can we implement this system of inclusion into all of our schools with our multi language Learners so do appreciate the recognition and um and then uh you know to Martin's Point uh I think it's something that um we need to be cautious of because it reminds me of the student that uh that says speak Spanish and you get a monolingual student and it feels like it's the responsibility of the bilingual student to

096tend to the needs of that monolingual student um I haven't seen it um but I could see how it could it could kind of have a an impact on some students if we're not constantly checking in yeah it's definitely a balance of building relationships and building community and the benefits of uh learning from your peers and that's different than your peers is going to teach you and take responsibility for you and I I really appreciate uh I believe in the inclusion model um obviously we have a lot of work to do um but I've seen it on firsthand with um in my students classroom when he was at Washington and now I see it at the middle school level as well um so and again it's it's there there's benefits for all in that absolutely

097thank you excellent jise thank you so much uh for your time today but also thank you for your work in leading and directing our Special Education team and uh sharing with us the vision and the plan for next year absolutely Ely thank you thank you all for your time all right next up we have Sean Fitzgerald to walk us through the enrollment projections for the 25 uh 2425 school year I want to thank Sean in advance for the enormous amount of time that he's put into the projections and understanding um just how important these are for future planning so thanks Sean good evening president nor member of the board members of the board and Dr kalahar thank you for having me tonight here to present on the 20242 preliminary enrollment projections uh so just to

098start off with our funding overview and then we'll delve into enrollment Trends um so this a familiar slide from the monthly enrollment reports um and just going over the high level of enrollment and funding uh so AA FTE or annual average FTE um Drive stated portion Min so beginning from September through December we use our budgeted amount um that is a plan you know our budget is a plan and it's based on the best information um as possible at the time the budget is adopted and then we adjust to actual so beginning in from September through December OPI will fund us on our budgeted amount and then beginning in January it will switch over to the actual amounts uh for the remainder of the year and so the AA is based on the average of

099each month's FTE and changes after each month's en enrollment account and September is historically the lowest while October are historically our highest uh currently we um track two on our AF with both running start and open doors including it so our total enrollment and then without so 773 and 6,740 respectively uh and why we do this is that running start and open doors act as pass through so you know the enrollment is counted we track the enrollment it's counted towards our funding but however um those funds uh then go out of the district so you know for a running Start program we receive the funding uh but then we'll receive a bill from the college and we pay the bill with that funding uh we take a tiny little indirect off but that's how it

100operates and so that's why we separate them out because we can look at our total enrollment versus kind of our general education enrollment again this is another slide from our monthly enrollment reports um again this is from our most current one April of 2024 uh quite large um so I don't know it grows every month um so luckily we have a pointer here so we can walk through people uh with this amount of data but over here highlighted in green we have both our total enrollment without running start open doors and then with it so you can see the 6,740 and then the 7,700 7 173 uh and then we have our breakdown of enrollment by uh building uh then we have our budgeted amounts for each building and then we can see uh so

101again these are the amounts that we are funded uh between September through December and then once we get and then we get these reports um each month so we're going to see whether our actuals are going to be uh come January uh so once the January report um comes in uh it adjusts and starts taking the average of each of these months so we get at the very end that's our afte which is take Taking each of those months and divides uh by the months presented and on the very end we just have our uh difference between where we're at currently and what we budgeted for and then we kind of analyze those Trends throughout the year to see why uh certain things did better or certain things did worse and that's how we affects

102our planning for the remainder of the year any questions before I move on I guess the only question I have is you're calling this a 2025 enrollment projection but it's really just tracking you're not actually saying we project by September 2025 this is going to be the enrollment you're just no I'm just I'm just giving a current snapshot of where we're currently at and then I'll move into those projections so this oh go ahead sorry oh sorry so I'm looking at so we were we budgeted so when the count the state says okay we're going to fund you what month was it was used for the FTE for the budget purpose so uh no month is used for it it's basically we're trending the data looking analyzing data historical Trends and thinking where we're going

103to end up but us so looking at okay so we Columbia we budgeted 323 yes and in April we're showing 341 yes so there is a change of 13.8 correct from the budget so but we only got funds for the initial number no so from September through December they would fund us on the 323 but then as soon as January comes around it'll switch to actual so now we're funded it goes from the budget mod funding to the AA so we're actually funded at the 336.00 [Music] you know so we we like this we want to budget a little bit lower than actual just so we can come out better as a top but again what you're actually funded on is the afte and not the budgeted amount so go ahead sorry sorry so we

104talked about like in the written analysis we lost 184 students from the district for like the the graph yes does that with the afte or is that budgeted that is with a okay yes to clarify the budget would be an estimate of an annual average correct uh just some clarification just between we heard a couple weeks ago from Davis demographics and their enrollment their projections for what they were using and so there's going to be some differences and how we do our enrollment projections versus what Davis is working with ultimately we're coming with from the same data source but we're focused on FTE while Davis is using headcount and that's an important difference because you know FTE is measured what we're actually funded on and it stands for full-time equivalent so if a student is

105St you know funded at 1.0 ft that means they're fulltime but if they're halftime we would only be funded for 0.5 FTE but they would still be counted as one person on the head count so you're going to have these variances uh when you look at a headcount report versus an FTE and I kind of have a little breakout on the side even just showing like the difference between you could see just running start you know the headcount is 273 but we're funded at 259 well that suggests okay not everyone's going full-time running start uh so you're going to see some of those differences again we're focused on School enrollment while their emphasis was on residency uh and again they're focusing is day is by the total while we have to break it out by

