001We're gonna begin. >> I now call the March 12, 2026 Young Community School Board meeting to order. staff and I aliance 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. >> Welcome everyone. My name is Bill Ross. I'm the school board vice president this year. Before we begin, I want to remind everyone that the agenda is meeting back or made available on our district website at least 24 hours prior to the start of each meeting. Please note that while we strive to provide all relevant materials in advance, one of the pieces agenda are permissible. The first thing we're going to do tonight is the bill developing spotlight. Good evening. Thank you for coming this evening. Thank
002you board superintendent. This is I'm principal homes. Really great at talking kids. Not so great at talking. So, here we um we're doing some really cool things here in the building and um so we're here to share them with you tonight. Our first slide is just kind of a snapshot of our building. Um we're currently at 376 students. Um 46% being reduced, 25% roughly um served in special education and.5% in ML. So, um, we've got a lot of strengths in our building. Um, we've really worked, this is year two for me in the building. We've done a lot of work on a strong sense of belonging. Um, our student data is really strong. Um, attendance. We're going to talk a little bit more about that later, but we do have the strongest attendance rate right
003now in the district, which is a lot of academic growth. Um, we've got some snapshots of data down below. Um, focusing in and celebrating on kindergarten and fourth grade and um, first grade overall. So down across the bottom, that top measure is our English language arts and then our math scores across the district. We're doing a nice job of meeting needs um across the board. Um as far as challenges, uh we've got the best rate in the district. Not good enough. We need our kiddos here to be able to learn. So that is definitely something that we're focusing on. Um, as far as test scores, we've also seen a bit of a decline over the last few years. Um, and when we're looking at our discipline, um, we've got some things to look at there
004as well. So, I kind of formatted this um to line up with the strategic plan. So, we're looking at our three areas. And when we look at our instruction, um we're really focusing on that high quality high level instruction with that whole meeting. By June of this year, 90% of all of our students are going to make that target growth. We're doing pretty good. We're at 59% as a building. Um we've been making some adjustments. On the right hand side is again kind of a snapshot of that 25% of our special education. We've got 77 students um that are served on IEPs, kindergarten through fifth grade. Um some additional students in speech. Um of our students in the building, we have 150 students that participate in the SBA and 48 of those students are in
005IEPs in academic areas. So, what's working? We've got our fourth grade team here. Um, that round up right there is our cohort score. Um, so those are fourth graders and the growth that they've made over the last couple years. Um, our impacts in the building, we've done small reconstruction, one-on-one, a lot of adjustments with loft and title. um utilizing what our career ed students and um using parent volunteers to in groups to make sure that we're getting as much time in front of students as we possibly can. We also focus on our MTSS cycles. We meet weekly. Um we are looking at data. We're looking at growth. we're discussing interventions. Um on the right there is that snapshot because as we're discussing students in MTSS if we've got students that those interventions are not working
006for um we eventually talk about whether or not an evaluation for special education is appropriate. Um and our numbers there last year um of the nine students that uh 10 students that we moved on to evaluation, nine of those students qualify. Um this year so far we've evaluated 12. We've discussed 68 students and all 12 of those students qualify. So, all of that to say, we're trying to make sure that we're being very intentional about our interventions and how we're how we're serving students. Um, but we're looking at that special case. This is just kind of a snapshot of what our tracker looks like. Um, this is an example for TKK. They're all the same. Um, but we can look at what their test scores are. Um, so we can look at the growth that
007they're making in each meta therapy in each quarter. Um, we track attendance, we track whether or not behaviors or concerns, we track those interventions and um, then we track whether or not we got them on like behavior charts or something like that. This is um some pictures from our engagement nights for laugh and title. Um so our families coming in. It's literacy focused. Um this is the family book club night where staff read the magic school bus rides again. Satellite space mission and kids were able to engage in some activities and explore more about space. um they saw riddles and they figured out their weight in different planets. So they were able to take those skills and apply them in a fun way. Um as far as attendance, some of our challenges are over on
008the right um in three through five. Those are our testing rates. Um, so that little that ties into our loss of scores. That ties into our SBA scores. We've got 31 students that fall into that chronic attendance category. Um, about half of those students are served on IEPs that are already struggling with academics. And then when we add that chronic attendance on top of it, makes it that much more difficult to close that gap. So, um, of our chronic attendant students, that makes up 673 absences this school year. It's a big number. Um, and more than half of those are students on IUS. So, we work really close with families to have conversations, avoid barriers, make sure that we're getting them here. Um some of the reasons that we run into, we've got students with
009um pretty unique medical needs. Um we've got um families that are leaving the country to go see family members who are deployed. Um just family members in general. uh deployments and we've got that few, you know, that small list that um just do us and we have a really hard time getting hold of. So, we're working on all of it. We've got some really big class sizes. Um and what works for a class size of 15 or 20 doesn't work for a class size of 32 or 33. So, just being super intentional on how we're looking at those supports. Like I said, we've got careers that's coming in. Um, and we've got some parent volunteers that are coming in that are taking some extra groups. Um, last year when I presented, we had a wonderful
