001Listen the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. I would would like to now introduce our board of directors. We have tonight uh Kathy Day, Tasha Woods, Cindy Co. I'm Mike Rowley. We're also joined tonight by our superintendent Troy Turno, executive director teaching and learning, Jennifer Counz, executive director of finance and operations, Kim Snyder. Board, the first action item is the consent agenda. We had the opportunity to review these items individually and seek clarification from the district admin prior to our meeting. I would entertain a motion. I move to approve the consent agenda. I'll second that. Cindy has moved that we accept the consent agenda and Kathy has seconded. Board, any discussion? I had a quick question which was the um I didn't maybe it's on there and I didn't see it or it's coming out of
002another financial bucket but the bringing the stadium up to ADA is that already happening or it's on we do have in the process right now we did buy a ramp and um to get it up to compliance to that point and then in the near in the future we're not sure when but we'd like to be able to build a whole stadium of habit 18. So that's in So, it is on the capital plan to do that. There is a spot in that. Yes. Just to clarify, we're just putting in one ramp. It will not be actually fully ADA compliant. We have a lot more work to do on that, but we're making progress. All right. Any other discussion board? Welcome, Meline. Thank you. Uh All those in favor? I I. Any oppose? All right.
003Consent agenda has passed. That takes us into administration. And first up, we have Mike McCloskey and the ESD Educational Foundation update. You can hear me. I'm not starting over. Another activity that we do is the Kittas County Youth Awards. I modeled this after the Yakimma Youth Awards. uh and Rodeo City Guanas is a co-sponsor of that. Our first award was in 2019 and uh which was fantastic. It was a really great event and we were all excited to continue to do it in 2020 and then we had a little thing happen you may have heard about. Uh so what we ended up doing is not having the ceremony, we actually handd delivered all of the awards doortodoor to kids' homes through all the way up to Easton and through down to Kittitas. Uh it was
004really fun. So we did that in 20 2020 and 2021 and then since then we back been back on stage. The goal of this program is that every kid who is nominated is called up on stage their story read and they have a chance to receive applause from the stage. Um and it's just a really heartwarming thing to hear all of the different amazing things that our youth have done. If you are interested in coming, we would love to have you there. Our next ceremony is March 31st at 6:30 p.m. in the Impact. And uh the ceremony lasts about an hour and it's really a great opportunity for you to hear about some great kids. For the last two years, we've been fortunate to have a local donor who said, you know, I've got a
005lot of money. I'd like to give it away. And so for each year for the past two years, he gave us $20,000 to award to a teacher to help them reduce their student loan needs. So, it has to be a first generation college graduate, a certificated classroom teacher, and they must have held a certificated position for more than three years. This year, we were able to award Shelby Corbett the $20,000, and she was absolutely thrilled to get it. Last year, it was CIA, two very deserving folks. And CIA said, uh, you know, CIA is certainly not a youngster, but her student loans because she has continued to do so many things over the years that it was life-changing for her to receive that $20,000. And I think Shelby would say the same thing. And so
006for us to be able to award that money on behalf of the the very generous couple who donated it has just been wonderful. Some other activities, I talked a little bit about the tile wall. Uh we've been partnering with parent groups to do staff appreciation several times throughout the year. We help with the bookmobile. We have a line item to help support books for that. We manage uh an insurance pool for some of the uh parent groups and the senior class um uh senior party uh and so we allow them to to purchase ins insurance through us which makes it much more affordable for them. Kim was very kind and allowed us to do a fundraiser for finish the lighting in the impact uh as part of the whole budget process when you're building something
007obviously you have to cut things out and so some of the lights got cut from the Morgan stage which has resulted in dark spots. If you've been to any performances there you see the kids very well lit in some places and not so well lit in others. And so we started this during the performances uh of the winter musical that we just finished. anything goes. And we put a little thing in there asking folks to donate. The very first donation we got was a $5,000 donation from a local person who whose husband was involved in theater. He recently passed and she thought this would be a nice way to honor him. So, we're excited to be able to finish that project. And then for the last two years, we've done the welcome back barbecue, which
008sadly was not successful. And so, we will not be doing it again, but I think it was a good attempt to really try and uh bring everybody together in a fun way. We meet monthly, uh, usually the first Tuesday of each month during the school year at 5:15. We also have two summer retreats, one to plan the Super Bowl warm-up and then the other one just to do our general planning for the year. Our annual meeting, as required by law, will be April 8th at 5:30 at the Palace. And y'all are invited. Does anybody have any questions? Awesome. Thank you for allowing me to present. I appreciate it. Thank you very much, Mike, for all. I'm sorry for those who couldn't hear me at the beginning. Yeah, thank you and thank you for everything that
009you that you guys are uh continuing to do for the school district itself. All right, board. Uh our student representatives are not here tonight, so we do not have reports from them at this time. Uh if they do show up, we'll let them uh give us updates. Uh, Jen, are you ready with the teaching and learning update? Yep. And tonight we for the teaching and learning update, we have Lori Gilling, our director of uh, special services um, presenting on the critical role that school sites and BCBAS, our board certified behavior analysts serve in our district um, in serving students in our systems. So, she's here to share for that. Hello. Thanks for having me. That's going to be a really tough presentation to follow. That's pretty exciting news that Mike shared. Um, so like Jen
