March 15, 2023 Sumner-Bonney Lake School Board Meeting Recording

001are you ready before we begin the meeting we're going to excuse Rick Hendricks um this evening do I have a motion to approve the agenda is listed a second all those in are any discussion all those in favor say aye aye opposed motion passes do I have a motion to approve the consent items as listed do I hear a second acceptance any discussion all those in favor say aye aye any opposed hearing then motion passes next up on the agenda are superintendent comments Dr dent hi good evening can you hear me Steve you're okay great thank you uh good evening everyone thanks for being here tonight um we are celebrating music and schools month um which is such an honor and privilege when you see local school districts cutting their Arts programs we are very

002proud of all of our uh Performing Arts Visual Arts all of the Arts and we are committed to keeping those programs in our district here uh yeah I did a little research on music because my nephew is at USC in their music program my niece is working on her PhD in music so music is very close to our family as well and I know the benefits um and I know the strengths that can come from this so get this we you know we're a district that uh is taking graduation rates seriously students attending High School with a music education program or 21 more likely to graduate from high school than students in high schools that don't have a music program so we need to keep that in mind teenagers who play an instrument are less

003likely to have disciplinary issues think about that for a second and then another a little tidbit of information I thought was uh fascinating was students who take music in middle school and Kelly Daniel love this um students who take music in Middle School score significantly higher on algebra assignments in ninth grade than their non-music counterparts so there are so many benefits to music education programs in our schools and tonight Miss Amy Fuller is here uh to recognize some outstanding students that exemplify that so yeah oh there we go we'll bring up Landon Fuller Simon swai Carlos Gil MSC Andrew Newman and Cole sage and we'll give them a round of applause and I'll tell you what they did um they had to audition with extensive requirements multiple excerpts and prepare them and then judges selected

004them to participate in various national state and international bands and choirs Landon participated in the junior Allstate honor band on the tenor saxophone Simon participated in the National satb Honor Choir Carlos participated in the National Junior High Honor Choir both of them were to one of two or three in the entire state of Washington that were accepted to the National Honor choirs yeah and our two young men at the end also by the way these four all from Bonney Lake High School and Landon goes to Mountain View Middle School and at the very end we have Andrew Newman and Cole Sage who participated in the western international band Clinic which included people from Australia New England with world-renowned conductors and it's pretty impressive that we have people from Summer Bonnie Lake in there participating so

005can you give them all a round of applause we have yeah Dr din has water bottles for you as well so we'll give you those we're gonna smile for a picture I believe thank you and congratulations on your accomplishments it's nice work um we're gonna go ahead and just take like 30 second break so if you want um to leave you're welcome to if you would like to stay you're also welcome to so just transition into um board member comments here in a minute thank you yeah and then if you would like to come sit if you're standing in the back and you'd like a chair feel free um and we will move into board member comments does anyone like to start this evening huh thank you well I was going to talk about going

006to talk about two things uh one I attended the uh the safety advisory committee uh it was about a week and a half ago so that that has several subgroups and it's working uh its way through all those subgroups and I try to attend as many as I can I do miss some but I do try to attend them and report but I caught a break today because on your agenda and you can go online I believe and click it uh the hyperlink there and actually read an update which would do a better job than any oral report I can give you tonight so I encourage the rest of the board and the public to do that the other item was I was able to attend the production of radium girls over at Sumner High

007School it was fantastic I brought two of these my wife and mine I'm going to pass these down and you guys are welcome to come up and just the program itself was well done I mean the first thing you notice when you get it you're like wow that's nice paper it just and that's it it this was the quality of the program that I was able to attend um they put it on for a couple of days thank you very much and it kind of goes back to what Dr Dent said about our arts program um you know I talk to friends around the state from time to time and they always say oh it's nice that you go to you know that your high school and your your middle schools and even your elementary

008schools have you know support the Arts because their experience is not only supports this you know supports the sports or Athletics uh that's not the case here I think our district really does strive to meet to really enrich the kids on all different levels so I encourage you to come up it'll be down the programs will be down by uh director Lewis afterwards and you'll see what these students are producing and this is actually a club uh I believe um you know right they they meet after school they meet during Power Hour it's not a formalized class so these are students taking the initiative to enrich the community as well so thank you Aaron thank you for sharing sounds amazing I'm gonna pass on my comments um can you hear me out okay apparently I

009have a very soft voice um there was a quote um in the movie called um Mr somebody's opus and it was based yes that's it I love that show and I think the quote was something like this and I'm probably going to butcher it but if you don't have the Arts in your high school in your in your school district there won't be anything to write about and it all connects whether it's math English History and um I am really proud of this district for the Arts programs it's had for many many years and my my three daughters are very involved in um the music program and what they learned from that and what they were able to go and use further on in their education is something that um we're very very lucky not

010every district has that ability to do that with that being said um I was so excited to go to the stem fair um and it was just I think a couple weeks ago and um the artwork was incredible the um the different science projects the young kids on up to the high schoolers were so engaged and very um very much wanted to not just brag about what they were doing they wanted you to learn something from that and I really appreciated that in fact there was one young man from Bonney Lake um high school that wanted to give me just all this information about robotics so I could take it home to my young children and I thought I think I love this guy because my kids are you know 32 to 42 so it

011was really a very sweet thing and I just love that robotics team but anyway it was really fascinating and whether you've got kids that are actively participating in it makes no difference um it's a wonderful program so I am very grateful it was brought back thank you well the only thing I wanted to comment on tonight was that you talked about graduation rates and and what the arts program does to help that but um I also wanted to add on to that which is that graduation is coming up quicker than we think um in fact it was It was kind of uh more direct today of participated um in the splef the summer Bonnie Lake Education Foundation scholarship program so had the opportunity to read some of the applicants today and that is a a

012lot of kids in our district that are doing a lot of great things and it was really neat to read about their accomplishments and the things they're doing and what they plan to do after high school so that was kind of the reminder the graduation is around the corner comments now the Sumner Bonney Lake School Board welcomes the public to its meetings individuals who wish to address the board should sign up online comments are restricted to three minutes remarks regarding District Personnel are not appropriate for audience comments portion of the meeting David Brower would you also Carry On from there absolutely so comments from the public particular board advisement it may or may not receive action at Future meetings topics including charges and complaints against employees employment or dismissal of personnel acquisition of real estate

013lawyer client relationships campaigning and other 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 registered speakers have been heard we ask that everyone to hear 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 we'll take them under advisement speakers should be courteous professional please refrain from using profanity vulgar language threatening or defamatory defamatory comments as a reminder individuals are not permitted to name a specific staff member board member or student during public comment failure to do so may result in the board

014president or designee interrupting or ending the comment the audience comment process is as follows speakers who registered by noon March 14th will be heard if you're providing in-person public comments when your name is called please come up to the podium and state your name if you're providing virtual public comment when your name is called you will be promoted to panelists please take yourself off mute before you begin speaking address comments to the school board as a whole you will have three minutes to speak I will signal you when you have one minute remaining and I please will also be using the timer on the TV behind me our first audience comment tonight is Terry McCoy first I want to agree with the board completely about the the Arts I'm so thankful that our district has

015had it for years and is so successful good evening superintendent dent and each of the directors I thank all of the directors here tonight for your work on behalf of Summoner Bonney Lake School District and also Richard Hendricks who isn't here tonight A couple of years ago I decided to learn more about Sumner Bonnie Lake School District because I care deeply about education and my community I kept hearing the school board wasn't listening to the parents concerns yes sometimes it appeared as if the board wasn't listening and at times maybe you got tired of listening maybe it comes with the job you are human not an excuse but simply reality what I found is you do care and you do your best can you do better yes we all can there are many examples of

