Yakima School District Board Meeting December 17th, 2024

001[Music] good evening welcome to the December 17th meeting of the Yaba School Board a few business items to take care of first we do offer Spanish interpretation services from Jorge with language connection if you need translation assistance in person please check with Jorge for a device and Jorge will translate this information for us thank you we also provide live streaming for this meeting the link can be found on our web page under board of directors or by going directly to www. yd7 gboard meetings if you wish to make a public comment this evening there are two options available for you the first option is for commenting on agenda items only and the second option which comes toward the end of the meeting is for all other topics in order to speak tonight you will need

002to sign two forms a signin form and the guidelines form and those are available on the table in the back if you are interested in watching past meetings you can find them on our web pages ysd YouTube channel bar would you call the role please director Becket here director Navaro Jr here here director rice here vice president VI NOA is absent and um president Walker here thank you thank you will you all join me in the Pledge of Allegiance ready begin and December's character word is altruistic demonstrating a selfless concern for the well-being of others ESP alista today the schools of the AA School District rest on the ancestral lands of 14 confederated tribes ands [Music] of the people of the Nation inhabited more than 12 million Acres across Adams Benson Chalan Douglas Franklin Grant

003kitas cat and Ne counties Frank today we honor those native peoples who attack 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 [Music] respect and a step toward correcting the stories and practices that erase indigenous people's history and culture it also honors the truth [Music] as a school district we will continue to build upon our relations with aak nation thank you thank you to our students this evening we're glad to provide a couple special recognitions and the first will be for some of our fall Sports athletes if you are here uh when your name is read would you

004please come up and circle around the loop here and we'll shake your hand and then you can take a picture over in front of the board director Becca will honor those students today thank you Norm we have a few a few students to uh p a special tribute to tonight from the 2024 girls state meet 4A swim and dive championships we'd like to recognize Adela loser from Eisenhower High School who placed eight in the women's 200 yard it's ad here this evening [Applause] we have four others um the big nine announces the fall NECA and IBEW Award winners the national electrical contractors Association and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers are two organizations training electricians for the future both organizations encourage all high school students to explore with their high school counselors a career in

005the electrical construction industry which provides salary levels that are above average and careers that last a lifetime the following yakma School District students were recognized for demonstrating Superior balance in academics Athletics and Community involvement they are casley wilsley plays volleyball at Davis High [Applause] School Miguel Gales who plays football at Davis High School Emma Stevens swimming at Eisenhower High School and Kaden Sun who plays football at Eisenhower High School again congratulations to all but especially to Emma and to Kaden thank you so [Applause] much to take a picture in front of the board here I think Barb went to get the camera next up the board of directors would like to congratulate Haley Mesley at Robertson Elementary for being named the 2024 school psychologist of the Year by the White Washington State Association of school

006psychologists this award recognizes School psychologists who demonstrate Excellence across a broad range of domains with effective interpersonal skills and a dedication to improving conditions for children families schools and communities Haley earned this prestigious award for her exceptional leadership and dedication to students staff and families as head of one of the district's strong special education teams she also plays a key role in supporting students who need early intervention and tier two Services her leadership has brought program for English language Learners comprehensive development programs and introduces calming Corners into classrooms known for her positive energy she regularly provides development on best practices for serving students with special needs using evidence-based culturally responsive evaluations to support all our students congratulations to Haley mes you need to get a picture congratulations again next up the next order of business

007will be to nominate and elect the Slate of officers for the board for the coming calendar year so first up would be the office of board president do I hear any nominations Norm yes Martha I'd like to nominate Ryan Beckett thank you Ryan would you accept the nomination okay do we have any other nominations for board president hearing none we'll take a oh that's right I have to ask twice is there oh there's a second okay we need to have a second on the nomination second has been moved in second and to nominate an elect Ryan Becket as an un upcoming president of the board now we'll take the roll call director Becket I thank you director Navaro Jr I director rice I president Walker I motion passes four to zero next up we have

008the office of board vice president do I hear nominations from the floor I'd like to nominate gracial for NOA hear a second second it's been moved and seconded to nominate Graal my understanding is under procedure we can't vote because she's not here to accept or deny the nomination so we'll have to hold on that till the next meeting I I think you can go ahead and vote if she doesn't if she wishes to decline then you can revisit the issue but okay you can take the vote now well we'll go ahead and vote then it's been moved in second and Barb would you call the role please director Becket I director Navaro Jr I director rice I president Walker I motion passes four to zero next up we have office of WIA representative do I

009hear any nominations hearing that I guess we'll table that for now I think Ryan is currently are W A A okay so we'll address that in a future meeting we do some AR twisting in between office of legislative rep do I hear nomination I nominate Martha rice do I hear a second a second it's been moved and seconded to nominate Martha rice as our leg legislative representative Mar would you call the role please director Becket I director Nar hi director rice hi president I motion passes four to zero and just as an announcement for for clarity it's not a position that's up for nomination from our board but I am still serving on the Ws SDA board um for uh resolutions committee so that's an area 8 position okay having dispensed with that congratulations to

010all our new and returning Representatives we now would like to welcome to the podium Miss Francis Guerrero yaa president thank you for bearing with us the floor is yours you congratulations everyone on your new positions and thank you for bearing the elements to be here tonight I appreciate that um I really want to thank all of you for following up last we um at the last board meeting following up on my report as a result of that um um the superintendent educated me on some protocols that are going to open up Avenues where I can meet with more administrators and possibly actually enact some relief for some of those elementaries I'm hoping so I will be making lots of phone calls after break and I will report back to you on how that goes um

011I find protocols and procedures and that kind of stuff really important like people knowing what to do and how to do it and all that stuff I didn't know because I'm new to this position and nobody told me so I like to have things in place as I'm sure you've noticed um I really want to thank HR and tnl for putting together protocols for sub absences with custodians Paras and Librarians my understanding is that that document has gone out to administrators and they are in the process of disseminating it across um the district I know some buildings already have um I would like to have another kind of ask when it comes to putting protocols in place and I'm not really sure who would be in charge of this whether it would be tnl HR

012or um sces but it is something that has come to light and aside from putting that protocol in place I also want to make you aware of the situation that necessitated it so we have a lot of students that are high needs Behavior students and some of them are Runners if you are familiar with sped um they call them elopers they they escape and I think our members really need protocols for how to deal with those students like my allowed to tackle him before he leaves the building do I have to wait until he's outside before I tackle him how about once he crosses the street can I tackle him like at what point can I do what do I just need to wait until someone from downtown comes like what's the protocol and this

013is not something that can you talk to those individual buildings it needs to be consistent and districtwide so I just want to put that on your radar that again when it comes to supervision we have students like that that when they become disregulated they need extra supervision and so it might help if we had protocols in place to be ready to address those Runners it's very stressful for my members not knowing what they can and cannot do um in response to that I also would like to ask ask that we come up with better systems not that we don't already have systems in place but better systems for dealing with tragedies so I'm sure you're aware that in the last month or so we've had two tragedies in the district one at a high school

