001I now call the April 17th, 2025 Yam Community School Board meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay, welcome everyone. My name is Denise Hendrickson and I am the school board president. Before we begin, I want to remind everyone that the agenda and uh meeting packet are made available on the 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. And I also would like to um note that um Bill is stuck in traffic. He will be here and Casey has been excused. All right. Um
002audience, superintendent's comments. Good evening. Uh just a few things that I want to update you on and uh there he is. Perfect timing. Um first thing is strategic planning. Uh we put out a request for applications for the uh strategic planning committee. Um I got to sit down with each of you and kind of share those lists. We had uh I think a little over 20 parents and about uh 15 community members and then um a lot of staff will have representation from all of our different departments and uh each level um elementary, middle and and high school. So, we are looking at finalizing that list and then communicating out um with committee members that have been selected and looking at uh right now five meeting sessions. Three in uh May and then two in
003June. So, I believe it's May 1st and then um every other uh Thursday for May and then I believe it is June 12th and 19th. uh we'll be meeting uh those evenings 5:30 to 7:30 and um those will be uh pretty packed meetings as far as content and work that we have to do. But I think after those five meetings we'll have um uh a really good start on our strategic plan and then from there we'll be able to work with you and staff to finalize that strategic plan. Um big thanks to our student learning department. Um really looking at the data uh because our first meeting is going to be digging into data and what uh is the data telling us about areas we're doing well, areas we need to improve, and that's going
004to inform the work that we do in that strategic plan, which will also inform decisions we make uh moving forward. And so really pleased with uh the responses we got as far as participation. Uh we're also doing a lot of work. A big thanks to our um human resources department. One of the things that um they are doing is um getting information on all of the comparable districts as it relates to all the employees in policy 5310. Um that means our elementary principles, uh assistant principal, middle school principles, assistant principles, high school, um district office positions. Um I know when we talk about uh making cuts, um administration is um usually the first on the list that people like to offer up um after the superintendent, which is usually the first one. Um but what
005we're finding is we're finding that our administrators and those in policy 53310 are anywhere from 30 uh to 12% uh behind comparables. Uh just a reminder last year all of those positions got 0% increase for this school year and our uh administrators also had furlow days between 5 and 10. Um, so I will be putting together um a proposal for you in the coming weeks for you to consider and we'll be giving you uh some options. um meeting with um Dee next week to go through all of those and um even though we're in a time of cuts, we have to figure out how to continue to keep those positions competitive or um we'll lose uh staff and uh we also know that uh being that far behind in comparables in any one of our
006labor groups would not be acceptable. Um, and I know that that is not popular. I am very aware um that administration is the thing that everybody offers up to cut. Um, and I'm not talking about my position. I'm talking about the other M administrators that we need to address um in order to keep those people here. Uh, legislative update real quick. There's a lot going on. We have 10 days left in the session. Um, things are kind of coming into focus. Um, two areas that we're watching very closely is special education. Um, it looks like right now. Um, they may be removing the cap on special education. Um, uh, currently there's a 16% cap to funding for special education. What that means is, uh, they will fund up to 16% of our enrollment um, in
007special education. So you take your overall enrollment, 16% of that is the line where they will fund um students uh who qualify for special education. Right now it looks like they may be removing that cap and then there would not be a cap. So if for example 18% of your students in your district qualify for special education, we would then receive funding um for up to that uh that point. There's still time in the session. Things could change. However, um we're also seeing potential change in the multiplier with special education. Um that matters for our funding. And then on the material supplies and operating costs, um we did see uh a little more of an increase. Uh still minimal, but uh we know that in those two areas we are going to get some additional
008revenue. It's just a matter of how much. For example, um you know, a week or two weeks ago when we were looking at calculations, Jennifer was um calculating that uh the House proposal would have given us about $500,000 more dollars in our district, uh whereas the Senate proposal would have given us 2.5 million. So that also gives you an illustration of how far apart um the House and the Senate are. some more to come on that, but we should uh see some um some decisions being made and some more clarity uh for sure in 10 days. But actually, it looks like um they they may be trying to wrap up budget um sooner than uh the end of session on the 27th. And then last thing, uh we are spending a lot of time on