016your work I'm thankful and proud of then there are examples I don't agree with and I'm not proud of I also realize the more informed I get there is plenty I'm not even aware of I'm hoping our community will begin to see the value in attending these board meetings to understand how you want to see your promise fulfilled and to hold you accountable to it the promise is quote we will know value and support every student helping them graduate ready to pursue a promising future unquote this leads easily into the discoveries and concerns I learned off the ospi website specifically for the state report cards given to every school in every school district in Washington state the following information is from the school year 2021-22 and again I wish I wish that these report cards

017could include the Arts I really do um so um what I discovered about attendance for both high schools it was under 60 percent for that year for the three middle schools it was under 65 percent that's concerning the results for standards met for ELA for both high schools and the three middle schools were between 56 percent and 76 percent again concerning results for standards met for math for both high schools and the three middle schools were between 38 and 50 percent that's pretty alarming last but not least is science for both high schools and the three middle schools scores for met standards were 46 percent to 65 percent as I've read these over and over in preparation for tonight I have many questions some may have simple answers but most probably don't that's okay life

018is full of the same as we work together for the students families and Community the promise you have for yourselves may become the promise we all share thank you thank you our next audience comment is Becky Conway good evening my opening line is never compromising my Integrity because once you do you never get it back I want to thank you my grandsons graduated from Sumner participated in basketball lacrosse band you couldn't miss my grandson six foot eight the only one six foot eight playing a trumpet uh I'll go quickly I am not here as your adversary my husband and I moved here in 2015 from King County at that time it was such a breath of fresh air and we were able to enjoy that last few years of our grad Sumner educational and athletic

019academics one graduated pre-covered the other during the worst of it in 2021. we weren't allowed to his commencement ceremony where he was valedictorian letters and everything coming up here tonight in Varsity and our one grandson's many many scholarships he is now in pre-med at Grand Canyon University so they both took off to Arizona and neither one of them are coming back my heart is completely broken over that I just found that out so um I have been trying to attend these meetings because I feel like I have to be an advocate for my grandchildren and uh I don't we have eight of them I don't want any more of them to tell me that they're not coming back to the state of Washington I attended a Puyallup school board meeting and I wanted to address

020SB 5599 and the 3211 policy as instructed we got there at 5 30 and found all the spots filled by Advocates supporting the bill one teacher boldly spoke of how some of their students informed their parents of their desire to transition and were kicked out of their homes the teacher stated that the only thing that they could do was to suggest which Bridge was the safest one to sleep under that night if this teacher is still employed by Puyallup and is a mandated reporter I would wonder how and why have we thrown all sense of decency in the law out the window to support an agenda I have made my mission to inform parents in this District of what SB 599 55 find that no parents actually know what it is I don't know if

021you guys maybe it's by interpretation of what we think that it does mean but anyway if people don't know SB 5599 has certain people's capacities to remove a child from their home be placed in a secret location without parental knowledge and the parent cannot have access to their child for 72 hours if I'm wrong please tell me I advocate for all children regardless of their sex religion race or otherwise for their safety dignity and self-respect thank you our next audience comment is Tracy Brennan my name is Tracy Brennan my pronouns are she her I'm a teacher at Bonney Lake High School and I live in director District Number Four I'm here to speak in support of board policy 3211 gender inclusive schools which have brought forth at last month's board meeting the first sentence of

022the policy states the board believes in fostering an educational environment that is safe and free of discrimination for all students regardless of sex sexual orientation gender identity or gender expression this is a huge power Paramount statement in thinking about recent statistics from the Trevor Project's 2022 National survey on lgbtq youth Mental Health here are a few of the statistics that show how critical this new policy is to our students 45 of lgbtq Youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year nearly one in five transgender and non-berry non-binary youth attempted suicide lgbtq youth who live in a community that is accepting of them reported that significant lower rates of attempting suicide than those who do not lgbtq youth who found their school to be affirming reported lower rates of attempting suicide what this boils down

023to is that our lgbtq2s plus students have a tremendously higher risk of not making it through adolescence and we need to do better to show them that we are affirming of who they are schools should be a safe place for all students and especially for those who don't feel safe and secure in their own homes they come to us as Educators and confidants to provide that Beacon of Hope to not give up our jobs aren't just to educate but to provide acceptance and belief that their lives matter I have firsthand seen the impacts that I have had on students in my building as I walk around the building with simple things like my lanyard pins and shirts students who I don't even know come up to me in the Halls to let me know how

024much they appreciate the small token they know I'm a safe space for them they know that they will be protected by me they know that their lives are worth living I'm looking forward to the comprehensive training for staff and volunteers of our district to maintain a safe civil respectful and inclusive Learning Community to ensure that all of our staff and students feel secure when they walk through our doors this policy and its implementation will help save lives thank you our next audience comment is Gabriel freed alrighty let's see perfect alrighty good morning good morning oh boy good evening everyone my name is Gabriel freed I am the school registered nurse from Bonney Lake High School I have come out of my hermit hole to talk to you this evening to talk about how awesome it

025is not first of all as a nurse but as one of our schools GSA advisors for those who don't know GSA is an acronym for our gender and sexuality Alliance and let me just tell you this club is awesome to be able to see our students walk into those doors they act so much differently than when they do when they walk into my health room there is a sort of guard that they have up when they're not really sure how to approach but when they walk through the doors into our club for GSA that kind of just melts off I see these goofy kids that can actually be authentically themselves and oh my gosh like that's what we want to do as a district right we want to see these students reach into who they

026are as themselves and right now I do understand that we are moving forward with policy so we can try to help implement this more into our district and I'm really excited for that this time especially at least for my population in high school is the time that our students are trying to wrestle and overcome the social landmines that is high school and puberty get everything else going on there so knowing that we have policies that are coming up to help students feel comfortable in whether that be whatever restrooms that they use whatever locker rooms that they use to even have this training for our staff members to just be there and affirm our students in their own identity is fantastic we understand that and as my colleague Tracy brought up at this time when we

027have gender affirming care in implemented into our schools we see these results and if our goal is to help our students continue on their Journey as their own self they can only do that when they can explore this identity in a safe space which is what these policies will continue to do so anyone who is listening right now thank you so much if you're even thinking about this we can do this so we can make our schools safe for our queer students I want to see this moving forward and I'm going to do my very best to also help protect and help these student and nurture these students so they can become person that they want to be thank you all very much for your time thank you our next audience comment is James K

028McClymonds Kelly mcclymond's Bonnie Lake uh I want to take a moment to thank you for your service and hard work for the Sumner Bonnie Lake School District it's much appreciated I attended the school board meeting on February 15 2023 after that meeting I spent a significant amount of time researching and trying to understand how policy 3211 came about I reviewed the rcw's concerning the directorship wasda Discrimination the office of equity the Washington professional education standards board I also reviewed the material available on the wasda website regarding policy 3211 overall I would give you a grade of b-plus for your effort in adopting the policy this is difficult task we understand you could improve your grade if you updated the policy to use a Time assigned bathroom policy that's provided for in the RCW this is

029a preferred approach since some students will request privacy and then by just segregating themselves by that privacy request it will result in them being placed in a position while they'll most likely be bullied uh failing to recognize this can be seen as a failure to adhere to cultural competency as defined by rcw28a415 433 that says the RCW says cultural competency includes knowledge of student cultural histories and context as well as family norms and values in different cultures Knowledge and Skills in accessing Community Resources and Community parent Outreach and skills in adapting instruction to students experience and identifying cultural contexts for the individual student I would like now to turn to an even more difficult topic I have been made aware that statements have been made that the statements made by the director on the February

03015th meeting have been considered transphobic by individuals those individuals have even organized a response against the director based on this belief I'd like to remind the director once directors once again the RCW 20a 415 433 which very clearly indicates through the definition the district and staff should be tolerant of the cultural context the local con cultural context for Sumner Bonnie Lake is very conservative basis as I demonstrated last year with my analysis of the voting trends for the area regarding sets Education and Leadership that's undeniable a failure to recognize that culture is most likely due to an activism in the staff I would ask that investigation into the training materials be undertaken determine if the staff has been trained to understand and respect the cultural context of Sumner Bunny Lake given the rcw's intent and

