001Okay, it's 6:00. Welcome everyone. I'm Bill Ross, the vice president school board this year. And let's call the meeting to order. Would everybody please stand to the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> [clears throat] >> Okay, the first item on the agenda is tonight, number two on the agenda, the Fort Stevens Bell Choir. Hi everybody. It's so good to have everybody here tonight. Um I'm Lisa Crowl, and I'm the principal at Fort Stevens, and I'm going to start off with my amazing choir. And so they're making their way in, and I'm going to turn the time over to my music teacher, Sean Hall-Holt. I'm sure it's
002awesome. As I rise with the sun and start thinking about you, may I join you? >> [singing] [singing] >> Hi there. Uh my name is Shondra Holladay. I'm the music teacher here at Fort Stevens, and I am so blessed to teach these amazing kids. Fort Stevens kids actually used their voices to tell me that they wanted me to teach the whole school the Star Spangled Banner and then we would sing it at every assembly. And and as a result of that, we will be singing on June 18th for the Seattle Mariners for the third time. And I actually have one person over there that can raise their hand. She is third generation. She has two other siblings. BJ, raise your hand. And then I have another one who has two generations of sisters and brothers
003who have done this. So, it's pretty exciting. These kids give up their recess. They do a 10-minute choir and that's how we are preparing for this game. It's a little sticky, but that is what they give up. Here are some of my students who want to tell you what music means to them. Music keeps me on track. I look forward to music class. It helps me with my other subjects. Music is important to me because it helps me fill tastes and stay on track and connect with others. I feel speaking out the pressure about music so much of my identity is defined through music. Music fills in the blank spaces in in my life. It gives me purpose. Music is important to me because it helps me connect with my other subjects. I feel connected
004and supported by the music teachers. They help me on my musical journey. You may be shocked, but I'm here to pitch for the arts. They create balance, especially music. They create high high achievement in all other subject areas and they help at-risk kids stay in school. Music provided as the at-risk before it was popularized acronym. I have a kid who went to a school like Fort Stevens. I was an at-risk kid in every possible way. Poverty, trauma, lots of problems with academics. But I came to school because it was my sanctuary. It was my sanctuary. There was hot food there. There were people who were so nice to me. People that helped me read and learn how to do math. But most of all, there was music and there was art. So I came to
005school so that my physical, my cognitive, my emotional, my social needs could be met. Without my public school experience, my future would have looked very, very different. I am forever grateful to every administrator, every teacher, every component in the system that provides public education because I am who I am today because of public education. Our district and our community are going through some tough times. But I still see the beauty in them. I see these kids, I see this community, I see my parents back there who have done everything in the world to try to make sure that we get to the Memorial Stadium in the middle of the gas crisis. These kids depend on us. They depend on us to make the right choices and I can't imagine your job. I can't imagine what
006you do and the choices you have to make. But I am asking for you to continue supporting the arts. When I came to town 13 years ago, I said it was the promised land because you support the arts so brilliantly. So please continue and we are so grateful to be Fort Bend's kids. Thank you. Do I need the microphone? I think yes. Yes. Oh, I guess I can. Okay. So I'm super nervous um and the fact that my um technology isn't working, I just don't have the pictures yet. Terry's trying. No, okay. So I guess I'll just have to do my very best to paint a picture of how amazing it is here at Fort Stevens. So, I'm going to start with a brief overview of my school. So, Fort Stevens is the second largest
007elementary school >> [laughter] >> Uh we're the second largest elementary school in Young Community Schools and we are a Title 1 school. We serve approximately 450 students with a staff of just under 80. Our grade configuration is a three-track model with the exception of second grade where we are currently a four-track. Our campus includes two designated special program, a comprehensive learning classroom in our preschool, which then feeds into our K-5 CLC, and two learning resource centers that provide additional support to students with individualized education IEPs. In addition, we offer a robust intervention system through our Title I program and targeted classroom-based interventions. Mike works. It doesn't Oh, Good. We are the Eagles and we This evening I will refer to details from the infographic that Kurt provided. I have also included photos that you get
008to imagine. Uh to give you a visual sense of daily life and activities at Fort Stevens. Okay, this this is a slide that's going to be talking about from mission to impact. And uh our mission says our school is advancing learning, belonging, and community through school leadership and collaboration with staff, students, and families. SOAR stands for self-regulate, overcome challenges, act with integrity, and respect. These principles guide everything we do at Fort Stevens and reflect the core values in our strategic plan for the district, learning, belonging, and community. Each day during student-led announcements, we recite our school pledge. We are committed to creating a school that knows no limits to the social, emotional, and academic success of each student. Our staff have worked diligently to establish nurturing instructional environments where every student can soar. Every classroom
009begins the day with a morning meeting to set a positive tone for learning. The photographs that you can imagine with me, I have one of my fifth grade students who is dressed as Eddie the Eagle, who is our mascot at one of our SOAR assemblies. I have a whole group of second graders standing in front of the assembly. They're doing a musical performance. I have all of my teachers dressed as reindeer at our winter wonderland event. I have all the fifth graders standing behind a sign that we put on our fence that said, "We heart pets." And then I have an example of our SOAR expectations. All right, our focus under the category of learning, I have attendance, tier one instruction, MTSS, PLCs, and student engagement. Under belonging, I'm reading the slide to you, which