010room that was staffed and um it was our shining it was our shining star. We don't have that this year. So, we're trying to figure out how to still meet those needs a little bit differently and just making sure that we're super in touch with our families. Um, I am available during our conferences to kind of go over all of this data. So, if families want to come in and and they want to see where we're at, we can do that. um our teachers who are super intentional about conversations and that they're communicating home. Um and we're just trying to keep those relationships as open as we can. That also goes for our special education teachers working very closely with um the general education teachers um and those strong structures in MTSS. So, some challenges
011that we've got um we we're noticing our fifth graders um are are struggling and they're not showing a different than we expect them to show yelling and math. So, when we talked about those intervention pieces, they're our target group. We need to get them ready for middle school next year. Um lack of title has adjusted a little bit for the effort groups. Um so we're continuing those uh we're being super intentional about that MTSS cycle and we meet as mobile teams every six weeks and then our PLC is super intentional about looking at that data. Our belonging goal, our data is pretty strong. Um our students overall at 86% indicate a sense of belonging. Um we're going to kind of go into some of the things that we're doing including our leadership. Um but one
012of the places that we're really looking is um we're focusing on learning skills versus punishment. Um really teaching in the moment um where we are like if a kid gets sent in kind of talking through that. Do they understand where they are? um they understand socially the impact of what they of what they did on other students. Our teachers manage um very very very strong in their classroom admission. Um and then our leadership team of 11 students is amazing. They're doing a lot of us here. We had some grant money from last year that we put into a program called Kill Choices which teaches um student advocacy and student voice. So we're implementing that this year and here is our amazing team. I'm going to stop talking for a minute and I'm going to play
013a video. Um they all recorded what leadership means to them and the impact that it's had on the building. >> Hello, my name is Gracie and I'm here. >> Hi, I'm my name is and I'mma leadership. >> Hi, my name is and I'm a leadership student. >> Hi, I'm Daniel and I'm a positive leader inside of >> My name is Jaden and I'm a leadership student at >> Hi, my name is and I'm a positive leader. >> Hi, I'm and I'm a leadership student. >> I'm Cadence and I'm a positive. Hello every student. >> What has been your favorite part of leadership so far? I've been enjoying planning spirit days. Also all the activities we have done. I hope I can do them again. Also the videos and walking and running out. My favorite part
014about leadership is making the videos and hang out. My favorite part about being a leadership is reading to classes and making kids learn when they are watching. >> My favorite part about leadership so far is all the events we have done. Also, I have a graduated stud. My favorite part about leadership so far is fashion shows, reading tour classes, assemblies, planning spirit weeks, doing big projects, coloring horse. >> My favorite part of leadership is all of it, especially the videos. >> My favorite part of leadership is when we get to when we get to do the week fashion show. It's really fun. My favorite part about leadership so far has been getting to have a class to lead to and getting to be seen as a leader. I also love looking forward to a new
015way to make the pond even if >> my favorite part about leadership so far is showing what is coming about and doing videos and showing the whole entire school. >> My favorite part about leadership so far has been reading to and learning about Muslim house. What has been my favorite part about leadership so far? My favorite part about leadership so far is that is that my teacher has been in so far. >> What has leadership done? Leadership has encouraged me to do things I did not know how to do. Leadership has made me special by helping helping out with my spirit. Leadership has taught me how to be a meal person to be helpful and kind to others to be a good example to others and even what leadership has done for me is it
016push me out of my comfort zone. It helps me to not be ashamed. How leadership has helped me is booing fears from feeling comfortable around other leadership people help me out a lot more. >> Leadership has helped me grow my responsibility. >> Leadership has helped me manage my time more by staying and staying at school for one more hour. Leadership has made me a better friend brother and it has done a lot for me. It helps me resolve conference in my house as well. >> They've done for me is that they help me out when I struggle and they tell me what I am supposed to do. >> Leadership has shown me new ways to be kind, helpful, and be a better student. >> What has leadership done for me? Leadership has helped me step
017out of my comfort zone. Leadership helped you become a better student at home. Leadership has helped me be confident when I was at what there wasn't or when I would have a mental breakdown cry. But when I got into leadership, I just thought I felt more responsible, encouraging, and I felt trustworthy. Leadership has helped me become a better student by helping me act. >> Helped me be a better person at my class because I can be my I can be more helpful to kids and not that shy. I'm more of a lead to myself and and I'm confident leadership has helped me become a better student in Hong Kong because as a leader you have to set an example for other students. I have to be a good student. >> Leadership helps me become a
018better student at because it teaches me responsibility, teamwork and confidence. When I practice leadership, I be a good role model and I try to be as helpful as much as I can. Leadership has helped me grow my mus by helping me. >> Leadership has helped me become a better student at home by >> Leadership has helped me become a better student at Ro because it reminds me how to set a good example. whether it's at school, home, or out in our community. It has also helped me to remember stuff and help out if I need it. >> They help me become a better student at Mil. >> Leadership has helped me become a better student by teaching me how to be a leader, not just as a student, but as an average, too. How has
