Yakima School District Board Meeting July 29th, 2025

001Good evening everybody. Welcome to the July 29th board meeting of the Akma school board. Well, isn't that nice? Uh, we do offer Spanish interpretation services. Jorge from Language Connections is here. If you need translation assistance in person, please check with Jorge for a device. And Jorge, if you would please translate this information, we'd appreciate it. >> Thank you, sir. There are multiple opportunities for public comment this evening. If you wish to make public comment, there are uh a signup sheet in the back. The first option is for commenting on agenda items only. The second option which will come towards uh the later part of the evening is for all other topics. In order to speak tonight, you'll need to sign both the form for the Senate form and the guidelines form. Uh Barb, would you

002please take the role? >> Director Walker >> here. >> Director Navaro Jr. >> here. >> Director Rice >> here. >> President Beckett >> here. and vice president bianueeva is unexcused. >> If you would rise as able and join me in the pledge of allegiance, please. 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. We'll start with the character word of the month which is capable. Fostering a belief in one's abilities and potential to achieve success. Today, the schools of the Yakma school district rest on the ancestral lands of the 14 Confederated tribes and bands of the Yakama nation. [Music] The people of the Yakan nation inhabited more than 12 million acres >> across

003Adams, Benton, Chalan, Douglas, Franklin, Grant, Kitas, 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. We thank the caretakers of this land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. Show respect [Music] >> and a step toward correcting the stories and practices that erase indigenous people's history and culture. It also honors the truth. [Music] As a school district, we will continue to build upon our relations with the Yakama Nation. Thank you, Barb. Next on our agenda is uh the recognition and I'll point members and uh our audience to this section in board docs. We have um two uh notes regarding members of our Yakama School District community that we have lost. Um Carla

004Harkham's obituary from the Herald Republic is linked in Board Docs and we've made note of the passing of uh Jim Wright. His obituary will be linked here once posted. Jim worked in our district from 1979 to 2016. More information will be made as is available. I'd invite you to join me for a moment of silence in memory of Carla and Jim. Thank you. We have an unusual order of business tonight. This is our annual public hearing on the pre preliminary budget for the upcoming school year. So this will be a public hearing. There will be a separate opportunity for public comment as in that as well. I get understand. So first and foremost, I'm opening the public hearing for the preliminary 2025 2026 budget. And at this point, I'd invite Mr. Cooper to walk us

005through the preliminary budget, please. >> Good evening, everybody. So tonight we're going to have the uh statutoily require public hearing for the annual budget. So just to ground everybody in the cadence of the annual budgeting process is as you know in the springtime we often have to make u budgetary decisions um prior to May 15th when the statutory deadline for certificated staffing uh takes place. We undertook reductions in the springtime and then we waited patiently for the legislature to complete their work and they did so. And so this is the time of year that July and August time where districts have their public hearing on their budget. Um this public hearing was advertised twice um two weeks prior. So per statute uh two different runs in our local uh paper of circulation to advertise the

006public hearing. And so uh as President Beckett acknowledged, he gave into the public hearing. I will give a presentation. There'll be time for public comment. Then the public hearing will close. Um so we'll begin our presentation. So the first slide is an overview of all the funds. So this will be dry. I will try not to be dry. Um but the content um obviously is very numeric. So there will be detail throughout and of course members of the board if you have any questions please feel free to stop me and I will ask answer them if I can. So the four uh funds compared um most importantly on this slide I want to look uh have you look at the general fund in particular I am estimating uh estimate beginning fund balance of 22.6 million.

007The budget before you this evening has a revenue of just under 295 or 294.7 million and an expenditure budget of 296450. So I want to talk to you about those numbers briefly. um the the current budget before you has a deficit position of about $1.7 million. Now that we have systems in place and uh we can accurately project expenditures and control them. Uh we'll tell you that even though the the budget is in a deficit position, I do not anticipate us to draw down on fund balance. I actually anticipate to be flat and we'll talk more about that later. The other large item is the transfer to other funds. That is the repayment of the tax anticipation note scheduled for December. And then we have uh previously approved non-voted debt that also gets paid at

008that same time for another 630,000. So most importantly on that is you see the estimated ending fund balance at just over 15.6 million. Now you're familiar with this chart. I've used it several times. Um and what it tries to do is it tries to point out numerically both our historic student levels and then our certificated and classified staffing levels. So 1718 is highlighted for your uh uh vantage point to as that's the peak enrollment year. And then to your right is important. It's the number of total staff per thousand. So when we were at 16,200 students, we had 108.4 four staff per thousand. And you can see as time progressed and programmatic changes occurred that our per thousand went up 117 120 122 its peak at 132. Last year the 2023 24 that budget um

009or 2425 had us just at 120.07 07 and then we have a slightly increased rate and I will talk about why shortly but the takeaways for you all is during that time period to now enrollment's down about 8 and a half% um our certificated staffing now is at approximately the same level um numerically you see,74 versus,074 except the enrollment is much less part of that increase in certificated staffing of course is driven by some enhancements by the state um on physical social emotional support in K3 three, but we have continued to tighten down our certificated staffing ratios. Classified, you'll notice that classified staffing is actually up. And you'll be like, Mr. Cooper, why? Because we have fully budgeted for our one-on-one paras. So, historically, over the last few years, our one-on-one par support and special

010education have been part contractual, part internal. Uh, this round, um, we budgeted for them all on the personnel side instead of assuming any contractual. We also have cons continued to see growth in that area. We have 110 one-on-one paras in special education. 110 paras at an average cost about $67,000 in special education. So that is why the classified number is up. Additionally, the classified number is up because there was a few as we know the library positions, there were some secretarial hours added for that and some other classified positions to cover uh um those library duties. And as I will talk about a bit later, during the budget presentation, we had planned on rerouting transportation and potentially tearing it up. Um we had we have not had that opportunity yet. We're still working through that

011process. So, we were unable to shave or uh reduce some transportation expenses that we had planned. Is there any questions on the overall uh staffing? Jake, um do we have any more than one-on-one in our uh special education department like twoon-one or threeon-one? There are some cases where a student's need will drive uh the requirement for multiple people to supervise. Um sometimes I I have seen as high as four to one for some students and obviously some of the equipment occasionally that goes along with somebody. So it can happen. I would say in my last five to ten years, the proliferation of 101 paras across the state has become a financial drain and it's something that all of the CFOs and superintendents are talking about because they continue to grow and it is um as

012we will see when we talk about special ed, it it drives the cost of special education up significantly. So, it's something that all districts are facing um is a uh insatiable appetite for one-on-one paras and districts either they hire them or they staff outside and we we are not immune to that. >> Um there is the line graph of your >> I had a question too but it's on the previous slide. Sure. >> Can you elaborate on the capital projects fund? Is that does that include maintenance or all maintenance or new projects? >> No sir. Um what is in that capital projects budget before you is those are actually YV Tech uh capital funds. Those are not ours. We have expended all of our capital funds. Um as you see we have project completions before

013the board this evening. So um the district's capital project funds are now depleted and those are actually skill center project funds that are waiting uh for a project that um Bonnie Smith uh may start here shortly. She's after a grant for close to a million dollars for skill center repair. So that's that's actually skill center capital uh funds, but we are the fiscal custodians of those. Good question, Raymond. Um there's the uh line chart because every CFO loves graphs. And so there's our enrollment as it goes down from its uh peak. You can see 16 233. And as we continue to stair step down, uh enrollment is projected fairly conservatively this cycle. I will say that our early kindergarten numbers are not looking great. Um they're they're they're seem to be a bit light and

014of course we talked about we have external pressures um potentially um from federal policies that may be driving our enrollment down. Those kind of things usually aren't in anybody's enrollment or demographic models as there are externalities that are really hard to calculate. So we will be watching our enrollment. Um we still have open enrollment. I talked to my staff today. we have in getting out of district enrollment as well, which hopefully will help. But we will be watching those numbers closely as kindergarten continues to be uh fairly light. I I do take some solace in that Yakama is kind of a late bloomer. So sometimes those kids come that last few weeks before school starts and so we'll be watching that. But enrollment and particularly declining enrollment is a very difficult target um because most

015models work from the past to look forward and so you only have a few good years of declining enrollment data. Um, a bright spot in Yakama's enrollment though is the AL and so I know Superintendent um has uh brought in some new leadership and we've continued to grow that program. Brenda Malan at K8 and now overtaking are overseeing all of uh online K12. We'll continue to help grow that program. In part, um we're focusing on some outreach to our homeschool partnerships and then recruiting um or making ourselves available at public events. So, we've had some increased enrollment on alternative learning. Um as you can see, we projected I projected um about 617 and then just around 200. That running start number seemed to have plateaued. The first year I got here, it went from like

016140 to 200 in that first cycle. And so, it seemed to level off of about 200 FTE. We'll see if that number um remains as is um given that we are looking at the A in the high school. Um so that that may drive that number down and I know superintendent loves to keep those kids in the seats at our high school. So and then open doors um you know that it's good news bad news when you have uh steady open doors enrollment because that's often the the final stop for kids to make sure they can graduate and get a diploma. So, but we're doing a good job um keeping kids in program and getting them uh their diploma as as quickly as possible. But we have steady open doors numbers and um that program

017has been running very been very been running very well over the last few cycles. Uh special education uh it's just important to look at the percentage and as you can see we we've ranged between 14 uh two and we're right about just under 16 projected for this next cycle. our numbers continue to to plateau there as they're a function of your basic get enrollment. You can see as a percentage they haven't moved that much. I also for the board's edification it's it's important for you to kind of look at that number over time because I've been in systems where identification uh habits our ideology change and you see a uptick or down tick in your special ed enrollment. You can see our identification and process have been very similar for quite a long time. our

