001we um get started we want to welcome the people who welcomed us um greeters come on up this evening from suer high school yeah I understand you're representing ASV correct all right awesome go ahead and introduce yourselves and tell us something you're excited about for summer okay I'm Sophia Martinez I'm a senior this year I'm a page cheer in ASB as an assembly coordinator I think my favorite part about suar is how much our teachers care for us and they really care about your academics but also who you are and want like you to become the best version of yourself so that's something really special um I'm Riley Norman I'm also a senior and I'm on cheer and I've been in the leadership courses and things like that throughout my years and um right now
002like I'm planning the service conference the leadership conference for all Washington and um I just really love the part about Sun where they have something for every student and it's not just like curriculum basic they're teaching us how to run like major conferences or or like assemblies and like how to like get in touch with your community and stuff like that so I think that's really cool I'm Parker I'm als I'm Parker Paradis I'm also a senior at suar this year um I'm involved in volleyball tennis and ASB as our other assemblies coordinator um one thing I love about suar is just like how much of a community we have built and just like the support that we have from like everyone in here and like our teachers and support system at school in general
003my name is Vivian Smith and I'm a junior at suar I'm a part of cheer and I'm the activities coordinator for ASB and my favorite thing about suar is the inclusivity of the student BL awesome awesome thank you ladies so much for being here this [Applause] evening awesome yeah thank you all right I move to adopt the agenda for the February 21st 24 2024 board meeting with the following agendum the addition of item 13 supplemental Personnel recommendation to the consent agenda do I have a motion to approve the agenda with that addition so mov do I have a second second any discussion all those in fav favor say I I I opposed motion passes do I have a motion to approve the consent items as listed so moved do I hear a second I second
004any discussion outside of the thank you for the very generous donations yes very much I mean one of them was $99,000 from for the robotics yeah it's incredible thank you agreed the other thing that struck me was um we're starting to get some retirements this is the season r that those come in um and the longevity of people who serve this um community and the school district I mean retiring after 30 plus years of education is just always something to note so any further discussion all those in favor say I I opposed hearing none motion passes all right uh this is the fun part recognition of staff students and Community okay we're gonna kick it off with Marina T our manager of capital facilities she has some special guests to recognize um Dr Dent board
005of directors I'm really excited tonight to bring members from pug s energy and from mckinstry who I consider partners and teammates in these projects I know you've heard me talk about our s project and the recommissioning that we did with our with our buildings and both of these organizations have hugely supported us so uh Grant Granger from kinstry Chantel sconzo who is our account exect at psse and James row who is just an integral part of what we do in managing our energy consumption on a day-to-day basis so when we started this project I needled mckinstry and said we need to apply for Grants I know they do recommissioning grants I had no idea where it would go so this is really exciting to share do you want to say something J yes I'm I'm
006hiding it um on behalf of Puget Sound Energy Shantel and I would very much like to thank you for all the work done a lot of hard work finding a lot of opportunities to improve the performance AB buildings and we have a check for a very large number it begins with three and Marina What's the total on that yeah yes we we'll show the audience too turn that around so yeah so this is to fund energy conservation efforts within the buildings to make those changes and get things fixed and working as we prove those savings we have um the opportunity for more incentives so we can have more money down the line it's a very it's a very wonderful Grant and a very big privilege so thank you very much yes but I think it's
007already deposited okay thank you the second recognition tonight um I'm actually going to present because you know throughout history there have been great pairs of things right um Batman and uh starski and Oh I thought I might get you on that one uh bacon and um let's see if I can 61 and yes Kelly d is Right 61% 64% those numbers do not happen um with strategic leadership and a true dedication to public education so the other incredible pair I would like to present to you tonight um for board recognition Bill Pew and Joel Anderson come on [Applause] up you can stand right here just for right now face the board face the bo yeah and you know uh truly I'm you're looking at two incredible leaders strategic leaders in our community who stepped up
008uh put their shoulders back and said we believe in public education and helped lead run organize strategize think about um endless hours spent organizing the yes campaign for the suar Bon Lake School District in our community and because of all of the text banking the canvasing phone calling um knocking on doors and actually talking to people um it's concept right um our levies passed with incredibly strong percentages that just reinforces um the belief in this community it's uh very rare when people will say yes we believe in public education and we're going to take a public stand and in order to run two not yeah not just one campaign two campaigns and they did so with Grace and Poise and I'm telling you the hours both of these gentlemen have spent have just um will
009have a tremendous impact on so many kids for such a long time one Levy passed for four years one for six years U but it's just been a pleasure watching them work together um they encountered a few hurdles that um they Grace F overcame uh and because of that the citizens for schools is in such a great great place um but truly could not have happened without their strategic leadership appreciate all of the hours they spent helping us um pass those levies so wanted to recognize them publicly in front of you and um just publicly say thank you for all your work um [Applause] yeah you still want to talk huh no of course yes thank you Dr dent and board members uh first of all over I won't say how many years uh because
010I don't want to date myself that much but this experience you know has meant probably ranks one of the highest in terms of my career and it does is because of why it's so important and that is the future that we have which which are our kids so and this guy's a rock star over here he starts getting in doing stuff and I look at it and I just I had that confused look on my face and I I don't know how he does it and stuff but I know he was doing that as well as his job you know as main legislative contact for his agency during session a short session so I can't average four hours of sleep either like he did uh and so incredible job but more than that is that
011uh the message had to get out to the citizens who ultimately voted and if you look at Dr D and their communication staff and the communications job that they did and reaching out and explaining the facts behind each proposition it was easy to take that information and go out to people and tell them what staff couldn't and that is please vote yes so it was incredible job by Dr dent and your staff incredible job by the the back team including this gentleman right here and he isn't a product of the suar Bonny Lake School District he's a product of the Tacoma School District but still he's a product of public education and he's one of the examples of what can happen when you go through a system and that's our future so thank you very
