001to our report. You know, I thought maybe somebody was practicing with the turkey call season getting ready to find a shotg since we are let me back a second. What we've started doing uh in 2026 with our with our extraordin is they are they're called action but they're called status mission and what we are doing is we're focusing on a different part of how to improve ourselves as a board and make sure that we are focusing on the best things possible. Last study session, we went over our yearly calendar and what we can do to make sure that we are even stronger into the strategic plan and how we can support the students and uh the teachers in the community the best. And it was I'm pretty excited about it. And one thing that's going
002to come from that is uh next month we're going to do our next study session. We're actually going to practice graduation. And why is that important? I want to highlight the fact that the people that I have sitting here with me on this side of the table, we're we're all pretty new. And I think uh between the five of us, we have a total of three graduations that we've attended. And so that's, you know, some things that we're going to be doing this backstage graduation so we can make sure that we show up the best for the community and we're able to uh what in my opinion is the best day of year being a for member and the whole reason at least I'm speaking for I'm going speak for everybody is that when we
003hand that diploma to that student that we are actually make sure the work that we are doing is worth something and we're giving that person the ticket to their future. Just check the box out. That's why it's so exciting. There any questions or additions? All right, Lisa, can we move to the budget finance report? >> Yeah, thank you. Um, we starting off with um I think I'll start off with the projected enrollment. We're working on next year's budget. So, I do have um projected enrollment staying very flat for next year. I don't anticipate any increases or any major decreases. So, u that is something that we continue to look at. As Lorie said, that kindergarten numbers are looking good at res. We've heard that they're looking about the same as last year at CES and
004we haven't heard any major changes from um parents to the schools at this time. So, that's good news. Um as far as budgeting goes, we're working on revenue projections and we're working on expenditure projections now that the ledge has settled. um some of the things that are pretty cool that are going on. Yesterday I just went over to res and uh met with Kyle for a little bit and then I said, "Take me down to see those new tables that we got with the grant money." And they're really nice and they're all really excited. Um we did receive the uh we have received $771,48 in grants this year. Um just in the past three years that I've been here, we've received over 1.1 million in grants and applied for a lot more. Um maybe like
0051.5 million. So um our odds keep getting better and better every year, which is great. This year is our biggest year um with the 771. We're working on um getting estimates or getting the chiller updated. So, that's something that we're looking at with Mckin Street and um just getting that process started because it will be it will go into the next school year as well. Um and then I was down at Chatoy and I don't remember if I mentioned this last month, but I got to judge the chef, you know, young chefs of America, which was super fun. And I'm like, "Hey, show me that dishwasher that you've got." Um and they're very excited and it's very needed because of um you know the change that we have in the school next year um having
006the fifth grade um there and you know it was needed anyway. Um we need to reduce um the amount of paper trays we're using which we have. So that's great news as well. Um a couple of things going on in maintenance. Just some small items. We replaced a water softener at Shadowy Elementary um in the 94 wing this month. grounds is up and running, getting sprinklers turned on, getting things mowed, um, and some other smaller projects. And then we're looking towards, you know, what other projects we can tick off the list this year as we head into the summer and things kind of quiet down um, as far as the student population and then kind of increase as far as some of our maintenance and projects that need to get done. Um, those are the
007major things happening in the world of budget and finance this month. question over. >> Yeah, of course. So, for these grants that we successfully got this year, uh is that for this school year only? Can we apply again school year? >> I'm going to apply for everything I can. Actually, Sammy Chow and I are going to apply for everything that we can. Um, yeah. So some of them are really weird which we learned the first year we were together SJ and I if you don't apply in one year of the bienium you can't apply in the second year. So we just keep applying so that we can always apply even if they reject us um because we have plenty of projects and um we need to start taking some of those things off our list.