018numbers have not moved that much. And then fortunately, the state has um lifted the cap. So even if we were to move above um or over 16%, we would be fully funded, which is a positive. However, special education um has been near and dear to my heart. As a young administrator, I was part of a school district that sued the state for special education funding. We lost in the Supreme Court of Washington. Um however, that problem still persists. School districts are continuing to fund huge portions of special education costs that are legally and ethically required in most cases and we as you can see 20% of the program is coming out of the local levy which is a huge portion just under 10 million and that number has remained fairly constant even as we have

019tightened down some special education staffing um the PAR costs as we talked about earlier and then increases in salary and benefits continue to drive the gap. I will say that um special education department has done it and all the principles and team and certificate instructional staff I don't want to forget anybody have done a great job this last few cycles getting IEPs in compliance and making sure that we're receiving full funding for our special education students. Um between compliant IEPs and our safety net award the revenue has swung almost $3 million. So we would be in much worse shape had we not e aggressively gone off their safety net and also done the other work that I just spoke about. So special education should be pat on the back for how much work they've done

020on the compliance side of the program. Okay simple comparison um it's interesting when you do a comparison as you watch by grade level. So you can see in elementaryaries down as we talked about and we've seen um smaller classes inbound in K those larger classes that are leaving KB they're going to the middle school so that's up 4% which is which is not that significant when you look at the math in total numbers but you see high schools down by the same amount those smaller classes um high school principles and I have been talking about it there are some smaller classes inbound u to the high schools which which will will affect staffing levels in the future. Um, running start as I said fairly flat. Um, just budgeted 197 AL's budgeted at 617 because that

021number and actuals AL starts light and then progresses over over the year. And so oftentimes it'll start at 5 500 and change and it will grow to 700. So, I like to kind of hit that middle mark when we're projecting a enrollment. And then open doors, as we discussed, um, slightly down. Overall, districtwide enrollment is down 1.6%. And then we look at the comparisons on salaries and benefits. So, we've been reducing, but the salary and benefit expenditure is up. That is correct. Why is that? Well, that is because the state gives IPD cola this is 2 and a half%. And then this cycle there was a very large increase in health benefits overund 120 130 bucks a month. So just like a cola or anything else at the state they don't fund everything. So when

022the state gives us health benefits for our uncovered employees we pick up the tab as well. But a huge portion of that uh cost in salary benefits are the paras. And then of course as we talked about health insurance and the IPD itself supplies and materials we call them MSOCS which are those supplies, materials, contractual services, travel and capital outlay. Our supply material budget is up close to 2 million. Hold on just one second. And I'll tell you why. So insurance is up 535,000. Utilities are up 360,000 and then technolog is up 515. Those are the three biggest drivers. The rest of the increases are spread across multiple departments. So you know insurance alone a half a million. Utilities at 360 um that rate could be utilities and utility expense are often driven by weather.

023However, we have continuously spent more and more and utility rates themselves are higher. So, uh, 360,000 was a rather conservative increase. Um, but we are going to continue to see our utilities go up. Um, unless we make some changes to how we operate. Um, contractual services is down just a touch. Um, nothing uh, out of the ordinary there. We just tightened those budgets up slightly. Travel. Travel is always interesting because it's generally the very smallest portion of the budget. uh it's down 18% and that's because of course we have been reducing travel and the budget uh reflects that practice accordingly. And then capital outlay um that is up because um there is an additional account we added just for reserve for like 100,000 in technology that is is in capital outlay. So that's that's why

024it's reflected that way. It's it's not a large increase in capital outlay like you saw in the 23 24 year with the er funds. or back down to more traditional spendings on on capital outlay. So overall the budget's up 3.4% driven predominantly by the increases in salary and benefits. >> Jake, >> yes ma'am. Um before this slide you were talking about um increase in um this the state in the increase from the state for insurance health insurance. Is that because the legislature passed a law and didn't fund it or is it because insurance as a whole is health insurance is increasing the cost? >> Both. So actuarily this the SE which is school employee benefit board did increase their monthly contribution rate um like most health insurance providers do. However, the move from our traditional

025so preb districts either brokered their own insurance or were in a pool etc. Um postb benefits were expanded significantly. Um 630 hours became the threshold. Um most part-time or most classified staff that worked four or five hours a day now qualified for full benefits, not prorated to benefits which a lot of districts did. So SEB was great for health benefits, but it cost districts millions and millions of dollars more than historically. So again, SEB, great idea, but then again, they don't fund any of our federal employees that we have covered. They don't fund anything that's levy funded. So all that extra cost goes to the school district. And health benefits are significantly more expensive for the school district than they were precept because coverage has expanded and provided them more people. Um and quite honestly

026as a consumer of that the coverage is worse than it was before um on a personal note. So but health care costs continue to drive our increase everywhere and we're not immune but SEB continues to be maybe a good uh good decision policy-wise for health coverage but not the greatest decision for districts financially. That is one more new burden we've had in the last decade. And for our viewing public seb is >> sorry school employee benefit board. >> Thank you. >> And the equivalent at the state would be called the PEBB the public employee benefit board. Imagine that the same name. So one is for us and one is for state employees. >> They operate very similarly. >> Uh certificated staffing as we talked about enrollment is down so staffing levels uh decrease accordingly. Uh

027there were a few positions that we retained this cycle that we did not reduce. Um some of those as an example were there were some specialists that were slated for reduction. However, the way the specialist calendar work um and along with some difficulties with breakfast after the bell uh had me add back um two or three different two or three additional uh specialist positions in an itinerant capacity to cover the need. And then on the classified staff, we talked about the why. So predominantly one-on-one paras increasing from 708 to 731. And then we did um retain two u positions at stand for additional support and then added some classified FTE for library coverage. So that is why that number is up. Overall though staffing is fairly flat up a half percent. Um, again accurately reflects

028what we're do we're doing business and so that's the budget before us. Sorry about this small I know but this is a very important slide because my whole career this is my 23rd or 24th budget hearing. Overhead's always been an issue. So, one in my prior district, my goal was to run the lowest overhead possible efficiently and effectively. So, what I want you to see is the progression and decrease of our administrative overhead over time. So, to put it in perspective, the state average for 2324, which is the most recently closed fiscal year, has a admin overhead at 12.3. The budget before you this evening has overhead at 9.83. To put that in real dollar terms, if we were to use the statewide average for administrative overhead, we'd be spending $7.4 million more in administration.

029If you use that percentage and extrapolate across our budget, so I want to say that again. If we ran the state average, we'd have $7.4 million more in overhead. Okay. So, why is this important is because I would like to show the progression to everybody. So the 2023 24 actuals were 11.6. The budget adopted in last cycle had a budget of 10.19 and you see the budget before you continues to skinny that down to 9.83. It's my professional and personal opinion were very close to the bottom. I think the lowest I got uh was able to get my prior district and they have they were more affluent was right around nine nine and a half. we have more federal programs to manage and generally more overhead because of those programs. So in that case, professionally,

030I believe we're at a very good place when it comes to overhead. And there's nobody lower in the county currently. And with those numbers, we'll be in the bottom 5% in the state. Superintendent, anything? And it's broken out in detail by cost area. So the state accounting guidelines, I know those are exhilarating. They have you account for things in act what are called activities. So as you go down the list 11 is board of directors. So the board of directors in Yakama has what three less three times less the average than the state point about.33 and you have 0.12. Um and you can go down and look at the comparisons across the board. I like the finance office in particular with a state average of 1.16 and we're running 06. So we're 1% uh almost

031less than the state average when it comes to business office expenditure. So that detail and information is there for you. It's publicly available. It's in the budget documents and in the budget documents before you. So there's any questions about administrative overhead. I think that graph clearly articulates what we've been doing with administrative spending. Mr. Cooper. Yes, sir. >> Just to clarify, I think you said that number, but is that the bottom 5% or where do you project us at in comparison to the uh 294 districts in the state? >> I think last time I looked we were in the what bottom 15% or so. And so that number at nine or 10, you're you'll be in the bottom we'll be in the bottom 5%. So that's that's what 15 or 20 districts. Um there may

032be some anomalies. There will be very few large districts in that category at all. So, occasionally there'll be a small district, a rural one that has low overhead, but usually that's an anomaly in their accounting. Um, but generally, uh, the statewide average, as you can see, is running at 123 and we're going to be at 9.8. So, that difference of 2.49 or almost two and a half% is 7.4 million if you extrapolate it on tonight's budget. Okay. fund balance. So, my goal is always to be as transparent as possible with confusing subjects. So, what what's before you right now is the beginning fund balance. I'm going to take you to the beginning fund balance. And so, for those of you watching at home, fund balance is basically how much money you have in the bank

033at any given time. And for school districts, it's usually measured once a year, which is when the books are closed in August. So, I'm anticipating with the tax anticipation note. So I'll get to that in a minute. A beginning fund balance of 22.6. You can see that um the accounting is I wanted to go through this in detail. We haven't done this look at this slide yet. Is what is in your fund balance Yakima? Well, you can see 1.7 million is restricted for carryover. That's federal carryover or state program carryover. That's only 0.57. So to put in perspective, the top number has a total fund balance of 7.6. Now you'll see that we're not going to end that way but that gives you an idea of the total fund balance when we start. Then we