106our funding sources so we're looking at general education running start open doors so again going back to that pass through system so we can really understand what our enrollment is and where the funding is going um Tucker going back to your question here is our 10-year enrollment Trend so as you can see back in 1314 then we peaked in 1516 and then we can start to see some enrollment decline beginning in 16117 followed by um we see the other drop in enrollment 2021 due to the covid pandemic then we kind of see a slight Rebound in 2122 with the return to in-person learning but at the same time we're also seeing the opening of Charter School in the area and uh private schools and other alternative education choices uh being opened up or expanded uh

107between 2122 and the current year and so right now 23 24 that's our current April enrollment afte for the year so none of these are budgeted amounts they're all actuals uh here again is the same amount of data the same data just presented in number format and again we have the 183 and that's the difference in af between 2223 and April of 24 average FTE um so part of our enrollment projections uh the district identified five kind of major enrollment trends that are really driving uh where our enrollment is going uh First Rate birth rates and kindergarten classes then we have the elementary to Middle School transition Middle School to high school then we see 10th to 11th grade with running start entering um as a factor and then finally graduating classes larger than incoming

108classes uh so we're going to start off with birth rates and kindergarten um so here we have a graph um both showing birth rates just for the Wii school district and Chalan County as a whole as you see District birth rates um peaked in 2014 while the county was in 15 and then you see kind of see that correlation with District enrollment peaking in 1516 and then you kind of see it more over than not that they're following the same Trend uh the district is kind of following the county um you know the only separation there is the difference in 2014 and 2015 um but then again when we're looking at projecting our kindergarten classes we look at the birth year and usually it's birth year plus five that we want to use for the

109school year uh for projecting our kindergarten classes so we're using 2019 as our birth years to help project incoming kindergarten classes for 2425 so you can see both on the district and the county we're seeing an increase in the birth rates so that would suggest um that we might see uh an increase in our kindergarten classes compared to this year um I'm stopping at 2022 because the Department of Health has not provided anything for 2023 at this time um again just following the correlation um between so now we have District birth rates and our actual kindergarten classes again none of this is budgeted data this is actual uh enrollment actual birth dates um so what we're seeing here again General Cod relation between birth rates and our kindergarten classes you know the sole exception we

110see is in 2122 where we had declining birth rates but we had an increase in our kindergarten classes and that suggests the uh return to in-person learning after the covid pandemic we did see it overall Spike so but overall they're following and mirroring those Trends and so as we can see increase in birst rates generally corresponds to an increase in kindergarten classes and vice versa any questions on that before I move on just I was just trying to do some a quick arithmetic uh there's a much greater decline in the city than in the county which I think is significant when you look at from a demography the Count's about 83% from beginning to end and I think uh the city is going to be in the low 70s thank you thank you uh second

111uh Trend we identified is just the elementary to Middle School transition uh so we're seeing declining enrollment between the elementary and our middle schools and so if we're going between if we're looking pre pandemic so 13 to 14 1920 school year we see just two years of real Decline and one 14- 15 mean it was less than one FTE and then we had about 12 FTE declines 1718 and then again we see the rebound and then we can look at 2021 get the pointer as I'm jumping through the years and the data um we're seeing this decline in cohort and to follow me along we're kind of analyzing this we're not going straight across we're moving like a night across the chessboard just diagonally so we're following the grade level so fifth to sixth graders

112so a fifth grader in 1314 it's going to be a sixth grader in 145 so again very little change slight increase you know again nothing before the pandemic that's really suggesting large changes um and then we get to 1920 and 2021 and it's like okay we can say decline due to co pandemic people searching for other Alternatives um and then we have the return to in-person learning in 2122 and it's still kind of declining and now that declining is increased uh kind of consistently uh and we're still kind of projecting that and that kind of corresponds with the opening of a charter school um at the same time so we're really seeing um the effect of that when we're transitioning from the elementary to the Middle School level is that there is a demand um

113for a you know alternative education choices between transitioning from elementary to middle and we are projecting that that would state of the course um uh for 2425 any questions on that right uh Middle School to High School uh so here things are a lot more stable so we're either seeing either stable or increasing enrollment from the transition to our middle to our high schools and this is contrasting with the double digit declines uh we're seeing between elementary and middle and again following just kind of Di Al an eighth grader in 13 14 following that cohort 14 and 15 they're going to be a ninth grader so again not much very little decline even some increases you know not even a huge decline even in the High School area uh during the covid pandemic um here

114so we're just showing is it going to be an exact one: one no uh but it does suggest that we're not going to see much change between um 8th and the nth grade so again it's like there is appeal to uh the services that are high schools are offering whether it's course you know course offerings or Athletics that's suggesting uh the stability or the return of students who may not be finding that elsewhere in the community uh 10th to 11th grade transition so here we see some interesting changes uh even though the overall we see the change from 8th to 9th showing St either stable or increasing uh 10th to 11th grade is a different story where and the primary factor is running start so we're seeing students um that option is available uh for

11511th and 12th graders and with new legislation uh available for um sophomores uh summer school who are going into their junior year at High School uh but again we're seeing these declines uh between you know from your 10th grade to your 11th grade and our expectation is that running start is going to um is uh increasing in demand we have kind of I believe record high sign uh signups for running start this year uh so the projection is that running start's going to continue to increase and this would uh generally move away from our U basic Ed enrollment uh last en rment Trend graduating classes are larger than our incoming classes uh so this data present a little bit differently we're just going straight across comparing the current years the 12th graders outgoing 12th graders

116incoming kindergarteners and kind of seeing where those changes are at um and as we can see I mean it's been pretty consistent um although 2425 probably is going to be our smallest variance just because our 12th grade class is very small um but we do expect this trend to continue um so outgoing classes are larger incoming classes are smaller therefore that's going to result in an overall decline of enrollment um so here's a comparison with our current year data and then projected for 2425 so starting with transition to kindergarten our expectation is that our TK enroll will um increase due to increasing classes from 3 to 4 uh our expectation based on trending data and the birth rates is we're going to see a slight increase in our kindergarten rates for next year um and