008And then for the the two that we did not strategy of going into that much or >> I I think that um I think that they didn't like like the ADA grants. I don't think they liked what we were going to use the funds for. So, that's something we will probably have to take inhouse and then apply a different project for the ADA um grant because, you know, we don't want to go back at them with the same exact project that they didn't like it before. So, that was that grant. Um and kind of the similar situation. We see if they don't really have a a market for them as you say, then we'll change our focus and maybe do that with some of the grant with maybe do the in-house projects with some of
009the monies that we save from not having to do the other projects. But I always build in about $750,000 to a million dollars worth of grant monies into the budget every year. Um, and as we need more, I'll build more in as as we get better at this. >> Yeah. you might have um gone over this so far, but like on the grant there's a proposed amount. Is that like what we need to do that project and then there's the awarded amount? That's like on some of them there's a difference. We didn't get the full proposed amount. >> Right. So the one at the dishwasher at CES, we didn't get the full proposed amount. So, we had some u money that we had saved that we were able to repurpose from another grants that money
010that we had saved. And kind of similar, the one I didn't mention this time, which I should have, is the FFA vehicle grant. So, something similar that will happen with that, we're only going to get 40,000 only. That sounds horrible. We're going to get $40,000. Um, but the van will probably cost somewhere around 60 to 70 with tax. So, the students are actually go-getters and they're working on fundraising over the next year so that we can get enough money. So, we kind of hit things from both angles. Like, if the if the school district can't fund it or if you see an amount in there that's less, we will either have fundraising or money that we've saved because we have saved quite a bit of well enough money for some projects over the last two
011years um around 500,000. And then we have and then other other avenues like we'll combine some of the um like donations and stuff if we have them. You're welcome. >> Just to elaborate a little bit on the on the FFA vehicle because a couple of you are on very involved in the booster club and that is Baker and I had good talk this morning and just pass on the information that we can work together even though the district has to own the vehicle. I have to sign up and paperwork. Can't really have the booster to do that. It doesn't mean they can't, you know, got leads on auctions and he has dealers that he knows that can give us really good deals. So, making sure that we're communicating not only via email but in person
012on the phone because sometimes that can go crosswire if you don't have the typed up. still working. >> Thank you, Lisa. >> Thank you. >> Really appreciate the work that you and Sammy J are doing grants. So, thank you. >> That we'll move into the superintendent report. All right. Good evening, board. Good evening, audience. Nice to be with you today. And I I'm going to keep my report brief because I have a great team of guests today I'm going to introduce who's going to give us an update on a on an important community endeavor. So the first is I just wanted to highlight what Steve had mentioned about the day of service that we recently had this week and elaborate a little bit on on Steve's comments. He was right on the money. It was
013really a beautiful event. all of the high school students out a day of service for well it's half a day but we did it last year for the first time you may recall and we had three projects at that time and we we had food packing kits for people who are food insecure in the community we had the partnership with planting trees and some of the properties that were impacted by the Oregon fire and uh and then we had cleanup in our forest project well this year we elevated our game a little bit. It made it even better. We had more projects because what we found is that many some of the kids the groups were too big and as you can imagine people were standing around and so we wanted it to be more
014active. We wanted to be based on the interests of students so they signed up for a variety of different projects. So the work day or the day of service involved the following project one was we had 30,000 meals for the North County Food Pantry. So we delivered6 boxes of ready to go meals for just our community that didn't go into Spokane. That went into the North County Food Pantry. Uh we also um had a clean up on Elka Highway. I I had I did not know there was that much garbage on that highway. And it's obvious that people that it's been a while. And so we had so many cars driving by, honking, thanking the kids for picking up garbage on the highway. I we literally had like 30 full huge black garbage bags full
015of litter. And so that was a really nice project. Uh we had a group go up to the Fairchild Air Force Base and do an on honor event with some military people to demonstrate their appreciation. We had another group that went to the men's house at Union Gospel Mission to work with them on helping homeless and addicted individuals. We had another group that went to the women's house in Union Gospel Mission. We did have some various projects on campus. We had some kids go to Riverside Elementary, do a bunch of flower gardening for the front of the entrance. We had other kids go down to Chattery Elementary and read to the kids. We had some kids in the gym working with them on physical education. Uh so I might be missing a couple, but but
016it was really good. I mean it it uh because remember like Steve was saying we teach academics we teach all of that but we feel it's important also to teach the idea of building community especially in a rural unincorporated area where school district get to help set the tone and so we are trying to teach them those citizenship skills and uh it was really good. We had two kids want to give a speech about compassion and giving. one was a freshman and uh that's takes a lot of courage to get up on the mic and they were their message was yeah we're doing one event but it shouldn't be just one day. Hopefully this spreads where even if you're just trying to help somebody out, see some kid in the hallway alone and just go
017visit with them and make them feel better, whatever the case may be, compassion and gratitude and that idea of service. So it was a really good day. Wanted to let you know about that. um around goal number one, our whole child goal, I did want to just again recognize because we haven't had a board meeting to do this. I wanted to recognize and there's a banner back here folks, but we did recently, I'll reiterate, win a state level award. It's the first award in the the state because the federal government used to do blue blue ribbon awards. Those are now state level awards. So, it's the inaugural event and we have 295 school districts in the state of Washington. We were chosen in the top 25 for academic excellence in the area of student progress.
