001Okay, the time is 6 o'clock and we're beginning the September 10th Granite Falls School Board meeting is now in session. Uh in attendance or actually, excuse me, uh please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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. I'm going to hand it over to Superintendent Gland for our land acknowledgement. Director of Leuke. We honor the first peoples of these lands by acknowledging that the area in which we gather is within the traditional territory of the Silish tribe of Indians. The Silish people have inhabited these lands and waters since time in memorial and their descendants have remained in this territory to this day.
002The Stilish people have continued to practice the traditional ways of their ancestors of fishing, hunting, and gathering. The Silence tribe has been has had these lands and cultural traditions passed on to them by their ancestors who believed that everything has a spirit and that they are the caretakers of these lands and waters. >> Okay. So all in attendance tonight we have Director Dayne, Director Concaid, Director Kerry, myself, Director Leoo, Superintendent Geon. I'd like to make a motion that we excuse Director Gawkner tonight. >> Second. >> Motion's been made and seconded. All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Uh, item 3A, board comments. Start down at Director Dane. >> Um, don't have much, but I I just I really appreciate going by the schools and seeing all of the kids >> um in school. Uh, and
003and we're so far had a safe uh transport in and out of all the schools. Little incidents here or there, but we're we're getting there. Um, I got to attend the barbecue here at Crossroads um, this week as they're opening and just saw uh, an amazing turnout of family and friends there. So, um, I'm excited for this year. I think it's going to be great. >> Perfect. Thank you, Dr. King. >> Yeah. So, um, today's been a little bit of a tough day and, um, so I kind of wrote down the words I had to say. It's it's short, so bear with me for a moment. But um I just wanted to say in light of um the passing the assassination of Charlie Kirk today and as we reflect on the anniversary of 911 tomorrow,
004I want to take a moment to speak about unity. Charlie was a bold voice who cared deeply about this country and about the values he believed in. And whether people agreed with him or not, there's no denying the passion and commitment that he brought to his work and his losses felt by many. And September 11th reminds us of the strength that comes when people of all walks of life join hands to support one another. The loss of any life, whether it's a public figure or a neighbor, should stir us to live with compassion and grace towards each other. In our schools, our children are watching how we respond to division or to moments of shared grief. We have a chance. This is our chance to model kindness, understanding, and resilience. Now more than ever, we
005need to be intentional about building bridges, setting aside differences, and working for the good of the next generation. So, let us honor both the memory of the lives lost and the lessons of history by choosing unity over division. Carrie. >> Yeah. I following in the the vein of Director King K writing something down, I I also had some comments I wanted to give um first. Um and uh it's a little bit longer, so I I can't promise it's going to be brief, but um just from an introduction standpoint, again, my name is Carl Kerry. I'm one of the five school board directors. Um we essentially um have one employee. It's our superintendent. Um and so our role essentially is to um uh fiscally manage the school district, give the superintendent direction. Uh we always say
006that we're in charge of the what and and she's in charge of the how. But um this is really my only opportunity to kind of speak um to not only the board but to the public. So I wanted to take a moment and speak about uh from the heart about the recent Facebook comments related to Crossroads. Um, I'm choosing to speak now, like I said, because later on in the program, we aren't able to have a two-way conversation because I know there's some people here today that want that plan on speak on this topic later in the agenda. Uh, I served on the board for a long time. Crossroads is actually one of the reasons I wanted to get involved. Um, I had a great relationship with, uh, Jim and Robin Bar and and got
007involved with some of the programs early on. I've led some, if you really knew me and step across the line programs of crossroads. I've had two people who I consider family attend that school, one of which sadly lost his life before the chance to graduate. Um, I want to read the snippet from the Facebook post just so I can respond publicly. I I just want to be as transparent as I've always tried to be um and speak in front of leadership of the district. But a snippet from the post says, uh, "If you have painted a ceiling towel, a mural, or any other art project done at Crossroads, the superintendent is painting over everything, taking digging it all down to ruin Crossroads history and everything it stands for. She is turning the school into a
008prison and non joyful. They have had teachers take home all their comfy personal furniture, decorative things, etc. Things to make the school feel like home because it's not traditionally her way of school should be seen." She's ruining Crossroads and dragging it into the ground. anything that wasn't her idea or what she's done is being taken away and disrespected. Um, so you know, everything essentially in that that statement is is either untrue or lacks context or understanding. Um, but I think the thing that breaks my heart the most. Um and and it goes right to the heart heart of what crossroads is for. It's that that thing where uh something is said that thing that is said becomes everyone's truth and then that false truth shapes everyone's negative opinion about everything and every about that person
009moving forward without rightfully giving them the chance to to have feedback or to respond and to clear those truths. So, let me just be clear. Neither the superintendent, the board, the executive team, anyone has given any directive to remove or paint or or any murals or ceiling counts at Crossroads. And I can't imagine a situation where we would. Um there is no goal to ruin Crossroads, drag it to the ground, disrespect its legacy. If you really knew me, you would know that my reason for sitting in this chair for as long as I did, um, and I know this is true of the superintendent as well, is because I want to do every day the best for this community and the best for the students that we serve. There are no monsters hiding under the
010bed. There's no ulterior motives. No one in this room has to live uh their life the way I do. But one of the edicts that I always maintain is a personal commitment to seek understanding first before jumping to conclusions and to always assume positive ti uh positive intent in the decisions made by others. So we owe each other to base our opinions on facts and general dialogue, not just rumors. So let's talk about what's true. Yes, the student population at Crossroads has declined, but that's not because of anything the board or superintendent has done. Lake Stevens is opening its own alternative high school and ending their long-standing partnership with us. Fewer students, less funding, kind of the short and skinny of it, but has nothing to do with the leadership of Crossroads or the district
011or a plan to close. That reduction of size doesn't mean again that we're that there's any plan to close it. Um, yes, Crossroads has a new leader bringing their own vision to the school, but doesn't mean the history or wonderful culture of Crossroads is being erased. Change isn't always easy, but it doesn't have to mean loss. It could actually mean growth most of the time. Those are the facts. I wanted to state them here tonight on the record in public with all of you guys looking at me, right? So that you know and you felt from my heart what is the truth here, right? It breaks my heart when we all tear each other apart on Facebook. So here's my hope. Here's my prayer. Here's where I hope that everyone in this room walks out