117then continuing we're going to see that decrease of um between elementary and middle school so fifth to sixth grade uh due to Charter School and other alternative education choices um again still trending data is stable between middle School and High School uh but we're also seeing that increase in demand um in running start so our expectation is that uh from 10th to 11th grade the enrollment our basic edit enrollment will drop but our running start enrollment will increase uh so that's down here um and then again continuing exiting graduating classes larger than our incoming classes and then as you can see just if we're looking at if we're kind of following the cohort data you can can just see um the number of students you know classes above 500 and how that kind of dissipates

118we have one bubble in the second grade that's going to move to the third grade uh but we're definitely seeing a trend of smaller uh overall grade class sizes uh here is an updated graph with that you know with the 24 25 projection and so this is what our current working data suggests so to be clear these preliminary enrollment projections are based on what we have enrolled and the birth rate data we have for incoming Kinders correct this does not project any students that we may lose to other private schools correct thank you that's a great segue to the next slide so uh f um factors between now and budget adoption so again districtwide although we're seeing certain areas of increases um no data to support overall enrollment stabilization for growth uh on the elementary

119level again increase in birth rates likely leading to larger kindergarten classes than the current year um again we're still looking at the impact of the charter school at the middle school level and the impact of running start at the high school level on the other we're also seeing an increased Demand on our Alternative Learning uh and our special education enrollment continues to grow um between now and you know budget adoption we're going to be looking at the private schools and evaluating the impact uh on what they're going to have on overall enrollment and again you know we're preliminary but you know this up data becomes more updated as we get more data available and then we start reconciling our projections to actual signups uh over the next few months so we can actually start comparing

120to actuals and getting a more accurate number uh before we finalize the budget any questions so the 185 we've been working with is now 217 uh right now yes okay yeah thank you thanks Sean thanks Sean very much all right again Sean thank you so much for uh your time and effort putting into the uh enrollment projections and good evening uh board members cabinet members staff and Community thank you for joining us tonight or tuning in uh whatever the case may be tonight will be our final budget update prior to the May 14th uh decision yep [Music] excellent thanks Ron oops goodness uh here we see the overview of the budget proposal for the 2425 budget reductions from the wih school district across the top we have our grade level uh impacts as well as

121our uh additional Staffing impacts and our mck impact uh to equal the 8.9 million in reductions excuse me uh we also have the why multi-year reduction slide uh when enrollment decline happens and we do not make reductions our revenues and expenditures are out of balance and we then dip into our savings the more we dip into our savings the less we have for emergencies like HVAC issues at when high school or otherwise uh we have past uh enrollment Decline and Staffing that has not entirely been addressed as well as the annual ual concerns of inflation that compound uh each year to increase in overall uh costs for Staffing when Ani school district has experienced enrollment decline uh as Sean just went over and uh we have some slides that will also uh share that as

122well we know we lost 183 students alone this year however the 23 24 school year is the first year that we have made systemic intentional uh budget reductions since uh 2018 and 19 and we have continually uh increased uh Staffing during this time of enrollment decline due to the influx of covid relief funds we definitely have some catching up to do um we see here and it'll be stated many times through this uh slide presentation that the projected trend of enrollment is declining we know that we have other options in the community uh to choose other than the WAN school district and we know the N uh natural inflationary cost of salaries benefits and MSO Sean just showed this slide here but we know that uh enrollment directly affects the state and federal funding sources

123which impacts the bulk of our Revenue therefore the declining enrollment means corresponding decline in revenues from the state and federal sources which also in turn means needed adjustments to our expenses we are expecting that continued decrease in enrollment as Sean's slideshow just shared with us um and uh we will continue to combat this decline through excellence in education and robust opportunities for students and here you see that enrollment Trend together with our staffing Trends illustrating the need for alignment our budget reduction factors include declining enrollment both actual and projected our declining State local effort assistance funding our declining State realizational funding the rising inflation costs annually and exhausting our federal emergency covid funding and also uh available unassigned fund balance equaling our financial stability as a district uh if the district's unassigned fund balance reserves

124run to low the district would need permission from the school board to access the minimum fund balance reserves to maintain operations and payroll it would limit the district's AB ility to address unexpected events such as emergency maintenance issues uh unfortunately as Sean's presentation in this presentation show the pro projections continue to show declining enrollment for the wih school district in the future we are a large system and even a few percentages of the total Bud budget add up to millions of dollars that there is no way to Simply absorb without eventually using all the reserves the compounding uh implications of this decline move swiftly from year to year and we must address it now for the future Financial Health of the system then the last bullet there uh the 2025 reductions assume the district will

125pass a replacement EPO uh Levy Levy uh less Levy revenues will result in larger reductions uh for the 2025 year Beyond I have a quick question Corey sorry so when will we see when will we see a deficit when OSBI were to come in if Colombia were not to be closed and we Remain the status quo with everything for OPI to pop in I know because we've talked about it before yeah and it's been seen in other districts like um a up north up in Lake Chand school district and the school on the west side where they are seeing where OSBI is intervening in um Financial budgeting right yeah and then that's uh the term that Sean's shared with us multiple times is The Binding conditions uh process so if if Columbia did not close

126when we would reach that is that what you're saying uh that would most likely be the 25 25 26 school year we would be reach we'd be below the minimum 5% and then OSI could pop in during the 26 27 there yeah I believe that was shown on option two right and we will get that yeah yep good question thank you and that's contingent on the board voting to go below the fund balance minimum that first yeah policy board required yep thank you uh long-term impacts uh enrollment and inflationary factors are annual issues that must uh cont that the district must contend with beyond the current school year delaying reductions only increases our gap between enrollment Decline and inflationary costs larger reductions in the current year will lessen reductions in the future and reductions will

