Yakima School District Board Meeting June 2nd, 2025

001Good afternoon. Thank you for being here. This is the uh school board meeting for June 2nd. God, how did that happen? Um, and we are absolutely delighted to be here at Washington Middle School. We do have interpretation services this afternoon. Um, we offer Spanish interpretation services from Jorge with Language Connection. If you need translation assistance in person, please check with Jorge for a device. Good afternoon. Yeah, in your language connection. Thank you, Jorge. If you wish to make a public comment, there are two options available for you during this meeting. The first option is for commenting on agenda items only and the second option which comes toward the end of the meeting is for all other topics. In order to speak this afternoon you will need to sign two forms the signin form and the

002guidelines form and they're in the back right. Um we offer we provide live streaming for this meeting. The link can be found on our web page under board of directors or by going directly to www.ysd7.org/board meetings. If you're interested in watching past meetings, you can find them on our web pages YSD YouTube channel. Barb, could you take the role, please? Director Rice, present. Director Navaro Jr. present. Director Walker present. President Beckett and Vice President Via Noea are excused. Thank you. Uh due to an absence of board and cabinet members, I'd like to ask the board to adjust our agenda by moving section E policy governance to the next board meeting. This will be a tableabling of this particular um section. The next school board meeting will be on June 17, 2025. Do I have a

003motion to adjust the agenda as stated? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Now we have um couple of students here to to um lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Could we have our Washington students come up, please? May you all please stand and join for the pledge of allegiance. Ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. May all be seated. Thank you very much. Would you like to come and introduce yourself for us? Uh hello. I'm Samuel Dominguez and I am the Washington Middle School ASB president. Samuel, thank you very much for leading [Applause] us. What? Oh, um, we have

004also students who are going to share with us the character word of the month. Um, my name is Michelle Flores and I am the ASB vice president. Um, June's character word of the month is fair, ensuring equal treatment, opportunities, and justice for the all individuals. Hi, my name is Lexi Marcado and I am an ASB [Music] student. Thank you very much. Now, I'm going to embarrass you the same way I did. Samuel, would you like to come up and introduce yourselves, please? Oh, you you did? I'm sorry. I'm Yeah, please. Since we since you missed it last year. Oh, my name is Michelle Flores and I am the ASB vice president. Thank you, Michelle. My name is Lexi Marcado and I am a Washington student that is a part of ASP. Thank you very much.

005Thank you guys for hanging out with us after school. Now we have the um land acknowledgement today. The schools of the Yakama school district rest on the ancestral lands of the 14 Confederated tribes and bands of the Yakam nation. The people of the Yakan nation inhabited more than 12 million acres across Adams, Benton, Chalan, Douglas, Franklin, Grant, Kittas, Kat and Yakima 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. [Music] respect and a step toward correcting the stories and practices that erase indigenous people's history and culture. It also honors the truth. As a school district, we will

006continue to build upon our relations with the Yakama nation. Yak. Thank you, students. Next, we have a moment of silence for a couple of our former YSD family, Vicki Natlage and Bobby Arnett. Um, could you please join me in a moment of silence? Thank you very much. Um, Carol H. Oh jeez. My apologies. I thought I had turned this off. Um, Carol, are you here? Carol Hall's the art teacher at Davis High School. Okay. We have some recognitions of art students today. Okay. Hopefully I'm gonna hit the right button here. I don't know. Okay, so Juliana could not be here, but she um Juliana Sutton, she's a senior and they've got something. She's really into jazz band and drama and they've got had something going. So she told me today she wasn't going to be

007able to be here. But this is her piece, Surprise. You can see she pixelated the the cake over in the corner. She has some kind of scary things coming on. I'm I'm like, "Okay, Juliana, I do not want that birthday cake." But anyway, but she's got a self-portrait. She did self-portrait of her face there. So, that is her digging into that cake. And Briema, she was gone from school today, so I'm assuming she's sick. But this is her little niece and she um was really excited to do that. So she had to do equal time do one of her nephew too. So So she does this in she did this in pencil and uh the background is in pastel. And this is Ruby. You want to come up here Ruby? This is Ruby Mesa, the

008three amigos. So, this um Are these are these all your dogs or your brothers or your brothers? Her brother's dogs. And she said she just captured them like they were wanted their picture taken. So, so you don't get them all looking at the the camera at the same time, I'm sure. So, anything you want to add? Is that it? So she did this in colored pencil and a little bit in pastel, right? Blanket. The background is pastel. And pastel. So thank [Applause] you. And this is um Jackie Orlano. And this piece is the original is in Washington DC right now. and it will go um it will stay there for a year in the capital in Washington DC and then she will get the original back. So uh this is called do drops of life.

009So she told me we had I think this captured her thoughts in beginning art. We we did some water drops and so she did a beautiful job. So Jackie Oh, she's up here. There she you got to stand up and we can [Applause] So, she is flying out to the opening. When is that? The opening in DC? The 11th of June, right after she graduates from Davis, she gets to go uh with her dad to the opening of this um in Washington DC in the Capitol. So, that's exciting. I have to tell you, Jackie, your um piece will be seen by millions of people over the next year because the the portraits are all all of the entries that are pre presented in DC are in a hallway that runs from one of the legislative

010buildings to the capital. And especially when the weather is bad because these are underground, a lot of people will be walking by and admiring your piece. So, congratulations. Yeah, that's very cool. I have a daughter that lives about 45 minutes from DC, so I'm going to get to see her piece um this summer when I go. So, that'll be fun. And this is uh Lost and Rey. This is um Lesie's best friend and she is doing Running Start and she said, "I'm so sorry. Um she's taking a test now, so could not be here." But this is done in charcoal and she was excited about that. I'm sure her friend was too. And this is Ingred Guran. She's right here. And this is Reflections of Me. I love all these pieces and this one is

011a pretty big piece and she was showing me that she um was like wanted to like look in a mirror and I said, "Yeah, but the big in the background it's cool if you could put all those together." And so she put them all together. It was very very exciting. I think it's awesome. So thank you I think maybe that's it. That's Oh, I don't know about Jeff's. I'm sorry. These are Jeff Riss photography. Um I I don't know. I I can't tell you much about it, but he does has a great program at Davis and uh I think Are they here? This is another one. Is Katsimony here? Oh, there we go. Could you go back? Yeah, absolutely. Go back. Yeah. Okay. Tell us about Yeah, please. What do I say? Just kind of

012what it's about. Oh, it's a picture I took in Idaho from one of our vacations and it was in the morning and uh it was just a picture of a place we went to at um at a hotring and I took the picture when I saw the there was fog. That was pretty much it. Beautiful. Thank you. Okay. Sorry, I almost missed you there. And so is this person here. Okay, so these are Oh, this is like first, second, and third place. So Jackie got uh first and second was Iette Montes Valencia. So she um her piece they're actually hanging in the local offices. So we just had prints of their pieces and um hers I'm trying to remember the name of it. Something like Whispers of the Cascades and then the Three Amigos. Okay.

