001Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to the November 5th meeting of the Yakma School Board. We do offer Spanish interpretation services uh from Jorge with Language Connection. If you need translation assistance in person, please check with Jorge for advice and I'll ask Jorge to please translate this information for us. Thank you, Jorge. I always get nervous when I have my back to people, so I apologize. I apologize for that. Um, if you wish to make public comment today, there are two options available. The first option is for commenting on agenda items only and the second option which comes towards the end of the meeting is for all other topics. In order to speak tonight, you'll need to sign two forms, the sign-in form and the guidelines form. >> Barb, would you please take the role? >> Director
002Walker >> here. >> Director Rice >> here. >> Vice President Beva >> here. >> President Beckett >> here. >> And director Navaro Jr. is um unexcused at this time. >> I understand we have some students to help us this evening. Would you like to introduce the students for us, please? >> Excellent. Welcome. Thank you both for being here. Uh we'll start with the pledge of allegiance, please. >> Ready, begin. I pledge 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 this character word of the month on the list too, please. Excellent. Thank you. >> The word of the month is kind. Showing compassion, friendliness, and consideration towards others. >> Excellent. Before
003you both run off, could you tell us both what uh what grade you're in and what you enjoy most about being here at Lewis and Clark? >> Hello. My name is Xavier Garza. I'm in seventh grade at Lewis and Clark Middle School. And what I'm most proud of is my band and music. >> What do you play? >> I'm a percussionist, so I play everything. Dr. >> A lot of things. Yeah. >> Everything. >> Awesome. That's great. >> Hello, I'm Elena Garcia and I'm an eighth grader here at Lewis and Clark Middle School. What I enjoy most about what being here at school is that I enjoy being an ASB and I am proud of that I am part of the student senate council. >> Excellent. Well, thank you both for being here and thank
004you both very much for being involved in your student government. That's absolutely fantastic. We hope you have a wonderful year. >> Thank you. Today, the schools of the Yakama school district rest on the ancestral lands of 14 Confederated tribes and bands of the nation. The people of the Yakan nation inhabited more than 12 million acres >> across Adams, Benton, Chalan, Douglas, Franklin, Grant, Kitas, Clat and Yakima counties, Adams, Ben, Chelan, Douglas, Grant, Frank. Today we honor those native peoples who are tied to the land through history, legends, and culture. live in the world today. >> We thank the caretakers of this land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. powerful way to show respect and a step toward correcting the stories and practices that erase indigenous people's history and culture.
005It also honors the truth. As a school district, we will continue to build upon our relations with Ayaka Nation. In our board docs uh agenda items, uh you'll find a link to two different obituaries today. Uh both for Karen Don Garrison and for Robert Leroy Hamilton, both members of our Yakima School District family who we have lost recently. I would encourage you to um review those obits if you haven't done so already. And I'd invite you to please join me in a moment of silence in uh memory of both Karen and Robert. >> Thank you. I get to introduce Principal Ogulen for our presentation from LC and then I understand a tour. That correct? >> Correct. >> Some sort of Excellent. Excellent. Thank you for hosting us today. Thank you for being here. Thank you
006for coming. We're very proud of LC. Um I do have both of my assistant principles here this evening and I just want to take a moment to introduce them because without them this place wouldn't run as effectively as it does. So, please please um Stephanie Casillas and I brought with me um Swan Eaton over from the Pasco School District finally um which was a big win for us um and so I'm thrilled that she's with us over here um this school year and she's doing a wonderful job and been absolutely thrilled to have Stephanie Casillas join us from the elementary level and um it's been very wonderful for the Mccclure students to have that transition piece this year and they're both just a wonderful team and an asset to our building this year. So happy
007to have them here and um wanted to recognize them this evening. So we're starting with um the four pillars um which are um and I'm just going to put them all up here, but they're found the foundation of the PLC process. Um and I have been doing PLC's for a very long time. This is not anything new to me. Um and I built this work first in the Pasco School District before coming here. And we really at LC really spent the whole first year um of my work here. And this was my fourth year at LC building the four pillars. And the four pillars are mission, vision, values, and goals. And you can also see them in any pretty anywhere anywhere that you walk in our building. And the the importance of mission and vision
008is that they are short and memorable. um because we want our students and our staff to be able to remember what those mission and vision statements are and we need them to own them and we need them to be the why of our work. And so we revisit them frequently and there isn't really a staff member or a student in our building that couldn't tell you um that we are all about in this building being a leader, a learner, and a legend and why they do that work here in our building and what that is for. And most recently, we were we were super excited to share a picture of our student here in the bottom lefthand corner. They were playing a game in in class and they were playing a hangman game. And what
009the student chose to do hangman around was leader, learner, and legend. Um, which is I think another powerful statement that that's what our kids value here. And we reinforce that constantly in our building. And then our values are something that we took a lot of time and a lot of thought that we put into. And this is a condensed version, but you have a purple, of course, it's purple folder in front of in front of you. And in that on the right side is a full copy of our collective commitments. And those collective commitments are a true um true important pillar. They call them values, but oftent time in the PLC world, you'll hear those referenced as collective commitments. and they are um there's also a document that's posted in our library that every staff
010member in our building has signed and when we we re we revisit those at the beginning of every year because they are the things that we commit to as our staff um for our families and our students in this building and as we onboard new staff um we review those with them and they also sign our commitments to our families and so they are an important pillar um as part of the four-pillar process. process. And then the fourth pillar is goals. And those goals are really the the goals that you do yearly as part of your school improvement plan. And so for us, those are the three goals of our school improvement plan. And you see a condensed version up here. But the first goal is to build PLC's around um reading, writing, math, and
011um and then science because in eighth grade, we get assessed in science. But it's really all the elements of building the PLC process for all content areas, but those are the areas that we get feedback in in our state assessments. So, um so those are the those are the three areas that we are focusing on this year. And um we are going to be sharing with you um what our focus because we're we're picking a specific strand to focus on which is math. Um, and that came this year specifically out of work last year with our staff around looking at something called our tiered fidelity inventory. And that tiered fidelity inventory um is a assessment that we do which actually came out of the work of uh the PBIS world or looking at positive behavioral
012interventions and supports. That's where that original TFI came from where you analyze how are you doing in that work at the end of every year. but now they've layered that in for reading and math. And so our math team did that work and they took a look at um what do we need to change or do for math. And out of and out of that came some really good action steps for our school improvement plan. [snorts] And so they really guided what were some of those action steps that we needed to do in our PLC process this year. So we took that based on some input from staff. And so we really wanted to focus on math this year, growing the math piece. Not that we're not growing ELA because we are. In fact, I
013took over ELA um for the observation process because I was an ELA teacher and I'm specifically working with those teachers, but we wrote action steps in our goals to focus on math this year and to measure that growth. And then our secondary focus with that, um we when I first came four years ago, we were in school improvement in every single area. And um since then, I'm very proud to say that we're only in school improvement in two areas, which is our MLS and our students with disabilities. And so our students with disabilities are layered into our goal under PLC's. And we're doing work in that area, but we separated out this year um work around our MLS specifically, and I'll talk about that in just a second. um we have waited to do that
014work um for our students with disabilities and our MLS because we first needed to build the plate and the plate is really the work around PLC's and building that process of our staff really understanding how to do the PLC process. So, we've spent the last three years of getting our teams really good at understanding of being able to develop those units of study, how to look at and analyze data, and how to start responding to that data. And so each team has successfully now um created at least three units of study, gone through that, gone through some coaching processes with myself and our instructional if and they've gotten really good at understanding how to know and be able to do that process. Now we're ready to layer in some coaching strategies for them. And so
015um and some in some some very strong instructional strategies and really good instructional strategies are ML instructional strategies and those ML instructional strategies are good for all kids. What's good for MLS is good for all kids. And so we started with something called an action team. And in our building we have action teams already established for our PBIS team. And last year we established an action team for for response to intervention which is how do we respond when those kids on the data are not getting that. So we're working on that piece already. But then we decided we needed to launch out and do specifically something to support those MLS now and start building strong instructional strategies because our teachers are ready to layer that onto that plate of the PLC process. So we developed
016a third action team. That team went to a PLCbased ML conference last year where they learned about how to develop that action team and what are some good instructional strategies and then they came back and they created who else needs to be on that team? Who else in our building needs to be part of this team to help grow that work? and they recruited for that team. And I actually just got an update. We're very blessed in this building because we have a MLTOsa from the district that is one of our EL teachers here now that said, "I'd really like to lead and guide that work." And so she is the one that's actually leading that action team and reports back to our ILT, our instructional leadership team in the building and just gave an
017update and has created all the meetings for the year. and we'll be writing a one-year action plan that will then create the plan for our school improvement plan based on what they create together. >> Vicki, >> yes. >> Just for the for the benefit of our viewing audience. >> Yes. >> Could you identify what ML and EL? >> Sure. ML stands for multilingual learners. And that really is the new verbiage for what an EL is, which is an English language learner. It's really one and the same. Now, thank you for that. So, we're really excited about that work for our MLS this year and the work that that team will be creating and writing that plan, which will then be the plan for our school improvement plan this year for that goal area. With that,
018um, we will be looking and analyzing data to ensure that that work is is happening and it that we're getting the growth that we're needing from that. But one area specifically where we'll be looking at, we're really excited. This is the first benchmark data from our building for the benchmark math assessments. And this data is so powerful um and is so needed because um in your in your slide deck is our ESPA data. But when we get ESBA data, we get that at the end of the year. And we can't wait until the end of the year to figure out if our kids got it from all the work we did this year. we need this data which if you look at this data and you look at our ESPA data it's pretty much aligned.