019leadership helped me become a better student at one point? Leadership has helped me become a better student at one by confidence. Number four, how do you think leadership has helped? I think leadership has no is making everyone more students staff making them more to us and they can talk to us if needed and encourage helps me by encouraging the students to be nicer kinder. I think I should help mom by making kids happy and helping out my school or making spirit days and fashion shows and making posters or spirit days um or post and reading the class. I think I should help my by showing that it is okay to be nervous and that it is okay to not be confident and I think leadership has come upon by being irresponsible student listening to others
020being respectful to people when talking >> leadership has helped no problem by blending spiritually and help them with the assembly. >> I think leadership has helped help me by taking stuff off staff's shoulders or making sure they're going to have a good day. >> I think leadership has helped me in a positive and very kind way. It has helped teach younger grades to act responsibly. We as a team >> I think leadership has helped me by showing them what kind is and treating others the way you want to be treated. >> I think leadership has helped me by encouraging students to follow our steps and bring those person thinking. >> How do I think leadership helped another? I think I think leadership helped not only by giving it giving them a chance to be kind
021in all the other character traits. The impact that these um these students have on two hours a week is pretty amazing. Um, and as you heard them talk, they're doing a lot of heavy lifting in our building. Um, they're doing um, a lot of just positive posters in our hallways. Um, we're going to get to a video here in a second that they did for one of our assemblies because you heard many of them talk about the videos. Um, but they're also paired up with Denver groups. So, they help at assemblies. They help students navigate like up to their awards, back to pictures. Um they've gone right um for kindness week and for leadership week um and are being very visible in the building. Born down. We're helping us have fun around here. Our show
022kids are not here tonight. Um they did video. I'm going to call out their advisors to stand up and take the round of applause our kids would get for all their hard work. leadership. We're doing some fun new things this year. Um, every month we have a character trait that we celebrate and um, so students are recognized at most monthly assemblies. The new piece that we're doing this year is we're doing character lunches. So every two months um if you were nominated for a character trait um you get to have lunch with myself and Willie and family members could come in and have lunch with their students and then their place mats are actually the nominations that their teachers gave them for the assemblies. So that's been pretty fun. Um Mrs. James's class on the
023right. Um they have their own spirit day every Friday. And so every month they go on their spirit days. Um so that is one of their spirit days there. And then down at the bottom um in the slideshow I'm not in that picture but can be stretched outside of their comfort zone too. uh Miss Jen for ASB this year brought in the reptile man and that was a really really really big fellow. Um but it was it was super fun for the kids. We had easily a couple hundred people in attendance that way. Um, so just trying to continue to look for opportunities to get um our families here to have conversations, activities, um, you know, pull them away from screens and all of the things and come here. Um, our club is going to
024talk about some of the things they're doing as well. But that ties into our smart goal three as far as community. Um, and we're really trying to get our families in more and we're really trying to increase that family voice. So, our numbers on those surveys have been a little bit on the low side. Um, so we're really going to work on math for spring conferences um, and really focusing on that piece. This is a picture of one of our booster club events. Um it was a movie night that we recently had. Um but we've got a very small but mighty booster club. Um our president Scott and um and his volunteers are absolutely amazing. We couldn't do this without them. And with that I am going to have Mr. Spot come up. >> Yes.
025also that popcorn guy or Lucy stand by. Um yes. So, uh, what is community here at, uh, Pond, you know, the Wolfpack? Um, uh, it's kind of touched on a bit, the the core foundation really just a sense of belonging, right? And feeling like, you know, you're part of something bigger than yourself. And with that comes pride. You're proud of what you're doing. You're proud to be part of something bigger than yourself. And, uh, and then that that kind of leads into an ownership, right? you own a piece of it. You you you uh have a desire to see succeed and big part of why it succeeds, right? And to lift everybody up, to lift each other up. Um and in return, you get a safety net. Um and there's always the desire to grow
026and just make it stronger, right? We want our community stronger. And the vision is that tomorrow's version is just a little bit stronger than today's just a little bit growth. And um the fact is community it's not a destination. You don't just reach it there. It's something that you're forever building on. And how are we building community here at Mil the Wolf Pack? Uh what the district club has been trying to do is uh we work and take it very seriously to try to just create um inerson environments where it gives space uh for relationships and a sense of belonging to like develop organic. We want to give you a reason to attend the event, meet other families there and other community members and just like build relationships that go outside, right? Um I know
027uh you know it's sometimes hard as a parent to to um meet like your daughter will say I want I want to hang out with my friend outside of school at the bar and it's hard to you don't know how to interact you don't know how to reach out to them but uh you know at our events that's a chance for those two families to meet exchange numbers and you know maybe life conference. Uh uh a big thing about our events is we we have a focus on removing the barriers of entry. We're doing nine events this year. Seven of them are free events and the two that aren't it's it's a dollar a play. You know, we try to keep it low cost. We want everybody to be able to come and enjoy it.
