001district. We will open the meeting with the pledge of allegiance 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. [clears throat] and DK. We'll now work through the agenda board. Are there any proposed change at board or superintendent? Are there any proposed changes or modifications of the agenda? >> Uh yes, President Jackson. I was just going to see if we could since we had everybody here after the reception for Martin Baron if we could take a minute and honor Martin with some words and some uh some words from the board as well. >> Uh those and we have to vote on it, right? I think so. >> Yeah, this is the first time. So, >> yes.
002[laughter] >> uh are those those uh in for uh in favor of changing the agenda? Oh, you don't want to take a motion? >> Oh, >> I'd like to move that we modify the agenda to include uh remarks from Director Baron. >> Second. >> All right. It has been moved by Maria and seconded by Mark. Any discussion? No. Okay. Uh all in favor of of changing the agenda say I. >> I. Those opposed? None. Okay. motion carries. >> Excellent. Let's do this. Um, and I want to recognize our um combined uh middle school band for being here. Thank you for being here. We're gonna have you present in just a moment. So, thanks for for hanging tight. Uh, but tonight we're going to start off by uh honoring and recognizing um what uh Martin Barrett
003uh a colleague, a mentor, and a friend. Um I've had the privilege of knowing Martin uh for my entire career in the Win School District for all 27 years of it. Um, in fact, uh, our connection began my very first year of teaching when I was a long-term substitute teacher for Elm Jensen at Wanche High School. Uh, sitting in my world literature class, uh, was Martin's oldest daughter, Sarah. And, uh, we met at conferences that year. Um, and a few years later, I had the joy of teaching, uh, his other daughters, Claire and Sophie, both in advanced placement US history. And from the start, uh, Martin and his family have been part of my professional journey. So, it means a lot to not have been able to work so closely with Martin, but also celebrate
004him. When Martin joined the school board, I was thrilled, not only because I knew him to be an incredible individual, but because I knew how deeply dedicated he was to our schools and how much he cared about each and every student. Uh, what I didn't realize then was just how exemplary a board member that he would become. Martin has been the kind of leader that every district hopes for. Each year he made it a priority to volunteer in a new building. He served as a lunch buddy. How many lunch buddies do you have, Martin? >> Three lunch buddies. And he's four. >> Four. And he's and and he would spend time with those lunch buddies, uh, showing them that they matter. Uh, he has always been a visible champion of the opportunities our students enjoy
005here in Wanche, never missing a chance to highlight those accomplishments. Martin has gone above and beyond in his service. He he chaired a levy citizens committee by himself during the pandemic. Helped create and guide our budget [clears throat] committee which will be part of his legacy for the Wanche school district and school board. And he stayed on the board for an extra two years for a number of reasons. One of those I believe to help mentor and support an aspiring superintendent for which I am personally and deeply grateful. Uh he has been a member of our migrant core pack who are here in representation tonight um and represented us at the state level on the migrant advisory committee advocating for some of our most important programs. What stands out most about Martin though is his
006integrity. He asked difficult questions and not for the sake of being difficult. He asked them because he really wanted to be sure that this school district was responding to the needs of our community in a way that was honest, responsible, and student centered. He has modeled what it means to lead with both conviction and compassion. And on a personal note, Martin, I want to thank you. I want to thank you for your guidance. Thank you for your mentoring. Thank you for your confidence. And yes, even for schooling me every now and then. And I want to thank you u for your unwavering support, your example that you lead with, and most of all, your friendship. Um it's been the greatest honor to share this table with you. And finally, we have to recognize uh Martin's
007wife Tina and his family. Tina's here, always here to support. Their sacrifices made it possible for Martin to give so much of himself to the school district. So on behalf of all of us, thank you Tina and family for sharing him with us. Martin, as we know, words are never enough to express our gratitude. Please know that your legacy of service, your integrity, and your love for this district will continue to guide us for years to come. So, thank you, my friend. And we have this little trinket for you to hang on your wall and words to inspire. So, thank you. [applause] Thank you very very much. I am going to some words to say at the end of the meeting, but in the meanwhile, everybody wants to get on to the good part of
008the meeting. Thank you, middle school, and I'll shut up for now. >> Okay, so we're going to get through we'll we'll race through the consent agenda, get to our bright spot. Uh the items on the consent agenda were sent to the board and posted online last week. The board has had the opportunity to review the materials and ask the superintendent any questions they have about any items on the consent agenda. The consent agenda for this meeting includes the minutes for the October 28th regular meeting, vouchers and payroll, personnel report, contracts, August financial report, policy updates with non-sustained changes, and retired policies, field trips, elementary school improvement plans. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. It's my final motion. >> Why are they
009I second. >> All right. Has been has been moved [laughter] moved by Martin and seconded loudly by Maria. Uh any any discussion? [laughter] >> All right. Hearing none. All in favor of adopting the consent agenda as presented say I. >> I. Those opposed? None. Okay. Motion carries. Bright spots. Cy. >> Let's do it. Thank you. I am so thrilled to have our middle school combined middle school band. We have select members. Um, you all had were in the parade yesterday. Is this correct? Yep. Excellent. So, you're here for us. Extracurricular activities um such as band help our students have a robust student experience and are funded predominantly through our four-year education program and operations levy that our voter supported last February. So, we're thrilled to have you all here. And wow, what a what a
010great uh what a great array of amazing So, we have brass, we've got drums, we've got the whole thing. I love it. So, um, we also hope that maybe there are a few students that want to share, uh, their experience with the board and the community as well. Um, but we'll let uh let our amazing staff get us started. >> B up. >> Roll up. Two, three, four. Heat. Heat. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] [applause] >> So, I'd like to start by having two students present their presentations for And then I have a presentation on behalf of the many other voices from Orchard Middle School that could not be here this evening. Being a part of the Ora Middle School music program has truly changed my life. From the moment I joined band, jazz band,
011and choir, I discovered a deep love for music that has become a huge part of who I am and who I always be. isn't just about playing notes or performing. It's about connection, emotion, and growth. It's a feeling that I will never be able to put into words. Playing six different instruments has taught me so much more than how to make music. It's shown me what it means to work hard for something I care about. Every rehearsal and every performance has helped me become not only a stronger musician, but also a more confident and understanding person. One of the most meaningful parts of the Orchard music program is the relationships I've made. Music has a way of bringing people together and the bonds I've built through it are ones I know will last for years
012to come. When we play or sing music together, it feels like we're something so much bigger than ourselves. Music has also helped me grow as a as a leader. I've learned how to encourage others to do so many things. I've learned how to listen and how to be someone people my peers can rely on. Because of everything I've experienced with orchard music programs, I know that music will always be a part of my future. I hope to keep sharing it with others and someday with my own children so they can experience the same joy, connection, and sense of purpose that music has given me. I feel like I'm thriving when I'm performing. I could be having the worst day ever. In one second, And in one second, all of my bad feelings will be replaced
013by the feeling of faith and love. Because music makes me have faith that my whole life will come out And it makes me feel like the luckiest girl in the whole world to be performing, learning, and growing with the Orchard Middle School Music Program. [applause] I think the Orchard Middle I think the Orchard Middle School music program is a great thing that will help students grow grow certain skills in their life. The music program has helped me grow leadership skills by helping to lead and conduct the band and working on stuff that they're having trouble with with them and helping us to sound better as a group. It has also let me practice my patience with my playing when I'm trying to learn a hard piece and practicing the fingering notes and amisher over and
014over and over. In my seventh grade year, I wanted to be in the marching band, but although but the trouble was bassoon and piano both don't march. [laughter] So Mr. Samberg stayed after school with me so I could learn the trombone. And now I play the trombone and and the bass trombone for marching band. The music program has also given me motivation and something to love and work on as I practice a ton of different instruments while learning music learning different music all the way. I believe that the band program is very good for students because it gives them something to try at and learn life skills while doing something they love. >> [applause] [applause] >> Thank you Ariel and Dalton for your kind comments. Good evening members of the board of staff and families.
015Thank you for inviting the Orchard Middle School Music Program for Pioneer and for Foothills to be here tonight. You've just heard what our students can do with their instruments and voices. And I'd like to share in some of my students own words what this program has done for their lives. Maria wrote that music at Orchard has taught her what working hard really means and that when she plays, quote, "Music gives me peace and hope." Another student shared that music is not just a hobby, but a tool that helps them solve problems, try hard things, and even talk to people with more confidence. Several students talked about community. One of them said, "Being in the music program has helped me learn that working together can truly make something beautiful." Lauren put it this way. Music helps
016us learn to work through problems with others instead of giving up. For some, music is a reason to come to school. Kimberly wrote that being in mariachi gives her confidence, bravery, and joy. She said, quote, "If I didn't have music, it would take away one of the reasons I like coming to school. It matters." End quote. Juan, one of our band and Mariachi students, told me that this program has helped him choose a future career in music and given him a class to look forward to on tough days. He also hopes mariachi will expand so more students can experience their culture and in his words quote put smiles on people's faces end quote. Others talked about mental health. One student shared that band helps them shut out the quote needless drama of middle school. Another
017said simply that music lights up my day and gives them something to look forward to. These are just a few voices from many for our students. Music is not extra. [clears throat] It is where they learn persistence, teamwork, responsibility, leadership, and hope. On behalf of the students at Orchard, Foothills, and Pioneer, thank you for supporting our music programs and for helping us keep this life-changing work going. Thank you. [applause] >> Well, we want to thank you all for coming. And we're also wondering if there might be a little bit more that you can play for us. >> Or play it again. That sounds great, too. >> I like it. [laughter] >> One more time. >> Roll up. Two. Three. Four. [music] [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >> [applause] [applause] >> Thank you so much. We
018appreciate you being here tonight. All and thank you for all of the logistics that it took to uh to make everything happen. One of the beautiful things about working at the district office is that we know when there is going to be a parade that is going to be happening soon because we we get to hear the orchard go around the building and it just it's amazing. So, thank you for the sneak peek and the preview and uh very excited. Thank you. [applause] >> And I want to add, thank you for eloquence in your music, eloquence in your words, and how you demonstrate that the different programs and richness that are available to in in the Wachi school district, work with each other and and give you opportunities. So, thank you for making the effort
019to come here. We really appreciate it. >> Thanks, everyone. All right. Now we are going to move on to the consent agenda and this is or sorry on to the citizen comment. Why I cross them off normally. Uh if any member of the public would like to make a citizen comment, please sign up online 15 minutes before the meeting or complete a citizen comment form. Forms are available at the room's entrance and should be turned to board secretary Kim. English and Spanish speakers will be allowed 3 minutes of comment time with additional time allowed for translation. Miss White will keep a timer that will notify you when your time expires. Please be aware that the board's role to receive comments. We will not respond to questions or challenges and the board silence is not signal
020agreement or endorsement of the speaker's remarks. >> One person signed up. Juan Rodriguez Good evening, members of the board. Uh, my name is Juan Rodriguez. I lived in Wanchachi Valley since I was three years old and graduated from Wanchachi High School. Um, I had the honor of serving in the long-term uh, facilities planning committee and I now serve as the co-chair for the vote yes committee for the school bonds. Tonight, I'm here to urge you to vote yes to move this farm forward and allow our community the opportunity to decide on it. As a part of the facilities planning committee, uh we toured Wanche High School and I was truly shocked by what I by what I saw. The conditions our students are learning in are rough. From outdated classrooms to aging infrastructure, these are
021not the conditions that reflect the excellence and care that our stu students deserve. Our committee did not come to this recommendation lightly. We explored every possible we explored every possible alternative including uh partial remodels and smaller scale updates. But after extensive study, we concluded that this bond proposal is the most responsible long-term solution for our district and taxpayers. Continuing to patch things like the high school's H&Hback system will only cost our community more in the years ahead. As a community member, a community organizer, and a father of two future uh Panthers, I'm asking you to do the right thing for Wanchi's future. Approving the bond is an investment not just in our schools but in the strength and success of our entire community. Please vote yes tonight to move this bond forward. Strong safe schools
022build a driving. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. [applause] >> We have one more. >> Yes, we do. Melanie Tobar. Good evening. My name is Melanie Tobar and in my capacity as a student at Wachi High School, where I have spent the last four years, I've experienced firsthand the challenges we face in our everyday lives. One of the first things you notice about our current building is the lack of windows. While many will argue that it isn't much of a problem, and we've adapted to it over the course of years, I strongly believe that it's a problem. Without natural light, many classrooms feel dim and closed off. Some teachers have even gone as far as creating big windows to make the room feel more natural and welcoming. But despite all this effort, it
023all affects us as students. It makes us it makes it hard to stay focused, stay energized, and less motivated to learn in a dark room. Natural light plays a big role in our education than most people realize. And it's something our current building simply does not does not provide. Secondly, we've all heard of the temperature inside the high school. During spring and summer months, students have to layer down just to avoid overheating in classrooms. Many classes, especially near the English wing, have had to move into the comments or even into teachers prep rooms just to create a teachable environment. And if those two options become too full, other students go into the halls, which should never be the case. Hallways are meant to be for students to move around, not lessons to be taught in.
