001it's 6 PM so I'll call this uh March 26 2024 regular meeting of the wachi school district school board to order and we will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance pled of the United States of America ands na indivisible liy andice for all uh we will now Begin by working through the consent working through the agenda are there any proposed changes or modifications to the agenda I am loud tonight all right then we will start with the consent agenda um the items on the consent agenda were sent to the board and posted online last week the board has had an opportunity to review the material and individually ask the superintendent any questions on any item on the agenda this agenda consists of the minutes from the March 12th 2024 um Regular board meeting the March
00218th 2024 Workshop meeting minutes vouchers and payroll Personnel report Surplus report the asset protection program report and the March enrollment report do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda I approve I make a motion to approve the consent agenda sorry it's been a long day so move second second it's been moved and seconded any discussion um all in favor say I I any posos no motion carries um next we have our I think we move right along to special presentations so first up we have a long overdue ASB update I I guess I'll start by introducing my my folks next to me so of course this is our vice president Max and we'll get into during our little talk but we'll get into we just actually had our new ASB elections so this
003is our new ASB president niiko kidus we'll have her say a little bit once we get a little farther down but like we said it's been a little bit since we've come so we're moving all the way back to December I believe um in December we had a senior movie night that was planned by our amazing senior Senate where we worked with Mr kaidus on baking cookies at the tech center in order to give them out to the senior students and it was actually open to any class to come and watch the Polar Express from there we had our holiday craft fair that happens every year that the golden apple band is a big part of and helps run and helps move all of the booths and all of that thing all those so that
004was as always very successful that's a big part of our wache traditions and then over Christmas break we actually had a little ASB lock in at the school where we just kind of stayed the night at the school and we're able to prepare for our litter box game that happens every and so we were able to make posters and prepare some of those last minute things and then moving on to the litter boox game that went amazing as a reminder we team up with make AWI foundation and Eastmont to raise money for a beneficiary this year uh we raised $10,000 for Johnny a sophomore at wachi high school who is battling leukemia and we were able to also then make him the recipient of our Janice FR so moving on to Janice FR we had
005I know a lot of you were actually there as our amazing judges but we had three nights of performers and each night again had at least one of you and we were able to raise $ 4,920 69 for Johnny so these funds went more towards his medical size of things versus the uh litterbox game went more towards his make a wish so what he wanted versus medical so we were able to donate a big portion to both sides uh we also have our winter wishes fundraiser going on so our amazing culture team has fundraisers and raises money in order to get hopefully at least every single student one winter wish so whether that's a bag of chips or someone asked for ear muffs or random things but we're able to raise a lot of money
006and be able to just have something fun at the high school going on so yeah with that we'll go on to our elections which I'll have Max talk about because our amazing vice president ran them hello it's nice to see you guys again it's been a while um so it was like last week we had like elections so we first had like preliminary elections so like when we had more than two um candidates going for the same role we have them like um make videos like like candidate speeches like why people should run for them like their wise their goals what they want to like see changes in the school and we also have like little like table setups during like lunch so the students can come in and like ask questions and like why
007do you want to like run like why should I vote for you so just like they can meet their candidates and so then we have our final elections and we have like the same thing where people can get to know their candidates and get to know the people who like they want to represent them and so we have our wonderful exse secretary now president niiko kidas and then we have our ex Treasurer now VP there in sorum and then we have our secretary Martin Diaz and then our Treasurer uh Nora Doan sorry I almost forgot her name and then yeah that's that kind of concludes elections and yeah so in a second again we'll have n she just introduced yourself I guess but just for kind of what we have coming up that we'll have
008the amazing Nico come talk to you guys about but coming up we will have prom in April so the theme this year is masquerade ball so we've been doing a lot of fundraising in that area and our Junior Senate plans that dance and they're incredible they have all of these amazing things set up so you'll get to hear all about that as well as our annual FFA plant sale so that's really fun I'm actually on the General publicity team so when you see that Banner with the little farmer Panther that was me um so look forward to that make sure to come it's May 1st through the 3 and yeah so we'll just have Nico introduce herself and whatnot yes hello everyone my name is niiko kitis and I'm going to be this upcoming year
009ASB president and I'm super excited for this opportunity I've been involved in ASB like since I could walk so um I'm I'm very excited for what's to come and to be able to continue um communicating with you guys about what's happening at wach high school so okay I think that's everything unless anybody has any questions I don't have any questions but it's great to have you here thank you very much for coming it's always good to hear the many welcoming things that you do in the high school and I was going to comment when we talked about me a wish and the amount of money you raised a former ASB coordinator was very impressed at how much money you made oh well thank you it yeah we're very excited about what we were able to
010do I just want to say congratulations on your role as Apple Blossom Princess um in your involvement yes thank you and then I see Lexi back here I have the honor of working Le Lexi is also another Apple Blossom princess and I have the honor of working with Lexi at the college so and um she is our as our Senate President president at the college so thank you for joining yes well thank you guys so much uh we will see you next month thank you very much for having us nice great all of you thank you have an update from wests side all right hello my name is Frankie ptoa I'm from West Side High School and I'm excited to be here today and update you on what's been going on since I was here
011last um which seems like such a long time ago um Westside leadership is holding our eth annual spaghetti feed and silent auction on May 23rd our recipient is Cooper bomman which is a middle schooler at Pioneer Cooper is battling stage 2 hodkin lymphoma so we would love to see you all there and we're currently accepting donations for the silent auction our partnership we also have our partnership still going on it will continue with bombas as we just have been approved for another 10,000 pairs of socks which should arrive next fall and the leadership Club will be hosting ProMag again this year on May 10th and last week we had Port Ricardo Ruiz working with students on a three-day Workshop learning about writing poetry and I'm honored to say that I attended that it was really
