001States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Hello. Thank you for having us here. I just asked Dr. Dent if we could sing. This is my vocal persuasion jazz choir joined by a few more altos and a soprano. There we go. Um, we're going to sing a piece for you that we sang in the fall, but it's beautiful. It's titled My Romance. And actually, would you raise your hand if you're going to represent our district at state in April? Raise your hand if you're seeing at state. Yeah, we will be representing pretty d natural. We have one. I've seen one. Mom. as they exit. It's also important to know that it's music and education month. So, they're um here to Stacy
002Skulls, I don't think I saw you stop smiling the entire time uh listening to them sing. And that's why we brought them just to bring a little joy and uh and show what they their incredible skill. So, there you go. Can I say one quick thing? That was my first dance 30 years ago almost. So like talk about I wish it had sounded like that 30 years ago. That was amazing. Yeah. Just a second. All right. Before we get to all the business matters, um we had some greeters at the door tonight that we'd love to introduce. if you could come on up front, put you on the spot, which I think knowing what uh you do for your school, you're pretty used to, but if you could maybe tell us who you are and
003uh something that's uh special going on at your school this year. Yeah. Um my name is Jeremy Estep. I'm Ella Lamar. Um there's a lot of cool things going on at Bonnie Lake, obviously. Um you probably want to talk about the dance, so I'll talk about HOSA. Um I love HOSA. I'm not in HOSA, but our HOSA team just went to state their own like convention situation. I think it was in Yaka. And so we had a whole bunch of people go like Gioaxiola, Shanteloposia, um Rishi, he's a freshman this year. Um he's making waves. But our host went and they're super super involved and they're all they all showed up and they showed out and they like placed they did they're doing crazy things. So I'm super super proud of them. So I just
004want to highlight HOSA because I feel like they don't get enough recognition. Will you tell everybody what HOSA is? Yeah, HOSAs are um like medical they're a medical club. So, they focus on um like educating themselves and educating the community about um different medical things. I don't know there's like better words to describe it. They're they want to head into that career path. Correct. Yeah. So, um like uh like specifically Gaxiola, she's a senior this year. Um she's in HOSA. She's done 300 service hours at different hospitals um in our community and she I think she's going into biochem at some prestigious university and she's going places for sure. Oh, and then robotics. Okay, sorry. I'm going to talk about one more thing. I love body league. Sorry. Um so, um our robotics team just
005had their big bat competition this last weekend. Um and I went. It was super cool. And they so like the theme this year was like under the sea. I don't know if you guys went, but it was like under the sea and they had these little robots and they were like running around picking up these white tubes and putting them on this like coral and throwing balls into the reef. It was so cool. They're all so smart. And like I went into the pits, you have to wear glasses cuz they're all like working with these crazy screwdrivers and things. And um they made these robots and they're like fixing them. They're like, "Why isn't the auto working?" I don't know what an auto is. They sound so smart. Um but they're our robotics team is
006doing amazing. They're probably going to go to worlds again. and I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah. Um, and then I'll talk more about like our dayto-day. So, right now we're actually doing our spirit week. Uh, we have a dance coming this Saturday. It's our annual spring fling dance. Um, so we have spirit week this week and it's mainly centered around March Madness because that's a huge thing at the school. Everybody loves that. So, we've had um a space jam day. We've had extraterrestrial day. So, everybody wore a lot of green on St. Patrick's Day. It was super fun to watch everybody kind of like this mass of green in the comments. It was really like a connecting feeling. Um, and then we have our dance this Saturday. We also are getting started with um our budgeting
007season. So, all of our clubs and sports are getting ready for next year. He's super happy about that. Um, treasurer. He would be, right? He does all the money things. Um, so everybody's just getting really excited about next year and it's just this very like big wave of like excitement, anxiousness of all this like what's coming, what's going on. Um, our ASB is about to do elections, so there's a lot of people like ready to get involved, ready to get into student government and um, just a lot of like really nice feeling throughout the school of like connectedness and excitement. Awesome. Well, thank you very much for being here and greeting everybody. That's amazing. I will give a shout out to the community forum we just had. You two are at a breakout about build
008the hill and you did both did a great job speaking at that. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Before we get to the fun stuff, I see some great people in the crowd that we get to talk about tonight. Um but some business matters really quickly. Um approval agenda is recommendation. The administration recommends that the board of directors approve the March 19th, 2025 board meeting. Do I have a motion? So moved. All right. Thank you, Tom. Second. Second. Awesome. Any discussion? Usually not. All right. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes. All right. Second business matter we need to get out of the way. Uh consent items. The administration recommends that the board of directors approve the consent agenda items for the March 19th board
