001Call this meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge of salute. Ice to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. First on approval of board meeting minutes for March 12, 2025. Move the approval of board minutes for March 12th, 2025. I'll second. It has been moved and seconded approve board meeting minutes for March 12th, 2025. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. All those oppos say nay. Motion carries. Uh approval of meeting agenda. I'll make a motion for the approval of meeting agenda. My no changes. I'll second. It has been moved and seconded to approve uh the meeting agenda. Is there any discussion? Is there any changes? No
002changes. Okay. Uh seeing none, all those in favor say I. All those opposed say nay. Motion carries. Uh consent agenda. I'll move for the approval of the consent agenda. I'll second that. It has been uh moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say nay. Motion carries. All right. Mr. Fundra approvals. Uh Elma softball first on the list. Fairly straight. I'll make a motion that we approve the Elma softball booster fundraiser. I'll second. It's been moved and second to approve the Elma softball boosters fundraiser. And then is there any discussion? So the concession one is scratch is that confirmed scratched out or they do not have. So it is a scratch. Okay. So as it reads. Okay. Any other
003discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. All those oppose say nay. Motion carries. approval of Elma High School equestrian booster fundraiser. Uh we have a question quick question on your uh raffle tickets for the car wash. Will it just say Elma Equestrian booster club? How is that going to read? It's actually I'll let her explain. It's not a car wash. It's a raffle ticket. Car raffle, excuse me. Car raffle. Right. So Heidi with I5 cars down in Chahalis. Okay. They donate a car every year for our youth groups to sell with 100% purchase or the sales going to the um club club. So we have insurance. We have to get approval from you and then we have to get the gambling license. But it basically they would like a presence in Grace
004Harbor um to be able to sell tickets for our team to sell tickets. It would say Elma Equestrian boosters on it. Perfect. Yeah. I was just looking for the wording. So whether it was, you know, the high school or how it was because it's Yeah. Looks like I mean is it really even our So you can go to I5 car giveaway and it will actually tell you all about it. I think it's fantastic. No, I was just gonna say I did go to the website today and just looked at it just to Yeah. You can all buy tickets from these kids. They're $10 each. Okay. But um it's a 2025 Hornet that and they deck it all out and you can either if you are the winning ticket holder, you either take the car and
005pay the taxes and licensing or you can take $50,000 as So and have you guys spoken with the gambling commission yet on what you need to. Who's our Yeah. So we have um so my daughter works for silver agency who um does all the advertising for I5 and Sandy has been in contact with Alice in that office who's trying to help her get the paperwork ready for the gam we just didn't want to do it before we knew you guys let us do it. It probably says, and I'm apologizing because my readers aren't being that cooperative, but is there a minimum number of tickets that must be sold? I just No. So, we So, we plan to order 500 tickets. The cost to our team is 100. All we do is pay for the tickets,
006right? Cost our team is $180, I believe, plus tax. They also provide us with um boards, advertising boards to put at our place. And we also if we can set up like an event and have we can have access to bring the card there with us so people can actually look at it in Grace Harbor. Yeah. There's like D West in the thirst county does it and Lewis County and a few that actually do it. It's kind of a nice fundraiser. not put a lot of money out and be able to sell the tickets and you get 100% of the proceeds and they kind of absorb all the gambling section of it. It's just we want to make sure since it is a raffle that we go through the gambling commission and well they actually
007won't sell you the tickets unless you have them. Oh, okay. Perfect. So the so i5 cars is actually selling you the tickets and then so they're so i5 cars they're they yeah you buy the tickets I don't know if it's through I5 cars or through the silver agency or the printer people that print the tickets off I can tell you they provide you access to getting the tickets yes they we give them money we get 500 tickets and I think they're in books of 10 and then after the tickets are sold the books the other half goes two I5 cars that we put in the whatever and the money goes into our question account Sandy being our treasure. Yeah. I think the only big issue that I would see is like is if you want
008to bring the car up and have it like on the campus. It's just making sure that we have arrangements for just the liability grass like that. So I think that would almost be like like if I'm reaching the only concern we have which is a very very minor right concern. So I'm not throwing it out there or like playing around. I'm saying very low. I was thinking more like our rodeos or that's kind of what I figured. Yeah. I think you were just covering your basis as far as that was. Not on our thinking like the Grace Harbor Fair if we can talk to the fairgrounds and get a table and have the car there's come and gone. They do the actual they pick the winner in October doing this big football jamboree thing. I