031clear definition above the activism approach its clear violation of the local culture even the makeup of the board is very clearly more conservative thank you activism our next audience comment is teresia McClymonds thank you let me bring little Simplicity to the conversation I suggest that love is the solution to all problems and since our world is full of problems love should be sought after love should be studied and pondered in our hearts why should we seek after love because in all the problems that we face love dreams purpose and allows for personal healing and growth in love we are not victims in love we are Overcomers in my life experience love continues to heal me and in areas of my personal angst I am being set free love has embraced my soul and has accepted

032my struggles and helps me to overcome things that I thought would imprison me for life love is my pain reliever love trusts and love encourages in love there is there is strength and in that strength there is Beauty and that beauty goes down deep deep into the cracks of my once broken heart now those cracks are progressively being filled with silver and gold resins now that Brokenness is a work of art love makes everything beautiful in its time let us unite in love and take the time to understand what it truly is respect is Love's closest friend and they walk hand in hand in them there is freedom and acceptance love does not bully or keep secrets love respects the minds and the hearts of those of them around them even though their opinions are

033different love respects parental rights over the children who they lovingly are responsible for so how do we express love how do we support the parents of this culture and in our community to help them raise their loving children in the way that they respectfully want to so would love tell a child that they should trust their feelings instead of trusting the principles of truth based on reality would love encourage children to keep their gender secret from their loving parents would love encourage children to live double life that include that exclude parents and loved ones from the conversation table if they are wrestling with important gender issues no love would encourage healthy conversations and it would Cur encourage Healthy Families security is love not secrecy so I challenge you to review your staff's cultural competency to

034ensure that the sensitive that they are sensitive to the culture of Sumner and Bonney Lake all districts acts need to understand this thank you our next audience comment is Christina Cooper good evening my name is Christina Cooper and my pronouns are she her and hers 18 minutes and 36 seconds that's the amount of time a board member was given to spread fear and misinformation pertaining to transgender students at last month's board meeting I'm being generous and saying that the first five minutes of what he said was within his role as a board member in sharing his opinion on the proposed gender inclusive policy however everything thereafter was Reckless irresponsible and even further jeopardizes the safety of transgender students what he said was based on an admitted YouTube rabbit hole he ventured down nothing he said

035was backed by science or peer-reviewed studies which is not what I would expect from a representative of an educational Institution his attempt to propagate fear among parents and cisgender students sharing bathrooms and locker rooms with transgender students is appalling locker rooms are monitored by staff so no student should be in danger and if they are it's not a gender identity issue it's a staffing issue he also claimed that transgender students are deceitful and shouldn't be trusted roughly 50 percent of transgender youth can contemplate or attempt suicide this is contributed to the lack of family acceptance if a student has not come out to their family it is often because they don't feel it is safe to do so based on their family's belief system transgender youth are much more likely to be abused by their

036immediate family based on their gender identity and face family rejection resulting in an over-representation in foster care juvenile detention centers and homeless shelters resulting in higher likelihood of substance abuse depression and suicide therefore transgender students that are out at school but not at home are not being deceitful but have developed a trusting and nurturing relationship with their Educators and peers at school which would possibly be the only thread keeping them alive I could go on with literally thousands of years of gender research on gender expression but I don't have the 18 minutes and 36 seconds to do so I am asking that the board put their words into action and publicly censure board the board member as his words and behavior go against the district's promise to know value and support every student thank you

037foreign our next audience comment is Melissa Russell my name is Melissa Russell and I am a Sumner High School alumni and I have three graduates from Sumner High School I have five currently enrolled students in the school district I was very disturbed watching the school board meeting last month and Wish I Was Here unfortunately um I was not I actually have children who wanted to come tonight and I don't feel comfortable with them being here with that type of thing being discussed in front of them I really am worried that they will lose faith in their District who they actually love their schools um they don't want them to know what's been said here it's very upsetting um I want you to know that I'm a mental health professional I serve the community I support

038Early Learning programs that are here in Sumner and Bonney Lake and I second the comments that have been made about mental health for transgender youth I definitely support the bill there are lots of details in that bill that might need to be worked out or people might need to discuss with their children have some open conversations with them I do have a transgender student who is attending Bonney Lake High School he has received wonderful support from the staff there some of who are sorry personal for me it's very hard for him to be at school it's hard for him to participate in sports it's one person and he needs that support and I don't appreciate the comments that are made about this community being conservative because that does not speak for all of us and

039we have a great group of us who are not conservative although I do support and understand other people's Viewpoint I have neighbors who are very conservative I'm very nice to them we get along very well but I am not conservative and I am part of this community and I've been here a long time so I just want to say that the culture is also those of us that are not conservative um I just I wrote down my notes but I don't know if I even got to those things um I think it's really on um professional for a school board member to say the things that were said last month and I find that very disturbing because staff and students look to the school board as leaders in this community very disappointed that that would

040occur here I was not professional and yes we do not get the same amount of time that he had went on and on and on no one stopped him um that was very unsettling I guess I just want to continue to say that I support the bill I think that everyone needs to kind of take a breath and think a little bit about what's best for students what's in their best mental health interest what's in our community's best interest to be open and understanding of differences oh and my pronouns are she and her I forgot to say that the beginning um I still have seconds left I thought I would go over um and I just want to say that the staff at Bonney Lake High School have been incredible and he's even played on

041the football team and had no problems in the locker room and it's been great thank you our next audience comment is Tim Cooper yeah my name is Tim Cooper I live here in Sumner my pronouns are he him and his I am reading this on behalf of rosalindship parents and she could not be here tonight but she wanted this to be heard publicly and she writes racism is not political I'd like to offer my perspective on proposal made by board member l in the March 8 session Mr L proposed the board study and consider adopting an anti-racism policy to help guide The District in part to help decrease disparities in the way discipline is applied in our schools almost immediately following his presentation Mr L was met with resistance from board member Mr W who

042agreed to look at the issue but also argued that an anti-racist policy is unnecessary as racist behavior is likely would be addressed under the existing anti-harassment an anti-bullying policies Mr W stressed the board needed to be careful to not create a policy that was deemed to political I would like to repeat what Mr L stated in that moment which each of us should hear and absorb racism is not political furthermore racism is very real and very problematic in her schools current District policies clearly are not adequate in addressing the racist Behavior does it become all too frequent in our district her two daughters who both identify as mixed race brings home stories from school multiple times each month about white students using the N word to harass and Target black students I've heard she's heard

043firsthand two separate occasions that the Bonney Lake High School where black students were called to n-word by a white student and when the black student reacted it was a black student who was received the discipline how does the district explain that maybe the district doesn't fully understand the impact of that word as explained by the black student the n-word means to be less human it's a painful reminder of a time when Society wouldn't allow black citizens to vote he required them to sit at the back of the bus in an instant that word can strip a student of his or her confidence and dignity even making them feel physically unsafe racism exists racism is not political racism needs to be confronted and corrected head-on he applauds Mr W's I'm sorry Mr L's efforts to bring

044attention to the need for more adequately addressed racism in our schools and urge the boards to move forward in drafting an anti-racist policy thank you thank you our next audience comment is from Samara Deans to Phillipson foreign my name is Samara Deans Phillipson and my pronouns are she her I'm a teacher in the district and one of the advisors for my school's gender and sexuality Alliance Club I know many students who need gender inclusive schools all kids want good relationships with their parents and if a kid feels safe they will share their struggles and Explorations with their parents if a kid keeps their gender a secret it's because they know that their parents will reject them no one is in the closet for fun or out of spite I would know some people want those