010I never do, so it's still very weird. Belonging, culture of dignity, dignity, student behavior, expanded leadership for students, creative opportunities, and recognition. And then the last one is community, where we have input and shared ownership, inclusive two-way communication, and family partnership in student learning. Attendance remains a priority for our school. Regular attendance is essential for student learning and achievement. While we recognize the grade level four home cohort with the highest attendance each month during our school assemblies. This incentive alone has not produced the improvements we need. Our MTSS team will convene this month to develop additional strategies to increase student attendance and engagement. When students are present, we emphasize high-quality tier one instruction. Our PLC process is strong. Teachers share effective tier one and tier two strategies with colleagues to maintain student engagement at our
011building PLC each month. In the top right, you can see a darling picture of my kindergarten team as they're presenting their tier one and tier two strategies at our most recent building PLC. Belonging is a core strength of our students. We have established systems to recognize and support students' social and emotional needs. We're really lucky. We have a whole child facilitator who works daily with approximately 35 to 40 students, addressing the social, emotional, and academic needs in our building and building trust trusting relationships with students who require additional supports. Um our whole child facilitator got me notes during Teacher Appreciation Week, and so I took a picture of it, and it says um a fun fact, I used to cry and want to go home when my mom would drop me off at school. Insinuating
012that she is so happy now that she gets to be at school and she has a relationship with this man called We are fortunate to benefit from a supportive community. Staff, families, and community partners collaborate to provide meaningful experiences that promote student success. Um I have a student up there with um some community members that came in on our Veterans Day celebration, and they helped our students learn how to properly uh hold a flag. Um and they worked on telling experiences on what it was like to be in the military. The next area I'm going to talk about is learning. Um in our attendance office, Ms. Britney has worked diligently to support um improved attendance this year. She monitors our daily attendance. She reaches out to families for follow-up regarding unexcused absence. She even awards
013the grade level with the best attendance at our school during our SOAR assemblies. We just haven't seen the gains that we have expected. As noted earlier, our MTSS team will continue to develop additional strategies to address this. Dear mornings at Fort Steven remain strong. As the infographic shows, Fort Steven produced notable ELA ASPIRE results last year. Fourth grade demonstrated 95.1% of students in the typical or high growth categories, and fifth grade achieved 78% in typical or high growth range. SBA math performance was likewise strong. Fourth grade had 50% of students in typical or high growth, while fifth grade reached an impressive 88.9 combined typical and high growth. Across all SBA um assessed areas, Fort Steven exceeded both the district and the state percentages of of students meeting standards as depicted in your infographic. Our MTSS
014team meets monthly to evaluate school-wide systems and recommend adjustments. This team defines school-wide language and expectation expectations. For example, SOAR. Um they establish procedures and monitor implementation fidelity. They also review behavior referrals and school-wide concerns. Recently, the team identified patterns of challenging recess behaviors such as pushing people and frequent tattling. In response, the team created a student problem-solving worksheet they distributed to teachers and asked teachers to review with students during our morning meetings to encourage students to use appropriate problem-solving language. We have weekly data meetings with grade level teams and our title one interventionist to ensure that students are placed in flexible groups to receive targeted interventions aligned to grade level standards. This collaborative work also occurs in our weekly PLCs where teachers analyze data and plan instructional supports with one another. The infographic includes
015district screening assessment results. Fort Stevens is performing strongly in math while literacy work results were unexpectedly lower than I had anticipated. I was quite surprised. So at our next building PLC, I'll be sharing that with our staff and they're going to help us determine the root cause and hopefully prioritize our next steps. The photographs that I have up for this one would have been our second grade celebrating the 100th day of school with a 100 days smarter sign out in the front yard. Our second graders at their speak eight and obey and the unit health fair and our T-K 2K class tracking letter sounds and then I had to ensure that the student problem-solving was through that was developed by NCSS. So one thing that you need to know about Fort Stevens is we have
016amazing students and if you're ever having a bad day, I say this to Mr. Woods every time I see her, "Go to kindergarten." Because they give us hugs and they tell us we're beautiful. Um they've also been working very hard and I had a couple pictures up to show some students who were working on learning to count to 100. In the fall, I only had four students at the top of that chart. In April, all the students but two who were not quite there yet had grown all the way and were able to count up to a to 100. We are 100% confident that those other two cutie pies are going to make it all the way up and have that standard met. Under the category of belonging, at Fort Stevens we intentionally cultivate belonging
017by modeling respect and maintaining a safe, welcoming environment where every student can learn and grow. In our lobby, as many of you noticed when you walked in, uh we display a large family photo tree. Families contribute photos so students can see their loved ones and recognize school family partnership that supports their growth. Our work is centered on SOAR expectations. Each morning during announcements, we recognize students who receive positive office referrals. We take a picture. I get to be in it. I'm just kidding. And then we send that photo home to celebrate their achievement with families. This daily recognition reinforces expected behaviors and celebrates students who demonstrate SOAR traits. These expectations are reinforced school-wide and are integrated into grade level wellness Wednesday lessons delivered by our specialists. Eagle leaders continue to provide significant support this year.