024But even then, the heat becomes a huge distraction. I personally remember having to move classrooms during an exam because it was too hot to be in. Losing valuable time and then trying to concentrate in another room is something no student should experience. For those in PE, the situation is worse. Exercising exercising in that heat is exhausting and discouraging. Some students even choose to skip school because the building can't maintain a comfortable temperature and no one should ever feel for forced to miss class for that reason. And as if the heat were already a challenge, the problem doesn't end there. When winter comes, the the situation flips around. Now students layer up in about two to four sweaters just to stay warm. Some teachers even bring their own blankets because they never know what the temperature
025in the classroom will be from one day to the next. Recently was played a big role in our building these past two months have been the smoke. It had impacted us negatively where we've had to switch to half days for a half a week. The smoke was so bad it began to spread inside the building. As soon as you walked through the front doors, you could see the smoke drifting all the way to the science hall. You could even smell it. Not a [clears throat] strong scent, but enough to where you knew the smoke had entered the building. I remember having to tell my cheer coach that practice shouldn't continue that day due to the poor air quality inside the school. Many practices ended up being cancelled altogether because of how much smoke had entered
026the building. Opening the doors to let the air in wasn't an option. The large air conditioners and fans were set up throughout the building just like the summer months. While they helped a little, they also created new problems. Noise. The noise from the nearby bands made it difficult to hear teachers and their size took up valuable space in already narrow hallways. If moving around the building wasn't hard enough before, the added equipment made it challenging for students to get by. These are just a few me a few of the many challenges that students experience every single day at Wachi High Schools. Wachi High School's promise to its students is we promise to build a foundation of diversity, equity, and inclusion from which students enrich future ready. While this mission speaks of the foundation of who
027we are as students, our community also has a responsibility to help us build a stronger physical foundation. One that provides a safe and sustainable learning environment. Supporting this bond means investing in the future generations, ensuring that the promise made to our students is matched by the place we learn. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] >> All right, Cory, turn it over to you for specials. >> Yes. So, let's kick it off with uh Trevor Carlson from Piper Sandler to share with us um some of the updated numbers for the bond to build the new Wanche High School and replace the HVAC systems in seven schools throughout the district. Trevor has come all the way over the mountains to join us this evening and we appreciate him being here. Thanks, Trevor. >> Great. Thank you very
028much. Uh appreciate the opportunity and thank you Liz for assisting with the technology. Appreciate it. Uh hard copies are in front of all the board members. There's also one piece of paper that's 11 by7. Uh so uh to help out on legibility on very tiny numbers from an Excel spreadsheet. Um thank you again. My name is Trevor Carlson. I work for Piper Sandler. We have uh the privilege uh for many years of serving as the district's bond underwriter. I appreciate again the opportunity to be here. President Jackson, Dr. Calor, members of the board. Thank you. uh depending on how you would like to run your meeting. I am comfortable with taking questions during the presentation or you can wait till the end. Your choice I can roll. Um again tonight is Thank you so much
029is about education decisions have not been made. I have uh included in the packet and up on the screen in a few pages an example of what bond tax rates could look like. for a very specific dollar amount. Again, just want to make sure the public and the community is fully uh crystal clear that no decisions have been made at this time. So, with that, I'll kind of jump through and I think uh walk through the presentation, probably create some dialogue and some questions. Um so, let's let's do that. Uh the first page in front of you, uh there we go. Are election dates. Um I included these uh all the way through uh 2028. Just as schedule planning tools, m milestone planning tools on the far left, the election dates that are available to
030school districts, there are four different opportunities throughout the calendar year. And then backing up to the resolution filing date. So depending on the date you're targeting, uh go into that second column uh to then determine approximately when or before that date, you should have a decision made and a resolution turned in to the state or excuse me, the county auditor's office. A few folks uh that have uh heard this presentation before have seen a few of these slides. I don't want to belabor too much unless there are specific questions. Um, but I I wanted to make sure that we were looking at voted voted bond history which is page two. Again, those four opportunities throughout the calendar year to go to the ballot are February, April, August, and November. The passage rates for bonds going
031all the way back to 1992 are presented during those four discrete time periods on the upper part portion of the the graph. The upper graph, the lower graph shows passage rates for school bonds in the state of Washington in each specific calendar year. As you can see, in 2025, 45% of the bonds that have been placed on the ballot through August, the the uh ballot from November has not yet been certified. I will show you preliminary results and and display those in just a couple of seconds. Uh long-term average, 40% of any bond on the ballot has passed over a decade, multiple decade long history. Uh so, conversely, 60% are not successful. This year will be basically right at the historic passage rate. So that's good news. There's some hope. There's hope out there, >>
032Trevor. And that's that's past and validated. Is that or because I know like PA had its past didn't validate. >> Yes. And uh let's uh talk about those uh Yeah. No, just a couple slides. Yeah, that's that's a wonderful point. Um uh I want to make sure that we bring that up. Yes. And through August of 25, uh 45% have passed and validated. Next slide. >> Not sure if I'm in control or actually Liz is. I think Liz is. Yes. Okay. This is not always um she's always in control. Um second slide. Again, don't want to belabor the point. Uh but just for your uh your notes and you can tuck this away. Again, congratulations on getting the EPN passed. Right. 61 almost 62% very great turnout. You've had a long history of support on
033the operating side. That is wonderful. Uh passage rates in a very [clears throat] similar manner displayed for operating levies on page three. If you don't mind, we'll jump to the next uh page four shows capital levies. The same passage rate uh type display. And next slide, page five. Uh uh President Jackson to to talk about the what's happened this calendar year. Uh h the top half of the graph shows what happened in April, February of 25. The bottom portion of that uh that table. Uh as President Jackson mentioned, Puallup School District had two attempts this calendar year. both exceeded the supermajority level of 60% yet did not ultimately pass because validation did [snorts] not occur. Remember 40% of the folks that turned out at the last general election need to turn out and vote. You
034need to have a critical mass of individuals come out and vote yes on a bond. Bonds are the only excess levy that require validation. transportation capital technology operating levy no validation requirement 50% plus more bonds are the outlier. So remember uh think about our timeline here. Our our watermark for the validation requirement was November of 24 for all the bonds that were on the ballot 25. November 24 presidential election higher turnout in general not excessively high turnout November 24 compared to November 2020 wasn't off the charts different. is actually a little bit lower 24 compared to 20. Validation is not it is something to be uh considered. It is by no means an excessive problem uh prior to 2025 and those two validation issues with Po. We'd have to go back to 2016 for Renton
035School District. Um they came back later on in that year and passed. There was a snowstorm and I think actually brought this up with certain uh individuals on the school board uh where there was a snowstorm and the mail was either people didn't fill it out and turn it in or the mail wasn't being collected in a timely fashion. Prior to that uh the last validation uh issue was in 2001. That was a long time ago. So again, you can count on one hand the uh the instances where it became problematic. Next slide, Liz. Uh, I sent around these election results on Friday night. I have not updated uh since. Um, most counties have have suspended the counting of ballots until uh November 25th when um elections certify. The bond issues on the uh kind
036of upper middle portion of the uh of the table, Lake Chalan, Auburn, Orin, Spokane, and Lynden were the five bonds on the ballot. Two of those at this point are passing for and Spokane and both of those are validating also. So again, that's 40%. Remember, long-term passage rate for bonds is about 40%. Capital projects levies, just so you have them. Uh uh some of those include technology. The next slide shows operating levies. Next slide, page eight. Your history, just so you and the community are are all on the same page. Bond election results for Wachi School District on the upper portion of the slide. Again, operating levies on the lower portion. Uh look at all those past uh results. Uh those were great results in the 60% range going all the way up to 76%
037all the way back in February of 93. So great support, community support for funding, which ties directly into what we just heard, right? All the kids playing the music. Next slide, please. Tax rates. Remember, tax rates are a byproduct. They're a mathematical byproduct of the amount of dollars that are collected, whether it's bond or operating or capital, divided by the district's assessed value. Okay, tax rates do not drive your funding. Your funding is approved in a dollar amount fashion. Okay, so that's really important. But so you could say, why do we talk about tax rates? Tax rates are our basically our singular way for us to determine amongst different individuals that hold different properties of different value what different measures could mean to each individual on a tax basis on a tax burden basis a
038tax increase basis depending on what type of measure may be put forward. So right now uh in 2025 the total tax rate for the WACI [snorts] school district between operating levy and bond levy is $241 varies dramatically. Uh it was up to 599 I think is the high point in 2005. Again the big driver the denominator in that equation is the district's assessed value. And we'll look at some history in a few slides. Um and then we'll about some of the assumptions that have gone in to the bond planning example on that 8 uh 11 by7 piece of paper uh that's in front of you all on the school board. Next slide. Uh number 10 is a comparable tax rate chart ranked from highest total tax rate to lowest for all the school districts in
039Chalan, Douglas, and Kittitas counties. just to give you a sense of where you reside um with your geographical neighbors. A little bit of apples and oranges comparison. Speaking for example, a salary of 55 million, you're at 7.8 billion. So not a maybe a fair comparison, but geographically that's how it turns. This next slide is probably a little bit more interesting. Looking school districts all across the state of Washington that have a similar assessed value. So I grabbed uh 10 school districts that were ranked uh just a little bit higher assessed value than you, the 10 below you and rank those and sorted that group from highest to lowest in total tax rate. So similar tax bases from size but obviously different composition. For example, Blaine about 25% of their tax base is one entity. It's
040a very large British petroleum refinery. So apples and oranges from taxbased composition perspective, but in totality similar numbers. >> So I Yeah. So maybe jumping the gun again, but like as we talk about this bond would be 30 years. So that assessed value could change. So then that texture rate would also change if that number were to go up. Say if we say had some data centers that came online that 7.8 billion becomes a larger number. Correct. Tax rate would go down for the average consumer. >> Correct. Or household. >> Yes. Yes. Um I love this point and I'm going to bring it up now. It may be a little bit before by you know by my design. Um but let's let's talk about assessed value and how it grows. So let's use extreme examples.