014level and one at a middle school level and I think that let forget to take this off I think that at the high school level our teachers and our students students Fair better because they are older more mature more equipped and in terms of the teachers they've they've just endured more and so they can handle it a little bit better when you bring in outside counselors to a high school those students recognize this person has a function their job is to help me with coping strategies my job is to spill my guts to them whether or not I know them and they're going to provide that help at the middle school level and the elementary level it doesn't work that way you can bring in outside counselors and they are not going to be utilized

015as well because those kids are not going to spill their guts to people they don't know they're going to spill their guts to people that they have relationships with so ideally right we just have those counselors fully staffed barring that if that's not a possibility then we need to look at other things that we can do to help those kids whether it be having more staff that are already there crisis trained maybe we bring up counselors from the elementary that they know although that's kind of like robbing Peter to pay Paul and that would end up causing problems at the elementary level but I'm just telling you those tragedies at elementary and middle school levels have a much harsher effect than they do at the high school level our Middle School those students and those

016staff are suffering and if you are not aware those kinds of tragedies have a trigger effect a ripple a domino effect and so at that middle school we had six students identified for DCR three that have actually been admitted to facilities to get more intensive help we have staff there that have experienced similar traumas in their past and so that's a trigger for them so it's not just our students that need more help it's our staff too when I checked in at the high school level they're not okay but they're going to be all right right but it would be better if someone was checking in on them not just the teachers that have students now that student now but they're past teachers because you tend to especially at the high school level keep a

017lot of those relationships long after those students are gone and so we still need to check in on the mental health of those teachers and when you're in a situation like we are now where everything is strained it's all the more important it's all the more critical that we have better systems in place so the administrator when I talked to the administrator at the middle school to verify those facts he was very pleased with the response that ysd did provide but he also acknowledged clearly he needs more resources our middle schools need more resources they need more counselors our students we just have high need students when it comes to mental health overall um kind of related to that not necessarily something that I've heard in our buildings just something that's been in the news

018lately if you've been paying attention especially to Seattle Renton they just busted a bunch of people in a sex trafficking ring we used to have training PR Co it's it's a thing here in the valley it's it's a bad unusually high thing here in the valley so much so that we started getting training as staff that that was meant to accumulate over years like we didn't get it all in one year it was we start off with this information this year the following we had a little bit more and I think Co hit something happened and it stopped we need to try and restart that it it isn't issue for our students and they need to be protected and we need to know how to protect them we need to know how to identify how

019what signs to look for and what we can do to help them I I think our teachers suspect they know a lot of victims but they don't know what to do to help them um I would like to note that we have really good emergency plans um like the the protocol for it the template the document I believe exists I think it's something that um the security Safety and Security Department put together three or four years ago uh I'm so sorry that I didn't think to attach it to my email so that it could go in the board docs so that I could show you um but I can forward it to you later Washington Middle School especially I know that I have seen this document from them for the past couple of years and

020I asked one of the teachers to send it to me again to see if it was updated and it was there's a fabulous explanation of every kind of Crisis possible and how it's handled um it identifies who the members of the emergency team are so for example with Washington Middle School I know one of the members is an emergency EMT on the side and so like great person right to have in that position that's actually who I called I said are you actually doing what this document says that you will meet quarterly and he told me last year they actually met I think monthly um they have not met as regularly this year but he's going to get on top of that and get that going again but but the document I don't think is

021widely disseminated like I don't know that every building uses it I contacted Ike um to see if they had it and the VP in charge of it over there sent it to me so it exists but I never saw it while I was there so I don't know if maybe they rolled it out for the first time this year but but those kinds of documents need like that needs to be a priority to send that out and to make sure that teachers have that information I mean it has everything in it what you do in a triea situ ation where the reunification site is if there's any kind of need to evacuate a building it has a lot of important information but if teachers don't know it exists then it's not useful and it's very

022user friendly it's very it's it's just a great document that I'd like to make sure gets um disseminated more widely um and the last thing I would like to bring to your attention is that in terms of resources and make making sure that everyone knows what resources are available I would really like student services to be more public about what they have available what they can offer um our students again probably especially more at the high school level they tend to stay in touch with us and maybe it's just because I'm an English teacher but I have a lot of students that continue to keep in contact with me from college hey can you look over this essay for scholarships for graduate school whatever um I had one student who graduated probably seven years ago

023he's now he comes from a family a non traditional family um biological parents were not the Guardians and the primary Guardians were taking care of many kids like he his siblings and maybe some cousins and one of the primary Guardians passed away recently he lives over 3 hours away but he took two of his younger siblings to ease some of the burden on the primary Guardian that's left something really bad happened to one of his siblings who is a former ysd student as well I didn't know how to help him I didn't know what resources are available so I called Omar it's fabulous he got on it right away and said let me talk to some people let me find out who I can reach out to that can help him in his Pace three

024hours away he got me an agency he got me a name he got me an email and a number and now I can help this former student help their sibling out of this really terrible situation I obviously wouldn't have known that as a teacher I didn't know it now um my mom's a four cas manager she didn't know that she's usually my source of information for things like that that kind of stuff needs to go out to our staff because it's not just our counselors that work with our students it's our staff so just the more protocols and procedures that we have in place so that people know where to find information people know what to do when certain events happen it just makes life easier for everyone it's it's one thing to stress about

025and in our high needs population it's important that as many people are trained and informed as possible [Music] questions can I ask a clarifying question yes um thank you for bringing these items that you have questions about to our attention this evening and I'm wondering if um any of the questions that you have um brought to the board you've had a chance to run them past the for instance the supervisor for the principles or the supervisor for special services or or even the superintendent if you had a chance to run your questions by those folks um so one of the things that's kind of difficult about the way we um operate in terms like Labor Management meetings they're only once a month so that meeting happens on Tuesday and then Wednesday is when executive Council

026the following Wednesday it's rep Council so that's when I tend to hear a lot of these things the situation at the middle school I heard about last Tuesday on my way out of town and I I couldn't do anything about it that day and quite frankly I was stunned absolutely stunned that that many student students would have been so deeply affected um I wanted to touch base with Stacy lock first so I reached out to Stacy on Wednesday and I believe she was out of the office not available she got back to me Thursday and told me that she was going to walk straight over to student services and and let them know so and then Stacy and I also had um scheduled a meeting today but then she was out sick so I haven't

027been able to touch base with her again on that I guess the reason I ask is that um sometimes if you go directly to the person who can answer those questions or Implement some kind of action to meet your suggestions those things can happen almost immediately whereas if you bring them to the board then it that delays the process because it has to go through the board's process which is to recommend it to the superintendent who then may have to recommend it down the line a little bit um so that may be something that you want to consider for for future suggestions that might make sense in the in the immediate to bring to the board but really have you be able to facilitate a much more rapid response to the suggestion by bringing it