009meeting as you've seen in your packet. Do I have a motion? So moved. Thank you. Second. Second. All right. Any discussion? I noticed some bus driver hires in there. That's pretty awesome. All right. I see no other discussion. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. All right. Motion passes. All right. Here's the fun part. We have some state champions in the house tonight. We are so fortunate tonight to have our Panther basketball team state champions in uh in the boardroom tonight to recognize and celebrate with them. This is their second year in a row of being state champions. I'm not well I heard that we might be going for a three Pete like but you know I'm I don't want to jinx anything so uh so I'm going to invite our Did
010Gail come? Is she didn't see her? So I'm gonna invite our three coaches to come on up. They're going to talk a little bit about the program and then introduce the players. Hi, my name is uh Coach Bailey Lacy Bailey. I've been coaching for the Panthers for four years now. Um it's one of my favorite activities. Uh we have a really great group of kids with us um this season that have continued with us for the last two seasons. Um we've come become quite a little family. Um we have a skills um individual skills team as well. Um and we have some athletes from our individual skills here with us tonight. Um, and I'll let the other coaches introduce before we talk about all the fun stuff. Let Kathy go and talk about her skills
011first. I'm Kathy Arnold and I'm the coach for individual skills and I've been doing this for about 18 years now. So, uh, I've seen a lot. We have We definitely have been state champions more than twice. We've also done it more than twice in a row before in the past over my years that I've been here. And I will hand it over to Darcy and then we'll talk about our athletes. Um I'm Darcy Voyer. This is my second year with the program. Last year I volunteered and then this year is my first year assistant coach. Um super fun um to be around the kids. Um it's my second year up at the high school as well. So, um, it's just super fun and a lot of our kids that we see day in and day
012out are up at our school. So, it's even more beneficial and fun to see the kids compete and um get to work with them day in and day out and um then we'll yeah talk about Sure. So this season we held two pack the gyms. Uh one at Bonnie Lake High School against Auburn High School um their unified team. Um and we went and won that game. Um and then we had pack the gym at Sumar High School, which is always a really fun big event. Um we played in inner squad um scrimmage, but it was really fun to watch the kids compete against each other that night as well. Uh we went and played regionals um out in Lakewood. Uh we went undefeated against the Vancouver Terriers, which um our kids fought tooth and
013nail to beat them in the finals last year. So it was a really great um opening to our season over at regionals in Lakewood. Um we ended up going undefeated in regionals and um moved on to state in Wanachi where we played six games in the matter of two days. Um and they went undefeated all six games. Yeah, we had a team of 10 athletes. Um, and they just showed the definition of sportsmanship, perseverance. They worked together as a team. They communicated really well. Um, and this this program wouldn't be what it is without the dedication of these kids to not only each other, but the sport. And it's really um fulfilling as a coach to watch them all continue to grow and learn every season. And it's just a really really awesome program that
014I'm so proud to be a part of. Um if we want to invite kids up. Yeah. Okay. So we have Isaiah Manning. He's part of the Spanthers team. Isaiah was part of the um state championship last year. We have Molly McCann, both Sumar High School athletes as well. And we have Jackson Turner, Connor Beagle, and his fancy Letterman's jacket. Rocky Davidson. Rocky is new to the season to this uh team this year, but was a very important part of our team this year. We have um Kieran Harmon. Kieran was part of the individual skills competition in Wan that she's a freshman and made it to state her first year. And not only that, but she took gold. Amazing. And then we have Philip Morton. Philip's with us today talking about growth of the athletes. Philip
015was on skills last year, went to state. What did you place last year in state? Do you remember? Does mom remember? First first in skills and he graduated or moved up to um team this year and what did really great went with us to state. So, um, we have more athletes that weren't able to be here tonight and, um, we're bummed that they couldn't experience this joy with us, but we all worked together to make this happen and we're super proud of them. Oh, on the individual skills, I had 16 athletes. Five of them made it to state and three of them uh, participated in state. And Kieran had taken gold. Drake second year to go to state in a row. He took silver and then Leland took fourth place in state. [Laughter] Yeah. No,
016it's okay. It's a school night. Yeah. We lost all our fans. Oh. Oh, that was that was pretty amazing. Of course, we just lost twothirds of fans in the room, but you know, no, that's okay. It like Dr. Dan said, it is school night, so we'll uh we'll let them go while we do the rest of the business. Uh, which brings us on the agenda to superintendent comments. I just um I just want to say how proud I am to work and serve in a district that recognizes every every kid. Um music and education, our Panther basketball team, all kids are visible in this school district, and it's just uh it's an honor to serve and work in this uh in this type of environment. So, that's all I got. All right, that was quick
