001Good evening. I'd like to call to order the Coupeville School District Board of Directors regular meeting for Thursday, April 24th, 2025. Please rise and join me in the flag salute. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic justice for all. Just as a reminder, this meeting will be recorded and available on the district's YouTube channel and website. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda as presented? I move to adopt the agenda as presented. Second. Been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda as presented. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries. Um at this time, we'll move to reading our district land acknowledgement and our district equity statement. And I'd like to um invite Director Connor to read the Coupeville School District land acknowledgement statement. schools
002are located on the ancestral lands of the lower statuted people. For thousands of years, most tribes have stewarded these lands, waterways, plants, and animals. We pay respect to the elders past, present, and emerging for they hold the memories, traditions, and cultures of their people across the nation. Hoopil schools are committed to educating students, staff, and the community about this long history as we honor and acknowledge the continued presence of the Swanomish Indian tribal community and all other indigenous people. Thank you. I'd like to invite Director Murwine to read the Coupeville School District equity statement. The Coupeville School District, equitable, and inclusive working and learning community for all, whether about race, I'm going to go in the room, language, immigration status, culture, sexual orientation, gender identity, class, ability, or a combination of these. All students deserve
003to be respected for who they are and acknowledged for the strengths they bring to our learning community. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is adoption of the consent agenda. Is there any item a board member wishes to remove from the consent agenda? Hearing none, we'll call for a motion. I move that we approve the consent agenda. Second motion. It's been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda. All those in favor? I. All those opposed? Motion carries. At this we'll move on to um public comment. If you didn't have a chance to sign up and would like to, the public comment sheet is on the podium before we pull it off. The total total time for the public comment period 21 minutes. Um each speaker will have a maximum of 3 minutes. Public comment
004period is an opportunity for the board to listen to indiv individuals on educational issues. However, the public comment period is not a time for dialogue between the board and the public. The board will not respond to statements, questions, or challenges made during public comment period and there will be no back and forth dialogue. Please know that the board silence is neutral. It's neither a signal of agreement or disagreement with the speaker's remarks. Although the board will not engage in dialogue, the board chair may ask the speaker a clarifying question or if it's possible that a school staff can contact the speaker to follow up on an issue later. And finally, please remember your words have an impact and that you're legally responsible for your words. And we ask you to help us model for our
005students what a respectful and inclusive community looks and sounds like. Which brings me to our first um sign up on public comment, which is Miss Laura Callahan. Hi, thank you for listening. What I'm going to say won't be easy for anyone, but it comes from a place of deep care and love for the kids of Kootville. This has taken a lot of thought and reflection, but it is rooted in a love for the kids, our school, and our community. I'm here today not just as a parent, but as a Kville alumni, as someone who spent the last two and a half years in our schools volunteering, mentoring, and getting to know our students and staff. When my daughters arrived at Krooil Middle and High School, they were welcomed in. Public uh public school was new
006to them and there was hesitation. But the care they were given and the sense of belonging they experienced made our school feel special. It was safe. They weren't just a number. They had a name. They were important, valued, and my girls were known. Sadly, in the past six months, under new leadership, that spirit has faded. We have shifted from a culture of connection and individuality to one that seems to be driven by compliance, control, and fear. Our new culture feels more like a behavioral correction center than a place of belonging for our kids. It is sad to see youthful enthusiasm quenched to enhance an image or when rules supersede relationships. Parents and students have shared they feel the new model of leadership seems to have a bent to intimidation and coercion. Our leadership should be
007modeling the behavior we want from our students. We should not be teaching our kids just to comply. We should be inspiring them, allowing them to ask questions, wrestling with the big things in life, giving them space to grow, providing a safe space to fail and still be protected and loved. That is what real education looks like. That is how true change is made. In addition, many staff no longer feel safe or supported. Talented educators we love are leaving our kids not because they don't love their work or their students, but because the climate has become toxic. This isn't just speculation. This is real and it's impacting our kids in a very negative way. And what is worse, the silence. Decisions are being made behind closed doors, dismantling a student first approach with no explanation. Families
008are in the dark. Staff are afraid to speak up. The lack of transparency is unacceptable. We are told to trust the process, but what we see or what we're seeing does not inspire trust. Good families are leaving. I'm one of them. I'm planning to pull my youngest daughter from Kukall at the end of this year without any significant changes to our school district. As this is no longer a safe place for her, we want we all want safety, inspiration, and growth for our kids. But that cannot be achieved through fear and control. It takes respect, transparency, and collaboration from the top down. Superintendent Leatherwood, this school was not broken. It did not need a culture change. It needed leadership that would listen and support its people. You inherited a dedicated staff who loved kids and
009our comm and our community who supported them. But the leadership model being used is driving our people away. If you can't see the damage that's being done, I urge you to reconsider if this is your place. Kville School Board, your silence is being noticed and is taking is being taken as inaction. I urge you to ask hard questions and look deeper. Talk and listen to our staff and to the parents. Good people are taking their kids elsewhere for a reason. Staff are walking away. Our students are losing people they trust. Find out why. I have letters from those who want their voices heard but are hesitant to speak out due to fear of retaliation to themselves or to their child. I will be sending those to the board. My understanding is that none of our
010board members have their children in Koopill's middle and high school at this time. So I'd ask you to listen to those of us who do. Things are not good. We are not all okay. Students, parents, and staff are upset, scared, and scared of the path our school is on. We are losing trust. Thank you. Next person on public comment is Miss Vanet Vanessa Matros. Um, good evening board. Thank you for your time tonight, your leadership, and during this such a challenging budget season. I know the decisions that you're making are not easy, and I appreciate the care and the intentionality that you bring to each one. I'm here tonight to speak in support of Coupeville Open Academy and urge you to fully consider the consequences of relocating it to the main campus. Um, I also
011sent a letter out that you got ahead of this. I can't fit everything into three minutes. Nancy, yours bounced back. So, if you didn't get it, if Shannon or Morgan Okay, perfect. Uh, DOA isn't just a program. It's a refuge. It serves students who haven't thrived in traditional schools, often due to trauma, mental health struggles, or unstable home lives. Some students have been expelled from other districts, or even currently trespassed from campus in school grounds. For them, Open Academy isn't just a second chance, it's an only chance. The off-campus location is not a luxury. It's a foundation for the program success. The physical and psychological distance from the traditional school environment allows students to re-engage without reliving past experiences of failures, bullying, exclusion or school related anxiety. We have students that are so anxious just
012to walk on campus that they would not come back if it is on campus. It provides a safe space where trust can be built and learning can happen. And its proximity to the juvenile detention center isn't incidental. It enables a powerful and productive relationship between Koopill School District and the JDC school program. The connection with JDC supports students re-entering school after involvement with the justice system. It's a model of what re-engagement can look like when we meet students where they are, both literally and figuratively. Nationally, open doors in ELA ELA programs like COA have been shown to improve credit recovery, graduation rates, and long-term student success when they're built with intention and flexible flexibility. Locally, COA helps to meet your own goals that the district has set around equity and inclusion and graduation rates. Financially,
013the program is self- sustained. With current enrollment, I would estimate it probably generates around $540,000 a year and operates at approximately $150,000 out of that enrollment budget. Those are estimates. You welcome to correct me if I'm wrong. Even if relocating saved approximately $50,000 in rent and utilities, which would be my estimate of where the savings would be, losing just five students, just five out of that program would erase those financial savings. And that doesn't count the long-term impact of pushing even one student out of education. And it's something we simply can't afford. Many COA students won't be here tonight to speak. They're not here to speak for themselves. Some don't have adults that will speak for him or on their behalf. But that's why your leadership matters so much in making this decision. So please