041If the assessed value grows dramatically, 20 30% in a year, the school district does not receive a windfall of additional dollars. Remember, you're collecting a specific dollar amount based upon your DPO and your debt service or your bond payments are fixed. So, we know what those collections are. As President Jackson alluded to, the change in that assessed value, change in the denominator, the dollar amount collected divided by the assessed value would then if it grew dramatically, the assessed value, that tax rate would then decrease. The dollar amounts that you would collect would mean would remain relatively similar year-over-year. And we'll we'll look at uh why that will be slightly changed. I've been kind of working in very simplified environment. Um, but I just want to make sure that's crystal clear. And conversely, the assessed value
042goes down, which it has in the past, doesn't mean you collect less money. It's just spread over a smaller tax base. But that new construction piece, say a data farm, a server farm, that broadens the ability to spread that tax burden over a larger tax base. Think of think of a very simplified example. I live here. I pay all the taxes. I'm the only person that lives here. Dr. Kalahar moves in. We're splitting the taxes. Now, President Jackson moves in. Now, it's a third, a third, a third. Right? That's the very simplistic way to think about the expansion of the tax base. Not from an inflationary perspective, but from new parcels, new construction, additions. Very important. Uh next page uh on 12, please. Um we've we've talked um a little bit about bonds, but why
043bonds? Bonds are the long-term mortgage, if you will, the ability for you to take a large capital facility need and spread those payments out for a significant amount of time to create as low of a tax burden as possible. Right. Bonds are I I use the terms debt, mortgage, uh a loan. It's it's it's a loan that we break into lots of different pieces to sell to many types of investors to optimize the financing, but ultimately folks are lending, if you get voter approval, the district money to go build, you pay back with property tax collections over a long period of time. most likely a 20-year time period to find a nice balance between keeping the payments low but not having the interest cost become exponential as you add on another 10 years or even
044longer. The [snorts] interest cost becomes um very significant and it hampers your ability [clears throat] in future superintendents, future boards to make different decisions on future capital needs. So, it's kind of a nice balance. Um, we've talked about passage rates, 60% yes vote, 40% validation for bonds. And again, this is a new revenue stream that is created by the vote of the people. The vote of the people, if they pass a bond measure, just like the one you have on the on your books today, it gives you the ability to tax regardless of rate or amount sufficient dollars to pay principal and interest. So, it's a very very safe credit for investors that were looking to lend you money. Uh, next page, please. Debt capacity. We always need to make sure that you are asking
045within the realm of the constitution and the RCW. The calculation is your assessed value times 5% is the maximum amount of debt that you can issue in any given calendar year plus less the amount of bonds that are already on the books. That equates to right now $348 million. You can borrow without the vote of the people. Think of that as a personal loan. You can think of that as the general fund backing that non-voted debt. The bottom calculation there is 38 of 1%. So a much more stringent um capacity based upon the lack of creating an additional uh or new or dedicated revenue stream for repayment. Next slide please. Uh the bonds you have outstanding on the books today are the bonds that we refinanced that were issued in 2014 originally. We refinanced those
046in March of 24. Um saved the taxpayers about $6.6 million in interest savings over nine years by entering into that transaction. The final maturity of those bonds is in December of 2033. And again on that 8 12 by 11 piece of paper, we'll walk through kind of what that looks like and the implications of what an additional ask from the voters on the bond side uh could look like. who have a very strong credit rating at A3. Um, and that was affirmed back in uh or earlier in uh September of this year. Uh, next slide please. In this u a lot of the concepts on page 15 uh we described and went into a lot of detail um with your capital facilities group right and the education associated with that and appreciate uh folks from
047that that team being here today. So really what we're thinking about when we're talking about B bond planning [clears throat] are what are the costs? What are those scopes of work? How are you are you measuring the cost of each of those? Tailoring a financing solution to each of those different project scopes and then how are you going to pay for it? Bonds are the primary method. state matching dollars, school construction assistant program. If you scap, if that's uh been bantered around in conversations, that is uh sometimes a portion of the solution. Investment earnings, impact fees, things of that nature. Timing is very important in life. is very important in determining the amount of bonds to be issued, when they will be issued, and you're dealing with three separate kind of pillars of law. Tax
048law. So, the IRS, we need to make sure we're crossing, you know, dotting the eyes, crossing your tees, state law, and federal securities law. So, we'll work handinand glove uh with your bond council to make sure that the timing and the tax law considerations are all buttoned up and then ultimately taxpayer impact. Um I could have started just right there and dove into the model, but I knew you needed a little bit of primer. It's been a little while since I've been here, but we'll get to the the punchline in just a just a moment. So, we're going to look through and discuss um and please stop me if you have questions. I want to make sure you're you're clear since I'm here. Um but we'll we'll talk about the assumptions that go into the
049modeling, right? Because we don't have the answer. We're making our best guess based upon educa, you know, experience, history, and balancing pros and cons because there's not a right answer. But we're going to try and tailor a solution that meets you and your community's needs. Okay. So, let's talk about interest rates on the next slide. As I mentioned, mortgage, loan, debt, bonds are a big loan. What's a what's a loan have to do with interest rates? Has to do everything to do with interest rates. This is the going to determine the amount that is needs to be repaid over a long period of time. Uh the top portion looks interest rates for bonds that are similar to the Wachi School District's bonds. We hit all-time lows during uh during the pandemic as there was a
050massive amount of fiscal and monetary stimulation um being put into the system. And guess what? Interest rates have increased over the last few years as the Federal Reserve has tried to tamp down inflation, right? eggs, lumber, supply chain, all the things, right? We've seen a moderation. We've seen the Federal Reserve take a little bit more of a hawkish uh excuse me, a doubish stance by decreasing interest rates, but the Federal Reserve only controls the overnight lending rate between banks. So, that's why we're seeing on the bottom graph where those three different colored lines are, the shortterm interest rates have increased dramatically. So the the gold line is a couple years ago, the blue line is today. The differential in the last couple years is stark in the short end of the yield curve. So bonds
051that m or loans that mature in year 1 2 3 4 5 let's say much less of a change in those longerdated maturities. But still that entire yield curve has shifted down. That means borrowing costs are significantly lower now than they were a couple years ago, which is important because you want to lock in low borrowing costs. That's that's the name of the game. Next slide. We've talked a little bit about bond ratings. A couple bullet points from the last um uh the last report that Moody's ratings put out, and then a scale on the right hand side, AAA being the best. On average, Washington school districts are falling in the double A3 to single A level. Moody's for example, standards and other rating agency um have really taken more of a negative tone on
052K12 credits bonds across [clears throat] the nation. It's not you, it's not Washington, it's national enrollment is really the big driver as enrollment across the nation has moderated or increased in in many many areas. There's there's a little bit more pressure on the finances in [clears throat] school districts, but you have a very strong investment grade credit rating. Next slide, please. [snorts] Assessed value. Again, the denominator in the tax rate equation, you never know what's going to happen with assessed value. But let's look at the history to help us determine how we should model going forward. So graphical representation up top. We have received a preliminary again emphasize preliminary calendar 26 assessed value at 8.5 billion. That's a preliminary growth year-over-year of 8.6%. Remember in 2000 this year in 25 basically flat. was down.1%. But
053significant growth uh looking at the the lower left hand side in 22 and 23 even in 24 double digits and then a a high singledigit growth rate. I've used 3% in the model going forward. You could say why why 3%. I want to be conservative. I I believe that your area is going to significantly >> [snorts] >> uh grow significantly in the near term in medium term. Long term is it just becomes fuzzier, right? Or crystal ball becomes more opaque. In the middle right hand side there's it says 20 year, 10 year, 5year compound annual growth rate. I'm really leaning into that 20 year compound annual growth rate at 6.4%. So what that means on average over 20 years this assessed value has grown 6.4% year after year after year after year. Let's rule them.
