001Beautiful. >> Okay. Are we good? >> Okay. The time is 6 o' and that begins the is it October 8th uh Granite Falls School Board meeting. Uh please rise. Join me for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> And I will hand it over to superintendent or Dr. Gland for our land acknowledgement. >> Thanks. Uh we honor the first peoples of these lands by acknowledging that the area in which we gather is within the traditional territory of the stillish tribe of Indians. The stillish people have inhabited these lands and waters since time in memorial and their descendants have remained in this territory to this day. The
002Stilogish people have continued to practice the traditional ways of their ancestors of fishing, hunting, and gathering. The Silgish tribe has had these lands and cultural traditions passed on to them by their ancestors who believe that everything has a spirit and that they are the caretakers of these lands and waters. >> Thank you. And then tonight in attendance we have director Gner, Director Dayne, Director Concaid, Director Kerry, myself, Director Leoo, Superintendent Geeseman. We also have the privilege of welcoming our student reps here that are sitting with us today, Elijah Syler, Thomas Hancock, and Serenity Roth. Thank you for joining us today. Okay, moving on to uh item 2A uh board comments. And so I'm going to start with the board. I'm not going to try to put you guys on the spot, but then I will
003wrap around to you if you have any comments as well. So you can feel free to thank um Director Gner, any comments? >> I just want to apologize for not being here for the last couple of months. I've had a couple of big family emergencies that have taken me away. So you should be seeing more of me now. >> Thank you. I want to just, you know, acknowledge the event in town this uh last Saturday and what an amazing turnout. It's probably the biggest show of folks coming into town and it and it seemed to last a long time. I think last year or the years prior we were shutting things down about 3 p.m. and um it was still going at 5. >> Yeah. >> And uh just an amazing time. And then at
004our at our home football games, I am impressed with the number of people that we have coming out supporting our sports. >> Um it it's just good time to be in Granite Falls. >> Thank you. >> Um I just want to reiterate that Railroad Days was awesome. It was a great turnout. It was a lot of fun. My kids had a blast. Um, uh, one thing I wanted to say, and I'm sure Dana's going to cover a lot of the community stuff in her report later, but, um, Mercedes, is Mercedes here? Mercedes, she posted today on the community page, and I wanted to share because I thought that this was awesome. Um, there's an event that's going to be happening October 14th through November 25th on Tuesdays from 5:30 to 8:00. It's going to be
005at Monte Cristo Elementary School. Um, and it is uh it looks like I'm not sure exactly what it's called, the strengthening families program. Okay. Um, and it is a program that you can go uh with your kiddos from ages 10 to 14 it looks like. Um, and just kind of bond together, play games together, learn about each other, um, find methods on how to reduce conflict. It says learn and listen and be heard. talking about peer pressure and parenting strategies and stuff you can do together. And I know being a mom of a kiddo in that age range, there's a lot of emotions and things going on and um this is a really cool way to just kind of bond with your kids and have some fun and get to know each other and how
006to how to communicate with each other. So um so check that out. Um Mercedes, can I ask you who to contact for to register? >> Um there is a Google registration. Okay. The thing there also Jared Pierce. >> Jared. Oh, I see that at the bottom there. Jared Pierce. Hold on. >> V A WW. >> Yeah. J Pierce at v aw.org to register. So, >> and free dinner. >> Oh, and Oh, and childcare. Childcare and free dinner. So, >> can't beat that. >> Appreciate it. Dr. Carrie. >> Yeah. Not to sound like a broken record, but love Dave. Um, it's kind of like uh going to a family reunion. You always see like 90 people from town. You're like, "I haven't seen you in forever." Like, "Where have you been?" and stuff. And I heard
007that Dana did a wonderful job at the alumni uh breakfast. I had um a uh an old Granite Falls alumni um who lives up the street from me said, "You know that uh that Kim Suzy that the lady who runs the school?" I go, "Dan, like that's her. You did good. I was like, I'll make sure I let her know. So, Dana, you did a very good job. >> Um, I also just want to thank the student reps for being here. Elijah, Thomas, Serenity, coolest name ever. Um, we uh um I the thing I love about the student reps is it really kind of keeps our focus on what we're all here to do, which is to provide the best educational environment for you wonderful people that we possibly can. And I think in order
008to do that, we have to hear what you guys think and what your thoughts are, what works and what doesn't work. So I say this every time we get a new student rep, like I encourage you to like be bold, right? Be passionate about the things that you're passionate about. And if there's anything I could do to support or mentor or if you want to be like, "Hey, I don't understand how this board thing works." Like I am I'm very available. There's a lot of resources that Dr. Geon can hook you up with with like mentorship or with other student reps with school boards and uh from other school boards around our state and stuff like that. But anything I can do, and I'm not just saying that, anything I can do to support you,
009let me know. Um because I your success is our success. So that's all I have. >> Perfect. Thank you. Um yeah, so I think we've covered railroad days. It was great. Um, but yeah, I mean, aside from yes, our our student reps that are sitting here as well, we went through the oath of office with quite a few, I think eight or nine or something like that last time. And then we also have others that will be taking their oath of office tonight here shortly. Um, so again, thank you very much to reiterate what Director Kerry was saying, having you. We've always had student reps on the board, at least since I've been on, but this has definitely been a great change that we've made to have so much more representation than just one from
010the high school and one from Crossroads. Uh having diversity and that voice is very important. Um having the opportunity to speak up. So, we really appreciate all of you stepping forward uh and volunteering this time and effort. Um it's and again it we want we want to learn a lot from you. Um and hopefully you can learn stuff from us as well. So consider I'll reiterate what Director Kerry said is feel free to reach out to us, talk to me after any of the board meetings, email me, you know, anything along those lines. Happy to help out. Um, I think that's probably it from from my side. So now I will pass it over if you have anything. Again, this I know this is the first time and you're probably caught off guard, but Elijah,
011any comments that you would want to make? >> Well, nothing this meeting. Yeah, >> aside from railroad days being a huge success for the beekeeping club. >> Oh, yeah. >> We sold a lot of honey that day. >> Oh, nice. Nice. >> Other than that, nothing much. >> Okay. No. >> Elijah, could you tell us a little bit about the float that Crossroads had in the parade? I know you were really involved with that. >> Well, um, we did a Jurassic Parkish. >> It was a good one. >> It was great. you know, the uh students involved really did a really good job. I unfortunately missed like that week that we were really working on it, but um you know, shout out to those kids who have really really pushed the bar on the float.