017and easy. All right, uh board member comments. Tom, you want to go first? Sure. our newest member. It's it's been an exciting month and busy month. I've learned so much in the last few weeks. You know, all the things that we did in our school district. So much going on behind the scenes and was aware of it. And most of the things I went to, all of you were there, too. But, you know, there's some real highlights I did going to Emerald Hills PTA. Dr. Dent went with me there. Enjoyed hearing what they had going on up there. They so exciting. They a lot of people there. It was great. I also did a unique experience. I went a school bus ride. So went to the high school and went to lower grades and of
018course that day was the emergency exit. So So I got out of the back of the bus and survived. Got back on. I also found out that the lower grades have assigned seats. The seat I was in also looked up there's a child standing next to me and Dana says you need to move your move Tom. He sits there. So learn lots of things that way. It was great how we keep track of all the students coming and going out the buses too. I didn't realize we had all that technology in the buses too. It was really spectacular. Um I know the STEM fair is not new to any of you and you all were most were there. I've heard about the STEM STEM fair between going to CFF your families so much but I've
019never been to one of your our events and so many kids are involved so much going on there. I was just when I walked in the upstairs looked down I said wow and there's was remarkable and I went down the robotics spent quite a bit of time down there with the teacher and all the students and they're all engaged and getting things done down there for their contest they have ter last weekend um and the other thing that again most were there the allstar choir all district choir festival that was beautiful you know there's so many kids there we had standing room only Dr. yesterday not enough room for everybody. It was just and the the children here tonight was it really was good and so many outstanding people there and um I think I
020attended about nine events last night. So I took last weekend off. I was getting tired. I've enjoyed it so much but glad to be here. Awesome. Thank you. Jamie, you want to go next? Sure. Um right. I was told I have to put this closer so I'm listening trying to um one of the things uh we talked a lot about how wonderful the Spanthers were. I also want to recognize how wonderful their coaches are. I mean how lucky are we to have and I I've thought that from the minute I sat here in the board how lucky we are to have just the community and the adults that really put the attention into our kids and you know and and it shows. I mean, look at the little champions that we've got and repeating and
021and you know, coming in. So, I just want to shout out to the coaches because that's something's pretty special. Um, one of the other things that um, and Tom was there, but we had the, as were some of the other board members, but we had the pleasure of going to Bonnie Lake Elementary and, um, meeting. It was a great exper it was a great experience because we got to to uh, actually engage with teachers and with the kids uh, out on the playground and during lunch. And uh, we had assignments. It was kind of nerve-wracking. We had to go and ask them questions about, you know, how they how they felt about their school and um whether or not they knew some of the mods that their school uh was talking about trying to teach.
022And I did learn that, you know, one of the students was very afraid of a giant meteor attack. So, um you know, I we'll be talking about that and safety, you know, how we how we're going to prepare for that. But it was one of the things that I really took away was how um again how engaged everybody there was in making sure that all the kids are feeling safe and secure and how it's a part of their everyday routine to be talking about that. Uh, and I think the one thing that stuck out the most was when the principal said, "We know and can account for every single student on this campus from the time they step in on campus to the time they leave. There's not there's not one kid that we don't
023know what bus they got on or when they got on or who they went home with." And I thought, "Wow." Because I've been to drop offs and pickups and it feels like chaos, but um, I guess it's really organized chaos. So, that was really um, wonderful. And I'm sad I missed out on the robotics and I'm sad I missed out on the stem cell because I was uh STEM fair but I was out of town. So I'll have to catch them next year. Awesome. Thank you. Bill, you want to go next? Or Aaron, sorry. Um I think I won't I won't go on too much because there you could go on forever really with all the amazing things that are happening. Um I think um I did I went to the outsiders um play and
024uh the STEM fair um is always on my birthday and so we always plan our activities around the STEM fair every year. Um that's always part of our day. So, um, Zoe got to come with me to it this year, and it's just, um, I think, you know, you kind of said it already, but, um, Lori, that this district just does an amazing job of celebrating all kids from children who sing, which if you want to see me cry, put people put kids in front of me singing. It gets me every time. It doesn't matter if they're five or they're 18. Um, there's something about music that just like makes me moved. And so, um, we celebrate that. We celebrate robotics. We celebrate art. We're celebrating kids for who they are and what they're able
