001Where are we here? Good evening everybody. Welcome to the June 17th meeting of the Yakima School Board. Thankful that you could all join us on a beautiful Yakma evening. Uh let's begin here. We have our call to order. And uh to begin with, just a reminder, we do offer Spanish interpretation services from Jorge with Language Connection. Hor in the back. If you need translation assistance in person, please check in for a device. And Horge, would you please translate this information for us? Uh, good evening. thank you for being here tonight. Um, Barb, would you please take the role? Director Walker here. Director Rice here, Vice President Vueea here, President Beckett here, and Director Navaro Jr. is excused. I don't mention this every meeting, but uh for those of you here tonight, just as a reminder,
002we do provide live streaming for the meeting. The link can be found on our web page under the board of directors tab. And if you're interested in watching uh recordings of past meetings, you can find them on the district's YSD YouTube channel. Would you please uh join me in the pledge of allegiance this evening? 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. The character word of the month for June is fair. Ensuring equal treatment, opportunities, and justice for all individuals. Today, the schools of the Akam school district rest on the ancestral lands of 14 confederated tribes and bands of the Yakama nation. [Music] The people of the Yakan nation inhabited more than
00312 million acres across Adams, Benton, Chalan, Douglas, Franklin, Grant, Kittas, Kat and Nema counties. Today we honor those native peoples who are tied to the land through history, legends, and culture. We acknowledge our descendants who live in the world today. We thank the caretakers of this land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial. 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. I would point the uh board members uh to our section in board docs uh where we have a link to a obituary through the Yakma Herald for uh Lillian Owens Nordberg, a valuable member of the Yakima School
004District family who has passed away. I would invite you all to please join me in a moment of silence in Lillian's memory. Thank you. We have two sets of recognitions this evening and I believe the first of the two I'll be turning this over to Director Rice. Is that correct? Uh this is for the WIAA WMEA state solo and ensemble contest which took place in Ellensburg on the last Friday and Saturday in April. This event allows the top high school music students in Washington to showcase their talents in a competitive environment. From 22 regional contests, the winners in each category advance to the state competition where first, second, and third places are awarded in the area of um well for this for the um these are from Davis High School. All these students in the
005percussion ensemble one first place state champions. Do we have any students here from the Davis High School percussion on Ensemble One? If you do, could you come up and just shake our hands and then if you want to stand in front of the backdrop? Thank you. I was just going to call it the thing. Congratulations, and Kristen will take your pictures. What? They've already received their Is there do you have any anything you'd like to share with the board about your competition as the case may Yeah. Well, uh it was an amazing experience. The whole um rehearsal process was completely studentled. So, Mr. Howard had no hand in motivating us to rehearse or scheduling. So, that was all our student leader um team. Uh yeah, we rehearsed Tuesdays and Thursdays from I think it was
0065 to 7 or 6:00 to 8. Um, it was a great experience. We all got to have fun on the on the vans on the way there and we listened to victory music on the way back. It was a great time. Um, it was the first time that our ensemble had won since 2019. So, it was a it was a great experience and it was great to be part of that ensemble. Thank you. What is what is your instrument? As a percussionist, we kind of have to play everything. But in this ensemble, I was playing the vibrophone. So, it's like a it's a metal keyboard and then you hit it, it kind of goes. Yeah. Thank you. And could you just introduce yourself? Oh, I'm Jason McCoslin. Nice to meet you, Jason. Thank you for
007being here. Thank you. Okay. Um, as Jason said, their music teacher is Sam Howard. Sam, are you here this evening? Okay. Um, 11th grade member of this percussion ensemble is Matthew Alvarez. Oh, okay. He's the only rep. He's the only rep. Okay. Well, Jason, thank you for representing. Sure. Uh, just like to add, thank you, Jace, for your words up here and, uh, for having your family here. I had the opportunity to, uh, attend, uh, the ensemble. There was a concert a couple weeks ago. Um, wonderful opportunity to see them perform at the Davis Auditorium. uh they had a a great uh many of pe number of people there and they were able to receive uh their medallions their medals from state. So, it was quite a large group as you saw and I just
