Yelm School Board meeting 2.26.2026

001It's a minute. >> There it is. >> All right. I now call the February 26, 2026 Yom Community School Board meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. >> Welcome everyone. My name is Casey Shaw and I'm the school board president. Before we begin, I want to remind everyone that the agenda and meeting packet are 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, modifications to the agenda are permissible. With that, we will get right into board recognition. >> All right, we've got a couple uh categories we want to recognize tonight, and I'll uh call up Jerry Malone for the

002first one. And um and then after the CTE then we have excellence in food services. >> Good evening everyone. >> Is that better? There you go. >> All right. Well, tonight I have the absolute privilege of recognizing someone who doesn't just support career and technical education, she brings it to life every single day. It's my honor to celebrate Hillary Hull as our CT Excellent Award recipient. CT is about possibility. It's about opening doors, building bridges, and helping students not see just where they are, but where they're going. And Hillary, she's a master builder. She ensures our programs offer college credit, industry recognized credentials, real employability skills, and uh create meaningful learning experiences, work-based learning experiences, and clear career pathways. She doesn't just talk about preparing students for the future. She helps them actively design it.

003Hillary is innovative, creative, and always thinking one step ahead. She has cultivated strong partnerships with local businesses, creating a powerful pipeline of opportunity for our students. She connects classrooms to careers, organizing impactful field trips, um, bringing in guest speakers who spark inspiration, and aligning students and staff with training programs that make real and relevant learning experiences. And if you've seen what she's accomplished just in the past month, you'd know her energy has no limit. From coordinating the winter CT showcase to leading CT Discovery Day for freshmen this last week to celebrating her staff and students during National CT month, she creates experiences that elevate and celebrate the incredible work happening in our programs. Her project and event planning skills are second to none and she ensures staff and student voice is at the center of

004every initiative. As our work site learning coordinator, Hillary walks alongside students during some of the most informative and very first professional experiences, helping them build confidence, professionalism, and essential workplace skills that will serve them for a lifetime. As the career and education instructor, she is shaping the next generation of educators, many of whom are already serving as pared educators in our district while pursuing their teaching certificates. She is literally growing our own teachers. And as an instructional coach, she is a trusted leader and curriculum expert for our CT staff, strengthening instruction and ensuring highquality, rigorous learning across all of our programs. Hillary truly embodies our motto, preparing tomorrow's leaders today. Her leadership is bold, her creativity is contagious, and her commitment to students is unwavering. Please join me in celebrating a champion for students, Lori

005Hall. All right, the next one is excellence in food services award. >> Two persons here. >> So, um I am the food service supervisor and today I'm presenting the excellent in food service award. When I was notified that I needed to choose one staff out of 36, I knew immediately who. My choice was based on an employee who gives 100% or more for our department, who communicates well within food service and the building staff, who is on an amazing leader of their team, and who provides excellent customer service to our students and staff. The excellent in food service award goes to Adriana Lucero at Fort Stevens. All right. Um, next awards that we want to uh Sorry. Um, I'm gonna have uh Mr. Cleveringa come up and help uh pass these out. But uh also

006as a former high school principal, um what we're going to share with you next is a big deal. Um a lot of people don't um hear much about the uh presidential scholar nominees andor the presidential scholar program. Um, however, this year we have four students that are being nominated for the presidential uh scholar award. I want to talk to you just a little bit about kind of what that means before I uh call the students up. Uh, these students are now uh nominees and move on to the next round of selection. Ultimately, they could be named semi- finalists and then finalists for the overall achievement. uh general category OSPI um OSPI can choose up to 10 male and 10 female students in the state. Um five in the arts uh component and five in the

007CTE component. That's out of the entire state. So each high school nominates one male, one female in the overall achievement category and one each in the CTE and arts category. Um this is a big deal that we have four students from Yelm High School uh being nominated uh and pushed through by OSPI. Uh the next step uh we'll have to submit additional information about the students our school and community students will also have to write uh some short essays and um then we'll stay tuned to find out what happens next. But um I'd like to uh announce who they are and the category and I'll give these to Curtis if he wants to hand them and then afterwards we'll come up uh behind and get a picture. Uh Sophie Meera in CTE congratulations Sophia Morwise

008in the arts. you guys. Yeah, you can go around back. And then uh Matteline Lawson in overall achievement >> and Colton Nash in overall achievement. Uh and regardless what happens next, whether they're semifinalists or finalists, um this is a huge deal for uh for our high school, for our community, and for these four students. We will certainly keep you posted on how this progresses, but uh we wanted to make sure that we recognize them because this is hard work and u we appreciate you guys. Congratulations, you get all this >> since um Our former board member, Debbie Edwards, is here. We got to make sure we do this correctly. Students, you got to come around the front and uh we got to shake hands. Uh yep. So, go there. Start there. Um since she's here,

009I don't want to get in trouble for not doing this. Anybody else? >> Next item. Superintendent comments. Yes. Um, so we are gonna I'm going to take u my time here to talk specifically about um budget and as I shared last Friday in uh the communication I sent out to families and to staff uh shared everything that we've been doing so far in relation to uh budget reductions in relation to finding every way possible to offset um the deficit of uh loss of levy funds. And so uh one of the things I put in there is um about the idea of exploring capital funds. Uh we have so far uh over $300,000 that we have um uh taken out of capital. Basically, they're expenditures that we normally would take out of the general fund. they

010do qualify as expenditures to come out of the capital fund and we've done that for this year given our financial situation. Um it's not something you would do long term. Uh it's not sustainable because general fund is where the money comes in in aortionment. Um you don't have regular uh uh money coming in on the capital side of things. That's usually related to your bond um related to uh impact fees and things like that. And so typically as many um of the expenditures you would do on the general side because those are reoccurring things. But this year given our circumstances uh things like uh hardware uh subscriptions things like that we've taken out of uh capital. We also, as I shared with you and have shared multiple times in the communication I've sent out, um

011we've taken about 1.1 million in interest dating back to 2015 all the way to current um which is also legally uh allowable to transfer over to the general fund. So, I've been spending a lot of time with um OSPI and with the ESD and we've been digging into uh the capital fund because essentially other than cuts, that's the only other place that we can find any dollars to uh move over to general fund. Now, the flip side of that is that's a one-time help. That is not something that we can count on reoccurring. Once you do that, those funds that you move over and you expend those funds, they're gone. Again, capital fund is not reoccurring. It's not replenishing. It's something that you slowly spend down. And typically, it's spent down based on your capital

012facilities plan or your bond, whichever uh you're you're focused on. So tonight, what I want to share with you is some information. I shared a little bit with you in our study session last week and then said that we were going to continue this conversation um in the interest of continuing to be transparent about everything um financial in our district to make sure that people fully understand what we're facing and understand um the options that we have in front of us. Um thank you. So the first um slide I want to show you is um this goes back all the way to 2015 and goes all the way up to 2020 2021. So back in 201516 um the district elected to move over a million dollars um and then 201516 uh $800,000 and you can

013see going down. I'm going to talk specifically about why a district would do that and I'm also going to talk specifically about those ones um that are in bold. But over this period of time, the district um each year chose to take money out of the general fund and move that over to capital for a total of $7.8 million. And uh a district would do that um very intentionally for a number of reasons. And I want to make sure that um I share why. And then I'll come back to um this slide. Uh oh. too far away. >> Here we go. So, why would a district transfer uh to the capital fund from the general fund? Again, general fund uh is more flexible in spending. Um you can use that on just about anything as

014opposed to capital fund is restricted. Um, and so why would why would a district do this? I've spoken with the um, previous uh, directors of finance that were here back then. I talked to Tony Britain. I talked to Jim Britain. Uh, I wanted to find out what was the rationale for transferring the funds. A few reasons. At the time, um, didn't have a bond. So a district would do that to start saving money for projects like uh purchase of land uh purchase of portables, building new facilities. There was conversation around building a new extension school uh between the site house and the high school. Uh it might be to purchase field turf, might be to purchase lights for fields, roof replacement, um emergency repairs. So typically when a district does not have a bond and

015during this chunk of time if we go back one slide during this chunk of time it wasn't until the very end there that the district was able to pass the bond. So then you can see um there were no transfers after the 2020 2021 year. So, uh, what we've been talking about with OSBI, with the ESD, as we've been digging, um, very deep, as you can see, going back to 2015, 2016. Now, let's, um, go ahead two slides. So, are we allowed to transfer funds um, from capital back to general? Um there are very specific guidelines on uh why you can do this and very few reasons why you can do this. Um one of those is that first bullet point whether the transfer resolution is included in the resolution to adopt the budget or