028You never want that to be a reason. You can't attend but we are nonprofit is we do run on donations. So we always fund raise but we kind of fund raise on the side. If you want to support us, buy chips in um and also uh we are a sorry we're doing good but uh elementary school level it's uh something is that some of these families um this is our first time being part of a school community, right? Child, they've never uh been part of a community like this. And so our events, you know, give you a chance to uh feel accepted in, you know, have a desire to have it be stronger. Also, we're a huge military channel, right? coming all the time and I know there would be a family that just got
029uh their supports are really neglected to come and this kind of helps you know help speed up that transition and make it connection building a new support group let's see like I said we're doing uh uh nine events this year. We're going every month. Uh that's a step up for us. We uh this is we're we're staying diligent. We're getting done. We have the volunteers. We have amazing group volunteers. Oh, actually for a second because this list here of volunteers shows the student volunteers we had this year from the high school and also some RM students has been a landscaper. It's been amazing. uh they are just so great to work with and they take it every run and uh we just appreciate our student volunteers. We honestly uh yeah we're you know doing nine
030events this year. It's pretty exciting. And in the school we're having an increase in volunteers that are actually which uh it's very inspiring because it's probably your smallest and right now we have three that are working school today to help out the cafeteria and it's great for the staff but it's also great for the students that they're seeing the same faces every interacting with their putting stuff. I know uh my mom is one of the volunteers. She's always showing off her cat pictures every week. They're always asking me to see pictures of her cat. relationship has been great to see and the consistency through the year has been strong with the volunteers through the day and at least supports the end of the day. One of us are parents. Um, so you have to go
031where your kids are going. But we, um, yeah, all right, that wraps us up. Questions for All right. Well, thank you for M super excuse me super comments. >> Yeah, I'm let uh Denise start us off. She has something that she want to read which leads right into uh superintendent comments. Okay. Um I would like to take a few moments to clear up a couple of things that happened last Thursday at the district office. The district office is part of the school district property just like the individual schools transportation facilities and maintenance facilities. The people that work in those facilities are all employees of Yellow Community Schools. When the guy shows up in a green vest, black beater mask covering his face, hated, GoPro camera on a stick, gives his first name of Steve and
032proceeds with his agenda for content he can edit for a YouTube video. He never wanted what he came in and asked for. It was a setup just like the other schools he's been to. In fact, the guy's name is Robert Anthony McDonald and he was banned from Wal Public Schools for safety concerns. He didn't show up here by accident. He was contacted by someone and asked to show up here. He runs a company called I am free inland med inland auditing media. He uses the name Steve or Steve Mc Stevenson. I also check to make sure that the district isn't that compliant with the laws contrary to what Steve Robert would have had me believe. So in answer to an email I received from a Noah Christensen which read, "Is the district so out of
033control? Crazy how the staff are skiing laws. Do you approve of this? What I don't approve of is Steve Slash Robert or whatever his name is today coming in harassing Y community schools employees or his YouTube video audience to make money at our expense. >> Thanks J. I wanted uh to share that she uh tonight went well with the first time. I'm going to talk about two things. President this week or last week and then reduction force which I told you I would be discussing. And so um oftent time as things get put on social media and uh or in video form and portrayed a certain way. Um so this is the person that walked into our district office and this is how the person looked when they walked in our district office. Um, I
034was out at the school and I had just gotten back and walked in the district office and saw this person sitting there and looked at our receptionist and by the look on her face, I could tell um that this was not okay. Um, you can imagine seeing somebody walk into your building looking like this. um pretty unsettling and immediately um goes into a number of things, pulled out um his phone and starts scrolling through of things to ask us for. So, uh as Jimmy said, uh he runs what's called Inland Auditing Media and um does not put his name out there, does not tell you who he is. um who says his name is Steve or some other alias. Um he comes in and he wants to know where is your index of records. Basically
035an index of records is um just what it says, an index that shows all the public records that you keep in your district. So in our district we have this policy uh that states um that we don't keep those because of the sheer volume of records that we have um we don't keep an index which is very common for school districts. However, if someone were to make a public records request for a specific type of document then we produce that. So any type of document that we produce in our district is uh something that's subject to public record. So first he wants an index of records. I gave him our policy and then from there he wants to make a public records request. So we got the paperwork for him to do that and he
036said he wanted to do it verbally. So then uh I asked him what he would like to say with a clipboard in hand and pen to write down what he wanted to request. He didn't want to tell me. So later um Dee had a turn and um she got to go through the exact same thing with him and offered to write down his requests and he didn't count. So he continues, "He was there for an hour and 20 minutes." So that's an hour and 20 minutes in our district office where our receptionist can't do any work up front because he's looking at our computer um from around the desk taking pictures of everything that's going on, taking pictures down the hallways um and yelling for various things that he wants. Um, I pulled staff back
037um into my office so they would not be subjected to that. And we called uh the police and explained to them what was going on and um prepared them for what they were going to encounter when they came. Uh the LPD sent over three officers and they did a fantastic job. They were very professional, very calm. uh talked to him. Then they came in and talked to me and I went back out and reiterated the same thing that our policy said and then I walked away and uh then the police walked out with him. So he does this in um public buildings in government buildings. Um never really wants to see documentation. does want to create a little bit of chaos and wants to present as though uh your organization has been exposed or is