034have the skill center as we talked about a large portion of our fund balance is because we are the fiduciary for the skill center. One of one we are one of several member districts. So we uh house that money in our coffers for use when the skill center wants it. um and it carries over from year to year and then sometimes they draw down and sometimes they add to it. So that number is our estimated skill center reserve. We won't know actual reserves until the fiscal year closes but budgetarily uh we account for them now. We have self-insurance for LNI. So, we have a reserve, a million- dollar reserve for LNI that remains in fund balance and we we replenish that as we draw down sorry and the non-spendable prepaid. I wish I had some

035excellent explanation but that is an accounting requirement that if we have any prepaids that we also book them in fund balance. Um, yes sir. Can you remind me in in regards to the skill center are those uh from the general fund or are they uh different funding source? >> They have so skill center has two pots of money on the books we talked so the capital projects money we talked about earlier which you which you nabbed that which was a great question. This is the general fund component. So this is the operating component of the skill center. So this is their general fund fund balance that we track. We sit down with whoever is running the program every year, see how much carryover they have or don't have, and then we estimate it. >> Is

036it part of our the school district's general fund? >> I I guess I don't I don't remember. I just it didn't clear that up. Okay. >> Yeah. So, the skill centers, all the skill centers expenditures run through our books. However, every district contributes to the skill center and their students come from all over. So we are the fiduciary basically the financial we we control the finances for the skill center as we're the largest and it's located within our boundaries. Um and so we have an agreement a very old but good solid agreement in place. I just looked at that cooperative agreement a couple days ago but that's our operating portion norm or Raymond sorry. And then the reserve for debt service. So we have to repay the tax anticipation note as we know is a

037short-term borrowing to ensure liquidity. Um, many folks around the state tried to do the same thing. They were unable to because we were fortunate that we actually had an increase in a levy. So, most districts did aortionment advances if they were struggling with cash. They're also selling property. Um, I have some friends that are about ready to liquidate huge pieces of real estate um to ensure their solveny. We did a short-term borrowing for a net cost of taxpayers of $265,000 to ensure liquidity over 18 months. Um I think that is a fair bargain to ensure that we get payroll out given the volatility we've seen from the state and the feds. Um we've been short paid by the state already once this year even um when cash flow is tight. They short paid districts in

038June even know that that's the worst month to do it. Um, so again, uh, that money I think, uh, kept us going and we are going to repay that and I'll show you when and how much, but again, I think it was it was prudent, uh, and a belts and suspenders move to ensure that we got payroll out every month. In the end or um, so at the beginning, this is the beginning fund balance. You can see it breaks out. There's three and a half uh, percent and unassigned, und designated, and then a total fund balance of 7.6. Now, let's take it how the year ends. So, oh, you're like, Mr. Cooper, it went from 22 to 156. Yes. So, total fund balance is 5.28. That's total fund balance. We have the same reservations up

039top that we talked about. You'll notice the reserve for debt service goes down because we have then expelled or by the end of the year, we have expended those and repaid those funds. So the only thing remaining would be that reserve for debt service that carries on until we repay that non-voted debt. Um so the unrestricted fund balance then arithmetically calculates to just what 2.75%. And then 15.6 million in total. As I noted earlier, I don't believe we're going to draw down on fund balance. I think the $1.7 million will be budget capacity. So, we should end the fiscal year around $18 million if all comes to fruition. Now, that's there's a lot of water to go under that bridge like enrollment as we discussed earlier. And $18 million would put it still doesn't put

040you quite at the board. The board has a requirement for 5% unreserved. So, we are not there yet. You're at 2.75. However, when we add the 18, if we do get to 18 million, pardon me. So, if we can get 17, if it year ends at 17 and a half or 18 million, our total fund balance would be six or six%. Um, we given our current fund balance reservations to meet your requirement and ensure liquidity on let's just say the budget's $300 million. We're going to need total fund balance of between 20 and 25 million. That stabilizes you out that meets your uh fund balance requirements and also our reservations. We have big chunks of money that aren't aren't technically ours even though we're the fiduciary. But we are going the goal like last time

041we are going to add to fund balance. So we'll have a surplus year 2425 and either a break even or slight surplus year in 2526. >> Jake, remind me is the percentage of fund balance one of the triggers for finding for binding conditions. >> Yeah. Zero negative >> is but there isn't like a a a warning percentage that they >> put into play in advance. >> They do. So what of we what often happens so we triggered a warning last cycle because our fund balance dropped. So usually OSPI measures cash on hand and then usually change in fund balance or equity is one of their biggest red flags. Our fund balance dropped down to 13.6 if you recall when we started the year. We're going to end at 226. That's a swing of 9 million.

042Four and a half of which is the tax anticipation note. So, we were able to build the cash reserves by the amount we're going to repay back, which is the goal. So, we borrowed four and a half, but we rebuilt the cash reserves up by the same almost the same amount as the tax anticipation note. Um, so that should put us in in very good shape. But again, a budget of 300 million, just 5% clean is is 15. But then you start to add all the reservations, you start to add three million for skill center and all those, you're up to 20 20 25 million very quickly. So we are making great progress on the financial stability. Um that's what I do want people to understand. um we are not needing to borrow to make

043payroll and we are not in binding conditions like many other districts or we are not near binding conditions because we're not going to have a negative fund balance and we're not I'm not providing you a budget that has a negative fund balance both of which are triggers for binding conditions. So the the tough work we've done over the last few cycles has positioned us in a much better place than we would have been otherwise. Do you know um I'm sorry. >> Okay. >> Do you know how many school districts are in binding conditions? >> Yeah, I've got that up. Uh thank you for that question. Uh if you look at the OSPI website, uh currently they have eight schools listed. Uh the most recent schools to enter binding conditions are Mton as of June 4th

044and Belleview as of July 10th. There has been conversation of a rather large district just south of Seattle likely being affected sometime soon. Uh the eight that are listed I cannot speak to if any have left. Um I I I see Tquila uh on that list and I think that they have now exited. So I if I had to give an educated guess I would say that they're at about seven right now instead of the eight that are listed. But I will forward that to the board. You can take a look at uh at the schools on bind inbinding conditions. What we're starting to see is it here hit directly in the upper and lower valley with uh with Mton being the first. >> Thank you. >> Yes, I I do have a question. Can

045you help me understand how we're developing a a good safety net in terms of the fund balance if if I don't know what half roughly half is restricted funds. So I'm just wondering about that if they're restricted then >> that's a 2.75 >> as a act in my mind. So I just need help understanding that piece. You're right, the fund balance needs to be larger, but then also even though that money is sitting there, it still provides us liquidity. So there are certain times a year like June as we talked about, you know, that money is sitting in fund balance, it's it's ours fiduciarily speaking. So if we need it for cash flow, as long as it's there at the end of the year, so even the restricted funds allow you to have cash flow

046because they're restricted at a certain point in time. But let's say you drop below your restricted, you replenish at the end of the fiscal year because remember cash is different than your fund balance. Cash is going to move up and down monthtomonth. So even though they're restricted funds, they still provide you liquidity if that if that makes sense. So it be like if you had your you have your savings account and your checking account. So you know that in case you blow through your checking, you got your savings. And so basically those restricted funds even though they are obligated, they can be used for liquidity purposes monthtomonth as long as they're replenished. Okay, there's a fund balance trend down up. So that's what we like to see. Obviously the tax anticipation note uh at this

047end of the fiscal year is inflating that fund balance by about four and a half million. And then as I talked about uh before um we were going to end right at uh five and change. Um I don't know why that graph is six but it's it says five in there. Apologies for that. Um but again I believe the total fund balance is going to end around 18 million. We will not have any tax anticipation note. Um and then we will take what's coming the following cycle. So our liquidity is improved, our fund balance is improved. Um and we are not in binding conditions. This is required by state law. This is the MSOC disclosure. I know this is exhilarating. So, we're required to uh put in our budget process either in hearing or in

048documents that are provided to the board of directors. What we get from the state for MSOC, that's material supplies and operating costs. And what we expend, you can see that we get from the state 20.2 million. And shockingly we expend 32.8 almost nine. So the note shows that we spend in excess of 12.6 million on material supplies and operating costs above and beyond what the state provides. There'll be very few districts across the state that have an inverse uh note. Most everybody spends greater than the state provides when it comes to material supplies and operating cost. It does show you though the gap that has to be covered by local levy or other funds just to pay the power bill. Large chunks of those MOCs are in utilities insurance um are the major drivers for

049contractual services. So any questions on the MOC disclosure? Even though it is depressing, it is accurate. >> The um those categories identified as object something. >> Sorry, I can go through those. So object five is supplies. All right. Object seven are purchased services. My apologies. Object eight is travel and then object nine is that capital outlay. Sometimes the accountant gets the best of me. I do apologize. >> Can we update that and make sure we repost? >> Thank you. >> Okay. This was in the deck um prior to the freeze, but it's also very important because we have potential federal reductions still looming in the out fiscal year. So, I'm going to go through this just to let people know kind of the lay of the land and what we were facing a few weeks

050ago uh prior to the uh the notice that the federal government was going to release federal funding in our categorical programs. So, uh, the affected programs and so just I want to point out Yakama was the number one most affected district in the entire state. So, if we lost those money, nobody else, we were above Seattle, above Kenowick. So, nobody else lost more money than us. Nobody. Um, title one part C was migrant funding. We're number three in the state for migrant. Title three or title two is um commonly known as teacher principal and quality and that pot of money we fund our instructional facilitators. Title three um we fund mostly contractual services professional de development as it relates to uh ELL instruction. Title four uh with title four we roll that into title one