028to the P person who might be more responsible for that area and I I don't always expect the board to be the ones that are taking immediate action I just want to make sure that there is so much that comes to me and I made you this promise last spring that I was going to keep you informed that I wanted you to make sure that you knew what was happening in our buildings so I don't necessarily expect you to do something except to support that something gets done thank you Frannie thank you I want to thank uh uh director rice and uh just clarify a little bit here because I'm quite sure that the message is that the board does want to hear it's not that the board does not want to hear it's just

029that we want to make sure that we're resolving the situations and I really appreciate um we did have a meeting yesterday and we had that I had a meeting with with uhh Francis Guerrero um we were able to assign about three different items that will be addressed that were brought to me um unfortunately the five items that were listed here were not discussed yesterday when we met um it doesn't mean that they won't be addressed now it just means that I I could have taken some time and we'll get there to that point and I really appreciate that uh we're developing a relationship where we can kind of address items at the least uh uh uh at the lowest level possible so so fratty is free to uh do the higher heavier lifting as as

030the president of yaa and U and that we're making sure that we're making progress so I the five items that I I noted here um the runners the runners in in special education services that's something that's very easy to resolve when you're talking about protocols we have uh Casey Mitchell we have Kevin Brennan uh who will be able to address that and I think it's first important to kind of hold tight to CV's uh fifth rule which is seek to understand then to be understood so it's important to seek to understand what is happening within the different buildings if there is a protocol in place so it may not appear at times maybe in a building or to a member that there's not a protocol it could have been something as simple as maybe the

031individual being absent on the day that the protocol was shared I'm not saying that's always the case but we need to figure out what the issue was uh so we can find out about the runners uh you mentioned uh Franny you talked about Omar being fabulous absolutely uh just does incredible job I would tell you that the tragedies that we've seen over the last couple of weeks uh I would stack our um crisis response team against any team out there so they are the protocols that are in place and the work that they do on the weekends I'm talking hours upon hours upon hours to make sure that we have people in place to serve and making sure that we have counselors in place is not as simple as uh we we we have to

032leave counselors in some of the buildings obviously but we do have counselors that then respond to the building in so that's another opportunity the trafficking situation when you're talking about human trafficking uh we have a renowned specialist coming to town uh that we're hosting on March 17th in the Davis Auditorium Russ Tuttle which is a stop trafficking project we'll make sure that that is available to all of our staff members it's open to the public it's really an adult event uh because we are in an area that's uh High uh highly engaged in in in human trafficking uh we talked about the dissemination of the document with the example of Middle School in crisis uh I'll have Sarah Cordova reach out to make sure that she's addressing that through Safety and Security and if that

033needs to be updated or if it needs to be redistributed we can make sure that that happens and I think that that was pretty oh I just did also want to mention uh that uh student services Omar can also follow up around what's available for those student services for people uh who are in crisis and I just want to compliment our student voice councel because they recognized the importance of mental health over a year ago and that really speaks to the empowerment that the board has given to our students um and they organized a mental health week because that is something that was really on the foremost of their minds and we've now had two years of that mental health week I know that's not a BL end all but I think it also speaks

034to the importance of mental health of which I would also add just as a obvious uh plug around the financial challenges uh with our state that the mental health services are not to the degree that they certainly should be when they are being emphasized so I do appreciate uh the opportunity to respond and we'll make sure that these are all aligned uh oh yes thank you Anthony and anon's calling out that we still do have an employee assistance program so that is free to all of our employees across the gamut and I think it even includes three free counseling um appointments uh that come with that so there are significant opportunity then to address um items in a safe environment unless have your own counselor that you would go to as an adult but that

035is for our employees that are are going through some some tragic issues which we recognize uh uh have happened most recently so thank you for allowing me to respond thank you thank you Miss Guerero for bringing these issues to our attention this evening at this point uh we have a report on Alternative Learning Experience programs and additional ala courses and that report is being delivered tonight by the executive director of teaching and Lear learning juel Brumley juel the floor is yours thank you president Becket um yeah I just yeah and if I could I just want to call out that uh one of our principles Brenda malanie uh was supposed to be here this evening as well to present uh her father had a health issue and a family issue so we excused her from

036this meeting and thank you Jill for picking up that and and appreciate uh Natalie Riley being here representing Stanton and our online high school learners as well as open doors all right so the first slide just is basically telling about the sum of the Alternative Learning programs we have in the district and then um as Dr Green said uh Brenda Melanie is not here but um the next slide goes over where do I this okay the next slide is about K8 virtual and The Homeschool partnership that we've formed the homeschool partnership I'm going to talk about that first that uh started out a couple years ago we've only had two students in it we we are right now at currently nine students in it um Brenda organized and and um led a team at the

037uh the fair in September to help recruit homeschool students um this partnership with with families for their home schooling needs is one that's um really growing in a lot of areas and um getting up to nine students just since the fair since the end of September beginning of October is is a great thing we also are building a curriculum library that they can come in and see the books and the and the manipulatives that they're going to use to um homeschool their students um we get a full FTE they get to C uh select their curriculum um there's lots of guidance there there's tutoring Services they can bring they can come in and get inperson tutoring um obviously we have teach to support that they can participate in any of our ysd activities because they're

038ysd students um and we have a we're bringing in a counselor uh part-time to K8 virtual and The Homeschool partnership that will be available to our homeschool students because they don't usually have a counselor available um the other thing that's really cool we have a a partnership now with clay full which is a life coaching support and it's through a text text messaging um it's very secure with students families um staff that a student can text in and and when you think about kids what do they want to do how do they talk to each other by text so clayful um you text your your coach and they give you coaching support like oh how am I going to get these things done and you know and they'll tell them you know spread it out

039over time whatever whatever the coaching is but it also has a safety net that if the student is texting something that could be harm to themselves or their family or a a bad situation they level it up to a a professional um counselor and that levels up to alerting whether it's ypd or you know fire and safety or um whatever it needs to they will level that up and they have all these safeguards in place so that students can feel safe we know they're being talked to about important um decisions they're making in a safety environment and um and it's all monitored so there can't be any you know fups with something not appropriately being shared um but that's a really big thing because when students whether they're K8 virtual or they're at home school

040they're isolated from the rest of they're not in a normal social setting so having a life coach VI via text um is really a great thing that we've added in this year for those students um so that works at homeschool partnership and K virtual um we also have the counselor at both um we have uh a lot of students that come in a couple times a week we have students that come in once a month for a lunch social where they can you know build activities they can do other things they had a a really cool Halloween social for K8 and then or K5 and then 68 where they were um interacting with other students with homeschool or K8 virtual and the families get to come in and do that it's not just a student

041comes the whole family comes and interacts and you know um paints a pumpkin does you know whatever the activity is so that's really cool um I can't say enough about how Brenda is building this program up it's grown by 54 students just since the fall um the program success rate for first quarter uh in K5 there's 75% of the students were successful in at least one area if not all areas um and then 68 it was 62% but when you look around at different virtual programs that's a pretty high percentage um because things happen that's why they're being homeschooled so they get to take it at their Pace we get to support them um I've heard nothing but positive comments from parents and when I was at the Halloween um event they were all excited