038doing something um incorrectly or against the law. um and and he'll go to multiple uh districts and and the reason that he's been uh no trespass for two years in Walaw Wala is because he was going around to open doors and just walking in and taking pictures and video. Uh so we have since talked to our transportation department, our facilities department that they are to keep front doors locked and uh if they were to see somebody dressed in a mask and uh concerning outfit um to not let them in uh because I think this would be concerning to anybody um that is um working in a place of business and they see this person come in. He does not go to schools um at least has not up to this point because he knows he
039can't take footage there because of children. Um however, right next door to the district office we have our extension school and on a Thursday our students are coming and going um in for uh for class. uh he has returned to different places and so I'll be sending out messaging to staff next week uh so if they were to to see him um that they can uh just say nothing and walk away they can tell them they have no comment they can send him to um district office but to let us know unfortunately this is the world we live in now where u people like to report everything and and they can edit it however they want. They can make it uh present however they want. Our staff um did a fantastic job. And um I
040think people need to know how unsettling it was um for an hour and 20 minutes of of somebody um standing there and demanding various things from staff. Uh but I think it's important for people to know the other side of the story uh when something like that comes out. The next thing I want to talk about is production enforce. I told uh the board that I would be discussing this for a uh future resolution. Um just wanted to kind of recap why we do a reduction in force. Uh currently I think almost every school district um with the exception maybe 290 with every school district in Person County is doing a reduction in divorce of some kind. It has now become common place that districts are doing this every year um for a number of
041reasons. one, uh, if you have to, uh, eliminate one position, you've got to get a reduction in course by most policies and by most targeting agreements. And, um, many districts are facing multi-million dollar cuts. And so, this has become something that is very common now, unfortunately. Uh, here are some of the reasons why. Um, number one, it's used in conjunction with reduced education plan. Basically, uh, that spells out what things are we going to be doing different as a result of, uh, reduction in funding or, uh, financial hardship. Uh, it's a result of loss levy funds, reduced enrollment, uh, reduced K12 funding, and increased uh, material supplies and operating costs. Um the last two bullets there it is K12 funding and increased Usoft ISO costs. Um as of this morning at 7:30 when we had
042our legislative u briefing um we're not anticipating any help in either of these. as a matter of fact, um going the other direction. And so, uh we will be getting less money in K12 funding and um uh less money in in materials, supplies, and operating costs. Obviously, it's not over until midnight tonight and things do change, but based on all three budgets, the House, the Senate, and the governors, um we're not seeing any hope. And um that's uh been a consistent conversation um throughout the session unfortunately. But uh after uh session ends then what happens is uh OSPI and the state kind of crunch the numbers and then we have more specific conversations around what does that mean to us? Um we're going to see some cuts in things like um transitional kindergarten. They're reducing
043funding for that, so we won't be able to offer as many sections as we have in the past. Um they're going to be doing some reductions to running stars. Um some other program reductions that um we'll have more specifics on particularly next week and for sure at the next board meeting we'll be able to give you more detail. RIFF was also used um hopefully as a last resort um for us. the position we're in. I'll explain a little bit why. We'll be looking at specific positions. Um not a large scale riff like we had to do two years ago when we had to deliver 200s and we ultimately cut 100 positions in our district. Uh board resolution is recommended. it's not required, but um I think it's good to go through that process um and
044uh be transparent about it and be able to talk through that um at an open meeting. And then also we have to make sure that we're uh meeting collective bargaining agreements. And what that means is there are timelines associated with collective bargaining agreements and when staff need to be notified of their uh employment for the next school year. And uh each collective bargaining agreement is a little bit different. I showed you this slide at uh our last meeting and basically I'm focusing over on the right side. Um with uh the approval of the transfer from capital projects over to the general fund. Uh it would start us next year at 8.1 million and all things uh considered equal not to make any additional adjustments. cuts for next year. We would end the year 1.5 million.
045Uh in policy currently it says that our ending fund balance should be 5% um which is about 4.8 million and if our estimated fund balance is 1.5 then see a difference of about 3.3 million um in order for us to be at that 5%. Uh the bigger picture is we have deviated from the 5% during binding conditions and that is something that the board um agreed to uh a resolution to allow us to deviate from that during binding conditions. But the bigger picture is uh long term thinking beyond uh next year. Uh and so we're going to be um trying to as much as we can close that gap between what our estimated ending fund balance is and that 5%. Um so we'll be doing some work there, but that's part of the reason um
046we would end up having to do a rift um again if it's last resort um and and for these reasons. But again, it will not be a large scale reduction in course like we've done before. Um because we're getting to a place where uh at a certain point it can't much more uh because we're required by law um to deliver basic education. And so um it will be very um uh selective. We're working on staffing over eight now. And so it will be uh at the 26th meeting we'll be bringing a resolution for the reduction for course and um talking more specifically about what that will look like. >> Any questions on either of these two topics? on how many requests we receive from this topic and those are all this other requests. Oh. Uh,
047since this general >> sorry full transparency like when when >> when the communities ask requests they're and there's multiple I can't remember the number >> 44 request this year alone and so concerned video on on that on that note. So I think it's important to to say that the requests have been the information that's asked by they're received. So >> yeah uh are there 44 still public records requests >> 48 that have been fulfilled >> 48 now >> 10 that are pending and uh seven more received this week. So 17 that are not >> and oftent times those are from people that just want information. they hear something, for example, something like this, a video comes out, then all of a sudden you get requests for um records. And in many districts, they've actually hired
048people part-time, big districts that maybe full-time to come in and do public records requests. And that's what they do because it takes uh a lot of time when you get them. um and you don't know when they're going to come. Uh and it takes a tremendous amount of time to gather records and that means that um staff are not doing um the other parts of their job during that time. And um so it it's something that we unfortunately have to deal with um just because uh but sometimes there are very legitimate reasons for gathering information um a lot of times um just for somebody's own interests. But everyone we get um we fill them and u on the timeline that we're required by the law. But this one, um, all that we've received since this