127need uh will be needed until enrollment uh stabilizes okay and then addressing some concerns here I actually will is are there any other questions perhaps at this point okay um addressing some concerns I want to highlight some information that um has already been shared for the most part in response to some concerns that have been brought up and so the building capacity as we know uh enrollment projections again as I've stated uh have been in our declining um all of our elementary schools were intentionally built and designed for 600 students or more uh Washington and Lincoln have the uh capacity uh to welcome Colombia's uh students into their buildings in the 2425 school year these buildings are new or newly remodeled uh there is space for interventions there will be uh room for occupational therapy

128physical therapy and speech language support uh there will be room for special education classrooms uh both Washington and Lincoln have had 600 students in the past and have provided for them academically and emotionally these buildings have wide Halls tall ceilings uh space created specifically for a large number of uh students um at Lincoln we will be utilizing all the classrooms available uh however as I mentioned there will still be pod space for interventions and pullout programming as well as individual spaces for uh students with disabilities and special needs um in addition we have uh the data uh projections from Davis demographics as well as our enrollment slope that you've seen now twice tonight in the coming years we will see a decrease in student enrollments uh in Washington and Lincoln that we can count on

129until enrollment decline stabilizes we will we will continue with these conversations also from uh Davis demographics they have their Elementary capacity and utilization uh chart that Marcy horer shared with the board on April 9th we are not fully utilizing our elementary schools for core instruction I I going back a couple slides you mentioned pot space I'm familiar with SP pot space in Washington um which I'm assuming it's similar to Lincoln um and just to be clear that is not a chair outside of a classroom door right it's they're by grade levels um so I'm familiar with the fifth grade level um pod in at Washington so you have the fifth grade classroom teachers uh classrooms and then in the center of of the classrooms there are pods and it's it's not a covered little pod

130like I think of the Bubble at uh Newberry um it's there's there's a there's a your microphone show I need to like so yeah hallway you need a microphone okay oh Jesus sorry sorry better all right hallway and then you have like a breakout pod space this is probably not helping um bathrooms and then classrooms off of that pod so the hallway is not in uded in that pod space there's multiple um spaces within that and having red with my kids in that space like it's a it's a pretty reasonable space to do what's that so sorry so the classrooms have their doors to section them off from the Pod space and then they're we're working at the end of a hallway so you're having not people walking by you mean so like there's an

131open space but within that working space no it's off of the hallway so it's not in the hallway um yeah I mean like the end of the the hallway ends in doors or a wall and then it's a space broken off of that which then you have access to the um classroom can I ask that we get back on track thank you sorry come visit thank you thank you Tucker and thank you Maria for the clarification and class siiz projections um with our strategic plan uh big six data point number one we want our students to experience high quality instruction and have class sizes that are uh are too large does not always align with high quality instruction U due to that we want to keep our class sizes at or below our contract levels

132here as shown contract class size for K1 23 and 45 working at the same time to align our staffing to our enrollment uh no matter what the decision on consolidation we will pay close attention to uh class size and the contract language um and as I have shared earlier um uh small schools can be impactful um and can do great things however in Washington state our buildings and systems are not funded for small schools in all cases and our buildings have not been built for small schools to be uh used in the most efficient way uh with our space or our staff uh add addressing can I ask that there be no more disruptions please thank you addressing the academics uh Colombia has made incredible growth in their academics they are proud of the work

133and we are proud of the work um we also need to recognize that uh our schools are doing uh the work in the entire district and making progress uh recent data does show that our buildings are making strides in academic growth and meeting standards in the smart balance assessment uh in the in the area of growth we see Columbia on top and uh Sunny Slope and Newbery following and in the meeting uh of standard on Smarter Balance assessment we have uh Sunny Slope and then Washington and Newberry that are targeting specific growth in for our buildings systemic walk to intervention uh changes have happened districtwide modifications to our early exit program uh for intentional support for transitional bilingual instructional program and then our essential strategy for English language development that Heidi has shared with us

134from a learning and teaching team and we're we know that with continued collaboration and teacher efficacy even with the consolidation of our elementary schools uh it will stimulate student growth our teachers are doing great work in all of our buildings and uh and and uh pushing uh growth forward so we appreciate that uh why Colombia uh Colombia is a second smallest school with the second smallest staff uh over the last eight years Colombia has experienced a decline in their enrollment uh which has resulted in many open classrooms used for non-grade level purposes um Lincoln and Washington have the space to accommodate more students uh they were built or remodeled in 2016 to house large numbers of students Columbia's location is unique and centralized most of Columbia students live within the one mile walking distance of

135Lincoln or Washington and the few students who will need Transportation can be added to the existing Wan School District bus routes limiting any additional funding necessary um and in the area due to the lack of vacant land uh and co- zoning of several sections for residential and Commercial purposes possibility of growth is minimal most homes in this boundary are single family dwellings with a few apartments and numerous uh companies and agencies I was also asked that uh that I share some of the outside Consultants um and as I shared on March 23rd with the wanci school district uh has or sorry on March 23rd I shared that the WAN school district has worked with many outside Consultants to ensure Val uh validity and reliability of our data and uh our proposal for uh budget reductions

136and so the list here is uh Davis demographics terer COC Moody's credit rating system uh the uh Office of the Washington state auditor and then North Central ESD uh we met with them Sean and I met with them again last week with a follow-up meeting for a budget Deep dive um where enrollment decline uh projections were shared that they are on track projections reductions uh from the ESD are from the ESD to the WAN School District uh are reasonable sensible financially prudent and the budget presentations have been educ ational and valuable to school staff in the community and we appreciated the um the collaboration with the north central estd on that work uh some of the outside uh experts here's a list of some of the incredible people who have lent support and wisdom as

