001foreign [Music] good evening ladies and gentlemen Welcome to the Mark or April 18th board meeting of the Yakima School District it's so nice to see a lot of people interested in policy and governance before we begin I would like to remind you we do have translation services available from Andromeda interpreting Services if you are in person in this meeting tonight and you need translation we have devices you can use please check in with Barb for a translating device Barb right here we also offer live streaming options for this meeting if you're turning into the live stream there is a Spanish live streaming link to tune into these Services you can find that on the website there are two options this evening for public comment the first option is for comment on agenda items only and
002the second option toward the end of the meeting is for any other topic there are two items to sign if you would like to speak tonight the sign in form itself and a guidelines form and those are both up front if you happen to be interested in any past meetings you can find a link on our link on our webpage to the ysd YouTube channel to view past meetings that were recorded and posted there Barb would you call the role please director Beckett here director rice here director Navarro junior Here vice president via Nueva here president Walker here and now uh Mr Beckett will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty
003and justice for all and now we'll have a video of selected students presenting the Yakima land acknowledgment today the schools of the Yakima School District rest on the ancestral lands of the 14 configurated tribes and bands of the accommodation the people of the Yakima Nation inhabited more than 12 million Acres across Adams Benton Chelan Douglas Franklin Grant here the task could a cat and Yakima counties today we honor the native people who are tied to the land through history Legends and cultures we acknowledge their 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 and Memorial an acknowledgment is a simple powerful way to show respect and you step toward correcting the stories and practices that erase indigenous people's history
004and culture it also honors the truth as the school district will continue to build upon our relations with the Yakima Nation thank you and now we have a number of recognitions we'd like to make this evening I believe I need the the list we have a number of athletes and students involved in activities from winter sports and activities and if they're here tonight we would like to read your name and when your name is read we have certificates for you so if you want to come up and you'll swing around the board and shake the board's hands and then you will receive your certificate okay okay we're going to begin with Ramon Mendoza wrestling from Davis High School [Applause] congratulations let me be a little more specific about why Ramon is being recognized this is
005the award for the national electronic electrical contractors Association and Brotherhood of Electrical Workers are honoring students for demonstrating Superior balance in academics Athletics and Community involvement so this is not just an athletic award this is an award for doing all of those things well [Applause] next up receiving the same award is Mackenzie Clemens who is on the bowling team at Eisenhower High School and MacKenzie's not here tonight but her coaches so congratulations to her coach also from Davis High School with a technology Student Association robot challenge Andres Gutierrez [Applause] that's right this way I've never been in a reception line before yeah next up is Amalia Farm Davis High School Technology award for solar Sprint first place speculations and we also have Allison Dorn Davis High School solar Sprint first place team and their coach
006is David Bray I remember you when you followed around the Larson gallery okay awesome from Winter extra curricular activities National History Day regionals first place Alicia Reyes Davis High School [Applause] thank you for your work and effort keep going next up we have Javier Ruiz Davis High School first place in historical paper congratulations next up we have Xander Sanchez Hankins dragster design [Applause] congratulations and we have yahir Palacio Sanchez also dragster design congratulations Amaya Farm essays in technology [Applause] would be your father I knew him in Middle School we may have to get that to you later just yeah yeah we'll get you Peter Whitney flight endurance Davis High School he was in my advisory of Franklin next up also for flight endurance Braden Platt Davis High School [Applause] congratulations I know that's the next
007one and finally with on-demand video from Davis High School Julius Aguilar munguia [Applause] congratulations it's encouraging to see so many of our technology students receiving this recognition and now we have some winter sports recognition for boys wrestling from Davis High School isai Perez [Applause] congratulations also in boys wrestling from Davis High School Jacob Alcala [Applause] congratulations home and from Davis High School wrestling Miguel Galvez [Applause] congratulations and for women's wrestling from Davis High School Savannah Espinoza [Applause] congratulations and in women's wrestling from Davis High School Gracie Farm [Applause] congratulations and from girls wrestling at Davis High School Gabriella Sanchez [Applause] and from Davis High School bowling we have Layla Hall [Applause] these students who are all top eight or above placers at state tournament congratulations and we have a women's wrestler from Eisenhower High School
008shaylynn spino or spino excuse me correctly I think it's spino is that correct congratulations and we have one more Award winner for the superior balance in academic academics Athletics and Community involvement and that's Sarah Rodriguez from Davis basketball okay and Coach coach is here of Mr White congratulations were there any other athletes or coaches that showed up tonight that we missed checking in okay congratulations to all of you for representing your school and our district so well and did you want to get a group picture you've got them already okay so you are certainly welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting those of you that are interested in policy and governance but if you'd like to be excused many of you have homework or you might have other sports that you're practicing for
009so you're welcome to leave if either one so [Applause] oh we're born again so how many of you guys wrestled at the Westberg Invitational you didn't go to the Westbrook this year [Music] we all sophomores okay foreign between the two of us foreign okay we need to we need to move on with our agenda please so thank you for coming we'd like to take a few minutes of a meeting we've to run our people that are either past employees or students who have passed away in the past few weeks so tonight we are honoring the memories of Glenn theisfeld who was a long time maintenance worker in the district Doug Cairns who was a long time teacher at Wilson Middle School in Eisenhower High School in music and science and Phoebe Oliver is a student