013Thank you, Carol. Um where do you want to have them stand? Okay. Um, I'm wondering if we could get the students who are here to come up along the table and shake our hands and then stand over in the front um, and have your picture taken. There we go. It's the punishment for being here. One more round, [Applause] please. I do have a question if I may regarding that. Sure. Go ahead. So I I just wanted well actually a comment. It it I saw that some students were offered scholarships to Central Washington University arts and the design or yeah arts and design programs which is I thought it was very outstanding. So I wanted to just congratulate and that so I just wanted to to congratulate the parents for the support and all the hard

014work. It takes a hard work to to reach this and to go on to college to study art. So much thank you Raymond. Yeah, thank you, Director Navaro. I just would also like to just make a comment. [Music] Um, Carol, just want to acknowledge the hard work that you put forth on behalf of our students, the great opportunities that you provide through your toutelage for your, you know, the the extra support that you provide and, uh, it's always manifest in what we see every year. uh you constantly come back with winner after winner and it's by no accident. So um it's wonderful to have uh the best art teacher in the entire uh region of central Washington. So without a doubt. So thank you for your service. [Applause] Barb, do we have the um rest

015of the photography slides in this slide deck that we have on in board docs? Well, I think it would be nice if we could just show the rest of the the rest of the um photographs. because we have them in our slide decks in board docs. Oh, okay. That's fine. That's fine. We can wait for that. Um, I can't get my computer to work, so It's great to be full of technology until it doesn't work. Reports to the board. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, you have it. Well, if Maria's going to show them in her slide deck, we can continue right now. Okay. Um this is this from the Skills USA photography competition. Um this is a a competition that students who are at the skill centers, our skill center and others around the state um compete

016in the skills USA competitions. There are a lot of them. Um this one is in photography and we have several students who placed um in this competition. Do we we don't have anyone from the skill center here here, do we? No. Okay. Well, we'll just scroll through them and enjoy. Okay. If you are here as a student and your piece is going to be seen on this in this um PowerPoint um I'm going to ask you to come up to the mic and introduce yourselves and tell us about your piece. And this is I can't see that. Jasper. What? Jasper. Jasper. Jasper Fullerton. John. Okay. Well, Sean Novabielski is Jasper here. Is Sean here? Copperan, are you copper? Yeah. Okay. Can you tell us about your piece? Uh, yeah. So, I took this one actually

017in the front yard of my house. Um, we grow sunflowers everywhere each year and they just always make me so happy. So, when I took this photo, I kind of just fell in love with everything about it and make me very happy. So, thank you, Copper. I love sunflowers. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful photo. You want to come up stand by your photo and we'll take a picture? Yes. She has the next photo as well. Yeah, I think there's another one, too. Oh, perfect. She That's also hers. Uh, yeah. So, I took this one up at the the elk feeding station this winter. Um, how close were you to that elk? Not close at all. I had to use a bigger lens, but I just loved how I captured the horns, the everything, the mouth

018open, just everything about this image. These animals are very beautiful. One of my favorites. Oh, you want to come and shake our hands and nicely done. Quite an eye. Do we have Yatiri Bario Gomez here today? That's it. Congratulations to all of our very accomplished and um talented students tonight. [Applause] You all are welcome to stay for the meeting if you'd like to, but if you have other things that are calling to you and demanding your attention this afternoon, you're more than welcome to to take your leave. Um, we're going to pause for a couple of minutes and allow you to do that if you'd like to. um Montes Valencia and she she has done some incredible work. In fact, she has got a three foot by 4 foot um canvas painting that she did

019of this um couple from um there. Okay. They're from Delaware and they are paying her $1,000 to um and it's beautiful. It's worthy of $1,000. I wish I had a picture of it to show you, but she did the um well, she's in the photographs there. Um it's the last one with all three of them. So, she did Whispers in the Cascades, the second one there. But she has done so many beautiful, beautiful pieces. She actually won the Apple uh year, the Apple contest last year, the thousand award for that. So, um she's breaking in the money here. [Applause] Oh, yeah. Okay, next we have reports from members of the board. Do any members of the board have anything that they'd like to share? We have Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Why technology? Uh, next we

020have a report from Francis Guerrero, YA president. Sorry, it's a little low. Um, tonight, today, this afternoon, I just wanted to address some misinformation that's being put out there about our certified staff that have been cut and the administrative moves that have been made. So, I asked you very specifically at the YBT Tech meeting to allow my members to just send their emails to the board without responding, and you disregarded that. You have been responding, and those have been coming back to me with questions about the information that is being put in there. So, first of all, you're telling people that you appreciate the opportunity this campaign has provided to respond to those concerns directly and transparently, but you are not being transparent. If you wanted to be transparent, you would be doing as they

021asked and addressing the whole staff instead of addressing people individually. I know you have told them that at this time you are prioritizing meeting directly with those individuals with those who have individually expressed wellresented concerns but that strikes me as being an extremely inefficient use of your time. Meeting with people individually simply allows you to engage in gaslighting or intimidation versus meeting with a whole staff. Granny, I'm going to ask you not to characterize um your beliefs in regard. These are not my beliefs. These are again these concerns are being to me. Excuse me. I'd like you not to characterize um Dr. Green during the during your presentation. If you if you have um if you have things to say that that you believe he would um benefit from then I'm going to ask you

022to to set a meeting with him and have that discussion privately. The meeting has been set. Dr. Rice, my concern is that these emails are going out to everyone and they have misinformation in them. So, you have you have scheduled a meeting with Dr. Green? Yes. Okay. I'm going to ask you to um withhold any characterizations that you have till you meet with him. So, you would like to allow him to continue to engage in these tactics. Director, I'd like you to take a really good look at this room. Notice that the member who organized at the last meeting, who got staff and students together at a 700 p.m. meeting and got them to stay well past 1000 p.m. to make I'm not going to engage in a discussion with you about this. We have

023par parameters set up for your reporting to the board and for public comment. If you have um disagreements with those, then we can certainly meet with you and talk about that. But to characterize and um Okay. Okay. So, moving past the characterization and just noticing the voices that are not in the room. I I said I'm not going to enter into a discussion with you about this. You don't need to discuss. I'm just asking. Do you notice that we're in the Please move on. I would like to know why the superintendent is saying that it's important to know that in spite of any theatrics, what exactly constitutes theatrics? Okay. Uh I think that's a great question. And since we do have a meeting set that is set. Yes. Since we do have a meeting set,

024that would be a good time for us to talk about all of these in issues. So that way we can have the one-on-one conversation. And then if we're not satisfied at that point, that would probably be the better time to bring it to the board. So I'd be happy to talk since we have something scheduled, we can talk about that then. That didn't give me any concrete examples of theatrics. I'd be happy to provide you examples when we meet in our one-on-one meeting. Speaking of that one-on-one meeting, you were telling people that no union association leadership has reached out to meet with me as superintendent to discuss the matters raised in this campaign. I've extended offers to meet and talk in good faith. No, you have not. You extended one on May 19th and then

025right after. be happy to talk to you about that in our one-on-one. I have a different perspective. Silence voices, including mine, then sure, we can have that meeting and I will come right back to this at that next school board meeting and I will be more public, maybe a press conference where my voice is not going to be silenced. Okay. Go ahead. No, go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. Since we're um we we had some um uh people come to the mic the last meeting and typically we don't respond especially when there is information that has not been discussed previously. So as I've shared um much of the information uh issues around uh librarians uh statements around reduction of staff um conversation about addition of administrative personnel um items like that uh those have not been

026discussed ahead of time. So there was never any meeting that is set up to have that conversation in advance. Those were opportunities where um in this case uh members have come up um as part of uh every custom action campaign and there were some things that were brought up last time that we really didn't address in the moment and I've asked uh our assistant superintendent of operations and HR to address some of those uh items that were brought up. One of the major concerns was a statement that we've had reductions back to backtoback of riff and recall. And I believe it was Michael Clark who made the statement that in spite of all of those reductions, we have not saved any money, which to me just would seem illogical that you can reduce staff and

027not have any type of reduction whatsoever. So, um, Mr. Maretta, would you be able to address uh that issue from the previous meeting? Yes. So last week, one of the uh things that were brought up was that we had eliminated positions, but the individuals are still working and how was it possible to eliminate those positions and yet those people are still here. And what I would like to point out is at the end of the 2324 school year in March, we had announced 61.5 positions um represented by YEA which were eliminated. We also rifted roughly 140 positions in our contract. uh everybody has seniority and for the positions that were higher in seniority that those positions were eliminated those individuals are still entitled to have jobs. So what we do is go to the bottom

028140 and we let them know that they are not guaranteed a secure position for next year. The 61.5 positions that were reduced then dovetail back into the unit. We also take into consideration that there were 80 retirements and resignations during the course of that time. Not all of those 61.5 positions aligned with the 80 people who resigned or retired. That is why we also have the riff. When you add theund and again this is an approximate 140 with the 80 that that makes 220 available positions. Those 61 people then dovetail into a position that their seniority affords them and then we immediately go back to the riff positions and start reassigning people. Now there are individuals that have chosen to resign. I will use as an example uh our assistant principles. We had 10 assistant