051as you're allowed you're allowed to roll some title programs into title one and it takes on its characteristics. Um we fund behavioral specialists out of title four. Um we didn't receive we don't receive title uh part B title four part B sorry 21st century that's most commonly for after school programs and summer school our educational service district ESD 105 does receive those funds. So all that said those programs were frozen that would be an impact of $3.7 million. That funding has freeze has been lifted. Thank you. I was it was it was a large fire drill was about ready to ensue had that money been reduced. So the difficult part about a reduction is as you know the way our it's about cadence Washington school district budgets are based on when the legislaturator is done

052when May 15th comes around and then the summertime to reconcile your budgets adopt and then the fiscal year starts. Once you let contracts out to teachers in Washington state, you know, that's a contractual obligation to the employer. So if those that funding went away, the district would have had to fund those teachers out of some other source. Fund balance, unallocated federal funding, if there was any carryover, couch cushion, coins. I mean, it's it's a three point nearly $3.8 million hit in the middle of the fiscal year. Fortunately, we don't have to do that. Currently, um the 25 26 uh those pots of federal funds have been released. We do not have allocation uh amounts yet for title three or title two. So we should hopefully know by the end of the week. Um however, there's

053always a however. Um we talked about pocket recisions. It's a great thing to talk about pocket decisions. Um there is a belief among some of my colleagues that uh if there are recisions they're going to be focused on the future fiscal period and not this intermediate. There's also a belief potentially though there could be a an order or a change in statute that would cut our carryover off for 25 26. So if there's any unexpended funds left over those might go as well. OSPI is already modeling some of uh President Trump's early release of his budget. It has us down 2.8 8 million and that is the elimination of title three and migrant. So those fund those two programs are on the proverbial chopping block at the federal level and that would impact us to

054the tune of $2.8 million next fiscal year. It was it would if hopefully the sooner the sooner we know the better because that would require some programmatic adjustments um and then figuring out where staff go and how we serve children. Um, so fortunately we don't have to do that, but we are we are potentially likely to do it next year when those funds potentially drop out. So not out of the woods yet, but there is more federal reductions coming. >> So this is a little confusing. I heard you say 8 million and then I heard 2.8 Yep. million and then I heard we don't get to keep our carryover. >> That's a that's a conjecture, professional conjecture from Colin. >> Okay. So, we have an assumption built into our budget that we are going to

055get all of the approved by Congress and not yet allocated funding >> but unfrozen. Yes. But >> of 3 >> 8 million. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Actually, it had been it had been allocated by the Senate. It just had not been it had been held by the executive branch. >> Okay. >> So, it was frozen with the unspecified date for release and that was the 3.8 that Mr. Cooper spoke about and putting us at the number one impacted district fiscally for this current well for the year. Actually, it was four five 242. >> 2.8 is for fiscal year 2627. >> Ah, okay. So that's OSPI already released some models early for 2627. If you haven't been to their website, they do have a statewide map with some estimates. Um you can go district by district

056and toggle over, but I went on there earlier uh this week and so the estimates are 2.8. And if you drill down, you can see the programs that are meant to be reduced and it's title three and migrant. um those two programs in particular which we are large recipients >> but we are still in line for the 3.8 that we have currently budgeted for this year. >> Yes. >> It's been approved by Congress. >> Yep. >> As of the 25th. So as of four days ago. Yes. Okay. So that was the >> right >> mad dash for advocacy at the national level by superintendent and legislators in all 50 states because it did impact every state in a different way. >> Yeah. >> Well, and they only gave us one day notice that they were

057going to freeze it, right? So >> the 30th of June, we were notified and obviously we began our projections for staffing around January. Um Mr. Cooper already referenced notifying certified staff by May 15th whether they have a contract or not. So we already had uh our staffing determined. So without that release of funding, we would have been facing a reduction of 3.8 8 million um that had been allocated by the Senate but was not being released while they reviewed while the executive branch reviewed um the funding which now has been we've been notified that it will be released although I'm not sure what date. Do you have a date on that yet? >> I don't have a date. I just know it's going to be released and that's why I said they haven't released the

058final allocations just that we have the funds. >> So we still could get less than our 3.8. Uh yes, but it would only be driven by changes in the formula from one fiscal year to the next which happens not not anything draconian done by an outside agency just them >> reworking allocations. The the other important component uh I think to really state here especially given the numerous districts small districts around and we just mentioned Mapton for example uh we have many districts that are affected with migrant funds uh particularly uh in this area and um we have neighboring districts that have made reductions based on that budgetary freeze by the executive branch. So, when you're looking at uh if I were doing a news story, for example, I would be looking at what what did

059those districts do when that freeze came to be because you'll see districts like Mton that's already in binding conditions making a decision on personnel right away. You have Sunnyside that uh receives more title uh 1C funds than we do. Kenwick and and and P uh Kenowick and Sunnyside receive just a little bit more than we do. And I know that Sunnyside made some decisions early. Um we were holding off on that decision um advocating for the release of funding, working with our legislators, and thankfully that did come through. Uh but I think what's important to recognize is we have you know 295 districts in our state, local control, different superintendents trying to make a decision based on their community and their community needs and where their budget is at. And so you'll have one one

060district that made reductions um in a big way, another maybe not so big, and then we were fortunate where we're standing right now not to make reductions when we thought we would have to make that decision within a month or two. Uh but going into the next the next year, what I'm hearing is we're looking at a $2.8 million reduction in those same in that proposed potentially. So that gives us a longer runway then going into next year to figure out the priorities and how to uh how to compensate for for the loss of funding. >> Thank you. >> So the federal funding is one component. Um it's not in the slide deck, but I would be remiss not to mention the problems the states having with their budget and continue to have. So they

061have a big hole to fill with the change in the law about Medicaid. They're going to have to do something about that. It's $150 million. And then their revenue forecast, if I recall, was down three or 400 million. Um there's also new taxes in this last budget. And of course, when financially speaking, when you model anything new, you make assumptions on what it's going to return. And so um we will see if some of the tax initiatives that for the legislature are going to actually return what they uh estimated. So there's been some taxes like that. And like in the city of Seattle, we had a wealth tax where it only received I think 60 or 70% of the estimated gross. And so we will see if some of the taxes they put in place

062generate the revenue. And of course if we go into a declining um enh revenue environment, which we're in, then we know the legislature is going to have to cut. So they have structural issues now with Medicaid that they have to deal with. And then they have a declining revenue, which means we are downstream from that. So I would imagine fiscal year 262 27 we're going to see reductions from the state and the feds both. I hate to be rosy but I would rather be honest than not. So I we we are building our fund balance claw clawing out of the hole um hopefully right in time because uh then we're going to get whacked again at the federal and I imagine the state level. Um we're also required by statute to do a four-year forecast.

063We do this on a linear basis to be honest because making four-year assumptions on a school district budget is as you look at our last four years and can you always imagine what's going to look like between the next 48 months. So we make straight line pretty much uh and if we know the actual amounts that are already modeled we'll put those in but that meets the four-year requirement. Um we're modeling stable fund balance. Of course this slide always makes me nervous because you have to assume what future boards and future superintendents are going to do. And so that's why a lot of CFOs just keep it pretty simple and linear because you never want to assume anything when it comes to politics. So there's the other funds. Same for your forecast. Um you can

064see our I didn't talk about ASB as there's a lot of work too. I I would be um this budget takes you know eight months to build. Uh Susan Fate, Sherry Chapman, Amber Clyatt, HR, Chris Miller, Kim, a lot of work. And then of course my cabinet colleagues. The budget is a whole year-long process with a lot of work. So thank you all for your work on the budget. Um our ASB funds though important great for our kids but as you know um financially uh from an audit standpoint they're the most laborious amounts of money ever because there's a lot of little kid hands and money and a lot of internal controls that need to take place. Um but ours has been uh fairly healthy and flat for quite a while. our debt service fund.

065Um we're repaying off the debt service fund. We have a we have a sinking fund um for an old uh bond that was set up that we're repaying off in December. So there will be another bond defased and off the books in Yakama. So that's good news for the taxpayer because that debt is being retired and we're doing that in this fiscal year. Um capital projects again that is one one place where I wish we had some more money. So, another important element that makes Yakama somewhat unique is in other districts I've been in, I had a capital levy, I had a bond, here we have a general fund. So, if there's a roof that goes, general fund, boiler, general fund. All the upkeep in the summer, the general fund. So we have to put

066more money than most to operate our buildings particularly of their age as as we know that we have Hoover that was built during the Truman administration. I did not that is a true statement. It was built during the Truman administration. Um but we do not have that financial lever to pull like other districts. So some districts are getting through this hard time by borrowing from their capital projects fund taking the interest um or pushing expenditures over there. We don't have not have that luxury. So the general fund is our only vehicle and one we have to safeguard uh at a very high level. So superintendent, you have something to add. >> I had a question for you. Um, using your experience from coming from another district, I think it's important for the public and for

067our board to know that when you're talking about uh capital projects division, I mean, these are like entire departments that are just self- sustaining year after year after year because of the approval of of of capital projects and bonds. And um, when was the last bond that we had in the in Yakama? >> 2008, seven, eight. >> Yeah. So if you if you look back that far, we're talking over 15 years. And I know that you were in the Isiqua school district. And over the last 18 years, how much in bonds did the Isiqua >> I think over my tenure, we built $1.2 billion worth of projects, both new additions, remodels, etc., but over a billion dollars in new construction. And then that excludes the capital levy amounts that were probably three or 400 million