008really appreciated the opportunity to be there with our our our directors and of course all the students and then winning state as a senior. That's just a great outgoing opportunity and kind of leaving a legacy for those after him uh to hopefully then carry the torch and maybe go on to uh several other uh successful state titles. But, uh, we appreciate, uh, the hard work that's gone into, I think, you know, what Jace mentioned as well was just how much how involved the students were in making sure that things happened and their commitment and in in leading one another uh, to to victory. So, I appreciated that. I just wanted to acknowledge to our board that uh, we do have those opportunities out there for the community to benefit from and it was just a
009wonderful opportunity to see them perform after their state title. Thank you, Dr. Green. Director Walker, turn it over to you. Well, it's my pleasure to announce um some spring sports athletes accomplishments. The board of directors congratulates the following student athletes for their exceptional contributions during the spring sports season. We recognize their remarkable achievement of placing eighth or higher at state and/or receiving a student athlete award. Your dedication, hard work, and sportsmanship exemplify both your talent and your unwavering commitment. First, we have from Davis High School, Columbia Basin Big Nine all league conference honors. Um, Ian Martinez, soccer defensive player of the year and first team soccer defender. I'm about to dead. also from the soccer team. We have Antonio Garcia, first team defender. No, Antonio. No, he's baseball. Also from soccer, we have Jose Quueast
010Diaz, first team soccer midfield. Now we have Joshua Sosa, first team baseball, shortstop. Joshua, next up, Raul Mesa, first team boys tennis. Also competing on the boys tennis team, Matthew Betho. And last and not least from Davis, we have Andy Bush, track and field coach of the year. Now from Eisenhower High School, uh we have Maverick Pastor, first team boys golf. Sergio Mora, first team boys soccer. Sergio's a junior, so he'll be back next year. Adeline Steven, co-player of the year and first team girls tennis. Bryson Chase, field athlete of the year, boys track and field. And Ivan Alarro, track and field assistant coach of the year. And that concludes Oh, no. We have a few other from state. We have some WIAA spring state championships. Bryson Chase was sixth place in the shotput and
011seventh place in the discus at state. He's we already know he's not here. We have Melissa Mendoza, girls track and field. First place ambulatory 100 meters and 200 meters. Third place ambulatory shotput and second place ambulatory javelin. Melissa here. Now, last but not least, we have Gillette Ibanz Sanchez, girls track and field. Third place, ambulatory 200 meters and javelin. Fourth place, ambulatory 100 meters and shotput. That's it. Thank you to um Director Rice and Director Walker. if we have uh students still here in just a second. We'd love to do a group photo as well. So, yeah, no matter which school sport or uh music exactly. All right, we'll get all the students up front by the backdrop for a group photo if we can. Come on up. Come on up. Is anyone hiding back
012there refusing to come up for the picture? [Laughter] Awesome. Thank you. It's always a pleasure to be able to congratulate our students and their uh families when they show up and we appreciate you being here. Uh we also know that you may have other things you'd like to do this evening. So at this point in time, if you uh would like to step out, that would be completely fine. Um the doors are unlocked for now. Um and we will uh we will move forward here in just a second with the business portion of our meetings. But again, thank you all for being here, for supporting your students and their endeavors. We'll be moving on to our reports to the board section this evening. And to begin with this evening, Francis Guerrero from YA is the
013first on the list. Granny, welcome. I believe we have the podium back in its rightful place. testing. Uh, good afternoon. So, superintendent, I know I'm supposed to give you the topic of my report. Do you mind if I change it? Go right ahead. So the superintendent and I met today and so I'll share that with you at next month's meeting. But it occurred to me during that conversation that perhaps there's misunderstanding because we don't know each other very well. So I wanted to explain a little something about me and hopefully you will share a little something about you as well. There's an illustrative example that I would like to give. It comes from a TV show, The Bear. Does anybody know The Bear? It's about a restaurant. Oh, good. Fabulous. Season 2, episode 7, Forks.