016if it is a separate independent board resolution a copy must be sent to OSP OSPI to approve the transfer. So what has to happen when you make a transfer from general fund to capital fund? The board has to approve a resolution. So we have resolutions for all of these transfers. We went back and we dug them all out and um and so did OSPI and so did ESD. So on some of the transfers, if we go back to uh two slides, please right here. So the ones in bold those transfers um resolutions were approved and adopted by the board. The next step didn't happen. The next step is OSPI has to give approval for that transfer. So that formal step did not happen. That step would typically happen at the district office. That is not

017a board duty. That is not something that board members would be involved in. and that is something that the district would do. So, in this particular case, I can't speak to why it didn't happen, but a total of 3 uh $3.3 million was approved to be transferred was transferred, but OSPI never gave the formal approval for that to happen. So, that money is sitting there. So if we go two slides ahead again that first bullet point because of that reason that OSPI didn't give formal approval for that transfer we are allowed to transfer it back and put it back for its original intended purpose which is the general fund. So another reason that you can do a transfer is the second bullet. A portionment redirected by board resolution may be transferred back into the general

018fund for its original intended purpose in accordance with the same requirements which were met to initially authorize the transfer. So again, going back two slides, the ones that are not in bold, those are transfers that the board resolution was passed and OSPI approved the transfers. So those were done, all the steps were taken, um everything was done correctly. However, um those dollars were not spent. Uh my assumption is that when you look down at the very last transfer in 2020 2021, that's when the bond passed. So now you have a bond coming in. You might not need this money that you were transferring over to capital that you were intending to do all these projects and repairs for, but now you have a bond that you included many of those things in. So again going

019ahead two slides there are very prescribed reasons and in the 2025 school district accounting manual through OSPI in chapter 3 it's very clear. So as I have been meeting with the ESD and with OSPI um through a lot of digging and a lot of meetings with them and a lot of conversations um our district can move 7.8 8 million from capital over to the general fund. Our district has to move 3.3 of it and that's the 3.3 that was not formally approved by OSPI. So at the very least we have to move that 3.3 back. Um but we are able to move 7.8 um if we choose. So now um I want to go to the next step. So I want to share with you our financial picture with and without transferring those funds. So

020on the left side you'll see that um really short blue um bar. So, what that means is that would be our ending fund balance with our projections as of today at the end of this school year with the the cuts that we've made with the additional funds we've moved over from capital already. Um, and I've spelled all those cuts out and the additional revenue that we've moved over in my communications every two week that every two weeks that I send out. I also share um that information with you guys in my updates every Friday. So, if we did not do any transfer at the end of this school year, we would have $338,000 left. Now, that is where you would start the next school year. So, um, if we, uh, don't do anything, you look

021at the gray bar next to that. So, we end the year at 338,000. We don't transfer anything into the general fund. At the end of 2026 27, we would end the year at a negative 6.3 million. That's making the assumptions of uh of all the things that we've done up to this date up through January. So September through January expenditures. So if we were to carry those over to next year and if we were to not transfer funds over, we end this year at 338,000. And if we were to do nothing else, we would end next year in a negative 6.3 million. Okay. So, over on the right, if we were to transfer the $7.8 8 million over to the general fund. Uh in March, for example, if we did a resolution in March and

022then approval through OSPI, we would again, assuming the same reductions we've made, carry that out through the end of the year, we would end the year with an $ 8.1 million ending fund balance. So that line um Debbie, are you able to move the the screen? Thank you. Uh so that line right there, that blue line, what that indicates is the board policy um the board policy ending fund balance of 5%. Okay. Under normal circumstances, um, we would strive for a 5% ending fund balance. Obviously, we've deviated from that. We took action as a board to deviate from that given our financial situation and the loss of levy funds. So, that line right there is just a reference for you um to see that uh our 5% would be 4.8 million. So, if we were

023to transfer those funds over, the blue bar, you can see, um, we would end this school year with 8.1 million. And then if we were to go through next school year with that 8.1 million and all the aortionment we get from the state, all the revenue that we get from the state, and we did no additional cuts, we would end next year with 1.5 million. So that's about 3.3 million less than our ending fund balance policy. Again, being in binding conditions, we've uh intentionally had to deviate from that uh because of our financial situation. So even with moving 7.8 million from capital over as a one-time help in our general fund, you can see we would still have additional cuts to make. When you look at that 1.5 million that we would end next year

024with, and again, that's not assuming any additional cuts. That's not assuming any additional revenue um from next year's session, which uh we're certainly not holding our breath based on this year's session. Uh so that's what uh very 30,000 ft view of our financial situation would look like um with and without those funds. So the next slide. So what does that do to capital? Um our current capital fund balance is 14.5 million. So that is to cover um basically all the things that I listed before and any emergencies that we have um in our district. Again, we don't have uh regular uh portionment that comes into capital. So if we were to transfer 7.8 million over to general, that would leave us with 6.7 million uh in capital fund. So what that means is for us

025we would solely be focused on emergency repairs and replacement. If you think about a roof for example, it's at least a million dollars to replace a roof. So right there, um, if you've got to replace a roof, which we do have a cycle for all our roofs, which are every year we could do one, um, easily, uh, based on the cycle, um, just right there is a million dollars at least. So for us, our focus would be shifting towards anything emergency, um, anything that, uh, is safety related. Um that would be our focus on the capital side and the facility side of things from this point forward. And again the only other relief we get there is an impact fees which we're going to talk a little bit about growth here in a little bit

026as we talk through walking routes. Um but this is where we are. Um again I was not here when the transfers were made. Um, I can't speak to um all the rationale behind it other than what I shared with you earlier about reasons why a district would do that. What I can say is we're fortunate to actually have this as an opportunity because majority of districts do not. Majority of districts are borrowing from capital and paying back with interest if they're not on binding conditions. if they are on binding conditions, they can borrow from capital, but they've also got to pay back in a year, but that's without interest. Um, you just read in the news recently, we've got districts near us that just passed levies that are borrowing from capital. Um, we're we're lucky,

027I guess I should say, is that we have these dollars to help us. What does it do in the grand scheme of things? it kicks the problem down the road. We're going to continue making cuts regardless. We have to um of the 1516 million that we've lost in levy, we've already cut about half of that. But then you also got to think about what are we losing ground on in inflation but not getting funded back for. So we take two steps forward but then we take one step back. Um so we would have to continue making cuts regardless of this decision. And um next year uh we either have to pass a levy or we make another chunk of cuts next spring um without levy dollars. So that's our our reality. What questions or thoughts

028do you have or clarification that you need? We have to transfer the 3.3. We have to transfer that back. >> We have to transfer back the 3.3 million because that was never um authorized by OSPI. A resolution was done at the board level during those times. And so that step was taken. It was all done. But there's another step at the district office that has to be taken um to get authorization from OSPI. And it was entirely legal. All of those um transfers were um were entirely legal and for good reason. I'm sure at the time and some of those reasons I listed up there. Um, we just happen to be in a situation where again we're turn turning over every single rock and this took us a while to get here to this place

029of realizing that we can um pull back some and a lot of work with OSPI and the ESD and um going through the state manual but um they are completely supportive and they recommend we do it. >> Can you go back to the bar chart? I just I I know this because we went through it in the study session at Nauseum, but just for everybody else, so if you extended this for another year, um it'd be another what five five-ish mill in the hole and that compounds year after year after year with no more funds. And that's strictly due to inflation and us not getting enough income to cover the necessary expenses. So, >> this is kicking the problem down the road and it makes it look good for a little bit longer. But regardless

030of how good it even looks in two years, we still have substantial cuts to make with no more income coming in. >> Yeah. All it does is buy us time and it's like taking money out of your savings account and using it to to pay your your regular bills and after you use that, it's gone. Um and yeah, as we're hearing right now with our current session, we're um we're taking steps backwards um with the decisions that they're making. And so um that gap is getting wider and wider every year as far as between where we are funded and what our costs are. And every district is cutting. Um I was in a meeting yesterday with um the 44 superintendent in our region and um uh it was asked how many districts are going to