025to achieve. And then we have these amazing adults who are prompting them forward and what their um, talents are. And it's a beautiful thing to watch. U, the other thing that I wanted to highlight really quickly was the community summit. And again, I say quickly, but it deserves so much more time because Merily and company, um, you do an amazing job day in day out of finding community partners with the sole purpose of coming together and helping our kids. Um, and what greater gift is that? I mean, I just don't know if there's any more noble of a job than to find resources to help kids succeed. um and to be a part of that community event and see all the people in our community. So many of you were there in the evening um
026giving up your time just to be there in support of kids and these organizations who support them day in day out and it was a beautiful thing to be a part of um and I look forward to that every year too. Um it's truly community. Um yeah, community. That's all I have. Um you know, we had the visit out to Pierce County Skill Center recently with some uh parent leaders. Maril Lee was there, Lori was there, and uh the director is is an amazing gentleman to listen to. Um and I was talking to my third grade grandson that kind of brought everything together for me. One of the things we talked about is college and career readiness. Now, for some of us, we took a lot of classes. We weren't sure why. They gave us
027a test in our junior year, brought you in and said, "You were going to be a nurse or a forest ranger." That was all the choices we had. Not sure how we got there. I think they just had a shortage of one or the other and directed us that way. But when I look at the programs and how they've grown over the years, uh, from joining the district to now, you know, our kids are working from elementary school, middle school, high school, and then beyond in a world where we know they're going to be changing jobs readily. We know that careers are going to go away before before people finish their their uh work lives and that. But what I see is kids that are learning how to learn, how to apply what they're learning.
028They're getting hooked in third grade in their robotics classes and the things that they're doing in their STEM classes and that and that's progressing all the way up. And I know that as a a building leader at the high school level, my job was never to tell a student what they're going to do. It was to prepare them so they could do anything they wanted to. And that has now, as I said, started actually in the elementary schools and it's working its way up all the way through to the experiences our high school kids and beyond have. And it's it's just amazing to see how that has has transpired over the many years. And uh that program, Pierce County Skill Center, is is truly amazing. And u so fortunate that we're partners with that. So
029um that's what I wanted to share. Awesome. I'm I'm always actually impressed with everything going on, how we somehow manage to each talk about things in a differently so we don't step over or repeat everything. Um, but when you go last, that tends to happen. So, I will try to repeat everything, but you know, some of the things that I also attended that everybody's talked about the STEM fair. One thing that jumped out at me about the STEM fair was all of the art all the way down to the elementary level that was on display. You know, they can't display um every art piece from every student. So they I was really impressed with how the staff figured out how to do group projects that each student could contribute to and then put the entire
030group project on display and then the student could bring their parent and say, "I did that portion of it instead of, oh well, my art didn't make it." And I really was impressed by how inclusive that was to make every student feel like they had something to show their parents when they were there. So that was something that jumped out of me. The Pierce County School Skills Center was amazing. Um, it's actually, you know, one of those things that not everybody in our district even knows about yet. Um, and we, uh, we definitely want them to know about it because it's a great place to learn everything from being a vette to, um, carpentry skills to auto mechanics to, uh, an area that I didn't actually know existed called mechatronics. Yeah. I didn't know what
031mechatronics was until I went and took the tour. um which for those that don't know it's it's robotics, it's pneumatics, it's um metal working, it's bringing everything together. For instance, if you walked into an Amazon warehouse and you saw all the robots and the conveyor belts and the arms pushing packages after they read barcodes, all of those things are built and designed by, you know, people who have that skill set. Um and so I even learned something new going on that tour. Um the Bonnie Lake Elementary visit was great. It it really showed the importance that um our the thing that our district does which is survey students and Bonnie Lake Elementary in their survey results realized there was some shortfalls in students understanding what safety meant and the things that they need to do
032to be part of that safety culture. And so they recognized that and they took action and they got to show off the results when we showed up and they gave us clipboards and we got to go out in recess and and ask the students, you know, what they knew about, you know, this area of everything. And we got some interesting uh, you know, answers about the threat of meteors and things like that. But more importantly, they they actually knew exactly what it was that the the staff wanted to know. In fact, I even spoke to one student and later was told that he had only been in the building for a week um as a new student. He already knew everything. So, they took survey results and they made a quick turnaround, which I think