014So, okay. It's about a restaurant. Uh, basically this um person went to a high-end culinary school, worked at a high-end restaurant, and then something happened to his brother, and so he came back home to take over the local family restaurant, which is kind of a dive compared to the fine art that he was in. And his cousin works there, too, Richie. And Richie needs a little lesson in like what it really means to commit to that culinary stuff. So he sends them to do a week intern at a threestar Michelin restaurant. This is the kind of place where your meal is going to cost you $600. It's a once ina-lifetime experience. Those people bend over backwards to make sure that it's the highlight of your life. It's insane. Like you should watch it just for
015that insane experience. But he's just interning for a week and his job is the forks. his job is to polish the forks. And as you can imagine, he's a little resentful of that. So, he's grumpy and he's not necessarily doing a good job. And one day, his supervisor pulls him outside and says, "You have one job to polish the forks." Like you don't have to drink the Kool-Aid that everybody else here is drinking, bending over backwards to make this outrageous experience for our clients, but you do have to respect them. You have to respect me. You need to respect your work and you need to respect yourself. And that's something Richie can understand. I I can I can do respect. And so he does. He's he's found his purpose. Now, the way he contributes to
016this outrageous experience is to just make sure that the forks are polished and not smudged. I'm not spending $600 on a meal for a smudged fork. And he starts getting up a little bit earlier every day and is happier to be there every day because now he's part of this experience. And one day his supervisor hands him a black coat and says, "Let's hit the floor." Like, "Let's get out there with the diners." And so then he gets the fullon enchilada of what it means to go so overboard that when Jake calls and asks for a reservation a month in advance, I go and check out Jake's social media so that I can make sure I make this an experience. It's insane. But it's it's just a it's just an internship. It's not forever. And
017the next day he's back to forks and you can see that his will and desire has dropped a little bit. But here's the thing. Once he found his purpose, he was so much more invested in what he was doing. And most people, you tell them, "What do you do? I'm a teacher. I teach English." But those who know their purpose will tell you, "I change lives. I help grow people. I help grow human beings." It's different when you know your purpose. People often ask me, "Do you like your job? Do you like your new job?" And there used to be really awkward silence because I like to be honest and I don't know that this is something I would say I like. I'm not Richie waking up a few minutes earlier every day excited to
018go to work. But my job is very fulfilling. 90% of the time it is very fulfilling. And that is because I know my purpose. I know the why for what I do what I do. People are like, "Well, it's because you were next in line. It's because no one else would do it." And that's probably true. But I also know my why, which means I come at my job maybe a little bit differently. And I think a lot of educators know their why. And so their expectations of those that are supposed to be taking care of them are a little bit different. And I just want to make sure that you also know your why and that maybe you're communicating that a little bit better because I don't think my people feel like everyone knows
019their why or maybe the wise just aren't in alignment. But I I know my why. And that means maybe I do things a little bit more like that three star restaurant. When I am giving you information and when I'm giving you reports, again, it's not necessarily because I expect you to solve problems. It's because I want you to be informed. And I know cabinet is informing you, but if we're being perfectly honest, they're probably not giving you unvarnished truth. I get that. But how can you operate in good conscience and with a true why if you don't have the unvarnished truth? Now, in our discussions today, we decided, I think, that we're going to start making meetings a priority rather than an afterthought. That we're going to start meeting way more regularly rather than when
020needs come up because after the fact, it's too late. I don't see the point in scheduling a meeting to discuss the effects of cutting librarians when they've already been cut, when that decision has already been made. And as an English teacher, my why for fighting for those librarians, it cuts into my very soul. For all of my educators, for all studentf facing positions, it is more than just a job to me, and I appreciate the honest desire to work together more. You gave me a little gift today. I have one for you, too. Thank you, Franny. We have a section for updates from the board. Does any board member have an update they'd like to offer this evening? Um, I don't know if you're going to talk about graduations or not. Um, we had the
021pleasure last week of three nights in a row with four graduations covering three nights. It is a joy for me to be able to share that with our families, our community, and celebrate all of the students that um graduated graduate every year over the course of my tenure on the board. That's been a lot. But just as a point of information, last week we had 1,128 students graduate from the Akma School District, and I think that deserves a great round of applause. We will have a few more that graduate over the that meet their graduation requirements over the summer and we will celebrate those in the fall. But um we celebrate each and every one of our graduates because they are going forward and making a difference in their lives and in the lives of
022their families. Thank you. Just just ditto Martha's remarks. I don't have any other things to report. Only thing I would add is that it was, you know, it's um it's one thing to go to the Sundome and see the place full to the rafters of family and friends cheering for their students as they graduate. Um it's also been a real treat over these last four years to see the um ceremonies that are held at Eisenhower Auditorium and that used to be held at the Capitol Theater, but are now being able to be held in the Davis Auditorium again, rightfully so. Um, and I think our district facilities have done just an exceptional job hosting those uh those ceremonies uh to um to honor the honors convocation and the Stanton uh and um online and open
023doors graduations uh on our own property. Uh it's been it's been really a pleasure to see that. Um and I couldn't agree more. It's just a real pleasure to be able to um look these kids in the eye and shake their hands and let them know that we're really proud of them. So, uh thank you to everyone in the district who is so involved um getting them to that point and then of course to our staff that helps make those ceremonies so special. So, Dr. Green, do you have a superintendent something for us? Uh yes. May I approach the podium? Permission granted. Thank you, President Beckett. U members of the board, um I'm not going to read uh the tribute that I have for Stacy Lock, but I would certainly like her to come up.
