001I just want to say thank you guys for everything you're doing. >> Thank you. >> Every one of you guys, I appreciate it. >> I appreciate that. The reason why I come to you know that you sat on this side of the table. I do appreciate >> very much appreciate it. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Yes. >> I'm just um wanting to know um I know a couple of months ago you all voted on um a lawsuit to join with and some of the other school districts. I was just asking what's the status of that is that what's going on. >> Thank you. >> Yes, we will address that tonight. Is this the time to address that? >> I think so. So, first off, thanks for bringing that question up and thanks for being
002here tonight, being a part of that. We are still so we're still in communication with our lawyer about that lawsuit and we are still in the same coalition of uh high school that it takes multiple school districts to move forward with it and nobody else has moved forward yet. And so we are still there and ready for it. And >> I I was wondering how many schools how many school districts are involved in it as of right now >> that have moved forward >> or that have decided to join the act of the law. >> My understanding is that there's nine >> and the original number we're hoping for was 15 >> statewide or like a certain area or Okay. Um, we've talked to to those school districts and other school districts that that are
003not involved yet to see what the chances are of getting that involved as well. And so we are still when when that when that time is right, we are still poised and ready, but it's not it's not time for us to move forward that after you talking to target being a part of that that coalition as well. But um I don't know if it was thought that we withdrawn from that or or something of that nature, but that is not the case. So in the meantime, we've talked to legislators in the House and the Senate, talk to those that are local to our area, and also talk to those that are on the education committee both in the House and the Senate. uh we've requested uh bills to be moved forward that could uh help
004us in relief from this and that is that is what we can do and that is you know what what as a citizen that you can do as well and I know that there's people in this room that can help with that and ask questions on how they can get involved with their legislators go forward. Hey, Bryce, can you hear me? >> Yes, I can. >> Okay, cool. Trying to use my big boy voice, so I don't appreciate that. All right. Um, does somebody want to comment on House Bill 1296? We talked about that. >> So, House Yeah, I can. House Bill 1296 is the the bill that discusses the sanctions for schools that do not that do not approve this policy. and that is uh at OSPI and that is in the process of
005rule making right now. So we don't even know like we we know what what the possibilities of the sanctions are but we don't know what the sanctions actually will be. We don't know when those sanctions will be enacted and we don't know. So there's a lot of questions that we have around that and that's that's one thing that we are waiting to see may happen with with the sanctions and the 1296 uh before we take our next move there. But that's one reason why we're trying to be proactive in creating this community group so we can come through and and have like if it's just us doing all the thinking, right? I think there's a lot of people in the community that that have a lot of passion other people involved to to help us
006think through different commitments. How what's what is uh what's around? >> So is the school district are they doing what the state says and allowing all the participants in all things or or are they being set up to have the sanctions against them? Does that make sense? >> I'm sorry. question >> because my understanding is like >> identify people. So that that's part of what you said, right? >> No, I I hope that that Oh, sorry, Stacy. One thing that that I was going to ask during the public comment as well is we've had people on on the the the Zoom u some media um outlets that have that have named unknown unknown people in their uh in the reporting of what's going on in our our board meetings. And so we're asking that when
007do you when you present to identify yourself as one. >> Okay. Okay. So, if there's a boy that identifies as a girl in this district, are they allowed to participate in the girls sports? I don't have kids in the school anymore, so I honestly don't know what the status is in this district. So, I'm just curious what is I mean, are they allowed to use the girls locker room? I mean, what is I I don't know. And if you if they if you don't allow it, is that when the school district gets sanctions against them? I'm just totally asking because I don't know. >> Yeah. So, Ken deals with operations. So ask ask. >> So that's a good question, Stacy, because I think we want to educate people on what the lawsuit is and then
008what the law itself is. So they're two different things. The lawsuit is about rule making from OSBI. The argument is that when the rule when the law was made and there were rules of that were interpreted from the original law back in n 1920 that there was not a rule making process done effectively and appropriately by OSPI. That's where you go out and you get input from local communities. you you try. Now, they don't make laws. As you know, the office of superintendent of public instruction is charged by the legislature based on the laws. So, the lawsuit isn't about the law. The law, a lawsuit is about the rule making process that didn't occur. Okay? So even the legislators that we've talked to, the only way the law changes is if it's done in the
009legislative branch or like for example, are you aware that there are two initiatives that have been brought forward to the legislative session by citizens in Washington state right now? That is another way that has to be studied in the short 60-day legislative session on whether they're going to act on that particular those two initiatives. If they don't act on that those two initiatives, then it goes through a vote to the public. So, um, the the answer to the question is nuanced. Okay. I'm not trying to be a politician. Okay. Okay. Work around it. I'm trying to give you the answer. But the it's nuanced in the sense that in Riverside, what practically happens if you just came and visited our schools and you met with our staff and you looked, you would see that we
010work with the kids. We work with the families. We don't go around affirming and passing out things. We try to work very closely council work. And so I I can name a number of times where we've worked through that. And privacy is really a big part of that appropriate strategy. We've found that privacy answers a lot of the concerns because for example if there's private bathroom, private uh shower, private area, then a lot of times the it works on both topics of the debate. It works on the side of the those who advocate for transgender student rights and it also works for those people who are concerned about it around safety about for other kids. namely a lot of talk about done about female students. So we try to do that a lot on the
011informal level. Now the law itself states that you must allow a biological male for example who identifies as a female to access the female restroom, the female locker room to play in the female sports. That's in the Washington state law. So if we had a family or a student that knew the law and basically said, "This is the law. I know my law. I know the law. You must do that." And and we were fighting it and not doing it. Yes, there is legal risk and it's not it's not a sanction from the state per se on this particular issue. It's more in the courts. So a a family could file a lawsuit, a discrimination lawsuit for example, and say that the staff is discriminating against my my child. Here are the facts of the
012case. It may go to court. There might be a an investigation that goes into that. So there is some liability on this this particular lawsuit. It's kind of a different thing. And it's basically meeting the civil rights review. So basically the the legislative the legislature in the last legislative session, not this year but last year, came up with a new law. It's the 1296. If you want to look it up, just type in House Bill 1296. And that one says that you must be in compliance with the ad um updating policy 3211 genderinclusive schools. Okay. The the other part of that law relates to other non-discrimination topics. So there's other districts like we're on the list that was reported to the legislature. So, the legislature asked OSPI to give a list of all the school