045transphobic parents to have the opportunity to correct their children I'm not talking to them I'm talking to those who might say that's unfortunate but it's none of our business how people raise their children but we are mandated reporters it is our business when our students are being abused and there is no question that transphobic and homophobic parenting is abuse I know many transgender students former students and adults I can tell you what will happen if you try to force a trans child to change the best you can hope for is a kid who grows up to love themselves enough to never ever talk to you again the next best outcome is a young person in crisis unsupported trans youth are far more susceptible to addiction than their supported peers at about 40 percent of homeless

046youth are LGBT whether they were kicked out by people who are supposed to take care of them or they run away from an environment so hostile that literally anywhere else was better we as a school district say we care about students struggling with mental illness addiction and homelessness if that's true then we'll do everything we can to prevent students from having to deal with those things in the first place the last outcome of transphobic child abuse is death maybe after years of living a life of Secrets stress and danger the depression catches up with them people have already mentioned the suicide rate among unsupported trans youth or maybe they're transport transphobic parent skips the crisis phase and just murders them that happens all of these things happen we don't like to think about them but

047they do I believe that the majority of this board wants to protect the students in this District please continue to respect students rights to control their own personal information work with me and other supportive adults protect all students and I still have time um I I have seen a lot of that stuff firsthand I've had students who were terrified to go home when their parent found out about their pronouns and name I have students who I never saw again when their parents found out they got pulled out of the school I don't know what happened to him I've got students who went through those things I visited students in the mental health hospital after suicide attempt I have seen all these things I see it in my friends my family the people are in my

048life um it's not an issue of viewpoints it's an issue of abuse and life and death thank you our next audience comment is Troy Fullerton hello board members so my name is Troy Fullerton live in Bonnie Lake so I'm here to talk about three things about enrollment depression and suicide and the vaccine adverse event Reporting System first of all Washington State student enrollment has plummeted since covid-19 under Governor inslee's continued 70 975 day or two and a half year emergency order the governor issued 85 emergency orders during the pandemic inslee's word was law when it came to shutting down schools and churches and mandating masks to mandating vaccines for certain professions and from ordering businesses to close to deciding when they could reopen this um this emergency utilized the shot of a lifetime including vaccine

049lotteries with millions of our dollars spent in prizes including 249 winners and one millionaire to A Chorus lagging State vaccinations the so-called vaccine which also was the first shot to offer zero liability zero liability to any of the hundreds of thousands of serious injuries or deaths that resulted and were reported to the vaccine adverse event reporting system depression and suicide recent articles have stated that public schools have lost thousands of students during the pandemic and most aren't coming back at the same time homeschooling rates in Washington nearly doubled at the height of the pandemic and still currently sit at about 43 percent over homeschoolers than before the pandemic Chris Reich doll the superintendent superintendent of Public Instruction stated how there had been a steep student enrollment drops and Chris reichtel also reported that two-thirds of

050middle schoolers and one half of high school students reported feelings of hopelessness for a prolonged period students have experienced unprecedented isolation all while adjusting to remote and distance learning are Children's Mental Health has seen a tremendous rise in depression and unfortunately also many suicides from December 14th of 2020 to February 3rd of 2023 Bears has received hundreds of thousands of reports following the experimental vaccine as follows over 1.5 million Adverse Events over 34 000 deaths over 279 000 serious injuries these numbers are only a fraction of a much greater total most of us never knew of the vares electronic database which began in 1990 close to the same time as the original vaccine interview Compensation Program which compensated tens of thousands our next audience comment is Chris ijama foreign my pronouns are she her I

051have three children in the district thank you Dr Denton school board members I'm here today to discuss two important topics acquiring an anti-racism School District policy and speaking out against the transphobic comments that were recently made during the last school board meeting I believe in the mission of the Sumner Bonney Lake School District to support and nurture every child in the district to make sure all students have the environment they need to succeed and for all students to be heard and seen for the valuable people that they are so they can Thrive and be successful in the future in order for the district to do this teachers and school administrators need tools to be able to do their job to the best of their ability one such tool is an anti-racism policy we know that

052racist events take place in the district personal stories have been shared during these meetings and data has been presented to support it these events are different than bullying and discrimination therefore those policies do not adequately Provide support when such instances occur if we truly are committed to supporting all students in the district we must create a policy that addresses instances when our bypoc students are targeted devalued and harmed to truly support all students we need to have Representatives that value every child in the district not some not most not those that look or act in a specific way celebrating each child for the unique individual that they are and supporting them with their specific needs are ways in which students are valued thereby upholding the mission of the Summoner Bonney Lake School District transphobic hate

053speech is not transgender people face discrimination bullying and violence on The Daily according to the transequality.org transgender and gender non-conforming youth face challenges at home at school in foster care and in the Juvenile Justice System a national survey by glsen has found that 75 percent of transgender youth feel unsafe at school those who are able to persevere and significant have significantly lower gpas we're more likely to miss school out of concern for their safety and we're less likely to plan on continuing their education the actions of one School Board member highlights reasons as to why transgender and gender non-conforming youth feel unsafe in schools the offhander remarks that were made are in direct opposition of supporting and valuing all students and the mission of the school district let's create an environment where all students are

054able to experience a safe environment to learn grow and Thrive adopting an anti-resistant policy is one such way to do this assuring that the leaders of our district including school board members represent and value all of our students is another thank you for taking the time to listen to me today thank you our next audience comment is Bo Woodbury good evening I'm Bill Woodbury from 1707 Main Street I have taught biology at Sumner High School for almost 17 years during that time I've had the privilege of being the teacher of four students and family friend of three other young people who have come out as transgender I want to briefly share my experiences so That Others May understand why I find these people like all the students I serve so worthy of our care and

055support without exception the journeys of these young people have been difficult the challenge of discernment about who you really are is compounded by those voices in society that expect or demand conformity and made Dangerous by those that taunt bully or threatened and sometimes Complicated by uncertain support or even hostility at home however after the careful work of that discernment I have witnessed a consistent outcome that is one of the goals of all religious Traditions including my own peace the kind of genuine around them the kind of peace that is certainly one of the outcomes we hope for as we teach and support the whole child regardless of their religious tradition we might follow peace after all is one of the first words of Easter for those that are concerned about the biology of the sex

056and gender that the biology sex and gender are simple and straightforward I assure you that biology is almost more wild and Untamed than we think more full of amazing and beautiful variety than we expect we must not put human limits on the creativity of creation or a creator see me for more on that I have a tendency to go on a bit about how amazing biology can be for those that are concerned about logistics I suggest some architectural solution mimicked after the state parks individual stalls with a shower and a separate changing area for all this would provide modesty for everyone I assure you that this former gangly and awkward 14 year old would have been extremely grateful for that Capital expense we must choose compassion over fear especially those of us who confess a

057faith that also reminds us not to fear at Easter we must continue our tradition of teaching and supporting and caring for and cheering on each child we serve not just those that belong to a particular group this is the essence of equality all are created equal and all must certainly be loved equally by God I support all of my students and call on this board to continue to do the same thank you our next audience comment is Christy Martinez board of directors Dr dent and District administrators thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight I am a parent of a Mountain View Middle School student I am a third generation graduate of Sumner High School and I'm very proud to teach in the community that raised me at Bonnie Lake High School and a member

058of the Sumner body like Education Association I heard the comments that were made at the February 15th board meeting I absolutely do not share the homophobic and transphobic views that were shared for 18 minutes I do however stand with my students my colleagues my fellow citizens who are part of the lgbtqia2 plus community I thank you for all of the work that you are doing to make our schools more safe and more inclusive for all students and I would encourage you to continue to enforce the policies that we have in place so that we do better for all thank you our next comment is an online virtual comment by Tara bocker hello my name is Tara Baker and I am an educator a science teacher at Bonney Lake High School um as an educator for

05923 years I have been privileged to work with many students of all gender sexualities political affiliations religions and everything else you can think of I'm here in support of board policy 3211 and to share my absolute horror with some of the comments that were made at the last board meeting I found the comments to be both transphobic and homophobic and I won't reiterate the statistics that have been shared by many other people here tonight but I will share some additional statistics from the University of California at Los Angeles reporting on us two two-year study of data from the National Crime victimization survey in which transgender people are shown to be victimized over four times more frequently than their cisgender counterparts our jobs as Educators is to meet all students where they are and that is

