AWSD Board Meeting and Work Session 12 8 25

001Yes. >> Yes. I have a motion. This chair like to to approve the revised agenda as presented and calendar. Thank Scott have a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Carries. Uh board minutes. Uh Mr. Chair, I'd like to move the minutes for the November 10, 2025 board meeting approved as presented. >> Thanks, Scott. I have a motion and a second for advanced question. We approve the November special. Yeah. >> So I got a motion. Do I have a second? >> Next. Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> I any motion carries. Uh any community input all >> anybody then we'll move on to item three correspondence talking points from [clears throat] >> so the December board talking points are in your packet but ESD uh highlighted a little bit of

002the back and forth on the state funding. Um the news was a little worse in November and then it got a little bit better, but there's still a funding gap. So K12 is keeping our eye on that, advocating for full funding and going into uh reserves if needed to be sure that K12 education stays fully funded through the banium. At this time there is no um action we need to take in terms of our budget or adjusting or anything like that. We just keep being apprised of that as we move into the second year of the benium. And then the ESD was highlighting some special education statistics around the recently released uh report cards. One of the statistics that the ESD highlighted was um students in special education graduating with a regular diploma increased in

003uh the area from 66.9% to 72%. Which is exciting because that means those students are uh graduating without any modifications to their um high school coursework. So that's exciting news the region and the state. >> Thank you. Any discussion? >> I don't know. I'm going to four reports facilities reports. [clears throat] Short and sweet. We didn't do haven't had a whole lot of projects with the wrapping up with winter and everything else. We have done some adjustments on with having a fairly new custodial staff. We've gone with a new approach on how to clean the district. We've reached out to consultants to how to approach that. So, we have gone through some training over Thanksgiving and now we are fully intact and working on how to make it better. Um, the other one is the

004a [clears throat] safe representative. going to say this slow so I don't butcher. Michael Kahuani has come in to assist with how to approach safety training and also ways to proactively prevent safety situations. So different ideas on how to train your staff, different ideas on how to get things in in order so that people are approaching things at a safer lost the word at a safer position. So anyway, taking heat on those and putting them into effect. That's all I have. >> Thank you. 4.2 transportation and IPM reports. Um, >> good evening everybody. Uh, as far as IPM, I have passed the last of the state required testing to do applications for current ornamental applications. So starting next the next year so next month I'll have all licenses to start a treating for dandelions and

005such from all of our nemesis. Uh so that aspect is taken care of. Uh in transportation the school bus that we approved at the last board meeting actually is going to be delivered during the Christmas break. >> It is done. Uh I happened into some luck and we were actually uh although we were getting air conditioning in the bus that we originally ordered, I got an upgraded package to a nicer roof mounted unit rather than the unit I was getting at no extra cost. Uh and that's going to be when it comes everything I have. >> Great. Thank you. >> Moving on to 403 preschool at the elementary. >> Good evening preschool. We are still fully enrolled. We've had the same 18 kiddos since the first day. Had uh probably about five or six people

006reach out since September inquiring about how to get into preschool and >> [clears throat] >> um questions about it. They're working on getting ready for the holiday program or the winter program, which we never know whether they'll see or not. Um [laughter] we do pair them with kindergarten so that they aren't up there all alone and they're working. They've been talking a lot about being thankful and um building friends and they're continuing a partnership with um Karen Wagner. She used to be with SNAP Ed and now it's still through OSU. I don't know what her grant funding source is or her title. I don't remember what her title is now. Same idea, but she's coming in every week along with our garden um lead and doing garden or healthy eating and healthy habits and and

007garden lessons with the preschoolers as well. kindergarten through fourth grade, we had our terrific Tiger Scots um assembly and we recognized Tiger Scots for their helpfulness in in November as we're tracking attendance. Uh September and October, I had reported last month all classes had been over 90% average. We had one class drop below 90% in November, but the the rest all still had over 90%. Mrs. Hansel's class one again with a 97% attendance rate. Um, and you'd think I'm giving them the moon with these little tags that they get to hang on their necklaces. Um, garden. They were learning about the three sisters. So, rice, uh, corn, beans, and squash. And we had a family event where they made stew using those ingredients. Um, we had an upcoming family event switching from cooking into using

008items from the garden for bath and body. So they'll make kaland doula sav uh lemon balm bath salts and lavender rice bags for healing. That will be this this week. We had a family science night with Whitman which we have not done for quite a few years. I think since before co and wow this was my first one and it was fantastic. They have a lot of community partners that they bring down with them. They bring a team of students. Um very well organized, very wellran. People had a blast. Um, there was a snake and I touched the snake. I am very anti-nake. Um, but I did touch the snake. Uh, they you could make fossils. They designed and built catapults. They made ice cream using the little coffee creamers. Who would have thought that

009there was so many different flavors? Um, they learned about water and erosion and planets and they used u microscopes. So, it was it was a great event. It was well attended, but not so crowded that people had to wait a really long time. And so, we look forward to doing that again next year. Um, and I think we'll probably have a lot more people show up. We had a lot of kids talking about it the days following our Friday after school care when we have after Friday early release. We're still having about 30 students stay every Friday. So, I've got staff that do crafts, they play games, they help with homework. And so, that's um we thought that number might drop off, but it has stayed steady last couple years. So, we're glad we have

010that for them. Um the Friday before break, we are having a staff lunchon and I just want to give kudos to the church community that's coming in and providing the paid after school care. they're going to come in and provide care for us from that one to three times so our all staff can can come and have some time together. Uh let's see during collaboration last Friday staff were we've made data sheets for each classroom so that all the multiple points of data that we collect are on one sheet. Uh teachers were to during collaboration be looking at that working with Mrs. Gregs and looking at adjusting learning groups as needed, making sure that every student was receiving some sort of an intervention if they weren't meeting grade level standards. Second grade, they're working on

011time and they've got those Judy clocks out, the little I'm sure you all remember the yellow clocks with the red hands. Um they're so they are learning analog time, which is fantastic. And as we know, most kids can't tell time unless it's off a cell phone. um in kindergarten they are working on writing their first fact book and it's pretty impressive to see what these five and six year olds are are producing. Lots going on and they've got candy canes in their eye sugar plums dancing in their heads. [laughter] >> It's great. Any discussion? >> Appreciate the update. >> I will say we really appreciated science science so thank you for making that happen. >> It was pretty awesome. >> Yeah, it was great. >> Yeah. The biggest challenge was finding enough tables in the

012district to have for them. They wanted 26. So, well, I'll get close, but we may not make 26. >> Yeah, it it was impressive how much uh how many people they brought in and how much they were able to demonstrate different aspects of science >> and only two of the students are paid out of some grant funds. >> Wow. >> Organizers, everybody else that's volunteer. >> So, it's very cool. >> Definitely. Uh, moving on to 404, Western Middle School. >> We've had a busy month as well, and today was sort of our first day of um realizing we're headed toward the Christmas holidays where things a little today. Uh, first of all, our pre Thanksgiving Tiger Scott talent talent show was a huge hit and so we will continue to do that. We had 10

013student acts, wide variety of of things. We had everything from lip syncing to jokeelling to to dancing to actual singing, band instrument playing. It it was really well done. We had student MC's in blowup turkey costumes. [laughter] Uh but mostly I was proud of the middle school audience. They were very supportive, very positive, cheered for everyone, clapped along, and so it was a a really positive event for the kids. And then with the um adults attending paying admission and students paying a dollar to vote for the winner, the middle school leadership class raised more than $500 for local veterans, and they were able to pass uh those proceeds along. So really good event and again just supports that idea of citizenship I think in our strategic plan. Middle schoolers attended our annual Native American dance

014demonstration at the high school. Also before Thanksgiving in honor of Native American Heritage Month when they asked staff to come out and dance. I had to conveniently go to my cart [laughter] and the kids. Where were you? There are things you all cannot unsee. saving you from that. But the kids had a great time. It's always a positive experience and the kids are always very enthusiastic about the event. We started our small group mentoring program that is a grades 7 through 12, but we have two girls groups and one boy group meeting here at the middle school on Fridays during that early release time in groups of three or four students with two to three community adults. and they are just talking about uh helping kids identify their positive qualities, their purpose in the world,

015what they bring to the world, why they're important, and those kids are nominated by teachers. And then we get parent permission, and the students of course have to be willing to do the mentoring. They're a lot more willing when [clears throat] I provide snacks. So, that is helpful. We have a um holiday dress up week next week and then right before the break we'll have a holiday pup assembly to honor boys basketball and then do some fun holiday themed competitions and then our parent group is sponsoring a holiday gift shop for the kids again. They can sign up to shop for one member of their family, pick out a gift and wrap it and bring that value. Boys basketball is just about done with their season. They'll wrap up before the holiday break and then

016when we return, girls basketball will start and middle school wrestling start. With academics, our math students in grades 5 through eight have completed their first math problem solving performance task. And so last Friday during collaboration time, our math team met to analyze those scores. They determined that our students were weak in the areas of communication and accuracy. And they have come up with some additional performance tasks, a checklist for students to use to support them in making sure they have all of the components before they turn it in, and then some incentives to try to support the kids in growing in those areas. And then our ELA team 5 through8 started planning our one school one book event that will start at the end of January this year. We're going to read Rising Water which

017is non-fiction this time and it's about the rescue of the um Thai soccer team in the cave. So, um the ELA team was planning the performance task related to that and the different um literary um components that we're going to be focused on throughout that. But we are still busy and headed right into the holiday season. >> Thank you. Any discussion? All right. Good evening. We had our first of our credit recoveries over the break where we hosted academic support Monday and Tuesday. Had a few students show up again, I think. Um maybe to the detriment of the quarter system, they feel like it's new enough in the semester and everything's hunky dory. So, we'll see how it goes for winter break. >> [laughter] >> But um the positive is that it does allow us