137we have gone through the process of uh sharing the district's budget reduction proposal and the 90day journey uh Tim garchow uh Joel an Anie Andy wolf Monique dugga Dr Michelle price Dr Jean sheritt and Dennis bus okay and then I'm GNA do do a recap of the scenarios but I wanted to see if there's any questions before I moved on uh to a recap of those scenarios I guess I just have a question um going back to sort of the addressing the AC academics um we we've heard the concerns that we're going to to have a significant English Lang language learning population potential shift or change to Lincoln do we have the resources sort of in place to to help make sure there is no learning lost and and to support those students especially that

138may be drastically sort of changing demographic of the school right yes we we believe we do have those resources and the resources will also follow those students y thanks juliean and I believe so I think I want to make sure we're we understand that not all bilingual students qualify for the bilingual the tvip program um so I can't remember the data that was shared back probably back in February um so I think we need to also understand that you know our our district is 52% Latino however not 52% of our Latino population qualifies for the bilingual program so I want to make that clear thank you for that clarification okay uh the board asked the district to provide a scenario or scenarios for the budget reduction for 2425 school year uh and then for context

139last year we planned uh when we planned for the 23 24 uh school year we had a target of $8 to9 million we ended up reducing 4.8 million which left 4.2 million uh to reduce in future years while staff uh while still overstaffed from not addressing the full scope of the needed reductions we also lost our additional 183 students um which then compounded the remaining $4.2 million left to reduce through declining revenues and inflationary increases on salaries and benefits now we know for 2425 yet again we've been slated to reduce that $8 to9 million and we need to do so that we can reach those necessary reductions uh moving forward so again uh scenario one is the budget reduction plan that the has been proposed by the wian school district uh this includes the closure

140of Columbia Elementary School for uh the school year 2425 as well as the additional reductions as planned uh to equal close to9 9 million our goal is to reduce that $8 to9 million in the 24-25 school year that will uh that will still uh create fund balance loss as we will continue to work to align you can see here at the table uh which has the list of the numbers of the staff reductions in the column next to the description of the budget reduction items you will also notice uh the projected impact to our fund balance which also serves as a starting point to where we will need to make those reductions in the 5 26 school year we will utilize the 2.9 Million that the board has allocated for Budget reduction support to offset

141that loss again there are many VAR uh variables that go into these projections this scenario gets the district closer to the needed reduction sooner and with less overall cost okay uh and the synopsis of scenario one this is the scenario that the district is recommending and takes the most Financial responsib responsible way of making budget reductions uh for the 2425 school year provides the most savings next year and annually due to more closely aligning Staffing to enrollment decline allows a district to maximize the reduction of provisional staff without entering the modified education plan or the reduction in en force allows the district to maintain a necessary fund balance moving forward to ensure the best financial stability is possible this proposal has the biggest impacts on addressing the budget reductions next year as opposed to potentially

142playing catchup scenario two uh also outlined uh in the addendum of the school board meeting in March this scenario pushes the closure of Columbia out an additional year um a cost uh to the district when we do not make the necessary budget reductions in any given year we add additional enrollment decline we compound the decreases in Revenue by continuing to pay for staff an additional year where increases to salaries and benefit outpa the enrollment in addition we lose dollars for the real-time enrollment decline which we have not caught up with uh with Staffing reductions without closing Columbia the district only saves $416,000 in elementary Ed UC ators as opposed to the 2.8 million if we did close Columbia you will notice that uh our fund balance the fund balance uh excuse me you'll notice that

143the fund balance losses increase dramatically which also increases our necessary reductions for the next year um we could potentially dip into our board uh policy protected 5% fund balance by choosing this option and then the kind of the summary page um closing Columbia in 2526 provides uh less savings by delaying the Columbia closure for a year requires a dramatic increase in budget reductions for the 2526 school year uh will require the district to enter a modified education plan for the 2526 school year known as a reduction in force and projected to take the district's uh savings account near or below the board designated 5% minimum fund balance only eliminates five of 28 uh potential staff members uh as the recommended proposal to close Columbia next year none of our options are great uh but this

144is not the most financially responsible decision that we can make uh for the overall Financial Health of the district and then this is just a side by-side comparison um that we uh showed previously on the April 9th um that asks us to pay close attention to the total uh FTE Savings in both scenarios as well as the fund balance loss uh those are real losses we need to be thinking about uh when we look at these scenarios uh we will need to reduce more overall with scenario 2 due to the compounding uh increases to the expenditures and the decreases in revenue and then uh a final slide just on the magnitude of the budget reduction I think we we know um that more red reductions next year due to declining enrollment we've said that multiple

145times that's on repeat we understand that um The W an school district is working toward the goal of achieving the budget reduction Target of close to $9 million we know it's imperative uh to note that all components of the plan are equally significant in ensuring the attainment of the goal one of the crucial aspects of the budget reduction plan is uh is the inclusion of Columbia which accounts for uh close to oneir of the savings at $2.8 million despite constituting a mere 2% of the entire operating budget the budget uh the reduction Bears a significant weight in our budget reduction plan the closure of Columbia alongside our other budgetary reduction measures will undoubtedly have a large impact on the district's Financial standing then you can see here our recommendation of the $9 million budget reduction

146Target addresses uh the needed budget reductions without delay all parts of the plan are equal uh equally important Colombia's potential closure is a major part of that um and closing Colombia along with other budgetary reduction measures will be uh a big a big impact for the district we know that our timeline has uh this as the the last uh presentation before that May 14th uh decision so it is imperative um that we look at taking action now to curb the compounding impacts of enrollment Decline and inflationary measures on salaries and benefits this is an unfortunate financial position uh to be in as a district and many districts across the state and the country are also in we need to take action and continue to align our staffing to enrollment in the future while we'll still