060no different for our straight students our conservative students or our lgbtqia plus students it is entirely reasonable for people to be ignorant on topics they're not familiar with however as I tell my students every day willful ignorance is a whole different thing the comments that were made at the board meeting were willfully ignorant of both science and empathy our students deserve the best we have to give them and that requires the adults in their Community to learn and grow and YouTube should not be the primary source of that growth there is Oodles of science as one of my colleagues a couple of speakers ago referenced to support all manner of gender and sexuality in nature no one student is any less normal than any other and it is our jobs to support them in their

061truth in their bravery and in their integrity and I thank the board members who have been supportive of this policy and supportive of all students thank you our next audience comment is Donna orabez good evening superintendent and board members my name is Donna o ravas I'm almost scared to speak today because I might be called transphobic I was here at the last meeting I didn't talk but I listened to him and he was not transphobic he was stating what he believed was right for the students of the summer Bonnie Lake School District so I'll finish my talk I had prepared this for last time but I had not signed up early enough as a lesser magistrate I'm appealing to you to examine the Washington State constitutionality of the gender inclusive number 30. the Washington State

062constitute section 409 states that all schools maintained in whole or in part by the public fund shall be for control or influence sectarian means philosophy or ideal the ideology including political Etc if a parent wants their son to be taught that they can be a female and a dress in front of naked females in the locker room with all their male genitalia exposed and compete in women's sports that parent should enroll that child in a private school that promotes that being just a year or two ago that would have been considered sexual harassment and decent exposure or even voyeurism this policy is harmful mentally many scientific studies reveal that four out of five children grow out of gender confusion by the time they are 25 and you can hear it on the news today they're

063coming out these 20 year old adults they actually say a child's brain is not fully developed until age 25 and that the idea that transgender youth should have gender confirmation and hormone treatment as a means to prevent self-harm is a myth that suicidal behavior is a result of the company mental disorders such as anxiety trauma Etc this policy is harmful academically I just listened to a video of instruction to our local school teachers to implement the gender inclusive policy what costs in terms of time and money is being used for this have you all listened to this do you cringe as I do when you listen to it and realize that time given to teachers in service training and taking time away from academics which is your job is the teacher's job and it's harmful

064physically I'm not going to be able to finish what I'm saying but I just have to say this is unconstitutional read the Washington state constitution if I have opinions for my children ideologies that I want them taught and they are not um non-sectarian I have to enroll them in a private school and and it's it's really hard financially there's hardship in homes but thank you some people can't do that that was our last audience comment and concludes our audience comment section thank you now go ahead and take about a five minute break and resume at about 706 um the meeting okay thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign

065foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign foreign uh relationship to the district plan um it's pretty simple we provide healthy safe and secure learning environments for the students staff and guests as a tool to improve student performance maintain fiscal responsibility that is a learning curve that we were on every day um and to support

066the Sumner Bonney Lake School District community um relationship to board policy 6800 um not only are we required by board policy to do the work that we do we get to do that it's nice to every day we get to come in and do the work that we do to provide the educational environment for for our students and staff the physical plant that's from the roof to the ground and everything in between a little bit of background information if you remember last time a year ago I was here because first it was the first time I presented to the board and there will be some differences in the numbers here I wanted to highlight so I proudly represent 58 maintenance and operations staff that's our custodians all of our maintenance folks um they care for

06716 schools in fields across the district it's 38 custodians um 20 maintenance folks that 20 well last time we were here was 19. we added a grounds position this year thank you very much um as we know the last few years we've struggled in the grounds department just to keep up right and uh um we're proud of the fact that we're getting there you can see the difference already I hope you do too uh 1.3 million square feet of facility that we maintain that's about thirty four thousand two hundred square feet per custodian again I use this information last time the ELC alone is 35 000 square feet so our custodians out there doing the hustle right every day um 320 Acres of grounds um that's going to grow a little bit with the opening

068of phase one that 1.3 million square feet is going to grow to about 1.4 then Phase One open so here we go right the puzzle's getting bigger and bigger um you'll notice the 64 acres per grounds Tech um that's about 40 and get 48 and a half football fields that each grounds person is maintaining that number was uh 80 acres and 60 football fields this time last year so the one extra grounds person makes a huge difference in that work orders are up nine percent um the share overlasts uh just grow shows the growth our buildings are aging we're increasing square footage the demand for service continues to grow and we get to do that I learned last year it's kind of fun having these fun photos in there we like equipment so we always

069have equipment photos in there um happy Grounds Guys doing the grounds work the upper picture there just those who don't know that's actually two Carpenters um our lead Carpenter and another in the middle of summer last year just knocking down the hay Fields called grass in this particular spot is the entry at Lake Ridge Middle School just trying to get a handle on the on the grass I apologize if this slide is a little hard to read even your paper copies um it's critical information though this is a number of work orders submitted by month up for the last three years 2020 is I don't know if I have a pointer on this not that not that middle yeah oh and maybe that won't work on there right um so just to highlight um the

070year 2020 is the green line that's sort of low at the bottom here anybody want to guess what the big dive down was in 2020 right covid yeah I just killed our numbers um the what would be a darker blue is the middle line uh that's 2021 the light blue being 2022 and the point of the site is to show the growth and the number of work orders every year it just continues to grow it doesn't stop um and this the slide gets really complicated when you go back to the beginning of our data sets 2020 2014. uh the 2D lines too many intersections so and then I want to highlight also the dip in July that's when schools enter empty and all the summer work begins so a lot of our preventive maintenance work

071orders kick out not necessarily new work um being observed you know the needs in the building that's just the busy time uh average number of work orders is timed per maintenance technician each month starting at 2020 trying to keep that same window you can see not only is the demand growing the nine percent every year um but we've also experienced a little bit of some loss of staff uh during that time so the number of work orders per technician is just growing as we go I thought this was a fun site I got a lot of great feedback from this last year um the percentage of assigned work orders is the pie chart on the left by name I had no way of putting the like what they do in that so I can tell

072you compared to last year Jeff Merrill our plumber now leads the number of work orders he gets I'll explain why that is in a moment Warehouse is always 12 and a half percent of the work orders um Jeff Merrill's numbers have increased he's our plumber you'll notice the bar chart looks like badges military badges on the other side the pink is all the plumbing work orders and then the orange and the red are work orders that are not Plumbing but those are lighting and electrical um we currently have no electrician on staff so we're asking a plumber it could be another question and all those other things that are in there as well um and then locksmith Warehouse always gets a lot next one down is Mike Madden he's our locksmith um that's bars two

073parts doors and hardware keys and locks always going to be a top performer yeah merely uh next one Downs Ron geeseman that's HVAC everything he does is HVAC and a little bit there's controls on each end of that that's just that's huge he is right now our only HVAC technician and he's soon to retire this summer so we'll talk about a little bit about that too coming up and then we work our way down it's just our top performers same guys Carpenters um the general maintenance folks I want to highlight the very very bottom um that's Madison simple some of you may have heard about um we have an energy fellow now working in the maintenance department who's basically scrutinizing every utility bill we get and so she intercepts a a lot of the work

074orders on the HVAC side to make sure that they're just aren't weird anomalies in there controls locked up you know kind of think maybe save Ron from having to go troubleshoot a ghost um and she popped up as one of our that's 250 work orders right there directly upcoming challenges I think everywhere you go people talk about Staffing um our vacancies our current vacancies vacancies coming in the future um we're impacted as much as anybody else in the world and skip that first again um uh alternative solutions for completing work orders we are actively engaged right now in discussions with um some of our engineering firms and others to figure out ways to have them be on our side ready to respond to work that we can't get to and frankly electrical HVAC is probably