031be asking to the board to pass a reduction in force resolution and it was at least 85% of the districts raised their hand. So, these are districts that are passing their levies, some of them passing capital levies, um some passing bonds, and they're still doing a reduction in force and staff. There's some of them are still borrowing from capital. That tells you a lot um right there that that districts are still having to cut even with uh passage rates in the 60% for a levy. Um it unless something is done uh with the system of funding, we're going to continue to lose ground every year. >> I'm just glad that we had the money over there. And at the time, if I remember correctly, we did it for land acquisition and three, I believe it

032was three schools had the HVA systems and a whole whole lot was ready to blow up. Yeah. And the district is fortunate also that they passed the bond. Otherwise, those dollars that I shared with you would have been spent to do the projects um maybe not building a new school, but it would have been um taking care of all the infrastructure of the buildings as best they could uh to keep them running. And so, uh I mean, we're fortunate to be in this situation. Um, but again, it's a temporary solution to a long-term problem. >> Well, we have a we go through the capital projects or the cap, what is it, Terry? >> The facilities plan. And so, we take a look at all of our facilities. So, Bill and I were on the board

033then. And so you look at your facilities and you go through and um you assess, you know, each building, the roofs, HVAC, your plumbing, all that stuff. Then you're also looking at the growth in the in the district, if you're going to have to build a new school, you know, where are you going to put it, your land, where can you acquire land, how much is that? And so there's all kinds of things that you have to kind of be real forward thinking that I'm looking down the road at what you're going to do. Um that crystal ball sometimes, you know, you got to do the best you can do. And so I'm like, you have a little bit of a gift here. I wish it was bigger gift. And the thing is, it's all

034spent already. >> I know. It's gone. It's You're like looking at it and you're thinking, "Oh, hey, look. How did he know that that would come in? I never would have thought. I never never even thought about that. Someday it might come in handy. Something like I never thought we would be some in this place." And then I look and it's like, well, it's not enough. And you know, my role at at this point in in where we are is to dig up every possible solution. And that's what I'm doing. And um as you can see, we're we're going back to 2015 and digging up every possible solution there is. This is the last of uh of any um additional revenue that we can put in the general fund. there is no more um after

035this. The only other reason we can use capital on the general side is if we have some qualifying expenses um that we could use capital for. But aside from this, any other action we take as a district is going to be in the form of a cut or a reduction. Well, just, you know, I'm just going to go ahead and I'm going to say it. Just it makes you sick that you're at this place and it makes you just sick to know you're kicking the problem down the street, down the road, and it just makes your heart hurt that you work so hard to get to where you're at. and and you're looking at this and knowing that doesn't matter how hard you swim, what you do, no matter what, the people in Olympia are

036holding all the cards and they will not change a thing. And it doesn't matter how hard you scream, how hard you talk to, whatever you say to them, they don't believe. They just keep going on whatever they're doing. And it's like, no, no, there's not. And here you talk about me. I'm not gonna get on this. >> Any questions that you have? Um, as far as next steps, what would happen is if you uh wanted to direct me to move forward, what would happen is in one of our next board meetings, we would bring forward a resolution um to make this transfer. And then um that would be done in March. We did um calculate and I worked with ESD and OSPI to calculate okay if we wait till March um to do the transfer

037are we still going to stay in the positive and we are um for the month of February um because the away the way aortionment comes in it doesn't come in nice neat um uh equal uh distributions over the course of the year and actually last session um legislature um did change aortionment to save them money um and spread out the time that that uh between our aortionment. So that hurt all districts because there's a longer gap between aortionment as it relates to um the end of the year summertime. So we all have this big dip that we take um in waiting for the next installment of aortionment. But um so we would be fine taking this action in March. Um so if if directed we would um put together the resolution for approval at a

038board meeting in March. I have um I'm glad the funds are there and it ultimately buys us some more time and with that said there's there is work being done to look for creative ways and meeting with with folks in Olympia to to find other alternate >> opportunities for funding. Um, and just even to bring up those considering transferring out with the news you gave tonight about how many districts are borrowing funds from capital, one field levy um could put a variety of other districts in a position that is not as strong as ours even in the current condition we're in. And so um I'm grateful that we have have the funds and have the time and we're going to we we've got there's more work to do. Yeah, but I'm grateful we have we

039it buys us literally just time. So, >> I refuse to give up. I'm just going to say that I refuse to quit. I'm going to keep fighting. If there's not any uh any reasons you don't want you don't want me to move forward, I will uh you don't have to take action obviously tonight. You don't have to vote, but uh essentially what I'm I'm hearing is that you would like me to move forward with a resolution in March. >> Yes. And if there's any other information that you want, um, I mean, the narrative is going to be that the the district was stockpiling money and all of a sudden you found this and, um, you know, I'm I'm going to be criticized. We're going to be criticized. Um the bottom line is we're we're looking

040everywhere we can and working in partnership with OSPI and the ESD to find every possible solution. And it just so happens that this is a solution for us. Um which is not common. And um if we didn't have it um you could see the cuts that we'd be making this spring and um and into next year. So uh we will work on uh putting together a resolution for your consideration in March. That's all I've got. >> Okay. >> Are there any community comments? >> No, nobody signed up. Agenda item three, school board minutes. >> I move approve. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion carries. Item four, new business, individual contracts. >> Motion to approve. I second. >> Any discussion? >> Uh, not much here. just uh time

041of year where we're um hiring coaches for spring sports. Um so you'll see that and then also uh another thing you'll see is any teachers that have been on leave uh for a year or two years for um approved reasons in the collective bargaining agreement. Um at this is the time of year where they let us know whether they're coming back or resigning. So, we have um at least one of those on there as well uh of the teacher that will not be coming back. But other than that, um nothing else to report. >> All those in favor? I opposed. >> Motion carries. >> Acceptance of gifts. >> Second >> discussion. As you know, we had to cut a lot of uh stipen positions, clubs, uh unfortunately. Um a tough decision that we had to

042make last last spring. Um and honor society was one of those. Um however, uh thanks to our um WhiteS Connects group, the booster club there, who's been doing a tremendous work and really trying to find ways to to fill holes. Um, so we were able to uh reach an agreement with um the union on an amount to be able to um provide those tassels for the students and and for them to be able to be recognized as uh National Honor Society students. Um, obviously the the meetings and all of that um abbreviated in comparison to what a normal school year would be, but thanks again to our YHS connects and I saw Jessica here. Um, >> she back. >> Thank you. >> She probably doesn't want the attention, >> but um just another another uh

043way that they have stepped up to try to support. Pretty cool. All those in favor? I >> opposed. Motion carries. Out of district travel. >> I move we approve. >> I second. >> Discussion. >> Uh FBLA state. Um we do that every year and then cross country. Uh going to camp and uh they've done that I think the past couple years as well. Um and all travel. We're finding uh unique ways to make sure that it gets paid for um not with the general fund um but a lot of fundraising um and or um donations um helping with those. So >> all in favor >> I opposed. Motion carries. >> Updated curriculum adoption flash. >> Yes. Um Kendall is going to share with us the process that we recently went through to um update and

044um recommend for adoption for fifth grade specifically. Um this has been a topic of conversation obviously um even last year um about the the sensitivity to our families and and uh we talked a lot last spring about um wanting to improve communication to families about um meetings around what's going to be taught when it's going to be taught and then also their um uh ability to opt out of of any lessons. And so I'll talk a little bit more about that after Kendall has an opportunity to talk about the process, the procedures, and what goes into selecting a new curriculum. >> Do we need a motion before she discusses? >> Um, yeah, we'll need a motion in a second. >> I move approve. >> A second. >> Discussion. >> All right. Thank you. Hi, friends.