013districts in the state of Washington who are currently in defiance of the civil rights law that they that they created. They published that list. We were on that list as some other districts were. And uh what Matt's talking about is if we what are the consequences if we were not to do it? And um and so because the argument right from some is fight the state on this particular issue and so we I think that's the part that so there's it's kind of complex but I hope it answers your question. So yes we would have to by law but we do try I promise you we try to work it through a lot through the local level and the relationships that we have with kids and families. Yeah. And one of the things, one of
014the things the board wanted to do, commissioned me to do, is try to get some people together, not only from the community, but from the staff from a practical standpoint in the schools. Could we put our heads together and look at contingency plan A, contingency plan B? What would happen if you fought the state? What would happen if you didn't fight the state and you updated the policy? What about the safety concerns? What about bathrooms? What about locker rooms? What about trips? What about sports? Are there any other things we can put our heads to? And and I think I applaud the board and we're on the same page on this. We kind of believe in teamwork around here. And so we were thinking that maybe we put our heads together and have option A
015and option B, option C if there's another option that comes up. So that's kind of what we're we're thinking at at this point. One of the the other thing and then I'll zip it is uh the when we talk to uh legislators, we talk to Democrats and Republicans and um trying to build relationships, trying to help them understand what the challenges are. The uh the heavy-handed nature of 1296, I think there was some legs on with the legislature. They felt like there's got to be another way to work through the heavy-handed nature of financial penalty for schools or whatever the case may be. So, I do know that's a big discussion right now that's going on. I don't I didn't see a bill in the on the list. Did you see a bill, Les, because
016you're the one that's studying all the bills that go, >> but I do know that that discussion is happening. Sorry about the long- winded answer. Thank you. >> So, Andre folks, I just had a quick question comment and a question actually. >> If I can read it what um Matt said, if you can state your name before you make comment, >> Andre folks uh is my name. So, um a comment and this is what I mean. what it feels like seem feels like there's a little bit of reversal or backtrack. Um, and that's fine if that's what the decision has come to be. Um, but it does for someone listening who's been a little while, it does feel like a backtrack from where things were. Like I said, that's fine. That's what the board decides
017to do. Um, I just want you to know that that's what that feels like. Seems like a retreat of some sort. And it may be a wise retreat. I'm not passing judgment on the retreat necessarily. I'm just telling you that's what it feels like. Uh secondly, so my question is in terms of the community groups, what is the charter of the community groups? Like is is the charter of the community groups to get people together to have discussions and then make recommendations to the board or what's the nature of the community groups or community group I guess? >> Yeah. to get together and help help us come up with ideas on on what is best for our students because that is, you know, our our number one thing is is the is to be here
018for the students. And, you know, our mission is to educate our students and better our community. And as a part of that, we always have to make sure that we have a good relationship with our community. And if there's an issue or you know that the community has, we want to work with you on getting to the the right result. The result that's going to be best for the students, best keep the students safe, that's going to educate them. And as far as the the retreat, uh, we haven't we we haven't stepped back. We we we stepped up to the line with with other people and knowing that it's going to take more than just one to be able to to financially carry this burden and nobody else has has stepped up and stepped over
019that line. I think if it's okay if I >> please >> um it's really difficult to make a decision on where you're going to go as a school district when you don't know what the consequences truly are going to be. And so until we know I think until we get some kind of directive of what the consequences could be for not being in compliance, I mean if it's 20% of our operating budget, that's that's a huge deal, right? we're potentially looking at having to do many many things that none of us none of anybody wants to do in order to accommodate that. So I think part of the reason we haven't heard from any other school district that is on that that consortium of school districts that are wanting to move forward with this lawsuit
020is what does it mean if what what if we do move forward we don't know what that the outcome of that could be um so house Bill 1296 as it was written for last year's legislative session gives potential consequences but it doesn't make finalize what those consequences are. So it lists out you can you know school district could lose out 20% up to 20% of their funds which will be reappropriated for something else to educate the school of how to do this. It could also be as drastic as if a board member doesn't pass or pass this into process that board member could be recalled and it could also be the superintendent could be fired. So it gives credentials but it also gives based on if a complaint is submitted that the school is not
021um that is discriminating against any trans uh any gender identity student that an investigation is then put in process and those are the potential consequences but as Ken said the OSPI hasn't set the rules for what solidly those consequences Um, and I think because it's a new board too, the last I think any any of you folks have heard was when um Bob and the other board members were still here and before I joined. So, we want you to know that we're not forgetting about it. We're trying to pass it off, but we're also trying to be transparent. And we if we are put to the point of we have to make a decision or this, this, and this will happen. We want the community to be involved with what is the best solution for
022our students. We don't want to make any decisions in a vacuum. Um, so that's kind of the purpose of the the community focused group. >> I guess I say I don't want to belabor a point. So I appreciate what you do. I know it's tough. Um I guess my closing thoughts would be one I would say if there's a community group I would say as much as you're able to make clear what the parameters are for the community group because it's nothing more frustrating than working in a group and I don't know what the what my charter is necessarily. You know what I mean? They could come in and be on this group and don't know what their what the end result is. I guess I would say um >> that's a fair point. um
023that that that just exasperates people when you have a scenario like that when I don't know what to do. Um and secondly, I I guess I'll ask you say it as a question. So in the board's mind, is there a cost that's too great? That's what it sounded like. There might be a cost that's too great, right? If there if if you're waiting for the the consequences, then that means that um there may be a cost that's too great that maybe I won't say it like that. That's that's putting it negative. The cost that's too great that ultimately harms the students to fight against this. So I'll say it positively too, right? Saying it negatively like say it's just a cost too great means you're not willing to pay that cost. But I want to
024tie that to the students to the overall benefit of the students. Is that fair? Is that we're trying to think through now? Because there's a one way to look at say I don't care what the cost is. I believe in this so much that whatever the cost comes with it, I'm going to fight against it. But then there's another way to look at and say, okay, I'm willing to fight against this, but the cost too great to the place that we believe it hurts the students overall. We're unwilling to do that. Is that what you're trying to wrestle with? I I love that you asked that question because kind of like my thought on that is like the the cost kind of determines how how the the fight happens and you know and what what