012cool and that same week Miss Deo became a human ice cream sunday by students who I'll bought yearbooks in case you're wondering you can watch it on Westside social media um we also had staff and students participate in a school culture workshop with a representative from awsl and from that we have created a new GSA club and Westside student advisory team and in the works is a new student Mentor group we're excited to spend upon that in our next Workshop in April this is all I have for you this evening are there any questions no thank you for your time thank you Frankie for coming all right thanks thanks to all of our students for being here tonight and sharing their ASB updates and reports we appreciate you all being here and congratulations on all
013the things so excellent uh next up we have our budget update for this evening and we should have a uh slide deck that will that Liz will pop up there momentarily and uh we will get started with that so good evening uh board members cabinet members staff and Community uh thank you for tuning in this evening uh tonight's update uh is basically addressing some of the questions that have come up from previous board meetings and from citizen comment in the past all right perfect and uh so this first slide is you know addressing the question how will the budget reductions be made and so this is a graphic that uh that we have come up with to show and and articulate that graphically as opposed to a list so it uh the top the top
014row there are the uh the grade level uh budget reductions um starting off with the proposed Columbia closure there at 2.8 million uh our Middle School scheduled changes and then the subsequent Staffing reductions there at 2 million then our high School change and the Staffing reductions there at uh $671,000 and then on the second row there we have uh additional Staffing reductions equaling a million dollar and then our materials supplies and operating cost those mxs at 2.5 million uh to equal uh 8.9 million overall and each one of these pieces is vital for the WAN School District to move forward uh with the level of Financial Health for the future um each uh even with the dramatic reductions for 2425 we will have uh more uh reductions in the future based on enrollment and that
015leads us to another another question why multi-year reductions and so when enrollment decline happens and we do not make the necessary reductions um our revenues and expenditures are out of balance and we have to dip into our savings the more we dip into our savings the less we have for emergency like HVAC issues at w high school or other emergencies we have past enrollment Decline and overstaffing that has not uh been addressed um in the past we also have annual concerns of inflation that compound each year to increase uh the cost of Staffing the 1H School District uh has experienced enrollment decline for the better part of the last nine years about 915 students uh this year we lost 183 alone however this is the first year that we have made budget reductions since 1819
016and we have increased Staffing during the time of this decline so we have some catching up to do um our projected trend of enrollment decline is is one that is continuing and as we have here on the slide we see some opportunities that our community can choose from uh for for other schooling aside from the wian school district uh a natural inflationary cost to salaries and benefits and Moc is Rising every year this is a slide that we have oh sorry whoops this is a slide that um we have shown in the past and it shows our enrollment um and how our enrollment directly affects um the state and federal funding sources which impact the bulk of our revenues uh therefore declining enrollment means corresponding decline in revenues from state and federal sources which in
017turn means needed adjustments for our expenses um and so we have we've seen that slide before but just to illustrate um the need uh and then also the next slide that we have seen and shown before are part of our written analysis here is you can see um how enrollment Trends together with Staffing Trends illustrate that need for realignment uh question has come up about not seeing any reductions at the district office uh throughout the budgetary reduction process um here are some of the reductions or here are the reductions that the district office um all of these reductions um do put uh pressure and responsibility on those who are left uh to do the necessary duties assignments and remain accountable for the work that was previously shared um we have been able to do these
018reductions through uh resignations and retirements um to look at those nine positions there uh some of the uh district and administrative updates that have taken place as well that we have not had a chance to announce uh publicly but have shared with families and schools involved um so these District shifts that have come up recently due to new opportunities in the district and so we congratulate uh state and federal director Jeremy Wheatley who has accepted a superintendent position in Dayton School District uh his hometown so he's excited about that um and that has uh moved Lincoln principal Tim Shepard over to take over the state and federal director position uh because of those changes uh that we didn't know about earlier uh principal janz and assistant principal Dilly will stay at Newberry and then if
019Columbia does close then principal stuber and assistant principal Oaks will move to Lincoln uh where some of the Columbia students will go speaking of state and categorical funding uh how do we leverage that uh State and categorical funding for Staffing and uh most of our special program funding has a very specific use and purposes and purpose um and uh support specific student populations and we are unable to fund classroom teachers through these restrictions however we do fund positions with uh with the special program dollars there's a common practice that we braid the funding where appropriate to pay for staff in our special programs Department we have very competent special program staff who manage these funds and have been creative with how uh they use those funds the consolidation will allow us to maximize these resources
020in six buildings instead of seven each school that will be receiving new students will see increases in those dollars um just as an aside consequently our state Auditors reported being very impressed with our special programs reporting last year when they concluded their audits from the W School District uh safe routes to school updates uh safety student safety is Paramount and the work with our local law enforcement and the City of Wan and traffic safety commission are underway for us helping to elevate the three EAS of traffic safety Enforcement Education and Engineering uh we're working with the city on safe routes um and problem areas such as Ferry Street crossing um our collaboration with the Washington traffic safety commission is underway and we will be collaborating with the traffic enforcement unit as well also looking at
021adult crossing guards and a decision-making Matrix there and outlining the educational partnership and campaign uh with many partners there and it it has been mentioned that some of the work that is involved does include some grant writing and there are some elements that can take some time to implement um but there are some things that can happen more immediately that we were discussing with the city and things like uh potentially uh removing some parking on Ferry Street to help increase uh visibility uh for students in that area we're helping to change Fairy Street to a school zone to moderate the traffic speed so we're excited about these opportunities um we also are looking at some of the short-term gains um as well as uh the long-term gains that would include the grant writing um and