024Yeah, talking about you, I need you to to come stand up here by me for a second. for those of you here in the crowd and those watching uh this is Stacy Lock's last board meeting so she's retiring and uh as uh you know I could go through her whole you know resume and and I have done that several times but I think given the setting that we're in and uh how we feel about Stacy and I know that all of you have just enjoyed having her not only as a assistant superintendent but then as a deputy uh I would ask uh he and Ha over here to uh come and share the gift that we have as a cabinet for uh Stacy. Since this is her last meeting, it would just be wonderful. I'm
025sure it would mean a lot to her uh to have this memory with the five of four of you. We do want to thank all of our principles who and and and other individuals who sent us uh t-shirts that they had had left over through the years. So, you'll see some eclectic t-shirts and whatnot, but this was uh um put together by Monica Lake, who is our parallegal, works with Bob in our legal department. Uh, so this is one of her talents that she is so willing to share and we're just proud that we can have her curl up at some point. I'm just stalling so you can turn around. I mean, Thank you, Dr. Green. Congratulations, Stacy. Stacy, you're in real luck that these meetings are um televised and you'll be able to follow
026along even if you're not here in person. Stacey, we appreciate you very much. that um does take us to a section where we always point out to the members of the board that our calendar is in the board docs and we have our opportunity if there's anything to be highlighted or not. Just one thing please please join us. Thank you Kirsten for being here. Thank you, President Beckett. I just wanted to point out one thing that's going on for our community, and that is the Second Harvest food distribution on July 16th. It will be from 10 to 12 uh 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and it's going to be at the parking lot at Davis High School. But this is somewhere where um something that the Yakama school district staff volunteer and there are 250
027meals that are distributed from um a sponsor um which is Alexander Lazaro. The uh volunteer efforts of the Yakima school district and um then second harvest brings in the supplies. So if you want to volunteer or just watch um it will be uh on July 16th. Thank you very much. Excellent. Next on our agenda is Mr. Cooper, our monthly financial update. Jake, please take it away. Good evening, members of the board, superintendent. Uh before I begin, uh I'm going to I'm going to do a little bit of education since that is our industry. So, few bud uh budget updates. Um my office and department and team are close to final reconciliation for the 2526 operating budget. So we're very close which will put us in a good place for our public hearings at the end
028of July and then potential adoption in August. Um I do want to give everybody an update about what I'm seeing at the federal level potentially. So 25 26 um title one allocations came out a couple days ago. It's down about 700,000 for Yakima. So we're seeing the federal allocations tighten up. Um one additionally I shared with the administrative staff there's a lot of different points of view on if the fed federal government is going to cut budgets in 2526 or 2627. So as you know the uh the first appropriations bill even though it's not an official omnibus went through the house and it's over in the senate as potentially being set will be sent back to the house. likely reductions would not play take place until 26 27 except for so this the federal fiscal
029year runs October 1st September 30th there are something called pocket recisions so pocket recision is a tool that the federal government can use hasn't used for a long time or and which means that if the president puts forward recisions in the last 45 days of the uh congressional session and they are unacted upon by the congress then they become then they're reduced So the Congress does not need to act. It's a it's a tool that's been used throughout uh history, but not very often because when was the last time the federal government cut money and gave it back to Congress? It's been a long time. So that is an option and something we may see towards the end of the fiscal year. That would be an August or September action likely. I would I would
030bet a small amount of money that that is when we would see the title three and migrant funds potentially go for fiscal year 2526. That's about $3 million in total. And I touched upon that um during my budget presentation. So I wanted people to know you're hearing different things. There are different tools that could reduce our funding in the near term 25 26 at the federal level that would be done through recision or empalment. It does not take an act of Congress. It is a simple uh uh document put forward to Congress by the president of the United States and if they fail to act those become reductions become statute and law and then they roll into the next fiscal period. So pocket decisions maybe you didn't want to know about that but I wanted