012much no no no I'll just say ditto that's all yeah answer bill I don't know if you've heard you said some really nice things about our superintendent I don't know if you've heard that she is superintendent of the year I don't know if that word has been out yet so she's a pretty amazing leader to have around here leading this other amazing team and she just got back from San Diego where she was top 10 I believe in like the nation that's pretty amazing right she wouldn't let us dress her up with sashas or Tiaras so this is what we got not many people can say that so we're pretty lucky to have your leadership here in suar Bunny Lake um do you have any comments um don't forget about the uh don't forget about
013the stem fair this Saturday 10 to two suar Middle School um should be a lot of fun you I think our girls are playing basketball in the morning and in the evening too so you could just make a day of it uh if you'd like lots of good stuff going on um board member comments anyone have anything yeah I should have wrote down a list so I could remember all of of the things that have occurred uh in late January and through February um feels like I've been to a lot and I still missed a lot that's how much activity was going on throughout the district um I was able to go to two different stem fair nights uh at an elementary school and then the other one was Lakeridge Middle School I enjoyed them
014I mean at Lakeridge each each event at at Victor Falls and then at Lakeridge it was a Full House when I got there the parking lot was pretty full inside lots of parents grandparents kids all excit excited about what they'd been working on in class of course some of these kids are not going to be going to the the stem fair the districtwide stem fair but to be uh able to see that and really watch the competitions that they had uh and the energy was just a lot of fun I mean and I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to make it to the to the stem fair I know my daughter is working I I ski on the weekends so I might go to the stem fair and then head up to
015ski but I I did want to make sure I went to those two events and I think there were more so as you will see as this goes around how many more events there really were so thank you Arin all right um so uh winter sports uh not only the high school the middle school and I have know elementary kids in that but just some fantastic results lots and lots of kids involved and I really want to thank thank for all of us the coaches the athletic directors and the group that sometimes gets forgotten and that's the administrators who spend unbelievable hours especially during the winter sports out there um I also W to uh thank the the administration and and staff who are helping with transition activities believe it or not we are already
016in the season of working on transitioning to next year so while we're trying to finish this year and it feels like we're still before Christmas at times um there's all those activities going on it takes a lot of effort and time and I really want to thank people for that and then last I want to to thank my fellow board members and Dr Dent for their support and encouragement I feel like an old puppy I'm new at this but I'm old and just to watch from this side the passion dedication and effort by these folks is just amazing so I want to thank all them for everything we're glad you're here bill um like Paul I should have WR a list I think of the different things that we've attended recently so I probably won't
017speak to all of them because I know we've double dipped on some things so we can maybe hit them up too but um I attended the stem um Fair activity at the Early Learning um Center briefly cut like the last 30 minutes um and it was darling and a beautiful building and kids excited and learning and um that was lovely and then I was able to pop over to Victor falls's um curriculum night to see all the great work that's being done in the district I love um talking to uh teachers and administrators who are truly just so passionate about what they're teaching and they're so excited to share what they're doing in their classroom so of course that's always um a highlight for me and then um are you gonna talk about today I
018won't talk about today if you so today we had the opportunity to go um and tour the stem um or the CTE sorry the CTE programs at both high schools and I you know you kind of know you kind of hear different things that are happening with robotics and um shop and all these things but to actually see them in action and be in these rooms where these children well young adults really are um are able to learn and collaborate and have these experiences like I didn't have that you know growing up and and the opportunities that they have to go learn how to manufacture and get you know high school credit for it and then move right into a job at Boeing like it's it blows my mind um the opportunities that are in
019this district and um and the the resources that are available to them um I thought that was really amazing um we also got to tour the culinary um department at both schools but um the one that stuck out to me the most was Bonnie high school and it was just a connection for me because I had spent a few hours at um good roots Northwest yesterday um with Stacy and learning about all the different ways they're partnering with our school district and how they're using um an abundance of food perhaps they might have a lot of oats or something and they they will send it over to Bonnie Lake High School and their culinary culinary Department we'll develop recipes and package them all and send them back and then back out into our community and
020so it was literally I thought I was going to be there for an hour I ended up being three hours and it was just constant non-stop um stories and um Partnerships and volunteers and it was a really um beautiful experience and then to be able to see it the next day in action in our schools was pretty cool so um I'll stop there I think I did a couple other things too but um I'll pass it off to Deb so um you guys pretty much hit everything that I was going to say but um I will tell you that I'm really really looking forward to the stem um big program they're going to have this Saturday my husband always comes with me because you know he's just not a scientist but he thinks he is
021and um he's a pharmacist but um and I might mention that he's a compounding pharmacist which makes him a chemist and um he always likes to visit U Miss Martinez um from Bonnie Lake because she actually uses a lot of the same tools that he has in a pharmacy and so um anyway he's coming also as usual and um the other thing is the artwork um I'd like to think it's steam uh program but you know it's a little bit separate and the artwork there is just incredible so I'm looking forward to that again so that's it well I I since I get to go last like I do have a list because as you were all talking as you were all talking and saying you didn't have a list I started writing a list
022because I had the benefit of a few extra minutes um but I'll I'll run through the list and and just the things that have been going on since the last board meeting that that I've attended and I know that I've even missed some things um I've attended several Capital facilities meetings where citizens from around the area are coming together to talk about what our district needs from a building standpoint for a future Bond and instead of the district figuring out the priorities we're actually engaging citizens in that conversation to make sure that all different viewpoints are being accounted for you know not just what what we want as a district but what are our citizens want um both uh attended both the shs and the Bonnie Lake High School pack the gym events which is