042this is just you know you can see by the smiles on those pictures at the opening that they're happy to be there so that's our K8 virtual program and homeschool link and manie will talk about our M12 program again I'm Natalie Riley I'm the principal of Stanton yakma online and open doors so this year all those programs are joined together Under One Roof and so it's been a really collaborative partnership between all of the programming so I have 9 through 12 students in my building and it's an opportunity where we're offering a space for students that they may not have had when they had yakma online and open doors in a different space and so our programs are all interacting together so Stanton is obviously smaller classroom sizes more instructional onetoone instruction opportunities to know

043our students we have a smaller amount of students in that space um but it allows for us to know all of our students their stories their situations we we know who they are what they're about and how to support them and so that's the benefit of Stanton we also have a high number of CTE classes specifically in Stanton which has actually also benefited yakma online and our open doors diploma program because they can access those classes in person if need be so we do have some students that we've split between yakam online and Stanton where they're taking their CTE classes there or they just need I want to be in person for one class I'm struggling with this academic area so I need to be able to go to Stanton versus fully online and so

044we're we're transitioning a lot of students that way and supporting them to meet that pathway which is that graduation requirement um santon is a trimester schedule so right now we're the only school that's on trimester schedules and we have five period days so we have less classes but we have more opportunities for credits because we have that trimester um schedule and so by the end of their four years at Stanton they can earn up to 34 credits so it's an opportunity for students because oftentimes we see students that pick an alternative route maybe struggled in a more traditional comprehensive space and having the opportunity to come to Stanton to be able to come to yakam online to be able to tr Rising the more alternative to give them an opportunity to try a new experience

045has had success and then having that built-in um extra Credit Opportunity as well has been extremely successful for our students to be able to have the opportunity to try new classes get more Hands-On opportunities and also gain some of those credits back that they may have lost um at the traditional schools for one reason or another they have life experiences situations have brought them to us and so um we have that opportunity we are also partnering with Stanton um and they're looking that expansion across the other two programs as well because it's a one big Community there with all of the programs uh we work with technical access foundation so Taff it's out of Seattle and it is specifically looking at project-based learning so they we're focusing on moving our students towards projects based learning

046because we've seen success when students use their hands and build projects and have creative conversations across curricular they learn and gain and are accessed and engaged more um again time and time I've heard students say well I had this project do so I had to make sure I was here and so we've seen an increase of attendance rate we've seen an increase of Engagement from our students just having some of those opportunities because I have a partner that depends on me to get my job done and that's been a huge increase for our students so um that's definitely where we're heading as a school so we hope to be in the next five years fully Project based and really focusing on that being our huge priority at Stanton which then really truly helps engage all

047of the programs that we have because we are sharing students between all of the programs yakam online is a comprehensive online curriculum um and it's an opportunity for kids to work flexibly from home they are taking three classes and it is on a quarter system this year so that is a little bit of a shift for everybody um but we have been we have engaged embraced and kind of changed our processes in how we do things through yaka online and have seen success with our students and engaging we've also had a lot more students coming in because now they have access to a nurse they have access to food so they have breakfast and lunch they have opportunities to work work with our social emotional Specialists they have opportunities to work with our counselor um

048so they're getting opportunity to have more touch points with people that maybe they didn't have before I mean the amount of students that come in at lunchtime is is pretty astronomical because they come and they eat and then they go study or they come and they have breakfast and they go to their classes and so we find oftentimes students are strategically coming deciding when they come in to access those meals so that they can go to work and get that done so we've seen a huge increase of students actually coming in as well as we realize like the engagement if they're not engaging in a program we have options and opportunities to put them somewhere with their commun communic with them and having that conversation to put them in a space that's really beneficial so

049we've definitely been using all of the entities and then we do have open doors as well which is the GED program the other thing to know about that there is an open doors diploma so some of our students come to the GED program and say wait a minute I'm close enough that I can earn those high school credits and so they do earn a diploma as well so it's an option for students to take the GED assessment which is four assessment areas um and then also some of them are working on the diploma Pro as well so um we do have a testing site on campus so all of our students have access to take their GED test on campus and that's no cost to the students so we're providing opportunities to help build up

050their skills provide them with opportunities and really truly giving them something when they leave our our campus thank you um so when we look at our success rates for Stanton so we have um 72% of our students were successful at Stanton um and that's a variety of classes and a variety opportunity for our students um a lot of our our what we work on is building academic grit and the ability to stay engaged stay continuing to push through and continue to experience success with Yakima online our first quarter success rate was 63% which is roughly around the same when you're looking at online programs because often times students are at home and that's when we have those conversations to say maybe it's time to come in to Stanton for a little while and more engaged

051and access yourself a little bit um more thoroughly with the support of us and then open doors so this year we've awarded 105 credits as well as 42 tests have been or excuse me 92 tests have been passed and then we've had four completed uh geds and we had one as of yesterday so students are working and and truly engaged in getting that support ask a question what do you mean when you say what's a success rate mean what does that number mean so the passing of their classes oh they're passing 72% of their classes overall the students are yeah oh okay that's what that means thank you so the last slide here is the program enrollment Trends and we've talked a lot about enrollment at board meetings this year um K8 is looks like

052it's down from you know the last year but um those students are fully engaged and it keeps growing every well basically every week they add to it our home school you'll see it's at nine now um and it was at two the previous two years so um the three-year enrollment Trend and the reason I used a three-year enrollment Trend was ka8 has only been in existence for three years so I couldn't go back further um Stanton Y open doors and satellite um those numbers are volatile based on students lives basically right so um but the thing is those numbers the 355 I think Natalie will tell you all of those students are engaged like that's a real number that's not just they're enrolled and not doing anything so um they've increased that engagement even if

053they're down from 2022 to 2023 which was probably elevated because of covid and since we've gotten away from covid then more students are going back in person instead of online so those those numbers up there are very real those students are fully engaged any other questions for either of us any questions from the board I'm watching the screen to see if director rice pops up I do have one question I guess Natalie you mentioned yakam online students being able to come in and and have lunch and studying afterwards so in that facility is the common area a flexible space where those students are able to study or how how do they physically spread out yes so we have actually so the EA online space is and I would invite any of you that want to

054come through and see it now because it's all all smashed together we would love to have you come in and kind of see what we're doing but um so yakam online has their own space so everybody for yakam on line is in that space and in the middle of that space we've created a work area where all students can access that work we also have a rotation schedule where if they need a quieter space we have additional classrooms that we rotate uh people into to support and students in so we we base it on what the student needs because sometimes it can be a little noisy in the yakam online space so we do have opportunities for them to go to a classroom and get some of that onetoone engagement with a teacher or additional