045Uh, so on February 5th, we conducted a curriculum review. The committee consisted of teachers, a principal and a parent. We invited six teachers, one from each of the elementarymentaries. Um, five of them attended. We also invited two parents and one of the two parents uh was able to make it. So, um, good representation across the district. We spent a day on it. Um, in the meeting, we reviewed three potential elementary programs. Um the first being the updated version of flash uh which is what our current materials are and then rights respect responsibility sometimes called the three Rs and unhushed. These are really the only three programs other than a couple of fullyear programs that are ready out of the box that don't require any kind of changes supplement supplementation um or augmentation. So the goal

046of the committee was to identify a curriculum that fulfills Washington state legal man mandates while remaining age appropriate and deeply respectful of the values and expectations of the Elm community. Each member of the committee took the obligation seriously and engaged deeply in the process to make the best choice for our students. Following a rigorous review, the committee reached a consensus to recommend the updated version of Flash for board adoption. The recommendation is based on three critical findings. First, they identified alignment with community values. The committee determined that Flash provides the most balanced approach for our local context, centering the family as the primary educator while meeting the state content requirements. Second, Flash distinguished itself because of its delivery model and the support materials included for teachers. In particular, the values question protocol was identified as

047a superior framework for helping educators navigate sensitive topics. The model empowers teachers to provide medically accurate information while appropriately redirecting valuebased questions back to families. Finally, the team situated the Flash trans the transparency that Flash allows. So unlike the secondary materials for Flash, elementary flash is open source, meaning that we can link our website to the Flash website and parents will have access to every aspect of the curriculum, teacher materials, student materials. The full deal is available online. It is not behind a payw wall and it is not subject to the same copyright requirements. Um, some of the updates to the Flash curriculum that were not present in the previous edition um include bystander training, inclusivity, and affirmative consent. And in the fifth grade context, that's really more about um that students have autonomy over

048their bodies, that other people should not be um putting hands on them in any kind of way. Uh it doesn't really it's a little bit different than some of the older grades in that respect. So to ensure a successful roll out, the team recommends these additional implementation activities. Uh the committee recommends that all fifth grade teachers engage in the curriculum professional development no matter their current experience. The training is designed to ensure that every educator feels confident and prepared to deliver the new materials uh prior to the start of instruction. The committee reviewed proposed parent communication including standardized templates for parent notification and opt- forms. These materials are designed to be clear and accessible, allowing teachers to easily customize them for specific instruction dates and include detailed topics um so that parents can make really

049informed decisions whether or not they decide to attend a parent night. All parent communication emphasizes the rights of parents to make choices about their students engagement in all, some or none of the instruction. And we further discussed that it is our stance to make it as easy as possible for parents to communicate any of their opt-out preferences. Uh the community uh the committee also discussed building level parent engagement recognizing that human connection is vital. The committee agreed that it is important that each building host a parent engagement night. We discussed a structural change for those parent nights in which the sessions will feature a district proposed overview video uh followed by teacherled Q&A. And then finally we addressed the topic of family engagement with the context with the content. Um, to replace the traditional paper

050homework that comes with the curriculum, the teachers plan to send home electronic topic lists with suggested conversation prompts to allow families to engage with the material on their own terms in their own homes, however they choose to do. Um, so as a team, we remain committed to a no surprises approach to comprehensive sexual health education. Really proud of the work that the team did. They took it very seriously. They had very thoughtful discussions. um and we're really grateful to their dedication in a process that really honored both our legal obligations but also um our commitment to the families of our community. So, I'm happy to answer any questions if you have them. >> Two parents invited. >> We saw more than that. Um but that's that's we had two that initially committed and then only

051one that was able to be there on the day. I think um an important point to bring back up is um if you recall, we had our middle school parent night at uh Yel Middle School where we had the parent night for both middle schools um in one location and one night. We had both principles there, both assistant principles there. Um I was there, Kendall was there. um our assistant superintendent was there, the teacher from both building was there, and we had one parent from each school show up, went through the entire presentation. Uh and then uh what was nice is the two two teachers went step by step through the lessons and shared exactly here's what we do in class for this lesson. And um those two parents got one-on-one attention uh to go

052through everything, ask all the questions, and I believe uh both of those parents left feeling fully informed and um uh comfortable with the information that they had to make a decision that was best for them and their family. Um, one of our commitments again last spring is we are going to do everything we can to continue to push information out and invite participation back in. Um, and we're going to do that in every form possible and continue to try to do that so that families have an opportunity. And like Kendall said, this is unique in that this curriculum can be fully viewed by families, whereas curriculum in other areas because of copyright, we're not allowed to just say, "Hey, here's the whole curriculum." Um, we would get in trouble for that. Doesn't mean we agree

053with that, but those are the rules that we have to follow. But this one in particular, it's nice because we can share everything with our families and they can view all of it and then um if they decide that they don't want their child in it, um they can be excused. >> I a couple things. I mean, one, I think it seemed like we failed the last couple years at making making the opt out process more available. And I know I struggle with parents of kids that I coach getting information to them multiple times, multiple times, multiple times before they take it and bite it. But we had quite a few complaints the last couple years um because parents did not like what their students were learning and a lot of that was from middle

054school and not fifth grade. Um but I think we need to do everything in our power to provide an opt out upfront multiple times in their face. Maybe make it online available. Um give them the opportunity to opt out. Um, and then the second thing is, I mean, there are things in some of these curriculums that are still controversial. Whether they're deemed medically accurate is the new buzzword or not, they're still controversial and they they bother people. Um, I guess we need to figure out a way to make sure that there's no deviation for for the parents that choose not to opt out, that there's no deviation in those in different classrooms, that you know, teacher A is teaching the same thing as teacher B. And if a student asks a question that is inappropriate

055and spurns a conversation that's more inappropriate that we have a way to quell that because um I had a lot of tough conversations with parents last year. Um and I I want to make sure that they're aware that we've done everything we can to avoid those same issues. Um >> yeah and I think I think the teachers would share um your opinion because um our teachers are scared. They're scared to teach this curriculum because um they're fearful of of them being put on social media um because a child asks a question. And we all know that sometimes they're not questions and they're actually statements to try to be funny or or something of that nature. They go home, parent says, "What are you teaching our kids?" And it's on social media. And that teacher is

056now being ridiculed um across social media. And and so I don't know if Lisa or Kendall want to speak to that, but our our teachers are scared. Um this is not comfortable for them at all to teach. Not at any level. >> I would say our fifth grade teachers in particular are not super enthusiastic about this one. This isn't why any of them got into education. Um this is just a thing that we did. I did it as a sixth grade teacher. Um you you're as clinical and as to the script as possible. Um and one of the reasons that they really liked Flash is it actually provides the most uh support for teachers in terms of what to do when questions come up. Um and also why as a team we discuss the importance

057of having everybody retrain uh because it really emphasizes those points of we follow this to the letter. There is no add-on embellishment. It it is exactly as written. We're putting this forward as this is what students will receive and that's what students will receive. Um nothing more nothing less. Uh and so teachers are do take that really seriously especially at fifth grade. Um this isn't there's I can tell you to a person not one of them is looking forward to the day and and hoping that they can you know add something special into this particular instruction. I sat in on the at the secondary level what when they were going through it and the secondary middle school teachers weren't getting more excited about it and um there were parents a few parents and my daughter

058sat in on it too and administrators. It's not a comfortable subject that anybody wants to be talking with somebody else's children. Um, but it's the law and you have to follow it. And this curriculum is probably by far the best choice that we have. >> It is definitely the the most um it is it is to the letter and not further. I would say the other ones are a a little more detailed in some places. Um the other ones are a little more extensive in their content. So I would say of the ones that meet the law, they meet the law and don't go any further. >> And I think we can really take a a a close look this year as imple at implementation and communication. And the next step quite honestly for our

059district would be writing our own um based on the state standards and and that can be done. It is rigorous. It does take a lot of time. Um, but that would probably be the other place that that we would land if this if uh we felt like this was not uh for our students. >> I think the communication like Casey said every every way that you can is like this is opt out. if if you're not comfortable, you don't and I think I think really a a parent is or family is the is the best place that this needs to be taught. However, the state have said that we have to do this. So if we have a an option for you to opt out, then let's make it known >> and >> wide and

060far. >> And at any time if if a new curriculum because we know this is an issue across the state and it's getting worse. Um state's going one way and districts are pulling the other way from rural communities in particular. If at any point a new curriculum does come out, we have the ability to issue a new committee. And I know it's a process, but go through a process and maybe go through a readoption if we find that there's one that we think better suits the needs. >> Yep. Just like we have in policy and procedures around um the adoption process, we go through that assembling a group much like we just did. Um we've got a really solid process for curriculum adoption. And um so we would assemble uh folks again and do the