033speaks to um the strength of the district. And the community summit, amazing. Um you don't get to make it to every breakout, but I made it to the Bonnie Lake Build the Hill breakout, so it was great. They had um city council members there. It just had the ASB students there to really talk about how they're building that camaraderie on the hill. um with Bonnie Lake High School and everything. So, yeah, lots going on. Um some really good stuff was was exciting. All right, that brings us uh in the agenda to audience comments. Good evening. The board recognizes the value of public comment on education issues and the importance of involving members of the public in its meetings. Comments from the public are taken under board advisement and may or may not receive action at
034a future meeting. Topics including charges or complaints against employees, employment or dismissal of personnel, acquisition of real estate, lawyer client relationships, campaigning, and parameters for negotiations should not be discussed in audience comments. Other information, questions, or problems can usually be addressed by district staff. The audience comment period will end when all registered speakers have been heard, and we ask that you please adhere and understand the following guidelines. In order to maintain respect for all points of view, the school board requests no clapping, booing, or any other form of support or non-support be used. The board will not respond to comments, but will take them under advisement. Speakers should be courteous and professional. Refrain from using profanity, vulgar language, threatening, or defamatory comments. As a reminder, individuals are not permitted to name a specific staff member,
035board member, or student during public comments. Failure to do so may result in the board president or designate interrupting or ending the comment. Remember, your words have impact and you, not the school district, are responsible for your words. We caution all speakers that it is possible that your statements could violate the rights of others under various laws, including laws protecting privacy and laws prohibiting defamation. If you're unsure of the legal effect of your remarks, you may seek independent legal advice. In any case, we ask that you help us model for our students what respect and inclusivity in our community look and sound like. Speakers who registered by noon yesterday will be heard. When your name is called, please come to the podium and state your name. Address your comments to the school board as a
036whole. You will have three minutes to speak and may not seed or give your time to another speaker. I will signal you with a bell when one minute remains. And you can see the clock up here. Our first audience comment for this evening is Dana Sprouse. Dana Sprouse. Okay. Our next audience comment is Elizabeth Klein Gartner. Thank you. Is that working? Okay. Uh, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today about an organization that has a profound impact on students, FCCLA, Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America. More than just a club, FCCLA is a platform where students learn critical life skills, leadership, and career readiness. Through competitive events, students can showcase their talents and interests while fostering teamwork and developing problem solving and public speaking skills. Whether it's organizing community projects like
037blood drives and literacy night or imagining solutions to real world challenges like sustainability and financial fitness to creating professional websites or innovative lesson plans for elementary education or even learning parliamentary law. Students can find a way to compete in nearly any topic they are passionate about. In recent years, Sumar High School's chapter has greatly expanded to 45 active members. This year, its largest ever. Two weeks ago, my husband and I chaperoned many of these outstanding young people at the state competition. Sumner received 13 gold and 13 silvers. So, all 26 students qualified to go to the national competition this summer. This is a remarkable achievement that is entirely due to the dedication of the adviserss. Uh as an evaluator, I have come to appreciate the stringent requirements of the rubric for these events. I have
038also personally observed the extensive time advisors dedicate to each student, ensuring that projects comply with all guidelines, listening to their oral presentations, and providing constructive feedback. We even had a student get 100, a perfect score, which is a very rare occurrence. I wish I could mention names as the Sumar High School adviserss uh deserve accolades for the many, many hours they put in after school. Bonnie Lakes adviserss show a similar level of dedication to their students and performed well at state. Also, the adviserss worked tirelessly planning an impressive range of fundraising efforts, even working evening and weekend sports concessions alongside their students. The school district has previously provided a stipend per student to go to nationals. But with 26 students qualifying and it being held in Orlando, there is a greater need for financial assistance
039this year. I am requesting consideration for additional funding so that all these students have an opportunity to participate. I believe that FCCLA deserves continued support and recognition because it transforms the lives of its members as they engage with the community. By investing in FCCLA, you are investing in the leaders of tomorrow and ensuring the community growth of this program. Thank you. That ends our audience comments for this evening. It's amazing how quickly three minutes goes, doesn't it? All right, so that brings us into business matters. Um, budget update. Uh, chief financial officer Brian is presenting a budget update to the board. Stand close. Raise this. This is Brian's Well, is this your real first board presentation? This is my first official board presentation. Yes. Oh, boy. I know. I'm excited for you. I'm really excited.