018an opportunity to uh get our classified staff some hours over the break as well. Uh we'll we will be offering the same on the Mondays and Tuesdays of winter break where again we provide transportation, snacks, and lunch during that study time. We had an academic outing to the Gem Theater for the 82 students that finished the quarter with a 3.5 GPA and above. And um again, lovely space. They chose Open Season. I think it was some sort of closest to Thanksgiving movie they could come up with that wasn't 20-minute Charlie Brown. So, they got more time out of school. Um past that, our winter band concert is scheduled for next Wednesday, December 17th at 6:30, and that will be in the high school gym. ASB is also scheduling a winter activity for students with season

019above on Friday, December 19th. And then we'll have open study time and uh the availability of teachers for students that again maybe don't want to go to credit recovery but want to get those grades up before the break. Our National Honor Society hosted their annual blood drive this past week with about 50 donors throughout the day. They will be doing their annual staff and student pixie week next week as well. Our extracurricular seasons are underway with uh that's wrong. 27 boys basketball players, 18 out for girls basketball, 12 wrestlers, seven female and five male, and then 11 cheerleaders, which I had to get some special permission because technically our bylaws say that you can only take like seven cheerleaders and one math spot. And I said, we all know we have two spots. So, we

020got got that covered. Taking ad a little too seriously over here. >> [laughter] >> Um, but past that, a preview. I read the bylaws. >> It reads the fine print. >> Um, but a preview looking after the break. We have our Hall of Fame game scheduled for January 23rd. Those inductees were uh notified today and we'll get invitations out to you all shortly. And then the Pipes and Drums halftime show will be January 13th. Great. >> Thank you. Any discussion? a lot of kids involved. >> And again, I would say the basketball teams are holding pretty steady to what they were before. So, it doesn't look like, you know, other new programs poaching from those. Those were pretty steady numbers. >> Yeah, >> that was what we expected that wrestling was probably not going to

021evolve from basketball and vice versa. So that was a reason to add this. >> Moving on the superintendent report 61 enrollment. >> So our current enrollment numbers are in your packet. Uh we as of our December poll. We're up a little bit to 484 students. So we're holding right around that 480 number that we've been at since uh the 10day drop went through uh in late September. And that is good news. That is above what we anticipate. >> 46.2 uh 202527 investment account grant agreement. >> So the state's handling this a little bit differently this year. We've needed to have our integrated guidance plan approved by the board previously, which we also had to do. But this time they want the board to specifically approve the grant agreement and we need to post the actual

022grant agreement to the district's website. So the SIA grant agreement is in your packet. Again, this is part of the integrated guidance. This is the biggest um chunk of funding that we get from the integrated guidance. This is the student investment account. As a reminder, this funds a lot of our student support services like our freshman success instructor, our counselors, our um contract with community counseling solutions, our behavior support person at the high school and what it supports can move around a little bit from year to year. This year it's also supporting adding back that kindergarten teacher uh where we decided we needed to maintain small kindergarten sizes and so one of the allowable uses for SIA is to support class size. So we actually shifted that in to that account this year. So you

023can see in the grant agreement on the second page the dollar amounts. It's a little bit confusing how they pay that out. It just is. But we will get um in the ballpark of $600,000 each year to support the district. So the entire agreement is in there. We do need to leave a moment here. Public. >> Any discussion from the board? Any public comments on student investment account grant agreement? Seeing none, we'll move on. Uh December 4th community feedback operation. >> There's a blue sheet at your spot with some of the highlights from the um notes that we took at our thought exchange event last Thursday. It was a a small group, but I felt good discussions in spite of that. We were competing unfortunately with a basketball game, but the key points from the

024notetaking are reflected here for you. And so we talked about the lifelong learning cornerstone and the strategic plan. A lot of positives around the variety and types of courses that we are able to offer in the district and the importance of CP pathways. There's some suggestions primarily around continuing to expand those pathways and um maybe getting a little ahead of or I guess you could never get ahead of AI but um making sure we are keeping pace with the advent of AI and teaching kids how to use that appropriately. It's certainly not going to go anywhere. Our second topic was around testing. We I did a presentation on that primarily because testing came up in the bond campaign, went over the types of testing data that we use and that exist and some of the

025pros and cons of each. And so there's some comments and observations around testing there and then some suggestions. uh one maybe advocating with the state why that opt out piece is detrimental to districts when it skews data and yet we're measured on that data for statewide testing. Another key suggestion would be to remind the district to highlight some of those other metrics like our high graduation rate to help offset any negative comments when people go and look up test scores that that may not reflect as well in the district. And then our final discussion was around school facilities. There's some comments uh there around the um failed bond campaign, but I know we have a work session after this meeting where we can discuss some of that feedback a little bit further >> any discussion.

026I just want to again I want to be very again uh like how well organized these are. Uh I very much like the prompts and the questions kind of general format to it. So and and as noted uh I wish the attendance would have been a bit better but I do think that those that did come were engaged. Appreciative community members willing to take time to come chat with the board about else 4604 January February meeting calendar. So along those same lines, we have a morning coffee hour at the elementary this time on January 21st at 7:45. And the topics at that coffee hour will be uh centered on programming at the elementary school. And then we have our second evening thought exchange on Tuesday, February 17th. That'll be at Weston at 6:30. At the

027moment, there does not seem to be a basketball room. Athletic director, what can you do for us there? My question uh would be we will stick with the lifelong learning that's been our practice to kind of stick with one cornerstone. Um I can look kind of at the RSVPs if we seem to be getting a little different group than we had this time. I could repeat the testing information. I think it's good information. If it seems to be the same group of people, I can switch gears back to some of our earlier suggestions. I think one of them was about how board policy is developed. And since we have a little catching up to you on board policy, it'll be fresh on all our minds on board policy and then probably should keep school facilities

028in there um regardless of what the board decides of their work session tonight. I think it's in my opinion something we're going to have to keep talking about regardless. So I didn't know if the board had any feedback on the topics. I really like the idea of doing testing again especially if it seems like am going into testing season any anything in lifelong learning you want me to shift to besides CTE pathways CT focus I think what the teachers do, the staff does to support lifelong learning and how you know the um book club and the different CE opportunities and that sort of thing. I think it's um would be good to hear that although obviously some is required but you guys are modeling that I think also also it's worth noting that lifelong learning

029starts at early end starts as early as our preschoolers and instilling a love of learning in them and that art staff does an incredible job, you know, making it fun and engaging and like if you catch them there, they're going to want to continue. So, I think I heard a whole I mean just maybe it was just our table, but we focused a lot on like their high school. Um, and I think also just focusing on what what we're doing and all the other levels because it's there's a lot of time. >> And I also emphasize that it's not just our teachers that are teaching kids online. It's every member of our staff. >> We all learn every day. want to learn new >> work ethic and you know you can't be you have all

030the knowledge and you're not employable if you don't know how to follow the rules. So it's duty teachers and it's coaches and it's PE class and it's yeah it's a mind frame of learning and being open and receiving feedback and being yes I I would argue it's everywhere across the board. Discipline is also leads right into lifelong learning. And you said that February 17th is that big. Thanks. Any other discussion on that? >> Continue to wish that we could get more to attend. at you know Facebook seems to be the place where people want to give feedback but it's the it's the learning that happens um about these different topics that I think helps people make informed decisions and I don't know how if there's a way for us to better encourage I mean maybe

031following the same thought process knowing and I'll just be honest Uh testing was a great conversation I thought the other day and so maybe getting some particulars around some of the topics we're going to discuss like testing given >> so you can come talk to us about >> we have another thought change this time you know we've discussed this but we're really going to stay parked on testing right so if you're curious about it or just interested in you know maybe there's a way to kind of proactively discuss the specific items we're going to discuss to see if that kind of elicits a better turnout because I concur with you in terms I think the posting we made didn't be exact. Yeah. And I think when at least I'm the newer one here, so you

032can correct me, but I do remember that went out early on when I first was involved, not even as a board member, just as a community member when they started happening. And I think the first like first thing that went out didn't have details and people were what is so what is this and there was lots of murmuring about like what is it what is the meeting about what do they mean we all have to come everyone has to come because it was postco and a lot of years and a lot of like things going on about curriculum and whatever and um so people came I figured with like that I've got it there's something that's going to get slipped past me kind of thinking and then I Remember the second time it was blinded

033out and then it just kind of pacified all of that and but still there was really good attendance. So maybe on that we need to put it out. know what you [laughter] >> kind of [laughter] like >> new gym talking [clears throat] >> consideration of destruction of current gym [laughter] >> some shot making everybody angry uh be >> I know Ann you mentioned potentially sending out a newsletter or some sort of fiscal mailing to try >> yes >> winter break project that uh one of the things that occurred to me through the bond process was that we need to get different numbers out to the community information statistics and some Pendleton does like a bianual newsletter I I know Lori Charisma I had done a few of those in the district and I have a

034a copy of one and it's always been on my mind to do one but every time I would kind of come back to it I wasn't sure what I wanted to say and I don't like to write articles just to write them but the bond process made me think I know what I should do not so much write articles but highlight what our kids are doing and send out those important statistics like our graduation or that our you know internal testing gives us this information. And so what I was thinking was I could send one out twice a year about six weeks, four to six weeks before each thought exchange with information about the thought exchange and just did you know did you know this about school district and come up with some interesting facts