025what stage and what things happen. >> Um maybe counterproductive it was that they took a quarter of our budget and then used that to then all that money then went to implementing the the procedure here, right? And that that would be a different way to to go about it. So, um does that >> I guess if I gave you two options, fight at all cost, it doesn't matter what it costs or fight at all cost provided it still allows for functioning and the the the greater blessing and benefit of the students. That's what we're trying to get that line. We're trying to measure out where is it the fight at all cost mentality or the fight at all cost provided it doesn't sink the program if you will seek the school district the board is
026probably more here right >> I try to think through >> I think it determines how the fight happens more than anything else that if that's answer your No, but that's okay. I don't want to take all your time. I I appreciate you guys. >> Well, that's why we're here on that's why we're here is to have this conversation. Like I The last thing I want you to do is to leave the meeting, walk out, be like, "Man, that board didn't listen to me at all." >> Right? Or that board didn't answer my question at all. And some things I I I just I don't know. you know, and uh you know, the people sitting with me here, you know, we I'm sure you know this, you know, the last 6 months, we lost 40 years
027of experience off this board and now uh Wes is on this third meeting and Sarah's on her second and Alicia and I have three years combined. And so like there's, you know, and I'm not trying to use that as an excuse. >> No, no, I don't think like, you know, that's not it at all. But it's like some of that you know asking for a little bit of grace on we're still trying to figure out what we can do and you know that's some things I'm going to talk about in my in my uh board report later on in the meeting and talk about some of the things that we've done to make sure that we accelerate our learning as quick as possible to get to where we go from being what are we doing
028to high function. No, I I appreciate that just taking the time and and having the conversation. Not Please don't hit me as casting stones. Please don't hit me as I don't >> I'm just trying to get clarity at least in my head. So when I when I communicate where are we now, >> this is where we are. That's all I'm trying to do. >> I I think you can be reassured that for myself, I am always making decisions with the students best interest. Period. So if that kind of helps answer your question, that's always my forefront when any decision is being made. What is going to be the best for our students to better their education and our community? as a new board member, like I'm still reading through everything and trying to understand, but
029the ultimate goal is to minimize as much risk to our students and our kids as possible. Like how can we get through this by minimizing the risk to them, not not uh distracting from their learning, not impacting their learning, not impacting their opportunities, not impacting their safety. What is the way that we can get through this without impacting them the most? Does that make sense? >> Oh, it makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. >> I'm just making sure I'm safe. >> I believe what I'm saying. An individual and not a part of a group or a board, right? I I completely understand that an individual can have can be so so issue focused to not necessarily be concerned about the greater people. So, I completely understand that >> and I and I respect that. That's good. That's
030>> nice to hear from. >> Thank you. >> That that's helpful for us to hear as well, right? Because just because we're on the side of the table, we don't want it to be, you know, us versus you. We always want to have a community involved. Can I get the motion for the adoption of the agenda? >> The adoption of the agenda. >> Second. >> Okay, it's been moved and seconded that we adopt the agenda. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> All opposed. Motion carries. Can I get a motion for the approval of the minutes of previous meetings? I move that we approve the minutes of previous meetings. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded that we approve the minutes of the previous meetings. Any discussion? >> All those in favor say
031I. >> All oppose. I need a motion for the approval of the consent agenda. >> Motion. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded that we approve the consent agenda. Any discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I. All opposed. Motion carries. It moves us into reports and discussions and that's I'll leave that one off first. Okay. We've recently changed our agenda for the agenda. And one of the first things the first thing we did was we added the mission, vision, values and goals to that to the agenda. So it's you know Ken does a great job of communicating it. Want to make sure you know that's forefront in us as well. Our mission to educate our students and better our community. Our vision to be the best rural school district in the region.
032The values belong, bond, believe, and goals. Whole child There's a reason that that one's first is that whole child culture and climate community and resources. And the whole child means that we don't we don't want just to teach test scores. Want to make sure that when we're on stage handing the graduating seniors their diploma that we're handing them something they can be proud of, something that actually means something. And that's that's one of the biggest reasons why I became a member was to make sure that I did everything I could to have that experience for Harvard and graduates. As I mentioned during our public comment, we're all on a stage of learning and some of the things that we've done recently is uh Ken and I attended the WASDA conference in November and the legislative
033conference just a couple weeks ago. Uh during both of those, it was a chance to learn more about how to be a better board member and the role of the board member and how we can best work with our community and keep the students uh for front and center. Uh we had a chance to interact with legislators at both of those events, but also been to uh various other things to interact with legislators as well. I'll talk about that in a second. Uh we got to talk to school districts to see what's working in their district and also what's not working and make sure that you know we kind of how can we tweak some of these things that are that are working to make it you know beyond the river side and know what
034we should we should avoid look out and also just to meet other people on board get a chance to collaborate from them and have somebody to call and find out what we Um I think I mentioned that talked to members of the So I'm moving on to the next topic. Sorry. Um talked to uh members of the education committee both in the house and the senate uh both about you know the issue we talked about during public comment and also just making sure that Riverside was on their top of mind. In your discussions with these legislators, has there been any discussion about potentially modifying the whole school funding laws mechanisms because it is so convoluted way the way it has to be done right now. >> Uh that was a large part of the conversation
035at the the legislative conference. Uh I I don't know if I'd give a thumbs up but but it's but it is being talked about. That is things that we have talked about. There's um especially in a short session such as this only a 60-day session. Uh we don't see any any movement on that. But the uh legislators are are aware of the funding needs of the schools and basically with the with the budget shortfalls in the state. We're hoping that our budget doesn't get cut. There's things that they have that they have uh you know not fully funded as far as you like unfunded mandates like with the the with the school bus drivers was one of the latest and we're hoping that they don't add any more unfunded mandates. Hope they don't cut anything
036but we're not expecting them to to give us any additional funds to kind of make up some of those gaps. So, we're we're still, you know, like Lisa will talk about in her report, a grant that we uh recently won and other ways that we're looking to help make sure we're able to get that uh to cover that gap. >> So, there's no what I'm hearing you saying is well, let's move around the components here and there. We're going to try to fix this one up here. Moving the chairs on the Titanic. Uh but do any of them talk about actually changing the whole mechanism of funding schools because it is such a convoluted difficult for the public to understand. >> So there was mention of other schools of other states that have different funding