014don't dismantle what's working. Let's protect this space, this model, and this opportunity for our students that need it the most. Thank you for your time. You Moving on to reports and communication. And first item on report and communication is our learning spotlight with Miss Sherman and all of her amazing young authors. Thank you for having us. It's been a long time since uh young authors have presented. This has been a pretty amazing Why don't you guys turn around? We're going to we're going to present to the board. Okay, perfect. This has been an amazing young group of students uh that we're working with. Young Authors has been I talked to Susan Marches who ran it before I did um at least 30 years because all three of our sons were in it and we actually
015had a budding author on the board there. Um I found his young author's book titled The Basketball Star. And uh Mr. Sherman liked sports and his favorite sport was basketball and football. His favorite basketball team was the Bulls and his favorite football team were the Cowboys. Do you like cats and dogs? You like Star Wars. So anyway, it's been around a long time. This is my 20th year and um I'm still loving it so much. Um you can go ahead and go to the next slide. So I have a quote on our classroom wall that says, "Books are just made of aren't just made of words. They're also filled with places to visit and people to meet." During our young author's journey, we traveled to many places, both real and imaginary. We were transported into
016far into the future by being sucked into a watch, took an elevator ride to a mysterious animal island hidden in a hotel basement and embarked on a fantastical adventure to change an identity only to discover along the way that they were perfect just as they were. We sailed aboard a ship during the age of exploration on a humorous journey that led to the invention of the game Marco Polo. There was even a mysterious love story. We met magical wizards, powerful robots, and athletes who discovered confidence through hardship. Animals and even food were personified as the imaginations of these amazing young writers sword. And these are the 17 students who participated. Uh we had fourth and fifth graders this year. So the the main thing with young authors is just to foster a love of learning
017or a love of writing. Um, oftentimes when you talk to students about their least favorite subject, it's writing. And so, it's been really fun to have students that want to come in and want so badly to write. Um, we enhance literacy skills through the use of mentor texts, looking at the craft of um, of other professional authors. Um, we empower students to express themselves creatively but within the limits of a um a plot structure and um which I think has been helpful but they get to be extremely creative um and we've been able to um build confidence and provide the students with tools and they each have a young author's notebook which I know some of the students have told me they even use later when they're um in other grades because it's filled with
018the tools that we need um in literacy. So um the kids all wrote down some things about young authors and I just loved these quotes so I I picked a few. Um one was from Matthew. Matthew is here with us today. I finally found where I belong. And I also like that I wrote a book. Um Arley is here with us today. There's Arley. Can you raise your hand? There's Arley. Sometimes it takes many drafts to write something, but in the end it's worth it. and they were able to meet authors who were able to uh let them know that um it takes a long time to write a book. And Audrey's not here tonight, but she said you can let your imagination soar. You can write a story about almost anything, whether it be
019robots taking over the world to unicorns having a party in the clouds. So, the rest of the presentation will be the students presenting. And I'd like um Alec Christie to come up first. Hello. Um, my name is Alec Christie and this is my first year in the Young Office program. I'm going to talk about meeting Eldrich Black, author of the Weird Be Island series. Eldidge Black came to a young author meeting, talked to us about how to properly describe our characters, places, and objects. We got a little booklet where we had to describe a monster smell, um, what it looked like, what it ate, what its name was. um what it sounded like. Reading Elders Black was overall a very cool and fun experience. Thank you. And it was really fun for the kids when
020we went to the Young Author's Conference. Eldridge walked in. He was like, "Oh my gosh, you're here again." So, they got two experiences with him and it was kind of fun because he knew all of you. So, it's kind of fun to know a famous author. Um okay. Um, uh, Juniper is going to come and speak to the next two slides about our young writers conference. Hi, I'm Juniper and this is my second year in Young Office. Um, in March we visited we, um, were invited to attend a young writers conference at the educational service district in Anaportis. We learned a lot of really amazing things. One activity we did was called pi. We did not eat pie. I assure you though that would be nice. We got to draw a picture of a pie.
021Then we got taught what it stood for. Pi stands for persuasive, informational, and entertainment. This taught us an easy way to remember these three kinds of writing. We also got some free time to write poems, stories, and really anything else involving writing. After we did this, we got to present what we worked on during that time. This really helped us, especially for me to practice public speaking. Thank you. Now, the um the next six students are going to come up and they're going to show you their book and just do a real quick blurb. So, uh, Faith. Hi, I'm Hi, I'm Faith. This is my third year on authors. What I love about the program is how we get to go to the conference and do a whole bunch of other fun things and we
022get to meet authors. I wrote the book I wrote is titled The Extinction of Robots. My book Blurb is about two sisters named Jade and Mila and they travel the future and they find out that robots control everything and they have to figure out how to stop them before they control the world. Next up is Raina. Hi, I'm Raina. This was my third year in Young Authors. What I love about the program is that you get to write about whatever you want to. The book I wrote was titled A Special Delivery. My book Blurb is about two sisters that want to deliver a very special gift to their dad in California. The only thing stopping them from getting there was because they missed their flight, but they were determined to get there on time. Uliy
023Hi, I'm Ulie. This is this was my second year in Young Authors. What I love about this program is I get to use my imagination and put it into a story. I also found a project that I really love writing. The book I wrote is titled Animal Island Adventure. My book Blurb is about a girl in a wheelchair named Susie. She clicks a button to the bottom floor of an elevator and ends up in a magical land. She becomes friends with animals. Then she gets stuck in the elevator and the animals save her. Susie and her parents then move to Animal Island. Finally, they live there forever and ever, but they do invite friends over for parties. Hey, Eva. Hi, I'm Eva. This was my third year in Young Authors. What I love about the
024program is that it prepares us for being actual authors. The book I wrote is titled The Two Hammers. My book My book blurb is that Autumn and Charlie Relington go to a school that has an evil school principal. But when another world appears, they must team up with the air in the night and Skyward and the Alicorn to strike the two hammers and save the world. Matthew Hi, I'm Matthew Ner Richards. This was my first year in Young Authors. What I love about the program is that you can write a book on anything that you'd like. Everyone can get you from for who you are instead of just a kid that writes things. The book I wrote is titled The Wizard's Wings. My book blurb is the main characters named Jewel Rosales. She was born
025with wings, abandoned by her parents when they wondered what would be best for this kid. Became the moon wizard and struggled to keep herself under control. She is the main idea of the war nicknamed the war of wings. The inspiration uh was my love for magic and the other half the inspir of this inspiration was because I loved that I love Greek mythology. Arley. Hi, I'm Arley. This was my first year in Young Authors. What I love about the program is we get to learn more about ELA. The book I wrote is titled Journey's Decision. My book blurb is Carlos, a dog decides that he is not satisfied with just being a dog. So, he decides to go on a journey to change what type of animal he is. But the potion is on the
026other side of the world. Although once he gets there, he realizes that everyone is unique in their own way. And for him, being a dog was enough. Uh you would have been so proud of how they represented us. Kville Elementary School at the conference. Um they I I got feedback from the ESD. They were just amazing and had fun. And I'm going to miss well some of you will be back next year. So, but I'm going to miss I'm going to miss those of you who move on. So, does anybody have any questions? No. I just So, yeah, your story lines are so creative and I wish that I could read through all of them. So, we're so proud of you guys. Thank you for sharing with us your work. Really cool. Thank you so
027much. Uh jumping on to the next item under reports and communication and I just would like to invite our families if you uh would like to leave feel free. Thank you so much for coming. Yes. highlight of our night. Uh we don't have any administrator reports this evening. Taking us to the next item under reports and communication which is our business manager report. Turn that over to Mr. Gianelo. Okay. Well, this is the uh financial report for the month of April and this board meeting. So, go ahead to the next slide. Uh again, keeping in mind as we go through the financials, uh our pillars, our values, and our district goal. Want to keep those in mind as we progress through. We are going to start with an update on enrollment. Now, these are enrollment