010said, um, Jen asked me to come and talk a little bit. I know that behavior has been a hot topic. In fact, I was at a special ed director's meeting today at ESD 105 and our key presenter was talking about behavior programs in the ESD 105 area in the valley and new innovations that they are doing and new things that different districts are trying. And so this um conversation is timely and it's happening across many districts um in our valley right at this time. So um what I'm going to talk about is really supporting students success through behavior analysis and the importance of behavior analysis. And I'm really focusing on two key areas which are the school psychologists and what their job duties are surrounding that and then um our behavior analyst and what their
011d job duties are. So um these are the goals. We're going to introduce our staff. I'm going to explain to you why school psyches and board certified behavior analysis. You're going to hear me say BCBA a lot because that's a lot shorter than to say board certified behavior analysis. Um, we're going to explain the roles um, like I said, of school psychologist and then we're I'm going to address questions. But if you have any questions throughout this presentation, please ask. I would be more than happy to answer the questions that you have around this topic. Okay. So, first of all, I want to introduce our school psychologists. Um the this is three of them here. So we've got Marissa Scrogggins who I know is online. I saw her name come up. Hi Marissa. Um we
012have Liz Perryman in the top corner over there. We have Emilynette down here below. And then we have a picture of the three of them. They just attended about three weeks ago the National Association of School Psychology um annual conference was in Seattle. So they got to attend that and brought back a lot of great information for us. Um go ahead. And then we have Dia Gary who is a part-time school psych who works at the middle school. And Deborah Gados is um also a part-time school psych that works at the high school. And I don't have a picture of her. And then this year we are lucky enough to have a school psych intern that has had the opportunity to work with all of our school sites. And that's Kim Smith over there in
013the corner. Okay. And then we have our BCBAS. So, we have Katrina Brooks up there on top and we have Haley Crutchman. And Haley's currently part-time this year, primarily at Mount Stewart. Um, and then Katrina is all over and Haley does pick up some other of our students as we need to. So, that's who I'm talking about as I'm talking about this process. So, first and foremost, why do we need behavior specialists in schools? Um, as I know you guys know, schools serve very diverse students with unique learning needs. They come to us the way they come to us and we take them and we nurture them and we help them and we want them all to be successful. No matter what, they come with us. Um, this group primarily is addressing academic, social, emotional,
014and behavioral challenges that are getting in the way and inhibiting students from some of that success. our school sites and board certified behavior analysis really play a support role with teachers, families, students. Um, and their job is actually vast. I'm focusing on the behavior part for this presentation, but they do so many more things in our schools. So, go ahead. So, first of all, what is a school psychologist? A school psychologist is a highly educated specialist. you has to have to have a master's degree or a doctorate to become a school psychologist. And they focus on social emotional learning and behavior as well as academic. And they're the ones that are really um evaluating students to determine if there is a disability in one of the 14 um categories that the state gives us for
015disabilities. They provide director support to students, teachers, and families. And then their main goal is really to help us all create a a safe, supportive, inclusive learning environment. So what do they do in the course of their day? They conduct um pretty extensive psychoeducational assessments to identify learning disabilities, emotional disorders, or like I said, one of those 14 um categories. They're busy collaborating with um teachers, families, professionals. They're involved in helping develop individual learning plans that students may need after they've been identified as having a disability. Um, as well as they may sit on a behavior intervention plan team that I'm going to talk about in a minute. They provide resources, recommendations for intervention services to students with social, emotional, behavioral challenges and they regularly consult with teachers and administrators on classroom management strategies, mental
016health support and crisis intervention. So they do a lot of other things but around behavior this is primarily what their role is. What is a BCBA? They too are highly educated behavior analysts. So, they have to have a master's degree or higher to qualify as a board certified behavior analyst. We also in our district have a RBT, which is a registered behavior technician that also takes additional schooling and she helps support the BCBAS. Um, and they focus strictly on the behavior aspect of students and how to enhance learning and their social interactions through their behavior. and they use a lot of data. Data is their life. Observing students, putting things into measurable terms, um being able to track how students are progressing, what's happening in the classroom. They ask teachers for a lot of data
017and they themselves are compiling quite a bit of data. Okay, go ahead. So, a BCBA specializes in the behavior analyst part. um they will conduct a functional behavioral assessment to determine what the root causes of a student's challenging behaviors are or what we'll say undesirable behaviors. So they will identify and define the behavior in a clear in clear observable and measurable terms. And I put an example here. So instead of saying the student is aggressive in the classroom or or aggressive at recess, they're very explicit and say the student is hitting their peers with an open hand during recess, making it more defined so that anybody could see that behavior and know that that behavior is happening. They collect data on behavior through direct observations. They do interviews with teachers. they um they put other
