Ellensburg School District Board Meeting - 10/22/25

001That's how we just Thank you. I would like to now introduce our board of directors. Tonight we have Cindy Co, Maline De Matenon, Tasha Woods, Kathy Day, and I'm Mike Rowley. We're also joined by our superintendent, Troy Turno, our assistant superintendent for student learning, Jennifer Kun, our executive director of finance and operations, Kim Snyder. We're also joined tonight by Rhonda Schmidt, director of student supports, and two of our principles, Bosno, at the high school and Michelle Bibich at Morgan Middle School. Thank you. board. First up is uh first action item is the consent agenda. We had an opportunity to review these items individually and seek clarification from district admin prior to our meeting. I would entertain a motion. >> I move we approve the consent agenda as presented. I'll second. >> Kathy is moved that

002we accept the consent agenda as presented and Cindy is seconded. Board, any discussion? I'll call a vote. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. Consent agenda has been passed. Next up is our special guests and the EHS journalism students. There you go. >> Thank you. So, good evening. Thank you so much for um letting us come in and talk to you for just a moment. Uh my name is uh Christine Rue and I'm here as uh the advisor of both the elutant which is the newspaper and the clim um which is the yearbook. And before I start speaking uh about a couple of things just briefly, um I would like uh to introduce to you our third time headed editor, senior Ashley Hernandez, who is just going to take you on a little

003tour of what she's thinking and uh where she's going and taking her staff. >> Hi, I'm Ashley Hernandez. Um so I've been on the yearbook staff for four years since I was obviously a freshman. Um, I'm now a senior and it's my third year as head editor. So, I just kind of want to talk about like what we do as an yearbook. I mean, anyone knows what a yearbook is, but um, currently right now what my staff is working on. So, I actually have a pretty big staff this year. Um, which is unlikely. So, it's very nice to have a larger staff than usual. Um, but currently we are working on fall sports, which is very exciting. The students love to work on fall sports, getting on the fields, taking pictures, um using professional cameras,

004and putting them onto their pages. So, they're very colorful pages. This year, we'll say that our yearbook will be full of many colors and very exciting and bright. I'm not going to reveal just what it is yet because that removes the excitement, but we are very excited. So, we have so um I'm thinking about three goals this year. So, a compliment that we received last year from um Mr. Keny, which is the athletic director, he said that he really liked how the yearbook was a lot more personal and reached more on the students. So, this year, as a goal, I set for my students to like get out there, bring people in, talk to them face to face and interviews. Um because I think we've all been kind of sitting behind our computers and just

005sending emails. So this year we're bringing students to the classroom or going to them um and writing down exactly what they're saying like any journalist would. Um another goal we have is um a competition that Jo does um or GA which is the journalism education association. Yeah. So last year we went to Seattle and we attended this big conference national conference and there was many schools there. um 3,000 over 3,000 students went there, 35 states um attended and like two provinces from the United Kingdom. So, it was a very large event that happened here in Seattle. Um and we got to participate in these competitions where we turn in some of our pages and that was very interesting to do. So, we set a goal last year when we returned to make our spring supplement

006our competition pages so they would be a lot more elaborate and exactly what the competition was looking for. So, we are going forward to submit those pages. So, that's very exciting and see what the outcome of those will be. Um, and our last goal is to get a more like public eye for the school, be a more of an outreach for the students. So I feel like um just being in school, no one really knows the yearbook until it pops out in June that you know all the yearbooks are here but we're very active the whole entire year from the beginning. I mean I start yearbook the day before school at club fair. So and I'm already thinking even after school what I'm doing. I worked on the spring supplement last year up until August.

007So yeah, I was still working on those pages up until August. So, it's very active all year round. Every day we attend class. Um, and then on Saturday, students still go out to go take pictures or if there's a concert or a sport game, anything like that. So, something that we started doing more and participating more in is social media. So, um, we usually kind of just use social media as a way to promote to buy your yearbook. But at the beginning of school on senior sunrise, we actually took pictures of students and we made a video. So I think we have that for you. Oh, it's okay. But we made a video of these students were wearing these glasses and it said 2026 seniors and we posted that on social media and it blew

008up and it was very exciting for the students to see themselves because usually I mean you see yearbook in the hallways, you see them at your games and but you don't see those pictures until you know a year later or what it feels like a year later and you kind of forgot that that had happened. So, we're gonna start like using those pictures more on social media so people can see that like we're are using those pictures and that like here they are, you know, we do use them and they're for you and you're the reason why we do yearbook and it's for all the students. So, yeah. Um, I hope you guys are able to see my progress come through and I'm very excited to end my year like this. Thank you. So, we

009do have a couple for you and Ashley, if you don't mind helping me with that, we're going to give you all one of the supplements. So, this is something that we're working on after after uh the book is done. Also, we wanted to just show you um this year's book and um it was very successful. So, I don't have any of these to give away because we we literally don't have any left. Um, but you might want to pass it around if you if you want to just quickly, um, unfortunately Violet Rivera was not able to be here. She is our new head editor for The Lutant, but she did come out with um, an awesome issue just recently um, that would also like to share. All right. >> Um, so this is uh our

010October issue. Um we have um currently if you look on the inside you can see that we only have a staff of seven which is um working um but it is definitely something that we would like to change as time goes on. Um but the truth is is that students that that the reach of the newspaper is far greater than seven students. This newspaper goes out every um every month and it goes to all the students and most students do actually not most students but at least half the students are reading and engaging with the newspaper and so I wanted to also share with you some of our latest um uh last year um a survey that shows that students are actually engaged with uh reading newspaper or parts of it, you know, just like

011all of us, right? We might just want to look at the sports page or we might want to look at, you know, ball play or something like that. Um but the truth is that the class stretches out much more than just seven students. It really does actually um get to about 500 students and you know uh we have in the United States a decline in student newspapers. Um currently um the statistics are that in 64% of high schools had student newspapers. Then by 2021 we were down at 45%. Currently in a rural area, uh, in rural areas like Ellensburg, we're down at 27% of rural areas produce a high school newspaper. Additionally, the truth is is that wealthier districts um have a much higher support of student newspapers. And really when I say student newspapers

012and yearbooks, although yearbooks are a little bit different on on the statistics, um, but they've also seen a decline, um, the truth is is that the support for student voice is higher in wealthier school districts. Um, it is as low as 7% in some of our most impoverished environments. And so, you know, we're fighting we're fighting a good fight here for student voice. um we're getting students up in front of school boards. We are getting students out into the community with their um products which aren't perfect um but they are their voices. And so part of the reason why we like to come here every couple of years or so is to just tell you that we are alive and well and we are producing and we need your support. Um and I know we

013have it. Um but sometimes when you look at just the class number you might say oh well that's not a full class but when the reach when you see the reach of the newspaper or of the yearbook which sold out this year um it's quite large um and I think that's the important um kind of thing to note to to end on. Also last year we did compete and we did um in um in design for newspapers and news magazines we we did place ninth place in the nation. Now that doesn't mean that everybody's competing. I fully understand that. But the people who are active are and and we are you know we're in the game. And that was all I had. Did you have anything else? No. Thank you very much for having um

014having us and we'll let you get to your meeting. Um I had a couple questions. Yeah. Um first of all for Ashley, where can I find the senior sunrise video cuz I would like to see that cuz I have a senior and congratulations on being a senior this year. >> Thank you. Um so the it's it's on Instagram. Okay. So you can search up the handle which is clim_hs_yearbook. Um if you guys want I can show it real quick. just come right up to the mill. >> We can watch this later. >> Just like a compilation of photos, but it's very cutesy. Um I also have some pictures of seniors that were highlighted in um K9 sections. So I would love to show more um like seniors cuz I think seniors are so important and

015they're like the whole yearbooks like dedicated to them. So yeah, we really hope to bring more public eye to social media um and create a positive outlook for the students. Yeah. >> And then another follow-up question is um so there's seven on the newspaper staff. How many uh students are working on the uh >> 15. >> The yearbook, how many in that class? >> 15. Yes. >> Thank you. And then Christine, I have a question for you if you don't mind. Um, I understand the importance of a newspaper and I and I like the idea of holding something, but with the um, most print going away, have you guys started entertaining the possibility of doing something online or digital that is more readily available to most students? Well, the newspaper gets printed in Wanachi and

016in order to do that we we produce it we transform it into or export it into a PDF and the PDF then gets posted on the website on parent square um parent square website gets sent out email um you're you're talking about a website right the possibility of of a website and similar >> and that's that's uh in in this day and page, right? Um that is an additional kind of staff that it's really not the same thing as a printed newspaper. So we um right now are not exploring that yet. Um don't have a staff member who would like to take that on. I would be willing. Although I have done one at Roosevelt High School in Seattle and I can tell you that it is a little bit more um you know unwieldy

017uh and students you know can post and it doesn't always filter through the same filters that a a printed newspaper would go through. >> Thank you. >> And that was it. >> Thank you. I just have a really quick one. Thank you for coming. Thank you as a senior for showing up and thank you for your four years of building this. Um have children at the school so thank you. I see your staff out there working in all the games and events and uh sometimes I go oh I wish you guys have badges so we would know hey that's yearbook staff. Um and I also want to say a thank you to both snow because uh amidst all of the communication I don't know where it comes from or where it is. Every single month

018I do get an email from the principal that says here is your latest issue. Uh and that is how I've engaged with it. So, uh, thank you for that and thank you for sending that out with your name on it. >> That's great. >> Hey, >> I just I did want to say something, too. Just thank you so much to Ashley for all your hard work and I love that you're going out face to face. Not you know, there are so many things better dealt with face to face than through email or, you know, other exchanges and also how important it is to have that forum for student discourse, student voice. So, well done. Good job. Thank you. Thank you. >> All right, Christine, Ashley, thank you very much. >> All right, board. That takes