068over that same time. And I was I was doing some research on the Northshore School District and they've had over the last uh 18 at least 18 might be 15 years over a billion dollars in in bonds in their community. And so we are a very uh frugal um um administration as far as going to the public and making that request. Uh when you have districts that year after year, and I know we have Dr. Larson with us now in the Highline School District. It's it's a every two-year rotation where you're simply levy bond levy bond levy bond um in that in the in the five communities that are served uh in that district. So u just something to keep in mind when we're we're looking at the um the amount of funding coming into

069a district that goes to other areas. When when Mr. Cooper's talking about the general fund that is money that in other districts would would go into programs and >> books and kids and curriculum and and here it's it's going to the 15% that we try to keep it away from uh in the in the in the buildings and in other areas. >> And the other thing too I think it's when you have capital funds you can invest in things that lower your operating cost. So when I had capital money, I could buy a new boiler that would lower my heating costs. We can invest in energy conservation. You know, you can do things that so not only does it cost you money annually, you're also able not to invest and lower your operating cost. So

070you get it's a double whammy. Um and we'll have we have we'll have some talk about energy conservation later, but uh it it does cost us a significant amount of money in utilities not to be able to reinvest in our and the learning environment is different. If you go to a newer facility, it is better, the lights better. Um, but our time will come. Our time will come. Um, quick swat won't be long. So, I think our we are efficiently using our resources. Um, we have another clean audit, too. Um, both we did a financial audit. It's done. The accountability audit is not public yet, but for the public's effication, we have a we have another clean audit on there. So, no audit findings after several hundred hours on site from the state auditor. Um,

071our weaknesses still the same as most. Um, inflation, we have pocket inflation. I talked about we have utilities rising um and our insurance for the most part. General inflation has tamed. I think the was it 2.7 last month. So, uh, declining from its much higher rates previously. And then we do have some constraints giving, uh, federal funding cuts that are on the horizon. We're we continue to focus on efficiencies. Um, we talked about swinging the special ed program by 3 million. It's the same thing when we're going to dive into transportation and hopefully reear the system and save half a million dollars. we cut administratively so there's less of us doing more. And then another opportunity, um, Bonnie Smith was here, I would toot her horn because she is one of the best CT directors

072I've ever come across in my career. And so she continues to expand the program both at the skill center and within our confines here in the district. And that program is growing and we're driving more and more uh, kids uh, into CTE and getting that additional funding as well. So, um, Bonnie does a great job. Was an awesome hire. And and we talked about our AL growing. That's that homeschool partnership that Brenda Malan, uh, is working for us, um, and growing that. So, there's some additional FTE there. Then, of course, the threats, normal volatility, birth rates. Um, I talked about the reliance on the general fund for major maintenance. And then, of course, I also touched upon the fact that the state's budget is not looking that awesome. Um, I don't know about a larger

073recession, but our our state our state budget itself is going to require some future reductions. So, it was a brief hour. Um, >> any questions? >> Mr. Cooper, thank you very much for the presentation. Before we begin with questions, I would remind everybody that Mr. Cooper's entire 22page presentation is available through Board Docs, which is accessible through our website. We do have a typo that is being corrected and we'll be it's already updated. Thank you, Barb. Um, so if anyone I know I always feel like I have to apologize for the small print on these tiny screens uh for our for our people here in person. It's probably easier if you're watching online. Um, but that whole report is there. It is I in in my opinion it was it was very readable. It was

074very understandable. So I appreciate that very much. President, also attached to the board agenda is the entire >> F195, which is the state budget document. So, if anybody wants to look through 200 plus pages of the state budget document, they're more than welcome to do that. >> Be be prepared before you hit print on your home computer uh uh thinking you'll enjoy reading it uh printed out. Before you do that, you'll want to have a few reams of paper handy. Um uh first, I'd like to take questions from the board and then we do have opportunity for uh public comments. But before we do that, Dr. Green, do you have anything to add before we begin with questions from the board? Okay. Any questions from board members? I do have comment and and questions. You

075know, in my years as a board member, this is this responsibility is becoming increasingly arduous, I have to say. And um thank you for the presentation for transparency and honesty. It helps me to to understand the budget and then also think about the next four years, right? And that's where my mind is is kind of can't get my mind off the next four years. So how do we how do we maintain the solveny? How do we um manage our general fund? How do we manage our ending fund balance the next four years? And what I've been hearing is uh you know the fed the the current uh administration is making cuts. Their priorities don't match ours, right? They they have a different idea of what education should be. Uh increasing costs, decrease enrollment. I mean

076there's so many variables that we're facing the the the U state budget and all these things that we're actually facing. And I'm just hearing indirectly that we're going to have to make some adjustments in the next four years, right? We're going to have to make some decisions, some reductions in whatever, you know, with personnel or programs or uh and that's what I'm hearing and is that correct what I'm hearing from >> you are correct. >> Okay. And so it means to me like there's about four years of uncertainty, right, with the with the state budget, the federal budget, and so forth. We do know that for sure that costs are increasing every year. And from your your forecast, the four-year forecast, it showed that, right? It showed that the gradual in the increase every year.

077So, I just wonder how it's going to impact education in the Yakamo school district, how it's going to impact our our students and how we can continue to provide that quality education that that we all strive to do. So, I'm just wonder I'm just kind of venting, I guess, kind of just um letting the board know how I'm kind of feeling right now about this. Doesn't feel you know, you get that ucky feeling, right, when you when you hear something bad and that's kind of what I'm trying to process. But I'm just wondering what are your thoughts in terms of that plan for the next four years? Kind of a general just a quick plan on how we we manage our our general fund and our ending fund balance given uh what I just mentioned.

078>> Well, I think we should have a goal to run as tight as possible, which we've been doing. Um surplus small surpluses if possible to build that fund balance up. I think the reality is is that the most important thing and I I do mentor young CFOs and new new boards and new superintendents is you can't and and this board did an excellent job in the superintendent cabinet. You can't wait. It's never popular to do reductions. It's difficult. If you wait right now, you're going to go broke. If you sit on your hands and do nothing, there's just no levers anymore. You can't get warrants. The aortionment advancement. I mean, there's not any tools, and I've been doing this a long time. And so, if you we're doing what we need to be doing. We

079get new information, we have to respond in kind. It's if we sit there in our laurels and don't react, that's when we're going to be in a bad place. That's that's my honest professional assessment is you get the new information, you put a plan together, and you can't be afraid to enact the plan. I know doing a a second reduction in force on classified staff is not something we wanted to do, but we had to do it to remain solvent. And it's the same thing when we do another reduction. Doing a reduction is never fun, but it's mathematically required. And there'll be different opinions on how to spend money. That's fine. But zero is zero, right? There's the end is the end. So my advice to all boards and CFOs and superintendents is if you

080get information, don't be afraid to act on it. If you need to do a mid-year reduction, do a mid-year reduction. If you need to do a reduction for your teachers need to tighten up M socks, you got to do it. I mean, there's no you, it's the worst I've ever seen it. Um, and you can see there's more districts in binding conditions than ever. And so you you you're doing exactly what we need to do, Raymond, is we get new information like we did with the feds. We digest and then we strategize and and then enact. And that's that's all you can do. That's how I made it through the great recession and this last round of COVID. New information act and then hopefully the board uh supports those actions. >> Thank you, President Beckett.

081Um I wanted to make a comment based on uh Director Navaro's statement. Uh you are accurate in in what you're feeling. Um, I've I want to thank the board for approving travel for me early this month as part of the national um superintendent association governing board. It was funded through the governing board, but I was able to go to DC and advocate for three days uh and have them fund that opportunity. And I can tell you that over the last um four days, I've had three interviews at the national level. Uh the latest one being today with um who was it today? >> New York Times today. >> New York Times and um Director Navaro that that exact question was asked that as you face these reductions and you see the funding being held or

082potentially eliminated, what what are you going to do as a superintendent? And my my response was the statement that I made about every district having their board and knowing their community and and and the requirement to make those decisions based on what the priorities and values are. And that becomes very difficult when you're talking about title 1 C and migrant funding, which now we know has been released or is being released. But had that not been released then we very likely would have been facing another reduction in October which is something that you know you're looking at reduction reduction reduction reduction but some of these things are are factors that u are are being done to us and we're tweaking as we go. So, uh, we don't ever lose sight that when we're talking about

083positions, those are people. And I wanted to, uh, just turn a moment over to Anthony to make kind of a statement just on where our personnel are at. So just a few months ago we had gone through again positions that were to be reduced but as I stated earlier every year we go through a certain level of attrition retirements and through the rift process what we're able to do is then juggle and uh backfill positions and openings and as of right now all the positions that had been affected have assigned work within our district this year. So we reduce those positions but those individuals as of today have not lost jobs and that question had come up before. It had been challenged before. Over the last two years we have reduced almost 240 jobs with

084a very minimal amount actually losing a job. Now try telling that to the person who's had their position reduced three years in a row. That economic uncertainty is horrifying for them and their families, but we continue to find a way to keep them working in a different position, maybe a different bargaining unit, maintain their rights of recall, and then have subsequently recalled them. I mean, I I don't know any other way to put it. We have to be aware of what is going on yeartoear, paying attention to attrition. And again, I I want to commend Chris New and and and um I'm sorry, Kim Null and Chris Miller. Sorry about that. And Chantel Heffington who who quite frankly um are doing the juggling. And so, yes, there have been a handful of people who have