054Let's cut that in half. That's about 3%. Other thing I can hang my hat on. If you look at inflation going back to the turn of the previous century, let's say we look at inflation over a 100 plus years, it's really close to 3%. The Fed's target is two. is conservative. I want to make sure you all can stand behind a conservative, thoughtful approach on the bond tax rate planning side because I want you to be able to have promises made, promises kept. If the world changes dramatically and assessed value gets cut in half, right? No one saw that. The model blows up and we will be incorrect. But let's be conservative and constructive. Hence 3%. Okay. Next page shows the detail of the assessed value going all the way back to 2005. The second
055column in from the right is that new construction piece. President Jackson and I were, you know, having a conversation around that piece with, let's say, data center additions, right? If there's data center additions, if there's new housing [snorts] developments, new commercial downtown, whatever it is that's additional, that's brand new, you add it in that column and that diffuses the tax burden across a greater the pie. Right? Next page is the one that's really difficult to see. Hopefully the big piece of paper helps slightly. I'm going to grab microphone because I have to move because I want for you to see um a couple things I think are really important here. So, the top portion looks at assumptions, your strong credit rating, the utilization of the school bond guarantee program. There's a program that we we
056utilize that in 2024 with the refinancing was embedded in the resolution that was approved prior to the issuance of that debt where you can utilize the state's credit rating. State has a triple AAA the best. What that really does is bring down the borrowing cost for the school district. Right? You have a a a very reliable cosigner. I've used today's interest rates plus 1%. Interest rates move around. You saw the graph, right? Goes up, goes down. I don't know where they're going to be in the future. Let's build some contingency. Think of this just like your construction program, right? You're going to have all these line items. There's going to be one at the bottom that says contingency, and it's going to be x%. So, let's build that in. Assessed value at 3% growth. This
057is a projected estimated tax rate at a $290 million bond. Depending on how you would like to see this moving forward, we can again show some sensitivity and change dollar amounts. Okay, I've broken that into three bond sales and those are included here if you follow me real quick up here. 27, 28, and 29. broke those into approximately equal bond sales. Your construction cash flow will determine the ultimate timing and magnitude of those bond sales. This is a [snorts] pretty good guess right now. And again, remember once you have an authorization in place, you're not forced to issue all of the debt at once. You can issue it over time, just up to that maximum authority. So in this example, 290 million Remember I said you still have some bonds on the books, the ones
058that we refinanced last year that go out through 2033. That's the third column in uh under existing debt. So what we are doing is we are taking that existing debt into into consideration those three bond sales and the the estimated payment structures right in the kind of middle of the sheet. We're looking at your operating levy, which uh this is in the way, but you can see in the middle of the sheet [snorts] >> There we go. Do these numbers look familiar in the box? Those are just approved. So, I plugged those in and I made an assumption that it grows with assessed value over time. very simplified uh uh assumption but those you know this this last number of 2960 grows at 3% grows at 3% every year and what my goal is is
059to structure this debt put the payments in the optimal location in time to create a pattern of tax stability ility on the far right hand side. So the bonds would be issued in this example in 27 hit the tax rolls in calendar 28. So in calendar 28 you see the increase to $4.38. Okay. So that delta between calendar 27 and calendar 28 would be $153 in total tax rate. So we're we're we're thinking about the entire stack of taxes between operating and bonds to create that pattern of tax rate stability. Questions? This is a little bit [snorts] little of a tangent. This is taxes on property owners, correct? >> Correct. So, I had a couple people say, "Oh, well, I'm I'm renting, so I can't vote." But that is not the case, right? It's everywhere
060in the school district can vote. So, if someone if we have a property owner that lives outside of the district, they would not be able to vote, but they would still be paying for the property that they own in the in the district. >> That is correct. So, the the geographical boundary of this entire school district, every piece of real and taxable personal property would be assessed the amount divided by the proportionality of what they own of that pie. Right? We own a small fraction. A small fraction that entire obligation, which is the the total collection amount right in the middle of this page. I think it says total of all levies. Maybe that number divided by all of the property taxpayers turns into that tax rate. But you are correct. If you are a
061resident within the boundary of Wachi School District and you are 18 or older, you can vote. If you're a renter, ultimately your landlord is baking into their income, dollars that they need to maintain their facility, generate probably some operating profit and expenses and to cover expenses. And guess what one of those expenses is from a landlord's perspective? It's taxes. So implicitly they're paying taxes. They just don't get that bill directly. from the ranchers. >> But I think it's important to remember that that if we if you are in the boundaries, you were you allowed to vote like you said 18 and up like it is not if you own property you can and if you don't you don't. [clears throat] >> Everyone votes. >> Amen. >> Y thank you. >> Yes. >> Sorry lots of
062small numbers on the paper. We can come back. There are no silly questions. If they're if if if you're embarrassed and shy, you can call Corey or Sean and and we can talk later. >> They like talking late at night. >> Call up at 9, 10. It's fine. >> We talk about bonds at all hours. >> So, I I think the importance for me to note here is that you are showing when the the 2014 bond drops off. And so you're you're you're kind of >> frontloading >> um or backloading the the timeline a little bit just to take into consideration that we're keeping this 438 consistent across the lifetime of the bond >> for except for those first couple years just to try and keep it consistent to the taxpayer as opposed to just
063saying >> let's do a flat rate call it good. >> Yes. And next slide, Liz, please. >> From a graphical representation perspective, I think President Jackson, what you're describing might be highlighted. So, the tax rates we saw in the the schedule uh in the table, they moved around a lot. It really depends on a couple things, but the most important is the assessed value, right? As that goes up and down, those tax rates change. But remember, look at 2019. Your EPO rate was capped, right? Legislation changed. What was that called? McCclary. And then after that, the levy lid changed and your tax rate was able to increase slightly to capture some more dollars that were already approved by voters that weren't capped by the legislation. So, you know, there's always things going on behind the
064scenes, but the I think the the big takeaway is your EPO tax rates are these darker gray colors. Your existing debt is this lighter blue. And then we're layering on those next three colors, the dark blue, the orange, and the yellow gold systematically to create that pattern, that pattern of tax stability at $4.38. Uh, next slide, please. More numbers. What I've tried to to display here are the annual tax bill changes based on a home value right in the middle of the screen right where the audio alert is at $500,000 in 2025. So [clears throat] I've taken that value. I've increased it every single year by the assessed value growth rate. the preliminary 26 and then 3% thereafter. [clears throat] So that's what that home, that theoretical home would do. The value, that's how it
065would change over time. Multiplied that by $4.38 equals an annual total tax bill. And then on the far right, the delta, that change year-over-year. Okay, so a little bit of a bump in 26. your EPO was approved at a little bit higher level than it was uh the previous election. So that accounts for some of that increase. is when the the [clears throat] new debt would hit the books in this example and then a leveling out of incremental tax cost over time. And Trevor, this this assumes no like again going back to the data center example, this assumes no new big projects like that. So this would be everyone sharing the growth uh evenly. Yes. >> Right. So, this house that's $500,000 is this is showing the growth as if that house were the only
066thing growing. Well, I mean, all the houses are growing the same way, but it's not new construction, not new other things that would be taking some of that tax burden. >> Correct. >> You are correct. >> Yes. So, uh an easy way to describe that very conservative, right? A conservative projection. Does that help? That's the bond planning piece. And I've got a couple slides I want to touch on, uh, if you'll entertain them from our [clears throat] voter survey reser results that we um, we rolled out in September. >> Okay. So, next slide. And and why I wanted to bring these up is I think again Wanachi is Wachi. Wachi is not another district. You have to have the finger on the pulse of your committee community. What's the right project? What are what's the
067problem you're solving? What's the needs analysis? But this can give you some ideas. And and I think the other takeaway is you need to have just a a couple two or three descriptors of why this bond is important and why it solves problems. This is marketing 101. What do marketers do? They scan the environment. They try and find a problem and they bring a solution. Who gets all the money on Shark Tank? the people that bring a solution to a problem, right? So, this is your business mindset is on right now. We asked folks and we we allowed them to provide all different types of answers, but CTE has resonated very strongly for support for school district needs to support additional funding for decades. Safety and security, another important piece. I'm gonna hearken back again
068to the very eloquent speakers. I'm impressed. I would not want to be up there when I was in middle school. It's hard enough now, right? But what what I heard mental health a few different times in those conversations. I'm not a teaching and learning expert. I'm not a counselor. I'm a finance guy. But it it's it resonates. It's resonated with voters that we asked across the state. [snorts] I heard it from the kids. I don't know what you do with it. It's a really interesting piece, but this gives you some things to think about. Next slide, please. Instead of giving an open-ended uh ability to provide answers to that same question, we told the respondents, pick one thing. Pick one of those items. CTE ranked high, the mental health support, safety, and security. Again, these
069aren't your answers, but they are answers that we've heard that are statistically significant from a, you know, blind survey from voters across the state of Washington. Take it with a grain of salt, but it gives you some things to think about as you're trying to describe the benefits from a possible election. Next slide. There we go. 25. Yes. Thank you. Another important piece here that's very um near and dear to communication folks that may be in the room. How do you get this information out to the community? How does the yes committee get the marketing out? And I've said those in two separate ways. information information marketing marketing. This describes how Can you go back? Oops. >> Sorry. I think got mine on tonight. It's okay. Uh page 25. How do you currently receive your
070news and information? >> Multiple responses are accepted. Print online newspapers, local television. I won't read the list to you. It makes communications job very difficult because you have to be good at a lot of different things. You can't choose one or two things. You need to do them all. Okay, next slide. I wanted to break down that basically that same list but between parents and [clears throat] non-parents. We always have these challenges in dissecting these voter populations to hit certain groups that may be more difficult than others. What it's showing you is emails from the school district websites. Super important for parents. They're on those. Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Non-parents is print or online newspapers, local television. Printed mailers are still they rank high on both uh both sub segments there. Don't
071discount the printed mailer. Said that for years and years and the data shows get the word out. If you are considering placing something on the ballot, it's not easy. >> Uhhuh. >> Here's some music from your library. includes what I think I wanted to bring to you all tonight. Any other questions, concerns? >> If you think of things later, happy to have followup conversations, happy to come back. Whatever you need, I'm the teacher. I don't have an axe to grind. This is your community. I'm trying to find a a solution for you on the financing side that matches your community's needs on, you know, possibly the high school. There were a couple folks that talked about that tonight. It's your decision. Happy to support you as you move through time. I've asked, as you probably
072tell, my questions all along. Um, but thank you for all this information. I feel like this was, you know, I think a really good, like you said, preliminary. This is informative. This is helping us decide what we want to do as a board. And I think there's a ton of good information and I'm looking forward to when we can have give you a little bit more scope analysis that we can then take that and kind of refine these numbers more. >> Yes. And that's the natural progression. Yes. >> Thank you, President Jackson. >> Y >> Trevor, can I ask one question about the comparison charts where you show the total tax burden as a rate in similarly sized districts and also locally? >> Yes. >> Uh and you're very conservative in using 3% back to
073back. there's no skewing and no gaming that the asset value will go up faster than other costs in this. My question really is if you're looking at that from a risk analysis point of view, probably most of the time the the assessed value has been beneficial to reducing the tax rate over time. So if you are a fresh new high tax rate person in a pool where a lot of people are 10 years into it, you're probably going to look in the rankings in terms of looking more expensive than you would re in reality over time. Is that a a reasonable assumption? >> That is a very astute observation. Um and I think you need to frame that in relation to the comparison of the original projection versus maybe what the tax rate looks like