018That's our fifth graders. Um they participate in our TK with our TK kindergarten students serving as mentors and bus buddies. They build strong relationships and consistently model SOAR expectations. During our SOAR assemblies, sixth graders present to the entire school to explain SOAR and they give concrete examples of these behaviors in action. Our whole child facilitator also has a question of the week that invites students to reflect and write responses to prompts such as, "If you are feeling stressed out, who can you turn turn to for help?" And "What is your favorite moment from school so far?" Common responses to the first question named teachers and parents. And then common answers to the second including making more friends, spending time with peers, and enjoying visits from Eddie the Eagle. In your infographic, it uh demonstrates that
019our systems at Fort Stevens are effective. Behavior incidents are very low. Our MTSS team supports teachers with problem-solving and intervention strategies. The problem-solving poster that was referenced earlier illustrates the team's positive impact on student behavior. In your infographic, it also shows strong belonging survey results across all domains. This year, our comprehensive school improvement plan prioritized the area of feeling appreciated. During wellness Wednesdays, our specialist team dedicated lessons to this focus and introduced students to Don Hicks' 10 essential elements of dignity. Morning announcements from students also shared examples of these elements to reinforce the concepts school-wide. Under the heading of community, Fort Stevens benefits from an exceptionally active and dedicated booster club that consistently supports our school. Each month at school assemblies, the booster club hosts a cookie reception honoring the award winners and their families.
020Winners may take photos with Eddie the Eagle or with the decorative backdrop that our booster club has purchased. The booster club organizes a wide range of family-focused events including a glow dance, family bingo, and a special family evening science show with Jeff Evans, who also presented at a school-wide assembly the same day. If you could see the photos, you would see that we had a recent board meeting and the table was full. It is illustrating strong volunteer engagement. When the school needs additional resources, the booster club steps in. They purchased They purchased every year Fort Stevens logo shirts for all of our students to wear at monthly assemblies. Students keep the shirts at the end of the year. The booster club has also coordinated ticket sales for the Mariners game with our kids who just
021sang, where the school choir will be performing the Mariners song for the entire stadium. And they used proceeds to help purchase those amazing tie-dye choir shirts that you all saw. The infographic highlights many of our booster club activities and shows that 95% of our families report satisfaction with the school. So, looking ahead. Um for students, we're going to maintain a strong emphasis on our tier one instruction, and we're going to use our most recent data to inform and refine our practice. Our efforts to foster belonging have been effective. We will continue those practices while pursuing strategies to improve daily student attendance. Last year, we did empathy interviews with our students who are currently in fifth grade, and then we're going to take the data from our student surveys, and they have helped to provide valuable
022direction for our work. We will build on those insights and continue soliciting student feedback. Our students are clearly articulate and clearly articulate what they appreciate and what we can do to improve. Our Booster Club remains an essential partner in engaging the community. We will continue this partnership, seek their input regularly, and expand opportunities for our families to participate in school activities. I'm really sad you didn't get to see the cool pictures. And I really feel like that's kind of a bummer. Um but I want to thank you for your time, and I know you could envision everything I said. I just saw it in your faces. We'll post the video. We'll post it all. You'll post it? We'll post the video. They're both. Yeah. We will. He's done. And I'm not. And then that would
023be weird. >> [laughter] >> Um thank you. So, I am done. Any questions or anything I need to address? They're all going to give me a pass for this. So bad for me, dude. >> [laughter] >> Okay, cool. Thank you, guys. Uh next, we have the Superintendent's comments. All right. Um tonight, rather than a presentation, I would like to uh take a few minutes to introduce um some new administrators that will be joining our team next year. Um, before I introduce them, I want to share a little bit about what our applicants go through when they apply for a school administrator position, whether that is dean, assistant principal, principal. Um, our process is pretty thorough. We want to make sure that we're getting the right person for the right building. So, they go through an
024application process. They have to submit uh, certain materials, references, letters, and things like that. And that goes to our HR department. They make sure they go through all of those. Applicants have to have a complete application to be moved forward for screening. After that, after we make sure they've got all the pieces in, human resources will then screen to make sure that they pass the legal background and that there aren't any things in past experiences that would not allow them to move forward. From there, we then take the applications and they go to the building. And the school building has a committee made up certificated and classified staff. And they have a rubric that they go through to score every applicant based on their application packet. That's their letter of interest, that's their resume, that's
025their references. All that information is evaluated and then it's a number evaluation. From there, they determine how many. There's usually a break in there of applications where you kind of draw a line and say, "Okay, we're going to interview these ones." From there, we then have a series of activities that they go through in the building. Our HR department works very hard on this process and there's a lot of details behind the scenes that go to it. Uh one station that our applicants go through is a tour in the building with some staff. And that's not just a tour, it's a walk and talk, and it's also an informal interview where our staff are asking questions. They're getting to know the applicant, and they are reporting back at the end on uh uh their thoughts
026and opinions. There's also a verbal resume uh station where all of our applicants are asked to give us their verbal resume. Then we give them a couple prompts that they can touch on, and that's in front of any staff that want to be there, any staff from the building. We also have invited booster and parent and PTO parents to be there. And it's their opportunity to share their experiences and uh to kind of touch on a few things that um they would be focused on if they were selected. Uh we also have student panel where our students are coming up with the questions. They get to ask uh the applicants questions. We usually have a couple staff in there supervising, and they're just monitoring that, but the students are running it. That's even at the