009don't really know what that is but it's a big and yeah. Okay. So I don't know but talk to me I can talk to you about but yeah so oh the swamp club I was wondering what that was but well now you know I would yeah I guess I would just make sure that you're that you do have the correct licensing with the gambling commission. Yeah. And like I say they won't even give us the tickets unless we do. Yeah. Okay. discussion. I'll move for the uh Elma Equestrian Booster Club fundraisers. I'll second. It has been moved and seconded to approve the Elma High School Equestrian Booster Fundraiser. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. All post say nay. Motion carries. Good. Thank you. Just a side note,
010every administrator generally says yes to the first kid who asks. Not every kid, but the first kid. Oh, that's that's that's my rule on fundraisers, too. Uh if you guys want to, if you guys want to join us for the rest of the meeting, you're welcome to. If not, you're free to leave. Thank you. Take care. Don't make blankets with them. Have a good night. All right. Thank you. We need people to cheer. Cheer. All right. This coming weekend. Yeah. Saturday around 6. Okay. Perfect. Thank you guys. All right. Next on the list, discussion items. Instructional practices. Uh looks like Mark, Greg, and Tasha. Yeah. I'm gonna open up just uh just to start with, you know, I've been in this business 39 years. That's a long time. In the last two, three years, I've
011seen more focus and energy put on instructional practices or prepping toward quality instructional practices than I've ever seen in this district. You guys have been a big part of that. These guys have been a great team. They've been working tremendous amount of time, tremendous amount of time and energy into into this. And I want you to know they're very humble people. So, I have a feeling they're going to kind of talk about maybe one or two aspects of their instructional practices that are going on. I'm going to try to fill do my best to fill in the blanks when they're done. Um, because there's a lot remember this that as we've talked about mastery based learning, good instructional practices and best practices. It really comes down to teaching to a set of standards, priority standards
012that you've identified, creating uh f some focus outcomes uh so that we can measure student proficiency against those that those students know what those standards are, those outcomes are. And then the last thing you have to do is engage the students in their learning. We've been spending a lot of time that might seem indirect to instruction, but it's been it's going to play a very important role as we move forward instruction. With that, I'm going to kind of get out of the way. I'm gonna turn it over to Greg first and then Tasha and then I'll try to fill in the gaps. So, I was just looking around the room, Mark, thinking how many people in this room was your teacher at one point, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. teacher, principal, and I'll never forget the
013Yeah. Yeah. So, um, uh, you've heard it said, a picture is worth a thousand words. So, I'm going to take you on a little, uh, virtual, uh, field trip of the great things that are happening at elementary school. And what I want to focus on is just the engaging practices that are happening. uh because we believe that if kids are more involved in understanding what they're doing, it's being taught in authentic ways, the kids can connect, if they have choice, um that's going to increase student life. So, show you a little bit about what we're doing at Elma Elementary School. And so, Eric could be operator. Oh, hey, look there. So, um you guys saw a little bit of this at the recent our last schoolboard meeting, but um here we have um classtoclass presentations
014happening and specifically in uh the pictures you see right here. Actually, the kids that presented to you at the schoolboard are in out there somewhere in that picture. Um this is uh Mrs. Hendrick's class. Kids win at third grade filling into uh Mrs. Hill's class, first grade. And the cool part is is the the what was so exciting to see is watching the third graders explain to those younger kids these concepts, you know, what about bones and all the different systems. And then the little kids, you know, they're so cute. They ask questions. And so those kids are having to think critically. And I I'm honestly I don't think they'll ever forget what they learned uh about the body, about speaking and being able to process all of the good things with with teaching and
015learning. But that that was a very fun activity. Um and that's another picture of the same thing. It's presentations going on there. Um, we also have classes that will go into another class and they'll read. They'll read to the kids and then the younger kids read to the older kids and it's another way to interact with literature um in in a way that's highly engaging. The kids love to read to the kids and the kids love to read to the older kids. And so that that's been fun. We've also had um well actually this presentation you have um here we see Margaret Young's class they were their class if you remember at the presentation they had the penguin projects and so there's pictures of them presenting to younger kids um and we had Mrs. touchings
