Yakima School District Board Meeting May 20th, 2025

001Okay, good evening everyone and welcome to the May 20th meeting of the Yakma School Board. I'd like to welcome you all to our district office for tonight's meeting. Uh to begin with this evening, just as announcements, we do offer Spanish interpretation services from Nate Montgomery with Language Connection. Thank you, Nate, for being here. If you need translation assistance in person, please check with Nate for advice. Nate, would you please translate this information? Thank you, Nate. If you wish to make public comment this evening, there are two options available for you. The first option for commenting on agenda items only, and the second option, which comes later in the meeting, is for all other topics. In order to speak tonight, you'll need to sign two forms. One is the sign-in form and the second is the

002guidelines form. Those are available in the back of the room. Barb, would you please take the role? Director Walker, present. Director Rice here. Vice President Bianeue here. President Beckett here. Director Navaro Jr. is excused. To begin tonight, would you please uh join me uh in the pledge of allegiance? 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 is civil, encouraging respectful and polite behavior that contributes to the well-being of the community. Today, the schools of the Yakama school district rest on the ancestral lands of 14 Confederated tribes and bands of the nation. [Music] The people of the Yakan nation inhabited more than 12 million acres across Adams,

003Benton, Chalan, Douglas, Franklin, Grant, Kitas, 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. An acknowledgement is a simple powerful way to show respect [Music] and a step toward correcting the stories and practices that erase indigenous people's history and culture. It also honors the [Music] truth. As a school district, we will continue to build upon our relations with the Yakama nation. Thank you, Barb. And thank you to our students. At this point, I would um direct the members of the board to their section and board docs. We have um two obituaries linked, one from

004the Herald and one from Dignity Memorial uh regarding two members of our Yakma School District family who have passed away. Michael Maurice Bosek and Sergio Valdez. Both of their obituaries are linked in board docs for your review. I'd like to ask you all to please join me in a moment of silence as we honor the member memory of these members of our Yakima School District family. Thank you. This evening we have four different sets of recognitions. We're going to begin with the 2024 and 2025 retirey recognitions. And to begin that section of our meeting, I'll turn it over to Director Rice. Thank you, President Beckett. I'm pleased to be able to share with you uh the names and if you all are here, any of you are here, please um come up and we'll shake

005hands. We have a plaque and a cutting board. Nice. Even better. And um certificates, right? We have certificates. Just the program. Oh, just the program. Okay. Um, and then shake hands around and we'll do pictures at at the moment or at the end. At the end. Okay. So, those of you out there that have phones with camera capability, if you want to sneak up and take pictures, you're welcome to do that. And then there will be we're going to do a group photo at the end. group photo at the end. Okay. In the courtyard. Okay. Got to get all the notes. Okay. First on the list is Juel Brumley. Juel, are you here? Juel was um hired in August 2005 as a TOSA for secondary ELA. The following year, she became an assistant principal at

006Davis High School. Over the next several years, she served as an assistant principal at Washington Middle School, Franklin Middle School, and Eisenhower High School before becoming the principal of Lewis and of before becoming the principal of Eisenhower High School. She later returned to the assistant principal role at Lewis and Clark Middle School and also coached girls basketball at Davis. Upon moving to Davis as an assistant principal, she stepped away from coaching. Juel concluded her career this year as the executive director for learning and leadership. Before joining the Yakma school district, Juel taught science and math at the Yakima tribal school as well as in the Topenish and West Valley school districts. She is retiring with an impressive 41 years of service in education. She worked for the AKA school district for 20 years from August

00728 29 2005 to Ju June 30 2025 Juel Brumley Rachel Cardinus Rachel began her career with Yakama School District as a pareducator ator substitute at Washington Middle School during the 1995 to96 school year. She was hired full-time the following year and has dedicated the entire career to Washington Middle School. She began her journey as a colonial and will proudly end her career as a lion. She worked for the Akma school district for 29 years from August from August 1996 to June 2025. Rachel Cardinus, Sheree Carroll. Before joining Franklin, Sheree served as an administrator at McKinley Elementary, building on an impressive 17 years of experience at the middle school level. Congratulations, Sheree. Her return to middle school leadership was marked by a renewed passion for supporting young adolesccents and a strong belief in the power of

008positive relationships and high expectations. Sheree has provided steady guidance, fostered collaboration, and brought a deep understanding of adolescent development to her work with students, staff, and families. Her leadership strengthened Franklin's school culture, promised student pro promoted student achievement, and nurtured a vibrant, inclusive learning environment. Shereice's impact will be felt for years to come in the lives of the many students, families, and educators she inspired. She worked for the Yakima school district for 11 years from August 2014 to June 2025. Sheree Carol. Next up we have Mary. Okay. She has some secret communication going. Mary Collie. Mary was first hired as a cook at Washington Middle School in 2012. Over the next few years, she served at several schools, including Knobill, Eisenhower, and Robertson before settling at Roosevelt Elementary, where she remained until her retirement. She

009worked for Yakama School District for 13 years from August of 2012 through February of 2025. Lori Cleveringa. She enter She ended her career at Whitney Elementary as a library media specialist. She worked for Yakima School District for 20 years from August of 2005 through August of 2025. Maria Cochran. Maria began her teaching career in 1989 in El Salvador before moving to the United States. In Los Angeles, she served as a paraprofessional for 10 years before becoming a teacher at Alexandria Elementary. Over 17 years, she taught at three different elementary schools in Los Angeles. After relocating to Yakama, she worked as a substitute for a year before joining Ridge View Elementary where she has taught for the past eight years. Mrs. Cochran has taught every primary grade from kindergarten through fifth grade, bringing dedication, experience, and

010a passion for student success to each classroom she entered. She worked for Yakama School District for eight years from August of 2017 through August of 2025. Kathy Davis. Kathy began her career in education as a long-term pareducator substitute in the library at Jefferson Elementary in 1976. She was hired full-time in 1977 and has remained dedicated to serving students. Kathy worked at Barge Lincoln Elementary as a classroom para educator. In fact, she was there when I received my first contract in this district. So, my career began along with Cathy's. Then transitioned to Whitney and Stanton where she supported reading instruction. In 1985, she returned to Barge Lincoln where she continued as a reading para educator for the remainder of her career. Kathy's longstanding commitment to education and her passion for supporting student learning has made a

011lasting impact on the students she served. She worked for Yakama School District for 48 years from September of 1977 through February of 2025. and she hasn't aged a bit since 1978. Monet Dennis. Monette began her career in 2000 at Davis High School as the office manager. In 2004, she transitioned to the finance department as a fund accounting technician. Four years later, in 2008, she was promoted to director of payroll, a role she held with dedication until 2021. She then assumed the position of director of financial services, serving in that capacity until her retirement. She worked for Yakama School District for 25 years from October of 2000 through May 21st of 2025. Carl Easter. Carl began his career at the Yakama School District in 2004. He initially served as the purchasing coordinator, a critical role responsible

012for overseeing the district's acquisition process. Beyond his primary responsibilities in procurement, Carl demonstrated significant engagement across several key operational functions. These included active involvement in safety and security initiatives, oversight of the safety patrol program, and effective management of district surplus assets. along with the handling of classroom and office furniture resources. His expertise in negotiating contracts and agreements proved instrumental in achieving significant cost savings for the Yakima school district. He worked for Yakima School District for 20 years from April of 20 or 2004 to December of 2024. Thank you, Carl. Rhonda Easter. Rhonda dedicated her life to the education of children. She was a paraprofessional for 16 years and a certified teacher for four years at Wilson Middle School. Some of the highlights of her career include receiving the classified employee of the year award and

013being part of the first cohort of the newly formed teacher education program at Yakama Valley College. She served as an instructional leadership team member and started a Rachel's challenge program encouraging students to show random acts of kindness to others. In addition, she worked closely with students in the highly capable program and supported the afterchool homework center for over 10 years. She ended her career at Wilson Middle School, go Cavaliers as a teacher. She worked for Yakima School District for 20 years from August of 2004 to December of 2024. Thank you, Rhonda. Phillip Phil English. Okay. Well, I have one set of homework that he's been asking for me to turn in for the last 30 years, and I was hoping I could give that to him tonight, but he's not here. Born and raised in

014Ireland, Phil was recruited to run track and cross country at Washington State University. He began his teaching career at Carol High School in 1979 as a science teacher and cross country and track coach. His girls cross country teams won three consecutive state a titles from 81 to 83 and his boys team won in 1985. When Carol closed in 1986, Phil joined Eisenhower High School. There his girls teams won state titles in 1989, 1994, 99, 2000, and 2010, while the boys teams won in 1987 and 2010. Phil was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018. In addition to coaching, Phil has been an outstanding science teacher, primarily teaching honors biology and anatomy, college, and the high school courses through Eastern Washington University. He worked for the Yakima School District for 39 years from August of

0151986 to August of 2025. Thank you, Phil. Next we have John Gilmore. He ended his career at Eisenhower High School as a security monitor. He worked for Yakima School District for 25 years from September 99 to December 2024. John Gonzalez. John began his career in 1999 as an assistant principal at Davis High School. In 2001, he transferred to Louiswis and Clark Middle School where he served as an assistant principal for four years. He then returned to the high school level, spending the next 11 years as assistant principal and athletic director at Eisenhower High School. John is concluding his illustrious career at Wilson Middle School, where he has served for the past eight years as assistant principal and athletic director. He worked for Yakma School District for 26 years from July 99 to June 2025. John

016Gonzalez Katrina Goodwin. Tina began her career in the dental industry in 1981 and brought over three decades of experience to her role at W at the Yv dental assisting instructor when she was hired in 2012. Over the past 14 years in education, she has been dedicated to student success, combining academic instruction with real world clinical experience. Her commitment shows over 94% of her students annually met clinical standards and qualify for internships. Tina will retire will retire on June 30th, 2025, marking 44 years in the dental field. She has guided countless students into careers in dentistry or onto further education. Her most memorable moments when former students return to say, "Thank you. I really learned a lot in your class." For Tina, those visits and the opportunity to witness her students thrive have been the most

017rewarding part of her journey as an educator. She worked for Yakma School District for 13 years from August 2012 to August 2025. Katrina Goodwin, Daniel Gordon. Dan was hired as a custodian with the Yakima school district in 1990 at what was then the co-op where he remained until 1995. He then joined the maintenance department as part of the floor crew until 1996. Dan was then promoted to head custodian at Mccclure Elementary then at Knobill. In 2020, Dan accepted the head custodian position at Davis High School. At Davis, he served diligently building strong relationships and a lasting legacy until his retirement. Dan is deeply missed by his staff and friends at Davis as well as by all who had the pleasure of knowing him. He worked for Yakima School District for 35 years from September 1990

018to June 2025. Kathleen Green Kathleen began her career as a custodian at Eisenhower High School in 1997. Congratulations. Thank you. In 2002, Kathy accepted the night custodian position at McKinley Elementary, where she maintained the school to the highest standards for staff and students alike. She remained dedicated to McKinley for 22 years until her retirement. Kathy's dedication and positive impact will be deeply missed as she leaves behind big shoes to fill. She worked for the Yakima School District for 27 years from December 1997 to to December 2024. Kathleen Green, Heidi Griffin. Heidi joined Eisenhower High School as a language arts teacher and became department chair in 2012. In 2016, she transitioned into the role of instructional facilitator where she supported dozens of teachers in improving their instructional practices. During remote learning, Heidi played a key key

019role in training staff on technology tools that helped maintain meaningful engagement with students. Heidi is highly respected by her colleagues and has made a lasting positive impact at Eisenhower High School. She worked for the Akimma School District for 18 years from August 2007 to to August 2025. Heidi Griffin, Teresa Higgby. Teresa was hired in 2011 as a cook at Garfield Elementary. She then became Garfield's kitchen manager and then transferred to McKinley Elementary in 2017. She re she ended her career at Robertson Elementary as a cook manager. She worked for the Yakma School District for 13 years from August 2011 to December 2024. Teresa Higgby Katherine La Rivier Catherine Katherine Larivier began her career with the Yakma School District on August 30, 2001 as a reading specialist at Roosevelt Elementary. After two years in that role,

020she transitioned to teaching kindergarten at Roosevelt, where she remained for the rest of her career. Known for her dedication to early learners and her calm, nurturing presence in the classroom, Katherine W has made a lasting impact on generations of students. She worked for the Yakma School District for 24 years from August 2001 to August 2025. Katherine Larivier. I think we ought to keep the next one for last. Stacy Lock. Stacy Lockach was hired in on July 1, 2000 as an assistant principal at Eisenhower High School. Stacy was named the principal at Eisenhower in 2003, where she remained until 2014. In 2014, Stacy moved this moved to the central office where she served in various positions. office where she served in various positions including executive director of safety and security, assistant superintendent of operations, and most

021recently deputy superintendent. She worked for the Akam school district for 25 years from July 2000 to June 2025. Stacy Lock James Long. James was hired as custodian at Washington Middle School in 2015. He was then promoted to head custodian and remained at Washington Middle School until his retirement. James was a positive role model who maintained a safe and clean environment for everyone who entered the building. He worked for Yakima School District for 11 years. Thank you, James. Dana Liebeck. Dana was hired in 2008 as a teacher at Davis High School. During her time there, she taught applied math and financial fitness, making a meaningful difference in the lives of her students. She has made a lasting positive impact not only on her students, but also on her colleagues, contributing to a supportive and collaborative environment

022at Davis High School. She worked for the Akava School District for 16 years. Thank you, Dana. Margaret Mariah Lels. Mariah began her remarkable education journey with the district in 1989 as a PAR educator in the Indian education program where she dedicated herself to supporting elementary students. Her exceptional commitment and growing responsibilities led to her promotion in 1992 to a protect role, expanding her impact to serve K12 students across all district schools. Over an impressive 36-year tenure, Mariah remains steadfastly devoted to the native education program, where her unwavering dedication helped shape and strengthen educational opportunities for countless students. She worked for the Yakma School District for 36 years. Thank you, Mariah. Perry Madrinage. Perry began her teaching career in Minnesota in 1998 before moving to Yaka where she accepted the teacher librarian position at Hoover Elementary

023in 2004. She served at Hoover for 10 years before transferring to Wilson Middle School where she has served for the past 11 years. During her time at Wilson, Carrie coordinated annual book fairs during conference week, a highlight for many students and families. She found great joy in her role as a teacher librarian and took pride in supporting all content areas across the school. She worked for the AMA school district for 21 years. Thank you, Carrie. Susan Miller. Susan began her career with the Yakama school district as a substitute secretary. Her commitment and professionalism soon led to a full-time position as a registar secretary in 2008. In this role, she faithfully served the students and families of Stanton and Yaka online until September 2012 when she transitioned to central services as the Cedars student data supervisor.