012>> That was great. >> And the honey is still for sale also. Yeah. >> Honey that literally the bees make right out back. So, it's amazing. >> We sell it on I think Fridays at the farmers market. Great. Thank you, uh, Thomas. Um, I'm just happy to connect names to faces finally. So, I'm glad to see you all coming out. I'm glad to see you all here. Rare Days was great. The band performed and we did pretty good, I'd say. Uh, I really enjoyed playing at City Hall, even though I got the part when I got there, but that's okay. >> Um, yeah, that's all I got. Thank you. And if anybody needs any reading recommendations, Thomas is your man. >> He reads like 17 books a week. >> Wow. >> Um and then Serenity,
013anything from you? >> Not really, except for row days >> cuz I was in the parade also. >> Um which uh which portion were you in? >> Um cheerleading. >> Oh, cheer. That was one of the largest sections I feel like we saw come through as well. >> We're in the truck though. >> Oh, that's the best one. That's the best seat. Yeah, absolutely. Well, no, really appreciate you all coming out again. So, um Okay, so we will move on to then welcoming others officially to uh to their positions as student adviserss and representatives to 2B the oath of office. >> Sounds great. So, as we said, we um swore in a lot of students the last school board meeting. We have a few more tonight. We are passionate about student voice in the Granite
014Falls School District and we will continue to provide opportunities for students to be heard and uh to the point of the directors um tell us what's working and what's not and and all of those things. They also keep us grounded and it's the best part of our day when we get to be with students. Most of us got into this business because we care deeply about kids and families and um so I was just looking forward to our student, no offense to the board, but I was looking forward to our students being here tonight. Tomorrow morning, a meeting with all of the student reps to the board that are at Granite Falls High School. Next week, um it'll be a meeting with middle school and Crossroads, but there's some there's some onboarding to to all
015of this and some leadership things. And our students are also going to be doing um a candidate forum, a schoolboard candidate forum on October 28th. They did one back in June. um they helped craft the questions and they ran the whole thing and it was such an opportunity for our students to engage in um you know civic leadership and this kind of thing. So so good to be here with all of them. If you are a student rep that's in the audience, you'll come on up and we're going to do the oath of office. can stand like in a like semicircle right over there if you'd like. >> Facing them or you'll go kind of in front of Oh, perfect. >> Yeah, looks good on camera. >> Yeah, wait. Great. Thank you. The agenda not
016ready. >> I state your name. Do solemnly swear >> do solemnly swear >> that I will support >> the Constitution and laws >> of the United States >> and the state of Washington >> and that I will faithfully perform >> the duties of student representative >> to the board of directors >> the board of directors >> of the Granite Falls School District >> to Granite Falls School District Number 332. >> Number 332. >> According to the law. According to the law. To the best of my ability. >> Best of my ability. >> All right. Let's give them away. [Applause] >> We would love to take a picture with all the student reps because we'll put you kind of in the front because you're most important. Absolutely. Jesus. >> Avery. Did they do a good job?
017>> Yeah. >> Right. Here we go. All right. >> That's perfect. >> You guys ready? >> One, two, three. Come on. One, two, three. All right. Nicely done. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] >> Wow. I haven't been called that in a while. >> Hotel. Sorry. It works. >> Okay. Thank you. And actually, I will also just the one thing that I or one of the things I absolutely love about a district like Granite Falls as well too is the accessibility of a superintendent like like Dr. Geland. Um, anybody that's seen larger districts where there's 20, 30, 40,000 students across like the superintendent may as well be the president of the United States, right? It having having the ability to go and actually interact and understand how the school works and everything.
