001Make sure Eric Carly, can you hear me? >> Yes, I can hear. >> Yes, I can. >> Okay, perfect. Um, well, it's six o'clock. We will get started and then Bill can join. You can join. Okay, it is 6 o'clock and this begins the Granite Falls uh school board meeting for what date is it? Uh, September 24th, 2025. Um, we uh if you can just please rise with 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. >> Thank you. Okay. So, tonight in attendance we have Director Gaulner and Director Concincaid. They are on uh they're virtually attending here. Uh myself, Director Leoo, and our superintendent uh
002Miss Dana Geese. Um believe I'll make a motion that we excuse uh Director Kerry. >> Second, Carly or Eric? >> Second. >> Okay. Motion's been made and seconded. All in favor? I >> I >> Okay. And then Bill may be joining us in a little bit, but I'll make a motion that we excuse Director Dayne as well, just in case. >> Second. >> Motion's been made and seconded. All in favor? >> I >> Okay, great. And then I will pass it to for the land acknowledgement. >> Thank you. We honor the first peoples of these lands by acknowledging that the area in which they we gather is within the traditional territory of the still awamish tribe of Indians. The still awamished people have inhabited these lands and waters since time in memorial and their descendants
003have remained in this territory to this day. The stillish people have continued the practice the traditional ways of their ancestors of fishing, hunting and gathering. The still warms 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. >> Great. Thank you. Okay. And then 2 A. Okay. So today we have um two resolutions. One resolution 252603 indigenous people's proclamation. So, I will make a reading here and then we will go uh we will go in for a a vote here. A proclamation by the Granite Falls School District to recognize the second Monday of October as indigenous people's day. Whereas the Granite Falls School District recognizes that the indigenous peoples of the lands
004would later become known as the Americas have occupied these lands since time memorial. And whereas indigenous coast sish peoples including Saki uh Siligwamish Tleip and other tribes have lived in the Snomish County region for thousands of years relying on the rivers, forests and lands for salmon and other resources and holding these places as central to their spiritual practices and way of life. And whereas the Granite Falls School District recognizes the deep connection of indigenous peoples, including the stewardship of salmon and rivers, the care of forests and lands, the teaching carried through oral history and lashes seed place names, and the continuing cultural presence that enriches our schools and community. And whereas the Granite Falls School District promotes educational excellence for indigenous peoples through policies and practices that reflect the experiences of indigenous peoples, ensure greater
005access and opportunity, and honor our nation's indigenous roots, history, and contributions. And whereas SB5433 requires the teaching of the history, government, and contemporary issues of the 29 federally recognized tribes of Washington State. And whereas Indigenous People's Day was first proposed in 1977 by a delegation of Native Nations to the United Nations sponsored international conference of discrimination against indigenous populations in the Americas. And whereas the Granite Falls School District joins a growing number of school districts that have recognized the second Monday in October as indigenous people's day, creating an opportunity to promote appreciation, understanding, and respect among indigenous peoples and all who attend the Grant Falls School District. Now therefore, it be resolved that the Grandfall School District shall recognize indigenous people's day on the second Monday in October and encourages staff, students, and community members
006to engage in learning and reflection on this day. I'd like to make a motion that we accept uh the proclamation uh Indigenous People's Day proclamation. >> A second. >> Okay. Motion's been made and seconded. All in favor? I >> I >> Okay. And now we will move to the second resolution. Actually, Bill is giving me a call. Um I don't know if you want to reach out to Bill. Um resolution 252604 Orange Shirt Day Proclamation. And I will pass this over to Dland. >> Thank you, Director Leoo. Uh the board resolution 252604 honoring orange shirt day, Indian boarding school awareness day, September 30th, 2025. Whereas the board of directors is the governing body of the Granite Falls School District comp comprised of citizens who are elected to serve in an official capacity under statutory provisions
007and who take an oath to support the constitutions of the United States and the state of Washington. And whereas the Granite Falls School District acknowledges the sovereign status of the Stilogish tribes whose ancestral lands include the area in which our schools and community reside. And whereas we honor and respect the Still Gorish tribes and all indigenous peoples recognizing their rich cultural heritage, deep historical roots, and the continuing contributions of their ancestors, elders, children, and all members to the life of our shared communities. And oops, change my page. Sorry. Whereas from 1870s through 1990s, hundreds of thousands of indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and placed in Indian residential boarding schools in the United States and Canada where many experienced neglect, loss of language and culture, abuse, and trauma. And whereas the lasting intergenerational