075our two biggest um figuring out ways where they can get into our system see no heat work orders and basically just respond without a phone call just be there to do it there's going to be cost to that there's going to be you know logistical challenges for that but um it's it's needed and uh I'm confident we're going to figure that out equipment lead times I don't care what industry you're in right now you can't find a park for anything in a reasonable amount of time um sometimes you'll take subgrade Parts you know or things that are different just in modify them to make them work um that's a time consuming thing as well and long term that doesn't work because the next guy has to figure out what you tried to figure out to

076make it right um I put these unfunded mandates in these these are all state level mandates that are here last year we talked about it I said they're coming we have to figure out how we're going to get the clean buildings compliant right I mean if we aren't compliant we are spending money big bucks to say we're sorry we couldn't get there um that's a huge one every professional organization in the school district world is trying to solve that problem now and we're in the middle of that Marina and her team um it's a lot of folks trying to figure out how we're going to get there unfunded lead and drinking water I hesitated putting that slide in there because I didn't want to prepare oh we have lead in our water um frankly we

077don't have lead in our water we have uh two water purveyors in our district city of Bonney Lake city of Sumner they provide outstanding water none of our facilities are old enough to have lead pipes we don't have lead fixtures um but that mandate directs us to test sample every fountain in the district that a student could potentially draw water from to consume you think about that it's a lot of sinks it's a lot of fountains it's um it's it's here it's knocking on our doors we're gonna we have yet to figure out how that's going to get done Health Department doesn't even know it's being shoved down their throat as well and then the unfunded fire smoke damper legislation these are led by other groups people probably at one time thinking they were needing

078work and um I don't want to call out any labor unions or trade unions but the electricians are heavy heavy pushes over initiatives that increase their workload right so at some point we were going to have to every HVAC system you don't see them in the ductwork but we have dampers that close when there's a fire if there are smoke popcorn Friday you know trips to fire alarm we have dampers in the ductwork that are designed to close stop the spread of smoke and fire and uh someday we are going to have to test every one of those on an annual basis thousands of them we don't know how we're going to do that yet but it we'll figure it out uh just a quick pie chart once I figured out how to do that

079I love that I want to get rid of it it's great little piece it shows the six big parts of our budget the number's down only forty thousand from last year because frankly we found a little bit of money that shouldn't be in the maintenance budget it can be used for for other cool stuff that we do I hated to Let It Go wink wink but um it was it was the right thing to do we try not to spend what we have a big for more we like to keep it within our pie so um the equity component is is always there we we strive to provide barrier-free access um to our facilities for all students Staffing staff and guests um I love the term barrier-free we are not going to be a reason

080we can't teach our kids right there's zero reason why they can't have access to healthy safe secure facilities and then uh the Partnerships we have I've listed quite a few on their technology Family Center special services Child Nutrition Transportation all of them we can't do it without each other and uh it's great to be a part of the team of that group what's working well I'm trying to keep that I wonder if I didn't get the three minute timer but we're past that um indoor air quality improvements you know everybody's you hear about the Esther funds the the marina and Madison team um we have a lot of people working on um currently still identifying inefficiencies in our HVAC equipment identifying uh areas that could be improved whether it's indoor air quality temperature control humidity

081control all the above we are spending a ton of energy and um really good money smartly to make those improvements um on that I mentioned Madison she's our climate fellow she is the one intercepting her she's interpreting all of our utility bills Gas and Electric and comparing that to our to our usage you know where are we using utilities that are costing the district money and helping us tighten that ship she has she has done so much work and the cool thing is the people in maintenance operations have completely bought into that we have an energy team we meet uh very regularly to go over our bills and talk about our findings in HVAC audits the team buy into the street uh to our strategic plan it's nice when you have everybody on the team

082buying in to what we do I encouraged all of our team to uh visit an elementary school during a drop off one morning and just see the excitement in the air when the kids get to come to school and high-fiving teachers you know the whole bit and I had a few of them remind me we see that every day The Grounds Guys you know we have to stop our equipment when that happens we we don't forget we do see that that's pretty awesome um long range budget planning I think um meaning in this room we'll say we're still learning we are learning how to you know we're trying out Fox the fox basically we're trying to figure out when how we can appropriately spend money five six years down the road you know we can't

083always anticipate a boiler going out or a chiller going out but we're trying our best to make it work um Partnerships are always a big one internal external um all those groups we mentioned in our Circle and then all of our outside Partners vendors Etc I'm going to highlight our summer grounds workers we were able to bring three people on over the summer just to do extra grounds work um the phone calls changed really quickly from complaints to to sort of you know attaboys for the drastic improvement that was being made just by hiring some uh three extra people for the summer one of those turned into that fifth grounds worker by the way uh earned his spot student interns we're doing right now we have six working at the secondaries trying to get that

084seventh for Lake Ridge but it's hard to find a t uh teenager that young that can drive to and fro uh Lake Ridge kind of on an island by themselves out there by themselves um and they're Improvement in the grounds I keep saying you know good equipment good people um and doing the right thing right right folks in the right place um I'll just highlight these real quick these are always fun for me um when you see these next couple like this everything that's the bright blue is Sumner School District um Sumner Bonney Lake we when we're doing work orders we like accurate data when somebody submits a work order we want a good description good location good what is the problem where is the problem equipment information whatever because 10 years from now we'll

085forget we worked on that it's good to have the good data the nation the other bars of the Nate the rest of the uh I don't know 14 000 school districts using our work order system we own that column but I mean this category but we did tick up in every one of them um number of percentage of work orders completed less than a week um the black bar is where we are compared to the rest of the the other 14 000 districts our value is 55 percent of all work orders are completed within seven days I stood here before you a year ago saying we're going to get to 64. we're going to get to the blue to the right um brakeley we lost staff and and our workload increase we just aren't there

086so I'm celebrating the two percent increase we'll be up higher next time and I think you remember I said I'm not sure how we get there but I know we can because they do right so we'll get there opportunities for improvement real quick um continued work in progress um just we have a lot of open work orders a lot of deferred work happening right now we every day have to prioritize well it just isn't going to get done today um what probably won't get done tomorrow right so it's a hard way to start the day when you have people who are charged with with taking care of the district they have to decide what they can't do that's kind of a hard thing to ask somebody to do every day but we're doing it um

087custodial help increased demand um we have after hours and we can use our facility use is skyrocketed we are at a higher level of facility use snails excuse me then we were pre-covered um people are just begging for space to gather again right and they're coming to us looking for that so um increase recorder technician I'll talk about that a little bit here coming up but I mentioned it last time if you see it do it if you see something you're working on a unit here and you see a drip of water and a pipe over there let's let's get it captured let's put it in the work order system and deal with it um that doesn't happen as well as we'd like it to right now and we'll talk about that uh increase PM

088always want to increase our preventive maintenance every piece of gear should have some work done on it that's going to increase its life cycle right so we don't have to replace it as soon just let it hopefully get its full life out of it current and future Staffing will always be a thing you know the needs of our building are are changing every day and there's increased demands in all areas um for service in those buildings Inventory management it's good to know what we have in a warehouse what what do we have Sitting that's that's money we spent where is it where is it going how is it performing for the district and with growth with growth comes uh basically full Warehouse right as we grow we we start pushing out the walls right you

089know um capacity is is an issue um and then always you'll always see this on the slide if I'm talking about um our people is finding ways to get increased professional development where can we teach a custodian to be a better custodian to maybe eventually be a supervisor where can we teach grounds and maintenance folks to be better grounds and maintenance folks um so they can increase their worth and their their self-worth and their value to the district I'll fly through these and we'll get their percentage of PM work orders completed in a month this is preventive maintenance this is the Pig stuff chillers boilers and that we are our values at 86. you might ask why is that an area of improvement 86 percent uh we were at 80 almost 89 last year that's