018parent educators maybe sitting in a classroom keeping data. So there's a lot of ways that they collect data. They do uh interviews with families. They um do interviews with administrators and then they identify why is that behavior happening? What's the trigger? What happens right before that behavior happens? Then what exactly is the behavior that people are concerned with? I need to define it explicitly. And then we look at what consequences happen after that behavior. What was the student trying to get for that behavior? Is it attention? Is it escape? Are they trying to get out of something? Do they want access to something? Is it sensory? Is it is are they trying to make themselves feel better in in some way? And then we look at analyzing the patterns and we through that determine what
019is the function of the behavior. And there's a lot of steps that go into it. And it's a complex process and we don't always get it right on the first time. Sometimes it takes us, you know, through a lot of data gathering to really find out what the true function of a student's behavior is. Um, go ahead and go back one just real quick. No, my fault. Um, so, um, I just find a little bit more as we analyze the behaviors we look I I define that like escape and avoidance. Are they trying to avoid a task or a situation? Are they attention seeking? Do they want the attention of peers or adults? Um, are they trying to access a tangible? Is there something, a desired activity, a desired object that they're trying to get
020to? Or are they seeking to avoid sensory input input? Is there something that they don't want? Okay. Go ahead. And then um BCBAS do a lot of of other things um when it comes to developing behavior intervention plans. They really bring the group together that look to once they know what the function is the behavior then then it's the then what. So they look at strategies to what could we do to replace that behavior with a more appropriate behavior or a more desirable behavior for that student. Um, we look at modifying the environment. Is there something in the classroom that is triggering that behavior um that maybe we can adapt or we can change slightly? Reinforce um the positive behaviors. Catch them being good. You see that a lot. Um adjusting responses to challenging behaviors.
021If we know that a a student is seeking attention for a behavior, is it possible not to give that student that attention during if we're going to see that undesirable behavior? And then we monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of those behavior plans. We collect ongoing data to track progress and then we adjust the strategies as needed to assure ensure success. So we um other job duties of BCBAS currently our BCBAS are the ones that um teach our safety care and our right response training. So they teach our deescalation training to the PAR educators and the teachers and administrators that require that training. Um and they just continually support teachers as much as they can. They don't stop at a functional behavioral assessment or a behavior intervention plan. If a teacher just needs to consult with
022them or talk to them, they're available. They are brought into regular meetings to just brainstorm, throw things out there. Well, have you looked at, have you thought about what do you see with this type of behavior? And they just know how to ask the right questions. And then they support crisis intervention and deescalation. If they're there in the room or in the building and we've got a blow up or something is happening, they are first responders. They are there to help deescalate the situation. They are there to help do an escort if they need to do an escort. And they're also there to help train staff to make sure that all those things are done appropriately. All right. So, I went ahead and put in a real life example at Ellensburg School District of um
023how we went about reducing aggressive behaviors with positive reinforcement. So, a little student background, a little seven-year-old with um autism displayed frequent aggressive outburst, hitting and yelling when desired access to a preferred activity. In this case, the preferred activity was the iPad. iPad time. If they saw the iPad and they did not have access to it, it was a tantrum. I guess I'm done. Um so that we implemented an intervention the BCBA conducted a fully a full functional behavioral assessment and identified that the aggression was maintained by access to the preferred activity. So what would happen is the student would have the the iPad and when it was time for a transition they didn't want to give up the iPad. They would they would start to react and so what would happen they got ended
024up with addition okay five more minutes okay you can have a little bit more time on the iPad. So now they've been reinforced for that for that iPad. Um so we implemented a positive reinforcement strategy. They implemented a token system. So when the student earned tokens for their calm behavior in other situations in all situations that was our focus was calm behavior. We described what calm behavior looked like. Anybody could have seen what calm behavior was and then they received a token for that behavior. they were able to exchange their tokens for a very set amount of time on the iPad and for this student that worked. It took us a while to get there, but it it did work. Um, so over time, the student demonstrated significant reduction in aggressive behavior. They were able
025to improve their self-regulation and increase the engagement in the learning activities. And where the school psychologists came in is they supported some of those social emotional learning by um helping and helping with the the coping strategies and teaching the student how to calm themselves when they were getting that feeling of I'm going to I'm going to blow. Okay, next one. And now here's one for increasing the student participation in when we used a token economy. The other one we also used a token economy but it was slightly different. Um, so this is a 10-year-old who struggled with class participation or compliance. They often refused to comply with directions, answer questions, or engage in discussion. The parent um, you know, through our functional behavior assessment and talking to the parent, the parent, the student stated to