018Uh, one of the best pieces of advice that I ever heard, especially as you're learning and you're developing new things, is if you can give your if you can go and work for somebody that just has all the experience, all the power, and you could do it for free, like go learn because that's going to be the most most beneficial to you, and you have the ability to, you know, especially on the student rep to talk to somebody who has I mean, how long have you been in education? >> A minute. Yep. >> A minute. So, so yeah, she's being modest. Um, but yeah, having that ability and that accessibility is huge and I just can't overstate that. Um, you'll look back at this if you move to New York City and have your kids
019in a school district and you'll be like, I should just go talk to the superintendent, they'll be like, "Good luck." Like, it'd be very difficult. So, I just want to reiterate that this is a huge opportunity. Okay. Uh, number 3A in district reports, uh, superintendent report presented by Dr. Dana Geese. >> Awesome. Thank you. Is that pull that up for us? Perfect. So, just a few quick updates for the board. Um, so safety, security, and some maintenance updates. Um, we talked about this at LA at at our last meeting that we're reviewing kind of our camera usage districtwide and where there's spots that we maybe don't have enough camera um, coverage. We put in two new cameras uh, this week. One's at Crossroads in the back um, just for some viewing um, where preschool goes
020outside and and some things there and another one at transportation. As we talked about before, we had um, some security issues at at transportation and we want just a little better coverage there. Um and then also um the board is considering some safety and security upgrades uh with our upcoming M levy that will be in February. Uh building security again working really hard on those nightly door checks at all the schools and making sure doors aren't propped and shut and latched and if there's latching issues um then we need to you know do whatever maintenance upgrades and things so that that they are latched. Um sometimes inappropriate access after hours happens just because a door is not shut and we want to you know obviously secure that. Um and clear guidance to staff um and
021and what after hours access means. Um a quick facilities update. So we had a pretty major septic issue at Granite Falls High School last week. I was meeting with Dave when we heard of the issue and if you were at Granite Falls High School you definitely smelled the issue. M >> um and my hat is off to our maintenance team who was on it. I went down there and I was like, "Wow, this is significant." So, we had a backup. Um it was plugged from from some reasons from um the culinary classroom and some things that basically um plugged um plugged the tank. So, after a lot of work by our maintenance team and some help from Rotorooer and some others, that has been cleared out. Um, I was able to be out there today.
022Ryan and I were able to see and hear um, water flowing and so that was a good sound. All the things you do in a superintendency that you don't think you'll do, right? And our our maintenance team was like, Dana, come here. Come listen to this. And I'm like, that is music to our ears because that means water is coming in and water's coming out. So those four classrooms will have water again. Um, it's important. It's biology. It's culinary. It's all of these things. A room, right? Um, so thank you to those teachers for their patience over the last four days because they had to sometimes change and go teach in the commons. They had to take, you know, equipment and go teach in other classrooms. So that is all fixed. Um, thank you to
023administration, too, for navigating that. I thought the smell was horrendous. Dave acted like it was nothing. I My hat is off to to y'all. Um, Snowomish County. Um, let me go. There we go. Um, health department. We talked about this at our last meeting. So, for at four of our five schools, the Snowish County Health Department is coming in and doing their their bi-annual um, inspections. Monte Cristo and Crossroads have both had that h happen already and they've given us their report. Mountain Way and Granite Falls Middle School, that'll happen in the next couple of weeks. There's some next steps that we're working with building administration on. um those building specific reports, the things that need to be addressed immediately. Um and each principal, you know, will develop that and um you know, give us
024the timelines and those kind of things. It's not optional whether we correct the findings. It's here they are. Please take care of them. And so we uh we'll do that. A teaching and learning update. Sorry, two things going here. Emily, would you like to walk us through this? >> Evening. Lovely to see you. Um, a couple of announcements for us. Um, couple of updates. So, uh, this school year, um, we are convening four secondary teams 6 through 12. Um, we're going to continue to convene our ELA teams to talk about implementation of HMH. And then I'm bringing together our secondary math teams, our secondary science team, and our secondary social studies team so we can start doing some critical work around vertical alignment, making sure that we're aligned so that our students so that you
025uh are receiving a cohesive uh and and really connected learning experience um in each of those core content areas. So uh that is currently happening. It's some of the most rewarding work because a high school senior uh AP calculus teacher can sit with a middle school algebra teacher and they can see the connections of how they're working together and what that impact is on students. Um our best new teacher induction program is now up and running. This is truly important work. There's national data that says that um teachers that are new to service they will they will make a decision within the first five years of teaching whether to remain as a teacher or whether to move into uh a different field of work uh because it is uh it's such rewarding work but it's
026also uh it's also can be very challenging. So, uh, last year, um, we were part of, uh, a consortium of small districts across the region and, um, and that was a little bit challenging because we had a lot of new new to service teachers and they wanted us to be out of the buildings to go do trainings and that brings its own challenges. And so this year we made a decision to bring that back to Granite Falls to support our teachers here with some of the the wise and sage teachers that are already here in our system helping to coach alongside um providing some professional learning and um so we are that is off and running and it is uh is very encouraging and we really want to create the support for our new to
027service teachers to help them learn the habits of mind and habits of heart to be able to stay in the profession. um you learn those habits early and it helps you, you know, not burn out later on. So, we're excited about that. In terms of school funding, uh last year with respect to, uh to our school board, you heard me say and Rachel as well, the word unearthing a lot. Um still unearthing some things, but uh but that that policy is much less. You also heard me use the term a steady decrease of surprises last year. Um, just so you know, uh, we're working closely with Marshall, uh, and the teaching and learning that our spending plan is to spend forward. So, we're spending the funds that we, uh, have in a way that has