028numbers through April of 2025. We're going to take a look at enrollment. And as you can see by this chart, it's pretty much following the same trend lines that we've had in the past. Uh but overall that blue line at the top with the red diamonds as markers, we are you know above uh any historical revenue enrollment amounts that we've had in the past. So uh really continue to see an increase in enrollment. Uh but traditionally there is sort of a trend where the February to June months February to May kind of decline a little bit and we're seeing that same trend continue. Go ahead to the next slide. Since it is kind of the time of budgeting, we thought we'd go look at these a little bit more uh in detail. So here is
029your basic education on the lefth hand side enrollment numbers over the past several years. You see all the way back to 20134 where it was around 892 or just basic ed and where it just sort of follows this trend. You do have a dip kind of in 202021 uh time frame co but those numbers really have rebounded strongly here uh nicely. You're not experiencing a any gradual decrease. So that's a good thing. Um of course it's this is broken out more from basic education numbers. Uh, oh, I should point out too that 2425, that's what we budgeted for. So, we did, you know, we talked about that a little bit. We were conservative in our, uh, enrollment last year during the 2425 budget. Um, the only thing with that is that we do wait till
030January to get an increase to actual uh, from the state. But then you can see the other programs too that we've had here. AL's new new this year. So, that's why sort of a pilot test, but we had some activity there for the first year. open doors running start and that'll get you to your total basic ed uh number TK TTK program is new so that's why you'll just see that for the 2425 year uh and of course you can see those CT numbers as well um really lastly on the list is special education uh which I don't know if we talked about much but I think it's good time to start looking at those numbers a little more closely because what you'll see there is hovering around 150 for the most part for several
031years. Uh really why we budgeted last year for 150, but past two years there's a a large spike as you can see there. Uh we're we're I think even actually hovering around 200 special ed students. So that's something that we'll have to talk more about through the budget season here. Um so yeah, that the difference uh between budget to actual numbers is given there. Um overall since we did budget conservatively in basic ed we talked about this before but you'll see the total BA number we were only you know off by about two um all in tal about that too but thought this was good timing to to play closer attention to our enrollment. So we can go to the next slide. This is somewhat of the same information just in more of a bar
032graph format. So again, you can see that visual overtime broken out into the some different programs, basic ed, special ed, DTE, career technology education classes, and then of course AL. Notice there's not much activity because AL is new. But again, you have the red what we budgeted for, the blue bars is what our actual numbers are, and then all the green is is previous year activity. So you can see again uh we have strong enrollment numbers which is a a positive thing. So with that we are going to move into the financial report uh where we're at based on March. So even though our enrollment data we have through April because of count these are the financials uh to date as of March. Um we're a little over half of the way through. This is
033kind of our quick uh barometer check for on a separate couple different levels for revenues to date, expenditures to date. Um have cash flow and the fund balance that we'll kind of talk about a little bit more. But all all trend lines and indicators are are our activity is showing consistent with past trends. I would say go next slide. This is the general fund update of our financials year-to- date again through March. So, um you can see where total ending fund balance for the month uh is there at the bottom just under $1 million. Next slide. These slides are just going to break down revenues and expenditures. I think we've talked about this before, but it's still can't highlight it enough. You can notice in public school districts how the revenues come in for each
034month. Again, we are following past trends pretty accurately. We had a a slight different trend some earlier months there, but we talked about that largely in part due to the federal grants uh and the new software. We weren't able to claim them in December and then all of a sudden we finally were able to claim basically September through December in January. So that's really why you see a large spike there. Uh but now we're following into those trend lines I think a little more accurately here as we continue to do uh monthly grant claims. You see the monthly revenues come in big spikes in October and April. We're almost getting to April uh is due to local levies come in tax collections. So that's when we're going to see uh the largest amount of revenue
035come in. Um you'll notice it then dips off May June time frame because that's the way state aortionment comes in. Uh is really in that July August. We get the most of state aortionment in July and August. Uh there's actually even legislation out there that's making me more and more nervous. Is they're going to increase that uh possibly if that passes it looking like it is uh where we would uh have even a larger dip in May and June and and more aortionment coming in in July and August. So uh that's interesting. But go ahead to the next slide. So that's revenues. Uh expenditures you'll note is a much different look. Uh that's because we still have to pay payroll every month, utility bills, those are consistent. So even though our revenues come in sporadically,
036uh our expenditure is a little bit more steady. Again, that's uh that the fact of why you need a fund balance uh school districts slide. This breaks down the expenditures uh a little more in detail. Again, this is monthto date through March. These are actual expenditures that we uh spent on the different categories. Again highlighting the fact that the majority 8 86% school district budgets and finances uh expenditures are uh on salaries and benefits in the people business. So our budget budget sign this is just looking at the same information in a different way. uh same numbers just showing it bar graphed out where you see certificated salaries. You can compare it to some past years. Uh but really again that's what you see in past years as well. The the salaries and benefits make
037up the majority of the budget and f and revenues and expense expenditures. school districts. Uh what we usually refer to as MSOcks are those supplies, services, travels, travel and and you can see there's just a lower amount of the overall expenditures there. Uh this was an important one for us to watch this year. Um but you can see where we did make reductions last year. This this is the effect of those reductions. We are above that dotted line which is you know where we were falling with our cash flow throughout the year. We were dipping below that. We needed to borrow from capital projects funds. Everything uh here we're tracking and and projecting and not looking like we're going to need to borrow from any of the funds at this time. We continue to follow
038that trend line as this year continues. fun. That being said, you know, there is a board policy 6% uh of expenditures or fund balance is the minimum fund balance policy. You can see here we're not at that 6% fund balance. So even though we don't have to borrow from other funds, we're still don't have that minimum 6% fund balance in any month. March. You can see we're getting a little closer to it, which is interesting. But, uh, a lot more to go. And with legislation changing as well, this is definitely something we want to talk about as time progresses. And I think we we've had the question, is it 6% at the start and end or is it 6% all through the year? I mean, oh, so I guess I that's I think maybe worth
039clear. you think the policy is throughout the year? Uh it's budget. I I I will stay out of that one because that that is a topic of discussion. But uh I know as it's written, you know, what we do is it's it's 6% of budgeted expenditures. Right. So that so that's an interesting I know other districts sometimes will say or is it 6% of actual expenditures or like you're saying is it at the is it where we end up at the end of the year 6%. Um, should it be we need to be 6% or more monthly? Um, I've seen diff different districts have different interpretations of that. Uh, but I think a lot of districts in this financial times are reooking at exactly that. Um, not just on gosh, should it be a higher
040percentage, but exactly what you just brought up. There's different ways to uh mark that or or measure that different ways to do that. The charts that you charts that you make um are really good measures for that. I mean you need to have enough so that you don't have to borrow money get through a month and so that may take six% some months it might take 8%. You can follow that on the charts that you provided. Correct. It's a conversation to keep having at the policy and level. But what I'd love to see in the long run would be to restrict 6% of budgeted expenditures and not touch it. So that would mean throughout the Well, we're not at either. So it's all hypothetical at the moment. We're going in the right direction. Correct. But
041yeah, correct. No, that was great discussion. Continue to have that. Um, this slide is a great slide. Uh, because what does all that mean? kind of putting it in different terms. Even though this is based on a month, so we were looking at it monthto- month how we mentioned before, hey, we're at 5% for the month of fund balance. What that really means is we have enough revenues and we had to close down today to operate for 14 days. We pay the bills for 14 days and then be out of money. So that's really what that 5% equates to and puts it in perspective how we need to continue to have those discussions. That's the fund balance. That's the general fund. Uh we do want to leave out these other smaller funds or not smaller