037mechanisms and that is something that that that may be on the docket in the future but that's not something that I foresee in the near future. I think I think Wyoming doesn't require any citizen input. It's all from revenues from resources. So, there are some of those states that can do that. >> There's actually a lot of discussion about changing the way it's funded. It's not going to happen this session. >> That's okay. >> But they call it a long ramp those discussions. They now recognize that McCclary decision in 2019 was really a rough decision. it wasn't uh the change in how they funded it was wasn't the good a good way to go and so it's inequitable for small districts and uh the way they do construction and so on is inequitable for small
038with districts with less tax base things like that the fact that you have to run levies it's really difficult and so yeah there is discussion but it's going to take a couple years >> and we're going to need help from people with their legislators to help them recognize the challenge Now, one of the biggest debates that is happening in this session is taxation. >> So, >> they could g raise so much money for schools that they got rid of the cabin trade. >> Yeah. So, they they're duking it out in regards to um do you use property taxes? Do you look at income taxes? You know, it's it's a that's kind of their focus. So schools aren't even that huge of a focus right now and Ken has more obviously more knowledge in the the
039funding. So I should have started my answer to you if >> um that's so but that that will be discussed a little bit more both from Lisa I believe sorry and and Ken during their reports. >> Thank you. Okay. And then let's talk about our last study session that we had in the in previous years. Okay. Let me back up a second. The school board has two meetings a month and most we have one that's been called a a special meeting. That's for us to get together and talk about issues within this district, learn a little bit more about something or to work on a project and those meetings are open to the public as well. And then we have our these channel meetings and starting with the one meeting that we had earlier this
040month, those are no longer called special meetings, but we're calling them more what they are. It's called a study session and that is so the board can get together and learn. And because we are student first, that was what our first study session was about. We had the principles of every school the and the the directors of the programs come in into this room and then talk all of us board members about student learning and basically how you know give us the the high level view of the the first layer of the onion that we need to know about in order to get that student learning. our next study session which will be like next week, next next Monday. Uh that'll be a presentation from Lisa to us about school funding. And so we'll continue
041to see you know different topics that we study throughout the the year for the board. Okay. Um, I think that was it. Unless Wes wanted to, you know, let him know about the ledge rep stuff. >> Yeah. So I as a lead rep um Lazda which is the Washington State School Board Association um school director association um they do uh online meetings and one of the meetings they do in they have legis session meetings. So basically last Friday they they gave an update as far as in this legislative session with the first two weeks um kind of some of the things that occurred uh within the first two weeks and it's basically a high level summary of um kind of bills that are moving through uh don't have sorry if I don't have the information
042here but the high level note is um though the ledge session is a short session of only 60 days, there's 120 plus new bills introduced in the education sector. So yeah, and for awareness, uh more than 20 of those bills are unfunded mandates, so stuff that's not going to be funded on the budget. And one of the loudest messages that I can say through um through citizens to the legislation is stop with the unfunded mandate. So um some of these bill some of these bills are going through committee to be heard. Uh nothing has passed yet from what I understand. So um and another awareness too uh cutting funding wasn't in as part of any of these bills that were introduced. However, with the governor's budget, there is some potential cuts within the governor's budget
043uh that he's trying to pass such as uh one of those was introduction for kindergarten enrollment >> kindergarten enrollment and I think another one was the early learning funding too. So making cuts to the state to schools in those areas to try to save money in early areas. So just as awareness that's some of the stuff um there was one bill that was also um trying to remember what it was. Basically it was it was strongly opposed by WASDA which is I think it was I have to come back to it. So, but uh sorry if I can't remember what that was, but uh WAZDA is making efforts on the education behalf to oppose speak to bills, oppose them or advocate for them if they are best benefit to school districts across the state. So,
044just just to give you a high level summary and update, I'll be listening in this Friday again for the next update. So, um, just know that we do have advocates within the realm of education to advocate for not cutting budgets, not cutting spending, and to advocate for stuff that is truly beneficial. And LASA does listen to board members who listen to the community around the state to make sure that things are moving in the right direction for the education system in the state. >> Appreciate you doing your first ever legislative Supreme Court. times. You have some things you knew you were going to talk about kind of get stuck somewhere in the mouth, but uh I thank you. >> Yeah, if you're interested in some of those bills, come see me afterwards. I can go
045into my my information. So, perfect. Thank >> Good evening. Um well, in your board pack this week, um or this month, you got to see that we um won the urgent repair grant for $600,000. So, we all worked really hard on that. So many urgent repairs. We're super excited to get the chiller um moving and so that is something that we were awarded the max amount. So, we're all so proud of that. Um Sammy Joe was helpful. She wrote it. Um, and Joe Ganon, our maintenance director, was also very helpful. So, we we've kind of become a little bit of a dream team, as we like to say, in these grants. So, in we have applied for just over 92,000 worth of grants this this year, and we've gotten 642,000 of those grants. We're still
046waiting to hear on uh one more that we have already applied for, and I think we have another one that we're kind of in the works with right now. So, we'll see if we hear about those um anytime soon. And then we move into already we're only like four months into the year, but I already move into and and the board moves into the next budget cycle. So, >> you speak up just a little. >> Yes. Um you're welcome. So, we moving into the next budget cycle 2627. So, I begin building the budget for the review of the board with the board's input. And some of the things that we do when we're looking at building a budget is we have to look at the projected kindergarten numbers. So, we keep an eye on birth
047ca birth rates um and see if there's anything we're expecting or anticipating that's out of the ordinary. I haven't seen anything yet. Um we we partner with our schools to actually have, you know, those kindergarten meetings um sometime in Februaryish to get the kids excited and wanting to come to school. So hopefully we have pretty stable enrollment in kindergarten. Um we also use parent provided information. Uh what are your plans next year? Do you have a change of jobs and you're moving all the way across the country? Are you guys planning on coming back to Riverside? So that helps us with our enrollment projections. And then from a funding standpoint, I know we've talked about it quite a bit, Matt did. Um we I I I'm also in the ledge, not in it, but I'm
048in it where I research it a lot. and we're looking at the different um bills that could impact us. Um unfunded mandates are huge and every citizen can recommend that they not do that to educators anymore because they're they've really um kind of taken over our funding world. The prototypical funding model, that's the model we live under right now. It's not fun um and it's not easy to understand for the public. And there has been talk in recent years like we talked about that that may change at some point. So, um, a lot of the the organizations that we're all involved in are working to see, um, how we can make an impact in that as well. But again, it's a long ramp like Dr. Russell said. Um, and then just hoping not to get