029principles. One of them landed in uh East Valley as a principal and instead of staying on uh recall, he chose to resign. Well, another assistant principal got a position in a smaller district uh east of us and he asked to stay on recall and has continued to be on this list uh for the next year. We did give him a call this year to let him know that we had an opening. He asked if he could be bypassed, which he can. And again next year if another opening comes up we will call and and make that request. If at that point in time the person chooses not to take the position then he will be removed from the recall list because the two years have expired. We have other individuals who lost their position but

030yet there was funding from a different source like CTE and they took on an assistant director or director role. uh in an area where we had funding. We also had a director of uh special education who resigned. Uh it then starts a domino effect where where a person in student services took that position. um a principal in an elementary school then came over to also work in student services freeing up another and before you know it the other eight individuals continue to work all in areas where we have funding or sources. I also represent or or direct uh the custodial services uh part of operations. We had 18 positions that were reduced, but during the course of the year when somebody would resign before the end of the school year, we would hold that position

031open. My hopes and desires were that uh members of other bargaining units when when they were uh when their position was eliminated, they would have a position to fall into. But by the time we got to uh the end of the school year, it was a total of 18 positions that were reduced. Uh 10 of which had already been absorbed through attrition and eight individuals were laid off. Um as other openings took place, either somebody promotes to another unit or resigns, we then recall and within three months every one of our members had been offered a position. So what I could very safely say is that during the course of two layoffs, everybody has been offered a position. We had 16 of those individuals resign alto together and just say no thank you. We we

032don't want to come back. While others chose to either uh take their former job or take a position in another unit. one of our supervisors who originally was laid off 3 months later accepted a position in the YEOP uh bargaining unit. And so as of right now, there have been a total of over $20 million saved by reductions, although we have made every effort to maintain every employee that we can. So, if anybody would like to have greater detail or the actual positions where the where the person moved to, um, I'm more than happy to present that, but because those are individual names of employees, I'm not going to present it in a public meeting. If you have any questions or concerns, by all means, I'm available. Um, but I would like to make it

033very clear that I believe that statement was false and this is the explanation in detail of how that uh came out to $20 million worth of savings. Thank you, Anthony. And next we have uh reports from members of the board. any board me. Oh, school presentations presentations. You know, I should not rely on my memory. Okay. Um, Bill Hilton is here. I know. I've seen him. Bill, do you want to come up to the microphone and and do your do your school presentation for us? This is this is a highlight for the board to be able to visit a school and um learn about what's going on at the school, what's new since we were here last because it's been a while. Um it takes about three three years or a little bit more to

034um visit all of our schools. And the floor is yours. Well, thank you. Welcome board and superintendent. Uh, Bill Hilton, principal here at Washington Middle School. Just so you know, the best middle school in town with the best staff, the best students, and of course, I don't know about the best principal. We are awesome. And I hope you see some of that from today. Um, hopefully your board docs, you did see that we had a 26 slide presentation because last time we presented, we got to present whatever we wanted. They made me knock it down to five. So, in order to save you an hour of us going through, we're going to knock it down to 10, 15 minutes so you can get out of here. But, um, hopefully you'll get to go on a

035tour as well. Um, so here we go. See if I can work this right. Um, I'm not going to read our entire mission, but it's up there, but I'm going to just break it down into pride and self school and community. We really push that for our students. And to get there, we really look at a multi-ter system of supports supporting our kids going through really looking at some strategic data so we know where each kid is and how to get them along to work to meet our mission statement. Um, and again, we're very proud of our motto of being positive, responsible, inclusive, determined, and engaged. If you'll notice, we are now the Lions. I think last time you were here, I think we were still the Colonials. Um so we did that uh whole

036community movement and the pride of Washington hence why. So I do want to point out um the Washington school improvement framework or with of scores. this. Every school gets these um on a three-year trend. And if you'll notice, it's broken out into and I can't read that far, but it's all students. If you'll look the trend from it's 2021 to 23 24, you'll notice that it's all going in an upward trend. all students. Um just you to put it in perspective, the year before that all the lines were below the line. There were kind of some negatives, but if you notice the last three years, we've really done a lot of work on improving um students. And it's not just scores, it's actually your the SBA, which is the state assessments. We actually look at

037the LL sped and um the growth coefficient. So in other words, how are students growing, not just how are they achieving and really looking at the attendance overall. So they put all that together and actually get a score. And I just wanted to put it out all students where they were three years ago to where they were last year. If you look at our ELLL population, um, that one's on the end. Poverty is up there as well. You guys have it on your board, docs, because I cannot see that part. I guess I should have brought my computer. Thank you. Um, you'll look at our I'm just gonna take this down. I got a mic now. Look out. Um, our Hispanic population just, you know, our Hispanic population here in the building is 96%. So,

038we are a predominantly Hispanic building, which I think most buildings are. I think we are the highest. Um, but you look that is on an upward trend, a 1.85 to a 2.7. I mean, they're making some really good growth. Their kids are working very hard. Our students are really buying into what we're doing here and actually are growing. You They went from very, very red and the lighter the color gets up, the better that they're doing. Um, our white population, which is lower, but they have made some huge growth in the last three years. Our ELL population, we do have a 55% ELLL population here. So, we have 430 that take the WEDA, which is the Washington um test that they take to get out. You'll notice that there was a dip. I do want

039to point this out a little bit. So, we were up last year. We took 96 newcomers. So, a newcomer is somebody that's just came into the United States. It's less than a year. Um and some of those transition that year piece is really wonky. So if they actually came in May, they actually get to take the SBA in May as well. So we had a lot that were just at that transition. So it dipped a little bit um looking at our WEDA scores this year that we're just seeing. We're looking at that to come back up. We've done some tweaking because we really look at our data and actually do um data cycles to um inquiry cycles. What are we doing? Is it working? If it's not not working, we change it. We get it

040better. So, we expect that to come back up. And look at the data at the end of the year. That will be coming back up. Um our low income, we are at 97% um free and reduced. Um again, one of the highest in the middle schools. Um but you notice that that is also on the upward swing. I do want to point out our students with disability on the end because this is a piece that we've really tried to wrap our heads around. We do believe in inclusive building. All of our sped students are in an atgrade level math, reading, social studies, all the all the the contents. We noticed that they were struggling as you see even the flatline. So we tried an inclusion model this year that actually pushes teacher in. It's not

041a co-e model, but it's a support model where there's two teachers in a classroom. Um, and we're really excited about where that's going to go once we get some more training this summer. There's some plans in place. And again, it's about looking at data, making changes, not doing the same old same old to get the same thing to always look at trying to improve. And that is the really the point that we're going to push out for the next year. Um, the YA union has helped us out. the sped department has really helped us doing visits at other middle schools across the state over on the west side and the east side in Spokane. So, we're really excited about some of the changes that you're going to be seeing and we're going to be doing

042um as a building. Again, I got 10 minutes. So, Mr. Mifflin's going to go over this one and then you'll get me back. All right. We kind of structured this as two highlights for the building. So, if you can go to the next slide. Our uh second Our second highlight is our behavior data. Um, so that's our historical data for the last multiple years. So you can see the first one up there. Um, that is actually my first year as a teacher. That was before Mr. Hilton got moved over to the school or took this job when he was at Franklin. Um, I can't see our numbers from here, but we were at 2,490 referrals and 611 suspensions. Um, that was in 1213. Um, and if you watch that data, it's just a steady decline.