022also include maybe some more timely projects Consulting with our external experts uh it was brought up that uh due to the situation in Banbridge Island School District and their Director of Finance vacating the position and the ESD stepping in to cover the financial operations of the district that North Central ESD uh review the Winan School District's budget as well and so I thought I would share a slide deck um or a slide on um how North Central educational school district uh budget is already involved um with the w school district and how they can be involved in different ways in the future too so um hang on let me see here uh each year the north central uh educational school district or I'll just refer to them as the ESD reviews the wi an School
023District uh projected budget in July Trisha shock and Jason Williams review all five funds the general fund capital projects fund The Debt Service fund the transportation fund and the ASB Fund in addition they review what is called the four-year budget forecast uh which goes over enrollment Staffing fund balance and overall projections for the four years it is uh state law that uh budgets be submitted and reviewed by local esds uh by July 10th each year once the ESD has completed its review they give feedback and have dialogue until they're satisfied and the budget is then sent back to the district where um it goes for approval in front of the school board uh this year's review resulted in accolades uh from the ESD uh for our finance team after the board approval the budget is
024sent off to the office of the superintendent of Public Instruction or OPI uh the ESD continues to monitor our budget monthly uh through the school board reports that Shan shares in the consent agenda and through his presentations so we met with the ESD on Friday um their Finance team and uh had a few um had some confirmational uh details from that um the confirmation of the need for significant budget cuts due to enrollment Decline overstaffing and inflationary costs uh confirmed that the tracking area era of 2022 is not the reason for the budget concerns the true concern uh were from increased uh Staffing um which I need to I see an error there I apologize we from increased Staffing and declining enrollment leading up to that tracking error um continued with uh planned continuing with
025planned reductions will help maintain overall Financial Health uh over the long run uh we have also requested some additional time with the ESD for a deeper dive into our budget um and our budget reduction proposal and we'll set that set those up in the coming days uh there has also been uh some question questions about the Davis demographics contract uh which was initially requested to obtain some demographic information about the wian school district to help inform future budget uh reduction decisions for 24 25 and Beyond uh the district's last demographic study was from 2020 and we needed some fresh data um and more appropriate data so we uh but we also did add a request to review uh our boundary information in January in case this information would be needed in subsequent years um due
026to budget reductions uh or a need to redistribute students across the district maybe at middle school or even at uh at Elementary uh so they have um we will get a full uh presentation from Davis demographics on April 9th and they have they have shared uh a graph with us here that I can share about some of the details of the information that they are going to be sharing with us this line graph is a snapshot of fiveyear and 10year net change um for our elementary schools based on the numbers that Davis demographic has come up with um you can see that the projections um for Colombia's continued decrease in enrollment uh are shown there in the fiveyear and 10year marks um the numbers also tell us that uh the boundary populations for both Washington
027and Lincoln are due to decrease as well based on uh Davis's numbers there as I mentioned Davis will uh be creating the rest of their report and we will have a presentation from them on April 9th uh another group that we are working with is the company Teeter Crocker and they work with us under our contract with Turner towns in inheri um and this graph here shows um this is their percent change model on enrollment decline so that's what this is just to illustrate that the enrollment decline projections from the district are uh uh the results are being shared by outside experts in their field and are showing the same Trend um that we are getting there as a district as well another Outside Agency that we've been working with and have mentioned is Moody's
028credit rating uh Consultants they've spent time with the school district and also worked with uh our Financial Partners at Piper Sandler to understand the school district and it Financial placement to issue a credit rating that helped the district refinance bonds for overall savings for our taxpayers uh they gave the school district a double A3 rating which is their fourth highest rating out of 21 ratings uh they shared that the district has a strong financial position there's growth in assessed values and their implied Debt Service as percent of Revenue and their dou A3 median so the concerns um their concerns as shown here on the graph are OB obviously enrollment Decline and low residential income uh the quote from our press release uh said Moody has given the district positive rating because of financial reserves and
029management which positions it well in the face of declining enrollment the district has also intentionally built up its reserves through 2023 and has a comprehensive reduction plan uh recommended by leadership to keep Reserves at satisfactory level however significant expend reductions will be necessary to balance operations in 2425 and then the other partnership the people that really get to audit um our work is the state auditor's office um there they have an annual visit um which I believe they just left yesterday um the auditor's office mission is to provide citizens with independent and transparent examinations of how state and local governments use public funds and develop strategies that make government more efficient and effective each year the state auditor's office uh examined the management use and safeguarding of public resources to ensure there is protection from
030misuse and misappropriation they also evaluate whether there is reasonable Assurance for adherence to applicable state laws regulations policies and procedures and they also do an in-depth review of financial statements and Grant compliance okay another question um that was brought up was how did we prioritize the not recommended list um and as the slide says here each item on the not recommended list uh aligns to something that each of our 6,800 students uh benefit from currently and could continue to benefit from even if Colombia were to close um even with the potential closure of Columbia each student in our district essentially has the ability to have a trusting relationship with an assistant principal an opportunity to eventually or currently be involved in a sporting activity or extracurricular opportunity of some kind and then the added benefit
031of uh the support or relationship with the school resource officer uh can costs be reduced through salaries and benefits um salaries and benefits are bargained through contract negotiations um opportunities to reduce through uh resignations retirements and provisional employees of how we has how we have uh typically done our reductions um and in order to retain highly skilled and trained employees to compete locally we need to maintain the salaries and benefits we currently have um we are not as competitive um as Eastman in most of our bargain contracts even now and then there was a question on uh some some numbers that uh changed I believe from the written analysis to the addendum and so there was a 78367 difference between the district Savings of closing Columbia in that written analysis in February TW uh 12th
032um and then the addendum on March uh 12th as well so we wanted to clarify that in February we were using average teacher salaries and in March we were able to use actual teacher salaries um those teachers that would potentially be impacted um and some of the uh staff that were receiving uh the the non-renewals um you know they did not have salaries that were as high as even the average teacher salaries so that made an impact we also have been able to retain a few more staff uh since the February 12th date by adding some transition to kindergarten classes the March 12th number is more refined and in line with uh with the current realities uh we also had some uh some concerns with class sizes and spaces and uh the potential closing of
