001good evening I was just told not to do that bring the mic closer to him I welcome everyone to the September 26th sixth regular board meeting thank you for joining us the meeting will come to order and we will open the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic stance one nation under God indivisible with liberties foreign comment portion of the meeting he can still sign up by completing a form at the entrance of the room and handing it over to Kim White virtual attendees had an opportunity to sign up for citizen common before the meeting are do we have any requests to modify the agenda yes we do I would like to add an action item well an item for
002discussion and possible action resolution 05-2-3 um regarding board members eligibility to serve we have a motion on the floor do we have a second I'll second that motion thank you okay we have a motion on the floor to amend the agenda to include the possible action item for resolution number zero five two three in discussion about uh board member residency do we have any discussion yeah um I do not agree that we should be adding the resolution to the agenda um first and foremost it was only received today so we've not really had adequate time to look at it review it um we have a board policy that says things need to be presented at least three days ahead of a board meeting and so that didn't happen um there's really we told the public
003in press releases recently that while this topic would be discussed at this meeting that there'd be no action taken so I think it's a bit disingenuous to now signal that we might be taking action on something that was just presented to us today when we put out there to the public that we weren't going to take any action um and I think it appears to be directed directly at a board member and I think we have an ethical policy that addresses board member conduct that we just adopted earlier this year and that'd be policy 1815 that entitles the affected member to um a more in private meeting uh before things escalate to a public forum so largely for those Reasons I'm opposed to adding the resolution to the agenda okay um just briefly uh just
004a correction on that comment the district did not release a press release any more discussion then can I clarify where I saw that was in an NCW life from Diana higland okay right no it was it just it was not a formal press release perfect I was included in that communication I'm uh putting forward um the resolution uh for the purposes of discussion and action can be postponed to the future if that's desired by the majority of the board we have received quite a number of public not comments but emails from the public regarding the topic and I think it's only fair that a discussion um to resolve the issue take place in in the public where it's transparent um for all to see and I would respond very similarly to Laura's um I think
005a discussion is something we definitely need to have um to be responsible uh including the possibility of a resolution does not mean that the reaction on a resolution and I think if we started discussing that now that would be matters that I would feel would form part of the discussion with the modified agenda so I'm that was why I was willing to Second having it on the agenda which does not mean that it would necessarily be acted on correct a second motion a second seconding emotion only carries the action forward doesn't mean it's a ction um I did not receive notification whether Katherine Thomas was attending virtually do we know if she's attending okay yes you did receive notification that I'd be attending remotely um that was in a prior email and uh here I
006am attending remotely any further discussion on the motion on the floor yeah I'll just real quickly add that I realize we we have it on here for a discussion of the topic and that is fine what what bothers me a little is the addition of the resolution signaling a that we might take action and B that I don't know I don't think we've talked to any type of at least collectively as a group any type of legal counsel to know that that's that correct thing to even do so to be presenting a resolution um for discussion that that I don't even know is a legal process to use um seems a little a little too far ahead I would think that the normal course would be we could discuss it as we've signaled as a
007discussion item and then if it progresses to we want to look at Future action then directing legal or somebody to prepare whatever necessary um legal document that is but again because this is just sprung on us I don't even know if what is proposing the resolution for discussion is actually a legal legal process okay uh just a reminder we have a motion on the floor that has been seconded um and in further discussion I would like to state that prior to this resolution being added into the email that was sent to us mere hours before the school board meeting none of this has been discussed with me by the board president the board vice president or any member of the board to the point that no one has even asked if these email allegations are
008the truth I'm sorry we have a motion on the floor whether we're in the discussion part of it this is the discussion of presenting an action item amending the agenda we are not actual to the discussion um of possible action correct I want to stay tuned I want to stick to the agenda um right now we have a motion on the floor arrest to modify the consented to modify the agenda we have a second so do we have any further discussion in regards to adding the the action item a possible action item that is what I was discussing I don't feel that it's appropriate to add this item to the agenda when we have had no there's I have had no notification I've had no questions from fellow board members and I have not been
009notified by by the president or device being added to the agenda as we would in our as you are required to in our policy in Civility and board actions board discussion the policy that we passed last year any further discussion okay hearing none um all in favor of modifying the consent agenda to add resolution number zero five two three please say aye aye aye aye all post I see motion carries okay now next on our consent on our agenda we have the consent agenda on the consent agenda we have the minutes from the September 12th regular board meeting the September 18th Workshop voucher vouchers and payroll the Personnel report contracts Surplus field trips and the July financial report do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved thank you Laura second and
010seconded by Julie any discussion no okay hearing none all in favor of adopting the consent agenda as presented please say aye aye aye aye any opposed motion carries great next on the agenda we have citizen comment Kim do we have citizen comments okay we will we will um Kim will list those uh our people wanting to provide comments uh you will be granted three minutes Kim will keep a timer and once the timer goes off I will gently um try not to try to cut you off so on Kim wallet you take over okay first we have Chad Smith foreign good evening my name is Chad Smith I have two daughters in the district a senior and an eighth grader they are both softball players before I start I'd just like to tell you thank
011you I appreciate um your decision to service our community our kids in your role as school board members and administrators especially in this divisive climate with that decision however comes responsibility first to kids and to comply with the law so I want to talk about three things tonight how we got here where we're at and what we need to do starting tonight how we got here we got here through 30 years of negligence and incompetence and why do I say that because there can be only two explanations either we continue to invest in other sports and ignore these young women without understanding the implications from a Title IX perspective or we did know it and we did it any there's no other explanation so now where are we at October 2021 federal government the OCR
012tells us we're under Title IX investigation we we get counsel we enter into a voluntary resolution agreement good for us we acknowledge a problem first step right then what do we do we absolutely fumble the ball mixed metaphor there pun but we fumble the ball in how we respond to our burden in that voluntary resolution agreement and we had Council you know what this cost is it costs us at least one to two years and we can't blame the OCR for what we did now some of these young ladies right here are realizing that their dream of playing on Panther softball field is dead that's a huge cost but there's another cost there's a real money cost in delaying this in this construction and financing environment we probably cost ourselves another million dollars so here's
013what you need to do right now do not piecemeal this if you piecemeal this what is the message you are sending to these young women to all the students in our community after 30 years of inequity and a federal investigation you can't go all the way for them that's the message you'll send if you pee smell it don't do it do it right rip the Band-Aid get it done thank you for your time tonight and thank you for your service thank you Mr Smith next we have Cheryl Armstrong oh thank you school board for leading our district I come to you tonight a retired Wenatchee School District educator a happy one too to speak on behalf of the more than 6 800 students I looked that up today who attend Wenatchee school district and who