043So over the last nine or 10 years we have gone from 2500 referrals to we are currently on track to end at around 1100 cut that more than in half and have gone from 611 exclusions. We're on track to be at 100 to 120 this year. Um which I put up some bullet points there is one big celebration is that we have major reductions in referrals and exclusions. Um that includes removing in school suspension from our programs at all. Um and that's really been consistency across years is in 1314 we started PBIS where we started looking at common expectations a behavior flowchart um intentional pro professional development for staff um there's a year in there at 22 23 where we added a behavior specialist and just adding those things into our systems. Um and then

044we've been been really intentional about being positive with our students. So we have celebrations for kids. Um, tomorrow we're doing a no f no referral pizza party that's sponsored by a local community member that saw it on Facebook and said, "I want to donate to all of that." Um, we positive social norm our behaviors. You can see that social media right there. It says 97% of students receive no referrals this month. So, we put that out to kids and let them know that, hey, 97% of kids are doing the right thing every month. Um, we also did a positive social norms campaign with Safe Yakama Valley on substance use. The video is in there because we were spotlighted nationally for how much that had an impact on our data for substance use and misuse and

045mindset about that. So, I did link that for you. The video is kind of a cool watch. It's about 2 minutes. Um, the other thing we really did in there over the last four to five years is try to be really intentional on our tier 2 processes. So, those first five or six years, we're really getting down just those general behaviors. And over the last three, four, five years, we've been really intentional about how do we help those students that are still struggling. So, that is our second highlight. I'm going to pass back here. You'll come back though. All right. So, when I talked about really looking at being strategic in our data, we look at all of our data and we come up with three goals this year. I'm going to actually talk about

046goal one, and that's reducing the achievement gap. We actually have an achievement gap between our ELLLs and our nonalls, and we're really being intentional about trying to close that. um all of our personal goals and building goals are around that and here are some of the key initiatives that we're doing that with and number one is instructional core practices. Um so we actually identified seven practices that we do buildingwide um we actually do look fors teacher we go in the classrooms mark it down and actually teachers going to into the classrooms as well um to actually seek each other's classrooms. It's very important that teachers and administrators are in each other's or in all the classrooms giving feedback and just giving those positives and uh holding each other accountable to our core practices and you

047can actually see those on there. Um content action plans. So at the beginning of the year we have our three goals. We actually have each content break their um plans down on what they're specifically going to do and agree to do in each other's classroom. So all mathro classrooms look pretty close to the same. And if you'll look at the bottom where it says schoolwide literacy, this is the point they bring in literacy into their content plans as well. How are they going to support literacy in the building in their content? So, it's a huge key initiative that we're um doing the schoolwide literacy and the content plans and we're just did a roll out today for next year with a schoolwide literacy that um when you come back in three years and we get

048it shored up really really good. Love to highlight that. So um intentional PLTS I know it's a district initiative but really looking at student data you know when you talk about your tack of forms or your teacher those common assessments and looking at data which kids are struggling which kids are excelling which kids need a little bit of extra help and which kids need a little extra extensions and I'll highlight and I I wish you to come during the school day like on a Friday I will highlight one of our classes. We have teams in the sixth grade math really highlight that. And what they do is they have their essential standards, they assess those essential standards. And the kids that are struggling on a Friday, usually in about every two weeks, the kids that

049struggling, need that little extra, go to one teacher. The kids that need a little uh want a little more challenge, go to the other teacher. So they they're aligned. They have common purpose. So they just flip-flop. One takes one kid the one set of kids, the other takes other kid. And they do that all day long. So kids are getting on time intervention and support of where they need it. We're not waiting till the end of the year to assess where kids are. We're like, "What do you need now? How can we get you where you need to go?" Um, and we're hopefully um excited about seeing what our schools are going to be doing this year. They're just now coming out and traditionally Washington's been on the lower end of the middle schools. I

050think we're making some headways comparing to the other middle schools. In fact, I think we may be even beating them in a few areas. So, not that I'm competitive or anything. And of course our newcomer program. Uh we really had to look at our program last year because that really drove our ELLL population and making sure that all staff were prepared for because we used to have it where it was just one team of the two had our ELLL um population newcomers. We had with 110. We couldn't do that. We actually because that would mean there's 10 12 15 in a classroom. That's too many. So we went across board. We brought in Megan and Tanya and did a lot of work on what it looks like to actually support ALS um in the classroom

051using SCUP and a few other things. And then we aligned our instructional practices core practices to actually address the needs. So Nick All right. Our second goal in school improvement plan is just around reducing risk factors. Um one way we measure that is through um taking the social emotional screener. Um so we do base a goal around that about reducing students social emotional or academic risks. And then our three key initiatives are up there. So PBIS tier one um our positive behavior interventions and supports. Uh we really wanted to be intentional data driven. We have meetings that look at data two times a week. We want to make sure we push out celebrations and rewards to kids and intentional PD targeting high discipline months to help our staff prepare for that and be intentional about

052how we work with students. Um, tier 2, we really wanted to make sure that we had multiple data points for a tier 2 referral, that we were using researchbased interventions. Um, some of those are listed up there and there's some examples of like how we track students. Um, and then adding that behavior specialist in really just trying to be intentional and using our data that we have. Um our third initiative there was our advisory and social emotional learning. We have a daily advisory class where those students loop for three years with a teacher to build a relationship. Um we have a teacher team that creates lessons with weekly student voice circles um that just help to build community. So every Thursday you could walk into an advisory class and should see students in a circle

053talking about questions posed to them with a teacher and sharing. Um they also do academic progress monitoring, goal setting, career planning, things like that. Um, as an update, we do have some data on this. Um, so one of those is that right now our goal was to reduce by 10%. We reduced our number of students that were at risk by 3%, but for the first two years, we didn't reduce that at all. So, we were pretty happy to see that needle move. Um, one of the cool things is that we've tracked our students that were at risk and we had 180 students who we targeted with a support this year through our PBIS system. 32% of them grew a whole risk level which was really cool to see that those students that we're targeting are

054growing and we started with seven high-risisk students and reduced that down to one from that group um based on that screener. Um the other celebration there was just like we highlighted earlier is when we look at reducing risk factors we have a big reduction in referrals and suspensions and that's also one of those um indicators. Goal three, Mr. Gillian. All right. So our third goal is um to deal with attendance. So one of the things we did at the beginning of the year was we have an attendance flowchart that all staff members have and so it just gets them step by step on what to do when they start noticing certain students that are not showing up on a regular basis and then we just continue on that. So it incorporates what we are required

055by law to do and it also incorporates having the teacher who sees the student one-on-one and starts to notice that the students are not um attending. So we can take care of that with home visits, phone calls, parents wear, um any sort of tools that we have available to us to let the parents know that we need to see their kids a little more often. Um we do intentional contacts, home visits, um truency petitions. Um I just read recently that we lost funding for truency, so they're starting to figure out how they're going to work on that with 85% less budget than they had. Um and then we have lots of incentives. the kids really appreciate the incentives. Um, we make it to where it's an achievable goal for them. So, 95% and higher that

056enters them into some of the raffles that we have and some of the giveaways that we do from our fundraising through AAOU. So, we have raffles, we have attendance stickers. So, we also try to find some ways to incentivize students that doesn't require too much money. Um, so we buy stickers from Amazon and students can leave for lunch 2 minutes early. uh since we only have two lunches, so the lines get pretty long. So, they can get out two minutes early um if their attendance is 95% or higher for the month. And so, every month it changes. That way, it gives every kid an opportunity to get that sticker and earn it um and then they can reflect on their attendance and see if they want to get that incentive. Um we also have individual

057plans that we work with students and parents. We have parents come in and have meetings. Um, it could be everything from my student just doesn't want to go, they got social anxiety all the way up to, you know, we had some issues in the family and things like that. So, we work with the parents to try to get them to bring their students as much as possible. Um, we ran the reports today and for the year's attendance, we have 95% or higher. We had 241 students that had 95% and higher and we had about 10 that had 100% attendance for the entire year. So I we're really proud of our kids making sure that they come. We let them know if you need anything. We've picked them up. We've had Officer Garza go pick them

058up from home. I've woke them kids up in bed that were fake sleeping. So we've done it about as much as that we can other than physically pick them up and bring them um which we're not allowed to do. But um the kids really enjoy it. Today um I had a raffle um through the College Success Foundation and we had four laptops to give away. So every kid that had 95% or higher, I entered them into the raffle and presented them today with their paperwork so they can receive their laptop at the end of the week. Nice. Beautiful. So um but if you notice our bars down there, we're we're hanging in there. We're trying everything we can to keep up with the you know the district um average. Um hopefully we'll beat the district