028real, uh, fiscal stewardship. Um, and we're tracking every penny. And, uh, we haven't come up with any new surprises this year. So, that's a celebration. Um, Granite Falls School District has been awarded all of their uh their grants in terms of teaching and learning in terms of uh uh of our categorical programs. And so that's great news. That's part of the work. Uh we are completing our OSSI grants. Those are federal grants this year. There are no state funded OSSI grants this year uh because of some funding challenges at the state level. So Crossroads High School and Granite Falls Open Doors will be submitting their OSSI grants uh by the end of the month. So th those are on track and good to go. In terms of curriculum, uh an update on HMH. So thank
029you to the board uh for all of the work and and all the time and all the attention to our ELA program for secondary. So we have again received all those materials. And as of today, our school administration have received their whole package of leader learning training, which is great. um that allows them to go into the classrooms and see that curriculum and see what it's supposed to look like. And our teachers have received that first cluster of training and as part of that package um they receive a one-on-one coach for the entire year from HMH. And that is someone who um knows the curriculum in and out and very deeply and can answer questions and they'll actually come out and visit. Um, and so all of our teachers that are teaching either in HMH
030intellletit or in read 180 or in E3D have access to their own coach, which I think is a really wonderful way of uh supporting our teachers. And one thing we know about curriculum adoption is if we don't continue to support teachers after year one, use of that adopted curriculum tends to increase. So our commitment is to continue to help teachers and equip teachers to use that. Um, and the last bit that I have for us today is just about done with our fall benchmark assessments. I Ready is done. Maps finished up yesterday. Our wellness screener finishes up on Friday. Um, and a huge shout out to our middle school who engaged during their building directed time this afternoon in some data protocol work with their I Ready data. So, uh, great shout out to Mr.
031Mayor and his board on that. So, um, the rest of our buildings will be engaging in that all important work. And it's not just about looking at the data. It's about looking at our kids. It's about personalizing instruction and making instruction just that much more. So, any questions from the board. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Right. We'll go through some district and community events. Thank you, Director Concincaid for um talking about the event at Monty Crystal. We talked about that a little bit at our last board meeting. And if you have questions on that or your Monte Cristo family, please contact contact the front office. They'll give you all that information as well. So, Railroad Days was amazing. Um, the floats were awesome. The band was awesome, the cheerleaders were awesome. Um, I know
032that there was many people behind the scenes who um and I probably, this is probably not an all-inclusive list, but thank you to um advisers and administrators who were there and helped um again make that day such an amazing success. Um, Tiger Athletics, there's so much going on at Granite Falls High School, um, and the middle school. Um, girls soccer, huge week. They're in that rebuilding, but this week was the the Black and Blue Bowl for for soccer and for volleyball. Um, you know, just some shout outs to some kids that are that are doing some things and stepping up, new new goalie there. Um, they are home tomorrow night as is volleyball and so that'll be busy. And then Friday night, of course, is football, cross country. There's a huge meet on Saturday if
033you want to come out and watch cross country um and watch parents run all over the place to try to catch up with their kid and get a few glimpses at them. I I lived that life. Um and thank you to our cross country coaches and Dave and and Ryan who who host this massive meet. It's a huge influx of people coming to our community, too. So, we should probably let the businesses downtown know >> um because I think we did not last year and they were like, "What is going on at the high school?" and there's, you know, hundreds and hundreds of people um on site. Uh volleyball uh had an amazing week last week. They they beat Kings for the first time in over 20 years. Very exciting. It was a sweep. Um
034we also play Kings tomorrow night. So, um if you want to go watch the girls, they they are they're super fun to watch. We were at the game last night and um I'm an old volleyball coach, so it's hard to just watch and just, you know, remain super neutral, right? I'm like, oh, you know, it get it gets exciting. Uh football again. We have a game um this Friday night. It's home. It's early 5:30, right Dave? 5:30 start because uh students from Friday Harbor need to make sure they get on a ferry to get home. As much as we'd like to have them stay over, we really want them to play and and go home. So, um football's doing great. They lost a tough one last week. If you're at that game, um to director
035Dave's point, there's you hundreds and hundreds of people um at the games and it's been really fun. And then lastly, our boys golf team uh just keep getting better and we have two athletes that have qualified for districts already and one that is knocking right on that door and had a had a match today and haven't looked at my phone in a bit, but I probably have an update from the coaches on that one. So, it's really fun to watch so many student athletes out there doing their thing. And at halftime of the football games, you get to hear the marching band and that's really fun, too. you get to see our very own Thomas in the marching band. He's amazing. He plays many instruments. So, uh, come join us for that. Um, some other
036district and community events happening. October highlights. So, it is fire safety month, my friends. And we have a couple firefighters on the board. So, we take this very seriously. Uh, Chief Dne was out at Monte Cristo today leading it by himself for a while because lo and behold, firefighters get called out to calls. And so he was there and doing his thing and then he finally got some some support. But um thank you for being there. They'll be at Mountain Way and the preschool and it is such a cool event. I Everybody can remember being elementary school and having the firefighters come. Um we have such a a lovely partnership with our EMS in Granite Falls. We're really grateful for that. Um also in October there's a district-wide uh recognition of the anti-bullying campaign. Um
037October 22nd is another orange shirt day um about unity and um kindness and acceptance and inclusion. Um October 17th at Monte Cristo is an assembly around uh be a bully not a don't be a bully, be a buddy, not a bully. Please don't be a bully. Um and then lastly um a quick shout out to our principles. It is national principal month and we are so grateful for the leaders that work really hard every single day uh to meet the needs of you know sometimes small cities, right? that it seems like and all the comingings and goings. So, we have a couple in the room. So, thank you for all that you do to serve our students in our community. And that is it for me. >> Okay. Thank you. Any questions, comments? >> No.