049cut. Really, uh, in this short of a session, that's the best we can hope for. No unfunded mandates and not to get cut. So, we'll keep an eye on those things um, and see where that land lands us. I think it's March 11th. I believe it was the 11th or 12th is the final day. So, it'll be coming up here pretty quick. Then we look at staffing projections and we decide we send out staffing input forms and we ask people to commit to um what they want next year. Are they going to stay in their current position? Are they looking elsewhere? Are they thinking about retirement or resignation to go into a different position? because that helps us really plan for how we can build the budget in the coming months. Um and that'll all
050come into more focus as um uh Ken and I and board all work together to see where the budget comes up. Um these are just a framework like this is just something that we use to really guide the information. We did have an an enrollment increase after our enrollment decrease of 2425. So we are staying pretty stable this year. Um, and just early projections I'll have more mapped out sometime next week and so we'll get into those a little bit more at the next board meeting. So >> question for you. >> Yeah. >> When do you identify what the enrollment is for 2627? >> So I'll have the first projection next week. >> Okay. And then I'll run I mean I'm pretty much running projections as I get the kindergarten information is in as the
051staffing uh input forms come in. But the projections that we run are pretty uh good based on formulas from the last four or five years. Right. Um the the trick is is that it's been kind of not as stable as it used to be. It's been a little more up down up down. So right, >> um, for the past four or five years, people seem to be a little bit more migratory, uh, with their education. Maybe they try something out, come back, you know, and that kind of thing. But, um, yeah, I should have the first preliminary numbers by the end of next week. >> Thank you. >> Lisa, do you mind if I interrupt? >> Yeah. >> Um, I'm Lori Raspersonson, secretary at the elementary. We open registration for kindergarten February 15th. Okay. >>
052Secretary start gathering all that information. We also usually starting in March with our conferences um we start gathering information from our existing families and we ask them if they're returning if they're planning or moving and we document that onto documents so that we can have at least kind of an idea of how many will be returning in the fall or if they're moving whatever. So we we do try to gather that information especially at the elementary levels just because we're bringing in all the new students from the community. >> Sorry if I'm asking you questions. Is there a cut off date to register by? >> No, it goes all the way >> off next next year. >> It's amazing how many people show up the day before school. >> People could show up tomorrow and
053I'd be happy. >> Thank you both. I appreciate it. Lisa, >> I have a question about the grants. Um, what exactly is that cover? >> We're we're anticipating that it covers almost all if not all of it. It's we we reached out to get some information from a vendor and it's our projections are that it will cover 100% of it, if not close to that. So if if there's a shortfall, where is that going to come from? >> So we've been saving fund balance that we've designated in an account for the past two years because um we have a lot of maintenance needs and it will come from that. >> Okay. And uh when you guys do grants, do you uh write in or uh account for inflation and stuff like that? Yeah, I think
054there's an obvious assumption that that would be included in the grants. Yeah, we're hoping that they're shortterm enough. Uh because this one we're really hoping to get done within one year so that the inflation wouldn't be as significant since inflation is sitting around 2.7 2.8% right now. But yes, that is taken into account. >> Okay. >> Yeah, good questions. So for some of the un um funded mandates proposals, >> yes. >> Do we I mean this might be so far reached, but do we have like a doomsday budget scenario if if those unfunded mandates were approved? What that would look like in our district? >> I mean, at this point, there's so many that it would I haven't l mapped out the financial cost of those. I think each one um >> is impactful. >>
055They do a fiscal note on every bill. >> Yeah. >> So they give you a fiscal note on how much it's going to cost, but we're not to that process yet. >> Has to pass through to get the fiscal >> and that's >> and by the way, every mandate costs. >> Yes. >> Not just the unfunded mandates. I don't know why they separate. I mean, every mandate has some cost to it because some person has to >> Is there like a time frame to execute these mandates? >> Um, you should talk to your legislators about >> Yeah, there is. >> Well, and and the fiscal cost that they put on the bills, that's their estimated cost. >> The problem is legislators promises. >> Yeah. And so then they go in and they feel like if
056they don't pass a bill, they don't can't go back. But in a nonfunding state, that's just their work. >> Yeah. >> It's like we're not going to give you any money, but can you not give us any new things then? >> Yeah. >> We can't have it both. >> Yeah. >> But we're more coalesed on that messaging across the state, which I think is good. >> Thanks, Lisa. drink water. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, I want to welcome Erica and Jeremy, Department of Ecology. Uh, please give them a warm welcome. presentation on PAS, which is a notice I send out to the community uh before winter break and make sure that we offer any additional information if people uh have questions or concerns. Just another communication step about what's going on with our drinking water. >>
057Thank you, Ken. As he said, my name is Erica Barzavoy. Um, I do public education and outreach about pollutants in our environment and when people are um, affected by them as the school has been. I live here in Elk and I have kids who go to the elementary school. Um, so I care about this personally as I do about all of our cleanup sites and all the people affected by them. But um, anyway, I'm here tonight with Jeremy Schmidt. He's an environmental engineer and a cleanup site manager. He's going to talk more about PAS. And we're also here with our uh section manager Nick Hack. So, thanks for having us. I'll let Jeremy take it away. >> Thanks, Eric. So, we didn't prepare too much. Um, but I will try to keep this as undry
058as possible. >> It's water. Yeah. So, what we had found through um sampling through the school's required sampling in all three wells at the school and and I'll have a figure of where the wells are and in a well across the street that's owned by the Stevens County Public Utility District. We found generally low concentrations of a chemical called per and poly floor alcohol substances. Um these are man-made substances. They're called POS. You might hear in the news forever chemicals. You've probably heard a lot about this at Fairchild Air Force Base, Spokane International Airport, West Plains. Um, they're they're man-made chemicals and they're in a lot of the products that we use every day. You've heard people talk about Teflon pans or um I I like to think anytime that you need a film for
059something, it's usually POS. So, if you need to waterproof your tent or your shoes or you need to uh put Scotch Guard on your carpet to make it stain resistant, those substance those chemicals are going to have peos in them. Um they're also in like fast food wrappers when you don't want to get your hands greasy from the hamburger or firefighting foam. That's the source on the West Plains generally for the most part. What what it does in firefighting foam is if you have a fuel fire, you spray that on the fuel that's burning and it makes a film and it keeps the oxygen from it immediately puts out the fire. It's a very good product for for safety reasons. Um it's also in waxes, whether that's ski waxes, what you might put on your
060car or how you polish your floors. The two main chemicals are POA, PFOA and PFOS. But like I said, there's 10,000 of them. >> I think I turned it off. >> I probably pushed the wrong button. >> So, here's the well locations. Um, we've been working closely uh with Ken and Joe Ganon, your maintenance lead person. And, uh, Joe, help me understand where your welds are. You have two over in the southwest, one here adjacent to the building we're in. The other circle behind the Dollar General is the PUB well that also is impacted. Now the drinking water standards for POS are in the parts per trillion which I'm not going to remember how many Olympic swimming pools that is one drop in but it's lots of Olympic swimming pools that there's one drop in.