07410 years down the road. Because what I want to put I want to put you all in a situation promises made, promises kept. Let's say that for simplicity sake, we're projecting a tax rate that's a buck and it's a buck for 20 years. What I hope happens is that assessed value grows, new construction is additive, and that tax rate starts to go down slowly over time. So you can to your community. We projected a dollar. Maybe in five years it's 95 cents. Maybe it's 90 cents. But there's a slow ticking down of that tax rate over time. The other reason I don't want to be too aggressive on the tax rate assumptions, again, I'm proposing 3%. You all can override me. Uh this is your plan. Can you go back a couple pages to the
075big piece of paper that's in front of you all uh which is slide 20 >> in the middle of that slide uh right here where it says 3%. Those are the changes year-over-year of the total tax collections. They're 3%. Oh, the assessed value growth rate is 3%. Because what I'm assuming is assessed value growing at 3%. A stable tax rate assessed value times tax rate in dollar per thousand equals money revenue. That's what this column right in the middle is. Is the anticipated revenue collection, taxes levied between bonds and operating over time. If I have a growth rate, let's say it's 13%. Then tax bills would be going up at that clip of 13%. If I'm trying to maintain a level tax rate, a constant times a grow constant tax rate times a growing assessed
076value is more revenue. So I'm trying to find that balance of maintaining a tax rate that is palatable to taxpayers but not overburdening taxpayers on an ongoing basis which I think is can you go two slides forward please which is then that $500,000 house graphic this one where there is going to be a bump up in the calendar Right? We have to we have to you have existing debt. There's a plateau. We have to add some debt on top of that. There's nothing we can do about that. So there will be a a tax spike for lack of a better term increase but then try we're going to try and moderate that over time. Does that help? Yes. because and I think I was really thinking about managing the perception um if it if it
077gets into a comparison are we a high tax or a low tax district and uh for prudence and fiscal management you have to do exactly that kind of forecast to be able to deliver but it could be that if it's if assessed values had had a higher rate of escalation yes than other things that you would look a tax district as compared to your neighbors who did their bonds 10 or 15 years ago, five years ago. >> Yes. >> In the voted money. >> Yes. Yes, that is correct. >> In the comparison in the relative growth rates, >> right? If you're in a district where let's say it's flatline, you're going to have artificially higher tax rate than if you're in a high growth area. So it's it's not a perfect comparison which you've pointed
078out very ele the other thing is like in 2024 when we refinance we are locking in something for 20 years but if it gets better we can always refinance and save the taxpayers money right we're not getting more money like when we we passed $6.6 $6 million back to the taxpayers. >> Yeah, >> we didn't get more money. Taxpayers got it back. We're collecting the same amount. >> Yes, that was taxpayer relief. Those were not windfall dollars into the district's general fund. >> Those were taxes that were expected to be paid based on a fixed borrowing cost. We were able to refinance, drop the borrowing cost and generate those taxpayer savings where again in a simple world they owed $100 every year for the next few years and we dropped it to 90, right? That's
079the conceptual simplistic way to describe it. >> Not the real numbers. >> Sure. I'm just, you know, thinking of it. 20 years is a long time and I think we do have some flexibility in how we handle that down the road if need be or the opportunity arises. Correct. Well said. >> Thank you, Liz, for helping me. I appreciate it. >> Trevor, thank you so much. We appreciate your time being here and for explaining all the things that are hard on paper. You're >> welcome. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Well, up next we have uh executive director of business and finance Sean Fitzgerald with the 2425 year end finance report. Uh which is a big deal. It is a big deal to close out a year. Um uh on the on the 2425 side of
080things, this is also I want to remind you as you're listening tonight uh this is the budget year where we did some major restructuring in the Wanchi school district. So, this is the year that we've uh reduced $ 8.7 million in our uh operating budget and these are the results of that work uh along with a lot of other things that Sean's going to share with us tonight. So, Sean, thank you. >> Good evening, uh President Jackson, members of the board of superintendent. be here tonight uh to present on the year end for our 20242 school year. Um one >> uh says you're all familiar with district fund structure. Um so school districts operate on a governmental accounting or governmental and accounting and finance operate on a fund basis. Uh so funds we have five
081uh different funds. uh the general uh BSP, debt service, capital projects and transportation vehicle. And each of these funds uh are um designed uh to achieve uh certain specific objectives within the school district accounting. So they're their own separate bodies um uh and with their own separate purposes. And as we go into more details throughout the year in the report, funds can be transferred for specific purposes to specific funs. But overall um basically the five funds are operating independently of each other with certain exceptions. Next slide please. One more. Keep going. So start off our general fund. Uh the general fund is our largest of the five funds and basically anything that doesn't fall under the four other funds goes under the general fund. Uh so typically general fund is accounting for for 85 to
08290% of activity uh within the school year both on the revenue and expenditure side and accounts for normal and recurring operations of the school district. Uh so student so teaching uh student teaching and learning food services maintenance uh people transportation they can fall under here in the general fund. Next slide please. uh one more terminology and background uh which I'll go into more detail in the next slide. Uh so we'll start off here with our revenue side. Uh so we're looking at we finished the year end at 127.5 million which came in to about almost 99% of budgeted uh revenue. This also includes budgeted capacity. future slide showing without capacity but overall with capacity we had a budget of 129.1 million. So we of that about 99% was uh collected and as we can see
083prior year uh came in about almost 127 or 126.9 million. So we saw an increase of about $539,000 in revenue from last year. Um going through here just kind of going down. We have our local taxes. Um gen the vast majority of the revenue that's in there is our local EPN levy. And so you can see um and some other sort of things but mostly EPO levy. So we had about uh received about 12.9 million versus 12.6 from prior year. Uh you'll see our state funding both at the 71.9 and the 27.4 million. We take those up. It's about 99.3 or approximately 78% of all of our district revenues. Uh so that's an increase of about $1.9 million from prior year. Um moving down, you'll see federal general purpose. So you can see we budgeted
084for $300,000, but we only receeded $28,000. Uh so this was a unpleasant surprise we received from the state this year. Uh generally we this is our f is tax revenue. Um and for year we have a very consistent revenue source from this side and generally we're getting about $300,000 each year on this. Uh but this year um basically we just got notification from the state like oh by the way um we're not getting um these distributions have run out or and so uh you're getting going to receive quite substantially less prior years and then additionally the state was like we're also [cough] going to um usually we receive state aortment plus the federal forest revenue. So now the state has changed rules and said whatever revenues you receive from the from federal forest revenues uh
085we'll substract subtract from your state aortionment. Uh so um kind of a double loss there revenue side. So that's where we're seeing our expectation you know we can see last year was about $35,000. Uh but our expectation now going forward is we're not going to be seeing these $300,000 revenue sources uh for the near foreseeable future. Uh federal special purpose. So a couple things here explaining the two variances both the budget and the prior year variance. So this year we received almost $12 million in our federal special purpose. So that's our title programs um title of migrant um you know in prior years that was our ESSER funding as well and so you can see uh last year we had about 14.8 million this year was about 12 million. So the biggest difference there is
086the loss of the ESSER funds. So we exhausted all the funds during the 23 24 school year. Uh so now we know we had about 2.72 2.8 less million dollars uh than we had previous from last year. Uh and then you can see the budget variance here again we have 16.5 million. Um so it's like were we expecting to receive all that uh notes. So a lot of our budget capacity is built in to that line item. Uh so it's there as a cushion if we were going to obtain extra revenue throughout the school year. We can take advantage of that without having to do a budget revision. with the school board. So, it just kind of provides that extra buffer and on future slides that'll show you what it looks like without capacity. Uh,
087and then another large item is our other financing sources. So, you can see there uh current year today almost $1.7 million. Um, we had zero in the budget, zero in prior. So, showing what is going on there. So what is happening here is our a lot of this is about a million dollars transferred back from the capital projects fund uh related to the softball funding and then we also had additional surplus sales uh and then also we're recording our leases in there as well. So, we have new accounting requirements uh that we have to comply with and one of those is when you're doing um a lease uh you have to record the entire present value now on the books. So, you'll see um so of that 1.6 about $530,000 is our just our new
088printer releases and um you'll see a corresponding expenditure in future slides of the same amount but the OSPI they want us to book the full amounts that's being reflected on our book so we can see the lease uh so that accounts for large increase there as well any questions on revenues right next slide Uh so here's just kind of the same data just uh presented a table a different format. Um again you can see just comparison year to year not much changes. Uh of course the biggest change you can see is the federal special purpose. Uh again that decline from last year was due to no more ESRE funds. Uh and then we see that slight increase on other financing sources on the far right again just due to transfers back into the general fund
089from capital projects and then also recording uh the entire leases on our books to comply with the county requirements. Next slide please. Uh one more. All right. Now let's jump into expenditures and uses. Uh so again we report expenditures about 128 6 million which was an increase of almost $950,000 from prior year excluding transfers to the capital projects fund. Um so what we have here just going down 128.6 million versus 133.2 million budget. So again about 96.5% of uh percent of the budget. Um and then comparison to last year we had about 127.6 Um just kind of moving down again regular instruction um that is you know again the bulk of our budget that's our learning and teaching so um regular instruction includes you know basic ed alternative learning our open doors program that's where
090teachers is that's where our teachers are under the regular instruction then we move on to special education vocational education that's CT that's our CTE program, uh, skill center, uh, compensatory education is all, uh, lap lap high poverty. Uh, all of our federal programs are in there as well. Um, that follows along again with other instructional programs. Uh, as well, again, you can see the large gap in other instructional programs, 1.7 versus 6.1 budgeted. Again, that's where a lot of our capacity is on the expenditure side. Uh, and then comparison We got about, you know, we have 1.7 million this year. You know, about a $40,000 increase. Um, and then again, support services, that's our districtwide maintenance operations services district office. That makes up that line item. Then when we get down to other financing uses,
091we see transfers to the capital projects fund. So, you can see last year we transferred uh 5.5 million over for the construction of the new softball field. And then here on our uh for the 2425 school year uh we have $850,000 transfer and $500,000 budgeted. So what happened here? So we know that we transferred $500,000 um back uh to the capital projects fund for emergency and preventative maintenance. And I'll walk through with a breakdown of all those projects uh when we get to the capital projects fund. But then what happened was back in January in the previous slide we discussed moving a million dollars back uh from for the softball funding and was going to just kind of draw down the fund reserves to um accomplish any other tasks that would happen throughout the school
092year. But then we had during August we had our issues with HVAC and high school roofing and we realized well u we probably have to put some of that money back into the capital projects. um to ensure we can cover any costs uh that have arisen. Um so that was what caused moving. So of that million dollars that came back in during January, we had to move about 350 back just to ensure we had adequate reserves to address some of those issues that were occurring in August. And then overall um we can see the over under and I'll go into more detail on a future slide uh decrease of about 1.9 million. of that very the over under. So of that we're going to see a decrease of 1.9 to our fund balance which I'll
093come to in a future slide. Next slide please. So again same data just presented in a different format. So we're seeing increases. Where are we seeing decreases? Where are we seeing increases? So we can see the decrease in the regular instruction side also at federal special purpose again directly related to ESSER uh COVID related funding there. Uh but we're also seeing increases at special education CTE and our compensatory educations and also our support services. So not huge increases but something we are paying attention to. Next slide please. Uh So here are the expenditures but instead of presenting them in the program format we're kind of looking at by our object code. So basically salaries and benefits, supplies and materials, purchase services or contracts and capital outlay. Uh so you can see here again the breakdown.