035even like did you know that middle schoolers raised $500 for all the veterans and >> and have a picture and the ESD can print those up just like they get the bond information then and it goes to every address in the district. So now that I'm clear on what the purpose of that would be, I will do that before this February thought exchange has something that goes out to every household in the district and hopefully we might get some people to attend who are not parents in the district which I think would be really helpful but maybe just want some information and so we'll try that approach. We could try, you know, having like flyers at sporting events. I don't I don't know if you think that's better than a Facebook post and robocall. what

036reaches people think the flexible invitation honestly I think some of the people were not tapping it's because they're a little old school really you know and they want the personal invite and that to feel valued like we want to hear your voice um and there was a time keep there were key communicators correct that were >> yes we have that list and that's where I was just my head just went >> I mean because they each as people of different demographs. And one thing we could do too, um, I do send a letter to each one of our communicators. And again, I do think we were hoovered by basketball because some people that I know normally did come up, but we could look in January at that board meeting if you'd like have an agenda

037item to look at our key communicator list and maybe revise it, maybe make some new suggestions based on uh the information we have today, particularly around the bond. So, we could add that in January. back and provide you a list and we could maybe suggest some other names and who's going to reach out to them and invite them to be a key communicator and then it's just a matter of me having them on a list and then I do personally invite them to the thought exchanges with a lot. So just having one other thought, sorry I'm trying to keep you policy, but it seems to me or it's just my perception anyways that we're getting a lot of like middle school, high school engaged people, whether it's like community members who have some sort of

038tie in there, but I'm not seeing a whole lot like on the elementary side, which makes sense cuz like you know families right as they go through the district, but I'm curious if they're maybe more in that younger because if we get them and and we're going to have they're out. You know, >> maybe we should send home a a flyer with elementary kids. Those get home. >> Yeah. Nothing here. >> Stand outside. >> Nothing here. Go somewhere. >> We can stand outside and get parents. Is there somebody going? We can >> Yeah, do that >> with K or maybe even prek through four. And then since we are seeing parents of older kids, I can assume then they're maybe in general a little more interested in the topics. And then again making sure our

039topics are interesting to elementary too. So when we talk about lifelong learning like you were saying focusing maybe more on the earlier grades might attract some of those people. So okay the marching order. >> All right moving on. Uh 4965 social studies adoption. We are in an adoption year for social studies this year. Um, right now we're currently in the process of identifying our team members. We will meet for the first time next week where we will look at the state adoption list. And right now at grades K2, there's five approved vendors. Three of them exceed the standards that the state sets. Um, so what we'll do, we'll kind of outline our plan for the remainder of the year for the adoption process. I did send out invites for the board members who are on

040the adoption or on the curriculum committee. You can join us. That's great. If not, I'll just keep sending information out. Um so then our next steps will be in the next month or so these team members will be able to go in and look at these um different programs and talk to their teaching partners and gather some information on priorities for what we want to see out of the social studies curriculum at each level in each band. And then we will narrow it down to a few, get samples, try those out um February, March, April, and then bring to the and then have a public viewing session and then uh bring to the board for approval discussion. Appreciate the invite. So was able to attend or not, but appreciate. All right. 466 202 26 27

041district calendar. >> So our call to be made one minor and one major change to school calendar since you saw it on Friday. The minor change is the October statewide inservice day is October 9th um not the 16th. And so we moved that in this version. But then graduation um the last few years the way Memorial Day has spawned on the calendar we were able to move graduation away from Memorial Day weekend and in doing the the draft of the calendar. The Memorial Day is very late this year and so we'll put graduation if we kind of do it the way we've always done it that weekend of Memorial Day again. And when we sent the draft to our unions for some feedback, the high school staff immediately noticed that and had some strong opinions

042about that, which I agree with that they are disproportionately affected in their ability to have any plans for Memorial Day weekend because they are expected to be at graduation, which is a reasonable expectation. And of course, you want your high school staff at your high school graduation. And so in reflecting on that feedback, uh, Morgan and I talked today and we would like the board's input, but we would like to recommend that we always keep graduation away from Memorial Day weekend in order to allow our high school staff to be gone on Memorial Day weekend and also support their own students at what is one of the most important events um, in their lives and their famil family's lives. So, in talking with Morgan, we don't see any big downside to having graduation be on

043the 5th, which this year would be after the last day of school for all students. Now, there will be years where it's back to being the Friday before that, and that's fine. um seniors last day then would be the 27th and all of the senior events would happen that week before graduation. So they would still come back to do the practice and the breakfast and the banquet and all of those things. So they [clears throat] are still not in school the last week. It's just their graduation happens at the at the end of that week instead of the weekend before. and that supports our high school teachers in having uh the long weekend that everybody else in the district gets. So, and I'm sorry for this calendar week or sorry, um track would still be

044the weekend before. So, the only potential event on that would be baseball finals. um which again I think for next year we have a larger growth trajectory to go before we would be in that. >> So it does help with the with the track you say. So date track is the peak of 28 and but then you're saying like for breakfast and all those practices that sort of thing would be the first >> I think at the very least I would keep practice there. I think we practice two weeks ahead of time. They're not going to remember what they're doing. And then, you know, I will work with the church and parent groups to see what feels like a a fit where, but I have no problem since most of those events are ones that

045I help with and not student or uh staff. I would have no problem moving into that week um and letting staff still have freshman or juniors. Kristen, you have a senior next year. I didn't know if you Oh, both of you did. >> Yeah, I think that's a great idea. >> I wonder how potentially having seniors doing their things that last week of school when it's typically a no senior's environment. How that changes the environment there or, >> you know, freshman soccer, whatever. But >> well, again, >> I think that your good office has to figure out. We were saying that they wouldn't necessarily be reporting to classes, right? It would be a little bit more, you know, similar that they already do when they come in for practice. They meet in the commons, we

046bring them on down. Um, you know, again, we were talking through things like when they do the um run through at the elementary. And so, if it still makes sense to have them do their caps and gowns and their picture as well as that run through the week before, great. I mean really I think they're only coming back on campus then for practice um because the parade would be afterwards, the um banquet would be after school. So the pioneer days is that first Saturday, correct? Here in Weston, but the events are pretty much over, aren't they? >> Friday evening and Saturday. So if graduation is Saturday evening, we're not cutting into the pioneer day stuff. >> Not in my experience, even mid afternoon. >> In the past, it has meant when pioneer days in graduation

047was on the same day, they haven't done the parade. The band hasn't gone to the Pioneers Day parade and it's been a problem. The thing to think about this last year, the middle school play, >> it was the we hadn't been in the pioneer parade in a while. Well, that's not even [laughter] >> because it's Weston, Mr. Gal actually had the middle schoolers in the parade marching >> and they were great. >> So, I think I think you know the high school would be involved in graduation that night that those fans can be involved in the event Saturday morning. Um does it conflict or cause any um issue with eighth grade recognition? >> Um [sighs] we would be you'd be setting up the gym anyway for graduation, right? >> Yeah. And I think last year

048we also had to look at the flip between but like luckily the banquet is we use tables that we use for lunch so that cleans out pretty quick. Um so I and we didn't set up all the chairs for the practice so I think it'd be okay. You might just have the stage in the corner, but it could be worst case scenario, we can always move it back here, too. We just liked it over there. Um, because they're moving to high school, but if we feel it'll be an issue, we can always move it back. >> I always like to hear that, but I had great recognition here, so there's feelings there. But it is kind of a nice visibility. So, if that hadn't happened, I don't think that would be horrible either. >> I

049like allowing staff to have a good long >> weekend before they have a very busy week. >> I'm also supportive keeping the graduation often where I live. >> You might actually get me to graduation. >> You have to now you're going to be the chair. Oh, maybe you won't be that year. Sure. You will. [laughter] Well, and again then what will probably fluctuate is whether it's the Friday before the last week of school or the Friday or I'm sorry, the Saturday before the last week of school or the Saturday following the last week of school. We will keep it on. >> All right. 607 2024 25 district school. So, copies of the 2425 district and school report cards are in your packet and on our website you can access the color version if you'd like

050to. Just some things to highlight on the district report card. Um, you can see that our attendance, our overall district attendance is a again we worked very hard on that at the moment. This year it looks really really strong. So we are making a lot of progress there. Want to point out uh eighth grade math was up pretty significantly last year and well above the state average and that is going to become one of the metrics tied to the funding of the integrated guidance. And so we're going to want to maintain that objective there. Um, our on-time graduation is a reminder that's actually the 2324 graduation rate the way they run that on the report card, but we are consistently in the 90% there. And then on track to graduate, also consistently in the 90%.