147have the fund balance to support us in case of an emergency we would not be proposing the action if we were if it were not absolutely necessary for Contin need financial stability for our district again uh this is the last budget update prior to the decision on May 14th and uh want to make sure the board feels adequately prepared uh from The District's perspective so what uh I'd like to just share with the board if you have any questions or comments or what other information that we can provide to you uh prior to May 14th so I kind of compiled a list of things that are running around with that um that I'm considering like I know this is kind of our last time to talk among board members too so I don't know what

148the best way to do that is talk about what is going to my decision- making should that should I talk now or should I for communication you guys want to hear later I think this is an appropriate time for you to share those thoughts Tucker you guys got a minute all right all right so we've been asked to make this pretty pretty big decision and has a lot of different things that are going into it it um and so I kind of tried to break it down into different different areas that were impacting students so obviously um everything we're doing in this district is supporting the 7,000 plus students that we have here and the staff that are supporting them so I want to look at the emotional impacts that we're looking at for students

149so overcrowding we're putting too many students into classrooms or into schools um we're going to have an impact from changing schools what are the impacts to having kids move from one school to another um and so these are all questions I'm asking myself as I'm weighing option one option two um and transportation we're moving to taking buses walking further or needing some other form of transportation what are the impacts there uh which students are moving Columbia has a large number of students who are English language Learners low income migrant or differently abled would these students still have their needs met in a different school then extra extracurricular Cuts so as we talk about not just closing Columbia but what other Cuts we need to make across the district what other things we going to be

150cutting um so sports or Arts other things that we will have to change for the people in the community to have access to those things um staff supports so we talked about assistant principles or bcbas what other staff supports would we cut if we aren't making um the decision to close Columbia next year so then that's emotional impacts then academic impacts studies that show moving kids to a lower growth school have a negative impact on their um on their scores higher testing schools sometimes moving kids there's studies that show moving kids to schools that are have a higher test scores positively impact their grades so that's something that that I'm considering and the new opportunities if you go to a bigger school are you going to have other opportunities for different extracurricular programs that you

151may have not had at a school that didn't have the the total grow or total ability to add programs so that's academic impacts so total enrollment um obviously the 185 just went to 217 so uh what as projected enrollment declines so what other if we were looking at educational opt other educational options being up to 425 students is that enough and I think there also we can understand that that loss of trust is another thing that we're considering more losses from people not believing the school district homeschooling moving out of the district um Etc a running start Sean showed us that there's a a good chance we're going to lose more students to running start next year um demographic study you know based on what demogra Davis demographic said we're going to have lowered birth

152rates so we're going to see a decline there that being said Amazon and a new penor terminal are coming to East wachi and Microsoft's coming to Malaga so are we're going to see some growth that maybe wasn't predicted in the Davis demographic survey um Valley is there a way to increase I know this is a hot button issue and we talked a lot about it in the uh C comments is there way to increase enrollment and Valley to get kids off the weight list into the district uh especially knowing that some of those kids are coming from out of District which is kind of a net gain um transition to kindergarten is there a way that we can grow our our TK offerings to increase enrollment there um so physical boundary changes uh you know

153as we've talked about how the boundary changes for Columbia is changing one of the things that's come up a lot is um the dangerous Street Crossings F and Miller being not a great place to be at any time especially during rush hour uh Chalan is also on the uh Columbia boundaries so I think we should add that you know acknowledge that the conversation um and so what are we doing to make sure that the crossings are safe and kids are being safe while they're getting to and from school um and then you know part of the physical boundary changes is hard because we're now dealing with enrollment issues in different places so if we move kids into one school we're pulling them from another school and it doesn't address our overall issue of how do

154we get more kids in the district knowing that based on all the other things we're generally seeing a net Trend down um so grade level changes um again if we talk about say combining grades or bringing sixth grade into Elementary or making a k through eight school all things have kind of been kicked around um we're pulling kids from one school to another school so you're looking at potentially again not changing the enrollment issue but just moving it from one school to another um and then you know I don't know what a k38 looks like I'm meeting with um Dr Berg from Eastmont to talk about their K through six tomorrow but how does it look what does implementation look like of having uh combined grades or like a a larger number of grades at

155the elementary level um so that's the great level changes that I'm looking at and then uh fiscal responsibility at the end of the day we need to maintain a like a sound budget for our school or else OPI takes over and I don't think anyone wants that um so again we talked about trust so now we're talking about Bond and Levy I think ultimately we all want a bond to pass we all you know the planning includes a levy passing and so how is our decision-making affecting the trust of the district and we've seen emails from both people saying if you don't close Columbia we don't trust you with a budget so we're not going to vote for Levy and if we do close Columbia we're not going to trust you so we're not going

156to support a uh Bond or a levy so I mean our emails have been on both sides um and then uh as we said a couple times we don't have a capital budget right now so where are we getting money if we have an issue like the HVAC system or like the Washington um pipe freeze so you know I think there's a lot of stuff on our plates and a lot of things affecting our decision- making right now um ultimately I'm going to have to use figure out looking at all these things Aon I'm excited to see your thing too um all right thank you um to figure out what's the best for the valley what for the district and all 7,000 students we have so that's was a lot so I can probably send

157that to Corey he can send it to everyone if they want the list no thank you for sharing I think that uh illustrates the magnitude of the the decision that is um you know on on your laps at this point so well done and I think that's con consistent with the comments that we have received and the information we have been going through and and I hope that the community understands that these continued budget updates while a lot of it is generic and reminder and whatnot some of it is very expressly directed to specific questions that have come in and specific emails that we have received and and the information is being vetted and addressed or at least that that's been our direction to The District staff is hey this sounds like a great a