023our Special Olympics basketball team and if you want to see some aggressive basketball I'm not kidding like they play with all their heart and they are so excited and it's actually a really fun thing to watch and especially the students that come out to support them um just the you know normally at a basketball game you would have the other players stand and you the players run through them they had students form on each side for the entire gym and all the way around for each player to run through um and make them feel extremely special the way they they should be so those two events um attended the shs play this weekend which was a cool uh top hits of all the plays that that they've done recently um and so we got a
024song and a and a a section of each of those plays and it was just really cool to just hit all the highlights you know you go to lot of plays and you see it but to pull out all the highlights I thought was a really cool format um for them to do and we just have some phenomenal singers and and actors and actresses and um tap dancing and just everything they did was phenomenal um we had the board state of the District breakfast where our Administration brought in people from around the district citizens to hear what's going on you know what are what is going on in their school district so people can have an Insight you know we we live it every you live it every every day but it was a chance
025for everybody to come in and people in the community that have the ability to form Partnerships to be like oh hey you're so and so from from this organization while I'm from this organization all of a sudden there's a connection and all of a sudden you have oats moving from one building to another and recipes going back out to help feed the people in our community that need some food um curriculum nights were mentioned we did two of those I think those are great opportunities for parents to come in and actually look at our curriculum I mean it's there they can come come in they can look at it they can find out what's in it um what our students are learning um some upcoming things uh before I get to that I will talk
026about the CTE tour today was incredible both at Bonnie Lake High School and suar High School and the one thing that there was a lot that we saw but you touched on some of it the one thing that I thought was really cool was a couple of students came out of a class and explained to us how their learning um through their semester in this class how to budget they get a paycheck they have a computer system that every month they get paid they have to decide what bills they're going to pay their student loan debt their cable bill their electricity bill um they have to purchase a car in this simulation and the cars that are available to them either have good gas mileage and more expensive or there's offset so they learn the
027tradeoffs of budgeting I mean how many times as adults we said gosh I wish kids would learn how to pay their taxes and learn how to do that well in this class they learn how to do their taxes not Turbo Tax they do it by hand and they learn how to do it on the form and fill it in and I was just blown away that that these students are learning the concept of choosing a car not just based on gas mileage or price but based on what it's going to cost them to ensure it and I think a lot of kids when they're buying their first car they don't even think about that they're just like I want that car because it's cool and it's red and it has a big engine and they
028don't realize that's going to cost you more an insurance but this class I was just blown away that all the things we talk about we wish kids would learn they're learning it and they're going to come out being fiscally responsible right out of high school not just with a job at Boeing but but understanding how to balance that paycheck when the the money starts coming in and it looks like a lot of money but it it really isn't at the end of the month so um I thought that was pretty cool there was a lot of things we saw that blew my mind but two upcoming events I wanted to highlight um we have the shs benefit night um at 6m on Friday over here at the high school that benefits local family um who
029lost their mother due to cancer this fall um and left her husband uh three children and they could use all the support that we can give them to help uh take care of them so that's happening Friday night um and then Saturday is the stem fair at SMS at 10: am um and I just want to say that seeing what's going on in our district shows me that what I learned on the CTU tours is that our students are not waiting until they get to college in the second year of college figuring out what they want to be when they grow up they're figuring it out right now they're figuring it out in their Junior and Senior year or they're testing different things I heard today when when students were telling us why they were
030taking a certain class I'd say half of them were said I don't this isn't a career that I think I'm going to take but I wanted to sample it to see if it was and so they're learning through these processes what they want to be when they grow up much sooner than historically has happened and I think that's going to give our students coming out of suar Bonnie Lake District a big head lead over anybody else so yeah sorry that was very long but I did have a list so Kevin you're making me think of that strategic and strategic plan and action right preparing kids for post high school and just to add on to that um when one of our former special Olympic splant their players I got to see him in action um
031working at the market and you know he's employed and has a 401k and I just think oh my gosh that's that is literally the promise in action um so thank you for triggering that I me it was a three-hour trip I can't I can't say all the things that happened but that was one that I wanted to make sure I communicated as well was pretty pretty impressive and amazing so thank you anything else all right um are we do we need to take a break all right we're gonna go ahead and just take a five minute break and then we'll um head write into audience comments at let's say 6:35 all right hey in case you're wondering what CTE is it's Career and Technical education that's what that that's what it stands for reconvene we're
032at the point of our agenda for audience comments David are you ready to kick us up I am thank you 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 and diffusion at Future meetings topics including charges or complaints against employees employment or dismissal of personnel acquisition 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 we ask that everyone had hear and understand the following guidelines in order to maintain respect for all
033points of view the school board request no clapping booing or any other form of support or nonsupport be used the board will not respond to comments but will take them under advisement speakers should be courteous and professional please refrain from using profanity vulgar language threatening or defamatory comments as a reminder individuals are not permitted to name a specific staff member board member or student during public comments failure to do so may result in the board president or design interrupting or ending the comment the audience comment process is as follows speakers who registered by noon yesterday will be heard if you're providing inperson public comment when your name is called please come to the podium and state your name please address comments to the school board as a whole individuals have three minutes to speak and