026them that they felt anxious when they were given a directive by the teacher, by the parent educator, by even another student. So, the team collaborated to introduce a token economy and the student earned tokens for complying with directions. Um, I'm not sure if this was a check mark or stars and even if they participated in a discussion, the teacher would just go up and start on desk. Thank you for participating. Um, because the student would get embarrassed with the token economy. There were a couple different token economies tried until we found one that didn't call the student out because they were they did not want the attention of the other students. Um, and that that seemed to work, but the tokens later could be exchanged for a small reward like whatever that student wanted. And
027we did a reinforcement menu for that student. So, was it extra time with someone? Was it bringing a friend um and having lunch with the principal? Was it an actual item that we have in the past purchased a few items, a little little Lego sets or something that they could earn? They got to pick that out before we started the token economy. So, they knew what they were working for. That was in a place that they could see it. So, that all day, every day, they can see that and they're earning tokens toward that. And then the result was over time the student became more engaged, showed increased confidence and participation and improved peer interactions. So those are just two success stories um for going through the whole process of a functional behavior analysis doing
028a behavioral intervention plan and all the participants were a part of these plans. Okay. So both school psychologists and BCBAs work very closely to ensure that students receive datadriven individualized support. While school psychologists focus on the comprehensive assessments, mental health and educational planning, BCBA specialize in the behavior modification and skill acquisition strategies. Their combined efforts help foster inclusive learning environments where all students can thrive. So, what questions do you have? You mentioned when you were talking about BCBAS, thank you very much by the way for that. Um, that if if they're in the building. So, I'm just wondering if you could go back to the staff slides and remind us of where the both the school psychologists and the BCBAS are physically. Sure. So currently we have um Marissa Scragggins is our early learning center
029school psychologist and then she also is the school psychologist at Lincoln. Liz is the school psychologist at Mount Stewart and Emily is the school psychologist at Ida. Emily and um Liz also share Valley View. Um okay. And then go ahead and go up one. And then Dia is uh 6 and she is at the middle school and um Deborah who's also part-time is at the high school and then Kim is all over the place. So then our BCBAS are really all over the district. Currently Haley is her office is at Mount Stewart and she is spending a lot of time with students that we have um at Mount Stewart and Katrina's office is actually at the middle school but she is always in various buildings. My question is about the parental support. I love that
030you're providing that as well. And I'm wondering I'm curious how often you find that the behaviors are echoing themselves at home and at school and that the parents take away the same type of um sort of restructuring that you put into the classroom. Do they do they try the token economies at home and do things like that occur? Um primarily BCBA stemmed out of special education. Um but actually now they have had to expand their their area. Um so it's not just students with significant disabilities, they're working with all students. And when we have those meetings, the parents often sit there and are taking notes and they ask how, you know, can you help me create this, you know, a picture schedule? And that's something that our special ed teachers and our BCBAS will help
031and assist them to do. I have never heard them say no to a parent, helping them come up with a behavior plan at home. They'll even help them come up with reinforcements and say, "Did you know your student really likes this? We hear about this superhero a lot." And oftent times, you know, surprisingly, students talk about things at school they don't talk about at home and vice versa. You know, we really tap into parents knowledge greatly, but it's it's been beneficial for parents too to be able to take some of that and be able to implement a behavior plan at home as we teach them the parameters of the behavior plan. This is when you give the reinforcement and more importantly, this is when you don't give it. And that's sometimes hard. Yeah. And I
032went through that a lot. I mean, I went through this really quickly. I had written some notes down just just brainstorming just right before I came here thinking of all the diverse students with the unique learning needs that we have even just in this district. Um and I can't we have neurode divergent students with autism, ADHD, learning disabilities. We have students with anxiety and depression that require behavior plans. We have students that are oppositional defiant. Um we have students that have conduct disorders. Um, we have students of trauma that they're very heightened with certain things that trigger them that you might not expect. A typical student that came that maybe had been um born into a different family maybe would not have been triggered that way. Um, we have students with um physical and sensory
033needs, visual impairments, hearing impairments that are on behavior plans. Um and then we have students that are gifted which are we well one in particular who's twice exceptional gifted and also has a disability that's on the behavior plan. So that's just a quick um this year we have our BCD have been involved in 38 behavior plans. That's not all functional behavioral assessments. Some of them are reviews of students that are on behavior plans like how how are they doing? Um, but some are from the the start to the end behavior plans. So, uh, my question is I'm wondering a reminder and it's probably this side. I'm not sure who can answer it, but when we're looking at, um, staffing levels and funding for staffing levels, this is impacted or maybe not impacted by the prototypical