038Comprehensive. Great. Okay. Uh 3B business report prepared by Marshall Cruz. >> So, no real updates on the business report side of things. We're on track >> right here. Okay. Um, we're on track to meet our We're going to meet our 5% fund balance goal. Um, everything's pretty much done, but we have to just finalize everything, report it out to OPI, get approval from OSPI for our year-end data, and then I can report it to the board. That would probably be maybe that first November board meeting or report it out. But spoiler, 5% plus. Um, the main thing I want to Well, I guess you got to call the next item. Yeah. Any questions? >> Yeah. Any any comments on the business reports questions? >> No. Okay. Uh okay. So yeah, item 3C levy update presented
039by Marshall. >> So um we had a statewide meeting of all business people, superintendent, everything about about changes in levy laws, about historical trends, about future trends that they see, about um statistical anomalies, when to do it, when not to do it, all these things. It was a two and a half hour meeting. I included the full deck in the in the board agenda embedded in the board agenda. It's like two hours of presentation materials. I also included a trimmed deck that I knocked it down to about 40 slides that I'll try and breeze through, but it was hard to even cut out any of the slides because they're all really pertinent to what we're trying to do in the next four months as a district. Um, so zip into it here. Um, cover the
040basics. 14% on in the state, the average school district spends about 14 and a half% gets about 14.5% of their revenue from their levies. Um, we don't levy as much as we can levy. We we there's a levy lid of what we can do and we go well below the levy lid because we're trying to be responsible with taxpayer dollars. Ours is about 11%. But the statewide average is 14 and a half percent. Um just a reminder that we have um the EPO levy which was used to be called the maintenance operations levy but legislation changed what they call it MPO now educational programs and operations levy that handles everything that the basic education funding model of Washington state doesn't cover which I'll go in in a future slide what that means to us. Um
041that's a 50% plus one to pass. There's some rules around how much you can ask for. We could ask for about $6.7 million. We asked for five million um from but it expires after this year and we have to reapply with our voters to ask them to vote to renew it and continue it on. Um and it's based on a calendar year. All of our spending is a school year but the levy dollars come in on a calendar year. So there's a little off cycle there. Um, capital projects. There's no dollar down order to that. You can do it for up to six years. Um, common things you do for that is, uh, technology, safety, school improvements, couple improvements, HVAC roof improvements, all that stuff we always talk about, need to have done. We ask
042for um $750,000 for the last four years. Um, there's no cap to that. the $750,000 comes out to be about um 10 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. I mean, it's pennies on the dollar for taxpayers. Um so what would we use our levy dollars for here in Granite? Well, the state funding model doesn't pay for all transportation. So we kick in significant amount of our levy dollars pays for transportation. It pays for no sports, no extracurricular, no music, no band, no clubs, no field trips. Our levy money that we asked tax pays for all of that. It pays for a a strong portion of our utilities insurance and our and all of our curriculum. It it pays for a significant portion of our classified staffing. The state funding model kind of neglects classified staffing
043as something that's important to school districts. So, every school district has to ask the taxpayers for money to help pay for classified staffing, which are secretaries, custodians, student supervisors, par educators, all all those crucial staff members. It allows us to have smaller class sizes at Crossroads. The funding model funds schools at the secondary level at about 28 students per class. If you're operating with less than 28 students per class, which is crucial in an AL school, you have to have money coming from another source, that's a levy. Um, if we want to pay a certificated staff member more than $89,000 per year um to be competitive with our surrounding districts, that comes from the levy. If we want to have psychologists, librarians, student supervisors, pair educators, that comes from the levy because our the state
044funding model um funds us for about a tenth of a psychologist and we have four um as an example. Um it pays for special education costs that aren't funded by the state. It pays for the child nutrition costs that aren't funded by the state. It pays for technology for students and staff. And it pays for some small capital projects that we can do. So, it's it's crucial. Every district in the state except for small handful have leveies to help pay for their day-to-day operations and without them they would not operate. Um, talking about bonds really quick because um if you need to levies and levies aren't huge dollar amounts. The cost to make a new school is probably in the neighborhood of 40 or $50 million nowadays. You can never get that much money from
045a levy. So, if you're going to make a school or do a significant improvement, you've got to ask the community for a bond. A bond takes 60% plus one to pass. And there's some limits about how much you can ask for, but we have plenty of capacity. We have we have almost no bonds on the books right now. We we paid off the high school last December. That was kind of our big taxpayer thing. Um that was that was $25 million 18 years ago. It would be $80 million today probably. >> 120 or 130 I think. >> Really? >> Yeah. >> Um why is it so hard to pass a It's impossible to pass a bond in Washington? Um it takes 60% plus one to pass a bond. And the green states are the states
046where it takes 60% plus one. So I think that's six states. Most other states are a simple majority or some are a 55% but most are a simple majority. So 60% plus one means you've got to get 60% of the people that turn out to vote plus one to agree on something. And we all know that in today's world it's hard to get 60% of the people to agree that it's the month of October. So um there's four election dates that we can run our levies in. uh February, April, August, November. Um we for a lot of reasons, most school districts choose to run February. We only run it twice in a year. So it doesn't pass in February. It gives us multiple opportunities to run it again. Um there's statistics that on a future