018And so, uh, yes, we got a banner. That's cool. But it's more than just the award, you know, it's really about kids lives. And so, one thing I I love about this award is that it's not based on one measure. It's based on multiple me measures that we're held accountable to in the state around academic performance. So one of them is kindergarten readiness. So there are six domains that kids are expected to meet once they enter kindergarten. So the fact that you do support our early learning center down in Chaturoy and we have the developmental preschool for kids with disabilities. We have the paid program Thrive by five and we also have ECAP which is state funded and there's an element around lowincome families in there. The fact that we have that is really helpful
019because back in 2016 about 23% of our kids were kindergarten ready. Now there's 73 are ready for kindergarten. So that's one metric. Another metric that is is important, but some even when we've asked our community what they think is most important when we're tracking progress, state testing gets a mixed review. Some people don't like state testing. You know, some people they, you know, we get, you know, we want people, we want the results and but at the same time, not everybody like when you hear state test, it's not like, oh my god, I love state test. It's the best ever. I'm so excited. Even the kids don't necessarily say that and even the staff don't necessarily say that but we're trying to have a positive attitude about it and that state testing is the one
020of the metrics around reading and math in fourth grade and in eighth grade that contributes to this overall academic. So that's really good. And then we also have regular attendance that that is a measure that is included in this honor and that means that kids are showing up to school and and you know COVID was a tough time for attendance and we've really bumped it up to almost 90% of the kids meeting the regular attendance domains and so that's part of it and then there's a few other metrics that are pretty pretty neat. One is the p the participation rate in the highly capable program. So highly capable is that program where if kids are already at standard and they need enrichment and extension opportunities when maybe you might know of a gifted program is
021what they typically used to call it store program. So we've had an increased percentage of that which is really good that part of the metrics and then also there's nth grade on track which means they're passing all their classes and they're on track to graduate. Another one is graduation rate. So we were about 98% the year before about 96% now. You know the state averages about 83%. So that's a really good mark. We also have dual credit. So percentage of kids who get high school credit and college credit at the same time is part of the metric. And that's good for us because we value career and technical ed programs like welding, construction, uh you know FFA and a science, uh biomed sciences, engineering, uh we have business and marketing. We have the the incubator
022store still that was started many years probably when they probably started that back when he was on the board and those what's cool about those people may not may not know you get college credit for those programs which in the economic situation around higher ed it's you know that's a real benefit to try to provide those those programs. Um, so I don't think I'm missing any of the metrics, but I just wanted to highlight that and and I'm going to talk about systems in a minute. This is where you come in. But before that, I did get one more email today from the state board of education. I didn't even know this until today. Got another award. So, this one is from the state board of education. I don't have all the details on the
023measurements because they said it's coming out on May 4th, but Chaturoy Elementary is getting an award for for academic growth for lowincome students. So basically what that means is lowincome students at retroy have made significant enough growth academically that it fits within this particular award. And then at Riverside Middle School growth for students in what they call in one or more racial or ethnic groups. So mixed races. Uh that's another you know group that that is tracked by the state how we do. So anyways that's pretty cool another show progress. So uh what I wanted to ask you or no just keep thanking you for what the role you're playing because if you I think what helps is having systems in place. So something you do that you've already committed to as a new board
024and it's been in your training and every one is that you you focus on goal one of the strategic plan. In other words, student learning whole child is kind of why we're here. And so if you can make it a priority for you that increases the chances that it's a priority for the rest. Okay. Number two is the board calendar that Matt you mentioned. It's already really a good start, but we have to keep working on it. Like for example, Sammy Joe leads this this group today. Christian's on that group. Think if anybody else and how do you monitor student learning throughout the year so that you can assess what's working, what's not working. And one way is for the board to put it on your calendar to say that we expect report outs on
025how we're doing, you know, in reading, how we're doing in math, how we're doing in these other areas. And it can be not just academics, it could be athletics and activities, it can be uh, you know, music, whatever it is, but that makes a big difference because they it's not top down or it's not like do you or anything, but it's more like, hey, this is important to us. So because it's important, we want to track how we're doing and then we can determine what our budget looks like, how that matches up with our goals, how resources match up with our goals, and where we need to go. So you're already doing that, but let's keep improving in that area. And then having non-negotiable, measurable student learning goals is really critical to our success. I
026think that's helped us a lot because if the teachers and the administrators and the staff know that we have these metrics and it just happens to be that the metrics that were measured on that or are the metrics that are we have set as non-negotiable student learning goals. The other one is visiting uh you're already doing a great job. I know couldn't make it couldn't make it today at the professional learning community day at Riverside Middle School but that really makes a difference. I know you all all have jobs. That's the ch you all have real jobs. But if you can find ways to, you know, be there and be visible around the professional learning community work we do on Wednesday mornings around the district guiding coalition that we do once a month on Wednesdays.
