001flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation and justice for all. Thank you very much. any revisions to tonight's agenda. Any public comment? This item is the appropriate place to make comments about an item on the agenda, not on the agenda, but within the board's jurisdiction. Each action item on the agenda has its own public comment period. In order to protect individual rights of privacy, avoid comments that identify students or staff members. Additionally, public comment cannot be used to make comments regarding suggested cases, grievances, or legal proceeding. Individuals with these sorts of complaints should follow uniform complaint protocol, policies 1700. Conflict in any organization is inevitable, and the district desires to resolve them in productive and timely manner at the lowest level possible.
002Due to open meeting laws, the board cannot respond in any way to comments made during the public comment period. The opportunity for public comment and participation during schoolboard meeting is provided by attending in person only. There are only public comments. Hi everyone. um this is going to reach beyond your um domain or whatever the wording that you use, but I know that when you hear you'll you'll indulge me. Um I actually came thinking before um well before Monday knowing you had a meeting that I was going to give my usual legislative update um as it affects schools. But I'm going to defer that until September meeting because unfortunately um as most if not all of you are probably aware um the district where I have um happily worked for uh four years um we suffered
003a tragedy in our district. Um, Sunday morning um shaking um one of our uh beautiful six-year-old a bulldog ironically not whitefish but Edgerton um was murdered in a um murder suicide murdered along with her beautiful mom and sibling by their dad who a lovely man but just troubled just said they'll maybe get an answer maybe not but um had been to class and um brought treats on Halloween and did it was yeah so as you can imagine the the you know beyond the class the the district is you know anybody is um of course reeling from this so I just come with a request I don't know if you already have um Dave I I assume that you had but if not I just really wanted to come and and just um ask if you
004would just reach out um because you know how it is Sherry you know especially those kindergarteners, you know, they they share everything with you. You know, they there's no personal space. They want to climb up in your lap. And um I don't subclass below fourth grade because they don't get my jokes. That's what everybody knows. They're like they're like, "Don't ask Miss Z to sub." Like, they don't get the jokes. Sometimes I'll do a request for a friend. Oh, my kids are really advanced. They'll get your jokes, but usually I say that. But when I do a special like music, which is where I I met um beautiful Heidi. Um so yeah, so I had um I had her in class and um so yeah, so I'm rambling. I'm sorry, but I know you understand.
005So if you haven't already, just some type of official. I know it would be so greatly appreciated because you know, it's a family. You know how that is. You have your home family and you have your school family and especially the little ones. You know, they're just I'm sure I haven't been to Edertton yet. I'll be there tomorrow. Um um and I actually canceled a different job because I said no if I need to I need to be there. Um so I'll be I'll be there. But um anyway, so yeah, if there's any way that you could just reach out to Jen Stein, the principal, or you know, Matt Judson, Dave, who whomever, please, I know it would be so grateful because you know, they have the crisis team in place and all they're doing
006everything that you would do. But if you had that, but I just know that's all because it's really just a great school, family, community, etc. So, I know it would be, you know, really, really appreciated. Thanks for listening to me. Thanks for accepting that it was really beyond your purview, but there was no way that I could go to a Callisville schoolboard meeting and, you know, talk. So, thanks for indulging me. Nice to see everybody. I'm going to go home and hug my daughter. All right. Thanks all. Thank you very much, everybody. Thanks. Appreciate it. Thanks. We don't have any, but if we did, it would be attached to your electronic agenda. Um, next we have the approval of the minutes April 8th and then two from April 25 minutes as presented by second. All
007in favor? Thank you. I don't know. We might put this at the end so Jake has to stay. Next is our student trustee report which a one and only Jake. Uh well yeah last one so kind of a big one but um treated as every other one. Starting off with the high school we are going through AP testing right now and the onslaught of what that entails. Uh there's a lot of them. Uh little bit about it. If you're unfamiliar with the process, you go into the black box either at 8 am or 12 pm and you sit there for three hours kind of working through problems either on a Chromebook or paper to it's a math test or an English test, whatever. They range from being very doable to extremely difficult. Even if you've
008learned the content for the entire year, it's kind of all over the place. So, it's um it's a fun experience almost like trauma bonding for everyone in the class. But spread out over this week as well as the past week. So, we're coming to a close with those. Um for how it's scored, scores are one through five, five being the highest, one being the lowest. Passing is considered a three or above. and it's taken into context of how everyone else does innovation. So, you know, for AP Physics one, I think if you get above a 50% that's considered a five because everyone else does pretty bad on it. So, you know, you're not you're not given an actual 50%. So, it's it's generous, but it's a national everyone's doing it on the same day at
009the same time across the entire nation. So, it's a kind of a cool thing. Some teachers do like live reviews online. And it's uh yeah, it's an all right experience. Um so the last time we met was right before we did the ACT testing and that went very well. Had some very high scores in our junior class for those actual ACTs as well as the pre-ACTs for the sophomores. And then we also did those senior giveback projects which went very well. We had people spread out all throughout the community helping. That was just a good time. Um, we had our National Honor Society induction ceremony for all new members as well as for our departing seniors. Uh, National Honor Society is now run by Mrs. Rock and Mrs. Alves that took it over this year
010and we had about 45 new members deducted and pretty much that's based on grades and academic standing. They just do uh mandatory volunteer service. Mandatory volunteer, those don't work. Um, they volunteer. they have to get a certain amount of numbers otherwise their kids go to the club and the cool thing is you get like a cord you can wear at graduation. It's a it's a really cool event so it was nice to have a lot of new people coming into the club. Um for DECA our business club we had over 20 students in attendance at national or international conference excuse me in Orlando about two weeks ago. Um, score reports haven't actually come out yet for how that went as a whole, but I'm sure they did very well considering we had a lot of
011people there. Uh, we also had the eighth graders came and they toured the high school and are given tours by students in our student outreach committee as well as attended panel discussions also led by our students. Later in that week, we also had the parents come and there was a lot of effort put into all these tours, you know, kind of led by the students as well as the staff to kind of show what the high school was like both for those kids and their parents. So, that was a really cool way to kind of see who's going to be coming in next year, and there are a lot of them. Um, last Saturday we had prom that was uh lots of fun, very big success. It was held at Grouse Mountain. It was very
012nice venue. The prom committee did an amazing job. That was just a really nice thing for the students right before AP testing. Um, next Monday night we have the senior awards night and that's pretty much where seniors are going to be awarded their scholarships from local businesses and nonprofits that they've applied to throughout the past few months. And it's it's all local stuff. It's not really national scholarships, but it's still a nice way where you go and meet the person who you've applied for their scholarship and actually get the money for them. So, that's pretty cool. Uh, some end of year concerts. We have the band and orchestra concert June 3rd in the pack. We have the choir concert May 20th in the pack. and we have the percussion ensemble concert May 29th, Blackbox. So,
013a lot of music. Uh we have all of our spring activities coming to a close. Divisional track this weekend. We have a baseball tournament this weekend uh held at our own fields as well as falls. Then we have our state tournaments next weekend for track and tennis. And um moving on towards the end of the year, which I will not be able to report on then, uh we have the independent high school graduation Thursday, June 5th at 1 p.m. on the lawn outside of the independent high school, weather permitting. And then we have our very own high school graduation Saturday, June 7th at 100 p.m., which I encourage you all you all to attend as well. It's open. It's really nice ceremony. So, yeah, be really cool if you came. Uh, anyways, moving on down
014to the middle school. So, like I said earlier, we had the eighth graders come in and they went to Whiteish High School, receiving an orientation and some tours of our facilities there. Uh, during the first week in May, we had the seventh grade scientists took a three-day, two-ight field trip to Big Creek for an adventure that includes lessons about nature and ecology, plus plenty of time for some team building activities. Last week, 149 eighth graders traveled 1,000 miles across the western half of Montana on the annual W 8th grade history trip. They go to Louis and Clark caverns, um other historical sites that I'm currently blanking on, but they go all over the place, learn all about Montana history. So, it's a really cool experience for all the eighth graders. Um, we also had all
015of our fifth grade classes participate in the annual forestry expo. Each class had the opportunity to visit the expo site and gain knowledge about the Flathead Valley Ecology, forestry sciences. And then later in the month, the entire fifth grade once again be visiting Viking Creek, the annual wetlands and ecology field trips. There are a lot of field trips going on that have gone on and continuing to go on. Uh coming up next week, Power New Future, a STEM workshop at FBCC, will have about 30 to 40 seventh and eighth grade girls from the middle school attending it. Um during the last week of May and into June, the sixth grade classes will be taking a field trip to Northwest Montana History Museum and the Conrad M, excuse me, Conrad Mansion to learn about the history
016of the Platin Valley and gain appreciation of generations past. So all over the place, um we've had masked, I ready, and uh science uh tests during the last part of April and the first half of May that have gone very well as they have gone all year. Uh the W code girls club had their final app challenge, culminating an excellent year learning coding and applications of it. So they d excuse me, designed an app and kind of competed against each other to see who could have the better app. So that's a pretty uh cool STEM connection for school. And then also bands, the middle school band will be performing on May 15th at the pack. The choir will perform on May 20th and the orchestra will perform on May 22nd. So just like the high
017school, lots of music. Uh moving back down to Mulldown. Mulldown is gearing up for the fun run on May 28th and they will be officially kicking off event on Wednesday 14th. So tomorrow um testing is coming to an end very soon just as at the high school. Once again students are showing amazing growth in our diagnostics and we have that eye ready and the dibbles testing near completion and the third and fourth graders will be taking our last mass testlet this week. Um field trips once again students will be traveling to Glacier, Whitefish Trails and other local destinations as the weather improves and near the end of the school year. Uh fourth graders are near completion of their wax museum presentations. They've been working diligently to learn their character all about and all about their
018chosen character. Those presentations will be June 5th and 6th and they kind of line up all outside on the playground. They dress up and you go up and press the button and then read about their character. So it's it's a really it's a really fun thing to do. I remember doing it. So it's if you have the time, go and check it out, maybe. Um, and then we also have the kindergarten circus scheduled for June 9th at 2:15. Just holding up a truly holdout tradition once again. Um, so districtwide kind of everyone is staying busy as the year comes to a close. We're all across the state. We're competing and we are definitely testing, but the finish line is approaching fast and the weather is making that ever more apparent every day. But we will
019finish strong. Um, that was my last award. I'd just like to say thank you guys so much for letting me come here all year. It's it's been an amazing experience. Um, from an outside perspective, the school board doesn't always get the best rep. You know, it's it's meetings. No one really wants to attend them, but I've I've really enjoyed my time here. So, I'd like to say thank all of you for letting me come here and give these reports. Thank you. We appreciate you greatly. Appreciate the time you've given to us and um given us a bright spot in these boring meetings. They get a bad rap. Can't get a bad rap. But yeah, we really appreciate all your time and effort and um all your research. You've done a fabulous job as our student
020trustee and we look forward to whomever you hand the baton off to. And um thank you and good luck. Did you know that Elizabeth student here? I look forward to coming back. I really want to know who you were at the wax museum since you're good. I really do. You remember? Uh I did at the Christian Academy actually, but I was George Washington and we were passing out. It was so hot in the room and we had to get sprayed with spray bottles because people were falling. a whole experience, but really fun. No, superable. Well, congratulations. Thank you so much. Thank you guys. And we have something that we've all we've pulled in together to give you um from us as trustees as a gift, but you can't open it yet. You don't open it
021out of here. And Remy, do you have a card? Oh, great. And then before um you go, Carrie also has to step up and and do you have a sense of gratitude. I sure don't know later. We'll we'll explain later. All right. Well, and good evening everyone. I'm glad that Jake mentioned a little bit about graduation. You know, I know he's very excited along with his classmates and just a few weeks away. And I'll send you all a personal invite from me. If you could just respond to that. of course your your presence there is is really important to all of us and our community and our students recognizing those behind the scenes that are working so diligently for everyone. So um I'll get that out to you here as a personal invite coming a
022little later this week. And um as far as you know, student rep goes, one of the things that makes me really proud about Whitefish High School is all the diverse uh opportunities that we offer, whether it's programs or or different uh leadership um endeavors. Um that's what makes us is we have something for everyone and but they're only good when people take advantage of those things and Jake takes advantage of many of those things as you've witnessed and heard about all the the various activities he's a part of. but to make a commitment to um be the student rep for the school board and representing the entire district and um that's an very important role and it's a commitment and uh did it uh without missing a stride. I've enjoyed getting to know you better
