001[Music] Okay, I would like to call the meeting to order and acknowledge that the Tom Water School District sits on the ancest ancestral lands of the Nisquali, Squaxad Island, and Shahalas people. I thank these caretakers of the land who have lived on and continue to live on since time im. Please rise as Becky Parsons leads us in the flag salute. Wow. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Becky. Before we begin, I would like to remind members of the public that if you wish to address the board during the public comment portion of the meeting, you will need to email your name and topic to Becky Pal at becky.pal tomwater.k12.wah.
002us. Comments must have been submitted to Becky no later than 6 PM. When we reach the public comment portion of the agenda, Becky will read off your name, make you a panelist if you're on Zoom, so you're able to be seen and heard, and then you'll be given the opportunity to read your comment. The initial speaker on a topic will be provided five minutes. Additional speakers on the same topic will be allowed three minutes for a total of 20 minutes on any one topic. Becky Parsons will serve as the timekeeper and will notify you when your time is up. If you do not sign up in the time and you're not able to address the board, you are welcome to email your comments to the board and or the superintendent. Everyone has the same setup.
003First name.astame at tomwater.k.2 k12.wah. us. Superintendent Dodson. Has there been any changes or additions to the agenda since it was published? There have not. Okay. Is there any uh motions to make changes to the agenda for me and the board members? No. Okay. We will now move on to the consent agenda. The board has had an opportunity to review the items on the consent agenda. I'll entertain any motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Derby. Move to approve the consent agenda. I second it. All in favor say I. I. Motion's been passed. Thank you. We'll now move on to the budget public hearing. During this time, we will hear public comment regarding the proposed budget. Each person has five minutes to read their statement. If there is any comments now, they will be presented.
004Is that right, Sean? Yeah. So, for the public, okay, working here. So, we'll start off as we go into this and give uh um give Jennifer Carol a chance to just kind of do a quick recap on on in general and start us off with this hearing and then have the opportunity to hear anyone who wants to make comment on the budget. And just as a quick reminder, we're in a public hearing for the budget and then once this part is concluded, they will then move to our regular normal meeting and then we would have public comment for other topics outside of the agenda. Go ahead, Jennifer. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. So, um I will be brief. Um I gave a presentation a couple weeks ago and I I do want to clarify this
005is for the purpose of adoption of the regular 2122 budget as well as a budget extension for the capital projects fund for the current year. So, I will just highlight a few things um for purposes of public hearing. Um so the general fund budget adoption um we're presenting a balanced budget for the 2122 general fund as well as all of our other transportation vehicle debt service um ASB and um capital projects fund and for um we are also presenting our four-year forecast which I went over a couple weeks ago also and um just to mention that it does result in a negative fund balance at the end of 2425. There's several assumptions that result in that decreasing fund balance as we discussed a couple of weeks ago. Um, and we know we can't allow. So,
006we are doing a lot of work. Um, we've already started the work of making I'm sorry to interrupt, but I can't really hear Jennifer. Okay, hold on just a second, Melissa. Yep. So, we're we're going to see if we can get where you can hear Melissa. Sorry. Here, Jennifer. Usually a microphone. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. So, I was just talking about our four-year forecast and and that we have started um discussions already and we will be closely monitoring our fund balance um over the next um several months and year. Um and then I also just wanted to talk about um our 2122 um budget. We have some federal stimulus funds that will help us continue to provide services to our students while as we return to in-person school. And I just want to make
007the comment again, as I have in the past, that those are one-time funds that allow us to bring our students back to school safely and address learning loss recovery. And then for the capital projects fund, we have a budget extension request for 2021. Um there were several projects that were delayed due to CO 19. We underspent our um expenditures by 7 million in the prior year due to those delays. And so we are starting to catch up with some of those projects um this year. So we were asking for an increase um of 3.745 million to our capital projects fund. And we have the fund balance available to um to account for those expenditures. And if there's any specific questions on that, Mel is here to answer any questions. Um, and I think with that
008I was we'll leave it open for public comment. Um, I have a question real quick. Mel, would you just um since I'm, you know, relatively new still and I was not around for the CO, would you mind just giving us a real brief rundown on what the what projects were extended due to CO? So there were several the completion of Tum Water Hill Elementary uh the remodel up there that was delayed. The Tum Water Learning Center was delayed. Um, we also had a a um project at to re- roof the old library at PRG Schmidt that got delayed into this year. And we also we're purchasing furniture for Black Lake Elementary and we originally were going to do it last summer and that got delayed into this summer. And there and as well as the
009Twater High School building C re- roof was originally slated to begin last year last summer but because of co we did not have time to complete the architect didn't have time to complete the design documents in order to bid it in time so there were several okay thank you so much okay thank you me any other questions regarding the budget. Okay, we're still in the public hearing for the budget as I understand. So, we will now open this up to public hearing. Is that right, Sean? Yes. Yeah, absolutely. So, if there's anyone here in the room interested in speaking regarding the budget um at this time, uh we can make that happen. And if there's anyone on Zoom interested in making public comment, I'll watch over here to see if anyone uh puts anything in
010the chat to say they want to comment on budget so we can open them up as well to do so and then uh then see how that is. Is there anyone here interested in making comment on budget? Okay. Okay. Okay. For those of you off Zoomland, is there anyone who's interested in making public comment on the budget? Is it just Melissa by herself? No. Zoom tonight. All right. Good. All right. I'm not seeing anything. I want to give people online. They're putting the comment in a chance to do so. Say yes. I will speak up. Okay. Last call for anyone want to speak up doing public comment for budget. Okay, thank you. We will now move on to the public comment followup. Dr. Dodson, do you want to go ahead? Um, certainly. So, uh, so
011that ends our public hearing on budget. And so, uh, yes, public comment follow-up. So, we had several people who made public comment at our last meeting and it was generally, as you recall, around the topic of Department of Health requirements and whether we should or should not follow those requirements. And so, uh, based upon that, tonight you'll have that opportunity to hear from Lance Andre, our our school district's attorney from Porter Fosteric, as well as Chris Lawrence from Propel Insurance, who will be able to provide some additional information uh, based upon your request at the last meeting uh, to continue to review that. We'll have the opportunity for those who may not have had the chance to be heard at public comment to make public comment tonight uh, in that. So, want to make sure
012you've had the chance to hear from everyone interested. speaking. So, all right. Thank you, Dr. Dustin. Okay, we will move on to the public comment portion of our meeting. Just as a reminder before we begin with public comments, uh Becky Parsons will call on each person that submitted their name and topic by 6 p.m. via email, allowing the opportunity to read their statement. The first submission on a topic will receive five minutes. Every submission after the same topic will receive three minutes for a total of 20 minutes for any one topic. Becky Parsons will serve as the timekeeper and we'll inform the speaker when their time is up. We try to give you a warning if we can. Uh the board does not discuss personnel matters or matters involving students discipline in open meetings such
013as matters are only addressed in an executive session. Concerns about such matters should be first addressed with the superintendent or designate who will then when appropriate inform and in the board. The board will likely not respond at as at this time for you to hear for us to hear your issue. Please note that all submissions will be shared with the board and superintendent. Upon hearing your comment, the board will take it under advisement and will as needed ask the appropriate staffer members follow up with you. Becky, did you receive any submissions online or in person for public comment? Yes. Go ahead. received four submissions for two different topics. So, we're going to start with Terra Kimbro. Terra Kimrell. Kimbro. Kimbell. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Tara Kimbro. Thank you. Go ahead. Okay. Whenever you're ready, I
014can start your time. Okay. I'm good. Good evening. As you all said, I'm Tara Kimbro, a very concerned mom of two, a lifelong Twater resident, and a graduate from Tumbwater High School. For those that think that the government has our best interests in mind, solely based on science and data, I would just like to tell you a little story tonight. For the last 18 months, I was the facilities and safety director for a large state agency. I was responsible for ensuring employees, ensuring our offices, employees, and customers were safe from COVID exposure. Let me tell you, it is not a fun job. In May, I was asked to create and champion a mask exemption process. So, essentially, this is a process to allow vaccinated employees to remove their masks while maintaining masking and social distancing