034I will signal speakers with the Bell when one minute remains our first audience comment is from Terry McCoy first I just want to say how deeply I appreciate the staff comments your comments because it gives um a real beautiful um picture of a lot of things that are going well so thank you hi I'm Terry mahoy good evening Dr D and school um District directors in suer Bonnie Lake School District how clearer is the message not only being presented but actually taught and supported that children belong to their families and not the state the teachers the school system the unions or any other bureaucrat parents are the primary responsible adults in the life and upbringing of their children it's the extremely rare parent that isn't doing everything possible in the upbringing of their children to
035support encourage provide and raise them to be law-abiding intelligent compassionate multi-talented and successful citizens it's also the extremely rare parent who doesn't care deeply about the safety of their children more and more families are pulling their kids from schools in our district why as much as parents and the majority of the citizens in this community want to believe in our schools and want them to succeed many are beginning to question is that actually happening are kids being pulled from our schools because our system is failing them over half the children in our district are failing in math and reading are kids being pulled from our public schools because of some teachers Andor some counselors teaching the kids home isn't safe and their parents aren't to be trusted but teachers and counselors are the trusted adults
036and school is the safe place to be yet is it all students who walk through the doors of our schools must experience intellectual safety emotional safety safety of conscience and physical safety all students are worthy of being protected all students are equal not born equal due to obvious facts but of equal worth and value the beautiful truth is all students are created equal all students are to be safe in our schools whenever I give an audience comment I also state that our district does amazing things and many many things well yet it's clear that we have areas of improvement what needs to happen in our schools so students are not failing in math reading or comprehension and what needs to happen so parents can trust that our teachers and counselors are not undermining or circumventing
037the responsibilities and authority of parents thanks thank you thank you our next audience comment is from Donna orz good evening my name is Donna orz and I better get my glasses on um and I hate to be a downer right now after all the good things I've heard tonight and there are a lot of great things like Terry said going on but here it goes um you have listened to me many times advocating for our state Constitution's law to teach basic academics free from sectarian ideologies some of which have proven over time as very harmful especially to children I would guess that you the board members and superintendent are aware that there's much debate and some lawsuits against school districts for mental and physical harm from transgender affirmation and poor academic performance the data on
038the state Opie website indicates the percentage of students in the Sumer School District who met grade level standards for English are 66% it's pretty good math 52% and science 55% it's not the greatest report card I visited the suer school district website today and noted that the vote in favor of the levies uh was 61 and 64% approval which does mean 39% disapproval and 36% disapproval we do know that more money does not translate to higher scores I sincerely hope that this vote count will encourage the board to end bad and harmful policies that take away time and effort in improving test scores for all Sund School District students do you realize how many more families would remove their kids from Sumer schools if they could afford to paying school taxes plus private tuition is
039impossible for most families wouldn't it be great if you concentrated on academic learning and skate safe School environment that all would want for their kids in the summer schools all parents want that it will be tough to turn things around you will have to fight the state and unions are you up for it our state legislators are putting out bills to unconstitutionally required districts to include certain curriculum or lose State funding if passed those laws will take away your rights the Schoolboard members to choose the curriculum that is best for your students I hope you don't receive these comments as just complaining but as parents and grandparents working alongside you to encourage you to make the best decisions for our kids I love my grandkids and I grieve because of the harmful ideology promoted and
040mandated by our state which in turn takes time away from academic learning we need to stand up and speak out against what the state asy and school unions are doing wouldn't it be wonderful if all parents felt good about sending their kids to public school thank you thank you our final audience comment is from Teresa mcclimens hello everyone oh my this is so low too I think okay I just how do I do this let's see hello can I do this is that all right okay um my name is Teresa and spoken quite a few times because I care about our Community I care about the children I we've been here in Bonnie Lake for 24 years now and um and yeah a lot of things have changed um with the public school education uh
041since I was a little kid um and I I totally agree with the other speakers here um ospi scores are too low and our taxes now are even higher and it wasn't it should have been actually 100% that would have voted for the schools you know I mean you got a beautiful building if you didn't get the funds what would happen to that I mean what stress you carried right but are we is the focus what's what's the focus the focus in my opinion should be the three Rs Reading Writing arithmetic right and why are the test scores all throughout our state and even the nation so low I mean suar Bonnie suar Bonnie Lake is highest that I perused today okay um P we're we're at 67 for language arts 53 and 56 in
042science and then only 69% of the kids are attending at 90% of days attended so the attendance is solo PPS at 44 for reading 32 for math 41 for science Tacoma 34 Auburn 43 32 and 33 I mean those are in incredibly low scores why what are we here for what what are the what are we paying our taxes for the confidence that a child will have is because they are competent in Reading in writing in Sciences so I would recommend that the school focuses all the schools focus on the three Rs and get out of the industry for the feelings and what your belief system is because for a lot of people that's offensive you're messing with the minds and the hearts of the children those are the par parental rights issues yours should
043be get them reading get them writing so they can do the cool things that are so amazing that we heard today thank you not every kid can do that because the three that concludes our audience comments thank you thank you okay uh we're going to move into policy matters for information only this is for first reading we have two um policies listed 2410 and 2413 as well as four uh procedures there again this is for first reading for information only moving into business ma matters the first recommendation The District administration recommends approval of the site assessment access agreement to provide for due diligence evaluation by the district engineering team of a potential new Middle School site into Hol do I have a motion to approve this recommendation do I hear a second second any discussion