094So of our budgeted of what we spent last year, you know, salaries and benefits made up about $107 million or 83% of total monthly expenditures. So that's an increase from $80,000 from prior year. Generally, you know, we're aiming for that average of about 85%. Um that's how kind of like the average school district in the state is like 85% salaries and benefits and remainder is 15%. So we're right there. Uh so purchase services uh 13.3 million or 10%. So that's an increase of 1.1 million from prior year. And a lot we can attribute this increase to is running start because that is a contract with the college. So a lot of this increase in expenditures related to the increase in running start enrollment at the same time. So again we're not paying more because we
095got the funding from the state but it was a pass through. So now that's how we're seeing it. So it passes through the app services line. Uh and then supplies and materials uh 6.9 million or 5% of total uh expenditures which was resulted in a decrease of $1 million from the prior year. And then last but not least, I highlighted again uh the capital outlay. So again, this is the other side of the coin related to reporting leases. Uh so capital outlay is vehicles, equipment, um any sort of um are required to be meet the capitalization threshold. Uh but it also requires us to u record those leases as well. So even though yes we increased about $684,000 from prior but of that increase was due to us recording that lease which we need to
096[snorts] do under new accounting requirements. Um and so there's a $532,000 revenue source and a 500 $32,000 capital outlay. So it has no impact on the fund balance. Any questions on expenditures? Next slide please. Uh so here again same data uh just in a different format. Um next slide please. Um so again here is our data again. removing budgeted capacity about $6.1 [clears throat] million in budgeted capacity. Um so you can see the kind of before and after for both revenues and expenditures. Um so you can see on the revenue side um we go from about 129.1 to 122.9. Uh so again importance of having capacity allows us to take on this additional revenue. Uh so once you remove that we're kind of almost 3.75% above budget and then compared to on the expenditure side
097is about 1.36% over. Um so again this is why we do budget capacity this why we included. So even though we kind of have these large uh budget to actual variances in certain areas like federal special purpose or compensatory education or other instructional programs on the expenditure side. Uh it just allows us that cushion to um account for any revenues or expenditures that may come in during the school year uh without the need for budget revisions. Next slide please. And again here is the same data with and without budget capacity. Um so again biggest thing you can see here uh that really is only jumping out is is the capital outlay but as we discussed that was due to part partially due to the need. Next slide please. Um moving on to fund balance. So
098again, fund balance is our district reserves or savings account and not all fund balance reserves are available to use at the end at any time. So as we go through we have non-spendable, assigned, committed, restricted and then unassigned. Next slide please. Uh so a familiar um slide from the monthly financial reports again just comparing expenditures versus our ending funding bal ending fund balance. Uh so budget versus actual versus our average monthly expenditures. Um so you can see here for 2425 school year uh that we're finishing above budget. Um but they're also kind of correlating and tying in together with month our fund balance reserves are matching our monthly expenditures. Next slide please. And again Now we have the full you saw this uh slideshow a couple of board meetings ago but now it's completed because
099we have our full data uh for the 2425 school year. So now we can just compare our entire fund balance reserve for the school year on a monthly basis and how it compares to previous our previous three school years and where it relates to our 5% minimum fund balance uh as represented by the dash line at the bottom. So you can see here again they fluctuate on a monthly basis with October and April being our highest revenue months. Uh that's when we receive our property taxes property tax revenues from the EPLL levy. Uh but between October and April uh we are reliant on our fund balance reserves during that time. Uh so state aortionment as state aortionment is lower. Uh we don't get receive our highest state aortment until July. August. Uh so we're using
100our fund balance reserves between August and April and as you can see from each four years a consistent downward trend between those months before going back up in April. Um again as we discussed in previous board meeting uh we saw a large decrease there in June. Uh again that was a state funding issue because they did not budget enough capacity. Um and so but we did receive our full revenues in July. the new uh state fiscal year. Uh and then we can see ourselves leveling out there in August. Uh you can see um the last couple of years it's like why are they going you know why are we staying relatively flat between July and August whereas like 2122 and 22 23 uh are both increasing and that's due to all the er funding we
101received at that time. So 2122 that's when we started receiving those initial amounts and the cares one program and then that continued in 22 23 is again we were using esser funding instead of our own kind of state funds so that allowed us to build up our reserves at that time um and then you can see 23 24 um transferring funds out you can see between October and November that decline uh moving funds into capital projects uh for the softball field um and utilizing reserves at that time. Next slide, please. So, here's the same data, but we're removing our we're just focused on our unassigned fund balances, unassigned, the minimum fund balance, and our committed fund balance. I've included committed because of the um board's policy, our board's resolution uh to use part some of
102the committed fund balance to offset budget reductions. So that's included here as well. And as you can see with the state funding issue in June um because as to remind everyone since not all fund balance reserves are available at the time you know we focus strictly on okay what can we use uh that's our unassigned or committed fund balances. So you can see there in June we briefly fall below our minimum fund balance policy of 5%. Again, that's why we have that policy in there in place to address unexpected revenue shortfalls and that took everyone by surprise in June, but we had reserves uh to account for that. And as you can see, we got the rebound there in July and settled out in August. Next slide, please. Okay, so where are we going? So
1032425 to 2526. Uh so we finished with an ending fund balance of almost 13.2 million and we had budgeted for 10.3 million. So we ended up having a almost favorable variance of about 2.7 million. Um and a lot of that just kind of walking you through the factors you add them all up on the [snorts] right side. It's like how did we do better than because in the short thing we pledged and so what were the factors involved in that? Uh so we know the biggest one of the biggest factors was local effort assistance. Um so we received an additional uh $1.1 million in LEA funding uh that we weren't anticipating. And as just to go back to Trevor's uh presentation, this was due to the fact that our assessed value uh decreased by.1%. So
104LEA is based on enrollment and assessed value growth. Um so in this case since assessed value did not grow, the state gave us more money. Um when I'm doing this presentation a year from now that will not be the same case uh because assessed value grew by 8.6%. Uh so we received less LEA funding from this year. Uh but we got a windfall this year and that helped us out greatly. Uh another factor uh was budgeted positions internally filled. Uh so during you know 232 24 school year and building 2425 budget uh with all the reductions and the closure um you know almost $8.9 million in reductions and the closure of Columbia Elementary um there was a lot of movement in the district and a lot of this was occurring also at the same time
105we're building the budget and so when the budgets you know budget's just a placeholder it's a point in time and then it's set and then things change. And when we're kind of evaluating uh in the fall, give my timeline here. So, if we're going the fall of 2024, we start looking at our budget and saying like, okay, what positions have been filled? What positions been open? They're still open. And a lot of things what we saw was um positions that were in budgeted positions have been filled by people that were already in the district. Uh so this resulted in a savings of $1.1 million as well. Uh enrollment uh $500,000 increase there. Uh just you know we had a conservative budget on our enrollment projection. So we were able to by about $500,000 in extra
106revenue there. Uh another factor again just beginning fund balance. We finished uh $150,000 at our beginning fund balance. So last year at this time when I was doing this presentation know our projections were we were going to finish at 14.9 million and we started at the year of 15.1. Um then some negative amounts here. So safety net uh about a reduction about $150,000. Uh we budgeted for 1.2 million. Uh we got we receeded about 1 million50,000. Uh so $150,000 less than we expected. And then just kind of going through line items just miscellaneous things about $140,000 difference thereas as well. And then going sources and uses. So, our net transfer um so going back um you know when I was doing this presentation in June and early August um before we're counting the HVAC issues
107at the high school you know I had about a $500,000 net transfer but again had to make $350,000 transfer uh to cover those costs moving into capital projects. Uh so that favorable variance uh shrunk by $350,000. Uh positions internally filled were part of our overall budget reductions uh for the 25 26 school year. So we saw we had you know we're running a deficit but it was like hey these positions been filled already. We can close out. We don't need to be double counting people. That helped us out with our budget reductions there. So that's the fair both sides who did beat budget by 2.7 million. However, our fund balance still declined by about $1.9 million. Uh you can see that on the left hand side there as well. Um and then moving into the
1082526 school year, it's like okay, where are we starting off? So again, we anticipated um you know, projections over the summer we would start at 13.6 million. Um but however, you know, the biggest once you take that out, when we're looking at that $425,000, you know, we contribute about $350,000 to that uh transfer uh right at the end of August. Um so if we didn't have that transfer, we would have been only off by about $75,000 in our projections. Um yeah, a lot of numbers, you know. Any questions on fund balance? Next slide, please. >> You should have let Trevor go second. >> I know, right? [laughter] We were trying to outnumber each other. >> So, comparison um revisiting minimum fund balance. Um so, we're looking at 2425 school year. And then with our beginning,
109how would we look um um how would those fund balance accounts compare uh if we move to 6%. Uh so we can see here with the 13.1 million or 13.2 million in fund balance reserves uh if we're increase from 5 to 6% again roughly about$1. So the unassigned uh fund balance will increase from about 6.7 to 8.1. Next slide please. Any questions on general fund before we move on to capital projects? Uh next slide please. Uh so here's a breakdown of our capital projects fund. Um So if we're looking at our breakdown, we had about $1.1 million in revenues and about 2.8 in total expenditures uh combined with a transfer back from the general fund of a million dollars um utilized about $2.6 million in resources for the capital projects fund. So our revenue sources
110again $850,000 transfer from the general fund and then our state special purpose $210,000 uh came from a CTE grant and also um the initial revenues of our skill center grants. So again our 14.5 million state grant for skill center renovation. You know you can see the difference there between actual and budget. you know, we were anticipating maybe it would be, you know, moving into a construction phase. You know, there were a lot of unknowns when we were building the budget uh in the summer before. Uh but the things that just kind of kicked off during this summer uh this last summer and then local support uh investment earnings and our rental uh rental property income. So you can see there investment earnings are dropping dropped um from 330,000 to 78,000. Um so again a lot