019us into administration. And we have first up, school improvement plan, Ellensburg High School and B. Snow. >> Well, Leslie's getting that pulled up. Um, we get the privilege of being last, which is always great, but having some time under our belt is also fun to see how these things are actually working and taking place. And so, it's a cool time to be working with the SIT process. Um, because these are a living thing. And I think that that's probably the coolest part about kind of the transformation we've done in the last couple years with Troy and Jen's leadership is these aren't just things that are on paper anymore. And so having, you know, six weeks of school behind us, some of these things are, you know, I'm looking at it today preparing and the one

020that I sent to Leslie, I would add some things. So I'm going to add lib some things that you didn't get to see because there are some things that are different. Um, so go ahead Lesie, we'll get started. So, celebrations, uh, we participated with the Wallet Heels, uh, along with Haley's program and and Michelle's school as well, which was a huge undertaking to say the least to get, uh, all of the seniors on buses the third day of school and get them to Rotary, but it was well worth the effort. It was uh, very wellreceived. Our staff loved it and the kid the feedback from students was kind of like one of those eye opening type moments to see something of that magnitude. um which was really cool to start the year off with. Um

021we also had I don't know I mean Ellensburg is a agricultural mecca for students and the rodeo is a place to show off for us. Um we had several students participate uh in the fair and we have a very cool opportunity. Emily Ryder, who's a uh EHS grad, is running for national FFA position. And just for the scale, anything when you say national for an organization like that means representing all high schools in the United States. um she was a state FFA officer and has now gone on to run for the national position which means putting college kind of on temporary hold and working at uh a national office for um agricultural education. So it's a pretty cool um thing that we got to start the year with was helping her and watching her do

022some of her interviews at the high school. Um it was pretty cool. over a third of our students uh are engaged in fall activities or athletic athletics, which for a school our size is pretty awesome to have, you know, over 300 and some students either in fall play or um one of our athletic offerings. I will note that we are currently uh leading the conference in volleyball, leading the conference in cross country, and we won the swim conference already. So, we've had a really great fall um just in terms of getting off on the right foot for for our activities and athletics. Uh we are running six new courses this year uh at the high school. Three are college and the high school. Um and we are running two sections of sheltered English classes, which

023is also new. With new things comes new problems and new things to figure out, but we're working uh on all six of those um this fall to to be successful. Go ahead, Leslie. So, last year we talked about um our goal. I made a mistake. I was really honest with the board about that. That picking a gap is really difficult because you pick something that has two parts and two ends to measure. Um, but our goal was to cut our gap in math from 30% to 27% and then in English language arts from 48 to 43. Well, the results in the spring went the wrong direction. Uh, the gap got bigger and we there are some reasons. The math gap went up to 38% and the ELA gap went up to 60%. Uh our sub

024goal was to raid the raise the sense of belonging and identity from 68% to 85% as measured by CE and our survey results it went up to 77.4% um reported that they felt like they belonged at EHS. What we're proud of um we're proud of the increase reported sense of belonging. Uh we worked with our fellows project and we worked hard with um our bulldog check-ins weekly to uh work on figuring out and giving students more voice about how they're feeling and what's going on. So we felt great about that. Uh our math scores are up to 42% which is 8% above the state average. Our ELA scores are up to 72% which is 8% above the state average. We've learned a lot about the process regarding data collection. uh like if you pick a

025gap it's twice as much work. Um so the more data you collect um we collected more data we offered more support to teachers which was a positive like even though like picking a difficult goal was was challenging it allowed us to work with teachers in a different way around data which was a positive thing. More data meant more discussions about student learning which is an area that the goal of PLC's is to talk about student learning and to talk about the progress we're making. Um, and you can't do that if you're not looking and talking about data. So, that was that was a good push in the right direction. We completed a lot of work around essential standards, uh, assessment calendars and proficiency maps. And, um, the way that that's played out this fall is

026we're doing things we've never done before. Um, we are doing CFAs at a record pace for the high school. We're still behind where we would love to be, but we are doing things that are different. And it has been really fun to to lead from a different perspective around student data and and working with staff on things that are new. Um it does create some challenges and some things that we didn't anticipate. But the SIP plan is the new the new SIP plan this year is going to reflect a lot of the things that are in action. And so when we talk about that in upcoming slides, it will highlight some of the things we've learned from last year and how that's working um this year. Go ahead, Leslie. barriers. Um the gap was picking

027the gap was a barrier. Um measuring both groups on multiple measures was difficult. Um we were extremely excited to bring Aubrey on board yet. We haven't had it the success we've wanted with Aubrey on all levels yet, but we're getting there. The progress is happening. We're getting things lined up so that we can pull the data quicker, more efficiently, which is means we can take action on the data more more effectively. We increased our performance and participation on the state testing which is a good thing. Um we had more students take the test which was part of the goal last year was we had we didn't have as many students test that should have. So we worked on our testing format and we worked on making sure we were engaging students for a long longer

028period of time which means we moved our testing up so that we had more time to chase students that weren't where they were supposed to be when they were supposed to be there. And it worked. We had more kids tests, which was a good thing. Um, we had more students that were on IEPs test than ever. Uh, we kind of I wouldn't say we totally dstigmatized the idea of testing, but we definitely had more students test than ever. Um, which we had more students test and pass and more students test that were on IEPs and not pass. So, that's our gap was evidence of both of those pieces. Um, we are still working hard at inclusive instruction uh because we believe firmly that the best way to help students that are on IEPs is to

029have them exposed to grade level standards in grade level classes. So, we have increased our number of co-taught classes. We we went up another from 10 to 11, but we're still learning how to maximize that. Not every pairing is perfect. Not every opportunities, you know, work well for every kid. Um, and some classes are better suited for co-eing than others. And we're learning that process as we're going. As we're growing though, we have to look also too at resources. Like when you're putting two teachers in a classroom fourth period, that means they're not teaching something else fourth period. And so being mindful of that and learning along the way is is honestly it's a challenge because when you're building the master schedule and you're putting two teachers in the same place at the same time,

030it really limits and channels things that you don't anticipate when you necessarily set it up. So we're working and learning on that as well. Leslie implic back one implications for this school year. We're going to continue to disagregate data for our students on IEPs and our ML students that we know we need to continue to beef up and work on our instruction in those areas. But we set our goals around data points that allow us to see progress and growth in a more linear way that it's a little easier for for us to work with. Um we're working on with Jen and um Shannon who's not here and Rhonda about how to use Aubrey effectively. Um, we have some dashboards built around our ninth grade success. We're working on our on track to graduate dashboard

031and then also figuring out how to do um build a dashboard where internally we can see our students on IEPs and ML students more effectively. Um, how we're doing that is continuing our PC work and emphasizing working more effectively as teams. And some of this year's SIP plan is specifically targeting some of that. this year's outcome goals. Um we are still targeting the sense of belonging. Um we we know we have a lot of ground to continue to make up and we're going to continue to work at that. Um this year our goal is to go bring that up to 82%. Uh equity and excellence and learning and the these goals you guys know are all connected to the strategic plan. But our ELA goal or language arts, our goal is to raise our um

032passage rate to 79% and then in mathematics to raise it to 48% of students that are taking the assessment meeting the standard. Go ahead, Leslie. And we added a goal this year in the in a future ready graduate category around graduation um and to raise the graduation rate uh to 92%. Last year it was around 89.8 or 90%. So the goal is to continue to increase that. How are we going to get there? What are we going to do? Um the adult work we're going to continue with our fellows project. We they came and presented uh a while back. Um we have added a liaison to the to the mix. Um Kylie Rubble who's doing an awesome job of engaging students on a regular basis. Um, I said last year that one of the cool

033parts about the project, but also the scary parts of the project is it's not supposed to be administrator driven. It's not supposed to be my agenda given to students. It's supposed to be student generated. Well, the hard part about hands-off is that it's hands-off. And so when you the benefit of having a staff liaison is that the students and the staff uh and in this case Kylie are working together to keep the momentum going and keep it going without having me pushing and proddding. Um which is a challenge, right? It's a it's a balance of how much do you remind and bring together. Um but they've done a great job this year of of sustaining that on their own. Uh continue to monitor our weekly bulldog check-ins. We got that up and running again. And

034just a for the board's a reminder, it's for all students in advisory take a check-in. Um, and they have an opportunity to share how they're feeling, if they need assistance, if they I mean, there's multiple categories that they it basically is a way for students to say, you know what, I'm not doing so great and I need help. And then we have an a way to see that on um a Google form where it flags to administrators and to counselors to see. and it's colorcoded. If students are at, you know, a certain point or above, they flag it and we can we can intervene um as quick as we can. Staff training, we're going to continue to work with Paige, who did some training for administrators this summer and then also for um staff this

035fall. We have a plan, I believe, to do that again in this winter or not again, but further the training. Um, one of the goals that you'll see highlighted in all parts of our SIT plan this year is increase the amount of student discourse. Uh, research is pretty clear. If kids are talking about their learning, they're going to be more confident in what they're learning, but they're also going to learn more. And so, we want to maximize that um, as part of our strategy this year. And then increase the amount of small groupoup instruction. One of the pieces that goes with data is you got to do something with it. And from that is how do you work with students in smaller groups based off of their understanding. And so this is an area that

036we're honestly we're working on right now to grow in because um grain size matters. Like if you're looking at for example map test scores that's a whole lot different way to break your classroom up versus hey thumbs up thumbs down on problem number one from today's assignment. And so we're really working on differentiating and and understanding what that looks like um as a staff. So we're going to continue to work on that and you'll see the SD and SGI as we go. We're monitoring that by doing walkthroughs. I know that we're not the first building to share, but we're doing walkthroughs in a different way this year. Um and we're monitoring that and so far I think we're up to about 65 walkthroughs. Um, so far, uh, I know Michelle's going to share a higher

037number later, but good job, Michelle. Um, but she had a head start on me, but, um, it it's really been a fun way for us to see what's going on more. Um, you know, it's one of those things where hindsight's 2020. You think, man, I've been doing this a long time, and I haven't we hadn't done that before. And so, uh, it's a good thing that we were all tasked with like trying to figure out how to do this because it has been a really good thing to see what's going on in classrooms from a much different perspective than we had had before. >> So, equity and excellence and learning, adult behavior to achieve the goals. Um we're working hard with our guiding coalition on um CFAs or formative assessments, their learning cycles and then