027Uh that's really even if you're just walking around the building in a time that you you can you can be there and it fits in your work schedule and you want to go into classrooms, you want to talk to teachers about what's going on academically. I think that really makes a a big big difference. Um, we do have our one of the bits of data that you sponsor is perceptual survey data. So, not only academic data, but we need to know how our staff's feeling, our families are feeling, and our students are feeling. So, we administered the educational effectiveness survey before spring break. The company is now aggregating all that data. We're going to have it coming up by the end of this week. If we can include that in a study session and use
028that as part of the planning on moving forward with the calendar, that would be great. And then the last thing around goal three and four. So goal three is community. Goal four is resources. What I know you're having a study session in May. I'm not able to make that because that's the state superintendent conference. I told you I was I was presenting and leading a group there. Uh, but Lisa is going to be ready to go on budget. So, I want to I want to challenge us to tie goal three of community engagement with goal four resources around our le. So, if you can start thinking about how might we get out into the community, start talking to people ahead of time about what their thoughts around our regular educational programs and operations level. You
029you strategize what you think would be good. I have to operationalize it because I'm the, you know, hired as the captain. So, you don't have to do it all. You know, you could charge me and the staff to do it. However, we talk about you being involved because you're ultimately making decision on what is the le, how much are we asking for, when are we running the le, all of those things. And just because of the results on our last capital levy, the failing uh just just the challenges around economics. It's going to be so important that we not only communicate what you decide, but involve people before the decision is made so that we can figure out the right direction to go. So that's just a just an idea to plant the seed and
030I'd like you to talk with Lisa. I've asked Lisa to run some different scenarios for you at the May 4th study session. Okay, that's a lot. Before I introduce our esteemed guest, are there any questions around those those quick reporting? Is that any questions, comments? That's how I'm good on the study session in regards to budget and then the levy and how that fits within the budget discussion. Okay. >> So, the the levy work is separate from the survey work. Is that correct? >> That's correct. That's a that's a perceptual survey around the nine characteristics of high performing schools. But like an idea you I think you might be leading towards that is when we did the community engagement study session we started with why and you did a great job. Then we went into
031like seven different areas that we could consider. One of those is service. you can get a lot of input on the left or on other items. Um the other one is going out you know and actually building relationship people having tough discussions around the levy. Um and then we also talked about more targeted discussion because we're not reaching the people who don't have kids and how do we involve them? there are good and how do we listen and engage them. So there that that is a survey is a way to do it for sure. Uh we also talked about a levy oversight committee that not only you know that helps us with making that decision. Anyways following up on our that was a lot of information I know I'm sorry but there was a lot
032of good information right I mean whether it's talking about the the day of service and how that leads into full child talking about how and some of the measurements of the award that we got looking at full child. And it just ties into the fact that we're not we're not up here trying to produce students that get A's on everything and then are human. We're we're trying to produce, you know, if I give people that produce an environment where our students, our community can come, learn and protective that's exactly what we're trying to do. think you're welcome to network. So at this time Oh, go ahead. >> You had before we move on, you had somebody introduce. >> Yeah. So at this time, I'd like to introduce an esteemed guest. Uh been so good personally.
033He's one of the first ones that greeted me when I was hired. We become friends and he's just a stalwart in the community. and uh we talked about him coming in and reporting out to the board and the community about the recovery efforts related to the Oregon fire, the elk strong, amazing work that's happening. And we both agreed the reason we felt it was important for Dick to come in and talk is that we are one community and the school also is is one of those centerpieces that that that you know we educate our kids and better our community. That's our mission statement. So, it gives me great pleasure to introduce uh Dick Zener here to speak to us about all the great work around Elk Strong. Round of applause for Der. >> Okay. So
034yes, thank again as you mentioned a local community member uh interestingly you know I was on the board years ago that high school you talk about graduation one of one of the most interesting graduations we ever had and I was chairman of the board and we graduated upwards of a hundred kids and they all decided to have a penny in their hand and when they shook my hand and I shook their and they left me my pennies, which was fine for four or five, but before long, I've got 80 pennies in my pockets, you know, because you don't want to make a scene about it. And my pants were drooping down cuz I had four pounds of pennies in my pocket. And these weren't just dry pennies, they were sweaty pennies, you know, because they
035were nervous. Anyway, so be prepared for some dogs. Anyway, I was born in Riverside School, uh, district. Uh, in fact, the house that I lived in up on the Blanchard hump was the furthest north and it burned in hell fire. So, I lost like Lincoln's cabin it's called. Anyway, uh, so, uh, in early 70s, I was elected to the school board at that time, the youngest school board member to serve on a school board in the state of Washington. And I I I should have looked at the date about 1980ish. We had a high school fire and burned the school. And those were tough meetings, tough meetings. And uh we've been talking the word community. And it's critical because we're all aware that most school districts have a town, have a community. It's Newport or
036Newport or whatever. And Riverside doesn't have a community. So the the school is that community. So I salute you. And so I I found a quote from a lady named Margaret me and she said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever happens." And so my hats off to you and excuse me, my voice. I just shout at the cows and I don't Anyway, um about two and a half years ago, we had a fire in Spokane County. It was the largest natural disaster, the great fire of Spokan of 1889. And uh because of the magnitude, it happened that both fires happened the same day. And so 230ish of primary residents at Medical Lake Parish and 177 all in the Riverside District
037Parish. and and so I think if somebody pops it off I guess anyway really stepped up to the plate because we had tin city out here in the parking lot and and a lot of things going on. So, uh, early on, uh, there was this the state emergency management committee or a person, uh, held a meeting in Spokane at community college, but you couldn't at the community college. And the idea was that concerned citizens in those areas, if you would like to bring long-term recovery, that was a meeting to go to. And ultimately, they passed a paper around for volunteers. Uh the volunteers requirements were that you you needed to be a a community citizen of the area that that had the dis disaster and you couldn't have lost anything in the disaster. So you
038wouldn't have a vested interest in trying to skew things to your personal benefit and you needed to have a fairly good reputation in the community. And we had about 16 people, roughly eight from Medical Lake and eight from Riverside each um signed up for the paper and the commitment was 3 to 5 years. Uh and we're two and a half years into the three to five three to five years. Um and and that just like most good organizations uh have a successful group of committed citizens behind the scenes. And just like the school part, very few people really know you guys, the work you do and the time you spend uh you're working behind the scenes. Well, this group that's working behind the scenes for recovery for Elk, it's just the same kind of group.