061same process if we felt like this was not meeting our needs. Uh I don't I don't like this at all. It bothers me immensely. The whole the whole topic to be honest given the challenges in education that we have already and that our teachers have to take the time to to do this. Um is is frustrating. Um and I know that I'll be personally looking searching for other curriculum and other options as well. Um, there's things in this that um there's still things in this that the state continues to push that I find unacceptable personally and um the the fight is beyond this. Our community is pretty incredible and I would encourage parents to get very involved. Um it it makes me sad to know that that only we had one parent um show up

062to participate given this is such a touchy topic and um but if if if something goes out if information comes out of the classroom that they don't agree with, they'll they'll scream all across town. And um the action that we need is in advance preemptive um involvement and not retroactive. Um and so in in terms of this tonight, for me personally, I think I'm adopting the work that was done in committee, but I'm I'm still not comfortable with policy in general. So I'll leave that for me. Well, to me, it's just another unfunded mandate that the state says we have to do and they don't give us any extra money for it. We went to a state confession a couple years ago where they had a guy handed out a poster all the unfunded mandates

063that the government has put on schools and I think it was up to like 50 different programs that we have to do. If the parents have an outrage with this, you know, it's done a great job kids opt out of it. That's when you'd see actual real change is when instead of 3% of students opting out of something, 97% opting out, then there would actually be a real change. But when there's only 3% of parents, I went to a fifth grade one two years ago right after a lot of the controversy was passed. I was one of three parents. I've said it multiple times here. And you would think there would be a hundred people there and there was three. So I get why it just keeps getting pushed and pushed and pushed. The parents

064aren't pushing back hard enough. >> Unfortunately, >> I would love to see an online option. >> I mean, I think it'd be real easy for the district to do tech, but >> it should be a skyward drop down thing. I click two boxes goes to the teacher, my kids opted out versus a lot of things get lost in transition. I know for my kids, you know, my kid didn't bring home a backpack today. Like, how did you not know you had a backpack kind of >> I'm hoping with parent square that'll open up some other um ways of communicating that. Um, I will say that even if parents don't return, and we were just talking about it moments ago, if it comes in on a Taco Bell napkin that they don't want their kid, we're

065going to take it. You know, sometimes parents will call um teachers always >> attend to that whether or not they there nobody's ever going to stop people on the technicality of they didn't get the form back. Um, you know, even even if we've had situations where the parents totally fine with it, the kid comes home and their eyes are, you know, bugging out of their heads and they're like, "Never mind." Um, so they can change their mind, too. Um we try to attend to whatever parents wishes are there and the teachers are really on top of that >> and they can opt out of specific lessons and they don't have you know you know parents might find the whole curriculum the majority be okay but I might disagree with this you know and I think

066that's important too >> thank you Kendall and staff that have worked on it I know it's >> it's the highlight highlight of the day I'm sure >> yeah and I also want to make sure publicly we're thanking um our teachers um they they are on the front lines and and the first ones to be um thrown out there on social media. Um and so a thank you to them and and the the retraining obviously is going to be very intentional. The communication out to families about the curriculum, about the parent nights, we're going to be very intentional and repetitive. Um and and you'll you'll probably hear it until um >> until the cows come home and uh so we will do our best. >> Thank you, Kendall. >> Yeah, there it is. I guess I

067I would just appreciate imploring into you know if there are changes made and there are new curriculums just let us know because everything is political and this has become a political issue as well and the kids shouldn't suffer because of it. So just keep your eye out. I think we would gladly put together a new committee and and weigh new options as they come >> because I don't think this is perfect. Um, no, but it would be the best of the worst. >> Yeah, nothing is perfect. But the other nice thing about this particular one is it's going to be available to anybody that wants to view it. And so we have an opportunity to get feedback from from a lot of people. So >> can I amend the motion to say uh I make

068a motion to approve the work that was done in committee? Is that acceptable? >> Um, yes. because ultimately you are approving the recommendation of the committee and it's already been first and seconded. So um you can also vote how you want. >> Are we getting an amendment? Is that >> I make a motion that we approve the work that was done committed Any more discussion on that? All in favor of the amendment? >> I >> opposed. Motion carries. Interlocal co-op agreement with Bates. >> I move we approve. >> Second. Discussion. Uh this is annual allows our students to attend their programs like uh transportation, trades, uh health, human services, business, IT, um and creative arts. It kind of like New Market. Um it allows our students to to attend there as well. >> I went

069there 50 plus years ago. >> Probably the same. How many stu how many students do you >> I don't know the number of our students that are attending Bates. I know that um most recent numbers like New Market we had 77 of our students attending New Market. Um cosmetology was one of them. What's the other one that's a popular one? >> Um the vet science and then is it the computer? >> Could be the computer design. >> Um cyber security kind of stuff they have out there. Yeah, but cosmetology is a popular one. Um, but this gives I'll find out how many students specifically, but it gives students some other options that aren't at New Market and that we aren't currently offering >> and it allows them to do CTE running start type of programs

070that aren't available at South Beach South. >> Okay. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. >> 2026 27 student calendar. >> Uh we got F. >> Wait, maybe you missed one. >> Interd district agreement. >> Can't read. >> Uh item F, interd district agreement with Rochester School District for educational services to students with disabilities. >> I move we approve. >> I second >> discussion. >> Yeah, this uh pertains to a specific student was a is a former student of ours. Um Rochester being a much smaller school district reached out to us and asked if we would be willing to continue uh to serve this student because we have a program that meets this student's specific needs and Rochester does not. So, what that means is they pay us to serve this student and uh

071they make sure that there is no additional cost to our district um to serve this student. And if for some reason it didn't work out for us, um we could terminate that agreement at any time and uh Rochester is ultimately the district that is um responsible and liable for making sure that this student's IEP is met. Um and given the fact that we were familiar with this student, uh we agreed to that. um uh and making sure that they were covering all costs associated with it. >> All those in favor? >> I opposed. >> Motion carries. Now item G, 2627, student calendar. >> Discussion. >> Yeah, I'll be really quick. Um typical calendar, we're starting the Wednesday after Labor Day. Um spring break, first full week of April. uh winter break, same as before, two

072weeks, puts us out on June 16th because uh the Wednesday after Labor Day is September 9th um this next year, so it's later. Um I'll tell you, some some districts, and I mentioned this to you before, some districts were considering starting the week before um Labor Day. Um we opted to just maintain the regular schedule. It's what our families are used to. Um, also that day three count is is very important for funding. And so when we start messing with the start date, um, if, for example, we started the Wednesday before September 2nd, um, we may have students gone on the 4th for a 4-day weekend. So, we just decided it's much easier to leave it where it is. Um there may be a couple districts in the region that are going to start before

073Labor Day, but it does um if we have snow days um more than one, it does put us into the next week. But um as far as a traditional calendar, it's it's the same. >> Any other discussion? >> All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. Item H policy revisions, replacements, and additions information. Yeah, this is just information only. Uh we went over all of these um last week at study session. We also sent you um all of these um revisions, updates, and new policies um even the week before study session uh for all of uh your reading enjoyment. Um just a couple things and then I'll allow if my team wants to add anything. uh the 6700s uh I believe those were one policy broken now down to three different policies um just using the

074boilerplate language um some minor changes um in the others with the exception of um our discipline policy 3241 that one is pretty dense a lot of time and energy has gone into that as I explained to you before um we were uh completing the discipline policy under one set of guidelines that changed um and that's for everybody in in the state. We then had to revert back to um previous guidelines uh a lot of time working with our attorney through that one because that is a very dense challenging um policy to update. And so we are now bringing the final policy um to you with all the specifics around um our discipline actions in our district. You'll see that in that spreadsheet that that is accompanying that policy. But um aside from that, the rest

075of them are minor changes or um like I said broken out into a new policy. Um we have time. First reading is is what's tonight. We then would uh push this out to the next board meeting for second reading. If at any point in time there is any reason to um pull one out or slow the process, we can do that. This whole packet is also online. Um so anybody can go online and see the full packet and see the red line revision suggestions. Um, so that's available to everyone on our website for anybody to see and to give you guys as board members or myself feedback if there's something in there that um they they don't agree with or or have questions about >> question. All right. Item I information Fort Stevens and Mil

076Pond Walker routes. >> We um give you a preview of this uh last Thursday at our study session and um just wanted to give you kind of a brief kind of 30,000 foot view of um what we're looking at not only walker routes which is what Terry's going to speak to you about. Then um after she's done, I'm just going to briefly kind of introduce the idea of growth and some work that that we're going to have ahead of us. >> Thank you. Uh so we've been working with the city to gather some information about uh you know what's the what is the growth uh and what are the development opportunities that they're doing that uh for the residential um homes and the kind of sidewalks that are coming along with that and how does