031to make sure when we're talking to administrators when they start to hear things about the federal budget that they understand what could happen. Secondarily my colleagues are telling me that the state revenue forecast is not looking good at all. So, state revenue and these are murmurss of course from OFM and some state folks that I know, but the revenue forecast should be coming out rather soon, but I'm also hearing that the revenue forecast at the state level is not looking good. We'll see what that actually means in technical terms. So, two things headwind potential federal reductions and 2526 likely 2627. We can plan for those and then the state revenue forecast. It's not looking great, but we have put ourselves in a decent position and have reduced and managed ourselves into a place where our
032cash is beginning to rebuild. I'll take you to our presentation. So May, of course, spring is a a time where we focus on budgets and bonds and things like that and at least in my office. So um our current FTE has been plotting along and um I mean flatlined as it does as uh I've discussed before and projecting downward particularly our kindergarten class. I'm hearing both anecdotally and numerically that our kindergarten class has been slow to enroll and rather small currently. So we'll be watching those numbers. Historically we have in classes of between 12 and 1300. Last kindergarten class was just under a thousand. So we'll watching enrollment closely. we have staffed and projected as such. Um but at the same time that's a good time to update you on early numbers. Uh again FD
033we talked about several times but here's what I am pleased with. So cash is king. I'm going to say it again. Cash is king. So you have to have liquidity. You have to have money in the bank. You have to be able to manage your cash flow. There are several districts that are going to go into binding conditions. um war by districts. I was on a call with OSPI a few days ago. I think they're going to be 10 or 11 total by the end of the fiscal period. So those who said that it's Yakama's mismanagement, etc. I want to take that on a little bit. When we manage a budget and make reductions, they're difficult. But that is called financial management. Just like at home, if you lose a job, your income goes down,
034you have different expenditures. Maybe you bought a new house and your mortgage goes up, you have to rework your financials. So that is always my you talked about and I I I appreciate um fair talking about her why. My why has always been to keep the district solvent and it often runs counter to other people's wise because that's the industry we're in. But that is the goal and and so some may characterize reductions and efficiencies and hard decisions as financial mismanagement. I would characterize those as financial management because if you don't make those decisions, we become insolvent and the whole organization goes broke, which we're seeing all around us. So, our tough decisions that were made and continue to be made have put us in a really good place compared to others. So, I' I'd
035like to thank you personally, professionally, for the board. Um, the actions you've taken thus far and those you'll take in the future. So, all that being said, our cash is above projection, which is what we want to see. That is because we have tightened up expenditures throughout the fiscal year. Uh I believe cash is going to end very close to projection. Um that remember that balance includes the $4.5 million tax anticipation note which will pay off in December. So we need our cash to be approximately in that position so that when we when we repay that note in December, our cash will be approximately where it was at the start of last fiscal year. Um budget versus actuals. You can see monthtomonth this is revenue the actuals are in teal so you can move slightly
036above and below depending upon the month uh those of note um OSPI is going to short pay us in June they don't have enough money to pay or and they technically have enough money in the treasury they don't have the appropriation level to be able to execute so they're going to short pay about 30 bucks a student it's about 450,000 for us in June thankfully So, at the end of last legislative session, there was a onetime $50 student increase that the legislature aortioned out of some money. So, it'll offset it. So, we'll net 20 ahead and they'll plan to repay us over the next month. So, even at the state level, and it's hard because June is a low cash flow month as we've just discussed and so a few districts around the state may
037go into the red next month because short pay from the state. Uh budget to actuals and compare. Um, you can see month-to-month our budget to actuals. Our actuals are slightly less. See in May though we picked up some expenditures. We had some large MOC purchases go outbound and it's about 7 or 800,000 above projection, but all in all right where we need to be. And then our MOC trend which is more volatile with some material supplies and operating costs. As you can see that really is driven predominantly by when we have large purchases uh in this spring or in the in the late months of the year if we do a curriculum adoption etc. So you can see our our M socks material supplies and operating costs are looking good. Um but overall would say
038that there are headwinds coming from external forces as they always are. You know we're driven by externalities here. Um, however, uh, as we continue to reduce and tighten and the actions that, uh, take when we adopt the budget and took this spring will put us in a solid position going forward. My job is to tell you, as much as I know, when I know it, um, if the feds do take money mid year, we will have to take some type of action. We can't just not and have that three potential million dollars uh, go to an unfunded have have re program expenditure attached to no revenue. But that's a conversation for a separate day. So there are any questions, I'd be happy to answer and thank you for allowing me the time to give you