085lost their position, but with this last round, everybody is still working. And we were scared that again with these new cuts, what were we going to do? And how are we going to figure that out? And each time it gets tighter and tighter, but our employees have families within the district, children within the district, and the impact is more than just economic, it's psychological. So, uh I think we're in a much better position today knowing uh I I then go back to what happened in the first few years where we really were hopeful and thought that people would come back. We're no longer anticipating student population is going to come back. We have to anticipate that we're going to continue to have reduction of students, which is reduction of revenue, and make those adjustments and

086work with our labor partners to hold positions open as people uh retire or resign so that as we get to the end of the year, we can have places for those impacted to land. And I think that's the most responsible way to do it. And and I'd also like to say we have yet to ask anybody to take a concession. So, um we we we understand that costs are still rising. People still need to be able to adjust with that inflation and we're just tightening our belt. So, that that's what we will do. That's what we will continue to do and I have total confidence in our team. Um and you talked about uh reductions. We'll get into that next month about all the costs uh adjustments we made to the operating expenses. So, thank

087you for the time. >> Um, one other thing that we Dr. Green has done an excellent job at this year is advocating with policy makers and educating them on the effects of one thing or another on the Akma school district, its students and its staff and its families. Um, you just heard a brief report about his uh trip back to back east back to DC for the um AASA conf governing board. Um, I would challenge the board to join me in advocacy efforts that complement those of Dr. Green. And we all have different people that we know in the community, in the region, at the state level. And every one of those contacts that we have, if we can reach out and whatever influence they have with the policy makers that they know, just um

088ratchet up that level of advocacy for future events that might be coming down the wrote at us. Um, he's but one person. We have five of us. We could certainly um use our influences in the various places in our lives to um make sure that we we inform those people in power that have the the their hold on the purse strings. um of what what it is that they want to do and how that's going to that's going to affect our our district. So, just a challenge. I'll send any other questions or comments from the board. Well, then at this time, since we are in a public hearing, we have an opportunity for public comments regarding the preliminary budget. Barbie, we have anyone signed up to speak to the preliminary budget this evening? >> We

089do. Mr. McKenna. Welcome. >> My name is Steve McKenna. Um I'm a retired teacher, former YA president, and a taxpayer in the Akimont School District. Um I would say you have a um made some definitely made some progress but um at the same time um one of the problems I always had in dealing with school district budgets is you don't get the actual numbers until the year after you know three months after the year is over. And so um it's tough to make um decisions and look at what's actual. Um I have actually um done um looked at OSPI statistics from school district budgets that the Yakim school district has submitted um 201920 which was the year I retired which was our first year that our superintendent came in and um at that time the

090Yakimo school district had a total of 77 administrative staff um and 1,500 roughly 1,500 more students than we have now and um a budget of $23,75,929. Those are actual numbers and they're on there. I will um also send u I'll I did screenshots of each for the um different administrative categories. So, I will send those to the board um so that you don't have to run off 200 pages of or 300 pages to try to print something off like that. Um but um in the 232 24 school year which is the last school year that we have the full amount of data posted um the AON school district had 92 administrative staff which is an increase of 15 administrators. These administrators need office space, budgets and usually at least a secretary. There is a reason

091the Yakim School District purchased two buildings to house additional administrative and classified staff. That is again with 1,500 fewer students. We operated with a lot fewer administrators um than we have now. And that's frustrating for people to see that watch members um that I know of get laid off and lose their positions. Um there's a reason that the superintendent increased the public relations budget from $266,497 to over $730,000 to obscure these facts and blame fiscal problems on everything except what is actually causing the problems. If we did, you take 15 administrators, their budgets, and their salaries and get rid of that, you wouldn't have any fiscal problems. That's an issue. And you have 1500 fewer students, but you have a lot more administrators than we did before. There's a problem there. >> Thank you. Um,

092once again, I would be more than happy if uh, Mr. McKenna would like to schedule and meet with me and with our CFO. Uh, we could certainly address the revisionist history that has just been shared from the podium this evening. with regard to the buildings that were purchased with ESSER funding. Uh that is part of our long-term plan which is also paying dividends as we have our K12 online uh well K8 right now is online in the bottom of that building. The top part of the building on 39th is being uh currently rented um and bringing us an income well beyond the exhaustion of ESSER funding. uh there's a potential next year to even expand that and bring in further income. When we look at the health center which is a minimal staffing uh we

093have uh all types of health advocacy work that's happening there for our population. So to create the narrative the false narrative that those buildings are full of a number of administrators that um I would certainly love to see and stack that up against the numbers that we have because as Mr. Cooper has shared, uh, if we're running at 5% of what all of the districts in the state are running, then I think that certainly, uh, would trump anything that's being, um, depicted without any type of, uh, evidence and just blank statements. So, uh, invitation to certainly meet and, uh, if that does happen, I would be happy to report out to you what, uh, type of, um, resolution, if any, is reached at that time. So, that invitation stands for Mr. McKinnon. Thank you, Dr.

094Green. Are there any other public comments regarding the preliminary budget this afternoon? >> Not at this time. >> Third time's a charm. As there are no more comments from the public, I officially close the public hearing for the preliminary 2025 2026 YSD budget. That takes us to our section on reports of the board, which I understand we'll be hearing regarding the Gear Up program. Dr. Green, do you want to begin that introduction? >> Just briefly, but I will pass it to our um assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, Dr. Lucero in just a moment. But I do want to certainly make a statement briefly um Noam Barabosa is here to speak and uh I'm just so grateful for the um partnership that we have with the University of Washington. And uh Gear Up is a

095tremendous um program that serves our students and to have the University of Washington reach out to the Yakama School District and include us in a program that they didn't have to uh is it it's very emotional to to think of them looking out for students in the valley and prioritizing the Yakama school district. um my I believe it was my first or second year here, we went out for a Gear Up grant uh with a different university. And I will tell you that that will likely never happen again while I'm here because I do have this um in the back of my mind, I just wonder if we would have if we would have partnered with the University of Washington four or five years ago if uh if we would have been better off. But

096thank you uh to to No, and to the University of Washington, all people involved with Gear Up and I'm excited to hear the report this evening. I hope I haven't stolen any of your thunder, Dr. Lucero. >> Good evening. Yes, I'd like to welcome Noami Barbosa who is our Gear Up funded site coordinator for the Yakama School District and uh excited to for her to share the many opportunities that the grant has offered to our students. So, welcome Noy. Well, first of all, thank you for allowing me to be here and present on our programs and services. Um, so I'm going to go ahead and go over some of the services we offered this last year. Um, so as Dr. Green mentioned, my name is Nami Barbosa and I am the site coordinator for the

097University of Washington Gearup program. First of all, what is GearUp? So, Gearup stands for gaining early awareness and readiness for undergraduate programs. In October of 2023, the Akimma School District was added to our Gearup programming for our RiseUp grant that we have. That's Udub likes its acronyms. So, that is the title. We were awarded our four valleys one vision grant. So, with that grant, our grants are cohort modeled. It was in place to serve our class of 2030, which is our incoming eighth grade class at Lewis and Clark and at Franklin. Our grants are seven-year long grants. So, this one will serve the students from their sixth grade year all the way up until a little bit after their senior year. So, September 30th of 2030. This last October, we were then awarded the second

098grant, which is our path grant promoting access to higher education. And with this grant, then we were able to pick up the cohorts of the class of 2031, our incoming seventh graders at all four of the Yakima School District middle schools. This one as well is a seven-year grant and this one will end in August 31st of 2031, so a little bit after their senior year. Our grants are STEM and academic focused. really the priority is to help prepare these students academically for high school and for their post-secary options. So be it college, career, whatever it is that they choose to do, helping expose not just them but also their families to these opportunities. And some of the ways we do this is through direct student services. So this last year the services we were

099able to provide um and you will note on the slides the goal that is listed in parenthesis is tied to the Yakama school district strategic plan. The main service we wanted to incorporate was tutoring. So, we're able to fund seven tutors across our four middle schools. These tutors provided tutoring two to three days a week. Um, this was dependent on the school need and working with administration to help decide how we wanted to do this tutoring. We were able to serve 278 cohort students. That number only reflects the cohort students, but tutoring was offered to all of the students within the middle schools. The next student service that we provided was field trips. So we were able to provide 12 field trips to different colleges, student conferences, events. They are all listed there on your

100slide. I'm only going to touch on two of them. The first one being our boys empowerment conference. So this conference was put on by our University of Washington Gearup central office. I was able to take three students to this conference. Um it is a picture that you see on the bottom. And in this conference, the students were able to see a keynote speaker. They participated activities. The image that you see there is actually of the activity that our students won. So we had the students did this activity where they traced out Mr. Sigura. And then they had to list what it takes to be a leader, specifically a male leader. And they had to make it in conjunction with the body part. So for example, heart was kind, the brain was critical thinking. So, our

101students presented this and they ended up winning against students from across the other 13 school districts that Europe is in. Um, these students initially did not want to participate in anything. They were really shy and quiet. They didn't even know each other at all. And as soon as we started this activity, they completely attacked it and it was really beautiful to see them working together to complete this. Um, that there was images, pictures. I wish you could see the the picture better, but it was amazing. The next activity that I would like to highlight is our Central Washington University field trips. We did two field trips, took a total of 69 students to Central. Um, within all of our college trips, we like to do a tour general presentation. We asked that they do a

102STEM activity for us because we are STEM focused. So, they did a volcano explosion and then they also did a geology lab with them. The other part we like to add if Ael is we like to take them to the cafeteria to really get that full college experience. And so in one of our trips in doing this, we were actually waiting, you know, for our $6 chicken tender order that we were waiting and the students were noticing that people kept getting food before them. So the question was asked, why where's my food? Why are they getting their food? And so this for me was really eye opening that I knew it was Door Dash, but they didn't understand that. So this became a lesson to really explain to our students um not just that opportunity,