010that we lost within the past couple weeks so if you would join me in taking a moment of silence please to recognize these individuals thank you thank you um and now items of board interest do we have any updates from members of the board I have one okay let's see if I can find it um just a reminder to board members we are currently in the um that time of year where we submit legislative proposals for consideration at general assembly in September in September that window is open right now it began yesterday and it closes on February February in on May 12th so um I I'd like to ask for some time on on a future meeting between now and May 12th where we could discuss potential issues that you all would like to perhaps
011submit as a legislative proposal for this next year and then um on top of that we are down to the last few days of let our legislative session this year scheduled to end on the 23rd so I think that's next Monday Maybe um right now the legislature is deeply enmeshed in budget discussions I don't believe that any of that that the final budget has been um agreed upon yet once that happens my understanding is that there will be no other amendments or anything added to it whatever is comes out of the of the reconciliation process is what it is um and since the last day of the session is the 23rd they really don't have too many more days um to take care of that the advocates for all of the education associations including wasda
012are currently focusing on their top priorities and for us as school directors that they would include special education Pupil Transportation regionalization and experience Factor and local effort assistance or Levy Equalization some may know it by that term other education associations are also promoting that the learning assistance program or lap be included in the budget so as we get down to this weekend um what they're going to have to let us know what the budget looks like failure to agree on the budget by the 23rd will require that they go into a special session which nobody has any appetite for so deadlines are great things I guess and that's all I have unless you have questions thank you Martha any other reports from board members okay I have one that will come later under calendar and
013future agenda so I'll address that then Dr Green has our superintendent's update and I believe some special guests to introduce thank you very much president Walker well all right so I'd like to start just by acknowledging our focus on Equity as a district and with a reminder of our definition that that's the condition that would be achieved if one's group's membership no longer predicated in a statistical sense how one fares and Equity is the outcome not just access to opportunity in addition I know that we didn't have the character word so I just want to make sure that we recap that for this month in April it's adaptable which is capable of being or becoming adapted able to adjust to new conditions and in Spanish it would be adapters the trait is community and globally
014connected and in Spanish it would be connectado con la comunidad El Mundo So speaking about being adaptable I think we should just go right into recognizing our friends here from Japan it has just been a wonderful kickoff I know that if I continue to talk I'm going to steal some thunder so I will pass this immediately to Kirsten and then I can have any closing comments if there's something else I would like to add but we certainly want to welcome our our friends with okay podium oh well I will I do have a bit of Pomp and Circumstance but first um just a bit of a personal gesture if I may with my grandchildren we have a rule in our family that when I see something that I'm inspired to buy for one of them
015I buy it I don't have to get all five one at the same time but I will get something that I'm inspired by so tonight before we talk more formalities there is an assistant superintendent Among Us who has a love for something that comes from Japan so with my colleagues in Japan they have brought something special and a little Hello Kitty for assistant superintendent Rodriguez she is a fanatic about Hello Kitty so straight from Japan Dr Rodriguez well um as you all know we have engaged in a Japanese exchange we are at about 50 years right now so we are embarking on the third generation of Yakima people to participate in the exchange and that was evident tonight at the Japanese cultural show at Eisenhower we have 69 students here from Japan and we have
016my adult colleagues here which I am going to let them introduce themselves head up by a group leader we have Excursion tomorrow to Seattle where we will take up two buses because there are 80 80 of us that will be going to Pike Place Market going to a Mariner game and going to the University of Washington says this coug so show Mercy next week we have an Excursion to Leavenworth while the students are here they are attending Eisenhower Davis and East Valley high schools with the majority attending Davis and Eisenhower so they are having a wonderful time I want to publicly thank our 35 host families in the Yakima community that are hosting the exchange students so I will have devron Foster who is me in Japan coordinating this exchange and you can tell maybe
017Optics is that he is not Japanese he is from Washington DC but has lived in Japan for a very long time married to a Japanese woman and has a beautiful Japanese toddler yeah and so he will be our our translator and introduce but I'm just pleased that we're having such a wonderful exchange and appreciate the board's support as always later hello everyone and uh thank you again for having us we're really happy to be here and and uh you know uh really really warm welcome and our kids are look looks like they have a really good time so thank you very much I'd like to introduce uh first our group leader uh Mr tomokazu Saito he's a math teacher at our school and then our other uh homeroom teacher he's a kazaki Yoshida and he's
018a PE teacher and the uh the baseball coach for our school so uh and also we have a now now now and she is a fantastic travel agent who's make sure we get to where do we need to be on time and uh we don't leave any kids behind so that's the big one okay and uh yeah we just want to say thank you very much we brought a few things for uh some of the board members that are from our school and uh I don't know who I should give them to so so very much thank you well hey hang on one moment because we do have a mug that we would like to share with Mr Saito if you would come up please to commemorate our partnership with our logo thank you [Applause]
019again thank you for coming and have a great trip with your students thank you so as they depart I'll make a few more comments so we personally have four of the exchange students staying in our home it's just been a tremendous opportunity tremendous experience it's just wonderful to see the world come closer together we know that we've been living in this pandemic world and this virtual world for so long that sometimes we forget how nice it is to connect in person especially with people from other cultures and other languages and it just has been very heartwarming to have the young men representing their school and their community and their country so well in just the first four days that we've had them at our home I would encourage anybody that has the opportunity in the
020future to consider hosting and also then the opportunity for our students to go to Japan this summer which is going to be just a wonderful opportunity for them to experience exactly what our Japanese friends are experiencing here going to a different place and learning a different language and being out of their comfort zone which has been something that is nice to see with our our young people and having them persevere through the challenges and barriers of language and culture so um on to the next item which is the just information for the board on a davis Auditorium tour so I know that there is some interest in the renovation project at Davis Auditorium so I have reached out to provide that opportunity it will be between from 10 a.m to 11 30 for those who