027elementary level where our students are running that section. And we have our interview panel, um which is made up of certificated, classified, and uh uh sometimes we have uh booster clubs or PTO on that as well. And they go through all of these stations. At the end, all those involved in the process, including students, gather to share the results. They're sharing um what they found. Students are talking about uh which candidate connected with them, uh which candidate they felt like uh would be a best fit. And then we excuse the students, and then uh the rest of the staff who don't fit that rank across the board. From there, we typically narrow it down to about two finalists. Um sometimes three if it's really close. From there, those finalists go interview in front of what
028is our cabinet and board panel. So, that would be uh director of human resources, our assistant superintendent, uh director of uh student learning, and director of operations, myself, uh one or two board members, and if it's an assistant principal job, then the principal is also on that committee. So, at that point, we are taking all the information from all the activities that took place in the building, and we prepare questions based on that. So, what else do we want to know, or what other questions do we have for the applicants? So, then we go deeper with that group, um asking the questions. Then after that, we come together, we talk, and uh typically make a decision. All the while, we're checking references. So, throughout the process, we're calling uh the references they list. We're calling
029the references they don't list uh because we want to be very thorough in uh finding out who we're interviewing and would they be a good fit. So, you can imagine for any applicant, it's not just filling out an application and seeing if you get selected. It's very extensive. Um it's very time-consuming physically, mentally, emotionally. It's very draining for people. So, I wanted to share with you what happens before we ever select somebody. So, when we select somebody, we are selecting the very best person out of all of our applicants for that position. And I think it's important uh for people to understand that um we're not just real quickly going through applications saying this person would be a good fit, let's hire them. And what we're not doing is we're not having the district make
030those decisions. Uh the building is guiding us through that. They're directing us to the best two candidates. And they're also telling us "Hey, if number one accepts another job and we can't hire them, we want to go back." Or yes, and we would be okay with the number two. Um so, those conversations take place. With that, I want to introduce uh our three new administrators. I'm going to start with Brandon Hawkins. You want to come up, Brandon? Brandon is uh going to be our new principal at Hawkins Elementary next year. And I want to share a little bit about um what I heard in the process. I typically sit in on the verbal resume portion. Just kind of a fly on the wall. I sit in the back. I just listen. I listen to the
031applicants. I listen to the conversation afterwards. So, that later on when a decision has to be made, I have all the information from everything uh across the board. What I heard about Brandon, number one, from the students, um this was their first choice. He connected with them. They felt like he really cared about them. They felt like he was somebody that they could talk to and go to. The other thing that came out from the staff was that connection on a personal level as a human being. They felt like this is somebody that they could go to and talk with and work with, have hard conversations, have fun conversations, and everything in between. They also felt like he was somebody that would be part of their team. And um I was really impressed with Brandon.
032Uh we've actually known each other since high school and uh went to different high schools um in Thurston County and played sports against each other and then here we are, came back together and so it's been kind of fun through this process uh seeing Brandon. But uh with that I'd love for you to introduce me probably to the United Uh that's cool. Um I brought my wife, Jamie, and my son, Ben. And uh you know, I just appreciate Dr. Jim. We look forward to being part of the Yelm community and uh um have some great passion to help kids and help staff. One of my my things is to help help make it easier for people. So, um easier said than done sometimes, but that's my goal always. So, I I sure appreciate this opportunity.
033You got that. Welcome. Let's give Brandon a big round of applause. All right, at Yelm Middle School, Maya Burgess. You may recognize that name. She's been our assistant principal at Yelm Middle School. She's going to be the principal at Ridgeline and um it was really fun watching Maya go through this process. Um Maya is is pretty amazing. And uh some of the things I heard number one, uh the students were very impressed with her. Uh they felt like they connected with her. Uh her attention to detail, her drive, uh and her focus, her attention to systems, uh everybody was very excited about that and they felt like um they could have one of the best teams around in their building um with Maya. She has also been uh working with Shannon. Actually, she's been doing
034most of the work talking about activation and bullying across the district which as you know is huge. There's a lot of time and energy that goes into that. Investigations. Kaya has also helped with that at a district level from her assistant principal role. She's been spending time over at Ridgeline. She was there yesterday morning meeting with staff. She'll be there all day tomorrow. In the morning they have coffee with parents any that want to come. And then she's going to be there all day meeting with staff and seeing students but Kaya has done all the right things since being selected and making the effort to meet and build relationships with staff, with students and I'm very excited to see what she does next year. Do you want to introduce who you have? Well, thank you.
035I brought my children with me tonight. The rest of my family is at Disney Spectacular. So they're working with me to get my daughter's performance tonight. But I am just so honored to be the new principal of Ridgeline. I'm excited about working with the community and building back better. You know, we got a huge opportunity in Yelm and so I am really committed to seeing that success continue at Ridgeline and I'm just so excited to get to work. Thank you. Let's give Kaya a And then our last one for tonight, Felicia. Come on up. Felicia step up. So she's done just about everything in the last couple years. She was an elementary school teacher. Then she went into special education. Then she was hired as dean. Not just putting place, but part-time Dean at the
036high school and part-time Dean at the Young Extension School. So, as I said, she's been just about everywhere. She went through the exact same process at Young High School and the thing about Felicia, if you talk to anybody in this district that knows Felicia, they will tell you that she passionately cares about people. Um students, staff, families. She makes the most challenging conversations um seem easy because she cares so much about people. Um she is not very good at giving herself credit and recognizing her gifts and talents, but everybody else who knows her um sees them every day. And so, we are all very excited that she's going to be assistant principal at the high school next year. Um I think a compliment that she shared with me that she got I believe it was