012and does after they leave this is channel the energy that you guys have right now and the love for Crossroads that I share and that everyone here shares and supporting the students and the staff of Crossroads to ensure that the experience that the students and the staff have there is exactly equal to the experience and the love that you had when you went to Crossroads. Moving forward, if there's any concerns about the district, I plead that you direct them to the superintendent and give her the opportunity to respond. And after that, if you still have concerns, come to the board. I've said it before, I'll say it again. I've literally in the 10 years I've been on the board, I have never not responded to an email. I've never not responded to a call. I've
013never not responded to someone asking me to have coffee to talk to about something. And that's not going to stop until the day I'm here. Um, also remember the superintendent is responsible for the how things are implemented, but we as the board determine what that direction is. And I just I I know this is an understatement, but I just feel like a lot of the the comments and and the the dialogue that I saw online is just really unfair for again someone who's who's here like the rest of us to do the absolute best we can for the people in this community. So closing, I I agree with everyone. The crossroads is a truly special place that um needs to be loved and maintained in the legacy of students. Uh it needs to be um
014not only um cherished but I think celebrated. We are a family and like any family we need to stick together, listen to one another and build each other up. Those are my comments. >> Appreciate it, Director Kerry. Um on my side, I'm definitely a I'm much more of a question asker. So I do also encourage anybody after the uh after the public comment period I know that we have business afterwards as well but I would love to sit and talk afterwards as well. Um so that's I'll leave it there. And then in terms of like on a WIA or just even you know go going into a more joyful thing yet also a reminder that we are in a small division school district. Um, and you know, I picked up my son after the football
015game at the high school at 12:30 on Saturday morning, you know, after they went up at 147 to nothing, mind you, up in up in East Jefferson. Um, and then Sultan is at home this weekend. So, you know, I'm sure that stadium is going to be packed. Um, let's, you know, go root them on and and go have some fun out there. And that's just a reminder though, not just football, but all sports teams, our kids do not travel short distances for games. It is not. There's concrete. There's I think in a few weeks, well, there's Friday Harbor. I think in a few weeks there's up in Blaine. >> It's just, you know, so like God bless the the kids for for making those travels, but then also the bus drivers, you know, for for
016for dealing through all that stuff as well. So, um I'm just so grateful for the small, you know, small small but growing community that we have and the amount of effort that we put in and the level of effort that, you know, these students really have, uh, you know, the passion that they do to play these sports and to go to these lengths to do these things. Um, so that's just kind of it from my side. Um, so we'll go ahead and move on to item 4A, superintendent report presented by Superintendent Gelin. >> Thank you, Director D. It's going to be up on the screen here in a moment. Thanks, Cy. Well, um these are just some pictures from our welcome back um pretty much from every building. Um it is crazy when you see
017the welcome the class of 2038. That's our kindergarteners. Seems like a really long ways away, but they are adorable and um they are making it happen. Um do note Mr. Mayor's first day outfit of orange sequins. That was a talk of the t was wow that was something. um some really fun things. We had um the back to school barbecue like uh Dr. J said last Friday at Crossroads and it was good to see all of our kiddos back. So we kind we have all of our kids back. We have preschool in Crossroads started this week. The rest of our building started last week. That bottom left is um all of the freshmen um on the first day coming in and they had a first day half day um and so that orientation at Granite
018Falls High School. And I love the picture in the middle. It's um Chief Dalton was there to greet kids. um at Ground Falls High School on the first day and of course Mr. B g read greeting every kid at the door. So we really talked a lot about threshold greetings and how important they are. The research is very very clear that threshold greetings matter and welcoming our kids in. And then I got to attend an assembly at uh Monte Cristo Elementary on was that yesterday? Tuesday. Yeah, just just yesterday. It feels like a little longer ago. And I I walked into the building and it was silent. The kids were walking in so quietly. so wonderfully. I was like, "Are there are there kids here? Like, are they all outside? What's happening?" But, um, just
019so kind and so respectful and really learning to hold their applause when they were super excited when their favorite staff member was introduced. So, thank you to everyone who made such a great first week back. Um, when my daughter, my oldest, uh, moved out and and went to college, I always said that our house was there was a different level of quiet in our house, and that was hard. And it's the same thing in a school district. When the kids are gone, there's a level of quiet that's not right. And so when they're back, then the level is right. And I I'm looking at JBJ back there. I bet the level's right at the middle school, too. Right. Yeah. So, welcome back everyone. Uh, what a great first. All right, next slide. Sorry. So, a
020little safety and security update. Um, Director Kerry had told me when um when I was first in um in this in the seat, he was like, gosh, could we have a safety and security just to focus on that at every board meeting just a little bit to talk about the things that we're doing to make sure that we are really paying close attention to to this in our system. So, tonight I wanted to talk about we did a panic um button test at all of our buildings. And you know, there's some legislation around this too um that just says you you need to have this in your buildings, but you also need to test it and make sure that it works. And so on the day before school started, we did that. And thank you,
021Marshall, um and Chief Dalton for all of your work on this. Um basically went building to building to building to make sure that it notifies and and does the things it needs to do. So um all the buttons triggered a lockdown and and alerted law enforcement. Um what went well, they worked. um it locked the exterior doors and disabled the badge readers and and those kind of things. Um the the one area that we need to improve is the order in which it calls people because the first person we don't want the director of business and operations to be the first person called in a panic. While we think Marshall does a great job, that is not the person we want responding. We want 911 called if there if the panic button is pushed. So
022that's um one thing. And then the other piece and and lots of details I'll go over in more detail when I meet with the board members um one-on-one, but is really um then letting us know what through the RAVE app, which which most of us have, administrators for sure have about when 911 is called and and the response to that. There's nothing more important than we do than ensure the safety and security in our buildings. Everything else is secondary. So, this was one piece um that we're doing. And then I guess a second quick piece is that we've implemented fully our visitor badging system for everyone and using state issued ID to um to get into our buildings. So um thank you Chief Felton and thank you Marshall for running those um those tests and
023thank you to all the building secretaries. So we're sitting right here for your help in that. I mean she had you had you had to do it right and make sure that it works and um we appreciate that. Um next slide. So, a little photo. >> Oh, you Thank you. Um, we'll focus on student voice. Um, we talk a lot about student voice and these are some of the opportunities that we have this school year. We have our student representatives to the board and they will be um here at our next board meeting um to be sworn in. We um kids applied. We changed our board policy around that. Uh before it was just the the the vice presidents at both Crossroads and Granite Falls High School who almost like but by default were the