021are able to make the tour and that will be on the 27th of this month so if you can make that please let us know whether we have to have a quorum or if we would just have a a few of you take advantage of that opportunity but that is out there and any questions about the Davis Auditorium tour as far as I know it's still on Pace for this summer so contrary to any kind of rumors out there it's it's on Pace for the summer and I guess we'll know more on the 27th right the last item for the superintendent update is to inform the board of a opportunity that we want to present or make available for you on a regular basis when we met with Mary Alice usual we talked about monitoring
022what is happening around the district and in part of that process is to really get those opportunities in front of you and recognizing that we have a wide variety of occupations and we have some people that are retired there may be you know different times where you could attend and we're obviously trying to really be more efficient efficient with our meetings to free up some of the time for you to really know what's happening in the district from a first-hand perspective so you can see on the screen what we have put together and by we I mean Barb so what Barb has put together is a ysd board superintendent calendar and as you look at that calendar for any date you will that will soon be compiled with all of the events that are happening
023around the district that you could attend if it's in green it's completely open and available if it's in red then that means it is full so so to speak if you look at Tuesday the 25th director rice and I have a meeting so that's a one-on-one meeting that we we have scheduled so nobody else is invited to that that's our one-on-one yeah and you can see that President Walker and I are scheduled for the 27th and president Walker and I will be meeting that day but if as you look at you know Community steam night um there's a uh the opening to to Greece uh Greece starts this Thursday at Davis High School uh there are opportunities that we want you to be aware of and we recognized through that process of working with you
024as a board and knowing that we're not doing as good of a job as we can of providing time one but opportunity and we want you to just know that those opportunities are out there and we will continue to keep you appraised but you could check on your own because you will have access to that calendar Barb could you just walk us through and and go ahead and if you want to say a few words just on how to walk through that no okay so the way that you would do this is on the left can you just show this um well I have to send them an invite to this calendar okay so we were going to walk that we were going to work that out with Andy first okay but they'll be able
025to have viewing permissions to this calendar they won't be able to add anything to the calendar or not and again like um superintendent green said if it's if it's red then it's not something that you can join but if it's green just send me an email as soon as I have two or more I'll turn it red and then you'll know that it's full if you really want to go then we can make a quorum for it and we'll make sure that those events that if you want to go to those events um we'll we'll get you in the door to those events so it looks like we have two full days of 25th 26 if you want to spend all day long at uh the state track meet you're welcome to do so and
026you can stay as little or as long as you would like at any of these events are there any questions or comments for the board I'm hopeful that this is something that you would find valuable in in knowing some of the events that are happening yes good so uh we are as I mentioned we're continuing to compile that so all of our office managers kudos to our office managers around the district for um going through their individual calendars and letting us know uh what is uh currently uh still scheduled and making adjustments as we go throughout the year so again the the desire is to have you look at that calendar any night and you're like hey I don't know what to do I need a date night you just hey let's go to a
027steam event let's go to a an open house somewhere so there's lots of opportunities never a dull moment and with that I'll pass it back to president I hope you have a question on the calendar lecture one to one so I know your your calendar fills up fast so I guess the problem that I'm having is trying to match my calendar with yours and then you know I don't always get yeah my calendar established for the year when you do so it's just kind of trying to coordinate those two calendars so we can absolutely and and there are are five people six my wife's here too that can really bump my calendar so you you are a priority person and I I recognize that it may not be uh the first option but I can
028tell you that barb will rearrange my schedule to make availability for any of you okay good to hear that right Barb absolutely if it's you know if it can be moved it will be moved and if it can't we will tell you right away and we'll get the next available opportunity but yeah you your positions and the uh you know the work that you do for the district and recognizing um you know the efforts that you put forth on behalf of the community we certainly want to prioritize that yeah I will okay um all right uh president Walker any other questions for Dr Green before we move on thank you so I will be kind of dovetailing with that topic around calendar and future agenda topics um there are a few things coming up that
029I want you to be aware of and a few changes in our calendar that I want you to be aware of Barb does the does the board have this copy of the just the okay you'll be mailing that out to them okay so the first one is we are canceling the May 8th board meeting as we do not have items on the agenda and we do have as a reminder we do have May 9th the three-hour professional learning Zoom learning virtual session so just keep that on your calendar if you want I think we all need to do that one or should be doing that one if we can so we don't we only have one meeting that we've been ones online also we will be canceling the June 12th board meeting as that is
030the same evening as the Davis High School graduation ceremony we currently do not have items scheduled for that meeting and we do have scheduled meetings the week prior to June 12th and the week following so Barb again we'll update the calendar to reflect those changes due to a medical emergency impacting Robinson Elementary Administration the board meeting scheduled to be held at Robertson on April 24th will be held at Robertson on May 1st okay and this will all come out to you in writing too so but just right and then um the board meeting that was scheduled May 1st at Central Services will not be held on April 24th so Barb again we'll update the calendar now this is one um this is yeah so we're canceling the May 8th meeting yes and the April to