024In this capacity, Susan demonstrated her dedication to student success and data accuracy, ensuring that critical student information was maintained with care and precision. Her work behind the scenes was vital in supporting schools and educators across the district. Her contributions have left a lasting impact, and she will be remembered with gratitude and appreciation. She worked for Yakama School District for 20 years from October 2004 through October 2024. Thank you, Susan. Okay. Kimberly Rich. Kimberly was hired in August 1991 to teach special education at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary. She remained there for eight years before transitioning to third grade. She then began looping with her class in the intermediate magnet program. When the magnet program was eliminated, she chose to remain in fourth grade. In 2013, Kimberly moved to Mccclure Elementary where she continued teaching fourth

025grade. For the past two years, she has served as Mccclure's student success specialist. She worked for Yakima School District for 34 years from September 1991 through August 2025. Thank you, Kimberly. Elizabeth Rob. Elizabeth was an exceptional substitute teacher who served the Yaka school district for four years, taking on several long-term assignments at Mccclure, Lewis, and Clark, and Hoover Elementary in second, third, and eighth grades. In 2006, she was hired at Mccclure as a reading interventionist, a role she held for two years. In 2008, she accepted a first grade position, but truly found her calling. in 2009 when she transitioned to second grade, a grade she remained dedicated to until her retirement. She worked for Yakama School District for 19 years from January of 2006 through August 2025. Jesus Sigura. Jesus first began as a parah

026educator where he discovered his passion for supporting students. He later became a classroom teacher and went on to serve as an administrator for eight years. Despite his success in leadership, his deep love for teaching eventually brought him back to the classroom. Thank you. Congratulations. Jesus has been an integral part of Franklin Middle School family for an incredible 21 years. During that time, he built meaningful relationships with students, families, and colleagues. Always leading with humility, warmth, and a deep belief in every child's potential. Jesus's influence will be felt long after his retirement through the countless lives he touched and the strong supportive community he helped cultivate at Franklin. He worked for Yakama School District for 36 years from October 1989 through August 2025. Mary Lynn Stangland. Mary has devoted over four decades to education, music, literacy,

027literacy, touching countless lives with her warmth and dedication, beginning her career as a choir director in Nebraska and Colorado. She soon expanded into education, teaching ELLL, special education, and reading from rural ID Oregon to Idaho. Her passion for music continued as she led choirs in churches and schools while supporting students in title one reading and speech. Mary brought her expertise to Washington in the late 90s, serving as a reading specialist in Toppenish and Yaka. Since 2007, she's been a cornerstone of Hoover Elementary, moving from reading intervention to second grade and finally guiding students as a library media specialist. Mary's retirement marks a celebration of a life dedicated to nurturing students minds and hearts through literacy, music, and care. We honor her incredible legacy and wish her joyful adventures ahead. She worked for Yakima School District

028for 24 years from August 2001 to August 2025. Deborah Travis. Deborah began her journey with the Yakama School District in April 2018 as a substitute parah educator. Her dedication quickly earned her a permanent position at Garfield Elementary by August. After three years at Garfield, she briefly served at Hoover before finding her home at Roosevelt at Roosevelt Elementary where she supported students in the resource room until her retirement, concluding seven years of meaningful service. Known for her professionalism, compassion, and commitment to student success, Deborah was also among the first pareducators in the district to earn a general pareducator certificate from the state, a proud milestone in her career. Her contributions have left a lasting impact and she will be finally remembered by students and colleagues alike. She worked for the Yakma School District for seven years

029from August 2018 to June 2025. Linda Vance. Linda began her custodial career in 1992 at Franklin Middle School and Roosevelt Elementary as a split site. In 1996, he transferred to a custodial position at Gilbert Elementary where she remained until 1999. She then worked as a custodian at Eisenhower High School until 2001. Linda then accepted the night custodial position at Rididge View Elementary where she cared deeply for the staff and students for 24 years. Her dedication and presence at Ridgeview and throughout the Yakima School District will be missed. She worked from for Yaka School District for 33 years from May 1992 to June 2025. Anna via Senor. Anna began her career with the Yakma School District as a translator using her engineering background and language skills to champion bilingualism and biiteracy. She later became the language

030access program supervisor, leading efforts to align district practices with Washington's new language access law, streamline workflows, and implement consistent tools across schools. Anna helped standardize the district's family guide and supported interpreter training, always with a focus on quality and care. Known for her professionalism, attention to detail, and deep concern, deep compassion, Anna built strong relationships across departments. She consistently uplifted her colleagues with kind words, encouragement, and often homemade birthday treats. I'm not sure that they're going to let you get away without doing more birthday treats. She worked for the Yakima school district for 31 years from August 1994 through August 2025. Anna via Senor Edward Ned Walsh. Ned joined YBTH in 2009 as the culinary arts instructor, bringing over four decades of experience in the hospitality and food service industry. For 16 years, Chef Walsh

031was a cornerstone of the program known for blending industry expertise with a student focused instruction. Under his guidance, students consistently excelled in competition, earning numerous podium finishes, including multiple skills USA state champions in culinary and baking. His passion for excellence and mentorship left a lasting impact on the program and its students. Chef Walsh's culinary journey began in 1975 and included opening o included owning the renowned 901 pasta. Even while teaching, he remained active in the industry, modeling the same work ethic he encouraged in his students. To his students, he leaves a legacy of fairness, compassion, and support. His classroom was more than a kitchen. It was a place where students gained skills for life, build confidence, and were always treated with dignity and respect. He worked for the Akamoth School District for 16 years from

032August 200 from September 2009 through August 2025. Edward Ned Walsh Very sorry that Ned wasn't here. I've always wanted that artichoke soup recipe. I was hoping this was maybe going to be the night I could finally get that out of his hands, but you you still have a couple of weeks, James. Yeah. Next on our list is Ricky Watts. Ricky was hired in 2008 to lead the YBTech public safety and law enforcement program after retiring from the Yakima Police Department. Over the past 16 years, he has educated, mentored, and inspired future public safety par professionals, excuse me. With a strong background in law enforcement, Officer Watts brought real world experience to the classroom, creating a learning environment focused on discipline, professionalism, and practical skills. Under his guidance, students received hands-on training in safety procedures, criminal

033justice concepts, and career readiness aligned with industry standards. One of the most rewarding parts of his teaching journey has been seeing former students return as professionals now serving in local, regional, and federal law enforcement. Their success reflects his lasting impact and deep commitment to student achievement and career growth. He worked for the Yakima School District for 17 years. Thank you, Ricky. Joanne Weir. Joanne began working as a substitute for the Yakima School District in 1996 and was hired as an accounts payable specialist in the finance department in 1998. In October of 1998, she became the classified payroll coordinator, a role she held until her retirement. Joanne was honored as one of the classified employees of the year in 2017. She worked for the Yakama School District for 27 years from January of 1998 to July

034of 2025. Thank you, Joanna. Mr. President. Yes, Director Rice. Um, I would like to point out that the collective years of service for the educators and support staff that we are honoring tonight is 87. 807. Can we have a round of applause for them? Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank all of our retirees who were honored tonight and especially those who showed up. Um, we have three other very short recognitions after which time I would love it if we could take advantage of the backdrop for pictures and do photos on the uh in the courtyard as uh people would like to. At that point, we'll take a short recess. But um coming up next, so please please don't run off. We would love to take pictures. Um but coming up next, we have uh

035three more recognitions beginning with director uh sorry turn it over to you. Thank you. Next is the excellence in education awards. The Yakama School District is proud to join together with the Yakama Schools Foundation, Crystal Apple Committee, and community partners to bring the excellence in education awards. It's important we honor and show our gratitude to our teachers, staff, and community members for their commitment to education and impacting the lives of our future leaders. We applaud each and every person who works to strengthen public education, create equity, and empower our students to achieve academic and personal success. The board of directors is proud to recognize the recipients of the excellence in education awards. Shining Star Award recipients. The purpose of this award is to recognize the outstanding achievements of the Yakama School District classified employees. It

036honors those employees who consistently demonstrate outstanding work performance, exemplary leadership, collaboration, and dedication to the district and its mission every day. Blanca Sepeda, student and family liaison at Hoover Elementary School. I bet Vargas, behavior pair professional at Mccclure Elementary School. Jasmine Tala, front desk coordinator, receptionist at Central Services. Joy H. Cotton, PAR educator at Knobill Elementary School. Christy Caulkins, athletics activities secretary and facility rental coordinator at Central Services. Next up, we have Crystal Apple award recipients. And keep in mind, these these uh folks have already received their awards at a previous ceremony, but we're recognizing them again tonight. So, we don't have awards for them tonight. This award honors the certified educator profession by awarding certificated individuals who positively impact the lives and futures of their students. Crystal Apple Awards are given by the business

037community in Yakama, not the district. The chairpersons of the Crystal Apple Awards this year are Carmela Solarano and Drew Harris. The goals of the Crystal Apple Awards are to reward excellence in education in the Yakama public schools, encourage creative and quality instruction, encourage the development of a positive learning environment, encourage excellent educators to remain in education as a career, provide an incentive for individual initiative on the part of educators, and contribute in a substantive way to improvement of education. in the Yakama School District. This year's winners were Amay Merrill, third grade teacher at Roosevelt Elementary School. Let me correct that pronunciation. It's Amy Merrell. And please feel free anybody else's whose name I mispronounced feel free to correct me. Josh Holidayiday, medical sciences teacher at YB Tech. Justin Regalado, kindergarten teacher at Gilbert Elementary School.

038Natalie Rodriguez, sixth grade reading 180 reading intervention at Washington Middle School. And finally, Trindy Alviso, 7th grade reading 180 reading intervention at Washington Middle School. That must be one powerful reading program to have two winners this year. It's my pleasure to introduce the Yakima Schools Foundation Champion of Youth Award. The purpose of this award is to recognize a community member who impacts the lives of our students and empowers them to achieve academic and personal success. Nominees are seen as outstanding community members dedicated to strengthening public education, creating equity, and empowering students. They are committed to seeking ways to enhance student learning to ensure a brighter tomorrow. This year's recipient is Rodney Hankinson. Rodney is retiring after 36 years with the Washington State Department of Ecology. I'd like to thank our um board and uh Barb

039especially for helping coordinate all this and I'd really like to say a special thank you to our retirees and the recipients of these awards who we're able to honor tonight. Um we are going to take a short recess in order for everyone to have a chance to take advantage of the photo backdrop and to uh go out onto the courtyard for a a photo if we get a chance. 802 10 minutes 802 we will we will reconvene at 8:02 p.m. Thank you all for being here and congratulations again. Thank you. Just as an FYI now that we're coming back there are about six or seven seats up front. If people don't want to stand, there are some empty chairs up front. Please feel free to fill them if you'd like to. At this point, we

040move to our reports to the board section. We have four reports to the board this evening. And to begin with, uh, President Guerrero from YA. Freddy, welcome. Come on up. Good evening. I'm before you again to ask you again to direct your cabinet to resend the riffs or at the very least reinstate the secondary librarians. I'm extremely concerned that the district would continue to engage in the practice of balancing the budget by cutting studentf facing positions while at the same time adding to staffing downtown. And allow me to quote your own words at the previous school board meeting when you noted that the best lies are based in tough truths. You yourselves are engaging in this practice when you deny adding to your staff. Deny that you are adding another superintendent position that you are

041simply not replacing the HR superintendent and therefore you are not adding to your staffing. But the truth is there were five superintendent prior to you coming here. You added an additional superintendent to your cabinet to make it a total of six. When the TNL superintendent left at the end of last year, you chose not to refill that position then, and you called it a cut. I call it a lie based on a halftruth. It was a cut back from a cabinet you bloated, but it was not an actual cut in the usual number of superintendent. And now you are claiming that you are not adding additional staffing. But I tell you that right now you have five superintendent. In the fall you will have six full-time superintendent which is an additional superintendent. After the HR

042superintendent retires you will drop to five and a half superintendent which is still greater than the current five full-time superintendent. And so you are in fact adding to your staffing and you are doing so at the expense of studentf facing positions at a time when we are in a precarious financial position. You have chosen to balance the budget by cutting those who work directly with students rather than by cutting the staffing downtown. That places an enormous strain on the budget because the state does not allocate the district funding for those extra positions. The one thing the superintendent and I can agree on beyond the shadow of the doubt, the one thing that we will both work together to fight for is fixing that allocation model. We both recognize it is one of the most worthful

043things, worthless things in existence. But this cabinet has chosen to strain the budget by overhiring central admin staffing rather than studentf facing positions. To clarify, the majority of our funding comes from the state. They decide how many teachers, how many principles, and how many central services staff our student enrollment warrants. The state never allocates enough. And so we have to make up the balance of that, for example, through levy money. However, when you reach a precarious financial position such as we have, central services should not be staffing beyond the state allocation model. And that is what you have before you, what the state allocation model was last year. And so you can see how you overhired, overspent last year, which would be similar to this year. Allow me to illustrate with a simplistic model. Let's

044say there are 3,000 students in the district. The state believes that for every 30 students, we deserve one teacher. So 3,000 students would warrant 100 teachers. The state will also say that that 3,000 students only warrants three counselors and two nurses. and that you can fit those 3,000 students into three different buildings and so you only need three principles. That is what state allocation means is that they decide how many staff we warrant in a district of that hypothetical size. You would only need two superintendent and five directors and maybe 10 other central service staff. Now, we know that allocation model is downright draconian and by no stretch of the imagination does it suffice to serve our students adequately and so we tap into other pots of money including levy money to hire additional staffing.