039a little bit of education on pocket precisions and empowerments. I just have a couple of questions. We we hear through the state etc. Great vine about districts that are facing the likelihood maybe of falling into binding conditions. I don't really understand is that is there a date by RCW that is triggered for that or is there a financial metric which triggers binding conditions with OSPI financial metric it's either one of two measures as far as I understand one would be you have uh you end the year with negative cash or you create a budget that has a negative fund balance those two measures generally trigger binding conditions and then after that it goes into oversight and etc which you've seen you in districts like Mary'sville where the the board and the community continue to wrestle
040with their deficits. Moses Lake is another similar uh place. So binding conditions generally is when the state takes in the oversight. However, there is a misnomer. Even if the state was to come in and you were in a terrible financial position, the school board and the staff still have to do the work. you know, those reductions that need to come out of certain districts, that still is on the board's, you know, that's in the board's purview and recommendations have to come from administration to make the reductions. And so those those are, as you know, all know making reductions very very tough thing to do um in a community. Um so we'll see. No, um right now currently uh again 10 10 to 12 districts in bing conditions, it's usually negative cash or negative fund balance.
041I can check. Anyone else? Thank you. That takes us to our first opportunity this evening for comments from the public. This is the section on uh specifically on agenda items. There I apologize I don't have my screen right in front. have any at this time. We don't have anyone signed up. Not for agenda items. Not for agenda items. Thank you, Barb. And we will move to our consent agenda under section D. Um, the consent agenda this evening includes approval of meeting minutes for May of 2025, notification of approval of warrants for May of 2025, approval of personnel actions, the budget status reports for May of 2025, and the interlocal agreement between YBTC and PNWU. Any item from the consent agenda can be pulled for further discussion by the board. Does any board member wish to
042have any of these items removed for discussion this evening? Hearing none, then I would entertain a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda. So moved. Second. Thank you both of you. Appreciate that. We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. Is there any further discussion? Hearing no objection. All in favor, please say I. I. Any oppose? Motion passes. Thank you very much. Under our approvals section, approval number one this evening is for outofcountry travel to Yokohama, Japan. I believe Kirstston Fitterer, our executive director of communications and engagement, will address this particular item tonight. Thank you. Uh this is our third year in a row in going to Japan and also hosting students in the Yakama Valley. we hosted in April and now this is the return trip. I am proud to um
043announce that our trip is full for the first time um in decades. So there will be 35 students that are going over to Japan. Um five of those are from other districts but 30 are from the Yakima school district. So those dates are uh July 18th through August 2nd and we will have four chaperones along. Um we have had generous sponsorship from our community. So there is no expense to the district um for any of the chaperone expenses and then the families have paid for their own way and we have not had because of generous donations we have not had to raise prices for families in three years and in fact this year for we have group A and group B just depending on the timing of when your flights were booked and there was
044even a reduction in cost um for those families. So, it's a good program this year and very excited about it. So, we request your approval um for us to go. The action letter is attached in board docs. The requested action is for approval of out of country travel to Yokohama, Japan from July 18, 2025 through August 2nd, 2025 for 35 students accompanied by four shops with Kirsten Fitter serving as the district lead for the program. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any discussion or any questions for Kirstson while we have her here? Thrilled to hear that the trip is full. That is super cool. Okay. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, Kirsten. Our
045second approval. Oh, our second Thank you. our second opportunity for comments from the public. This is for all other items. We have two people signed up tonight. Terresa Maldonado. Teresa, if you're here, you can come up to the podium, please. I have been attending a few meetings even though I have been discouraged which I really have been discouraged reminded about the meetings why people don't attend is because I am told that you don't acknowledge what the public teachers and students have to say these meetings are just being held for the public to say they were held. I guess I wanted to prove them wrong that you would listen. In the meetings I have heard the public ask who was involved in the decision of referend teachers and library knowing they are essential in the education.