061Um, you can see the drain water standards for the three chemicals that we exceed in this area are four, four, and 10 parts per trillion here. The results in your free wells range. The ranges for those are on the right. I just want to point out these aren't super high, especially compared to anything on the West Plains or or in other areas. These are generally pretty low, but they do exceed the standards. and a little bit about the standards. Toxicology is a really difficult subject. I'm an engineer and it's way beyond anything I can I I can I can grasp. But the idea is for example a four parts per trillion level. You'd have to drink that your entire life and then at that point you'd have a one in a million higher chance of
062getting cancer. So these are incredibly conservative very very low levels. That's it for that one. So these chemicals impact us, impact our health. Um they do that through ingestion. Our skin is really good at not letting POS in. We we get it from the vast majority of our exposure is when we go home tonight and we're all going to get out the non-stick pan and make a stir fry and that's chipping a little bit and we're going to eat it or there's peas in our water and we're going to drink it. We don't get it from showering. We don't get it from hand washing or laundry. It's really ingestion is the main exposure pathway by far. So, I don't know if Ken if you wanted to speak to some of the when we brought this
063to to Ken and Joe, they they jumped as high as you could jump and as quickly as possible to to make some changes at the school to help with the situation. You want to touch on that? >> Yeah. So, what we did with guidance from the Department of Ecology and Department of Health is we put filters on the one station where the bottle fillers are. Uh in some of the buildings, they're connected to the faucet that you can drink out of. In others, they're most of them are one unit. So we we have to continuously update the filters and as long as you have the filters updated, you can drink that water. You can actually put your bottle in there, fill it up, drink it safely. We then had to put sign turn off water
064at other sites and put signs up because kids would still go in and drink it if they didn't if it was on. And so we just instead of putting a sign and trusting a kindergartener or second grader, we just decided to turn the water off at those. And then that forces them to be trained to go to the water bottle filler. We did put some coligan type water in some of the young classes because they're not as good at um following the path of getting to that bottle water water bottle filler. So we have some backups because they were used to drinking in their classrooms and we had to turn those faucets off. And then the other area that water gets in can be ingested is through food preparation. So, we put pretty industrial filters
065on one sink in each kitchen at each of the schools, not Chattery because it's not impacted at Chattery, uh, on the main campus. And so, we're filtering those out. And we're trying to get free ones from the Department of Health because they're kind of spendy and just keep those keep those going. Um, I think that's pretty much it at this point that we're, you know, we're continuing to monitor it. We have to test all the time. um that where is that ranking list uh found? Because you can look at historical data about Riverside School District and pretty much every public entity. What's the site again? >> For the drinking water results. >> Yeah. Yeah. If you search do public water results and then you can you go to the web page and you can enter
066Riverside in. >> Yeah. So, we could put that on our website as well, but that just to try to give you an idea that we usually scored decently, but then we scored badly and then we got back up and we kind of went down again to the point where we had to make some adjustments. >> It's called their PAS dashboard. >> Yeah. >> But this this likely isn't going away. Um we don't know what the source is yet. Um these levels are are low, but they do exceed. So, we've been working with Ken and Joe at the Department of Health to try to There are grant opportunities for class A systems like yours, and we are pushing as hard as we can to to get more permanent filtration here, or there might be other opportunities
067to connect to other water systems or something like that. Um, I think that's really where we're at at this point. Questions from the board? When do you think you would know where this source came from? >> We may never know where this source came from. Um there we we do have some funding for some soil sampling and we we are going to reach out to the school to see if we can get an access agreement with the schools to do some soil sampling. Um perhaps on the fire station property where the school owns um perhaps in the uh drain fields of the school. I recently came across a 1980s publication of abandoned landfills and found that the the quarry I think may be called just to the east of the just to the west of
068the school is an old Deerbark landfill. Um so we're we're trying to do our due diligence to see where we could look, but at these levels it it's likely here to stay and there there likely isn't a huge source. it it could be it could be impossible to actually remediate or even identify where it's coming from. >> Okay. So, thank you. It leads me to the next question in this statement here in the earlier you mentioned it was a forever chemical. So, does that mean it's forever in the water mean it's forever in a person where no as soon as we stop so I'll talk cover the person first as soon as we stop ingestion our body will excrete it over time. It takes a while but we will excrete it over time. Okay. So
069that's why number one thing if you have this in your home if you have it at school stop drinking iron. Um with respect to the forever chemical title that really comes from the fact that it takes decades or hundreds of years to degrade in the environment where all the other chemicals that we've dealt with in the past some can degrade in 10 years or 20 years. This one is more like hundreds or thousands of years. That's why I say we're going to be dealing with this for the long term. um once it's in the ground where the POS likes to sit is the interface between water and air. So it it it it goes into the ground and it stays there and it becomes its own long-term source. So it's going to probably be here
070for a while. Would that mean then that we'd have to keep with filters on one sink and filter on the thing? So, I've been through this with a different chemical with with Ken's brother Randy at Freeman where I went to school. So, you have the two don't. So, um the the best solution in Freeman was to install more of a whole singular filter system at the wellhead. Um so, you're I think all your water vape pipe into one location or something like that. And you know, you could install one larger filtration system, which would be better long term if you got grant funding to do that. That's probably where the grant funding would go. Um, they would probably prefer to do a a singular whole water treatment system. We're not shutting off water in kindergarten
071rooms without calling it. We don't want that. We want to get the whole system clean. Um, that's what they've done in Freeman for a different chemical that they have. Um, alternatively, they're they're, you know, the Stevens County PD. I have no idea if they have capacity, but we all wonder if perhaps there's the ability to hook up to the county at the ED. They had enough capacity to shut off that well that was contaminated. It's tied into a network of other wells. Um so they don't extract from that $100 general. So if they had capacity perhaps that's not you have a estimate on what the cost of that filter would be? I I can make a guesstimate it's it's probably going to be in the $100,000 to $200,000 capital upfront with you know with $50,000
072a year and that again that's a real general guesstimate there there are grants available for class A systems um obviously in my opinion and maybe my opinion doesn't count much but a school with nearly a thousand students I think that's about you 1500 students with 1500 students I think would be at the top of the I would certainly hope so. So I we're we're going to keep pushing. We are actively pushing the Department of Health to uh extend grant funding here to to get this covered. >> What is the maintenance look like for the filters that we currently have? I'm just like thinking ahead like okay well there's going to probably need replaced or >> Yeah. So, what Joe's doing um and what he's explained to us is so they have filter cartridges. They're carbon.
073They're just big British basically that you would use on your counter top at home. They're installed inside of your bottle filling drinking fountains. Um he, you know, they have the number counters on them, >> right? So Joe knows exactly which one is used the most and uh a vendor is sampling the water out of that periodically to see when breakthrough occurs and then replacing all of the filters at that time. As soon as breakthrough goes through as at the one that's used the most all the filters are replaced that correct? >> Yeah. >> What is the cost that we're currently at? >> Do you remember the cost Lisa cost? >> I mean was it >> I think it was about 2,000 bucks a piece. Yeah, >> that's for the kitchen one or is that for
074the actual bottom filling? >> I thought that was for the kitchen. >> I don't know what the little ones are, but I can get that number. >> So, with POS and kind of this coming up, it sounded like a three minute was an issue. Is this isolated occurrences or is this starting to be systemic across the state? So just like at Freeman, the only reason that that community knew that there was a chemical in groundwater was because the school district has a class A well because it's serving so many people. They have certain requirements for sampling. As more sampling occurs, we're going to find more of this everywhere and everywhere. Um, I I think of any any one of your, you know, I live out in the country and there are rural fire training fire
075stations that have a small training facility, but there isn't a class A well anywhere five miles away. Nobody knows what's in that ground pond. So, it's going to keep it's going to keep popping up. Filtering. I live on a well. I don't filter my water. The days of people living on a well and not filtering their water are coming to an end. I was just wondering if it's something that other school districts are are reporting or you guys may have have experience in testing other school districts and it's popping up as an issue with other school districts where just curious is my point of this is just curious this is becoming a budgetary issue for the state where more and more school districts are demanding this as a grant type situation. The only other school
076district I don't know where it's having some sort of ephos issue. They're dealing with their waters at Isiqua. Okay. >> There's the Northbend fire training facility there and school that's impacted there. I think it's just the elementary school, but that's the only school I'm aware of that's dealing with something like this at the moment. >> I think if I remember when I was looking at the dashboard last time, there may have been a detection in Deer Park as well, but I don't think that it's affecting the school that I know of. There's many other municipal wells, Cheni, um, many other municipal wells that are impacted as well. >> Thank you very much. >> Did you mention the contact information? >> Oh, yeah. We did bring um these half sheets over there that have Jeremy and
077my contact information and then they also have links to more information about PAS on website and on the Department of Health's website. So feel free to contact us anytime if you have follow questions. >> Thank you. >> With that we'll move into our superintendent report. >> Okay. Uh, so I know you've heard a lot of information, so I'll keep it brief. But one thing I wanted to let you know is at your charge. Uh, we're going to be starting the engagement around the capital levy, get feedback on what happened, what people's input are is around that. We've started with some staff meetings. We have the inside Riverside newsletter going out this next few days. It's going to go out to the greater community, allow them to go on a QR code or a link and
078give their input on what they reasons they felt the way they did, feedback dice going forward and that'll be part of our budget discussion, you know, when we have the upcoming study session. Uh the other thing we needed to talk about is we have an educational programs and operations levy that is up to expire at the end of this calendar of 27. And so every three years we run a renewal educational programs and operations levy. So I think we really need to engage our community on that before a decision is made on the amount on the taxes on the programs that it pays for just to make sure that we're really trying to do as good a job because some of the feedback we've already gotten is just got to communicate better. We got to
079you get the word out. We got to get it out to people who don't have kids in the schools. They don't understand school finance. They don't understand why they think we have enough money to make those uh make those updates ourselves. Uh so we have to be honor honor all those different perspectives and really do a good job because the educational programs operations levy is not a capital levy. It's actually about 10% of our overall operating budget that pays for staffing programs extracurricular you know that type of thing. Um enrichment type activities. So, we really need to do a great job of working with our staff, our students, our parents, our families, our greater community on understanding that, making some decisions about where we want to go with that. And so, that's a year out.