034model of how many specialized um, specialized specialists. Is that correct? Yeah. uh can be employed by the district. Uh does anyone know off the top of their head what that prototypical model is or what the state funding is that we get and do we have to make up um I'm assuming through levy it's all tied into the special ed funding it's all tied into the state and federal special ed funding. So when we're talking and advocating for special ed funding and supports Yes. Yes. this Yes. And then we determine um what we need out of that out of the special ed funding that we receive. Like of course every school we would need a special education teacher. So you just you build it from the ground up just like you would a school. Okay. Thank
035you. Yeah. I'm just wondering given that range of um conditions and situations that people are dealing with, students are dealing with. I'm wondering if you could speak a little bit to the paths by which students and families access psychologists and BCBAs. I imagine in elementary school it's a lot by teacher referral, but I'm wondering if you're confident that um all the students who need to access these services are being reached. Yeah, primarily it's through a referral like you said through teachers. Um, we sometimes do have parent referrals. We do we're going to have more access with more information about what we have to offer as a school system. We're going to be putting that on our website. I'm in fact Leslie and I just talked today that we've got a meeting set up for next
036week to work on the special education component of our district website so that parents have an easier repository of where they can find information about special education. Um, but we I do have a relationship with DSHS and other outside agencies. We actually find ourselves referring to them more than they refer to us because we tend to find those students because we have them every day. So, yeah. Any other questions for Lori? Thank you very much, Lori, for presenting tonight and giving us all that information. Thank you. Or email or anything. All right. Next up under administration is Troy and the superintendent update. All right. Thank you. And thank you, Lori. Um just some some quick things. Uh so I starting out with uh our legislative advocacy. Um the session's just about just a little over
037halfway done. Budget discussions will begin in earnest next week because uh the revenue or lack of revenue report came out this morning uh for them to to work with and finalize things. um despite all of the um you know support and efforts that everybody's been giving across the educational world, now we're going to hit the the budget budget realities of the state and um the shortfall that we face over the next four years. um and the fact that um there probably will be some new revenue proposed in the legislature, but we're certainly not going to be able to tax our way out of uh our budget issues. So, uh the MSOC bill um of the big three basically the House has sort of thrown their hands up in the air and we're said they're not
038moving any of those bills. they're letting the Senate move them and then they'll they'll work uh on them. So, we will end up getting some MOC relief, but at this point in time, um the plans and the bills as originally shown in the funding, it's unlikely we're going to get um the amount that we need. uh although it's still ongoing there um I think tomorrow hearing um a bunch of that uh bills related in the Senate and uh then it'll move forward to negotiations between the two as budget proposals come out. Uh we also feel like they're going to um move on some of the special education bills. Uh those were not the ask for stuff that we really need which would actually equate to fully funding special education. But we are likely to get
039some uh relief in the funding formulas for for special education and hopefully um some expanded safety net. And that's the program for your um students that need really extra support, a lot of extra financial support. So hoping to make that process easier. So it's going to be some sort of combination of some enhanced special ed funding. Uh raising the um uh gosh the percentage of what you if students you can classify does not really help us. We're below that already. So that's actually even if that happens that's not impactful for a lot of districts. So that will be um a bit of a pirick victory for a lot of us because it it just won't um it just won't impact us. So we're hoping for some of the funding formula changes, hoping for some increased
040access and opportunity to safety net and then hoping for MSOC. It's just probably not going to add up to everything that they thought at the beginning of the session. So um it's still alive. There's uh ESC 105 organizing some soups to go over next week to continue as the budget proposals come out and the um the House would then take on the Senate bill for MSOC. Uh so I'm hopeful that there will be some soups that can go. Um I won't be going as since it's our spring break and I actually will be taking some time off. So u but we'll we'll get over there and get the information. A lot of lot of written testimony. They don't want uh honestly the legislators to know our position. They don't want a lot of uh inperson
041or via Zoom testimony uh at the hearings because that'll just go on forever. They already know our position so they've just encouraged us to write it in. And so uh we've done that. Uh so anyway, that's it's not the the greatest uh uh reports for where we're at, but we also understand uh with that amount of deficit in the budget that they're going to have to make some tough decisions and they continue um to not be really looking at some of the significant cuts that are going to happen in other areas of the government. So we're we're thankful for that. So we'll just write out the process and see where it goes. Uh, next one is strategic planning. As you know, our final meeting will be on uh April 16th. Uh, we're meeting with uh,
042Linda and the team tomorrow to go over some of the stuff from the last session and then prepare that we will spend uh, a chunk a good chunk of our study session on April 9th uh, here kind of completing the the board and executive team's homework in preparation for the last session. So, we're working on that meeting, like I said, with Linda and the team tomorrow and uh setting that course, but that will be the significant portion of our our study session. It'll be really exciting uh to get things done and to get it rolling. So, I'll keep you uh up to date on on what we're doing for that. And um we'll get that planned um the week after spring break because then it's weird. I know we're all feeling this. We have two