044I'll say something I think it's very proactive the district to be in a financial position that allows us to have money from the general fund to look into purchasing land for future middle school and I just think that speaks to the strength of our finances and our vision of what we need in the future instead of waiting till it's too late so I appreciate the ability to do this any further discussion hearing none all those in favor say I I I opposed hearing none motion motion passes uh we have a resolution The District administration recommend approval of resolution number 14- 2324 emergency procurement waiver to authorize the suar Bonnie Lake School District to wave statutory requirements related to competitive bidding in an event of an emergency do I have a motion to approve this recommendation
045so moved do I hear a second any discussion hearing none all those in favor say I I I opposed motion passes unanimously um also for information only the budget status report for December 31st is included in your packet um and this brings us to the February budget update Chief Financial um oh uh bang welcome welcome bang thank you you're gonna present the February budget update to the board thank you thank you thank you um board of directors superintendence tonight I am providing you some informations about our budget calendar our budget process and um some legislative update so you already have a copy of that um calendar every year we uh provide you the calendars that's a full calendar page um we follow this calendar while we are developing our budgets so um we start with
046the legislative uh sessions in January 8th it will be end in um March 7th so it's only short sessions this year the second year of the biannual budget so there's not a lot of things they can uh work on because it's so short and um also even though the forast the febrary forast uh uh Revenue in the stay coming in uh very good uh positive but uh I don't think they have advertise really allocate a lot of money for K12 um we also start very early for our enrollment projection like December clean love do everything uh we finished that enrollment projection we're going to update you um on that and also also we finished up the Staffing as well just finished up this morning or afternoon so uh we are on schedule everything's on schedule
047uh so far so uh I'm sure we will uh wrap up uh budget by the time we go to the public uh hearing and adopt it so enrollment projection this we call about this year but actually next year it going to be flat uh we don't have a lot of um new constructions I think probably because interest rates very high construction's not really picking up much and also maybe a pandemic that um the birth rate is very low and declining and percentage of the kindergarten come to S Bon Lakes Food districts also decline as well so this year we are short of 30 kindergarten kids as we uh normally projected so it's very unusual in the past wasn't like that the patterns kind Chang so um anyway that uh enrollment projection is lacked in a
048couple years in the Futures so there's several bills um initially we were thinking okay we we need to watch these kid uh uh builds but uh this couple days the house and the sen already released their budget they're similar but they are far apart both so they still have 15 days to reconcile each other to finalize the budget for this coming years um the first one they are still working on that still alive the second one 6123 pretty much dead right now um so as the 1741 that sessions not going well and special ed Paul I know you're really working on this and you would you mention that you disappointed because they not really fun us the the um unicost of the race of each section for the special but they increased the cap which
049is only benefit a handful of um districts we are still under 133% now they are raising from 13.5 to 15 15 to 17 that's a proposal but it doesn't help any of us so it's kind of disappointed um in that end of course the simple majority of the bond is we've been going on this for so so many years as for simple majority or even low low higher to 55% but those are basically not really going anywhere they're they're not buge on that and then the levy um basically is just that that one uh people Transportation a little bit disappointed because they are talking about several different things maybe just um reimburse 100% of the uh special passenger which is they are ongoing doing this since last year but then they also propos to have
050um benefit health benefit and retirement for the contract bus drivers that's not what we have we don't have contract uh on um with the third party we have our own so we already have a cover so it really not impact us as much but then it will um increase the contract cost for other District Co contract out uh the transportation so I think the um zero emission bus is still on still okay um so as the 60 31 but not go too far those bill so finally I want to update you a little bit of the eso fund because this is to the end of the ASO fund uh finish up this year we will be done with all the asers currently we still have one more C uh ASO fund um going on and
051it going to be end it will be finish up the deels um schooles Chiller and Transportation M um H system and that's all that will be finished any question thank you bang any questions from the board I have one so um bang I was just wondering if um for those that are in the audience that don't know what the Esser fund is maybe you could just explain very very briefly uh as a fund basically is due to the covid time Federal give us some fund to make sure that we uh use the fund for uh safety student safety for uh air quality so uh we use it very efficiently um to make sure that the air quality is good so it won't be spread germs and things like that so that's a basic um reason
052why we get those fund I don't really have a question tonight bang so you're off the hook uh but that's surpris you know you did highlight special education and um I don't think the public realizes how underfunded it is oh yeah um just to give a point um you know we have the um the the safety net and that's where under state laws and regulations federal state and Court decisions we spend lots of money that we don't get from the state and then afterwards we have a safety net where our staff spends a lot of time to prepare justification for all the expense to go back to the state to say could we get some of this money back and this is money that comes out of the levies that we just passed yeah and
053that could be going for other things um and this is a big number and to give you an idea uh we just had on the consent agenda it was a special services contract for two students that was approximately $250,000 yeah the state does not provide 125,000 per student for a special ed student and so again not every special ed student is $125,000 but it gives you an idea that there are special cases that require a lot of money and that's money that comes out of our levies uh because U that's what we have to do and then we have to go and beg from the state to get that recovered I don't know anybody who thinks that's a good system so anyway I just wanted to say that so that the public could understand the
054full gravity of of what you pointed out so we have um I think when last several times that I I have the presentation that talk about several years of the enrollment for for special app and then how much we spend the first year I come here we probably spend a little bit like two million more than we get funded and then gradually go into four million and now it's about seven Millions we keep like adding and adding we don't know who's coming right the kids coming to us we absolutely need to serve no doubt but you don't know the severity you don't know what they need and the safety net do not 100% reimburse all the high need kits we apply but then they will say oh we can give this or we don't give