047slide here that say that February is the most likely to pass. And um it it's um right when people are getting kind of getting their tax bills in. So it kind of gives people good vision of what's going on in the community. Um this is a breakdown of just by in the state of when levies tend to pass. So you can see that the EPO has a tendency to pass at 95% rate in February whereas if you were in August which is lower month of only 70%. So February is the statistically the best month to run it and then also gives you the chance to do it again later in the year for whatever reason you don't pass. Um, I took out a slide, but there's a decl there's a there's a in the in
048the big packet there's a graph that shows the declining passing rates of levies in the state also. So, it's kind of a trend statewide that levies are passing at a decline. Still, they still the majority of them pass, but it's kind of a declining rate. Um, question is often asked is, well, if you ask for more money or less money, does that change the way people aren't people are inclined to vote? Well, they did a statistical study and there is no correlation between um what you ask for from your taxpayers and whether or not um the levy passes. It seems to be more about more the divide seems to be more in the lines of we believe that the state should pay for education, but we believe that there's it's okay to have a bit
049of a local role in paying for education. Um, and then, um, we're not alone. This is a reminder of the game. There's 130 districts trying to renew their levies this year. That's a lot of districts. And they're all going they're all the vast majority will go out in February. Um, hope they all pass because it's it's crucial that they all pass because districts can't operate without them. Um, and we have lots of supports from the county, from ESSE, from OSPI, from our community partners. And there's two little more segments of this, so I promise it won't be too bad. Um, effective community communications is key for bonds and levies. Um, by the way, DA Davidson hosts this and you guys have met Corey Plagger. He presented all this information. He put all this together and
050and grabbed some communication partners to help them and present it to the entire state last week. Um, what can the district do? There's there's lots of rules about what role the district and staff members acting in a role of staff members can do with a levy or with an election or or any kind of thing like that. On the district side, we can communicate truths. We can provide truthful information, factual information about the levy. We can say, "Hey, everybody should vote. Voting is good for you." Um, we could say that um our levy provides us with these things. We can say that um we can have register to vote type stuff going on. Um but to really to really propaganda it and advertise that hey go vote yes. Every district h every every election has
051a citizens committee that's responsible for that. So, um, as a school district, we're responsible for advertising the need for a citizens committee and a citizen committee can form and the citizens committee can drive the positive messaging around the levy. Oddly, we're also responsible for placing an ad to find a anti- levy group to write anti- messages in the voter pamphlet. And we have to we have to as a district advertise in the paper to try and recruit people to write anti- messages in the voting pamphlet for for our our levy. But um just getting everybody give me a voice. Um so the yes committee can say hey yes go vote yes on this. Hey yes our kids need our kids need this. Our kids are worth the vote yes. They can advocate on the behalf
052of the levy. They can send out um pamphlets. They can send out mailers. They can do phone banks. They can do all the things. They can do text banks. They can do all those things that annoy everybody when elections happening, but are critical. Um, and but for a successful election, you need to have both parties doing their thing. The district has to be sending out positive messages, has to be sending out factual information about what the what the levy is used for, what the tax rates are, all these factual pieces that help the community members decide if their dollars should go in that direction. And then the the yes committee can have more of the fluff around why it's important to vote yes. Um, it's important that we tell the story of our district, not
053just during the levy campaigns, but all the time, so that we a million good things happen a day in our district and we could spend our whole day blasting out positives that happen and um, we should be doing that as much as possible. Um, we need to have a cohesive message. We need to be focused on student language. We need to talk about the basics. Um, know what our communities care about. The district can put out information, factual information on our website. We can send factual mailers to families. We may have newsletters, email, social media, all these things. But it has to be um factual and not trying to sway people's opinions. Um and and tone is critical because they're the the people that monitor these things, they are really trying to police that a
054little more and make sure that um the tone of what we're putting out, what the district is putting out is very neutral um and factual. Um key audience, you know, we need to make sure our school leaders, our educators, our staff know our message. We need to make sure our families are our families our biggest supporters. We got to find ways to reach them and um know that, you know, we have a school community of 2,300 kids and their parents and relatives, but our overall community is, you know, 15,000 people or 15,000 voters. They all play a role. Um, so some stuff that the ESC can do, the community is made up of community volunteers funded via donations. They can advocate and use campaign resources like you talked about. They can say vote yes. They
