001Okay. All yours. >> Okay. I'd like to call the meeting to order. Uh before we start any business, I would like to ask anyone who is in attendance on this call and wishes to address us to please put your name in the chat now so that you can be called appropriately um when it's time for public uh conversation. this um is taking the place of the signup sheet that we normally use before the meeting. So, I appreciate it. Um do I have a motion to approve the agenda? >> I'll make a motion to approve tonight's agenda or today's agenda. >> Thanks, Kim. Do I have a second? Seeing a second from Diane. Um is there any discussion? Any objection? Hearing none. The um agenda is approved. [clears throat and cough] Okay. We're now going to
002enter into a public hearing for charter school renewal of the Lighthouse School. Speakers may offer objective criticism of school operations and programs, but the board will not hear personal complaints concerning school personnel, nor against any person connected with the school system. The board chair, me, will direct the visitor to the appropriate means for board consideration and disposition of legitimate complaints involving individuals. The time limit for public input is 3 minutes. We do have um two individuals who signed up ahead of time and I can't find chat here on mine. Here we go. And in the chat I have two additional people who have signed up. Um, in addition, the board has received written comments from four individuals. Those comments have been added to the agenda and will be considered by the board when they're making
003their decisions. Okay. First up for public comment is Stephanie Messerly. Hi Steph, >> can you hear me? >> Yes, I can. All right. Can you hear me? I was having technical difficulties. >> Yep. >> Okay, there we go. All right. Well, hello. My name is Stephanie Metzerly and I'm a parent and board member at the Lighthouse School. I have a current eighth grader and a sophomore at Marshfield's High School. Both went through Lighthouse K through 8. And I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to provide a public comment and thank you for being the sponsored sponsoring district for our charter school for the past nearly 10 years. Without this Kuz Bay School District, the Lighthouse School would not be able to exist. The Lighthouse School was founded in 2002 and started in
004the Northbend School District. Due to space constraints, the school was moved to the Bunker Hill location within this Kuzbay school district in 2016. Lighthouse is a free public charter school K through 8 with one class per grade. A few years ago, we added a preK program. As a public school, Lighthouse follows the same state standards and testing requirements. But as a Waldorf inspired charter school, the school offers a slightly different learning environment and curriculum. In addition to math and English language arts, there is a main lesson component which includes a variety of topics taught by grade and incorporates multiple ways of learning in a very hands-on setting recognizing different students learn in different ways. There's also an outdoor classroom available for the classes as well. The school has music, Spanish, and art classes. A wide
005variety of electives are offered to the sixth through 8th grade students to choose from. There after school clubs the students can choose to participate in. Support from the friends of lighthouse school which is a separate 501c3 nonprofit along with the lighthouse parent organization allows the classes to enjoy field trips free of charge to the students and made friends of lighthouse school is also able to provide funding to the school for supplies not covered by the school's um budget. There are many long-standing traditions enjoyed by the lighthouse community. Just last night, we were at our annual fall music festival held at the Marshfield Auditorium. Every year, I have come to look forward to and enjoy many events shared by the students, staff, and families, including the middle school Halloween party, the holiday fair, which each class
006makes a handmade craft for as a fundraiser, um caroling at the Mission, the winter carnival, the spring music festival, and the end of year field day. Over the years, new traditions have been added to each classroom as our school has evolved and changed. Having a thriving and highly functional charter school within the Kuzbay school district increases the district's portfolio and gives family another options to choose from. Having multiple options, retains students, and attracts new families to choose the Kuspay School District. The Lighthouse School has been a great fit for my two children. The school is filled with a dedicated staff and a phenomenal director who has led our school for over five years. Thank you again for sponsoring the Lighthouse School for the past nearly 10 years and thank you for your consideration um to
007renew our charter. >> Thank you, Derek. Okay, next up is Jenny Schmidt. Oh, and Jenny, you signed up also. Yeah, I did. Sorry. I'll just I'll just talk once though. [laughter] Um, so good afternoon. My name is Jenny Schmidt. I'm a Kuzbay resident and parent of a seventh grader who's at the Lighthouse School right now. She started at the school as a kindergartenner. So, I just wanted to say a few things in support of the school ahead of your charter renewal process. Um, so the school spans K through eight like Stephanie said. Um and students at the school uh I really like how they share knowledge um both within but across grades um to help enrich their understanding along the way. So just for example, the fourth grade students take to the outdoor classroom nearly
008every day to learn and care about nature and each other and their surroundings and their Norse mythology unit culminates in a theater drama production in the outdoor classroom for students and families to enjoy. Um, and I think the school is special because, uh, I think students reach their full potential by activating their head and heart and hands. Starting in kindergarten, they learn how to spin raw wool into yarn. And then they finger knit that wool, um, which helps obviously with fine-tuning their fine motor skills. They learn sign language. They get the beginnings of Spanish language instruction. uh students in sixth grade. At the end of their sixth grade year, they plant flax in the outdoor garden. And then when they come back in the fall as seventh graders, they harvest it. Um and as part