055this so whatever differences that will be coming from our Lev to pay the differences I just have one more comment and I have I've had I've expressed this before in the past you know that these are our most vulnerable kids really and somebody uh after the meeting had talked to me and said actually there if you've ever worked with a family uh of special needs kids these are the most vulnerable families and I think that's powerful so any thanks Paul thank you bang thank you all right we're going to move into um instructional materials adoption um I believe we have people here to present um some information about those materials thank you for coming well good evening Dr dent and school board members um it's great to be here and it's my pleasure to introduce
056to you a special member of our team this is Miss Cara Wilson and she's going to be presenting to you tonight this is her second year as part of the instructional services um team in the secondary World up there she is a tosa on special assignment and she helps support math science health and intervention so please welcome Cara Wilson thank you Cassie this is my first time in front of you so I'm a little nervous but I'm really excited to be here to talk to you about our high school math adoption and the process and the reasons that we went through this so a little background information Algebra 1 and geometry are taught at all three middle schools and both high schools Algebra 2 is offered at both high schools um every year nearly 2,900
057students take one of these courses in our district so this adoption had an impact on a ton of kids and will continue to have adopt impact on a ton of kids some reasons for um the need to adopt all of our staff and administration know that our test scores are not where we would like them to be and that we are all passionate and driven to change this in our district and for our kiddos um when our previous adoption happened the Common Core State Standards were new and so there was I wasn't part of the team but I hear there was like three that were aligned with the Common Core State Standards and they weren't well align um as well as they could have been because everything was new so when we did this adoption
058there was a ton of new curriculum available and we were able to choose from I think almost a dozen um really well aligned really well supported curriculums um so in addition to needing to improve our student learning outcomes um our we have a diverse range of students who take these courses all the way from seventh grade Advanced students to struggling Learners in 11th grade um so in order to gauge the needs of these diverse students we sent out a student survey to 7th through 12th graders um more than a thousand students participated in it and it gave us a really clear understanding of what they want for their curriculum for their books they express that they would like their math curriculum to be engaging and have a variety of supports such as written detailed examples
059solved problems videos to watch and more we also clearly heard from the parent on our committee that parents too play a critical role in supporting their children and the parent on our committee um Express a desire for materials that would help parents support their students at home I have a three-year-old so I don't have to deal with that yet but I yeah thanks um our committee we had a representation from both high schools and one Middle School teacher on our team we had assistant principls and principles from both high schools as well as central office administration participate we had one uh current high school student participate and she was amazing the teachers actually were begging me to sit her sit with her at the tables because she had such great insight and then we had
060a Community member who is a local business owner she's a parent of a current High School uh a Bonnie Lake High School student and a graduate from Bonnie Lake High School and actually while we were going through this process she was elected uh to the Bonnie Lake City Council So based on our student staff and Community feedback we came up with a vision statement for our high school math Algebra 1 geometry Algebra 2 team and so you see in the middle that we have success in mathematics and obviously SBA scores passing SBA and passing your classes is a measure of success in math but we also wanted to students to walk away with real world relevance and application of mathematical Concepts skills to persevere and problem solve that prepare them for future careers and success
061and the belief that regardless of differing cultural backgrounds gender abilities and experiences they are mathematicians and can do math sorry I'm getting goose bones because I'm a math teacher so this is like my passion our student Committee Member was a great addition to our team because she was able to offer wonderful perspectives on her and her classmates uh math experience and learning styles and needs our review process um so as I said there was a ton of available resources we at instructional Services pulled them down to a small handful that were the best of the best um we brought those ones to the team for um analysis they chose a couple different chapters to look at in each so that they were comparing Apples to Apples we used a rubric um that we evaluated all
062three curriculum on uh teacher support or teacher instructional strategies and support student support and evaluation of bias the team then narrowed it down to two um and then they were continue they were further evaluated on rigor and the uh included assessments and then each uh Committee Member voted on their first and second choice for adoption the results were a unanimous vote for into a from Hope Mifflin hardcour there was a multitude of reasons why the team felt that this would be the best fit for our students and their staff but the three that come that were the most important to them was the explicit quality of supports for various Learners including our uh multilanguage students our struggling St or students with our IEPs and 504s our Advanced like seventh and eighth graders taking algebra and
063geometry and struggling Learners um it also has a wide variety of paths that require different depths of understanding and authentic supports for response to intervention thank you for your time do you have any questions well done thank first presentation nice job any questions comments Cara thank you very much I'm not gonna ask a question but I am gonna make a comment um I liked the fact that you said the the parent uh on the on the group said her desire was that she could help the student her student at home and as a parent struggling with their kid at home that has been lacking so much um I just I mean I remember working through math with my own parents as a kid uh they didn't struggle like we struggled I was fortunate my wife
064is in education she could help my daughter I would go over to my daughter and say l let me show you how to do that she oh you're doing it wrong and it ruined the whole might um and of course I think Mass scores are I mean they're higher in our district but they they're not where they need to be and I'm glad you guys recognize that and uh but man that needs to be coined that uh parents desire the ability to help their kids at home yeah and this one's got really great supports for parents they're really exciting awesome thank you for the summ appreciate that all right um next up we have director of Athletics Brian kin welcome yeah update on the athletics department Lots going on right yeah a lot going on