045My concern is that you have for the second year in a row substantially reduced student-f facing positions while not making reductions in your own staffing to match the state's allocation models so that we are not having to overspend by millions of dollars because that is what the state is shorting us in terms of central services staffing. If anyone should be staffed beyond the state alloc allocation model, it is those who work directly with students. All of the classified personnel, all the certified personnel that work directly with students are the ones who need to be more than adequately staffed. That extra cost can be justified as necessary. What is not justifiable right now is the extra cost that is incurred with the additional staffing at central services, especially when it comes to adding additional superintendents at

046the expense of teachers and librarians. We don't need people down here in these offices pushing paper. We need people in the buildings who work directly with students, who serve students directly. We need our librarians. I know you think that maybe it's an archaic model and that they're not student centered services anymore, but they are. Walk into those secondary libraries and see how many students use them for myriad reasons. Those certified staff provide a lot of services to those students. Cutting them, cutting the heart of knowledge, it's unconscionable. And while I can appreciate the cuts that have been made, the program cuts that have been made to make the district more efficient, there's one program that has in fact caused staffing cuts, and that is the dual language program. It screams budget mismanagement to cut 43

047certified positions that have left 15 people still jobless while you hire 15 outside teachers for the dual language program. It should have been frozen for another year or restricted to where it is. but instead it is being rolled up and rolled out to additional schools with less support than it began with even though it is being grown marketkedly. Rather than freeze this program, the decision was made to displace veteran teachers who in turn were forced into the positions of newer hires who already went through this gut-wrenching process last year. And now as they go through it again, they are forced to see the district hiring large numbers for a program that is not even being adequately supported. If you cannot see the inherent hypocrisy of claiming that our new hires are valued when it looks

048like they were basically fired to pave the way for the dual language program, then I question exactly how much this district really cares. And speaking of caring, the recent assistant principal moves are just another contributing reason in a long list of reasons why people don't trust this district. Considering how perhaps it did not even occur to anyone that hiring over a dozen programspecific teachers at the expense of those currently employed would look absolutely class callous and rather unethical. Perhaps the carnage of disruption preceding what might normally be just the usual leadership movement might have also escaped you. So yes, perhaps this honestly hasn't occurred to you, but these are not normal times and you can't just pile onto the rift chaos and think that it isn't going to have an effect because it does. Once

049again, for the second year in a row, you have disrupted relationships that people have created in grade level teams and in their departments. Once again, you are forcing people to literally pick up and move and start all over again. You have interrupted the flow of experience that allows expertise to develop. And this year, you have intensified that disruption by making at least a dozen building admin moves. Most people understand that some moves simply have to happen, and they are happening for good reason. But many of these moves are not understood and you have many buildings questioning why you are taking away leaders that have provided stability and positive energy in their buildings. Claiming it is for the sake of growing leadership is not a sufficient reason because again these are not normal times. There appears

050to be a lack of transparency that frustrates staff. No one ever asked for their input. No one gave anyone any inkling about what was about to be ripped from them. And in case you were wondering, that is exactly what many of them are feeling. I would know. I have been there. I had a top three in the nation administrator ripped away from me. And I remember what that felt like. I remember what that did to morale in the building. And I never forgave the district for that. and the leadership in that building never reached that top three in the nation level again. You cannot begin to imagine the anxiety that these staff members are feeling. Not to mention the personal personal slight they are probably also feeling. Things are going great and now they have

051to start over on top of everything else. Why put anyone through that? Can you not let people have some stability to count on for next year? I remember the dumpster fire my building endured. And by March, the building webs were ready to do a vote of no confidence in that administrator. The loss of that leadership haunts me to this day. I've never had an administrator advocate or protect their staff like that one did in my entire life. And for the record, I'm almost half a century year old. I've never had to go to therapy. And one of my administrators didn't protect me and sent me there because they didn't protect me. If you wonder why these people are so upset about the moves you're making, it's because they have no idea what to expect. I

052I have full confidence. For the record, I feel very confident in telling my people that I truly do not believe any of them will not have my nightmare experience. I truly believe most, if not all of these moves will work out in the end. But I also know there will inevitably be growing pains and my members should not have to endure that on top of everything else. They are here today to share their broken hearts with you over the riffs and the moves. And I hope that you listen and take to heart what they are telling you and actually think about listening to their concerns and their needs. They are your people and you are supposed to be doing what is best for them so that it happens. it it works. Putting them in a

053good place is what's best for students. And I'm pretty sure you're going to hear from students today, too, because losing solid leadership affects them, too. Thank you, Miss Guerrero. Our next report to the board is regarding the migrant education program. And for that report tonight, we'll have Hector Mendes presenting. Welcome, Hector. Thank you, President President Beckett, members of the board, Superintendent Dr. Green, Cabinet. Um, presenting. My name is Ector Mendes and I am the migrant federal program director uh here in the Aqua School District and I'm going to be presenting five slides. Uh you have the entire presentation. Um but I just want to let you know that uh I'll have questions at the end. So, this is my third year in this program as a as a federal program director and I am proud

054to say that I have a pack uh parent action uh committee that I meet with monthly and uh what I really appreciate about this committee is uh because they're migrant 100% of them are migrant there's five of them the president vice president three sergeant-at-arms our marines are always conducted in Spanish which is always important for us one thing I want to mention a little bit about our program um about our program not only here in Yakma but holistically in the state of Washington that there are 66 school districts represented by four ESDs for with direct support to our migratory students. We're fortunate enough to have ESD that I work closely with on a regular basis who also works with OSPI. But more importantly, there's three districts. Uh the three district with the largest number of

055identified students are Yakima, Kenowick, and Pasco. And then the act order is the actual order is actually Kenowick, Yakama, Pasco. And then those serving the largest numbers, there's identified and then they're serving our students. The largest number of students are Yakma, Walluk, and Kenowick. We are one top three in the state. I also want to say and which we know that most of our migratory uh families are connected to the agriculture around our area right and there's no it's it's often engaged in the picking the apples cherries and so forth and which you have more information in in in the docket our team before I move on to the next slide our team there are 17 members in our team and of course I I I lead that I'm one of the 17 so we

056have our migrant recruiters our nurse migrant nurse that holistically works with our migrant students. We have advocates, migrant advocates, graduation specialists. Uh we have an out of school advocate and also our office staff and in family parent engagement. And so we are busy working with our migrant students on a regular basis. I'm proud to say that we're we're doing a lot. So the next slide, uh I really want to focus on our priority for service, our PFS students. So PFS are students. There's really there's a lot of risk factors that come with party for service and how they are um they come to us as party for service but really there's two big ones. One of them is that there's an interrupted move during the school year. Even during the summer many of our families,

057migrant families, they do migrate or travel move from district to district. And once they do that, that's a qualifying move. And so a lot of our districts, we communicate with each other to make known that a migrant student's either leaving or coming to our district. And it's a great communication system. we have in the state. Also, they're also considered PFS because uh they may be children who are failing or most at risk of failing. And so to meet those academic challenges, we want to make sure that our advocates and graduation specialists meet regularly with our priority for service students, right? And so there's over 800, I believe it's 808 students we have districtwide who are priority for service. There's a lot of students. And so there's the two big ones, but there's there's others. Speaking

058of priority for service, I'm going to be using that term for the remainder of my presentation because a priority for service students uh are those that we want to invite first to any kind of academy or after school program or anything else for that matter. For example, we do have an afterchool migrant program at six elementary schools and the reason for that uh is because the other there most of our elementary schools have a 21st century after school program which our migrant students are already invited to. So at the other schools that do not have a 21st century, we started a migrant afterchool program focusing on priority for service first, right? And those that need the academic support, uh, social emotional support as well. And our focus last year and it continues into this year

059is math. And based on our comprehensive needs assessment, our our interviews with parents and students, math is where we're lagging behind. So the last two years we focused a lot on math at all levels and so priority for service. So priority for service we had last year we started something new we called the migrant wellness days. Mount Vernon Washington and Sunnyside three years ago started something that I heard about which were called wellness days and that's really focusing on the social emotional uh support of our students. I heard about this at a state uh at the national conference. They presented, I listened, and I thought, why can't we do that here in Yakama? So last year, I met with our team. We thought big, as they say, think big, start small. And so we started

060with our middle school folks. Last year, we held our first migrant wellness day. Well, fast forward to this year on February 25th and February 27th. On the 25th, uh we ended up with 91 migrant students priority for service students that moved within that year or need some support. Uh met with them, we picked them up at the school, met at ESD 105 in that was on February 25th. On February 27th, we had 61 high school students, two different days. My goal is to bring them together, but I couldn't find a room big enough that was comparable to help meet those needs. So ESD put us out there. Uh and so we met at ESD from 9 to two. 9 to2 is all they do. To bring student voice into this, we interviewed or surveyed, not

061interviewed, we surveyed our students. We gave them a list of 10 topics that they would like to learn more to to know more about during this wellness day. And those are the top three that they that they chose. First one's healthy relationships. So the organization think twice brought um some some slides and some information of healthy relationships with families, friends and so forth. We had Mr. Eddie Espinosa who really talked about creativity and artists, a local artist here in Yakma who's also a migrant student and a product of the Yakma school district. He spoke to our students uh and talked about the importance of self-care and his self-care is art. And so he brought that in and spoke to our students. And the last one was breath work for mind body awareness. We know a

062lot of our students really struggle with anxiety, depression, and so forth. And so we really wanted to focus on the needs of the student. The pictures you see there on the bottom left are the 61 high school students. And that was our opening at 9:00. That uh that uh young lady there in the middle is the uh her name is Ava. She's a sophomore at Davis High School. uh she's the daughter of our president uh pack president. So she opened up and you can't see in the back but there's another group of students and we just opened up with getting to know each other because we had students there from Eisenhower, Davis and Stanton Stanton Academy. The middle picture we are each student that we that attended the wellness day received a string bag with

063materials materials used for the day in the specific classes that are mentioned up there as well as some snacks and so forth. Uh you can't really see but there at the bottom left of that middle picture there's a purple pencil. Everyone had a different color pencil. Depending on the color pencils where you started either one, two or three and attended those three sessions throughout the day. Lastly on the right is Claudia Claudia Dominguez who's a u a migrant uh support staff over at ESD leading. It's hard to see but the bottom right picture says the cycle of anxiety given examples of how to self-regulate and what when to know those triggers. That's just one example. So, those are just examples of wellness day. Next year, we're going to make it better and and and bigger.

064And so, my goal is to invite not only Priority for Service, but also other students, migrant students, to continue that support. Um, and so we're we're supplying for next year. Lastly, Sila by two more slides. SILA by literacy. I'm proud to say that our migrant students 168 migrant students achieved the level four on the sale biliteracy test earning the biiteracy proficiency milestone. These are 8th grade to 12th grade students because they start taking this test in 8th grade. 168 students achieve that score and the seal is awarded to students. Yes, thank you. The shield is awarded to students who have studied and attain proficiency in two more languages by the time they graduate high school. And speaking of graduation, last year we had a 100 students, migrant students graduate high school. And I'll share some

065better results here in a bit. Out of the 100 students, 53 migrant, more than half graduated with the seal of biiteracy, which I'm super proud of and that we should all be proud of. Yes. Lastly is our graduation rates and what I I'm showing you now is depicting is a YSD versus Washington state. On the far left uh the first column uh you see the the last three years. I only took the last three years and this is on the O report card. You see the second column over the last three years is the average percent for the state of Washington graduation rates. The third the first blue column third column YSD were pretty close 81 80 81.8 I believe it says uh 817 and 79.1. Then I look at all our migrant students in

066the state of Washington. You can see their average is in the high 70s. But then look at Yakama. Yakma were surpassing the national or the state average compared to other migrant students. But we're almost meeting at one time the Washington state students. If you look at 2223, we're off by point or 310en of a percent. We're doing great work and I I I applaud our team, our migrant team, our teachers and everyone else that supports our migrant students because it's a challenge for our migrant students especially when they migrate and move from one place to another and it just shows that we in the Yakma are doing a great work with our migrant students. So I'd like to thank our staff, teachers, support staff, admin and so forth all the way down the line uh

067for their work for making this possible. Thank you. What questions do you have? Any questions for members of the board? Director Rice, I don't necessarily have a question, but these statistics that you shared with us, Hector, they are outstanding. The fact that um we in Yaka are surpassing the state for our migrant student achievement. I mean, I don't even have words to tell you how proud I am. Yeah. of the staff and the students who can accomplish this. Our migrant students come to us with more challenges than any many adults um suffer from or have are affected by. and yet they can ac come in and and accomplish these results speaks highly of your staff and the educators that they encounter within the district. So, congratulations on that. Um I'm very proud of of you

068and your program and and what you're doing to support kids. I appreciate it. Thank you. Credit all our teachers and support staff. Absolutely. I I would uh I've had the opportunity to oversee teaching and learning this year and work directly with with Hector and I would be remiss if I didn't give him an absolute shout out for seeing what he not only what he has done but what he continues to do to expand the services and the support we see in our community behind the work that he's It's phenomenal. So, I I know I'm a short-timer. I don't have a lot of time to say thank you so much for everything you do, but you're just an outstanding leader in our district. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate the

069report this evening. Our next report this evening is regarding the highly capable program and Jamie Lee will be presenting this evening. So welcome Jamie. All right. Good evening, board president, board members, cabinet, and Dr. Green. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you tonight. It's my honor to present to you um some facts about our highly capable program in the district. So, to begin with, I would need to start by thanking um a team of people who came together to really change how students are screened and recommended for the assessment. And so this team consisted of Joel Brumley, myself, Nick Mifflin, Tanya Randolph, Tina Girtzenberger, and Ila Par. In previous years, we tested whole entire grade levels. There there is legislature around highly capable and the programming and it requires us to actually test

070two grade levels. So we had a focus on second grade which actually resulted in about 1,300 students being tested annually. One change that we needed to make was add an additional grade. And so we chose to focus um on our sixth graders and kind of look at the middle school level and try to capture students that may have missed been missed along the way. Traditionally when or in the past when we were testing 1300 students on average we were qualifying about 40 to 50 students each year. Some years were a little higher some years a little lower. Uh when we came back from COVID, we actually tested all second, third, and fourth graders and we qualified 99 students that year. Um what we were seeing historically is when students were qualified, we had limited representation