080Um, so yeah, those will be part of that budgetary discussion. That's and then the last thing is the really excited for you to join the teacher teams that we talked about. A big part of our strategy about improving student learning is improving teaching. obviously. And so we work in teams. Um we we focus on student learning and how can we get better. Iron sharpens iron. We do that through a process of collaboration. And so we'd love to have you join me to walk around and show support at the teachers and and get a better grasp as you're new coming into what what do we currently do? What areas can we improve around student learning? So that's starting next week. Matt and I are going to start at Chadroy on Wednesday. And I know many you
081gave your dates of when you're available. Many of you said you would be able to put that in. You know, we're telling the teachers you're not it's not you're like you're coming in inspecting or anything. You're just learning about what's going on and trying to figure out how we can work together as a team. So anyways, that's pretty much all I have unless you have any questions. So helping us figure out our timing on things. When is the best time for us to start talking about that? Now that's a year out that we can talk about on on Monday. >> Yeah. Yeah. Because I think uh you know it would be great. I know you're committed to trying to build better relationships with the community and not that we don't have good relationships, it's just
082that we you know we're a big area and we have people who maybe aren't connected with the schools and you're representing all of them. So I think uh getting out and about and and uh talking to them and not and staff and students and all the stakeholders about where we want to go and what's reasonable and what's what you know a lot of the issue around the capital levy was cost and taxes and so I think we have to we have to listen and figure out what's going on in people's mind and and we do that before you make your decision because obviously they help decide the direction they're going. So that would be, you know, and that takes a lot of work. So you think about it that, you know, if you if you
083run a February election of next year is when we typically are scheduled already to do, you'd have to make a resolution in December to run it. So you only have we only have from February through December. And uh I think it would be good, you know, you talk about like Andre was talking about committees and making sure you're real clear. Yeah, I think it might be good to get a committee around the levy, the regular levy. You know how we do a facilities advisory committee for the capital levy and the bond when we ran that? It might be good. We never done it with the levy, but it might be good to do it with a levy and just get some input on what, you know, educating people on what it is, but also getting
084some input on what's appropriate and what's what's uh viable. you mean it's a real it's a real challenge because the mission statement is to educate our kids and better our community. So you got to try to find a middle ground that that can kind of meet both those needs if at all possible. So it takes a lot of engagement and I know you're really committed. with that engagement. Exactly. With that uh engagement, one thing that we've done in the past is we've invited people to the school to come talk to us about the levies and then we run the bond or run the levy and find a lot of people that we didn't get a chance to talk to. And that's one thing that that this board is committed to is not asking you to
085come to us and finding ways for us to go to you where you're going to be at and have those discussions. And it might be cumbersome at first. We're not really know what we're doing, but we're going to try. And so if you have thoughts or ideas on where the best places for us to start those conversations are, we'd love to hear it. We'd love to, you know, like some conversation starters that that we can that we can use. Love to hear that as well. >> Yeah. I I was thinking, you know, this group is a little bit more actively involved than some. And so it might be good to give your take on it and for you to, you know, do the oldfashioned face to face or calling on the phone and just not
086being afraid to lay it out there on what you think. um because you might know what's going on and you might be you know obviously you look at these ladies you're very actively involved in and so you probably have a little bit of a better idea on what might work and not work and so and you of many but I think it would be good and we have to be courageous in my mind to even talk to critics because like social media I would love for us to talk to the people on social media actually go old school and like ask them to come meet with this in person or meet them where they're at instead of on social media because then we can at least have a conversation because I mean you got to
087ask might they might they be right but it's hard on social media to do that. So can we be different everywhere else? Um yeah so it's gonna we got to get hit the ground running if I'm on that. >> Yep. Thank you >> Matt. Sorry. >> With your meet the members board members things that you had for those could turn out for our first goound. >> Yep. >> We have a meet the PTO event coming up in February and we're going to have a later meeting than our usual 3 o'clock. So it would be wanted to spend >> on Facebook. >> One thing that helped is is if the like if the church where we met like if their members send out a message on like an email list and said they're going to be
088here. That helps a lot rather than just from the school district because some of them might not be following the school district news. Um but that was helpful. So, um, yeah. >> Questions. >> 5:30 and we have like a pre-registration in the first. So many people are >> We're gonna provide dinner. Yep. In the library. Ken, who was it that you were saying puts out all the events on our calendar, but like they could if they want the board there to contact like for any event. >> Oh, Kaitlin. >> Hey, Kaitlin. >> Kaylin is the >> so excited. All of our board members know how to put it on their phones >> and how to get their district calendar on their events. >> They know exactly where the stuff is. >> Yeah, that's what I
089was getting. And if there's an event that you want the board, send it to her. She'll get >> even if you don't want the board, I'll still probably put it somewhere. >> I move on to business. Can I get a motion regarding the district for culture contest on January 30th 30th and 31st, 2026? Go ahead. >> We'll make a motion for the >> second and and just just just because we're new and we're learning the processes and stuff. So, we don't take every single trip to the port, but overnight trips and out of town trips. So that's that's usually what you and then in your packet just for all of you to know there's details about it. I mean, two of you are involved in the FFA booster club. So, you kind of know about
090anything related to you probably not this. Okay. So, move second to pass the district contesting students on January 30th 31st. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Any >> opposed? I get a motion for the pass the cheer state Nina D. Ro taking two adults taking 15 students to battleground for the state cheer contest. I'd like to make a motion for cheer state to take the students to the battleground for cheer state contest. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. We pass the tree going to battleground Washington for the state cheer contest. Any discussion? Also, same kind of thing, you know, when it comes to state travel and uh super excited about cheer hardest working program in the school and so we got a chance. >> I have one comment on that.