111less in the reserves. Um we had a lot more reserves in last year uh when we transfer all the money from the general to the capital project for the softball. Uh and while sat in the bank account that was earning interest um but we had a lot less this year. that reflect that is reflected in the current year revenues. If we're looking at our expenditures uh breakdown of by the numbers of our projects from the right hand side uh so skill center modernization um both sites and buildings about $84,000. [snorts] Uh and then a variety of projects. Uh we finished off the girls varsity softball field. Uh it's an additional $2 million expenditure for this year. And then the remainder was uh related to the $500,000 transfer for emergency cap and uh preventative maintenance. So
112focus on the locker rooms uh the elevator at Foothills uh and then bathrooms and then of course the HVAC and roof repair and then additionally in the HVAC at well Sean is that Orchard is that just renting the portable chillers or is that actually fixing the HVAC? >> That's actually fixing the HVAC. Thank you. >> Next slide, please. Uh so have we finished? Uh so our beginning fund balance reserves uh 272,000 uh for the 25 26 school year compared we thought we finished so we finished about $97,000 uh better than projected. Um but again that's kind of the only reserves we have uh you know when we're looking forward uh for 25 26 school year most of our revenue funding will be related to being re reimbured for the skill center grant but all emergency
113preventive maintenance would be coming from again a $500,000 transfer from the general fund. Next slide please. Any questions on capital projects? Debt service. Next slide, please. One more. Uh so again, just focusing on our debt service activity uh related to our one outstanding bond uh which Trevor has discussed in our previous uh presentation which will expire at the end of 2033. Um so again, pretty straightforward. Um it was a lot less exciting this year compared to last year because we had no bond refinancing. Uh which accounts for the 52.7 million in August 2024 on the right hand side. Uh so there were no refinance financing this year. Um it was just straightforward uh receiving uh local property tax collection uh balancing out versus our um bonds and interest which we paid. We have schedule fixed
114bond schedule which we follow uh so no surprises there I mean 99 almost 100% on the revenue side almost 99% on the expend side when we're doing comparison much to actual uh we're seeing a decrease about uh $830,000 um that was as expected we're slowly drawing down on our fund balance reserves uh for debt service I think be better illustrated on the next slide. Yes. Um so we can see here we drew down we started the year with 4.3 million and then drew down to 3.5 million. So again drawing down on our reserves uh this deliberate um on some respects to comply with IRS tax side it's like not a very It's kind of a cumbersome rule, but you don't want to hold so much in your reserves at at one time uh for IRS
115compliance and we work with Trevor and Piper Sandler and make sure we're doing our projections correctly and drawing down on those reserves. It also helps to lower tax rate as we're going out less for property tax collection. Um so that lowers tax rates and relying on reserves uh to pay off the bond. Uh but we're drawing down um um deliberately and on a slow basis uh just to reach opportune levels and then any sort of remainder we have in there can be used to jump start uh any new bond construction for future bonds. Any questions on debt service? Next slide please. ASB. Next slide. Next slide. Um so again as activity uh cultural, athletic, recreational or social activities only. Uh so here we're just focused on student activities uh outside um in the district. Uh
116so we can see here um again revenue exceeded expenditures revenue is $975,000 versus 865,000 there. So we have positive growth um but we can see less activity compared to last year we had about $1.1 million in revenue uh versus $925,000 in expendure. So we saw both a decrease on the revenues and expenditure side compared to prior year. Next slide please. Again just the same data um we carry about $250,000 in additional capacity u both revenues and expenditure side. So once you remove uh capacity from the budget you can see about 85.7% of revenues and about 82% on the expenditure side. Next slide please. So again, where are we seeing the decreases? What were the change? And we saw the biggest I don't we saw stability at the general student body and athletics classes, private money
117makes up donations. So that can fluctuate from year to year, but we saw the biggest decrease in club activity and a lot sometimes, you know, that can just be contributed to what is happening in that year if there's like a big if there's a big trip or a big fundraiser. Um so again uh something we'll pay close attention to but again depending on what fundraising activities or what you know big trips or big you know things are being planned uh that fluctuates from year to year. Next slide please. So again you can see the corresponding decrease on the expenditure side related to clubs and private monies uh but also just increases at the athletics and general student body. Next slide. Uh how we finished the year? Uh so increase in fund balance about $109,000. Uh
118so we did better than budget. Um and then 25 26. Um you know, we're projecting a little finish a little bit higher, but we're only off about by $55,000 on the summer projections. So ASB is looking good in terms of reserves. Next slide. Any questions on ESP? All right. Last but not least, uh transportation vehicle fund. Next slide. Next slide. Thank you. Um so our focus again purpose of the transportation vehicle fund is to purchase the maintenance of yellow school buses. And as we can see here uh revenues about 92% actually to budget 84% uh actually budget on the expenditure side. And if we really drill down the details differences um we uh did not receive one bus this year. So we ordered five buses for the 2425 school year. We got four of them
119and the final one was delayed until the 25 26 school year. Uh so that accounts for the difference on the expenditure side and because we didn't receive that bus in August we didn't receive the corresponding uh depreciation reimbursement revenue. Uh so that accounts under the state special purpose for revenues. Uh so that minor difference there. So if we had received the bus all the buses we'd be pretty close to 100% budget action on those sites. Next slide please. Uh So again as we finish um off projections were off by about $43,000. Again we have strong fund balance reserves in transportation vehicle fund variances on total revenues again that difference there of $35,000 is depreciation reimbursement and total expenditure difference is due to just the delay in receive the bus until September. Excellent. So conclusions. So
120a lot of kind of the main points jumping out here year end projections. So overall we're starting the year the year near our year end projections. Um again the exception was due to the general fund. We had to transfer the funds over for the HVAC and the roof during the summer for the high school. Um that was kind of our summer surprise. And then the fund balance uh better than budget uh but fund balance has decreased by 1.9 million and will primarily draw down on the committed fund balance uh which based on board resolution is used to offset future budget reductions. So we're maintaining following the resolution and focusing on drawing down that balance first. We have about you know $200,000 to start the school year with in that committed fund balance for that specific
121purpose. Um we can see also our reserves show the feasibility of increasing the minimum fund balance reserves uh to five to 6% of annual budget expenditures as well. Uh and then the other thing big takeaway from the 24 25 year end again capital projects um is high priority and as you can see they can catch us off guard even right at the beginning of the school year and so this remains a high priority uh for the district. Uh we also saw the decrease in investment interest income. Uh so we can't just rely on uh interest being generated from our fund balance reserves to these expenses. So again, our transfers from the general fund uh remain the primary means of addressing maintenance issues. Any questions? >> Thank you, Sean, for the main event as always. [laughter]
122>> I don't know. I think Trevor left me off this. Well, thank you. >> Yeah, Sean, thank you. Um, it's really hard to quantify the amount of time and energy that our entire finance and budget team puts into each year's budget and the work, but they do a magnificent job and Sean, thank you for representing all that hard work. So, welcome. Appreciate it. >> Okay, what are we moving into some policies next? >> First read. >> Let's jump into some policies. We have six policies on our first read for this evening. Uh the first one is um one of my favorite topics uh 1630 evaluation of the superintendent. Um this policy simply outlines uh the board's uh duty and ability to evaluate the superintendent. It outlines the now uh aligned uh sorry it outlines and
123is now aligned to the Washington state standards in the eight areas that superintendent should be evaluated on by the board. Um, as far as the policy committee, we moved this forward. Uh, the policy committee asked that I make sure that the evidence and artifacts that I share with the board for my evaluation are aligned to this policy and we've done that. Um, so yeah, R, any other thoughts or comments? Okay. Questions from the board? Five to go. Uh, 3425 accommodating students with adrenal insufficiencies. So this is a new policy uh addressing adrenal insufficiency. I like to say that as much as I can um in students while under the care of the school district. Um the district collaborated with our nursing team on this policy before it got to our policy committee. So that was
124great to have that uh information behind us. We moved moved it forward with a brief conversation around age of consent just being 13 years old and how that could imp impact a student and their uh family at some point. Also, we had a conversation, what is adrenal insufficiency? Um, and that it impacts hormone production such as cortisol and leaves the student feeling uh fatigued with low blood pressure and darkening of the skin. Just if anyone else wanted to know that. Um, so yeah, we just move that forward. Any questions for Okay, excellent. Um, let's see. 1820 board self- assessment. Uh non-s substantive changes here really outlines when the board will go through a self- assessment process. Uh we we changed the annual part to read every other year at minimum or annually. So we kind
125of have that option. Um we were thinking that uh we're going to have every other year for our board begin in 2026 and that is intentionally to follow on years when we bring new board members on uh to our board to give uh five or six months of uh our time together and then assess uh together how we want to do that. Anything else? >> Questions? Uh 1821 uh standards for individual uh school directors. This is a new policy that outlines and describes the six standards that each board member would would need to reflectively review each year to ensure [clears throat] reaching those standards. Uh the policy seemed quite reasonable for the uh policy committee. We liked it. We actually really enjoyed the bulletin format which we don't see a lot in our policies and
126we moved that forward. Okay. Reasonable. I like it. Uh 1005 key functions of the board. Policy outlines the researchbased Washington state board standards. Uh the school board is responsible for school district governance. We know um we did massage this one a little bit there. Um, we changed the final bullet under engagement which you have and you can see redlinined in the community and education section to read taking into consideration via the superintendent input from the staff. Um, and we redlined through the word solicitation. U, we didn't we we felt like it read it didn't read well and so we we we liked the concept but we just changed the wording there. Um, we value the input of staff through the work of the superintendent was how we wanted that to read and be phrased. Did
127I capture that correctly? >> You're doing great. >> Okay. Just trying to one more. Uh 1210 uh annual organization meeting really didn't change much. Um there was some non-s substantive changes, some grammatical changes uh to this annual meeting description and we just moved forward. >> All right. Nicely done. and going to move into some action here, folks. So, I'll let President Jackson take it from here. All right. We have a second read [snorts] of policy 1815, which we talked about last meeting. Um, do I have a motion to approve 185? Um, do I Sorry, my script is all screwed up. Uh, do I have a motion to approve the second read of this policy? I move to approve policy 185. >> All right. It has been moved by RA and seconded by Mark. Any discussion?