014depend upon us taxpayers and you the school board administrators teachers and classified staff of Wenatchee School District to teach and to educate my concern is our slide from educational excellence uh toward ideological teachings disguised as education I refer specifically to the teaching of gender ideology being taught by our school district you and I know and it is confirmed by science and biology that sex is binary and gender is not something fluid and therefore choosable at will so I think we lie to kids when we teach or stand by and allow pseudoscience to be taught in the classroom of even our youngest kids unbelievably our school district has mandated gender ideology training for every teacher of course this is state required so no choice question is every teacher in compliance to gender ideology trainings are genderbred
015posters up on classroom walls are staff required to affirm the kindergarteners gender claims or student name changes I don't know and I find that it is difficult to find the answer to that but who's going to stand up for those teachers who don't agree or for parents who may reject their child being exposed to ideological teachings um point zero zero one percent of the population deals with a genuine mental illness called gender dysphoria how can we support those students and help the family of that one student when we insist that all students tentatively have an issue with gender and in fact cover our bases and offer encouragement for every single student to select his or her personal gender did that alarm go up okay we might ask ourselves a question isn't it a kind thing
016to encourage and allow students to make their own gender choices since we know that the human brain does not mature until age 25 to 30 why would it be considered kind to purposely set these kids on a pathway to explore gender therapy breast removal for young girls surgeries for teens to rebuild or remove reproductive organs and when these youth are old enough to know who they are and what they want it's too late the damage has been done and who do we blame for that how did we get here well we've replaced with false ideology what we know to be crucial academic structures that students need to prepare for success in life career and service to others and for each student to truly emerge Future Ready those previous uh previously these academic structures were the
017main goal of Education thank you our leaders and Gatekeepers can we live with ourselves if we continue to Institute gender ideology thank you miss our education thank you okay next is Dorothy Ferguson hello um I would just like to thank everybody for a great start to the new year I have a kindergarten grandson and a third grade grandson at John Newberry and they love their teachers they love the principal and the assistant principal and the kids and and everybody there we went on a field trip with third grade to Salmon Festival they love the bus drivers they all sang Wheels on the Bus as we went there it was great I'd never been on a field trip before um my grandson started because of the pandemic he started Newberry his first year in a brick
018and mortar school was second grade and now he's in third grade and they his teacher helped him make a great adjustment to second grade because he was like a kindergarten not knowing what you do down the hall in the lunchroom and they just really helped him in second grade to learn those kindergarten skills he's a kid who gets extra help in reading but he's been recommended for high cap and math so you're addressing both ends of the spectrum on the kids I'm impressed that even just being there you know one year and this is his second year that you have done some good assessments to know that um so I really appreciate that I mean I know that's happening in all the schools in in the Wenatchee District I also want to thank you for
019doing your due diligence on making sure that school board policies are followed and state laws are followed and I know those can be very difficult situations and I just want to say thank you for your time efforts Sweat and Tears that you put into running this great School District thank you Miss Ferguson okay next we have Dale Foreman good evening it's a pleasure to be here I want to start out by saying thank you for being the Wenatchee Public School Board I have three children who graduated from the Wenatchee school district and went on to grad school did great I have four grandchildren who are currently in the Wenatchee public school system I come today to give a plea for you to do what we pledged to do at the start when we pledge allegiance
020to that flag one of the things we stand for I'm a lawyer I've been a lawyer for 49 years one of the things and I was the majority leader of the Washington State House of Representatives so I wrote a lot of the stupid laws that you have to follow but but one of the things we promised to do is pledge allegiance to the flag that stands for something called due process and Catherine Thomas has not been given due process what you're trying to do today is to have a discussion and that's great but to have a discussion and a decision and a resolution all wrapped up in one is wrong it violates the Constitution it's a violation of due process now let me tell you something I had never heard of Catherine Thomas until 3
02130 this afternoon I'm not involved in school politics I haven't endorsed any of you or your opponents this is not political this is a cry from the heart of a lawyer who cares about the process we need due process that means you discuss all these emails all these allegations where does she live is she a resident or not those are legal questions and factual questions you can discuss that but to make a decision tonight to throw one of your sitting elected members off the board with two hours of notice so that she had to call me and beg me to come here and I'm supposed to be home babysitting my grandkids tonight I'm here instead for you to say discuss all you want get the facts learn the law from your lawyer but for pity's
022sake don't pass a resolution the same day you write it with no notice because if you do and if she wants to hire me I'll take you to court and I'll beat you because you can't get away with that in the United States of America God Bless America thank you Mr Foreman foreign next is Rachel Petro good evening uh it's been a while so just gave you a year break or so but I did I heard about this topic on the agenda and I was a little surprised given that Catherine's not running for reelection and personally it's no surprise to me that she's been traveling out of state because her her significant other lives out of state because that's where they work it's a pretty normal process I don't know if she's been derelictive duties
023not showing up for meetings not representing your constituents but I'm a constituent and she's been representing me so um I think Dale Foreman said it all is for in regard to process and due process I think I think you just heard from the first Speaker tonight about how we need to be careful about process um and then we heard again from Dale so don't expose the taxpayers to additional legal risk it's unnecessary Catherine's on her way out folks so um I you know I haven't even had a chance to email you but you can I'll I'll deliver uh yeah as usual but I would just consider you got I would ask you guys to consider due process I think Dale said it all so I won't belabor it thank you thank you Miss Petro I
024did have one uh person registered to attend online but just clarifying um TJ Farrell uh just making sure she does not want to make a public comment said no but I'm just making sure okay thank you Kim next on our agenda we have some special presentations so I'll hand the mic over to Dr calhar excellent thank you very much our first presentation we have some special guests with us the new CEO of North Central Washington Tech Alliance Sue Kane is here with a special presentation so thanks for being with us you can hit the mic yeah perfect there you go awesome hello um I'm Sue and this is Ian um we actually are here tonight and I have an official message on behalf of the NCW Tech Alliance and board to recognize one of your
025school district leaders Ron Brown um if you are not yet familiar with NCW Tech Alliance we are a 501c3 non-profit with a mission to bring people and Technology resources together to support entrepreneurs stem education and Technology adoption across North Central Washington our longest running program at NCW Tech Alliance is the innovator Awards luncheon where we celebrate the drive passion and spirit of innovators in our community while inspiring those who are just starting their Journey since this important celebration began in 2001 94 innovators have been recognized for their innovation in three categories entrepreneurship technology and stem education and then over the years the board of directors has also awarded special leaders in our community with a Lifetime Achievement Award during the innovators in our 22 years the Lifetime Achievement Award has only gone to 10 individuals
026and today we're proud to announce that Ron Brown of the Wenatchee school district will be the 11th recipient of this award so I'm going to break from my script for just a minute because on a personal note Ron Brown has been an incredible resource to me and to our community and I want to tell you about he was a founding member of our Apple stem Network eight years ago he built our first website he launched the tech ninjas program that helped middle schoolers find their talent for it and some of those middle schoolers went on to high school and Beyond and have careers in I.T he assisted Wenatchee School District in launching the first ever it apprenticeship program for students that allows them to be calm District employees he's extended the Wenatchee School District in