016class. Uh they did similar with the the bodies and the systems. They presented to other classes as well. Here there's pictures. I think actually Chris was with me. Hold up my photos. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, Chris was there, right? But that was fun. Um, and kind of at the heart of all of this, this is, uh, you know, as Mark was talking about the last few years, just seeing the tremendous increase in effective instruction and just this is just catching fire where learning is really happening. At the elementary school, when we adopted Ready Mathematics, a big component of that was studentto student talk. And there's there's some specific strategies. It's called think pair share. there different ways to get kids to interact with each other about their learning. And so, and that has diffused
017or it's permeated throughout the system. In any classroom that you go into, you're going to see kids talking about their learning with other kids, explaining, talking, you know, this is I know and there's protocols, how do you listen? Okay, then how do you give feedback and stuff instead of say, hey, you know, that's you know, they there's everything has to be taught. But uh it's amazing watching these kids listening to each other, presenting to each other. This happens all the time in our just in all content areas. So here we see some little guys uh working together, sharing concepts. Here's a picture from a third grade classroom. And um I'm actually got a little video for you that I'll show you what this looks like. But the teachers are looking for just little things they
018can do to get kids to be more excited about engagement. So, notice these things. I don't even know what they're called, but man, the kids sure love them when they get to their partner and they get to go over and sit with this thing and they and they've got a special table that's really low on the ground they can work on. And so, the pictures that you see here, this teacher, she with with her assistance, she helps them, but they have different choices that they can go to that are all directed to what it is that they're learning. And then they have different um stations that they that they can go to that will support that intended learning. And I think I have a little video of this classroom looks like. She's just [Music] that
019because, you know, I remember back long time ago when I became a teacher, I remember um thinking, okay, I want to make sure that I have my kids lined up, nice and quiet, we're doing our work, they're being disruptive, etc. It's totally the opposite. Now we want kids actively involved. Okay. So now now it should go. Okay. And um so here's more student to student learning. So this is uh this is first grade. Our our little uh guys are just full of excitement. And the other thing the teacher is trying to do is make learning fun. you know, you're going to see kids laughing and smiling and there's competition and um these kids right here, uh they're doing what's called um uh number quarter or or it's a morning activity that they're teaching the kids
020about number sense and how to bring things together. And and this is Mrs. Teach. She asked her kids, she goes, "I want you to write down as many ways as possible that you can represent a certain number." So then they're just going down. Then then they'll share results with each other at the off talk and then they then they have fun little competitions as well. So the next slide you're going to see as soon as they did this um she pulled up she she uh has this container that has popsicle sticks and she pulled a couple names and those kids came up and they have uh well I'll show you their challenge. Can you hold off to start that? I want I want to kind of set up a little bit. So, uh, Miss TG,
021she has this very engaging music. It's like a one minute little video. It's different all the time. And the kids have one minute to get these, um, paper strips in order from zero to 100. So, each of those strips represent a series of numbers. And so, here they go. See how they did? I put [Music] and they're excited. They're excited. Oh, yeah. Put these up there. Put them up there. Then they then other kids will give a try. It's pretty fun. Yeah, it's it's exciting. And they So when it's their turn, they have watched. They've got some ideas. They're ready to apply their new thinking, their new ideas. Um here we see uh in class again this they're working on sentence the kids are creating sentences or writing sentences and so the teacher gives them
022different objects they arrange the objects to make the kids then will write sentences and they share their sentences and they swap their cards and they um gives them it's an engaging way to practice writing and right here uh and I'll show you if you get a little video clip of this coming up this is in Mrs. Young's class. And um another thing that you see happening uh more and more and more in classrooms is after the kids have been um taught a concept um and maybe you have some direct teaching involved in that then you have the kids okay turn tell the partner person next to you does this mean you know there's and they set all of this up the teachers do. So again there's effective dialogue and and watch these kids watch their
023expressions when they start talking to each other. I think Love that one guy's expression. He's listening what he's hearing there. And again, this is happening all the time. This this kind of interaction between the kids trying to advance. That's what I said. It should have should have. Yeah. Um, so again, this is a picture. You guys already saw these guys in action. This is a third grade classroom. I was doing an observation in there. We had a student teacher in there and I said, "Hey, let me come in do an observation so I can talk about you in a knowledgeable way because I'll see you in action." So, I went into my room and um if you notice, watch the best piece right there. It's a really good thought. Just wanted just wanted just want