015requirements for those who are unvaccinated. What I now know is that this was the dry run for vaccine mandates. Logically, I asked, why can't we just leave the masks on for everyone until we can all take them off? and citing my concerns about employee morale, mental health, and treating factions of our employees differently based on their vaccination status. Also, at that time, there was no proof that the vaccines prevented transmission. We now know they reduce it, but they do not stop it. Additionally, creating such a process when everyone could just keep their masks on, in my opinion, wasted state resources. So, after consulting with the AG and all top leadership, I was told our governor wanted to incentivize vaccination. So despite the knowledge and awareness of possible risks that I detailed and both the physical
016and mental from both the physical and mental perspective, I was asked to not put any of it in writing and to proceed. Jay Eninsley demanded it and I said no. Yesterday was my last day with the state after 13 and a half years. I decided to resign in July. I refuse to sit by idally as the state pretends to care about your health and well-being while playing games with masks, purposefully limiting vaccine exemptions required by federal law, denying people's unemployment, and firing people for a condition of employment illegally added under the guise of an emergency. After the vaccine mandate was released, agencies were directed to limit conversations about it as much as possible and do not discuss the legality. What? You just told people that you would be firing them if they did not take
017a vaccine and yet we shouldn't be allowed the them the opportunity to ask questions or provide justification for its existence. That seems a bit nefarious if you ask me. Now, what does this have to do with our schools? You're probably thinking, I know what is next and so do you. As soon as the vaccine is approved for children 5 through 11, kids will be required to be vaccinated for COVID to attend public school. Our governor will deny your children the right to an education just like he denies you the right to a job. By the time it's released for e emergency authorization, each each vaccine will have been tested on roughly 4,500 kids. Let me repeat that. 4,500 kids before it could get to a point where he's saying everyone has to have it. A
018lot of parents will weigh those risks and benefits prior to vaccinating their children. And in many cases, parents will choose to wait, citing low risk of severe illness and maybe, you know, no long-term data on the risks. This is unethical. I know many parents are pulling their kids from public schools right now for a variety of reasons on both ends of the spectrum. I'm sure the school district has fears they won't have enough funding to sustain. They won't have enough kids to sustain funding. Just wait until the vaccines are mandated for attendance. And you know what? You might be thinking, I don't agree with this lady. And I respect that. You may be thinking, "I love our governor and I love what he's doing. I'm content in the sweet embrace of our government and the
019sense of security he's providing me." And that's great. So, let's find some common ground. We can all agree that every single child in this district matters. Every single child deserves equal access to public education. And this is what you, the board, were elected for, and our tax dollars demand it. I'm pleading with you. And I I'm saying this to prepare you for battle for all of our kids. I was told for months at work, we would never require you to get vaccinated to come in. And look where we are today. So stand up. Enough is enough. No more mandates. It does not have to be this way. Thank you very much for your time tonight. I appreciate all of you. Thank you, Tara. Becky, do you have our next speaker? Sure. figure out the timer.
020No problem. So, next we have Courtney Williams who has um is speaking to CO protocols and so she'll have three minutes on that topic. Set my timer. [Applause] Okay. Are you ready? Yeah. Okay, I'm up here today because I would like some clarification on some of the guidelines set forth for Washington public schools. Right now, to my understanding, with the current COVID safety protocols in Washington State, all children in a classroom are going to be sent home and expected to quarantine every time one classmate tests positive or shows symptoms. And kids won't be allowed back to class until after the quarantine period unless they test negative or if they have the vaccine, they won't have to test. So, you're telling me every single time a child runs a fever or has a seasonal allergy or
021the common cold, they will be sent home along with all of their classmates and expected to quarantine, then get the swab jabbed up their nose every single time except for the youth who get the vaccine. They'll be allowed back in school without needing to quarantine or take the test. Like I said, is this correct? This is just my understanding. And what exactly do symptoms include? And furthermore, how is this affecting our children and youth psychologically? Learning to be afraid of anyone who has a slight cough. Being afraid of getting sick because then they'll get kicked out of school and all of their peers will blame them. That makes me absolutely sick and is the exact reason why I've already decided and finalized my intent to withdraw from Tumblr public schools. And you're probably thinking, "Oh,
022well, just another student gone." But last summer, my daughter, who is go now going into sixth grade, volunteered at Tumblr High School to hand out sack lunches during her summer vacation. She even got recognized at a Zoom board meeting for that. So, that's the kind of student you guys are losing. I have been a licensed childare provider since 2012 and I have experience teaching my children along with about a hundred other children preschool and kindergarten readiness. I have absolutely no hesitance that I can homeschool. I've looked into it and there are multitude of resources for parents. So parents, whether you are in person or watching on YouTube live stream, if this is an option that has crossed your mind and it is something your family can afford but you don't know where to start, come
023find me. Look me up. Courtney Williams, I will help you. We can do it together. It takes a village. Our kids deserve to be kids. They should not be forced, coerced, bribed, or incentivized into a public education. They deserve to play together, to smile at each other. This new normal is not normal. And my family and I refuse to participate in mandates and guidelines that are immoral and unethical. board members, staff, and parents. What is it going to take for you to realize that these forceful mandates are wrong? Currently, our government is threatening the livelihood of our teachers and staff. This is unethical. Teachers, Twater families stood behind you when you took a strike a couple of years ago, and we will stand behind you again to fight for your medical freedom. I'm scared to
024think of what's coming next, but I think we all know masks for everyone except for the students and staff who are vaccinated. segregation as it at its finest. Are you waiting for that day to come before you finally stand up and say, "I don't believe this is right." Thank you, Courtney. Okay. Um, next we have Dave Morris. He's on Zoom, so let me just promote him. And he's speaking to the same topic, so he has three minutes. Make sure Dude, I'm promoting you up to panelists if you're hearing this so that um if you choose to use camera, you can. There you are. There I am. Very good. Okay. Are you ready, Dave? Oh, can you hear? Okay. I'm going to your time now. First of all, I I wanted to start and say I
025really appreciate everybody in the room and on Zoom who's taking time, you know, like I am away from being with their children to be here advocating for their education. I I appreciate everybody and and the time that you put in the school board and um uh people who I I may feel are horribly mistaken, but certainly care. Um my wife's an emergency room nurse and she's seen a significant uptick in COVID cases among kids. We didn't have a positive case that I'm aware of last spring, but I think it would be foolish to count on luck again this year. Uh, I'm going to do everybody one other solid and get done here in well under three minutes. Um, first of all, I'd like to make sure you hear from the other residents of Tom Water
026who send their students to Tumbwater schools and are committed to attending. We support the state mask mandate and we certainly expect the Tumwater school board to use its moral authority and our resources that we pay um to enforce the state health policies, especially when they're consistent with CDC and WHO recommendations. It shouldn't be the responsibility of parents who want to follow the law to withdraw from the public school system to do it. Um, and I have a series of questions that I I am waiting for answers to. One of them is what are we going to do to support teachers and make sure that mask mandates are enforced and that kids do in fact wear masks? How are we going to handle social distancing uh at lunch when kids are not masked and they can't
027be? uh are we going to be doing HEPA filters and things like that like they do in the Olympia public schools about uh finally I'd like to share the concern that the first parent talked about. What is our plan uh for reporting and tracking cases as they come sooner or later a parent is going to send a sick kid to school. I started out as a kindergarten teacher a million years ago back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and it happened then and it's going to happen today. What kind of accountability is there? What what's the reporting strategy? Where's the transparency? How do we know that uh when a sick kid is identified in school and there's reason to be concerned and there's reason to quarantine, how do we know that we're going to be notified
028and and that that uh is going to take place? Uh, finally, what's the plan to make sure that students who are in quarantine, which is seems inevitable, will be able to continue learning. Um, I'd hate to see us in a situation where for a second year in a row, we end up making it up as we go along when the problems that we're going to have to face, uh, while they're difficult, they're predictable. Last year, the stand the as cases rose beyond the standard that we set, where we said cases go beyond here we're going to reopen uh we blew past them. Is that the plan? And we didn't close back up. Is that the plan again? I understand that the answers to these questions are challenging but we don't have an option but to
029meet in the chat. Thanks Dave. Thank you. school teacher. So, next we have Katherine Sailors. Okay. Can I can I ask real quickly? I'm sorry I didn't get the the young woman's name who spoke second. Hi, Courtney. Courtney with that. N E Y Court Courtney. Okay. Thank you. Catherine, can you hear us? Yep, I can hear you. All right. Um, so she's going to want to share her screen. Make sure that you can share screen. It says I can share screen. I'm not going to share quite yet, but I will in just a minute. Okay, perfect. Yep, we got that setting on. Perfect. So, Catherine is signed up to speak about Okay. Um, so five minutes. All right, you guys ready? Great. Go ahead, Catherine. Okay. So, a as we go into another year of