059average soon, but like I said, anything that we can do to help the kids, we we try to get in there and try to do it. So our attendance is I would say in the right direction, you know, just to piggy back on the attendance a little bit. Um so I attendance and of course, you know, high need schools go hand in hand. We have 75 McKini Vento students. The closest middle school to us has 30. Um, poverty is high. Um, if you look it in your slides, I actually put a counseling slide to actually put out how many safety plans, how many kids are actually having some high mental needs. um overcoming that and with a as a building between our counselors, behavior specialists, and the assistants and myself and just the amazing staff

060that we have to making sure kids feel welcomed at school and important want to be here. That is a huge piece on trying to keep that incentive because if we didn't have these things in place, our attendance would be a lot lower. I mean, we we're proud of our kids because they're working to overcome their needs to be here because this is a safe place for them. I just wanted to point that out. That is a huge piece to get kids here for attendance. And with that, we're almost at the questions. I do want to point out if you look at some of these pictures, we do a lot of afterchool stuff and before school stuff to make kids feel welcome here. Um, between our parent nights, but we have baking clubs, Lego clubs, um,

061just we do a lot of surveys and getting student voice and what they want and what makes them comfortable and that's where some of these pictures are there. Um, that they just want to be a part of our school and that's where we're so proud of our kids. So, with that, I'm going to open up for questions. Any questions from board members? No questions, but just a a compliment on on first of all the trends in both behavior and academics and the behavioral is of special interest to me in my whole career. And it's really fun to see you take PBIS and make it work and do it with fidelity and you can see the results in the in your referrals. I just I'm really impressed with what you're doing. Thank you, Norm. Raymond, do

062you have any questions? Okay. Um, thank you for hosting us. I'm going to let um Superintendent Green give his thanks as well. Um, but the the data that you shared with us is quite promising. I'm I'm looking forward to um when we get the scores back this summer or fall, whenever it is, just to just to see how how well your kids are doing. Um the the efforts that you're putting forward to make them feel like they're part of the Lions team um are commendable and you should be very proud of what you you and your staff are doing. Thank you, Pres. Uh, Director Rice, almost made you present there for the day, but Director Rice, appreciate the opportunity to uh uh make a few comments. Um, Princ, how long have you been here at

063Washington total over the years back? But you were here before as an assistant. Yes, I was. I think I was here 25 26 years ago as an assistant. Yeah. Yeah. Quite quite a bit of time. So I just I just want to acknowledge how uh wonderful it is the leadership uh that you display with your team and bringing the the two gentlemen behind you uh yourself but also recognizing the importance of staff and the leadership that we have with our staff overall throughout the entire building in every facet. So, you truly recognize that we don't do this alone and it's not simply the leadership team. It's leaders are everywhere and uh you've continued to build that up over the years. Um I'll simply add that uh the reason I know that you were here as

064an assistant before is because a long long time ago um I was able to spend most of my internship under your leadership. So, I personally want to take the opportunity to to thank you as a uh veteran teacher entering into the field of administrative education uh or leadership. um having you as as a mentor for more than a few weeks uh during my last uh year teaching and before moving into administration. So, I appreciate the ongoing um love and um uh accountability and uh uh staying power that you've shown in in being here at Washington and then coming back and dedicating so much of your career to uh supporting our community and our students in this area. Thank you. Lions Rock. Lions Roar. [Applause] I hear you come roaring back. How long do we have

065for the tour? 15 minutes. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Hilton, for a wonderful tour. We got outside and got some fresh air. And now over there. What? Oh, we didn't. We went up. And um now we're going to have Dr. Maria Lucero do a presentation on visual arts, visual performing arts. Yes, thank you. Good evening, board of directors, Superintendent Green. Um I'm excited to provide an overview of the incredible work happening in the fine and performing arts programs. Tonight, I'll be highlighting the opportunities available to our students, the skills are developing, and the many achievements we've celebrated this year. And these programs really are a key part of our well of a well-rounded education for our students. So on this slide, what you see is an overview of the rich and diverse fine arts programs offered

066across our district. As you can see, our students have access to a comprehensive visual arts education across multiple schools, including both high school and middle schools, as well as K5 and our virtual school. We offer a wide variety of courses ranging from traditional and advanced art to graphic design, film production, and music production. Many of these are supported by student organizations like Skills USA and TSA, giving students hands-on career aligned experiences. By aligning our offerings with disciplines such as in dance, media arts, music, theater, and visual arts, we help students build strong artistic foundations and prepare for further education, careers, or lifelong creative expression. So here what you see and it's it's a little light but there are certain images that are highlighted with a yellow border up on top on the left. So second

067column on the top you'll see the Davis Percussion Ensemble one that earned first place becoming state champions at the WIAA WMEA state solo and ensemble contest. Right below that, you'll see Eisenhower that delivered a vibrant production of The Music Man, celebrating talent and community. The production brought together in March more than 130 students from across the Yakama School District, including participants from various schools such as McKinley, Hoover, Franklin, Whitney, Roosevelt, Gilbert, Wilson, Lewis, and Clark, Robertson, Mccclure, Knobill, Ridgeview, and Eisenhower. Over to the right on the fourth column, you'll see Davis High School and also Franklin Middle School who earned top honors at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. They placed first in their category. The group was named one of just three sweep stakes finalists, earning a spot to perform in front of a soldout

068crowd at the ICCU Arena alongside Century High School and Las Vegas Academy of the Arts. Down on the second column at the very bottom, you'll see Gilbert Elementary where we had 24th and fifth grade students proudly perform for the Yakama Rotary Club, sharing their MIMA music with the community. Miss Sparks, who teaches at Gilbert, brings a wealth of experience as a music educator, and she is now building new opportunities for the Mima band to perform. Here we're going over our performing arts programs which are thriving across our district. Schools like Eisenhower, Davis, Franklin, Lewis and Clark, Washington, Wilson, and our elementary schools offer music, choir, and drama opportunities. The course offerings are wide ranging and inclusive of many musical styles and instruments such as concert band, u mariachi, orchestra, jazz, choir, ukulele, guitar, and even

069AP music theory and history of rock. These programs not only teach musical technique, but also help students build collaboration, discipline, and leadership skills. Groups like Fort Lorico, which is offered at both high schools, enrich our programs and reflect the diversity of our community. Annual musicals and theatrical productions at the high school level provide a stage literally and figuratively for students to grow and shine. We've highlighted some of these um achievements earlier. You learned about the dew drops of life by Jacqueline Ariano, a senior from Davis High School. And here on this slide, what you'll see and um what I'd like to share is that in K5 music, students perform two to three times a year, incorporating singing, choreography, and instrumental work. Middle and high school music and choir students perform multiple times annually, often three

070to five times, and participate in competitions at the local, regional, and state levels. High school drama students present two to three major performances per year, including musicals and collaborative productions with music and choir departments. Altogether, we serve over 7,500 students in performing arts programs across the district. This demonstrates both high interest and participation in these valuable offerings. And again, some of our celebrations that we see here uh celebrate the outstanding accomplishments of our fine and performing arts students this year. These recognitions are a testament to the talent, hard work, and dedication of our students and educators across the district. Keeping it short and sweet. Any questions for Dr. Lucero? No, just thank you. Thank you for a comprehensive presentation. Thank you. And congratulations to all our students and teachers and and what they're doing. Yes.