037your son uh at one point said that uh he wanted to be a teacher. Then he also said um that he was glad she was at the high school because he's a high schooler and there aren't many high school kids that would be happy to have one of their parents as an administrator. That's a huge compliment. So, uh I don't think anybody was able to come with me tonight and I'll give you a chance to say anything. Thank you. Um so, I actually started my career off at Young Community Schools as a volunteer and then a paraeducator and then I moved up to being assistant principal as shared with you guys. And I feel truly blessed to be able to stay at the high school with the talents of the students that I love so
038much. A A of people in this room have actually supported me every step of the way. And so I am looking forward to many, many more years supporting everybody at. So thank you for this opportunity. I'm looking forward to many more years. Oh, the last thing that I'll I'll share is that uh the greatest quality about each one of these people is who they are as human beings. Um it it takes a lot to be a building uh administrator. You are held to a higher standard. And you agree to be held to that higher standard. And um these people, all three of them, are very special um and and pretty amazing people. Um not to mention uh great leaders. And so I look forward to working with them uh moving forward. Okay, next is community
039comments. We have any community comments? Yes. How many are on the uh agenda? Um two are on agenda, one is not. Okay. All but three of the whole page there. Yeah. I want to remind everyone of the guidelines for public comment in accordance with our board policy 1400. For comments on non non-agenda items, the board will listen but not engage in discussion or take any action tonight. Non-agenda items may be referred to the administration for follow-up. Comments are limited to three minutes per speaker and 16 minutes per topic. For comments on agenda items, the board will also not engage in discussion during this time. Comments related to the agenda items are limited to five minutes per speaker and 20 minutes per hobby. Please note the comments directed at the forum performance of specific school personnel
040are not permitted. All remarks must be appropriate for an open public meeting and presented respectfully. The board president will stop comments that violate these expectations. Expectations and disruptions beyond the comment period may result in the meeting being paused or ended. Additionally, the board silence during public comment should not be interpreted as agreement or endorsement of the speaker's remarks. Our role during this portion is to listen. We value your participation and appreciate your participation and appreciate your cooperation in helping us maintain a respectful and productive meeting environment. Okay, the first two I believe are on agenda items relating to the reduced education plan staffing changes. Resolution 08-25-26. Will Gunther is first. I'll let you know when you get close. So the mic's working okay? I want to introduce myself. My name is Will Gunther. I'm currently
041employed by YCS campus security. My wife teaches here at Fort Stevens and I have a student in in the district. I'm talking fast cuz I don't want to run out of time. I've been with YCS for 9 years. Prior to that, I worked at private security providing you know, corporate security for Nordstrom in a supervisory capacity for over 20 years and then retired as a regional manager. Prior to that, I was honorably served as a United States Marine Corps. My partner Matt Sturtz I'm from the army for over 20 20 years of experience in security and protection details from foreign dignitary dignitaries to secondary defense. The reason I give you that history is because I'm speaking here it's kind of tough. The superintendent or the the the board has made a decision to go ahead
042and lay myself and that off from campus security. I believe in confidentiality and I I take that oath seriously. So the only thing I'm going to present here is a matter of public record. I'm not going to break that. If you guys have questions, feel free to ask them in a private setting. Um with that though, I do want the board and the community to know why I I think we are really being laid off. For years my partner and I have brought or tried to bring awareness to the the district and YCS about the dysfunction and safety at this district. The waste of tax taxpayer dollars. We have you know, I could go on for hours on this particular subject. Um we've brought this you know, many communications to the board to admin. We
043have been all documented. In December my partner went to the superintendent and had a meeting and reviewed all of our our whistleblower complaints with him and Shannon Powell at that meeting. But again, nothing's done. Nothing moves on. Every month we continue to email and communicate to try to address these deficiencies and again, nothing's done. Nothing is done. Um and so I again, I just want to make sure that the community is is aware that this is what what was going on and what our communications were with again with the cabinet and with the the superintendent on that subject. Um I I again, I got to hurry because I only have a few weeks you know, I can only give a few examples. So I'll start with safety. Some of the things that we brought up.
044None of our administrators are being trained by qualified people. They don't know how to run drills properly or respond to critical incidents. Um Do we know Do you guys know that our active shooter training and Alice is going away? Did you just laid off the only certified instructor in this trade. Um we've asked to be able to train new hires on active shooter, train new hires on safety um and security and being ignored. We've asked to to train all employees annually, just like we do the safe schools, and we're ignored. Um we asked that all students um receive age-appropriate training on emergency procedures the first week of school, um we're ignored. Uh I asked um the superintendent directly if he's read any of the the thousands of referrals that have happened this year before he
045made the layoff decision. I asked him if he's read my narrative on critical incidents that were staff and students were injured um that we were able to to intercede on. Um I've asked him if he's read any of the alcohol and drug abuse referrals and stuff that we've done. Um he hasn't read any of that stuff. Yeah, we made we made this decision without even talking to the high school principal. Um so again, I just want to know who's going to be responsible for dealing with these again thousands of incidents next year. They're not going away. Um I don't know if the board was aware that we had a burglary 2 weeks ago. It was an inside job. We filed a police report that the community's information was compromised, sensitive information that was supposed to
046be shredded. We campus security discovered the breach, investigated, and reported it. Um who's going to do that next year? Um the community's never been informed that their stuff has been compromised. We maybe we have a mom that's trying to hide from an abusive husband. Well, guess what? They just have their address. I don't know. But the community's not been informed about this stuff, and I I don't know, is that the reason we're being laid off so nobody looks into this kind of thing? What do you mean? Um I look forward to you know, we have all kinds of incidents. I had an incident where a 16-year-old and an 18-year-old male showed up high to the school um to attack another student. I intervened physically and was able to stop that, and that student wasn't hurt.