030COVID, I think that um it it's important, but we've had many years of um equity challenges in Tom Motor. So, I'm focusing on that tonight. Um it is vital that Tom school district practices inclusive hiring. Inclusive hiring practices will help dam school district hire diverse staff. Some ways to be inclusive are to have large larger font to include job descriptions instead of requirements. Do not use gendered language. Have the job description available in a variety of languages. Adhere to web content accessibility guidelines to be clear about inclusion goals as well as diversity in Tom school district as of now. and when hiring a d having a diverse interview panel. I know that this is being worked on. However, it is important that Tom school district continues to work on being inclusive. It is important for
031our students as well as our community and systematic discrimination. To stop discrimination, we know that we need to make changes to the very systems that put them in place such as hiring procedures. I would like to share some data um from Tom Motor School District. Uh so I will share my screen now and this is our OSPI. Um I'm just going to be sharing the disciplinary and um our enrollment. So, this is our enrollment screen right here, our or our report. And you can see that down here we're at 72% white, 8.5 or more races, 17% Hispanic, and 1%. So, you can see all of those here. Um, and then we can click over to our disciplinary. So keeping this in mind um and then seeing where our disciplinary is. So we have two or
032more races being disciplined at twice almost twice the rate as our white students even though we know that we do not have um that they're not the same as attending. And this is something that is just showing um there's a disproportionate rate of discipline on BIPOC students. Um many of you know me from many of the the the board members know my story and know I've been involved with the equity work in the district. I have a biracial son in the district that has experienced many ignorant and racist comments every day when he was in in-person school. In 2019, I met with the principal in his school and e even though my son didn't want me to, um his mental emotional health was greatly affected by everything going on at school. So, I felt like
033I didn't have another choice. Um we ended up SC changing school districts. A few of the main kids were had dis not been attending the school anymore. So he came back to school right before CO. However, him and I know other students that are not returning to in-person school not only because of CO but due to the fear of the social climate in Tom Motor School District right now, specifically around racism and racial equity. Um we know from our motor school district data that our bipok students are not returning to in-person school as much as our white students. And that is just something and that is pretty much statewide. These these concerns are not unique to Tom school district. You can see these report cards all over the state. Um and I do also want
034to thank the district for the equity work that they have been doing and the data that I pulled is right on the equity diversity and inclusion um tab into motor school district. And about the hire that we hired for the DEI position and now we aren't able to hire anyone new. Um, I just want to know that I I want to stay that push going forward that we will be able to hire that position as soon as possible because the weight load of all the equity work in Tum is too much for somebody to handle that doesn't have the time to dedicate to that position. And I know there's many parents that have been voicing their their um ideals on masks and I would just like to say that I support the district using masks
035and I'm really fearful for our kids moving forward that will be in um attending in-person school especially those not vaccinated due our due to the hospitalization of most CO patients are not vaccinated. Um, and along with other parents, I'm curious how you guys are going to be handling keeping kids safe at school. And thank you guys for your time. Thank you, Catherine. Okay, we are done with public comments at this time. We will now move on to the reports to the board. Sean Dodson will present on the DOH requirements in the follow-up discussion from our last meeting. Yes, I'm going to go ahead and take a minute just to put uh information up here, but um Oh, do requirements. So, we are we're sitting Let's see. We're at uh 6:30. I'm going to take a
036look and see if we have any of our presenters on right now. Okay. I thought I saw there. Oh, yes. Okay, we do. So um so as you know I I'll go ahead and promote Lancent here in just a moment. And so as you know at our last meeting we had some discussion. We we decided to bring our attorney and someone from our risk management pool to the table to have some discussion, share some information uh and help us better understand what ter what um our authority is in relation to these guidelines. So uh Lance has joined us. Uh, Lance, I'm going to move you up to panelist and then do we have um I don't I'm not seeing attendees right now. Good evening, Lance. I think we have you on our panel now, so
037hopefully you should be able to join us. There you are. Good evening and good evening. Um, thank you for joining us. Um so Lance as we spoke I I shared the the board was seeking some guidance regarding the um the law and the board's authority related to mask requirements do guidelines and requirements and uh and where that resides and I know uh wanted to give you the opportunity to share some information have the board ask any questions they have regarding that so we can uh make sure that we have clear understanding. So thank you for being here. Well, well, thank you for having me and and I I was able to hear some of the public comments uh on on these issues and I think the comments I heard were mostly related to the vaccine
038issue and uh the memo that I provided to the board really focused on uh questions that had been raised around uh the mask mandate from the state. Uh, so I'm I I'd rather answer questions that the board has uh than the ones, you know, that I'm assuming they might have, but I I can go over some of the frequently asked questions that were addressed in in the memo. Hey, Lance, um, I I have a board member wanted to just go ahead. I just real quickly, Lance, could you just say your your whole name, what what your title is, and what you do for the district, please. Sorry. Absolutely. Yeah. My name is Lance Andre. I'm an attorney with a law firm called Porter Foster. We're in Seattle, Washington. Uh, our practice is exclusively serving public
039school districts throughout the state of Washington. And so, uh, I've been doing that for, uh, since 2003. And uh so I represent the Tumbwater School District uh as both general legal counsel and uh you know for labor relations and things of that nature. Um and I also represent a number of other public schools. Thank you. Thank you, Lance. So, uh, one of the questions that's come up frequently around the mask mandate is, uh, where does the authority come from? Does, does the governor or the department of health have authority to issue these mandates to public schools? Um there are several legal sources and and I've outlined those in a frequently asked questions do document for the board. But the short answer is yes. There's statutes that are passed by the state legislature empowering during a
040state of emergency that's been declared by the governor at this point. uh empowering the governor and empowering the department of health, the state department of health and local departments of health uh to take necessary steps to stop the spread of infectious diseases. And so that's the situation we're in right now where where uh these mandates do have the authority of law. The usual means of uh enforcement for that that is set forth in the statute anyways is actually a criminal penalty. Uh it's a gross misdemeanor for anyone to violate the uh governor's mandates during a state of emergency. It is a uh what we call a simple misdemeanor or just a a a regular misdemeanor um to violate the mandate of the state department of health or a local health authority. Um and so there's
041a clear statutory basis and it's not you know, optional. Um, with regard to another question that often comes up is, uh, there's a statute called RCW20832015 that, uh, a lot of folks have been talking about lately around this question of the mask mandate. It grants school districts broad discretionary authority to adopt policies that further the goals of the district. And one of the questions that's been raised and and there's been some uh things posted on social media by uh politicians and things like that questioning whether school districts could under that authority adopt a policy. And then if we have a policy, does that then supersede the mask mandates from the governor or from the department of health? Uh the short answer again is no. Uh public school districts only have such authority as they're granted
042by statute and by the constitution. And that one RCW gives us authority to do things that will further the educational goals of the district, but only to the extent consistent with other laws. And those other laws that I've just talked about clearly require everyone to obey these mandates during a public health emergency. And so it would not be uh prudent and something I would advise for a school board to adopt a policy that purports to adopt a different uh mask policy than than has been set by the state. It's just not something we have the authority to do. and and I hear a lot of concern and and points being made by people who who don't agree with that policy. And what I say is the comments that we're hearing, they really need to go
043to the state because the state is where this policy is set. And I and I feel quite a bit of, you know, um uh concern for the school boards of the state right now that are getting a lot of pressure put on them to do something that they just simply don't have the legal authority to do. Um, and so it's important that people understand that that's where those comments really uh should be directed. Um, does OSBI have authority to withhold funding if a school district chooses to disregard the order? That's another question that comes up very often. The the superintendent of public instruction has said uh that he will withhold funds from school districts that don't abide by these mandates. Um, that's a question that has not been well settled in the law and uh