023over the course of the year here this year, Jake, but ultimately watching you grow over your your high school time. That's one of the fulfilling things for me as a principal is to see someone here that exceeds people's expectations and uh demonstrates what our future holds um in the hands of people like you. Uh makes me really proud. Um I know you're going to do great things in the Ivy League. Um New York and Colombia, the university, they're very lucky to have you. But tonight we have just a little small little small, but it is it's just an opportunity for us to to recognize you. Something to put on the mantel or something to to just flash back in time when you're my age and go waitress High School Outstanding Service Award, Jake Dunker, and
024grateful appreciation of outstanding service and dedication as school board student representative 2024 2025. Thank you, Jake. Thank you. AP test. Which one is it tomorrow? I got FBCC finals. Oh, terrible. Good luck. Thank you guys. Thank you. See you at graduation. Have a good night. All right. Bye. Thank you. Um, the reason you can open this present because it didn't bag is actually it wasn't scanned. Yeah. So, so it's still a transit, but it's going to be a sweeper from Columbia when it arrives. So things like that. That's why we were being really funny about jokes. Stupid open. So up next we have our WA update. You always just wanted to wish everybody including Lucy happy Mother's Day. Um and congrats to Darcy and Elizabeth for staying on the board. Um we ratified as WA
025group on the 1 of May for their CVA. Um and we actually had unanimous ratification. Our members were quite happy. Um they had the comfort of voting in their respective schools or meeting as a group after school. We have pretty good turnout. Um, we also held our WA elections and you are stuck with me and me and Miss A. So, um, we did not have contested elections this year. So, we have two-year terms of be in place until 2027. Um and kind of next piece here on our agenda is just to meet towards the end of the school year with our shared staff that shared between buildings. Um Mr. Means and I will meet with those teachers and make sure and principles and make sure everything's lined up for next year. Um, and we're happy
026to report that, um, once if you guys approve the CBA, we won't have to enter into introspace bargaining for two years, which any of you who have been on those bargaining teams are relieved, I'm sure. Um, there may be small pieces here and there that we might have to do an MOA for, but we can kind of tackle those things as they come up to our attention. But otherwise, things are looking good and happy to have worked out a a good contract. And I'm thankful that the governor signed the stars act before tonight because I've been watching about six times a day. Yeah. And um yeah, he really took his time on that one, didn't you? You really did. Yeah. But having visited the capitol in April, I saw the model of efficiency that is
027sometimes the legislative session. So I understood Thank you. Thank you. WC Well, I could just say ditto to everything here. Um, we had um we managed to catch 100% of our members um who voted and 100% of them voted on our contract. Yes. So, we have also ratified our contract for WCK. Yay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Right. Moving on to our discussion and action items. And we had to move things around. And first of all, we're doing things a little different this year. We're going to seat the newly elected or appointed trustees. So that way our county superintendent can move on to another district that has to do the same thing today. So um excuse me. So we do some formalities real fast. So, hey, I just wanted to say thank
028you. If Jake is a representation of the school district, you guys are doing awesome because he survived a blackbox trauma something around and what was the third thing? Mandatory volunteering. Can you guys do these things? A lot of trauma bonding. That's awesome. Good stuff. You'll need to sign these two, right? There is the pleasures on the back. So if you want to go on the last page back there I Darcy do solemnly swear that I will support protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Montana and that I will discharge my duties of the office of fidelity. So help me God. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Yes. Okay. I, Elizabeth Pitman, do solemnly swear that I will support, protect, and to defend the Constitution of the United
029States and the Constitution of the State of Montana. Then I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity. So help me God. Congratulations. All right, sign a few times there. You can sign. I'll take one copy and you guys can disperse them out and I'll get out. All right, we'll just sign this one, too. because you just needed to sign. Yeah, it feels funny signing my hotel twice. Yeah. Thank you for being here. Okay, moving fast. Um, WHS expansion owner update. All right. Hello everybody. Uh, this is the May update to the White Fish High School expansion projects. Um, again I'm Lou Cammon, Tell Construction Advisors, uh, the owners rep for the projects. Um, and so not a lot has changed here on the monthly board form that you're seeing up on the screen.
030Uh, but a lot has happened since last month. Um, so we'll dive right into the May update. Um the main things that you see different from last month here are we've input some uh budget information for the approved bond amount for both the premium uh and the bond for both the athletic and academic phases. Okay. Um and everything else there is still kind of uh being finalized so it won't infill until we get that done. Um so not a lot has changed on the budget side since last month. Um but moving on to the uh the milestones and the schedule. Um we've made a lot of progress mostly on the design front and uh I know A&E will be following this up with a more thorough uh design update here in a minute, but um
031looking at some of the key updates for the the milestone dates. Uh the main differences you're seeing are to what we talked about last time with the athletic phase. Um previously we had a phase 1A and a phase 1B to the athletic phase. Um and just as we talked about last time, there's just some more efficiencies with um starting that more concurrently with the academic phase. So this reflects those dates um which is targeting a March start um and again a lot of these are just uh objectives and targets um goals. So they may they may change as we uh evolve with the design and the process, but this is where things currently stand. Um I think other key notes uh we on the academic side um again Annie will update in in more depth
032here in a minute but we have uh we're tracking a May 21st date of having schematic design uh completed for the academic side which will help us um get some some estimates from Martell um put in place for mid June time frame. Uh so it'll help us fine-tune some of the design and get that um evolving uh from a cost perspective. Um and then one of the only other main notes is that next week, next Wednesday, we're uh we're planning a community update um from a design perspective that I think A&E will also touch on here, but um that's the 21st. Um I believe it's at 6:00 to 7:30 at the high school cafeteria. Um, so that'll be a good opportunity for the community to get an update. Um, and then we don't have many
033photos as obviously construction hasn't started, but um, these are just the schematic designs of both the site plan for the athletic phase and, uh, the overall site update of the academic phase. Um, which again, A&E will kind of give a better update on specifics there. But that just kind of gives a bird's eye view perspective of where things are at. Um, that's basically the May update. Any questions? Um, on the fields fanatic, what is I'm just curious because I don't know enough about track and field apparently. What is eight? These are referencing keynotes that aren't shown here. Um, I think that's the hope garden. Oh, it is a hope garden. Oh, that's I was like, it's a weird shape for like an activity. Yep. Okay. Yes. Okay, that's fine. I just was curious what activity
034would happen in that shape. Yeah, it'd be a unique activity. Stop that baby. Yeah, doesn't usually go that far. Um, okay. Thank you. Yep. Can I ask a clarifying question and maybe you said this as the dates diagnostic understanding. So, under athletic phase like you talked about, it's going to be March 2026 to start athletic phase construction. Then you have complete athletic phase construction and spring 2026. That is incorrect. That's also a typo. I apologize. Uh that would be Yeah. No, that uh is targeting the 27. Okay. But like a yearish for that, correct? Correct. Okay. Yep. Yep. Any other questions? Questions for them. Thank you so much. Good to see you. All right. Up next we have our um expansion with A&E or also known as Shane. Good evening. I'm Shane Jacobs with A&E
035Design and give you an update kind of complimenting what Luke just briefed you on. I know you got a marathon tonight, but I bring you back to where we were a month ago and get you up to speed with where we are today and where we're heading. So the uh the same day as our last board meeting or my last update was we had a student um workshop that day and here's just a brief of a few pictures of that work in that session with with that committee. And so we we kind of the high points were those several uh those four parts along in the lower right where we uh we worked with them through a survey about curriculum of where their education interests lie. Then also took a an did an assessment of
036Whitefish uh high school. So that was everything from culture to the to the current space interior and exterior of the facilities and grounds. And then um did some visual explorations that kind of helped us key into as the design team kind of key into where their heads were in terms of some of the look and feel of the building. With one of the surveys that we did, we did a blink exercise was based on Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink, which is your intuition is usually bad gut instinct is usually uh correct. And we did a similar we did the exact same exercise with the exact same criteria with the committee a couple meetings prior. So it was a couple months in advance of this. The overlap of the two was uh was amazing. Um how overlap
037and how how similar the two results were. And then we worked on a little design opportunity with them as well in the hallway. And we've since taken that started to have a little bit of fun with it for how we kind of reinvision what the hall of fame could be. And so if you remember in the last board meeting there was some overlays of just where our green space is, where parking is, where the overlays are, trying to find some traffic patterns and correlations between the interior of the building and the exterior. And this concept of a of the Bulldog Boulevard began to emerge, which is this north south kind of axis that really starts to tie in some of the traffic patterns within the site and then within uh the building itself starts to
038unify um where the where really the core of the school was. If if you look at it now, there's kind of two hearts of the school. One in the commons and one the gym foyer. And this starts to bring those together and merge merge them together into kind of a unifying spine within the building. And then you can see kind of the different color codes and how that begins to kind of lay out with some of those pathways which were the the curriculum u that we've been aligning this around to where the needs are with the high school curriculum. So whether that's hospitality or culinary arts or CT the independent high school etc. And so they're all colorcoded accordingly in there. And then I'm trying to remember what the next slide is. This is a
039broader view of the site. And so it it begins to dictate kind of what's in what's in white is uh in the site is left more or less untouched. Sure, there will be some tie-ins, but this more of an art artistic rendering of of where where the impact truly is. And so we take the gym foyer off of the front of the gym on the on the pine side and replace it with a two-story classroom addition. And so it really nestles into the current courtyard. And then there's probably some parking or something that is redeveloped in the site out front as well as an outdoor classroom space. And then the CTE expands on the on the souththeast corner and there would be some parking and things that are impacted and circulation that's um thought about
040and redeveloped back there. And then of course the entirety of the uh of the athletics fields uh gets touched in some manner. There's a little bit more detail on the next think it's the next slide. Oh, we go into the building first. So, this is a little bit deeper look on existing building uh and what's in bold except for the gym. What's in bold is really where the impact is, whether it's a remodel within the existing footprint or where the addition is. There's actually not much of there's no touch in the gym and some of the locker space and uh some of the um performing arts up in the northeast corner, but you see the second floor plan on the right. So, some gentle classrooms up there as well as a science classroom. And then
041on the lower floor, um there's arts, fine arts in the addition. And then hospitality and culinary arts and then you see an orange some student services, an expansion of the uh independent high school within uh the current footprint and then the expansion of CTE um beyond what uh beyond the current CTE footprint. And then kind of at that knuckle where the two tie together. We talk about really bringing the core um making a singular core of the building there's an expansion to the commons which is often a very tough space to expand. It usually doesn't lend itself to expansion in most schools but you have an opportunity to do it here because this is all under the idea of um continued growth and enrollment. So those things like gyms and commons and um the production
042kitchen are typically tough things to expand, but you have a great opportunity to accommodate the future growth within the heart of the school there. And I believe the next slide is a couple renderings that begin to kind of show this. And this is what's on the right is the uh some of the results of the blink exercise. some of the imagery that ranked the highest between students and um the planning committee. And then we can see how we're got to start blending that within the current architecture, the roof lines, the materials, the forms, the rhythm, the patterns, the punched openings of the building. And then as we get to the next slide, it begins to give an idea of we we've synthesized floor plans. synthesized kind of exterior concepts. We're starting to um get narrow
043into the idea of this warmer pallet with this rhythm of a of classroom openings. And we'll see you can see when you study the floor plan that there's there's uh the the foyer itself has um different kind of voids in it that kind of reach out to the exterior wall, but you see this kind of nicer rhythm that complements the existing building well and uh I think starting to shape up in terms of proportions and what this can begin to look like. So these renderings are still conceptual and they will continue to be more polished as we keep layering in detail and refinement and present you know finished pallets of material and physical samples and continuing to move that forward. So it's been a real it's been a real sprint over um the last five
044months and there's a lot of pressure on just getting it all in before the end of May just knowing that we we lose access to our committee. So, we're really through schematic design, traditional schematic design, and really getting into the next phase, the design development. Um, this next uh next Wednesday is largely blocked out to really getting into the detail, the needs, the furniture, where the outlets go, that kind of detail. Um, so we can capture that before the summer because we have a lot of work to do over the summer and we'll be updating the committee when they come back in the fall. Um so and then that same evening Luke mentioned on 21st we have the community open house which we'll see some of the similar imagery. We'll give a kind of a
045presentation of uh what this whole process has been like and then we'll break out into some listening stations so we can receive a little bit of feedback from the community and so we and they can ask more specific questions that either members of the committee or the design team can answer there. And the last but not least is back to the fields. I think when we had updated previously, the last meeting a month ago, um the news of budget challenges was pretty fresh and we've since done a lot of good work with um with kind of the core committee, the administrators of the school, um the general contractor Martell and done some really uh and then tell and then Amy Amy designed and a few of our consultants um to really start dialing that in.