027so many ways to serve our community and absolutely change lives because of the work that he does it's not often that we think about someone that's a technology director having the community level impact that Ron Brown has had it is an absolute honor both personally and professionally to recognize Ron with the Lifetime Achievement Award thank you yeah I have to go back to my script though because we also wanted to come today to let you know about the awards ceremony that will take place uh on November 8th at the Wenatchee convention center and we'll celebrate Ron and other innovators across the region but for now we want to congratulate Ron and you on the Wenatchee school board for your leadership and your partnership with NCW Tech Alliance is an absolute honor to be here tonight
028thank you very much prom would you like to speak I was trying to get away uh thank you Sue and I I I'd be a Miss at not thanking Jenny or janosity and who's the current executive director of uh NCW Tech Alliance who I was uh had a great pleasure of hiring when I was a board president of the organization uh and so just I just wanted to thank everybody that supported me along the way you don't do this on your own and I had an incredible team from my family uh to the school board Support over the years and these things only happen with the financial support and the leadership support that we have in the school district and then to be able to work in the community and being allowed to do that
029is is is is a is a great thing and I don't think it's common among a lot of school districts to allow that time and partnership to happen with our school leaders in an organization like NCW Tech so thank you and hopefully we see a lot of people at the innovator Awards it's a great event and so I encourage people to get some tickets and and come to that all right thank you congratulations congrats Ron thank you sue appreciate that uh next up we have uh the YWCA YWCA is in the house so Rachel Todd is here to present to us uh Rachel and the YWCA are uh looking at uh getting some State support uh to build a new facility you don't want to steal all the thunder so um I'll let uh I'll
030let you take over and we should have a slideshow presentation for you ready to ready to go um well uh to start with my name is the executive director of YWCA North Central Washington um YWCA has big do I have to keep it pushed okay make sure to keep it pushed while I okay so uh so I'm Rachel Todd I'm the executive director of YWCA North Central Washington um YWCA has been in the Wenatchee Valley since 1957. we actually have been in the same facility in the same in the same facility on the same property since 1957. um currently our biggest uh our our biggest Outreach is with housing insecurities and homeless housing we have three direct housing programs and we are actually we submitted an application to the state of Washington for funding for
031a complete new YWCA campus on our property and that's what I'm here to talk to you folks about tonight so let me go to the next slide I have the controls oh my gosh look at that you really do need a new facility I do not know use the bottom one great um okay so the the biggest reason why we are asking for a new facility is that we are operating out of nearly 100 year old buildings we currently have three programs our emergency shelter has 10 beds our transitional housing program has 10 beds and our permanent Supportive Housing program has seven small Studio Plus units um these are the pictures of our buildings the top building is our apartment building the bottom one is our admin building both of them are about 100 years
032old and the cost of updates modernization or rehab that would it would take to get these buildings up to speed um would get the buildings up to speed it would not increase our capacity to serve more folks and it would not address necessarily the long-term facilities needs that we have with these buildings um so that's one of the biggest reasons why we've asked for a new campus instead of modern modernizing our current campus our anticipated outcomes for a new campus is that we would increase our it would increase our housing capacity our program capacity by about 33 percent we would have a facility that's better suited to serve families so adults and their dependents it would be a fully accessible facility right now our facility is very much not Ada accessible there's so many stairs
033um it's a trauma-informed design we know that folks that we're serving are coming from all sorts of backgrounds and all sorts of trauma and the entire design of the new building has that in mind it would be more efficient a better use of our property and it would improve the overall curb appeal of the neighborhood that we're in um we're working with a couple of Consultants so we're working with the office of rural Farm worker housing which is a 501c3 non-profit they're a development nonprofit they come alongside small nonprofits like ours to help figure out how to get a good development plan for Capital builds and then an architect firm out of Spokane called zba Architects which are they actually have done a couple of projects in the Wenatchee area so they're familiar with our
034area both of them have like lots of years of experience and have worked on dozens of successful low income affordable housing projects um these are some signs so like I said we have submitted an application um for a whole new facility these are our pre-design work designs so I want to be really clear that this is not set in stone it may you know if we're awarded the money it may not specifically look like this but this is what we're hoping for so this is the corner of first and Chelan Street this is what the new building would look like from the outside this is some of the inside it's a little hard to see I'm sorry it's very small but um basically it's going to be one full building the very first floor of
035it is going to be the housing and our community space the other side where our current admin building is now would be a parking lot um you can see this is what our new apartments would look like we would increase from Seven Studio Plus Apartments to 10 one-bedroom apartments and two two bedroom apartments so we would go from Seven units to 12 and all of the new units would be better suited for individuals couples and families on the other side there would also be our emergency housing our emergency shelter program and our transitional housing program and we also would include over on the right side up towards the top there's something called a flex space so we do communal living that is the model for our emergency shelter and our transitional housing program not everybody
036thrives in communal living and so we know that having a flex space that has some more individuality would be appropriate for some of our clients this is just a picture this is another view of what our roof would look like um these are some layouts of the apartments that we would be working with like I said all of the apart all of these apartments were designed with trauma in form which means that they are set up not only for Safety and Security of the resident but it's also set up for that feeling of Safety and Security of the resident making it cozy and making it robust and helpful without making it feel institutional um this is what it would look like from the curb and that is the end of that so um we are
037wanting to make sure that the school district knows that we're doing this um give you some ideas of what we've applied for uh we're hoping we're hoping to get the full award we'll see what happens we'll know by the end of the year uh but my information is here and so if anybody has any questions comments concerns about what a new facility would look like feel free to reach out to me and that's what I have for you folks tonight thank you again for squeezing me in so so last minute this was really a lifesaver for us um and very very appreciative of being able to come here Rachel appreciate that before Rachel walks away do we have any questions for Rachel well from the board sorry thank you excellent next up uh we have
038Rob gross uh Rob gross sorry from uh Turner Townsend and hiri and also his uh his sidekick his partner John is with us as well but Rob I'm very excited for everyone to meet because you'll get to know rob a lot through this next process um over the course of the next year Rob is our project manager for the softball complex so we're very excited to have him with us Rob thanks for being here and we have a slide deck for you as well we do nice well first of all uh my name is Rob gross and I'm uh very happy to be here to talk about such a great project um thanks for and with thanks for choosing us to be able to be your owner's representation during this great project so just to
039talk a little bit about us I come from a long lineage of construction um started in the field and been involved with K-12 my passion for the last 25 years come on the regular projects I just wanted to show everybody that we're I'm the project manager for the new Wenatchee YMCA so I'm here and it's really good to be here and be part of the community and I've done a lot of programs and districts that have built um football stadium softball complexes baseball complexes soccer fields so it's a great fit it was a great timing for us and we really appreciate the fact that we're able to represent you I like K-12 so much this is my son who's his first day every year since they were kids we got this first day of school