038learning how to really um analyze the assessments that you're giving. And that's kind of what we're talking about with small group instruction as one piece, but really knowing what the data is that you're getting from an assessment and then what to do with that data. it we have work to do around that just in terms of everyone's understanding and then how to figure out next steps more efficiently. Um student discourse is something we're bringing we're talking about in PLC's but also in all of our committee structures we're measuring that with our walkthroughs and the way our walkthroughs work are similar to Michelle's is we have a monthly rotation. So I have this month 10 teachers that I'm doing walkthroughs in and then the next month I'll have uh 10 more and then all four of

039the administrators at the high school have 10 to 11 teachers each month to go in and be were responsible for doing walkthroughs. So that's kind of how the when it says rotation that's what it looks like and we just rotate groups throughout the the year. future ready graduates. We have restarted our uh ninth grade success team which Shannon is um taking the lead. She's also doing her admin internship this year and it was she's also the director for working on future ready as on the TNL team. It was a natural fit for her to take the lead on that. Um we've actually met been meeting uh every week and we've already seen the number of freshmen that are on the list going down which is a good thing. And the way the protocol works is

040you target the students that have one non-passing grade and you intervene with them. You talk to them. You go over resources, strengthbased analysis and then you empower them to make their next step choices. And those meetings are all from staff members. So the committee is made up of staff that work with nth graders primarily. So they have a lot of these kids in class. And so the way it works is we're sit around the table. We'll go down the spreadsheet of kids that have 1F and hey, I met with that kid last week already to talk about this. I'm happy to meet with him again and follow up or hey, my conversation didn't work last week. Would you mind taking a crack at the student to see if there are other things or other layers?

041And so everybody in the room and I think we have eight people on the committee this year which is our highest number um that we've had but it is we're it's working in a different way because we have a little bit different focus on what we're doing with it. uh and part of the strategic plan and having it be a part of that embedded in there is a good thing. Also, when we w were went through accreditation last year, uh that was one of the recommendations was to bring it back. And so, we've been building it and setting up since accreditation last spring. And so, it's been going really well, tracking 9th grade uh on track rates, following the protocol, and then we're also monitoring um Zello. Um, even though we're switching to school links

042next year, we're actively monitoring Zello and it is a part of the career choices class that that nearly every freshman is in currently enrolled in. Questions for the board? I have um I have a question just about the walkthroughs and this is I mean this you happen to be speaking tonight and it just occurred to me. So, um there's a form that's filled out from walkthroughs. Is that just emailed or shared with the um teacher or is there a conversation that happens after the walkthrough? >> So, the the way that we're using walkthroughs is that when we built the process, the agreement with teachers was it was non-evaluative. So, it was not going to be put into anything as related to their evaluation. The way that we're using the walkthroughs is the teacher gets a

043copy, I get a copy, and then there's a copy stored in our file for all walkthroughs. The purpose of doing the walkthroughs, um, and the way we're using them at the high school is is to look at the system as a whole. So, we're looking at it not necessarily as an individual like walk-in Rhonda was or was not doing this behavior because they're pretty short. They're usually between five and seven minutes. and in any class in any school in five and 7 minutes you're going to miss some things either before or after that are probably pertinent relevant to what's going on. So what we're using it for is to gather data over time and look at based on the criteria that my staff selected. Um we are looking at the data over time to see

044are we seeing these things in 60 walkthroughs. Are we seeing this thing occurring that we're looking for? And one of the things that we're looking for on our walkthroughs is student discourse, small groupoup instruction. Um, and so we went through a process at the high school to have staff input. So those were the two that I put on the table that were not negotiable because they were part of the SIP plan and they were things that I wanted to make sure were embedded in the walkthrough. And then staff selected two other categories and then staff wrote the definitions, went through a process that that's why I was behind Michelle. Our process took longer than Michelle's. So, but um we really feel good about where it's at. It's just that we're looking at it for um

045a systemsswide perspective rather than going into teacher teacher teacher. Um, but I will say the walkthroughs paired with the district walkthroughs does provide good feedback for staff um, just on what we're seeing and then we talk about that in our leadership teams to go, hey, these are the things that we are seeing. These are the things that we want to see more of. And then having a dialogue about how to do that. And so the walkthroughs are kind of like a formative assessment for me like to see what's working or not working with what we're doing on our teams. >> You and then I just had one other question. You said that the ninth grade, sorry I for lost the word for >> Success team. Um is that for students who just have one failing

046grade? Like what happens with students with more than one fail? >> So the way that the spreadsheet is created is it goes in order. So there's like this last time I think there were 38 freshmen that had one F and then there were a list of where there's students to have two Fs. And so the way that the committee works is we target the 38 and then if there's time available in the meeting, we talk about the the the next group that have two. If you're on the list and you have three or more, you're getting more intensive conversations like our counselors call in anybody that's on our um list that has three or more to do a check-in that's a little bit longer than the students that have one. And the conversation format is

047different. So like when we do the conversation with students that are on the one, it's to find out their strengths, what they feel they're good at, etc. When you're on the list for three or more, the conversation is okay, let's look at root cause, like where we really, you know, is it attendance? Is it lack of understanding? Is it, you know, social emotional? The deeper dive occurs when they get to that place. The goal is is to keep the twos from becoming threes and and so on and and to move students the other direction which we're actually seeing happening already even with just working on it a month which is good. So the data is going the right way currently. Um but yeah the the students that have more need are getting more intervention outside

048of that. Well, I have two questions, but then I but first I got to piggyback on your question about the walkthroughs. Um, because a lot of districts have done this for a long time and so CIA has done it for a very long time and one of the ways that we're layering it which I think is going to be pretty interesting. We didn't do this the last three years that I was there. So, this is the first year we've done it. So, they go through and they do the walkthroughs and we're looking at student voice, relationships, clarity of lesson, and 21st century skills. So, they're looking for all those four things. They compile it just like we are. Then they surveyed the teachers, which we just did that today on how well we think we

049are meeting all of those. Um, and then they're going to survey the students and see how the students think, you know, what is your classroom experience like in these four areas and then sort of then diagram all those things together. So, I'm really looking forward to that because you always there's always a disconnect, right? Teachers are like, I am a rock star, right? And the kids are like, what's a 21st century skill, right? And you're like, what? Um, but it'll be really interesting to see where those things cross over. So, I'm I'm excited that we're that we're doing this. So, and my two questions were um for Michelle, too, because I think you had some of the same um goals that Bo had was the first one, did you pick the Smarter Balanced as your

050measure because you think it's the best way to measure what we want our students to know and be able to do, or did you pick it for efficacy of data? And I don't mean that in a snarky way, just like what are the what were the reasons for picking that? Um, I I chose it because there's just not enough consistent measures available that we have at the secondary level that we can measure those points in time so readily and then it's this is what's being published like whether we like it or not, this is what's out there for the world to measure us by and so we want to show better progress on that. um and the ability to then take the map as a benchmark data to be able to start monitoring are we

051projected to be improving and start intervening on that. So, I've struggled the last 2 years in particular as we've worked on better school improvement plans to find something that actually is both something that's consistently measured, which thankfully that is something that's positive about the smarter balance and is there's a benchmarks available because last year I tried to do student growth goals or excuse me the um percentiles the the SGP student growth percentiles well I couldn't progress monitor that in any way And so then it became its own barrier by choosing something that didn't have that available. So that's that was my thinking in in choosing that. >> Yeah, my thinking was very similar. But I mean at the high school level, we have MAPS testing available. We have the IES which are now better than

052they were previously. And then we have smarter balance. Well, the one that has the most data and the and it's most linked to the standards from my p perspective was use the test that's measuring the same standards I'm asking teachers to use in in their classes which should show up on the CFAs etc. But honestly, we're at the beginning stages of tying the CFAs to those pieces correctly. And so without having all of those anchored like going away from something that I knew is more standardized, that's why I stuck with the smarter balance. But we did have the conversation around what what is the best way to measure, you know, cuz measuring growth, for example, for a cohort is much more challenging on Smarter Balance than if you were to take it off of MAP.

053So we did have conversations in our admin team about like what are we really shooting for? or we really wanting to, you know, strive for growth. But one of our limitations is that we don't map test every student. And so we map test in English 910 and then we map test in math, algebra, geometry, and then we map test in science now. But we're starting to expand like we haven't done science for a long time. We're only in year two of doing science. There's been a request to look at doing reading all the way through senior to so we can see the data longer. Until we have those things though, I the the one that's still we can count on reliable data is smart balance. And then my second one was the the PD that

054we're providing for for student discourse, student voice in those things that we might take for granted but should probably be explicitly trained. So the way that we well when we wrote this when I wrote the sit plan um I was bugging Jen like hey when are the PD days on the calendar and then mapping out. So our first PD day that we did at the high school was focused on student discourse strategies. So we spent our early release time in the whole staff talking about what does that look like? Breaking into smaller groups talking about their favorite strategies. I provided five strategies to the staff to say, "Hey, here's five easily accessible strategies. Please select one to try within the next period of time." Um, and then they all gave me feedback of what they

055were going to do. And then the expectation is to start seeing it more as we're going in and doing the walkthroughs and then using the walkthroughs to say, "Okay, are we seeing an increase in the amount of student discourse in class?" I love the I mean and I've talked with Colton about the the walkthroughs because they're literally a step or so ahead and trying to like pick his brain and so I love some of those things because I can see them now on the horizon and so we're starting it. Um but yeah, the student discourse and then our next PD day is the 29th. So, next Wednesday we're doing the same format with um talking about like I was mentioning small group instruction like how do we how do we dissect something and go okay