071from all of our schools um east side versus uh westside schools and we were seeing higher qualification in in our westside schools and we were not seeing um equal representation amongst all of our demographics. So this year um the team that I had mentioned previously came together and chose to focus on second and sixth grade students and we really took a new approach to screening. So students have to be tested to qualify into the program but how students are recommended for testing can can vary in in different ways. Anyone can recommend a student for testing at any grade level. So it could be a community member, a teacher, a parent. and we take those recommendations and then move the students forward to taking an assessment that is we we lovingly reference as the COGAT which

072is another acronym but it's a cognitive aptitude test. Um and then we um test those two grade levels. So we we really paired down the screening approach using data and and we have an amazing person in our assessment department, Tina, who put all of these screening sheets together. So by looking at students and their their context within academics, their growth, they're moving within um and out of programs. So looking at things like their WEDA score, which is the score from the assessment that our multilingual learners take, where they came in with W Kids, which is a kindergarten assessment, the Smarter Balance assessment, the science assessment, we were really able to target students and recommend those students for testing. And then again, we had our parent and teacher referrals. So I am proud to say that

073we qualified 162 students this year. So that's up from our average of 40 to 50 students. But what I think that is even more astonishing is that while we used to test 1300 students because we were testing everyone, we only tested 442 students this year. So we reduced our testing but increased our students that actually were recommended for the program. And then on the slide in front of you, you'll see um some demographic shifts and then some racial distribution shift. So we generally were not seeing students with disabilities being qualified and we qualified 11 students this year. We qualified 10 multilingual students, three students with 504 plans and five migrant students into the program. And historically we were not seeing any of those numbers represented. We also increased our racial distribution qualifying 108 Hispanic students

074to eight students four students of two or more races and 45 students of 45 white students. And so that's actually really a change in our in our distribution amongst our program which thus results in wider representation across all of our schools. Um there were there is the opportunity for appeals if a student does not qualify by taking the COGAT test. And um of those appeals this year we received three and one of those students was admitted to the program. one student um was retested and one student was being invited to test next year. Um by changing the screening process, we were actually able to reduce $20,000 in um time sheets. We used to do um human screening and really looking at every student um individually versus all of their academics using all of the assessments

075that I had mentioned previously. Um, another change in the program is we have a data solutions program called home room. And home room had an add-on for uh highly capable and we actually discontinued that add-on and chose to make our own custom form in Skyward which actually made um the form more accessible to our teachers. So once a student is qualified into the highly capable program and the parent agrees to have them in our program, we are required to develop a service plan for that student. So how are we going to serve them and meet their needs? That was usually done on um in their service plan which could be found in home room or it could be found in their cumulative file. So not easily accessible to all of the teachers uh within the

076students stay. Now on Skyward we will have that form available. So, everyone who has access to that student within the day will have access to the form. The form just got finished being completed, so we still have some training to do, but that will be rolled out by Tanya Randall, who supports our program. Um, thus enhancing the teachers access to that information right at their fingertips. Additionally, um, by not testing 1300 students um, across the board, we were able to retain some of those license. So, we'll be able to move those to testing for next year. And through that screening process, we actually documented the entire process. So we'll be able to replicate that year after year. So that has resulted really in a continuous improvement of our program, creating sustainability measures by by documenting

077the screening process, establishing the framework to continue those future improvements and um keeping some resources to allocate for future years. Um the by shifting this program, we've seen benefits in inclusivity across our schools, the greater demographic representation, and then more efficient identification in our students. Any questions? Uh, yes. Thank you for the the detailed update on on what we're doing in terms of screening and identifying kids, but I'm curious as to what we're actually doing programmatically with students once they've been identified. Yeah, I was hoping you'd ask that question. Um it is year three of our PLC journey. And question number four in every PLC is what are we doing for students who have already um met the content or met the guaranteed standard or have mastered um what we're moving through. So it's really

078through the differentiation process. So when planning we we were really good at planning for students who aren't meeting standard and through the PLC process we're getting better at differentiating for all of our students across the board. Another way that we do that is through what we refer to as the cluster model. So students that are identified as highly capable traditionally have been clustered um in reference to the model and placed in the same classroom so that the teacher has a better ability of differentiating for for not all levels that on a large gamut but they can actually focus on um their highly capable students. Jamie. Um I know that well I used to know what the percentage was for funding provided from the state for highly capable percent of of the district's budget of the

079enrollment. Okay. So, of that little bit of money little bit of money that the state provides to us, um what is what is a day in the life of a highly capable student look like? Can you give me a picture of that? Well, and it depends on the level, right? So, we're talking about kindergarten through 12th grade. So, so really at the high school levels, you you see students being served a lot with their honors classes or in the qualifications within the IB program um at at at the secondary level. And then our middle schools are also offering um honors classes almost at all of them soon to come. Um and then at the elementary level, it really looks based on so we expect students to meet their their grade level standards first. And so

080then once a student has done that then it may look very different um depending on the classroom and the area of qualification for the student. So it could look anything like a research project that the student is engaging in to creative writing to a deeper dive into um some mathematical concepts. Um so it there there's a large variety of um the areas that students may qualify within the COGAT test. Um, and so it's really goes back to that differentiation and looking at the whole child. So a student who's maybe artistically very competent, would they have access to an an art component in their programming for highly capable and depending on the level, right? and their interest and then also their extracurricular activities. The the easy answer is yes. Um the more difficult answer is where

081is that embedded within the day especially within core content. Um so we do see a lot of that happening in their steam classrooms or their science classrooms or even in the enrichment activities that are available within their ELA or SLA curriculum. So it's really has to be embedded with and intentional within the enrichment activities. it's not necessarily in their everyday core content. I know we have to fight every year with the legislature for funding and I seems to me that it used to be 3% and now it's 2 something. Um, do you have suggestions about how we what kind of information we might share with our legislators on um academic achievement or other c components that they might be interested in to help um to help make them aware of the necessity of highly capable

082funding. Yeah, I think that at like we are really good at looking even through the PLC process and getting better looking at question three. I think we get overwhelmed with what do we do with our students who haven't met the content yet um because that is our our ultimate goal is to have every student succeeding at their grade level and generally you see bigger numbers in those areas and so I think that when we're we're thinking about advocacy that we're looking at if we're advocating so we have a lot of K12 K2 dyslexia law there's the lap law for students who are struggling we don't necessarily have that large of legislature for students who are not and so I think advocating in comparison to what we already have for students who are struggling to be

083the same as for students who are higher educated. Thank you. I don't have a question but just want to uh recognize the efforts around ensuring that um there's equal access to the high the the highly capable programming and appreciate the numbers and data that better reflects our student population. So thank you for that work. Thank you. I'd also just like to thank Jamie for her work around this. We recognized about a year ago that we really needed to take a review of our highly capable program and bring it up to the 21st century here and Jaime's done an outstanding job leading that effort and I know it will continue beyond uh what she demonstrated today. So, thank you very much Jamie for your leadership and thank you um Stacy. But one thing that I did

084leave out that Tanya Randolph is is beginning that we've never done before is starting um at the end of this week and carrying through the first week of June, she's going to actually set about to interview our highly capable students and gain their perspective on um their programming and some of their needs. Um so that will be coming down um very soon. Thank you Jamie. We appreciate the report this evening. Thank you very much. Our third department report tonight is from our special education program and Casey Mitchell will be presenting. Welcome Casey. That's a wonderful start. So, I do want to say thank you to the board for the opportunity to get to share some information this evening. We've got um several slides that you uh will be able to look at. I am going

085to walk us through about five slides similar to my uh compatriots and the other departments. But I first want to just make sure that I uh give a shout out to all of the hard work that people have done this year. We've got some really good news to share, I think. And I want to thank all the staff that have worked so hard to make these numbers become the way that they are. I also want to thank staff for uh the grace and the commitment and the um kindness that they've offered a new boss in this position. So I I appreciate that very much. So um as we look I think I went the wrong way. Is that me or you? All right. It definitely is never Barb. That's the answer to that question. So,

086last summer I got to spend some time with you and um shared with you the the main topics that really we have focused on over the last several months in special education. And I I like to think of them as really uh the the top three items or focus that we have. And then I I because I am who I am, there is a plus one, right? So, we have three items plus one. Thank you for smiling at that. Trevor was less than pleased with the plus one, but um the the three top three really are IEP compliance, our one-on-one services to students, and our speech and language services, and then the plus one is the long-term goal of making sure that we have greater levels of inclusionary practices in Yakma School District. And again,

087I would praise our staff and our principles, all of the folks that have worked really hard to continue to work on that. I think some of the good news that I get to share tonight as the leader of the department, which I'm really proud to be the leader of this department, is IEP compliance. And so one of the things that we have spent a lot of time on and and we've done a number of strategies and some of them that I want to point out is that um we have created on here you will see we've created a an IEP spreadsheet with daily upgrade up updates regarding out of compliance IEPs. We can track now on a daily basis and the school board I believe in the summer had asked me how we were going

088to take care of this issue that we were having with out of compliance. We can track on a daily basis where we are at with out of compliance IEPs and and we know exactly what's happening with that. So I'm I'm proud of my staff for for that. The other piece is consistent and in fact in my case sometimes daily um tracking of our out of compliance IEPs. And so that is something that I think has really been helpful to us. I was speaking with one of our staff members this afternoon and he he was just saying, you know, I was surprised you didn't call me or or send me an email about that out of compliance IEP or near out of compliance IEP. So I just love that people are really keeping track of that.

089The other piece that we do offer for our staff and I think this is a very important help is that we do have a teacher on special assignment who provides support and technical assistance. So if teachers are having some issues with our our IEP program, we call it power, it is called powers school, then we can provide that technical assistance as necessary. And that is live technical assistance. Right over there is his office and he he can provide support just when people need it. Um Corey does a great job for us and I think everyone would agree with that. The other piece is that we really have focused on getting our principles involved with this. And so pr principal supervision and support and helping us maintain compliance has been phenomenal this year. And I really

090appreciate what our principles have done to make sure that our staff are attending to the compliance issues and I appreciate how hard staff have worked to make this happen. So when we look at results, we really the first thing that is absolutely most important to me is that we provide ontime information to students and families. That is the most critical reason that we we conduct a yearly IEP is meeting is to make sure that we are providing on-time information to our students and families. I have provided up here for you a two-year reduction rate so you can kind of see where we're at. So if you'll follow me, the the first uh bullet there that is blank, you will see 2324. We had an average of 31 out of compliance IEPs per month. And then

091we finished that year with 357 total for the for the year. And I would say that these numbers reflect the April date. We haven't gotten our May numbers quite yet. they they usually finish up in the end of May. So these are year to year in the the month of April. You will see then in the second bullet that there is a 2425. We've got eight per month out of compliance and 64 total for the year. That represents a 74% reduction from one year to the next. So that is an increase that is just I think phenomenal and provides great information to families and we're really making sure that our families know what's in IEPs and I'm just really proud of our staff and the work that they have done to to do that. Not

092to mention last bullet as Jake would be happy with it increases our reimbursement. So um really good information and I'm proud of the work that's been done with the IEP compliance. Then now let's see if I can make this work right. Our speech and language services second area of focus. So really the strategies are listed there for you. Um we've had the opportunity to work with individuals and teams to really take a look at you know what does it mean um when we're conducting um evaluations? What are the current protocols that we're using? What are those things that we need to be in place? And we've also been able to help educate some of our community partners around some of this work. So when we think about results, you will see there's a potential changes

093for the evaluation process. Some of the things that we we may do differently in the future working with our association partners on those particular things. Potential for consultation services. That's something that we have not done in the past. not offered consultation services which really means that you're not seeing a kid on a regular basis on on a weekly basis or a daily basis. It's actually you're consulting with the teacher to um make sure that you are uh the student is getting the specially designed instruction that they need but on a much reduced rate. So it might be you see the teacher and the student only 15 minutes. So, it is an acceptable way of providing specially designed instruction and we are working with the association partners to to have that happen. I'm also proud this

094year we were able to reduce our virtual providers and so I'm just really proud of the fact that we don't have as many virtual um speech and language pathologists and that's because our uh current speech and language pathologists have worked real hard to make sure that we're going to be able to serve kids without adding some of those virtual virtual providers when we look at one-on-one services then so you can see the strateg ies that we have used. I do want to say that I think what I'm most proud of in terms of the strategies that we have have put in place is we have increased the access to Dr. John uh Dr. Jamie Johnson who has a great understanding of behavioral issues. Many of our one-on- ones are are provided for behavioral issues for

095students and so Dr. Johnson is there helping support that. our board certified behavioral an analyst, we've tried to create more uh availability for that and our registered behavior technicians. The other piece that I think and I appreciate Stacy's leadership in this is um as we look at enterprise leadership across the system, we have tried to work with our student services department to streamline what they do in uh with section 504 in terms of one-on-one services and what special education does in terms of one-on-one services. The results that you see there are regular IEP uh excuse me, regular IEP team reviews for most of our new one-on- ones. This year, we have conducted more functional behavior assessments and uh have put in place more behavior intervention plans. This year, again, thanks to our staff and their

096hard work. We also will uh have created a new process that I'll be sharing soon with staff for the acquisition, monitoring, and discontinuing of one-on- ones. And then that will be implemented in the 2526 school year. So, and then finally, our plus one really um what we have done is we have created a YSDA inclusion partnership. And I want to publicly thank Kevin Brennan for his work and leadership in this. is the director of special education. Um he's sitting out in the audience. I hope he's turned red. And so um just really proud of the leadership that he has provided to us. I'm also proud of the leadership and the uh work that we have had with Franny in uh really pushing for getting our kids more included every day in school. And I'm just

097really proud of the work that we have been able to achieve with that. And so we have a committee. Um that's how we we tend to do things in public schools. We have a committee. And so we've got we're working on common language, clear mission, vision. You can see all the things there. Our committee makeup, really proud of the people that are serving on that. We've got general education teachers, special education teachers, school psychologists are on that. You can see the list goes on. I'm also proud that we do have an assistant superintendent sitting on there. Um, thank you Jake for your time. Uh, having someone at the cabinet level helping drive this work forward is helpful to us. And again, I also uh thank Franny for her work that she has done with us