049is some emails that have been, uh, pretty disrespectful and and, uh, vulgar in some cases and and also some voicemails um that have also been from people that won't identify themselves. Um, and uh, that's come to a number of different people in our district office since uh, that video was put up. Any other questions on Okay, superintendent of American Community Comments. >> No. >> Okay. We will now move this. Item four, new business individual contracts. >> I think we approve. >> Second. >> And move second. Is there any discussion? >> Um again that time of year where we will start to see retirements and resignations. Um some coaching positions for the spring and then someh positions for next year. um you see star uh our blackness principal um we're going to visit her to North
050Carolina and the big shoes to fill we'll be meeting De will be meeting with her staff um soon to talk through the process for replacement um but uh we'll we'll continue to see more on these in the next few weeks. We also sent out a a notice from HR basically ask staff what are your protections for next year. That way we can have an idea of um positions that we're going to have open because positions that are big hit um are much easier to eliminate than positions that have people. >> All those in favor? >> Yes. Motion carries. >> Okay. Item B, resolution 042526, request for achievement redirection. >> Second. >> Been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? >> Just as a reminder for the audience, this is um specifically what I spoke about
051last board meeting. um moving over 7.8 million from our capital projects over to general fund. Also um as I put in last Friday's update that went out to staff and families and two weeks before that um introduced the idea. Uh and then two very specific reasons why we're allowed to do that. Um and uh we are not allowed to move any other money over from capital projects. And when that money is spent, it's gone. Uh so that takes away from u potential projects that we would have done because of the situation we're financially needing it uh for the general fund. >> Okay. All those in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. Item C, resolution 052526, YHS connects donation refund of restricted gift second. Is there any discussion? >> Yeah, we um again we want to make
052sure that we are being very transparent about all of this um so there are no false accusations. Uh YS Connects made a donation for uh band for pep band, the marching band, and the concert band. Um there's three different components to it. Um they made a donation for all three. Um our band teacher at the high school committed to doing all those and then uh was not able to do the pep band uh during basketball season. So then it went to uh staff and another band teacher in the district said that they would do it and you have to do 10 uh performances at basketball games. He was only able to do four. So that means we didn't do six uh pet band performances. So we are refunding that money back to the booster club
053so that we make sure that that money gets used for what it was intended to be used for and then the booster club can decide what they want to do with it. So in order to do that we have to do a resolution so that we can issue a check to them. But just want to be very clear on why we're doing that. >> And this check is a percentage. >> Yes. It's broken down based on the 10 performances and only doing 40% of those performances. 60% of that allocation is refunded back to them. >> Okay. >> All those in favor? >> Motion carries. Item D, policy revisions, replacements and additions. >> Approve. Second. >> Then move and second. Is there any discussion? >> Um, this is second reading. We've gone through these. I think
054uh a reminder and uh uh Ryan and I had some conversation about this, me and Casey. One of our challenges that we face as a school district is when we are told by law that we are to put something in policy and uh we sometimes wrestle with some of the things uh a sentence here that goes in there. Um when it's uh critical it's something that the state says you will need and it's based on law. when it's important, it's something that um you recommend it. And then beyond that, it's something that we as a board decide made a policy for and I'm using example of cell phones. That's what we decided. But um the other important thing for us to know is that as a board at any point in time, we can go
055back and modify and change policies and procedures. And so, um, if something were to change in legislation or we found that we had a different pathway to do something, um, we would bring that back because, um, unfortunately, one of the challenges is if it's critical and we are told by the state, you will um, and we don't, a couple things can happen. um one my certificate could be taken and then I would not be able to be an educator in the state um or board members are removed from the board and this is something that um our state OSBI is um very much watching right now. There was a local district that made a decision and did a resolution. Uh I was telling Ryan this they did a resolution on a particular thing and um
056the board passed the resolution with 3 to2 and that resolution was against state law. Well, OSBI sent a letter to the superintendent saying you will not do that otherwise you will lose your certificate. The board said to the superintendent, you will do this because we just passed this. Fortunately, they have not been faced with that particular incident uh that they passed the resolution for. But those are the kinds of things we're facing now. And it's hard because as a as a board um there are going to be things that that that we wrestle with that we're not okay with. And so I think having those conversations out being open and being transparent about that when we don't agree, but then us figuring out, okay, how do we move forward? and and I think Brian and
057and Casey and and uh we specifically had conversation on this, but I know all of us feel the same way that we want to be open and transparent about things that we're struggling with as it relates to law that's passed on. So, I just want to make sure I said that. >> Sounds good. Thank you, Chris. Um you know, there's a staff policy in here that's like this thick. that I've been going through and we all support that and so I wanted to just say how how much I appreciate staff there's a lot of work puts into so it's not just unfortunate there's there's times when there's there is this atmosphere of race here that doesn't align and and not just one person I speak as members of community and I'm here not for myself
058ultimately but there's there's people in the community that that ask me to be here And um so I have we're having a lot of conversations on on both sides of that. I do want to be clear that that I feel like super woods has been has been very clear when I'm describing what the laws are, the expectations and the requirements are. And so as as I personally vote, that's that's my own that's my own decision as I represent people in the community. The reflection on Chris and his his leadership. He's done a great job on making it clear what that looks like. Um, but if there's more time, there's there's a few things in policy that I would like to see, but in general, it's it's a lot of good work that goes into it.