019What we see is that our sixth grade is getting about 20% and our seven our seventh grade team has a drop and then our eighth grade team picks it back up and actually has been increasing scores over the last four years. And so what this table what this data enables us to do and I'll tell you a little story for a second. As soon as this data came out, our sixth grade team looked at it and go went, "Wow, what happened between teacher A and teacher B." So, they asked our instructional facilitator to come in and take a look at this data or to come in and kind of watch their lesson. And they found teacher B was teaching something a little bit different than teacher A. and the instructional facilitator pro provided that feedback
020and they went oh my gosh all this time we never knew that that was happening and they may they're going to make that quick adjustment and then we're going to see scores improve from teacher A to teacher B which is exactly what the PLC process is all about and then seventh grade last year taught this unit and then when we did the coaching process with them they learned about RTI and how to look and analyze their data and they went, "Oh, we can do an intervention after we teach it. You sure can." So, before we went in and did the coaching process, they went back and provided the intervention. And then 50 more% of their kids passed the assessment. So, we were and I told them, "You just did RTI." And they said, "What?" I
021said, "Yeah, you just did RTI." And they were like, "We did?" Yes. So, they gave the benchmark again. Now they're going to have to go back and do some reteing which will then by the end of the year we're no longer waiting for to see what those scores are. They're providing intervention to increase these scores as the year goes on which makes this really powerful data. Our eighth grade team which you guys have already seen in some of your board they presented to you before on a board session on the PLC process. They do that intervention work every week in week out. They're providing interventions for kids and that's why we're seeing over the last four years an increase in their scores because they're doing those interventions week in and week out for kids for
022students and we're seeing that systemic growth for those students. So that's why this data is going to be so powerful for our for all of our kids across the system. Transformational leadership um in your folders. I'm just going to walk through this is one thing that we've done here at LC that's new this year that was a tool like I'm always thinking outside the box of how to make this work easier for our teachers. How do I make it more accessible? How do we make it something that can be quicker and easier for them to do? And this was one of those tools. So I'll just walk you through it. So the first one is actually a Google we call it our one pager. And um the first page was something that that TNL gave
023us and it was a new version of how to create a unit of study based on Janelle Keading's um bookshelf. And so they colorcoded it with the bookshelf. And I thought, well, this is this is a no-brainer. We need to incorporate this because this will this is something that at some point should be districtwide um and all of our teachers should be using across the district. And so we need to support that and we need to implement it. So we created so I went back to Adam who's my if and said he always takes my crazy ideas because I'm not as techy as he and and I said Adam I need you to create me something because right now how we do this for staff is um we have a Google um folder and our
024teachers have this document and they have this document and they have this document they have that document and then they have to open up all these documents in order to do this work. And I said,"Adam, can we take all of these documents and can we put them on one page so that in that document instead of opening all these things, they have a Google doc that has everything in one spot." And so he said, "Yeah, I could do that. That's a great idea." And then when I went to Summer Institute, if you open to the last page, they started looking at data in a new way, which would help with our RTI process, which is much like what you saw here. and the district is using and knowing that this was probably coming for my
025staff, I wanted to start introducing it before they saw it. So, I put that in here to start getting them thinking about RTI and being intensive, strategic, and benchmark for kids. So I put that in our one-pager so they could start practicing that language and thinking about the RTI process response to intervention and then knowing that benchmark learning or benchmark assessments were coming and they were going to be working with these how did I make how did I start frontloading that and making it easier for my staff. So we created this one pager all of these documents that are behind that is from my eighth grade math team and all of these documents are now embedded within that Google page. So, I took that to ILT because if I put it out, that's not the
026way to do that. So, I took it to my ILT. I shared it with my ILT and said, "Hey, I came up with this great idea. Adam made it happen. Should we do it?" My ILT said, "That's a great idea. Let's do that." So, then I took it to my staff. ILT thinks this is a great idea. This is why we're doing this. Let's explain the why behind it. Then my staff said, "Do we have to do it?" My answer was, "Nope. You can keep using the folder system, but here's the benefit to using it. Because if I make them do it, what are they going to do? They're not going to use it." So my answer was, "No, you don't have to use it, but here's the why, and here's the benefit to using
027it." And then in one-on-one coaching sessions that we do, I keep pulling it back out. We keep sharing it. And I have teams that are using it and slowly transitioning over every single one of their they've already transitioned over their units of study. And then I have another teacher, let me find it here. I have another teacher who took it and made it better. Like he's super Google spreadsheet savvy, which is fine. Like he improved it and now teachers are like, "Can we use that version?" Absolutely. Where are we going to be tight with things and where are we going to be loose and give them the autonomy to grow and make things better? Absolutely you can because what I want you to do is have the concept and then make it better. Absolutely. So
028they're doing that work. That is transformational leadership. I want to share the last piece because I really thought long and hard about how I wanted to say this to you and I really just want to read it. We need to continue to focus in our building on ELA and math instruction while supporting growth for our students with disabilities and our multil- language learners. Our work with inclusionary practices and MLL instructional strategies has already begun to provide growth for these students. I firmly believe that we will continue to grow through our work in the PLC process for all students as evidenced by our work through growth data and our SBA data in our slide deck. When we started in year 1, I asked my staff to take a PLC vocabulary test, which was quite an exhaustive
029list, and I remember them feeling lost and unsure of what this whole PLC thing was. I promised them if they stuck with me, they would get there. Now, I hear them daily in deep, rich conversations regarding student instruction around standards and high levels of learning. I've had to stop recent professional development to point out to our teachers this very thing. and their comment to me is this is the way we do business now and it is. It truly has changed how we communicate with each other. Your gift of time on Monday and Wednesdays has been invaluable in moving this work forward. I do think it is best though that if you hear it from my staff themselves. So I will end with a quick video from answering the question, what is the impact of implementation
030of PLC's here at Louiswis and Clark? >> [music] >> Hey Miss Gum, what has been the impact of the implementation of PLC's here at Lucen Clark? >> So for myself and my teaching partner, we have um become way more clued into where our students are with their learning. Um and we've also been able to take the opportunity to intervene for our students. So when they don't understand a specific concept, we take time to actually pause, retach it, relearn it, or go a little bit deeper for the kids who have gotten it already. >> Awesome. Thank you, >> M. Preston. What has been the impact of the implementation of PLC's here at Louis and Clark? Well, the primary [music] impact for me um being involved in a professional learning team has been that it gave me
031um a common language and a common purpose um with my co-teers. I'm a inclusion a special education inclusion teacher. [music] So, I co-e with all of my um colleagues and having the targets uh broken down from the standards gives us explicit um information to share and talk about um in the creation of our lesson plans or um things that we're working on. [music] Um it just it's really provided us um with a means of communicating clearly about what it is we're trying to teach our students. And then um you know of course that helps all students but it's it's really helpful for students with special learning needs to have that targeted focus. >> Awesome. Thank you so much. >> Hey Miss Gutin, [music] what has been the impact of the implementation of PLC's here at