031May first meeting yeah no we will meet May 1st at Robertson and what about April 24th site here so that's a site for being here they're being flipped okay yeah I'm sorry I've misunderstood I thought you said yeah I I read that wrong we'll be meeting here okay 24th my apologies yeah my apologies to that was it'll it'll come out on your your calendar will reflect that these will be updated for you so we're just flipping those two meetings is all and then this one is not set yet but it's a recommendation we currently have the board retreat scheduled for August 7th but the superintendent and I are recommending that we reschedule if possible for August 14th and there are two reasons for that change um one is the administrative team has their Leadership Retreat
032scheduled for the seventh and that cannot be moved we're ready to hold the board retreat on the 14th then the superintendent could could be present on the 14th and participate also if we were to have our board meeting on the 7th the superintendent would not be able to kick off the leadership academy with the directors executive director's principles and so on so because he would have to be at the board retreat so that's to they cannot change the date of the administrative meeting secondly our superintendent will be returning from his personal time chaperoning the trip to Japan okay and would not be available to assure refinements for the Border cheat agenda if it were held in the seventh but on the 14th he will be back we can do our refinements for the meeting and
033or for the retreat and and we're already working on on the agenda for the retreat so um anyway that's not something we need to decide immediately check your calendars check what's going on and see if that can work for you to have it on the 14th instead of the seventh okay works for me except I have to get up at three in the morning the next day and fly to Albuquerque but oh man okay I think that's all I have oh no that's just the changes okay we have a few other things just keep in mind the graduation and celebration dates are out to you they're also on the on green on the calendar that you were just shown and so again with the graduations and commemorations there won't be a quorum issue when you
034check in for that one um excellence in education is April 28th at Ike and that's their awards for teachers and staff of the Wasa awards banquet is May 4th at yv Tech and you will be getting invitations to all of these if you haven't already the hap celebration Hispanic academic achievement program celebration is May 12th at yv Tech and okay we've gone over the calendars and then superintendent green will be at the Wasa superintendent conference on May 1st we do have a board meeting scheduled then so I don't know if you're joining us by yeah I thought that may be hard to attend so I'll do what I can to attend virtually but I may have to assign those duties to our Deputy superintendent Dr darling I wanted the board to be aware that that's
035a distinct possibility and then also just to acknowledge that you did mention the hap celebration we do have other celebrations that we've announced previously black Elegance our Native American celebration the reason we listed this is we had not talked about that previously so we wanted to call attention to the haap his demic Hispanic academic Achievers program in that night and flag that for you so and you will be getting a list of all those award nights again if they're not already if you haven't already received invitations for those so it fills up and again you're not obligated to make all of those I mean make the ones that you can and okay any other questions on calendar and agendas and so on okay um I think we might have one do we have one more
036okay I was wondering about that so we do have one follow-up that we would ask this evening and that is the Wasa number seven item that's listed Wasa scr awards banquet that is May 4th at yv Tech at 5 30. uh that is uh in person after several years so typically it is attended by school boards around the region um it'll be held at yv Tech we do have legislators that attend uh and we also then have some recognition awards that will go out at that time so there is a meal that's provided it's a price that we wanted to get in front of and make sure that we let the ESD know how many people would be in attendance on that date so I think by tomorrow Barb is that what we're asking probably
037not tonight I know you have to maybe check your calendar this evening but if by tomorrow you could let Barb know whether you could make that date on the fourth at 5 30 it looks like so I think that's the yep no 5 30 and 4th at yv Tech okay should be an email okay it's uh it's what would be a regional event so it's our yeah it's our ESD all of the districts within the ESD coming together with their boards recognition legislators in the area yeah Wasa is a Washington Association of school administrators so represents our district level executive directors directors superintendents assistant superintendents I will be attending that one so you will have representation there that's an issue for other folks okay any other questions comments on calendar and agenda if not we'll
038welcome director Cooper to our fancy new Podium for our financial report everybody pleasure to be here is that true is it on it is it's green so yes sorry I am tall on historically podiums are short so I have I love podiums because I can hide behind something but there's always not the great greatest for a man of my um petite stature so good evening I'm Jacob Cooper Executive Director of Finance um I do want to talk about a little bit before I get into the meat of the report uh be in the legislative session as director Walker uh Richard rice pointed out earlier that we have five days left to touch before cyanide which is the 23rd is on on this Sunday of the uh this the end of this week they uh we
039are patiently awaiting the conference budget there is still some rather large differences differences between each chamber for the most part the differences that you should know about in your governing chair is the Senate has a much lower amount in our mandatory our retirement contributions to the tune of about 850 to 900 million dollars the house would like to keep the current pension rates at their current level are a bit higher so there is some Actuarial dispute on that and they were also going to use some one-time money so the the benefit would be a lower pension contribution from the employer so we would save some funds this next budget cycle the downfall as I've seen in my career is that what often happens is when pension rates are lowered they are dramatically increased the following
040fiscal year so we will see what happens but that is a there's a disagreement there about 850 to 900 million between the two Chambers also for your importance is there is still dispute albeit a civil one on special education funding and transportation those proverbial birds have not come to roost and there is still disagreement significant disagreement on how much money should go into each and we are patiently awaiting I will say when I did the numbers on each chamber's budget that both put us in the red by about 750 to 800 000 dollars because we have to pass through the ipd which is set at 3.7 percent for the year and have some other uh increases that we bargained so overall the budget the two budgets that I have seen in cost it up are