043Wednesdays off after this one. So, in the back of my head, I'm going that can't be right that we're off. So, uh we we will be be getting back to that in the next study session. Uh with our bond refunding, and I still am not used to saying refunding because it sounds like we're getting things refunded, but it's refunding the bond. So, uh we're still we're in the middle of that process. We're on target for an April bond sale. Um, we have a meeting tomorrow, Kim and I, uh, with Corey Pleger, who's the organ organizer from DA Davidson, who would be selling our bonds and sold them last time, uh, with our, uh, financial adviserss from ESD12 and, uh, from the legal team from Foster Garvey who's handling it. So, we're getting everything uh, organized
044and making sure everything is perfect uh, in the information, talking about that. Then on Friday, we're supposed to have uh a either quick meeting with Moody's or a quick meeting with Moody's will email us what our final bond rating is and then the team will get together. Kim and I are still a little unsure. We know we're supposed to do that Friday morning. Uh we had a meeting last week with Moody's uh and uh went through uh all of the factors that will weigh into our bond rating. And so that was a really good meeting. It was very interesting for us to learn about uh you know what that large organization looks at. Um we were told from the very beginning that a lot of Washington school districts bond ratings are going down because um
045mainly because Moody's does not uh necessarily like how our state uh wants us to account for certain things. And so part of that is that four-year projection of a budget where you automatically drop off the cliff after year one or year two because the state doesn't tell you we don't know what that extra revenue you know we've talked about that they don't like that but it's state law so we have to continue doing it. Uh but they uh they were very uh it was very hopeful for us. I mean the bottom line is what our rating is. We still get to use the state rating so everybody comes out okay. But uh we will they they were going to recommend to their rating team that we basically get uh the highest rating that they would
046give a school district in Washington these days which is um double A3 right uh and so that was based upon the fact that we have a history of a healthy fund balance double digit fund balance uh within our budgets that we don't have a lot of outstanding debt I mean we do in our numbers but the percentage of what we could actually have based against our assessed value is relatively small. So that's a lot like your FICO score with your how much you have on your credit cards versus what the maximum amount you could have is. So they were they were it was a really good meeting. I didn't know what to expect going into it was a good learning experience for us. So we're we're looking for that and then um then we would
047get busy in April. We're we're sort of a mid second full week of April target for the bond sale. uh conditions are still favorable. It's a wild swing on a daily basis, but uh there hasn't been any time where they would pull the plug on our bond sale where it wasn't going to work. And there have been numerous districts out selling bonds uh in the state over the last several weeks and they feel like everybody has ended up with a good deal. Some are just better than others depending on the day, but no one no one is getting a bad deal. So it's a favorable uh conditions for us to do that. So uh we're looking forward to kind of working through that. It's a lot of learning. We got a 39 questionnaire today to
048have ready for tomorrow's meeting uh to just kind of go through things. It's very prescriptive and even though we've provided all that information before, we're answering those questions again uh tomorrow. So uh we're on track uh for that and um looking forward to completing that process. Uh so then some just some celebrations have some good things going on. So Danette Randall uh from uh Morgan Middle School has been nominated as ESD 105 classified employee of the year. Uh our principles and other people nominated about 14 total in our district from certificated teachers to classified staff during the nomination period. And so, uh, Danette's actually coming to meet with me on Friday because I have to fill out a bunch of paperwork for, but that's really exciting that we get to move someone on for our
049district as as classified employee of the year. So, congratulations uh to her. Um, and then we also just notified, I think yesterday, that uh the high school band, high school orchestra, choir, and the drama, both the fall play and musical were all recognized as 2A academic state champions. So uh that's a tremendous honor for the adviserss of those activities and all the students involved uh to have in those activities the highest GPA collective GPA of the participants uh for the 2A uh classification. So those are that's a really big deal for us and so the high school's got that information out. We'll try to have uh Dette as well as some representatives uh here at a board meeting probably in April or May to come where we can uh recognize them in person. But that
050was some really uh good news here over the last couple days. We get to celebrate those students and their hard work and their efforts that they put in uh in addition to being tremendous scholars and representatives uh of our community. So any questions? I had a quick question. Um, you mentioned that we get to use the state's uh, bond rating. So, why are they looking at the school in particular? Is it like it could be better than or what are they looking at? That's a really great question. Since they've moved schools down a notch or two, we we didn't ask him that because basically we were just kind of told that's the way it is. So, um I think it's because uh in the bond world, you want to have, you know, because our ratings