047Next year, who's going to respond to that? That incident happens next year, do have a badly injured student or a dead kid is what happens. And and again, I asked Mr. Woods, who's going to respond to that? What's the plan? Um we have all kinds of different safety issues that we reviewed. We reviewed our safety manuals for hours with our operations director to try to, you know, point out the deficiencies and and move forward with changes. The response was put up QR codes in all the classrooms so the kids can just scan a QR code in emergency. It'll take them to the district website. That's not a safe plan. Is that our safety plan for next year? And so again, I'm short on time and I have hundreds of these incidents. I've provided some to
048Mr. Woods in writing. I have them here. I'll put them as well. Thank you. And then like I said, in closing, I just want to say that you know, my partner can't be here tonight because he flew to California because he's doing training with a district that says that they're focused on safety and security, which is funny because he can't do training even though we've offered to do the training here in our own district. Well, can't do it. Right. So, thank you. Again, if you have any questions, I have it all in writing. All right, next we have Tamara Lundstrom on the same topic. Hopefully I won't have to talk that fast cuz he said a lot of things I was going to say. My name's Tamara Lundstrom. I am the comprehensive learning center teacher
049here at Port Stevens. Um my son is a student at the high school and so I am worried about what safety's going to be because they have laid off my husband. What's he going to do when he is maybe he is that child who's attacked by some of the a student comes onto the campus high. So, what are we going to do? But some of the other things that that my husband and his partner talked about with the board and and the superintendent is a lot of the waste that goes on that maybe they got tired of being told about. So, he was able My husband wasn't able to talk about that because he had so much he wanted to say, so I'm going to say it for him. Um So, they have They're laying
050off campus security, but there's two OPs at the district office and OSS. There's an assistant director of OSS. There's an assistant superintendent. Yet, the the superintendent says he's focused on safety. Um I don't know, but I know that there's other districts that are in the same boat that we are, but they didn't lay off security. They laid off from the district office. Um Part [clears throat] of the bond they put in keypad readers in some of the buildings. They put in keypad readers on one side of a hall, but not the other. So, there's nobody qualified to do these type of situations in the building. So, one end of the CM You can go to the gym right now. On one end of the gym, there's a keypad reader. On the other gym, there's no
051keypad. So, half the time the one door is unlocked and ready to go all the time. The other one it's either unlocked at all times or it's completely locked and you can't get in the building. Terrible It's It's unsafe and it's a just a waste of money that they did report and no one's able to fix. The district had camera systems installed and nobody qualified to work with the vendor to ensure the work was done properly. They had to report everything on They had to report everything from camping. Sorry. They had to report everything from cameras pointing to the ceiling, cameras leaking, cameras being put on behind pipes. A couple of the favorites were a camera pointed at the parking lot that made everything pink. Um they had three parking lot three parking lot cameras
052that went out after multiple tickets. It It three months to call the vendor to warranty and um replace them. They asked for a camera that um that was recording a large portion of a ceiling to just be pointed down that they could have done with a lift that the high school has. But they didn't do that. They put in another camera right right behind it. >> [clears throat] >> The district's response um Oh, sorry about that. I just said that. Um when the vendor installed a camera under the awning outside the main gym entrance, they couldn't see what they needed to see. Instead of having the vendor relocate that camera in our district um in a during a financial crisis, they bought a new camera and installed it 6 ft under the other one. This
053is why there This is why my husband's being laid off because he pointed out all these financial waste out. Um they screwed from the mountain well screwed from the tallest mountain that they all have almost no speakers out um in the the greenhouse and the small engine areas on campus. Um the first response from the operations manager was that the office could just call them during an emergency. Finally, they did get speakers out there, but once again, nobody qualified was out there to ensure that the vendor was doing his job. Um Matt approached the vendor before they left and made them actually test the speakers. They didn't work. They made the vendor stay and did multiple tests for them to get them actually working. If they're not there next year, who's going to make sure
054these vendors are actually doing their jobs? Um >> [clears throat] >> They The district spent six figures on a key week or project in the district. Will spoke with the vendor Do you know what we spent on that kind of money money? And they sent sent them old blueprints. A minute. Um They sent them old blueprints of the buildings. They didn't get new updated blueprints. So, they were putting keys in areas where there was nothing, and that's why there were so many issues things when we got the uh got everything done and there was no keys that were labeled. So, a lot of builders were trying to figure out what keys went where. So, anyway, thank you. But, I think that we need to turn our focus a little bit more on maybe some where
055the security and well- the well-being for our kids. We need to think about what we can do to help that well-being happen. Thank you. Our last uh public comment is Wyatt Lindell uh on past and current investigations. And since it's a non-agenda item, I'll have 3 minutes. I'll give you a minute. Thank you, Yelm Community Schools Board and Superintendent Woods. My name is P. Wyatt Lindell, and as you know, I've been attending these meetings for quite some time. This is my first time making a public comment. I wanted to let all the parents know that public records act public records request act process process has officially started for James Woods, and I expect after recent events that the district will prioritize getting these files in time again. I have also requested Wyatt Lindell's records from
056Yelm Community Schools and the Olympia School District. Once I have all these files paid for and available, I will be uploading them online for the rest of the community to have at no cost. The community will likely have to revisit and maybe even investigate again the actions of these men to see if additional action is needed. If any of the families in the community need help any for any legal costs related to these matters, then I am more than happy to help. Thank you. All right. I'm going to move on to this. And now we're moving on to new business, individual contracts. Move to approve. I second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Uh nothing else new here other than a continuation of new hires, mostly for next year, and