033Columbia um does help to keep class sizes at or below contract size and that is our goal uh in the district next year we'll have an even smaller number of elementary students entering um into our schools and uh going from six schools to seven or from uh sorry seven schools to six uh and the move movement of both teachers and students allow our numbers to normalize appropriately in addition our newer buildings uh Washington and Lincoln newer or newly uh re redesigned um have specifically designed spaces to allow for intervention and have specifically designed instructional spaces included to help support student learning um we also have properties in capital projects um we are not able to sell property to pay for staff um the proceeds of any sale of property would return to our capital projects
034fund which can only be used for other facilities and other capital projects cannot pay for Staffing um if it if it could it would be um it would be something that we could use for a one-year fix but we're not able to do that we also have the funds for a girls softball field uh that has been set aside by the board since 2021 to resolve a title name concern and our girls deserve a place to play where we have an obligation uh we also have the obligation from the federal office of civil rights to provide that facility for our girls to play and I think to to end just uh an acknowledgement that this process that we are going through right now is exceedingly hard it's taxing it's emotionally exhausting for all involved um
035I think that we can agree that is unfortunate that this is where we find ourselves as a district with regard to budget reductions um and aligning expenses to revenues but I also think that we are all committed to see the district through these challenges um and yeah uh just with that I'll pass uh some time on to our board members for comments or concerns my only comment would be that it I think that addresses many of the questions that have been asked in an objective way and I think I'm very appreciative of seeing it in this form can you go back to the slide from the Davis demographics and kind of explain the the bars too because I see like more most of the schools with the negative and saying that that's the declining enrollment
036but like leis and Clark Sunny Slope and Newberry would see a higher enrollment is that how I'm seeing it yeah so the uh the first bar that you see is kind of the darker color I apologize about the colors um uh the darker bar is the five-year Trend and so you can see that there does appear to be some uh some growth in the Lewis and Clark and in the Newberry area um and those are based on uh contracts and permitting that are happening in the uh in the WAN School District area um um for new housing and uh so you can see that there's a little bit of growth there from Lewis and Clark and Newberry and a little sco there for Sunny Slope did they explain why there may be such a decline
037in the other school district areas is it just because of housing or is it what did they explain what yeah the the the lack of the lack of potential growth in the in the area yep and there's no permitting uh that is uh foreseen for any future development and they'll have a they'll have a better explanation when they come and present their entire report to us as well thanks for Miranda well they also have numbers just since you know 40% or the percentages don't necessarily represent yeah actual numbers for the district yeah they have uh they'll have some tables and charts that will have the actual numbers yeah good question thanks Miranda um are we going to see before the May 14th different options on we had a bunch of things this is not recommended
038this is not recommended will we have a chance to vote on different options as we've heard a lot of people request right before then yeah we can set that up okay thanks take okay guess we can move along to Sean Fitzgerald have you come on up here and we'll get your slide deck ready Sean thank you for uh sharing some information with us about uh legislative session updates now that the session concluded on March 7th oh do you need a clicker I've got it all right thank you president Norton members of the board and Dr kalahar thank you for being here tonight to have a quick update on our legislative session which concluded earlier this month um just a quick background during the last presentation again even in odd years uh we were in the
039short session for 2024 so it was a 60 days it was very quick uh we con it convened on January 8th and ended on March 7th and uh as opposed to next year which will be the long session which will last 105 days so as opposed to getting budget information in March we will get it at the end of April for next year uh some of the issues going through uh just following up on the last update so um par educ par educator compensation was a big discussion point this year uh superintendent OPI superintendent re doll had proposed a $7 uh per hour increase for par Educators and the governor iny had proposed a $3 increase per hour uh neither of those bills had passed um in lie of that they did increase the legislature
040did increase the prototypical Staffing model uh for par Educators um I want to get them all right par Educators office support and non-instructional AIDS and we will see this increase in the current year and the next year um since the increase occurred after the start of this school year we'll see retroactive payments going back to the beginning of the year but we won't likely see that additional funding uh through our state apportionment reports either in July or August it's still being determined um on the MSO front our Material supplies and operating costs um an initial bill was proposed for an increase of over $40 uh per student FTE um it then went down to $23 and then finally passed at $21 per student for both the current and the next year um well for the
041current year and then will be adjusted for inflation for the following year um so both in those terms of both Staffing and MSO funding we're going to be seeing some slight increases um working on the final dollar amount uh that we'll see in July and August for both salaries and benefits in certain areas uh but also uh our Material supplies and operating costs um regionalization unfortunately as we um assumed before the start of the legislature we didn't expect regionalization funding to continue um and so that has been completely eliminated so going forward for the next school year uh wici school district will not be uh receiving that extra funding that would go to salary funding um on the capital projects front uh there was a couple large bills uh that were being discussed uh first
042house bill 1044 was Capital funding for struggling School District uh unfortunately and this was a uh Capital assistance to school districts that have demonstrated funding challenges and again unfortunately this bill died um during the legislature there was also Senate Bill 5949 however that did pass and this related to the school construction assistance program or scap and relating to its construction cost allowance account so basically scap funding is there um when school districts are seeking new school construction you pass a bond then you can apply for the um additional funding from the state and if you fall within some eligible parameters they will provide additional funding to assist with school construction um so essentially scap funding was increased by I mean they do the funding by square foot uh so we went from $271 to 375