008impacts of the Indian residential school system continues to affect indigenous families and communities today. And whereas orange shirt day was inspired by the story of Phyllis Webbstad, a boarding school survivor whose new orange shirt, a gift from her grandmother, was taken from her on her first day at the boarding school, symbolizing the loss of identity, culture, and dignity suffered by thousands of indigenous children. Whereas Orange Shirt Day is a time to reflect, educate, and engage in meaningful conversations about truth, healing, and reconciliation, and to affirm that every child matters. And whereas the Granite Falls School District is committed to advancing truth, reconciliation, and healing with indigenous communities. And whereas the Granite Falls School District strives to ensure that all students feel valued, seen, and respected, and to advance equity, inclusion, and culturally responsive education. Be
009it further proclaimed that the Granite Falls School District strongly encourages our staff and community to observe Orange Day to recognize the importance of remembering the children who never came home from Indian residential boarding school systems while honoring the survivors. Now therefore, the Granite Falls School District does hereby proclaim September 30th, 2025 as Orange Shirt Day, Indian Boarding School Awareness Day in the Granite Falls School District, and encourages all staff, students, and community members to wear orange and engage in learning and reflection as we honor the experiences of Indian residential boarding school survivors and work towards healing and reconciliation. and witness thereof whereof the Granite Falls School District board of directors has set their hand to this resolution and proclamation on this 24th day of September 2025. >> Thank you. Like to make a motion that
010we accept resolution number 252604, orange shirt day proclamation. >> Second. >> Motion's been made and seconded. All in favor? >> I. >> Great. Okay. Uh item 2 C, board comments. I'm going to start off with Director Kinc Kade if you have any. >> Um yeah, I just have one. Um I just wanted to um just uh say thank you to Paris for all of the hard work that she has done for us. Um and that we are going to miss her when she goes a lot. She has taken us um through some hard times and um through some really great times and she's just done some amazing things for us and so I just wanted to thank you Paris for all of your hard work. >> Thank you, Carly. Uh Director Gaulner, anything from your
011side? >> I don't have anything at this time. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, from my side, uh, super excited to have all the the students in here tonight about to be sworn in. Sounds super scary, but it's it's not. It's very important. The work that you guys do um, and will be doing is going to be very important. Um, it's amazing to have so many people that are jumping in and want to be involved. Um, it'll be a huge boon to the board. So, really appreciate that. And then, yes, I will second uh what Director Concaid said about Paris. Um, I always say in a small district you have to always at least wear one hat. You don't have the option to dwindle and dillydally and stuff. Uh, Paris does that tenfold, right? She wears
012many hats. Um, and so really appreciate everything that you've done for the district. You know, best of luck in your future endeavors. Um, but yeah, great big big shoes to fill, but you know, sincerely thank you. Um, okay. Moving on to the exciting part here tonight. Um, or the second exciting part here be behind our proclamations is going to be 2D the oath of office of the student representatives. All right. If we get all the students come up and they have their oath of office. Yeah, you can stand right there and then we'll take a picture after we're all done. If I can see you all my bright shiny faces. Would you rather face the crowd? >> Oh, yeah. The camera that actually better. >> All right. You ready? I state your name. do solemnly
013swear >> do solemnly swear >> that I will support the Constitution and MOS >> that I will support the Constitution and laws >> of the United States and the state of Washington >> of the United States and the state of Washington >> and that I will faithfully perform >> the duties of the student representative >> to the board of directors >> of the Granite Falls school district of the Grand School District. >> Number 332. >> According to the law. >> To the best of my ability. >> All right. Students. We have students from Grand Falls High School, Grand Falls Middle School, and Crossroads. And student voice is paramount to everything we do in the system. And if you want to know what's working or what's not working, just ask our students because they will tell
014you straight up. And that's what I that's why we're in this business, right? Is because we love working with our students. So, we're going to take a picture and then I do need each of you to sign this and give it to Paris before you sit down. Deal? All right. Let's take a picture here. You can just go like I'll write in here and probably come up and I'll be more important to you. All right. want to squish in. [Music] >> Good. Okay, Chris, do you have a plan for them all? >> Welcome aboard. [Music] See over here. Peter, Bill is on, but he says he can't hear. >> Okay, we will check Dan to see if he can get that going. >> And our student adviserss to the board for families who are here.