040he is a first year kindergarten teacher and so we love the passion of K-12 in our family and my daughter is in her first day of our senior year at Boise State so it's been great Public Schools education has been awesome for my family and next and this is John mender my assistant project manager who will be here helping been involved in a lot of strategic projects has experience with civil engineering which is a lot that we're going to need on this particular project this is just kind of our organizational chart that you would to expect from our company I'll be overseeing every day-to-day operations with the help of John and we have a specific scheduler that will help us schedule the fact that we can get this thing done on time we have another
041element that helps with the financial part of it when we track every dollar and we reconcile that with the district's CFO every month and so every month we'll be able to have you'll be able to see every dollar that's spent in every dollar that's been committed maybe not spent yet and then we also have our operational leader for the state of Washington and David Bodine at the uh is always available for a phone call or whatever we need them for we won't need them but so kind of this go through this this the next stages of the project description uh obviously we're going to be decommissioning the fields constructed a new Varsity softball field and hopefully a new soccer field and football field we don't know but we're going to certainly go down that path
042and there's many ways to be able to find out if we can and what the budget would be for the soccer field but the number one goal is a softball complex so this is kind of the latest um thought process or renderings that we've started and it's just kind of a schematic design it's more of just something to kind of put on paper uh but it appears to be something that had to be a great facility um and great for the community and your District these are some of the reg you know regulations softball field we you know with some infield turf you know you can see a Press Box scoreboard Bullpen dugouts um I think we also have tunnel batting cage tunnels involved uh this is the big picture here the the schedule so
043as of last week we two a week and a half ago we put on RFQ for design that's an arc that's architectural and engineering team uh part of the response I'm getting from all the individuals throughout the state has been very promising some of the new some of the same design teams that have done uh the Spokane new Spokane Stadium uh that's Quincy uh softball and baseball field um I'm doing a new stadium in Yakima for West Valley School District there I mean there's a lot of momentum with a lot of good designers that's the ultimate the ultimate goal here to get the best you can um so we hope to have that expected reward award from the 19th of October we have the selections uh the RFQ coming in in the next next week
044so we'll choose and narrow that down to at least you know three firms and then we'll process them into an interview process and we hope to choose them and put a put a negotiate contract in front of you by the 19th of October we hope best case some of the things we're going to be doing in November is solidifying the fact that we can get these products these last three years have taught us a lot of things you think you can buy and you can get on your job project sites take a lot longer so we'll investigate that and study that and find out what we truly need and we can order that soon sooner than later uh February we hope to have the design finished by end of January and in February we're going
045to put it out to bid another really good element here is you've got a lot of momentum from your city a lot of good General Contractors throughout the state or I know about this coming next year so I think we'll have some really good competition uh which is always good for for pricing and a reputable company that'll get finished on time oops oh wasn't done yet uh and ultimately or the the main goal here is August of 2024 to open to have the ribbon cutting that's the that's the funniest thing we ever do part of the other element here you can see we um I kind of skipped through but in October we're also going to start the design phase and some of the support from your uh from Dr kalahar is he's going to
046have a committee put together to help with the design to get some input from teachers from students from softball players and their parents or everybody really wants to get involved and we're going to listen to everybody I think one of the worst things we do is we don't listen enough just take the time to listen we able to have it permitted in January and for a groundbreaking ceremony of April 2024. the next steps in the next month before for the next 30 days we're going to engage a geotechnical consultant to do the testing to make sure we know and what how we can put a structure on the building and infiltration of the soils and also get this engage in a consultant that will do the surveying very important issues that will help us go
047through the next steps of cepa and other little and probably gonna have to do a traffic study so there's a few little elements in the next couple months will have but those are the next month those are the two big things we have uh we always try to kind of prepare a project for alternates uh if we want to do the whole field in Turf if we want to do just grass Outfield and then filter so there's a couple little things here that we can we can do someone that we can know that we're spending the money correctly and and what we're going to have left over to be able to put elsewhere as is if you have some left over enough to do the uh football fields and soccer field those are some options
048again talking about the early procurement package those are also crucial and we'll continue to push those well that was fast did I go too slow Maybe you guys have any questions I think we're set we're on the right track for success thank you so much for having us thank you thank you yes I do have a question um based on your experience this project schedule is that realistic oh absolutely because this is less than a year out I don't want to have false promises right because we do have a group of young women here um that are depending on as a school district to make sure that we are giving them what they they deserved with the district with the women in our community um deserve so I just want to make sure that um
049you know now that it's out there that this is a feasible timeline oh certainly and we've had a lot of experts look at this and engage in their in conversations and get their opinions I've done more faster uh so that I'm not scared about any any kind of time frame now we're gonna we're gonna Sprint we have a lot to do in the next couple months but it's not we're not designing an entire building so it's a little different there's certain strategies that we can do unfortunately that we can work through the winter I mean Dirk's good to be moved during the winter and there's nothing wrong with constructing anything in the winter so we'll be good I do have one more question um and maybe this isn't your scope or but is there was
050talk about um demolishing the building that's in place or working it within the footprint of what's there we're talking about the restroom concession correct so initially right now we have we have that as renovating uh and then billing the new stadium right in front of it with the Press Box uh on top and score and score Creepers with a scoreboard and lights everything you can imagine for a softball field this is going to get I think this is a half common half question uh similar to uh what president Maria asked you about Is it feasible I think it's really grateful at your project management collaboration through the superintendent with the district they'll be the other side of the equation you're looking at the engineering and design and procurement here and there they're going to be
051decisions that have to be taken by your client on the other end we need to make sure that we have good coordination so that the decisions if there are choices uh are promptly communicated so we can react promptly too certainly that's part of my part of my job is something is to inform and recommend to the owner which is the school district uh so it's your choice and we'll have everything in place for the for you to make the right choice it's just my only comment is that this is exciting to finally be underway it's been a long time coming and so I'm really happy that this is going to be a reality look forward to being there at the ribbon cutting even though I won't be at the board on the board at that
052time it would be a great day excellent well we'll look forward to seeing you there and I just want to express um my gratitude uh for Rob um I think what you're going to get be excited about is that Rob's plan is to uh is to give lots of updates to the board in the community we've also talked about building a website in fact Diane already has a website built on our page that says the softball facility complex where he's planning on you know putting uh a lot of design work in there as well and so the communication piece is everything that uh that we want and more so I'm really excited about that aspect as well so it's been great working with you rob thank you awesome thank you guys thank you all right
053next on our agenda we have a discussion item and this is regarding the board member residency um as uh part of our board norms and process board members can request to add agenda items to the agenda this is an agenda item that was requested to be added for discussion um superintendent kellehard notified the board of the addition to the agenda item I believe on Thursday of last week or was it Friday Friday um so here we are so anybody want to start us off so we did receive quite a number of um emails over the last week containing certain facts some of which I was aware of and some of which I I was not I do concur that due process does need to occur that we're not railroading a decision and just want to