024to plant that thought there. I I see I have a kind of a love thing going here. It's not going to be good. I'm not gonna lie. the love. I'm like, yeah. All right. Anyway, so what you're saying is not a lot of learning going on. Oh, if there was a hoop. No. Well, I actually focused on the weekend. Thought you said Monty at first. I'm like, what? I know. Me, too. Oh, boy. We can have fun with this. But so, uh, traditional mathematics, if you think about like the way I used to teach math, I would present the lesson. I would, you know, there wasn't a whole lot of interaction. A lot of it was teacher le kids working I would go up and help them maybe some small group stuff a lot of
025it was I'm teaching you're learning and these little guys so after they get the basic concept of what they're supposed to do with the math skill that they're working on then they uh get their clipboards and there are problems like these little they're task task cards all around the room and then together they come out and then what they've already done is they've teacher has given and practice on how to do it. They practice it. They they've showed some individual mastery. Now, they're connecting with their peers and they're going around from uh task card to task card. They're writing down how they solve the problem. They're writing their different strategies on how they solve it and they're and they're telling and they're teaching the peers. This is how this is this is how we got
026the answer and very very engaging. Oh, okay. So, we're gonna hold up this. So, first graders, these are little first graders. And uh this is in Debbie Hashi's class. And Debbie Hashi is truly she is truly a master teacher. But what she has these little guys doing, she's she's been teaching them um how to do double a digit edition um and uh different strategies that they could use to do this. And now these two little guys are going to tell Mrs. Mahashi and they're going to do the problem solving for. So, let's watch these guys again. 64 + 32als blank. Now, decide who's doing what way. What strategy are you going to use? Um, yeah, I'll do the other one. Get the little guy on top. He's going to go with more of a traditional
027algorithm. And the young guy on the bottom, he's going to he's going to do a physical representation. He's going to change his mind. Then he's going to go with a representation of his uh work. Doesn't count. really impressed. They're they're counting in their head. Oh, no. He's always looking at the chart actually. [Music] So part we did see is when they when they uh when they represented showed their answers, the little Okay. On the right, he actually um because Mrs. Aashi has told the kids, they go, "Actually, when you're teaching, when you're explaining how you solve the problem, if you made an error, a lot of times when you find it, sure enough, he did." He realized he was holding digit off and he made a correction. Um but, uh again, what you uh with
028this math curriculum that we've been using now, it's not uncommon to go into a classroom and you see kids just like what we saw earlier that they're picking their strategy, they're writing it down. I'm gonna you're my partner. we're going to I'm going to show you this is how I got my answer. You're going to critically think, okay, I I think that you know, I agree with you. You're going to show me what you did. And there's this back and forth of teaching the concept as well as thinking critically, being able to help your your friend. Uh also, uh we like to do uh fun classroom presentations that involve students. This gentleman has been going to schools probably longer than Mark's been teaching. Right. That's a little D. So I'm an old guy Mark. So
029I No. So this gentleman comes and he does a presentation on Louis Sinclair and kids love it and they he brings the kids up and there's multiple class there's multiple uh stu uh grades or or I'm sorry multiple classes in that classroom. And then also we just did this the other day on fifth graders. They um uh they grew some salmon and they went out and released them into the wild and that that happened this week. So that's pretty exciting to see. Again, there's an engaging experience that teachers then can talk about this process. There's all kind of data. There's there's charts, you know, trying to use this fun experience to uh connect learning to. And I want to end it with this uh this picture. This little girl, if you could read this, it
030says this is a second grader. Says, "I get as smart and with her little hearts as I get I love brainstorming. My hippo campus is doing its duty. My prefrontal cortex is really helping." And what the teacher has done is she has turned these kids loose on things that they just love. and letting them do all kinds of research. And so right now brains, there's a group of kids in her class that are just really excited about the brain and they're reading, they're watching videos, they're writing papers. I mean, it's amazing. Uh, and I thought that was cute. So that's Elma Elementary School and we're really excited about the quality engaging learning that's happening at our schoolhouse. So Mark, is there anything you want to add to that, sir? I just want to add just