065so I'm not going to touch on everything or we'd be here all night so I'm just gonna focus on a few things so good evening directors of the board and Dr dant thank you for the opportunity to provide a suar Bonnie Lake School District athletic department update last year I provided an update on several areas of the athletic department and how they were related to the Strategic plan uh this year I'm going to focus on how education based Athletics support our suar Bonnie Lake School District promise and provide an update on progress related to the goals that were set for the athletic department so with that I will jump into the presentation I hit the right button so that's a good start so our promise our promise you know we've seen that a lot no
066value support and helping student achieve you graduate ready to pursue a promising future and I'm strong believer that Athletics and activities play a huge role in that so and I'll talk speak to that throughout the presentation so how education based Athletics support our promise you know there's some stuff I'm not going to read through all those bullets but you know the first one tend to have higher gpas better attendance records lower Dropout rates and few discipline problems you know they teach a lot of life skills that you can't learn anywhere else you know the classroom obviously is the most important but there's things that you can learn on the field and court that you can't learn anywhere else and it speaks to a little bit um the one thing that I always come back to
067is it provides an incentive for many of our students because some students just you know they're have the inner drive but others they really need to they need something to push them and that was the way I was when I was in school and I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for athletics and activities so very important and the other thing with that in this community you see it all the time it's it's a sense of Pride you know it's a sense of Pride to represent your school and community in a positive way and you go out to our parades and things you know in the fall for homecoming and you see the pride not only by the student athletes and the coaches but but the community as well and it's you know it's
068kind of a window to the school I always say you know a lot of people that's their only interaction with our schools is the athletic program so it's really important and we stress that with our coaches and our student athletes so and it supports the a academic mission of the school and our promise so some athletic department goals were set it's been a few years ago but reduce the number of student athletes who do not meet grade standards we want our kids to meet eligibility standards and increase the number of participants in athletic programs so speak to those uh before I do so just want to touch on athletic eligibility to give a sense of what you know what students need to do to be eligible to participate in inter Scholastic Athletics you must have
069a minimum of 2.0 GPA and pass all classes and I want to mention is you know that's more strict than the wi requirements wi requirements only uh require five out of six so we you know we expect more of our student athletes so and then obviously they need to compete complete all the registration requirements you know online registration physicals things like that purchase asbs pay findes fees Etc and there's ways that you know students can't pay we work with them on those things and then you know I just touch on our several times throughout this presentation I touch on our athletic uh web page we won't have to click on that because a lot of stuff you know I'll ask Roger maybe occasionally to click on it but this time I won't because the slide
070follows here so goal one strategies how do we get more kids eligible the one thing we're really focusing on this year is communicating the requirements because for a while it seemed like people it was a mystery and we don't want Mysteries to people we want to make sure that they're aware of what's required and what are the consequences if they don't meet the standards so worked with the athletic coordinators this year and created athletic eligibility documents for both middle and high school and these documents list for requirements and procedures for grade checks for each season so we go real in depth dep on each document you know what are the requirements initially and what are the requirements for each season because there are differences with the wi not the requirements but with the penalties if
071you're not meeting the requirements for each season so we're going to add these to our website I found out as I Was preparing for this presentation they weren't on there so called El's office we're working on that and then we also communicate the expectations through final forms our athletic registration platform send out emails you know grade checks are upcoming here's the expectations here's the consequences for not meeting those expectations so with that you know we're starting to make some good progress of the number of high school students not meeting standard in the fall of 2223 you can see the statistics up there 1.9% of the students weren't meeting standards uh so 98 1% were and the numbers are there 13 and 658 and then this fall we reduced that to 1.7 not meeting standards you
072know there wasn't a huge you know 13 to 12 but but still it's progress and 98.3 our meeting standards and one thing as we were developing I was working on this presentation I met with Dr Mt he's like you need to be your goals need to be more positive let's focus on getting them to meet standards not you know the ones that can't meet standards so in the future new goal will be 100% of our student athletes meeting standards which matches up with our 100% graduation goal so so goal two strategies how do we get more kids to participate so we want to have wide variety of options for them because they have a lot of diverse interests and we know that because we survey our students via the Title Nine surveys and whatnot each
073year and we listen to the the Stu kids you know the students what do they want so with that there's an Athletics overview section of our website again I won't click on that because it basically shows what we offer each season so for high school fall you see the listings up there winter and spring and I did want to touch on on girls bowling this year because that's a new sport for us you know thank you the support from the board and you know all the different departments we added girls bowling and that bowler right there is a ninth grader at Bonnie Lake High School she's our first ever State participant in bowling so she'll go down in history Jaden theer and she finished third place in the state tournament her first year as a
074ninth grader so we're obviously expecting big things from her in the future so and she would have never had this experience had we not had the support added bowling so you know it's it's a those are the types of things that we focus on we want to offer a wide variety of offerings so that we can meet all students needs so and the Middle School season offerings there's four seasons those are listed there and I just wanted to mention cross country again listening to our students for a while it was just girls cross country and the boys were like well why can't we do cross country you know so we listen to them and we work with the league and now we offer a c-ad cross country so both of them get to do that