009of their medieval unit, they process that flax into fibers that they then spin. They create weavingings, and along the way, they truly experience how flax was used to create linens in the Middle Ages. Um the middle school electives provide opportunities for the kids to explore creative expression and share knowledge. Um, drama and band students provide performances. The cooking elective students get to make lots of treats for the school staff, which I'm sure they enjoy. Um, the magic and shadow puppetry groups show how perception can really be altered or reflected um, uh, reflecting reality for the younger students. So, they present to the younger students. The middle schoolers also pair up with a student from a younger grade to become their year-long reading buddy. Um, and then every year a science fair highlights the middle middle
010schoolers inquisitive scientific knowledge um, and their their kind of exploration of science through poster presentations to students and families. And then I think one of the things I'm most amazed about is to look at the end of the year, the students come home with their main lesson books. Um, and so what started off as this portfolio of large blank pages is transformed. um it really coaleses their critical knowledge on a topic, but their beautiful artwork. So um you open them up and it's just page after page of beautiful artwork kind of going through the the topics of the year and oftentimes the mastery of art that far exceeds anything their parents could do. Um I also love um how art, poetry and music really pervade many aspects of the school. Um, so for uh fifth
011grade and third grade through song, they learn about 50 states in the union or they learn about the salmon life cycle. Um, I'll just wrap up. [laughter] I just really like to um urge you um as you considered the school's charter renewal that this is just such a valuable creative learning environment for kids and it's just truly amazing for our community. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jenny. Okay. [clears throat] And last up, we have Shelly Lake. All right. Can you All right, there I am. Hi, everyone. Thank you for having me. As you said, my name is Shelley Lake and I'm the director of the Lighthouse Charter School. Lighthouse has been part of the community uh since and Cous Bay community since 2016. This will be my sixth year with the Lighthouse School and my
012second round of renewal with Kuspay School District. Having personal experience in private, public, and charter school for the past 20 years, I can state that Lighthouse is a unique in a very wonderful way. Walking into the building, stakeholders are greeted with vibrant murals, colorful walls, and student art that shine to the character and testimony of our school's goals and establishment. Lighthouse School was founded by parents who were passionate to create a holistic school in 2001. And just close to 25 years later, Lighthouse continues to incorporate what I affectionately term as our parent army. Parent volunteers are in the classrooms prepping in the hallways, decorating and prepping after school. They help to organize our fundraisers. They show up for special building and cleanup projects on the weekend, and so much more. At Lighthouse, we ask that
013all of our families commit to a minimum of 40 hours of volunteer support so their students can see that their parents are involved in their education. Because when parents are involved, student buyin accelerates. This academic success is evident, I believe, in our annual state assessments and attendance data. Our school has one class per grade level beginning in preK and ending in the eighth grade promotion. With just over 200 students enrolled annually, our school fosters a nurturing environment with trusted educators that students grow up knowing, thus increasing the student accountability for behavior, emotional, and academic support. Our older students grow into opportunities of leadership organically through grade level collaborations such as performances, reading buddies, presentations, technology partners, and other opportunities with their younger peers. When students present their knowledge to one another, they up the ante
014of their personal best. Lighthouse School utilizes the Waldorf inspired curriculum called Main Lesson. As such, students are not paced through traditional curriculum, but rather the teachers lead the state standards in an exploratory way through thematic units. Teachers are provided the autonomy to include their passion for learning throughout the grade level themes, creating rich stories, projects, research, creative writing, and presentation that span all the domain and subject topics. subject. Uh students pour through novels beginning in third grade that create thematic units um and help them come to life. Then they record their learning in the beautiful main lesson books. Over the past five years, Lighthouse has met our goal to include more afterchool enrichment through club participation. Our clubs are teacher and parentled, competitive, and interestbased in which the Lighthouse School has participated at the state
015and national level. Our clubs include handwork and sewing club, organ battle of the books, Pythagorean mathletes, archery club, heroes club, band, and chess clubs. Our school board and administrative team work collaborative collaboratively in avenues for continued improvement through strategic planning that is readressed annually. It is truly hard to encapsulate all that Lighthouse provides, but I would like to thank the Kuspace School District administrators and board members that have worked alongside us over the years and I welcome any other board members and district administrators to come and visit us. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Okay. Um, having no other individuals sign up to speak, I believe that is the end of our public hearing. I appreciate the time all of you took to come here and make your comments or to submit them
016um in written form and the board will be taking this up as a discussion item um in the near future. So again, thank you very much and this meeting is adjourned. >> Thank you, Addie. Thank you. >> Bye, guys. >> Bye. Bye.