015Crystal, thank you for being here also and for bringing them. Um, two of our student adviserss will be at every meeting. Those are two of our seniors, uh, Charlie and, uh, Thomas. And then it'll be on a rotating basis for the other ones. And then, um, sometimes our students can't make it because they have other things, right, like basketball practice or or whatever. And that's okay. We'll always have four. We try to have four at our meetings. Um, that way when we have discussions about topics or when we give report outs, um, our students are able to share what's happening, um, at school and what's going on. and um and the board's able to engage with them. We'll also do some times where um where I go into a school and pull them together and
016do some some work um in and talking about civic responsibility and you know how to every voice heard and what's the what's the way that we go about doing that because it's not just civic responsibility here in the district. We hope that they are lifelong citizens who have who have those skills and things. So I appreciate that all of them applied and did such a thoughtful job of applying. The last thing, the shameless plug that I'll have right here is on October 28th, we will have once again a time for the candidates for school board before the general election. And our students ran um a forum with all of those candidates in June. And now the general election will be in November and they will run that again. Our students did a brilliant job last
017time. They helped come up with questions. They asked all the questions. I kind of really didn't have to do anything that night. They just kind of ran the show, which is how it should be. So, we look forward to that. So, put that on your calendar. All student reps will be there. October 28th, 6:00 at Granite Falls High School in the pack and another opportunity for our students to engage with um you know, some people who are are running for school board. So, any questions from our students before we get back to the rest of the board meeting? >> All right. So excited to have you. Good to see you here. >> One more round of applause. Now we'll move on to item 3A, superintendent report prepared by Dr. Geese here. Thank you, Dan. All
018right, we'll start with the safety and security update. A few things here. Um, if you notice the new lighting at the bus barn, it's it's bus transportation where we park all of our buses. There's new LED lighting installed. That that was a safety feature. We had an incident a week and a half or so where um some people got into there and did some damage and and and did some things around town as well. Um I'm sure if you live in Granite Falls, you know about that. Um, so what we do know to be a deterrent is lighting because you can see in, you can see when people are someplace that they aren't supposed to be, those kind of things. The other thing that lighting does though, aside from, you know, shining a light and
019if there's people and they're not doing what they're supposed to do, is it's it's safe to have better lighting. I think for our drivers who get there really early in the morning, especially in the winter, it's dark when they arrive at work. And so having that lighting will be really nice. And then um Marshall and I were talking a little bit today of doing some assessments on our other parking lots like at Granite Falls High School now that it's getting darker at night and those kind of things, making sure the lighting is enough so people can safely get out to their cars and things after events or when students are getting back from a late game, getting off a bus and getting out to their cars. So doing a little bit of an assessment for
020that. Um reviewing our our camera coverage. Um sometimes we're not able to see fully if there is an incident that happens and seeing um where some of those blind spots are. And then we have a a maintenance and operation levy for sure coming up in in February and we want to talk about what are the safety and security needs that we need to wrap into that levy a little bit. Um building security. Um I won't speak for Mr. Pike when he was just here and he is literally at Granite Falls High School before he leaves at night checking every single door and making sure doors are latching and if we have some issues with doors being open because some of the times where people have entered unauthorized um specifically at Mountain Way have been because
021maybe a door wasn't shut. So really working with our staff on making sure doors are not propped and those kind of things, but that they're latched also. So doing some of those checks. Um, like I said, there was some there's been some increased vandalism and theft and and and we're really wanting to get to the bottom of that and do everything on our side of it to make sure our schools um and everything that's inside of our schools is safe for the evenings. Um, and I just can't say enough about our partnership with EMS um the Granite Falls Police and um fire are absolutely amazing partners. Fire was here this afternoon because there was a little issue with the sprinkler system and their response time is amazing and it's always so good to see them.