046So, it's kind of casting out and making sure we can capture and make this thing the best and capture the most and then be able to kind of dial it back fiscally and making sure that what is set today and what we're capturing meeting the bond language can also lend itself to future expansion whether it's additional jumps or additional fields. Um, but this is starting to track much much better and we still have a little bit more work to do on the price front, but I I think we're in spitting distance now and we are with that schematic design set that we'll issue at the end of this month. we'll see some uh the next round of pricing uh first couple weeks of June. So, we'll be able to kind of establish where we are
047again with another benchmark. So, that's where we're heading. Room data meetings is a fancy term for what all next Wednesday is going to consist of. Continue updating these concepts and then we'll be presenting materials and getting a deeper level of buy in and kind of being able to kind of overlay uh the next level of detail to these concepts. continue to stare at the budget and schedule and how do you do it without disrupting school as much as you can and sports seasons on the athletic side as much as you can. You just try to make it all fit into the the patterning of school with the um with the idea of contractors really will want to do the most work in the warm months during the summer. That's when they can be the most
048efficient and then that community meeting on the evening and the 21st as well. questions for me. Luke already took the hard ball of tag eight. It's the hook garden. And it's that shape because of the old mold down. So you kind of have this remnant of that. No, I now that you say I was like, "Oh, of course that's what it is." I just was like, "What is the shape?" Such a weird Can I ask a clarifying question just because I don't I'm not in on the committee. So probably it's language I just could not play with. So like as you go through the site plan development you go through one two three alternate to add a set of jumps base bit is one set you have a couple of comments like that base bed
049is no base bid is no side base is no so what does that mean then like is there an opportunity what does that look like I guess that's a great question architects are pretty guilty of jargon of using jargon I think I know what it means but it's not yeah yeah um it means that we would design it today to be able to fit that spatially and put as many of the accommodations in now for it. So if it was um something that would receive future power, you might put the the conduit in to pull that power. You might just accommodate for those spaces. So this is kind of the division line between needs and the wants, right? Make sure you capture the wants. Make sure you achieve the bond language and then plan for
050all the other things as we see growth and track. And we've, you know, it would really be nice to have, you know, three or four areas to throw a shot at, that kind of thing. A second discus rate. Okay. And then so those become um those become part of a strategy that allows you to stay on budget on day one. It also gives you some flexibility on a bad bid day. You don't buy those. If with the if the market turns with tariffs or escalation or something um you don't buy those that day. if you get a good bid day, a good bid environment, and we're trying to position this thing. So, you're bidding at the best time of the year that you can consider buying a few of those things. It's like your shot.
051You pay for them now, right? And then you award that and then a few of those you might watch and you're going to enter after bid day with an appropriate contingency and then track that contingency. And if you can avoid some of the risk of coming out of the ground at certain points, you'll you'll stare at it and say, "Here's you know what? Now we can buy that other discus rink because the contingency is looking healthy. Got it. And then there's one on there that we would consider an alternate because um because the booster club has already um raised some money for a new scoreboard. And so to isolate that number specifically, not that you wouldn't buy it, but just so you can see exactly what it is on the day. And then Lucy can
052do her thing with what does that look like in terms of transfer and those funds come into the the the bond account. And so if we come through all this and say none of that stuff happens like the base like it just is what it is then those are their structure is there but say maybe we raise money or something down the line. That's the idea. Okay. Exactly. So it futurep proofs you in many ways too. So it might be on bid day. It might be later in the project before the construction's complete. Might be five or 10 years down the road just so you're set up for that. So this is a great way to work within that idea of the master plan to get everything you need now. Set yourself up for the
053future. Thanks. That's a great question. I I also just reading through it with the phase one, phase two on the athletics. Is that so is phase two is that included in this bond? If you can scroll back, we've called a couple different phases. Can I see that sheet again? Just um it was the it was over on the right. Yeah. So phase two were some of the things that we had value engineered out of this. So one of the things that was making the previous concept expensive, unnecessarily expensive, is there's we're right where the nine is is there's a big rate drop um down to Cow Creek there. And in order to get another field in that quadrant, you would have to build a big pretty substantial retaining wall. They had a pretty healthy price
054tag attached to it. And so between that and relocation of the hope garden as a consideration, but would have an expense attached to it. And so as you think about putting in another practice field, those would be costs that you consider in that future phase. So they are not something that we do in this current phase, but we would push into a later phase that would be a future bond or future. Future bond. Okay. Because yeah, I think just like for people reading it too, it just is a little because it seems like it's part of the plan. Yeah. Or this bond plan. That's great. That's great. but coming later like we'll do this first and then um and so I don't know if we can just say pin I don't know just maybe a
055little more clarification phase two that's really good feedback we'll make that adjustment for the community meeting so it's crystal worried about what the other piece did not yeah okay yeah some of the strategy has changed with with the conversation around the initial cost estimate there was a 1A and a 1B do you remember previously yeah and then a future phase that was phase Um I'm curious how many students you had come to your um workshop. I don't know what I can't remember what else was going on that day, but initially I think we had like 30 slated, something like that. 30 plus or minus and we ended up having nine. So we had student council plus um CTE. Okay. It was great. It would have been fun to have even more. But the crew that
056we had was was fun and they gave us good feedback. Appreciate the they were just completely frank and fun to work with and gave us gave us that feedback, right? You know, told us exactly the way it was. Absolutely. Good. Yeah, it's good. We needed I mean, we we always tell the committee, you know, after surviving architecture school, you can't make us cry. So, we're really in service to the school district. And so we really want it to be a reflection of your needs and wants and and the local where we are in this part of the state and this part of the city. Thank you so much. Can I ask one more question just because again I'm not and I just remember when we were asking for the bond one things that came up
057and this sign sort of if I'm looking at it correctly this is very unlamorous but like Jake mentioned there's and we know we're growing there's only more students. Is there parking somehow accommodated if we're moving into the parking space? Like is there more parking being added? I don't need to know where it is that there will be more parking. Yeah, this is this is a great question. A bit of a lightning rod. The um No, it's all good. No, it's all good. The um I don't have the whole answer is the short story. We've been having conversations with the city. Um you did not meet um the letter of the zoning regulations in the last expansion. They re recognized that you were underparked, which on one hand is good because you didn't have to pay
058for that infrastructure. On the other hand, you got the inconvenience of, you know, where do we park? Forced into the neighborhoods. They've um they've made given us some early direction that they weren't going to make you bring it all up to speed. Honestly, if they did, I don't know where go and they have a saturated site parking building and parking. So, that's good, but it doesn't necessarily solve the rest of that. So when we talk about these alternates, parking wasn't on that alternate for the athletics. Yeah. But a sidewalk along fourth was that's something that the city is interested in. They're also interested in some diagonal parking along that same the south side of fourth. Okay. So those are things in the mix. We got to figure out how this fits into fit into your
059um the context to yes is is having enough spots but also having gone to different stadiums now or fields now. One of the things that we wanted this for was for accessibility. Yes. And truly if you can't be the grandparent who comes and watches like you know so just thinking about how do we make zones for those kind of things as well. It just curious. Absolutely. We've talked about drop off zones right at that field building for starters and I think we do need to think about how it works in both modes when it's in schools and session is when event is going on and then within there is just kind of the growth of if enrollment is growing then independent high school itself is growing staff are growing right and so it's likely that
060the area between the gates is likely to change either in who parks there or we move the gates around just so it's still secure. So there's okay we're working through kind of a parking inventory we'll call it right now and um and then we'll continue to adapt that and that'll be an element of of future updates for sure. Thanks. Just want to comment. I believe the city is also preparing for some division curtain around Memorial. Great comment. Yes, there's a master plan around the Okay. that in I don't know what the exact numbers are in comparison but I've seen the master plan and it improves the perimeter of that whole block similar to depot park pretty kind of similar scheme. Yeah, there's definitely a lot of dead space happening right there. So on that um
061that's awesome. Thank you. You've been hard at work. It's been great. Yeah, we've got a great around that's for sure. We've got a great team. So I'm excited about setting. Thank you. really appreciate the school's um ability to come and part of it and not just not just watching this work but rolling up your sleeves. So, thank you to the committee the trustees. Thank you. Moving on to our WA and which is the teachers union and the school districts um interesting decision. Presented for the board's consideration is the updated collective bargaining agreement between the certified employee union and the district for the 25 26 and 26 27 school years. The new agreement includes an increase in compensation equal to 3% on the base in each of the years. The increase was contingent on the approval
062of the start which has been signed into law. Um several changes have al also been made to the agreement language. Some changes um we recommend that the updated agreement be approved by the board. Verify questions for rece. Any public comment about the the contract? Great. Back to the board for any um discussion. Just want to thank the people on the committee both sides. It's a big undertaking. It is. Um I know it is very exciting. As somebody who sat on the committee for three or four years now, I cher I've lost track. Think four. I think it's my fourth year. I'm very excited on a two-year track. She's very very exciting and um yeah it was a really good um it was a good year. It wasn't I think the year before we had so
063much over the last couple we've been dealing with so many things that got pushed to the side because of co so we were kind of like it didn't seem nearly as daunting as it had in the the previous cycles and um everyone worked really well together and it was a good system and yeah so thank you to uh WDA for bringing your bringing good faith and coming to the table with great ideas and suggestions. And yeah, thank you. The CVA has presented by second by all in favor everybody. Thank you so much. Is there a WCA and WSD? um interested in primary decision presented for the board's consideration is the updated collected by agreement between the classified employee union and the district for the 25 to 26 and 26 27 school years. The proposed agreement
064agreement includes a wage increase of $1 an hour for existing employees each of the two years and a 75 cent an hour increase for new buyers. The increase was contingent on the approval of the stars act which has been since signed into law. Um several changes has been also made to the agreement language. Um, we recommend that the agreement be 2.4. Any clarifying questions for this? Any public comment? Could you step up to the way the people at home can hear you? Yeah, I just um big following. I could have commented after the first one, but I'll just this one. um Eden and Addie and I and several others attended our state leadership conference in April and we met with our Flathead Valley um counterparts and the other area schools. Um and I just wanted
065to say thank you to the board for supporting inspace bargaining because we are the only school in our valley that participates in IBB. I know. So thank you. Thank you. Um, any other public comment back to the board for any discussion or a motion on that? I move accept the CDA. Moved by chair, second by all in favor. Thank you so much. And and again, shout out to Eden, take and everybody else. Oh, yeah. And he's painless. Yes. Painless. Thank you. And I just also wanted to say legislatively it was always whenever there's a legislative work and anyone who wrote letters and time and um advocated for public education in any way whether it was the stars act which we all desperately needed or any of this pass. Thank you for for doing that. So
066um which because of the stars act Lucy gets a new job description. So Dave, can you explain what's happening? So I'll start us off and then maybe Lucy can jump in. But would you apply for only there's no election? I 10%. We were informed that we needed to approve a new job description for um this district clerk job description to comply with the stars act. There are just a few minor revisions uh that were made. That's the final version. But the um job description you see some of those revisions in blue I believe it is green green sorry. So um yes so you can see some of those and those are purposefully changed modified just a little bit to comply with the star. And the reason why we want the mutual description to be updated
067is to get uh quality educator payment for my FTP. Okay. So part of the stars act is that um we get under quality education payment of about $8,000 for the district works position as well. Okay. Thank you for bringing the money. Yeah. She's our rain maker. So that it's not just changing the language. There is a reason why we change. Thank you. Thank you. So was it your choice to cross out the election conducted school? Oh, the stars act mandate the star but you shut it. I need to show this to you. Um, are there any other clarifying questions for Lucy or Dave, excuse me, on this item? Any public comment? Um, I just have to say I don't think I realized that the district clerk like I mean I know you're a business position,