039And so I thought it'd be good for you as as a board and that since all 177 and if you knew east of Elk, there was a lot of multiple families in the same res area, you know, a camper out back or whatever. So there was close to 200 primary residences. Uh and and early on we found that medical lake most of the residents of burn were around the lake and they were insured and the majority of those east of Elon in fact they had most of them had residences that were uninsurable and and so the greatest need happened to be in the area and so the pitch that they gave us at this meeting was it was the first disaster I'd ever been involved with and and they said and they were from Okonogan
040and twist in these areas where they have wildfires all the time. And they said if you really want to make long-term recovery, it takes a long-term recovery group to do that. And in order for them to accomplish their goals is they need to charter themselves with a 501c3 charitable organization. Uh and so it's auditable and that opens the doors for all kinds of charities and charitable money to come your way. And and so if you can get this group and get it established well early, you can start making progress. And the the two main goals of of that committee is one is to be united voice for the for the disaster victim because otherwise and I think even with P City out here, you realize that there was 177 primary residences represented there and they
041all had to deal with issues on their own. Nobody came in to mass help anybody. And so they said you can be as that group if it's an effective group can be the voice for well at that time 400 but I want to kind of emphasize that um the be the the voice. And so early on we were bringing the insurance commissioner in state insurance commissioner because you'd be surprised or you wouldn't be how quickly insurance companies want to find out why they don't have to pay you for their loss. And so we had people here coming early on the Salvation Army and the Red Cross and Samaritan's Purse were here, but pretty soon they're gone. You know, I mean, the fire is kind of out and everybody kind of went back to to normal
042work, but the victims, it wasn't over. And so, uh, with with the United Boys, we were able to call u Governor Eninsley and and come in and say, "We got a big problem." And if I talk too much, you give me the time out. Okay. The big issue that happened was that we were blindsided blindsided by asbestous mitigation and normal asbesus mitigation. If you're going to tear down a house, you got to take a sample of here and here and here and they know where the sample should come from and there's a testing procedure. There was nobody nobody educated on how you go into a burn area that was so hot aluminum tires had melted and how do you test how do you take s how do you nobody knew how to do it but
043the clean air people said thou shalt not touch your property until it's been asked best to mitigate it and soon after that the county commissioners probably I you know anyway they did made an ed no burn material could be received at the at the waste transfer station and then they kind of hurt by the by the ground as well that some of our people out there were digging a hole and burying their own stuff. And so then the county building codes department made the edict. These were waves that just came against our citizens one at a time uh that if they didn't have an asbestous mitigation certificate proper for the area where they want to rebuild, they would not be issued a building permit. So we we called the governor and said, "We need help.
044We need help." and and right away there's all ters coming in and say for $8 or $10,000 to test your site, etc., etc. Uh so we we worked together with the governor. He came over by our voice. This is some of the things that we were able to accomplish being a unified voice. Came over and showed him the stress of the people and and how they were left on their own and there was no organized help and the main hurdle we had to get over this aspect of education. So he dug into some some place and a person came up with $3.2 2 million and pieces and parts came to us eventually. And with that money, we were able to employ the Salvation Army and they hired uh three case managers, disaster case managers. And
045so they interviewed each one of the victims and how much insurance do you have and what's your need? Do they have a place to live now? and built a file of the people that we could help and and we trained a couple of local citizens to take aspects to sample and were able to send them in and get some so we're able to help these people uh with the money that the governor gave us. We we were able to do some um for those who wanted to live back on their own property and they didn't have relatives or somebody to move into. Uh we helped them buy an old camp trailer, put some styrofoam around it, that had heat tape on things, we kind of made it because even though the fire was mid August,
046you'd be surprised how quick winter comes and and so we helped we helped them survive the winter. Okay. But the long-term need was still great. and and so um and by the way Riverside it was your brainchild of $50,000 came from Riverside about okay anyway that money went to Anovia and so that opens the door that I needed to kind of make it I was surprised to hear that there's a lot of charitable money out there but it has to be to a 501c3 charitable organization and so that was why we had to fast track getting to 501c3 and once we did that that opened at Anobia and by the way last month I think we spent the last 50 grand. Okay. And so part of this is a report for what you guys contributed
047what we could uh anyway and open the door for Anovia to come in with their 1.1 million the places where it was most necessary. And uh as we built on this, we we uh tried to figure out why FEMA hadn't been invited that the Federal Emergency Management Association or whatever. And and finally, we called these are some of the things we did as a committee, this this group. We we caught a hold of senators Marie and Campbell. We need some help. You know, we have a disaster here and we have no help. and and so um they organized and and sent FEMA out here and it was kind of interesting because the the lead leader of FEMA his name was Duke or his nickname was Duke kind like you know looked like John Wayne anyway
048he came out by then the disaster case managers already had courses of improvement or or recovery for almost every every victim and so Duke came in and said what can we do to help we as FEMA have never been so late in a disaster. Here it was. It was December. You know, by then we've already winterized people and we've done all that stuff. And I said, "The worst thing you can do is start over. They want you to sit down with the disaster case management and see how you can take those people." And so they help clean out wells and septic tanks. And interesting to me that it got so hot that if you have the old traditional uh concrete septic tank that's only 18 in deep, it got so hot that the ground it
049shattered the the septic tank lid and he didn't know it until a few weeks later you drive through and you fall in in the toilet and and so FEMA came in through and was able to do some tests and help rebuild and put in some. Anyway, so they came in pretty well. Then they rode off into the subset and u we still needed help. So we appealed to Marian Campwell again and uh at that time they were afraid that their Democratic president would not be reelected and so they wanted some graph or correct. Is this being recorded? >> They were able to get past a $44 million grant specifically for restoration of Spokane County. So, they didn't know where to go with it, so went to HUD. Well, HUD stands for housing and urban development.