098to help us move forward with our inclusionary practices. As we look at the bigger picture though of our plus one with our inclusionary practices, really there are three steps. We're going to start with the whole committee and we're working on that right now. Then we have divided into subcommittees and really the whole committee is working on what are the barriers at the district level that are keeping us from including students more often every day. So that's what that large group is doing. And then the subcommittees will break into human resources. Thank you Kim Newell for leading that. The list goes on and on. breaking into those smaller areas so we can identify the barriers and then we can figure out what are some outputs and outcomes that we want to have take place so that

099we can include all kids more often. And then the real work and that's step three is the building teams and that's where the real magic happens. And when we've gone and visited schools who have high levels of inclusionary practices, it's the school that drives it. It's the parents. It's the commitment between the parents, the students, and the and the school staff that really create those more inclusive environments where everyone can feel welcome. And so that's the work that we're doing. I'm just really proud of of what we've been able to accomplish this year and I'm proud to to be leading it. So I would take any questions that folks might have. Thank you, Casey. Um, do you you probably don't have these numbers right off the top of your head. And if you don't, that's

100okay. But if we could I would be interested in knowing the percentage of our special ed students that are included in inclusionary instruction. Yeah. Yeah. Higher levels of inclusionary practices. Right. as well as how many of our regular ed classrooms have student special ed students included in them and I do I don't have those numbers on but I can certainly provide them. I would think superintendent I know that you can provide them. I mean I know you have that information like right just past past your fingertips. Yes ma'am. Um, but if you could get that to us, I think that might be informative for the board. I got it. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for a great presentation. Thank you for the presentation. Appreciate all the work. It's special education, particularly IEP compliance, has been an

101area of focus for the board and so really pleased to see the progress and certainly we'll continue to to focus on that and strive for zero autocompliance IEPs. Um do you have a question that is the goal? Thank you. Um do have a question around speech uh therapy um uh uh work and know that there uh was a high uh percentage of um higher much higher than average percentage of students that were referred to speech therapy um uh programming. I know that that's been an area of focus for you and your team as well. Um do you have any data that you can share around you know do were students mis you know miss uh referred or misassessed um do do we have any kind of that data that shows that you know I I

102think that what's complicating I do have some data that I could share with the board I'd want to make sure that uh deputy superintendent lock is is uh helping me with that but what I would say is that what is complicating about it and I've talked to this uh before is that in with an IEP it is an IEP team decision. And so the team actually makes you know once an evaluation is done then the team actually takes the information on the evaluation and says do we think this student qualifies? And so it is the way the federal law is set up and I think it's a a beautiful setup by the way I appreciate that. But what happens is that you do get uh differing opinions about who should qualify and how they should

103qualify. And that's something that I think that we need to work on with our SLPs is is making sure that we all have a common understanding and a better understanding. It's something that I will continue to work on um when we are evaluating what really does qualify for those services. So, and we have taken, thanks to deputy superintendent lock, we have taken a closer look at some data that I believe we could share. Should be great to see some of that data and what those changes are. Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much for your presentation and again, congratulations on all the hard work to you and your staff to reducing the number of out of compliance IEPs. It is 100% the staff. I just happen to be the one that gets to stand up here

104and talk about it. Thank you. Hang, hang tight, Casey. We got one more question for you. Actually, maybe a couple. And he's back. Yes, I'm sorry. Thanks, Casey, for a comprehensive presentation. I did have a question also around IEP compliance. Yes, sir. Um, in my experience in the past, one of the big challenges with getting an IEP done is getting all the stakeholders in the room at the same time. Exactly. And so I'm wondering if if we're beginning to utilize tools like Zoom or Skype or FaceTime in order to facilitate, you know, getting that IEP done and not having to reschedule and reschedu because somebody couldn't be there. Yes, sir. I that happens quite a lot and you know I know even as a director I attend some of those meetings virtually that way. Um

105I do think that our staff work really hard to make sure that we get all the stakeholders present and I appreciate that. Um when we presented that at the beginning of the school year, Franny and I were both very um direct with staff about their and we're talking gened staff about the need for them to be present at these meetings and so that we've gotten good support from YA in terms of that. I think that um sometimes it can be hard to get everybody present, but if you plan well enough in advance and that really is the key, then you have a better chance of having all stakeholders. Thank you. The other question I have refers to kids with severe behavioral issues. Yes, sir. And we do, I mean, it's it's a remarkable job to

106to train staff to do that, but sometimes I don't think we always train our parapros and our bus drivers and people that often have first contact with kids with severe behavioral problems. Is there a vehicle to begin to train some of those folks and how to effectively intervene or not or things not to do with kids that sometimes have severe behavioral issues? I appreciate that question. And so we have um a leadership team. It's it's the acronym is CTL. Please don't ask me right now what CTL stands for, but uh it is our leadership team. And they have created what we believe is a good uh starting point for our PAR educators. And um I don't want to take away too much of their thunder here, but we have um talked about deescalation strategies. We

107also engage in the CPI training and so that happens as well and um my Dr. Johnson has done a really nice job along with Corey Phillips and our BCBA to make sure that we've gotten people trained. Um so we continue to work on that. It is an area of growth for us. Thank you. It's nice to have those resources in place and thinking about it. Yes, sir. Jason. So again, it's it's all TNL TNL today, but uh I can't think Kevin, you need to stand up. Kevin Brennan, the director of special ed, stand up and be recognized. Yes. So between Casey and Kevin, they have done amazing work. Uh Trevor and I have had the opportunity to observe the committee around inclusionary practice and Franny's back there somewhere. and the work the work that the

108work that's been going on in the best interest of our children is absolutely incredible. And uh the um the growth that that the department has made in the last year is is I have to say after watching everything go on for years and years, it's been phenomenal. We know we have a long way to go. We still un uncover things under rocks. Casey and I talked on a daily basis, but um the future forward looks fantastic for our students. Very proud of him and Kevin and the work that's been going on with the entire staff responding throughout the district in the area of special education. Thank you. Thank you, Stacey. Thank you, Casey. Appreciate it very much. Before we move on, I want to thank uh Hector, Jamie, and Casey, all three, for presenting tonight.

109These these presentations are uh brought to the board on a scheduled rotation. It's not very normal that we have three of them in one evening. Um and they uh are brought to us in an abbreviated form. There is a longer presentation that is delivered to the board members when the agendas are posted. And if you ever hear a presentation, whether you're here in the room or we watching online or after the fact and you hear a presentation that strikes your interest and you want to know more about that particular program, the longer slide deck is always included in board docs and you're able to access that through the YSD website board section just like we are when we get it uh sent to us prior to the meeting. So, thank you for the brevity. I

110know um at 9 PM it's comical to say the word gravity but um uh all three of those are very important programs and we really appreciate the updates that we've received uh this evening. We're going to move next to our section of updates. We'll begin with our uh section of uh updates from any member of the board. Does any member wish to report out this evening? Okay. And we'll move to our superintendent update. Dr. Green. Thank you, President Beckett, members of the board. Just a couple of items this evening. One, I would like to congratulate uh for a second time uh the Gilbert Elementary, our staff, our leadership there. Uh as you know, they have been recognized uh for earning a Washington school recognition honor. Uh this week I did receive a letter from Nikki

111Torres. Uh, Senator Torres uh, reached out and expressed her heartfelt congratulations to Gilbert Elementary for the well-deserved recognition by OSPI through the Washington School recognition program uh, which honors the incredible progress of the school in closing opportunity and achievement gaps and the impact of that work cannot be overstated. Uh, congratulations went forth to the principal and to the staff members of the elementary school. And this last paragraph I'd like to share with you says, "I hope you and the school board take pride in this moment and take time in the coming weeks to celebrate these outstanding achievements as senator of the 15th legislative district. It's both an honor and a privilege to recognize the exemplary work happening in our local schools." So, I just wanted to share that additional kudo coming from Senator Torres. And

112then a little bit of bad news to share with you this evening. So, this was um received this evening regarding our gear up program and I think um and Maria, are you here? Could I invite you to come up for just a moment to give a little background on the Gear Up program? So, as she's walking up here, uh this is really relevant because the Gear Up uh grant that we did receive previously uh is serving uh quite a few of our schools and set to serve even more. And um through that Gear Up cohort that rotates up, um it impacts so many of our students. So, if you just give a little bit of background on uh the schools that are participating and then I'll go ahead and share the remainder. Nope. Okay. Good

113evening. Um so, currently we have our four middle schools. We actually started last year with uh Franklin and Lewis and Clark. So, those students received support um through the Gear Up Grant and are now in seventh grade. And then this year we added Washington and Wilson serving currently sixth grade students. Could you share a little bit of what that entails as far as the services? As far as the services, it really provides many opportunities that our students otherwise wouldn't have. For example, this year they've had the opportunity to uh participate in the um in attending different college tours and just really I'm yes I actually have a project with building uh bicycles and just learning just different engineering concepts through through that work but really exploring the world beyond the Yakama Valley and letting them

114know the opportunity that's out there. it'll really guide them through um completing the FAFSA when they get um actually starting in 8th grade, different uh professions that they get to explore. So, just really career oriented um secondary beyond uh high school education really just all of that co going through the college application process. Yeah. Thank you, Dr. Lucero. I know it was unexpected. Thank you. Um you may be seated. I'll go ahead and proceed. So, the reason I wanted to share a little bit more about the gear up program is we not have not had much of an opportunity to go into detail about the importance and the impact thereof. Um, and uh what was recently released within the last hour uh is notification through our gear up um uh leadership uh is that the

115federal proposal for fiscal year 2026 27. So this is the federal budget um is uh including the complete elimination of funding for TRIO and Gear Up. So uh it may end quite suddenly. Uh we do have tomorrow there will be a um opportunity to hear uh Secretary McMahon will testify before the US House of Representatives. Uh I will tune in and uh see what the position is, but I did want to share that with you right away. I do not want to end on a bit of bad news. So, I will quickly pivot and just share with you that this morning I was able to attend uh one of our other opportunities uh in a partnership with um uh both uh YBC and Central and I think you're aware of the relationship with President Walport

116and uh President Rich at YBC. Um we are doing uh tremendous uh having tremendous growth in the college and high school program. Um, Central has is has now more uh more classes taught than any other university in the state and uh we have been able to provide tremendous opportunities uh through the staff that are becoming certified in uh our different buildings. Uh which is truly a great opportunity for families who uh don't have equity of access uh and able to to have those secured um college level courses in their portfolio before they graduate. So, I look forward to sharing you more detail about that and what the numbers actually look like here in the Yakama school districts as they have continued to increase in an impressive way. Um, this does not eliminate or preclude the

117um one cohort that is going through with Arizona State. that continues and those students will be graduating next year and uh currently number around I believe right around the 50 50 student mark for uh students that are going to earn their AA without having left high school or left the high school campus I should say. And so with that I'll turn it back over to members of the board. President Beckett unless you have any questions. I have a question. Um, is this uh elimination of the Gear Up program a done deal or is it dependent on passage of the budget that they're going to start looking at at like 1:00 in the morning tonight? It depends on the passage of the budget. So, we still have an opportunity to perhaps contact our House of Representative

118Congressman and other folks in the state to see if correct you encourage them to support that element of the budget. Yes. Okay. Thank you. I have a related question to the gear up as the college success foundation has received significant cuts in the state uh due to also federal budgeting and state budgeting and many schools have eliminated college success. But the report I read mentioned Yakama I believe and maybe Tacoma to some level may be exempt. Have you heard? Do you have any more news on that? I don't have any specific news. I have just a um a general number but not I don't feel comfortable citing the number as I would like to verify. But I will tell you that uh with the uh most recent uh budget that is currently being finalized um

119and approved by the governor uh our community- based organizations across the state are suffering significantly. Uh so there's a tremendous I I would say collaboration and great conversation on how they can um continue to exist and there's even looking at u you know combining locations and all types of creative uh issues to to make that happen. Um one of the per people that I had the opportunity to speak with about this was u Mary Facus was uh over the weekend was sharing what she's seeing on the west side of the state in particular with the community- based organizations. So, so as I find out more information, I'll I can share the exact numbers, but I I I didn't write those down in the moment, but I I want to say it's um significant. Okay, thank

120you all. Uh moving along, we do have an opportunity, we have a a section in our board docs regarding highlights for community engagement. And of course, I would defer to our executive director of communications and engagement if she would like to elaborate on anything this evening, Kirsten. Welcome. Thank you, President Beckett. With your approval, I would refer everyone to Ward Docs for that long list of events given the time of evening. I appreciate and I will stay close for my next concise report. Thank you very much. Here's the critter. Moving along next, Mr. Cooper. Our monthly financial update. Good evening everybody. Jake Cooper, assistant superintendent of finance. Before I begin, a few things on the federal budget. I also heard news uh today that the uh proposed federal budget eliminates title three and migrant funding.