057then resignations and retirements. Will all those in favor Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Item B, resolutions 08-35-36. Reduced education plan. Move to approve. Aye. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Yeah, I'll talk a little bit about this. So, as you recall earlier in the spring we brought you the first resolution for the reduced education plan given our financial situation. As I've shared in my bi-weekly updates to all staff and families in the community, um we were needing to cut between the start of 2026 and through the end of the 2026-2027 school year about $6 million. That number would have been much, much higher had we not been able to transfer money from capital projects over to general fund, which is a one-time transfer and essentially bought us one more year. So,
058the additional cuts we're bringing to you tonight about a little over $2 million overall uh, so far since the beginning of the school year with the additional 3 million that we cut mid-year, uh, we're going to be up to another 3.2 million, uh, to bring us to a total of about 6.2 million, um, that we will have cut. So, tonight, um, in your packet as you've already seen, positions, uh, that we are recommending to be cut. I also want to be clear that any position that is reduced through the reduction in force and reduced education plan, um, as you recall last time we did it, we handed out 200 notices, and we ended up, uh, being able to bring back many of the staff and we had, uh, an overall reduction of about 100 positions
059when we did this before. Um, so, if there is any way possible for us to be able to recall any of our staff, we absolutely want to do that. Any staff that are currently in a position that have been, um, eliminated for next year, they go on a callback list for 2 years. If they don't accept another job, uh, and we have the opportunity to recall them, then, uh, we call them and offer them the position back. Um, if they accept another job, then they go off of that list. So, I also want to put in perspective that, um, we've already cut nearly 100 positions in our district. So, this is a continuation of the cuts that we've already made. These are not, um, just brand new cuts that we're bringing to you, and we're
060going to continue to, uh, find ways if possible to bring positions back. Otherwise, um, we're going to have to continue to find ways to to reduce. There's just no way around it, and, um, that's our situation with four levy failures. Um, that's our reality, and, uh, there is no easy way to do this. So, um that's what you have in front of you tonight is the updated resolution with uh specific uh reductions. All those in favor. Aye. Opposed. Motion carries. Item C, policy replacements. I won't spend a a lot of time on this one. Uh we've talked about uh policy 3122 for quite a while, having to do with excused and unexcused absences. I will um kind of refresh your memory. When we started our strategic planning, um it was very clear the number one
061thing that was discussed was attendance. And the fact that we were um seeing a lot of students miss school for a variety of reasons. And yes, some are because of transportation, absolutely. Uh but that was not the number one reason. Um but attendance was a big issue. We've done a lot of work looking into our current policy. What we also found when we talked with Person County Juvenile Court is that our policy was probably the most lenient in Person County as far as attendance goes. So, pretty quickly we identified that we can make some changes in our policy uh to hold um families accountable for attendance, for example. Um under the current policy, if my child were absent um in September, I could call tomorrow or I could go in the system tomorrow and excuse
062them for an absence in September um without any documentation, without any um necessary uh note or rationale. So, I'm just going to highlight a couple of the changes in the uh uh new policy. And tonight is just first reading, we're not asking you to take action. You actually have the draft policy and have added it. Um but I want to call out a couple of the things. Um administrative streamlining eliminated redundancies and unnecessary language. That's the case anytime you update a policy. Um a shift towards supportive intervention, uh really being intentional about working with families. We do that already, but it's not called out in our policy as well as we would like. Um integrity of absence documentation, uh really a shift in establishing a specific reasonable excuse window. As I was referring to, now
063that window is open all year, um we're asking families to do it within a specified time frame. And then a structured pre-approval process for students to get pre-approval in order to be gone um for a lengthy period of time. Whole lot of other things that essentially um what they do is they hold um our our students and families accountable for the attendance. It also gives our schools the ability to enforce it better. And um it it's just better practice on our part. This is a low-level uh initiative that we could take to try to impact attendance in our district. And so, between now and the next board meeting, any questions that you have, any concerns or comments that you have, um I also encourage you to look at other districts. Um this is a lot
064of it is model policy from WASDEB, but I encourage you to look at other districts' policies as well. And if you see something that you think we need to consider, uh let me know. But uh also let us know if you have any questions between now and I believe May 28th will be second reading. Okay, next item is the PSC contract 2052 3038. I want to start by thanking some people. I want to thank Gabriel who's here tonight, PSC president. Um and Vivian who's not here is vice president. I also want to thank DD, our director of human resources, and the rest of our HR team, Jamie and Carrie. Um Negotiating contracts are not easy for anyone. We want the best for our employees. Our employees want the best for them. But it takes a
065lot of time and a lot of energy, a lot of meeting for staff outside of contracted time. They're working all day and then we're bargaining at night. It takes a long time and people don't understand that. Also, when you're bargaining with very limited resources, that becomes very challenging as well. And so, I just want to make sure that we recognize the people that are doing the work to create contracts moving forward. And so, this was definitely a group effort and a lot of time and energy and detail goes into this. And so, I'm pleased to present to you the public school employees contract for 2025 retroactive to the beginning of the year through 2028. We've also built in some language in there for allowing us to get together on some topics that are there to
066collaborate. And I think one of the most important things that have that has come out of this is the desire to continue to collaborate. And I was even invited to a membership meeting where I got to go meet with members of PSE and have conversations ask questions they ask questions. So really just being intentional about strengthening those relationships. So want to make sure I said a big thank you to those involved before we ask you to take action. We want to hear a motion. I make a motion Second. Then moved and seconded are there any discussion? All those in favor? I. Opposed? Motion carries. Okay, item five board comments. We'll hand the mic to the other end now. Um I have a burning thing. Um well first I want to congratulate the choir for singing