054say from the Forefront that um it's healthy for a board to have differing opinions um and people who are not completely uniform and to say that um to Catherine and about Catherine that I have appreciated though not always necessarily agreed um with her positions I have always appreciated her enthusiasm for her school visits and her reports back on the staff and the teachers and she's always been a super positive about those things that said I do have concerns um regarding her continued participation in in the board and this is not personal on my part in any way but I had talked to um Abigail Westbrook at wasta who is the legal and policy director there as well is Danielle Marchant who is the board's attorney um and um you know sort of took steps you
055know based on their advice and things that they said that caused me pause were that if we have an ineligible board member participating in our work it could have some legal on the road and I just want to make sure that we're having this conversation in a transparent way we're doing what's right to serve our constituents and the students and staff in our district one of those concerns has to do with the creation of a quorum in the event that two of the five of us were not able to attend a meeting and action was taken on some item and if the ineligible board member were part of that decision um that that decision could be later called into question that's a concern also a concern is if there is a 3-2 vote and this
056applies not only to the Future in the next three meetings that we have but also to meetings that have occurred since her residency may have been maybe ineligible any of those 3-2 votes could be called into question if she were in the majority that voted in favor or against whatever the action item is and the third area of concern has to do with confidential information we as board members occasionally have executive session where confidential information about students or staff or liability issues are discussed and I have concerned about the right to maintain that confidentiality or the duty to maintain that confidentiality if indeed a board member who is participating in those sessions is in fact ineligible to serve so I was advised by Abigail that it's advisable for the board to have options going into
057a meeting and after talking and one of the things that she suggested was a resolution and that's why when speaking to Danielle she had the same advice that um I asked that she would draft this resolution knowing that we'd come into the boarding boardroom and this conversation and the conversation would evolve that I didn't come in with a preconceived idea that you know this was going to pass or anything like that but I wanted it out there as an option for the board to consider and to discuss and I think I will leave the introduction at that point and allow the rest of the board to participate thank you okay I'll go next um and I'm going to repeat what other board members say because I think it's important that we all Express the whole
058issue because it is really important so I come into this meeting open-minded um I to me there's a big distinction between a board member requesting an item be on the agenda as the resolution and actually acting on that resolution um and so uh I think that distinction is that this is the discussion which I think would have an impact on the resolution I'm going to start with uh uh the initiation when we received a lot of public comment um I consider this matter to be first of all of law secondly of policies and possibly but not necessarily a matter of ethics um and uh I decided that it was necessary to uh consult counsel and get good legal advice and I would had not thought of the things that Laura brought up of invalidating decisions
059confidential information these are serious issues uh which I had not thought about before with respect to policies um I uh we we do have a I'm on the policy committee and we were concerned I was concerned and uh there's been staff work on what is an appropriate policy for remote attendance uh what are professional courtesy policies and norms for informing the broad president and the Secretary of when and where and how they will be attending meetings those are lesser issues but that was kind of where I started um uh with respect to uh whether somebody is resident I think the primary person who can express this is the director and as an individual that person knows what's in their mind and what's in their lives and then for me initially the second question was where
060what is that status with the county elections officer um on the basis of legal advice um I now realize that a couple of things residence is deemed to continue until it changes so Catherine was deemed to be a resident at the beginning of this year um I believe there's no I'm not a lawyer but so I'm looking into this to get good legal advice and due process um apparently no single instance will be conclusive for deter determining whether a residence is intent matters but it's not the only and only thing to consider it is of some weight all of the facts need to be evaluated so I think that's where we stand um and in terms of the resolution where we now see a lot more information than uh when I started this journey um
061I totally agree with due process and I think that is really really important however by having a draft resolution to look at I think it put a lot of transparency and focus on the issues that we have to face um I'm frankly not comfortable with a board member not being present and having a lot of questions about their residency that doesn't mean to say that I believe that they are not a resident that has to be determined in a different way um there are two conflicting pieces of information in the resolution one is that on Friday the 22nd Catherine Thomas was reported as inactive on the county voting register that would be fairly significant uh as far as I'm concerned I Catherine I would have not got a definitive answer from Catherine on what her
062intent is with respect to her permanent residency there are a lot of factors out there but her intent is not known so those are two factors that are important to me that are yet to be resolved and in due process I normally like a two-step process quite frankly it's safer it's fairer and it's normally better so I came coming to this with an open mind if something were to be presented in this discussion that made me think differently uh I would be open uh to that so I'm not indicating a decision right now I'm indicating issues so two factors would be as of today uh and the resolution Catherine has stated that she is once again active on the voters register but that as far as I'm concerned is hearsay I would feel much more
063comfortable if the responsible officer were to answer that question I would also think it might be a good idea for director Catherine Thomas herself to express to the board what her intentions are in a formal way so I think that is pretty much what I stand at kind of a discovery mode and then I will hand it over to other board members to express their opinions and that way I will get a better feel for the issues at Play so I have obviously a couple concerns because I didn't necessarily even want the resolution presented on the agenda because it just does feel like an absolute lack of due process um and in in my mind it was a bit of a blind side because as of Friday when learning that this discussion would be occurring
064on the agenda it seemed like everyone or at least Administration was in a good place having talked to Catherine that the Auditors were on board that yes residency was despite all these emails and things um residency could be explained satisfactorily I don't disagree with what the the legal status is you have to be a resident of your District you have to um to be eligible to vote I I don't disagree with what the state of the law is um where I get concerned is that although you two have independently reached out to board legal counsel we have never collectively as a board had any discussion of what do you do when you suspect residency is an issue and so it's come at very piecemeal kind of way one of the questions I have is our
065board legal counsel the appropriate person to give us advice adverse to potentially another board member are we supposed to find somebody else neutral now that we're in that space um so there's a lot of process issues that that start coming to mind um you know just having briefly read through the resolution there's a lot of things in there that I couldn't today subscribe to without some type of fact-finding hearing I mean she's absolutely entitled to tell us because we're basing um all the truth in that resolution on what what the emails have said and what I have not independently researched any anything there um and so we obviously need to hear somebody else's side to determine can this establish legal residency just in the very brief time I spent with the resolution there were typos
066Miss citations to law um who knows that there could be more so it's very rushed to just have it presented to us a few hours before a meeting and saying without having the benefit of an attorney telling us all because even though I am an attorney and have kind of practiced in this area and have some experience with it I'm not the board's attorney I can't make those representations to the board it's it's wonderful to hear the representations that I've made to you but those haven't been made to me either so I don't know what this process actually is it's very different from any process I've ever been involved with I know that we could declare all we want that somebody is we think they're invalid or they're not a member but if they don't