055people so any other questions from the board hearing none I'll say thank you to both of you very much for the report we appreciate it very much thank you next on the agenda is the annual School Improvement plan report uh to report tonight is Dr Maria luchero the executive director of teaching and learning good evening um board president Becket superintendent green and members of the board um so this evening I'm going to present uh on the school Improvement plans and you have the full full slide deck I'm just going to highlight five slides for you this evening uh the school Improvement plans are actually required for every school in Washington State and must be approved by the school board of directors annually the school Improvement plan is the guiding document that drives the improvement process

056at each School in the yaka School District every school um completes a comprehensive needs assessment that leads up to the creation of their school Improvement plan and these plans are not static um they are intended to be actionable and regular regularly updated through the progress monitoring of those schools that is typically done through the instructional leadership team essential components of a school Improvement plan are priority goals that are actionable and measurable High leverage evidence-based activities most likely to achieve those priority goals multiple data measures that will be utilized to routinely check progress on the effectiveness or impact of an activity in order to determine if it should be retained revised or abandoned and this is done over the course of the entire school year so that you're aware of um the identification of our schools

057this is the the tiered model down starting down at the bottom are are schools that are foundational eligible or um foundational schools so they're not identified for tiered supports and really their support comes internally through the executive directors who meet with them on a regular basis still following up with um the work of their school Improvement plan the work of their instruction leadership team and professional learning teams we have schools that are identified for tier one supports and so these schools are identified um for growth in one to two um targeted areas for example it might be our English Learners or students with disabilities um our schools identified for tier 2 supports are schools identified as targeted in three or more areas um or targeted for English language progress and so this would be our

058multilingual learners who take the annual English language proficiency test um schools identified for tier three supports are schools who are tier three comprehensive identified for graduation rate um and then schools at the tier three plus supports um identified for comprehensive for graduation rate for two or more consecutive identification Cycles it's important to note that we are back on track with our three-year CLE so there was um an interruption to the cycle with CO as um was presented in last year's presentation so here are our schools that are eligible for school Improvement funds um Grant applications were due October 31st and due to the increased number of schools and Improvement across the state there are no District funds available um there are funds available for individual schools that range anywhere from 20 7,000 to $55,000 so

059these are elementary schools here are our secondary schools here are our foundational schools as I mentioned before they're not identified in receiving um tiered supports um we have barel Linkin knill Roosevelt Franklin Wilson Davis and Eisenhower um so doing absolutely amazing work they do continue like I mentioned before to have a school Improvement plan there's always room for growth and continuing to internally um analyze data they also set those goals and monitor them through the instructional leadership team and professional learning teams um as requested in the past um the Yakama School District school Improvement goals by Focus so you can see the number of schools for example for language arts and how many have goals in that area um I do want to highlight that although it shows here that the number of schools is

060one for professional learning communities across the board there is professional Learning Community work that is called out in the goals as a means for fulfilling that goal um this particular school um Garfield wanted to engage in a self- assessment and wanted to really Target growth as professional learning teams in certain areas after conducting that self assessment and you do have a summary um that is accessible through a link of all ysd School Improvement goals questions any questions from the board ran yes director rce um I want to thank Maria for this presentation I know it's um something that has to be done every year um but I appreciate the fact that she's identified those schools um that that are in particular areas of F that have particular areas of focus and my question is um

061Maria you identified the number of 27,000 to 55,000 that that amount of money is but for the whole school right it's not per grade level or anything like that it's just that it's a lump sum that goes to the school for the purpose of school Improvement that is correct to Target the their specific uh School Improvement plan goals yes okay thank you um Dr lero uh only question I had I when we got our preview in board docs for the agenda and we see the reports to come through I click through and of course there's a lot to this report it was uh um somewhat uh overwhelming to start clicking through but it was also really interesting just to be able to see how the different uh building leadership teams filled out those reports I

062thought it was very interesting to take a look at those I didn't go through every single one but I went through a lot of them um in section two where it identifies the school leadership team it also indicates an interest or or identification for parent and Community Partnerships and I only saw a couple of schools where they actually listed those and I'm wondering is that how closely is OSBI looking at that versus how involved is that I because I know those Partnerships exist I know those are in place all around us um and I'm just wondering if those are not being identified for a reason it may not be called out specifically in their school Improvement plan but there is a family engagement plan at every one of our schools um and so for example

063we might have a literacy night and the and a literacy night would align specifically for supporting parents and informing them of a school Improvement plan and their effort so that they can also partner with the school and support at home yes and those plans are reviewed by an outside entity and they do receive um reports each principal as do the principal supervisors receive a copy of that review and then we can when we meet with them oneon-one we do discuss the feedback that they've received excellent thank you like I say I know those I know those programs are ongoing I was just curious about that anything else from the board thank you very much thank you appreciate your report that moves us to section D and this is members of the board updates does any

064member of the board wish to report out this evening just a couple of things one if if if you didn't get a chance to to attend the Davis Auditorium celebration it was a nice evening it wasn't hugely attended but there were a lot of things going on at Davis that evening so um but it really was got a lot of comments afterwards from people that hadn't had the opportunity to see it before and it's certainly been an impressive thing we finally have completed it's real it's a real it's going to be a real shining star for the school dist district and and for the whole Community because it's kind of a place that a lot of things can can occur in there so that's that's nice the second one was we had the legislative breakfast

065this morning and director Becket and um director rice and superintendent green we were all there and there it was very informative on um just kind of what's going to be happening in the legislature and the needs of um local schools and and I'd like to point out one thing that I just said hoay is that um Senator King like Martha and myself is also very interested in a longer school year in order to better serve our students we've talked on our board many times about how our our academic progress seems to Flatline and I really think that we need to take a serious look and work with our community they haven't liked the idea so far but I think we need to take a serious look at extending our school year so that it serves

066the population kids that we have summers are too long we spend too much of the Fall catching up from what they've forgotten from the last year so just something to think about but and I'll just U add on to that it was uh it was nice the entire program was put on by EST 105 so there were um board members and superintendents from a variety of districts there presenting and and sharing information and representative Chris Corey Senator Torres Senator King and then representative elect Deborah maneras all attended and I thought it was um very interesting to hear their perspective on the upcoming legislative session as well so that was a interesting event uh hearing nothing else from board members I'll go to Dr Green for the superintendance update rep thank you very much uh president

067Becket I will foro my report out on the Davis Auditorium but I will follow up by saying that the Yakama Herald did a wonderful story that came out later that week so we were very pleased to be able to provide a private tour for the photographer as well as the reporter and we want to thank the heral for the way that they captured uh how important that new facility is not only to Davis but to the district uh regarding the legislative breakfast it was wonderful to have one Senator and three legislators there with with Senator King uh and to spend that time uh together and it was very well attended as you know and I just want to call out as well that uh in past years we it's been a long time since we've