071We had um 7,000 and some 7,500. Yes. 7,500 participate in fine and performing arts across the district. Correct. Yes, that's about half. It's a lot. That's a lot of our kids. Um, ideally, we'd like I think I'd like to see more than 7,500, but 7,500 is not a bad number. Not at all. So, thank you to the staff who support um our students in these endeavors. Thank you. You have anything to add? Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, [Applause] Maria. Okay. Um, next on our agenda are reports from members of the board. Any board members have reports to share? Okay. Um, next is the superintendent's update. Uh thank you. I'll try to keep things short here. I just uh want to take a few moments um one to uh acknowledge that we've

072had several uh recognitions over the last uh uh few weeks. Uh calling out last night or yesterday afternoon we had the uh Black Elegance in conjunction with the NAACP and also supported by uh OIC and uh Anthony Peterson is the executive director there. Um and Adrien Gardner is the president currently of NAACP. The event was well attended. Uh we did have board representation at that event. Uh I'm going to mention too many things to probably if I start doing that I'll I'll lose a couple, but I will just share that uh we do have tomorrow a celebration. Uh I'll get a little bit ahead of myself here so I can kind of skip over that maybe a little bit later, but tomorrow we do have our Native American celebration um that will be held at

073uh I believe it's at YV Tech Yvtech. And so we're looking forward to that. Uh every year the district is also able to engage in tribal consultation. Uh so that means that we have u a number of Native American students. Currently we're at 488 in our district. That does uh require then collaboration with the with the nation and that would be the Yakima Nation. So, we look forward on Wednesday afternoon to speaking with tribal council and sharing the outcomes, everything from um graduation rates to uh achievement outcomes of our Native American students encompassing all of the tribes, not just the Yakama nation. Uh we do uh kind of coordinate all of that as one outcome at that time. So, that's something to just be aware of that that's right on the cusp of sharing out

074that uh that that opportunity with the the nation, our neighbors to the south. Uh also I just want to take a moment and uh just recognize that um uh statement was made earlier just about um you know making sure that uh I think it's important to just recognize for those that are watching that we we really look to not discuss the performance of any employee. So that has actually gone on quite a bit over the last year uh with opinions and perspectives uh particularly about my uh my performance which I get and I I just want people to know that we would not allow that with any any employee across the board. So uh if anything that has really uh gone on quite a bit of time and I just want to acknowledge that uh

075uh the board does try to certainly practice that uh because everybody has their opinions and rightfully so but we never want to impose those upon uh anybody in a public setting uh whether teacher, par educator, bus driver, assistant superintendent, superintendent and certainly uh recognizing that our school board um does extend themselves as representatives of the community being voted in and understanding everything that is happening. Um I also do want the public to know that uh uh I do meet with our board members on a regular basis. So as part of the process of being a superintendent and working with the board um we don't meet we meet in a in a setting like this in public but uh there are meetings that take place whether it be um weekly or or monthly or even um

076every you know quarterly throughout the year just depends on the preference of the board member. So those do take place. So I I I think that that's important for the for the general public to recognize that the um the knowledge that you acquire is not simply in this meeting but there is preparation that goes uh in advance uh on top of the homework that is uh part of what you do to prepare every week. And then uh just extending I think it also merits just being shared out there that it is it is important to know that uh one of the beliefs that I have as superintendent is that when you reach out uh and you have a question or a concern. So if there is a an email that comes forward uh if the

077board has asked a question and I I do respond that those responses do include the board. So those are not simply um omitting the board from any communication. Uh so they see all of the communications that do go out um even the ones that unfortunately I make a mistake on and have to go back and uh and and correct which uh does happen from occasion uh occasion to occasion. So that is is something to just recognize that when an email does come forth if you don't see the response or you don't see the inclusion of the board do know that they are receiving that and you're welcome to to forward those responses uh as you wish anyway. So um none of that is done is in isolation. We're very open and transparent, especially when communicating

078with the public. But I I will always respond unless um unless uh directed not to. Uh I think the other important thing to share just in the current um uh interest of of what was shared earlier is that uh you know when the board does receive um information from the public and I'll just kind of give an example that's what what's happened um recently. Uh there's an ev every action custom click and send campaign. So that makes it very easy for any member whether you're local in our area, whether you live in uh Pierce County, whether you're up in Ellensburg. Um it goes to in some cases it may go out to all unions, uh may go out to one union, uh may go outside of the area. And what typically happens is a statement

079is made um whether it's, you know, true or not and it's made and it just says, "Hey, if you want to alter this message, do so. If not, put your name in here and hit send and it'll go to the school board." And so over the course of the last several weeks, uh, the board does receive those individually, it comes from every single individual that clicks and sends. And I would say about 95% of those, which the board has received, are identical, just click and send. And unfortunately in that uh campaign, uh, three of the components recently, um, two have been um what I would say uh misinformation. Uh, and when I do respond, I do call that out. And I certainly do extend an offer to to meet with anybody that would like to

080meet. And it's not for the uh uh nefarious purposes that may have been suggested earlier. It's simply to open lines of communication and to really respect those people that are reaching out and clarify um why things happen the way that they do. Uh just one case in point that I I do want to share with you. I really wish that I could share the name of the individual, but out of respect for for her, I will not. Uh but you might remember two weeks ago, we had a student that came and spoke about uh Mr. Mifflin and uh the move from Mr. from Mifflin that will now be going to Franklin and how that is impacting uh this individual and how um he has connected with her and uh it was very heartwarming and moving

081and uh it was good to see this individual advocate. It just so happened that the next day uh we did have a student senate meeting and this individual, this eighth grader uh was in a meeting with me and uh with our communications uh person and several other students and uh we were able to take time and talk about why decisions happen the way that they do. and and uh it was really uh um special to be able to in a private setting apart from kind of an open air feeling here um that is televised at the same time and recorded uh but to walk through and discuss uh all of the different intricacies of what weighs into looking at a district from a holistic perspective. So, um, I am very proud, as I said, of

082of I look over there at Bill Hilton and I see, you know, Brenda Maloney who runs our our online K8 and I see, you know, other leaders in this building and recognize that that their love and outpouring and devotion and commitment is 100% in the building that they oversee as it should be in the staff that they oversee and the students that they connect with. And I wouldn't have it any other way. And just from the superintendent perspective, when you have 22 buildings, uh you have to look at things a little bit differently and you consider uh much different angles as far as uh the greater good in in in many cases. And um I would just say that uh uh um in the decision that that really uh sparked the interest of this young

083lady after I was able to walk through all of the information, uh she showed such a high level of maturity and she was like, you know, I I I don't like it. which is great, but I I understand it and and I think that's what we're after is just to make sure that there's an understanding uh because, you know, leadership uh in this area when you're talking about uh uh roofs and recalls and positions and whatnot, and you can see this happening all over the state. I mean, if you just open and look at Tacoma now, um they're going through uh way worse right now than what we're looking at in part because we had projected better and and and and we went through some significant challenges last year. Uh but we had uh Reton

084which in in the last few weeks has reduced all of their assistant principles at the elementary level and one from each of the middle school levels. Uh we had the opportunity as an elementary group um sponsored and funded completely through the Balmer group to go over to the Seattle area to look at inclusionary practices. uh we were able to visit the elementary of the uh reigning uh current uh principal, state principal of the year um and um in the Northshore School District and uh and recognize that she has 500 students and she lost her VP last year and is working as one administrator. So uh there are challenges that are happening especially with the funding that we have in the state and how it benefits property rich districts versus property poor. Uh but I do

085want to call out that uh these decisions that are happening really do um hurt and weigh upon uh the individual not only that is impacted directly but it is not easy for HR. It's not easy uh for those that have to uh uh have those conversations and certainly not easy to make those decisions. Uh there's uh a wonderful quote that I'd just like to close with and thank you for indulging me for a few moments on this u board members and and the public and it's just really about leadership and and you know in leadership you have to make hard decisions that will negatively impact people that you care about and I can tell you that that has happened over the last year last year last two years of having hard decisions that negatively impact

086people that I care about. you also are going to be disliked despite your best intents to do what will benefit the most. And I understand that that no matter, you know, if you're making decisions for the greater good, there are always going to be people that are not happy with that. And um you have to be willing to be disliked. And that's not a fun thing. But I understand that that's a price of leadership. And lastly, um I know that in making tough decisions, especially in a time where you have such a financial crunch that uh has really no solution coming from the legislature, uh that you're going to be misunderstood and won't always have the opportunity to defend yourself. And uh that's also a space is just recognizing that um there are times where

087people are able to say whatever they want. um and uh uh dictate the narrative be it through social social media or through uh other types of campaigns like uh click and send campaigns and uh simply uh you can rebut and uh take the time to respond uh or you can let it go and uh I choose to do the former which is make sure that everybody that sends a letter gets a very thoughtful response or a response that uh uh certainly addresses the concerns that they brought up and if they would like that to go ongoing then uh that's something we will always continue. And I think part of that is also just recognizing that it's a no-win situation because if we don't respond or if I don't respond, then all of a sudden the