041fairly stable but then we have to also combat our declining enrollment of nearly 300 students so I would say we are stable but and and tightening our operations slowly but surely but nothing no major or significant reductions in the multi-millions of dollars that you're seeing across the state so fortunately our enrollment decline has been slow and steady and not precipitous and we are getting some additional funds from the legislature in part for social emotional learning or counseling which we have already staffed up to those levels which is a good thing and then the ipd at 3.7 and then some changes to the special education funding formula so I just want to give you a brief update on the legislative session because it's you know in the first year of the biennium it's a long session
042a lot of things can happen so we will keep our fingers crossed and I will update um the superintendent and you all next week on the final conference budget are there any questions on the legislature and our friends in Olympia I'll leave it at that so highlights for this month again the springtime the business office is in full budget mode and we have finished our staffing and Staffing meetings but along with assistant superintendent Rodriguez and HR we've met with all the principals and departments and so they have preliminary Staffing numbers for the beginning of next year we still have some refinement to do in a few areas but for the most part that work has been done which allows us to get into the labor market early and get higher those hard to fill positions
043which always is important I will of course point you to a few highlights on the deck though that slide looks like there's a major difference in projected versus actual enrollment we are down as we normally are we see a decrease in enrollment um because our Peak as you can see is that October November those two months and then we begin a slow slow Decline and part of that is students that are either no longer with us or have moved graduated or doing alternative um taking alternative opportunities to continue their education so you'll see that and that that Trend holds true in in our data year over year where we do start the year at a peak and slowly lose enrollment over the months cash as you can see the arrow is moving in the right
044direction albeit stubbornly the size of our reimbursements and we continue to move them closer to projection so the dark blue line is our actual cash position and the green is our projected cache and we should see as we have seen a continued uptick in cash closer to projection as the year moves on most of that has to do with our large reimbursements in our Esser and so those are all about timing and so we have each month we draw down one and a half to two million dollars as you can see that Gap is continuing to narrow over time and I would anticipate that our cash balances will be much closer to the green projection up top when the year is through any questions on the cash balance budget to actual expenditures as you can
045see we are in line with historical averages and if you'll note the as we noted several meetings before the uptick in expenditures in let's see the month I'm looking December when we had a large payroll for retroactivity you can see that those amounts have continued to drop and are now leveled off and very close to actuals or and our project our historical patterns now this is a very interesting slide you've been watching take shape over the last what 24 to 36 months won't be 36 months by the end of yes sir this is sr3 the last large tranche of Esser funds that the district has available as you can see the encumbrance is now firmly in place for the discovery Early Learning which it means that that project is funded we have a balance of
046about eight and a half million dollars remaining in Esser three and that's the uh 80 of the sr3 you'll see the 20 slide shortly leaving eight and a half million dollars left that will allow us to round out the Davis Auditorium project and um some continued work on the Discovery Early Learning Center I'm trying to look at the biggest encumbrance that's still left apologies um and then we'll be moving into on this Slide the curricular portion or as I say Dr Jenny Rodriguez's section no pressure Jenny but this is these are the funds that we are utilizing for the most part to drive forward our adoptions and the associated professional development and as you can see they're starting to be seeing conferences there and I believe on the timeline we should see some of those
047encumberences start in the late spring mid-some early summerish not to put you on the spot but that would be normally the timeline when you would see those purchase orders put forward so we can adopt curriculum and I believe this cycle training what is on tap for adoption this next year some K-12 math correct so the full K-12 math will be coming before you as it moves through the process uh okay so did you to re to retell that story yeah math will be adopted and paid in for the following year following year and then this year English language arts and and Spanish as well are we'll be coming to the board for consideration and approval in the spring late spring next week soon Jenny's told me soon sorry who's on first yes that's what I
048want to hear and the good news is that since that's one-time money it is a great way to utilize it particularly when it comes to curricular adoptions as a Content Area adoption usually comes in forward what eight to ten years on a cycle seven for Dr Jenny here we go so any questions I'd just like to interject since you brought up the curriculum adoption um I don't think we've we've spoken extensively about this but um Dr Rodriguez has done a wonderful job leading uh the adoption series which is occurring and you've heard about just in this conversation and many of our curriculum much of our curriculum was out of well out of Pace with being updated and it has been a just a a great amount of work that she's done to bring groups together
049to make sure that we are entering the next several years with an updated and aligned curriculum which is key to having our students uh achieved to their full capacity and have things aligned with the standards that are set forth so thank you Dr Rodriguez for that back to you Jake thank you Dr Green I would say from my perch I've seen a lot of teaching and learning superintendents do uh uh grade span so doing a whole K-12 is a is a Herculean effort and that's good good job that's not it's not an easy thing to do to re-articulate the whole system so for my for my one professional Runner I really appreciate it is there any other Financial question sorry we got a little off track we discussed the budget a little bit of your
050monthly financial report and some teaching and learning items but most importantly is we patiently await the legislature we'll obviously update you if there's any policy bills that come out that require your action because historically there will be some type of policy bill that would require you to act before school starts next year that's just usually how it works but I'm sure that the cabinet and the senior level leadership team will make you apprised of that and guide you through that as well so is there any questions for me was just a ballpark figure for as total Esser funds one two and three I think it was um 86 or 87 million comes to mind in total okay thank you so one time it would be the largest single infusion of federal money into K-12 in