121So um we talked about those programs earlier. That's about $3 million that could be reduced out of the district budget. And I'll talk finances shortly, but again there'll be some good news, bad news. Um uh we had set aside a $2 million hedge approximately for federal decline and unforeseen circumstances during the budget planning process. We might blow through that given what we're seeing. Um OSBI sent an email out um recently to the fiscal officer said, "Here's your federal allocations. They're the same as last year. You keep reading reading, but please budget 10 to 15% down." I'm not sure what that means. Um 10 to 15% for us on federal revenue is between three and four and a half million dollars. Depends on how you slice it. So, um, just put thought drop that reality onto

122the onto the floorboards before I begin my financial presentation. So, we still have huge unforeseen, uh, headwinds. Um, on the special education, we talk a lot about reductions um, when we're going through budget issues. Special education was a case where this the program swung positively two and a half to$2 million in revenue because IEPs were out of compliance. We were losing a million dollars a year and you weren't applying for safety net. Both of those things happened recently in the last couple years. So there's a positive two to$ two and a half million dollar swing. So you hear about reductions, but I also we do do things to increase revenue and efficiency. That is one important thing. So that's $2.5 million less we had to reduce um out of the budget and sorry to correct

123my number. Highly capable $477,000 annually. That funds about three to three and a half teachers. Um and the last I I think I covered all three of them. Sorry before I begin. Uh this is my monthly uh financial report. It's not as in-depth and in detail as the one you may have received during the budget process um regarding where we're at financially um or actually chronologically speaking Sinai was the 28th. I want the board and the community to know that the um estimates provided by my office and presented were very close to actuals. So the tea leaves were read well um and so that's a fortunate for place for us to be. So, the legislative budget is within a million dollars or so of uh initial estimates, which is made me have a fewer gray

124hairs, I think, and sleep better. So, that means this time of year, my office is doing line item budgeting, going into the details. We're building salary plans and then gathering all the rest of the saline information to build our required budget files for SBI. Does uh it's a lot of paper pushing to create the annual budget. um it takes oh nine or 10 months to do given the size and magnitude. So the good news is um as I've talked about the last few meetings that the budget is starting to behave and behave I do that is because a budget this size has behavior and when there were not sufficient internal controls on spending in place we were unable to accurately project month-to-month balances. So our cash flow is above projection and we are beginning to

125stabilize. Um there's our FT trend as you can see um a lot of the trends that we talked about go from 1718. This one is a five-year look some from 2021 and we continue to be flat enrollment and we will slightly curtail as we go down throughout the fiscal year. There's the budget versus actual. As I noted before, I overprotected secondary enrollment by a couple hundred students and then most of that was due to the relationship with AL and CTE. That problem has been remedied for next cycle. There's the cash flow cash is above projection which is a good thing. So the green line and I want to remind everybody at home uh or in the audience that that cash also has $4.5 million of borrowed money in it. So if you look at the

126cash flow, there's a $4.5 million note in there for liquidity that the district will pay out of the general fund in December. So whatever you're seeing now on the cash flow line, drop that down by four or four and a half million and you'll get to where our actual cash position is. So cash is above projection because tax collections came in on pro on or above projection and then we also received like levy equalization this month which tops the cash off. Um the other thing that was made this cash balance a little higher is that we have some large payments. Um second semester for running start will go out the door. You know that's a big chunk of money as well and so that was timed and pushed a bit later. Revenue budget actual um

127as you can see the blue bar is the actual and the budget. So revenue is tracking slightly below uh in in some months is slightly above. However, when you look in totality, when you look at your expenditures on the next slide, budget to actual, as you can see, the the black bar is the budget. So, right now, you can payroll has leveled off to a steady even pace right under 20 million a month. Uh you can see I talk about the trough a lot, those spring months, January, February, March. Um you can see that we've leveled off and become predictable. We will pick up payroll as optional days and year end pay comes through cash outs etc that will pick up. Um but again the other fortunate thing that happened this legislative session is June

128is a light cash month as we talked about because the state gives more money in August. They used to give it basically divide 12 and you get eight and change right um per month but they have backloaded that money into August 12 and a half and 13%. So we're cash poor in that June and July months and then we get we'll get an uptick of cash in August. So there's the MSOC trend which material supplies and operating costs. This is a more volatile trend because of course some years we have curriculum adoption, some years we have esser um so that spend can vary. It has begun to level out. Um, we're in a place now where our supplies and materials expenses, particularly since Yakama has no other outside sources for capital funding. So, we have

129no bond funding. There's no capital levy. We do have to spend a pretty good chunk of general fund money to keep the operations going that other districts don't have to expend out of the general fund. So, if a roof goes here out of the general fund, boiler, HVAC, elevator, you name it. So, we have to continually budget for capital improvements in the general fund. And quite honestly, as superintendent and I are talking and super Marietta, we don't have enough capital money. Every summer, we're going to band-aid through some projects. We'll do paving um and then life safety stuff at the schools and easy get accomplished over the school the summer so we can get folks back in the building. So, it's a side note, but again, our our Mox spend um you do not want

130to deteriorate those budgets too much further. We we cut those significantly uh in the last budget uh reduction round. So, and then that is it. I know I was quick, but there is a large audience and they do not like to hear me talk too long. Uh overall takeaways, headwinds on the federal side, we talked about I do not know if there's enough reserve for what's going to happen. Legislatively on the state side, the budget is right about where I anticipated. So, that is good. Um, and then again, we continue to look for efficiencies, not just reductions, but revenue enhancements as well. And if I'll take any questions, glad to entertain them. Thank you, Jake. Appears there are no questions this evening. We can move right along. This brings us to our first opportunity for

131public comment this evening. Thank you, Barb. This is the opportunity for comment regarding agenda items. And we will begin with I believe it's McKenzie Rayfield. Is that correct? From MLK. McKenzie, come on up, please. Welcome. And and McKenzie, before you begin, let me just state in case you have not been through this process before, we do have a time limit. So, I apologize if somebody gets cut off. It's so that we have an opportunity for everybody to be heard. So, please don't take that personally, but your time isn't running yet. So, don't worry. We appreciate you being here. Please begin when when you'd like to. Thank you. Good evening. Um, I wanted to speak to kind of something that Francis talked about earlier tonight. She talked about how positions I necessarily did not get rifted,

132but I did get moved. I've been moved twice in the past three years due to dual positions even though I've been in the district 11 years. And the problem, the biggest problem that I'm having is with singletons. And I'm not sure if the board is aware, but there are singletons in multiple buildings and with how much money we've put into things like PLC's, PLTS, and things like that. It is very difficult to be a singleton within a grade level. So, I teach in second grade. Um, I have three dual counterparts and I'm the only English in my grade level as there is um one in kinder and one in um first grade at my building. Um some of the issues that we see again are just those teaming issues. Um we had class sizes that

133was an issue and that has since been resolved and our um principal really saw the need for um for another uh classroom to be open. Um so we're just seeing some of those large behaviors in those buildings as well. And then the biggest thing is is that my classroom, my kiddos, and I'm speaking for them because they're not here to speak for them. Um, but through K through fifth grade, they are only with those 20 kids. And if you can imagine, by the time now they're in second grade, they're like siblings. And so they know how to push each other's buttons really well. And they've now missed out on the opportunity to see how other kids learn. Um, unfortunately at the beginning of the year, again, mine is the English only classroom. One of the

134statements of my kids was, um, I asked him to go next door to one of the other teachers and she said, he said, "I can't go over there." And I said, "Why?" And he said, "Because you speak Spanish." And I said, "No, sweets." I said, "They everybody here speaks the same language. You can talk to any of those kids." And so, um, we've really tried to make a conscious effort this year of, um, incorporating those kids into see for my kids, seeing that they can be friends with the duel and see that they can be a part of that, too. But I know that even because as you guys move along, I know that you're creating more singletons um, in other buildings. And I just speaking as a singleton, it is an extreme challenge that

135um I hope you guys take into consideration as you guys are moving forward into new buildings and having new dual classrooms that might not have that same support as somebody like an English classroom would have. So that's what I have for you guys tonight. Thank you. I have I have a quick question before you go away or maybe someone else can answer the question. What what what's a singleton? A singleton it refers to a single person in the classroom. So there's one English within uh all the rest are dual. So if there for at another building there's one duel and all the rest are English. So at grade level grade level questions. Yes. So when you're planning for your curriculum, when you're doing those kinds of things, your curriculum is not the same as your

136teammates. So when you're kind of doing those plannings, I can't go next door and be like, "Hey, how did that lesson go?" Because there isn't another person to see how that lesson went or what strategies are working unless I talk to someone at another building. But again, their kids are different than my kids, too. So, Okay. Thank you. Yeah, no problem. Any other questions? Sorry. Thank you, McKenzie. Thank you for the clarification. Next on our list is uh David Gonzalez from Mccclure. David, welcome. My name is David My name is David Gonzalez. I'm from McLar Elementary. I'm a fifth grade teacher. I've been teaching for about 30 some odd years. Uh taking two years off for um an illness. I just want to talk about the librarians. I believe the librarians are needed. They are

137essential for the students. It's very vital that they're there. Um and I think you they need to be brought back. Another thing I'm here for is for our administrator. Hello, my name is David Gonzalez. You took my administrator. I want her back. Our administrator showed us to trust people. She showed us to communicate with people. She encouraged us inconceivable to actually work and create something. We created something this year that is now being torn apart because our administrator is being moved being moved to a a middle school. She was our at our principal and now she's being moved and she is going to be a vice principal. This is going to be our third principal that we've had in three years. And so how are we going to grow and we've grown a lot this

138last year. How are we going to grow again after we have to create another have some more confidence in our administrator to make sure that she is going to be capable of fostering um communication trust. I don't trust the district right now. I do not trust the leadership from the district right now um because of what happened with our administrator. She worked very hard. She entrusted in us to create our PLC's. We did create those PLC's and it feels to meal that our admin administrator was taken away from us because she gave us the freedom to work and to create something. We created something this year that I feel that we've grown a lot. Our kids have grown a lot. Our scores have shown that in our that somebody else will be talking about later

139on. And I am very disappointed, very disappointed that our administrator only h having seven months. Seven months. Why? Because we were told last week that she was no longer be our administrator. I'm sure that decision was made earlier than that. She was not even given a full year. She needed a chance to prove that she could do the job. She was taken away. And I'm very angry. I apologize for the person that I took this out on last week. Miss Lock, again, I am sorry. You were just a messenger. I took it out on you because I was frustrated. I was upset. I'm still upset, as you can tell. Again, inconceivable that she created something and then taken away from us. I want my principal back. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you, David. Thank you

140for being here tonight. Next on the list is Justin Nicholas. Welcome, Justin. Is it on? Okay. Um, I'm going to go off of a little thing I wrote down just because I feel like I gota Uh, my name is Justin Nicholas and I'm a science teacher at Washington Middle School. Uh, I'm here tonight because I feel the need to talk about the real harm that's caused by the decisions to cut staff and move administrators, especially when those staff movements um are going to negatively affect the students at our school district. I'd like to start with Payton Wallen. She's an amazing second-year math teacher who consistently shows up for her kids. She and her teaching partner work hard every day to make math meaningful for the sixth graders at WAMS. She has totally bought into the

141PLC process and her team is one of the most effective in our building. Losing her is not a staffing change. It is a blow to our school community. It is upsetting to the staff, the families, and the students who count on her every day. Beyond our building, cuts like this just lower the quality of education for students in the Akimma School District. Uh then there is the reassignment of our assistant principal, Nick Mifflin. Uh moving him from Washington to Franklin feels like a punch in the gut, not just to the staff, but to the students and families uh he has built trust with for the last 12 years. That kind of relationship and that kind of stability is not replaceable. It is clear that this move is going to hurt student outcomes at our school.

142And it is hard to ignore that decisions like this are made to benefit the more affluent parts of our district. These are not just personnel shifts or numbers on a spreadsheet. These are decisions that affect real people, real students, real families, real staff every day. And to do this while approving a pay raise for our superintendent borders on the absurd. The disappointment we are feeling, me, colleagues, community, is hard to put into words. But if your goal was to destroy morale in this district, mission accomplished. I'm asking you, the board members, and the superintendent, to listen to the people who are being impacted. Listen to the students and the staff who I know are reaching out to you. Those voices matter. If you keep ignoring them, you are turning your back on the people you

143were elected and appointed to represent. Thank you, Justin. Next up is Jessica Bush. Jessica, welcome. I am speaking to you with a heavy heart and a deep sense of urgency regarding the shift of assistant principal Nick Mifflin away from Washington Middle School. For the past 12 years, Nick has been a cornerstone of our school community. His presence is just not familiar. It's foundational. We are not just talking about a position or a title. We're talking about a man who has lived and breathed whams for the past 12 years. Nick is not simply an administrator but a pillar of our community. A steady presence in the lives of the Wham's community. That's trust built not in days or months but in years of consistent compassion compassionate service. Nick deeply understands the students, families and staff. His

144roots here run deep and the impact of his dedication is etched into every hallway, classroom, and student success story at Washington. We understand that change can be a sign of progress. A fresh perspectives often bring new energy, but not all change is progress. Removing Nick Mifflin from Washington Middle School is not a step forward, but a step back. The loss of his leadership, compassion, and commitment will cause more than a disruption. It will cause real and lasting damage to the moral and stability of our school community. So instead of pulling him out of Washington, why not collaborate with him and carry his ideas forward by empowering someone else to put them into action? After all, it's clear that Nick's heart and his mission is right here at Washington Middle School. Nick is a mentor, a

145steady presence, and a champion for our students who need guidance and someone who believes in them. He shows up early, stays late, and never treats any student like a number. By moving Nick to another school, doesn't matter which one, you are removing 12 years of stability from a community that has so little. To lose Nick now would be more than a staffing change. It would be a wound to the spirit of the school. It would leave a void that no job posting can fill. Because this isn't just about qualification, it's about connection. And I ask, what message do we send to our students when someone who has poured his heart into the school for 12 years is forced, yes, forced to leave. Nick wants to be at Washington Middle School. He has always made this

146clear. Did you know that Nick commutes an hour and a half every day to and from Ellensburg? Did you know that Nick has job offers to lay roots in the Ellensburg school district only to decline because his heart and soul are solely dedicated to Washington Middle School? I don't think anyone here can argue that the Whams is not a fragile community for we deal with tragedies and traumas on a daily basis beyond the other schools. Taking Nick's strong leadership away from this community would be criminal. I urge you to re reconsider removing Nick Mifflin now would fracture the very continuity that Washington Middle School needs to thrive. Let's not take from a community who is just deserving as the rest. With respect and deep concern, Thank you, Jessica. Next. Next up is Nikki Hart. Nikki.