043per square foot and then the legislative intent is to increase this funding each year uh by the state agency inflation rate any questions on those no all right moving on Transportation um Senate Bill 6031 uh was exploring expanding the transportation vehicle fund to allow school districts to purchase more than just yellow school buses out of that fund um so maybe it can Custom Tailor to school specific School District needs um and also review the funding formula for the transportation operations um unfortunately this bill died so there's going to be no changes uh to the transportation vehicle fund or how Transportation operations funding is uh funded in the future there was also House Bill 1368 related to electric buses um it eliminated a hard timeline to transition from diesel or gas to um electric buses and
044it provides grant funding for districts that choose to start transitioning um and then slowly changing the funding formula your electric bus fleet um overtakes your gas or your propane you know diesel uh fuels and then it kind of changes how you're reimbursed um some of the concerns although there's no timeline and there is grant funding uh there were concerns from uh Wasa um the uh Association of schools uh and just looking at whether this is really covering the total cost of electric buses uh including cost of in uh infrastructure or maintenance or other electricity needs um last part for transportation was House Bill 1248 uh Professional Services contracts so going forward uh school districts that contract uh for Pupil Transportation Services uh have to provide the Contracting um or make sure I'm reading this correctly
045uh requires the Contracting employer to provide health benefits and pension contributions equivalent to those of school district classified employees um so if we're looking to contract out for any school transportation we'll be taking a close look at those contracts before moving forward um House Bill 1915 there was a financial gr education graduation requirement although this doesn't relate to budget uh there was cons considerations of a financial education course required to graduate but this did not pass um and then also we have our special education funding so last year the special education funding cap was raised from 13.5% to 15 uh this year they increase in an additional 1% to 16% so basically that means your special Edge uh special education enrollment divided by your total ba enrollment essentially gives you that percentage uh so that
046increase uh in the funding cap will allow us to provide um additional funding um as our special education enrollment continues to increase um last but not least we also had our running start Bill and now going forward this bill pass 10th graders uh going into their junior year uh can now enroll into running start courses during the summer before the start of their junior year they're allowed to take up to 10 credits uh we're paying close attention to this one and we're waiting on further guidance from OPI especially on the enrollment part and how that will look and then last but not least as Dr cahard mentioned in our last board meeting the skills center had been awarded a 14.5 million for the expansion of the tech center and uh looking forward to that funding
047and seeing what that can be done uh to expand the opportunities there and that is the update is there any questions I do have one Sean yeah I think it's a very minor ma matter and I don't know whether any we would uh be benefit any way I understand there was a ninth U grade initiative to focus I think was $3 million more across the state in schools focusing on that critical year okay yeah it's a guppy is it anything that you know about that um I can take a further look into it and provide more information all right thank you thank you moving along we've uh next up is citizen comment if any member of the public would like to make a citizen comment please sign up online 15 minutes before the meeting or
048in person paper forms are available at the entrance to the meeting room and can be completed and given to the board secretary Kim White unless translation is required each comment is limited to three minutes 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 and we appreciate the continued partnership with Cafe and they are both back there waving their hands um to clarify individuals who need translation services will be given a total of seven minutes to make their comments that encompasses four minutes to actually speak your comment in Spanish and then three more minutes to allow for translation um we also have headsets available and we'll translate all English-speaking public comments into
049Spanish please feel free to use one of the headsets that are available on the back table um we assume that several of you are here regarding the potential consolidation of our elementary schools uh please be advised the district has one more public hearing scheduled to allow for Testimony before a final decision is made on the potential consolidation the final hearing will be conducted on April 18th 24 at 6 p.m. at the wachi high school comments Please be aware 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 with a speaker's remarks we appreciate you being here this evening and would like to remind you that all public comments should adhere to the same standard of Civility that the board imposes
050on itself and the board will exercise its authority to maintain a Content maintain order in a Content neutral manner this evening so having said that uh Kim do we have comments uh we have Gabriel Hamilton and then uh Dr Jennifer uner who signed up online if they're here doesn't look like it do you have anybody online Liz okay so apparently they did not show so next we have Aaron garinger and then Ann Young good evening everyone I'm here tonight in the hopes that we can all do some thinking around what's priority these days specifically what is the priority of the wachi school district I'm curious because I thought I knew it seemed like a no-brainer it's right in our mission we promise to build a foundation of diversity equity and inclusion from which each student
051emerges future ready the discussion since January has been about that it's been about hasn't been about that it's been about numbers budget shortfalls cost savings busing distances maximum CL classroom sizes School enrollments FTE percentages facts figures line items and spreadsheets don't get me wrong I mean I love numbers math is my jam it's by far my favorite subject to teach it isn't however what should be at the heart of our work as teachers or as a school or a district our students should be a balanced budget is a good thing a balanced budget that harms our our reason for being here that breaks our promise seems like a non-starter let me put it another way where's the data that shows the impact of this closure on the students of Columbia Elementary has any time been
052spent analyzing the cost on their learning graphs made spreadsheets calculated slick presentations have we grappled with the expense of this closure and what it will cost on the bottom line of our students future success shouldn't we don't we owe the students and parents of Columbia that much wouldn't it be great if at the end of all of this budg budget Madness we could look at these parents in the eye and tell them that we have explored every option cut every corner found every nickel and every dime to ensure their students future success can any of you say that I can't and I'm looking at these parents every day when they come to my school so what can be done I don't know for sure I mean I'm a classroom teacher I don't have access to
053all the information but I know where I would start to look look at the admin The District administration costs look at creative ways to use our existing buildings to enhance our current offerings align Staffing to enrollment without closing a school trim budgets don't eliminate them find ways to make us more Nimble and agile and lean without doing harm to the people that we're trying to serve does this feel impossible perhaps that's simply because we all of us need time and hope and courage to do what's right and not what's convenient thank you thank you why does the short girl always follow the tall guy yes every time okay so um our District's web page it states we promise to build a foundation of diversity equity and inclusion from which each student emerges Future Ready the