031a couple a couple of things. Remember that all this engaged uh learning is attached to priority standards with a defined set of outcomes to uh assess those students u proficiency of those standards. I want to say one more thing because when I was a kid if my dad or my mom was engaged I was engaged. So one of the things that they haven't talked about is way back we used to do student of the month assemblies. parents would come while the whole family was engaged in coming and finding out what was going on as a school. COVID hit, kind of lost that some large numbers. But this year, Greg and Heather uh brought that back and so now we've got parents and grandparents back in the schools engaged. I mean, I spent most of my
032early childhood trying to make sure my dad wasn't engaged in school. But one of the best ways to engage elementary students is to engage their uh parents and their families. So thing that Greg and I get to have incredible conversations um what did I ask you to do when I asked you to was I can't remember it was you and I have incredible conversations every month and I just want you to have the same conversation with the board. One of the things Greg committed to and I you saw it in the photos and I just kind of want to hit the continuity of that is we want Greg made and Heather made a commitment both administrators made a commitment to eliminate like the rows and ranks setup and you'll notice that there is no setup
033where all the desks are just set up in rows and ranks that is built around the teacher being the center of all knowledge. The classroom is set up where every area is in all the students are in groups to create that learning environment where it's studentto student conversations and the students are really the center of the learning not the teacher being the center of the learning. That's a really big locus of control shift that the elementary has taken on. But really Greg and Heather's leadership has really focused super intentionally on coaching and you can see it transition this year. I've just been so impressed with both of them as administrators and just your team, your whole teaching team. Is as we've been walking through each month and we're going and looking at classrooms, you would
034start seeing like there like groupings and every classroom being restructured to these student groups and elimination of the rows and ranks and uh that's where I kind of just reached that point. I think was that the day of the presentations I think we were there. Yeah. How many classrooms were able to see that day? I think we had uh three that first walk and then we had a demonstration afterward. So just I said Greg show me all the the grouping and it's just all over. Doesn't matter what could go any was neat too is we went to a specialist class and what they were doing was amazing. Kids had different um activities that they specialist teacher mathematics talked to the teacher said hey what what concepts are kids struggling? So she had like the big
035three concepts there sort of she was giving kids another way to interact with those concepts and then kids could sign up if you wanted some additional practice with fractions or whatever it was and she would do smaller uh instruction and kids though they could choose to pick. So that was just uh so fun seeing the level of engagement. We went into an ML classroom and the little kids what they were working on. They then took the concepts they were working on and they had a a store a student store and they have a big culminating event where they sold and explained and market and everything. It was just engagement was through the roof and uh we just went for a walk said hey Chris let's go popped in classrooms and this is this this teaching
036was happening and it's just really exciting. So, one more thing about locus control since Chris brought it up is that a lot of the student and teacher engagement now uh whether it's through a badgebook, a data binder or through the usage of power is all around where are you at with within the specific your journey your learning journey uh to uh become proficient at this standard. that kind of uh giving that over to students has made huge impacts on some competitive kids you guys also I just think assuming you said this but that shared culture of learning you know because I think it's hard for kids to spend a whole especially at elementary spend a whole year in an environment where you're you in theory are doing that engaged talking and processing that way and
037then to shift to another teacher, you know, that could look very different. So to have that common shared and then um you know really the difference of are we creating are we developing kids who can you know solve problems or are we developing problem solvers and I think what we're seeing is problem solvers you know and it's the all those soft skills that we know are so important so I don't know it was fun to see thank you yes so Okay. Thank you. Hey, I do not have a thing in PowerPoint because I didn't know that was I supposed to do. Anyhow, what I do have is some really good news about how we are utilizing our lab coaches in English and math. So, we are becoming really intentional at high school middle school looking
038at data. So both schools instructional team leader leadership teams will look at data every three three weeks and determine how our lab coaches in particular are going to push into algebra 1 and geometry classes freshman English. Um, at the middle school, we focused on grade data and the highest number of students in each grade level class that were struggling and wanted to push our lap coaches in English into those classrooms to give students the right now support that they needed um to develop their skills. So, we really the coolest thing and I should picture it. And I know you're going to have all this is to have a student come in, a ninth grade student who has struggled and say, "I was not going to go to math, but I'm glad I did because now