040In this district, right? In this district. Yes. Yes. In this. Yeah. I've done it for a few times before. Just a few. Right. Um, President Lewis, Vice President Gaines, Superintendent Dent, and the rest of the distinguished members of the board. It's my pleasure to give a short budget update. See if I can get the clicker to work. Right. Um, some important state. Oh, by the way, don't be afraid to interrupt me during this and ask questions. we can drill down, just have a conversation rather than wait until the end. Um, it's usually easier and better just to do it during the presentation. Um, some important statewide dates. The legislative I'm not going to read this all to you, but the legislative session did begin and that's we're kind of in the middle of it. So,
041yesterday, the 18th of March was actually kind of a significant day. Um, last week when I made this board presentation, I wasn't sure exactly what was going to happen yesterday. I have some updates for you. Um so the Washington State Economic Revenue and Forecast Council released their update which they're required to do on um odd budget years. So 2025 is odd one by March 20th because it's a long budget session and they do that for the state legislature and the governor. They kind of give them the updated revenue forecast for the state for the next two and four years technically, but they really are focused on the bianual. And the last time they did the update was in November of 2024. And that's what former Governor Emley used to build the initial budget they gave
042the state legislature. They started to work on. So this new update, here's some of the key takeaways. It wasn't significantly different. However, revenue is now There's no sound. Okay. Sorry. I'll speak up a little bit. I'm sorry. Um revenue is forecast for the next bianium to be down from the November forecast by just under $500 million about a half billion dollars. But I want to put that in perspective of the state um budget, you know, the revenue they have for the two-year budget um by annuals what they call it. They expected in November to have $71.4 million. Now the expectation is 70.95 billion. So as you see it's down um $479 million technically. But another way of looking at that's 7/10en of 1%. So it's not a huge change but it is real money down.
043Um and I'll get more into that when I get to future slides when we talk about um proposals that are in the state legislature right now on the impact of that. But then um the legislative session hopefully will end on April 27th. That's the date it's planned to end, but if they haven't reached any, you know, budget agreements by then, it could be extended in a special session. And that ha has happened before. But right now, the idea is it'll end April 27th and we'll have a good idea of what the revenue will be for all the state agencies that get money and all the school districts from the state. However, there's often language that's not exactly clear when the budget's finalized that final day and sometimes there's rule making by the OSPI or different
044state agencies and sometimes there's implementation language and guidance they have to give. So sometimes it's not until couple weeks into May until you really know um on the long budget session what your revenues are going to be. Other important state dates um we have to submit a budget to the local ESD by um the 10th of July. That budget can be revised still after that date. We have to submit something on on a certain form called the F195 to them and then you the board has to adopt the budget by um the 31st of August. So those are the required kind of dates. this. I know it's way too small and we're not going to spend a ton of time here because you do have an attachment to the electronic board agenda, a PDF of
045the board calendar, but I just want to give you a little bit of update. We have done or completed one through five um and seven and eight. So, we met with I'm not going to read all we met with different school staff. We're meeting with other staff. We sent forms ASB. They mentioned they have to build their ASB budgets here earlier. Those forms are out there. Um, tonight's the board meeting and then as you can see there's still a lot to do going forward. I'm not going to cover all of this. Okay. We get most of the money from our students from the state. Remember about 75% of money of our money comes from the state and over 70% of that comes from the prototypical funding model and that is determined by your average annual
046full-time enrollment. So some of you have been on the board a long time will know this. You do an enrollment report once a month and then at the end of the year they take an average of that and that's what you truly get funded on the year. You do adjustment every month and then in the final at the end of the year they do a final adjustment and that determines how much money the state gives you through the prototypical model. Um this is pretty typical of Washington school districts. September is usually lowest month. It goes up. November and December tend to be the highest. There are individual years that are different than that, but that's the trend we're seeing again this year. And that's kind of the typical trend. Any questions here? Okay. So, what
047have we done for projecting enrollment? Um, the first two columns are the the last two completed years and the actual average annual FTE for the district. And you can see the different color categories, elementary, middle, and high school. And then as of January of this year, again, we don't we get funded on the final at the end of the year, but this kind of give you where we're headed now is just over 10,000. and we're projecting 10,50 for next year. So, what we're seeing is pretty stable growth. And we used what was what's called a um cohort advancement, historical cohort advancement method. We look at what percentage of third graders become fourth graders historically and fourth become fifth. And we kind of do a couple methods. We use an average over the last 10 years.