091So, it looks like we're renting a vehicle. >> We're renting two and then using one of our district. >> Yeah. Well, that that's kind of what I was going to say is do we have district vehicles? >> We have one district vehicle. Yeah, >> one. >> Correct. Well, we technically have two, but it only fits four students and one adult. So, it's not worth it. >> We don't have like a van. >> We have one van that fits nine people and there's 15 going, so we had to rent two other vehicles to be able to accommodate the coaches and students. >> Okay. >> And it's cheaper than a bus. >> Cheaper than a bus. We are work are we not currently examining with Alyssa a possibility of a grant funded other van? >> Yes. So
092Clint and I just spoke about that today and she's working on getting us the information. We just got um the other van the van that we're taking last year through a grant. So we'll see how this one >> kind of thinking like renting these vehicles. Yeah. The cost of it could Yeah, >> busing with bus driver paying overnight and we love our bus drivers. So is a little bit more of an expensive model >> and so but vans aren't perfect but it would be nice to get one more >> for sure. >> All those in favor say I. I >> opposed. Motion carries. Sir, can I get a motion regarding the early learning center? >> Second pass adjustments. Any discussion? So, uh, this is an annual kind of review and if you're not familiar, we
093offer three early learning programs. The first one is ECAP, which is a state grantf funded program and then the second one is the developmental preschool. So, it's for students with disabilities who has access to a program. And then the third is the thrive by five, which is actually really unique. It's a paid to attend program. Not many districts have it. So the three together in one center all working together and we get good results from it. The char the we pay we charge the parents to be involved in the thrive by fund because there's no funding for it. We are the cheapest deal in town. So if you look at uh the cost, the reason that we're Travis the director is recommending a $20 a month increase is because of inflation because you have to
094pay the teacher, you have to, you know, pay the support staff, you have to buy the materials, and everything's more expensive each year. Try not to go too crazy because daycare and early learning is really expensive. But have you seen the amount that we're asking for? I mean, it's right. Don't you think it's >> it's pretty cheap. It's a hundred bucks a month >> per program >> and the rates haven't they have not been >> That's great after all. That's wonderful. >> Okay. >> And the rates haven't been increased um in a long time. Like I don't know the last time but definitely in the last three to five years they have not been increased. So this would be the first increase in a while. >> Still slight. Yeah. So, one of the things I
095read and getting this wrong was one of the cuts that governor's proposal for budget was thrive by five. So, was that was that so I'm pretty sure that's what I read is one of those cuts would be thrive by five. How would that potentially I mean obviously we don't know yet what that factor is but how could that potentially impact our >> uh so it's actually not Thrive by five because Thrive by five is our own Riverside program it's transition to kindergarten >> so a couple years ago school the legislature uh created a new law around the opportunity to add transition to kindergarten. So there was evidence that if you have some early learning experiences, kids do better when they enter kindergarten. So some districts had no programs at all. So we have ECAP as
096our main program and then develop our preschool and drive by five. So I feel good now that we didn't add transition to kindergarten because it's getting cut. Okay. But transition to kindergarten, the difference between that and ECAP is that it requires a certificated teacher. >> Okay? and ours requires a degree, but it doesn't require a teacher certificate. And ours still requires training and so on. And u but the districts that have added transition to kindergarten have had success, but now that is like considered by the legislature to be not a basic ed thing. So it's an add-on. And so they're now some bills are trying to reduce >> the trans. So it doesn't impact us at all. Not that we don't care about the other districts because that's tough. It is good for kids but
097we don't have the program. Gotcha. So, thank you. >> I was just curious that for the two day a week it's going up 20 and also for the 4 day a week it's going up the same amount. So, I was just >> Oh yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. >> Some parents might that are on the two day a week go why is >> the percentage higher? Yeah. >> Should it be double? I don't say it's still >> I think either way when you look at the rates were far below the market and um I think um when Travis and I spoke about it the recommendation of the board is that you know he's like well you know people can afford $20 I don't want to go anymore and I'm like yeah like we don't
098want to go anymore we don't want to go any less so I think maybe we just kept it the same for both because of that and we hadn't done an increase in the recent years. >> If I was might going to pay the same amount my child only goes two days a week. When do we start charging for next year? >> Uh we start charging in September. >> So we have time if we wanted to change you. You have ultimate authority. Anything that comes to you is a recommendation. I I don't know if I want to be party one on that, but >> yeah, I think um it's a community program that is very good and I would say that those rates are something that we need to sustain it for both um for both,
099but we could look at doing a different um allocation. We could raise, you know, the 4day 30 and the 2-day 10 if that would make everyone more comfortable. We can table that for now and discuss it or we can um or you guys can move forward with it. >> Yeah, that could be one option is to approve it as a baseline and then maybe ask Travis to check in on the families >> just see how they feel about it >> about it and if it ends up being a major issue, we could revisit it. We have time before September. >> Okay. >> Is that okay? >> Okay. >> Yeah, I'll do it. >> So, is there amending on the tables? Maybe in the notes we could put that it's approved but that we're gonna have
100Travis check in with the families >> and get us some feedback. I mean or you I don't care what you really we have time >> or just general fact that it needs to increase by a little bit. >> Yeah. I mean it's a legitimate question. No I >> don't have question. >> I just I mean yeah. >> Yeah. So no, you could change it and and revise it to 20 or 40. You could you could decide to not pass it and give more information. You have the choice of those. Just say bring it back with feedback. It's up to you. You have you can't change. So is there a motion to amend the table or approve? But if there if there's nothing no additional um changes then I mean I think if there's some concerns
101that the um parents will look at that as a disparity then I I think we should move to table it until we find you know get the information. We have till September to implement this. So it's not a huge rush to pass it now. So I move that we >> until we Is there a second? >> Second. Okay. It's been moved and seconded that we table the motion for the earliest learning center price adjustments. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Would you like uh when would you like the information back? >> Next general meeting. >> Okay. So, a month. >> Okay. With that, we'll move into executive session. How long? 30 minutes. Recess first. >> Thank you all for coming. >> Thank you all for speaking up better. >> Appreciate it.
102Hey, thanks for your >> Do you need help?