068but as a clerk position, this seems like a very are they combined job descriptions? This one's very long for the district. Okay. I was like, how are you doing? You have to do wage payment. What do I have to throw business clerk? Same thing. Okay, good. I was like, this was alarming me if it was just one job description for your role as a district clerk, but surprised we still had you here. Okay, good. Great. Yes. And when I read it, I'm like, it's not really think about it. Oh, thank you so much. All right. Uh, is there a motion on updating? Do you have a question? Sorry, Shannon. Um, did is the uh cross out of coordinate manage district selfunded insurance plan simply because we don't have that? Yes. And we just took advantage
069of this time. Yes, I do. Yes, I took advantage. I'm assuming you still coordinate manage the actual insurance. I do. Is that written in? I think it just goes along with all the other uh similar with uh where has the record and transcribe all board of trustee meetings is that moved in? is no longer required per uh for the legal language uh of the stars act because I will continue doing it but theoretically I don't have to do it somebody it just has to get done right you have to attend the meetings I haveund the It's not maybe are there any other questions? I'm sorry Shannon appropriately we approve the job description as presented moved by second by Katie all in favor that is very much congratulations your new job okay all right next up
070GMTSBA which stands for Montana school board association membership renewal um presented for consideration by the board is the 2526 membership renewal or NTSBA. The renewal cost remains the same as last year and I believe it is fair to state that the value of the membership was evident during the recent legislative session. I recommend that the updated agreement be approved by a board. Is there any clarify questions? wonder it's so much easier for them to get um their fees in after a legislative why should we pay for money but yeah everyone's like of course we'll pay you um and they didn't increase that was nice they actually decreased it by about $25 but they didn't yeah potatoes is there public comment on this renewal uh back to the board for any further comments or questions questions
071motion approved. Second move by Katie second by all in favor everybody. Thank you so much. It really do helps out a lot especially this year was amazing. All right. MC which Latina Quality Education Committee coalition. Okay. Um, renewal also uh presented for consideration by the board is the 2526 membership renewal for MQC. The renewal cost remains the same as last year and I believe the value of our MQC membership was also evident during the recent recent uh legislative session. Um I therefore recommend um that the board approves the renewal of the membership for 256. Any clarify questions? Any public comment? All right, back to the board for any discussion. We accept the item moved by Elizabeth second by Quincy. All in favor? Thank you everybody. That was great. We definitely do rely on those groups
072for our to help us know when all the things are going on. Um it's like the Lindsy show for a little bit here, isn't it? Uh Whitefish Community Foundation donation for the performing arts center. Uh thank you for Darcy. Presented for the board's approval is a donation check in the amount of $10,000 received from the White Fish Community Foundation. The funds are designated for the replacement of the genie list at the performing arts. I recommend the board um accept clarify questions. How does it change? Lifts the help lift the curtains or lifts something. I it I think it lifts props and things. But all very good guesses. Oh, not right. It's a machine that you get. It's like a motorized scaffolding. Oh, that. And it does go up and they can work on props. They
073can work on lights. Not everything in that pack comes down. So, they do have to go up very high. Wow. Right. It's like a It's like a ladder. A movable scaffold. It's expensive. Well, I like our ideas. Yeah, they all sounded great. All right. Any public comment on this donation? Back to the board for uh I'm guessing just a motion. I move we accept the community foundation donation. Second. Moved by Jerry, seconded by Ry. All in favor? That is everybody. Thank you. And thanks Josh for clarifying that for us. Um, all right. Up next is a Whitefish Education Foundation fundraising donation. Presented for the board's approval is a fundraising donation check in the amount of $70,000 received from the White Fish Education Foundation. This donation was made possible thanks to the generosity of our community
074members who participated in the make music resonate fundraiser. Uh as the title of the fundraiser suggests the funds are in the book and part of a French word almost um I groups Thank you. Um, any firefight or Lucy? Any public comment? Um, I think we all know that, you know, what has taken on that $400,000 capital campaign, right? We talked about that. So, um, sounds like they're doing really well. And then they got 40 or $45,000 from the Foundation as well. So, they're off to a great start. So that's really exciting to see because I know it was a it's kind of like our first big capital campaign they think. So super exciting. No, I think it's interesting too that I wonder how many school boards get to it seems like we have amazing donations
075and yeah how many school boards approve a $70,000 you know donation. I don't it's just kind of a think we're in a rare place. A generous community. Can I ask it this? I don't know if this is the right This is to ask a clarifying question to you, but um so I know about the capital campaign and it's happening and I know that the music department and teachers etc are heavily involved in all you know it's their wish list but then how does that actually work like once they raise the money then is there like a committee that's the music people that say here's what how much we could raise here's what we're actually going to get like in logistics land just how do they write people get the say writing I guess is what
076I mean the music is just there's just know the means of each campaign. So then they just work it out and Okay. I just curious how it works. I'm wondering you might know when they started this campaign if they kind of had some things earked like things a list of instruments that are easy to find. It's really well. Yeah. And it's prioritized as well. People have sort of asked me about the campaign and I just wanted a little bit more language to share like this is okay. Thank you. Um, thank you. Katie says all in favor that is everybody. Thank you. Wow, look at that. $80,000 in two things. That's awesome. Um, up next is just a discussion of um our exit interview process and if we want to look at changing it in any
077way or having any further um this is a question on our current exit interview. So Jake, go ahead. Why don't you get started? Sure. Yeah. I think we've done exit interviews and are just informally offered staff at different times and um but we could move into a more formal process if needed. So there's some opportunity here to look at that a little bit. Um it's certainly an admin administrative function in district our size. In a larger districta, you may have an HR person who would do those things. This time we don't have person to do that. Um, as an HR role to fill that, so typically it's left up to administration. We've had principles interviews past. Um, but one thing I think it's important to note is our principles do a great job with this
078and I used to do this as a director of student services as well. We do this end of year reflection process. Well, wouldn't be considered an exit interview. I don't think it's opportunity to answer a few questions and feedback from staff reflect on how the year went. Is there anything that we could do to help you support you? What are you looking forward to next year kind of thing? And so all staff have an opportunity to give that feedback at the end of the year and that's presented to the administration. They look really careful to how that can shape the following year. So I think that's really helpful. Um and in addition to that all staff check out the principles as they move out of the district over the summer and so they have an
079opportunity to talk about those things as well. Some do some take that opportunity discussion and sometimes they may not. It's just an opportunity for them to check out as they leave for the summer. But another um thing that done is just this exit interview process where you know you're going to ask typical questions. When I've done them, I've asked questions that are typical most exit interviews such as what you're leaving your position, what led you to leave your current position, something like that. or um you know some good open-ended questions. Was there a time when you really felt proud of your work? What you did? Um did you feel that management helped you achieve your goals that you wanted to achieve? Do you feel like you received the support or training that you need decision?
080And um would you recommend this district does receive And then also um is there anything that we can do as a district to improve our retention and recruitment qualified person just kind of real opened questions trying to get some good feedback and their experience. So that's the process that we've been following now. Again, it's been pretty informal. Certainly won't feed it to everybody. So, but we certainly I plan to do that this year. My plan is to try to make set up appointments historically. Has that feedback go down the board? No, it doesn't. So it's a goes with administrators for the very purpose of trying to okay how do we how can we plan for the future so if it was specific to a building principal I would have conversation with them about okay how
081can this help us in the future or if it's related to district function take that into account one that we do is we do talk about in general not specifics our end of the year reflections we've been doing this private in administrative meetings at the beginning of the school year and our exit interview information. How does that shape what we're going to be doing this year? Does it change anything? So, so it's it's not formal process of looking at but it is there is a discussion about these reflections may shape them. We were looking so In our two on one last week I um asked if there was turnover data available for the last 10 years and we had co affecting things and I haven't gathered that data yet but I appreciate I will for
082sure I don't I think I mentioned I don't believe there's been excessive turnover but I will look at it for sure see if there's any differences during co after co before co I I think a 10-year look would be a good idea. and looking at how long the person was leaving has been with this year. Yeah. Um I just thought there were some red flags in the comments that would inspire me to as a board think that we should hear some feedback, good, the bad, the ugly, you know, just to see what the climate is because we don't do school and not in a micromanaging perspective. So just the big picture we hear feedback from people in the community here newspaper or whatever but um I think it's really helpful to know why people are
083leaving um and those questions those open influences talked about and I think our staff is big enough like 250 staff that we really need a neutral again thinks that but well even in a large district that does have a human resource person that if you're considering that third party that they fill that function but they share that information so the administration that's what it's so so for instance if we did have an HR person I would supervise that person they share that information. continue to improve um regarding sharing of this is information related to our role and how we're trying to improve suppose you know the means of source could be share but I think that the focus is on us getting better as leaders in our roles right so that's what we're focused on
084um I think we're doing other things related to feedback related to climate surveys as well as other surveys that we we're completing right Now that will help us overall give us some feedback about how we're doing any looking forward to that next step in our process. Again, we don't have an HR person assigned right at this time. We talked about that as a board. We certainly do that. We could either look to assign that as a part of the pool or the options we talked about before. Yeah, it seems that was big enough that I would suspect we get contract with third party as for that piece of the evaluation. Um there's somebody in the valley that could assist us with that. Yeah. You know, maybe through the college or you I think you could
085look into that. But again, it's the function of they would fill a a role just like an HR person would share that information. No one's telling you the information. No, no, I understand that. But I'm saying that um it's a role that that that person plays that helps us shape our future. I think it's important information for us. I think I shared with I it's gives great words. I think it's super helpful process the exit interviews you're saying or the reflection process some a lot of times it's been more informal that reflection process one thing we talked about um with the communication audit was including exit interviews in the communication a one more piece of information and in the absence of an HR person um shopping that out to a neutral third party. Not that
086that would mean that you wouldn't get the results because that would be ridiculous. So, so of course there would be like a report that would be generated from a third party conducting those exit interviews that then would be shared with administration so that it would still have the same end goal of moving everybody forward. But I think that the the benefit of a third party would be that there would be a like a standardized way of collecting the information. And then um in school districts where they do use a outside party to do it, there's a study that says that 63 or something% of people's answers change because they're able to be more honest with an outside party because they're not worried about burning bridges or um you know with people that they've worked with
087for 40 years. So it's just and and also you're able to be anonymous that you can share is my experience and then just the themes are shared that not the individual things and that doesn't mean that you couldn't still do your own exit interviews because I know that that's important to you but this would just be another way of gathering feedback that could complement all the other information that we gather. I would like to just counter a little bit u in regards to this information uh getting to the board. Frankly, this is a complete violation of governance. I I wouldn't want to see it, frankly. Um I do I do support a third party, but I would not support anything coming to the board unless it's a a theme that a third party brings out
088and says um everybody's got a problem with date. Then then then the board that would be surprising. But even if they said every, you know, half the people leaving said it was because of Carrie or whatever, that doesn't come to us. that goes to so in proper government we should never and I kind of went along with Shannon a little bit I think or I guess my question is like could you use like the themes and you say well we're here to support admin Dave and how can you because if you don't know those themes from a third party or whoever is there a way then that you could get the themes and say well how can we help like how as a board can we support admin to help us solve all these things
089or like what can you do and I guess that would be a question maybe even like as far as governance is that stepping I mean no that that's absolutely okay if there was there was some theme come up that said that you know people who are exiting uh are expressing that they're not being supported properly I think they don't give them enough pay like that's a policy thing that we should know about you know like there are some things that fall into our jurisdiction but there are others like the daily operation stuff like you're mentioning We don't need to know at all. But it think helpful if we had a standardized practice because then we can even say like oh last year's report said this, this year's report said this. Look at the improvement there.