048Then we do a modified average where we look at the more put more weighted average on the more recent years. And we also use demographer studies. We can kind of compare them all the three and we kind of come to middle ground of all those and that's the numbers questions. Okay. I have question just mostly I guess I would have expected it to be more even like so like middle school seems like the small it just maybe that's the way it's like the smallest cohort and it's in the middle and I would have just thought that it I don't know either would have gotten smaller as it got bigger or like like I guess I'm just curious why middle school looks like it's the smallest cohort it's only got three grades is kind of reason
049so it's the total number of students so elementary No it's good a great question though thank You're never really sure, you know, what's clear and what's not, but elementary is K through five. Oh, I obvious. Thank you. Sorry. Um, but along those lines, we're seeing a bubble go into our middle schools now because they had bigger class sizes from the elementary that are now going to middle schools and we've had smaller recent kindergarten classes that are now moving up. So, there is a bubble kind of moving through. You're welcome there. That's not a dumb question. No, not at all. Okay, I have some updates here. Again, this was submitted a week ago. There's a lot that's changed in a week. Um, I hate to go in too much detail here because they change all the
050time. The bills are constantly being gutted and they go to different committees and they get amended and things get taken out and put in. But as of last week, there were four bills alive as part of the big three. So the advocacy groups in the state of Washington, WASA, WASBO, WASDA, all the ones were pushing big three things that needed funding that aren't are not adequately funded and kind of have been falling behind. So the big three were MSOs, material supplies, and operating cost, um special education, and then transportation. Well, as of last week, all the transportation bills were dead. Um, and there's no real talk that they're going to be revived because it's possible to revive the bills as they, you know, go from House to Senate, Senate to House with their bills or
051they just have the budget discussions, but those are probably dead dead. The two House bills I have up here, um, the one for basic education, MSOX and special education have since died since last week. Those two dead. The only two bills alive are Senate Bill 5192 and Senate Bill um 5263. Um it's possible some components of the House bills will be reintroduced like after the House passes it. It has to be sent to the Senate. They have to pass the same bills that then get sent to the governor. But I have some details on these um really quick highlights. Um let's go. Senate Bill 5192. It's a shell of its original bill. It originally was an ask of almost $300 million. Its current language as amended has it being about $160 million. That's still a
052lot of money from the state, but not nearly what was asked and and the need. And divide by the 295 districts, it's not as much. It would increase the allocations by $7749 per student on an annual basis. um and it re required to be used on MSOC. The prototypical allocation model historically has the language specifically says this is an allocationon model. The district gets to decide you know how to use the money. That's been changing in recent year years as the legislaturator's given more money. They've said no you have to spend this money specifically on that with um enhancements we've seen recently. So you see that trend continuing here. Um they did this bill currently and I should say currently because it's always changing has a smoothing mechanisms where they will average your district's enrollment
053over the last three years not just look at the current year on the so but if you're a growing district it'll give you less money over that time period. If you're a declining district you actually get more money as you just think about it logically. Yes. Exactly. Yes. did um it has a um a section in it that would require them to use the states IPD inflation um IPD which implicit price deflator. Yes. use the official implic implicit price deflator instead of a number the state legislature comes up with every session because in recent years where IPD was like 3.5% and that's what they gave to the prototypical model section that's tied to salaries to the MSOC section they gave 1.9% increase. So this would require them to at least give the same IPD they
054gave to the salary section of the prototypical model. Um, but again, a lot less than it originally was and it might see changes. Um, let's talk about Senate Bill 5263. It's also been drastically reduced. The original bill was a huge ask, though, and probably nobody thought it was really going to happen at that. It was a $ 1.65 billion ask over the next two years. And the current language is still significant. It's sitting at about $554 million that it would cost the state um to implement it. It would eliminate the 16% cap on special education funding. So currently, if you have more than 16% of your students who are special education students, you get capped at that percentage. It wouldn't matter us matter to us because we're at about 13%. So we're not at the
055cap, but for districts above the cap, there would no longer be a cap. Um the big increase is what's the tier one and tier 2 multiplier is what they call it in the in the funding model. And basically it's a 20% increase. It would it would merge the two tiers. One tier is 1.6 currently. The other tier is 1.12. It would merge them. So it no longer be two tiers of students be just special ed student or not. And the multiply to become 1 is keeps changing all the time. Currently 1.32 is the current language and that is about a 20% increase in special education funding for us if it's left like it is right now. Okay. Um a little bit more about the state legislature. So the funding the update in the in the
056expected or forecasted we can't really say you can't forecast for two to four years. I mean it's almost impossible. But as far as all the assumptions they put in, even before that happened, the state legislature believed they were facing a significant deficit. In former Governor Emley budget proposal that he made, he said that there was a $16 billion deficit over the next two years. New Governor Ferguson updated that says there's a $15 billion deficit over this two years. The I want to make sure I get the right group here. The House Democratic Caucus says there's a 12 billion dollar deficit over the next two years. In the Office of Program Research, which is a um legislative, it's an arm of the legislative branch that for their staff that do analysis, says there's a $6.7 billion