051Kind of talked about the importance of those metrics at our thought exchange. um on the district profile data. One thing I wanted to point out are students with uh disabilities on time graduation greater than 95%. I just wanted to point that out. We have a very strong track record there in supporting students online. Then looking at the elementary uh you can see that that attendance is nearly 80%. And I also want to point out when they say the Oregon average that's the Oregon average K12. So they didn't break it down by age that we did. I'm just pointing that out. Um, our third grade reading is uh strong and above the state average. It does fluctuate from year to year. And again, that's a sample size issue in a district this size just um depending

052on the size of the group and who's in it. That's going to go up in one, but we tend to be above the state of the year. Flipping over to middle school, our regular attenders also very strong um there. And then science scores um we did not meet the state average there and that's something we're kind of focused on. Our science teachers have reorganized the order in which they're doing science a little bit to account for that. I will just say though, our emphasis has not been on that science test. And students only take the science test in fifth, 8th, and 10th or 11th grade. They don't have as much practice with it either, which I think is why it's lower than on math and reading scores, but we're kind of watching that. And then

053looking at the high school, uh this is where we've struggled the most with attendance, but it is up from the year before and we are continuing to uh have a lot of attendance meetings and supports at the high school. That's why I wanted to point out this Oregon average. That's not their high school average. So I would be curious what that is across the state because everyone is struggling with high school attendance postco, but we are making gains there. And then again uh graduation rate on track rate and 5-year completion rate is >> and our postsecary is finally getting >> closer to an average uh 33% jump is just >> yes we're still working on how that gets coded right and there's some issue with how that data is pulled through the state and they

054really won't let us fix it. So we did get our class in wild for all right any discussion. >> All right. Moving on to business items 5.1 personnel. >> So you have an updated personnel list in uh at your spot. So we have um extra duty hires Stephanie Hodson and Chantel Fuller for middle school girls basketball and then information only volunteer coaches for wrestling Casey Jones and Colton Aches. Uh boys basketball volunteer Nick Stanford and girls basketball volunteer Louie Quimps. Mr. Chair to approve the personnel report, the revised report. >> And that was second. Thank you, Morgan. Stout. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor of approval? I >> any opposed? Motion carries. Moving on to item six, action items, approving the 2527 student investment fund. Chair, I move to approve the 2025 2027 student

055investment account grant agreement. >> Miss Scott, a motion to have a second. >> Second. >> Yeah, sir. >> Thank you. Uh, any discussion? All in favor of approval say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? He carries 6.2 the 2026 2027 district calendar to approve the calendar as presented provides. >> Thank you Marty. Do I have a second? I'll second. >> Thanks Paul. >> Any discussion about the 2627 Mr. I >> appreciate you being responsive to the concerns of the staff. I think that's Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. >> Great. Any others? >> Uh all in favor of approving the district calendar as present. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Looks like the next five items are first readings on policies. A reminder need a motion or approval here. We're just further. >> You let me just go

056through the whole >> please. >> Well, first [laughter] we are getting a little bit caught up here. Um, you may remember that we approved several policies and then uh there was a a national election and a a change of government in Washington and then a lot of based on some of um President Trump's policies and initiatives. A bunch of policies had to be rescended and even reverted back to previous versions. And so we kind of hit pause on some of that November of 24 policy update to let the dust settle. So we weren't in a constant state of approving and rescending. So, now that the dust seems to have settled, I've gone back to that policy update. And some of these things were affected by some of those Title N changes, and some of them

057just were on the highly recommended list that we need to kind of uh consider and catch up on. So, this one I had frankly been avoiding. Um, policy DJC bidding requirements. Uh, this is not my territory at all. And so reading a six page administrative rule was not really up my alley. But basically uh there were some new uh procurement levels passed in House Bill uh 1047 that went into effect January 1 of 2024. And so then policy followed November of 2024 and and we're kind of coming back around to that. So OSBA recommends the policy version that's in your packet and a much shorter accompanying AR that Scott, tell me if I'm wrong, but it really references the law so that everything in the law isn't listed out of the 26 pages. Did I

058get the gist of that without reading it off? know and if I may uh I didn't have any as I emailed it back to you I didn't have any concern or anticipation it seemed like a streamlined policy kind of just rolled it into a more of a cohesive document as opposed to split out of specific sort of procurement provisions to push services contract sometimes it seemed to kind of consolidated easier to digest >> so if we need to know what what the procurement law is we have a place to go I don't know do we refer to the board policy even go through all the ARS every time with your service. >> I I'll just say is something that is myself. Uh I typically reference it public agency. So and I'll just say if I'm

059working on projects with a public entity, I typically will refer to what their policies say via a city or another public entity. So I'll typically go through that just so that I'm familiar by making recommendations on goods services that I had. So I think it's good for the district to have that updated. >> I'm just worried if we're eliminating a whole bunch of pages. I want us to make center. >> Okay. So, the proposal um I kind of made some notes as I went through it, but it really just aligns it with the new law and then it's streamlines. I won't include the AR when we come back for a second meeting. I just wanted you to see how much we were eliminating because it's a lot. So then the proposed AR is on six

060pages and encompasses some things that were in this policy DGC DJCA. So OSBA recommends the proposed policy and the proposed AR and then recommends deleting DJCA and its accompanying AR. So that's what I'm proposing to the board is that we look at the new policy, the new Agility. So the only thing will be bring back in January is the proposed DOC. Okay, moving on. Um the next one is JF pregnant and parenting students. This is one that was approved and rescended. Uh OSBA recommended that we go back to the 2021 version and then when I looked we didn't have a version since 2015. So I'm going to recommend that we go with the 2021 version and update the 2015 version which really is just a little bit of language changing which I sort of highlighted

061for you on the copy here. And then I won't bring the AR back to you. I just wanted you to see that we do have a a form for pregnant or parenting teens to apply for support services and we will just keep that in our box. >> Yeah, that was changing from action natural AR to guide guidance instead. Yes, there they changed that word and >> yeah, but this will just be something that we can use to help us to guide us in providing services. >> Well, this is something that we get additional funding on. So, when we go through the audit process, we need to have this documentation. >> Yes. So, this is important and it's it's good to have because we were just kind of documenting. The third one, EBBA, student health services.

062This one was highly recommended. It just updates policy to include that we are required to have a written preventionoriented health services plan for all students. We have that in place. It's already on the website. Uh but because that is required, I think we should probably have policy that says that it's required and um this policy update does that. And then we would delete JHC which EBBA would then [clears throat] the next one EBC emergency procedure drills and instruction. There was a bill that required us to adopt policy that uh says we have to communicate with parents if we do a safety action. We already adopted a policy with that wording. This proposal just aligns our emergency procedures with that law. So that this policy would reflect that you have to communicate when you have a

063a safety action. Um that's really the big change there that just aligns. I did leave out, you can select things. I did chose to leave out tsunami practice because >> that seems silly. >> Trouble I don't ever doing that. Um [laughter] and because that was optional in our area that's serveing some problems. So um there was some language other instruction around disaster flooding throughout excessive snow fall or wildfires. I just I don't know that those are drills we do in school and providing additional instruction. I just feel like we need to have that in policy. So those were my recommendations there. And then the last one, GBE, communicable communicable diseases in schools. There's some redundant policy. There's a policy that's just for staff and then another policy that's just for students. And this binds all

064that together and says uh it removes the word staff and places it within schools. So now this one policy encompasses staff and students. And then it also deleted some unnecessary language and policies around um HIV AIDS and HV that are encompassed in the policy. So this sort of streamlines some of our policy disases. You can see the stroke out and where I've made some And then again, just the AR for your information. I don't recommend that, but we'll update it to reflect this updated language. I did select to keep under the AR. District staff with impaired immune responses that are of childbearing age or some other medically fragile condition should consult with a medical provider for additional guidance. Just seems safe to have. also took out some language around um thank you Ann as always

065I appreciate the breakdown presenting to this it's super helpful any discussion from the board related to these five policies most of it says something. >> All right, no other comments. Let's move on to item seven review. >> Mr. Chair present me. >> Sorry, Kristen. Is it looking up? Any discussion on distributions? I have a motion and second to approve. All in favor? >> Motion carries. Um, I would just like to draw your attention to the cafeteria report. We actually made positive ground. So Karen is really looking at the menu for January so we can try to we got a lot of commodities in. So we're really going to try to use those and she's setting a calendar around that. So we're really focusing on trying to get this margin closer and closer and closer. So,

066see what happens. Making progress. [laughter] She was very excited when she got that in the mail. >> Great. Thank you. Uh, board of education Scott. >> Uh, I guess I can say again, I appreciated the help [clears throat] the turnout even though it was small, I was highly engaged at our exchange lesson. And again just appreciative policy. >> Thanks. >> I just always appreciate the amount of thought that goes into engaging our community. We talked about the thought exchanges like all community members and all the people that you know are decision makers in this district and you know I'm disappointed about the bond and how that went. Um I think some good conversation have started and I see what comes with that. It's call. Uh yeah, I guess I'm excited to start this more session

067time. So we'll move on to that galiz. >> [laughter] >> I'm gonna hand out some papers to you. >> We invited Diane to join us tonight. She was one of the I should say the leader of the pack. Uh [laughter] she and Dana Perkins were the chairpeople of the pack and Cheyenne was kind enough to join us this evening just to talk a little bit more about campaign and the future. No. they got meaty. >> I know that one last night, too. You're gone again. >> Exactly. [clears throat] [laughter] There was a baby in the toilet, too. >> Yeah. did great. >> All right, I already have the 8. >> Oh, sorry, Paul. >> I'll try to be patient. I'm just getting [laughter] a bit [clears throat] >> um Cheyenne, this is a session, which

068means there's no real action item here. the but the board's going to reflect on the bond campaign and then they may make a recommendation to me but the community bond advisory committee is a superintendent committee so it's not an action item by the board because it's a work session feel free to chime in anytime you we invite you here to to hear your thoughts so just just jump [clears throat] on in anytime >> yes we're here tonight for a work session related to long campaign and we'll start out with and just campaign feedback. >> So, uh, Cheyenne certainly can comment on her feedback and things she's heard, but also this will be a chance for the board to talk about any feedback that that they have gotten. Uh, I've gotten a little bit of feedback.