067agree to resign I don't think we have any authority to do anything about it we'd have to go to court do we think this needs to go to court I mean somebody needs to explain the ramifications of what we're doing before a resolution is presented to us as this is the option to proceed to the extent this is personal I do feel like we have a board policy that allows her to discreetly work on this issue like I said I am mindful of the concerns if you know the legal standard is the legal standard some people challenge us at any time and say hey the facts were that there's residencies not established this vote was not valid or whatnot to date I don't have any real concern because we haven't had any any issues with
068quorums going forward or in the recent past we haven't had any issues on votes everything's been largely majority um so to the extent it might undo something we've already done I don't have a real realistic concern in that regard there's three meetings left in the year I also don't have a significant concern going forward I respect the law I do I think she took the oath she knows her place better than I do so um I just have a lot of concern and just from the yeah basically just the due process side of it and I think I expressed that when bringing it even onto the agenda that there's been no explanation of the process no opportunity for her to share what the status is what her intent is um and you know bottom line
069is I'm just a little disappointed to actually have to have this before doing this that whole process in the public forum because I don't think this serves our students or our staff or anyone very well to sort of air the dirty laundry and the and whatnot I just feel like there's more discreet ways to to get answers to to questions um to get the advice we need to be able to proceed before taking it to a public forum and potentially an action item that we told the public we would not be taking action on and I can I can tell you right now that I have not spent enough time with it to be anywhere near a position to take any kind of action on it so yeah a couple couple things um one is
070that we do have a representative from Danielle's office here um as a resource crystal is here at the end of the table there should we need to and um the fact is that the topic was already out in the media you know not only were we receiving emails but there were publications of about it in various media forms and so the the obligation of a board member is not to create a board meeting outside of a board meeting and if if we started it you know phone call chain of you know what do you think about this what should we do what should we do what you do then we've you know created a meeting outside of a meeting which is illegal according to the open public meetings act so that being the case that
071was one reason to bring this out into one is that was already out in the public forum in the media and two that we couldn't have a meeting amongst ourselves without being in violation of the open public meetings act and so I would just counter that by saying wouldn't wouldn't the exception be we could have an executive session to discuss a potential piece of litigation because we'd be asking our district attorneys for legal advice on on a position because if we could get sued by the public that would be the proverbial other party in a in a foreseeable lawsuit that's I agree we can't have serial meetings and that's why I say we've got the policy to where the board president and the superintendent can discreetly discuss these issues and if it is not resolved
072at that level and to wear something this of this nature needs to be I think that would have been appropriate it could be discussed in an executive session because we have the the risk of a lawsuit potentially from the public if things don't if if the residency is a question so that's that's what I mean when I say collectively having some type of discussion of what is the process to deal with this so that we don't get sued by the public because now I feel like there's a legitimate threat that we might get sued if we take improper action um by the board member uh so and we still could have an executive session so probably not tonight since it's not on our agenda but we we still could do that sorry one more point
073I mean because it's a regular meeting we could add it to the agenda but uh this is a regular meeting so my concern with um I I agree with Laura we received multiple many emails um with documentation in regards to you know what the residency whether they're um Catherine was still reciting in the district that she serves um and in in also um evidence that the board of registration was inactive um my concern was my concern actually dates back from for several months um I have um you know with Catherine's remote attendance I have a multiplications had requested the communication as stated in the board policy that she notified the superintendent the administrative assistant as well as the board chair uh I was not informed that she would be uh attending remote uh remotely and
074so that um prompted several pieces of communication with us with Catherine with superintendent as well um and looking back in the last three months starting in June August we didn't have meetings in July August and September including this meeting uh we have had nine meetings in person and I had I was notified after multiple prompts and emails about remote attendance for two meetings or in-person attendance for two meetings which uh one meeting sorry um and so you know to be serving on a board um and how all these concerns being brought up by the public seeing the inactive status um when Catherine has been attending meetings in person only 22 percent of of those in the last three meetings that we've met is is concerning enough for me um we do again I did also
075ask the board policy committee to look at the policies on attendance because it is vague it does say um attendance it doesn't address whether it's virtual attendance or in-person attendance one of the policies specifically was not hadn't been revised in prior to covid um so that's interpretation of the person whether we are it's pre-covered attendance postcovid because we didn't we weren't allowing a postcovid I mean before covet a remote virtual attendance um so in multiple attempts um you know I reached out to Catherine asking for attendance status and again um I have emails here confirmed to verify that I hadn't minimal communication um I do understand there was communication with this superintendent and executive assistant in some cases uh they redirect Catherine to communicate with the portrait as stated in policy and that was not
076that did not happen um so you know it's just in the the um looking at rcw29a 08620 which addresses the change of address information for mail ballots assigning a assignment to voter a voter to inactive status confirmation notice um there's some red flags uh that I think we need to really look at this RCW and um what it meant to have an inactive status and say um as I'm with Martin I heard that that's no longer an active it's active but at some point within the last week that status was inactive and where does that fall into our CW that I mentioned along with the two other um rcws presented with active and inactive registered voters I think an additional um aspect for us to consider is a policy revision you know going forward possibly
077limiting the number of remote meetings that a board member can have except under the state of emergency declared by the state or the federal government [Music] um absolutely and and that was my proposal too um and I did notify Catherine over email that I would be presenting the board that I you know that I had asked for the board biology to review the policies um because I'm you know we need to be able to hold it we need to be able to follow our own policies and have clear definition what attendance means uh and so that was that was my request there I believe there are three policies regarding board member attendance and um you know whatever direction we choose whether it's two in person I mean two remote a year I don't know but
078I there's definitely um that we definitely need to revisit that that is something that the policy committee intends and intended to get into along with the professional courtesy of proper notification um so um I think something I would say and this is a bit of repetition and also Catherine needs to speak very definitely um I talked to legal counsel quite specifically chose not to talk into any of my colleagues so that's one point and I think that's how we get there uh and then the other thing that is a general aspect as board members uh we I believe are held to a standard by the community that we should be diligent about following the law and our own procedures so when we have a lot of questions about residency I think part of it is
079to actually um and ask the question and deal with that and this discussion is serving that process where we go from the discussion I said I began was open-minded they're in number of different directions that could be taken but this I think to me is important that we seek together to behave responsibly openly and adhere to the intent and spirit of the law and that's all I'm going to say but I think Catherine needs to speak I'm also I'm curious about Crystal's role today and if she has anything that she wants to great thank you um so uh if anybody has any questions I'm more than happy to answer them um but I just did want to talk about make a couple of clarifying statements about the resolution so the resolution as it's drafted does