068had that many legislators there in in a room uh so it was uh very well received as uh as you know other items to share uh we had a student Senate meeting uh on December 11th so over the last several years we've evolved the superintendent student advisory Council to become the student voice Council and it is uh continually an evolution to become systemic and a part of our district and we are now um switching to what is called a stud student Senate uh and building uh capacity within that uh that structure so I will be happy to report out more at a later date but we had 12 uh students representing the secondary level from uh 9 through 12 so we focused on the high school here this first year with the Senate uh with

069the opportunity to expand uh down to the middle school and one other thing that's important to call out is that uh in the first year of our student voice uh uh policy that was approved earlier this year it did call for a student voice structure for each of our schools by December so our executive directors are finalizing that here in this last week to make sure that each of our buildings do have indeed a plan in place for student voice so that's already having a great impact and it's uh only too bad that we don't have the uh two driving forces in Ezra and Lana uh who who helped uh realize that over over several years and they're also participating in the student Senate I should also call out that uh in speaking of our

070students and their success uh both of those individuals one at Davis one at Eisenhower now serve as the ASB president and senior class president respectively so it's nice to now have that connection up both of the schools along with their formal structures there within uh those buildings but then also providing feedback for us as a as an entire District uh regarding rotary a couple of weeks ago we did have a wonderful uh speaker uh during um November Adam Beach a well-known renowned uh Native U actor and I think I shared out on that previously but uh in rotary since our last meeting uh I was invited to speak on that and what it meant to our students uh we had a tremendous turnout from Lower Valley as well as uh our students here at both

071Davis Eisenhower and I believe we had Stanton represented there as well but uh it was very well received I spoke at the superintendants around the area uh they were very happy to participate in uh the opportunity and I think it's important to call out in this public setting especially when we are going through um like most districts and the state budgetary challenges uh that somebody of Adam Beach's stature coming to the district and the amount of compensation that that individual requires is only possible through Partnerships so president Becket you called out Partnerships and the importance thereof it was not the yakimas school district funding that entire opportunity it was a collaboration with multi multiple districts across our area contributing from their Native American funding source that allow owed that to to to happen um and

072it did get our name out there as one of the uh sponsors and I think that might have caused some confusion uh with the community on how can we be sponsoring something but it was in the organizational capacity the partnership capacity so uh that has really um given me something to think about because sometimes uh Good Deeds are not uh always interpreted in the way that they're meant uh so I would certainly want to get that out here in this setting to let people know that we are being very judicious with the opportunities that we provide and the the spending that goes into those into those items the last oh two more items one would be that our um office professionals had a customer service training it was a district-wide training it has been some

073time since that has occurred it was we do need to refresh these opportunities every once in a while we heard from our uh ya president here talk about protocols and sometimes no time lapses and it's a time for a refresh and that's what happened with our office professionals across the district I want to commend uh Chris Miller our director of our classified Personnel in HR uh had I've had nothing but positive feedback from uh that bargaining unit and the work that he did in um really emphasizing what we could do to make sure that we're serving our customers across the system whether they're our students or our families parents communities uh but how important that is and I'm excited about to see excited to see the changes and the the implementation of uh of of

074what he put in place last item to share with you is uh a little about a month the way we have the Martin Luther King march that is January 20th 2025 so um Martin Luther King march on that Monday and um one of those things I don't know H how it happens but I was very honored to be uh selected as the keynote speaker uh at the uh Convention Center that day so we will be marching as a district and they must be out of speakers across the uh city and state to have uh me in that role but uh uh certainly going to turn down an opportunity that comes from our members of our community uh making that request so I look forward to once again representing Yakama along with uh numerous uh administrators

075teachers students uh just been tremendously um pleased with the continual emphasis of reaching out to the community that we see on days like that and so we look forward to that uh January 20th uh opportunity and with that that that concludes my uh report for today I I have one go ahead please I I left out an an opportunity that I've had now twice to go to Wilson middle school and work with students um developing their math goals and and I specifically requested that when I go back when I went back again I met with the same two classrooms of students so I worked with the same individual students it's really remarkable to see their growth um it's really remarkable to see the number of kids that have really made a commitment to growth I'm

076really encouraged by what are students and teachers are doing and I anticipate that this process that they're doing is going to help raise their math scor significantly it'll be interesting to see what happens by the end of the year but break bunch of kids you know Middle School is a special place it's really fun thank you director Walker and thank you Dr Green for the update that takes us to our monthly Financial update and Mr Cooper thank you president Becket apologies I've been feeling bit under the weather so try to be Bri brief it's my kind of jacket and lack of professional attire this evening po so um before you this evening is the November financial report um first off the highlights or low lights uh cash flow is below projection I want to tell

077you why um cat right now is about two and a half to three million below projection in part mostly the timing of the approval of the Ida the um the largest portion of our special education funding from the federal government that was just approved the 13th or 14th this month we just drew down about a million and a half to million 3/4 so that will help us uh as we move forward in the next month but just so we identified why cash was low of course is the timeing some Grant reimbursements we just let you know why there's the uh Trend you can see that um we continue to decline enrollment if you look at the same period five years prior we were at 15 what 568 we at 15070 so and you can see

078on the month to month um generally we peak in enrollment in that November December time frame and we start to slide back down as the year progresses um budget versus actual we touched on this before and I got a little bit into the um volatility of the AL enrollment from the report that was provided to you prior so Al is up or is down 100 and change for projection however that program of course is the most flexible when it comes to Staffing is we often add staff and increments of uh we staff at an initial level and then we add staff based on growth an incre increments of about 0.5 and usually those are long-term Subs so as enrollment grows we can add Staffing so and that way the program um is fairly flexible as

079you you move the Staffing levels up and down cash flow we talked about early I always will focus on cash for you because cash is King everything else um I won't say manipulated but whatever you have in the bank tells you the tells the most truth of your financial position any given point in time so that's why you'll see me continually to focus on your cash position we know why cash is off by two and a half to three million as discussed earlier and we expect those cash flow to moderate more towards projection in the next couple of months so Revenue revenues are below protection but also expenditure so remember you got to look at them in tandem as you can see month to month on our revenues budget to actual um if you look

080down like for November is a prime example you see a 17 and change an 183 and a 16 and a half that's the volatility of your tax collections in um Lea in part um your tax collections will bolt come in October but then they also swing and bleed into that month of November depending upon how long the week how many weekends there are for tax collection who pay their taxes so that's what you're seeing in part in those months but again as our enrollment and our budget has shrink you can see our actual our actual revenue and expenditures are decreasing year-over-year um same on the expenditure side you can see the budgeted bar and black is um what are budgeted and the teal bar is the actual so we have become below projection on the

081first three months of the fiscal year I will say that we are monitoring closely um our substitute costs continue to rise and and grow um I did a I was given an analysis from a payroll this morning that were about 200,000 more this month than prior months in November so um to that end substitutes and availability of substitutes and how much we spend for substitutes continues to be a large driver of our costs as we move forward something we're obviously monitoring uh M Sox Material supplies and operating costs fairly volatile as you know they're they're a 15 to 70% of your budget and the timeline for their expenditures can vary like there's a cric adoption at year end you can have a big kick in your M Sox but for the most part as you