009staffing um as we are making decisions around um transfers and um you've you've probably been hearing as I've shared with you multiple times. Um we are denying uh quite a few transfers given capacity to our buildings. Um I think it is what our families who live in our school district would want us to do. It's certainly what we need to do for our staff. Um, in the past, in times of plenty in Yelm, the answer has been yes to all transfers. And um, unfortunately now um, we need to closely monitor it and make sure that we are uh, able to staff our classrooms at manageable levels. And so that means saying no to um transfers and and that started with in district transfers and there's going to be um even more of those nos as
010we get to the end of the month and then we process out of district transfers. Um but uh it's the right thing to do for our students. It's the right thing to do for our staff. And some people will say, well, why don't you take them because they bring more money to the district. Every student that you get is additional revenue. Well, the challenge with that is they don't come in nice neat packages of grade level. Uh so adding a staff member doesn't uh necessarily uh change uh the entire problem or address it. For example, um let's say that we have 20 students that are transferring into one building and we address the second grade issue by adding a staff member, but it doesn't uh address the issue at other grades. So unless they come
011in nice neat packages at a grade level and you can address it by adding one teacher or a teacher at a specific grade um you can't and it's very challenging and so there is a point at which it becomes more taxing on a school district um because it's just overloading each classroom and you're trying to put a band-aid in certain areas to fix it. So we are um unfortunately having to say no to some families uh so that we can provide the best learning environment for our staff and the students and families that do live in our district. So more to come on that but the end of the month we'll be process processing the out of district transfers. You'll probably see more on social media about that. Um, you did see probably some social
012media posts about indistrict transfers, but um, what I heard was most people were saying, well, yeah, we've got large classes. Why would we make them larger? Why wouldn't we tell folks they need to go to their neighborhood school? And so, I think people in our community understand and appreciate that we are taking that step. Okay. Thank you. Uh, are there any community comments? Nobody signed up this evening. Okay. All right. Schoolboard minutes for the March 13th and the March 27th. Oh, go ahead. Well, I move we approve. I second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. All right, new business, individual contracts. I move we approve. Second. Any discussion? Yes. Uh we do have some discussion. Uh just a couple things. You see, um a lot of pair educator positions, especially in
013special education. Uh we are always trying to hire in special education, especially as new students qualify. Um, as you go through the school year, you then have to add additional staffing to meet the needs of those IEPs. Uh, you also see, uh, coaches on there for spring seasons. But, uh, we do have one introduction tonight that I'm going to let Terry Malone tell you about. Good evening. I would like you to meet David Fox. He is our new uh supervisor of maintenance and grounds and he comes from Bethl. So we pulled him this direction. Um he's doing an amazing job. What nine seven days, seven physical days, eight days on the job, something like that. Um and he's already seen quite a bit. But uh we are very happy to have him and he's just
014jumped right on uh the team. And anything you would like to share with our board? Um yeah. Well, hello. I'm David. Um, not much to say other than um, I'm I'm really thankful for warm welcome I've received. Um, I've met a lot of new people in the last I think nine days now. Um, and I've I've felt very honored to be welcomed by the community. So, thank you. And I just uh want to add I think it's it's very important to note and I talked to David about this um just to be very transparent. David took a pay cut to come here. Um and I think that is a a big deal. Um it says a lot about um him as a person. Um, it says a lot about his integrity and his character that
015he came here to be part of YM Community Schools. Um, to get leadership experience, um, and took a pay cut to do that. Um, and, uh, you know, we are in a challenging situation right now and we are working, um, to get out of it, but um, as I told him, um, that did not uh, go unnoticed. All those in favor I oppose. Motion carries. All right. Um acceptance of gifts. I move I approve. I second. Any discussion? I think it's pretty common actually to see um it it's amazing to me the generosity in this community. uh donation for FFA and uh their alumni is huge and so supportive and then also um for choir for their New York trip um which is coming up and um very excited about that. So very generous community.