056yeah from a large scale but also then in just simply you know the quick check-ins how do we move kids into groups and do some more flexible stuff. So that's kind of the plan. So, um, a large part of our of our professional development this last year was focused on incorporating the strategies from the building thinking classrooms work from the math side of things into our math department and building that and seeing that student discourse in action. Um, and so we're continuing some of that work. Jeff Lebrandt from ESD 105 is going to come and do some work to help support that work in our staff. And then he has also shared that I mean he can do some of that same training with non-math teachers. I mean the the research was done around math

057but the strategies are good strategies. And so that's that's kind of the paid for PD version. Um but then also our ML teachers in our district are really wellversed in incorporating a variety of strategies to support student discourse and to get them talking about a variety of things. And so I've worked closely with my ML teacher Hannah Ruple who's done some she did some um kind of mini lessons last year during staff meetings and so we want to continue that but grow like we need to do some I discovered through map data that we need to do some work on um academic not just academic vocabulary our kids there's a gap it turns out in kids understanding um prefixes suffixes and root words and it's a third grade standard but our kids consistently are showing

058up as that's a gap and that that we're finding and so like when we have RPD so she'll do some of that in-houseled stuff that way. Um and then of course I'll do some too but yeah so kind of a combination of things and and trying to really ground that in some in the research that's that's out there. So thank you both of you. >> I got a quick comment uh thinking classroom. I almost asked parents if I could record them at the soccer game. Uh it was literally as at a soccer game and there were six it was a ninth grade high school soccer game. Uh but sixth grade parents were there and I have seventh grader and they're like do you know what's happening in the math classroom and I'm kind of get

059nervous as what's going to happen at the soccer game and they're like no like my child comes home and talks about math like what are they doing in sixth grade? And I'm like oh like tell me more. and like it was like right down whatever you call the sideline of soccer uh that they were all talking about what was happening in sixth grade math and I almost recorded it because they were so excited and happy about it and it's not how I thought the conversation was going to go. >> I just had a quick follow-up question about the celebration um of the six new classes that were implemented and I'm wondering about the the process behind um selection and implementation of a new class in the high school. Is there a specific piece like so

060the way that it works is so for example uh one of the new college in the high school classes this year is chemistry. Um, so the way it works is we partner or look for a relationship with a university. And the reason we do college in the high school is honestly like running start is a competitor for our upper classmen. And so I love it for a lot of reasons, but it's also makes it difficult for a lot of reasons for for the high school and for the district. And so when we're looking at new courses, one of the ways we address that is, okay, if we can offer a college credit in the in the high school classroom where for kids can stay in the building. So the process starts early. Like right now,

061we're already talking to teachers about if you want to run a new class or you want to consider a new class, need to have it to me by December because we're trying to move some processes up so we know numbers quicker. So then once we do that, then the teacher reaches out to the University of Washington. Then usually for college and the high school, it's it's a process to kind of vet out if what we're doing warrants or they will agree to partner with us to put the Udub stamp on the coursework. And so they check out the textbooks, they check out the teacher, you have to meet all of their criteria. Um and then I actually got on a zoom with UDub when we were in um this summer kind of an introductory piece

062and they checked and they asked me questions about like what's the what's the support look like? How are we doing X Y and Z? So it's it's a long process to do a college in the high school class. Otherwise, we also have a new class this year which is philosophy which we had run in the past. And so, um, new might not be the right word because it's not new to EHS. It's just we haven't run it in five or six years because the staff member that had been doing philosophy left and went to CILA and so the we there was a desire from the English department to bring philosophy back because of some of the the things that it offers. And so the teacher proposes a course description, an outline. We match it with

063course codes with the state. We put it in the registration packet for students and then students decide whether the class runs or not by they sign up for the class or not. And then in this case, philosophy did fill. Um, and so philosophy made it on onto the schedule. And now philosophy is going to be potentially a college in the high school class next year because we're reaching out to central to partner with them to make it uh a college in the high school class. So the process is pretty simple. The teacher comes up with an idea. We figure out if it's a viable idea. Um and then if it is a college and high school route, we partner with whatever university will approve the department. Um not every department works with central. Um, some

064departments work with Eastern, some departments work with UDub, some departments work with multiple universities. Yeah. So, board, one thing I want to add to this is I was able to actually do the TNL uh, walkth through yesterday with uh, Jen and Michelle at Morgan and then Jen and Troy and Bo at or not Bo, uh, Rob at Valley Beam. Um, one of the things that's really cool about it is the initial you sit down, you talk about what the walkthrough or the things you witnessed last time you did the walk through, what on the goals. So, um, and then you go out, you do your walkthrough, and then you come back and you debrief. So, if you want to do your walkthroughs, I suggest doing that because it's tied to our strategic plan way more

065than just going and visiting a school and like that. So, that's all I wanted to add. Any other questions for Bo? All right. Thank you very much, Bo. Next up, we have Michelle and Morgan Middle School sit. >> All right. Um, so you'll notice the dates a little off. Uh, so it was a month ago that we were we were going to be here. Um, so a couple things on my celebration there on um Can we just Can I just go down? Yeah. Thanks. that she's got she's got the same thing right here. I can just do this. All right. So, um we at the start of the school year, we had 742 students joining us. Uh which is a little bit smaller than we had last year. Our incoming sixth grade class was a

066little bit smaller than the outgoing eighth grade class. Um it feels like there's maybe this much more breathing room in the hallways. Uh but it's it's uh still a very vibrant place. Um one of the things I wanted to celebrate early on was that we had really strong start to attendance. um which is not in and of itself one of our goals, but it is an indicator of how well we're doing with some of our goals. And so we're really closely monitoring that. Um I should have gotten updated data for you, but um you'll get that throughout the updates throughout the year for sure because it's it's an important marker. Um and it was just really again and I and I think this is probably the second or third year I've said, it's just really

067really great start to the year. It just felt good on all fronts. And um here we are seven weeks in or something and it still feels that good. And so I'm just I'm really grateful for our families for the um partnerships that they're that they're engaging with us. Our staff is just embracing this work we're doing. And and the kids are just pretty awesome. I the the emphasis on being out and doing learning walks and has just um revitalized my energy towards um what I get to do every day. So, that's pretty cool. So, uh last year, uh a couple of our student outcome goals, one was that our our student growth percentiles for ELA would hit the 50 mark for all subgroups. Um you'll see I I boxed in our subgroups for that. We

068didn't make it across the board. Um it's there's some pockets where we identified pretty quickly. Unfortunately, it's um our EL stu our students that are already marginalized um based on their traditional success. they have traditionally underperformed. So, we're haven't quite hit the 50 mark for that. Um, we did one of our goals are was to also get our ML progressing rate up from 25 to 40%. And we did make that one, which was pretty exciting. Um, because this is a this is looking at um how did those students do individually that year compared to the other um the other chart measures over three years. So it's hard to always know if the work you're doing in that year is going to have the same kind of impact that it might in over you know so

069to get that ML data was really exciting because that's the the thing that we had picked that was something we could measure right away. Um and then for math we had hoped to get to the 50 we hoped planned the goal was to get to the um student growth percentile of 55 for all of our subgroups and you'll see there that um we we missed the mark in the same categories. um those were the same subgroups that we did not make that progress. Um and this the SEV goals, it kind of ties into the to the same ones from this year. So I'll I'll just talk about that when we get to that one. Um so so what worked well? um having intentional conversations about our students needs was was really important because looking at

070the CE data and looking at how our students were performing um with intentionality was was an important starting point just to get those conversations really launched. Um increasing classroom discourse uh continues to be on our goals for this year. However, we made really great progress last year between the building thinking classrooms work and Hannah's work with our staff. Um, when she gives a a training to the staff on, hey, here's some sentence stems that you could include for your classrooms and then you go into classrooms within the next week and see them taped on the corners of the desks so that they can use those as a resource. um really starts to build the momentum and give the kids an opportunity to be using um academic language when they're having those conversations. Um and then

071really choosing the wrong things to measure helped us understand the right data that might have been more useful. Um, so that was enlightening when you think because it just seems like well we want to look at those growth percentiles because that's their growth not just achievement and it just doesn't mesh with anything else that we're collecting. So trying to find better data to look at was good. Um, one of the significant barriers was we didn't have strategized benchmarks. There wasn't points in time where we had a plan that this is the data we're going to collect. And so as a result, we didn't know it's a then it's one of those surprise at the end of the year. Let's see if we made it or not. Um so having having those benchmarks set in place

072is going to help us be able to course correct midyear should we need to do that. Um, and then and then I would just I had to just own this piece of it is that I did not have a good system for monitoring. And with only 180 days, if you get sidetracked at all, you really start to lose any potential for actually making that progress. So, um, I I can't lose that precious time. And so, trying to develop systems for myself as well, um, was pretty critical. and then how that informed our work this year. Um we already we started the year really intentionally around um digging into our school improvement plan so that each the leadership team and the whole staff had opportunities as a whole had opportunities to process what was on our

073school improvement plan so that there could be some meaning made from it instead of having it be the you know elf on the shelf sort of thing. Um, and then we do have some really good monitoring pro that's going on now trying to work on make sure that we have some monthly data we're collecting and some three times a year spot checking that we're doing to benchmark. Um, and we really just worked at putting making our school improvement plan something that drilled down to things that we could monitor the things that really matter the most to us. And it doesn't mean that we're not working on a thousand other things at any given time, but what we're going to monitor and measure is those pieces. And doing that well should lead to next year those

074things shouldn't have to show up on our school improvement plan because we should build some of that muscle memory to be able to move us forward and across the system. So um that was just some lessons learned from from from the year. Um so then this year um our goals so the student uh student well-being through agency and connection uh really kept this as the same goals we had last year because we didn't hit the mark. Um but we we know that um as just because it's also a part of our strategic plan, but we also know if kids aren't feeling connected, they're not going to continue to grow at the level that we'd like to see them grow. And so there were nine statements that were identified as um on the CE survey that

075were related to self- agency for students. And so we picked those to look at and three of those had less than 75% positive responses collectively on those. So um that was the school is doing a good job of preparing me to succeed in life. Uh my teachers tell me the purpose for each lesson or activity and I enjoy coming to the school. And I've embedded the data on there that that you can look at that. And so that shows where we were at last year and where we want to get to um get to that 75% mark. Um but those three in particular were had not hit that for both um our all students subgroup and for our Hispanic subgroup because as you saw in the other data our Hispanic students are underperforming. So we