090You know, like just a standardized way of gathering information. And I look at it because I don't see how we can be helpful if you don't know the theme. You know, in some ways you feel like you're operating in the dark a little bit because you say, well, there was a theme that teachers mental health wasn't supported or they felt as though mental and then we can come back as board and say, how can we help the admin and how can we help you be successful at providing you know do we need to look into a grant? We do need to be careful in that we are not driving. So if it was the administration coming to us and saying we are seeing some need for some more mental health supports then we as a
091board can say yes let's figure out how we can support that. But if we were to read through that data and think that we saw something about mental health no it's just the data of like that's why it's like the data of you coming like so I'm partnered with shoot I see like there's a like here's the why you know just give you more of like the data to say we have not just notice it's a objective kind of whatever why like there's only two women's bathrooms in Moldtown they need more there's no teachers want to work there like whatever like whatever. So because we're in charge of like are we meeting the facility needs like oh well then this is a good why for how we should allocate the budget towards supporting whatever you
092know that's all it does go to a bit of our oversight though I would say I mean there's a site of there is a part of oversight and it while you don't want to overstep our governance there is a piece of that that does fall under us because if we have teachers leaving because they're unhappy for one reason or another we need to know why because then we're not pertaining right and I don't know I'm not saying that that is a piece So if if retention is a problem, we don't even know. Yeah. For for whatever reason, we would know. Would we? Yeah. How we think the number of people? Yeah. So like right now there's eight people residing. So I was just going to ask that question. So in theory, if you had a
093standardized exit interview, all eight of those people would have an extra interview. Is that what that would look like? And I would trust people I would trust the the administration come to to come to us and say we're having a problem with retention. What can you do as a board? Yeah. But for us to just I I don't know I don't know what level I I would never want to guess what level if if I see 30 teachers leaving is that a retention problem? I would see. Yeah. I'm struggling that I you know I see this as a role in a larger district HR do this right. So they would ask these questions. They saw a theme. They would present it to me or to the board saying, "Look, this is what we're seeing in
094some of this information. We think we need to hire or increase that, right? We feel like we need to XYZ." Yeah. If there's if there's an ask of the board, then it absolutely But I think that ask needs to be defined. Yeah, that's all I'm saying. That's true. I hear what you're saying. Um, I think that part of the need I think it's a need for a third party is because there's a lack of accountability. If there's nobody else around to gather the information, it's very easy for it to be an end stop and to not have that follow through on. And so when you don't have somebody else gathering themes or data, then it's real simple. Like we have a curriculum director looking at curriculum data and say we need to improve math score.
095So we're going to look at the new curriculum. If we're having a different issue or if there's something else happening, it can easily get buried. I'm not saying it is, but there's there's a risk there. There's a risk there. It's like not having checks and balance. The lack of checks and balance, I guess, if you look at it the business department. There's a lack of check. There's a lack of checks and balances with our current system. Well, if is it okay if I ask of the administrators present here? Is this something that if it were taken off your plate as long as you got the information that came from it, you would be happy that you didn't have to do the exit interviews. they were being done. But that that was one thing you didn't
096have to do, but you still learned from the question is do you guys do a lot of extra energies now? Like is it a time consuming thing and is it standardized? I mean that's what it sounds like you don't necessarily do them with everybody anyway, right? So it's that's clear. I don't want to put you on the spot. I just I'll say I've done a couple in the last couple years. Ones that have resigned. Um I've done exit interviews. We've had a a very good success rate. Good information back. I haven't I did not deal with them to those that retired and there's a purpose for those. But the purpose still a purpose because that's one of your best sources of information. Yeah. You got somebody who got upset at the district and they've been
097in a usually a long time. Yeah. An opportunity to gather people who worked in the district by having a I don't have done. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Do you have more to say? I I just think by having a third party do it, it would be standardized. So, you would be able to see themes across the buildings or across um the district. And I don't think that that means that they wanted to ask people why are you leaving that doesn't mean he couldn't right he could still also have those conversations and so for Josh so could anybody I I don't think that this is like in l of issues yeah it's a way to complement I think what's hard is from our perspective our job is to set the set the direction of the district allocate
098resources to support that dis that direction and um provide oversight when this is just a way of Well, from my my perspective as superintendent, I recommend it continues to be the role of administration for myself because I've been taking that information, consider it like we have. Um, I'm very uh I would recommend Since we've had this discussion, I would like to this year to formalize that process, set aside a specific time to do that, gather that information and then share that with administration. If you didn't information, look at together as a group, look at these. That's my recommendation proceed for this school. If we do end up identifying someone for HR, then I would recommend that that be the HR person. Can I ask why you're opposed to the outside party doing? Because it's it's
099not typical in our school districts throughout the state or in our schools that I'm aware of. So what I what I'm seeing is it is typical for an HR person to do it. So that would be a very typical role and I would I think that's a very wise use of your resources and how person that function districts are size. It's typically run by administration. So that's where I would as well. I'm not afraid in any way. We are doing all kinds of surveys. We've done climate surveys, comprehensive needs assessment surveys. We're doing a review of our information in terms of how we communicate our process for complaint. So that's good information coming too. But that's my recommendation for now for how we proceed for this year, how we look at treatment. As we continue
100to move forward, we can other processes. I'm just not aware of anybody that is contracted person. I would counter that by saying we're not a typical or trailblazer. Now if that's the case though then it comes back to if you really feel that that's necessary and that's the direction of the board then I think you would certainly have to address those issues of governance versus you know those are some really tricky challenges there that we have to get into this is that the administrative operations kind of information you want to function with that information and again the reason I'm not opposed to something the reason I do it. I value it. Yeah. And I don't think I'm Yeah. Go ahead. Keep doing it. I'm I value the feedback. Valueation. It's really helpful for for us
101to grow. I feel like we can grow as a district with that information. And for me to hear it really helps me to have that conversation to have a conversation where I can say tell me more about that. I just love those conversations because they they've helped you in the past and I could see it helping me and our district in the future. It just seems like it's been historically an informal process, therefore hit or miss, not considered a necessity by people that are leaving. And no designated driver for defining the questions. no designated driver for making sure the interview gets done. And I I think we're a big enough district. Granted, we're not delayed, but if we have 250 people and we have x number leaving, I just think it would be really helpful
102information, but more consistent. You know, what is on the list of the opening questions and How is that important for say if you're doing interviews for you and the um building administration to get to talk about it or you know how does it does it just start with you or where does it go? So one, can there be some really and second that there be a at least the outline of meaningful answer questions that doesn't matter what school you're in, those should probably same across Yeah, I guess what I'm saying is I would do that. So I would follow those specific steps. That's what I'm fulfilling. I would do those questions, follow the steps, and I would go over themes of information with administration before the school year starts and discuss both end of year
103reflections and the themes from those end of year reflections as well as exit interview questions. Look at that. together with administrators. there's trends and issues that we need to address and strategies that we need to address there. If there are things I need to bring to the board, I would bring to the board based on again if we had an HR person. I think that gives us another reason to get an HR person. I mean, honestly, that's what I person this is a ton of your time, Dave, in an already very full schedule. And so, I think about we always talk about your capacity and what you have the capacity to do. And I understand that this is a lot of value for you, but I think about the capacity of you as our superintendent
104and this isn't where we need you spending your time because this is something we can outsource and so and the same information is going to come to you in a format is summarized and succinct. Um, and so I think that that's valuable to the district as a whole is to have the doing other superintendent work. not conducting exit interviews. Um, and so that is a huge a really big piece to me as um when I think about your capacity. Um, I definitely think they need to be formalized and standardized um and um and tracked. You know, I mean, there's been times we've sat in meetings and, you know, we get a conversation and then bring it up to you and you're like, I've never heard that before. like what you've heard in your exit interview
105why so and so told you this interview you're like that's news to me. So I think that leads to some of the questions about we're hearing things again through the community and then when we have conversations some people feel like either it didn't resonate with you or it wasn't said in a way. So if it was all themed out and it was written down and there was a record of it then it would be put on her. Um, and it's not to micromanage the district. It's a way to improve the district and increase your capacity. We've been talking about getting HR personally from the beginning of the year because of your capacity and we need your capacity going elsewhere. And so I think this is another example of of why we need your capacity used
106in another place. I'm hearing that you would like it someone else to conduct those. So would you like me to assign it to somebody else? That I I don't think you're hearing correctly. I I think you're what you're what we're saying I think what is being said here is that we would like to explore and we've said this from from getgo we would like to explore if there's need for an HR first. This points to evidence that there is I also hear the board correct me if I'm wrong I'm saying that they would prefer in the absence of an HR person that we find somebody to specifically contract that that's what I'm hear and and this is a discussion so nothing we can vote on right but in the interest of discussion I would recommend
107maybe like Eliza Thomas he does consulting with evergreen chalice Eureka also she flies all over and she does exactly this kind of thing and in terms of governance professional so it's like we're not involved in it at all you know and then those findings would be shared with you for you to share with your people well and one of the nice things about an outside person they have no preconceived notions they have they're just listening for things and sometimes when we're in the middle of it we have our own ideas already kind of in our mind what we think is going to happen and it sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't but it's nice to have a third party who has no connections you just looking at usually yeah and I imagine this goes
108to with I think like with the communications audit and um and all these things I think it can feel a little bit like what is the board what are we looking for what are we looking to uncover cover. And I'm I guess I'd like to clarify that I I don't feel that way at all. I'm I'm not looking for anything to uncover among teachers, admin. I just look at it as, you know, I get some awesome Yelp reviews and it'd be really I read it and I'm like, okay, that would have been nice to know before you wrote it on Yelp. But I think the idea is now the board can't help you and we can't help Dave if we don't. I mean sometimes you don't have any of the information and it's for me
109I I'm not looking for anything in particular but you start saying okay well what data is there to collect to improve the district and I think talking to teachers who are retiring and but also I don't think putting more things on your plate is a fair ask and I think and then just having a third party present it I I don't know I think that um we so much can sometimes um in college they call it the ivory tower where college campuses um they become you you become a bit of a globe um bubble a bubble um and you know in veterary medicine when I was learning you know they would come out with what the cost of a treatment would be and if you were in Eureka Montana it would be a very different
110look at life and so sometimes I do think just having getting outside of your bubble and having someone else come in and say you're doing an awesome job there's really nothing to uncover, you know, but if they say there's these common themes that we I think you should work on and and you use that to improve, but I do want to very much clarify there is no ill intent or there is no dirt or something that anyone's looking for. No cause for concern and no cause for concern. I think it really is just about improving the district and improving ourselves and sometimes that shining the mirror on ourselves from an outside party can be really hard. But I think it's very important because I do think we get caught in our our environments very closely.