046At the same time, I have heard students requesting not to transfer their vice principal Nick. They would like for him to stay. If you are really listening to what the students are requesting, it seems with his encouragement and support, they are more motivated to study and continue with their education. It is rare when students are connected with staff who will listen to them and acknowledge them. Will you listen to the students from Washington Middle School to let them have their vice principal? Is there a cracker in here? And also um our teachers are more than educators to them. They are mentors, caregivers, advocates. They listen and they have hug they hug them when they are needed. Often times teachers are the only constant in a child's lives. Um, they love their kids. That's how they
047refer to them. Not pupils or students, but their kids because they care about each one of them. A teacher is responsible for each one of them. Teachers shape futures, build confidence, and create safe spaces for their kids. When we take teachers away, we take away stability and trust. We need to protect and paradise the people who know who show up for our kids and every day. So I think it's wrong. whatever it I don't know how you guys decided to remove some of the librarians even though I just heard that what's a use of asking you why did you remove the librarian because they are needed and they're essential and there are a lot of teachers that go more than beyond to help a student with their learning because of what I've heard is some
048come all the way from Ellensburg down here and for me it upsets me to find that this is what's happening to some of the teachers because throughout the years as a single parent I got a lot of help from some of the teacher and especially from one because in 2003 I had surgery that's breast surgery which I didn't have a job I didn't have anything and out of the blue this teacher showed up at my house with groceries for Thanksgiving and because of her my kids had food so that's why I support the teachers don't be paying them off, keep them because they're essential to our education. Thank you, Teresa. Our next uh speaker this evening is Michael Clark. My name is Michael Clark. I'm from Ridgeview Elementary. Um Granny's handing out some information, some
049numbers on something that I talked to you about a month ago. It's something that's very important to the district. K3 class size reduction funds. Uh those are jobs for our members. Those are educational services for our kids. And those are family wage jobs for our community. And it's something that we need to make sure that we are maximizing every single year. We really do. It's it's very important. Two weeks ago, I was attacked at a board meeting while I was on vacation, and I did not appreciate it. I've got some comments here that are kind of nuclear and in the interest of extending an olive branch as my my u union president did I think I'm not going to read these. However, I would like the the board members to read them at their convenience.
050I only have one copy. I wasn't planning on handing them to you uh because it does tell you how I really feel about things and I think that would be beneficial for you to know. So uh also unlike for Annie uh this particular issue needs to be solved. It has to be solved. So please make sure that you are monitoring that in the future. Thank you. Thank you Michael. Next on our agenda will be um policy 0550, the educational and racial equity policy. And to lead this conversation will be again Kirsten Fitterer. It's a busy night. You're happy to see me a lot tonight. Um well, thank you very much. I um just to remind the board this was on the the board agenda for May 19th and then um I believe was tabled twice
051and now is um in front of you uh due to time allowed uh on June 17th. The um board or the uh operational procedure 0550 is our educational and racial equity policy. And I know you have had this information a long time for you to be able to read it, but there's a few things that I wanted to go over. Um first the uh policy is aligned with our strategic plan goals and specifically goal two, goal three and goal four. I interpret the policy to mean we must implement consistent systemwide practices that promote inclusive identity affirming environments and actively work to reduce inequities in access, experience and outcomes for all students. There are four policy pillars. Um the first is climate and culture. The second is leadership and partnerships. The third is talent recruitment and
052retention and the fourth is teaching and learning. I show that we are in compliance with all but uh three. Three is talent recruitment and retention and we are partially in compliance with that. In addition um my colleague Anthony Maretta, assistant superintendent of human resources and maintenance and all the things helped me put this one together and he does have some um language proposal to change uh in this policy. And that is um the current language for bullet three is engaging all school personnel in cross-cultural reflection and dialogue to build awareness of their own identities and privileges and address the impact of biases and microaggressions in the workplace. And he is proposing a revision of strive to engage all school personnel in cross-cultural reflection and the rest remains the same. And then the next um is
053uh just a uh more of a a grammatical change and it is the providing the relevant professional development to enhance all employees knowledge of and skills for eliminating racial and ethnic in inequities and he would like to see pro provide relevant professional development to enhance employees knowledge of and skills for eliminating racial and ethnic inequities. So in summary, um the proposal is for those language changes that we are partially in compliance um and still working toward compliance in number three and that we are in compliance um for uh the other three. And at this time I can uh along with my colleagues who help me put together the report answer Any questions from the board? Um, have we received a markup for the policy with those changes that Anony's suggesting? They they are in board