077that impact our community. Uh, so we also had talked earlier this year about boundary adjustments and as Chris and I looked at this and shared with you earlier is that um there's a lot of residential growth in all of our boundary areas. And so you can kind of see the overlay of our boundary uh lines there to the growth map. And so if you look at the yellow uh lines or yellow blocks and then some of the slashed yellows, those are the single family homes and the mixed use. And then there's multif family homes in the blue. So that means those are where families are moving into. Okay. Um we are researching as I mentioned to you last week that uh there's a couple of companies that we've identified that we can start uh working

078with to determine our student growth um ratio what that will look like. So I've identified a few groups that we'll reach out to. But um at this point based on where we see the growth moving lines, excuse me, probably would not be beneficial. We'd be moving them back. uh based on what what our building's um capacity is right now. So with that said, we really only have two elementaryaries that have Walker routes right now and would stay that way. U both Fort Stevens and Milpon. Um if you could show next slide. This is Fort Stevens and uh the green area except for everything in the green area you see is what we currently have as our walker routes and then we start looking at the the overlap where the growth is. So, in the bottom

079at the bottom of the corner there, you see right by Fort Stevens, and if you drive down Grove Road right now, there's dirt work being done and homes are are going in as we speak. There is no sidewalk planned along there. If there had been a long Grove Road, that would be an easy walker route, but there isn't, and it's not a safe road to to walk down. So, we will not have that ability to add that as a walker area, even though it's literally around the corner from Fort Stevens. In the middle you see um an area where we are going to recommend it be a walker route. And again this opportunity is for us to bring this to the public to share uh what those u areas are uh and if there's any

080concerns or thoughts the community gets to share that with us. Uh and then we can determine whether that's still a safe walking area. But um there is currently sidewalks all throughout that that match up with the sidewalks along Grove there. And then um they there's a sidewalk where it's arrowed, but there will also be a crossing sign that is going up soon. Um but there is no sidewalk where you can see the the red that was there's no intended. and another area that's close by. You see the other three yellow areas um already have homes going up in the upper left corner, but there is no sidewalk connecting that community which is fully sidewalked with inside but not coming out of it along railway and um the the straight out green line there. So we

081will not be able to u make that a walker route next year this coming year but we will be able to if they um complete the intended grow or intended sidewalk plan in 2728. So we will continue to bring this forward each time the community um has growth. To give you some perspective in the next slide it kind of shows you what the walker path might be um and how far it is. And so again we're looking at the age. this is uh you know K5 and uh how far that they could potentially be walking at the worst case scenario um to the school. And so that's the the one that we said we'll be recommending to add um just due to the number of students that it will require to bus in from that

082area. And then the other the next one is showing you where we're not recommending yet, but where we will as as that sidewalk grows. um out there and that's a seven miles um at the far corner of that that growth area >> and the fort uh the that's the Fort Stevens and then the Mil Pond uh again there's very little area for um Walker growth all the green is what we currently do uh and we never ask the students to cross over uh the freeway there the main highway uh that is a part of our walker route for the middle school but not for the elementary and then as As you see the growth, there is uh a small community that's coming straight out from Mil Pond, but there is no sidewalk and there is

083no connecting sidewalk and there's no plan. So, we will literally pick up students right at the top of that um yellow line and drive them into the school because there's no way for them to cross the road. Uh if there is growth, I I know >> you're you're welcome, Becky. Um, and so, uh, as the the additional yellow, um, grows out, there is a private road. You can see I'm just going to be easier if I point it. >> This right here is a private road that we cannot use. But if there is a property acquisition where that arrow is pointing, they hope to do that, which will potentially develop a road, which then they will look to develop sidewalks. And if that's the case, then there's a whole another part of the community in

084purple that we uh currently transport now, too. Uh so these are again just developmental things that we're looking at, but we're really not making any other major uh uh changes to the walking routes at Mil Pond. Um and again, this is something we will continue to look at every year. just for a little perspective moving forward, we will take a look at uh how our uh construction in our community will impact travel. And so uh we had anticipated based on last spring's presentation by Thirstston County in the city of Yelm that the roundabouts would be going in. That has been postponed. Uh so they did not put that out there for bid and will not start construction this summer. they will wait until November to put out the bid and do construction starting next spring.

085So, we do have at least a one kind of a one-year reprieve in that, but this will not shut down any travel. It will just slow it down and it while in construction and uh because it will be graveled and things like that. So it'll just be a slower travel as they build it uh through spring and summer and then by the beginning of uh 2728 that will be fully um operational which should help travel into into prairie a lot. That's a very tricky area. It does not develop um the road into prairie Morse road that does not change any of that development. And then the last part is there is growth again happening where you can see further away from Mil Pond but is still within that boundary and a little bit into Prairie

086with no uh sidewalk development uh along Morris. So we will bust kids from that area right into Prairie there too. So um there really is no anticipation from the city at this point to uh develop any additional sidewalks into our into our schools uh to expand our walker routes. So, that's just kind of what we know right now. And if there's any questions or concerns about, you know, our proposal for that, uh, we do invite your comment and anybody in the public so that we can determine if we can um continue to make those walker spaces and and bike spaces for kids, but also um how we then move forward with trans um determining our routes and our busing um that'll have a larger impact. And >> Debbie, can you go back to the first

087big picture, please? I think what's important to note num one of the reasons we obviously look at walker routes is then we can reduce the number of bus routes needed and because we're always short uh bus drivers. It's it's hard to find bus drivers and so if we can reduce the number of routes and have a full um driving staff then um that's helpful on both ends. But as you look at our map as a whole, we have we have schools that you can't have walker routes. Um, McKenna is one of them. Lacamus is another. Southworth is another. You can't walk to those schools safely. I would not recommend it. Um, and we won't uh we won't identify walking routes to those buildings because of uh it would be unsafe. And so really the only

088places where we can even look at expanding walking routes are the ones that Terry uh mentioned. Um and then the only other thing and again this is going to be a conversation moving forward. Uh we had talked about boundary adjustments really to take some pressure off of South Worth. Um, now if you're taking pressure off of South Worth, there's really only three schools that you can um move students to, and that's really Fort Stevens, uh, Milp Pond, and Prairie. Well, those happen to be the three areas that Terry just talked about with growth. So, for us to move students from South Worth to those three schools um, would not make sense given the growth. And then the other point I want to make is just the growth in general as you look at this. Um

089the number of single family homes that are currently under construction um or will be um within the next two years. Uh and then uh multifamily um that's a lot of families moving in. And so, as Terry said, we'll be looking at um how many students does that potentially produce now um in comparison to what it used to produce. So, that's going to be another conversation for us moving forward. We don't currently have the ability to pass a bond. So, as you're thinking about higher enrollment, um we don't currently have uh a huge capital fund. Um so, as enrollment grows uh and growth, um you've got other challenges as far as um how do we accommodate the students? >> Any questions? Does have anything >> where do we have water on our feet already? >> Yeah.

090>> All those green lines, >> those are current >> current. Yeah. And we we brought them forward in August um uh and had expanded a little bit of those uh in August. But what we really did was um identify walker routes for the middle schools and the high schools because we did not have walker routes for them very well defined and we needed to alleviate pressure in transportation. So uh with all the growth around the high school, you see now a lot of students walking And is there a budget um savings in in the additional walker routes or is it just literally staffing? >> It's it's really about staffing and even though Chris had mentioned we tried to reduce the number of routes, you know, because of the walker routes um because of the external

091growth. it's really just opening up seats and if not we may have to expand our routes because of the the amount of growth and the and the f further out that those those um homes are. So I don't think that we'll see any savings. What it does is we do a stars report which is our funding model for transportation and uh what we found even though we expanded our walker routes at our at our secondaries we have pretty much maintained the same writership as we had last year because we've even though they're close by it it really didn't um reduce our our writership. Um, and what does reduce our writership is if we don't if we can't cover routes and they're canceled during our count days, that can reduce our writership and our funding. And

092so we want to be fully staffed and transport all kids that we can so that we can count every kid. >> And this growth is just in the city. >> Yeah. >> This is not county. So that's an additional piece to the puzzle that we'll have conversation with. And um just to um put it out there publicly, we talked about at our study session of scheduling a meeting with city council and um also with Cody Colt um from the city to specifically talk growth. And so we'll be looking to schedule that this spring. >> We don't near enough money to do anything. I >> think single family home impact fees are4500. >> Yeah, somewhere in there. Um and then what we're learning about impact fees, and I'm digging into that a little bit more with

093ESD's help, is that wherever they're located, the funds, so wherever those homes are, the funds are supposed to be dedicated to the schools in those boundary areas. Um it's not like we could do that and then say, "Oh, we're going to go use them out of Lakmus." Um so we have to according to the impact fee guidelines you're supposed to spend it in the areas in which the growth is happening. So there's a little bit more um parameters around how this how the money is spent and what that growth looks like. However, with a one high school town, all of those feed into the high school and then three, you know, a lot of it feeds into our middle school. So there is some flexibility in our secondary area. Okay, thank you. >> Thank you.