016Yes. Okay. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. out of district travel. I move we approve. Second. Any discussion? Um I don't know if there's anything to add here. FFA or going to Pullman um to compete at the state level competitions. Um that's also pretty familiar as well. Okay. Those in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Um, resolution 05-24-25, the temporary reduction of minimum fund balance policy. I move we approve. Second. Any discussion? Couple things on this. Um, we've had lots of discussion about this. We talked about it most recently at our last study session. Uh, our current, uh, fund balance policy says that we will have a minimum fund balance of 5%. Um given our current financial strain as a result of uh the lost levy, this now gives us the authority to go below
0175% um and deviate from board policy. Um this is something that um next year we would revisit and if we needed to do it for another year, but um gives us the authority to go below that 5%. And realistically, what that means is since we have the ability to go below 5%, that's fewer cuts that we have to make. Um, so we're actually dipping into our ending fund balance to save positions and programs and services within the district. Um, we have to go there anyways as a result of the levy loss, but this gives us the authority to do that and have to do fewer cuts because we're using those dollars. Okay. Is there any other discussion? Okay. Those in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. All right. Policy revisions. This is the first reading for
018review. Yeah. Dr. Lisa Cado Smith's going to share a little information about this. You guys have also heard a lot about um non-discrimination affirmative action. and decisions that are made at the state and federal level that then determine policies within districts. So, I'll let you I wanted to promise that this won't happen again, but I have a lot. So, um Debbie and I laugh quite a lot that we've come to a lot of court policy. So, really these two policies deal with non-discrimination. Um the 3210 policy relates to our students and the 5010 to our adults. And at their core, what they say is that we don't treat people differently based on anything about their protected class. We're ensuring that we have an environment that's free from discrimination and that we have complete processes in
019place if uh students or adults experience discrimination. The other thing I would say is that Dee and Shannon and I all collectively uh oversee the civil rights policies and we work really collaboratively on these because sometimes they cross over. Um, and we have a really good system called Guardian. Um, we get to keep updating it with these new versions, but what it allows is that people can go on the district website and fill out forms electronically. They feed into the system and then they make it very streamlined for us to respond to. So, those are the policies. So, this is just uh first reading and it gives you guys an opportunity to spend time reading through them. If you have any concerns, you let us know. but uh boilerplate language and um as uh Lisa
020said, we like to think that this uh will be the last time we'll be coming to you, but um we're seeing a lot of changes, like I said, at the state and federal level, which then impact policy in school districts. So, more to come. I think we kind of kind of chuckle. I think it's a nervous chuckle, but we take it seriously. Yeah. Um, okay. Vouchers and payroll. I move we approve. I second. Any discussion? [Music] Yes. I reviewed vouchers before the meeting with board member Kate and I recommend for approval. Okay. Those in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. All right. Facilities report. I think you've met our uh director of operations, uh Jerry Malone. Um she uh I think she even has pictures for you. I think you guys asked for uh where you
021said something along the lines of where are the pictures and Terry listened. And so, um, so before I share those, I would like you to know you're you're happy you had our March activities and if you have any questions, I'm happy. But, um, I do recommend this for your approval. Okay. Any discussion? Do we have a motion? No. Didn't we make a motion? I need a motion. I move we approve. I second. Now we can disc. So, no questions about the activities that we had in March. No. Okay. Um, just a lot of things dealing with he heating and cooling is really our key thing. Debbie, could you open that cabinet door? So, the one big project that's kind of been going on that's out and about in the public that you see are our
022reader boards. I think this is going to work. We tested it before. I promise. Well, can you could you call the person now? Okay, there we go. Let's see if I can go backwards. So, as part of our um project, we uh got um the opportunity to replace some of our very old boards that weren't working. Um Ridgeline was not working at all. We pretty much had to take that one out. Well, so this is the first work you see is the the dirt work that we are doing to lay fiber out to uh the prairie out to the corner prairie where they will get a reader board. Uh Jonathan has been taking lead on this project um in transition between Chris and Casey and myself because a lot of it has to do with