042in size but just we refer to them as smaller funds. Uh less activity I guess but capital projects here is a big one. We continue uh to finish up projects and complete projects. So anticipating to see more uh of those invoices coming in now. Uh there's usually just a delay even the projects are done. You know the takes a while for the contractors and everybody to get their bills in. U we'll start seeing that. Uh the debt service fund in June we will make the final payment of our non-voted debt and essentially be debtree if you will in the debt service fund. That's a good thing. ASB we continue to have activity and in transportation vehicle fund although we have an uning balance over 200,000 we have purchased the bus haven't paid for it yet
043but I hear we're doing the licensing now and uh should be arriving pretty soon I remember Rob saying end of May end of May so we'll have a new big yellow to add to the fleet here soon and uh we'll pay so um that was it for that I did want to Excuse me. One other thing in is just uh the audit is underway. You guys I board should have gotten emails. Everyone should have gotten emails uh sending out the entrance information about the audit. Yeah. Yeah. They they also messed up Brian's email. So yeah. Yes, we discovered that. I'll get it forwarded to Okay, good. Uh but I can give you a quick update. Although you got the entrance documents, my understanding they've been working with me since uh spring break roughly. They kind
044of come in and do a preliminary meeting where I'm I have to we provide them a lot of the just basic information that they're used to. Uh and then they take that information and determine exactly what they want to audit, if you will, what they want to sample. So it's moving along pretty well. Um, the what you guys got in the email is in summary, we're actually under a it's a two-year cycle accountability audit. So, that's something that we're we have going this year. We have a annual yearly financial statement audit, which is pretty standard. Then we have that third audit for single compliance and that is when we spend over $750,000 or more in federal dollars which we did when now we have that single audit that has to take place. They've chosen the
045child nutrition cluster. So essentially your food service grants the federal funding that we get there and they've chose ESSER. Yes, we had the last it was a smaller amount uh $80,000 I think but they chose the last of the er fund dollars to audit there for the two-year accountability audit. They're looking at account payable uh aortionment open public meetings. So sorry board meeting agendas and minutes uh and then they're looking at our financial condition uh reviewing for indications of financial distress. So that's a two or three year cycle. They're right now we're on a two-year cycle with that. So that's kind of an added uh I think that's the most you can have going on in any one year is those three different audits. Um but we're moving along pretty well. We'll see more of
046that for updates in the future. Any questions on that? Yes, we do in those. No, no, no. Good. in you must be reading the email in the email they that's the thing the scope of work um they work with me since uh spring break preliminary information so once they decide what they're going to audit they're able to provide a cost estimate for that as well I should mention this though the one we're doing a hybrid this year so that is why hopefully we'll actually be some cost savings there they're not traveling out here for the full audit uh that puts a little bit more on us to scan things over to Uh, but it's going pretty well. We're able to keep up as best we can, but that will keep cost down because it's hybrid.
047Any other question? Any other questions? Thank you so much. All right, moving on to our next reports and communication is our superintendent report. All right, go ahead, Will. back to the strategic plan. Yeah. All right. So, there we go. Uh so, as you know, our strategic plan, our vision is to prepare every student for their future. Um my report this month is really talking about some some ways that we're preparing students for their future and the people who contribute to that um future for our students. And so um this uh in the last few weeks um one uh OSPI came out with a release yesterday um recognizing us one of five districts in the state of Washington to receive the Purple Star award. Um this is a prestigious award um through the state. We will
048be receiving this both at our ne our state conference and also at the awards um cere ceremony through WASA. Um it's really designed around um recognizing um that we go above and beyond to partner with um our naval um base and also with our our families and our students um to ensure that transition and ensure that um they are receiving care and and really um coordinating with the people there at Woodby um Woodby Island. So, um we're very grateful for that and um it was a a nice to see that we were we were honored. Oak Harbor was one of the first ones. Last year was the year that um it it began and so we're we're one of the five districts that this year. Um also, we celebrated our um bus driver appreciation and
049um we did a a shout out. There were many treats that were delivered to them this week, but as you know, they're the first to greet our students and they're last um to say goodbye to our students each day. And a lot of times that sets the tone for their learning, that sets the tone for their day. And so we really appreciate we have fabulous um bus drivers um and they're doing an exceptional job to ensure that our students come safely both emotionally and safe and um also return home that way. And then um finally, we have a group going to Skills UA and Nationals. Go ahead and and go through this. The next slide that I put on here is um I'm going to talk about the Skills USA, but this one in particular
050just kind of goes over what the um Purple Star award is around. And so, um, really, um, if you can go on to our social media and see what we posted about the purple star, also has, um, Chris Reagd Doll's, um, announcement for that yesterday and then, um, who the five recipients were. But, um, really it's around, um, Kville School District continues to devel to develop comprehensive support systems to address academic, social, and, emotional needs of our mil military connected students facing transit. And that's really the goal for all of those schools, ensuring that they're partnering. And on the next one, this is just pictures of our bus drivers. Um we have some fabulous bus drivers and um I we have brought on a few this year. I know that many of you know that
051um we had um Kathy Bennett retire. She's still on as a substitute and so she's she's highlighted there. We've also brought on some substitutes this year and um some per permanent drivers this year. And so we're very proud that we're one of very few districts that are actually not in um the area of going we don't have enough bus drivers, but we're always looking for more substance. So we're very proud of the the crew we have. They're very dedicated. So, our Skills USA um they're going to um Atlanta, Georgia um on June 23rd through the 27th. And we have a senior Pam Pamela Morurell who's going freshman um Alex or Alexandra Low, a freshman Max, thank you. Um eighth grader Betty Woolworth, and then another eighth grader, Natalie Driscoll. And um we're very proud because
052this is the first year that we've participated. And um when we looked at the state competition and how Coupeville represented um for such a small district, we noticed that you know some of the large districts in the state, we had just as many students represented that state as they did. So it was a very great first year turnout and we're very excited for them to to um participate in that. question. I did want to mention one other thing. Um, Saturday we have a lot going on in Cookville and so we have a double header. Our uh fast pitch team is doing very very well and they have a double header. Our baseball team has um is also playing on Saturday. We have our farm to school potluck on that day at the same time. And
053then we also have our garden club um plant sale. So, it's going to be um very full down in here and parking's going to be a premium. So, if people are going to all of that, you know, just be cautious of of the amount of um things happening. Great activities. All right, jump into board member reports and we'll start down at the end. Move our way through. Okay. I have much report on the legislative change from last week other than getting close to the end and haven't heard that they still budget. Okay, thank you. Um, let's see. Uh, for the budget committee, we've resumed our accounts payable and payroll reviews just to be able to put a little extra set of eyes on what's already a great process for familiarity and just for check. Um,
054the policy committee hasn't had a meeting since the last board meeting. that's partly my fault for being out of town for a while. um and the IMC committee started meeting again and so I've since I was um the board member observing that committee before that I was invited to join that and I'm really excited to see how we're planning to restructure it a little bit so that um more of the heavy lifting work can be going on in subject level committees. um that was already the case, but because of the way that we had structured our meetings, it was harder to do more evaluations simultaneously. This way when um curriculum recommendations come to the full committee, it will just be a smooth sailing to be able to get that before the board. And I'm really
055looking forward to that because um curriculum adoption was pretty much suspended well before COVID and a few attempts to get back on a schedule that will allow us to replace um expired curriculum or outdated curriculum. We're really starting to be in a in a tough place with new learning standards coming on. So there's really a lot of work to be done and going to be well poised to get started in the fall, I hope. Um yeah, my final update is that I did just come back from the World Championship of Robotics in Houston, Texas, where uh we took 30 some odd students from the greater Woodby area, including two Cville sophomores, Ryan Ley and Gabe Smith, did an amazing job and we all learned so much. Very proud of them. Thank you for doing that.