076need to understand a little bit more about that. Um for our equity and excellence in learning uh we want our goal is to get to 55% of our students meeting the state standard for smarter balance and closing the or increasing our ML progress rate to 50%. Um which doing that should also close an achievement gap that exists between our ML students and our all students population. Um, and then for our math, 45% of our students will meet the standard. And that should also, if we're moving our our whole, that should increase the student growth percentile for our Hispanic students. Um, I I specifically call out ML students and our Hispanic students, partly because we are still a school that's monitored through the state for the AIE, the um, office of some kind of support. >>

077I don't I don't remember. I don't remember what state. What's important is I is my school improvement plan has to specifically name the groups that are underperforming and how we're going and what we're going to be looking for in those areas. Um and then for future ready graduates, um we are moving to the school links already the at Morgan Middle School this year for the high school and beyond plan. And so we're going to ensure that 100% of our eighth grade students are leaving with what they need to have done ready to go to the high school with their with their high school and beyond plans um launched. So those are our our big outcome goals and then the plan to get there. So um in regards to student agency and connection, one of the

078one of my um pretty firm beliefs is that part of the students connection especially at the middle level has a lot to do with the family connection because if the families are not feeling connected then they're not having conversations at home about school and the kids are less connected. So, one step that we will take is our te classroom teachers will communicate with families um about supporting student learning um at least monthly on parent square and and we're we're we're still that's a work in prog. This is the goal. Um we're not 100% there yet, but we went through and um I took I had a a staff member who had done a particularly good job of sending out um her updates on on Parent Square last year. So, I I had her send me

079several of those. Um, and then we created a template that made it super easy for to not I don't families can get really inundated with the amount of content that they're getting from any place. What they don't need more of is don't forget you have a test tomorrow or don't forget where to park. What they need more of is this is how you can engage with your child about what they're learning. And so that's the goal of that template is to help structure that so that they have something that helps build that connection with school. Um and then communicating our learning targets with connections and relevance to future learning or andor career opportunities. So it's as if the kids are telling us that they don't believe that their teachers are telling them the purpose of

080a lesson or an activity, we can pretty simply fix that by ensuring that we tell them what that purpose is. And so working on developing those purpose statements, not just, you know, so you can pass the test or so because I said it's important, but actually connecting that. And there's just, you know, with it with things like school AI, one of my um one of my leadership team members then took her learning targets and she created a video that then the staff could use that has prompts on how to help develop the purpose for your learning targets in a middle school friendly language to help them. So trying to increase that. Um we do our benchmarks for this particular I didn't this wasn't part of the presentation but um now that we're you know a

081third of the way into the school year. No, not quite but um it's starting to feel that way some days. Um we did a we're going to use the benchmarking for this as a student survey that we do through their advisory class. So we incorporated other questions like um how do you need help? Would you take help? you're good on several um social emotional issues like anxiety, depression, grief, um several things that students struggle with day in and day out. Um some school related questions. Do you have an adult that you feel connected to at the school? Um, but then we took those three statements from the CE survey and we measured those and we will measure them fall, winter, and spring because the CE happens in November, which is hard to know if the

082work you're doing is making the difference long term. And so, uh, we did our first survey in like the maybe the third week of school. Um, and and it did show was able to then show the staff are we are seeing some positive the kids are responding positively to the work we're doing. Um and then the other questions led to um our counseling team being able to start doing some interventions pretty early on with students who are reporting that they need help in in different areas. Um for our excellence in equity and education uh the two student uh student smart the smarter balance um scores we're going to ensure that the staff is doing a minimum of one PDSA plan do study act cycle per unit of instruction um with and we we had done

083some work as an admin team with Nicole Dimmitch this summer and from solution tree and one of the things that really stood out was really simplifying that process down to something that's very manageable and uh ensures that you're having good conversations about the data you're collecting for kids, but also gives you immediate plans for what you're going to what are you going to do with that data. And so um and we have um I think I mentioned last year we have on Thursdays and Fridays our advisory becomes our win time which is what I need and uh teachers have the opportunity to pull students and work with them. And so that EDSA cycle then helps inform the the students that they need to work with because it's more about reteing something that the students not

084getting instead of just making up missing assignments. Um and then also that 100% of the teachers will be integrating classroom discourse strategies to support student learning. And so, um, as we are collecting that data on our learning walks, we're able to see, um, our our early emphasis really is on getting those learning targets with the purpose statements as our first like big problem of practice we're addressing because that in a lot of ways is lowhanging fruit. And so, but yet critical because clearly if the kids aren't feeling that they know why they're doing what they're doing and and we're in an era where kids question more. It's no, it's no longer just because I said so. Um and then uh we'll use school links in our advisory classes to ensure that the students have access

085and the and the and the steps that they need to be able to do this the high school and beyond plans. Um so we'll be starting that with seventh and eighth graders uh November the second week in November um so that we can incorporate the parent component for conferences because there's a a log there's an access point that the parents need to be able to do too. So, um, so I welcome any questions you might have about Morgan Middle School. >> This is just a general comment um, >> for really both of you and also principles who aren't here. It seems like the SIP plans this year are much more focused on what is the student experience going to be? I mean, certainly what are the adults in the building doing, but how is it

086going to make a direct impact on the student experience? And so I'm really appreciating that focus. >> Yeah, that's I think that was important to all of us as we as we as we shifted to how do we how does this match this the strategic plan and Jen's and Rhonda's and Lori everybody's hard work on creating a template that would work. I think that so thank you for for seeing that >> board. Any other questions, statements? All right. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. And you guys are free to go if you like. So Michelle and Bo, thank you for your updates. >> I think we'd all like to go. Yeah. Uh okay. Uh we do not uh UN is not with us tonight, so we don't have a student report. Uh so that

087takes us to uh Jen and a teaching and learning update. And for tonight's TNL update, uh Rhonda's here to talk about uh what we're doing with changes to our multilingual learner supports um particularly around sheltered, but some other stuff that we are doing with that. Okay. Um so I have to apologize in advance. I I tried to define all of the um acronyms in the presentation. Um the multilingual learner program is especially odd and you'll see a lot of times sometimes I'm going to refer to things as ELLL when I refer to endorsements because that's still what they're called. And so it's just be aware that um there's a lot um so we did some um changes to our ML services this year. It's the first time um we've done this in several years. Um

088and you saw a little bit about the shift. We've introduced um sheltered instruction in our secondary classes through um English language arts. And I'll talk a little bit about what that is, but um the reason that we felt we needed to do the shift was um there's some limitations in our standalone period model. So what we were doing before is if a student qualified for ML services, they were being pulled out for a full academic period during their school day. And um in middle school and high school, you know, students are really they're only taking six classes. And so we basically have eliminated their elective choice and and have them take ML services, which you know, we still have that occurring. Um we'll talk a little bit about that. Our um newcomers and students that

089are just emerging are are now we've increased their services because they're still taking a standalone class in addition to the sheltered class. But um we believed that the the standalone period model that was um targeted to different levels, but it was still a little bit of a one-sizefits-all approach needed to be changed and it'd be a little bit more um responsive to student needs. And um it is a better match to best practices for um secondary um English language development. It's um in referenced in the state's guide to transitional bilingual instructional programs for high school as a a recommended model if you're not doing something like um dual language which is their obviously their prefer preferred model for a school district. Um we feel like this is good alignment to our strategic plan. It was

090time to look at it from that lens too. Um I believe it helps with equity equity and excellence and learning. So, by combining our English language development with our English language arts class, we're um providing really more focused um instruction on that content area and giving better access to both ELA and I believe to English language um development services. And it helps with future ready graduates too because it does give kids the elective choice back in their day. we were having some um students choose to wave services um so that they um could um take the class. This is also I believe I I talk about this a little bit later. This is also a response to the fact that the bulk of our students in our secondary um ML programs are long-term eelss and

091um and so um moving to something different than what they've experienced before is also um a good and equitable thing to do for students. So like I said our um previous model was ELD period for all and again we have large number I I just already talked about the slide now large number of um long-term English learners els um the states moving to experience eelss so you'll be hearing that more um coming up in in presentations from OPI um and again like we have a really big problem with um with not a really big problem we had handfuls around 20 students have um opted out of services, but that's still too many um students who are opting out of services. So, what we're doing now is sheltered instruction um in ELA for all of our

092ML students plus the targeted English language development period for our newcomers and students who are um below a 3.0 on um the WEDA access, which is the really the emerging um students. um I we have some exceptions to that where if we've identified the student is still new in country, hasn't been in services for a long time and they're above a three, it might still be appropriate for them to also have a standalone class. Um other random exceptions that we have are um where we're required to provide ML services for everyone who qualifies. So if we have students who are participating in our open doors program um in our online program or in like a life skills program, we have to have a plan for them, but they're not necessarily receiving either sheltered or um

093a pull out period for that. Um we um have these courses, they are not co-taught it, but um there it's an ELA teacher. Um both of the ELA teachers that we have teaching this, Dolores Gonzalez and Britney Wiler are actually endorsed to um teach um ML classes. Um but they're partnering with the ML teacher, especially during this transition year to make sure that we're um properly combining the ELA class with specific focus on the English language development. So it they mesh nicely, but it's not a perfect match there. Um, so it's really about that integrated content and language instruction. Um, like I said, there are some students that are in an additional um, English language development period because it is really appropriate for those kids who need it the most to get extra help. Um

094benefits of this model are obviously that it increases the supports for our newcomers and beginners, allows more access to electives, and it also starts to place more of the responsibility for English language development with our general education system. Um and so um you know a um I didn't put it in I don't believe I put in this no I didn't in this presentation but um you know one of the things um Michelle was talking about was how her ML teacher um is really starting to develop into a coaching role. And so it actually frees the staff member up potentially to work as a coach to go into contentbased classes to assist on things like sentence frames or strategies to um develop um English language skills within the content areas. And those are strategies that really