158great suggestion or an option was this looked into has this been looked into have we what are we doing to address this so um I know probably Martin and I have a little bit more information just because of of sitting on the budget committee um as some of it's addressed or discussed in in more real time but it is the community's questions that is the basis for updating that frequently asked questions um that that continues to grow so I hope that even though there maybe isn't a traditional Advisory Group committee that that people are understanding that we have these same concerns because I have asked many of the same things and so um that is where some of these this update is coming from because those are I mean you hit it on the head

159those are a lot of the the very big yes there's the financial component but there is the human impact the student learning the what does this do to the system as a whole one way or the other so exactly what I'm not gonna repeat every everything that Julian Tucker said no I'm okay thank you m so I just wanted to I think for myself just more like a visual learner as I sit on the legislative committee for our District area 7 so that is covering Chalan Douglas Grant and Okanagan counties and meeting with them and expressing concerns and collaborating with the other districts they're seeing similar budget reductions and shortfalls and everything in the mix in between and so we're essentially not alone so but my question to you Corey is there is there a

160way to kind of see what neighboring school districts have done in that process coming through that may have a similar demographic as to us I know in your slide here you have yaka for 20 million I understand they had cut over a hundred of their staff for the following school year I know um Bellevue is a very large school district too and they in your slide did say they had two school closures for this spring of this year I don't know if there's something similar closer to our region I know when um at schang County when doing bargaining agreements or trying to do something in between to collect data is to have a similar demographic similar is to wachi so I think just to see that because I know these these list of schools is

161very nice to have in it's very wide range I think just something closer to a demographic similar to a demogra uh with the population of what we are seeing here and what have they went through in this process to come up with the conclusions that they have done to kind of get a more wraparound approach because I don't want to make a decision that is solely based on this this decision when I can see what avenues that we may exhaust that could be potential but understanding what the population and the whole area is like that may be different than in wachi as well so some looking at something saying that's similar maybe like I'm I'm putting Easton as an example you know because it's right across the river but something to that effect if that

162makes sense yeah it makes sense we'll uh Sean and I will put our heads together and see what we can come up with other thoughts or other uh things to share I mean Tucker said it all I think um thank you for going first um and you know listening to all your questions and thoughts um I think uh the district has done um a a good job at presenting the different scenarios possibilities you know Transportation um safety talks with the city uh so hearing you say you have all these questions also makes me think well we kind of already heard about that now we just need to if a decision is made to close Colombia then what is the plan we need to strategize right um and so I just um I'm also hearing a

163lot of things that are conflicting for to me um you know I guess I'm going to ask you has a decision been ma been made to move B Academy into Columbia of Columbia were to close no not at all okay that's that that's the impression I was under everything I read on media that's the impression I got as well uh that Colombia not that that Valley would be moved into Colombia that's why I'm confirming what I understood thank you um and then um you know I Julie and Martin have taken a lot of heat um we are a board of five members and each one of us has a decision to make they have volunteered their time to serve on the budget committee which has been more hours than I have committed to the policy

164committee um Ser you know it's we all have different roles um again they are two board members and they slowly are not going to make the decision on May 14th um you know I commend you guys for being in this position and being very U thoughtful with your just taking it um and also I want us I want us to be very very careful with our student population at Colombia we do have a large Latino population at Colombia but I don't want us to categorize the our Latino students our English language Learners our our our migrant population students and make them somewhat of a victim um I think we need to look at the potential that our teachers our students our community has we got through covid um and um you know yeah it was

165a struggle and we're not quite there yet but we made it through covid and so as a let as a member of the Lino Community I just wanted to be I want us to be careful to not victimize our students our students of color our students of marginalized communities um to guilt people or to try to convince people to make a decision uh to vote either way um you know because I know my student as a a student of color as a you know a a bilingual student I know my student and I know his potential and I'm not going to set the bar low for him and I hope we don't do that as a district for our students as we think about this decision every student are like every student we have to

166allow them to reach their full potential and not categorize them that same thing goes for our low social economic students so I really again as a person of color sitting here and listening I appreciate the the the intent um to be an advocate and I applaud you we're all Advocates we're all here for the same reason um but it also sens me that we are categorizing our our marginalized populations thanks Maria any other thoughts or comments I just want to say thank you I appreciate your support um at the risk of sounding defensive I I do just want to say that you know Martin and I are sitting with the cabinet to make sure your questions are answered we did not come up with this proposal January 18th was my very first budget meeting ever

167once this was it was a bullet point on a screen and then announcements came the following day it and so January 23rd was the first time this board even sat with this concept be in front of it um from that day we have asked for additional meetings with the budget committee with the cabinet so that we can vet the questions that are being answered we're not making a decision one way or the other on them but what is missing from a lot of these notes is if this is happening what what have you thought through have you thought through this example how does this look those are the kinds of questions that we are answering it's not that we are proponents of anything in particular but we have asked for extra meetings to make sure

168we are vetting all of the information that is coming in from the community um um just to make sure that the board has in front of it what it what everyone needs and I have sort of independently understood that each of you are going to Dr kalahar with questions that you may have if we all get emails coming in to receive so I I am hopeful that everyone is using their own Avenues because I have felt like in part to almost that there needed to be some neutrality between us in in some way so that it it truly was each and every one of us making what we felt is is the best decision so that's just my Julie can I let you provoke me into making a comment that I um because I wasn't

169sure whether this would be helpful or not uh we have heard from public comments and from the public meetings an awful lot of thoughtful good ideas some easier to accomplish than others what I want to say is that's not the only place where those ideas come from they come from the staff in the school district they come in as Julia is saying in the questions that are asked uh uh we cannot have public meetings that aren't public so we can't debate amongst ourselves except here um but I do want to know that the desire to find Solutions that'll search for them uh that's all of the community working in their different Arenas which I is why I want to say that and when you do that and you're working together let's say in a budget