044I will, you know, not stand here and say that it's it's absolutely 100% certain that that would be one of the consequences that could be imposed. There's a process that would need to happen at least for that to happen and it's not clear exactly what that process would be. Uh but what we can say is that there could be other consequences including um the fact that you know there's these criminal penalties out there that so far there has not been a lot of enforcement of but they are there in the law. Finally, a question often comes up about constitutional rights. Uh what have the courts said about the constitutional right not to wear a mask? Isn't there a freedom that goes along with that? And yes, generally speaking, the government doesn't get to tell us
045what to wear, right? And so, um, in normal times when we don't have a state of emergency in a pandemic, uh, the government would have very limited authority to tell us what to wear from one day to the other. But during a state of emergency, uh, courts have repeatedly said uh, during pandemics that states do have broad authority to do what it takes to sort of stop the spread of infectious diseases. And uh the the case that I cited in the memo, it's from 1905, but it's never been reversed by the Supreme Court, actually upheld mandatory vaccines for the general public during the small pox vaccine or smallox uh epidemic in 1905. And so that case has been cited repeatedly and and quite recently by a number of courts that have upheld similar mask mandates
046in other states uh and other pretty extreme measures that governments have had to take in order to try to stop uh the pandemic. Um doesn't mean that those decisions are all right or wrong. You know, the courts don't get into whether or not uh it's good policy. what they get into is whether the authority is there for the executive, the the governor to to make those decisions. And the courts have repeatedly said that that's something they leave to the executive. If you don't like what the way the governor is handling the pandemic, the remedy is not to go to court, but to vote him out of office. And so that's what the courts have basically said. Um, and I'm not trying to make a comment, you know, pro or con with what the governor is
047doing. I'm just saying that's what the courts have said the remedy is. a political remedy, not a remedy in court and not something where there's a constitutional uh violation that's that's occurred. So, uh in conclusion, you know, we we hear a lot of concern about about the mask mandates. Um and uh you know, again, it's appropriate to bring those concerns to the state government. Um, and people certainly have a right to express their concern about it during schoolboard meetings as well. But in terms of what the school board has the authority to do, uh, my analysis and the analysis of every attorney that I've I've talked to on this is that it is not within our authority to defy those mandates. I'll take questions from the board at this point if there are any. Any
048questions from the board? I have two. I don't want to take up all Lance's time though. So, I have two uh kind of topics areas. Lance, can you hear me? Okay, I can. Yes. Great. So, the first one I want to touch on is the emergency order. This is the same emergency order that was enacted by the governor himself early last year in 2020. Is that correct? And we are still that's the the same law that is essentially binding us to every order. Is that correct? That the there was an initial order and it has been extended a number of times. Um none of us hoped the pandemic would last this long. Um, and then finally, uh, a few months ago, and I'm sorry I don't have all the dates of all those orders with
049me, and if anyone has all those memorized, um, my hat is off to them, but, uh, finally after, you know, kind of some serial extensions, there was a legislative decision made to go ahead and and extend those indefinitely. And so, uh, yes, we're still under, um, not the first order, but kind of the last order that was issued before that that legislative act was was uh was made to to extend that. Um and the the state of emergency that's been declared by the governor continues uh to be in place. Yeah, it was January 22nd. I know. Um so that order can only be changed by legislature. That is correct. We would have to have session and law that would either limit or restrict that before it could be changed at all. And the only one
050that can lift that is the governor himself. Is that correct? I think what I heard is the state of emergency was a question whether or not only the governor can can lift the state of emergency. Yeah. See, I I know we can do it by legislature, I assume. But the governor Yeah, that is the Yeah, correct. That's the question. Yeah. Well, certainly the school board doesn't have the authority to No, no, no. Um the the question of whether or not the the legislature could uh could reverse it is a separate question. Um and you know there are there are procedures certainly that the legislature could go through uh and then there would be a you know basically a separation of powers issue at the state level between the executives you know sort of authority and
051the legislaturator's authority. It's kind of not within the scope of you know um my analysis of this situation. So, um, but you know, I I'm I'm really focusing on the school board's authority at this point. Um, and and that is clear, uh, clearly not there. Great. Thank you, Lance. I'll go on the second topic then real quick. So, we know that essentially the board can't go against or or change or, you know, go against any mandates. Do we have the ability to enhance those or make those um let's say stronger or better or safer or more economical for the district and the students or the kids? Yes, within within reasonable limits, right? Uh we know that we have a duty to educate all children, you know, within our boundaries and so anything that would exclude
052people, we'd, you know, we we'd be limited by that. Um we we know that we you know probably would have some constitutional limits on the district's uh authority you know and actions that are beyond the governor's authority. Uh but for example, you know, a school district that uh wants to me mandate that employees wear masks in areas that the state might not otherwise mandate uh in order to be safe and to stop, you know, to to be extra careful about the spread of of any infectious diseases outside the context of of the public school uh program uh would would have the authority to do that. um those rules can sometimes trigger bargaining obligations with with employee groups and things like that. So there can be legal ramifications uh when we act above and beyond what
053the what the state has told us to do. But yes, there's authority to be more careful than the state has required. If we focus that just on the kids and the students, would we have to bargain that? If we made the kids more safe by enhancing these requirements, would we have to bargain that? Uh, not necessarily. It would depend on the specific type of of change that was made. and and I would I would suggest that that would probably want to be something that where the the discussion would happen at the administrative level and uh you know have some privilege advice of legal count counsel about specific pros and cons of things that might be considered. Um you know I I heard some discussion for example about kids uh and whether kids without vaccinations might
054be excluded and at this point there is no right to exclude students um who are not vaccinated from public schools. So that's another decision that is not within the authority of the school district. We we have to take kids as they come to us. If they're not vaccinated, uh we still educate them and we enforce other safety measures, you know, mask requirements. The state does have mandatory vaccination laws for certain types of vaccinations and exemptions from those for um sincerely held religious beliefs, uh health issues that kids have, uh measles, etc. Um, and it's possible that at some point CO 19 vaccines will get added to that list of things that we have to have parents do. That has not happened yet and there's no legislation pending to have that happen. So, that would be
055an example of a situation where we really don't have the authority to to impose extra requirements um around attendance, for example. Thank you, Lance. Okay. Any more questions from the board? Nope. Just thank you, Lance. Thank you for being so thorough in your in your report to us. Thank you very much for being here. Everyone, I think I just hit the mute button. Oh, the joys of Zoom. and you're looking to see um that um I as I look at our list of attendees I don't know if we I'm not sure that we have Chris Lawrence on there. Chris, if you're in the attendees, could you um give me a note in the chat so I can promote you that to panelist join us or we have someone from insurance. Oh, yeah. We may not
056have them on the on the Zoom at this time. because he expected to be on. My understanding is we were going to have them on there and I'm wondering if something happened cuz we don't have them on the panel at this or on the attendee list at this time. 10 minutes. We're touch. We are. Okay. So, so we can keep an eye out and see if they jump on in a few minutes. we could always go ahead and get into our policies that we have up and uh we can check back and see if we've got that opportunity to bring them on to the panel in a few minutes. Okay, let's move on to uh we'll move back to reports to the board. Um but we'll move on to action items. Uh Sean Bast present
057policy 411, school safety and security services program. Go ahead Sean. Yeah, your second reading for three policies 4311, 3207, and 3241. 4311 concerning school safety and security services, 3207, the prohibition of harassment, intimidation, and bullying, and 3241, which is student discipline. So, hopefully you've had a chance to take a look at that first read and the notations and summaries of those places that we made recommendations for based on policy. And so, we'd like to open up or ask if you have any specific questions with regards to the second reading that we may want to take into consideration. Are you asking for questions on all policies? Correct. All policies. So this is correct. and 3241. Is that correct? Correct. 3207 the prohibition of harassment, intimidation, and bullying. 3241 student discipline. So I do have a question
058or a topic on 3207. Okay. I wanted to discuss about um adding vaccination status to that category and getting the thoughts from well probably bullshant um and and see if that's we think that's already covered in there or if we feel we need to add that in specifically. Yeah, thank you for asking that. If you take a look at the first paragraph of the policy 3207, one of the things that's often true about policies is you can't always account for every situation that would come up. So many times in the law with regards to policy, they will make a distinction or they will make a statement that says, "Hey, for example, in this one, this is not limited to or motivated by race, color, religion, ancestry." So that list could go really on and on.