051history that's as far as I understand it to be thank you Jake any other questions for Jake or comments okay we have arrived at our first opportunity for public comment on agenda items do we have anybody signed up to comment on agenda items General comments it's not on the agenda item it comes up at the next next one then okay okay next step we have approval of the consent agenda within the consent agenda we have approval of minutes notification of approval of warrants for March of 2023 approval of personnel actions both certificated and non-certificated approval of out of endorsement assignments and the detailed budget status reports for March is there any need from a board member to take an item off the consent agenda okay do I hear a motion it's been moved to approve
052the consent agenda do we have a second second Ed to approve the consent agenda any other discussion or questions okay Barb call the roll please aye director Navarro Jr aye director rice aye president anyway aye president Walker all right motion passes five to zero okay now we have some other approvals coming up these are some of these are items that we'd already approved but the costs of those Services increased or we had to add additional services so the addition of the additional cost puts us above the half a million dollar cost so we need to bring those up for approval so we'll start with um Kirsten fitterer however with our approval for out of country travel good evening board of directors president Walker this comes to you with an ask for a payment for chaperone
053flights with the budget from community relations or Communications for the Japanese travel that we just talked to you about earlier today this is a time where we send chaperones over to Japan for the students that are coming from Eisenhower and Davis also East Valley just the one student from East Valley so that's what we put forth for you and I can answer any questions you might have okay Kirsten these are for costs for um Yakima School District only right yes so this is for three chaperones the cost of their flight to Japan we don't have any chaperones coming from East Valley we do not okay thank you any other questions for Kirsten do I hear emotion so moved in a second I'll second it's been moved and seconded to approve out of country travel to
054Japan for Yakima School District staff any other discussion or questions it would include students right this is the request to send students but to pay for the chaperones okay thank you thank you for that clarification Martha any other questions or clarifications okay Barb would you call the roll please direct your Beckett aye director Navarro Junior aye director rice aye vice president via Nueva aye president Walker aye motion passes five to zero okay thank you thank you next up we have Dr Rodriguez an approval to increase the current contract with career links president Walker um I'm going to go over this in a minute but I just wanted to because we brought up the conversation of adoption let you know that in the next month you will hear from me regarding the purchase of materials for
055English language arts with this kindergarten through 12th grade and Spanish language arts which is kindergarten through fifth grade so I just wanted to be clear about that and and give kudos to Aaron Chaplin who has done the Lion's Share of the work and is in coming as our new executive director of curriculum and instruction so I wanted to be sure to recognize her tonight I have two approvals for you these are similar to ones that I've brought to you before this is for contracted staff to provide services which are required based on students individualized education plans while these are both under our current threshold for funds they are additions to Prior contracts that you've approved that bring them over the threshold for fund approval for the board the first is with career links it is
056in the amount of an additional 265 thousand dollars which will bring the entire contract for the year to seven hundred sixty thousand dollars and this is specifically for speech and language Services we continue to struggle to find Qualified and licensed speech language therapists to serve our students that need those services so we're continuing to look for creative ways to recruit more folks into that field and to work for our district in that capacity the first one again is with career links and we're seeking the board's approval to extend that contract for the additional 265 thousand dollars happy to answer any questions any other questions do I hear a motion I move that we Grant approval to increase the current contract with career links for the 22-23 school year by 265 thousand dollars second it's been
057moved and seconded to approve the contract increase any other questions or discussion okay Bart would you call the roll please director Beckett aye director Navarro Junior aye director rice aye vice president Villanueva aye president Walker aye motion passes five to zero thank you and Next Step you want to go ahead with your other one sure thank you president Walker members of the board exact uh same idea here this one is for the Stepping Stones group in the amount of 350 000 this brings this contract to a total of nine hundred sixty thousand dollars for the Year this is for classified Staffing support primarily para educator support for positions that we have not been able to fill this year we are working diligently to ensure that these positions are filled for this upcoming year and in
058a process of Staffing at this time so I would anticipate you will see fewer of these contracts come to you for approval next year happy to answer any questions you have any questions do I hear a motion so moved okay a second it's been moved and seconded to increase the current contract with the Stepping Stones group I I do have one question related to this issue in the past yv Tech used to run a paraprofessional training program does yv Tech still have a program like that but is anybody aware of I do not believe so but we actually have a careers in education course that we're offering at both Davis and Ike high schools and we have one course currently but we are adding an additional course next year and eventually we'll have an entire
059four-year Pathway to support careers in education the goal of that program through our CTE department is that students would be able to test and receive that para certification upon graduation and then roll right into our para to teacher certification pathway that we're also in the process of piloting this year yeah that's that was my thinking are we growing our own and that's I think obviously something we need to do okay so it's been moved and seconded to approve of the increase in the contract any other questions okay Barb would you call the roll please director Beckett aye director Navarro Jr aye director rice aye vice president via Nueva aye president Walker aye motion passes five to zero and we are now I've arrived at our second opportunity for public comment do we have a commentator
060we do Mr Thomas McCormick welcome Mr McCormick and I believe you've read the the protocols for commenting thank you uh first of all I want to say to him my name is Thomas McCormick or Thomas Francis McCormack two things I want to imagine that to you uh I I want to express my heartfelt appreciation for helping a a student with having food northwest Harvest that was very nice to get to the building to have a good variety of selection of food Chardonnay food and and to grow up many people don't I appreciate that or when you uh I have a free further children is this life of pudding fruit in a plant and have to have a plant grow up you know thank you very much the second thing I want to invest in yes