082can see our mck are are below our budgeted expenditures which is what we like to see this time of year um another example that can swing that would be if we have a harsh winter and part of our MX our Utility Billing so if we have month day after day after day of cold weather you can see spikes in our utility building that will actually show up in your larger aggregate financial data we let you know when that happens um and of course are there any questions all right thank you all um the governor released his budget today um had large tax increases in it in order to balance the deficit um we will see he's required by law to release a budget in month of December and then we will patiently await our pres

083legislature to determine our financial Fates I I do have a quick question in regards because you you mentioned the the increase in excuse me and and sick or or um substitutes and so forth has related to sickly right so I'm just wondering are you are you do you believe or seen any research regarding um whether or not it's related to covid like lung covid um change in the flu and cold season and with all these different I'm going to say you know what I mean is it related to that or is it here's my professional opinion okay not gonna say it's anything else besides Cooper because I know Anthony wants to say something but he's not going to right now because I am postco districtwide Statewide absenteeism still up employees have not come back to

084work at the same rates they've historically attended pmla is another unfunded mandate from the state so when people are out on Paid Family Medical Leave who do you think needs to hire a substitute teacher for that paid family medical leave now that was completely unfunded by the legislature the state by initiative so we have pfla and then we have quite frankly we have po attendance postco you can see that data Statewide um and I don't know how to remedy that um I have never seen sub usage if when you look at around the state as high as level it is now and I don't know what what is driving that Ren part so I I would concur with that at the legislative breakfast today that was brought up and that is a a theme across

085the state so we had numerous districts who were talking about that so there's a tremendous uh increase in absences postco so um there's a different and then if you heard me say a few times then I will have to let Anthony say something because HR is a ba the funding for substitutes has remained static my whole career it's been $150 86 per day roughly $450 per per funded teaching unit it has not changed in 15 maybe 20 years that number has stayed static where we've all chased the sub rates higher and higher couple hundred bucks a day 250 in Yakama we have a what happens when a when the sub reaches 30 days 30 days is it 20 they then receive prum rate based on where they're at so we we have uh we have

086some cost issues as well but Anthony go ahead if you want to talk about in part what you seen remember so I think overall we're seeing sick leave usage down but what Jake had pointed out too we're also seeing p family medical leave which is a protected leave usage up as well as the professional development also requires a substitute when we have PD going on um we take the individuals out of the out of the classroom and then we have to sub that as well so by breaking them down into categories we're able to to get a better idea of where it is but there as Jake said the the legislator mandates a minimum of 10 sick leave days but they only fund three and they funded at rate substantially below U the going rate

087so I don't know that we're ever going to be able to give you answers that you're specifically looking for but I'd be more than happy to get into any kind of detail with anything that you'd like yeah no I was just wondering what what's driving the the cost up right because you know it's it seems to be a a point Point that's brought up constantly every report so I just wanted to get dig into that a little bit we are not unique Raymond I yes that's what I was Statewide a problem if you look at the gap on I can pull it for you the Gap in state funding Statewide all districts and the substitute expenditure it's massive the Gap is huge they fund zero classified Subs so every time we sub out a par

088secretary proftech no State funding zero all district it's all local ly money every time you said about a classified employee thank you for explaining that it helps a lot thanks uh last thing I I know that Jake mentioned the budget dropping from the governor today I while he was speaking I actually sent you a message with a link on the education budget summary from the governor so that is waiting for you when you have time thank you very much thank you Mr Cooper hope you feel better and at this point we'll be looking at item number four calendar updates future agenda topics is there anything of note Dr Green uh as you can see on the calendar we do have some items coming up in January uh we do see the uh meeting on at

089McLure Elementary School which is on January 6 at 4M on the 13th we have a school board retreat at Central Services which Bears some conversation here this evening I would hope I you and I have not had the opportunity to speak uh as your new role now is uh board president but we did have a conversation about uh about the board retreat and I'll loop back here in just a moment I'll point out that on January 21st we have a meeting at 7M at Central Services and then February 3rd is our site visit to Hoover Elementary School at 4M so that takes us through the the the items there uh the other thing that we probably should mention is the board retreat which is after uh uh we come back in January and right now

090the agenda is very slim we had that we had the discussion and planning for the meeting I thought we were going to have that on the agenda as the discussion it didn't make it there but here we are we have no pressing requests for issues for an agenda for a retreat at this point and we were having the conversation well why are we manufacturing things to doing a retreat we were scheduled to have one I believe in March a retreat or in August it was it was March I think we had one scheduled March which we talked about um bypassing because we were going to have one in January so here we have the January coming up we could certainly meet for a full day like we've done before if we have a full agenda

091there's nothing that says we have to meet for a full day Retreat it could be a partial day Retreat um or we could decide to postpone that and maybe revive the one in in March for a more robust agenda but currently at this moment uh the items that I have uh are really the the Curiosity or desire to have more conversation around professional learning communities um is the only uh outstanding item uh that has really made it to the agenda uh I have refrained from sending out kind of the request as to bring it here to the board uh because I know it would probably lead to some discussion about what you would want to do collectively at this point I wonder if if Barb has a running list of those items because I know

092we've discussed some had some discussions that we we Ted for the retreat and there's probably at least three that I kind of vaguely remember and I'm just wondering if we have a running list the three items we had on the list were the plc's we had the 1,00 series and the zero series which were um items that we had listed to that were recorded um at this point unless you have something different bar which I don't think you do as we she's saying no can I ask the members of the board to please email Dr Green within the next day or so if there's anything pressing they'd like to have added and then Dr GRE maybe we can you and I can okay discuss sounds great sound all right excellent thank you very much this

093takes us to comments from the public on agenda items do we have any speakers signed up tonight Barb we do not thank you very much then we will move to section e our consent agenda the consent agenda this evening includes approvals of minutes notification of approval of warrants for November 2024 approval of personnel actions and the budget status reports from November which are included in your consent agenda in board docs does any member wish to have any item of the consent agenda removed for discussion this evening no hearing none I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as submitted so moved second it's been moved and it has been seconded is there any discussion Barb would you please call the role director Navaro Jr I director Walker I director rice I president Becket

094I motion passes four to zero thank you Barb section f is our approvals the first one this evening is approval for Dr Green to travel for the heads and principales association annual conference and to address that I'll ask you Dr Green to please elaborate yes thank you this is uh very important to share because of course when we're in times of uh budget constraints um we want to be very um aware of what is going on out there as far as travel and as an entity we have made sure to scrutinize uh every request that has gone forward and I expect nothing less from the board uh I am not one who likes to travel and yet I recognize that in this role there are important opportunities that are out there that can bring things