054docs, I believe. So, yes, but we've not received the markups in a meeting. No, this is the first opportunity. Okay. I guess I'd like to see them and not have to go searching. You're asking for a red line copy? Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you very much. Appreciate. I think this is the last time you will see me, so have a good evening. Care careful what you wish for. Careful what you put out there. Don't go far. Um, so the survey monkey will be sent to board members tonight. We're asking for that back by um July 14th. Our next report is regarding policy 1000.2.0 which is our global executive constraint and our chief legal counsel Bob no will lead that conversation. Thank you Mr. President. Uh members of the board, as you
055know, the superintendent's position carries with it a significant amount of authority, and so the board has this policy in place to monitor um the superintendent's actions to make sure that he's in compliance. Specifically, this one says the superintendent will not cause or allow any practice, activity, decision, or organizational circumstance which is either unlawful, imprudent, or in violation of commonly accepted business. and professional ethics and practices. Further, the superintendent will abide by all negotiated agreements or rectify any violations as expeditiously as possible. We are here to tell you that the superintendent is in compliance and for purposes of providing the evidence. You've had an opportunity to read this. There's two different forms of evidence we're providing is the internal controls which show all the different policies and things that um ensure that the superintendent is in
056compliance with laws and the actions taken to remain in compliance and then the external controls which are essentially the secretary of state's Washington state accountability audit report and the Washington state financial statement uh showing that the district is in compliance with the financial requirements as well. Thank you, Bob. Are there any questions for Bob regarding this policy? Again, that survey monkey will be sent and is due back on July 14th or before, please. Thank you, Bob. Mr. Cooper, for policy 1000.2.3, 2.3 are financial conditions and activities. Thank you, President Beckett. Um so before you this evening is the actual financial condition activities the external so this is the receipt of the annual audit report. So um when the super and I were reviewing the monitoring cadence and cycle it appeared that we kind of had
057a redundant report where we did the internals twice. And so in my past uh practice, I would bring the board the receipt of the annual audit report for an external review. So before you this evening and attached to the agenda is the um financial and federal uh state audit. The district had no findings and had a clean financial audit. So for those of you who are listening, we had no findings and a clean financial audit. Um the state auditors office comes in annually. They spend about 300 to 350 hours auditing our financial statements and books and adherence to policy and procedures and statutes. So they had finished the first leg of that which is the federal and financial audit and they are in my office right now and about twothirds of the way done with
058the accountability portion which is adherence to policies and procedures and state statutes. So before you um uh as evidence of the external external evidence of the financial defend district is the receipt of the annual audit report that is attached for your review. There any questions? I'd be happy to answer them. Uh superintendent myself uh attended the exit conference for that and then again we the auditors will invite u two of you potentially to the exit for the accountability audit which is be run separately. So if there are any questions I'll be happy to entertain them. Thank you, Mr. Cooper. Doesn't look like there are any questions. We have three uh policies on the agenda tonight for what you would call first reading, I suppose. 100.4.2, which is our accountability of the superintendent. 1000.4.3, the delegation
059to the superintendent. 1000.4.4, for the monitoring superintendent performance. All three of those s or policies are linked in board docs for your review. We will have report back and discussion at a subsequent meeting. Does anyone have any questions? Well, the the links that are in board docs aren't working. It doesn't bring up the policy. At least not on my computer. We will double check the links. It does uh provide a download. So if you click on that blue, it will provide a download you can then access. I don't know if this is Yeah, this is the first reading. So it's just an monitor the us reviewing the policy in the form of a monitoring report. So when when we've reviewed these before, um the the board has a discussion about whether or not there we
060would suggest any changes to it. And then um we would receive a survey monkey for each of these three and which we would return to Barb and then um we will see them results of that back by at our July meeting. I would expect they are there for you to review and for you to read on your own. If you would like to suggest um additions or changes, you can do so. Any other questions on those three? And before we move to the next section, we have one more report being led tonight by Kirstston Fitterer. I'm just kidding. That was just a joke. Just a joke. You see the deer in the headlights? Tiny bit. Uh, Mr. Superintendent, do we have a need for executive session this evening? We do not. Well, then at this
061point in time, we are adjourned and we will see you all next month. Thank you very much.