055can knock on people's doors. They can they can put flyers on people's doors. They can do all those things. Um they are they are the advocate for the levy. Um the community should be comprised of representative group of volunteers in the community. We should have a wide the it should be a wide swath of people in our community. Um, district employees can serve, board members can't serve on their own time without using any public resources. Can't use work emails, can't use printers, can't use copers, can't use funds, can't use postage. All has to be through private donations. Um, the volunteers will end up writing a they write a pro statement in the in the campaign brochure. They can do website stuff. the social media handouts, doorbelling, media. Um, last little section is about the political
056climate today. Um, lead with students, not systems. Bring the message around students. Um, people may disagree on politics, but rarely on wanting safe schools and strong futures for kids. Um, acknowledge the concerns and then pivot. You know, everybody has opinions about where their tax dollars should go. respect the opinions and help reframe um the need and especially part of what the importance of the yes committee is messaging that the tax rates don't change. It's this is a renewal. It's not a new tax. All those things are things the yes committee can do. Um, but the school district can provide the factual information about what the tax rates are, what the historical tax rates are, if they've been going up or declining, what the districts around us, what our tax rates are, how we compare to
057the districts around us, all those things the school district can send out. Um, focus on shared community values. Um, this is no this this is probably the most important aspect of Granite Falls as a community. Our schools are the hub of this community. It is the sports fields for all our sports teams. It's what we have communities um groups meeting in our facilities. It it really is the hub. It is the focal point of the town and we need to recognize that and play into that. Um and then again, don't just tell the good stories on election year. We should be pounding out those good stories year round because there are tremendously good stories happening here. I see them a million of them a day. Um, as a district got to keep ground language neutral
058and ground in facts. Um, use plain factual consistent language and avoid jargon. Levies bridge the gap between what the state funds and what our school needs. That's fine. Bond funding is used to repair, renovate, build schools to make sure. That's fine. Um, and let's keep the tax rates posted on our website. Be proactive about misinformation. Expect push back. Correct misinformation calmly with facts and sources. Respond only once and remember your legal boundaries. Um and inform the yes committee of the legal boundaries. Um elevate trusted messengers. We all know people in this community that have a voice and we need to lean on the voices of our community to help spread the messages. Um keep it local and specific. you know, there's there is statewide politics, there's nationwide politics, but you know, we're a small, tightlyk
059knit community that is very close. So, focus on the local. Um, and then some changes to the rules around um around what campaigns can do. Um, district staff can share information that is factual. It's okay to say let me help buy textbooks and learning material. It's not okay to say vote yes on the district so we can purchase new textbooks. Um it's okay to host community meetings to share information and facts and remind about the importance of voting. Um district staff can say don't forget to turn in your ballots. They can say everybody should vote. But they can't say don't forget to vote yes for the district. That's for the yes committee. um inform staff during non-work hours of opportunities to participate. When talking to if you're out in the schools talking to staff about
060the levy, it's got to be on non-school time. Yeah, it could be on a break or a lunch or after school or meet them at the buzzing, whatever, but not on school grounds during school time. Um, if we have a policy that doesn't um that doesn't um restrict wearing campaign buttons, staff wear campaign buttons, but it has to be consistent with how we treat other campaigns like a presidency or a governor. Um, district staff cannot use district funds for anything. Use district school messenger, use a district email bank, use any of that stuff. um they can't act in their staff capacity or represent their school or district to endorse um an issue or a candidate. Um they can't the principal can't say hey uh go vote yes please. Um you can say everybody should vote
061though. Um sorry school board uh may vote you guys may vote to collectively support or oppose a ballot measure at a public meeting. So you guys we could have a public meeting. There could be a something on the on the on the agenda that says hey we want to do a resolution to support the the ballot measure. You guys could vote and say we five to zero, 4 to2, 4 to one, whatever favor the vote to support this, but you cannot pressure superintendent or staff participate in campaign activities. Um, and a bunch of other things you can't do. Um, have to follow reporting deadlines. This is the this is the one of the big changes. Yard signs need to say paid for by the committee name. So the yes committee for grant fall students and
062it has to have a committee address and then mailers and other printed material and the website need to say for paid by all those things and we have to list our top five donors to the the yes campaign has to list the top five donors to the campaign. Um, anonymous donations should not make up a large percentage of what is being used to fund the yes campaign. Um, it's it's really important to be neutral as the district communicators. Um, I can't emphasize enough that enough that was emphasized very strongly that the PDC is is really focusing on non-neutral language in school district um messaging to parents um community members on on not just on less but on all political issues. And then um kind of some data around the changing perception of public schools um