032Louiswis and Clark? >> Well, in regard to Washington State history, my co-partner and I have found that by doing the PLC, we've become more concentrated on seeing the goals for the individual students. um making sure that they get good data response back. They're involved in the data collection and we're implementing the interventions and [music] extensions. Uh we've already did that and we've noticed a considerable increase in their grades. >> Awesome. Thank you so much. >> Yep. >> All right. Mr. Cordderero, what has been the impact of the implementation of PLC's at Louiswis and Clark? Uh, for me, I think the greatest impact it's been clarity, being able to understand each step that kids are working towards and being able to kind of look at what I'm grading. So, when I'm reflecting on their works, I'm
033like, "Okay, this is where they should be. This is where they're at, and it's just understanding [music] more about what it is I'm doing here as a teacher." >> Awesome. Thank you. Well, usually I'm the one behind the camera asking the questions, but I had to chime in on this one. Um, it has been amazing. We have teachers who are collaborating around standards and around learning targets, around strategies that are working for our kids. Um, we have teams that are regularly analyzing data [music] and looking at um how students are doing and how they're struggling and then creating interventions for those kids um and allowing them to retake tests and improve their scores. Um we have students who are a part of the learning. They're taking ownership for their learning as they u reach learning
034targets and move up the ladder. Um they're getting rewarded um not just externally but internally too. Um, so it's been very very exciting and the impact it's been [music] huge. But just wait, there's much more to come. >> I think the next slide is questions. >> Questions. Do you have any questions for me that I can answer? >> Um I don't have specific question. Uh but I just wanted to um compliment you on your leadership and bringing the um these techniques to staff to help the students identify those areas where they may be um behind a little bit >> and to bring uh to bring them closer to the green the green part that we want to see and not the red part. So, um, thank you very much and congratulations on your work. >>
035Thank you. It is my greatest pleasure to be here at LC. >> I'll just add uh uh no question, but just want to compliment you on your leadership skills and as you were describing um using the the tools and resources that you created and shared uh you know that idea that you can't make somebody do something. you you could, but that may not be the most effective outcome. And so that you were able to successfully bring the group along and when someone improved it, great. You know, that that's a good thing. And you know, the team got excited about that. So, I appreciate your uh the the leadership skill and tact you have and understanding kind of some of those nuances and um yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >>
036Anything else for Principal Foggles? Okay. Well, then we'll follow your lead as far as the tour is concerned. >> Well, we are not going very far. So, where you're going is actually a goal three um which is to reduce our office discipline referrals. And Kate Waters is our behavior intervention specialist. She's right over here. And she's going to take you to see um what's called our RNR. And I'm going to I'm just going to leave it at that and let Kate explain what she does. >> Okay. >> Been a minute since you've been in a chair like that. >> It has been. It does bring back memory. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> All right. Well, as Miss Foggelson said, I'm Kate Waters. I'm our behavioral intervention specialist here at Louiswis and Clark. Um, this space is
037called the RNR room. And I've actually had a handful of kiddos who have asked me at times, what does the R and the R stand for? And it stands for a lot of different things. Honestly, it's whatever the kids need when they're coming through the door. It could be a reset space. It could be a rejuvenation space. It could be an opportunity to be able to to rest if there's a lot going on in their worlds, which many of our kids have a lot going on in their worlds. Um the kiddos who come in this space come in for multiple reasons, but a lot of our students are coming into um the RNR room to be able to work on some of their social emotional skills um as well as executive functioning. Our kiddos come
038in here to be able to have that chance to have somebody to guide them in the process of saying, for example, they know that if they've made a mistake and they've ended up with an office referral and made a poor judgment in respects of how they handled maybe a situation with another student and got into an argument uh with them or something uh of that nature, they know what they already did wrong, but the kicker is sometimes they don't necessarily know how to do it better the next time because they have a set of tools and that toolbox might be kind of limited. So what we work on in here is helping those students be able to have different methodologies to tackle those problems that are going to be a part of the normal everyday
039middle school life, but also as they transition into adulthood, how to deal with those situations such as time management as well. How do we handle having seven classes and being successful uh with making sure that we're getting all of our work in on time, that we're asking for help when we need it? Because we definitely have those kiddos who at times will avoid that work. When we take a look at the impact of what's happened in here, goal number three for us um here at LC is centered around the idea of reducing um our office referrals by 10% every year. And last year we met that goal, very very successfully met that goal, which is awesome. A lot of that work came from our students being able to have that chance to reflect on how
040to handle those situations differently so that they're not repeat offenders because they don't have additional strategies on how to handle conflict or how to handle the idea of I'm avoiding a class so I'm going to skip class. Those types of things are critical for them to be able to have somebody help coach them through that process and also to progress monitor and to be that go-to point person here which is the second piece of this here which is our different interventions that we have here. Um we have uh seven major uh tier 2 interventions. One is a behavior agreement. And these are the pieces that I am super excited to be able to say from last year, we had 12 students who were on other pieces of tier 2 interventions that were more intensive, more
041on a day-to-day or weekly basis. And our behavior agreements happen at typically the end of the year. Um, and sometimes it can happen in the midst of the year depending upon their success rate. And it's basically saying you've been doing amazing work. you were showing that you no longer need the specific intervention support on a regular basis. So, we're going to draft an agreement between myself and the students, our counselors, our administrative team, their teachers, as well as their parents to say expectations are that you will maintain these areas that you've already shown you've done really well in. And unless we see an area that you're slipping back in, you're ready to go out and do this without the training wheels anymore. you're ready to be able to take that next step and show that
042you've got those skills and you've already been successful with them and now we're just agreeing to say unless there's a need to put some of those supports back in place, you're ready to go. Um, so we had 12 students who transitioned into that right away at the beginning of the year and have been doing outstanding. Um, the other pieces that come into play, sometimes we have kiddos who just simply need to take a break because they're dealing with some overwhelming stressful situations. Um, and they need a place to just quietly re kind of reset themselves. It is also sometimes where they feel themselves getting a little stressed and frustrated and then they know that if it continues forward um that they might find themselves making poor decisions. So they asked to have that opportunity to
043come here, reset, talk through, problem solve in a very short 5 to 10 minute time frame and then head back on to class successfully. Uh the other things that come in are check and connect. I we have a handful of kiddos who just check in each morning just to see how they're doing as far as a 1 2 3 4 5 scale indicating to us very quickly whether or not they need some additional support and then we intervene and check and see what that support is. We also have check-in checkout which is where the kids get uh feedback from each one of their teachers on a regular basis and then that feedback comes back to me every single day so that I can see where are some areas that we still need to grow in.