050They have no idea how to deal with the disaster. and they admit it. And so they sent the money theoretically to the state. The state said, "Well, theoretically we'll send it to Spokane County." And so people in Spokane County that have no idea how to restore uh a disaster uh now have the 44 million and they're trying to figure out what to do with it. And still still and and so um before long you might find some stuff going on. So uh they the roads the county people all over saying, "Man, there's money." you know the road people saying let's pave some of the roads and somebody says no let's do this let's do that so it's a tugof-war and it's so I just have to sit and watch once in a while I I
051can make an you know a contribution but those are some of the things in the background um the main thing that's that's been exciting to me is what the faith faith groups have done and and that is anobia the money that they've sent and by the way your 50 grand went to ania and they couldn't get a check you know they had to go through a char that money have to be documented and we have to have professional uh financial people taking care of it because we have federal, state and county audits of all the money that goes through our our organization. And anyway, um most most beneficial is the Menanites and their faith group is instead of sending missionaries around the world or whatever on bic 2 by two, they go to disaster and
052they only come if they've been invited. And one of them called me and said, you know, knock, uh, we would love to come help the elk area people, but nobody has invited us. What? So, we invited it out. So, over the past two years, the the various waves of Menanites a year ago, uh, they said it was a state authorized Menanite disaster. So, Menanites from around the state, most of them are farmers. After the crops in, they'll come in October to work all winter. We took the last last money from the governor and bought five package homes from Ziggy. And we're not talking about big mansions with swimming pools. We're talking about 8 or 900 square f feet. Five identical homes. Uh two bedrooms of a bath and a living room and and we bought
053them from Ziggy and had them delivered in the middle of the night because they had to be delivered out here to Riverside Storage by July 1. And we made it November or June, whatever, whatever the last day of June is at midnight. And we got them delivered these packages. So then the Menanite guys would come and we'd haul them out and and they they these guys and it's kind of like your work study group for the for the kids that you'll have Papa John and his his wife and and six or seven young men usually come and they rotate one a month at a time and they stay six months. So they'll come out and it's a work study. They learn how to pour concrete. They put in flooring, they windows and insulation and and
054we were kind of hoping the county would wave a lot of the restrictions. They have not won. So all of this stuff is super energy efficient. Uh and so so far we've we've awarded five of those homes complete with with the occupancy permit all in place uh to the recipient. In order to qualify is that you have to have obviously no money. you have to be broke, but you have to have enough income that you can pay the insurance on your new home and the taxes on your new home and a little bit of maintenance. So, if you don't have enough cash flow, and some places were having to teach um work study skills on on how to how to budget. Uh but these people had to be able to qualify. The ones above that
055level had insurance of their own or proceeds of their own and they were pretty well. Okay. And then you had this wafer that that needed help really bad. And then you got those that have no income and no nothing, you know. So we've done what we can to help them get hooked up and whatever. They bought these little storage sheds along the highway out here and turned it into a dwelling, put three of them together. And we've helped them with what we could. And uh so that's been interesting. Somebody had the brainchild that we'd buy some conx. You know the 40 foot storage containers you see parked around, turn them into a great idea. Super deal. We bought five of them and brought them out over here and then the county got involved and you're
056trying to get an occupancy permit on a building that wasn't designed to be with 12 pin. Nobody had any idea with room full of snow. You know, these are put cargos in bed to China. You know, you don't put a snow load on a car on a conx. Anyway, it was so frustrating. They took all the fun out of it. But we we I mean eventually got heat pumps in them, heat pump water heaters. We got them in insulated. We got it and we've got five occupancies there. So, so that's 10 families that are in in um housing and with the HUD money we've already started six more and as we speak Menanite groups that build a menite they are putting thousands of dollars of labor in. They'll send the group their own transportation. Uh
057one group from Amish type menites came from Montana they wouldn't drive. So I had to go haul them with my Suburban and and they they towed in a work study, you know, a work shack, you know, trailer and I'm thinking it would all be hand saws and stuff. No, it was it was the display case from DeWalt tool company battery powered. They had a 27 battery charger. They plug that sucker in and they built a home just like that. Anyway, so they're they're coming in waves and they've committed to two years. They they they provide their own uh rent for housing and their own food and they work for free and so pretty cool. But there's some things that they can't do that the state of course need a certified electric electrician with a license
058in order to hook up the power. And so we still have to have some of that. And that the last of the 50 grand from Riverside was to hook up these the last five homes to hook them up with electricity so that inland power would energize them and and get the septic and and the plumbing hooked up. So that was the last, you know, we bought styrofoam and we did a lot of things and every now and then they'd look at me and say, "Well, does funds have any more money in it?" Yeah, we do. And so we we we stretched it as far as we could, but so I guess just to kind of summarize it. I've talked too much, but it's it's exciting to see the people receive the most of them. It's