090in tick down that I anticipate it's going to be next year when we're up here if we don't fill our positions and really make a push to get those positions filled that bars to slide left we're anticipating that and that's the stuff we're trying to sort of fend off in getting programs in place that'll help us with that um it's a goofy little slide but I wanted to highlight this is who creates the work orders um the blue bar again Sumner School Thunder Valley Lake site administrators are our custodians we choose to try to make every work order go through uh the custodians in the buildings let them have a shot at correcting whatever the issue is first if it's something they can't correct they submit the work order um when I said that see

091something say something I expected that technicians they're at seven percent now they were at ten percent last year they are just running they're running and gunning they just can't capture everything that's coming at them the custodians picked it up though they were at 67 they're at 70. so the three lost on one end with three to the other I thought it was pretty cool yeah custodians are aware and they're uh taking good care of us I didn't want to end on a what can we fix so I wanted to remind us everybody we've all seen the hierarchy of needs right um there are study after study that shows students perform better when the facilities the environment they're in the safe healthy and secure no mistake um so I just love that part I want it

092in on that and with that open up for questions thank you guys great thank you any questions I appreciate it as well it's very I hate to even say this it's very easy to take some of those things for granted right when things are looking beautiful and they're working the way they should we just kind of go about our business and then when they don't all of a sudden the focus is on that so we're really lucky to have beautiful buildings and Facilities thanks to years history a long history of um bonds being passed and voters really providing some amazing things for our community and our children I love the way that you are Forward Thinking and how can you be proactive in keeping our facilities working in and running harder you guys have an

093amazing amazing team and seem to work together really well um so just appreciate all your work and and all the things that we may take for granted we really don't but it's it's it can get easy because um we just kind of expect them to work but we know that it's intentional and well thought out so thank you okay thank you David all right next up for our presentations we have a demographer report um Shannon Bingham from uh Western demographics will present an enrollment forecast to our board of different superintendent dance it's my pleasure to introduce Mrs Shannon for him and Mrs bingham's owns Western demography demographics and will present our demographic study tonight children has been a school planner and demographer for 40 years and has worked with over 200 school districts Mr Burnham

094has been the planning director of two large school districts and is a education Northwest alumnus most of his Works in Colorado Washington and Alaska and he maintains the office in Ferndale and Colorado Shannon has been has developed a presentations on our current demographic which is you will see tonight and is working with Pierce County and Brookfield properties on the Final Phase of tahale and understanding how it might impact our district Mr thank you Ben well good evening everyone it's going to be difficult to follow David I thought I would have a really upbeat presentation and I think I'm already trumped but anyway um driving in here I was really kind of impressed by the fact this is one of the first really positive demographic presentations I've been able to make in about three years because

095of how well this district is doing and I think once we get into some of the details we'll kind of see that and I'll kind of add some hang some ornaments on that tree as we go along um we haven't really been as affected by Regional and National demographic trends that are happening as we exit the pandemic a lot of districts around the West are down three percent five percent and they didn't get their kids back and we did uh we got all of them back um and this may be the only District I've worked with and I'm I'm working with 18 districts now and uh I've worked with about 30 over the last three years and virtually no one got all their kids back so um the that's remarkable for this District housing costs

096here remain affordable I think our housing is probably 60 or 70 percent of what it would cost in Issaquah or Bellevue I think that we're looking at providing really great family opportunities the curb appeal of our buildings is amazing here I think families come here they see what they could purchase in the way of a home what the schools look like and they're saying I'm all in so um I think as we emerge from the interest rate crisis we're going to be looking at some influx and my numbers reflect that to a certain extent um we're expecting the interest rate situation to last for another 18 months probably I think probably May of 2024 the national business Community will just have had enough of high interest rates and I think that um uh that six

097months prior to the election I think we'll see some sort of a policy change in most of my friends in the banking development construction and in the political world kind of concur that's probably going to be the end of it so we're expecting some sort of a change then um I'm forecasting us to grow uh in an accelerated way from one to three percent per year as the housing market recovers we'll start seeing tahale really putting online a bunch of new housing they're building vacant Lots right now like crazy um nationally all of the builders in the country are building vacant Lots it's not a lot of new housing Construction in all over Colorado Alaska Western Washington that I'm most familiar with Oregon big parts of Idaho it's just most most developers and Builders are

098focusing on vacant lot development because they're getting ready for interest rates to turn around so we're really expecting um that kind of preparation to result in quite a bit of student growth we've been remarkably stable given what we've been through I think our housing is a well-kept secret that's about to be discovered because of what of what I'm seeing uh townhouse here for 540 is a million one in Issaquah a home here that's 680 is a million dollars in Issaquah uh 1.4 billion a million in Bellevue Maybe 950 in Lake Washington so as I look around the the farther away you get from the Space Needle the lower um uh housing is in price and also the higher the pandemic recovery is for school districts so um that's kind of my introductory uh issue nationally

099a lot of the millennial age population group isn't having children at the rate of Prior Generations regardless of religious denomination Pew research shows about 10 different religious denominations and child production in every category is down significantly so we're seeing that nationally people are just having smaller families um the school district seems remarkably immune from a lot of that I see children everywhere I go I see a lot of families really excited about this community and I think things are really happening here birth rates have gone down all over the state um Pierce county is probably holding better than just about anybody and so our birth rates have held up rather well um a lot of competition from online Charters we don't seem to be as impacted by that as other districts have been and also

100we don't seem to have a lot of private schools so I think we're actually really doing a great job retaining our enrollment as far as the age groups that we have in the district it's really remarkable the number of preschool children that are on this 2020 population distribution you can see we have about 3 800 preschoolers and then about 3 900 Elementary age children and then about 37 Middle School 3 700 Middle School age children on into high school and you can see all four of those bars on the bottom of that graphic there line up perfectly with the adult childbearing age which I call families people leave us for college and careers in their early 20s to go to college elsewhere but they're coming back and we seem to have a really solid family

101population well represented by both children and adults in the um childbearing age range um as far as our population goes we've grown by about 25 percent over the last 10 years just the total population in the district which is shown in that upper left-hand graphic and I'm going to avoid the laser pointer lest I shut off power in the whole uh Southern Puget Sound region here but um in that lower right hand graphic you can see that time to work and probably 50 percent of our population in the school district and all this data is the School District boundary fifty percent of folks Drive 30 minutes or more to work so I think it's super convenient to get to Big Employers in Renton and Bellevue from here I just think that's going to be super

102durable as we go by I mean I know all the sneaks having worked in this area for a decade but you know between you know sneaking up the East Valley Highway through Auburn and Kent and getting on Lake Washington Boulevard and Renton I can be in Bellevue in about 45 minutes so if you know what you're doing um I don't think commuting out of this community is such a big deal during rush hour and everything else that it is convenient to to the east of us and the south of this will continue to make Sumner Bonney Lake a really attractive place to live and work and raise a family again we've been immune to what's happening with Washington State School enrollment you can see this big dip I think three weeks ago ospi published their

103state data for 2022 and it continues to be down but not here um and that's uh really remarkable and really um a testament to what you're doing here um around the state Charter and private schools are up neighborhood schools are down and everybody has lost enrollment to these other sectors of the market and um those customers have stayed with those products if you will but not here um and I think that we have retained kids we also have two small Church schools that are in the district well I don't know what size those are didn't monitor their enrollment but we don't have a whole lot of private schools in the district so we continue to really be the main player with providing Education Services in in our geographic area these are birth data here and

104you can see Pierce County has really kind of leveled off at about 11 000 and in that lower left-hand table you can see how we compare to everybody else and this this is in reverse order so 2020 is on the left side of that but she can see King County sitting there with I think 45 births per thousand moms and um our number is 62.3 so even though King County and again closer you get to the Space Needle we're getting beat up by Family creation trends that are national uh that's not happening in Sumner Bonnie Lake as readily as it is elsewhere our average grade size is up in almost every grade um let me test that it's up in every grade except the 12th grade you can see however that some of those big