044Are they struggling with getting assignments done on time? Are they struggling with conflicts in class or behavioral elements in class? School note home is check in u check out with an additional piece where parents get that opportunity to um give feedback as far as how things are going at home on a on a daily basis. What other pieces of support can we have there? So it's communication between school and home on a daily basis as well as with teachers. Um self monitoring protocol. The kiddos have graduated past the point of needing um that's very specific class byclass feedback and now they're rating themselves to see how did they do throughout the day. The idea is we're growing those social emotional skills in our students. We're growing those abilities for them to be um able to
045no longer need those supports. The work that we do in here has reduced our um need for interventions with these kiddos and allowed them to transition out and be successful within their day-to-day classroom, which has been an awesome privilege to be able to be a main part of doing that with them. That's kind of the nuts and bolts of what we do in here. And now I'm going to open up to you. Do you have any questions? >> I know it's difficult at middle school. What are some of your tier one interventions? >> Absolutely. >> Social emotional learning. >> Yep. So, some of the things that we're doing in the tier one level is all of our sixth graders have that opportunity to uh get a series of social emotional um lessons that happen throughout
046the school years to set that foundation so that they have a better idea of how do I handle the big emotions or the big changes that happen as you transition into middle school. how do you deal with conflict resolution? Um basics of time management. Um in addition to that, the tier one intervention piece is that we have uh systems in place which is our PBIS team to recognize and reward our students for the outstanding work that they do. And it isn't always just the students who are our aonoral students. It's the students who make growth. Our student of the month program is a great way that we have the chance to see the growth and recognize the growth in our kids. Any other questions? Congratulations on using this model. >> Thank you. >> When my
047son was in middle school, we could have used something like this. >> I appreciate that >> because he would um intercept the calls to home >> before I got home from work >> and um then I would never know. >> And that's part of being a sneaky middle schooler, right? M >> so um thank you for reach re reaching out and including parents >> in this process and for your dedication and making sure that that kids develop that level of accountability that we all need to have as adults. So >> Oh, I appreciate that. Thank you. A big part of that that conversation that I have with kiddos when it is going to be a tough conversation home is how to navigate and own those decisions that they made and how to we we practice
048we rehearse having that tough conversation at home so that they feel prepared going into that and can anticipate like what that response might be and to be able to say you know what I did in fact make a mistake but here's what I've learned about what I'm going to do different next time cuz I've got some strategies and it's been really cool to have some of our parents actually call and connect with me and saying, "I don't know all the details of the conversation that you had with my kiddo, but man, oh man, my kid came home and did something they've never done, which is they had a conversation with me and owned it from the front and said, "Mom or dad, here's what I'm going to do different next time. I made some I
049made some mistakes." So, and that's that's the best blessing that I get to have is to see them transition and grow. So >> I can tell you I developed this program while I was in Southampton public schools and I took it to classroom and then I brought it here. But the key to it is the right person see and Kate Waters has taken this program that I developed a whole another moment and she's truly phenomenal with the kids and she's truly phenomenal at what she does. And so it it has superseded anything that I've done in the past with her. She's really good at what she does. >> Thank you. >> And I can attest to it as well. I was a teacher under Vicki at Bla Middle School when we had about 1,800 students
050and the they called it the pause room there because it was Panthers. So it was PAWS. but for them to be able and it was the first time in any school district I'd worked in that I saw that and then I saw the impact of the students there. So I was so blessed to be hired to be here and work under Vicki again in a capacity as an administrator and learn how this program is still very successful and [clears throat] Kate does an amazing job. >> Well, thank you. >> And the support she gives us with um the students that we're working with is just like I have no words for it. It's just awesome. Thank you. >> Have Have you all done an analysis of student outcomes of of kids who go who receive
051the tier 2 supports? Like what do their grades look like coming out of eighth grade, for example? >> Yeah. So, um, as far as the transition, whether they're sixth grade, we continue, I continue to progress monitor their rate of growth as they transition to seventh and eighth grade. Um the one piece that I would like to do is be able to take a look at our kiddos um who are eighth graders now to be able to see when they transition to high school next year. Um I have followed up with a couple of our students who were um part of this process who are now freshman and we have one young lady who man oh man she had a rough seventh grade year um and I wasn't here yet. I met her at the very
052beginning of 8th grade and her and I worked together very closely with with family and with her teachers about different strategies and again like any one of us she had moments of setback. You know, you you have seven, eight good days and then you have a couple crummy days and but it was watching her transformation and watching her go, you know what, Miss Waters, I just kind of chewed you out and I'm really sorry about that. and her mom was flabbergasted because she's like, "My daughter never does that and now she's doing that at home." And as she's transitioned on to high school, she's one of my kiddos who um mom still contacts and says, "You know what? She is doing so good because she has the tools that you provided her. Um but to
053be able to continue to track them." So I track them here as far as their grades even as they continue on without needing our support in here and they're continuing to be successful. That's the beauty of the behavior agreement. It isn't a like, wow, you know, you messed up and like you're back on um some of the other intensive uh pieces because it's a punishment. It's like, hey, we need some supports there again. And the conversations that I have are first and foremost with the kiddo. What can I help you with? Because these interventions should be happening with them, not to them. They need to be a player at the table. And that's what's different here. setting those goals with the kids makes a monumental difference because then they get some input on you know
054what I think that will work for me or you know what that really won't work for me. So yes, the progress monitor has been great and they've been successful at doing what they're doing. Those 12 kiddos who are on behavior agreements this year right away showed that success academically, behaviorally, and attendance-wise. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for joining us. It has been a pleasure to introduce you to what we do here at LC to make all of the academic pieces that our teams work so diligently on even more successful because our kids are ready to be in the mindset to focus on those components. So, thank you so much. >> In accordance with RCW42.30.140, 30.140. The board of directors is closing this meeting to the public at 4:47 p.m. to move into a closed
055session for the purpose of collective bargaining sessions with employee organizations including contract negotiations, grievance meetings, and discussions relating to the interpretation or application of a labor agreement for approximately 20 minutes. 20 minutes, excuse me. So, we are in close session for 20 minutes. There being no further business for the closed session, the board of directors at 5:08 p.m. adjourns from close session into regular session. That takes us to our section on updates. Does any member of the board have an update this evening? All right, then we'll move to the superintendent's update. Uh thank you, President Beckett, members of the board. Uh I have three updates. Uh one, the first being that the program of basic education compliance by the state board of education has been completed. Uh so Yakama school district has been granted full
056certification and uh it's a requirement of WAC 180161 195 that occurs annually. So we're pleased to announce that. Second announcement is that we have a school that received the first annual culture kickoff award and that is Davis High School. Um this is a an award sponsored by the Association of Washington School uh uh leaders and it takes into account intentional inclusive and student centered approach to launching the school year. Uh it is so new that I do not even have all of the requirements of what was completed. So, I'm trying to get that from uh Principal Hasty, but this was announced uh very recently within uh the last 24 hours. So, the culture kickoff award goes to Davis High School from uh their state association. And lastly, I did want to share with um obviously
057with you, but the entire community uh that we have received the announcement of a Washington State Board of Distinction for our school board. Uh so this is a recognition for exemplary uh equity leadership through strategic legislative advocacy securing equitable funding and resources for students while championing statewide policy reform and educational justice. So this marks uh the fifth consecutive year that the board has been honored in some capacity. Uh so as um director Via Noea exits, I'd just like to call out that there was a board of distinction granted from the stateda Washington uh state school directors association in 2021 uh 2022. In 2023, the board received an award uh for student voice. It's the Magna Silver Award from the National School Board Association. There was also a board of distinction award for 2024, the state
058board of the year for 2024, large district status, and now 2025 uh state board of distinction. Again, congratulations. [applause] Um before we move on, we we do want to take a moment to recognize a vice president via Noeva. Um the way our state functions, the new school board directors are sworn in at the first first school board meeting after the election has been certified, which will be at the end of this month. And so Graciiela's replacement will be sworn in at that point in time. Um, and it is our privilege and duty to make you feel awkward here for a few more minutes. [laughter] Are we filming this before we um before we do that? So, first um [clears throat] the the school district and the broader Yakima Valley community honors the service and leadership
059of Graciella Voeva. uh here today. Via Noea is stepping down after more than a decade of service, 13 years to be exact, as director on the Akimma School Board, currently serving as our vice president of the board representing position one. She leaves behind a legacy of advocacy, compassion, and unwavering commitment to student success. Originally appointed in 2011 and subsequently elected to three terms, BOEA helped guide the Yakimma School District through years of transformation. During her tenure, the district established dual language programming, expanded mental health supports, increased graduation rates, and earned numerous awards, including currently the large district school board of the year recognition for the state of Washington. Voevae is the chief human resources officer at Yakama Valley Farmworkers Clinic, one of the region's largest community health organizations. Her professional work mirrors her public service,