095to the district and this is one of those so there has not been outof State travel uh By Me in just about a year uh the heads and principles Association conference is in the amount of $2,849 92 it does take place in Durham North Carolina which is not a vacationing Mecca I would point out uh but what it does provide is the opportunity to join with the heads and principales Association of which uh I was inducted into and it is a madeup of boarding school private school leaders of about 80% and uh also then Public School administrators and superintendents to the tune of about 20% uh the reason that this is so important is because of the opportunity to cross-pollinate with leaders across both organizations to engage with renowned thought leaders Foster peer collaboration and

096performance certainly address contemporary challenges which does take place over those uh several days and enrich district-wide professional opportunities that come through the organization I would also call out that uh at a time where um we are looking at a presidential change and what that could mean uh it is important to be on the east coast and understand a little bit more on what's happening on that side of the country and how it impacts uh certainly the private sector but then also uh potentially resonating through the uh public uh public education system as well the event aligns with our commitment to Leadership Excellence equity and collaboration and by approving my attendance you are investing in opportunities to strengthen our District's initiatives from advocating for Equitable funding to enhancing safety measures of promoting innovation in education I

097am not scheduled to uh take any other outof state uh uh opportunity uh this school year nor have I taken one PR previously during the school year so i' just call that out that this is a well conceived and thought out request the board is being asked to approve travel for superintendent green to the heads and principles association annual conference in Durham North Carolina from February 4th through 7th in the amount of $2,565 128 do I hear a motion so moved second it has been moved in second and is there any discussion hearing no discussion Barb would you please call the role director Navaro Jr I director Walker I director rice I president Becket I motion passes 4 to zero thank you very much approvals uh number two will be the approval of the 20242

098School Improvement plan we'll go ahead and take that it is listed for Stacy lock and I no matter how many times I promised to myself I'm going to get better about notifying you of people who are not here in the meeting and why I continually forget to take those opportunities until it comes to A Moment Like This so we do have Stacy lock excused from our meeting today uh she is ill and uh I specifically requested that she stay away um we're sorry that she's not here but um this was her item the requested action is that the board of directors approves the 20 2425 School Improvement plans as submitted I do want to call out that uh uh when you spoke about Partnerships uh director president be Beckett uh that is an opportunity for

099all of our our our our principles to make sure is in the plan because I can tell you that each of our buildings does have a an opportunity and does have Partners uh we we know that through our faith-based partnership that there's at least one if not multiple just in that area so I just wanted to dub tail that onto this uh requested action but the request back to the requested action the board of directors approves the 2425 School Improvement plans as submitted it does tie into goals three and five of our strategic plan which is Equitable opportunity to achieve core mastering critical thinking as well as participants through graduation and Beyond uh you've heard the background information through Maria Lucero uh so the requested action then is to uh approve this uh this requested

100action I move that we approve the 24 25 School Improvement plans second is there any discussion yes I do well I I I excuse me I I will vote in favor of approval for these plans however I did notice and I know this is an issue that is currently being discussed at the state level um and some parties inter terms of the effectiveness of critical race Theory and being taught in public schools and it seems from excuse me it seems from reviewing some of the plans there there is a little bit of that critical race Theory and so I just wanted to bring bring that out that that may not be the most effective way of or philosophy or approach to teaching kids to be successful in our diverse community so I just want wanted

101to bring that out and and let the board know that I will support approval of the the plans but I do have some concerns in regards to um being based some of the plans or some of the activities uh curriculum being based on critical race Theory thank you Walker you have something well I I read I read through I didn't read the details in the data but I read through all of the plans goals there's a one box where you can read just their goals and their plans I saw no mention of critical race Theory so I'm not sure where that's coming from again I rather not go in and and identify a school I rather not do that discussion and and not not even get into debate it's just my thoughts their critical race

102Theory doesn't have to be actually spelled out to to know that it's critical race Theory um there's some approaches some curriculum that is based on critical race Theory and and I'm again I'm not going to call out any curriculum or any schools or any principles that are are are are are using that approach and their plans I'd rather not do that and and we can have a discussion nor uh at a later time if you like and I can show you where I believe there is uh influence or there's critical race there being in woven into some of the activities we have a motion on the table Barb would you please call the role director Naro Jr I director Walker I director rice I president Becket I motion passes four to zero section three is

103our second opportunity from comments for the public on other items non- aggenda items bar do we have any speakers signed up this evening there are no commenters seeing none we'll move on to section g for policy governance the first item is the first reading of the series uh board meetings order of business and quorum there any comments to be made I I am I understanding this correctly that Martha this is the policy that you uh had the opportunity to redline yes this was um I worked with um our attorney on uh suggestions to present in this policy it's they're just essenti they're not very major edits it's just minor edits um this is based on rough discussions that the board has had over the past year and so um I volunteer to to make those

104edits and this is the first reading so we'll have at our next probably at our next board meeting we'll have an opportunity for second reading so if the board has any suggestions or questions about the edits that were um done in this policy you can get a hold of me and we can talk about that or um you can talk with u staff if you have other questions about it and then we will have an opportunity for second reading at our next board meeting at which time uh we will have probably an opport an the ability to approve that and that would be the um the new 1400 policy thank you director rice I noted that we have both the redline copy and the original in our board docs packet so hopefully everybody will have

105a chance to review those before our next meeting and we will um take that up at that point in time the next item under policy governance we have the survey mon monkeys that have been attached to our board board docs um for policies 1.3.4 all the way through 3.7 did anybody have any desire to discuss any of those further or in depth tonight do we need a motion to receive we do not Ryan Yes director R um I'm working on a very small screen here so I may I may not be able to see everything that I've had a chance to review but I I'm not sure that I can see the Survey Monkey results on these because I don't believe that that we've had an opportunity to discuss them to in order to generate

106the Survey Monkey I believe this is the first reading oh thank you thank you thank you for that clarification so we will begin with 3.4 which is the president's role which I will undoubtedly be studying in closer detail than I have done before this evening 1.3.4 is attached uh and it identifies the role not only of the president but also identifies duties of the vice president 1.3.5 is attached which is our board members code of conduct which itemizes uh our code of conduct and disciplinary procedures should those be necessary 3.6 is our board committee principles which identifies nine different bullet points that our board will adhere to and 3.7 is our board committee structure which identifies the opportunity for board committees should the need rise and as I understand it we don't currently have any

107board committees in place is that correct does any board member have any questions about any of those particular policies before we review so that we can conduct the Survey Monkey no okay then Barb will looks like send those tomorrow thank you very much do we have a need for executive session this evening we do not have a need for executive session okay uh well that brings us to the end of our agenda this evening I would like to take a brief moment to say thank you to Norm Walker for serving as our board president over the last year we appreciate your service and your leadership and we look forward to uh continuing the conversations about public education in yaka with you and our new roles congratulations to everyone for their new position if positions changed

108this evening our next board meeting according to my calendar is 4 P p.m on Monday January 6th we'll be at McClure Elementary and with nothing else on our agenda I'll wish everyone Merry Christmas and happy holidays and thank you for attending tonight on a cold winter evening drive safe