080have in there what I consider to be um a due process so it does call for um a directive that if um you know Miss Thomas continue if if the board were to adopt this resolution um and Miss Thomas does does not you know effectively um constructively resign her position then the there is a directive to seek a court action um seek a court order for that so that would be the the due process in there um and so I think that is just a clarifying piece for that and um as far as I I'm not the attorney that that spoke with any of you uh you spoke with Daniel Martin my colleague but um I'm more than happy to clarify any questions that you had so I just want to double back on that
081so the due process that I'm referring to is in in adopting the order so you're stepping ahead and saying there's due process in the order well that's after we've adopted the order so that's this meeting currently that I think well but that no one was given notice that yes we were going to discuss it but no one was giving given notice that we would be asked to or at least I wasn't until two hours before or a few hours before the meeting told here's a resolution to make a judgment we haven't set Catherine up to give any kind of you know that this proceeding would be occurring like I said I can't adopt that order until I've actually looked at the laws and the impacts and the things there so that's what I mean due
082process I need due process to get to the order once we get that order which is the resolution then I see there's a process in there if she does not well if it was approved voluntarily resign and do all of that I see that's in there that's not the due process that's enforcement that's not the due process I was talking about due process in terms of um we're thinking about taking away your your status as a board member here's your opportu you know here's notice of our hearing on on that here's your opportunity to present yourself at the hearing following the hearing we're going to make a decision on this that's the due process I was anticipating this meeting on two hours notice to present a resolution is not the due process I'm accustomed to
083I'm used to notice opportunity to to proceed opportunity to to speak present your evidence and then a decision will be made and then there's enforcement of that decision if it's made I don't think the court order is necessarily the enforcement the court order would be she continues to operate as a board member so the the court enforcement would it's not enforcement it's a court order saying you are not a board member right but that would be based on the resolution that we adopt so then it's enforcement because again the way I understand election laws to work is that we can adopt this resolution and say you're you're no longer a board member you're invalid um whatever and she can say that's great you can you can tell me to resign all I want I'm not
084going to resign so then you go to court to get the order that's what I mean enforcement that's enforcement of the resolution that we would be adopting because that it's really called a corento process at that point because that's the only way to actually remove an elected a seated elected official and this is kind of the conversation that would have been nice procedurally to have our board legal counsel give us before being presented with a resolution so that we understood all the steps how a hearing review process might work what the steps are you know we make this declaration then what um having that information provided to us like I said potentially through an executive session um yeah I think this conversation is probably better suited for an executive session right to not be having
085this in an open public meeting right so I because I'm just speaking to my own experience because I happen to work in this area a little bit but not because I'm completely representing or saying this on behalf of the board so that was my concern I think the process that uh we were anticipating using might be a little bit different and but I don't necessarily want to speak to that uh in the open public meeting I think like I said it would be better suited for uh um an executive session so just just to be clear um uh the email with the resolution was sent to the board at 12 45 by a superintendent kellehart and the email specifically says he would follow up with a foam to each individual so just for fairness of
086the board's secretary it was in a couple hours before the meeting Catherine we have my phone call was at three o'clock so it was a couple of hours before the board meeting thank you um the leader legal requirements for retaining a board member's seat are residing within the Wenatchee School District or Wenatchee and maintaining registration is a Chelan County voter both of those facts remain true in my case and are available to obtain from the Chelan County elections office I voted in the primary election that just happened and according to the election's office you can be mailed something that's uh not returned and they can change your status to an inactive but the primary just happened I voted in it and my status is active as a Chelan County registered voter my residence remains number
087two Canyon Road in Wenatchee and both of those facts are notable on my legal driver's license I find it stunning that no one bothered in this entire process to ask either of those questions of me before we began this process I've never missed a board meeting board Workshop recently I attended the staff opening day a board meeting and a board Workshop during the week of the 21st of August I spent this last weekend in the was the General Assembly nine hours on Saturday I mean on Friday and seven hours on Saturday registering over 113 votes for the Wenatchee school board and that General Assembly I've devoted myself my time my energy to this District probably frankly to a fault and for the last year my husband has had to travel back and forth from El
088Paso to Wenatchee for work after more than a year we decided to purchase a property here because we did not want him to live in a hotel any longer there are no rules against purchasing property outside of the district as a board member nor is there a policy against attending any or every meeting remotely you speak about sending a request to the policy committee for changing the attendance policy well the I'm on the policy committee I heard you say that you're sending that to as a request the policy committee has not met since you have put forward that request we meet in October as a matter of fact and had happily planned to discuss that and revise the policy if necessary but at present there are no rules against attending every meeting remotely um I
089think it speaks volumes of my fellow school board members attempting to remove me from my elected seat in a short matter of hours the facts of this situation um speaks volumes regarding the school board's lawyer who is willing to write an inaccurate and false resolution regarding a board member who she is charged to represent I am stunned surprised by the actions of miss aninges Mr Baron Miss Jakes but I suppose I shouldn't be I have three board men board meetings left to attend after tonight and then my term will be over so this attempt to remove me um can and your reasons for it can only be explained by by you just for clarification I have I am I don't know who else mentioned it but I have not had any discussion with any of
090my fellow board members again this was uh brought up by this in this conversation this agenda item was brought up by multiple emails received by the board uh late last week all my communication I have not been in communication with legal counsel and all my communication has been with superintendent kalahar um on Friday and Thursday I did not say that any of you had been in communication with one another I pointed out that after receiving emails from the community members no one not one board member bothered to attempt to reach me and ask if any of these allegations were true not one of you I think that would have been a good place to start instead you've taken this this public time to to Blindside me in an attempt to remove me from my seat
091I I find it stunning in my view the uh discussion today and the possible resolution is a discussion to clarify the issue not necessarily to remove a board member from their seat although if residency is not established then that certainly could be the result I feel like the um in response to the request that or the accusation that no board member reached out to her I personally did have a conversation with you on or about April 20th about your proposed move to El Paso and I don't feel anything in the resolution the five facts are necessary to be um validated by a conversation directly with you Catherine because those were all validated by either documents regarding the deed or your status or conversation that I personally had with you so I don't know what it
092would have accomplished to phone you and discuss it my deed is not any documentation of changing residency purchasing another property outside of the district is not documentation of changing residency and I never informed you that I was moving I had informed you that Edmund had been working for the last year back and forth in El Paso and that we were purchasing property but a d is not documentation of a changed residency I really don't have anything to add except that there's a very good reason not to talk directly to Catherine right now which is the same reason that we did not talk to each other there are issues to be clarified I think the discussion serves that purpose uh it is not a happy occasion to have such a discussion but we have had it