056Budget budget's everything. Um I have to compliment Brian and on the work that's been done to capture history and hearts. Um it's not something we had when I first came on the board and it's been really helpful in analyzing where we are and prepping ourselves to get ready to develop a final budget for this year. Most everyone's heard everything. I've just been reading it more after our meetings and also looking at other school districts as well. Um, but that's the biggest focus for me right now. Um, I do have some things I want to say that are complimentary, but I think I'll save them for later when we get to the um motion on the modified education relevant. Um, just kind of a recap of our workshop. So, um, the day before the workshop, um,
057Superintendent Leatherwood and I had a great meeting with Winnaha Winnah group, um, regarding pre-bond planning for the elementary school. Um, we shared a proposed timeline that they presented to the board um, regarding a possible bond campaign that would run February of 2027. um and they are planning to be back to the next workshop. So, um if any of our community is interested in learning more about that pre-bond planning process, um it would be a great opportunity to attend the workshop next month. Um and I will share that calendar with you. But um just excited for just the company that they are, for their values, um for their strengths in working with small districts and um just excited for how we could partner with them um in this next in these next steps towards a potential
058elementary school. So, it's exciting. Um we have encountered a lot of changes in our district and um I've had a lot of great community meetings this month. Um, I just want to express my gratitude to our community and our staff for caring so much about our students and our schools. Um, we do appreciate the communication. Um, and welcome the conversation. So, we had an awesome walkthrough at the elementary school. That was very cool. Thank you to Principal Micole and Mr. Gableine for letting us tour his classroom. Um, I was so impressed with the work that's going on there. Uh, we learned amazing things about teacher training during early release Wednesdays, about peer observations, um, collaborative work with the building discipline team steps to improve attendance planning and scheduling plans for next year, and so much
059more. And it was just um, it was great. And next month, we'll be doing a walkthrough of high school. So, we're looking forward to that, and just thank you for that time. It was great. Um, next month is staff appreciation and we're excited about that. We always like to do something. So, just know that communication around that will be coming. Um, we want to express our gratitude to our staff who work so hard um at the important work that they do. And so, just know that communication will be coming around our plan for that. Okay. Um jumping on to the next item on the agenda which is correspondence. So we did when we adopted our new board protocols um a couple months ago we have changed the way that we do correspondence. So instead of
060posting each individual letter um posting correspondence I should say is not a requirement. It's just something that's been a practice. Um we would rather provide a summary of those correspondence letters. So, I will say that the board received one letter emphasizing the importance of creating inclusive and equitable learning environments for all students in Island County. Um, and we did receive a letter concerning um the potential relocation of Kville Open Academy. And jumping on to old business, we have two policies um on here which are reverting back to um a 2020 policy and a 2022 policy. These were discussed at um two workshops ago and at the last meeting and these are changes from uh WASDA recommended policy changes. So any other There a motion. I would move to approve both policy 3205 and 5011 for
061second reading and adoption. Second. It's been moved and seconded to approve policy 3205 and policy 5011 for second reading and adoption. There any debate? All those in favor? I. All those opposed motion carries. And then jumping into new business this evening is adoption of resolution 2025-05, which is the modified education plan. And I'll turn it over to Superintendent Leatherwood. Okay. Thank you. All right, just a reminder as we're looking at this, this doesn't just um go under our pillars around fiscal responsibility, but it also um as a budget committee who began meeting in January. We really discussed how what we do foundationally with our fiscally responsible management um and connecting with families in the community and hearing um from them and the budget committee really helps to empower our students, promote that student and staff
062well-being and ensure instruction. So um that was a key component in what we did. Um as a committee we began working in January and um the budget committee began by meeting every um week. we went to every other week as we started to understand um how we're funded from the state what the prototypical model actually funds um and what we did it for aortionment and um what we've done over the years particularly in Coupeville um around um expenditures um dipping below our 6% when were we above the the 6% and then also through this really building that um understanding of what's the difference between federal dollars, local dollars, and what the state gives us. Um from there in February, we are also really digging into um revenues, expenditures, and how enrollment drives really what we
063get. And so looking at enrollment numbers is where we get the the majority of our aortionment numbers. Um, in March, the committee started to look at recommendations. Um, looking at things that they thought might be reallocations if we needed to reallocate, what we would look at as potential reductions if we need to get to the reduction level, or what are some of our priorities? Um, what do we want to ensure we have for our kids in school? So those were three things that they made recommendations from. But because we're in a a long session with the state and as we know we do not start our funding will be until hopefully like um Director Murwine said you know this Saturday. Um we're hoping to to find out the state aortionment that we'll get. Um, we're
064also in an in a time where we're not sure with our federal um what our federal dollars are going to look like. We're hoping to be stable. Um, and um that looks like, you know, what we're we're going to have, but we don't know. Um, and so there's two factors there. And then also letting our um budget committee know that we also have three open contracts this year to negotiate. And so those three factors um on our budget and the unknowns really puts us in a position to be looking at a modified education plan even though um Mr. Gianelo talked about how we're in an upward trend overall with so um the budget cuts that we've done in the past have made a difference um and we're starting to see that up upwards trend. Um
065however um some of the things coming out from the state as far as um u additional costs um for next year all of that um plays a factor and um Brian will be sharing that with the board also tonight. So, our goal is to look at a modified education plan by by state law. Um, we're required um by May 15th to to provide names um and reductions in force. Um it puts us at a timeline that we may not totally know yet what what our aortionment is by then. And so, I feel it's unfortunate we have that because sometimes we we find out later. Um, additionally in our um, CA contract, we have by May 1st, we will provide them with a list. And so tonight, we're going to be doing that portion of it,
066but there's a lot of factors that we'll be looking at if we need to and if um, it comes down to we're not getting the portion we expect. And so our hope is then by June, we're going to bring back the budget committee to be able to look at our draft budget. because we're a class A district, we do have to have our budget approved by July, um the July board meeting. So, it is one month um prior to the larger districts. And so, we um intend to bring the budget committee back in June. This is a group of 30 individuals um that who signed up, community members, directors, staff members. We had two students on our committee and um like I said, they were very committed and um really dug into the work and
067I appreciate the work that they did um to come up with ideas, come up with things that we could look at um but also know that, you know, we're doing it with understanding how a district's funded, which is very different than like a house budget or a budget um in a company. It's just it's different. These are some of the um pieces that the team um started with the key learning. Um we had them we had an FAQ. All of this is on our website. So every question that was asked, every slide that was shown, all of that is on our website available to everybody. Um but we had them, you know, write down what were some surprises from what they were learning. What are some of the things that they still wanted to see