060creating pathways to opportunity for underserved communities, advancing inclusive practices, and mentoring the next generation of Yakama leaders. Raised in the Yakima Valley and a graduate of Heritage University and Washington State University, BOEA has long described herself as a product of the very systems she now works to improve. In an interview with Hispanic Executive Magazine, she reflected on her commitment to addressing the barriers her own family experienced. It's not just about policy, she says. It's about purpose and people. Throughout her board service, Via Noeva helped prioritize legislative advocacy, championing state level efforts to expand local effort assistance and close funding gaps for communities like Yakima. She worked closely with fellow board members, elected officials, and community groups to ensure Yakima's voice is heard in Olympia. She also served as a visible role model for young Latinos
061in the Yakima Valley. Graciella has been a powerful voice for equity and opportunity. Her lived experience, deep understanding of organizational leadership, HR background, and tireless belief in students helped shape a culture where putting kids first is not just a phrase, it is policy. Graciiela doesn't just lead, she inspires. Vienna's final months on the board were marked by continued progress and celebration. This fall, the board received its fourth board of distinction award in the last five years, recognized by the Washington State School Directors Association for its visionary leadership and deep commitment to educational equity. Reflecting on her service, Vienna said she is proud of the work the board accomplished and optimistic about what lies ahead. Serving the students and families of Yaka has been one of the greatest honors of my life, she said. I will
062continue to be their advocate, just from a different seat. Please join me in congratulating and thanking Gracielloa [applause] trinkets. >> The swag. >> Oh, the picture came down. [laughter] >> There are a couple of things that are also appropriate. Um, before I allow Martha an opportunity, um, she's she's clutched she's clutched at it often enough that we felt like you needed to have one with you. [laughter] >> I love this. >> And it comes with the >> Oh, thank you. >> So, when Corey gets lift, [laughter] you can take it to work, annoy everyone at work. >> Carry it with you wherever you go. Exactly. Purse. >> [laughter] >> Right. >> One of the most common uh questions we've heard from Graciella at uh school presentations just like the one we experienced today is the
063question of if you had a magic wand, what would you do? What would you change or what would you add on to in this opportunity? So, the board has given you your very own magic wand. >> Oh, look at that. >> Thank you. >> [laughter] >> It is magic. >> Yeah. >> Martha, would you like to >> I have had the um pleasure and privilege and honor of serving with Graciella for all of her 13 years. and I [clears throat] will greatly miss having her wise counsel on this board. She always brings us back to what's the what's the most important about what we're talking about. whatever whatever the topic is, she she brings us back to what's what should our focus be and that dedication to making sure that that we don't go down
064the rabbit trails and we pay attention to to what's important is such a value to this board as demonstrated by all of the boards of distinction honors that we've received. and it's it's a it's a loss to our board to have you leave. So, just know that we may call on you from time to time to get your wise counsel about what we should be focusing on in in any particular area. So, thank you for your service. Thank you for the time you've given up with your family for the betterment of the school district and the students that we all serve. Thank you very much. And I will miss you. So I I may call to get a Graciella fix from now from time to time. >> I I wouldn't tell you no. >> [clears
065throat] >> Well, thank you so much. This is uh really surprised that you know to receive the recognition. So, thank you so much. I'm really touched and touched by your words, President Beckett. Um and the words you used really are true. This really has been um an honor and a privilege for me to Oh, geez. Uh serve the kids of Yakima schools and the community and the staff and and uh um everyone uh who's been involved in the last 13 years. the work of educating the students and uh look forward to continuing to be involved. look forward to the calls and uh certainly we'll uh miss each of you and uh the connections that we've had and um uh it really has just been again an honor and privilege to serve and uh you know
066the the that week in June um while I'll be relaxing uh that graduation week I'll also be a little sad because that really is the uh the the capstone to the board service being able to uh shake the hands of all the kids and seeing their the smiles and and their excitement uh that week. So, um I will be a little bit sad that I'm missing that. So, um thank you all so much for all of your support and all the work that you all will continue to do for Yakimas Kits. you can always come. >> Well, thank you and congratulations >> um for our uh board and our guests. Of course, in the uh update section, we do have the list under community engagement of upcoming schoolboard meetings, and we have um a lengthy
067calendar of highlights for activities going on in our individual buildings. Um I believe at that point, this takes us to our first comment uh or first opportunity for comment from the public. >> There are none on agenda items. >> For agenda items. Okay. So, we will keep moving. Then we'll go to our section on approvals. Our first item today is the uh ratification of the 2025 to 2027 collective bargaining agreement between uh Yakima Professional Technical Association and the Yakima School District. I'll turn it over to Mr. Myrietta. >> We are seeking approval of the ratification of the >> [laughter] [clears throat] >> hurry up. [laughter] >> Oh, brother. We are seeking the approval of the 2025 2027 collective bargaining agreement between the Yakima Professional Technical Association and the Yakma School District. I move that the
068board of directors approve the agreement between the Yakima professional tech Oh, I'm sorry. I'm tripping again. >> Yeah, I [laughter] I move that the board approve the um ratification of the 25 through 27 collective bargaining agreement between YPTA and Yakimo School District. >> Thank you, Norm. It's been moved. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Is there any discussion on the motion? >> Hearing no discussion. Barb, would you please take the role? >> Director Walker, >> I. >> Director Rice, >> I. >> Vice President Via Noea. >> I. >> President Beckett. >> I. >> Motion passes four to zero. >> Thank you, Mr. Marietta. I I would like to take the opportunity to thank the YPTA bargaining team uh co-presidents Margaret Dong and Natalie Tinjo along with WA representative Will Oaks and the YSD bargaining
069team of Chris Miller, Olivia Martinez. I was also on that team. Sorry about the faux paw earlier. >> That's okay. Excellent work all the way around. Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. Our next approval is uh resolution 03.25.26, the certification of 2025 excess property taxes. And for this, we'll go to Mr. Cooper. >> Good evening, members of the board. Um before you this evening is an approval of your annual uh taxing levy. So once you create an election resolution way back when, those amounts come uh on a four-year cycle in the election resolution. This is the final piece of the process. OSPI gives us our levy authority for the year and then um once you take action this is the amount that we transmit to the county that will be fixed to the your
070constituents tax bills. Um obviously I'm not going to make a motion but I do recommend passage of this very important measure this evening >> because I'm about to leave. [laughter] >> I know if you have any questions let me know. >> You just upset the apple I guess. Well, I I will move that uh the board approve resolution number 03.25.26, certification of 2026 excess property taxes. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. I'll make one notification or clarification that is for 2025 excess property taxes according to the action letter. Is that accurate? technically approving action. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Excellent. We have the motion and a second. Is there any further discussion hearing? None. Barb, would you please take the role? Director [clears throat] Walker. >> Hi. >> Director Rice. >>
071Hi. >> Vice President Vueea. >> Hi. >> President Beckett. >> Hi. >> Motion passes 4 to zero. >> Our third approval today is an approval to prepare an election resolution for a 2026 capital bond measure. And again, back to Mr. Cooper. >> It would be uh sufficient for the members of the board if I give the presentation seated given we don't have a presentation station this evening. >> Okay. Absolutely. >> So before you this evening is a presentation uh to consider directing the superintendent as a designate to prepare a election resolution for a future capital bond measure. So I'm going to go uh forward um oh you don't no clicks just just Barb will be in unison. Um, so first off, this presentation has a mixture of data, both internal and external. Um, special thanks
072to DA Davidson. They provide up-to-date interest rate and tax Modeling, um, that you'll see throughout the presentation. So, I'd be remiss not to thank Mr. Pleger, DA Davidson. Uh, quickly for both those at home and members of the board and audience this evening, um, there are three taxing measures that a school district can exercise. Um, for the most part that would be an educational programs and operations levy or if you're old enough like me, it's an M levy, maintenance and operations. That is your operating levy, which you just certify collection for for a levy that was passed about two years ago. You have the ability to do a capital projects levy, which is for technology or small repairs, unless you're a larger district, then potentially you could do some uh remodels or large modernizations with
073those funds. And then the last um would be school bonds. Um and those as we'll sell these evening bonds are for building those are for large construction projects and similar to your home mortgage you would get approval from your voters for a certain amount and then you repay that with taxpayer funds over a longer duration. So this uh this chart shows um Yakima's uh election passage rate history. So you'll notice um and for my colleagues there's one buckskin line in 2022. Sorry I can't even read that. Um the capital projects levy as you know failed. It's the one failing measure we've had in the most recent history. And um if you look back the most recent bond measure you can see was passed in May of 2009. So remember 60% supermajority. district ran bond measures
074in 2007 and 8 respectively um or sorry 2006 and seven respectively took a year off passed the EPO or M levy and then ran again in 2009 for a successful bond measure. That bond measure funded the construction predominantly of um Eisenhower and Davis high schools. And then of course before we go Barb sorry before we leave that you can see our our most recent election result the EPO was uh 65.71%. So a very decent passage rate um given the environment. This is a map of the United States of America. Yes, that's right. Prefuncter teaching. That's I'm just going to ground you all. That is a map of the United States. And you will notice that the green states are the only states in the union that have a 60% supermajority to pass a bond measure.