093I don't have anything more to add for me I guess it's just the point of the piece of communication I have made several attempts to reach out uh to Catherine uh via text via email uh redirecting via the superintendent as well as the executive assistant um at no avail um in my all my correspondence I received from one response and it was in regards to the attendance to uh uh being remote on the 8th and in person on the 22nd and 24th um everything else outside of that I have not been able to communicate with Catherine um I have communicated I have not received responses the last email I received from you Maria was on the 8th and I responded with my attendance for that month I've never received another email from you regarding that
094and it was very convenient that out of the blue you were unable to respond to any text messages that I had previously sent to you regarding attendance and remote attendance multiple times after having been able to communicate via text many times prior to that so I'm not sure what that was about but it was not from lack of attempt on my end there was communication between you and Kim white and she requested that you reply all and there was no reply all in that communication and that was in September actually it was actually right after the it was right after the work session we had with Michelle price on board on how to work as a board do we have any further discussion so I guess my question is where do we go from here
095if anywhere you know do we leave this as it is do we declare an executive session is necessary to discuss and bring in legal counsel do we do that tonight do we do that another night if we're going to do it what what is it that we are going to do are we going to accept um Catherine's assertion that she remains it eligible board member my thought would be that we table this discussion and potentially invoke policy 1815 where the the superintendent and the um chair of the board can have a conversation with Catherine to vet it further to find out if it is something that we need to escalate to further potential legal action and then involve have an executive session to talk about the the process and procedure for potential removal I think
096what she's told us here passes at least a surface test for maintaining her status in the in the as a registered voter and as a resident of this District I have no facts to challenge it so if further conversation reveals that there's more to it in the three meetings that we have left um than escalate accordingly so I moved to table it just for clarification we okay so we're still on the discussion piece okay so we do we have any further discussion in regards to the residency I I believe what you're asking to table is the action item yeah I guess to okay so we're not quite there yet but we're still on the board discussion portion of the agenda and I guess that's my summary of Where It heads after the sum the discussion
097closes uh personally you know I think the resolution does bring up uh five very valid points to be considered um in regards to the evidence of Catherine's current residence I would not be opposed to either an executive session or um as Julie suggested having this as a conversation with superintendent Catherine and the board chair uh interpreting that as discussion over and what the I would agree with tabling the resolution and not taking any action on that okay so hang on yeah we're conflating two things yeah yeah are we I think Laura proposed a question that how did we move forward are we ready to move on are we are we is there any further discussion on this okay thank you go ahead I was just going to add that um either direction whether we take
098an executive session as a board or we have uh the board chair myself and Catherine work together we would have to do that next session we would have to do that at the next meeting just FYI and I I think that an executive session will be more fruitful if we go through superintendent uh president conversation with board member Catherine and follow uh 1815 as the ethics policy but it's uh uncovering issues that would make an executive session with legal counsel far more effective I think I'm sorry repeat that I think to have an executive session without doing further exploration and investigation is not the most effective way to go I think it's better to have um a process of discovery if I use that may not be the right legal word but you know using
099that procedure and then calling an executive session with better information that okay I'm in agreement with that okay if we have no further discussion um let's move on to the next item which is action item um we have resolution number zero five two three which is um a resolution regarding board member residency and at this time I would entertain a motion I've heard a couple people I I moved to table the resolution to allow further uh review under further discussion uh with the director under policy 1815 my second the motion thank you we have a motion to table action item resolution number zero five two three it has been seconded any discussion okay all in favor of um approving all in favor please say aye aye aye opposed okay motion carries hey next on our
100agenda we have our superintendent report excellent uh just a couple of items here uh some informational items Cascade Subaru through Subaru adopt a classroom program donated school supplies to John Newberry last week representatives from Cascade delivered the supplies to classrooms full of thankful students and staff I was not able to actually see it but I heard it was momentous so that sounds great also our fall musical announcement is coming out so congratulations to the cast of Wenatchee High School's fall musical anything goes the cast list was announced last week and tickets go on sale for the show in October so I'm looking forward to that and hopefully I'll see some of you there I also just let you know that the local community agency Cafe hosted a community-wide gang intervention task force meeting last week
101I was fortunate enough to attend this was at the Wenatchee Valley College campus it was a great meeting it was uh it was very informative we heard from two two very impassioned life stories from folks that had backgrounds in gangs and also lived experiences that had them on the streets at Young ages who now provide mentorship and guidance to youth in our community so it was a story of success and it was really really powerful we also got to share from each of our respected areas of influence there was a law enforcement there were local government agencies there were lots of executive directors from agencies across the valley so we all shared how we uh how we were impacting Youth and creating positive outlets and then of obviously the Catalyst for this is there's a
102lot of work to do in our community and so kudos to Cafe for bringing the group and the conversations in the table appreciate that and that's it for the superintendent report all right now moving on to our board report no Catherine yes as I stated earlier I spent the weekend uh enjoying wasda's General Assembly we spent nine hours working on resolutions um and proposals on Friday um there were a record number of attendees from boards across Washington State unlike they've seen in many many years at one point we had 154 delegates voting on resolutions and proposals and it at times was very exciting one of the best results of this general assembly for this year was the three hours we spent on the weighted vote as far back as 1986 is the time frame that
103anybody could locate um having used the record the weighted vote as the way that school board members voted on issues that became the platform for wasda and the policies that it adopts um and for those that don't understand the way to vote for example the way that it was done was that smaller school districts were allotted a number of votes according to their student population as well as larger school districts and for example and that Seattle School District was allotted 19 votes for every vote that they um gave in in general assembly for wasda and Wenatchee was given allotted three votes for every vote that we uh gave in the past and was just general assembly for three hours we fought back and forth and debated and amended and called the question and worked and
104worked to try to change this weighted vote and we were successful the push was for one board one vote and I'm very excited to say that that um that was passed and it's now the way that we vote on policies for waza's platform we I took notes we voted on 49 different amendments policies proposals um on everything from school safety and Achieve achievement and opportunity gaps employee performance collective bargaining 49 of these um and just the first one took three hours so it was quite a process and quite a learning experience um but the the end result and the result for resolution or proposal for number two through 49 were that each board there was one board and one vote for each board and I can say that I'm really excited and proud of that
105uh because um it more accurately helps to define the platform for waza and the policies that move forward for the school boards across the state thank you I also don't have anything else to add uh just a reminder our next regular board meeting is October 10th and we do have a board workshop on the 16th if there's no further communication this meeting is adjourning