059the best home they've ever been there. So it's been good. Um other faith groups I just mentioned in the Menites, one is United Methodist Committee on Relief. They put in a couple of million dollars. Uh Lowe's, I think, and maybe Costco has sometime they've got stuff that nobody bought or they order stock of something and they bring a semi load of refrigerators and stuff in and and our our res our citizens, they swarm in like poularch, you know, gone. And so the fact that we are a 501c3 opens the door for uh large organizations. they they have a certain amount that they contribute to charitable organizations. So we have manise cafe charities we we've had the um the returns presc and and it's been by our unified voice that we we are the trigger that
060comes in and invites these people to come in and so uh it's fun. It's been a challenge. Uh we had to serve for free board members get a salary. you get a salary. You know, back when I was on the board, they said this the board members should not receive a salary because that keeps honest. Somebody said, "Who's the highest paid person in the organization?" But that was one of my fun things. Anyway, used to get a meeting, but now they all turn down. >> Okay. Well, we did too. But anyway, we we serve for the community and you know, as as uh co kind of taught us that we could hide, uh we found that hiding doesn't help and and so we've got screen kids now and they're together a lot, but they're alone
061together. And and so when we have things like what Riverside's doing to try to teach them community, it's the best thing we can impart to them because that's that's what we are a community type of group. So I salute Riverside and stuff you doing and uh keep an eye on I think you see I kind of covered all my notes. I I did pretty well 22,000 acres burned. Uh our charitable Oh, we've changed our name and we it's called the Spokane Region Long-Term Recovery Group. It was Spokane County, but the fire almost went into P already and it's supposed to be the hottest dest coming. And if this one goes into Lincoln, it goes where we now have the 501c structure that we can now perform quickly on on any new disaster. So we we've
062kind of put that into brick and mortar so that it it's there in case, you know, God willing, we don't have any more disasters, but if it happens, then we've got a structure there that we can provide assistance quicker. And it just kind of irritates me when you see or hear about California or Hawaii. Uh when those major fires came through, FEMA and the state and the federal government came and cleaned all the properties up and turn the turn them back to the citizens cleaned and ready to be built. And and why didn't they do that for us? And they didn't. They he declared them a disaster and and then that was it. And okay, now what do we do? Nothing. Everybody's on now. So that's why the long-term recovery group is focused on Do
063I have any question? Do I have any authority, Matt, to ask a question? >> I have a question. What about you had said that there are a number of people and are a number of people that are uninsurable in terms of their their homes. And if we if you're rebuilding on those on those uninsurable properties, how is that mitigated? >> We are we are struggling with that. The insurance commissioner says they can't mandate a company served an area. But what we find is if you have an insurance agent you could talk to, take them out there and say everything that was burnable is burnt. You know, yeah, a burn a fire went through, but is there what's the likelihood of another? And on a case by case, they will ensure. So you still have to
064deal and we tried to say that the insurance commissioner now they did a really good job of of working with our disaster case managers with the people that had some insurance and and they they are hey my insurance company is just running out the door they're not helping me at all. So we were able to get that but as far as ensuring moving forward like these new houses we're building they are insurable and they are insured. So they will they will >> because we county one insurance company that will our home. >> Yeah. It's tough to find insurance then and like I say if you get your insurance commissioner or somebody to come out your agent and show them what you've got where you're going to build. So, but it's been interesting. All the all
065the ground swells, all these waves of of asbesus mitigation and things that were hitting our citizens. I felt so sorry for them and and when they it was a mandatory evacuation. They had to camp out here and their house hadn't burned and the looters were coming in from Ponder County on the backside and raiding their houses. So, it was so frustrating. And FEMA and the state, you know, disaster Governor Ensley said, "Okay, it's a disaster." And then he run out of town. It was no impact, you know, and they didn't do anything. So, it was through the long-term recovery group and the help of the state emergency management that got us formed, helped us get formed, that got us going. And we still have disaster case managers working uh on on cases for people. And
066so, for the next three to five years, well, the next hopefully just another two and a half that we can kind of write up now. But from this HUD money, we hopefully have 24 more homes to be built. And so we've got we got 11 well 10 to six of them. We got 17 now 17 on the way and then there might be another 20 or so. So we are still behind the scenes doing what we can and nobody in the news to do what we do. I have an amazing story about where you started how you had to go through this process. kept finding ways finding ways finding ways. I really appreciated that you're giving this information to this group learn about where we fell short. I I was brand new to the area.