147Oh, you too. Excellent. Well, glad you're here. Thank you so much. I'm here tonight not just to speak to you as elected officials, but as a concerned member of this community, someone who deeply cares about our students, our teachers, and our families. This isn't just about the school board doing its job of fulfilling the commitment you made when you were elected. This is about the why. why you serve and who you serve. At the heart of it all is the well-being of our students, the benefit of the children. That should always be the center of every decision. Last year was devastating. The riffs, reductions in force and the uncertainty that came with them caused widespread stress and trauma. And that impact didn't stop with teachers. It reached out to our students, their families, support staff,

148and the entire school community, not just Washington. That kind of disruption leaves scars, and it raised serious questions. Do you question these decisions? Do you talk to the people who are actually in the schools on the front line, teachers, staff, and families? Do you investigate the superintendent's suggestions or do you simply accept them at face value? Because you can't just rely on one person's perception. You can't afford to trust the superintendent's word alone without digging deeper. The stakes are too high. These are our children, our schools, our community. Your responsibility goes beyond showing up to meetings. It requires real engagement, accountability, and courage. Let me say that again. And courage. Many of you have been in these roles for years for 10 more. And with that experience comes a greater responsibility to lead with awareness

149and integrity. So I ask again, do you know why these changes were made? And do you truly believe they were in the best interest of the children? And let me say this too. Instead of constantly rearranging administrators, shuffling people around as if that alone is going to fix things, build on what you have, strengthen the people who are already here. Invest in them, support them, give them stability, encouragement, and the tools to succeed. That's how you build a strong district. Not by disruption, but by development. I want to be honest with you. I am absolutely exhausted. I've spent so much time trying to figure out the right angle, the right tone, the proper and respectful way to reach you, to get this message across. I've thought carefully about how to express my concerns without blame,

150how to connect with you, without confrontation, and it shouldn't have to be this hard to be heard. But let me say this clearly. I believe in you. I believe in the schoolboard. I believe that you can and will step up and do the right thing in this instance because that is the power you have. That is the per part of your purpose. When things fall apart, when chaos is happening or decisions are causing harm, you are the ones who can step in. You are the bridge between the superintendent and the schools. You are the ones who can say, "Wait a minute. Let's re-evaluate. Thank you, Nikki. Next on the list is Elizabeth. Elizabeth, are you here? Okay. Next on the list then is Kate Ruter. Hi, my name is Katie Redker. I've been a special

151education teacher for 18 years and this is my 11th year teaching for Yakma as a developmental preschool teacher. I don't come here tonight to be adversarial or accusatory. I simply want you to understand how changes made by district level directly impact the work of those who are in the classrooms with students every day. I'm here on behalf of the staff of Discovery Early Learning, some of whom are here if you want to raise your hands. Last week, we received notice that our assistant principal, a full-time position, has been reassigned. And in his place, we will have a half-time assistant principal who is new to our building and staff. This is concerning for many reasons. First, after several years of transition, this is our first school year having all staff together on one campus. There have

152been growing pains, of course, combining a staff of more than 80 from over four different sites, but we are learning how to best function as a school. This work is done with and alongside our assistant principal. His knowledge of our past successes and challenges helps us build the foundation going forward. He has been one of the greatest sources of stability for most staff over the previous few years. And while we know we won't get to keep him indefinitely, this is not an ideal time to replace him as it will cause great disruption. Secondly, the job responsibilities of our assistant principal are a little atypical compared to other schools. Of the students at Discovery Early Learning, over threearter of them are on an individualized education program or IEP. So, prior and deep knowledge of and experience

153with special education is a must. We have to have a district rep at every single one of our 230 to 250 IEPs that we hold as a staff every single year. And after KC talked, we know now that that compliance, getting a district rep there is really important. Two full-time administrators can't do it. So teachers and case managers have to find a school psych or SCES administrator to help fill in that legally required gap. Due the nature of our work, all year long, our assistant principal assigns new evaluations to speech therapists, IEP writing to teachers, and class placements to one of many different types of classrooms. Discovery Early Learning does not have a school counselor or a behavior specialist, and our assistant principal wears the hats of both of these supports for staff and students.

154If there's no other way that the district can afford to keep our full-time assistant principal, and we strongly appeal that you do, it is logical to keep at least him with us halftime and let him get another school halftime because the person who's coming for us is getting two new schools as well, one of which is McCor who's losing their their principal. So, they can maybe just learn each learn one new school for the year. So, we're respectfully requesting that the district leadership take feedback from those whose daily job functions are affected and reinstate John Solar as our assistant principal. Thank you, Kate. Thank you, Kate. Uh, our next speaker is Suki Coell. Suki, welcome. My name is Sugi Kovll. I teach first grade at McCclair Elementary. I have been there 18 years. I would

155like to share how the riffs, librarian termination, and administrative moves have affected our school. For the second year in a row, approximately 25% of our staff was rifted, mostly dual language teachers. This again caused stress and uncertainty on teachers. Many of them having five years or less of teaching. At a time when the profession is trying to maintain teachers, the riffing process is driving them away, often to other districts or professions. Who suffers the most from these riffs? The answer is the students. Students suffer due to diminished educational experiences because of increased class size. Students suffer because they lose the one trusted adult they go to for help. Students suffer due to a decline in quality instruction since teachers may have to take a position they are not currently qualified to teach. Bottom line, students

156suffer. Additionally, I was saddened to hear that all middle school and high school librarians will be cut. Students create a special bond with their elementary librarian. This teacher helps foster a love of reading and appreciation for a variety of genres. Who will help middle school and high school students navigate their library needs? Who will help them find the just right book or research materials needed? Who will keep the libraries stocked with books to appeal to students interests? Who will suffer from this loss? Bottom line, it's the students. Lastly, I wanted to speak about the recent administrative moves. To begin with, Dr. Green's email referenced assistant principles only. Imagineer surprise to learn we would be losing not only our assistant principal, but our principal as well. Moving admin around to different buildings may fit the needs

157of the district's bird's eye view, but each building is unique and each admin fills the role needed at their building. The families, sorry, I lost my place. The bird's eye view does not take into account the relationships built admin to staff, admin to families, and admin to students. I understand change is something that happens in life. I understand students need to learn about change so they can adapt and grow as human beings. At our school, students count on their admin to get them through the day. They need to know in their uncertain little worlds that school and the staff who work there are constants. In the end, who will suffer from these moves? It's the students. In closing, YSD wonders why student enrollment is declining. I am beginning to wonder if it has to do

158with the district's riffs, termination of positions, and administrative moves. YSD needs to do a better job of being fiscally responsible because the ones who are suffering the most due to budget shortfalls, admin changes, and librarian cuts are the students. Thank you. Thank you, Ti. Next is Teresa Maldonado. Teresa, are you here? welcome Teresa. After the last meeting, I went grocery shopping a couple of days later and I met with a couple of people that I've known for years that work in the Yakama school district. And I told them, "Why aren't you guys at the meeting? You guys work for the Yakma School District." And they say, "Well, let me tell you, I think we need to give you a wakeup call." I know they get upset because what we're going to tell you, uh, the

159meetings are just held just to say if they comply with the public, but in reality, they're very disrespectful. They're always on the phone talking to each others and they're not listening to you when you're talking to them and let them know that what they're doing is wrong. And you say you're riffing teachers because there's no funding. And this is what I was told that there's no funding but you're reing teachers but you're creating new jobs here in the administrative office and giving yourself raises but also you have to understand how the teachers feel when they're being moved from one school to another. And also it's affecting the students because they have to see their teacher not be returning back in September because you're not managing well the funding. And today without surprise I met the

160guy that enters the information into the computer. So the Yakama school district could get the funding and I said told him hey you're not doing a good job because look at the best you're doing. It says it is not our fault. We just enter the information and if they're giving us the wrong information, it's in their butt, not in ours. But in reality, we need the librarians back because who's going to help the students make an essay or check out books or other information? Even the public sometimes goes to the Davis High School. I am one of the parents that goes up to the high school to ask the librarians because they mainly the ones that know more information. But look at the stress you're putting on the teachers because you're riffing them. And then

161how are they going to support their families and be out there and also expecting the students because they're not going to be seeing their teacher, the teacher they connected to. And it's very important you start listening to the public and to the teachers because they're the ones that are there for the students. And that's why I'm telling you, you need to get rid of the jobs you created and call back the teachers you ri because I still know a couple of teachers you rift that haven't been called back because you are managing you're mismanaging the funding for the teachers and the teachers are needed for you to listen to them because they're the ones that are always there for the students, not this board. Next on our list is Genesis Presceno. Welcome Good good good

162evening everyone. My name is Genesis Bang. talking on the behalf of Mr. Mifflin. I'm really worried about Mr. Mifflin possibly getting moved to another school. As a Washington Middle School student, I've had the opportunity to get to know him and see how much he cares about our school and us, the students. Mr. Mifflin is more than just a vice principal. He's a mentor, a friend, and someone who genuinely wants to see us succeed. He's always there to listen, to offer advice, and to help us out when we need him. He has made a huge difference in our school. And I know I'm not the only one who feels the same way. If he gets moved, it's going to be really tough for all of us. We'll miss his guidance, his sense of humor, and his

163support. It's not just about him being a great administer. It's about the relationship he has built with us and the impact he had in our lives and has in our lives. I know that decisions like this are often made with the best intentions. But I want to ask you to consider how this move would affect us students. We're not just numbers or statistics. We're real people who care about our school and our community. Please don't take Mr. Mifflin away from us. Let's find a way to keep him here at Washington Middle School where he can continue to make a difference in our lives. Thank you for listening. Thank you, Genesis. Mr. Dit, the floor is yours. Welcome, Genesis. That was awesome. I can't believe I got to follow you, girl. Nice job. All right. Uh

164Dowit YA bargaining chair. Uh what Miss M Guerrero is handing out to you today is just a a collection of the information that's on OSBI about the way that uh our district is spending the money and that's in our budget. Mr. Cooper's been nice enough to show us what an incredibly low percentage of our budget goes to administrative costs. 10.19% which overall in the state of Washington districts in the top 30 in FTE is fairly solid. It's pretty good. Um the sad part about that though is it's the student facing administrators that are the lowest percentage in the low 4 point 4.35% is what our building administrators uh come out of the budget whereas central office administration is 5.83%. Um, other districts that are similar to our spending on central administration would be districts like

165Edmonds, Everett, Spokane, Seattle, um, Lake Washington. Some of the districts that have, um, well, like size as far as FTE goes, much larger than ours is, many of those districts operate right around four and a half to 5% for central administrative um, percentage of budget. Right? So when you look at where our certificated dollars come out, we um we sit 27th out of 30th in percentage of dollars in the budget that is spent on certificated staff salary. We sit 26 out of 30 on administrative on district building administrative salary percentage of uh yet we are 12th in central office administrative salary. So when we see that we are in a budget crisis, I would expect that all facets of what we do look like we're in a crisis, not just the student facing portions of

166our of our budget. And at this point, I think the emotion that comes out of the student facing ch changes and challenges um is more than I could express here today. Um what we would like to see is that if we are all in this huge crisis together, that we are acting like we are all in this crisis together and that we could rightsize the central office administration salaries to look like the rest of us. Thank you very much. Have a good Thank you, Jeff. Next on the list is Jeff Murray. Welcome, Mr. Martin. Oh, I may just cry for the entirety of my three minutes, and that might prove my point better than what I'm about to say. um here to advocate for my teaching partner Payton Wallen. Bottom of the list two years

167in a row. It's all I can say about that. She wants to teach middle school math and I think it takes a particular kind of crazy person to want to teach middle school math. We need more of those crazy people. There's a picture that I want to get in everyone's head and it's in our district equity training. It's a picture of It's a cartoon of three people standing on boxes trying to look over fence. You guys know this picture. Well, I'm in this district training my first year and I'm looking at those three kids and I'm thinking, which one of those kids is Washington? And you already know what I'm going to say? Where the kid that can't see over the fence? And I came up with a really unhealthy motto for myself. And this

168just gets you into the psyche of a deranged middle school math teacher. My motto for the last two years has three years be all the boxes. And I'm here tonight to ask for more boxes. And I mean metaphorical boxes. We need more support so that our kids can see over the fence because when my students come to me 65% well below every year and they don't know what a fraction is and they don't know how to subtract, I'm trying my best to be all the boxes. But we're losing our best administrator and I'm supposed to believe this is for our benefit. That this move is supposed to somehow take our school to the next level. I'm sorry. There's no amount of flowery language that is going to convince me of that. So Trevor, you sent

169out an email and you you sent a lot of kind emails and they're well worded. I got to give you props for that. But the last one we got was a few sentences that said, "I hope you feel seen and heard on teacher appre appreciation week." And I have to say I don't feel seen and I do not feel hurt. I see the rest of my time. I think next on our list we have a student last name of Flores from Washington. Welcome. Come on up. I apologize I couldn't read your first name but please welcome please. Um I feel like it's very unfair that like you guys have to take like Mr. Mifflin from like us students and I feel like the impact that of you taking us taking him from the students is

170like going to be like great cuz like um how do you say that? Like my time at Washington, right? Like he's like helped me like through with everything. Like in the beginning when I first got there, I didn't know like much about the school or like I didn't know math and stuff like that. But when I was like in trouble, like he would actually try to work out with me and like, you know, like actually try to like help me and like not get me in trouble like that. But um yeah, it's just like the impact of him leaving will be like like massive and like the the benefit of like Franklin like won't be as massive, you know, like um like they won't have a greater like um like how do we say that?