059So what this has is these are federally protected classes, right? And this last statement here, mental, physical disability, or other distinguishing characteristics. So if somebody was being bullied, harassed, or intimidated because of their vaccination status, this sentence right here says we would need to respond. It wouldn't be okay for a student to come to school and be teased about their vaccination or nonvaccination status. And if that was happening, we would want to follow the process just the same as we would in any other situation. Yeah, that's a great question because it can't be exhaustive. It has to say, hey, look, here's another vaccination would be another distinguishing characteristic that we would want we would u be mandated to address. And I just want to clarify this policy covers students as well as staff as well.
060Correct. Yes. You know what in many times bullying, harassment, intimidation in the workplace is addressed across the school district. There's also school safety for staff in the workplace as well though too. Great. Yeah. Any other questions? Good question. I took the best question. Well, that's an important that's an important distinction. So, thank you. Does that include being separated after that? Um, so I'll do this. I would like to make a motion to discuss a a separate new policy to address um vaccination status in the way we address it in our quarantine guidance from the department or from our local county health officer and it is just a discussion and it would take place after the action items. Is that can we do that Sean if I make that motion and it is seconded. Maybe I
061need a little more clarification to is is it to is to have discussion about Creating a new policy. So, um generally that that would be done as a that would be an amendment to the agenda. Um and so would need to be approved by the board to amend the agenda. Otherwise, otherwise you can't. It is something we can do even between meetings in terms of putting together policy a proposed policy if there were something but you if you want to have a discussion about that in this you can um you would need board approval to amend agenda. So I think yeah I would so yes so then I would ask do I need approval or a second? You would you would need a second and a board vote. Okay. So, I would like to make
062a motion to uh discuss a new policy and not pass it, but just to discuss a new policy um after our our action items here around quarantine status and the way the Thursday County Health Officer classif or has directed us. Casey, one of the one of the recommendations on that may be to have a discussion about what you believe that policy requirement might look like and then to formulate the policy in light of having feedback from everybody and then bring it to the public meeting in a draft form so that folks could make some comment on it. Yeah. Because sometimes we need to know the leg well you just heard Lance, right? Sometimes there are some legal things that we would want to make sure and vet with our school attorneys and or was andor
063governing bodies that kind of say if we go here is this okay? So it might be to start the conversation with a policy outline come back and present that at a public meeting and then invite comment back for folks to reflect on it because I would want you to be in a place where you had all the information you needed before that discussion so we could guide the discussion based on what's legal or not. Casey, would you would you want that done like prior to our next meeting or would you want that to be the topic of one of our work sessions? Uh I would like it to be before our next meeting, but I like uh Sean's approach of having think we know he has an idea and if we can if we're okay
064with that, then they would present it and then we can discuss it. Mhm. I just wanted to discuss it to see if there's interest first before having Sean go. But if we're okay with that, definitely let's have Sean go with it. It sounds like we're okay. So, we will move in that direction, Sean. And our next meeting, whenever that is, that's okay. I'm okay with that. Yes, definitely. Perfect. Thank you as well. All right. Okay. Back to our normal board meeting. So, that would be a a first reading. This is the second reading of all. Oh, yeah. His would be the first, right? Okay. Update. Yeah. Now, now we'll go back to our board meeting with our second reading on policy. Would you would bring it forth after having all the feedback, allow public comment
065on that and talk about and dialogue about what it says and offers the school district. Yes. Okay. Okay. I will entertain uh Dr. Dawson, do we need to do these one at a time or can we do all three? I I generally you do an individual vote on each. All right. I'll entertain a motion to approve policy 4311, school safety and security services program, as presented. Darby, did you want to? I move that we approve policy 4311, school safety and security services program. I will second. All those in favor say I. I. I. Motion is passed. I'll entertain a motion to approve policy 3207, prohibitation and harassment, intimidation, and bullying as presented. Lori, did you want to do anything? Sure. I will make a motion to approve policy 3207, prohibition of harassment, intimidation, and bullying.
066I'll second. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed. Motion's passed. And lastly, policy 3241. I'll entertain a motion to approve policy 3241, student discipline, as presented. I move that we accept policy 3241, student discipline. I will second. All those in favor say I. I. Motion is passed. Thank you, Sean. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Now for the best part. Mhm. Uh Jennifer will present on resolution uh 0221-22 the uh budget adoption of the 2122 school year and resolution 0221 2021 capital project budget extension 2021 school year. Go ahead Jennifer. I think you just presented for me but thank So I am presenting the resolution. I stole it. I am presenting the resolution for um for the adoption of the capital projects fund budget extension 082021 and to present the resolution
067O22122 for adopting the regular budget. One at a time again, Sean, is that right? All right. Is there a motion to approve resolution 022122? I'll move to approve resolution O22122, budget adoption 2122. I second that. All those in favor say I. I. The motion is passed and then I'll entertain a motion to approve resolution 082021, the capital budget budget extension 2021 school year. I will move to make a motion to approve resolution 082021 capital projects budget extension 2021 school year. Second. All in favor say I. I. The motion is passed. Thank you, Jennifer. We will now move on to superintendent report. Go ahead, Dr. Dawson. You bet. I'm going to check one more time just to see do we have anyone from Propel Insurance or SIW on our Zoom call. It does not appear so.
068So, um if we have further questions for them, I will need to see about bringing them to our next meeting or or getting uh them in connection with those who have individual questions uh for that. So, sorry about that. And we'll move forward. So, let's uh let me pull up my PowerPoint here. What's the insurance um gentleman's name? Uh Chris Lawrence is her name. Who would her name, excuse me? Yeah. Um, so I have I have one by the numbers for you here that I'll take you to and uh it's a brief one just uh because I think it's it's kind of a nice uh uh tells us a little about what we've got going and the number that I'll give you is six and uh and it's a simple one but six days till
069school there you know that should have been the one honestly because we are about there um and getting awfully close but the number I put in and I usually use that one here, that's six community members that did share some written feedback for you as well. And so I sent that the other night, we had five people who commented on budget, one who commented on our policies. And I really want to just say in this forum, I appreciate the people taking time to review those documents and provide feedback. There was some really thoughtful uh responses there. Had the chance to share that with you and and uh I think that just tells us that that is a tool where we can get some feedback that maybe we wouldn't otherwise have. And so hoping to continue
070to grow that and build on it. I know that's not a large number, but that is six people who were able to take a look and come back and say to us in our community, yeah, that either yes, I'm I'm in favor of this or here's my concerns or or directions they'd like to share. And so I want to continue we'll continue to build from that to make sure we're getting good feedback on policies. So uh I'll I'll continue to show this for the time being. This is the state of Washington's CO update and I just share with you just because it tells us where we are. We continue to be on an increase as a state. And then if we go to we're at about the about equal to the highest peak that we
071met we had last uh winter. Then in Thirstston County because we've actually done a better job in Thirstston County than the statewide data over this pandemic. We still are below the statewide number, but um it this is the highest peak we've experienced where the state's kind of at about the same place we were last winter. This is the highest peak we've experienced in Thirstston County. And with that, we get some questions from people saying, hey, you know, I on one side we have those questions about do we need to follow all these requirements? On the other side, I'm I'm receiving feedback from people saying should we be open full in person? And I can tell you one my response to that has been per the executive order we will be open 5 days a week.