024student reps to the board and most districts have moved to other kids. Anybody who wants to apply to do that can do so. And so we have 13 student reps to the board. Two that are seniors that'll be at every board meeting and then on a rotating basis. It is such an opportunity for them to to work with me to learn what it means to be a student rep on the board, how their voice is heard. They will sit up here with us. They will give comments. They will give out when we have the the comments at the beginning. They will have an opportunity to share how it's going for them. Um they're a nice way for us to we can run board policies through them and all of those things. It's a way for
025them to step into a leadership role. It's also a way for them to give feedback to the board and the community and to bring their experience um to to our board and and to me. Um so we're excited to start that and that will um be after the next board meeting um in October. I'm checking on dates with um high school leadership. I believe it's going to be October 29th. Um we have um a board director forum um kind of a practice run in June for all of the members of our community who are running school board. Our students wrote the questions and had the questions and asked the questions of the candidates for school board and then we'll have that again in October before the general election. um our students will like I said
026they will sit in front of all of our schoolboard members and um the schoolboard members who will be coming on and they will have an opportunity to hear from them and ask questions and get feedback and um that's another role of um the adviserss or the student reps to the board tiger cabinet uh the applications for that will go out on September 22nd um we have students from last year that were on Tiger Cabinet that now are going to be the facilitators. There's four of them. They are two seniors, a junior, and a sophomore. And they're going to take a little road show and go to the high school or to the middle school and to Monte Cristo and probably stop by Crossroads, but I'll talk to the Crossroads students as well or to talk
027to the Crossroads staff um about what Tiger Cabinet is. Last year we had 54 students in grades 3 through 12 from across the system who came about once a month and gave us feedback on um what was working, what was wasn't working, those kind of things. Again, um student voice. In May, they met with um legislators and county reps um to talk to them. So, they got to meet with two state representatives and a state senator and ask them questions. We've talked about a little bit here, but I know there's a lot more people in attendance tonight. Um, I would encourage anyone in the system that's in grades 3 through 12 to apply to Beyond Tiger Cabinet. It is an excellent opportunity to to work with students from a variety of schools and grade levels
028and also uh to give some feedback and you'll probably learn some things too. Um, so we will start that I believe on the 22nd. I think we have the applications ready to go and Paris will we'll put them on our website. We'll have QR codes, those kind of things and so we'll get that out. Next stop. Um, this is a quick update. It might be a little bit boring for everyone in the crowd, but um, I want to make sure the board knows these things. So, there was a statewide superintendent meeting yesterday. Um, some updates on some federal actions and updates. There's a lot going on at the federal government level. A lot of dear colleague letters, executive orders, and those kind of things that we're paying close attention to because some of them impact
029our day-to-day operations. And so, we got um, some of those updates. Um at the state level there's some policy and legislative updates as well. Um it's there's there's grants and different things and the people in the back row um tend to to submit most of those grants. Those are many of those were done over the summer. There's some legislative decisions and those kind of things were paying close attention to. There's um some equity funding opportunities um as we know there's a the student and parents bill of right and there's some resources on that that kind of went back and forth um in the courts and now it's solid so we have that and we have um direction on that one uh point of interest is the cell phone policy resources that OSPI has put out
030about 17 states in the country have uh passed legislation banning cell phones in schools and Oregon being the the most recent of those. Um, Washington State hasn't gone there yet. I believe that almost every state will at some point. We have strong board policy on that. Our our policy is off and away um during instructional times. Um the research is very very clear on um devices and screen time for our kids and how it's changing um changing our kids. Um we as a district are read I'll say as a district because we've bought so many copies and every time we buy more copies um I have more staff members who ask to read it. um are reading anxious generation. If you are a parent in the crowd, I highly recommend that you access that resource.
031Um it is um since 2013, the research is is just really evident on um anxiety and depression and those kind of things for our kids. in talking to some of our students who pre who were a student forum in front of our whole staff in the Granite Falls school district at our back to school. Um we had I think it was five or six students who volunteered to answer some questions and talk with us and one of the things that was really powerful was um the students and I talked to them a little bit before and then we talked to them on stage and they said our whole life is on display and I don't think adults realize that everything we do if we do something that's thank you for that nodulation. Yes. Right. It's
032like everything could be recorded at any minute. And you know, I was a teenager a million years ago and that was not the case, right? Like I'm I probably did some not very smart things in high school or when I slipped on a pickle and my whole school lunch flew all over everyone. Like I remember that distinctly, but I'm sure nobody else remembers. Like I can remember to this day and the football player that I grabbed so I didn't totally fall all of that embarrassing moment. Yes. Does anybody have it on film? Absolutely not. Right. But our our teenagers are living a different environment than any of us grew up in. And I just think it's really relevant for us to pay really close attention to that. So the state um has put out a
033survey. It's going to a national survey about what school districts are seeing. And when they're implementing policies that allow kids to put away their phone and just focus on the instruction, um some great things happen. I'll get off of my soap box on that for now. All right. Uh next slide. Um at that meeting we talked of course a lot about teaching and learning. Um the statewide assessment data has come out. There's some some statewide trends in Washington state specifically with the SBA. Um there's some large concerns about math uh specifically middle school math. Uh the scores have declined um pretty significantly over the past few years. We of course have some COVID implications um that are affecting that. But um we pay attention to our granite falls of course, but it's also important to
034look statewide and and where is it going well and you know who's making incredible gains and and let's not reinvent the wheels. We know what works um and using using those other districts as well. Um we have standards that we teach to um in the state of Washington. Everything we do in the classroom should be aligned to a learning standard to that subject and grade level. Those learning standards are getting a review and there's some timelines um for when those standards will change. Those are all there. I won't I won't bore you with that. Starting with um ELA um updated student discipline rules in Washington state. Um those have already been given um to our administrators and our staff and those were gone over at the school of rock and some subsequent staff meetings. And
035then lastly, the school safe safety um component. Alyssa's law has some requirements um that they've put into play. We meet those requirements um in in Granite Falls. And thank you to all of our staff who who ensure that we meet those and have the plans necessary. Again, going back to first and foremost, we want to make sure our kids are safe. All right, teaching and learning. Next slide. Emily, would you like to talk to us a little bit about that? Executive Director Moore will take the podium puzzle as well. >> Good evening. >> So, uh we have some celebrations and some things to uh notify the board of. We are first and foremost celebrating uh that every class uh at Grand High School for agricultural science, construction, and culinary are full. Um that's great news.