128>> Nope. Okay. All in favor of the of this uh approving this resolution say I. >> I. Any opposed? Nope. Okay. Motion carries two. All right. So, approval of the bond proposal at the long range facility committee and the date of the bond election. So, I think we'll have a little discussion for this one, but uh do I have a motion to approve this proposed the bond proposal? There's it's real quiet. Do I do I should I just did I just do something wrong or are we are we confused about >> the date? >> I thought we'd do that the date during the discussion >> and then we could approve it after that just because I think it's we'll have to talk through a little bit what that is. >> Yeah, this is a tough
129it's a it's presented to you u in a challenging format. So apologies. >> Yeah. Um, in order for discussion, I move to um approve the bond proposal by the long range facility committee and select a date for the bond election if appropriate during discussion. >> Sounds great. >> Second. >> All right, we're going to do the heavy lifting. >> Mark seconding. >> Uh, so now we can let's do some discussion. So, if you guys go back to slide or like page one of Trevor's thing, you see the the different election dates and we kind of the ones in yellow we talked about November 3rd, 2026 and then February 9th, 2027 as kind of the real I think sweet spot for where we're looking. And again, we're not talking about this as we're setting a date
130and this is a final date for sure. for this is how do we give the district and the blonde planning committee enough kind of a a planning window or to work back from. So you're looking at resolution filing date has to happen by August 4th 2026. So if we're looking at that then you can you can kind of extrapolate where you need to be doing your fundraising when you're doing websites up etc etc. um versus if you went February 9th, December 11th becomes your new important date. So, uh preferably I'm I was leaning toward November just because you can always push back. It's really hard to move things forward. And I think that that you're allowed to run a bond twice in a calendar year. So, if we do it in 2026 and it fails,
131we still have two options in 2027. run it twice in a calendar year. >> In a calendar year, >> then that would take us to >> No, if we do it November 2026, you can do it twice. >> Then you can do it twice in 2027. >> Oh, got it. >> So, I think in terms of flexibility, setting ourselves up with like kind of the the sped up timeline, which I think is reasonable, as opposed to saying, "Let's try August." Well, August was also a terrible month for uh passing bonds, but I I feel like for me, November seemed like the right um entry into this this kind of bond planning scenario. >> So to that point, is there there's obviously a financial impact to run two bonds in so 2026 2027. Um that's my
132concern with that. Um but I am also in support as of the short discussion right now to run it November of 26. Um my biggest concern is the um the validation process. Um we're looking at um smaller so we need 40% voter turnout in order to val validate uh the election with 60% majority and I think our chances are higher if we go for a number >> seconded. I can add some general thoughts then to the discussion. Um I I think that factors that we were talking about is an early uh vote would result in reduced inflation and be economically efficient. Um that's the one factor. Um, I think when I look at the facilities commission's work and proposal, I feel very different uh than I did two or three years ago about the strong
133planning that's going into the into the project. And I think that both dates give enough time for that planning to be brought to fruition. Uh, so but I think that's that's a a factor for being willing to um uh go ahead promptly. Um, if you look back at the history even when spawns a renewed effort is part of the theme. So the comment on uh you get another try in 27 2027 I I don't want to be uh depressed about it but um I think getting the word out early with a strong wellplanned message uh is the right way to go. um even if um you then have to go back and regroup and do it again, that's been the history and I think uh rather than wait longer um I would I think that
134would be a slightly stronger um way to go about it. Um and then I noticed in the analysis we've been given there's a lot of uh uncertain political risk about what happens in Olympia uh state and other national climate. Um what we've been told is that this is a tenative decision. We would recommend a particular date. It is correctable if we find that we're looking at situations that change the voting playing field. So putting all those together, I think the structural factors are in favor of doing it as early as we think is prudent. And I hesitate a little bit because I'm not even on the board when you go into this. Um so I don't want to say, "Hey, do that." But I think that um going for the strengths and the messaging with
135a belief that there's time and strong planning and then being flexible to handle any adversity. That seems to be a good position to be in. I I think that I'm hoping that our facility speak it for itself. I'm also um confident that we're always going to catch our our base by surprise that we're doing something. So, um I think if we have a strong laid out uh with a good communication strategy. We could hit November. Uh I am using page two though see that we typically have over the whole state better turn out for February. So but going with the shooting early we could always move back if we need to. It sounds like a proving plan >> and just you know reminder to the public, we are going to see significantly more information about
136the bond. This is not we're not making a final decision on the bond. That won't happen until if we select November 3rd till August. So, this is not we're finalizing what the bond is. This is we're putting this on the this day on the books a little bit with in a pencil, but this is a planning horizon for for everyone. Um, so do I did I think do I feel like November 3rd is what we all wanted to put in for the approval? And we'll just add that Julie also shared with Director Norton also shared with Tucker and I that she supported um in November 2026 as well. >> I want to add to this um to just my comment um because it is a little tricky. We are voting on two different things. One
137is to actually run a bond and then update um the proposal. Um I I want to state my position on the bond um that I feel strongly that we should run it. Um the long range facility committee did uh extensive work um they did a lot of work um by and I think it really shocked our members of the community who have not experienced or have only experienced say our athletic facilities. Um and like our our our citizen comments um we have a students perspective, we have a parents perspective. Um and the parent perspective is uh someone who has young children in the district who are not at the high school at the middle school level. Um as a parent um of a student who will not benefit from, you know, a potential pass, I
138value education. um that I feel we need to in order for us to have uh generate lifelong learners um and productive citizens. Um we owe this to our kids whether uh there are children that are going to benefit or our neighbors children's. Um so I applaud the facilities committee for um their their work. Um it's not going to be easy. Um, but I think we have a very invested group and I hope Martin comes back to work on the committee. Um, [laughter] >> no pressure. >> Um, but anyways, uh, yeah, I'll I'll just stop there. But, um, thank you for the for the um, Long Range Facilities Committee for the work they did. Um, and for that reason, um, based on their work, um, I can support moving the B forward. Thanks. I think that
139was that was a good summation of what what needed to be said. So, thank you for saying it because you're right. We were also deciding whether we did the bond and as someone who was on the facility committee, I didn't want to say it myself. [laughter] Um, okay. So, uh, do I have a motion to approve running a bond with a tenative time? >> You already have a motion. >> Oh, okay. So, Great. So the date was now November 3rd, 2026 as the date for we're selecting. Great. So those in favor say I. >> I. >> Uh Julie would also like to add an I. Although we still are there and none opposed. So motion carries. >> All right. Nice work everyone. Uh super header report. >> Excellent. Excellent. Uh just want to give a
140shout out to the uh Schlane Douglas Land Trust and the institute for the two-day training beyond land acknowledgements that I was able to attend uh last week with lots of other local community uh leaders and learning about um the robust culture of our local indigenous tribes. Um also the struggles with land and fishing rights. Um it was a valuable two-day training for me and I got to work with some community leaders that um I don't get to see all the time. So it was uh fantastic. But also had um every year we work with Lisa Bradshaw from the Don't wait project and Mr. Mike from unmake a bully. Um and uh we had the premieres of the public service announcements uh last week at the performing arts center. So Cadbury school district was there uh
141in school district was there and then we had three schools also there showing our public service announcements. So Washington Elementary, Orchard Middle School and Valley Academy were all represented and it was a great evening um solidifying our resolve that we're not going to tolerate bullies. And so it was great. Um postseason sports are happening and they are amazing. Uh cross country at state, girls swim and dive at districts, girls soccer playing as we speak. Do we have an update on any of those? >> Okay. Um and then girls volleyball is cleaning house once again this year as well. So lots of amazing things uh happening. And then tomorrow night, I'm excited. My family and I are going to go to the opening night of Little Shops. And uh tickets are still available for all of
142you who will go um next week. All right. Thank you. That's it. >> Someone want to text Julie for a live update. >> Our correspondent at the game. >> Correspondents on site. Yeah. >> Yes. Um we know what's going to happen when we get to Mark or to Martin. So Martin, I'm gonna let you go first. We're going to work our way over that way. >> That way. >> Uh so going back because it's been a while since I've talked. I They attended the uh ASL classes haunted house in high school which was super fun. They all kids designed it all minus the fact that you had to crawl in under a desk and I was like and I'm not as young as I used to be to get in. But we had a good
143time. Uh attended the Veterans Day parade and saw both our high school and the combined bands from the middle schools playing which was great. and not stealing my thunder. Just reiterating that little shuffle course does open tomorrow. So, I hope you all have your tickets. We are in the late night drama of rehearsals right now. [laughter] So, I've already gotten three messages on everything my daughter needs me to bring her after this. >> We better wrap up soon. >> Great. Um, I don't have many many updates. I just want to provide some um I'll share a funny story with you guys. Um so about oh six, seven years ago um oh no they lost >> played hard but just couldn't find the net. >> That's we should say that. [laughter] >> No funny story. >>
144Funny story. So Martin reached out um because we were uh we got together to look for a potential um candidate to be appointed to recommend to uh apply to be appointed for the school board. Um so him and I met um over coffee at the little automoka they had on Fifth Street. And the funny story is that I was there to provide, you know, um just we were going to come up with names and I ended up in the seat. Um not [laughter] sure how that happened. Um but I, you know, um I really appreciate Martin's work um on the board. Um we he has Sorry, Caroline. Yeah, you have some big shoes to fill. And I don't think any of us um will it'll it'll take a long time before we can get before
145we we even get another Martin. Um that's his time and dedication. He is an example of what a board member should um time you invested. Um in regards for me, he served as a mentor. Um yes, we did go through a lot and um he was he was a sounding board for me. He actually would be I'd be calling him at 9:30 after a board meeting. you know, oh my gosh, how did I do? What did I did I say? Was I too strong? Um and so, um to this day, um I I feel like I can call Martin or text um and he can um either cool me down or hype me up. Um so, on a personal level, I'm really really going to miss you. Um our kids are our community is blessed
146to have individuals like you that um invest in our educational communities and um you might not see the the returns uh immediately that's just generally in education but you've made an impact on a lot of children including myself. [applause] >> Okay. Uh you can't escape it. Okay. [laughter] Diligently attend the meetings to learn inspires confidence. I wish you well. After the elections are certified, you'll be the atlarge board member. Eyes, ears, mouth, heart, and brain will all be needed to represent the whole community. Welcome. Uh, I serve three superintendent. Paul Gordon initiated some forward and outwardlooking changes of long-term value. But what I most remember is his lesson for boards in conflict. Always to start by presuming good intentions. Um and and I say Bill, he's not here. Michelle was earlier. And behind you, the
147North Central Education Services District, thanks for stepping up in a crisis to offer interim leadership. You brought a healing togetherness to the district with a calm and practical way to face challenges. A culture that lives on and strengthens us today. And Corey, my two overtime years have been worth every minute. That's okay. I admire the way you folded administration and general management into your skill set. I enjoyed living in the collaborative environment that you cultivate. But I add that this is a shared team achievement made possible by colleagues on the best board. School districts are like roses. Thorns come with the perfume. [clears throat] Not everything is funny. I give tribute to Laura Jake for agreeing to be our board leader during the pandemic. I was fortunate during the uncertainty of the find a superintendent
148year to divide the presidency with Maria. Um and Julian Tucker, you delivered your share and more. Um we just reviewed the policy on board functions and I have a very simple description. A board member's job is to encourage the organization to perform better in any way possible. Maybe like being a non-executive coach. In a healthy organization, ideas travel bottom up and top down and everyone is precious. And I want to end where I started in 2019. No investment is more important for our community than K12 education. And you all parts of the Wanachi school district have much to do and thank you for your past and future efforts. And to the adults of an of Wanchachi who wish to live in a community that thrives economically, socially, culturally, and personally, think hard and deep when
149we vote on resources to nurture education and healthy living. This interesting listening to the middle school music program for our young people. And I'm done. Wow. [applause] Thank you, Martin. I um yeah, I'll say stuff I'll say my stuff about you at the end. Uh I also got to see the um middle school and the high school band at the parade when they did a great job despite some cold weather and uh middle school we challenged them to play a different song. They had only learned one song and they played it the whole parade. >> [laughter] >> So, so that was they had they're like, "Uh, no, there's one. We got one song." >> But they did a great job. >> Um, I will also say that, you know, the board received a a message
150from a from a community member saying what a great foothills uh what what a great um Veterans Day assembly Foothills put on. I know that across the district other assemblies were put together. So, thank you for the staff and students for putting those together. Uh, I know I went to a choir presentation today where we had a child that fainted and a child that puked during during the assembly and the teachers stepped in, took care of the kids. It was never a thing. They did not stop singing during either of those events. Um, so this is there's excitement at the the things, but also I want to appreciate the staff because it's not just organizing and putting it's also taking care of the fainters and pukers. uh >> crowd management. >> Yes, for sure. For
151sure. But and also thank you to all our veterans because I think uh it was it was great to see the the whole community step up >> and I would like to end with a fond farewell to Martin. You I Maria used the word mentor and I think that was uh exactly how I would say what you've done for me as a new board member. Um and I really appreciated your insight from the day you you uh interviewed me to if you needed to run against me. [laughter] Uh on to here's some final thoughts for I'd like I'm hoping that that we can continue forward with with the momentum you created. So, thank you so much for your energy, the hard work you put into it. Um and hopefully we can do your legacy of
152some honor and also if you ever want to come back as a celebrity correspondent to tell us what's going on in the community, you are always welcome. Uh, we look forward to seeing you again in some capacity. >> Bright spots is going to turn into just Martin. [laughter] >> Great. >> Uh, you you can even just do travel travel log of Europe. That's that that could be your bright spot. Anyway, well, and that is it. So, meeting a journ. Thank go for coming. Anger