072And I know some people are feeling like gosh almost we're back to where we started. But one thing that I've been also sharing is that we're not exactly back to where we started. There is uh we have something now we didn't have a year ago and that is a year of additional information to help inform our efforts. And that's super important. For example, if we go back to about this time last summer, we still didn't know much about surface transmission. And we were doing a lot of things that and we've learned in this last year, some of the measures we took weren't necessarily the the perfect measures, but we've now refined further based upon the science about what helps us mitigate spread in our schools. And we've had a lot of success. And I share
073this with you. Something I shared a while back is that our approach to keeping the spread down in our schools is to use what we call that Swiss cheese approach. There's a variety of mitigation measures, none of which are perfect, but when you put them together, they help us reduce the spread in our schools. Um and and that has proven to in school settings keep the spread substantially lower than what the spread is in a in the in a community even when spread is at a fairly high high level. And that's one of the things that causes us really to take a different approach this year and come back in person in addition to the fact that we know what it what that long-term social isolation how hard that is on our kids. And so
074when we put those things together that is what's behind our decision to go forward. And so with physical distancing, with masks, having kids wash hands frequently, improving our ventilation, which we've done, we have an excellent contact tracing team in our schools. We are we will continue cleaning and disinfection of hight touch surfaces. And while we won't have health screens at the door, we're not going to do the temperature checks because we learned that that wasn't um that wasn't an effective way for us to really identify students who might be coming into the school with COVID. We weren't that wasn't helping us significantly in that area. We are going to continue to emphasize the important measure of parents checking kids for symptoms before and keeping them home if they're sick. And we will continue to keep
075to if there is a student that we see who is experiencing symptoms, removing them right away, getting them to a place where they're safe, getting them a safe ride home so that they can, uh, so they can get healthy and come back. And so, uh, and then we have test, we do have testing available through ESD13. We have a drive-through site that continues to be available for families who wish to get, uh, so so if there's an exposure that they are able to undergo testing. And we did have some questions tonight that were posed that are really good ones about what are our plans for um for students to so for example um I I I heard what's the plan for reporting and tracking cases. We work with the county health department on that and
076our nurses are in constant contact with them. So when there is a case it's reported to county health. County health engages in contact tracing. We have data including seating charts for classes. everything we need to know who might have been exposed if there is uh if there is an incident in the school and we've been successfully doing that over the last year while our students were in. We have those plans in place. There's a communication plan that's in place with Thirstston County Public Health. I just met with them the other day on Wednesday and they've updated it with the latest information on what are the requirements as to who would have to be quarantined in a situation, who might have to test in a situation. And they've shifted the guidance to where a close contact
077last year while students could sit 3 ft spaced a close contact last year was 6 ft. So if I was sitting inside that uh 6ft window, if we could only have kids 3 ft apart or 3 and 1/2 ft apart in a classroom, anyone inside that 6ft window was considered a close contact and had to quarantine if if exposed to a student who was COVID positive. Now this year they've adjusted that so it now matches. It's 3 feet. If students are separated by 3 feet um they are not considered a close contact and don't have to quarantine. So that certainly helps us in that the it there is a strong recommendation that students sitting inside 6 feet still get tested 3 to 5 days later if they were if a student is COVID positive. And
078if someone was sitting within six feet of that person masked in a classroom for over 15 minutes, they would recommend testing. If they're inside three feet for that 15 minutes now, they would need to quarantine as a close contact. So there's so that the guidance has shifted and we're just getting all of that clear and that will be communicated out to parents as part as part of our safe uh our safe start plan. We did that last year. We had a document we sent out to parents that had here's what it's going to look like. I just recorded a video the other day. We used a video last year as we brought kids back to help them say, "What's it going to look like at school?" So, that video's been recorded. It's in editing right
079now. And uh and thank you Aaron for helping us with that shoot. Um and and then the Lori's working on those documents to go out to parents so they have the information to know what is it we're doing. But as with everything during CO is we've continued to gather information and make sure that what we put out to people is current when school starts which means if we do it too far ahead it's less likely to be current because of the dynamic nature of this uh of this virus. And so, uh, so we've been watching, gathering information, making sure we've got accurate, and then we're going to start putting out those communications to people so they have the answers to a number of these questions, uh, and plan for students in quarantine. We're actually developing
080a menu of options for teachers because the same Can I just I just want to pop in real quickly. Um, just want to say thank you also to Lori Weedmire sitting back there for all of her work with communication. And that's just what I want to speak about just real quickly. Um, communication is just super important right now. Um, and I would like to also just emphasize that many families the information they get from their school is the information that that they look to. It's maybe the only source that they get information from about what's going on with the health emergency and whatnot. So, I just want to really stress that whatever we're doing to send home to parents, we want to also make sure it's available on the website. um because you just you
081cannot overcommunicate these things and there's just I'm hearing from many many families, parents, grandparents, um even just community members in general who are worried about spread and what's going to be happening with the schools. So, I just think it really behooves the district to do as much communication as possible through every avenue that we have to try to answer as many questions as possible so people and parents and community members feel safe about sending their kids back to school. Thanks. I had a quick but I don't want to steal your slide if you have it coming up Sean but I wanted to talk about how kind of the the information flows that we follow the DO guidelines but the thirst county health officer decides the decision tree as far as quarantine. Is that correct? And
082and DOH takes CDC into consideration but we don't follow the CDC. we follow do and then the Thursday county health officer's decision tree unless we have a policy that would supersede that. Is that that? Yes, in general that's correct. So a department of health sets the general guidelines for the state. The county health officer actually has some power within those guidelines to even add to them or enhance them or adjust them based upon needs in the county. So the county health officer actually has substantial power. They have the power to close schools power. So, uh, in Thirstston County, for example, that that strong recommendation of getting testing 3 to 5 days later if you're inside six feet as a county based upon current conditions. And so, uh, so there are some of those adjustments that
083are made at the county level from the DOH requirements. And just real quick, we do have testing available for our students. Is that correct? At ESD and we do and that is free. Is that is that right? Yeah, free testing. Yeah. Anyone can they you it's recommended you get an appointment. You can get an appointment on our website. People can also drive in and and drive in. Um it's helpful to have an appointment because it helps them direct keep the flow of traffic. So any other questions at this point on that? So um and that will include as we talk about lunch plans. lunch plans is really that's really complicated because the ideal when students have mass off as we've heard would be if we could have students 6 feet apart. The challenge is that's
084not entirely practical in a school setting where you have as many students as we do um who are going to be doing that. So each school is working on what their best plan is. Some are if they're less apart uh fewer feet apart of course good air filtration is important. Um, for us it's also the amount of time students are in proximity, encouraging them to eat and move and get out of there so that we have a shorter le a shorter span of time where kids might be at less than six feet. Our challenges are space furnishings and supervision. When you're talking about number of kids, we're just not designed or organized to be able to have all students at six feet. When we were in hybrid, that was challenging and it's even more challenging
085with all of our students back five days a week. So, um, as you look at the DO requirements and guidance, what they basically say is they say, "Do this to the best of your ability, but prioritize getting having kids in school because and so we're going to we have principles working to make to for the most creative solutions they can to provide as much space as possible to have the plans plans that put students in the best position possible. But 6 ft of physical distance is going to be in most of our schools not possible at that lunchtime. And that is one of our challenges and and not a challenge that's unique to us. I'm hearing that from most districts in the area. They have the same challenge. Um same rules then for quarantine and