088narrative shifts to you don't care about anybody, you're not even responding to what people send out. So, it's really a no-win situation whether you respond or you don't respond. And I just like to call that out. So, uh hopefully the public can just uh um recognize that we have several ways to reach out. We have a let's talk uh which is a connection right on our home web page. You just click on and send. it'll go right to the department or the individual which I've responded many times. Uh you've got my email uh or can access that online. Um I'd be happy to follow up with if any principal would like me to come to talk with their staff. That is certainly an option. I never want to um circumvent a a leader and impose

089myself upon a staff because I know that when I was a staff member in a building uh I didn't necessarily have a problem with certain things and I don't want to be included in an all staff meeting if I didn't have any issue. I would like that to be involving the people that are certainly concerned about that piece. So, um just calling that to the uh attention of the board and I look forward to collaboratively meeting with uh any of our union leaders and look forward to the opportunity to meet with our YA president and uh see what we can do to uh clarify some of the uh uh disconnect that is either happening on one side or the other and come back with a more um a greater understanding of of one another. So,

090Thank you, Dr. green. I hope that I catch I I want to follow up on your um mention of celebrations. Um, over the past 3 weeks, the board has had representation at the Hispanic Academic Achievement Achievers Program um or HAP that was um well attended and we recognized many of our Hispanic students who um are graduating and received received scholarships and it was a wonderful celebration. That was on May 16th and on May 19th was honors convocation at Eisenhower which is always a wonderful event. On the 21st were CTE awards where we uh recognized all of the state winners for CTE program, career technical education programs within the district and there were what 100 or better I think of the of those recognitions. Um and then on the 28th we had a celebration for our

091migrant students and that was at um Davis High School. We had a wonderful presentation um from Mr. Eddie, who is um a fixture at Davis these days and the kids really really um enjoy him. Um and then last night, no Sunday was um Black Elegance recognition for our African-American students. And as Dr. Green indicated tomorrow night we've got Native American graduation celebrations for our Native American students. Um I know Kirsten isn't here for uh upcoming community engagement opportunities. You've got it there. Yes, I do. So just uh updating as to what's around the corner. I think you mentioned maybe a couple of these, but we have uh June 4th and 5th Discovery Early Learning Field Day from 9:00 a.m. to 10 10:30. Uh uh and also from 1:15 to 2:25. So if anybody would love

092to go see our littlest learners out there on the playgrounds and having their field day, there's uh no greater experience, I don't believe. Uh we have the David Davis High School uh academic excellence award on June 4th in the auditorium at 6:30. Uh Wilson um middle school orchestra choir June 4th at 6:30 at Wilson Middle School. Um, all of these are accessible online and also certainly on board docs. Uh, Wilson Middle School has a band concert June 5th at uh 6:30 again at Wilson Middle School. Franklin Middle School has a b band concert on the 5th. 6:30 at Franklin Middle School. We see kindergarten celebration at uh Roosevelt Elementary at 1:30 June 9th. Um, just going through here because these are all before our next board meetings. I I'll I'll I'll leave the rest for

093you to kind of look up, but I will just also share that we do have right around the corner, we're looking at um Davis High School graduation June 9th at the Sundome 7 to 9. Davis High School graduation June 9th 7 to9 Eisenhower is June 10th, same time, 7 to 9, one day later. And then we have Stanton, that's both of those are at the Sundome. Stanton Academy graduation and Yakama online and open doors. Those are both on the 11th at the Davis High School auditorium. Uh the first Stanton Academy graduation will be at 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 followed by the online and open doors graduation from 7 to 8 uh in the same location. So we will not have to rush from one building to the other for the board members who have memories

094of going from uh across town in in half an hour to to to get there for the graduation. So, it's very nice to have the Davis Auditorium open and to be a place where we can hold a great celebration uh right up there with uh being a part of the cap of the Capitol Theater. So, uh those take us through the graduation ceremonies. Um so, that once again that's the 9th, 10th, 11th, uh three consecutive nights, Davis, Eisenhower, and then online open doors and Stanton Academy and then we get to take a nap. Okay, next we have uh comments from the public on agenda items. These are items from the agenda only. Thank you, Andy. Okay, first is [Music] um Kim Walberg. Is Kim here? Could you just for the record state your name and

095the the building that you're with? Yes. Is this Oh, it's on. Oh, it is on. Hi, I'm Kim Wahlberg and I am from Discovery Early Learning. Um, consistency in the classroom is crucial for a safe, predictable, and productive learning environment. When teachers consistently implement rules, routines, and expectations, students feel secure, understand boundaries, and are more likely to focus on learning rather than worrying about what might happen next. Consistency is not only important for our students, it's important for staff. So I ask you, why is Yakma School District working so hard to disrupt consistency in our schools? Over the last two years, you, the district, have subjected staff and students to an overwhelming overwhelming amount of change via the riffs. You have demanded the employees of YSD change and adapt non non-stop over the last two

096years because of your mismanagement. And now you're voluntarily making more changes by shuffling our administrators around, which is yet again going to make our jobs harder. I'm here on behalf of Early Learning to advocate that we keep John Solar as a full-time assistant principal. Before John was our AP, he was a self-contained K2 teacher in this district for students with autism. John understands students with special needs. In early learning, currently we teach 26 sessions of preschool. And of those 26 sessions, 20 of them are special education sessions. Of the 16 teachers in early learning, 10 of them are special education teachers. We need an admin that understands special education like John does. Over the last four years, John has primarily overseen our special education program. At the end of March of this year, we had

097322 special education referrals, 244 special education evaluations, and well over 200 IEP meetings. John plays a vital role in ensuring that we have a process in place to meet the deadlines for evaluations and IEP meetings. Not only is the district taking Jon from us, they're reducing our AP to a half-time position. It's a struggle to secure a district rep for our large number of IEP meetings now with two full-time admin and it's now being reduced to a part-time. We heard Casey Mitchell, our special education director, speak just last board meeting and he shared it's of utmost importance to hold IEP meetings on time. Meeting due dates, keeping families informed, and securing the revenue is going to be very difficult next year. Not only with the loss of John, who helped coordinate this process, but also

098by reducing our availability of a district rep to a part-time AP. John Solar knows and understands special education. Our new AP, while she seems very nice, has little to no special education experience. John oversees pre-to pre-transitions, pre-to kinder transitions, PLTS, program development for developmental preschool, special education evaluations, initial IEPs, and so much more. It's going to be impossible to fill his shoes with a part-time AP with no special education experience. So, I urge you to let John Solar stay at early learning full-time because this change is going to have a negative effect on our youngest, most vulnerable learners. Thank you. Thank you, Kim. Good luck with your um field day. Thank you. And Jean K. Joan Kirk. Hi, Joan. Hi. My name is Joan Kirk. I'm a retired teacher, but most importantly, I'm a member

099of the YSD community. I have neighbors whose children attend YSD schools. I'm a taxpayer in the YSD school district. I would like everybody to remember that schools are not businesses. We do not produce widgets. We serve. We serve students, families, and communities. I know the district has financial concerns. I am interested in what process was used and what was and who was involved to meet those financial concerns. I believe missing from the process the discussion were those most involved with students, families and communities, the people we serve or Yakma school district serves now. Those people who work in the classrooms and school buildings. If you had involved them in the discussion in the process, maybe alternative decisions would have been made. So my question to you, the school board, is will you take a step

100back and listen to the voices that were left out? Give them ownership in the process and the discussion and the decision. and be open to the possibility of new solutions. Thank you. Thank you, Joan. [Applause] [Music] Uh the others that are listed here um appear to be non-aggenda items. So, we will hear from you in just a little bit because we don't have much left to go on the agenda. Next, we have a set of approvals. Approval for Superintendent Green to travel to uh American Association of School Administrators. Uh the governing board meeting, Dr. Green. Yes, thank you. I think it's very important to go into detail on this request. So this is a approval for travel to the AASA governing board meeting uh asking for approval to be in Washington DC from July 7th