103but really how a college student's life works. Um and really explaining to them it's not a, you know, 8 to 2:30. They're often rushing from class to class and this is really exciting for our students to see and really eye openening for them. The next service that we've been able to provide is our workshops. So with our workshops we've been able to host 25 workshops. Um we've served a total of,258 students. Again this is only cohort students. With the workshops we traditionally do them during lunch or after school and they're open to everyone within the middle school. So our numbers are a little bit higher there as well. Some other programs we've been able to partner with and bring into the school district within our gear program is our Pacific Northwest University Roots to Wings

104program. So, we were able to obtain 50 spots for our middle school students. With this program, it's a co-mentoring program with Pacific Northwest University. And the students attend nine different trips. They work with the student doctors that are there. They attend lectures, labs, and have that co-mentoring component. The really great thing about this program is they can start it in sixth grade and once they get into high school, they're eligible for summer internships that are paid through PNW, Heritage, and then eventually the National Institute of Health. We also were able to partner with the Northwest Earth and Space Science Pathways Program from Central and NASA to host a camp this summer for 43 of our students across our four middle schools. And four of the teachers assisted us with this program. The students there coded

105some drones. They built rockets. It was very STEM focused. They did a water filtration lab. Those are the two images that you see on the bottom left. And the other two are from the PNW program. We also assisted with providing programming for summer school which we had about 250 students from the school attend with 11 teachers, two staff, and four admin that participated. Of course, we understand that it takes a village to help prepare these students. And so with that, we want to make sure that we are providing some resources to our teachers and to our families as well. So for teachers, this last year, we were able to provide 30 teachers with miniig grants to help support some of their supply needs to support our students within the class. We were also able to

106fund 57 spots for the solution tree conferences for teachers, admin, and district staff. With parent engagement, um it's really important that we also incorporate the parents. It's not just student going off to college or career. It's going to be the whole family realistically. So really starting them younger. So with that we were able to facilitate a college and career night at Franklin Middle School which had 280 attendees. We also helped assist with the steam nights across the district. So we assisted with three two of which um we hosted more so ourselves and that was at Wilson and at Franklin. We had 385 attendees at this event. Financial literacy is also a key component of our grant. So we brought in outreach and retention for all to help facilitate some financial literacy for our students and

107families. We also had East Valley and Woop district families attend this event. Um so our hope for next year is to really continue some of these services as well um and even more. So this past year I was hired in June of 2024. So I hit the ground running during summer school and it was just myself. I'm very blessed that um we have finally through the University of Washington been able to hire two academic counselors to help assist us in this work. So our hope is next year we'll be able to do some of the same work but more and really focus more on the career exposure, the financial literacy, bring in more guest speakers and opportunities for our families. There is um an additional side within your presentation that has some of the other

108collaborations that we've done within the school district, some of the committees and some of the other work for you to review. My contact information is there if you have any questions after um reviewing that. But if you have any questions now, I will take those as well. >> Dr. Walker, >> just a comment on a question. Just this is fantastic. I just I'm really excited by what you're doing, the number of students you've involved and that you're able to engage all four of our middle schools. I had one question. You the grants run to 30 and 31 and are those grants guaranteed? Are they subject to some kind of federal whim along the way? >> Yes. So, um, for the first part of it, our FO B grant, which is our first one, that one

109goes to 20 20, oh my god, 2030, which is only LC and Franklin. Um, as of now, once they get into the high school, we will take on all of the students of that class. Realistically, the other one is for 2031. We are in the same federal constraints with the freeze as the previous funding that was mentioned um by Mr. Cooper, but with that freeze undone at the moment, we are secured. Our grants are forwardfunded. So, if they our funding were to be removed, they would there would be some legal repercussions that would take place so that we wouldn't lose our funding. As of now, we do have our funding secured for next year. We're just waiting for the official confirmation similar to how was mentioned for the funding here. Um, but we will continue

110to advocate and fight for the following year is what we're being told as well. >> Thank you, >> Amy. I just want to say thank you so much. I've heard about Gear Up anecdotally along the way. To see the full picture is really awesome. It's really, really neat to be able to see that and I appreciate it very much, Dr. Lucero. Appreciate the efforts. Any other questions? Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate you being here. >> We'll move to our section on updates to begin with. Are there any individual updates from members of the board? Hearing none and we'll move to Dr. Green for the superintendent's update. >> Thank you. I will work to expedite this um given the time. Uh first I want to welcome uh Dr. Larson as our deputy

111superintendent and Dr. Lucero as our assistant superintendent of teaching and learning. So formally introducing them to the board at this time. Uh we look forward to having uh more time with them at the board retreat. I believe that is the 8th of August. So for those in our audience and online if uh that is open to the public if people would like to come that day uh beginning at I believe it's about 8:30 on that August 8th date. Um uh looking forward to that. Also, um, uh, we have a brief announcement here on behalf of the Washington State Title One Part C Migrant Education Program, which we've been talking about, Title 1C migrant education. Um, we have a notification from the director of the title programs at OSPI, and we have been uh, had an

112individual selected as our uh, nurse of the year award, and I believe we're going to put it up there. Yes. Yes. Okay. So, um, we have Anhelica Alcala Sanchez, uh, who was is recognized on behalf of Title One Part C Migrant Program as nurse of the year. So, we look forward to being able to celebrate her, uh, in the future. Uh, also, um, the first day of school is August 2, uh, 27th, uh, for 1st through 12th grade and September 3rd for our our kinder students. Uh we're excited about that upcoming date. Also, uh Director Rice mentioned um the work that is happening around the state or what I've been involved in loosely in talking about the AASA the superintendent work in DC. I also want to remind the board that uh we have uh

113just completed the beginning of this month uh since this is our only board meeting this month, I was not able to report out about it until now. Uh we had our fourth uh University of Washington meeting with the superintendent group that uh was uh put together through uh Kelly Armaki from Belleview and myself and now involving several other uh district leaders from across the state. At that last meeting we did have Representative Bergquist who uh was the sponsor for House Bill 2049 which raised the levy lid and did not uh provide local effort assistance. So he was able to speak was invited to come and and speak with the group and we're able to verbalize uh some of the challenges that we saw through that bill. Uh in addition uh Senator Wellman uh spoke to

114the group also. Um uh reminder uh last October we did have uh House Ed Chair uh uh Representative Santos who spoke with us. So, we're gaining some momentum in the involvement of the legislature. And what I'm seeing through the work that we're doing with the University of Washington and David Knight as the specialist uh around Washington state funding is that there is more of a willingness and acceptance that we have a funding system in public education that has significant challenges. So, I am seeing more involvement with or more understanding of our legislators. Now, whether that continues to translate into action, we'll see. But, uh, I did want to mention that because we've, uh, gained quite a bit of ground in the, uh, four meetings that we've had since, um, uh, since July of 2024. Uh,

115I believe that is my last item, so I'll turn the time back over to you. >> Thank you, Dr. Green. The calendar and list of events under the highlights for community engagement are linked in your uh, board docs. I know that Dr. Green mentioned the most important date of all which is August 27th which is our first day of class. Is there anything else specifically that should be pointed out or I'll just leave the leave the list for the board to pursue it? >> Uh just I think for the community just to know we on July 31st at Eisenhower from 10:00 to 3 we have a red red cross blood drive from 10:00 a.m. to 3. That's July 31st. Uh there is a Yakama Valley Farmworker mobile clinic summer vaccine sports physicals that is August

1165th, 6th, 7th, 12th, 13th from 8:00 to 4:00. Again, these are located uh on board docs, but those would be the two that I would mention along with our retreat that I also called out which is August 8th from 8:15 to 4:00 here at Central Services. >> Thank you. There's a lengthy list of of activities in different buildings on that list. The open houses are all listed. Yep, exactly. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Green. that will go back to Mr. Cooper for more financial >> should be more brief. I promise >> conversation will briefer. >> I'm I'm looking at you when you're telling me that. So, okay. Thank you, Mr. Cooper. >> So, before you this evening is your monthly financial report. Um, as required by state statute, the board has to take receipt of the

117uh budget status report in its meeting. And so, we do that every month. If the deck comes up, I will This could be the briefest one ever. That's all right. Unless I have to talk. Thanks, Bob. Uh, so here's your monthly financial report for June and was uh pointed out earlier in public testimony. School districts fiscal years end August 31st. It generally takes us two plus months to close the books given the size and the acrruels that we occur. And by state statute, your financial statements aren't required to be submitted until October 25th of each year and then finalized in November by OSPI. Um, so we run on projections most of the year. That's why I have gray hair. Um, and because the budget before you and everyone is built on a projection, right, until

118people kids show up and we commence the school year. Uh, so I'm going to breeze through this. We've done this is the end of the year for enrollment. Um, actuals. I'm not going to touch upon it too much. We did a deep dive. You've seen that slide where I overprotected secondary enrollment several times. I hate it. Um but it will be better next year. Uh cash cash is king. Cash is above projection right now. Um which is good for June. So we had funny cash flow from OSPI in June. They short paid us um on some aortionment, gave us an extra 50 bucks a kid at another and then shorted LEA. So and then the following month they're going to pay us some more. So we we got a repayment in valier and some of