095translate to every student. I mean if you taught biology and I felt like half of the time it was a foreign language course and so and you know really I could have used sentence frames for native English speakers. So I think um I think this will be a really good thing for our system overall. And so it's a a improvement in quality of our system without an additional cost to the s to the system. Um so our next slide, thank you Leslie. You're doing a really good job of just following along. Um so of the at our at our secondary level of the um my numbers might be a little off. I pulled these um several weeks ago and we've been just kind of cleaning up our data, but we had um 90 long-term meals

096out of 112 um ML students at the secondary level. So, it means that they've been in program. I think the definition is at least 5 years. It depends what um what statistic you're using. I believe that's the one I was getting off of elevation, but it really depends on where they entered. It's dependent. If a student is enters and their English language is at, you know, they're already at a 3.0, we would expect them to exit within maybe two or three years. If someone's starting at a just emerging level, then they might have five years to progress out of um EL services before they are kind of behind or not showing adequate growth. Um and then we um have 35 students who are exited and monitored in the program. So they've in the last year

097or two have um passed the WEDA or done a combination of getting a high enough score and passing the um the smarter balanced to um exit from ML services. And so we monitor their progress and offer additional support. Um and that also frees up our ML teachers to do more um targeted help for students who are exited since they're not teaching five classes um a day. So, we've um also are doing a couple of other things. Um we have started um through a grant from OSPI a new initiative. We have an um elementary heritage language program for Spanish that we've started. We started three weeks ago. Um it's focused on culture and literacy um specifically reading and writing. And so um it's um I don't know we have the students that were recruited are students

098who reported their home language families who reported their home language is Spanish and the students can understand Spanish and speak Spanish to some degree and they you know there some degree of shyness some degree of fluency there. Um we've done some you know little fun assessments. We're not giving them quizzes after school, but you know, just ask like, "Hey, what's your favorite color? Tell me about yourself." And like, "Oh, okay. You know, 16 out of the 17 students can say Azul for blue, but they don't know how to write it." And so, you know, and that's that's why focusing on Spanish literacy is important. It's just it was something that we knew was going to be the case, but it's also it's a little sad seeing it in person. And um but it it's been

099really really fun. I don't want to be a bummer. So, I've been I've been helping with it for the past um I I'm committed to doing this first six week session. And so, I'm I'm there. I'm mostly escorting students to the bathroom because I'm not fluent in Spanish, right? So, I'm so I'm helping out opening doors, things like that. But, it's been really fun. And so, um we're doing it through um the Tuesday before Veterans Day. We'll do additional sessions um in winter and spring. And on the 10th, we're also having a family event and to get feedback from the families and um just to you see how it's going. And it's it's a good way also for us to check in with the community because instead of inviting like hey come talk to us

100about stuff it's like hey come see what your kids are doing and then we'll use this as a venue to talk about how your school experience is going in general. Um it's been organized by our Spanish family leaison um Cindy Melor who's done a really spectacular job at organizing this communicating with families um she's really amazing to work with and Dolores Gonzalez um from the middle school has been planning the lessons um for us and so we do a a K um two session where we have um six kids and then we have a um 35 um section where we have 11 very energetic kids that I help and now I remember why I teach high school. Um, and it's facilitated by district interpreters. So, they're there are sub interpreters and they're amazing. Um, two

101of them are completing their education programs at Central right now and they're they're really doing an amazing job. It's been a really positive experience. We've had basically perfect attendance at all of the events. We're busing kids from all of the schools to Mount Stewart. Um, Mount Ste has our right now our believe our highest population of ML students and they dismiss the latest and so it's easy for us to just have a transfer bus take kids um from Lincoln and um Bell and we walk the IDA student. We only have one for some reason. Um, in the next slide is a cute picture Leslie took. I invited her the first um session. Oh, it's not there. Dang it, it's not mine. If you could only see Oh, look at happy smiling kids. Sorry, I thought

102it was a live one. I apologize. Um, and then there aside that won't be on here then because I I thought I was updating the live one was um the other thing that we did that I forgot to put in um the update was um we were awarded a um grant through title two um which is normally was for professional development but there was one specifically for increasing um dual language and ELLL endorsed teachers and districts. And so we got the grant and three teachers actually participated in PLU's online ELLL endorsement program over the summer including Britney Wiler who um got endorsed um which which is really great and she thought she had really great feedback about the program. So it covered the tuition which was not cheap and books and um so the other

103um two staff members um completed the course. I'm not sure if they've taken the certification test yet, but that was a kind of a nice thing that we did to increase some of the capacity. Um, so even if they're not directly teaching ML courses since those like the two other teachers aren't, it still increases staff capacity overall. So that's where we're at and we'll be I believe next board meeting on the um our TBIP grant kind of plan will be on the consent agenda. But I just wanted to we wanted to present this to you because we actually did change something. So you might be interested to know that before you see it on the consent agenda. And that is almost it. So next steps. Um we know obviously we're going to continue to monitor

104the effectiveness. We have high hopes for it. We've gotten really good um initial anecdotal data that the kids are enjoying the class. The teachers are um enjoying teaching the class. So, we're we're hopeful that this is um going to be um really effective and we're going to measure I mean measure effect we want kids to enjoy the class, but we also want students to be making progress on um the WEDA and eventually um testing out um we'll evaluate our heritage language pilot um to to see you what we'd like to do with that. I mean, we're not going to be able to tackle Spanish literacy 1 hour a week one, you know, um but it's, you know, it's a start and, you know, I think we're just continuing to look at um what we want

105to do, you know, for dual language. That's still just kind of an awaiting area. You know, that's going to be a challenge based on, you know, are we anticipating any kind of staff turnover that would allow us to hire um bilingual staff? Um and then, you know, there's always a possibility like what would heritage language look like? could we reintroduce that at middle and high school as a course offering for Spanish? So, um, and then yeah, like I said, there's always those staffing considerations are what kind of comes into play for making more robust plans around these areas. I think that is it. Okay. Thank you questions. This is awesome work. So, thank you for all that. Um, is it just Spanish that we have represented at secondary right now? Because we have a lot

106more languages represented other than Spanish at elementary, right? >> Yeah. You know, it's um we do have um gosh, I I don't know off the top of my head how many languages we have. I I'm thinking it has to be over 20 in the district. Um and those are represented by like six kids or two kids, right? And so it's so um you know baby steps on you know doing like our most dominant language Spanish is by far our our most dominant language and that's always a problem like if we're offering a heritage language program or a dual language program dual language for one target language it's not for all of the target >> but the sheltered would be for any language >> any language that's I thought no I was asking specifically how many

107were represented but I also was figuring it was for all of them just cuz I know Britney speaks Spanish and Dolores speaks Spanish and just wondering >> it's for all of them. It's not it's not a dual language type of a class. It's just or bilingual. It's for >> Yeah, it's it's for any Sorry. Yes. Awesome. >> Go ahead. >> I was just going to ask if there's any other questions. Could you educate me just a little bit more Rhonda on the relationship between um multil- language learners >> um exiting is that the language that's used exiting and then being monitored? So I'm just wondering about the relationship between um getting students to be fluent in English and the heritage language process. Like how do those two things interact? >> Right. So it's kind of

108two questions. So like the the heritage language um piece I'll I'll tackle first. Um so I think you the easiest way to explain it and sorry if I'm not answering the question that you're asking so stop me if I is that um you know like things like reading and writing are skills in themselves that are almost language independent. And so if I'm taking advantage of someone's first language and developing literacy skills in writing and reading, it's going to transfer to the next language, English. And so building that that literacy, and that's why dual language programs are effective, is that you're building a first language really well and then that translates to second language. And that's also why you see a lag sometimes in ELA scores in dual language programs. So like with with the heritage

109language, it's partially about that. is partially about building that literacy and then potentially I mean our program is not robust enough to really truly build that literacy but part of it is that but then there's also the other pieces of um heritage language which would be like that um socioultural competency piece too and establishing that belonging and feeling like I'm a value part of the school. My my identity is seen and and understood. So it kind of it it fits in two different ways. You know what we're really not doing right now is like the third pillar of um dual language would be like academic excellence and that's you know we're doing more of an enrichment program. So it's we're not really targeting that for the um exited monitored and so I don't um so

110they've passed the WEDA but we we do know that um students once they pass the WEDA that academic language still gets more complicated as we go up during grade levels and just because you've exited at one grade level like especially at fifth grade if I've exited at fifth grade the academic language really ramps up in middle school and so you might still have trouble accessing because you're you're not getting the academic language quite as quickly as as native speakers are for just a lot of different reasons. And so that's the reason behind monitoring is that it's known that there's going to be some some backsliding and then we might need to do some purposeful like tutoring or things to keep the kids on that trajectory. >> Any other questions? All right. Thank you very much,

111Linda. >> All right, next up, super ended superintendent update and Troy. >> Okay, so uh tonight the update is pretty much just going to be focused on uh levy planning and the timeline and some of those. So we as we get ready, uh you'll know what we're working on before we meet next time to to kind of make final decisions and get the thing rolling. So, uh, we're continuing to work on our lev EPO levy authority sheet. Sounds draconian, and it probably is, but it's actually not that big of a deal. Uh, but OSPI, you know, a while back, they they made some changes in the laws where OSPI has to look at and approve levies, basically the outline of them prior to to going out there. So, we're continuing to work on that. What

112it really is is, you know, that is process is to help us define and understand you know, where we want to go with it financially, you know, how much we want to collect. And so, really the issue is right now is really looking at what's the future growth of assessed value. And so, we're getting lots of opinions on that. I'll continue talking about that, but the the 10-year average uh for Ellensburg is just under 9%. Uh that's slowing down obviously. Uh but in in the last 10 year, that average is that growth. The 5-year average is 4.3. Uh so the Kim has reached out to the county and asked, "Okay, so what are you projecting?" And so the county is projecting 2.4 next year and that slow down a little bit in assessed value. Uh