067to us. Um I remember when I sang the Star Spangled Banner I was terrified so having them do that in front of people that you don't know probably is that's terrifying so I can appreciate that. I don't think any of them are still here but I appreciate it. Um and like listening to the Fort Stevens like what they do I was not a Fort Stevens person myself but listening to that I wish that I did though. Um listening to the ways each student can soar um and I admire that. Um I want to congratulate our three new administrators Brandon, Kaya, and Felicia. Listening to the process that you guys had to go through is giving me anxiety. I got scared. Um so I'm deeply impressed and I applaud you guys for doing that. That's absolutely
068insane. And [laughter] then I'm freaking and then lastly just a comment about the attendance. Um I appreciate that we need to change that. As a student, I noticed just the sheer amount of attendance like issues. Like it's a mind-blowing how many kids are not coming to school nowadays, and how easy it is to get an excuse. It's so crazy, and I can appreciate the urge to fix that. Um I would also like to thank the Fort Zumwalt choir for performing for us. Um I also got to be a part of the student panel to select the high school principal at my high school, and it was a really great experience, and I I like really appreciated that students were allowed to be involved, and it was a really It made I know like talking with
069the the rest of the kids who were on the panel, it just made us feel like we have we have a positive impact on our school, and it was great to give our opinion about who we thought was the best fit. And then I also agreed with you, Holly, about um the attendance policy and how it should be improved, and um I think that's really great that we're doing that. All right. Well, thank you, Fort Stevens. Great job, kids. And I don't know if they're there now, but it's always fun. It's my favorite part of the night for me. I enjoyed that a lot. Uh congratulations to and welcome to the team. Um for some of our new hires, and uh we always seem to have some more to do. So, I appreciate you guys
070so much. Um thanks for the candid comments. Um I know I'm always available for conversation. So, I'll just leave it at that for right now, but I don't know. I haven't had the opportunity to talk to any of y'all uh personally, so uh I'd be glad to talk to y'all about that. Um Okay. Uh I attended the uh going meeting with the uh city of Young. Um we haven't had the opportunity to do that for a of years, so that was um interesting. That was a hot topic out of that. That's That's a lot of conversation going on about that. Um Uh I also sat on the panel uh the cabinet uh for the hiring and uh I'm going to say one thing about one of our new hires. Because um I'm telling you, if
071you can be an umpire, you're going to be a great principal for the elementary school. >> [laughter] >> Cuz uh my granddaughter, my oldest granddaughter, umpires. And I'm just going to throw this out there. She had a parent holler at her one time that and they said, "What are we doing here?" hollering at her. And she jumped up and said, "We're playing baseball." And turned right around and went back to elementary in the game. So, I know that you can handle anything that they parents throw at you. Tell those kids, you're going to be great up there. Preach it. Uh my hats off to our students today for exceeding the state standards on passing the out through third through fifth grade. I think you are far exceeding the standards on that. But it needs to
072be recognized what good things are out there. So, congratulations on that. I know you guys work hard. Just wrapped up this story five of here, too. Um So, thank you for that. Um congratulations to Kaya and Felicia on your new positions. Mark has big shoes to fill at the elementary school role. Good luck finding that person to fill your shoes. I know you've done amazing things down there. Um welcome Brandon to the team. Getting excited to get to know you and everything going on over there. Um I did attend the comprehensive sex health thing at Southwood this year and the middle school. Um The elementary school was a lot better turnout than if went as a board member at the middle school. There was no parents if I went as a parent, which I did,
073I was the only parents. So, we're getting the information out there. Just got to find out where parents are able to show up more. Um and then with the reduction in education plan, I know no decisions are made lightly. Um it's a very difficult position to be in. Um it's the hardest part as a business owner myself is when I have to let somebody go. It's family, it's spaces, it's relationships you built over the years. Um I just had a district superintendent position, so my heart goes out to you. Goes out to you if you're you're displacing that. So, I do apologize. Well, first of all, I'd like to thank the Fort Steilacoom for hosting hosting us tonight. Thanks for to the choir for great rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner. And uh welcome to our
074new administrators. Things are going to look We looked at the guys twice. And I also went to the young city council meeting and the school board and my goodness the housing units we've got coming in Steilacoom in the next 5 to 10 years is unbelievable. So, and I had the opportunity again this year to interview some of our seniors with the Dollars for Scholars awards and my God, we got a bunch of good kids. We had I believe over 120 applicants this year. Uh just a couple of quick things. Number one in my update um that I'm sending you tomorrow, a lot going on, so make sure you check the calendar uh between now and the end of the school year. Lots of events happening. Uh so, I encourage you as a board to get
075to the ones you can. Um next, thank you Lisa for uh pivoting tonight. And we will be putting a presentation online because you took a lot of time to to put that together. So, we will be putting that up with the recording of tonight's meeting. We typically get that up uh sometime in the morning tomorrow. So, uh please go there and look at Lisa's presentation. She spent a lot of time putting that together. Um last thing is um Sunday night is the annual uh student board rep dinner at the Woods home. So, I will have all six uh board reps at my house. And we do have a little uh friendly competition. Um and last year, I think I won um with uh my group. And so, I think it was the seniors last year.
076So, this year, I get the seniors and Mrs. Woods gets um uh this year, it's the seniors and I have the juniors. So, we'll see. I'll give you a report back on who wins. Um but dinner and games at the Woods home on Sunday night. And uh I look forward to that. It's fun hanging out with them. And it's also just a way to say thank you for for what they do on top of being uh the excellent students. That's it. Okay, the next board meeting is May 28th, 2026, 6:00 p.m. at the district office. Meeting adjourned.