057deficit over the next two years. I know it it depends on what assumptions you put in, but what is clear is there's an actual deficit the state is facing. They cannot keep increasing expenditures at the rate they have been the last few years because revenue projections are still going up, but they're much slower than they had been about three years ago. You had doubledigit revenue gains coming out of COVID. And part of that was because they're getting stimulus money. the economy roared back much faster than everybody thought, but since then it's really dropped off and actually two years ago there's a slight decline in state revenue. This year it's back up again, but we're talking in the 2 to 3% range of growth and state expenditures. Once they saw those double digit gains, they started
058spending at, you know, nine 10% more per year and they can't keep doing that, but they've got some of that built in that they have to really slow down. Um, okay. Little bit of update because we I we were asked a question about um federal revenue and there's some concern about federal revenue. This is last year how much we gotten in um in our different revenue sources from, you know, from state, federal, and local. And you can see it was a little over $7 million, which was 4%. And if you dive down a little bit deeper, this is that $7.4 million of the just federal revenue and where it comes from. 30% special education, um, a little bit less than 20% for title, a little bit less than 40% for food services. And if you
059look back over the last eight years, it's varied on the low at 3.8% from the federal government to about 7%. 3.8% 8% was the year before we got any COVID funding. So that was in 1819 where we got no federal stimulus money. And then 222 either 2122 or 2223 we got about 7% of our money from um the federal government. That's when we got a lot of the ESSER money and spent a lot of it in that year. Yes. What is Esser? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. That was the federal stimulus money related to COVID. When the federal government passed the huge stimulus bills, the money that came to schools is abbreviated. Every student succeeds. Yeah. Yes. Onetime money. Any questions? If anybody have any questions that they didn't get answered during the presentation, hopefully they
060uh hopefully they can keep things moving the right direction and they I I'm happy to see the increase in percentage on the special education. That's much needed. Again, it's just a bill only in the Senate right now. the House has to agree to it and then the governor has to sign it and who knows but right now it's looking like it could be some extra money. Awesome. But thank you. Yeah, great presentation. Thank you. Thanks, Brian. All right, so that brings us to some information only. Um budget status report is January financial report is in your packet. Our budget calendar uh also has been updated in your packet for the 2526 budget calendar. And that brings us to some action items with policy. So in accordance with policy 1310, adoption amendment of policies and bylaws,
061the following policies have been included for second reading and adoption. The district administration right recommends the board adopt the following district policies in accordance with policy 1310. Policies included are 2022 electronics resources internet safety, 2023 digital citizenship and media literacy, 5400 personnel leaves, 6501 data privacy. Do I have a motion? So moved. Thank you. So moved. Thank you. Have a day. I have a second. Seconded. Second. Any discussion? All right. Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I I all those opposed. Motion passes. All right. There is for your information only a child nut nutrition report put together by a director of child nutrition. Uh has prepared the written report and updated the board. Uh it is in your packet under child nutrition department update. That brings us to board discussion. Is there any
062open board discussion we need tonight? No. All right. Well, Erin, did you have something? I was thinking after our um study session when you Kelly mentioned that there was a map that you can go on and see the percentage of federal funds. I was playing around with that and um it's amazing how I mean we're you know we're at what four percentage there's some districts in the 30s 40s percent um of federal federal funds and um I just can't stop thinking about that right now and what that might mean for kids. Um, and so I'm going to be very curious to see um, tomorrow and moving forward what um, some of these decisions that are on the federal level will mean for our district and other districts surrounding us. It's not really discussion, just more
063of a pondering. Yeah. especially not just funding, but how it relates to 504 plans, things like that that um you know, our our federal department of education is where that comes from and that direction comes all the way down to us and it would be you know be disappointing to see some of those students be left behind when they need extra help. So, anything else? It's a little bit frustrating too to see that we might make some progress in special education at state level just to have to take steps back if it's the federal funding goes away since that's it's a significant part of special ed. Um the only other thing I wanted to say is uh I know there's this this came up and Dr. Dent actually gave us a heads up on it,
064but I know it's maybe people have heard it um that there's been a lot of talk about school lunches and and school districts without um maybe significant or or even just adequate time to have lunch. And uh Dr. Dent was uh quick to let us all know and remind us that all of our schools have at least 30 minutes for their students to have lunch. So, since that's something that's out there, I thought I would just let everybody know that that we always have and sounds like we'll continue that. So, definitely definitely. Anything else? Lunch rooms are distracting places. I mean, my goodness, there's so much going on and you got to talk to your friends. Yeah, but 30 minutes is a good Okay. All right. That brings us to the end of the meeting
065and announcement of our next regular board meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday, April 16th, 2025. Will begin at 6 PM in the central boardroom office right here. We are adjourned. Thank you.