069Also, I met with Klaus Hona last Friday and I have a feedback from him as well. So, this is just a chance for the board to kind of talk about what you've heard and what you think in that. I I guess I should have some of the vote um at the school district boundary vote. Yeah. So looking at the actual vote totals, I think,85 cast is one of the highest turnouts we've had 20 plus years. Put it in perspective. None of us got more than 490 votes in last election. It's more that the city still got >> Yeah. Yeah. So, it's uh I mean this is the first time I've seen this, but it looks like we did obviously worse than we did for sort of broken down. >> Yeah, I was surprised by the

070discrepancy. Not that surprised. Western has a whole lot more poverty and dysfunction than it has. I think asked a lot more disengaged with the community. think like we were at the same table for the thought exchange, but that was kind of what I was frustrated by is there is specifically in the town of Weston this I said silent majority but that's just my only it's like this group of people that they're going to stick together with the same mindset and they don't care and they're not going to be swayed unless you're part of that group and um it's really hard because a lot of them don't have kids in the school district any longer and don't feel I think maybe like everyone's valued or they or even if they're asked to participate there's a lot

071there's just a lot of negativity behind I didn't perception so I think that that is seen if you go to a west council meeting council meeting um there's just this hard resistance to a thought that comes from outside. You don't mind me asking um kind of following that same thought process. Do you use if the bond package itself had any influence on that like converting the elephant through? Do you think it's just they were going to look no regard? >> I don't know if like maybe someone from within that little group was asked to be part of you know whatever beyond the committee or something if that would be what the tipping point is, but it's very much this, and again, this is all just my opinion, but Tim, you've sat at Western City Council

072meetings before, have you not? >> Yes. And there's just I can't I don't have any other words for it than that. But if you're not part of that group, and if they don't have they're not bought in, they're not budgeted, no matter who it benefits or how it it's just a real hard line. And that's really hard to reason with because I think you sit at a million take me far before you walk in the room >> and maybe even before you see the the tax implications and that sort of thing like >> yes it's because I had actually two people say something to me about you know what it's going to do for their taxes and then when they mentioned the amount I was thinking that is so little and that's what you're upset

073about but and I don't know their personal finances but it's not it didn't seem to me like finances was like they are not hurting from any and when they but it's just that thinking you know that it was like that much more and for something I don't even benefit from and you know I don't even have kids here anymore and there was just no kind to it on top of like a So do a lot of people just >> my opinion depends on how it topics are that week. >> Yeah, >> that usually determines whether I go and watch it. >> Yeah. Well, even for example, when you're planning the Pioneer days, okay, that's a long-standing thing in West, four years ago, I was asked myself and a couple other people in my age group

074were asked to come in and be part of that process. And you know what's what will draw younger people? But then you tell them the exact thing. Ah, we have our tradition. We have that's not something we do. We do this and we do this, we do this. And so finally I just said you invited us here and asked us what we'll draw. We're telling you what we'll draw. You you're refusing to do it. So I guess you wanted to like and that that is very much the dynamic of this town. I think that and then on the flip side those that might be blind here are really in crisis. I mean we've got meth and fentanyl crisis in this town. We have got poverty. We've got people just barely screaming by. Um, I know

075you guys see that in the school and I think Western is just such a different place. We're right here, but we're worlds apart from Athena. I did wonder going back to the value folks that don't have kids in the district if there's a way to communicate um if there's statistics around you know what what a new school energy building does um first of all communities and even what the economic impact of just the building process itself but then what it potentially does down the road and how communities are successful or likely as a result but I don't know if those metrics exist but I think you shared some I think similarly that discussion I mean it's a competitive marketplace right facilities that are the parent and looking to make decision they're outside the district bring

076their kids here facilities that help incentivize uh presents to some that process, right? How what's the value proposition maybe ability to not just sort of provide a better learning environments for kids that live in the district but also for those that are considering to even if it's those that are parents in the community but like maybe I'll send my kid to for example have facilities or neighbors >> I'm curious about who might have been at the table where the comment was made back might not have been like first of them. I need to know more about it. >> Yeah. >> Oh, our table talked about that too. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> About that. [laughter] >> That was one thing I looking back hindsight right 2020. Um but that's what we were all kind of

077like mind >> in the sea. Um, we came to conclusions pretty quickly with very little push back there. No, don't get me wrong, there was push back. We did converse, but there was very, we all kind of got on this on the same train, if you will. Um, and so I had brought up to that maybe we needed to get some diversified and I know that we tried from, you know, seven and west and seven, some of the river from the mountain like trying to get the geographical diversity but I don't know that we got the opposite. >> Yeah, the mindset diversity. Exactly. Like maybe we all had our heads stuck in the sand, if you will. I don't I don't know how to better say that. But that may have also brought up she's

078like I had to ask people to do this. >> And so you can't get blood from a turnup, right? Like >> they have to be passionate about the work. >> Exactly. >> And I think the people who will say yes to being on a committee are going to publicly be like, you know. >> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And and support and want to improve our system opposed to what's it going to do for me? I haven't had a kid in the school district in 20 years. And I think community is an aging community and that that's tough times [clears throat] are tough. I think there's just a lot of factors that play into this that just didn't align. >> One one thing that concerned me about the Cback was that our numbers dwindled rapidly near the

079end. Like we had 20 plus people at the first meetings and all the way through probably the putting together the proposal and then after the initial proposal we went out for feedback then what like 8 to 12 people show back up the most and I want them to be so I concerned me process as And again, I don't know how you get somebody who is opposed to the facilities bomb to come even talk about it, >> right? And to stay engaged if the move is sitting, you know, if you're not in the majority or not, you're completely on a different page. How do you keep that person coming? >> Yeah. Well, I'll just say as somebody that has said this in the past professionally, I think part of the part of the opportunity here, I

080think, is to find those that are not in support recent election, but can become, and I'll just say be collaborative and and be willing to sort of be part of the conversation about how you can with our final vote for the bay election, be part of the a positive part of the conversation about how do you sort of if our if we as a board decide we want to go back out, how do you right size a bond package. But I think similarly find somebody that was opposed to it and wants to come in and actually be a participant or something have converso so to speak and just be like well here's why I didn't work. Right. So maybe part of our process would be to try to find, >> you know, like just come

081in and link to share like, man, I didn't vote for it and here's why, right? And if you could rightsize the package with the notion that they would support it, what would it take to get them there? And that I think in my opinion would be key to find some of those that would not support but are willing hey I would be I'd be willing to consider my support if X Y and Z finding that person who's willing to come upon. [laughter] >> So thinking back to talking about doing her newsletter earlier so this might make that a question. So say say u a land owner lives in Adams like their mailing address is so not our school district but they own a property in our school district they get to vote on our residence

082>> it's their primary res to be your primary residence >> yeah so the what 70 out of district transfers none of those parents got to know >> but I'm just saying there are a lot of people who don't live in the school district but own property Well, that's like the plankton those folks get to vote. No. >> Yeah. Okay. Otherwise, it won't be that way. >> Lots of them might have. >> Yeah. >> I guess you know in in following some of Rebecca's thoughts too, right? If I looked at the voter data, I think you follow her. You know, obviously as a percentage uh you know, Weston was you just looking at the city of West City at I mean there was still a 50 billion delta. uh which is not that far off from

083flood to west. So I think that certainly we got some roads you know again following stop process in west that are being still in itself right like so and it was just the only place it seemed to be competitive was outside of Athena. So, >> you know, we had we put out there was a small group of stencil signs out in the Athena community and the western community and we were just basing it on the people that we personally talked to and we were putting those signs out and all we had to have was 50% plus one vote and we were just basing our analysis of our snapshot and I'm thinking, okay, I think it's going to pass because of the information that we're receiving. But I did we did talk to a little a

084couple in Athena that they don't have children in the community or in the school system and they were basing the information off the information they were getting off of Facebook >> and so then I was trying to enlighten a few of the comments and I suggested that they reach out to an or to other members and ask more questions to get more additional feedback. So, I don't know, but I'm afraid there are more people like that. >> This information can travel around the world before the trees get this shape. >> Yes. And I don't know how to write that ship. >> No. And that I mean that's what I think about there was a lot of misinformation about being spread about it and it does didn't matter how many times you corrected that misinformation. the

085misinformation is what people hear and remember because it's easier to remember. Well, that's going to cost me $7,000 a year than the acture accurate accurate information. >> Yeah, your tax bill will be $7,000, but without this it was $6,598. So, >> what's the point you're making? That's what I kept. >> And I wanted to thank you personally, too. I really appreciate you putting out all the fires that you did that were on Facebook because I was posting a lot of stuff and I could not get myself back to it because it's like I got to sleep tonight. Like I can only do so much. >> Oh, you did a great job. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely. I I kind of thought Facebook was going to be the I had a feeling it was going to

086be the most the bene most beneficial way to get information out there and I feel like we did really well. There was a point where I thought we finally got it through the community that this isn't going to cost you a kidney. Like you might feel it a little bit, but you're most people >> Yes. Correct. To most people, but then I talked to Ann like the government shut down the snap. >> Yeah. >> The fact that perfect storm. >> No, it it was the fact that we got our property taxes like we got our ballots and there was only the bond to vote on. there wasn't other things to like get people held up to actually like >> oh I think I should think about this note or yep you know like I didn't

087even read it I voted yes and put back in the box like and so and then there was some people that I had heard saying they didn't like how it was worded but and described that there's only so many words you can put on um so I think I think people are just very um negative right I think there's a I talked to a lot of people like well like they had a plan. So I mean essentially people wanted fully realized rendering design and >> a very detailed budget and so I do think that maybe there is some continuing education that we can keep doing around that about around how a bond works and are we going to spend a million dollars and make that number up on an architect before we even have a