054Strategic plan part of the website lists one of our District's priorities as partnership relationships between students families schools and communities that enh enhance the well-being and success I ask you how what occurred at last Thursday night hearing fulfilled any of those specifically what occurred with Marcos kyo's statement I wasn't actually planning on making a statement tonight until last Thursday's hearing when decisions were made that effectively silenced the voices of one of our Colombia parents many parents and in our school have already felt like their voices aren't being heard and with one translation problem after another many have given up on trying to share their voice with you THS Thursday night the translation in my opinion was good but she had a different style than the one than the translation than the translators at past board
055meetings teachers are asked to adapt and adjust every day in our classrooms and yet there was no adaptation or adjustment to the way that time was Kept For statements made in Spanish to account for the different style of translation it seems it would have been quite simple to adjust the timing to allow for translation time it was not done Marcus kuo made his entire statement only to have the translator told to sum it up and that she only had one minute to do so this was no fault of this father or the translator it was yet one more instance of a voice being silenced and a member of a marginalized Community being Dishonored I feel confident that it was not the intention of anyone on the board or in the cabinet to silence his voice
056yet that's what happened I decided I could not allow this to happen without speaking up as I told you in my very first comment to the board you are either part of the solution or you are part of the problem and tonight I'm being part of the solution and allowing a silenced voice to be heard because his words matter his voice is important in this process too and they these are not my words but his words and I have someone following me up to finish hello everyone and good evening and to everyone in the board who is presiding over this meeting and to the body that gives life to our beautiful School Colombia Mr stuber and the rest of the teachers and each of the parents representatives and little children who are here with us
057my name is Marcus Coro and my r d r we are a migrant family we are Venice Wayland we have arrived in this country specifically to the town of wachi about a year and a half ago it was painful for us it is not a secret the hard reality the difficult situation politically and economically and socially it was very difficult to leave our families and Country we abandoned everything because of the persecution everything happened to us thank God we have a life and we are finally here we abandoned our families getting here was the best thing because God gave it because God had a family for us the family of Columbia Elementary School but that's the first 3 minutes perfect Roxanna good evening uh I want to break this um Roxanna Vanetta and I'm gonna
058finish uh Mr kyo's words I want to say these words from the bottom of my heart with these words I want you to encom Encompass what I feel what my wife feels and what my child feels he is in first grade at this beautiful school I want you to know that since we found out about the closure of this beautiful Ark of Salvation that this school is we haven't overcome with deep grief because to know that a school does not turn 100 years old not every day or everywhere does a school turn 100 years old for reasons that are obvious and that can be summed with words because of a deficit budget or not enough budget that a school is going to be closed in reality this is painful for us that a school is
059going to be closed for us as we come from Venezuela we cannot understand it when my son got home and told us that school was going to be closed he did not know how to pronounce his vows in English we thank God and the talent talented teachers that he has had Mrs Young Who helped them in Kinder and then miss alanes thanks to them he can now be called a bilingual child he can speak Spanish and now he speaks English very well we cannot understand this I want to exhort you in the name of God I do not think the solution is the closure of this school I do not believe it I cannot imagine those who have worked arduously in the past to to found this school and what now is still this beautiful
060school if they had a life that if they had life if they had life and saw that the seed they planted and that a hundred years later it is still maintained if they had life right now hearing that Colombia is threatened I cannot imagine what would come out of their mouths it is there that with all due respect that you all deserve no we cannot see it that way it is not fair to think that it will close today 21st day of March that the decision has been taken to close it at all costs because we know and from everyone that has spoken we are going to cause an irreparable and irreversible damage in the life of the Personnel that give life to this institution and to the children that give life to this school
061I urge you in the name of God and in the love of God we need to work together to find a solution if it is called the government of Washington if it is called the government of the country and the hands of President Biden private Enterprise of wachi but this solution has not to be the closure of colia and these words resonate with me because my parents were not involved when I was the sixth seventh and eighth creators my parents didn't drive my parents didn't speak English and to see that this parent showed up with his heart on his sleeve it's very meaningful because it really is a hard life to be an immigrant and not speak the language so when parents show up you got to give them that honor thank you thank you
062Dorothy Ferguson and Lois Ferguson hello again I am Dorothy Ferguson I'm a member of the Columbia parent advocacy group um we've talked a lot about like what will save the wachi school district and we kind of came down to that we need a vision so what would be be our vision so I've been thinking about this what are we good at what will attract additional students to the wachi school district well I got my answer when uh principal stuber shared information about the awesome student growth scores um for Columbia students and I so I did some research on the ospi website website and I gave each ofie a packet that has information on student growth for uh Columbia um Lincoln Washington and all the other elementary schools um in wachi so you have that information
063to review please um student growth is a measure over time not just one score and a test attendance is also factored in what we all want to see is for all students to have continuous growth did you know that Columbia Elementary has the highest student growth scores of all the schools in the wachi school district not just the elementary schools but all the schools in wachi school district what is happening at Columbia that's what I would be asking could it be transition to kindergarten um that program um that contributed to student growth in 2023 the there was House Bill 1550 that passed it established transition to kindergarten I'm not sure how that's different than trans transitional kindergarten but now we have officially transitioned to kindergarten with funding um that's encouraging that says the state wants
064us to move in that direction the district did a thorough analysis of the number of empty classrooms in each building but the district did not analyze what was happening in the occupied classrooms at Columbia and other schools Columbia ranks among schools with the highest growth scores in Washington state um you can see the uh student growth scores for Lincoln and for Washington adding 170 students to Lincoln is detrimental to Lincoln students education and will hinder student growth for Columbia students Columbia Elementary is the wachi school district's Flagship for elementary education even with the same curriculum and similar student demographics Columbia students have much higher levels of student growth we should be celebrating and learning from Colombia's teachers not closing the school with the highest student growth in the district again I want to congratulate the
