001Thank you, Marty. You got a second. >> Thank you, Kristen. Any discussion? >> There's one tiny little Sorry. So close. >> It's in the special board meeting minutes. Thank you. >> All right. A motion and second to approve both sets of meeting minutes with the uh spelling change. All in favor? >> I oppose. Motion carries. Moving on to public participation in board meetings. Or was there anyone? >> No one wish to speak. Moving on to item three, correspondence talking points. So in your packet are the monthly talking points from uh Mark Mulahill. This time they outline the required instructional hours for K12 schools in Oregon related to Governor Cotek's executive order requiring that districts not reduce instructional hours from their 2425 levels. This does not impact us. we meet these instructional hours um with some
002to spare. And one of the issues is the fact that 30 hours of professional development time and 30 hours of parent teacher conferences were allowed to be calculated into your instructional hours. So technically we could have only 930 hours in grades 9 through 11 by counting that instead of the 990. The governor's executive order um said that you could not calculate that. However, at the moment that piece is on pause until the um state board meets and puts that into kind of final rules if they do. So, at the moment, you can still have those 60 hours included. We've always just sort of used that as backup. If we had snow days and couldn't get time made up, we knew we had those 60 hours to be sure we were meeting the minimum. We don't
003calculate that into our instructional hours. So, uh we talked about this a little bit last time. It's just making a lot of news and the impetus is really that Oregon has one of the shortest school years in the country. And so there's a push to get that school year maybe increased over time. So this outlines some of those uh points and then mentions the crystal awards which we celebrated right before this meeting and we'll talk about a little bit later on the agenda. Oh, and then we have the mascot card. This is quarter one. Quarter one income is $290. Thank you. Any discussion from the board on either of those items? Seeing none, we'll move on to agenda 4.1 facilities report. Look like Travis is here or Tom. I guess we'll skip 4.1 and 4.2.
004Moving on to 43. Preschool elementary. >> I'm here. Excellent >> preschool. Their last day will be June 3rd and then we'll have our four-year-old celebration that evening and then um that allows Mrs. Monaco to have the third required round of parent teacher conferences that our grant requires. Um so she'll do that Thursday and Friday of that week. They had worm World I think last week over 30 people came for Worm Worm World after school. That was in partnership with our liquor garden people. They'll talk about that a little bit more in a few minutes. And um they're gearing up for like 17 days left. 16 days. Um kindergarten through fourth grade. We're tomorrow we'll be finishing up our uh field trips to the welcome table farm. And that's always a fun place to go. They've
005got animals and vegetables and water and dirt and all the fun things. So, kindergarten and first grade will go to that tomorrow. Uh, Kelly Tibido, our cinjun fiddler, was here last week, and it's amazing what he can do with those kiddos in 3 days. And then Thursday was a day full of recital, and great participation by parents coming to watch those recital. Um, that was a lot of fun. And he just does a really, really nice job of showcasing every child and so positive and their strengths. and even with screeches and you know some kiddos really kind of it's a challenge. Some of us are musically challenged and he just always has positive and great things to say that makes every single kid that walks out of there feel like they are the best fiddler
006player in the school and I just I love that about him. Um and just his laugh that you can hear throughout our building the entire week. He's so positive. In the mornings he's like the pipe piper. He'll go out and play the fiddle and the kids are just all around him dancing and I mean they would follow him anywhere. Um, right now in May, in partnership with the Wild Horse Masonic Lodge, we're doing our Kindles for Books program again. So, students that are reading books, they fill a sheet with book titles and bring it in. And then they'll we'll have first grade, second grade, third grade, and fourth grade will each have a Kindle. Their name will be drawn out at our last assembly to possibly win a Kindle. Um, let's see. We're planning an
007endofear field day and barbecue on the 4th of June, that Thursday. Uh writing, everybody's focusing on narrative writing right now and teachers are deciding that's an area that we haven't spent a lot of time in professional development around. So, that'll be a focus this August when Yolanda Westerberg comes back and spends a day with us. I've pretty much already filled up our our week back to school um with professional development and all the things. And so she will come and work with staff on that. And we have another family event coming up that's a birdhouse event. So Corey will talk about that in a few minutes as well. And we're kids are restless. We're we're trying to hang on these last 18 days. We'll get there. >> Any discussion? >> You know how long Kelly?