088bond? packing up all that is sellers for Thank you. >> I I also think we suffered from line iteming our costs like telling people a parking lot is $250,000 even though that's exactly what it like is likely to cost all the things you should just say it's a parking lot and it's included in the total line like because >> we had so many people hang up on >> I built my house for $400,000. You can't build a CTE building for less than six million. Like >> Yeah. >> Drink the lens every day. >> Well, um >> but that is a good point. >> Like people got really hung up on those things and >> but then there were other people that wanted, >> you know. >> Absolutely. And I I think it's easier to tell

089people like it's all lumped into one big cost because we think this is what it is than it is to argue with everybody about or to to look like you don't know what you're talking about as you cost things out. Like I think that's it's an easier defense to say like yeah it's a big project what it is. this is what we need and we're going to use it on these things and we're going to get the best we can rather than say like have to argue with somebody about like grab a parking lot cost $250,000 it makes you look like you don't know what you're doing >> well or I think when people start to think yeah they don't want to spend that money but if we don't start taking care of these facilities

090what ends up happening >> right and I you close the schools you ship your kids to whatever Pton and That's that. And then those that are already disgruntled are going to become more disgruntled because the town's going to dwindle to that. Like I think people don't realize what a school does for a community, what it brings in, you know, when there's games and there's sports and whatever, all the local businesses that profit from that. Just that's what I wonder too. I know you think we want to stay away from like being feer based or oh, all these other schools have it, but we don't. That sort of thing. But I think there's a fine line like again if if we choose not to do this we may not be able to recruit teachers because they'll

091stop in Pendleton or they'll go to they'll go to Mil Freewater where the you know facil or Helix frankly where facilities are more upgraded or you know I mean Moral County part of part of Mororrow County's uh >> process was you know I own passport right so if you're in you know like say just down the road like they got a brand new facility that's for the same rate per thousand. So I think there is some sort of calling attention that like if I'm going to be need to look at like if you go to what the rate per thousand is of our neighbors and peers right yeah page 24 right it shows the district in our region I own is almost $4 a thousand So, so similar to your your exact cover like our

092neighbors, you know, this is this is not uncommon that that communities are are asked to support. I mean, even if our proposed, we would have been far left, but would have been a narrative, but I hope But I think that's also a good discussion again going back how facilities are funded in general. If we don't know like I mean at some point we >> Yeah because I did hear that comment too. Well then what does the federal government do? the federal government has to give in something and like think so. >> I do you know how any funding works like for all public? >> Last time I checked I think they're shutting down education. So >> I didn't even know how to respond to that because I I'm I was not composed enough that I'm

093like no there's no other funding source you know like this is how districts make this happen. I mean, our newest building is 1976. >> Yeah. >> 1976. >> That's a good year. [laughter] >> Like 29 years ago, right? >> So, I mean, >> that's 29 again. [laughter] >> But I did also hear that lots and I don't I I can't stand the Facebook stuff. But I did read through a little bit of that and it was like well if our educators could educate us and those you know what they're doing now a good educator isn't the >> my kids went through it was fine >> just because someone can teach in the outback with no running water you know I mean doesn't mean they should and doesn't mean also yeah I was just discouraged with

094the um those kind of comments like do we not want to invest in our kids and our future because really that's what this is. >> That's exactly what it is. Mhm. >> When it look at I mean our buildings are old and to put the infrastructure in for the amount of computers and all of the things we have it's crazy when they open up some of those panels online. I mean, even, you know, we've put off um things like upgrading the alarm system and the intercom system at the high school because it was, you know, the infrastructure alone. Um, and our intercom went down and so it found us the only replacement is on eBay because it's from the 80s and we're like, "Yeah." And he's like, "You should buy it for parts." Okay, great.

095Thank you. I mean, things like that. I wonder if people really knew that. Hey, you're saying scraping together, make do with what you have. We already are. And it's more than just, you know, I think the building tours were really beneficial for some people. I think a lot of people walked away like, whoa, I didn't know, you know, but then I think the real negative critical people that are like, we did more with less, you know, and that kind of mentality. It's like actually do you understand the world that we're living in? Like if you had to lock down a facility for example and if you don't have a way to communicate like what does that mean for our kids you know safety wise what does that mean you know and just we're not living

096in the time they did more with less. We're living in a time where there are different threats and they look different and they you have to protect different and I think you know have I don't know how you have those conversations without being like real negative real quick but it would be interesting to just kind of say you know okay what were the biggest you know things that you were not going to get on board with and let's talk about them. Do we think we know that? And like I when I talked with class on we said number one um the economics it was a perfect economic storm. Two he said the gym seemed to be a focus. It became an argument for an argument point against the surprising because our feedback prior to the

097fact it was that we needed the gym. But he said it became an argument that sports shouldn't be the focus that we're here to educate and it just became this flash point. Um, our focus on the dollar increase got some people negative, particularly about the gym. And that gets to the way the bond title was worded. Um, they recommend that you word it as the increase over the current rate, but then you're immediately drawing people's attention to that it's an increase. um Claus's recommendation and and again he's chair of the Umatilla County Republican party so his knowledge of the campaigns is is high. He said you know it would be important to identify who were our biggest opponents, what was their issue and try to target them in addressing the issue which is kind of

098what Scott was saying as well. And he said usually if you kind of target the right people who are negative and talking about it and persuading others that you can uh change some minds. He felt that that the CTE building was probably the point of people who more agreed on and you know pointing out what do we have versus what we would get you know more work there and here's our current lab here's what a new science lab could look like here's our current wood shop here's what a new shop could look like might be helpful um along with statistics of how many of our own kids go into the trades and use those skills and like be helpful. So that was >> sure their Oregon statistics and then make sure they're Eastern Oregon specific.

099I ran into that one. >> Yeah, >> with the brick wall that I learned a lot process >> looking at this voter information. I think the biggest surprise to me was the number of no votes in the city of Athena which does tend to be more supportive. So I think the question would be are there you know 75 votes yes out of that 276 would have passed the bond. So are there 75 get aboard votes would be kind of the question right there because I think overall the work was going to be done primarily in Athena does tend to be generally supportive kind of struck me. Anybody have anybody talking to them about why they voted no? this anybody who was I heard some individual stuff about just overall lack of support of the district

100in general. Oh, we don't like this program or we don't like the way this discipline thing was handled here, you know, just real granular things. Um, but I think, you know, I try to say, well, these facilities are gonna long outlast that teacher or administrator or whatever. Um, but I just think there's sort of a it's just pleasing to be disgruntled and this is the only way to express that. Um, I don't know that there were specific themes necessarily. um comics I've already been very similar like I think that the federal shut down certainly at the same time the and then the gym that was one comes up as to me it felt like there was sort of like two no people there two types of people that are going to say no there's type

101people that were receptive to engaging and hearing what you had to say who were largely fooled by this education I guess and my experience with those people was they're willing to listen and might have some granular thing but but can kind of like participate in the discussion and then there was this general people unfortunately we all saw them at the meeting so we don't know were going to flip from from thing to thing as a reason for no. So >> there were no looking for a reason. >> Yeah, there just no matter what you do. And I hate to say that there's nothing you can do for them, but but I have to hope that there are more people in that first category that we should target versus just the the no better what you

102say, the better you do. I think the tricky thing is getting ahead of the ones who are going to be a known no matter what and have them tell their neighbors and their cousin and their whoever that you know cuz I think probably some of that happened too. There were people who were firstly yes and then heard negative fancy on Facebook and you know ridiculous statement that wasn't even true and oh now I'm a no too. It's really easy to say no to a lot of people fortunately and and you were discussing in your board meeting about how we get people to show up to board meetings and I think honestly right now I think the only way you're going to get anyone to show up is hit them in the pocketbook. Honestly, I think

103people are just I don't everyone's different. Everyone's tired. Everyone's wore out. CO ruined so much for people because it got us home and now we don't want to go out, right? And so I think I think it's I keep calling it the co hangover on a lot of it just because um the lack of community involvement within the district. That's one thing I've learned and the people that I spoke with um said it's the culture in the district. Well, what does that mean? And so they they tell me, you know, well, this happened and then this happened and then this happened. But it's like, okay, how do we fix it? Oh, okay. Circle back. let's go out, you know, and no one could ever and I spent so many I had meetings with people that

104ended up being three hours in my kitchen just talking to them about like what they were so upset about why they couldn't support this bond and how could I be supportive of this bond because of XYZ and it's like well because those are situations that happened and it's because there's really great people in this community and there's some people that aren't so great, Right. And unfortunately the bad apple ruins the crate, right? And so we kind of need to try to relearn as a community that yeah, bad things happen to everyone. It's how we overcome them. And shutting ourselves out of the district and being like I don't want involved in this because of whatever that's not the way to get that. So there needs to be I think a cultural change. I don't know

105what that means. No, the problem is in some of those cases they have bad information about what are being bad things that they think correct. So they do not know what the thing is but also it's not always information that can be corrected. >> Correct. >> Right. And so I don't know how and we've talked about this in other situations. I don't know how we ever get over that. people on Facebook say it's I hate Facebook so much they say things and they don't know what they're talking about but we can't necessarily say oh well this this is the truth about whatever the thing is right so I I don't know how you get over that >> yeah and that's the thing is we all hear about the disciplinary thing with with the football team

106you know or whatever and then that we hear that and that you know has so many people in mad or whatever, but we don't hear about the kid in the preschool class who, you know, learned to read or, you know, and and we don't hear about there's a million amazing things and, you know, >> how do you teachers don't have time to like be sitting around elevating every success story, but it's all day long, right? I mean, and I think if people heard more of, hey, this is what your school is doing. It's also not just educating children, but it's protecting children. And I mean, I have a dog where I get to see that. But teachers are 90 something% of our mandatory reporters. If we don't have a safe haven in schools, kids are