067I didn't know what did happen, but thought this would be a dream. Have you he thought about giving this like the presentation, what to offer, the information or even just to the business and marketing class, like just all these things that you had to figure out about how that works to get these people awesome. >> Yeah, I'd be willing to help if I could. and never mention others in the community. Toner sand and gravel is giving us a special price on gravel. You'd be surprised those little driveways work too good anyway. And you put an inch of dust what they call carbon foot three burning shaft and then it's really slick and owners came in and put a lot of the gravel for zigging. They're building packages. They had to be five identical and and
068so they package it together with the whole thing from from uh boards all the way through carpet uh and and really good attractive fun. So Z is just over backwards to help us and we have the authority and I don't know if they're accepting it that if they gave us in effect sold us $80,000 worth of material for 50 then they get a charitable deduction for the difference. And so that's why we're audited and auditable that we have to be able to say yes, we did that and here's the evidence of it. So we have to do everything proper above board. So it's a it's a curious thing how that how it works. But but it is interesting how many people want to help if you ask them invite them. The trouble is the fire
069is two and a half years behind us now. Most everybody's back and they're not aware there's still people living in. Okay. With presentations like that, I find it hard to move on with the agenda sometimes. Thank you very much for that, D. Thank you. And moving on to business. Hey, sixth grade basketball at Riverside Middle School. Can I get a motion? Make a motion. Six basketball. been moved and seconded to approve the sixth grade basketball at Riverside Middle School. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. B. Summer programs 2026. I get a motion. >> I make a motion for second. >> Any discussion? Um, I I have one up here. Um, looking at the youth football camp for the sixth and eighth graders, I was just wondering if it
070maybe is a possibility to add fifth graders to that. Um, so my thoughts on that is the youth football team that you weren't able to get enough players last summer. um their teams are just sixth grade. So that's like kind of like the oldest team that can play. Um so it can be a good funnel to get them into that and continue on. That was that was my only thought. >> If you want to you want to give me a little bit of time to check into that and maybe circle back on that. You could pull you could approve the summer camps without that one. pull that out for the next week. >> We can't pull it out if we want to get it to the insurance company in time, but we can still discuss
071changing it in the intro like between now and the next meeting. So, >> okay. >> Thank you. >> So, we asking for an amended motion or we asking to approve as is. I think if we if we could approve the summer programs 2026, get it going with insurance, make sure we're getting organized with parent communication on the camps. They want to know their summer schedules right now. But if we could do it with the caveat that we're going to look into fifth grade and if you give approval to add fifth grade, then we could do that right now. Not having come back. Our next meeting is too late for with the caveat that we're going to work hard on fifth grade. If there's some reason that I don't know about about fifth grade, I'll let
072you know. But I think it's worth >> uh Yeah. Yeah. I made a motion to do that for sure. >> Okay. So, it's been moved and seconded that we approve the summer programs 2026 with amendment that we add fifth grade to the football. Any further discussion? Favor say I. >> I. Motion carries. C. Northwest Evaluation Association map road 2026 27. Make a motion. I make a motion that we approve the Northwest Evaluation map growth 2020. Been moved and seconded. We approve the Northwest Evaluation Association map growth 2026 27. >> Just really quickly. So one one thing to know about that is in your packet but when we talk about monitoring student learning math measures of academic progress is a critical tool and it measures reading and math and it measures we we do it three
073times a year. We do it fall, winter and spring. So state testing is what they call summit like end of year. Math is more you know you can screen and see how the kids are doing during the year and then you can make adjustments by the time they leave that grade level and so it's an important part of our overall assessment package. That's why it's usually comes up this this month every year. So don't you know Matt you've been here on the longest but it comes up That's what that is. Measures. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. Motion carries. D. First reading 41 30 title one part A parent and family. I make a motion before the first reading 4130 title one A part A parent and family engagement
074second we approve the first reading of 4130 title one part A parent and family engagement any discussion >> I did that uh just uh in uh school based parent and family engagement policy. So just for awareness title one part parent engagement policy um just clarification there was a spelling error in there on that first paragraph but then also um on the first sentence school offering title one firebased services have a separate parent family policy. I was wondering if if it's normal practice to reference that specifically policy cover on there or is it something that don't have yet? I think that might be an error, Wesley, because that is one district policy. So, I think what it's supposed to say is every title one school will have a plan. >> Okay. Because it read as if
075it was a separate polo. Okay. >> No, it's a plan. So, they have to It's federal funding title based on income and so you have to have a plan that Sammy Joe, you're the title person. Is that right? So, I think that's a mis that's we can cross it or something. I think that must you're not going to have different policies. That would be the only question. Good catch. We'll change that plan. >> Joe, did you have anything to add about how this would affect interact in the schools and the families? >> I don't nothing to really add. Pretty simple minor changes. Nothing crazy from what we do. Y >> I just director special program. Uh my feeling about the policy that open. So shout out for back here, right? So instead of the previous
076policy require separate group now to be able more opportunity Thank you. >> All in favor say I. >> I post motion carries. With that, we'll move into executive session. Recess beforehand.