075in season four so so goal two progress you know are we getting more kids to participate yes the answer is yes we're getting more kids to participate postco and I just used some data from final forms to to show that number of students registered has gone up from 2223 2366 to 2324 2408 again not a huge increase but you know the goal is to keep increasing or staying at least you know somewhat constant so and there's additional data available in final forms that breaks down you know who's participating by uh gender and race and things like that so that it's good data tool for us that we can use in the future just some additional information coaches and staff we have 209 coaches registered in final forms so that's districtwide so a lot of coaches
076in the district that includes volunteers and paid coaches and the other thing the other benefit to education based Athletics is that you know we make our coaches go through a lot of training and a lot of requirements meet a lot of requirements before they're cleared to coach where you know Community programs they don't always do that so we take pride in that and we want to make sure that you know our coaches are trained and provide good instruction for our athletes so we work with our HDR Department final forums to make sure you know they're meeting the requirements and then there's a whole list of requirements in that document and it's pretty daunting when you look at the doc our coaches look at it and the good part is though we're trying to break it
077down and they only have to do certain requirements each year like some requirements are good for three years and two years and that wasn't always the case we had them do it everything every year and they were just like we it's too much so we're working with them to try to streamline the requirements and you know just kind of space them out from year to year um and I just wanted to say we have amazing coaches and other staff members that fulfill our promises on a daily basis I'll touch on that a little bit bit more there so Katherine Elliot right there is the SAR High School gymnastics coach and she's holding an award that they won earlier this year and we have several gymnasts both at Bonnie Lake and suar competing this weekend and
078to be H I think SAR has a good chance to win the state championship in gymnastics so and we have a ton of Bonnie Lake girls as well so that's pretty exciting so what is working well you know again the student survey interest survey data shows that we are offering the Equitable access to the most desired programs and participation numbers do continue to increase and then in addition to outstanding coaches advisers we have so many layers there's so many people that contribute to the athletic program you know athletic coordinators building support staff you know building administrators as what was mentioned earlier tonight District support staff athletic trainers event staff that work the events are out there every you know every night just for not a whole lot of money just doing it to support the
079kids and they form positive relationships the kids come come through the gate at football games and they know the people at the gate and they're high-fiving and it's pretty cool to see so they all serve as role models and help fill our promise other things that are working well our students continue to thrive in the classroom and on the field in court but in the classroom those statistics up there 19 fall teams the high school level dur the ear the wi outstanding team award for team gpas of 3.5 to four so that's a team so that takes again takes team work and I think it was mentioned earlier ton night I year won the academic state championship and I believe suner swim also won the academic state championship this winter so four fall teams earned
080the distinguished for 3.0 to 3.5 and then there's a list that kind of lists all the coaches and all the winners in that document as long as as well as the following document list not only academic accomplishments but all kinds of great things that our athletes and teams are doing as well and if I had talked about those we'd be here all night so and that's another session maybe so again and other things are working well the final forms platform is streamlining registration hopefully making it user friendly for families and um also just providing useful information related to our programs like this year it helped presenting this are preparing for this presentation and as we use it more and learn to use it more it'll provide even more data and then there's a how obviously
081a high level support is provided for our programs by all the district departments again takes a whole team to make sure to you know make an athletic program work from the business office Transportation HR you know you as a board Dr D in each of our communities and there's a lot of people in this room that make things happen so appreciate all that so Mary's a focus you know we want to continue to refine our procedures to support our ever growing programs you know we can always do better uh monitor use of final forms platform and again use all of its features uh continue working with HR to streamline the hiring process develop positive relations with stakeholders and then refine our Middle School athletics model to increase efficiencies with participation numbers so our middle school
082programs continue to grow and we just want to make sure that we're providing good programs for those uh participants so we're going to continue to work on that with Middle School athletic coordinators and uh Administration and then look for ways to better serve our underrepresented populations and remove barriers one thing that came up this year some of our students were having a hard time getting physicals so Dr Dent you know was like she realized that and she was like we need to change that so it's it's been kind of a frustrating process it's not as easy as you think but I think we're making progress and our district nurse Corey wisman is working with a local provider and it looks like we might be able to provide physicals either at low cost and maybe even
083on campus hopefully starting this spring so that would be a huge huge way to remove a barrier and then just explore opportunities for professional development for coaches again we provide the training each year but I think we can even improve and provide them with more effective training so just our promise in action these coaches were selected as whole child Heroes so you know and these are just a small number of coaches we could have nominated a ton more but these are the ones that were nominated in one so just a few pictures there and again they fulfill our promise every day so with that that is all I have and so concludes the presentation uh I'm open to questions or any comments Brian thank you a lot of good stuff going on right now any
084questions or comments for Brian I just to use final forms the other day thumbs up work great good y it's nice to have all one platform because you get to learn it as a Middle School Parent and then it transfers so that's help much thank you we're we're going to move into board discussion anyone have anything for discussion this evening okay I W to um let the board know that I've uh received a letter from um Deb Norris stating um her resignation from the board effective March 21st so that one's actually painful to say out loud um but we'll have more words later I'm sure but wanted to let you know that I've received that so we'll take action on that next month and I mean we take action we could say no but um
085yeah so and we'll celebrate and remember and all the good things I'm alreadying yeah so all right anything else this evening we have our next regular regularly scheduled board meeting for March 20th um at this time we're going to move into executive session uh for the purpose of evaluating the qualifications of an applicant for public employment or to review the performance of a Public Employee we do not expect um any action following the executive session and I'm going to say probably 30 minutes all right good evening thank you for joining us