036Uh we also received word uh just a couple of days ago from Tanya that five Granite Falls High School students graduated with their associate of arts degree from Everick Community College. That's a huge celebration. And then of course I'll talk a little bit more in a minute about the ELA curriculum, but we now have adopted guaranteed and viable ELA curriculum for kindergarten through 12th grade. And that is really fabulous students. So a couple of nuts and bolts things around school funding. Um, all of our end of the year reporting for categorical programs and grant funds has been completed. Um, and just so the crowd knows that needs to be completed. We need to be compliant with that so that we can release funds to fund the school year this year. So, uh, we're we've hit
037all of our marks in that area. Um, teaching and learning, we spent a lot of time last year really analyzing our funds. you said being really good stewards and really being frugal um with our dollar and we did end the year in the black. Um we continue to focus on how to work smarter uh with our dollar. Um and along with that we spent the year last year doing a deep analysis of all of our technology and specifically software applications that we're purchasing to use with students in the instructional environment. We completed that in May and there will be more to come on that including the conversation about Google. Um I do want to spend a little bit of time talking about um HMH and the ELA curriculum. I want to spend a second to
038say thank you very much to our 6th through 12th um ELA pilot teachers uh who really burned the midnight oil last year learning a new curriculum, spending some time in development. Um, and thank you to them, to our curriculum instruction and assessment team, and thank you school board for uh allowing us to uh purchase those materials. So, we now have in hands in most hands. There's a little bit on back order, but we have um materials in um students hands 6 through 12. Um and that's students in general education. It's also students who are in special education. um it's not often and Dana and Rachel can vouch for this that we um that we attend to curriculum for special education and so we have that. We also um adopted English 3D which is a K12
039curriculum for our language learners. Um those have been delivered and we are off and running. Um we are um putting together and starting a robust professional learning calendar for our admin with this curriculum so that they can support it uh with their teachers and in the classrooms and that spans K12. Um Principal Losi is here. She'll be in because she they received um materials for third through fifth for language learners. So she'll be learning about how that curriculum gets used by teachers so that she can support teachers in using that and that will happen with all of our admin. Um and that's really important because it's very often that that you um get this curriculum and it's really shiny and new and you unwrap it and you have a few months of professional learning and
040then it just kind of goes away. But our plan is to continue to nurture that implementation over time. And uh super happy to uh to say that along with HMH training for admin, we were also able to bring in a specialist to come in and uh with principal Losi and Del Cruz to work on our elementary ELA curriculum as well. So we are off and running in teaching and learning. And I wanted to share Oh, next slide, please. Mr. Corey, thank you so much. Um, I was really blessed to support Crossroads High School for the last four months of the school year. And, um, this picture is all over the website, these two pictures. And I really want you to look and see the celebration. And, um, and I have never been so amazed by
041a graduation ceremony, and I've been to a lot in 26 years. And um the graduation ceremony at Crossroads specifically, I guess I'm a little bit a little bit biased right now, was really really beautiful. Um and what a celebration. So just a couple of notes for for the board. Um at Granite Falls High School, 119 students earn their diploma. Again, those five students with their AA degree. Um and we also had 112 students participate in summer graduation assistance. At Open Doors, we had nine students who earned their GED, two that went on to get their diploma, and six more students who earned their diploma. And at Crossroads High School, 47 students uh earned their diploma, 17 students uh participated in summer graduation assistance. That completes my report. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um some
042upcoming district and community events. Um, I know that director Leoo mentioned football, but we we have a lot going on right now in athletics and some community events. So, volleyball, I was at their game last night, um, or the match last night. I was able to watch two and then I had to get home because my two Aussies had been in the in the garage for a lot of hours and I they weren't amused, but it was a really good match and it was two it was one to one and then they came back and and they won and so then I was like, "Oh man, I missed it." But super fun to watch um all the girls doing their thing out there. Soccer is uh they are two and one in what I'm hearing
043is a rebuilding year, but seems like they're doing pretty pretty pretty pretty well there. They have another home game tomorrow. We have our first uh ever boys golf team and they had a match yesterday, their first match, and they had two kids that um in nine holes uh scored under 50, which I've I've golfed a little bit and I'm not very good and so that's kind of impressive actually. Um and so you know if they do that again they they get to go to districts which would be incredible. So and thank you to all the volunteers who are making making that happen. Um again football we have a black and blue game. I hope kids aren't black and blue after um with Sultan the black and blue bowl um this Friday night. I believe the
044game time is seven but I could be wrong. Okay. And then some other events that are upcoming um oh we also have cross country. They they just finished running at Granite Falls High School a big a big meet and we will be hosting a couple other meets because we have an awesome cross country um course and we have um the track of course and the whole setup there is is really conducive as a cross country mom and cross country parents you earn your stripes because you have to run around and follow your kid. Um and so it's a lot of work. Um Granite Falls Middle School athletics started practice started on Monday for the first season. So, middle school has four seasons and uh the first season started cross country, volleyball, and boys soccer. And
045then season two starts kind of midfall. And then some other upcoming events. Thank you, Corey. Um there's a list of things happening. There's good things happening in the systems. Um something happening at every building if you if you want to attend. I got invited to skate night. I might have to pass on that one. I'm not much of a skater, but there's, you know, things going on across our system. Railroad Days is noteworthy. I know that um there's it's such a cool event. My granddaughter was here last year. She was just barely two last year and she keeps talking about the dancing horses and wants to come back. They live in Boisey and so now it's going to be this annual event for her to come. If the dancing horses are aren't there, we're in
046real trouble. So, I'm gonna have to make something up. But so, they'll be flying out again for for that event. But such a cool parade and um I know our schools and bands have um lots of things going on in the in the parade. So please attend that. And then lastly, I know that um a couple of the board members kind of addressed this, but you know, as as public school educators, we feel passionately about our kids. We do this work because we care deeply about kids and families. And um you know, we have communications that are out there. It's um you know, we want to promote trust, not erode trust. And so it's it's so important to us. So, you know, to to Director K's point, you know, we have not taken down tiles.