075So you got Washington alone on the west coast. Um a couple of the Dakotas and then what do you have over there? You have uh Mississippi and Tennessee uh on the east coast and southeast on the and something way up there in the northeast. Thank you, Barb, for that. [laughter] Thank you for letting me figure out if that was New Hampshire or Connecticut or um the Granite [clears throat] State. So, this is the state uh election results for bond measures and the passage resulting passage rate for each election. You can see they're broken down into uh calendar years. I will say the state average is stubbornly stuck around 40%. when you aggregate all those elections up or down um those kind of smooth out. So of all the bond measures that are passed only 40%
076pass um either on the uh historically. So that means there's a 60% failure rate with most bond elections statewide. This chart you've seen before um in the last couple meetings we have touched upon um the largest districts in the state. Um, you scroll down, you can see where we are at. So, of the top 25 school districts, we're the only school district in the state of Washington of its size that has not requested or nor passed a bond measure since 2010. So, that was a pretty glaring piece of information, particularly given our capital needs, which I'll touch upon in a bit. And then, of course, what's hold on bar before go down just a touch. One more. Little more right there. Yeah. What was also eye- raising was the amount of the top 25. So
077just under 600 million. 586 million was the average of the top 25 school districts. And we talked a little bit in earlier meetings that Seattle does not need to run bond measures. They run capital levies to fund all their construction because they have a big enough assessed valuation that their taxpayers can actually pay that o off over a four or six year period where it takes us between 20 and 25 years to do it. Lake Washington as well. They've failed several bond measures in a row and then they are the now the second largest district in the state. They've also gone to that model where they're funding the bulk of their capital improvements out of a levy which does have its advantages. Obviously simple majority plus one and then of course um it's really a
078function of your tax base. Can you pay just like at home if you had an annual income that could you could afford to pay your mortgage off in five years you might do it. your annual income's a little less, you need to spread that out, then you're going to pay that debt off over time. And that's what most districts do is they pay their debt off over a lengthy time period to keep that tax rate nice and level for their constituency. And then here's a zoom in into the uh Yakama County school districts. Um there have been 33 bond attempts as it says in the chart. And then the average of course is a receiving of 25.5 million. Um then uh superintendent and I were discussing SEAL leading the way uh with four bond attempts
079um and passing two or 76 million in construction. So less funding in the Yakima Valley. However, we're the only one again which tracks with our earlier piece of information that has not run a B bond measure since 2010 of any significant size. Is there any questions about the valley or Yakimo County in particular? Okay. You're probably like, "Okay, Mr. Cooper, how does this all occur?" So, I do want you to recall that we have done two facility advisory groups over the last 24 to 30 months. There was the original CFAC group uh that Dr. Darling was leading and I came in on the tail end of also the fact committee uh which is ongoing but also had a charge to reaffirm the work that was done by the previous committee. sure that we had a
080rational basis for potential capital bond measure. So going into all that though is um the financial planning. I will say when looking at the uh proposed measure that you may uh direct us to do the next couple of meetings, Yakama has billions of dollars of capital needs to put it frankly. Um the proposed bond measure makes some inroads to that but given the age and condition of our facilities. If you compare us to my prior employer um which during my tenure beginning 2002 we did over 1 point just under 1.5 billion dollars of capital improvements. And to maintain a district of this size you have to continually invest in your capital facilities. And we have not done so in quite a lengthy period. So, um, but the the amounts you'll see in the potential projects,
081they are really more about the function of the tax rate and the tax tolerance of the community than an exhaustive list of our needs because um, our needs are lengthy. We do need to begin uh, somewhere. So, all that being said, when you're looking at bonds, you look at when they're sold, the resulting tax rate, um what your assessed valuation is, and then believe it or not, um President Beckett and Super Green and I were talking about the presentation. I'm like, "Oh, I got to wait. The Fed's going to cut rates." So, interest rates also drive your borrowing cost up or down. So, that's obviously an important piece of the uh the bond planning puzzle. Um so what's before you uh this evening uh for your consideration would be a 2026 bond election. We would
082likely as I talked about um do not have the capacity to issue all the bonds at one time because once you sell bonds you start just like a mortgage then you start to pay principal and interest. So the district would likely have to split the bond sales we call them bond sales into two two tranches or um two iterations. where you would do let's say 100 million here and 100 million there and that's to spread your principal and interest payments over time to keep your tax rate nice and level. We also need to model um assessed valuation. So Yakama County has and the city of Yakama has had some rapid assessed valuation growth that is starting to tail off to more historical averages. So when we build the models we like to bake in a
083more conservative. So the models I like to show my ma show our math. We have prelim growth which we have very solid information from the county that will be the actual growth but we call it preliminary. We model in three and a half% there and then 3% through uh 2030 and then uh 2 and a.5% thereafter. Um and then we make assumptions about the bond markets or capital markets um and what the the current interest rate is. And then one of the benchmarks, and this is kind of wonky, is we look at the 10-year Treasury bill. That is often uh kind of the the benchmark on how treasuries generally are going to be sold. In this case, municipal bonds that they move off the 10-year Treasury. Um in the model, we've also worked in a
08450 basis point or half percent cushion. Um so we modeled aggress more aggressive borrow borrowing cost than we hope to realize on date of sale. Um but that all provides some shity into the model and then of course when we get to the tax rate graph one thing that we made a lot of progress on last levy cycle was to get our local EPO measure up to our almost our maximum. So we had started at the max the first year of the preceding levy and then we had rapid assess valuation growth. So that since we're per thousand that lowered that per thousand. Um, we're just under that now. We're 230 in change. But the models for long-term. Um, I just felt it was prudent and transparent both just modeled that at 250 so that if
085if at that point in time the district wants to go for its statutory maximum, it's modeled into the tax rate overall already. Wouldn't be a presentation about bonds if you didn't have some interest rate graphs. Um, we touched on this a little bit earlier. Um, and it is really truly interest rate dependent. That's why sometimes districts have the ability just like it on your home mortgage, you can refinance your debt or portions thereof. So, um, in certain cases when you say sell bonds for 5% or four and a half percent on the long end, which is very end of the tail of the bond sale, you often have an opportunity to refinance at lower debt just like you would your home mortgage. Um you can see um for this potential bond measure, we're modeling 20-year
086terms, which is a standard term to pay back um municipal bonds, and then just modeling uh two different sets of interest rate, first and second sale. It's a real crystal ball knowing in 24 to 36 months what the interest rates going to be in the United States. Um but again, we have to model both conservatively and prudently as we go forward. Okay, there's there's the assessed valuation. Um, in my world, you'll often see bond assessed valuation or um there'll be a levy assessed valuation. Here, they do not differentiate because that has to do with the timber value. But you can see we've had some serious step ups in assess valuation. Really starting in 22, you can see the ramp uh going and then that's our prelim assess valuation just under 9.6. 6 billion. So the
087assessed valuation when you hear that term bantied about that's the value of all taxable real property uh within the school district including commercial. Um certain properties are tax exempt if they're governmentowned for an example or certain hospitals also have tax exempt status. So they may have an assessed valuation but they're not going to be paying property taxes. So that is the value of all your commercial and residential taxable property all into one. Okay, after all that say, well, what does that boil down to? So, the concept um first I'll go to the history. What I understand is the bond measures that failed um that were initially ta attached to Iken Davis also had the rebuild of four elementary schools on them. Um, not to date myself, but the first elementary school I was in charge
088of and rebuilt from top to bottom was about $12 million. Um, it's a lot more expensive than that now. So, the bond measure failed with the rebuild of four elementary schools at that point in time. We have done uh condition assessment through ICOs, which is required under state statute to qualify for state match. Basically, you you hire an architect or an outside agency to go through your buildings piece by piece um and look at their overall condition. So, the two buildings that would be proposed for rebuild are both the um the oldest and had the worst condition um per our ICO survey that was done about 12 to 18 months ago. Um so, what would a $200 million potential bond package be? Um and what would include in it? So the the projects or proposed