170committee you do exactly what you have done you explore to see what might work what might work and you have to conjecture and you say if a is done then you're going to need to do B um and so when those kind of narratives are discussed don't overinterpret them everybody is exploring trying to find the best solution and that's the comment that I think is Central to us understanding things better um that you have to push chove explore ask questions and that's what this process is doing Thanks Martin appreciate that I want to you know want to remind um everyone that we are policy we follow policy board governance which doesn't allow for the back and forth with with our our constituents during a public meeting we could do a board work session on the

171Carver model but that would mean we would all be napping by the end of that um and so you know we have committees we hired a superintendent and then the superintendent hires his team um we create policies to support the work that the superintendant needs to to um follow through um and so again just I commend Corey and his team and um and Martin and Julie for the the work they've invested time they've invested whether it's what we want to hear or not um it you know thank you for for that investment thanks maram okay with that I would think we'll move on to the superintendent report okay excellent so uh so since our last update um we've spent some time uh engaging with the voices of our stakeholders we had uh superintendent advisory Council

172which if if you didn't know it's an amazing collection of students in grades 9 through 12 from Westside High School and Wii High School uh we focus their time on board work on policy work and uh giving the students a chance to learn and share and leverage their voice most recently they have they have been following the budget reduction process as well and giving us their Insight um we had last Tucker made it and and Martin were there at the the last meeting so we appreciate that we also had our second facilities committee meeting um which is a collection of business and Community leaders along with parents staff and administration working collectively to plan out wih School District's long range facility plans um we've been given a great deal of data so far lots of

173data um and have been working on understanding the data wrapping our heads around the magnitude and the complexity of facility work uh let's see we and some some announcements we have was we have our early learning uh childhood education options Fair here at the district office uh couple nights from now um Thursday at 5:30 to 7:30 uh this is also this week is also after school professionals week I think you saw that in the uh in the weekly update last week and so after school professionals appreciation week is is now to recognize appreciate advocate for those uh who work with young people uh during out of school hours specifically uh Diana on Friday was recognizing uh some of the hardworking after school professionals who serve in the wih school uh District after school program so

174that was that was uh fun and unique uh you've probably noticed if you drove by Triangle Park uh work on the softball complex began so yesterday there was some fencing that went up um and then uh even more work uh today as they're outlining uh some of the progression and getting in a dirt skirt which I that's a new term for me um so I'm learning some things um we will have our official groundbreaking ceremony on May 9th at 11:00 at Triangle Park um we'd love to invite our community uh toh come at the historic ground groundbreaking of wih school district's new softball complex um and Maria I think you'll be there so we're excited about that um and then just one last uh thing to share that today was I had a unique experience

175I was able to take part of the the Pug's 50-year visioning and planning process uh the uh Dr Harrison was there too so um that was today at pyus Event Center which is pretty uh Monumental when you think of 50 years of planning into the future uh but they are preparing for the challenges of the next half century as they build their new strategic plan so I was honored to be invited and represent the school district and um listen to the work and give input to some of the complex problems that they're addressing so anyway thank you superintendent report moving on to board report start at this end this time Miranda do you have anything so yes like you had mentioned Cory we had our second facilities Community what I found interesting in the data

176that was provided that there is a growing population in our Valley but yet the demographic in that Community is not with ch not with children and young families it is an um older population whether they are retired or just older couples with no children in the community so it's kind of seen like in an we're seeing growth but we're not seeing the um in the increasing enrollment that we want to see yeah I had to think about that for a second so that was kind of interesting to see and then kind of collaborating with um the groups that were there um discussing that that was very interesting and also just this last weekend I had the opportunity to go to our legislative um conference over in Spokane so we meet um three we meet six

177times a year three are in person so this one like I said this was just Spokan kind of getting everything ready um reviewing um legislative policy and what um other districts around the state are wanting to look at and bring that to the general assembly come fall and maybe hopefully to bring those proposals to the legislative session come next January so it was really great a lot of the districts across the state attended myself um representing for this area 7 and um my colleague that's also in the most like School District both there in person so it was pretty great to meet with everybody so and also for board Workshop um Corey and I collaborated with our strategic advocacy director Marissa rathborne to um come be a part of a board Workshop come the fall

178so she's really great and full wealth of knowledge and easy to get easy to get along with in full of answers so yeah I want to make sure Tucker and Miranda don't feel left out I heard positive feedback from the first facil or from the second facility committee meeting U from one of my colleagues uh he said the facilitation um the facilitators did a really good job uh refocusing that meeting from the first meeting so Kudos um and just acknowledgement that prom took place last Saturday and it went without a hitch I heard I have nothing today I went to the high cap Expo yesterday and so fourth and fifth graders in the highcap program all presented their trifold boards and they had an elevator pitch and they were all dressed to the nines and

179um it was there was a pack playing tag when they weren't presenting but other than that there was a lot of a lot of really good information presented by some some really uh engaged kiddos so that was a fun thing to do I have nothing too many budget meetings you know I do want to check something with you Corey I believe that our corpac um board are in Portland at the national um migrant education annual conference this week is that correct and that's very very exciting it will give them a lot of power and a lot of sense of leadership and being able to be with that and that's very significant yeah thanks for sharing that Martin all right so we still have some work to do uh the school the school board will now

180recess into executive session for a period of 60 minutes until 9:44 p.m. to evaluate the qualifications of an applicant for public employment or to review the performance of a staff member or to receive and evaluate complaints or charges brought against a director or staff member pursuant to District policy 1410 and RCW 42310 this discussion will be close to the public school board is not expected to take any final action after the executive session so feel free to leave if you would like e e e the board will be extending exe executive session for 15 minutes e e e the board has come out of executive session and this meeting is adjourned e e e