111So that's kind of where I'm just so everyone you know where all these surveys you know everyone start you start seeing a lot of surveys and you're like okay something's wrong. Um and there is nothing wrong I think is very important to say but I think one of the fe purposes of education survey receive feedback about this type of thing. So it's almost like we're having this discussion before that conversation, right? We're going to look at feedback. But but I'm what I'm hearing though is you prefer at this time that change in the future HR person you know I'm looking for feedback trying to find out what I'm hearing this correctly preferences for this school would like to see consideration of looking at something contracting doing this process yours I heard heard different things though
112I also heard you would like to provide that information to administration and then is administration bringing the themes or is the person bringing the themes to the board getting to your governance issue my my question would be to defer to whoever the professional is that doesn't you know like I I wouldn't pretend to know this an a role I'm not an a you know so I think that would be a conversation to figure out the best way to communicate for the growth purposes like you said like the growth is yeah like who needs to work with they could talk about that's my opinion is that that is not I I wouldn't want to again microman that's not the intent the intent is to make this informative helpful what the information we're right yeah so who's
113the it's not yeah let the experts and those who are in charge of the I just feel like so you're talking about this year. I just want to clarify that. I mean, there's only like a month left of school. So, I feel like finding someone to do this, it seems unrealistic. Very hard. Yeah. I feel like that's not realistic to have that conversation that this is a great discussion for moving forward in my opinion. I don't know. Feels like because and also we haven't done it the whole rest of this year. Do you want to take this academic year? So it feels like would it be easier more more realistic to think about academic year 25 26 forward? Okay. Yeah. If it's not feasible then we'll be like okay let's wait. Yeah. But if it
114is feasible like why not do it. Okay. If Katie has an idea who might be an appropriate person to experiment. I mean experiment with. Um I think reaching out and finding someone I just wonder again like the data would be like the people in the last month that you're going to ex usually exit. Yeah. End of your retirement. You don't usually like not too tight at that time. No. Okay. Well, no. That's a very good question. That would be a question for that might be harder to find somebody. It might not explore. I'm guessing whoever that person is, it's happening at the end of school year in every school district. They just might Yeah. But just to plant the seed and have the conversation. Okay. Thanks for clarifying. So Katie, are you thinking that they
115get contacted say we have you have to go with Eliza and have contact information? Well, she's at the college. Well, and I think the other thing I think the kind of the splitting is if it isn't feasible, you know, can they help could a person help Dave standardize it for this year and say, "Okay, well, it is on Dave's plate this year, but here's kind of the process that I I would recommend you follow just to help you potentially out as well." Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too. Yeah. is helping to come up with those questions standardize like just yeah that's what again just help you since you are very busy you know and the and then the intention would be that we would interview each candidate each person leaving as opposed to if
116they want to have an interview we can't force anybody I just offer it to every person they would do that just like their end of a reflection tonight. But thank you. Thank you for that discussion. For a long time, Jacob, I mean, you're always here. You're usually just in a different room. I think we just your name on the board. You're sitting back there so patiently. Thank you. Um, so Jacob is gonna talk about the MakerBot data privacy agreement. Sure. U, so as we've done in the past, um, we have a couple new pieces of software. Uh, we've used MakerBot, uh, in a just non um, data collecting type mode. Um, we have some ways though we can integrate MakerBot in with our Google domain. uh so it's easier for students to log into MakerBot,
117store their projects and and um use the software um but just protect our our students data. So MakerBot is software that's used to make uh 3D objects with 3D printers and that sort of thing. Um so right now when they use it, they can't sign into Google uh or store their their projects um in in MakerBot because we don't have a data privacy agreement. So with the data privacy agreement, we can have students just log in directly with their Google account account. Makes it a lot quicker. stores their projects. They can update it right in there. Um they can work on it from home and all different things like that that they can't do right now. So um they have agreed to sign the the data privacy agreement. So I'm just hoping that you guys
118are okay with us uh moving forward with that uh agreement. So questions. Are so are you saying they have a privacy agreement that faculty and students would sign or So this is just for for students. Um, so Montana uh has a variety of student data privacy laws uh that we of course have to abide by. Um and um there's a Montana student data student data privacy agreement um that's uh been provided um for anyone to use. And so we just use that uh template version that we provide to vendors and as long as they're willing to sign it. Uh we counter sign it and then they agree to follow all the Montana state laws regarding student data and uh how it's used, how it's disposed of, you know, the um the um the different avenues
119of u fixing anything that that happens. It gives us teeth really uh if they if they misuse the data that we don't have about it. So public comment uh back to the board. I want to just say um I think the entire state owes you a big thank you. I don't know if any other technology directors are out there getting all these data privacy agreements like six of them. I've got two more. Not to say too much credit. There are others. Uh, and it's really nice because we we do share these and there's a if the vendor is willing, there's an appendix A to it or exhibit A to it that if the vendor signs in any other district in the state can piggy back off of it. Uh, so we really work together on
120that to share those with each other and uh, so if there's another vendor now that wants to use MakerBot or sorry, in our district that wants to use MakerBot, they can just piggyback off of our contract. Uh, and we do the same thing with them as well. So because we have uh, we have probably 60 exhibit A's that we've used from other districts um, just to save the the time. uh instead of having to go out and each district having to work with each vendor every single time. This way we can kind of collaborate together and do it that way. So um but this is one that no one else has yet. So I know this goes to the the code agreement here. So this is the agreement that's been signed. Is there any possibility
121now or in the future of removing the red text and moving away from this being copyright of MTSBA? So MTSBA is the one that has provided to us. We could definitely take out uh the text if we want. The red was modified. Oh, go ahead. Okay. The red was modified from um their their recommended verbiage. Um and so we do u agree to some of those changes with vendors if it if if it's something that they're um stuck on, but we don't see it being an issue um with us or with FTSBA. We'll ask them a lot of times um you know the vendors come back and said no they won't sign like this but if we change this you know these two lines um you know do you see any issues with those changes
122and they'll they'll say no or yes um you know and we kind of can go back and forth with the vendor to try and can can work that out. So I'm I'm more interested in the very first paragraphs this is a sample agreement. Um I don't like first of all the idea of writing this is a sample agreement into a legal document. um or at least removing it before it becomes a legal document otherwise it is it stay so can we remove that that first read this sample I understand a good deal about uh M pop IPA because I was uh heavily involved in in around creation of the coalition that you're talking about that that does this but I wonder if we can remove that that would be my so this is an agreement
123or just start out with part. But I would say I I would actually probably recommend that since this is an agreement uh between um I don't think we even need to do that really. I'll look at it again. But I don't see why we couldn't. And I'll just fast forward and say that I'm gonna that I hope I don't need to say the same thing for the next one. Sure. Yes. Um interest I'll say it get to the next one. Okay. Um so you want to make a motion and approve it with that change Shannon or where are you at? Uh I would just I first of all what we don't know is whether that's doable. This does this does this is subject to copyright outside of the district. So it might not be doable.
124Um I don't know that I can make the motion to remove that. I would like to explore removing it in the future. I I would say looking at the others that we have um taken exhibit A's from um I don't see any others that have removed it. Um so there there might be a reason that we can't. Um so I'll definitely look at that. Um but I definitely know other districts have left it in. Well, it's a copyright check. Well, the funny thing though, we'll jump in because maybe that one's just a typo on that one because the second agreement doesn't say it's a sample. It says the agreement executed and and that is so the difference between version three and four and and I I didn't even think about that. Makerbot was one that
125we've been working with uh since the start of school. Uh and they have just now finally gotten around to signing and that was still under version three. Uh version four came out here recently and that's the Edmondum one. Um and I honestly I I hadn't even noticed that that verbiage had changed in that. Oh, interesting. This is our first one that we've done with version four. So for that because it's basically the exact same agreement just you changed the names. Yes, there was just a few a few um different wording changes in there. Um I know there was one uh regards to how the data is destroyed. Uh almost every uh vendor had issues with uh the version three verbiage. Um so I know they changed that a little bit in four and things like
126that. So Okay, that makes that would makes a lot of sense. Oh yeah, because one is version three, one is in version four. Okay, perfect. And and it does say in here that if if they agree to an amendment, it needs to be approved by case. So they are copyright. So it might shot on MakerBot privacy agreement. I move that we accept the MakerBot privacy agreement. I'll second it. a second by Katie on favor with everybody. Thank you. And then Edum. Yes. So Edenum is going to be used by the independent high school. Uh it's taking the place of egeneuity. Um so this is the replacement program for it. Uh so it's it's the same thing. Um it's a new one that uh no one else in the state at least that I could find
127had an agreement with. So, um, this one though is, you know, it holds a lot more data, uh, as it does, uh, it's kind of, um, well, it's a whole different learning platform. So, you know, it's going to have grades, it's going to have assignments, it's going to have names and all kinds of, uh, student data in there. So, it's just another one we want to make sure we have a student data privacy agreement with before we put our data into the system. There any clarified questions? Any public comment back to the board? I move we accept the agreement with written moved by Jerry seconded by Randy. All in favor? Thank you so much Jacob. Thank you very much. Yes, exactly. Multitasking back there. Um, all right. 2526 staff renew. You have a list of
128all staff um recommended for renewal. certified staff as well as administrative staff and classified staff listed there document. So recommended for your approval of them to make the face work. Everybody who works for us It's not when we do the coaches too or that separate that is a separate thing. We're going to do those in June. Okay. And when these are recommended, it means it had consistently acceptable valuations. No outstanding. They're all recommended for approval um based on meeting expectations because it's recommended based on like you guys. It's all our process. All right. Um, any other clarifying questions? Any public comment? Back to the board. And before we motion on this, I just have something I need to say. Um, I won't say tonight. As trustees, we shoulder the profound legal responsibility of hiring and
129firing all district employees with our direct oversight limited to the superintendent. This creates a challenging and vulnerable position for us. We make consequential decisions regarding continuing employment without direct involvement in the interview or evaluation process, relying heavily on administrative recommendations. Tonight, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. The community who elected me to serve them and the colleagues with whom I collaborate to improve our schools. For the second consecutive year, I find myself weighing community feedback that is in direct conflict with the hiring recommendation by administration. This places all trustees in a difficult position balancing our community informed perspective against administrative guidance. We need additional measurements for successes and shortcomings. When parents and students voice concerns, they often hear that nothing can be done. Our solutions address only individual cases rather than underlying
130issues. Our community has grown accustomed to acceptance rather than a solution. And it is my impression that many have largely given up trying anymore. We aren't creating an atmosphere to receive the feedback we should to be get should be getting and we need to create a way to address this. Tonight I have questions about a particular renewal recommendation and I face a dilemma of calling for a separate vote on an individual even though the issue remains obscured to most trustees. To address this, I firmly believe we need a system for tracking minor complaints to identify patterns requiring attention that land outside of policy 1700. This would strengthen our governance, honor our commitment to our community, and ultimately better serve every student who enters our schools. While I find myself facing this challenging ethical situation, I
131recognize the importance of maintaining productive working relationships with our district administration. These partnerships are essential for advancing our broader educational goals. Therefore, I will continue to advocate for better systems while supporting our collective work. Nobody else has anything to say, and take a motion. So that's a relative in a hard spot because we get feedback from families about teacher concerns and what we can do is administration and we get feedback from the parents again or the student who say nothing's changed or their situation's been changed but other kids are still in the situation and so there needs to be a better way to address that and it's not a one off um and so sometimes the board isn't fully aware and so we find ourselves in this wheel situation. Well, it is because you know
132it's you just have to get through this. And it's also hard because you have tenure and non tenure when parents and community members don't know the difference or who is tenure and not tenure. So you have four options and then how do you also have problems with you have a plan of improvement and then if they don't approve like it's much more paperwork without tenure you can you can you can let somebody go without cause but before their tenure and once you have 10 things I just you know I have to say I we take our rules seriously administration very thorough and work. We evaluate all personnel frequently and observing and working with staff. We're addressing concerns regularly so they're brought to our attention resolving issues based and thorough work has been done. recommendation base
133administrative work that's being recommended their work their thorough work to be so if a teacher doesn't seem to be meeting the standards they get put on probation or you said prime for improvement for a tenure There's all form different forms of help and support how we certainly could suggest strategies discussion with them about strategies, all kinds of different This is the daily work administration. They do this all the time. Staff help support them and staff are working with them to improve doing those things. That's what happens. We come to this level, we recognize a lot of work that goes into that. One suggestion I talk to you about this is I would suggest that perhaps we need to beef up our mentors even more that um if there is someone that's struggling I mean anyone
134new to our district should have a mentor and there should be some recommendations for going into the classroom and observing and and that person coming in and observing their me their person mentoring them. And maybe by being proactive and giving them a really good start, then we could um see less and less uh problems with people, you know, making uh comments or or being unhappy with things, you know. Yeah. And you and I have talked about I completely agree that our mentoring program, we can do a lot more, right? We can make it more robust. we can do some things work. oftentimes we're meeting, our mentors are meeting with staff and we've actually increased that we but I think we can do a lot more in that area related to um partnering and going in
135and observing giving feedback and teaching for a while while the other person watches that person teach that kind of I think there's some real value in that. Our goal is to see that all of these teachers are successful and so we need to figure out ways um to make sure you know teacher helping teacher is a great way and that's how I learned to teach is listening in an open concept school oh I should be doing that so then I did the next day and you know what another thing related that not just all the observing and supporting by teachers to teachers I think that's a great But also in addition to that extending it uh beyond one year. So it should be a two to maybe threeyear process. Well particularly for a non-tenured person.