101through 10th 2025. So the action is to approve the travel. Uh to be very clear the event is funded through AASA. So I was selected as a member of the governing body for the national organization. So it does then pay all expenses. Uh I am requesting some flexibility. I do not want to come back to the board and make a request for funding. Uh I have not traveled with this uh and this is my first opportunity to go and do some advocacy on the behalf of uh our district but then at the national level as well for the superintendent association uh and national funding. So um what the request is and I'll just read the fiscal impact. The event is funded through AASA. Therefore the district is not expected to incur any travel expenses, hotel,

102flight, meals and shuttles. Uh the superintendent is requesting the flexibility to incur up to 500 in case the information is not accurate as this is the first time attending the AASA advocacy event. There's no reason to say that that would happen, but it's one of those better safe uh than sorry and asking you to then fund something after the fact, putting you in a in a less transparent situation. So again, it is 100% expectation that this will be reimbursed uh entirely through the AASA. Uh again it would be the July 7th through the 10th and the governing board. Just one other fact and you can see uh you have this uh the role and purpose regional representation why it matters to Yakima and the value to the district is on the back of the form

103but just calling out that the board is composed of 135 members across seven geographical regions including region one which represents Washington state. So with that the request is for approval to travel. Thank you, Dr. Green. We have a request to approve travel to the AASA um governing board meeting. Um do I hear a motion? So moved. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Okay. Could um you call the role, Barb, please? Director Walker. Hi. Director Navaro Jr. I, Director Rice, I. Motion passes three to zero. Okay. I believe next on our agenda is the second opportunity for comments from the public. So, um, there are three folks, three folks listed here. Uh, Teresa Maldonado, you have a comment. Okay. Could you come to the microphone, please? [Music] I'm not sure if the microphone

104is on. It's on. You may need to pull it down to to you. There you go. My name is Teresa Maldonado. Even though I have been discouraged not to come to this meetings and I ask him why and says don't you see nobody likes to come to these meetings because they never acknowledge you or acknowledge the information you provide. And the reason why I'm here is because throughout the years I have gotten a lot of help from the teachers as a single parent. They have helped me encourage my kids to study. So that why it's so upsetting to find that a lot of teachers drive all the way from Allensburg to down here to work and then they apply here at the Yakima school district. But I don't think they ever expected this to be

105done to them to be rifted. And also I've got a lot of help with the librarians. So I don't understand why this is happening. you know, they are essential to the Jakama education just like the teachers are. And like I say, I have gotten a lot of help from the teachers and that's why and I've been to different schools where my kids have been and I've seen the staff that have worked well and I don't understand why you are transferring them and when the community feels comfortable going to that school and see how they treat their kids there and you are disrupting a lot and like I I seen a lot of kids say, "Well, they took this teacher, our favorite teacher and we have this one that doesn't even help at all. So, I

106really don't understand why this process is going on, but I really would like for you to really get other people involved on how you come to this, you know, because I've seen superintendent come in, superintendent go out and like I said, I've been discouraged and says don't go there because this information I've they given me, but also at the meetings, I've talked to some of the teachers that said They only were working to the end of this year, but they weren't being called back to work. It affects me because, you know, it's concerning because how are they going to provide for their families, especially the ones that have traveled from Alensburg all the way down here? So if you could please before you make that another decision on the funding and everything, you can get

107other people involved so you can really find another solution instead of doing this to the teachers and everything else. So that's my concern and also do it for the teachers since you were a teacher help teachers and like I say I've been involved in other committees. I was the one that was involved making sure that the uniforms that the students wear right now. I told them make them wear the school colors but make it affordable for the family. So I was thinking about the families and the students. So that's what you need to do. Do it for the teachers and for the students. You know, like I say, I seen superintendent coming it out and the first thing they do give you themselves a raise. So, sorry. Thank you, Teresa. Kate Kate Ruter, is that

108right? That's me. Hi, Kate. Hello. I spoke at the last board meeting. Um, could you just for the record introduce yourself? Kate, Discovery Early Learning. Thank you. I spoke at the last board meeting expressing the reasons why having Discovery Early Learning go from a full-time assistant principal to a half-time assistant principal while replacing that person at the same time would be detrimental to our staff and students. I truly expected to hear from the district later that week notifying us at the very least that John Solar would stay with us part-time, be part-time at Gilbert, and that the other AP, Cassie Nally, could stay part-time at McCclure and add part-time at Whitney. After all, many of us did give valid reasons why this change was warranted and necessary. As a staff, we were told that the

109administrative changes were a commitment to developing leadership, strengthening teams, and improving outcomes for students. People who spoke at the last meeting shared why this is not the case for all or for specific buildings. Are you as the school board comfortable with the reasons given by the district to not modify and make the recommended changes as they do both give the ability to develop leadership at a new school John at Gilbert and Cassie at Whitney while strengthening the leadership and teams at Discovery and Mccclure. And I can guarantee you that student outcomes increase when there is consistency yeartoyear and staff feel heard, recognized, and appreciated. I said at the last meeting that I didn't come here to be accusatory or adversarial, and I still feel that way. However, I can understand how those emotions can come

110with the frustration of not feeling heard when decisions are made top down and input is not requested or received from people who are in the classrooms with the students each and every day. It's not too late to make this adjustment for the good of students and staff. You don't have to double down on this decision, and it's not showing weakness to take feedback from your long-term committed employees and make this change. So again, I appeal to you that you take the PE feedback from the people who are in the trenches, so to speak, and reinstate John Solar as Discovery's assistant principal on a part-time basis at the very minimum. Thank you. Thank you, Kate. And last, we have Dominic Reoso. Dominic, do I have your last name correct? Thank you. Just for the record, could

111you please introduce yourself and the school that you're affiliated with? Uh, my name's Dominic Reinosa and I'm from Washington Middle School. Okay, you have three minutes. Go. All right. All right. Um, so you want to pull that mic out or adjust it up? Or how do I do that? Or there you go. So, um, I'm here today to talk about the whole thing about moving m Mr. Miplin to Franklin, which I feel like if we did do that, it's affecting our school a lot. And if doesn't just affect the students, you know, right here, it affects the people in the future about cuz Mr. Mifflin, he's a great, you know, person. He does a lot for the school. He um, what is it? He does a lot for the school. Even the stuff that he

112doesn't have to do, he does. He talks to the students, you know, talks to everyone. Um, you know, during lunch, during everything, making sure everyone, you know, even stuff like having good grades, he goes to them, tells them, warns them, you know, about grades. Um, I get that moving Mr. Mifflin you say like you know helps other people but it still affects our school and I really feel like um if you want to treat like if you really do love all your schools love them every single you know I feel like moving Mr. Mifflin will still affect our school a lot which wouldn't make it fair so you know Mr. Mr. Mifflin staying here is a very good option. You wouldn't be affecting no one basically. So um Mr. you know Mr. Mifflin he moving

113him will affect a lot. You may not see it but it still affects you know the future of other kids going to our school. Um you know it affects them a lot. Now what the reason I'm starting I don't have a script. I'm speaking all this by heart, you know, just to show how much I really am dedicated to this because I feel like if I do get a script, what's the point? You know, speaking from the heart really shows that not just me, but other people really care for him to stay. So, I really um you know, it's very important him staying here would, you know, make the school good. Our school doesn't live in the best area, you know. So, having something that makes the school great and just moving them that affects

114our school. You're basically leaving the school in the dust. You're not You may, you know, I get, you know, there's another person replacing him, but you're just fixing something that's already fixed. There's no reason for him to get moved. You know, he doesn't want to move. He doesn't and I know this. So you moving him, it doesn't, you know, he doesn't want to. So why move him? You know, I really, really hope Mr. Mifflin does stay here cuz he is a good person. He does a lot for this school. My time's up. Thank you, Dominic. [Applause] Okay. Do we have anything else for the good of the order or an executive session? No. Okay. Then hearing that we are adjourned. Thank you everyone for coming today. We look forward to seeing you at future board

115meetings.