105grades are about to leave the system and they're going to be replaced by smaller grades that's going to have a little bit of an impact on our high schools but it's not going to be dramatic and the backfilling effect of those bigger grades and grades one through eight is going to um um continue to keep the district's grade configuration level and we're going to continue to have um quite a bit of growth home sales average price 517. I saw that I go where am I am I in uh uh Dallas where am I um that's amazingly attractive and I went around and verified that in the field going to sales offices and looking at individual units that were available when I collected this data um but um that's a real price and people um closer

106to the Space Needle or seeing those kind of numbers and say yeah maybe that 35-40 minute drive isn't so bad and I think we're probably going to continue to get folks coming in this is kind of an interesting graphic on the top we showed the kids that are the folks that are leaving us and who are they leaving us for um less expensive housing markets so you're seeing Phoenix Dallas um oh um Las Vegas and then you see kind of the four most popular affordable Washington housing markets which are Spokane Aberdeen Ellensburg and Wenatchee and the people that are leaving Issaquah are also going to exactly those same places um on the bottom you see the police people that are coming to us and every one of those is an expensive housing market so you're

107seeing San Francisco L.A Chicago Portland Washington DC New York Sacramento Boston San Diego and it's not just five or ten people it's hundreds and hundreds of people that are coming here from those housing markets and probably paying cash for houses um so I think that that gives us a little bit of insulation from interest rate problems anecdotally that's what the sales agents are telling me that they're having more cash buyers than at any point in their individual careers with people coming to this community and paying cash for a house um here's just some snapshots of some of our individual sales you see some high spots there for high-end Custom Homes waterfront homes but for the most part when I looked at this I was in a state of disbelief as far as how affordable some

108of these brand spanking new and newly renovated homes how affordable they actually are um oh let's see about 200 homes were are visible under construction uh uh or or for sale on the market in January of 23 interest rates are going to beat us up vacant Lots under construction is the big news there weren't a lot of homes under construction midwinter and most Builders are waiting so here's the big story to Holly has this new uh the southern part of their development is called Glacier Point which is the perfect name for that area given the fact it's all glacial but um all of that undeveloped area those green areas that are north of the bright green line or in our district this area is split with Orting Orting School District so it's split along section

109lines which is really unfortunate because it doesn't coincide with anything and it's going to be super awkward so um we've done a really nice job of balancing those three Elementary attendance areas we're starting to get a little bit lopsided and I'll be working with bang to talk with Rick Field properties try to understand what they have in mind for the future of that area should we be looking at adjustments or assigning new subdivision filings to schools that have room as we go along just to make sure that we can kind of anticipate what's going to happen as interest rate drops interest rates drop and the housing market starts to heat up again so I'll be doing that in the tail end of my con contract with the district and I'm trying to get to the

110right person with Brookfield and I continue to work on that but I suspect that I'll um have some really good follow-on information for you very soon 1518 homes divided between the two districts if we got half of them that would be about 7.50 and the total student count there that would be I'm over a thousand kids probably so um it's significant K through 12. foreign you look at the 2020 and 2021 rows and our history there there's only four words to explain that winner winner chicken dinner uh basically we got everybody back we lost 6.99 and got 688 back and then we went right back to growing nobody did that nobody so you guys are the poster child for pandemic recovery down below you see my kind of reasonable recovery from the interest rate situation

111and a return to about two percent annual growth as we go forward in the future inching up into about 2.8 by 2027 um here's the work that I've done working with bang on having headcount and FTE side by side and then I I'm working on pushing this into the individual schools here are all the individual schools we still have some fine tuning to do on some of these where there's a little bit of glitchiness and I've got accounting issues with running start kids in a few spots that I cleaned up um but this is just a detail uh you can see our high school populations continuing to be somewhat comparable to what they have historically been as a result of big grades moving out and growth coming in a little bit of spiking in some

112of our middle schools that we'll be having a look at and that's my presentation so I'd be delighted to respond to any questions that you might have hopefully I was as upbeat as David I don't know thank you very much thank you you know how this is going to play out I'd be better informed and be able to make better scissors I feel like this is a little bit like a principal it Maps it out and very informed math I'm sure that goes into all of this but it's really valuable information for us to be able to plan and prepare for things that are coming to the sister thank you very much I I've done this for almost 40 years this is my 40 year anniversary for doing this kind of work so I've kind

113of seen a lot of these downturns and recoveries and downturns and recoveries and I've looked at so many houses and so many schools I can tell you how old the school is within three years and I can tell you how old the house is within about five so this community is really very much on an upswing and the schools that we have that are older buildings they just look great from the street I mean everything that you're doing here with maintenance and operations is impressive and I'm working in another district and right now that I cannot get them to understand the value of curb appeal and when every child walking in the door has ten thousand dollars in their front pocket and they're making a decision based on you know is this a quality setting

114for my child that that's a really important piece um and you guys really do a great job of that through yeah thanks Paul thank you all right thank you thanks okay uh we have a couple of pieces for information only um in your packet asset preservation safety Task Force update merch change order report um change order report and that leads us to board discussion anyone have anything for discussion this evening yeah no my hands weren't working thank you um so for more discussion I would like us to consider or entertain the idea of whether it be a policy or a board principle that we limit or comments and um or discussion to know more than three moments per person and I had wanted to do this for a while and it's not reflective but really

115necessarily anything people might have said tonight because I already discussed some of this with some of our board members already and I just think it's a respectful thing and I think it's courteous to the rest of um not just the staff experience to the board members and for anybody else that's in the audience I think to sit through a very long discussion on from just one person sometimes makes a little lopsided and I mean I I don't know if this is something that's a policy or if it's just something if you're interested in part of the board principle um foreign but wherever we put something like that we should be consistent I would say in a uh if it was part of the protocol or our practices it would be a little more flexible uh

116instead of a digger and a buzzer if it's if it's in the policy it's probably going to be more more rigid it would might have to be enforced by the president at the time uh or the president would remind some us of it as we go along but I opened up it could go either either place that um practice I think it's definitely uh worthy of conversation and thought and so I appreciate you bringing it up yeah I would agree I would like to see something like that before you you want something more flexible or you want something more rigid of what Deb proposed I'd like to see something that has the I would say more in our person you know in our board principles would be probably the ideal place as a as a

117board to give us that direction um you know out of respect for the fact that we have time limits on what the public comment can be um and I think that um anything that the board has to to talk about or mention um should be thought out in a way that can be summarized and done in a succinct way instead of a very lengthy speech about anything in particular I think our board principles right now if you can correct me I'm wrong but I think it's a procedure so it actually just is uh adding some kind of language to that to the procedure and then having a reading of it and it's done so um but yeah procedure would be quick and easy and I think sometimes the procedure can be it's still effective but

118it's a little soft yeah right any other board discussion um no I just appreciated all the presentations tonight um I appreciate the the district and in what it does when disseminating out our strategic plan to all staff members and everybody in the community because like that strategic plan I firmly believe in knowing valuing and supporting all students all students thank you Kevin um scrap Dem and then I rewrote them and um I had I had lots of things on my heart and on my mind especially in the last month I've had lots of conversations with um people in the district I've had lots of conversations with my friends I've had lots of conversations with kids some principals um and I just want to be very crystal clear as a school board we are committed to

119our promise committed to our promise to know value and support every child in this District every child I also want to read something that's been on my heart and on my mind um the last month I recently listened to a book and in the author's notes it said we are all flawed complicated wounded dreamers we have more in common with one another than we don't sometimes making the world a better place just involves creating space for the people who are already in it any further discussion thank you obviously because we this is based off of last week or I'm sorry not last month um it was last week right no it was last week because you had asked for a policy you guys won some so one has been introduced others will be introduced too

120I'm sure but it is a process so it gives some time it's not a good meeting fast but we're working on it yeah I appreciate that thank you all right our board meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday April 19th 2023 and will begin at 6 PM in the central office boardroom meetings adjourned