047Actually, there is one tile that was taken down in a preschool classroom and moved over to a crossroads classroom. It was a tile that maybe we wouldn't have wanted to have in preschool. Um, other than that, murals haven't been painted over, tiles haven't been painted over, nor directed to be taken down. And Crossroads is not closing. Um, we will always need an AL. Districts do. I've worked in many many districts very small to very big um sometimes AL setting is is ideal for for students and um we feel passionately about that. In fact, there's some growth that needs to probably happen around some homeschool partnerships. We have 550 kids that opt out of our system and we'd like to we'd like to have many opportunities for kids to engage and and be back at Granite
048Falls. So, um I just want the truth out there. If people have questions, I'm happy to answer those. And I know the board is as well, but social media can be can be kind of a beast and it's hard to know what to believe. And so, please reach out if you have those questions and we're happy happy to talk with you. >> Cool. Thank you very much. >> Uh, moving on to item 4B, enrollment update, prepared by Marshall Cruz. Um, nothing too exciting here. It's actually probably the most boring part of this whole thing because our uh our enrollment came in pop it up basically right at budget. So, we budgeted for uh 2194. We came in right at 21.94. Um, >> pretty good. >> Boring. Um, Crossroads is an estimate right now. Crossroads count
049day. Our our count day for K12 was Monday. Count day for Crossroads is tomorrow. So Crossroads, we think it's going to be 1:30 and and 40, but it could be 128 to 135. Um, special ed, there's only there's only one tier of special ed now. You'll see when we compare back to previous years of special ed, I was putting it all in tier one, but there's really not a it's not not any not tiers anymore. The new funding model um for special ed, all students are considered that this at the same level for funding. So this year when that column starts going to the right, it'll all be in the tier one category, but it's it is tier one and tier two combined in previous years. Um, again, nothing too exciting here other than kindergarten.
050Um, we've been talking about it all summer. We had a demographics report done. We had five years ago, five and a half years ago, we had really high birth rates starting and we have this bubble of really high birth rates in our community that we thought should have generated, we budgeted conservatively, we always kind of do for enrollment. We thought we could have as many as 180 kindergarteners this year based on the birth rates that happened five years ago. We have no idea why we have 142. So a lot of things these kids were born right before the pandemic. They were raised during the pandemic for better for worse. Politics became a big deal during and after the pandemic. Families were kind of relocating all over the place. Maybe people moved. We're working with the
051demograph the demographer again this year and what we're going to do our first our first priority and I have a call with her tomorrow to try and do a deep dive and figure out if we can find out find out a way to determine if these if these families moved or if they are um delaying. So because sometimes if your if your if your student is five, your child's five, you may delay them a year to go to start kindergarten. So, um, we want to kind of determine what's going on because a lot of our growth projections are based on this bubble of really high birth rates. We have four years, last five years of birth rates are really high in our community, higher than they've ever been. So, we would expect classes of 185,
052190 kindergarteners the next four or five years. And you know, when they're a kindergartener, chances are they're going to rise through all of our grades here in Granite Falls at, you know, with with those projections, we were projecting maybe 3,000 students by seven years from now. But, you know, we have to kind of reset that and and focus on why those kindergarten numbers didn't come in or the birth rate say they should come in. Um, next slide, Corey. And just real quick, this is just broken down by school, but again, very close to budget at all schools. Um, Crossroads, um, we are expecting a decline because of the Lake Stevens students not being here. Um, expecting another minor decline next year when the rest of the Lake Stevens kids don't come because they're going to
053build their own AL school. And then kindergarten is just trying to figure out what happened with kindergarten. Got it. Thank you, >> boring. >> Thank you, Mark. Yeah, you were nothing but accurate. >> Pretty impressive. Okay. Uh item 5A, items from the floor. Okay. So, this part here, so I'll start off here. The Granite Falls School Board welcomes the opportunity to hear public comment and allows time for this purpose at each regular session meeting. Um so, my understanding we have three three for public comment tonight. Bear with me. I'm going to read through something that we we read through just so that everybody's on the same same uh playing field here. Um and then once we get through there, then I can add a few more things and then uh we'll get started. Okay. So,
054the public comment section of the agenda is an opportunity for people to address the school board. Since this is a business meeting of the Granite Falls School District board of directors, the purpose of public comments is for those interested to communicate with the board of directors about items on the agenda or specific specific work within the scope of the school district. This is not a time for the audience to address each other. People may submit public comments for a schoolboard meeting either by reading their comments aloud in person or by submitting their comments in writing. The board reads all written comments which are later attached to the meeting agenda and available to the public on the board docs website. If you are presenting your comment in person, one, please begin by stating your name, your
055city of residence, relationship to the district, and the agenda item or school district topic you are addressing. Uh, two, we request that if your comment consists wholly or partly of text verbatim from an article, an online post, an excerpt from a book book, etc., you simply send us the link to the text and spend your comment time telling us how this information relates directly to district work. Uh, three, please limit your comment to three minutes. Uh, if a comment becomes too lengthy, uh, I may need to interrupt. Um, and we'll try to keep you up to speed on like where you are in terms of timing. Um four, please make your statement in a civil manner without disparaging, name calling or otherwise targeting any one person or group in the district. Similarly, we ask everyone
056in the audience to show respect by listening quietly without talking or whispering to each other so that everyone can hear each comment. Uh five, the board does not typically act upon items brought forward during this portion of the meeting at this time, but may be followed up by the board, the superintendent or the staff at a later time. Uh and then finally, the board also accepts comments and questions at any time through email. We read each email we receive and we appreciate the time and effort it takes for those who write them. Um and so then I will just that's that's the end of that preamble there. Um I will just rearticulate what I said in board comments where I don't know about other directors but you know understanding that this isn't a back and
057forth session just because we have other continuing items here. Um I'll hang out afterwards as well too because I love discourse. I love discussing and understanding and listening. Um, but yeah, I just wanted to start off with that. So, uh, with that, who is our first? >> Britney Leman. >> Go there. Stay right here. >> Oh, yeah. Jump on up. >> There's no microphone, but >> I'm loud enough. It doesn't matter. >> All right. So, my name is Britney Layman. Um, some of you may know me as the bank manager here in town, but first and foremost, I'm the mother of a 16-year-old that attends Crossroads. And yes, I'm here because the Facebook posts, but not as an attack. Um, I more so wanted to bring attention to some of the things that lead kids