022We really appreciate that relationship. All right, next slide. Um, on the safety component, we have uh Snomish County Health was in today at Crossroads and did a walkthrough, a school safety inspection. These are held every two years at every one of our schools. So, Crossroads was happened to be today. Um, the other schools that will be covered is basically everything except for the high school this year. Um, what the inspections cover are things like the hot water temperatures and things in the bathrooms. Um the lighting levels, there's state law around how light classrooms need to be. They need to be 30 candles because it's a very old system that measures lighting, right? And we have um devices that actually measure those things. Otherwise, it's really hard for people to see and read. Um, so the
023lighting, the building conditions, the ventilation and air quality, um, classroom safety around cleanliness, chemical storage, earthquake hazards, like if bookshelves aren't bolted to walls and if there's things on there. Um, and animals in the classroom, what the proper protocols around that would be. Um, and then some some um, electrical panel access. You have to be able to get to those fuse boxes and those kind of things. Um, any findings that come from these reports have to be corrected. It's a non-negotiable. Um, and I think about it when I go to a restaurant, if they had a finding from the health department, I would definitely want them to correct it before I ate there. So, I feel like it's the same thing for us. It's for safety and those kind of things. And then we have
024to document how we've done those corrective uh those corrective actions. Next slide. So, last year we started um the implementation of some water filling stations in our schools and in our buildings. There's one actually right out here. There's some across the one at the high school. It was an issue. Our our students didn't have in every building access to um water filling stations so they could take water bottles and and refill them and and reduce the use of single-use plastics. So, those are being implemented at our elementarymentaries over the next four Saturdays. That's the one from the high school that's been implemented. I believe one's been implemented in the high school gym. So, just increasing access to that. When I first got to the district, there there wasn't water filling stations and because I have
025three children, I know that they love their water bottles and they love to fill them up. So, um we wanted to be filtered and for our kids to have access to that. Um so, we have plumbers coming out the next four Saturdays. There's some plumbing things that have to be done to make those filling stations uh usable. And then lastly, we will be doing some water testing. Um we're required by law to test our water um regularly and the water testing um testing for lead and other things. And the schedule is on that next slide and all of the samples that we will be getting. So, of course, the high school is our our biggest building. So, we'll be taking samples from, you wouldn't think there's 71 spots to get water at the high school,
026but there is. So, we'll be getting, you know, that many different samples and from all of our buildings. And then whatever that report says, we want to make sure our water is quality um because we're all consuming it and cooking with it and cleaning with it and drinking it. And then lastly, our upcoming uh districts and community events. A few things. This is not a comprehensive list. I know there's a skate night at um in Mary'sville for Mountain Way. Monty Crystal has a really cool program that I've I've known about for a few years. It's in partnership with Washington State University. It's a strengthening families program. If you want more information on it, please visit the their website or call the school. Um I think the dinner and child care, right, Maria provided um it
027seems like a long time, but it's really it's it's a really special program um that dives into a lot of things that students are facing and how families can engage with that. Um there's some obviously high school athletic events um at Granite Falls High School. And then the big community event coming up is Railroad Days. Uh Saturday, October 4th. Um there's a kids parade at 11:30. The main parade is at noon. Crossroads always has a big uh float in that parade and our band, somebody sitting here is going to be doing the color guard um and the band. And so it's a it's a special event. So I hope that you will engage and if there's alumni in the room, there is an alumni breakfast um that morning at 8:30 and that is >> perfect.
028Thank you. >> Uh any questions on the line? >> I'm good. >> Okay. Uh item 4 a items from the floor. I don't believe we have any. Uh item 5 A or item five, unfinished business. We have none. Uh six, new business. We have none. So we will go to seven, the consent agenda. Uh any discussion for the consent agenda. >> No. >> I would just like to point out the the the WSDA farm to school purchasing grant. um our new uh nutrition service or nutrition supervisor um applied for this farm to school grant and it is um it's a significant amount of money that's split over the course of two years about $40,000 to get you know Washington grown not processed foods into our cafeterias and try to build that relationship. So it's really
029I'm really excited about it because you don't know what you don't know until you reach out and see what are those things that we can get. So, um, it's locally grown again that farm to farm to school. We've heard of farm to table. This is like farm to school. Um, so huge al huge thank you to Alex Norton who is our child nutrition supervisor who applied for that and got that. >> Great. Thank you. Okay. Uh, if there's no further discussion on the consent agenda. Uh consent agenda passes with unanimous consent and that makes it 6:24 and concludes uh this meeting of the Grand Falls School Board. That's the fastest.