089projects are listed above would be a rebuild of Hoover and Garfield. Uh note that we do do include the state match and that's the dollars that were just calculated um about 12 months ago that those amounts move based on the legislative session. And as you can see even with the age of our facilities, you're not too much over the sale, you're about double the sales tax roughly on Hoover, just to put it in perspective, right? If you look at sales tax, just to ground everybody, we do have to pay sales tax on the bulk of our construction projects. So when you see a project for 80 million, not all of that is taxable, but the bulk of it is. So you have another eight eight% and change it goes back um both to local and
090state governments. So proposed re rebuild of Hoover and Garfield um you can see the total project totals there are about 85 million 85.2 2 estimated project budget for Hoover and 80 just under 83 million for Garfield that the difference in the price u or the estimated project cost is the uh planned size of the building. So currently Hoover would be planned at a 32 classroom rebuild and Barfield would be about 28 classrooms. Um the other uh and very important element that we talked through with the committees um are title nine and ADA upgrades. So we often have um portions of our buildings that are not ADA compliant because ADA does not apply to a lot of our construction because it was pre ADA enactment which means you can utilize the facilities as they're constructed as
091long as a certain amount is not modernized or rebuilt. However, we still have access issues that we need to remedy. Um the other title nine component of that of course potentially the softball field issue we've been working on um for quite some time I understand and so it's um superintendent and I spoke it it is I think good just to be transparent that we are trying to deal with title N and ADA issues. We do not have the money in the general fund to currently do that but to bond that we would have the proceeds to finish out those projects. Now, as I said earlier, this list is by far not exhaustive when it comes to dollar amount. We we did set some money aside for sidewalks, courtyards, and asphalt. I know that's sex not
092sexy, but the maintenance it is. Um I've never heard the term alligator used more or alligatoring. I think he's crocodiling. Um whatever rough reptilian we could um reference back to, but a lot of our asphalt and pavement, as you can see, need some significant work. So that would be a little bit of a down payment on parking lots, courtyards, sidewalks that also help access, but are also part of our infrastructure that we have to maintain and put together with I wouldn't say bailing wire in this case, but mortar and some gravel. Um HVAC, you're like, Mr. Cooper, that is a lot of money for HVAC. No, it's not. Um HVAC is an extraordinarily expensive component of our operation. We are also working on compliance with the Clean Buildings Act um which for has us benchmark
093our energy usage and then requires we hit certain um characteristics or benchmarks within the statute to become compliant. That can cost a significant amount of money. Thus far we've been getting it through grant funding. However, um when a unit fails for let's say this building and we have to do a total rework of it, you're going to be a couple million dollars worth of HVAC equipment. And so the equipment itself has long lead times and is very expensive, but then also the installation and repiping, etc. So $9.5 million seems like a lot of money, but for HVAC, um if you've done it on a micro scale in your home, just imagine multiplying that by hundreds of thousands of square feet. Um the other thing that um I generally put into every bond measure both that
094future project and emergency repair reserve. You like to believe when you're planning a capital measure that you have everything figured out. Sometimes you do and sometimes you don't. So generally that reserve is just for what it says but it's also for inflationary hedge. So just a small amount of inflationary hedge in there. There is some inflationary hedge built into the larger projects. However, as you've seen and we've seen the last five years, inflation, it can be very volatile. I mean, construction inflation was running 30% during the height of COVID and shortly thereafter. And construction inflation generally runs higher than CPI because there's way more inputs and supply lines chains that go into it. So, that is a future project reserve. um as a percentage it's what 3 4% of the total. Um the other major
095issue that we seem to have been dealing with peace meal because we don't have the uh overall funds is our playgrounds that are elementary. Our elementary playgrounds um we have ADA access issues there. We also for the most part except for Robertson I don't believe have fall matting um and then we which causes twofold it causes access issues and then also can increase playground injury and so most uh new buildings or newer facilities or playgrounds you'll see a traditional big toy like we're all used to but then you will see the heavy thick rubberized matting and so that is really one of the expense drivers. So, uh, money set aside there should should be able to upgrade each elementary's playground. And I each elementary is in a different spot when it comes to upgrades. Some
096might need some more underground dirt work than others. Some might need to change where they're is actually located. Some might just need a big toy in the matting. So, but that that money as it's currently budgeted would allow uh playground improvements at every facility, every building uh elementary building and solve a huge amount of access issues. Not to mention the other ancillary benefit is we do spend money annually on chips and pea gravel and things of that nature. So your operating costs lower as well because you're not putting um Anthony I think it's like 30 3 or 35,000 to fill up a whole thing of chips if I recall um in a playground. So the the big the big chips aren't aren't aren't that cheap. Um and then roof replacements, the same thing. Um over
097assuming that a bond measure passes uh sometimes in 26, you know, this would be money for the next six to eight years thereafter. So same thing with the roof replacement. One of our um my biggest concerns as your CFO is we have something always unplanned for like a roof failure and then we have to take that money out of the classroom. So sometimes when you put it in perspective, you know, you could buy a roof for an elementary or you could buy all new K12 curriculum, both about a couple million bucks. So when you start to think of it in what you're going to give up potentially out of the general fund to actually just do a roof, which is obviously the most important thing, you can't have school when when the weather's coming in,
098but at the same time, that then takes money right out of the classroom um and in out of your student intervention. So another I know again I'm going to use the term un unsexy for some but for a maintenance person and operations roofs and money for roof replacement is very essential. And then one of the last pieces we have made community investments in turf and tracks all around the district. And so there are funds set aside uh for the turf replacement at Zeul that is very close to useful life. Um I think we're getting close to year 12ish. So usually those the carpet itself will wear out between 10 and 15 years even with proper maintenance. Um so in that case it would be a full carpet replacement for Zeil and then resurfacing of as
099many tracks as we can get done along with some tennis courts. That brings the round figure to $200 million plus the state match. So 220 and change and you're like, well, what does that do to taxes, Mr. Cooper? Because that is the ultimate question. So $200 million bond issue. Um the buckskin portion. I can if you want me to stand up. Do you go multitasking? Um [snorts] so the the buckskin portion is our bond that was approved in 2009. As you can see our historical tax rates um pre209 were about 4 it went from 480 to 481 to 463 a,000 um and then it dropped. So the one year that the state lowered everybody's levy authority to $150$150 then they decided the year after that to make it 250 because we know they just backed
100into the math for the one year and decided it wasn't going to work. Um then we had one of our lowest tax rates at 298 per thousand and then a new uh EPO was passed at $2.50 50 cents per thousand. And you can still see we have the old bond debt. Graphically, uh you can see the bond debt tapers off from the 2009 bond measure and is paid off in 2031. So you can see the bond tapers. The bottom green is the modeling we discussed for the EPO or the M measure. So you can see in 2026, for example, we're at 234,000. So we have left about 16 cents per thousand on the table when it comes to your statutory authority. And then but thereafter um both I said for transparency and prudencyy's sake we're
101modeling a $2.50 per levy. The dark blue then would be where the first bond measure would be sold and then uh taxes would be levied thereafter. So you can see the goal from the planning side and the um communication side both is to have a level and boring tax rate. We say I can be an exciting CFO but I don't want your tax rate to be boring and predictable. No zigzag once it's set in. You want it to be as level as possible so that the business community and property holders can have a predictable tax bill from year to year. the increase the net increase currently would be just about 80 cents per thousand um of assessed valuation and you can see how that debt structure looks over time. So first bond measure is a
102dark blue it gets sold and then that debt would tail off all the way to 2045 and then that second bond is then layered on top keep the level as rate uh the rate as level as possible with a small decline in 2033. So that is a graphical representation of your both your current and what the proposed t tax structure would be. Okay, as we drive a little deeper into what it means for the individual. So um few takeaways from this chart. one is for every $100,000 of home value, it would be approximately um $80 for you. Okay. The home value that we took was the average sales value. This is from Yakama County. And the sales value to the assessed value, since they aren't the same thing, um they're about 95% here. Each county
103kind of varies. So that is the actual average assessed value for a single family residence currently uh within our taxing jurisdiction. So a $200 million bond issue would roughly be $246 annually or just over $20 a month of increased taxes for a $200 me $200 million measure. And then the final touch of course would be the election dates um and when the filing deadlines would be. So just for your points of reference. I know I went through a lot of information um but we have been providing you some snapshots of where we're at, excuse me, when it comes to other large districts in the state. And then ultimately um as the superintendent and I were working on the presentation, I wanted to be as transparent as possible about what the value proposition is for your