086close contact. Yes. Yeah. So once masks are off is a close contact. Yeah. So if if if students are sitting at lunch masks off for more than 15 minutes within six feet of each other they do become close contacts at that stage. So, so this is these these are problems we will be continuing to solve clear in uh as we come up to the year, but I can tell you we'll have we have communication out about where we are and being really, you know, just being really upfront with people about what we can accomplish, what we can is going to be important as we go. So, um, but what I what I also will remind you is that all of these mitigation strategies are layers that work together to help us keep this down in
087our schools. And we had tremendous success in the spring keeping it down. Uh, and I I expect us to have excellent success again in the fall. Uh, the challenge will be it will it will we will have cases come into the school and to expect zero transmission is also unrealistic. So, um, what we're all seeking to do is minimize it as much as possible and have our nurses ready to support, uh, throughout this process. Want to shift briefly to some work we started at our July workshop, and that was to say, okay, we just ended a five-year strategic plan. Now what? And and saying, what does it look like going forward? Do we go through another five-year strategic planning process? and we had a discussion about developing something that would be that would identify our
088clear goals. And so this is a draft. What I'm showing you is not a finished product, but a draft at this stage. Um, and that and and we'll keep getting better at it. And so I wanted to give you a general sense. This is the next step from what we were doing. And that is to ident to put in something that would say here's what we're about. And it's based on the goals that we'd set in the spring. Um and we've identified a few different goals that we've been working on naming. And so this I showed this to you previously. Now we what we've come to is really identifying that as around instructional excellence which is challenging all of our students and preparing them with skills to succeed in life beyond graduation. Systems of support
089which is creating welcoming in school and district culture where students social and emotional needs are met. And then fiscal stewardship where we manage and protect our public funds and assets through efficient and effective use of our resources. And all of that is underscored by this focus on educational equity, which is really about saying, how do we make sure that we're increasing the achievement of all of our students while at the same time closing the gaps between different groups to make sure that you can't predict a student's chance of success by their family's income, by their race, by their gender, or any other distinguishing characteristic. those shouldn't be I mean kids aren't always all going to perform the same but we shouldn't it shouldn't be predictable based upon any of those factors. So this is kind
090of what we're putting in place as a framework and our intent would be then to set goals in those areas to help move our work forward. Monitor those goals on an annual basis to say how are we doing? Are we making progress? And we can always adjust these pillars if we determine at some point that they should be. Uh but wanted to give you an update on where that is in process and and and how we're uh getting ready to move forward. So curious about any questions or thoughts you have related to that. Any questions for Dr. Dodson? So it's starting to become something more formed and looking forward to uh to getting down a little deeper into that. But wanted to let you know we continue to move forward with this work and and
091uh and we'll um and we'll continue to start start to share this out as we feel like we've got it in final form. Want to share with you one of those goals is around equity and just want to give you a quick update on something coming up that you have the opportunity to be a part of if you're interested or or see uh at Tumbwater U next Monday uh in the afternoon. We actually will have begin some equity training for our staff. Um, or we've done some training before, but we're going to have a staffwide equity training led by Jamad Connley from Potential Unlimited. And that will be from 12:30 to 3:30 on Monday. And if any of you are interested, we'll certainly give you the link so that you would have the opportunity to
092join our staff for that training. And just to give you a sense of what so Jamad Connley and Potential Unlimited, I was familiarized with them through regional superintendent trainings last year where he was really sharing um doing some training for superintendents around cultural competence, diversity, equity, and inclusion and was really impressed with the approach he brought. And one of the things that uh I just give you a sampling of what he will be sharing with our staff as he start this work. Jamad wants to really believes in be beginning by framing this around a set of lens what he calls both and lenses. And if you've seen these before they're not unique to this, but he does a much better job of explaining them than I will, but I'm just going to sample one for
093you as a way of seeing what part of what they'll share. Both and lenses are around some a couple of principles that tend to sometimes where we will fixate on one or the other and see these as either or. And when and when we see them as either or issues, we tend to go to our corners and have a harder time working together to solve problems. But if we start to see them as both and together, um it can help us come together. So, for example, intent and impact is the first one of those lenses that he he'll share about. And um since we've engaged in some equity work together, we've talked about that idea of my intent isn't always the same as my impact. I might say something with a really positive intention and
094the impact can be really negative on another person. Um if we hyperfixate on if I hyperfixate on intent, I could say, well, I said something that was offensive or upsetting to you. I didn't mean for it to be offensive. So, you shouldn't be upset about that. And that can start to divide us. On the flip side, it's very easy on the impact side for me to say if someone says something to me that's bothers me to say that bothered me and I don't really care what your intent was. It doesn't matter. It bothered me and I and and it can that can start to be a dividing concept as well. But when we see it as when we begin to see it as an a both and what we see is a person can have
095positive intent and at the same time have a negative impact. And for if when I'm speaking to others or when I'm taking actions that affect others that can help me be more aware that when I speak or act I need to not only think about what my intent is but also I be understanding of how I might impact other people. And on the flip side of that, when someone is acting or speaking in a way that impacts me, when I'm impacted poorly, I can be more understanding and more forgiving if I understand that a person's intent might not be the way it hit me. And this is this is just a bothand lens. When we when we start to come there, we can come out of our corners and start to communicate better. We can
096start to work together more effectively. And so, he's going to spend time with staff on a set of eight of those. and and those can really help us as we come into equity work do so when we have very different perspectives and come at that in a way where we're able to see each other's points of view and do the and engage in equity work effectively together. So really looking forward to that discussion and I just uh if Jam were here he'd say no no no Sean there's a much better way of putting that than what you just did but hopefully that just gives you a sense of of that. So if you have the opportunity, join us. It will be I think a really good start off. And yes, those are all be zoom
097in sessions. Those will be zoomin sessions. Okay. Our staffs will the way it'll be is he'll be doing this and there'll be some activities our staffs will be taking part in where there might be some discussion at uh at buildings or in groups. Um, so you may see some pauses and comebacks in that, but but you'll you'll have the opportunity to really see the the essence of that training. And as followup, um, ESD13 has developed a cultural competence, diversity, equity, and inclusion training series that actually is using, uh, the same team, the same consultants to to to create that curriculum. And I've participated in some of that curriculum previously. It's really well done and we're going to have our staff throughout the year at some with some act times some of our act times actually
098participating in activities using those a five module series that will extend on what we learn at Tomwater and because we're working with Jamad some this year in that training our intent is to meld both those online modules and some of the in-person trainings or or synchronous trainings, live trainings that Jamad might run to really give our staff a seamless um experience where we leave with a common foundation uh and background for being to to for improving educational equity in our schools and really making our schools a welcoming place for all students. Because as you heard one of our speakers tonight, the concern is how do we make sure every kid feels welcomed and cared for in our schools. And that has to be one of our priorities. And I think everyone, every parent who sends
099their child to school, what they want is they want to know my child is safe, my child is cared for, my child is respected, my child is welcomed, and and that has to be one of our beginning points for for moving forward. So uh staff will be able to receive clock hours for participating and we're working thinking now about what are o opportunities for extension and differentiation because not everyone's in the same place in this work. So while we need to give people a common foundation there's also that there are people who may want to um extend and study further and we want to have those opportunities. So that's the work in progress right now. So any questions there? And that's what I have for you tonight for the superintendent report. Great. Thank you, Sean.
100So, now we'll move on to board comments. Please keep in mind that Melissa is not physically present, so you get as much time as you want tonight. Who would like to go first? Uh, excuse me. I can still time from California. I'm sorry I couldn't hear you. Um I'll go first. If nobody's jumping to to do it, I will go. Um first I just want to say thank you to everybody for coming here tonight. Whether you were physically here with us um or in Zoomland, thank you very much for expressing your opinions, your um your statements, your stories. um all are very important to me as a fellow parent here in Tumblr water. So I thank all of you for doing that and I think it's just extremely important as I said earlier about communication.