113so we worked then with our financial adviser, which is uh Mark from ESD12, who helped us with the bonding stuff. uh our bond underwriter, which is uh DA Davidson, Corey Pleger, he weighs in on on these types of things. And then uh the county's assessor's office to get everybody's best assumption because that's what we're doing. We're making an assumption on assessed values and then identifying a rate that we need to collect the amount that we decide that that we're going to have. And if we're off a lot and no one hits it like perfect, right? Because you you don't know that. But if we're off by multiple percentage points, it it can, you know, be impactful on the total amount that we can collect uh over time. So, uh it's a it's we have a

114lot of help with that, I guess, is the best way to put it. But that's what Kim is having to put into the uh levy authority worksheet and and that's what we're continuing to work with. Uh another thing we will want to consider, I mean, we've been operating, I think, the last two times on a four-year levy. uh we can have a discussion about whether we want to go one, two, three or four years. Uh it's probably we probably want to stay away from two years in that we have a capital technology levy that will be renewed in two years. We will also in the course of uh after this hopefully passes this upcoming levy, we will really need to turn our attention to that levy and our uh capital facility needs particularly around Valley

115View and a few other things HVAC obviously at the high school and at Valley View. So we will have some other considerations but that's something for you to think. We're operating off of we think probably four years is the way to go but we we have not decided that. So we can have that discussion and finalize that uh in November. Uh we will need to as I said obtain OSBI approval for our levy expenditure plan prior to submitting the resolution to the county. So that needs to the resolution to the county needs to go uh to them by December 12th. Uh so we will have to have our uh levy authors our planning uh expenditure planning to OSPI before that. It's not a super complicated thing. They're they're not asking for lots of details. It's

116just sort of broken down. But it takes about a week or so for them and probably since a lot of people are running in February and meeting a December 12th deadline, they'll they'll be expecting quite a few. So that's that's kind of where we're we're working towards. Okay, next one, please. So the the next step, what we'll really be doing over the next few weeks and then finalizing and working on at our study session is really that development of the resolution. And so we work with another group uh we work with uh an attorney Lee Marquezio uh from Foster Garvey. Foster Garvey is our attorneys that work with our bonding. So we had a little bit of their as we were refunding the bond. they do the technical stuff for us. So that's yet another

117set of attorneys that we have uh and and get to pay. Uh so anyway, uh we'll be working with him to kind of lay the groundwork and and you know, so they'll have everything ready. Then we'll plug in once we make those decisions, we'll plug in the details of the amounts, the estimated rate. Remember the rate is always estimated because it does fluctuate based upon the how the assessed value works out. uh because we are collecting a set amount of money each year and uh so they'll work on that with us uh work on the language, you know, do all of the legal stuff. So we we have uh Lee to work with on that and and so we'll work with him prior uh to to the meeting and have everything ready to go. I

118will be double-checking with him on the timeline because it is a little bit interesting. You know, we our November meeting schedule is a little different in that our business meeting is the week after the study session. So we'll need to make sure that we're all aware he's all aware of that. Ready to go. So what we'll need for the resolution that Foster Garvey will create is we need the date that you will consider the adoption of the final resolution and indicate in it. For some reason it has to indicate in it that it was occurred at a regular meeting or a special meeting or something. So it'll be our regular business meeting. So we'll be working with him on that. We'll obviously need to give him a resolution number because it'll be in there. And

119then our years of collection 1 2 3 or four. Uh so that has to go in there. uh the amount to be collected per year. And so that's what we're working on right now, that total amount, what does our assessed value say, what is our um you know, what is what is that going to generate? We're trying to predict over that 1, two, three, or four year cycle um what that looks like each year. So that's why we're having to spend some time getting a lot of people to weigh in on the the future growth of our assessed value. And then you have the estimated dollar rate per thousand dollars that would be required to produce the levy amounts each year. And so that's what a lot of people when they see the levy they

120got to vote, they look at that estimated rate. Um, but the reality is is that it it does go up and down a little bit depending on assessed value. And then uh in the resolution confirmation of OSPI's timing to approve the levy expenditure plan. So we have all of those things that go in there. That's why they don't leave it up to us to write it. So we have lawyers. Uh and then the other thing that they will be helping us with is we will um have to have the resolution filed by December 12th, but we also then have to have the foreign against committee that we talked about last time, the foreign uh against committee appointment form uh by December 12th. So they don't we don't have to have the people identified by December

12112th, but we have to have gone through the process of advertising it, talking about what meeting, and so um I'll make sure I get more kind of information about that. But those are the the big steps that we're going to be doing. So some of those things that we're going to be doing over the next next couple weeks are really requiring third parties outside of of us, a lot of back and forth and making those decisions. uh so we can bring to you the data and look at it, talk about it and boom, we're we're sort of ready to go. So last one. So this this one is just uh Lee sent this out and just to make sure um you know there's a lot of RCWs as as we move from planning what it

122is then to all right, how do we get it passed? These are the reminders that we are not able to um promote it as vote yes for it in our official capacity while we're on official time. So, we have to make sure that we're very careful with election campaign restrictions. RCW427A 555 lays it out pretty well. um they'll be changing January 1st for the the numbering for some reason, but it it really, you know, talks about how uh we are not allowed to, you know, promote that, which we all know, but that's important for us to to make sure that we understand the law and what it's about. And then, um the the second bullet there, there are some exemptions um you know, to that. So, you can adopt a resolution in support of or

123opposition to a ballot proposition. And you know, just if we were taking a position as a board, there are some political things that we could do. It's not it's pretty rare for school boards to do that, particularly in towns our size. But at times in larger systems, boards will take a position on a ballot measure that might be. So, for example, um Spokane School District is running co- levies with the city of Spokane. So, they've intertwined them. So, there's a school district levy and then there's a parks levy. and they are basically working together. In fact, it won't work very well if they both if one passes and the other doesn't because they are partnering on facilities and and things like that. So, um the board can take a position to support the parks levy.

124So, that that's just kind of what that stuff says. Um and you know, there's a whack around uh exemptions of what's normal and regular conduct. And so, that's where that comes in where we can educate on the levy. We can put out information about the levy. We can um talk about things that are supported by the levy, but we have to stay away from urging people to vote. Yes, we can remind them to vote, but so so we'll have to be, you know, we we'll get make sure we get some information around that. It's becoming uh we all got a bit of a I think it was at our WASA meeting in last week we got a bit of a lecture on making sure we uh comply with everything and that uh they're continuing to

125uh the PDC is continuing to tighten up uh and school less just happen and bonds just happen to be probably the most consistently voted on local taxes across the state. So, um, schools and school districts, uh, are getting, you know, hand slapped a lot of time. So, we just want to make sure that we're in compliance and we're making sure that we are are working through that. But, that's kind of the next step. It's going to ramp up here over the next week or two um, as as we prep and then it's going to go really fast once we start, you know, getting that data. uh our financial advisors from ESD12 recommends consistently that you go with the overall average. Um but that's a little making us a little nervous when we see the what

126the county's predicting and uh we can look around us and see what's going on in the economy. Although, uh, I don't know. Houses in my development keep going for sale and they eventually sell and then there's more that pop up. So, that's kind of strange in So, Blake, my wife, my mom's house, my sister and I try to sell it and haven't heard anything since July and we've, you know, dropped the price quite a bit. It's on a golf course. So, uh, you know, it's not working there. But, uh, so, you know, we're in we're in a little bit different. So, I so we're talking about being conservative. we'll get continue to get uh feedback from everybody that helps us out because that's their job is to do the math and to do it and

127to give us some advice. So uh we will we'll work on that. We also um you know you take into consideration what's uh you know what what also is being added in your community. It's not just about homes. And so, you know, we know um there are a few businesses being developed and you know, for example, the the giant warehouse isn't going to necessarily change things, but it's certainly going to change a lot how that particular large parcel of land is is taxed. So, uh so that's what we're going to be working on. And so I just wanted to kind of go through that timeline with you, let you know what we're working on um and just sort of what questions that you might have um as we kind of get into that more uh

128making a few decisions or providing some options for the deci, you know, for us to make decisions. >> I have two questions. One is I was talking to Dan Chisler who used to serve on the school board who had no memory of having to make up these for and against committees. And so relatively new relatively new. >> I've never heard of that. >> No, it's I don't know how new it is, but it's within the last six, seven years. >> Okay. All right. Dan was here. >> Oh, okay. That was just >> Well, and it used to be it didn't actually and it's altered already from what it originally was. I mean, originally was you just had to go out and ask, you know, offer that. Now, it's like you have a responsibility to fight

129against. So, it's morphed a couple times, but it's it's a relatively new gift to us. >> Gift. Um so then just to clarify um on that first paragraph on compliance with campaign restrictions if we as private individuals even though we happen to be schoolboard members promote and we can tell people to vote but can we also as private individuals not using >> yeah not as long as you're not using anything officially associated with the the school board so you can't use your you know school email account or that kind of things but yes we can advocate independent ely um for that, but that's usually what people are are watching for. So like we can't print a vote yes thing off of our printers at at at any school or a district office or whatever. So

130yeah, but yes, individually we can uh we just have to make sure that we are acknowledging that if if we're talking about voting, yes, we are doing it as private citizens on private time. Any other questions on the levy at this point? All right. Thank you, Troy. Yep. Uh I'm on the wrong thing. Uh okay, so that takes us into the business part of our meeting board. First up is the enrollment report. >> Yeah. So hopefully you've all had a chance to uh look at it. uh we are in good shape uh with our projected enrollments uh being you know 3,111 uh FTE and we came in in October at 3,166 so about 50 over which is nice that in our September didn't have TK in it in the actual enrollment because we hadn't started

131TK at that point to about 40 kids and so then we also picked up a few uh across the board so that's a nice healthy place for us to start in October. We know that generally speaking throughout the year we lose a few of those, but that should keep us right in coming in very strong on our projection, which uh is good for us. That's uh the worst thing for us when we budget is all of a sudden we get low on projections. But we're we're going to be we looks like we're going to be in pretty good shape. Our running start numbers are trending to be very consistent now. So, I think that we have enough of a long-term trend to, you know, know that this is what we will plan for each year