068um clarified? they would put that in FAQ or what was clarified for them and then finally what was a new understanding and then ultimately looking by each table what were their hopes and dreams for the Kville school district and so each table came up with these we did a gallery walk to kind of look at you know what was it that we still needed to educate and make sure that everybody understood around that these are just a couple more and how those tables configured and just a a list of those on the wall as we did our our um gallery. So from there um I'm going to have uh Brian go through some of the the um preliminary um projections for next year and what we're looking at um for a budgeted revenue. And and
069when we do that, we go off of right now because we do not know where the state legislature is going to be. We go off of the governor's budget budget. Correct. Apologize. I was going to mention that during my fiscal update that we spelled it to do the budget update essentially uh over here intertwined in this modified education. So yeah, this is where we're at now. Essentially a budget update, but we're going to start walking through revenues. The next slide. How do we get our revenues? Like Shannon mentioned, we in budget committee explored this. It starts with uh enrollment, projecting enrollment and trying to figure out how many students will be here next year. We adopted and talked about a cohort survival ratio method. Uh something that we haven't done here at Scoop School District
070in the past. It's based on some metrics on trends, past data that we looked at earlier. And since trends are are, you know, trending up, we have the the cohort survival ratio method shows us the this is one of the higher enrollments uh that we've budgeted for in a while here. And I know there's been some discussion uh about that and we're not locked into this. Remember this is still preliminary. So we can continue to have those discussions and as the state legislature finalizes they actually put out um an actual F203 tool so we can plug different scenarios in even at that time too and get get actual revenues out so we can continue to discuss that but for now we've uh had to pick something to move forward with and this is what we
071chose. Uh so if you go to the next slide that was the uh K12 enrollment numbers and of course as come up uh before there are other factors we talked about on running start alternative learning education program ALE open doors CTE and special education and we took all that into uh consideration and looked at past trends there as well applied that to the cohort survival ratio method and uh move forward with these numbers on the the next slide. What that does is um it allows us to come up with a preliminary revenue estimates for next year which is around 19 million is what we came up with. I think this is animated. So if you click the click one there you go. Uh like we discussed the the biggest part of the the budget is
072the state revenue portion. uh and how are we able to do that and come up with those largest numbers uh is based on that enrollment. We thankful for some experienced business manager uh Dan Pullman who's worked with us to create an amazing tool that we've shared with you at some workshops before that allows us to project this number I think more accurately than ever has been done in the past or at least we have some methodology that we plugged in like Shannon mentioned what we know as of now on the governor's or house budget there are assumptions um that we're using it's not the final F 203 that comes Oh, so again these are preliminary numbers. Um, but that is all there. Uh, next slide. So this is a sneak preview actually like we're talking
073about the governor's budget. It breaks it down this section uh of the state aortionment which is the largest revenue uh portion. Uh, and you can see there on the this slide too AL numbers are in there. CTE numbers. This is uh open doors numbers do get thrown into this uh tool that's used to project out revenues based on the current governor's or house budget will receive the different categories. This is just breaking it out a little further. It's not just those uh FTE state programs revenues that we received. There's other state uh revenues that we get grants-wise. Lap is one of them. Transitional bilingual. Oh, now intervention program I believe is TBIP. Highly capable all those other programs funding that comes in. Uh so this is considering all the other state funding as well comes
074up to about 14 million. Um so that's shown here. So that's how uh we get to that $19 million largely made up of state aortionment FTEES and then other state special purpose grants. Something that we wanted to highlight if you click one more is this federal program. You'll notice that we do have in the preliminary projected revenue budget federal dollars uh projected preliminary amount. We'll talk about that more in a minute. I just wanted to point that out at this time. So that was revenue side of things in our preliminary budget. Uh we're going to now move to the expenditure side. Again, uh how were we able to do this? We we actually developed another tool working with another uh with that same business manager, retired business manager. um thankful for his mentorship and sharing
075these tools with us uh because it's something we can use from year to year now too. We we took our actual uh staffing and MSOX out of uh cumulative we're able to put it into this tool, step people up and then also project forward what our staffing expenditures would be. Uh again with some presumptions on what we know from the house governor's budget, what we know about HCA SEB increases for next year and other different benefits are all in here. Mox are all in here as well. So we come up with a a total expenditure amount of about 19.5 million. Go ahead to the next slide. This is just highlighting. Maybe I got ahead of myself a little bit. These are the some of the assumptions that that are in this pool that is we
076use to to project out that expenditure amount. Um pers and pers are the different retirement rates. Don't really have any pers employees. So TURS and SER but again a lot of this is based on governor's budget. So if this information changes you know it'll change our expenditure projection too. But this is what we know at this time. So, cycling back a little bit, uh, we're going to talk about revenues that we've mentioned before. This slide just gives a visual. This actually is looking at our 23 2024 actual revenues uh, and percenting it out like how much percent federal uh, local or state revenues do we receive? And you'll see 77% whether it's through state aortionment, state grants, uh state revenues is the largest amount that we do receive year to year. But as you click
077the slide, one of the things and topics in the news right now is federal funding. So with uncertainties on federal funding, even though most of the time budgeting, you know, we say 6% 6%'s federal funding, it's not the majority of revenue we receive, uh, but it's something we wanted to draw out here and talk about a little more in the next slide and put this in terms of money. So last year, what 6% meant to Coupeville School District was $1.2 million in revenues. Even though 6% it's still around the 1 million mark. And if you click a little further, we wanted to draw out like we talked about what's being audited right now is that roughly $88,000 in the the last of the ESRE funds. So we didn't want to include this in our scenario
078too uh that needs to be talked about uh because there is some uncert uncertainty around federal funding. But we're still looking at about $1.1 million that we receive on an annual basis from federal sources. Go ahead. What this allows us to do is we we lined up our revenues uh preliminary preliminary revenues that we just talked about and our preliminary expenditures and we now have a shortfall, right? We we can say we we're about $440,000 that we need to to balance the budget. That's that's a scenario one. Let's go ahead and click the next slide to elaborate that on that a little bit further because as uh Shannon was mentioning, you know, there's some uncertainties out there uh with federal dollars circulating. So, with federal uncertainties, we had to take a serious look at what
079it would mean if we we lost. Currently, as I mentioned before, we did use a preliminary amount of $722,000 that we did budget for. We said, "What if we don't get that?" Well, then we're looking at a combined about $1.1 million shortfall. Uh, and it's a a bit more of a significant amount of money. Um, instead of looking at the preliminary budget amount, if we take a look at that $1.176 million actual number, that's what we actually receive. uh we're looking at a much higher shortfall. So those scenarios really are where we're at. Again, there's a lot of unknowns at this time. Um but that that's why I believe the the recommendation for a modified education plan is necessary because we there are some unknowns out there and this is what is also a reality.