058to Crossroads and maybe look at some of the issues that are leading kids to go to Crossroads versus staying at a traditional school. So, my daughter transferred to Crossroads at the recommendation of the counselor at the high school. Um, because the high school wasn't somewhere that she excelled at. She struggled a lot with some of her teachers. She would ask for help. I would email asking for help and we never received a response. I got exactly one response over the last year um that she was there and it was from a teacher that she actually was doing very well in the class. Um after going back and forth, the counselor was actually the one that suggested Crossroads might be a good fit for her. Um she uh when she went to Crossroads, it was night
059and day. She looks forward to school. She knows that she's supported there. She has the resources she needs to get back on track and she feels like she has a family there. The teachers are phenomenal. They check in with their students. They spend the time to get to know them. Not saying that the teachers at the high school don't, but in Crossroads, you can feel that energy. The fact that her check-in connect was reaching out for the couple weeks leading up to school just to welcome her back, just to let him let us know like about the barbecue coming up that he was there for her. And that makes a huge difference, especially for a kid that did not feel supported at the high school. Um, on the other side of the I can't talk.
060I definitely can't talk in public. So, um, on the other side of that, I work in finance. I work at the bank. Um, when I transferred back here in 2021, the thing that I noticed the most was how many kids between the ages of 18 and early 20s came in not knowing a single thing about finance. They didn't know how to balance a budget. They didn't know how to do a checkbook. They didn't know how to write a check. They didn't know how to endorse a check. They had no idea what credit was. So, I reached out to the financial fitness teacher at the high school asking, "How can we partner together?" And her response was, "That's not really something we focus on." And I was, so my response back was, "What does a financial
061fitness class focus on?" And I never received a response. And that worried me because who do I reach? I I get reached out to by either Crossroads teachers every year for asking them or them asking me come in, show my class something that's going to help them in the real life. Are am I out of time? >> Uh yes, we're just right there. No, you did a great job. Really really appreciate you coming in. Okay. >> Um so but really appreciate it. And like I said, if you want to hang out afterwards, I'm more than happy to dive in with you a little bit later as well. Thank you. Okay. And then next, who do we have? >> Um, Rhonda Messer. >> Rhonda. >> Hello. I'm gonna see if there's a way for me to
062put timer closer to you so that I'm not like I always feel mad interrupting. >> I won't be able. [Laughter] Um, my name is Rhonda Mester. I'm a former Crossroad student. Um, I graduated in 2018 here. I transferred in 2016, 2017. Um, I had a whole thing written out. I'm just going to kind of skip it. Um, I just want to be up here and say that I support Crossroads in any way that I possibly can. Um, I do apologize for any negative conflict that post could have caused. Um, I was trying to be more direct, not reactive. um if that makes sense. Um this place definitely means a lot to me and everybody else who has gone here and especially our grade which was a lot harder of a time. Um with a lot
063of the students. Um so I just want to be up here in any positive way that I can and support everything that Crossroads has to offer and continue to offer. Um, I guess regarding like the tree and everything, me and my husband painted that when we went to high school. Um, if it's any sort of like an issue for students or staff to keep up on, I'm more than welcome to come and keep up on it myself. I just live a couple blocks away. Um, so I would love to do that as well if that helps. So, >> we appreciate it. >> No, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. And then >> Stephanie Um, >> if you don't mind, could you because we've so people see. I know. I sorry. Yeah, Stephanie
064Colt seeds that. Capri seeds that. Um, my name is Stephanie and sorry and I have four daughters. Three of them are they go to the school. Um, and I wanted to take a moment to um see you guys will recognize these days because it means a lot to us. Um so the the news that I want to talk about is national um day of remembrance. It's about the children who never came home from boarding schools but it is also about um those who did survive. My own grandma is a survivor. She just celebrated her 77th birthday. Her life and her strength and the fact that she's still here with us is the reason I can stand here today. Um, survivors like her carried the weight of those schools their whole lives and their resilience is
065why our language, culture, and families are still alive. Um, when we gather and wear orange shirts, we are saying every child matters and every survivor matters. Their stories are painful, but they are the truth. We do this because this is part of our healing and part of the reconciliation. Remembering and honoring survivors allows us to carry their stories forward and to make sure the next generation understands what happened. Um the second thing I want to bring up is recognizing indigenous people's day. This day is about honoring native history, culture, and the ongoing contributions of indigenous people in our communities. It is also about teaching our children to see that strength and resilience in of native people as part of the story of this country. And then recognizing indigenous people's day create space for healing and
066respect. Um, thank you for listening. >> Oh, thank you very much. Thank you. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you very much to everybody that came up and provided public comment. We really appreciate it. Okay, so now we will move along to item six, unfin or 6A, unfinished business. Uh 6A is second reading to adopt policy 1825 addressing school director violations. Uh any discussion? No, >> I move that we accept the second reading to adopt policy 1825 addressing school director violations. >> I second. >> Motion's been made and seconded. All in favor? >> Okay. Now, seven uh 7A uh 202526 basic education compliance district survey. Any discussion? >> Is there any hot points there? Uh Danny, you just want to share? I read it and it seems like we're pretty well covered. I I actually did. It's
067funny. I did notice that we don't um we marked on there we don't offer financial fitness as a option um as a class. So um not responding to the comment but it seems very pertinent >> weird maybe uh work on that. So is there any other discussion on that or >> just one piece on that um some of the new standards have financial fitness and it's the first time Washington state has had financial fitness because I think it was statewide realized that that was an issue. So it was when you said that I was like there's new standards coming. This is so exciting. So yes, there are new standards coming with that and um and we do have it as a CTE pathway within business. So it's um and we're going to hear more about
068that in a minute from um Mr. JBJ. But um you know I think it it just shows that there's the core the core classes the four years of ELA and those kind of things and our our emphasis on core curriculum and guaranteed and viable and our kids you know graduating to go lead choice fililled lives whatever that might be if that's going to work if that's going to a trade if that's going to college whatever that is that the skills and abilities they have when they leave us um set them up for whatever successes are in the future. So, this was mostly informative. Um, it's a report we do each and every year, but wanted you to be aware of the minutes and um the days. And remember, this year we are not asking for