132when it comes to scheduling and staffing at the high school or or whatever. Now, it'll eb and flow a little bit over time. Uh, one of the things that is growing a little bit are open doors programs and we do get to count students uh for FCE in open doors. Uh, it's it's different. Remember, it's a dropout recovery program, re-engagement program. So it's students that have essentially dropped out, we are re-engaging them in a different way uh back in their education. So that's the those numbers being a little bit more than they were last year at this time are also helping us out a little bit, but that's also a fluctuating number as those students come in and out of the program. Um it's almost regular how much they go in and out of the

133program. So as Kathy can talk about at length. So any questions on enrollment? >> Was the projected enrollment Is that essentially what you we budgeted for, right? So Kim Kim goes through the statistics, figures out a projected enrollment, and that's what we build our our finances around. >> Any other questions for Troy on the enrollment report? It's okay. Bless you. All right. Uh that takes us to the financial update and Kim So tonight I'm going to be going over September 2025 as our first month for the year. Um we're on track with the first month. Um you will notice a few discrepancies between Kittas County Treasure and the district. The general fund is off by 22,000 and the ASB fund is off by about one um,600 due some warrants. This is due to some warrants

134being redeemed in two different months. They were redeemed in well they were redeemed in July August and then August September. So at the county side so the outstanding report and the redeemed was not correct. Um but they're working on it and it is getting better. So we're working close with them still to get that going but it is much better than we saw in August. Um, so yes, um, general fund, uh, for the month of September, the district spent a, um, oh, sorry, I'm skipping there. The general fund revenue comes in at 6.64% and expenditures come in at 9.1. The fund balance is sitting at 8.4 million or 13%. For the month of September, the district spent a total of 5.9 million, which was made up of 67% on salaries and benefits, 14% on supplies,

135and some of the bigger expenditures we had was 148,000 to Imagine Learning for the District Online School, 49,000 to Curriculum LLC, 45,000 to Aubrey for annual subscription, 248,000 to Edetics, um, and 38,000 to Lexia Learning System to support teachers in the classroom. We had 19% on professional services and the major expense for September was the district's $972,000 payment to school insurance association for our district liability insurance. And last year it was um approximately 861,000. So that's how much has gone up again. Um, capital project funds revenue come in at 13.13% and there was no September expenditures for the capital project fund. The debt service fund revenue came in at 1.5% and there were no expenditures in September. ASB fund revenue came in at 13.29% and expenditures came in at 3.87%. Some of the expenditures for

136September for the ASB fund is 12,000 for BSN sports for uniforms and 8,000 to shirt works for the first day t-shirts at the high school. And then the prior purpose fund, the fund balance is sitting at about 35,000 and there were no new expenditures in September. And the transportation vehicle fund, the revenue for this fund came in at 38% which is just interest and no expenditures for September. Well, that is all I have for September and I'm still closing out the financial statements or for 2425. So, still working on this. >> Thank you for the update, Kim. Board, any questions? I'd just like to add that uh it's, you know, Kim's had to work really hard, Patrick, our entire fiscal team with the the issues at the county of changing over the systems. Um, and

137the county has been responsive. It's been been challenging, but ESD 105 has to get involved and and lots of things. So, as the the issue was as Kim's closing out the year, we didn't have any of the data. You know, they and there's still some discrepancies out there that we are sure we have the correct amount and they still owe us some money. Uh, and they'll they'll get it to us, but it's been a real challenge to, you know, get this year rolling and it's always a challenge to do year end, but it's been particularly difficult with their system. And I think we've learned uh and they they are learning the holes that they have. We have learned that we will make sure that we focus even harder than in the past on reconciliation to

138make sure uh that when we're there. It's it's become sort of evident and unfortunately for them and they're working really hard but they have to manage the fire systems in the city. you know, they they have a lot of different systems, but so, you know, we understand the schools and so Kim and her team are developing some some new things for us each month to make sure uh that as they continue to refine and get their reports back to being as useful as the old ones were, uh that we are uh making sure that we're double-checking and triple-checking the work, I guess, so to so to speak, like you know, well, math teachers, double check you know, double check your work. So, so we we've learned a lot about that process and so we're even

139though it's been really challenging for them and we do appreciate the willingness uh for the treasur's office to answer questions and to work through or whatever, but it's also helped us understand um you know some things that we're going to to want to do and keep in place to to make sure that things are are correct each month. >> Great. Thank you for the clarification, Troy. One of the things I have to add to that is that one of the things that happens is because they're our bank, we don't have a bank statement that we get. It's their bank, you know, but we go through the county treasur. So, when they say they redeem these checks, we have to assume that these checks have cleared, you know, and so then when I started really reconciling

140through it, I had to really like here's our checks. What do we do? You know, what's on the outstanding list? What's on this list? And so that's when I started seeing more discrepancies on those. Um like I said, they're cleaning them up. They're getting better. But we do have to take when they say these are what are cleared. We have to take that. That's what those are cleared. But we can reconcile like oh that was on last year last month's why is that on this month again. Usually doesn't happen but because they went to a new system it happened but Thank you guys very much. Uh, next item under business is resolution 121025, the levy certification. >> Um, this is um our annual certification for our levies. Um, this is a resolution so that we

141can collect our um, levy taxes in um, calendar year 2026. you have to do that every year and send it to our assessor's office um to make sure if you don't do that and get that certified then you can't collect. So we make sure we do this every year and board. This is an action item. >> Uh, I move that we approve the levy resolution. >> A second. Fantastic. >> Kathy has moved that we accept uh the levy res resolution and Cindy has seconded. Board, any discussion? I'll call a vote. All those in favor? I >> I. >> Any oppose? Right. Levy re resolution has been passed. Uh next up is uh unclaimed property resolution. >> This is a resolution that we also do every year so that um we can do our unclaimed property

142which is checks that have not cleared that people have not cashed. um we do a big process of sending out letters and contacting the people to see if they would like to cash their checks or get a new one if they don't have them anymore. Um and so these are the ones that we either didn't get any responses or you know that we will be sending to the state. So we just have to do a resolution to get board approval to be able to do that. I will move to approve the unclaimed property resolution 2025 and I'll second. >> Cindy has moved that we approve the unclaimed property resolution and Kathy is seconded. Board any discussion? Call a vote. All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? All right. Unclaimed property resolution has been passed.

143All right board, that takes us into the policy portion of our meeting and there are six. So the first one up is policy 16 is first reading policy 1630 superintendent evaluation. Yeah. So WASDA dumped a bunch on us this this month. So, I did a little more digging though cuz after Mike and and Kathy and I met for the agenda planning, I had just sort of been working through this and and I did a little more digging and so uh obviously we have all of these are first reading except for 3210 which is second to vote. So, this is just discussion and and anything you'd like me to look at but uh they are batching 1630 with 1005 1210 1820 1821 and 5000. They consider all of those policies. Some of them are critical like

144this one. Uh others are important, some are even discretionary. But uh they are they are batching these and considering them to be the policies that implement the updated WASDA board standards. So they're all all uh six of those are related to them. Now uh I think we put 1210 in consent because it was a very little change. we already had that policy. Um the the policies that were in consent were all things that we already have and and just minor tweaks. Um so anyway, so if there's any any questions about this, it really just is uh updating and expanding um the evaluation process with me. It's not very it's not super specific, but it's just updating to those WASA standards. And we'll lead down the road. what they would like is everybody to use the

145new WASA thing that they're coming up and I'm sure or WA was uh that we will learn about here in a couple weeks in November. Uh we're perfectly fine to do how we've been doing things because we're these areas are covered in the things that we talk about and use at WASA, but we will we'll continue to to work through that. So, any any questions for me on this one as a first reading? Right. Does not look like there's any questions on that one. We move on to the next one. First reading policy 3425, accommodating students with adrenal insufficiency. Yes. So, this is a brand new policy. Uh and uh it's it's critical and so it's one that we need to implement. Uh there's a new RCW that was passed um to add on and

146specifically deal uh with adrenal insufficiencies in students. They've been it's not like they've been ignored, right? But uh it's just adding that requirement that they go into the health plans. And then it also um and I forget which one now it's 30 something uh 3412 maybe a medication at school. So it's it fits into that. And so it's really just codifying um in that we have to work with students with adrenal insufficiencies in health plans and through a process that's now encoded in law doesn't make a ton of changes for us but it's it's a brand new policy board. Any questions at this time on that? Okay. All right. We'll move on to the next policy. first reading policy 1821 standards for individual school directors. >> Yeah. So, this was the one we were talking

147about like, okay, what's what's the origin of this one? So, uh it's it's once again with those policies I listed off at the beginning, it's their um desire to uh you know how to implement through policy their uh reformed or refined uh board standards. It is important. It's not one that we have to pass. Uh remember the important category is ones that are intended to carry out law and or andor standards and practices but are not specifically required by law. Uh I think there's been a uh I was wondering if this was tied to uh the new oath of office requirements, but it's it's not really it's more part of the WASDA board standards. So uh at our December meeting when we have uh two board members that have to take uh the oath it

148will be different and each time you get reelected now then you on a cycle with this with a new uh oath of office requirement. So I was a little kind of like are they just a little ner I was a little wondering if they were cajoling us into things but it really is based upon the WASDA uh updated standards that they have for for board practice. So I don't I I can't speak to every section in it, the rationale behind it, but it's what it's supposed to each one of the numbered uh areas are what they're focusing on with with school boards. So >> at the very first um the last line of the first paragraph is collectively the board will assess its performance in terms of these six major functions. I don't recall our

149ever doing a self assessment. Is that required? Is that >> that's in now in that I think it's 1005 or 1210. Um and so it's always >> I thought I remember reading it somewhere. >> Yeah, it's always been there but it was not very well defined and it was not so they are >> they've really outlined these things. It made a lot more sense to me once I saw what they were doing in terms of packaging.