008>> 12 years. >> Yeah. Mhm. >> And he said he's moving to Mississippi. He got married, >> but he plans on I know. Darn girls ruin everything. Um he said that he still plans on coming out to the Northwest and he'll just schedule everything. So it's a couple months and he'll come out and those schools that he's been with forever, he'll continue to >> to come and and provide a week for. >> So that's always a favorite. >> All right. Uh 4.301 the farmer school group presentation. >> How about my first ever school board meeting? So it's about time, right? Thank you for having us. I'm Arindra. I'm the director of the sustainable living center and I'm just going to set the stage real quickly for you. We're a wala nonprofit that was founded in
0092001 and um our programming focuses around resource conservation. We have five main programs. Um we have a community energy efficiency program which operates in Oregon as the energy trust of Oregon community partner. Um so we can offer free home energy assessments here in Umatillaa and um so that's part of it. Then we also do the builder's resupply store. If you've ever been out by the airport in Wala, we have this like little dusty place where we take in um donations of used or new reusable building materials and resell to the public. We do outreach and education. So we do workshops during the school year and um uh outreach during the summer months. South Farmers Market, um, Mel Prey Water and probably Calonian Games, and we're doing the Pendleton Street Fair. So, just an idea there
010of what the outreach looks like. And then last but not least, the farm to school program has been a part of our umbrella since 2019 and since 2020, a part of the Athena Elementary. and then as of last year um the West and PreK. So um Betsy is our amazing program manager and she's going to talk a little bit more about the program specifically. >> Yeah. So um Wala Valley Farm School started as its own nonprofit in 2007 and it was a group of parents that wanted more nutrition and garden education at their child's school in Walaw Wala and so it sort of grew from there school by school. Um so currently we have nine education gardens um four in Walaw Wala Athena Weston preschool and then we have um one at the JJC Juna
011Justice Center in Walaw Wala. It's a hydroponics garden and then we also have a pride garden at a local community center in Waw Wala. Um and so and Ferndale I was like I'm forgetting one. So and then Fernandale and Mountain Free Water and we've done some other things over the years in Oregon sort of depending on grant funding and where we have support. Um, but I think Athena has and Weston has always been like since we've started the gardens here, it's like been this amazing partnership and um I think thanks to Carrie and sort of getting everything going. Um, trying to think and Lori had a finger in it from the getgo. >> Yeah, like bring it here. Um, and so bringing on Corey and she can talk about sort of what she's been up
012to. Amazing things. Um, the nuts and bolts. >> Nuts and bolts. >> I do the work. >> So, I have a little slideshow to help us along. So, I think we're, you know, we're at preschool, the elementary school slightly as a high school. They do a little bit of hydroponics and they actually use some of the salad they grow in the salad bar. I'm not there, but that's pretty cool. Um, so this last year we were talking about how people didn't really know what the garden was exactly. What was the purpose of it? Is it to grow food for the kids to consume? Like what's the purpose? So, it's really an education space. It's an outdoor classroom where we get to do all kinds of hands-on learning. We learn about all kinds of science topics
013which I'll talk about a little bit more about what our lessons consist of. Um we do some art. We do some conservation stuff. We learned we did a big focus on nutrition this year. Um they sometimes chop up their own food. Preschool does a lot of that chopping and they do a good job. Um and we just do all kinds of things out in the garden. Just it's really hands-on learning is what it is. So, it's a really fun time and I get 30 minutes with each class. So, K through fourth grade, I get 30 minutes with every class every week. So, okay, perfect. So, these are just some pictures from some of our garden lessons. Um, so here I wrote down some things. So, we have talked about nutrition. We have talked about famous