069the waiver. We're going to school 180 days for the first time um maybe in five years. I think before that it's been 175 days. So, more instructional minutes, more instructional days um so we can continue to work on um the important work of the classroom. >> So, you don't need a motion on this. It's just information. >> It's just information. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Uh, any other discussion? No. No. >> Okay. Moving on to 7B CTE plan approval uh by JBJ CTE board member. Sorry, it's just easier to say your he goes by the V the JBJ. >> Okay. Well, hello everyone. Thank you for your time this evening. My name is Joshuan Jensen JBJ. I am the coordinator of career and technical education for the district as well as a CTE teacher at Granite Falls
070Middle School. Um presentation that we have tonight has a a couple purposes. Uh first, I'm officially introducing myself to the board as CTE coordinator. Last time I was here, I was speaking as a uh administrative intern for my capstone project. Um here uh sitting in this role. Um my voice is a little grapply. I've talked more in the last three days than I've talked in the last three months. I apologize for that. Back to school and teaching is a significant amount of strain on the vocal cords. Uh, next slide here. My presentation tonight is really just a general update on the state of CTE. Um, thank you. It's also a program approval for our yearly Perkins grant application that we have to get through board policy and for our general grant work that we have
071to do. Uh this is goals for the year as well. So what I'm focusing on as a department um and some ways to measure progress towards the end of the year. So my hope is to return later in the year to be able to use this as a benchmark for what we're doing and how we're doing it within uh the district when it comes to career technical education. Now primary areas of focus for 25 to 26 school year for us within CTE. At the end of last school year, I presented the findings from our WASA review uh Washington Association of School Administrators looked at career and technical education in the district and gave us a list of findings and things that we needed to address. Uh based on that information, the work we completed last
072year that Candace uh worked on when she was leading CTE and now I'm working on this year, uh these are the following areas where we are focusing our efforts this year. Uh first and foremost is supporting and stabilizing CTE. We've had a lot of changes across programs and across the district and all of our buildings with our CTE programs. So, we are working to support and stabilize those programs uh to strengthen them as we go. Uh supporting new CTE teachers. We have teachers in new roles. We have teachers in new buildings. We have teachers that have changed what they do. So, supporting them as things change. Navigating program changes. as programs have changed, that affects a lot of things from what we enroll students in classes to what we offer to how we work on
073those systems. So, we're working on that. Um, as we dig in, updating and improving our systems of how we facilitate CTE within the district. Um, the real interesting stuff, compliance with OSPI standards, uh, the Washington administrative code and the revised code of Washington, all of which have significant bearing on how we facilitate and run CTE classes within the district. Um, we are forming a CT student advisory committee, so incorporating student voice into our CTE programs. Uh, we have industry representation. We have industry um, representatives that serve and advise our programs. uh we are starting a student advisory as well uh to incorporate that into our programs and then improved communication internally and externally. So how we communicate with our staff but also how we communicate with uh the community as well. There's a lot of
074really great stuff happening in CTE that we'll be highlighting throughout the year and as programs grow and expand we are working to highlight that in the right way. Uh this work that you see up here is not particularly glamorous or exciting. Uh but it is very necessary for the long-term health of the program. Uh as we are looking for what CTE looks like 5 years down the road, 10 years down the road uh testing vision. Um my job this year, I'm spending a lot of time learning uh getting familiar with the nuts and the bolts of CTE. So seeing it from a 30,000 foot view, getting in and understanding that very specifically. Uh I'm doing all I can to ensure that we're running strong programs that benefit students and our community. Uh some grants grant
075updates from 24 25 school year. Last year we received a lot of funding through different grants for our construction program. Uh that's where the money was last year. It's just where it kind of happened. There was lots of opportunities for funding. We wrote and applied for every single grant that we could and we received a lot of funding for our construction program which is a big part of the reason we were able to expand that program to a full-time teacher this year. Uh you can kind of see up there where we did some of those are are private uh donations that we received. Uh but most of them are OSPI grants that we applied for. 2526 is a little less uh rosy when it comes to grants for CTE. There is one uh currently available
076which we are going to apply for. It's a grant to purchase and install CTE equipment and expand career connected learning and work integrated learning opportunities. Uh so we'll apply for that and see how we can uh work on that. Uh getting into pathways and course offerings. So this is going to cover all three of our schools. So middle school is going to look a little different than Crossroads and the high school. uh in looking what we offer. This is the state of what we offer in each building. Uh this uh is a work in progress as we continue to work and strengthen pathways and ensure that our programs uh have a natural progression from a middle school student all the way through 12th grade. Um a marker of high quality CTE is that we have
077a rigorous progression of courses uh from start to finish. that we have a big funnel that kids start in and they slowly progress uh and specialize as they learn. So, we're working on that. At the middle school, you can kind of see we're focused in business and marketing. Uh we have some coding classes. Uh student store is being brought into career technical education, which is a significant change for us. Uh digital design, skilled and technical trades, which is what I teach, which is fabrication design one and two. So, wood shop and design. And then family and consumer science one and two. Uh when we get into uh crossroads, their pathways and course offerings are primarily focused around business and marketing and family health and sciences. Uh you can see financial fitness up there. Uh we
078have financial fitness in both of our high schools. Uh which are very popular programs and wellreceived uh by students. Uh that is an area that we uh find great value for preparing students for the real world. So you can kind of see here uh how Crossroads has focused down to two again strengthening those pathways. At Granite Falls High School, you can see we are focused in business and marketing. Uh skilled and technical has what you would expect core construction intro to CAD. There's also a multimedia class in there and theater is in skilled and technical. Uh we have family and consumer sciences, agriculture and health sciences and biomed. uh we have and will continue to make progress in strengthening pathways for making sure that we don't have outlier classes, making sure every class is connected.