061I have a partitionary uh Proclamation that it needs to be done I could well under a Washington state no I could uh wait until uh uh next year at this time by God God did not want that to happen you want me to do this right that tonight I have a time limit and I'm right now I'm Thomas Francis McCormick it's just about ready to give Barb a very important message that I need to get it done uh tonight and uh and this is on Tuesday February 18 2010 and 23 and I want to make sure that get on record I'm giving it at eight uh 18 p.m and after I get get done to you I'm departing this place this is the most important uh I cannot express this important thank you for your
062kind comments about Northwest Harvest and thank you for coming tonight okay um moving on to policy governance we have policy 550 on educational and racial equity and Reporting out from our survey we had three board members respond to the Survey Monkey in all areas we were in compliance and in all areas the interpretation was considered acceptable to the board so there are no additional comments um so I would entertain a motion to accept the report so moved do I hear a second it's been moved and seconded to accept the report on the um Equity policy 550. any other questions or comments I do have some comments just okay sure so I try to be as brief as possible so so I wanted to share some thoughts I I'm one of the board members that did
063not complete the survey so I just wanted to share some results as perhaps why I did that and as a board member I and I don't want to belabor the point but I know I've spoken about this before but I do continue to struggle with this policy not with the intent or what we hope to achieve but and I'll outline some things that I'm still trying to to grasp and understand better I do support it I know that again that racism does exist and that we do have to work it eliminated it from all aspects of our community so for me as you know the policy does still talk about racism institutional racism but in my mind I'm wondering how much of an impact is that on the work that we do in the district
064and so you know and then also and that's just my kind of my question that I've been grasping with and so when I look at the report we look at the first part of that which is is kind of I'm not it's a summary right of what we hope to accomplish and so I'm just like wondering how do we know that we're an anti-racist institution how do we know that we're transforming those systems that have privileged the few historically how do we know we're using the rate the racial Equity lands and all those things that we said we would do right um so and then and then it brings up the four pillars which I'm thinking I'm trying to figure out are those the root causes of the inequities or the disparities between the groups
065it seems to be but I'm not clear on that okay so in in on page six of the report it does say under and and it's not numbered but it's it's if you go to you know six pages into it under leadership and partnership pillar bullet three it talks about the root causes are complex and varied right it talks about the underlying factors that led to past present and future inequities and injustices and and there's a lot of good information the district is doing a lot of great things a lot of great practice new practices um you know just a lot of good changes and you know a lot of I commend the superintendent team for all the things that that are happening to address so is the evidence and compliance I guess I'm not
066clear whether the evidence is that are those the disparities or the root causes of the disparities because they're not identified in each of those areas so for me you know that's a great statement or a comment that was on page six is is that those root causes are complex and varied so for me then it's if you look at for more of a social research approach right that when you do research there is there's many variables that we study right and what a research project does is they're designed is it identifies those variables and then which ones are having the most impact or adverse whatever impact on on on the problem so so of that then you can determine whether or not it's what variable is actually impacting the problem so in this case is
067it seems to me that the report shows that the inequities or the disparities or whatever's going on is is all due 100 percent to racism to systemic racism and that's where I'm struggling in terms of understanding that so you know as I mentioned I I don't know if it's possible to determine do a proportionality of of racism and systemic racism right how how much of a percent is racism uh can you attribute the disparities in curriculum is it 25 racism 50 75 I don't know if that's possible but to say or to for me to understand and perhaps I'm I'm misunderstanding the the report seems to imply that everything is due to racism and so I I just again I struggle with with figuring with understanding that when in the report it says that there
068are many root causes curriculum Personnel HR kind of things um you know just just other policies and and practices that are in place so again I do support the policy and and I as I recall and I remind the board that when I did vote in support of it I did have some reservations with some of the terminology and some of the sections of this policy so um I hate to be on the fence or to say I'm I'm in it and out of it but that's kind of where I'm I continue to struggle with this policy so I I would um my my just to sum it up I mean so I just struggle with that how much of the problems that the inequities the disparities are due to racism or and how much
069are due to other variables that that we've discussed in the past so um so if we were able to look at those other variables and maybe perhaps we can really focus on what really is causing those disparities or these um inequities in the school district because if we're going to say that it's all due to racism I got to examine myself as a board member because why am I going to be part of a board a school district that everything is attributed to racism as to why kids are not being successful in our district right so that puts me in in a mind in terms of what I how I interpret how this policy is being implemented so again um i i would support perhaps reviewing this policy sooner rather than in two years I
070know that wazda has looked at their definition of equity and has began to change that and focus on a different areas specifically belong sense of belonging so perhaps we can start to maybe align ourselves with that and and make it you know come from more of a universal approach rather than a race-based approach and because I do struggle with with making sense of of the current data the current report that we received so that's just my my two cents and my thoughts and I just wanted to I'm not I'm not trying to Spur a discussion or or discourse or anything like that I just wanted to express my my thoughts and struggles that I'm currently having thank you very much thank you for your comments can I ask a question sure um Raymond it looked
071like you were referring to maybe some notes or you'd written down your comments would you be willing to share those with the rest of the board I I mean it's on record well it's on record if we want to sit and watch the video of this meeting yeah but the purpose of the monitoring report review yeah is to capture the comments and thoughts of board members as they um think about and and reflect on the monitoring report itself yeah and then us being able to take that input and have that have all of us have access to that input and then com it you know maybe work on that as a way of updating that policy but as one board member I'd I'd be interested in seeing you know the thoughts that you had captured