107staying in abuse and neglect. And that is terrifying. And I it's all those little things that you can't how do you find time to tell all those stories that oh you know the kid who couldn't read because they got passed through all the other schools and somehow got missed but here they came to school in fourth grade and somebody realized oh my gosh this kid doesn't read or they don't act but then they left this fourth grade class going on to fifth grade knowing how to read. Those are the stories that this district holds that um people don't get to hear but they are happening you know and I don't know how you kind of elevate that but I think that unfortunately yeah co undid a lot and then there have been a few negative

108things that have happened and there's a general mistrust of government right now and um yeah in general and we're not going to ever win that but what you do win as a small town is Oh yeah, my little neighbor kid had this awesome new program and we raised the rent or I don't know, you know, yeah, our middle schoolers put on a show and raised $500 because that was elevated then people might be like, "Oh, you know, I'm a veteran and then that touches me here." But how do you get eye how do you get those negative people in the community to get eyes on those things because we as parents of people you know involved? We get to see those things and have windows to it. But how do you get Yeah. So as

109we talk about moving forward and do you want to walk us through the Piper Sandler model of the current tax rate? >> Yeah. So we um asked the Piper Sandler to model for us the numbers. Um the current tax rate by the daily or the bond rate this November is down to a $1.24 per thousand because factors and as you know those bond rates fluctuate. So the initial numbers that Piper Sandler ran, you know, if we were going to kind of look at what would our current rate generate, they ran it on a$124 and then Paula remembered, well, we were saying a$130, which the tax rate or the bond rate was the year before. So we asked them to go back and run it on that which I think gets us a little bit different

110number. The the thing that I I think that number is important that information is important. One thing that we need to think about is you would not want to claim that the current tax rate is $139 because it is very easy to figure out that it is $1.24 but the average levy rate over the 10 years of the bond was $135 which is pretty close to this $139 that we had prior. So I think the numbers you're looking at is in theformational ball. So if you sort of look at their information here, sorry, we asked them to run a $139 kind of a shorter time. So they ran six, seven, eight, nine years. There's no point probably in less than six years because that's the point where you can reapply for the awesome grant. And

111as a reminder, we've notified the state that we will apply again and we need to apply next Monday. We'll know by December 31st if we've gotten it again. So if you look at um what our current you know kind of this $139 would generate over six years almost 3.5 million over seven years just a little over 4 million 8 years 4.5 million 9 years 5 million 10 years 5.5 million. if you match each of those um there are some projects in that package you start to get in the ballpark of. So I think in my mind and this is not my decision but the board can ask me to recall to see that um if the board wants to and then that superintendence committee can come back together. To me there's three things. There's uh

112the project, the amount, and the term. And what might be a good way for the board to think about it is to pick one of the the board kind of if you want to recall the CBACK to think about the May election, the board could say to me, okay, we think the amount is the most important. We want the CBAT to come up with with the project and the term. And when we say amount, what we're probably trying to decide is, you know, as Cassie here will say, can we use the three magic words? No tax increase. Can we get in that territory? Or is the term most important? We don't want anything over a six-year term or any greater than an 8year term. We want CBA to come up with the amount and the

113project. or is the project the most important thing we want to do that CTE building and we want CBACK to determine the bond rate and the term. So it would be probably beneficial for the board to come up with some parameter for me to take to the CBAT and then they kind of figure out the rest. So, you know, when you look at these numbers, um, that CTE building was in the 8 millions. Now, I'm talking to Cassie, there's a little bit of infrastructure there that was, and Scott may be able to weigh in on this that that was shared with the potential new gym. And so, there could be a little bit of increase in the cost of that CTE building when you do it as a state project. And I'm just throwing out

114the CTE building because one, I just think it's important and two, it seemed to be a point of agreement and it also could potentially maximize an awesome grant without any real tax increase. So, it seemed like a good one maybe to focus on. Um, it's possible we could reduce the size of that a little bit. We had a double science lab because of you have reconfigured the district and been sharing that with the middle school. Um we cannot reconfigure the district without a so you know without bringing this entire package back out. I think we would be parked at not reconfigured in the district but maybe could be in the district followed with a single project. >> Is that is that his opinion? >> Yes. and and just and having a home court, a home

115practice court. >> Yeah. But I mean, how should >> I'm just throwing it out there. I mean, I've always thought the same way you're thinking, but for the sake of argument, >> but just even for PE, it's not going to >> Well, and if I may, I guess to that I guess part of my thought would I'd be hesitant to totally strip that. So, let me, you know, just uh try to do some math, right? Sorry. Um I don't want you terms and conditions, email. Um anyway, I was just going to do some math like, you know, let's say we're going to strip out a,000 square foot for that additional science classroom, right? It's I'll just use $600 a square foot or something ridiculous, right? Yeah. So, if I mean, if I had Thank you.,000

116and I was at $600 a square foot, right? Like when that's 600, right? So maybe part of the thought process is out of that CTE building, if we were going to pair out and pull some of the program, if you will, what what does that reduce it down to? I mean, I think to Cle's point, um I guess I wouldn't want to take our foot off the gas, right? Because we know maybe longer term the best role or the best goal for the district would be to still have the middle schoolers there and then all of a sudden we have facility that maybe couldn't accommodate that. So maybe before we just I I guess I would just encourage us let's go do do some mapping um folks I'm trying to update just because I would

117just want to be thoughtful about like would it would it hamstring us long term some of the other long-term operational goals of the district which may still you know 10 years from now again if the district were to go like let's pursue an 8-year term at 4.5 we pick up 4.5 for the state we've got all of a sudden we've got $9 million dollars. You could buy the CTE building, you can buy some of the other infrastructure elements to it. Um, and then we also with the intention that I think if I'm following maybe where you want to go cloud, we could build that CTE building. Uh, maybe it does have additional program to it, but the goal be you know 10 years from now do have those over there and then we've got the

118CT building. So maybe it's sort of phase one of the longer term master plan. Um that that would just be my two cent is is maybe trying to keep the program of CD building as full as possible with the intention that it sets us up for sort of the next phase of the process to kind of help support that middle school building there because I do agree we would need a gym there to support the middle schoolers there. Um, [clears throat] so I I guess that's just my two cents worth trying to keep as much of the CTE program whole with the the thought process being that it can still support middle school program if and when we have middle schoolers there >> and an expansion. So you know we had talked about the other

119reason for the double lock is a healthc care expansion. So there's that. >> Is there a scenario about construction? Because one thing I heard people say is there's already a gym at the elementary school. So completely not the right size. Is there a scenario where you could like to that gym? >> Dude, that's the demo of that gym. >> It would not be less than a gym. >> And in my u you know it is a sliding scale of investment versus value that necessitates you having to upgrade the entire facility for code reasons. the value of that gem if it were to touch that building would likely hit that threshold as a result of that you would they'd have to go in and upgrade all your code you know >> we looked at that briefly

120didn't in the seag expanding that gym and it wasn't cost effective >> but yeah I didn't think it was even noteworthy to pursue looking into that I don't remember the reasons why >> we had talked about keeping facilities the little lock room and whatnot and putting a new gym on it was not like that. >> I think that site was very comp if you think back to even before then the whole driver for this was district efficiency. Yeah. And so I hate to just abandon our overarching principle because we've got something on. Yeah. just from a process standpoint. >> The I should have mentioned this first just to remember probably the primary reason we're having this discussion right now is this bond drops off the books in June. Yeah. And so that makes that May

121election important. You know, if which is one reason we want to look at these shorter term potential bonds because if the bond drops off of then to do anything is that >> you're going from zero to whatever. >> So you're not looking at a $147 increase. You're looking at a $286 increase. So the thinking in having Piper Sandler run these numbers is could could the district preserve the current bond rate on a shorter term and then be able to come back in a few years and think about a larger project. So I guess I'm hearing multiple and I I'm in I'm in right like I think um I'm I'm tracking with you though right like hey this is we know that in long term this is the best operational interest of the district right plus

122it provides I think the best learning environment for particularly middle middle schoolers get access to high school curriculum like secondary curriculum so I concur with you in the notion of I don't want to I think that I think that program that concept is still valid Um, and I think the CTE building is sort of the first ph. What I like about the CT building is that it does have some degree of consensus, but also when you drive by it, you see some investment in our facilities at the high school level, right? >> I think it does resonate. People can click, they understand like, oh, I got welding in there, I got whatever the sort of program is, the science, you know, those elements of it. Um, and at least get something bright and shiny that

123people can can relate to some value to that. And I think it also would be the intention that it's designed as sort of phase one of longer term phase to get ultimately to get those middle schoolers in that health interest building. And so to that end, I would say that we should tell the CBAC that we want to keep a term at less than eight years, eight years or less. But they they would figure out what they think the like move forward is 8 years or less because then in 8 years we have the opportunity to go again. >> And I should give eight just to be candid because uh >> yeah 4.5 plus 4.5 to state gets us at nine and I think that allows us to buy a team building. Plus, I do

124think you're totally right in the sense that I bet there's a lot of that sort of utility. I would want to ensure the biggest thing would just be the utility infrastructure that needs to be sort of thrown in the ground as you build that CTE building so that the next phase that goes there all utilities are sized or sanitary sewer, water supply. >> Oh, I was just I was surprised that we never heard feedback one way or another on the idea of closing in the high school. Like I thought for sure that safety piece and getting rid of the modulars was going to be the talking point and not CT like just >> the amount of people that you know like to quit that it looks like a jail or you know why is there