065Columbia students teachers parents for their work which resulted in the highest student growth scores in the district good work guys thank you thank you at the public hearing last week 63 people watched the first public hearing about the closure of Columbia Elementary being being streamed on Zoom those 63 people were denied the opportunity to make a citizen's comment due to a decision by the school board Julie Norton board president denied a request from Colombia's parent advoc advocacy group for a Citizens advisory committee so parents could have input to these decisions parents are relegated to three minute citizen comments and the school board took that away from 63 parents it appears you want to silence parents in the community I want to share a concern about 170 students being moved to Lincoln Elementary Lincoln Elementary has
066the lowest number of open classrooms three there are 24 classrooms in the kindergarten through fifth grades but there is a need for 25 classrooms due to the five sections of fifth grade where will the extra classroom come from will music or art lose their classrooms will the special education structured learning or the K5 communication classrooms be taken away or will students be put in a portable Lewis and Clark will have 10 open classrooms Newberry will have seven Sunny Slope will have four Washington will have three Lincoln will have negative one cabinet Administration cuts are due to retirement or resignation provisional teachers are cut when just starting their careers in education not retirement or resignations we need to look at the wachi school district cabinet at the highest level taking one or two for the team
067thank you Jessica ' Conor good evening my name is jesska I'm a parent of a Kinder and a future Columbia cougar also a part of the parent advocacy group a very understanding emotional and sympathetic person we heard me speak last Thursday at the public meeting the last time or the last time maybe just one of the five times I've ever been at that High School the very first time I was there for the kindergarten orientation and that was really really nice um that was involvement from the start that's where I met what I now consider my friends and family the Columbia staff um we've all sat here and talked about how we can Budget on an individual level now let's chat about how we can have yard cells on a district level this past weekend
068my friend and I participated in our first ever craft pair we paid a booth fee we donated an item from our booth the organiz organization that held the craft bear sold snacks sold drinks sold raffle tickets the donated items were a little bit more than just a dollar the other vendors I spoke to talked about how craft fairs bazaars flea markets essentially yard Sals were so fun which ones they are attending and how they wish there were more to attend why does the district not hold such events quarterly monthly you can run out space from the district or s school you can charge a booth fee you can get a donated raffle item colleges such as Clover Park Technical College in Lakewood went outspace at the colleges ballrooms meeting rooms labs softball fields this is
069one way they decide to increase Revenue during budget cuts preco still going on today we as a community are thinking outside the box we are throwing out all of our ideas do we need a rent classrooms the district office building role value was appraised at nearly $2.3 million in 2015 that's from the public information records we can shut the lights off in that building for a year or two not sell it I do have some ideas on though that's for a different date the district can be zorbed into some unused classrooms around each School the district will be more on a personal level with our teachers our students our parents our community the district will see how today to day is done decreasing Staffing does not equal closing a school you know deep down this
070is too fast we all know what that hard decisions in life are made but taking the time to weigh out the pros versus the cons the good versus the bad that's what is really hard and that's what needs to be done today I have so many more questions about the Davis report I'm actually sad I won't be here at the next board meeting but I do look forward to his report I please ask you to vote no on May 14th don't close Colombia thank you and that's all I have for tonight thank you everyone um moving on we have no AC or discussions we just jump straight to superintendent report okay um all right so congratulations to our high school and uh Middle School Technology student associations who recently competed in the state competition students
071from Pioneer Middle School and Foothills Middle School qualified for uh State this year placing third in the in the truche uh competition and ranked eight in the vlogging competition when aie high school and Westside High School students participated in the technology Student Association state conference competing in a variety of events and we had a couple of students that were part of the audio podcast team and finished uh in the top 10 for their category uh so that is cool there's no shortage of things that are going on that is uh amazing to uh share we also have some high school teachers that were selected for a fellowship uh Daniel day and Molly uh rabbitz um have recently been selected for prestigious 5-year Master teacher Fellowship in central Washington University's Robert noise teacher scholarship program and
072Daniel who's been teaching science at the high school for six years and Molly who teaches science at Westside High School are completing uh stem leadership trainings as part of the program so that's exciting um we also have uh Mariachi Northwest uh Festival kicks off this week and uh you're probably seeing a lot of that stuff get getting organized and ready to go so Wednesday kicks off the 26th year of the Northwest Mariachi Festival um and this F Festival is huge um a lot of it is organized with with a Wan School District Mariachi director um Eddie Cortez um and it's one of the main Mariachi events in Washington state featuring three days of student workshops that starts Wednesday right Maria is that right okay um at w Valley College um utilizing the college while they're
073on spring break which is nice um and a student showcase and then the a professional uh Gayla that happens later so I'm looking forward to seeing that uh Thursday um and that'll be that'll be a fun event so we also had State knowledge bow competition last Saturday I'm not sure if you are aware of that um but I was honored to be able to help welcome all 90 schools um at 8 o'clock on Saturday morning that we're there for this competition's a ton of brain power in that room um and I just want to thank uh wih High School coach Chris clo for organizing and prepping that huge event um we also had um some Middle School CTE programs competing at skills USA state competition in Tacoma this past weekend uh and we had okay
074Pioneer Middle School Had State Champs in uh in this in the CPR uh competition Foothills Middle scho Middle School took state champs uh in the sports medicine Division and the orchard Middle School were state champs in the job skills demonstration section so lots of good stuff happening there and then I got to go to some fun stuff Pioneer couple weeks ago Pioneers had uh Pioneer Middle School had their family night um which was uh super cool there's a lot of things going on at Pioneer Middle School when I walked in the door I was greeted with the ability to buy dinner and raffle tickets the hallways were packed with games and activities and the school store was open for service Pioneer Mariachi was playing the cafeteria was full of people there was DodgeBall happening uh