023the connection with technology uh and working with our vendor and then so this was the first um work that started. We will have this. Um, this is the only board that's not ready yet because they have to repermit. The placement was too close to a oak tree. Uh, Thirstston County came out and said we had to re resite. So, a permit is going on. I know Debbie loves permits, but it's really nice. Um, we had, you can see here's McKenna. um next reader boards. We've got the high school one that just went up that that one just got done. And then uh the old South one, they got that up. Didn't stop traffic. So that was nice. But these reader boards are uh connected in a way that we can run um anything. We can
024control all of them out. So the only reader board that won't be on the system together is the one at YMS on the corner of Edwards and thank you. uh the one that is out on YM Avenue we will kind of use as a district board and so uh whatever we're putting up in the district office whatever messaging or put out will be up on that so we'll go through town and then um if we have an emergency or we have anything we can push one in info or graphic out to all of the boards at the same time so it'll be a nice communication tool to the district as we move on so next week or the next meeting you'll get to see some progress and status of the transportation project that's going on
025the new learning and training center. So, thank you. Okay. All right. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. All right. Financial reports. Jennifer, anything to add? Um, no. Um, I just wanted to point out that, um, the chart on where the fund balance is going is what we expected. You'll see a flat line for the next month. Um, and then when we would have collected April property taxes, you'll see that start to dip down. So, and then on the 28th, we have our study session. So, um we'll be bringing uh some more specific information obviously from um the end of session, which is the 27th. We won't have everything at that point, but we'll have a really good idea of what it's going to look like as far as revenue um next year, and
026Jennifer is doing a lot of work um to help prepare us for some decisions that we're going to be making um moving forward for next year. not only with cuts that we made this year, rolling those over um but also additional cuts and um that'll be determined by the additional revenue that's coming in. So um a lot of conversation and um some more guidance on the 28th. So should have quite a bit for you that evening. Okay. Student enrollment report. Um, I think pretty typical for for this time of year. Um, we see a little bit of a decrease in the spring. Um, as uh families move. Um, but it all started with the beginning of the year being lower than what we anticipated. Again, um, I think that's in large part due to lost
027levy. Um, that has an impact on student enrollment. uh and uh community and those moving in or those choosing uh where they're going to attend school. But that's pretty typical see that decline at the end of the year. Okay. All right. Um board comments. Kaylee. Um, sorry. Talk about it. Just tell us about your winning track. Yes. What do you want to know? Well, I I saw it on Facebook that you and some others. What places? How did you You had a best and exciting. Me and DJ Taylor, we both got um I'm number three and then she's at number seven at the um of all time in Y High School for the mile at 523 and 535. Okay. So, yeah, when meetings go this quickly and smoothly, it's kind of hard to talk about.
028Um, I want to welcome David. Welcome to our team. I hope you have a lot of fun here. Um, and I guess I'll talk about something that I'm looking forward to. Uh, I have sports medicine state competition next week. So, I hope to bring back a victory. Um, and I'm very, very excited for that. And I'm able to go thanks to the board. Thank you so much for that. And yeah, cheer me on. Yeah, I think it's really cool how many people applied for the specialty planning group. I think that's really great that a lot of people want to step up and help. And then the signs getting ran out and that's really cool. I saw it at the high school and I was like, "Oh, that looks nice." So that was great. Uh and
029then just shout out to our senior class. Uh we had a senior class meeting the other day uh and they showed a little bit of where everyone's going and and people have gone places and I think that's pretty cool. Uh and then also there's the University of South Carolina's their uh mind program which is a mental health program is doing like a challenge that's nationwide uh to recognize mental health and it's made it way to our high school which I think is pretty cool. A lot of students are are doing that challenge. Um and then yeah talking Mr. once today about some senior activities and we're so proud of those guys for their pitch and their plan and asking questions and they've done so much this year and then for you guys who are seniors
030just keep doing what they're doing. Keep planning, keep asking questions. Do you want to share share about the mental health challenge? Some some of our board members may not hang out in the same social media places. It's just a ice bucket challenge. So, uh, you can donate to the to the thing and yeah, you nominate three people to do it after you do it. So, it's making a way around the school and so many athletes, so many students have been doing it. So, have you been nominated yet? Not yet. Not yet. I might get nominated very, very soon. Looking forward to Mr. I pay for that. I donate for that. I think we have a fun. Yeah, do it. I know old people are on Facebook. They're not um same places. Are Facebook and Instagram