059But that >> was opposed. Motion carries. Next item is E. Updated curriculum adoption. Second vote for free family living sexual health splash. That's back to me again. So our last meeting uh I wasn't clear enough I guess on exactly where I so I spoke with staff on this. I've spoken with uh teachers uh parents and um so of the three curriculums that were were provided this of the three and so um I'd ask for a motion to approve the work that was done in committee but not necessarily the so that doesn't really take any real action unfortunately on on the the policy that's there. So um the existing version we have from 2005 and and I think that works better and fits better in our community personally. And so I'm I'm definitely a this is
060this is my personal take on this. If there's a curriculum that fits our community well, it would um catch up with some of the state standards and expectations. I'd be fully in support of that. as it stands right now. The old curriculum in the might >> make a motion >> before we can have any more discussion. >> You can have discussion before. So, so the um so the reason we we're going to update this was because law changed so we had to update it. Um so so at the last board meeting when we discussed this um so there was a little I think there was a little bit of confusion and so when we when we voted on that I understand so when you send you you were okay with the committee's work that they
061had done and they picked the new updated flash so I figured you okay with the updated flash um so will the old version of flash work with the new state standards or does it not it doesn't meet it? >> No. >> So then we need to go with the updated flash and then look uh because there was another school district correct that wrote their own curriculum London. >> Yeah. >> So in the meantime we could update our flash And then in the meantime we looking >> yeah we can come back at any point in time and and communication with Lindon >> so we're not out of compliance but the other thing is so I struggle with this because as we're having discussions I think this is totally ridiculous that we're teaching this at school. I'm
062going to just be honest with you. This is this is a conversation that belongs at home on the couch with families. It does not belong at school at all. That being said, it is being crammed down our throats at schools all over the state. So, we have to do the best job that we can. the best job that we can do is meet the basic requirements without one of my friends way back when I was going to college was going to the moon and doing all these things just do the bare minimum and knowing that our families can opt out at every single turn. be sure that we provide that an email, going home, phone calls. I mean, short of going to the house and saying, "Hey, we're going to do this. We don't like
063it." So, that's that's that's where I sit and struggle with it because I don't like it. I think it belongs here crammed down my throat and we have an opt out for every single section. >> I think it's crazy with what's being taught. I have a fifth grade daughter. Last thing I want another teach my daughter had a son. Last thing I wanted was my son being taught by another person, whoever that may be. Um, I get the purpose of being state compliant. Um, but the power rests with the parent ultimately at the end of the day and that's where parents need to exercise right off the disagree with it because there's some parents that agree with it. You know, there's a broad range of people. You're not going to satisfy everybody with everything whether
064you completely down or completely adopt it. You know, there's parents on each side of the perspective on this. Um I do know what the fifth grade curriculum if I remember right is that available for every parent to view um at any given time because it's that's how it works. Um so you know I my kids out of it one of 3% parents that do in the district you would think there' be 80% of people in the district off your kids out it's just not the case but yeah ultimately I disagree with it but it was work done in committee with the curriculum that was presented to them. They did the best suitable state mandated. Okay. So, >> okay. I agree with everybody so far. I just wish that there was a pop in so much
065better. pass. >> Okay. All those in favor, >> we need a motion. >> Okay. I move reluctantly that we adopt the fifth grade family and living the family living and sexual health known as flash. I mean to be not any discussion but to be state compant I'm going to vote yes in it but I urge every >> parent all those in >> favor I >> opposed. Motion carries. >> And again, uh for transparency, I think if there's one thing that we are not going to be accused of is lack of transparency. So Casey couldn't be here tonight, but wanted to make sure that that his vote was counted, but also that he was able to to share. I don't love it, but it's the best that was presented at this point. I do believe there
066are better out there. So, I would continue to urge the district to keep looking and present other alternatives, but they are teaching this spring. So, they don't have much time for this school year, which is why I'm voting yes and requesting to make the opt out as clear and persistent as possible. >> Okay. All those in favor? >> We did. Okay. Okay, more comments. >> Um, always love seeing the spotlights, especially in this time. And then I especially liked in the you talked about how out of line more speaking about how they act out of line instead of just action. It's always better to try to learn and I went to elementary schools when I talk to any but I really like and then I also love to hear that uh like our volunteer club
067I think it's really awesome how the community is really especially um yeah I just love Steve and then Steve I I was I had no idea about this but I actually have a very funny story or not funny but when my dad he sessions for the department of insurance and he got and I don't know if you guys Never met someone coming out of the just got out of the but he works very nice. >> Yeah. And um it's just it's people because it's not just one person. It might not person but it's a normal thing. the whole country of people going out and the name of Christ like up for community rage of chaos and then being offensive instead of so yeah uh that sucks But I heard well first I think for being
068here I just love to see how the basic and then for um I really liked how we talk about the the attendance and the belonging and I really like that because it's like the students actually like a lot and families to do that was amazing and like really awesome especially leadership I know that like the leadership videos in the fashion show video there's two things about and um I said that having leadership started in elementary school is like really amazing and then another thing that we like didn't talk about a whole bunch but I saw that the high school library she's been up here and I love and then um another thing I really like having all these conversations about the curriculum have a team working on it and being really respectful because I think