125the fence around it and the fence isn't secure. I just I was shocked that that wasn't coming up. And so then maybe we weren't communicating that well that part of project >> came up at one of the it came out one of the listening sessions public meetings but it was just sort of a like a oh okay thanks so they should discuss it really >> or maybe desensitiz >> I remember hearing something about well how are you going to keep the preschoolers strangled are you going to fence to the preschool >> I remember that >> but I don't remember hearing like I didn't hear a safety concern in the package whatsoever except the preschoolers like well I'm sure >> I'm sure they're not >> we little we can catch them >> all together [laughter] probably

126that time yeah exactly >> I think from my perspective I agree that doing this as a phase one makes a lot of sense And I think we can afford to cut back on the facility with the belief that in the future when we add on we'll be able to correct some of the mis alignment of size and scale for reconfiguring the district. We're going to have to add a gym. If we need to add on additional classroom space, that should be something design will accommodate. We'll have to design and accommodate. And I think I think there's a huge benefit to putting a brand new building on campus >> so that parents >> sitting there >> so that parents walk into a brand new facility and see, right? Like how often do you go into a

127brand new house and you're like, "My god, this is really nice." And then you go home and you're like, well, I got some work to do to some extent. You know, look at your alt model, right? Look at Baker, right? Oh, Baker struggled, failed the bond miserably, right? Because they wanted to consolidate all through a singular campus, right, for K6. Um, that got to just smashed, right? So, what did they retoled it? They went out and the only new building in the district now is a $4 million cafeteria splash wrestling room. Yeah. Well, it works. That food is a wrestling. >> You want you want to eat your lunch where it smells like wrestle max. But I digress. [clears throat] >> But um but I mean that got people in the district decided right in

128the community. There was something new, right, where you could come in and I mean I was there in the ribbon coming from that. It was just like to your exact comment, you would have thought it was a brand new school uh because there was so much enthusiasm in the community for something new and shining. I I'll add that the CTE building project does move the district forward. I want to point that out. It does, you know, the high school became the focus of the seat back very quickly because when you walk through there, you realize how inadequate a lot of those facilities are. And it doesn't, you know, we had said you can teach English in the modular or in the whatever, but it's really hard to teach art in that current and science in

129that current lab. And this the CTE project does improve high school programming drastically and it improves the programming that kids probably care about, a lot of what they care about and a lot of what requires specialized spaces and equipment. and it does allow for expansion of coursework and pathways that kids would care about. So I think there's a lot of bang for our buck in focusing on that project. I don't believe we could reconfigure the district, which breaks my heart because from an efficiency standpoint, that made so much sense to me, without a size of I mean, I think the package we had, you could scale that gym down a little back to kind of that original Morox gym package, but you're still looking at more than a $2 per thousand increase or more than

130a per thousand increase over the current rate you'd be in the 250 per thous >> yeah it's just not going to lump enough >> and once you start that reconfiguration you do have to have pockets of money for these smaller projects to make each building appropriate to the age you're going to move in. So in my opinion, the single project that makes the most sense if we want to try to do a shorter term and maybe have the three magic words would be to focus on that and I told the point if I just express my own opinion I think the CTE building it's only not only can you sort of back into retaining the existing tax rate to it but also I think what what we have been really marking if you what our

131least messaging is the value of sort of not being ready for the trades, workforce development, right? And um again participating in somebody's sort of the public walkthrough because when they walk through that building, the existing facility and even those that are stout supporter of of career tech, they walk into our existing facility, they're kind of like, whoa, take it back to some extent of that and the fact that we're still able to teach sport. So I do think there's an ability to saying for something that aligns with some of our overall messaging as a district for our kiddos are and how we sort of meet them where they're at but also making them career ready workforce ready. So, are there 75 people who would guess if it was no real? >> Well, they told me

132I'm gonna screenshot. I did. >> I'm I'm not sure that's the case. I to be really frank, I don't know that people are going to say yes to a smaller package and a smaller uh like purchase. I I I'm I'm not I'm not not confident about that in any way, but I don't think we can do nothing. So, I think we need to move forward. So, what I've heard so far is keep the same rate. Kristen said less than eight years for return or eight eight years or less. >> Do we have some sort of general consensus on that? >> So, reconvene the seat back. Yeah, I think we need to bring back a shet group to to help inform what we want to do because maybe the right thing to do is I don't

133know remodel of the high school building, but probably not. I mean, I I would love them to talk about it. >> I mean, practically none of us were involved, >> you know, a year and a half worth of decision making when it comes to the project. So, we should [clears throat] send it back. So 8year term or less as close to the current average rate as possible. They're >> say there's going to be two cents just for kind of a interesting data point since it's still staring at CDA, right? Which fail last time, right? got when he smashed down and then it passed this and it was interesting this data point the nos stayed the same while he got so he got more yeses >> but I do almost wonder that the people that are

134disappointed and are now going to come out because they didn't expect it to >> I mean the voter turnout for you know right so I'm just kind of blown away but I would be curious you know if there was something that was condone like man I didn't come out to your exact point there Mrs. rush wasn't like I didn't vote I didn't vote at all last time because I wasn't passionate about it but I'll come out and vote this I don't know if we would see that but at least for you Matilda that was sort of I mean that was the deciding factor >> timeline do we have to make a decision in January >> this is going to be so the we have to file for the election so uh Win has agreed to

135support us through this short extension which we have at no additional charge and so we have tentatively on the calendar that first Monday back in winter January 5th so I'm going to have Paul and I have to reach out to see back tomorrow inviting them to a meeting on Monday the 5th we had been meeting on Mondays so we figured we'd keep it on Mondays Cassie Fiver's available and people are coming off of break There shouldn't be a lot going on. Hopefully that day reconvene the CBA with some parameters that the the board would like to see a short-term uh on a bond that keeps it the rate about where we are right now to put on the ballot for May and let them come the project. That's what I'm hearing. Yes. So then what

136they would do is um unless they can, you know, they could come to a conclusion real quickly and we might be able to turn it around for them to present at the January board meeting the following week. If not, we may have to do a little special board meeting where they present because then the board would need to approve um the bond package in February for us to get on the ballot in March for the May election. So, we're on a very short timeline to not have this bond drop off. >> If the awesome grant does not come through, >> if the awesome grant does not come through, >> we cancel it all. Thank you. >> Then I'm not sure there's anything. I mean, if the awesome grant doesn't come through, I mean, you, you

137know, you could say, well, we'll do at the current rate ADA in Weston or something, but I don't think it's anything people get too excited about. So, I'm not sure you'd bother going through that exercise, but that's what you'd be left with is projects that would have been >> you're looking [laughter] maybe a little more ground >> 3.5 million. You want a real a real short trying to not have it drop off, but I'm not sure you'll get enough people to vote for it. So, >> fair enough. We might get some burnt teeth. >> Yeah, I'm encouraged that we got so many people to vote. So, obviously, we got the word out. So, I think that we need to be commended for and now we just hopefully can get the information out, the correct information

138out. And I I mean, what do you So, not all of you are on the CBAC committee. So what do you think that we could do differently as a promoting it or do you think we missed something that we dropped something that we didn't >> well to clarify promoting the seback of >> promoting the bond sorry >> I think whatever project I think it would be really important for me to record some footage in the current spaces of what we're going to be replacing and talk about why we're doing it and get that on Facebook and blast it out in as many ways as possible and they can be short minute and a half videos like you guys ever wanted to do art in a cinder block building? I sure haven't. You want to do

139>> you want to do food where we do an AI at the same time and not the not artificial intelligence >> still artificial and I do think to that you know being able then to show whether it's pictures or whatever of CTE base or a similar CTE building that like this is what science this is what science actually does look like because I I think part of the problem is people walk through these buildings and they're like, "It's not that bad." >> But they've never been in a new school. >> Yeah. >> You don't really know what you're missing until you look. >> Oh, that's funny. I did talk to Aaron D shortly after ours. He's asking actually asked him some questions about the gym. Um, and so we he again just said he's very

140sorry to hear that. But to your exact point, right? Like they've got more classrooms you can build there and just so you can block and >> yeah we can video ourselves in that building students into that be able to like show how they use I mean the science I have a daughter in science right now in high school and like she likes that class a lot but there's a lot of funky stuff they have to do to make it work I mean realistically and I just wonder like is that like if they could see actually this is what our kids are doing, this is what our staff is doing. >> No, I think that very much >> and there are also safety issues with science in particular and chemicals and things and you know I

141mean we just got a few hood last year. I don't even want to know how they were doing chemistry without a >> Yeah, they opened windows. It's okay. >> I also think it's it's tricky because the last bond so much of that money went to things that you didn't necessarily see. You didn't drive by and see a new building, you know, it went to upgrading windows and and things that you don't really notice >> that we needed for safety and whatnot, but >> it wasn't a big splashy. >> Yeah. The only thing like really was the tennis, >> right? Because you could see it and drive and Yeah. but then, you know, new electrical or new heating and air. You don't see those things. So, what are they using our money for type of thing,

142>> but that's where I'm like, we can show how the kids are utilizing it because the reality is we have a very impoverished community in our county, like the poverty levels. And so, if our kids can't get a chance at some of those opportunities here, and get their foot in the door here and have that class that counts towards college here and haven't done well here, they might not go on and pursue something they would have been interested in. They're not going to have the opportunity because they don't have affluent parents or whatever, you know. And that's the larger majority of our students, I would say, you know.