094>> Vouchers and payroll. >> I move we approve. >> Second. >> Discussion. All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. Operations report. I move the approve. >> I second >> discussion. >> Hello again. >> So uh again the public's works uh items for this last month uh are here. Again many of the items here have already been done. These are just the closure of our small works. Uh that again once we have uh all the affidavits and all the uh components completed and we've signed off on any retainage that's what uh you see here. Uh there's a number of projects that have been outstanding that uh we are finally able to close up and so um again that's what you're approving. Uh but we do like to share with you some things that are going on

095operationally so that uh you can kind of see why we're moving in the directions that we do. Uh, one of the things that, uh, we are required to have is a safety committee across the district. And so, Chris talked about the things that we do and and how we make choices about capital projects and a lot of our maintenance has to do with safety. So, we have a safety committee. We expanded it this year to include community and uh, again, we'd like to include students on that. So, any of our student members, if you'd like to be a part of that, let me know. uh or if you know students who are interested, but uh they come back and represent the schools uh mainly our custodians and uh representatives from each of our departments so

096they can come back and talk about the safety concerns within each of the uh facilities. We did last December identify um ESD had a grant available. It was a $5,000 grant we could apply for and one of the areas we felt that was of great need was ladders. And so we applied uh at the very last minute once we learned of it and we did receive that. And if you hit the next slide, it was put to use literally within 24 hours. We ordered them and got them. And we have had uh many places we could not reach uh lighting areas and so uh those ladders were purchased with the grant funds and uh used literally the next day. So that was really exciting and I really appreciate the effort of our safety committee to

097continue to to educate people on safe practices and identify issues within the buildings that we need to address. Uh also in some things that we have going on is our food service department. So, we talked a little bit and you've heard that we had an audit and again this was a great opportunity. I'm going to say that right Tina, great opportunity to learn and uh figure out what we need to do to improve. But uh overall uh there's a lot of people who played a big role in making uh this audit a success. And so there was no fiscal findings and that is pretty amazing. Um and they gave us some pretty strong compliments uh on the work from Kennedy Davis who is our OP. uh they audited 420 applications for free and reduced um

098meals and only one came out with an error and they said that is unheard of. They really were like that's amazing that we had one one error in processing. So uh great job there and again we the business office supporting us and making sure all of our documentation was in place for for that. Uh great work. our YELM uh food service team uh had to revise their meal service process and um make sure that they have reflowed uh the students through. There's a little bit of a challenge. There's a lot of kids there. Uh we worked with Mark and Ka and Leanne, the uh custodial uh lead there and our food service team took on this challenge and has revised the the route in which kids go through so that we can make sure we're

099ensuring a re a reimburseable meal. And that may not sound like a big deal, but it is. If we can't guarantee the students are taking and being offered the right amount of food and somebody's evaluating that they've taken the right amount of food, we could not we could have to pay back funds um that we've received. And so this was a really big deal and we were able to prove to them that uh we are doing that and uh so that team really stepped up and they're probably kind of making some change uh as we look at the rest of our schools and how we do it too. So shout out to those ladies. uh some additional pieces of our food service audit. Uh we needed again our our SIS information system people Jay uh

100really stepped in and uh helped us modify our reports that they were asking for. Again, this is really important so that we can claim meals. We learned that our preschoolers have a different meal pattern. We learned that they cannot have some of the same foods that our older students have. So Tina revised our pre-K meal planning uh the next day and implemented it and we had to provide them a week's worth of meal plan so that they could show that we were doing that. Um and I mean the response and the the innovation of what came out of this was really cool. And then I just want to continue to shout out our Southworth food service team um continues to serve the most meals in the district with over 14,500 meals served in the month

101of January. That's amazing. That is just incredible. Um and then you can kind of see some of the food. Uh they did some fun stuff with uh Valentine's Day and making it fruit and fun and meeting the requirements. So just huge shout out to our food service staff. And uh lastly, we have another major project that we have to implement is our lead testing. Five years ago, there was a law passed that said every five years you have to test all um drinking water faucets. Uh and the deadline is June 30th. So we have to test all those fixtures, write an action plan, and publish the results. And uh so we learned about that earlier this year and uh we are almost ready to get our testing beginning next Wednesday. So uh the next part

102is is really what comes next. Uh you'll see that those are we've identified you know sinks all we've got a map and a plan for every school that they're going to come in and test. And on the next slide this is the process that we have to then follow through. So we have to inventory and map those all out which is done. Uh Wednesday we start with Fort Stevens and YS uh as our first testing site. We're choosing to do those on Wednesday mornings at 5:00 a.m. Uh as actually this one gets to be six, but everybody else has to start at 5 because all of those fixtures have to be tested before water is run through them. So we have to get in there before kids and teachers and kitchens have to start. uh

103once we get the results we will have to submit a plan and our results to the health department by Jan or June 30th and then we will create an action plan to present to you and the community if there are any of the results that don't meet the requirements. What we have done as a district prior to this is we did move away from a lot of our water fountains and our drinking fountains and schools and move to the bottle fillers. So there was a lot of work done prior to this which will definitely help our results. Um, and so right now it's just going through the testing process and so you'll get to see more of that once we get results. >> Any questions? >> Right. >> Yeah. Yes, we do have to pay

104a third party. Um the process when it started 5 years ago is the department of health would do it for free and uh they had too many people take them up on it and so they have no time. So we ran out of time to get the free service and so we are paying third parties. So we have a plan uh because we just have to do the renewal every 5 years but we're not going to wait the full five years to schedule that. We will schedule it. Hopefully DOT will still continue to do it for free as we move forward and we will capitalize on that opportunity in in our long-term plan. >> Reports. >> Um nothing else uh this evening. >> Oh, you do need to approve though the uh >> all in

105favor >> motion carries. financial reports. >> No >> student enrollment reports. >> Um we're holding steady uh kind of where we've been average of uh 529 um over the course of the year. Uh budgeted was 5443. So you know right around 200 less but we're kind of staying there. And really that uh point where we would would have seen any change one way or the other um would have been January February because of new semester and that's where you see maybe students going to running start or coming back from running start um not really any significant changes. So, um we're holding steady there and um obviously we'll take all this into consideration as we made our projections for next year um for enrollment >> board comments. Start with Rebecca. >> Um I think tonight there

106was a lot like a lot of information and a lot of budget information especially about like the the budget and stuff that was really interesting. Um and then also the recognition for the C excellence for Miss Gold. She's a really good teacher. Like I love Miss Gold. I'm really proud that she got that um recognition, you know, the service and student presidential nominees. I don't really know how strong I'm really proud of all the students especially and yeah. >> Well, thank you. Thank you. Yeah. same with Miss So I don't talk to her as a teacher, but I see her pretty much every day. You know, she kind of her classes and join so I'll be like so sweet. I love her. Um I food services as well. I'll say it time and time again.