119it in June and then the other chunk will come in July. So that is why we're above uh our cash projections but you can see I have an estimated ending fund balance of 226. That cash line cash and fund balance are not necessarily the same thing because they're affected by acrruels and accounting. So but as you can see uh all signs are pointing towards that estimated beginning fund balance being very close to projection. um general fund uh revenue to actual blue bar is actual as you can see this month slightly lighter in June that was that short pay uh for the most part though there's greater blue bars than the black bars which we want to see which is uh revenue over uh budget versus actual expenditures something important for you to note is the

120stability of those expenditures in the trough the trough is that post tax season so you look at December January, February, March, our payrolls are running along 20 million a month or so, which is exactly what we want to see. Stable, consistent payrolls except for the beginning end of the fiscal period. Um, MSOX, I'm going to touch on that. Any questions? So, overall cash is above projection. It's the uh last enrollment council. Those enrollment numbers will be finalized. We do do revisions based on uh student changes um um and um occasionally, but those numbers should hold. And if there's any questions, I'll be happy to answer them. Thank you, Mr. Cooper. This takes us to our first opportunity for public comment. This is for a section on comments from the public on agenda items. Do we

121have anyone signed up, Barb, for public comment this evening? Excellent. >> Welcome, Teresa. Come on down. >> Take your time. Thanks for >> Okay. Um, I'll be going over the information that has been presented. I'll be repeating what what has been presented in all the meetings here. But one of the things I would like to let you know back in 97 I worked in the warehouses and I was getting tired of working in the warehouses. So I took my kids to the Davis because my kids 10 Davis. Okay. And I talked to the librarians. So that's why I asked to keep the librarians because when I went there I I have a habit asking what do you do? What do you help? So the librarians there told me what they provided even though Davis is

122losing so many programs and I'm grateful that the librarians and the students there helped me finish my GED and I was surprised. I'm still questioning. I got my I was able to pass my GED test in five months. So even though I was already 38 years old, I'm still questioning how did I do it? I don't know. But with the librarians help, I was able to get my GED. So that's why I say keep the librarians because they help more than anything because remember not everybody's like me. I if you talk to me and say hello this I say who are you? Where do you work? What do you do? So that's why I have met so many people here especially the one that do the data entry for the funings and I scolded that

123person. And I said, "Are you sure you know what you're doing? Because look, it's what's happening. You guys are ripping the teachers, which is the main important their main important for the students." And I agree what the Yakama Harold wrote in their newspaper saying that we should keep the librarians and stop briefing the teachers because they are the ones that they're teachers that check the future for the students. They build confidence and create safe spaces for our kids to be able to grow and succeed in in life. But also one of the things that Francis said, the bear, it's a good thing Hulu has that thing that you can flip through that. You don't have to see the whole episode. So the guy, he was the fancy chef, but his position, like I tell my

124kids, don't let your position go to your head. So he thought because he had that cal the degree he thought that he go back to his family's restaurant he would build it back up right away but you forget one thing in any workplace if you don't listen to your workers you're not going to be able to succeed in something. So that's what's happening to him instead of bringing the restaurant down up he was bringing it down because he wasn't listening to his co-workers. So that's one of the things you should do and also one of the things that public person said that we would like to be involved on how you do the reefing on how did you come to that decision we would like to be involved I would definitely would like to be

125involved because you know there's some good teachers and there's some that are not because I also told one teacher when he wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing I brought it to attention and told him, "You are a teacher. You're supposed to teach the students. Don't be criticizing them at all on how their body is shaped and everything. And if you don't like the student, don't put them out in the hall because they're not going to be learning anything. They're going to be losing credit." So, he thought that I wasn't going to bring that to attention to anybody. And like I say, I don't know anybody, but I came here to this school, this office, and I asked the first person that came out. I said, "I want to talk to somebody about

126a teacher." And I didn't know that Becky Cho was responsible and making sure the principles and the teachers do their job. the teacher didn't like me because I brought it up to her attention on what the teacher was doing to the students. So, I support the teachers and I'm grateful that they're there and I thank you for being there for my kids. Thank you. >> Thank you, Teresa. >> Next section on our agenda is our uh consent agenda this evening. Tonight's consent agenda is very lengthy. If any member of the board would like to have any item from the consent agenda removed from the consent agenda for full discussion, we can do so. Please let me know. If I I'm about to Yeah. Um, in the July 29th consent agenda, uh, we have approval for

127minutes of June 2025, notification of approval for warrants for June of 2025, approval of personnel actions, the budget status reports for June of 2025, interlocal agreements, resolution 08.24.25, 25 approval for designation of auditing and investment officers. Resolution 11.24.25 25 approval for authorized signatory, approval for purchase of food and paper products from the National School Breakfast and Lunch Programs from US Foods during the 2012526 school year and approval for purchase of fresh produce for the National School Breakfast and Lunch Programs from Spokane Programs, excuse me, Spokane Produce during the 202526 school year. Does any member wish to have any of those consent items removed? In that case, I'd entertain a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. We >> have a mo motion and a second. Is there any discussion about the

128consent agenda? I just want to point out for the viewing audience um items 7 8 9 and 10 are typically voted on individually and we've incorporated them into the consent agenda just to kind of pair down the the level of time. These are um agreements that are handled annually and um things that we just do on a regular basis. >> Correct. Hearing no other discussion. All in favor of the motion, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion carries. Thank you very much. Our section on approvals begins with uh approval for McKin Street to perform the Clean Buildings Act tier one and tier 2 audits. And for that we'll go to Mr. Marietta. >> Thank you. I was asked to just give you summaries on this and the next two um requests for

129approvals. Um there is uh a an item called the Clean Buildings Act where we are required to have a third-party independent auditor u go through the buildings and make an assessment and recommendations for uh compliance with that act. This request is for $689,000 which will also be reimbursed via a grant through the Department of Commerce. Is this a federal requirement or a state requirement? >> Is it state? Thank you. The action letter is attached in board docs tonight. Would be willing to entertain a motion for the board to approve McKinstry to perform the Clean Buildings Act tiers one and two audits for an approximate cost of $689,000. >> So moved. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any discussion? All in favor of the motion, please say I. >> I. >> Any

130opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Myata. Back to you. >> These next two make me very happy. This is for the approval of resolution 9.24.25, 25 final acceptance of the Discovery Early Learning Modular Edition. Um, as you've toured this uh facility before, we added 12,376 square ft to the Discovery Early Learning Campus. Uh, the primary use of this building is six new classrooms, a commercial kitchen, and a large set of restrooms. Um this is the official we are done and we can now get into the final closing out phase of uh of this process. Any questions? >> Board is being asked to accept resolution 09.24.25 for the final acceptance of the discovery early learning modular edition. >> So moved. >> Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Hearing no discussion.

131All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much. >> My last approval resolution is 10.24.25 final acceptance of the Davis High School auditorium modernization project. I think you've all toured the facility, have seen the upgrades. We have waited I think a long uh 14 years for this process and um would like to have the approval uh so that we may have the final acceptance of this project. >> I move to approve resolution 10.2.4.25. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? >> Just hooray. I've been waiting >> I was half one. I've been waiting 15 years for this, not just 14. So, it's >> it's it's such a beautiful it was a beautiful project was completed so well and it'll just

132last for is something that will enrich the community for years. So, I'm so excited to see this done. >> I agree completely. Hearing no further discussion, all in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Marietta. That takes us to our second opportunity for comments from the public. This would cover any topic not on the agenda tonight. Is there anyone signed up this evening for our second opportunity? >> Not at this time. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Well, then we move to our policy governance section. We have a second reading for policy 0550, educational and racial equity. Um uh this is the second reading because I believe director Rice requested the red line and so we've uh attached some edits. Um the survey will be sent out

133ASAP I believe very soon. Is there any discussion? We have the same for policy 1000.2 2.0 our global executive constraint. The responses are attached. Does any member wish to elaborate or add to the responses that were submitted? >> We've had a month off. So remind me we are we vote to receive. >> We're voting yes. >> Yes. Okay. So we'll take a >> what we what we can do is go through all of these >> and then approve them all as a group. I like that idea. Okay, we'll go right we'll go right along to the next one. Then we have a policy 1000.2 I'm sorry 100.2.3 which is our financial conditions and activities. We have the approval ratings for policy 1000.4.2 which is the accountability of the superintendent. Approval of the ratings for policy

1341000.4.3 4.3 which is the delegation to the superintendent and the approval for policy 1000.4.4 which is monitoring of the superintendent's performance and again does any member wish to elaborate or expand upon the responses that were submitted with the survey monkey. I I would just like to comment that since all were unanimous in uh approving in in giving full compliance in all of those policies, I would just move that we approve the ratings for all of those policies listed. >> Second. >> A motion and a second to approve the attached five policies as they have been submitted through the survey. Any other discussion? All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Thank you very much. Mr. Superintendent, do we have need for executive session this evening? >> Uh we do not have need

135for executive session. I do have one topic if you So >> thank you. Uh just here at the close, I I look around and I just wanted to recognize that we are entering um uh this time period of uh voting for for board members. And uh I just wanted since we have people here tonight, I just wondered if we had any uh candidates if they could just stand up and we could see who's running if we have anybody here tonight. Okay. So just let it be noted that Espiransa Lemos, thank you. I just want to appreciate um you and others attending some of those sessions. So I know that uh having been in this position now for six years and seen the work that you do, it is a daunting task for a community member

136to give up time and away from their family in the evenings uh to serve the community in the way that you do. So I just want to recognize you as well and uh thank the candidates who are putting in for the position >> and I would say uh thank you Dr. Green. I know the the educational sessions for prospective board members has evolved over the years and I I understand that's been well attended this year. So appreciate that very much. Hearing no other business, then we will be adjourned for the evening. We'll see you all in a couple weeks.