101We don't move forward or do anything in life greatly without exceptional communication. So let's keep doing that and thank you again for all of your opinions, stories, and statements. Much appreciated. Second, I would also like to thank um our district leaders for being here, Mel, Jennifer, Sean, and Shawn. Um thank you all for your work you're doing. It is a tough time we're going through right now. And we're all working very, very hard to get things safe for all of our children. And as Sean so eloquently put, we are here to serve our children to make sure they are comforted, cared for, respected, and get the best education that we possibly can give them. So, thank you to everybody. and Becky too. I want to leave you out. Um, and then finally, I would just
102like to say again, um, as a parent here in Tom Schools, um, we came from Olympia and I've said this before, but I'm going to say it again so everybody knows. Tom Water School District is an excellent school district. We have felt cared for and welcomed when we came here. And I just want to say that going forward, it's important that we all remember that we are all in this together. And if we don't stay together and pull together, then we're not going to have this amazing community. And I just want to remember that because we are all in this together. And finally, I just want to also say that I'm happy to talk to any parent, community member. I say this every time, but please reach out to me. You can reach me on
103my website. You can email me. I'm happy to talk. I answer emails. I really, really do. And um going forward if that's something you want to do or reach out to me. I would really love it if some if you would. Okay. Thank you. Director Sale, we'd like to go next. Melissa, you want to go next? I can go next. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. We can two minutes. Yeah, you'll probably only give me 90 seconds. Um I just I'm I'm sorry I can't be there. Um but I am happy that I can um attend over Zoom. So I I agree with Oh, are you going to put me on screen? Um, so I'm I'm in Los Angeles right now bringing my baby to school. And so that's on my mind right now.
104And I just want to remind us as we are getting ready for school that what we do is should prepare kids to go out in the world. And my kiddo feels prepared to go out into the world. Not just by my doing, but also the education she's had at Walmart schools. And I am thankful that we're preparing our kiddos to go wherever they want to go and not just all going to college, all going to trade school or whatever, but it we're preparing them to go out into the world. And I just want to thank our staff for for their part in my daughter's um preparation and that we are doing this for everyone. And I just want to remind us that while it gets hard, our kids appreciate it. So that's all I had
105to say. Thank you, Director Beard. Scott, you want to go ahead? That was quick. Uh, all right. So I have three. Uh, one, it's now public knowledge that I am a grandfather of a future granddaughter. Um, we found out this weekend that kind of a baby girl, so that's pretty cool. our first grandchild who will be going to Tom Water School District. Uh second, a big shout out to the Together golf tournament today. It was absolutely phenomenal. Uh logistically was spoton and I cannot believe how much it has grown in the That was two years ago, wasn't it? When you and I teamed up is amazing. The number of holes that are sponsored, the number of people that are out there at their sponsorship site, all the swag that they're handing out. I was floored.
106It was an amazing amazing afternoon. So, huge shout out to them. And now on a more serious note, so uh I have been toiling with this for months, like 18, so this is not coming lightly. Uh so I prepared a statement just to make sure I stay on point. So, the community often asks for our position on topics asks us. The requests primarily come to the board through email, public comment, or community engagement. I would like to provide my position on students wearing masks in our schools. My position is mine and mine alone. I'm not speaking on behalf of the board. The other members of the board may not be prepared at this point to provide their position on maskearing and we need to respect that. My position is I'm going to follow the science
107and our medical community. Along with other mitigating measures, scientists and medical and the medical community have made it clear that the best way to slow and possibly stop the spread of the virus is to wear masks, especially when vaccinated and unvaccinated populations are mixing. evidence including vaded vetted data case studies that are cited by scientists help me arrive at and continue to shape my position. In contrast, shouting at me, cornering me in public, or providing hearsay and opinion is not going to change my position. As I stated during our previous board meeting, I'm very thankful that we have had civil conversations and I truly truly hope that continues going forward. Um, I'm always open to, like Lori said, we're always open to conversations as long as those conversations stay civil and we act accordingly. I
108am a processor, which means I need time. So, if you have data, if you have case studies, by all means, email it to me, scott.killow at tomwater.k12.wah. us so that I can read it, process it, digest it, and have a chance to think about it. Thank you. Thank you. Director Kellow Derby, you want to go next? Sure. Hi. So, I'm going to do something similar to Scott. I'm going to draw a little bit deep look here. So, as Scott mentioned, you know, we oftentimes do get asked for our opinion on things. And lately, a lot of this uh discussion has focused on school boards and their role and authority. What I'd like to share this evening is my guiding principle. So, again, mine and my own. That is most core to my approach to fulfilling
109my duty as a school board director, which I'm going to draw on from reading the first paragraph of the board of directors policy 1000 legal status and operation. The board of directors of the Tomwater School District is the corporate entity established by the state of Washington to plan and direct all aspects of the district's operations to ensure quality in the content of the district's educational program and provide students with an opportunity to achieve those skills recognized as requisite to learning. I started on this board in December of 2019. So I was here in March of 2020. I imagine that board of directors pre- pandemic likely had a different experience and perspective about what this policy means in practice. Throughout the past year, I learned things about the human condition in the realm of public education
110operations through a pandemic that I never imagined would ever be something a schoolboard member would grapple with. The one thing that impacted me the most that I lost the most sleep over caused the most stomach aches, headaches, pick your stress manifestation was I was absolutely terrified, terrified that we were going to lose a kid and not to co to a mental health crisis. The volume of public comments, casual conversation, comments, emails, news articles, etc. that we received from parents, teachers, community members, students, and finally even finally the healthc care community urging, begging, pleading, in some cases through tears at us to open schools because kids were suffering and failing through remote operations is indescribable. I wholeheartedly agreed with the dire need to get kids back into the buildings and it was proven how important this
111was when after we did open the things I heard people say shifted to grades immediately went up. It's like a completely different kid. I can see the sparkle in her face again. He's doing great. She is so happy on and on and on. So my opinion and basis for decision-m on how this board policy is implemented is simple. Act in a way that ensures every single child has the opportunity for full-time inschool learning with their teachers, their friends, and their peers. We have an obligation to the families of this district to operate in accordance with that outcome to provide that opportunity especially to those without the privilege of other options. that quality of content and follow all the rules that just have to come along with it. So long as we are in a pandemic
112and a public health crisis, as Tom Water School Board director and steward of this policy, I will not under any circumstances ever take any action that threatens or compromises that fundamental right to a highquality education for our number one constituent, our children. Thank you. Thank you, Director Kikin. Okay. Um I will finish up real quick, I hope. here. Uh, I would like to thank the six individuals that gave us feedback on the budget and policy. I don't think that that's really happened before much. I know Sean pointed that out and that is a big thing and I was actually very happy to read through their comments. Um, as always, I like hearing back from the community specifically tonight. Tara, Courtney, Dave, and Catherine, thank you very much. Your your your words were heard. I can
113promise you. Um, I'll touch on what Darby and Scott said real quick. I I think um we do we're going to do what's the best interest of the kids. However, our hands are severely tied with what we can do by a governor. So, the local control has really taken it away. So, we can act within that box, but our hands are tied much more than they've ever been. So, that needs to be drawn out. And I think Lance's words earlier, a lot of this conversation does belong at a state level. That's where it needs to change. It is ridiculous to have an emergency order still 500, 600 days at least, 7 or 800 until they actually pass something maybe next legislature. That is severely uh limiting the ability of this board to take any local
114control. And I'll end with that. So, thank you for attending. With no further business, the regular meeting is adjourned at 7:36 p.m. And now we are going to go into close session. Is that correct, Sean? So we will go into close session and we will come back. We don't need to come back on closed. Okay. So we are done and the board meeting is over. Thank you everyone for attending. Thank you. Heat.