051based upon our district and our stuff. So, it helps give them an idea, but also in our state, the way things are set up, the the the state uh is there to protect us if need. So, I think it's a it's an extra layer. Yeah, it's a fallback kind of thing. But um yeah, that's a an interesting question. Our advisor said just go with it and don't uh don't rock the boat. I guess was they didn't say that, but that was the message the message that I or maybe intended message I took from that. So all right board, any other questions for Troy or comments? All right. Thank you very much for your update. Word. That now takes us into business. And first up is resolution 3325, transportation surplus. Yeah. So, this is a a
052vote um for the resolution to allow the transportation department to department to uh surplus two uh 10,000lb post 10,000lb vehicle lifts. So, we need to do this to be able to sell them to someone else. I move that we approve resolution 3325. I'll second. Tasha has moved that we adopt resolution 3325 transportation surplus. Kathy is seconded board. Any discussion? I have a question for you Troy on this. Um so are these have we already replaced the lifts and these are just surplus for that or is it sell to replace? We replaced one lift and we're um looking at replacing another one. So, we're going to surplus this one. It doesn't My understanding is that you can't use this lifts on like buses and and so it's not doing us a whole lot of good in
053that. And we're looking at another lift that we can do um use on buses and on our motor vehicles. So, it's just something that is more versatile than this lift is. So, Any other questions? Call vote. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. Resolution 3325, transportation setup for surplus uh has passed. Um all right. Next up is Kim and the financial update. Tonight I'm going to be going over February 2025, which makes us 6 months into the fiscal year. And so, um, the general fund is, um, on target with 45.53% of budgeted revenue and 45.81 of budgeted expenditures. And the fund balance is sitting at 12.65%. For the month of February, the district spent 2.6 million for um, certificated employee salaries for a total of 12.2 2 million for the year. 762,000 for
054classified employees for a total of 4.4 million for the year. 1.04 million for benefits for a total of 6.2 million for the year. 245,000 on supplies for a total of 1.5 million for the year. 623,000 on professional service services for a total of 3.5 million for the year. $2,000 on travel for a total of $27,000 for the year. and we spent zero on capital items this um in February for a total of 37,000 for the year. And that brings us to a total of $4.7 million in February and a total of 28.1 million for the year. As of the end of February, the general fund has 2.6 million cash, 7.5 million investments, and 2.49 million outstanding warrants. And there was no discrepancies between Kidtown County Treasures and the trial balance. The capital project fund is
055showing 89.02% of revenues have been received and 2.27 million 2.27% of expenditures have been reported and the fund balance comes into 3.9 million and you probably noticed that it jumped quite a bit. Um and because of that is we received our state match money for our Lincoln Elementary School and so that did go into the um capital project fund and that can only be used on capital projects. And so we are in the process of planning that and what we're going to be doing with that. Um, as of the end of February, the capital project fund had 19,000 Oh, did I just say that? 19,000 in cash, 3.9 million investments, and 1,000 in outstanding warrants. And I just wanted to say that the expenditures have been low and that the board will start seeing more
056expenditures out of this fund as we get closer to summer projects. We are planning to do asphalt repairs and close um co sealing at the high school in Valley View this summer. And then um and also doing top soil and fencing and irrigation at the elementary schools. And we are also in the process of ordering parts to fix the bleachers at EHS. So that's where we're at with that. And there was no discrepancies between Kitas County Treasure and the trial balance. The debt service fund has received 42.51% of revenue and 69.21% of expenditures have been reported. And the fund balance comes into and comes in at 1.2 million. As the end of February, the debt service fund had 86,000 in cash, 1.1 million investments, and zero outstanding warrants. and there was no discrepancy between Kades
057County Treasur and the trial balance. The ASB ASB fund has received 50.35% of revenue and 25.83% of expenditures have been reported. The fund balance comes in at 677,000. As of the end of February, the ASB fund has 7,000 in cash, 632,000 investments, and 7,000 outstanding warrants. And there was um no discrepancy between the trial balance and get testing. Uh the since the be the private purpose fund is a fidiciary fund. There is not a budget status report. The fund balances at approximately 34,000. As of the end of February, the private purpose trust fund has $1 in cash and 34,000 in investment and zero outstanding warrants. And there was no discrepancy between Kittas County Treasure and the trial balance and the transportation vehicle fund. This revenue for this fund came in at 4.56% and zero expenditures
058because we're still waiting for the buses to come in for buses to come in. The fund balance is 935,000. As of the end of February, the transportation vehicle fund had $1 in cash and 935,000 in investment and zero outstanding warrants. And there was no discrepancy between um Kittas County Treasures and the trial balance. I would like to remind everyone that this rep report is presented with the information I have currently. It is subject to change as we continue through the year. I'd also like to remind everyone that revenue sources are used in the current funds for authorized expenditures and can't usually be transferred to be used in different funds unless authorized within the adopted budget and within the accounting laws. Is there any questions? Does not look like it. Thank you very much, Kim. All
059right, next up is enrollment report. All right, very quickly, and you have the in your packets. Um, so, uh, as we're rolling through, we have three more counts, uh, throughout the year, and we are, uh, our average, uh, enrollment right now is, um, plus 19 from our budget. Um, so that's good news. Uh it should stay uh traditionally it would stay stay pretty stable from March through June. Uh March and February tend to be with second semester. Those tend to be um where you lose some secondary students particularly at the high school. And you can see that that's that's exactly sort of the trend uh that we have going on. But we stay uh an average of 19 students more uh above our budgeted um projections. So, that's should hold throughout the rest of the