104potential bond measure and what the resulting tax impact would be. Um so before you this evening would be a is a resolution to direct the superintendent designate to prepare an election resolution. This is a quarter step in that process. So this is the here's the information. Here's what the impact would be. The board of course is the only body that can put a taxing measure on the ballot and you have to do that via formal resolution that provides both the uh dollar amount and the resulting tax impact by by calendar year that's required by state law. So know there's a lot of information in there be happy to entertain any questions you have any questions for Mr. Cooper questions about the process. >> Just comment. Uh no, no question, but we've had an opportunity to
105review materials ahead of time and read through information and have other conversations and so appreciated all of the um advanced information that has been shared to help us prepare for the conversation today. Uh thank you. Well, we've been asked um to direct the superintendent to prepare an election resolution for a 2026 capital bond measure. Is there a motion? >> I move that the board of directors direct the superintendent or designate to prepare an election resolution for the 2026 capital bond measure. >> Second. >> There any discussion? hearing none. Barb, would you please take the role? >> President or Director Walker, >> I. >> Director Rice, >> I. >> Vice President Voeva, >> I. >> President Beckett, >> I. >> Motion passes four to zero. >> Thank you all very much. >> Thank you, Jake. That
106takes us to our second opportunity for public comment. I believe we have one person signed up as well. >> We do have one >> Mariana from a Heritage University speaking on mental health today. >> Welcome. Thank you for being here today. >> Hello, my name is Mariana and I'm a senior nursing student from Heritage University. I have lived in the Yakan Valley my whole life. I graduated from Sunnyside High School in 2020. And the reason I'm here today is to speak about the importance of prioritizing mental health for our high school students. When I was in high school, mental health was rarely talked about. We had just one counselor for nearly 400 students and most of us didn't know know how to ask for help. Many of my classmates struggled with anxiety, depression, and pressure
107at home, but there weren't enough resources or awareness to support them. Now during my clinical rotations at the emergency emergency department at MultiCare Yakama Memorial Hospital, I have seen the consequences. Almost every rotation I did in the ER involved patients under the age of 18 who came in for suicidal thoughts or self harm. These are preventable and it shows us that the support students need to start long before they reach the ER. Right now, the approaches school use to address mental health are often limited. Most students don't get enough support until they are already in crisis. According to the CDC, one approach that has shown results is targeted education focused on social and emotional development. These programs give small group or one-on-one lessons that teach students how to manage emotions, build healthy relationships, and handle
108stress. These programs have shown to reduce anxiety, depression, and feelings of withdrawal, especially in students who are already at risk for emotional or behavioral problems. When schools combine these small groupoup lessons with regular classroom learning about social and emotional skills, students show better mental health outcomes and improve coping skills. That's why I'm here today to advocate for a stronger proactive approach to mental health in our schools. As a future nurse and a lifelong member of this community, I ask you to consider expanding mental health support in our schools and implement evidence-based programs to ensure all students have the resources they need to thrive. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for being here. Under our policy governance section, we have a number of items this evening. The first is a first reading for
109new language from operational policy 1111. Turn it over to Mr. No. >> Thank you. U this is uh before you for first reading. It's um a change to the statute that included additional language required under the oath u for new directors. Basically, the old oath requirements under the statute just included uh you know basically saying you're going to uphold the constitution of the state of Washington and the United States Constitution. The new language includes the language and the laws of the state of Washington. It was pretty implicit before that that was the case, but this is spelled out now. So, uh, we're changing the OP to include that language. Thank you. Are there any questions? It looks like the survey will be sent tomorrow. We'd like to have that back by the 13th so that
110we can have action at our November 18th meeting. Our next item is actually our next couple of items are policies uh 1,00.3.0 through uh 3.3. These are on the annual rotation. [clears throat] Global governance commitment, our governing style, the board job description and the agenda planning. The surveys are, excuse me, the policies are linked in board docs for you to review. If you have any suggestions regarding language or content, you can submit those. And those surveys will also be sent tomorrow and are due back by the 11th for our 18th meeting. Does anyone have any comment on any of those four policies? Hearing none, then we'll move on to item number six, which is the approval of ratings for policy 1000.2.5 asset protection. Three responses were returned. All three indicate uh com compliance. Does any
111member wish to add any comment or elaborate on comment for any of uh or those responses for 1000.2.5? Okay. Okay, hearing none, then um uh I would um entertain [clears throat] a motion to approve the ratings of policy 1000.2.5. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Our final item on policy governance is the approval of ratings for 1000.1.0 zero. Our global end statements goals number one, two, and four. Regarding goal number one, I believe we had one listed as compliant, two reporting as making sufficient progress. Goal number two, one listed as compliant, two reporting as making sufficient progress. and goal number four, one listing compliant, one indicating increased emphasis as needed, and one indicating making sufficient progress. Would we like
112to take these individually or as a group? Do you um historically we've asked that those who indicate anything less than making sufficient progress or compliant um provide rationale for that categorization. Well, then there's opportunity in all of the surveys for comments >> to be added [clears throat] if anybody wants to >> Well, I guess that's not what I'm I guess what I'm saying is if there are if there is is a rating less than making sufficient progress, we've decided as a group in the past to discuss discuss that that particular rating and I guess I would see the um needs need extra emphasis as something that we would want to discuss so that we all are on board and it's public record. We added the category of increased emphasis is recommended last year I believe.
113Um I don't think it was longer ago than that. Um as a stop gap in between um uh making sufficient progress and compliance. I think because of the phrase sufficient being somewhat subjective, is it the board's pleasure that you would like to have anything regarding increased emphasis added to be uh added to a required comment section in our survey? I I don't have a problem with that, but I I I didn't notice there were any comments to explain the rating. And so that kind of bothers me a little bit that there's no there's a rating, but there's no explanation for that particular that I could find. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, do we want to take these individually or do we want to take them as a group? I guess I would suggest taking the
114first two as a group. >> Okay. >> So that would be a motion for >> approving the ratings for policy 1,00.1.0 goals number one and two. >> Yes. So moved. >> Second. >> There any discussion? Okay. All in favor please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Getting back to the number four in my If you look at goal number four, bilingual, biliterate. By graduation, all students will have the opportunity to become culturally competent, academically successful, and prepared for the global job market in two or more languages. Personally, I felt like um we've had to make the tough decision because of staffing and finances to pause that the roll out of the bilingual program in all of our in all of our uh uh the remaining two uh buildings. And um according to
115our strategic plan that was written six years ago, I know that's a a priority for the community. And so I felt like the comment of um uh increasing the level of emphasis on that is >> somewhat obvious. Whether or not everyone agrees with me is uh subjective and up to them. I I guess what I might suggest is that um if there's something particular to that individual goal that the board would like to see as a special emphasis Somebody said [laughter] >> um that [clears throat] maybe it's worthy of a discussion about um what you what the board would like to particularly see as an area of special emphasis. Is it is it the buildings that we're in? Is it uh quicker roll out? Is it expansion to the middle school? What what specifically do
116we want to see as an area of special emphasis as as a board? And we could do that at the retreat in August or if we have one coming up in the spring. >> I know we had talked about having that on the agenda at one point. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Okay, then we'll take a or I would entertain a motion to approve the ratings for 1000.1.4 goal number four. So moved. >> Second. >> Is there any discussion? >> All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Are there any opposed? >> Thank you. Motion carries. >> I believe we do not have need for executive session this. Is that correct? >> Excellent. Well, then one last time, I'll say thank you and congratulations to Vice President Veneova. I hope that you use the
117magic wand for good. I will. Yes. [laughter] Speed me. >> We congrat we congratulations and I'd invite you to gavvel us out for adjournment today. >> Thank you. [laughter] >> It works. >> Yes, this is [applause] fun. I do love this.