014people in agriculture and what we can learn from them. A lot of it is about hard work and just sticking with it and being innovative. that kind of thing. So, that's been really fun. Um, we do a lot of science. Why leaves change color? What's the purpose of a flower? Um, why do pine pine cones close when they're submerged in water? Just fun stuff that a lot of times we don't think about. Um, we talk about photosynthesis a lot, even if we don't always mention the word, but we do sometimes. Um, they're learning what it is. Um, we talk about why and how to compost. um as part of our sustainability, just reusing our scraps, putting it back into the garden, using it as food for our plants, that kind of thing. So, they know
015all about composting. When I got there, I took over for Karen. Well, I took over for Lee, but Karen was there before them. >> Yeah. And so, they already knew all about composting, all kinds of things. Man, these kids know a lot of stuff. So, it's been really fun to see what they absorb out there in the garden. Um we talk about native gardening practices like the three sisters model. um insect life cycles and beneficial insects for the garden and tons of other things. But um yeah, it's been really fun. And so some of our activities that we do are like the bug hotel. So we take some like old wood or cardboard, whatever. We made little bug hotel super cute to attract beneficial insects. Uh seed bombs that they could take home with permission
016and throw somewhere to grow wild flowers. Uh we have planted peas. Um, they've planned their own gardens. Um, we ate apples when we talked about Johnny apples eating. Fun stuff like that. Just goes along with our lesson. So, I'm able to fit basically I review what we learned the week before. We sometimes do our song. We have a song that's like talks about the plant parts, what it does. Um, we talk about our new subject or lesson and then we do an activity. We do that in 30 minutes and it works pretty well most days. >> Uh, okay. So, the preschool. So, I just started at the preschool this year. And that's been really fun. Um, we don't do as much teaching in preschool. We are like, "This is a bee and this it grows
017underground." You know, that kind of thing. Um, so it's been really fun. We talk about all different things. We just got through talking about pollinators. What are some different pollinators and what do they do? Um, and we're ready to talk about why we should recycle and reuse things, that kind of stuff. But they do a lot of hands-on activities. They use sensory bins. They do art. They do a lot of snacking on fresh food and so they are trying new things. So they actually have food passports and so it's when they try something new they get a stamp and at the end when their passport's full they get a little prize and they get their picture taken and it's really fun. But yeah, any questions about any of those things so far? So then this
018year we've also helped with the after school garden club. Um so basically just one day a week I try to be over there. Um, I let the kids do chores in the garden, which they love doing. So, they get to turn the compost. We get to water, pull leaves, harvest stuff when there's things to harvest. Um, during the winter, we did activities inside. We took leaves inside and made stuff with them. Just fun stuff like that just to kind of help them out, give them something to do. And just and they get to do more things cuz I don't have 160 kids. So, we get to like, oh, you guys can plant potatoes, you know, cuz you can't plant gravity potatoes with all the kids. You know, certain things I get to do more of
019with them and spend a little bit more time with them. So, that's been a really good thing. Okay. So, family events, that's been a really big focus for us is just kind of involving families um in the garden. And so, we have done at the prek, we've done a salsa night in a worms world. We've done that. Did that last year and this year. So, salsa night was really fun. Families got to go through and pick their ingredients. They only had to chop up a couple things. A lot of it was already cut for them, so it wasn't really stressful. Um, and they got to go home with a big jar of salsa, so they really enjoyed that. Um, we just did Worms World and it's super fun. Pretty lowkey. They're digging through dirt. They're
020finding insects. They're understanding that it's compost that they're looking through. it doesn't smell. You know, I think it was just this experiential learning. Um, and being not afraid of insects, which was kind of fun. Um, we had ants on a log and they took home rubber they could play with. It's good time. And like she said, there was like 33 people there, so it's a great turnout. It was a really good turnout last year, too. These these parents are pretty involved, which is really nice to see. At the elementary school, we've done two family nights per semester. So, we did a three sisters soup and fried bread night where we made soup and fried bread. Just kind of a big undertaking, but it was fun. Um, we did a bath and body, uh, garden