075very competitive dodgeball um I was also able to chat with the p President John Palmer uh who who was a student of mine way back when so that was pretty cool um also uh got to go to the 25th Annual putam County Spelling be the wian high school sping uh spring drama presentation uh so got to see Martin there and when I walked in I was giving given a part in the play so that was that was interesting um so I was on stage uh sitting with the spellers of the spelling be and I was I think I don't know Martin I was laughing pretty much the entire time because they were they were engaging with me as if I was part of the whole thing and talking this close to me and it was
076it was quite quite impressive but I interrupt you you were the brave one who volunteered to go and state I ran like hang and refused it was it was quite entertaining to be up there but of course um I was given a word that there was no way I was going to be able to spell so that I got to sit down sarily and I think if I would have even come close to spelling it right I still would have had the same you need to sit down um the I also was able to attend the skill Source 35th uh sorry 34th annual uh recognition banquet which was uh held at the Confluence tech center and our very own Ron Brown and Noah Olsen were selected as the two 2023 awardees at the banquet for
077their work with our Tech apprenticeship program so it was great to see the two of them be celebrated on stage as well as the amazing partnership uh between the an School District in the skill source so sorry lots thank you yeah started this in this time then um last weekend was the cor corly State advisory committee on migrant Education meeting in Yakama and there are two people from the wachi school district on that 21 member uh committee the other is Teresa Gina the migrant recruiter for the district um and uh one thing I want to say about that is you hear a lot of things of what going up the state and we made one small change uh we talked to Dr kahar and we decided we're going to do quick debriefings at the end
078of these quarterly meetings to make sure that nothing escapes the district group so we had a very good meeting downstairs for a few minutes and something else that was interested there were four students who are on the state committee and we have three students on our own Pat Core Group um and so one of the newly elected students students is from cashmir so we've actually introduced them to each other and it's possible there'll be some student exchanges at that level and the students have been very very powerful in that area um another thing little hobby I have is uh driving Equitable enrollment um series for academic acceleration and I sat in on the second meeting of that and uh that was really about dual credit running start CTE all the other opt options to do
079two things at once at you go through High School one of the things I said was really important to get down into the middle schools and make people educated and I'm using that as an illustration because I came away from 90 minutes of that uh saying just about everything that they were recommending as best practices are in play in this district and when I reported back um but the one thing that was a little bit interesting was they were struggling with there two doors one is to have the opportunity and have the access and open the door the other one is to find and see that the door is there and actually the next uh meeting on this series is going to be how people can find get they the way they put it in
080English was how do people get to the kitchen table inside the houses with the parents and the students uh and I think that's really really important um so that was uh sitting on the edge couple of things and uh student advisory Council superintendent advisory Council great meeting very good to see people here today and it was fun I'm going to be way briefer than that uh I want to apologize to the board and the district and the community for being late to the um public hearing last week won't happen again so I apologize for that I don't have anything um I would like to thank everyone that came out to the public hearing last Thursday and everyone that has been sing sending emails to the board um thank you for the communication um I also
081want to see say that you know I hear you from the Spanish perspectiv uh the interpreting perspective I we have a lot of room for improvement and just know that um we are working on it um you know we hear you we were we receptive to the feedback um thank you to Roxanna for sharing her experience similar experience to many of of many of ours so that's something that we were're striving to do better and um hopefully with your guys's two cents my two cents we can um you know improve our system I also want to thank the cabinet team and superintendent kalahar for addressing some of the challenging questions um great questions that came up during that public hearing as well as emails um not not easy um but I think this is the
082a step in the right direction in regards to the trans y that um we need to strive for and again I I thank you to everyone I will Echo what Maria says thank you for everyone coming out last weekend at the public hearing we do take seriously the opportunity to interact with each of you and recognize when when things aren't working out exactly as we intended so we are making improvements as we can and um you know appreciate you bringing them to our attention hope you know that we are receptive and we are making changes as we as as we can so that everyone can participate as much as possible um I'll just put it out there I unilaterally don't make any decision regarding how participation Works what systems are available at any event so
083um it is not me deciding whether you can or cannot speak remotely or not it is simply the limitations of that particular facility um so we hear you we invite you to still participate on Zoom um any any regular meeting that you are available it's it's still available in our in our meeting room um on to other things um superintendent and I attended the Chan County leadership meeting last Friday it's the second time they've put it on they're going now from I think B monthly to potentially monthly where uh Shan County leadership in from the city the college the district um kind of get together and talk about local projects and opportunities and it's a pretty helpful um I guess meeting so far to be able to just share what's going on get some insight
084on um some learned of some interesting opportunities that are going to be happening in terms of potentially an Amazon location that could bring bring businesses and employees and families and things and help some of our enrollment situation more information on the Microsoft developments that are now uh moving further along so a lot of helpful information coming out of some of those meetings um one one I attended to was a little bit random I wasn't sure exactly what hat I was wearing when I got there but my name tag said wachi school board so the wachi Valley fire fire department um in their first year of their alignment is now doing their strategic plan and so they invited kind of a similar crowd a lot of Chan County leadership F or actually Chan and douas County
085because they're multi-jurisdictional um a lot of leadership folks to kind of do exactly what we did with our strategic plan take some um stakeholder feedback uh to to be able to put out their plan eventually so it was kind of neat to participate in that um especially since we've been through that process fairly recently so that was interesting and then I'll just finish by saying congratulations to our mock trial team that I heard took home fourth place um It's a combination of wachi high school and Westside students so a neat little partnership there and I believe two of our Westside students actually got witness special awards for for their witness roles so congratulations to the students that's all I got anything else there is nothing else I will adjourn