080So and not be able to go back in time due to these contractual obligations and whatnot. We need to make a decision to move forward. All right. So, um, one of the things that I wanted to mention was what director Merwine um, mentioned earlier, which is the potential that we we may receive more special education funding and an increase in MSOC funding. And we're hoping that that stays true, but, you know, until Saturday happens or when they end session, you know, we really won't know. And so, this was based off of the governor's budget. Um we're very hopeful that we'll get um potentially a um lift on the cap. Currently we're capped for special education students at 16%. We're well over 20% um in this district of special education students. And so if they lift
081that cap that will be additional aortionment that we'll receive. So we're hopeful. But that isn't um final yet. And so until that's, you know, final and we know what that what that's going to be, we're still in the we're going off of the budget, the governor's budget. Um the other piece is the in the the potential for a slight increase to MSOC funding, which is part of the big three. So that also we may see additional aortionment from that. Um the third of the three big three was the um transportation bill that we're hoping and um we don't feel that that's actually going to to see much if any from that bill. And so looking into our future um we're we're looking at some key dates. Um obviously Saturday is going to be a big
082date for us um when they end session. if they end session. I hear if they do a special or extended session, they're still hopeful to end by the end of next week. Um that is um important to us because there's a current bill out there that if they do not end fairly soon, it will go dead in the water and we would lose uh quite a bit of portionment that we're looking for. So we're hopeful that they'll end session within the next week um even if they have to extend a little bit. So looking into our future and what what does this mean for Cookville is right now where we're at to be able to have a modified education plan to be fiscally responsible. We're looking at that and so um again just going through
083what we have done to get here this far and um go ahead um what we still are going to be doing. So on on here um we talk about the potential for the reduction in force notifications to certificate certified staff by May one. That's where we'll provide a list. Um we're hoping to know more by now. And so that list we're hoping will be a little more accurate, but definitely by that May 15th um deadline, we're hoping it's even more accurate. and then um in June looking at a draft budget based on actuals so that we can actually um uh adopt our budget in July um because we need to um will be really important for our district. So what is a modified education plan? So a modified education plan really is around it's a
084strategic framework to address financial challenges while still preserving um educational quality. Um a structured approach is necessary um and it's it we want to ensure that um we keep to our strategic plan and we keep necessary like our staffing and our resource adjust. So being able to put that in there and then also a fiscally responsible plan um is is one to ensure that we maintain essential programs and services. So you're going to notice from last year to this year, we're not as focused on programs um as we are looking at um different areas and certifications. And so this one's going to be a little bit different than last year and and you'll see those adjustments. And then also looking at a path towards sustainable um financial s stability. Part of what we talked to
085the budget committee about was not just about getting by and reacting to today, but how can we sustain a budget so that we're looking at the future over many years and what does that look like um three years down from now? Because if we're looking at just today, we might be cutting programs that we'll want to bring back. And so we instead want to look over time and ensure that we're listening to the community. We're listening to our students and to our families and to our staff to ensure that program programming for students is getting right to our strategic plan, which is ensuring that everybody's graduating and they have a future that they can see themselves in. Um, and so why do we need a modified education plan? Um because we have those that the
086responsibility in our board policy to not only be fiscally responsible but we need that fund balance of and right as of yet we are not there. Um we do see us having that upwards trajectory. Yet we have so many um unknowns right now that we cannot predict that that will continue up without knowing what the state and the federal government's going to do. Um, also, um, we needed to have that financial oversight. So, the Dukeville School District remains on the financial watch list through the Northwest ESD. Um, and, um, our hope is through a a fund balance that's more responsible. We're going to to get that. I did want to add in here that I did not add in last week. It also helps for our bond. um when we go out for a bond,
087our bond rating goes off of what we have um as a policy and are we meeting that policy as a district, whatever we set that policy at. So, right now, if we were to go out for a bond, our bond rating would not be as high as we expected to be. And then, um we have a a shortfall. Um our scenario one um is a shortfall of 445,000. That would be the best case scenario um based on the governor's budget right now and then worst case scenario the one point well almost yeah 1.1 1.1 1.5 depending on what we looked at I'm going to say this is just my feeling we're not going to be at the 1.5 million I don't think we're going to lose all dollars federally but we're really watching that closely
088because we've already seen the Department of Agriculture shut down some of the grants that we used to get that we will no longer get. We know that. Um but as far as title one and some of the special education, we do anticipate we will still get some of those. It's just what and that's the concern right now. Um as far as and when will we know? We could know. So if we would have shut down today, today was a big date. We did not we we did not see a shutdown as far as Washington state um getting shut out of the federal um portal. But if let's say we did um whenever they determine to sue and go through the court process is when they could potentially open or they could say uh next week
089we'll open it back up. So the unknown is it could take years, it could take months, it could take days. it. That's the unknown part that makes a lot of districts right now um uncertain of of the federal dollar. Um Superintendent Reichel from the state of Washington put out a map and that map showed in the state of Washington um districts receiving federal funds and what would it would do to some of the districts in the state of Washington. I will say um green districts were were determined that you know it's it would impact them but they still will be okay. We were considered green and I would say we would not be okay with $1.176 million. Um but what I think his intent by that and and he didn't come out and say this
090but I think his intent was their um prediction of how many dollars will actually be taken from us should still keep us in the and so um the intent versus the impact I think is what they were trying to put out even though they didn't specifically say that um along along our um coastal um part of our um state were a lot of the orange ones on this side of the state, but then on the the east side of the state there's that it would be concerning no matter what. I believe that's what I would say even 100,000 for us is going to you know be concerning when we're looking at a minimum of um 450,000. So, um this plan also will continue um looking at restoring our fund balance and then also um it'll
091continue to look at that proactive and preventative measure to make sure that we're continuing to go in the right direction for groups. So, our current status, our current status um in the top line there um shows this year and where we're at. So, you can see from the top line of where we're at this year versus last year where we dipped way below and could not meet payroll and had to borrow. Um we're doing financially a lot better this year. And if we knew everything, we probably would be not doing a modified education plan. um dependent, right? Um there's there's the factors of what's happening in the state and federal, but we also have three contracts of them. We don't know the result of those as well. Um but what we did last year to
092to make um cuts did make a difference in in our fund balance this year. And so we can see that um and we do feel that we're going to continue to see at least more than we did last year where you see in June we dip below as well. That's going to be a watch month, but we do anticipate we will not have to. That being said, the state also has a bill out there that um will change how we get aortionment potent potentially and it's going to shift that aortionment and those districts that do not have a large fund balance may be having to either borrow or they will be dip them below. And that's something that we're going to have to really watch in um August and September because of um the shift
093in aortionment. We're not going to get the aortionment we used to get if these bills go through. And so those are that's going to be now a tough month to to ensure that we have proper fund balance to to meet pay. So, Washington state law, um I've already talked about these. There's the three um um different areas that we need to look at. Um July, um for smaller districts, um we must have our budget approved. And so, with being a smaller district, we have to have that we have to have everything determined a month before the larger districts have to. and and sometimes that's difficult when we don't exactly know what's happening at the state and federal level. Um the May 15th um deadline is also a um a requirement and that's for determining a