171um a greater margin of how good Washington's doing right now with him than how good they're going to do with him. Like you know, it's like if you move him like it's going to be unfair for the students to like move on, you know, like and yeah, that's really all I got to say. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, next on the list, I believe it's Edwin. He had to go home. His mother request. Next on the list is Sarah Park. Welcome, Sarah. My name is Sarah Park. I'm in my 21st year of teaching kindergarten. All of my career is kindergarten. All at McClur Elementary School. I'm very proud of that. Um I I wanted to comment tonight on your many many moves of administrators announced last week, specifically removing both of our administrators from MCLUR

172after not even one year together. Um so Dr. Green, in your email, you stated that these moves are to support commit commitment to developing leadership, strengthening teams, and improving outcomes for students. I'm I'm seeking clarification on each of those matters. um in regards to your commitment to developing leadership, how can that be accomplished um when how can they develop specific skills when they are moved after less than a year to a completely different level from elementary to secondary or our incoming principal from secondary to elementary. While I was meeting her at our meet and greet, she said, "Oh my gosh, that's right. We have recess." She has no frame of reference for for what I I'm sure she's a very capable person. It's nothing against her as a person at all. However, she doesn't come

173with the skill set that our current principal has. Um and and she doesn't have the deep knowledge of her staff, students, and family. Um and u it just seems like you're cutting them off at the knees. Developing leadership skills takes time. Um building trust and relationship takes time. Um relationship is one of the three Rs for our district. Rigor, relevance and relationship. I am struggling to see relationship actually being held to that standard of of one of the three important things that we um value. Um seeing the effects of hard work takes time. So when you talked about how this will strengthen teams, how does change changing leadership so quickly in so many different buildings work to strengthen our teams? Thanks to our administrator's belief and commitment to PLC's and the work that's been built

174in as she was a vice principal under another principal who believes in PLC's we we can truly say that we've seen huge success in um our effectiveness in Mccclur and you can see that in our students scores however our principles the decision to move them happened before even looking at our spring scores you that hasn't even been seen yet before the decision was made. Um, the rapport and mutual respect that Stephanie Casillas has worked so hard to build in our our staff um feels like it's being stepped on um and and trampled and I'm running out of time because I'm emotional and off script. Uh I I just uh you know the last thing is outcome for students and I I still I just don't see how the bird's eye view could show you enough

175of zooming in to see the most important part. Thank you, Sarah. I I believe it's Kio Ramirez. Am I saying it correctly? Welcome. I'm here today to speak to elected officials. Please don't take an amazing, caring, supportive person from us. Mr. Mifflin has helped me grow as a person. Every bad decision I made, he has helped me in everything. He has guided me through the right path in life. And he doesn't deserve to move. the school that he's gonna move to may not let me see like it might just not be as good as ours, right? He undoubtedly has like helped many students in their lives and he's always been there for everyone. I know it really doesn't matter what I say, but I still wanted to fight for Mr. Smith because he deserves to

176stay at Washington Middle School and not go to a different school because he doesn't want to. That's all. Hi. Thank you, Kadia. Steve McKenna. I saw Steve. Welcome, Mr. McKenna. testing. My name is Steve McKenna. I'm a a former teacher in the Yakma school district, former YA president, and um I've been talking to you folks all year long since riffs from last year. Um this is the third riff I think we've had in the last calendar year. And um the board needs to be more prepared for these meetings to actually understand what's happening in the YSD. Policy governance has led to several firsts this year. The first officially declared financial calamity to lay off classified personnel in October. The first time that a levy has been used as collateral for the 4.5 million TAN loan

177that was due in de that is due in December. that was used to cover cash flow so that paychecks would not bounce in September. This financial manage mismanagement was dealt with by the board by giving the superintendent a 12% increase to his base salary in March for next year which also applies to his optional days. He already makes 372,000 this past year which is much more than the state the governor of the state of Washington over 150,000 more. Last month, the board has approved a riff of 43 certificated personnel and five classified personnel that serve students. Librarians serve students directly. Instead of cutting these personnel, you could cut the $732,000 public relations budget. That should happen first. Staff in teaching and learning that do not serve students should be cut before classroom teachers. The Akawan

178School District spends 16.7 million in central office administration, which is 4.3 million more than they spend on all administration in all school buildings in the districts. The central office should be cut before personnel in school buildings. Thank you. Thank you, Steve. Is it Glattus? Welcome. Please come on up and thank you for being here. Okay. Hello. My name is Glattis. I come from Washington Middle School. Um, I saw that you guys emailed our school or sent out a message and I saw and I heard that you were moving Mr. Mistle. Sorry for getting emotional. Um, Okay. Mr. has helped me through a lot and many students um especially my sister. Okay. Okay. Okay. And the start of sixth grade, I was terrible. When I tell you I was terrible. And he's throughout the years, he's

179helped me realize that middle school is not so bad. He's always been there. Um helped me. I never got in so much trouble. I know coming from my eighth grader about to leave. It doesn't really mean much, but trust me, it does. I miss seeing other students come in, especially from fifth grade, knowing how immature some students can be. I feel like Mr. Min makes really big impact. And yes, I'm saying this off the top of my head. I feel like it wasn't necessary to write something down. So, what I'm here to say is I feel like it's not necessary to take him away. He's been in our school for at least 12 years and I want that to continue. He's made and he's had such an impact in our school. He has made um

180the mentoring program for teens and which I am in. I love that. I really do. If you go to our school, you'll see that there's like big old lions and he made that happen. He makes everything happen and that's why I really appreciate him and it's like sad for me to like see him go because he's really made such an impact at our school and it would be just like as you can see it like breaks my heart it might be that or it might because I'm really nervous but at the end of the day it's not there. Just because another school is doing bad doesn't mean you get to take away our star of the show. As I would say, um, Mr. Mifflin is like the best if I'm being honest. You might see

181him as like a regular rights principle. He is not. Not at all. He's helped me, my sister, especially my sisters, but mostly me. Um, I wish my sister was here, but sadly she's not. She would have told you the exact same thing. Till this day, he's helped my sister, he's helped me. And it's like, I can't see that like go. I can't like new kids are coming in. He's like the one person that could actually Glattus, I want to thank you very much for having the courage to come talk to the board tonight. I really do appreciate it. Thank you very much. Vicky Dwight. Welcome Vicki. We should be very proud that we are producing students like that for the community. Please give all our students another thing. My name is Vicky Dwight. I'm a

182former YSD teacher and former former YEA president long time ago. Um, as you consider the changes tonight with staff moves and riffs, I'd also like you to consider reviewing what I've talked about before here. You know, that might help somehow. I don't know. Zerobased budgeting. Again, going out surveying people in the schools. What do they need? Work from the zerobased. Work from I don't want to say the bottom, but it's not the bottom. You know what I mean? Thank you. Baseline. I'm a little rusty. I'd also like you to reconsider policy governance. It's been well documented that policy governance just isn't really effective during a crisis. And I also think it sort of separates. And the last Oh, I know also mentioned the survey. I wasn't gonna speak about Mr. Mc Main McFlane, but I

183think I I What a guy. He's got it. Not every teacher gets it. It's not for me it wasn't about rigor, relevance, relationship. It was the opposite. It was relationship, relevance, and then the rigor. and he obviously first their hearts then their heads and that was written all over tonight that was all over from the students and so I really hope that you review some of the staff changes you made the what I was going to come to talk about was the librarians and you know besides all their cognitive uh qualities that they bring to every school they also offer some affective qualities you know libraries have often been a refuge For many of our atrisisk kids, we've seen kids hide because they're being bullied or because they just, you know, are shy or they

184just feel like a misfit or out of out of touch with with the other students. I've seen them before school. I've seen them during lunch. I've seen them hiding after school. And I have seen some incredible incredible uh librarians uh take them under their wing and work with them and offer them teachers and working with counselors being very collaborative to try and raise this student. So I would really ask you to uh reconsider uh I have one more thing if I can pull these papers apart. Um, I would like you to rec reconsider riffing those librarians. They also provide emotional support and we can always use another layer of emotional support. Thank you. Thank you, Vicki. Thank you for being here tonight. Uh, Rachel. Rachel. Is it Bucher? I wasn't sure if it was Bucher

185or Boucher. I just want to make sure I'm pronouncing it right. very much. Thank you. Um, my name is Rachel Bucher. I am the if at McClur Elementary. Um, these past few years have brought tremendous change uh to our district. going through COVID, going through the roll out of dual language to all of our buildings, um the budget shortfalls, the riffs, all of these have caused major shifts in our staff with constant changes to our grade level teams. And it's made it very difficult to kind of grow our PLC's and as an if I get to sit and watch I get that privilege to sit and watch and see that happen um and help in any way I can. We have teams that have changed almost every year because of these shifts. This year in

186our building, we have a new administrative team. Unsure of why? We are losing both of them. Both. Which blows my mind. We've been assured that it's nothing that anyone did wrong. that the moves were carefully considered and that you're committed to ensuring that our strong systems will continue with our next leaders. And I have confidence that our staff and these new people that will come in, we will all do our best. We will always do our best to manage the change and to support our students. Um, but it's just these changes are huge. We're moving someone from high school, who's amazing, down to elementary, and I'm nervous that with changes up at the district level and changes in our buildings, we're how are we going to support this? H like how are we going to

187make that happen? And what's crazy is that this has been a growing year for us at McClur for both staff and our leadership. Our teachers and teams have had the responsibility of the PLC process truly put into their hands and they have flourished. So, I'm not sure why or where the decision was made. Um, from a certified staff survey in March, I have tons of data that I can give you, but this is what we created in our building. Uh, we asked questions of the certified staff. It was anonymous. 94% of our certified staff feel that the feedback that they received from their evaluation contributed to their growth as an educator. um n uh 97% of them feel that the principal is effectively communicating with the staff, that they're visible, she's visible and engaged with

188our students. In addition to that, our student data has never been as good as it is this spring. We in our English only classes grew 20% in our at or above benchmark scores for composite. That's the most since I've been there, which is since 2020. Our dual language students grew 37% in their at or above uh benchmark scores. We don't want to stop the forward momentum. Dr. Green, in May, uh you had an interview and you said nothing makes a difference like a highquality teacher in the classroom and the second greatest impact for student learning is a high quality admin in the building. Do not take our administrators away. Please, we haven't even had a full year. And I agree with you about this. And we've been affected by the riffs in a crazy way.

189We've lost three amazing teachers last year, two this year. We've had eight teachers each year. And it's just it's not in the best interest of our students. Thank you, Rachel. Annie Blake. Annie, Annie still here? Annie Blake. Then, uh, Michael Clark. My name is Michael Clark. Um, and I have a few thoughts about riffs and their effect on equity. Um, you may remember last year I advised you not to riff. And I I suggested that you s you follow a different path that is more equitable where you hold the people accountable who caused the problem instead of taking it out on the line workers. You didn't take my advice and you neither solve solve your problem either. you've had to riff two more times. You had to take out a payday loan to make payroll.

190It's not working. I don't think you have found the problem. Um that riff that you put in place last year, I don't know what the full economic impact of it was, but I believe on the teacher side it didn't save you any money. Matter of fact, I'm guessing it cost you money. And the reason I say that is because every time we ask how many teachers were actually laid off, how many people did not return, we're told a couple. It's not a very precise number, but that's what we're told. Now, if that's true, and even assuming that's not true, if there were more people laid off than that, say there were five, six, seven, then the riff actually cost you money because the latest reporting from last month is that we are seven and a

191half teachers short in K3. And with K3 teachers, if you don't deploy them, you don't get reimbursed for them. We could have taken those teachers and put them in those positions and the state would have paid their salaries. As a matter of fact, the state pays an average salary. So, if you're retaining junior teachers, we would have made money on the deal. Now, I wish I could tell you that this was the first time that this has happened. It hasn't. This is the fifth time in six years. Okay? We have been shortch changing our students to the tune of $12 million in the last six years. This is money that the state is trying to give us to provide educational services to them. This is money that kids in other districts are benefiting from. And

192in Yakama, we're having a serious problem making that happen. Somehow we have forgotten our primary duty and I think it's time for us to fix that problem. Thank you. Thank you all for your public comment tonight. I think that takes us to the end of that list unless let me double check. It is. Okay, we have a number of items left to go through. I'm going to take a about a 3m minute recess and we will reconvene in 3 minutes or so. We'll be back about uh 10:27. Thank you. At this point, we're at section D for our consent agenda. Any I uh any item from the consent agenda can be pulled from the consent agenda if anybody would like to review it. Uh the consent agenda this month includes the minutes for April of

1932025, the notification of approval for warrants for April, the approval of personnel actions, and the budget status reports for April 2025. Does any member wish to have any item pulled for discussion this evening? If not, then I would entertain a motion to approve this night's consent agenda. Second. So move. Motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All in favor of the motion, please say I. I. Any opposed? Thank you very much. That takes us to our section for approvals. And to begin with, we'll turn it over to Mr. Maretta. Thank you. What I am seeking is the purchase of three special needs electric school buses. The requested action is that the board of directors approve the purchase of three 28 passenger special needs electric school buses from RDWC group in the amount of 1,484,9392.

194YSD strategic plan alignment not applicable. The fiscal impact is $647,28842 will come from the Yakima school district state depreciation transportation vehicle fund and $837,650.79 will be awarded by the Washington Department of Ecology Air Quality Clean Diesel Electric School Bus Grant. Do you care for any of the background information or may I take Thank you, Mr. May. I think that is uh adequate. Appreciate the appreciate the requested action and the rationale. Uh the board is being asked to approve the purchase of three 28 passenger special needs electric school buses from RWC Group in the amount of 1,484,93922. Is there a motion to that effect? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion or clarification on the issue? I just want to make sure that the viewing public knows that um

195school buses come out of the transportation fund and not out of the general fund and those monies cannot be mixed. That is a great clarification along with the grant that is involved in this particular process as well. Any other discussion on the item? All in favor of the motion, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, Mr. Marietta. Our next approval is in regards to the contract with American Sign Language Professionals, and we'll turn it over to Deputy Superintendent Stacy Walk. Good evening, board. I'm uh requesting approval to increase our current American line sign language class uh in the amount of $285,000. Huh? What did I say? It's late. Contract. Current contract. Did I say class? Sorry. uh to increase our current contract uh with American Sign Language Professionals uh in the

196amount of $285,000 um for a total of $585,000. Uh the additional 285 will provide the additional support we need to for our special needs students. Any questions? If there are no questions, the board is being asked to grant permission to increase the current contract with ASL professionals for the 2425 school year from $300,000 to $585,000 uh to cover the additional services to support students with special needs. So moved. Second. Have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on the item? All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you all. Thank you, Stacy. Our next approval item is regarding uh resolution 07.24.25, our annual uh resolution delegating authority to WIAA. Dr. Green, would you like to speak to I think you've just summed it up perfectly. This is a form

197that's signed every year, delegating authority to the WIAA, which is necessary for us to be a competing entity with our middle schools and our two traditional high schools. Do we have a motion to approve resolution 07.24.25? Some move. Second. Is there any discussion on the action? All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much, Dr. Green. This takes us to our second opportunity for comments from the public. ARB is checking to see if we have anyone else signed up. Oh, all right. Then that takes us to our President. Yes, ma'am. I have a question. Um, would it be possible to um table section E and bring those two items back at a future meeting? Session F. F. Yeah. F. Are either of these items times sensitive? We then hearing

198no objection. Hearing no objection, we'll we'll uh postpone section F to our next scheduled business meeting. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. We need to move anything on that. We need to move on that. It's an agenda change, so we probably should. Do we have a motion? Well, I'm assuming you made the motion, correct? Do we have a second to Martha's motion? Very nice. Thank you very much. Dueling motions. It feels feels like we're getting close to it. I love it. Uh okay. And is there any discussion on that motion? Hearing none. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Thank you. Section F will be transferred to our next scheduled board meeting. Uh do we have any need for executive session this? No need for executive session. Hearing no need for executive session. And

199I'd like to thank everyone for being here so late for your participation this evening. We are ajourned.