063mixed satisfaction with um demographic differences, positive perception of facilities and safety, gaps around recognition of career and technical instruction and concerns around physical responsibility. This is statewide. Everybody everybody's concerned about where their tax dollars going. They want to make sure that school district can be physically responsible. Um, priorities to voters are CT, education, facilities and resources, mental health support, safety and security, improved or larger facilities, and ensuring all students receive opportunities. >> And that's it in not 20 minutes. >> Sorry for the speed. >> It's all in the packet. Anybody who's watching it on YouTube, it's all on the agenda to be downloaded and looked at it. The original presentation is like 160 slides, but they're well-written slides that are easy to interpret the meaning of them and what was said during the meeting. >>
064Thank you. Any questions, discussion? >> Um what's the time frame for when the board would decide? Um >> I think that um we were thinking about having a study session next week to give us um some additional guidance and then perhaps having that study session perhaps having a resolution ready for the final board meeting in October. Um, then we would have to do an application to OPI saying telling them what we're going to be using the money for and get that approved by OSPI. And then we can then there's getting the campaign material or the the ballot material submitted, advertising for the yes and the no campaigns. Um, all those logistical things. >> But what's the board meeting where the board would vote whether to run the levy or not? That would be probably the
065last October, the October meeting. Next October meeting is when I think the time that timing makes the most sense. I think we can have everything ready by then. >> Okay. So, so our next public >> any other questions or anything? >> Really appreciate it, Marshall. And I and especially as we have the student rep adviserss here, I think it's very important like there were three things to point out is that pie chart is it's very important to recognize that that's statewide. The idea that was it back in was it 18 or tw when uh mccclary >> 2018 when mccclary passed the idea that that covers everything I then call back to where the epo basically our operations you can think of it as right without it is the best way to describe it without it
066we have extreme difficulty or the inability to pay for transportation sports extracurricular um I don't know if we could technically have the inability to pay for utilities these, but that money has to come from somewhere. And that those costs have also inflated by 165% over the past 18 months, two years, >> something like that. Um, yeah, psychologists, child nutrition, like all this stuff comes from that. Um, and there's plenty of jobs here that I see that come from that. Um, >> we have over 200 classified staff members that work here and 30 of them are funded by the state. >> Yeah. And so that's to to say that the EPNO levy, the operational levy, in order for our school to operate, our schools to operate even as they do right now, the EPNO levy is
067a minimum like the bare minimum to have the schools still operating the way they do because that's that 15% portion of the pie chart. If we remove that, you can assume that things would not be good. Um, and then the capital levy, um, that is much more along the lines of, and I like to give this for context because not everybody's at every board meeting. Um, but like our schools are all going through, uh, we have certain requirements that we have to meet from an energy perspective. Um, and I'm sure anybody at the high school knows that when you hit summertime or at the beginning of the school year, the second floor, you can cook a fried egg in some areas of that building. Um, so there's and and also even the uh the elementary
068schools, you know, doors are left propped open. Um, we have to run those systems all the time because of the pipes that were installed in there years and years and years ago. They have to basically continue to have pressure in them. Um, if we turn them off, they leak. And so that's something where the capital projects levy would address. And then Marshall also went through um, you know, that we are the hub of the community. So, sports fields, all that stuff, those are also things that we could address. So, like that field in between um Monty, yeah, the tennis courts and the the baseball and softball field, like if we could find a solution to either turf that or something that provides a much larger area for more community events, more, you know, little league
069football and soccer and all those sorts of things. Um so, these are very important uh very important initiatives. Um, and I go back to like the HVAC systems and the energy. It's not just, hey, it'd be nice to have cooler buildings during the summer and warmer buildings during the winter. If we do not comply uh by a certain date, like for instance, the high school, I know when we were going through those numbers, every single year that we are out of compliance costs it was like $150 or $200,000 in fines. And so it we're basically not getting the benefit of cooling our children and everything. and now we're having to pay on top of it. It's insult to injury. So, I just would like to reiterate all of that information here today. So, that and
070I I know we'll probably repeat it here and there and stuff, but it is very important. EPO keeps us at least at the status quo and then capital levies will help us not get fines in the future and then produce better environments for our kids. So, >> and I I kind of breezed through bonds are for building. You pass a bond to build a school. Um the levies are for learning and your EPO levy is for just keeping the doors open basically. Your capital project levy is for buying we use ours to buy technology like the Chromebooks, the monitors that are in the classrooms, teachers computers, our um internet access, those kind of things and some small repairs. But just just all of that technology costs, you know, 400 $500,000 a year. So, and that's,
071you know, twothirds of our levy. So, um, >> yeah. >> Cool. Anything else? >> Great. All right. Thank you, Marshall. >> Okay. Item 4 A, items from the floor. You have anything? >> No. Okay. Uh, new business. Item five, we don't have any new business. And then item six, consent agenda. Are there any additions to the agenda or consent agenda? >> No. Okay. Uh any discussion for the consent agenda? No. Okay. Then consent agenda passes with unanimous consent and the time is 6:58 and that closes out Grand Falls meeting. Thank you.