136Exactly. Because I don't know how other people but I know I've got to go through things about three times before it really gets set. So somebody can tell me something once and I may take a kernel of it, but the second time I get more and by the third time I'm saying, "Oh, well, I can really do this," you know, and so I think that would be very helpful to have a mentor mentored for three years. I agree. I think it's a great idea and I think, you know, Lisa shaking her head right there. I think we definitely recognize that there's some could do there to support our newer teachers. True. And are there teachers staff left off? Yes, for sure. I don't think many of I think the rock in the hard place is
137that we are in this position where we just get this list of names and we don't even know what job they do. Like it's just this list of names. And what I'm sure of is that there's an extensive process that the principles do and the vice principles and I don't know everybody where they go and sit in and write down observation notes and make plans and maybe what would help us feel like we're making decisions and let the dark would be more light on the process. Yeah. So, like in our two-on-one, we talked about maybe like the principles could come in and we could have a work session where you explain to us what the process is for new year teachers and how you onboard them and what that looks like and how you evaluate
138them because that will give us faith in what we're doing and what we're approving because right now it's just like, well, they said they're good, you know? So, it it kind of puts us in a weird place. And then what Darcy is saying is at the same time we have, you know, parents whatever being like they're teacher blah blah blah. And so it's like well and I can't be like they have gone through this rigorous process. Whereas like at my job it's like every semester I have evaluations from students. I have an observation from a fellow teacher and I have like my administrator come and sit in and they have a focus group where they I leave and they ask my students what is she doing well? What should she do better? And then I
139get all this feedback that helps me be better. So like my board even gets to see all of that stuff. They have a whole portfolio that has all my information. So when they make their vote, it's from a really informed position, whereas I think our position is like, okay, right. So just kind of putting more light on your process would help us number one, appreciate what the heck you're doing because I'm sure it's hard and I'm sure that you do your due diligence, but two, it helps us answer community's feedback about like teacher blah blah blah. Like well actually they've gone through this rigorous multi-step three-year process or whatever the case is. I totally agree. I completely agree. We talked about I think that's a really good thing that we could do together. Talk about
140exactly what's done. You know, they're they're in how frequently they're in room to just casually check. They're doing that type of work frequently. Um the whole picture of what they're doing every step of the way, right? Our non-tenure staff get a lot of support more than people who have been here a while. They aren't evaluated as often. Right. Right. And and how often do we observe? What other information do you look at beyond just your observation? All that statement into account. Yeah. Feedback statement into account. All that I do I'm curious about the student feedback piece. I think that's a real interesting thing to I mean I realize that ages you're working with but I mean if you have students right because a lot of this information is coming to me from student um because
141they're very frustrated and so how can we get the student perspective but sometimes they're not. Sometimes they're like, I love this teacher, right? I'm not saying they don't always going to be named. It would be interesting that you know, they know a good teacher. They know what makes a good teacher and the orchestras do meet with like the student council and all kinds of people and they do get feedback. And so I think it would just enlighten us to have more information. The other thing I wonder is if part of our feeling of like we're still in the dark is because we took away our school visits. Yeah. So like you got some of these names and we're like I want to know what that is and that's unusual for us. So it's unusual for
142us that we like don't sit down with the administrators anymore like we used to and have these conversations once a year and we're not walking around schools. And so I think we're just kind of feeling like oh what in the dark school visits are really important for trustees. I think it's a great opportunity to build relationships, go into the buildings, see staff and see the what's happening and I think it helps like that's another piece right just like building relation but I would yeah just I'm sorry I just want to mention I think a really good sit down session looking administration and trustees what's involved I know that's helpful in some other districts because that process they go in depth about what they do. They don't go into depth about what's happening, right? But they
143go into depth about their process and I think that would be helpful. Yeah. Absolutely. Our job is that's what we do, right? And so I agree to that and a big barrier to the suggestion you made. you may please repeat about something outside of the policy 1700. I think that's where yes this whole discussion that we had with our our attorney president and this whole this whole piece and as I mentioned a billion times I'm out of the feedback loop so I really have no idea who you're talking I mean I'm not not I know zero and that's you know because people I simply ignore what they say but but it would be it would be I think we discussed as part of that having some sort of a way that we that I could
144know what concerns are are your and perhaps that way is we we do have a way I've never had anybody step in here and give give public comment about renewal of you know in my in my time on the board I've had people step in here and give comment about renewal of coach but I've literally never had so maybe that's where it starts is can Can can these be um you know if there's a concern you decide how much I think that's why they email us that's why they email us to answer that question because that's what they're going to do and that we have no control over that and it is hard impression is see my impression is that that that was inappropriate for them to do apparently and so I shouldn't have even
145read and so I would I would again I just ignore that. Right. Your grandma naked, Shannon. Yeah. And so it's like, right, because that's a rock hard place. Like we didn't like it just happens. So how do we do the right thing and honor everyone's roles and honor the people's right to their best education that they can have access to and what our place is in that? Yeah. It's just tricky. Yeah. I And I I want you to know I I understand that not knowing all makes sense. It's hard for trustees, but I I do want I wish I could assure you I don't know how to do that tonight, but it's a very process very seriously exactly that process has involved Thank you for doing the process. Yes. Diligently. I'll move we approve. I'll
146second move by second by Elizabeth. All in favor. Okay. Moving on to uh recommendations for hire which is funny after did I this is a different process not a renewal these are just brand new these are new positions these positions are recommended for hire educator summer coach and summer coach well guest teacher positions as nurse. That's right. She's currently Yeah. I can ask a clarifying question. Yeah. So, is she part time? Okay. I was like, how does that work? Got it. Any clarifying questions? Sorry. No, it's okay. Any public comments? Oh, I forgot. Um, no, you you did forget. I did forget. Oh, should we go back? Uh, any further com any further comments or motion? As second move by second chair. I will favor. That's everybody. Thank you. um out of district students. Our
147poor family that was waiting decided they couldn't wait any longer and they left. So this yeah this is uh our recommendations that we have on each month come together typically for district students. So we're recommending approval of these students again are student identifier numbers but you see though those are students that have it's come to our attention that they are They're out of the district now. So they're they're students who are currently in our roles. So then the next one though is a big long list. another list, but this is a list of um about 150 source students that are out of district that are currently enrolled in. These are the renewable of our out of district students. We've captured that number for many years. That's about what so this is just continuing that district
148renewal of those students that are currently with us. We have the staff to address their needs because they've been with us. So recommend question back to the board. Second move by second by Katie. All in favor you're in. Yeah. Um actually James have we changed that out of district policy or still think about that. Okay. Something. Okay. Sorry. Yes. Okay. Up next is the reorganization of the board. Lucy. This is exciting. I'm done. for a few minutes. Okay. Uh are there any nominations for the chair of the board? I'd like to nominate Elizabeth. And any additional nominations? Somebody else is a short. Any discussion or clarifying questions? Is there a public comment on this item? Okay. Now back to the board for further further deliberation or emotion. I move the report chair. I'll second. All
149in favor? Okay. You are welcome. It's been a pleasure to be your chair. I really am going to use that gavl. I think it's important that you're still officer. Yes. I thought it happened now. Rain doesn't happen until Oh, I thought that's how Katie and I did it last time. You did it incorrect. Okay. Okay. Get out of here. All right. District clerk appointment something has to do. So since Elizabeth is not the ringing officer yet I'll do it. Thanks Lizzy. Okay. Um, are there any nominations for the vice chair board? I think good idea. Are there any additional nominations? Any discussion or clarifying questions? Is there public comment on the item? Now back to the board for further deliberation or emotion. I believe we elect Garc. Thank you. Okay. I guess I'm No, now
150you do it. No chair. Oh, you don't know if it's gonna be that chair. Well, I know, but on here it says board chair under district clerk appointments that we have our agenda on as well. I know. I'm just saying just still that would have been helpful. That would have helped by that. I was just following the um thing. Okay. So, district clerk appointment. Are there any nominations for district clerk? They all saw that you no longer have to take notes. She could find somebody else nominations for district clerk besides Lucy. Um back or any other any comments? Any clarify questions? Public comment back to the board for a motion. I move we elected CS that she all the time. We can add it to the move by cherry seconded by Elizabeth to accept Lucy
151as our district's clerk. Um, perfect. Thank you. All in favor? That is everybody. Thank you for being report. Okay, time for reports. Announcement. Um, first up we have our end of the year letter of appreciation to staff. Shannon wrote this. I like the I actually wrote two of them but we are the best because of you. It's great. I thought it was really really good and I'm sure all the commas are correct because of channels. If it was my idea would have to correct a comma here or there but I mean if anybody takes offense with it feel free to edit. The only thing is there's two years in the last sentence and I didn't it says we wish you an excellent summer. Look forward to next school year year with dog pride. So that's
152the only thing that I was like two years just repeating it otherwise it's beautiful this redundant that would be a mistake. When do we want this sent out like the last week of school? Yeah, we could have Amy send it out like on June 10th or something. Do you plan on sending out a letter? On this letter? Yeah. Okay. I wasn't sure if you were also sending something. I didn't want to like No, I expect we do. So, should we send ours out? Like I was Oh, I see. Yeah, we could send oursel like the last week of May. It doesn't matter. We could send out ours on like May 29th or something. I can What if you Okay. I I'll if you prefer June 10th, you rather do I don't care. Yeah. Or we
153could do June or not at the end. Yeah. Yeah. We'll just do That's right. We can do this. You got two weeks left. somewhere in there. Okay, perfect. I just didn't want it to. Um, and then as far as other trustee announcements, we were talking before the meeting. We wrote on here that we need to talk about trustee committee assignments, but we didn't put the attachment of committee assignments, so no one really knows what they're doing or where they're going. So, we might just talk about that. Well, that would be appropriate for the new chair to talk about. Yeah. Perfect. So, it should be next. That should be, right? So, we did that on purpose. Um the other thing we need to set is the next superintendent evaluation meeting date. Um and so if you
154think about it like in quarterly date we would we met March. So June would be the next time we meet. Um June the Yeah. Yep. June. So that would be the 24th of June for everybody at 6:00. Yeah. Yeah. The work session I think because you don't usually have a work session in June. So this kind of has a pretty this kind of slips in there and no one has to know. I mean, people have to know, but like as a board member, you're not like, "Oh my gosh, I have another meeting." It's less painful because Yeah. We're just used to having two meetings a month. I just want to make sure we don't like two hours early. No. Yeah. So, um, will you send out a calendar invite? Oh, sure. And Oh, is it
155your two? No, it's just that you haven't. That's what she meant that she was gonna speak it in the don't have that. Um just for clarification though, it's listed as a June the work session now. So we're going to call a special it would be a special board meeting. Just wanted Yeah. Change. No, you're going to be driving all the tourists around. Yes, you're not going anywhere. We're not worried about that. um possible July retreat and we've talked about this typically we've done like a board retreat. Last year we did a board with the admin um and so this year we've been pulling on lots of different ideas. One idea was maybe to have MTSBA come and have that silk come. That's been thrown out um as a possible idea go different. That's what I
156would wonder. put in. Do we have an idea what sort of what we want to get out of this? What we want? Your report. I was just going to mention I think we talked about tonight or one of the things but also certain I heard about Denver. So I began a while ago. And what does she address? She's She's the attorney for MPSA. So, she she addresses she's actually the board's attorney and she addresses governance, all sorts of She does good board training, but it be nice to reestablish our relationship with MCBA. We haven't worked with them in a while and um she specifically talks about it from the perspective of the board, right? Because that's her whole field. Yeah. And so I think it would be nice to hear her interpretation of our role
157respons. What about they don't like their self publish on our board docs? So that's all they because of the copyright copyright stuff. So yeah, it's send out um information about HR development. Yes. Exactly. Like communications and just among other things for from the standpoint of a board they're a policy shop. Yeah. They provide they help us write. They used to we now rely on different we don't use them for policy but it'd be interesting to have her perspective on the politely comes from a from the angle of the board versus like you know for example be is our attorney which is our district attorney right so when she comes at it she has a different lens and like MCSBA has a different lens so that they're always available you know they have different trainings and
158Quincy did a training with them on athletics and they've got a great deal so they're really good about board education that they really come of it as the lens of the flagship workshop. Very interesting. So yeah, MTSB is a great resource. So I think that'd be great. And we haven't seen Deborah for a long time. Very smart. She's very smart and a little intimidating. Little scary. It's just the board that's there. the administrators come too or um we've done it different ways and different times and so we can maybe have um the administrators come for at the be all that are part of it but we can fine tune that as we talk about what we want to do also um oh the date for that oh Uh the uh so we have our meeting
159would be June that's no it be the second the 8th is our business meeting in July. Yeah the 22nd would be the work session potentially. We typically could not I believe it was July. Okay. Trying to remember. So July we could do an evening um board meeting. Closer to August. What was that? Well, I was just thinking two weeks prior to this. Yeah, but that Oh, but then that would mean we'd have three meetings unless we're not going to have like our don't we usually go over data in August and I don't think any board members are really willing to give up that kind of September. I think it's September. I think we moved it to September. Okay. Um, though we could do it in August and then we still have July. I don't know.