060year and leave us uh in pretty good shape budget wise and and be very close. Any questions? Doesn't look like it. Troy, thank you very much for the update. Uh board, that takes us into policy. Uh, we don't have any policies to read tonight. So, moves into board reports. Tasha, do you have a legislative report? I do have a report and um you have a document linked to it. Uh, I'm not going to cover the legislative update because Troy did a great job uh covering that. So, I have three updates for you. Uh, the first one is the Washington State Board of Education had their first meeting. They're they're entering phase one of their future ready task force, which is uh reviewing and imagining a different uh high school graduation requirements. Um so they had
061their first meeting with that and so they identified four different areas. Uh the first discussion was identify gaps in education. Um I'm not going to read all these bullet points but the first two are ones that we often hear and I think I've heard at the strategic meeting every single time we're there. uh people wanting more financial literacy and life skills uh taught and then career preparation and real world connection wanting students and parents want to know the clear links between coursework and future jobs. Um the second one was rigid and overly specialized requirements. Uh fixed credit requirements something that we have heard before here in school district is our PE requirement. Um what came up in that meeting was also specific math courses. what is that pathway to college or secondary choices? Do they
062necessarily align? Um the third one was systemic barrier concerns. Uh really looking and making sure that uh this one was interesting to to watch the review because districts have different um contexts in which they live in. So some uh have different graduation requirements and when kids are transferring between that those students um it can be hard for them to navigate uh those opportunities. Uh and then the last one was defining readiness beyond graduation. This one I would encourage you to take a look at uh with their supporting material because they went through and compared our graduation requirements to other states graduation requirements and that can be interesting to take a look at. Uh but I did provide the link there and their next meeting is on the 21st I believe of March. Uh the second
063item I wanted to bring people's attention is that the office of the attorney general put out a press release or an update on March 13th that Washington state has joined a lawsuit with 20 other states to stop the Trump administration from dismantling the US Department of Education. And then the third thing I wanted to draw your attention to was that you too can get legislative updates every single week and be invited to a Zoom meeting. It's fabulous. There are no cookies. Uh but you can do that at the WASDA website and you can see uh what's going on and there are action steps and our new executive leader executive director uh is um updating in regards to the executive orders sort of how is WASDA approaching that and how are they keeping track of it
064and how can they inform us of that. So it's a good place to go for information that way. That is my report. Thank you, Tasha. Board, any questions? All right, the Do I have to do something different to open up that link? If I want to look at that link under the full details here, it is it a different document for Okay. Maybe you can email us the links to Yes. Okay. Thank you. All right. Uh I do not have a board chair report tonight. Um Leslie, do you want to get us set up for public comment? Uh we don't. Well, we have Lori here, but um let's see here. I gotta get my cheeky. So, for those online, individuals in person wishing to be or sorry, individuals on Zoom wishing to be heard for
065public comment need to add their names to the document in the Zoom chat box. If you are unable to do this, individuals may also be recognized within Zoom by using the icon or emoji to show you are raising your hand for public comment. We'll give it just a moment to see if anybody wants to sign up on Zoom Leslie. All right, thank you very much. We'll go ahead and close public comment for tonight takes us to new business. Board, do we have any new business tonight? Can I uh ask the board to consider or district to consider uh we're done with our SIP plan reports, but the um students who who are uh enrolled in virtual inuity. Can we get a report on how what that process is like? How many do we have? What
066does that effect uh on our secondary schools or I guess if we have them in elementary also? Definitely. All right. Thank you. If there's no other new business that takes us into meeting closing board, uh we do have an executive discuss executive session tonight. Uh we will have an executive session this evening for the purpose of discussing legal council matters relating to potential enforcement actions. It is expected to last 20 minutes and Troy we will no action will be taken after uh we return from executive session. So um so yeah so we are at 6:34 let's say 6:35. So uh Leslie will be back at 6:55 from executive session and Lori you may leave since we'll be just closing up when we're done. So thank you very much tonight. All right. Thank you. We can.
067All right. Uh continuing on with meeting closing. Uh board, is there anything we'd like to discuss for board calendar? I guess the one thing I will say is uh for our board work day, maybe we can end at 3:00 that day. Okay, we have track. So, but when it comes time, so I'll wake up 30 minutes earlier if I have to. No, that's not happening. Uh, anything else for board calendar? Uh, next week's spring break, so I hope all of you have a wonderful time. uh clarification next steps. Looks like uh Leslie has signing of new official documents all laid out for us tonight. So, let's make sure we sign those before we take off. Board, is there any uh further business that we need to attend to tonight? All right. Thank you very much.
068I will go ahead and adjourn our meeting. Have a great night.