072because you weren't put one of those that's that responded to the survey yes um I'd like to have access to your comments so that I don't have to watch the video for two hours to get to that point um and then maybe we could use those comments as part of our a future discussion on this policy sure I can share I want to share an entire because I left some things out that probably would be better said in a different setting but I can share what I what I spoke and make my the comments that I made with you okay so thank you any other questions or comments yeah I was one of the other board members that didn't get there uh I missed the opportunity to respond so I I regret that um my
073my comment is is around I I think the overall um assessment of the policy was was was pretty thorough and comprehensive um my my feedback on that is that there was a comprehensive list of activities and things that and strategies that are being used um in what was missing for me is the impact of of all those things that are being done so we have these strategies and here's the outcome and here's the results I think that would be a value add for for for me for future reports I would like to say again just a additional comments is that we are doing from the report we are doing very well in curriculum development adoption I mean there's a lot of good things that are happening so I do commend again the superintendent and the
074team for all the good work that that's going on it's just again I won't refer back to my comments but I just we'll stop there thanks okay well I I would just have one other other comment is is um you know we do it kind of Echoes a little bit of what Martha said we do have the report the survey as the vehicle for us to comment and it's frustrating to me to have no comment and but then have come to a meeting and have a lengthy comment that could have been edited and put into the report so I think in the future if we have if we're going to use the survey monkey as a vehicle let's use it and if we're not going to use it then let's not but we can you
075know we can talk about some of these things in the retreat in terms of how we function but my other frustration is that we keep revisiting this policy on a frequent basis and it's I feel like we're going in circles on this policy it does kind of have a cycle of review along with all the other policies if it's really pressing that we need to review it then we can move it up in the cycle that's a board decision that's not my decision but but it just seems like we keep coming back to the same issue in cycling through it over and over again and I don't find that useful use of time so again I would respectfully request that that when we do have comments if we're going to use the Survey Monkey let's
076use it so that's some money comment thank you so so I'm sorry I just need to responder real quick so yeah so we know that sometimes we're not able to whatever you know meet the timeline to answer those so our surveys so sometimes you know we if a board member doesn't answer then perhaps we can extend the deadline or do something to accommodate for whatever maybe legitimate reason so but I guess what I'm also hearing that is that well I'm just going to say that as a board member I believe I have the right and responsibility to discuss any matter no matter if it's repeated or a hundred times or a thousand times I have that as elected board member elected official and responsibility on this board I do have the right to bring up
077any any topic and express any my opinions or comments at any time so I just wanted to make sure that I do continue to have that that right and privilege as a board member foreign just a couple of quick thoughts um I think from a policy perspective you know of course the answer but is the interpretation a reasonable District progressing towards desired results I think kind of everybody would say if this is what we're working off of course the answer would be correct so we have a policy and then we have a philosophical question you know that come before us this Survey Monkey thing that comes up time and time again I think it's one of in my opinion the failings of the this particular model of policy governance is that it really forces people
078into a mode of sitting down and writing out their thoughts as opposed to having a conversation between five people who are elected to you know to provide the governance for the for for the district and provide advice uh you know and Council to the superintendent and his team and I um I think there's just you know there's got to be opportunity there's got to be a middle ground or a way to to make that work back and forth um I'm somewhat similar you know I started to fill this out and I quit and by the time I went back to it it was um it was too late I've got a dozen or 15 different spots here in language that I would love to talk about all night long but I know we're not going
079to and that's that's fine but I would also say that you know this is this is a different type of policy this isn't the same sort of thing as a lot of what goes on in the school district and if you're paying any attention to the local or to the National conversation about public education you know this is not settled science this is not one of those things that's just one and done this is going to be a long-term conversation in communities like ours all around the country and so I don't think it's realistic to think that we aren't going to have the opportunity to you know review it and discuss it further down the road it really that's probably my only suggestion is the longer I've thought about this you know as far as
080whether that's a annual review or whether that should be twice a year I think you know let's leave it to the board to decide if we want to actually make it a more structured conversation more often I think that might be helpful for for our group and for the district as a whole and it is aboard policy that we can bring up any policy for review outside of the schedule I mean we can if we want to bring a policy to the fore to discuss or we feel that it needs updating we have the opportunity to do that so okay any other questions or comments okay we have a motion and a second on the floor to approve this report on policy zero five fifty are there any other questions or comments okay Barb do
081you want to call the roll please director Beckett hi director Navarro Jr I'm going to abstain director rice aye vice president Villanueva aye and president Walker aye motion passes four to zero okay we do have a need for executive session this evening it will be about 45 minutes I think we'll take a five minute break and then we'll meet in the library former professional library and you will not need to bring your computers we will have a zoom set up in there okay so yes so the uh the the basis for this executive session is actually an RCW 28a 0.405.230 and it's so that the board can entertain a discussion regarding the transferred administrator to a subordinate certificated position is a statute that requires an executive session okay we need a motion to adjourn to
082Executive session so moved it's been moved and seconded to adjourn to Executive session all in favor aye aye opposed okay we will start well we'll start in five minutes take a five minute break this meeting is adjourned