079Uh one thing you didn't see up there for crossroads in the high school is we do have a work site learning uh class as well that allows students to complete their CTE pathway by connecting real world work to their classroom experiences. So, that's a really uh really great thing for a student to be able to use that to complete their requirements for graduation as they're getting out of the workforce and participating um and getting credit for it as they go as well. Uh dual credit, dual credit is in progress. Uh dual credit can be a a little mixed up based on which organizations we're talking to and how we articulate classes. Uh this is kind of the current state of things. This changes every year. uh and we look at this every year. So our
080goal with dual credit and articulations is that we're always trying to find ways to see if we can take a class that a student is already taking and give them not only high school credit but college credit as well. That's a continual process. The teachers are involved in that. Teachers are articulating that from their class. If we can find a match between what we offer and what is offered at a local community college and they partner with us, we can expand those articulations. We can get kids more opportunities. Uh the goal is to do this responsibly uh with integrity adding dual credit and articulations that truly match up between what students take um to make sure that we're doing that above the board. You kind of see those options there again in progress. The WASA
081recommendations and these were kind of I presented last time I think for an hour uh to you guys. I'm not going to present for an hour tonight. Um the kind of the big view of the WASA report. These are kind of where we had our primary recommendations. Uh first one was hire a part-time CT coordinator. Uh which has been completed which I'm very thankful for. I'm having a great year so far. I know it's only been two weeks but uh so far so good. Um the next one was to submit OSBI course approvals on time. uh we have strict requirements and when we submit that's an ongoing uh process that keeps us forward focused because right now we're thinking about stuff we want to change for second semester but we're also thinking about what we
082want to add for the 2627 school year so we can get out in front of writing frameworks and getting industry approval and getting uh committee approval on those so we're thinking ahead planning for the future uh analyze staffing and enrollment uh we we need to constantly be looking at which classes are doing well uh with students in seats that students want to be a part of which ones have weight lists, which ones can we not keep uh kids out of, and where are we seeing a softening of interest because that matters as well for how we plan. We don't want to be running courses with 12 kids in it. We need classes with students uh in program areas that are um of interest to students and also of benefit to them in career choices in
083the future. Uh the next one there was convene advisory committees for future planning. Our natural calendar for that is October. Uh we're convening our general advisory committee in October and our single program advisories as well. So working with industry partners to look at what we do and how we do it. Uh getting feedback on what we do and how we do it and giving a stamp of approval for the things that we are changing and adding um in our course offerings and our program offerings. Next one there was to launch and expand high demand and high interest courses and pathways. This is ongoing. Uh this year we expanded construction to a full-time teacher position and we're able to expand our health sciences uh by a class at the high school. So that's a slow progression.
084Uh my goal with this as we look is that we are making small adjustments every year uh looking at trends, looking at uh workforce data in the Snowish County region and basing our projections on that so that we are making small adjustments as we go. Next one was monitoring certification of CTE teachers. Uh this is ongoing. We have one teacher currently still on a conditional uh CTE certificate which will be finishing by the end of the year. So at the end of the year all of our teachers will be on uh initial CTE certifications in their industry area. Expanding articulated and dual credit offerings is ongoing which we talked about. Uh and the last one there was to regular report on budget and enrollment status. This is ongoing. Uh we're developing regular meetings with the
085business office uh to monitor expenses and enrollment monthly and ensure the financial stability of our programs. That way we're looking at every month and we're not getting to the end of the year with a surprise that um CT spent too much money. So we're working on that uh little bit every month. Marshall's very excited about that. He told me yesterday how excited he was that he gets to meet with me every month. In conclusion, uh we're working to improve the health of our programs across all buildings and from a bigger perspective, uh K through 12. When a kindergarter steps into our schools, what type of exposure do they get to, uh this type of content as they age, uh across all buildings, this is this is the goal. Uh we're working to apply and implement
086WASA recommendations, uh the good stuff, the easy stuff, and the really challenging stuff as well. um at the end of this I'm very optimistic that when I come back later in the year we'll be able to see some progress in CTE and be able to kind of measure uh growth in some of these areas. So that's all I got question. >> So mountain way wood shop is coming. >> Mountain way wood shop funny you say that they do have a steam class where they have done hammers and they have and we have supported those programs. You do actually have the cool little cardboard routers that those are actually really >> uh you would be maybe not surprised on my Amazon wish list for purchase this year. >> Okay, with our cardboard routers and >> that
087would be great. >> Is there a way to maybe reach out to local partners on some of the CTE classes like financial fitness to ensure that we are maybe being responsive? uh when I was anyone in attendance if you feel that this is an area where you have uh industry experience who are always looking for advisory members to join our advisory boards which help influence what we do and how we do it. So just to anybody who would be >> can you commit as the CTE director that you coordinator sorry that you will be responsive to anyone looking to partner >> certainly I walk by uh many uh industrial places every day >> located next to the Buzz. >> Yeah. Yeah. All the time. I'm come around. >> Okay. All right. You'd almost think this
088was set up. >> Happens. >> Um, any other questions, comments, anything? >> No. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, >> okay. Okay. So, we need to uh actually I will move that we approve the CTE plan. Uh let's see. Reviewed and required policy uh 2170 by J. Josh Van Jensen coordinator. >> I will second. >> Uh motion has been made and seconded. All in favor? >> I Okay. Uh moving on to item eight, consent agenda. Any additions that are Okay. >> Uh any discussion? >> Okay. And consent agenda passes by unanimous consent. And with that, it is 7:06 and this ends the Bren Falls board meeting. Thank you. And I'll hang too if there's anybody that wants to talk. By the way,