069it's just important that we're like still talking about it and we're having discussion and I just think it just it seems really productive and um the clarity with the parents and I think that's like a really great thing I'm doing and being on top of it and then while I like what parents want what people won't align 100% compiance, but we're still working on having it like working forever. I think that's the discussion and stuff like that. >> Club, you guys are doing great things here. I appreciate that they have leading that. I think it's very important um especially in early education that males are out there. I mean, women do a great job, too. My wife's a teacher. just how scary but you know it's awesome to see dads stepping up into that hole
070but a lot of times you don't see that so my hats off to you um I went to Milan Pokemon come back to Milan um it's always fun when I was here but it's great to see that elementary school um my hats off to the district office of handling that situation that they had because that wouldn't have happened to the private sector you know that's just not how it would have been handled um hats off to that. So, it wouldn't have been that way. So, >> we went to the band hospital. >> We didn't go to bed at lunch time. Um and then um so on just a little different thing, I saw a video of club um doing the uh fashion and it made me think about the fashion show. So, um, and the
071lost town and the lost in town was overflowing and the booster club and some of the teachers did a fashion show with all the stuff and they had the clothes. >> Another little project was these leadership kids and the kids that thought, "Hey, that's my umbrella. Hey, that's my You know, I went took my kids to the Lawson town and got their lunch. And so I was just that was just a little thing maybe if the leadership kids can clear out the town. It just was an idea. I thought about it. Um, thanks for hosting the teacher, right? >> I was a first perform >> picked up rocks. forgot the things. >> Um, got to read at McKenna this last week. That was fun. They had to redo that now and there and so they
072staggered us in some different classes and kindergarten for sure. They've got a lot to say. They can't contain themselves at every flip of the page. If there's a there's a break in the sentence, they've got something to entertain. I've got a hat. So, uh, thank you for hosting. That was a great app. We we were elected to do something here if our throw to say what happens tonight uncomfortable for me and others policy that we're supposed more divine while we're here at all. And so just want to leave with that tonight. Thank you all for being here. I sincerely appreciate how to turn in this process. Thank you very much. >> Okay. Thank you. I think that's great. Yeah, we got it. Three of them that want to be future teachers. Oh boy. >> I
073think that's really he's got the mask on. um like to remind everybody Saturday night the dollar auction up at orange and right now the model so it's still Uh, thank you to Becky and um and all of her staff that came tonight. Thank you for being here and sharing great work that's going on. And I also appreciate the the the transparency showing where we're struck and and where we need help. um you know, attendance being one of those. Um our community needs to know what the challenges are that we face in our schools and I I give our our school leaders and our staff a lot of credit for not shying away from this conversations. So, um a big thank you to to her team here. Um it is education support professionals week. So, um,
074that's a lot of people in our district and, um, quite honestly, glue that holds our district together. And, um, it was fun, uh, today. Terry has all kinds of things going on, transportation, um, with our facilities, our technology, and so, um, I've got to stop by a couple of those today and tomorrow. But uh we have so many people in our district that do really important work and they aren't necessarily going to be the ones that um you hear about. Uh but I think it's important that we take time to acknowledge those those people our districts who do a lot of hard work especially in the situation we're in right now. The work is opening up hard and people are having to be more Um, also want to mention um, Ridgeline. They had this week
075uh, they were validated as an AVID national demonstration school and that was pretty cool. I'll read real quickly the information that Craig gave on on statistics. Of more than 7,400 AVID certified schools across 47 US states, Australia, Canada, and Department of Defense, only about 3% of those become a national demonstration schools. There are only 205 now 206 demonstration schools to the US and internationally. and only six now seven uh demonstration schools in Washington and French line is one of those. I got to go see uh a little bit of that um on Tuesday and it was an all day event. We got to see student panel and um hear them and just how articulate they are about what that program has helped them do and the courage and confidence has given them. Um in addition
076to just the day where they man it's a big deal and it's pretty cool that they put in all the work to to be recognized because it is a lot of work. Um, and then the last thing I will say again is um, thank you to this board for willing to being willing to have our conversations and yeah, we've got to as a community people have to step up and they've got to be willing to speak. Um, not just sharing their thoughts, ideas with you, but they've got to be willing to go to our capital and our lawmakers and speak as well. um otherwise things will continue to be done to us and not with us. And so uh people in our community need to step up. They need to have a voice um not
077only in their child's education but in decisions that are going to be made u at a state level and we need to be involved in those. We need to be speaking up and I appreciate our board being willing to to say what is troubling and to be honest and open about that. And I appreciate the conversation that we get to have individually and um and and together about things that concern us and for us we continue to look for ways to um take a stand for things that we believe and still be in compliance but do it in a way that protects our kids. So, um I appreciate that we have a board that is not willing to just rubber stamp things and is looking into things and um then there's going to be more
078opportunities as we move forward. So, we've got to figure out how do we engage our community in um having a voice in and standing with us when there are things that we think are not good for our kids. So, thank you for that. Okay. Good.