160August is still hard because everyone's running 10,000 miles, right? I feel like that's really tricky especially even that they don't want to think they're doing this whole year. If we it feels like the 15th, July 15th or the 22nd or like one of those July. Yeah. And July 22nd would feel like a natural time to me. That's I think that's I just think that's nice. Is that the SAM conference? Oh, it is. Oh, we ran into this. We did. We had this very same conversation. The 29th. We could actually I had a conference on the because July has a extra week in it. Yeah. I think the 26. Well, why don't we hold It is the 28th. Okay. We'll do the 22nd. Okay. Are you in town? I'm in town the 22nd. Well done for
161you. So, everyone needs to be in town before July 22nd. Right. We got to check with Deborah. That's what we have to set a date to ask about the date. So, so let's see if we can get Deborah on the hook and then we can and if we need to, we can always have the meeting with the administrators in September or October right when they're here and we can do what we ask of them to. We can also take information. Yeah, that's great. I just know that I'm a big fan. Um, and then if you wanted more things on my um Dave, I know I think a couple trustes brought this up, but I was just wondering um updated fundraising procedures for um auction items regarding firearms. Has there been any I have not had
162a chance to follow up on that. Okay. Um and then is there um or one of our work sessions we talked about attendance quite a bit and so I was just wondering about an attendance procedure update at work. What is the update on an attendance update? I think that's going to take some work as we talked about looking at other districts group coming together to look at that analyze information. I think we talked about recently that that's going to be a focus for us to attendance agenda um procedures being one. So yes, I can focus on honestly though this year. I'm not sure it definitely talk about it. It's on our agenda for next week to talk further about it for administrative meeting and talk about what that could look like process focus on this
163initiative with a component. So is that something would be in place for next fall though? would have to come to be. I think challenges were going to be by focus attendance in general. Right. And best practice I guess to best practice we talked about schools feedback from them. So that's going to be part of it just wanted to follow a couple of those things that we brought up but just I think they were brought to like two ones also. So I just wanted to make sure everybody was on the same page. We talk about we all don't know the same information. Um and then lastly we have our effective school board um characteristics and I think this is characteristic too I forgot last month I'm sorry. Um effective school boards have strong shared beliefs and
164values about what is possible for students and their ability to learn of a system and of the system and it ability to teach all children at high level. go to our first go each while we go back to. So, anybody else have any trusty announcements? No, I think I just have one other and that we had talked a little bit about when you have like the quick response team. We talked about potentially having a rundown of our the the one event we had this year with like what we did really well, the things that we were going to work on and then kind of what improvements were made potentially to those things that we wanted, you know, changes that we made to improve all those things. Okay. Yeah. So, an update of where we are
165in that process. And I think too just also the things that you know in addition to what we need to work on but the things that we feel like we did well in that response to that event. Yeah. Already there have been so many great and how quickly that make sure that that's in the next I didn't prepare now. I'll prepare for that in the next superintendent report. Just an update on that. had a lot of thorough discussion on it and we met and discussed okay what are the priorities what have we done so far yeah the progress update and I did want to give you a chance at speaking the same about the comment that was stated at the start of the meeting tonight about the tragedy council that I do know we reach
166out to our neighbors and if you want to have an opportunity to comment on that I'll ask you the time please do because I know you can't comment during I will I want to comment on that anyway. Okay. Well, I can I didn't I didn't know it was in there, so I was like I don't know. I was just going to say White Fish Rocks is Thursday. This Thursday at the Moose Lodge, 4:30. Um and um everyone is welcome to come. Well, you're welcome. Rock Martin can come. It's the same night this time of year. What was it? Starts at 4:30. Great. Any other trusty announcements? I guess I was just going to say something. Um, Elizabeth highlighted this a little bit earlier. as you go through our agenda and all these amazing gifts from
167our community and support we have and uh having the opportunity again to travel to different stadiums and just be a lot a lot of different schools. It's been just wonderful and I'm so grateful for this district. But I'm also really grateful that we're going to get a new track in stadium because ours is so thank you. Thank you. And then final I would just like to say thank you again for um support me as board chair. Um, that's great. Two years. That's long, but good. And so I will miss meeting with Dave frequently, but I'm sure we'll still be phone pals. So anyway, thank you all for your public support during that time. Appreciate it. Um, all right, Dave. Okay, thank you. Um, talk about So before I get into some of these agenda items
168report I wanted to comment on. Yes, I've reached out. Um, but I know as time we've also offered staff to help out on the first day. on the first day some staff scheduled to go but then they didn't I am not sure I'd have to look at Mr. Brand back there I think he had some staff that were potentially going down today we've offered our support and there's a thing called valley you are a team member here and that's how that initial contact occurred that actually some thank you for clarifying that and for having that process in place that is like um yeah so the other things that are happening that are coming up I just want to touch on a few things that aren't listed here but just wanted to be aware Of course,
169Jay does an outstanding job. So, boy, maybe next year you'll have more opportunities. Who knows? Such a great job. So, as he went over all the things that are coming up, the events did a great job there. But one of the things that I think is this end of the year gathering that we're excited about doing this year. We do it beginning of the year. Yeah. We bring staff together breakfast and talk about some of the things that we're focusing on at that time of the year and we recognize some of our staff that have been with us in December. So we um I think Lisa was the first to bring this concept and idea to us in terms of let's book in that have an end of the year gathering celebrate our successes what
170went well this year talk about the year but also recognize our retirees so we're going to do that on the last PLC day and I think it gives us an opportunity to recognize them in a similar manner to how we recognize them at the Thank you for being here. Thank you for your service many years in the district. So, um that's a little bit of a departure from our typical process. So, but what's I found recently some of the feedback is that there's just too much going on anyway. So, this we'll see we'll see how this goes this year. it may be well received because there's a lot of there's each building has their retirement gathers too and then we felt like there's rocks and all these kind of things. So this might might work
171out. We'll see. We'll get the feedback after this and see how and then um let's see enrollment. We're seeing some fluctuations there a little bit in enrollment to change a little bit but again we're still seeing that at the next year the high school we're going to have some significant increases so we're watching that even how big that group was Josh you're going to miss that big group of kids so and then you have a list of resignations there and uh in front of you as well as retirements And then there's a link to the enrollment information. Yeah, wanted to look through that enrollment information and I think you can see that most of them in the western US, Western again. So I think what's happening um we're seeing just this transition phase. We'll see.
172I I know that a lot of these homes are being purchased. So those are the families or not as people are coming in and out. I don't know. So we'll see that changes are all and then um just want to make sure they touch on celebration recognition as Well, and then we thank our for years discussions about the direction appreciated their conversations. Thank you. Questions? I have one question. Um, okay. So, we talked about how we're improving our abil right and all the improvements and when we were talking about fixing the track and opening tennis came up and tennis has been so much better because of the deal that he brokered with the city for the first time in I don't know how many years they could practice at the start of the season not
173in the gym but they could go to the courts because the courts were locked and they had like I don't know gotten all the leaves off and all the things so that contract that you worked out with the city really really worked the one thing is is it possible I guess right out potentially maybe I don't understand like the bathrooms don't open until the 15th of April but they start practicing and hosting other schools coming for tournaments before that. Is there a way that we could renegotiate our contract to open the bathrooms a little earlier when we have tournaments? So yeah, I did follow up on that came up um and we did talk to them about it. Um completely due to procedures regarding crazy only on those days because they're like running into the
174bushes like I'm sorry. Yes, because certainly or but to open up the current bathroom, right? That's so like they're either running the sweet peaks which is kind of far or there wasn't at the beginning of the year. Now there is a port down like by Riverside, but at the beginning of the year they were like running the that one day and I texted you and I didn't realize it was the contract. So anyways, yeah, I think we produced a lot of things there, but I think that webinar, but I think it was related to the freezing. Okay, that's good to know. I can relay that back. But it's, you know, the temperatures because it's right. Right. Thank you. But it is so much better. Like everybody was like, for the first year in so long,
175we can have our practice on the courts. Good job. Thank you Dan very much for advocating for that. Okay Lucy from the business department. So what usually happens the first two weeks in May is health insurance open enrollment. Um and this year in addition to health insurance open enrollment we're also um changing our voluntary life insurance uh enrollment that is because uh the current insurance company who covered us um has announced that they no longer wish to do business with us because we are a too small of a group to make you financially interesting. Oh, so not enough. I know. I guess they were talking about the enrollment in numbers of people that is uh so we will be switching to principal life insurance company. So uh those staff members who wish to either uh
176carry over, continue or newly enroll in voluntary life insurance will have the option to do so with uh principal life insurance as far as uh any questions on open enroll. Do if they had a policy to void it does principal automatically accept that or do they have to reapply? they have to reapply and uh they can enroll in different uh uh coverage amounts. Now questions our monthly reports um everything is all the numbers are pretty much where they should be. Uh I'm always excited for the month of May because we will be receiving a large sum of um money in from all of us from the real estate taxes. So um we will have some nice uh revenue coming in uh by the end of the month. Expenditures are as they should be or where
177they should be for this time of the year. And as you've heard from uh our um architect and owners representative uh there have been some expenses uh for for the extension project but uh not very much yet. So there's not much to report that good job. Thank you. Any questions for Lucy? Good job. Thank you. I appreciate it. Uh, up next is the consent agenda. Is there any public comment on the consent agenda? There is not a yes. Well, there's payroll. Oh, I There's only one thing I think we're used to being. I actually actually do have a random question about the payments. Can I ask that now? Sure. I was just curious um like why um maybe this is I don't know if this I'm just curious what's game plus healthcare why do we
178pay oh individual I see okay that's why do we have Thank you that makes sense any questions about That was the one I was like that's um awesome. So no public comment on the consent agenda back to the board. We approve second move by Katie second by all in favor that is everyone consenting um and adjournment final motion by Katie. All in favor everybody. No, it's right.