107Food services uh so so so important. Um but they're very overlooked. And so I think was Adriana. So shout out to Adriana 14,530 meals in January. I don't think I will eat that many meals in my entire life, you know. Okay. >> Um and then as for my fellow nominees, I did not know who they were until I said and I was very pleased to find out that I knew all of them. I choir with Sophie my freshman year my was really really wonderful >> oh yes about the walker I was just looking at that >> yeah don't feel too big. I knew that and my mom always reminded me because she came here in like the late 1990s or like whenever we're like out really really bad when I first got here like it

108was not this bad like there was barely anyone here so many people here and so and even like way back when I was little kid like early 2010s so much smaller but yeah so the same big I can't really give the whole whenever people where I'm from. Oh, small. >> Yeah, we have to accommodate uh for that very >> Yeah, it's nice to see how small. >> That's all I have. Yeah, super productive meeting. I got a little scared when I actually went by pretty fast. Um, I don't have much to add to Becca and Sophie, but congrats to Mrs. F and all the presidential scholars nominees. And then thank you to Mr. Woods for on the presentation on the budget and like the capital funds. Yeah, I like the sorry. >> And then another

109thing that I didn't really think about is parent involvement. You guys told us that the flash when you were writing that only one parent was part of it. If you go online, you will see thousands of comments. But of course, when you invite them in, hey, we can talk about this in person. Um, personally, my dad, he's a very stern man. He was in the army for 20 years. He was a sergeant for 15. And he thinks something and it's impossible to change his mind. And for a while, his opinion on the school board was not very good. >> Um, probably started my friend. He was >> not happy about it. And I tried to explain to him, he just wouldn't listen. But eventually when I got this opportunity to be on the school board,

110I'd start talking to him about slowly I'm seeing him change his mind on maybe the community could take a better role in this instead of just hauling to the hills about how the school board's doing terrible. And yeah, so I think that Of course, we've been trying obviously, but would be just I wish we could just take all the parents that have something to say on Facebook and just put them in these seats and they can see what we're doing, how we're actually trying to help and just do phenomenal community. So, I don't know. Of course, we can't do that. But it's just that all No one has anything to say in person. >> I think it's more than ever. We have to be proactive parents and our children's education first and foremost. I know

111every teacher, every administrator here would be clapping their hands left and right. You know, they'd love to see that. You know, every parent at every parent meeting. Um, but that's what that's why I'm up here. I guarantee you that's why these other guys are up here is you have to be proactive in your kids' education regardless if they're homeschooled, go to public school or out of the house, grandparents, you have to be involved at the end of the day in your kids's education because a lot of the things you might not agree with, but there's a way through. I had a great conversation with a person today. She's scared to send her kids to public school. So, she homeschooled this year, but she wants to send her kids and she's like house. She's just a

112neighbor down the road. And I said, there's good things happening. You just have to be a part of it. you know, just don't take my word for it because every kid's experience is going to be different through public education, but you know, like you said, you have to be proactive in your kids's education and I just want to recognize those um presidential scholar nominees. It's a huge feat for you guys. Um a lot of hard work goes into that. I see how hard students work these days and there's no way I'd survive now. I'll turn it that way. There's just no way. Um, it's just very it's it's a grueling task out there to be a great student. So, I just want to recognize you guys for that. And shout out to Southworth. My kids

113are ones that eat your lunch from time to time. Even though I tell them not to. You know, they see what I'm having for breakfast and they're like, "Yeah, I'm getting school breakfast this morning." So, thank you for feeding my kids. >> Uh, thank you for staff. I love the recognitions every week. It's a highlight for me to hear the cool stuff that you guys are doing. So to staff um to the students and the awards tonight, congratulations. That's wonderful. Wonderful. Um I'm grateful for some of the extra funds extra funds the funds available to to buy some time. And I just want to say um keep hope because there's there's good things ahead for YM and there's there's work to do, but who doesn't like a comeback story? And uh so we might be

114behind right now, but um I think the future is bright and hang in there. Um get involved. Encourage your uh your friends and your family and your community, your neighbors to to reach out and get involved. Uh an involved community changes everything and uh we need all the help we can get. So >> I'll be quick too. I want to also say congrats to all the award winners, especially the presidential scholar nominees. That is a that is a big deal and it's a lot of work that puts in and if you keep working that hard throughout the rest of your life, you're going to do amazing things. But don't forget that >> um stay off social media. >> Booster Club, I want to give a shout out to the booster club. They are also working

115their butts off um all over the community and they're facing pressures, same pressures that we get. And >> huge shout out to the booster club. And I also want to give a thank you to the board. Um we've had a lot of meetings, a lot of hours, a lot of reading. Um it's darn near a full-time job outside of a full-time job. So I appreciate all of you and I appreciate the six board member that's no longer here. Um but thank you guys um for the time and I mean it it we have a lot of hard conversations. We have to make a lot of hard decisions. It's a lose-lose most of the time. Um, but I know where all of your hearts are and I enjoy doing this with you because if I couldn't

116do that, it it would be damn near impossible. So, pardon my French. All right, Bill. >> Yeah. I'd like to really say congratulations to Hillary and Adriana and our four scholars. My god, to get four of them from one little high school just almost makes me tear up a little. Just hope you guys all make it to the end. >> Okay, I'm gonna say to everything that around the table here and also um I attended the I Leave me alone. >> I did finding position. So, I'm never far from all that. Um, we've got strategic planning coming up. So, we're going to be looking at that. That never gets put away. We're still looking at that. Um, I made my list so I keep um uh I did have the opportunity. We have our seasons

117here, but we also got to um attend the uh youth of the year with the boys and girls club. It's different size students through county and it's just wonderful to see those students also. And then um uh my six brother and girlfriend Kier and I, we worked on the um Back to the Future fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club here in Hill. And we had that Tuesday evening and um the fundraiser for that was uh to help offset expenses for the boys club. We raised >> our community, not we, our community raised $40,000 for that organization so we can keep the boys and girls club in going for our kids that use that opportunity. And then um dollars for scholars is coming up. And then also I need to give a shout out because

118I saw my friend Wyatt back there um Rotary is having um their phone tournament tomorrow evening and that um helps support um our kids here and we do um Rotary the food bags in the summer and they do teacher grants and they do they do all kinds of stuff >> for the school. So um that's going on tomorrow night. So, um you can look on the website for that. And let's see what else is there. She made me make it list. Um there was band concert tonight and the middle school kids got to go up to the high eighth grade got to go up to the high school and play with it. >> All right, I'll be quick. Couple things. Um thank you to our student reps. Um we really appreciate you guys being here.

119Um, you guys are a very important piece to everything we do. Um, Aiden, your comments, I um, I really appreciate that. >> Um, because not only are you having conversations at home u, with your family about what you're doing here, um, you're helping your dad and and others understand what's going on. um because I I I know that there are many others that have opinions about the board, about me, about our district and what we do. Um but I haven't had a situation yet where I sat down with somebody and at the end of it um they didn't say something to the effect of I had no idea. And um and I think our board members have had many many conversations as well with people helping them understand. So, um I appreciate you guys uh

120for the conversations you have and what you do. Um thank you to the board. Also, um I want to mention that um uh Casey and Ryan met with um our teachers union uh leadership um last night and um I think that's a demonstration of our board um saying that we want to be part of the solution moving forward and we're willing to sit down with you and not only listen, but we're also wanting to share um conversations. we can only have two board members at those meetings. Um if we have more than two, it becomes a public meeting. So that's why we only had two there. But um I think it's important to share that and that was time of your own um that you went and sat down and and so I appreciate that.

121I think also people are are hopefully slowly getting a picture of the amount of time that you guys spend on issues directly related to our students and staff and our community. And I hope that um more people recognize that. And and I just also want to say thank you for um the support that that you show for me. Um the way that you push me um to be a better leader, the questions you ask um and um always asking why um that makes us better as an organization. And so I just I just want to say thank you. Um uh one thing I want to point out is March 10th, um Ridgeline Middle School has the AVID demonstration, uh validation. This is a big deal. This is national. Um it is the last piece of

122the puzzle to be recognized as a demonstration school for AVID. They've done a lot of work on this. Um it goes really from uh morning until they're going to have kind of a celebration um uh assembly around I think it's 1:30ish 1:00. Um I'll get you guys the exact schedule if you want to drop in at any point during the day or at least if you can drop in at 1:00 for the assembly the celebration at the end. Um, this is a big deal and it takes a lot of work to be uh recognized as a uh demonstration school. So, I'll send you information on um what that looks like. And then last thing is on the 14th uh dollars for scholars uh fundraiser and all that money goes to scholarships for our students. And

123it's pretty amazing how much money they give away every year to our students um to go on to post uh secondary. So >> with that, um, thank you again for for all your time tonight. I appreciate it. >> Next board meeting, March 12th, 6 PM at Bell Pond. This meeting is adjourned.