094reduction in force and then May 1st in our contract um our agreement is that we will make sure that we give out a list that shows those reductions. So, our implementation phase for um Kville district is in May and June. Really looking at what we're going to do to um see where we're one where we're at at the state and federal level, make determinations before that May one, which is coming up quickly, and then at May 15th determining whether we actually need to um follow through with that list, especially with certificated staff. So, we're just talking certificated. um we have more time with classified staff. We also have more time with other um determinations on on cuts because you know we we don't have that legal requirement. And then um based on that in Jul
095July and August making sure that we prepare for those adjust adjusted staffing models looking at class sizes um kids in seat ensuring that they're getting the education we want them to get based on that and then um implementation of that modified education plan subject. So, the how of this um what we have in the modified education plan for today to approve is um up to 8 FTE. Again, we'll know a little bit more before the May 1 deadline. Hopefully, we'll know a lot more by the May 15th deadline when we actually will put out reduction in force notices. Um we also have some administrator restructuring on top of that. we have our athletic director um and middle school principal roles and combining that's actually a cost savings. Um taking the current athletic director um point4
096of that contract is the athletic director um wages substitute cost and a stipen actually is a a cost savings of about 40,000 um to hire a principal in the role of that um for CTE and high school principal roles combined. CT CTE stipen is not quite as much, but it is a cost savings of about 15,000 in additional money. um the elimination of an assistant um food service director position um and reallocating that to a um a supervisor that we took is um about a $15,000 cost reduction because it is um moving that assistant director into a supervisor role and then restructuring into not I already said that restructuring into that position. Um some of the classroom considerations um is the possible move of COA on site. We look we've we will be continuing to
097look into that, but as we looked into that, that wasn't as big of a cost savings as we initially thought it was. We also have um uh some considerations around the students who we serve there and how we serve those students. The other um potential of that move to on-site is really around um its location across the street from the JDC. Um, and finally, our our um our lease itself is up in December, and so we have a little time to to look into um that. And I think the current um the current owner is willing to negotiate with us and potentially look at um adjusting the lease and and things like that. So there's a lot of um talks still that need to happen um for that but that it wasn't as substantial as
098we initially thought it would be for um the costs that are there. Um also we're looking at attrition reductions were possible any resignations retirements and so we'll continue to to look at that and um make considerations um for the potential reductions. And then um just with this modified education plan, if we are in this situation where we have to start September and there is a reduction um you know we're going to see potential class size increases in select. We have currently um part of our aortionment is by maintaining lower class size in our day three and that will still be something that we need to maintain to get aortionment. Um but in classes four and above we may see increases which impacts student and and I'm I I feel strongly that if we can not
099have that happen that would be the best case scenario. And then finally, um, just making sure because we're very close on that that A3 compliance that as we're making these reductions that we're also ensuring that we're using the tools that we have to keep in compliance with that. So as we move forward, our key priorities continue throughout this implementation process to keep a student achievement at at the top. Our we want to maintain that focus on our educational outcomes. We want to ensure that we can continue to sustain operations and create fiscally viable structures. So what does that mean? you know, if we determine that um we're moving staff around, that we're doing it in a way that's going to support staff and students and their their learning. And then making sure that along the
100way we're providing that clear communication, that transition assistance to staff and as we look at certificates and what they're qualified to teach in and asking for possible movement around there. And then we're going to be regularly updating as we know more from the state and as we know more from the federal government, making sure that we're continuing to put out what we do know. Um and right now, um Superintendent Reichdoll for the state of Washington, he's been putting out um weekly um updates, but the weekly updates still continue to say I don't know much more. So that's there hasn't been a lot to to provide at this point. So I'm hoping um we'll hear more um and we'll continue to monitor that. And then finally the compliance just adhering to all the state and conceptual
101requirements. We want to ensure that we're out in front and that we're able to really plan for the future. Any questions? No, I think we we've talked about this a lot, you know, at workshop, at different meetings. I mean, we've seen the numbers and the reports. Um, I think it it's wise to have worst case scenarios because we don't know some of the things. And so, I appreciate that some of them are on there even though they're not the things that we want. Um, and that's the balance in this whole thing. um how do we how do we do the best we can with what we have and continue to serve? And so, um, I just appreciate the explanations and the work that went into it that this is a difficult decision because of the
102timeline that we have and um, I know that you've been forthcoming around all of our decisions and I know that you'll do the same as we learn more around our financial situation. Thank you for both of you for the work a lot. Yeah. Any other questions? All right. We'll move on to the adoption of the resolution. Is there a motion? Move to adopt resolution 20250 modified education. Second. It's been moved and seconded to adopt resolution 2025-05 modified education plan. there any debate kind of the continuation of my board budget. Um most of you know me here but if you don't know um I worked school district for 30 years. Most of those years I was business manager and so I've done this kind of work for a long time. Um, I just really want to
103compliment I said earlier the collection of historical information and charting and examining everything that's happened here for quite a number of years has been very critical and instrumental to getting us to a place where we can make good decisions that don't just take care of this year but as you said earlier help us to get in the direction so that we're we're able to have a more stable financial situation. Um, I think that the reporting and things that have been done have been significant. the act uh activation of community budget committee. I can't say enough superintendent about that. 30 some people in here. Um they were asking questions that were important and uh they're going to be a little ambassadors even if they're not happy with everything that they've learned, they know it now and
104they can share it with other people. Been a very thorough process. um the modified educational plan. Um it does all it's for all those reasons that Shannon mentioned, but the other piece of it and it and I just got to speak to it is that our contract with our our certificated employees requires that we adopt the modified education plan if we think we're going to reduce the number of FPS that we employ. And it's the first critical date where people are going to feel what's going to be different. And so a lot of work has gone into this to help us understand what kind of an impact that that that would be. And as Shannon said that the recommendation currently is up to eight FTE. Um I seriously doubt that we will actually reduce our
105staff by that much, but we have one opportunity when we say how many people we want to do this to to reduce our staff and that's this these dates on May 1st and May 15th. Once that's done, we don't get to go back and look at that again. I take this very seriously. I don't like messing with people's lives. I don't like people having to worry if they have a job next year or not. Um but it's the system that we've inherited and that's the way it's going to be. Um I wanted to compliment um Jan because one of the steps in adopting that plan and she hasn't talked much about it but I've been able to see it twice now. I'm so impressed. Um the way that you make your decisions about what staff
106on the certificated level that you're going to reduce is by evaluating what their qualifications are, what who's certified to do what kind of things, who can teach special ed, who can do what all you have to have licensing to be able to do all that. And there's this huge uh database that's been created now with every staff member, every staff member, everybody's experience, everybody's certification, how many years they've been in the district. And the administrative staff is going to be looking at that and saying, "Okay, we need to fill this, this, and this position, who's the most qualified, who's the most senior, and that's how they make those kind of decisions. It's not taken lightly." And I I don't think I've seen a better system than what you had um to work through that um
107to make sure that you're looking at all the factors that's important. None of that makes it any easier. I just want to comment again that this has been this is and will continue to be a very thorough process. I don't like that we have to make this modified education plan, but it's what our contract and the law requires. If we're going to reduce any staff, our classified staff, we have a different way to do that and it doesn't have these trigger dates like we have. So anyway, my purpose in saying this is that I think we've had a very thorough process. It's hugely improved in the time that I've been on the board and it's not fun to be where we are right now, but I think that we're doing it as thoroughly as we
108moved and any other debate been moved and seconded. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries and that's the end of our meeting. We are adjourned. Thank you for coming.