031connected? Well, thank you. Audience would just I got my wallet right here. No, I'm I'm doing it tomorrow. I cannot see you. I think you guys are done. [Music] Yeah. Congratulations, Kaylee. If that was me would be five hours, 24 minutes. So, just before graduation is um welcome David to the crew. Um looking forward for it. Thank you Terry for the pictures. I know people can be visual people. You know, you see line items and you're like, wonder what that looks like. And you get a real world experience of what that is. Um, yeah, I enjoy springtime. It's a fun time and summer's right around the corner. So, keep at it. Yeah. Whatever you heard about Yeah. We're great. Look at this room full. Um, I don't have anything to say. Why we haven't done
032anything? Spring break. Glad to see all you smiling faces. Well, I understand that the choir made their their goal. Yes, their fundraising goal. So, you saw that. You're on Facebook. Old people. I'm not on Facebook, so I'm not one of those old people. Well, I took a break from it. Um uh so I understand that the choir made their goals. So that's great for um all the kids that are going. And then I also had my uh conversation with the auditor, my yearly chat with the auditor. It went well. Um and that's it. Been attending a few ball games. Uh just a couple things. Arts Walk was last Friday and the talent show. Um that was fun. Uh pretty neat to have uh a place for students to showcase um their talent and pretty amazing
033to see these kids get up in front of there were quite a few people there in the theater at the high school and perform. Um it amazes me every time that they have the courage to do that. Um but really impressive. It was fun. Um another thing I just want to share, uh we have had an athletic trainer uh for all of our athletic teams. They are on site to um tend to our students, our student athletes, uh when they're injured, anything like that. And um actually the um student or the athletic trainers, they are the ones that have the authority to make decisions on what happens next with our student athletes. And um they are the ones qualified and trained to make those decisions. And then um we have to abide by whatever that
034trainer um says as far as uh follow-up treatment and things like that. And in the past, we've contracted with physical therapy here in town. Um, one of the problems that's happening now with uh those uh physical therapy uh businesses is the liability. And we actually had a um a lawsuit that um we were not negligent and and um but it was one of those that involved athletic training and injury and all of that. And um what's happening with more and more liability on those companies, they are backing out of contracting with districts for athletic training because um the downside is is um far greater than any advantage to doing that. So what is happening in some districts is they are hiring their own athletic trainers. So right now we're doing some research on what that
035might look like for us. um our athletic trainer that we've had wants to stay here, wants to continue working and would love to work for Yom Community Schools. Um so we are looking at some other districts, looking at their contracts and the way that they do that. And then um we wouldn't be contracting with the physical therapy um business and we would be hiring directly. So basically, you're taking the funds you're already using to to pay for the contract and then uh we just use those funds to hire the person. They're still responsible for all the certification, all the yearly training um and all of that, but they would then become one of our employees. So that is an option for us um that we're looking at right now. Um I want to shout out
036to our administrative staff, our principles, assistant principles. Um they've been coming all year before this meeting. We have professional development with the Association of Washington School Principles on the leadership paradigm and uh so they come at the end of their day here. Uh we meet from 4:00 to 5:30. Um Scott Seaman, the executive director of AWSP, has been leading the majority of those trainings. But um that's one of our opportunities to um really dig into the um instructional leadership and um staff training side of things. And I also think it's important to remind uh everyone that they've done this for free for us this year. This normally costs money to a district to have this training, but AWSP has provided uh this to us at no cost. Um and so every month we are having
037training um with them ahead of the board meeting that's here. And um I can't thank AWSP enough and our administrative staff after a long day coming to um talk about our practice, what we do. and we have one more next month. So, and then uh coming up April 27th um is a time where I get to have our student reps over to my house for dinner. Um Julie and I host them. Um and we did it last year and it was a lot of fun and so I'm looking forward to having them over um for dinner and conversation and we'll get to hang out. So, that's coming up in um about two weeks, I think. Okay. All right. The next board meeting is May 8th, 2025 at 6 p.m. It's a regular board meeting and
038it will be at Prairie Elementary. Meetings. We only had one study session.