039I can graph equations." And and I'm hearing more and more conversations like that in particular at the high school. So our focus really has been on developing the skills and confidence of students in those transitional years in particular, sixth grade in math and English, nth grade and algebra 1 and geometry so that they start feeling really confident about their skills as learners. So some of the things we've done is implement RTI during Eagle Time. So two days a week and Christy and I kind of work together to finagle some time where kids teachers identify kids who go to them to get additional support in math or English. Those are our two focus areas and that just started and that was all from our instructional team leaders high school. How can we optimize every instructional minute
040of the day knowing that a lot of our kids can't come before school, they can't come after school. So we have this time during the day. How can we capitalize on that? Um, we have sixth grade and eighth grade at the middle school um implementing interim assessment blocks which are released SBA specs and they do two things. One, help kids get used to how to take the test using the tools that are available to them and two gives that right now data on where they are mathematically as far as their skills. and the sixth grade math teachers have taken off with it and actually the last set of assessments that they administered show that they're about 4% above the state average in mathematics which is really really exciting. Um our eighth grade has also implemented
041the interim assessment blocks Jenny Monroe in particular using those for um formative assessments and her students are scoring about five points above state average. So, I'm just really proud of what um both schools are doing and our intentional focus on data and how teachers have been open to let's take a look at all of the data because this isn't about teachers. This is about our students and so developing pretty robust PLC's around data. It's been really fun to see. And then of course you know about our work with standardsbased grading and empower. So every single secondary teacher building activities that they will measure student growth based on proficiency scales that work will continue next year so that we can become really consistent on what does it look like to be meeting standard in nth grade
042English in algebra 1 and etc. And teachers have been really you know at first some trepidation but have really u jumped into the work and done some really really good work. So, I'm I'm just super proud of both secondary schools. Eric's mentioning my [Music] screen example. What Taj is talking about is the state does release um assessments for the students to begin getting opportunities. Sixth grade and eighth grade were really quick to volunteer to say that they would like to have their students be able to see experience and interact with that state assessment. So, and you're starting to see how our students are moving beyond and outperforming the state. I mean it's slight at this point but the big goal was to ensure that we have this focus on the middle school and that's really
043that emphasis on data has really been the priority of the secondary school which also did kind of create this uh model on this is data we can show that doesn't get into the e data but a lot of the data we have really dedicated into a that was cautious question what type of data can do you want me to bring and show because it starts having student names and student uh because the data is really localized now to the student on how that student can improve their score. So I did have this one to show how and this is what the students are interacting with weekly to begin seeing how we compare to the state building that competitiveness and being able to build that that growth area. Hey Chris, I just have a question on
044so the district has 81 student. So this for what grade is this? Eighth grade math. Eighth grade math. I'm zoomed way in to keep Yeah, I just kind of see the parts. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. you. Yeah, that's kind of intentionally. So, it's a good question. Yeah, because I if I didn't zoom in this far, have to self-report. I'm just really really proud of them because it's very, as a teacher myself, nerve-wracking to be sharing your data with your name attached to it. and I taught in a tested subject and so that is always very humbling but they really have jumped right in and I'm just really proud to build doing this work. Where do they where does the state get the sample size the 1908? Um it's based upon who signs up. Okay. A
045random number. I mean like I said six and eight chose to do this. you don't have to sign up to have an opportunity to go through the state assessment, but obviously those who do are going to have better odds of doing them. So, right now it's trying to get our teachers used to this data, this measurement, and seeing the impact and our having a great impact. And and we were going to have full interim assessment block um grades six through 12, but I really heard from staff it felt very overwhelming with all of the change we're working on an hour. we're building proficiency scales and so I wanted to to honor that and so we pivoted but certainly the invitation was here's what your kids could potentially get out of it because it's not just
046about measuring their mathematical or literacy skills they have to understand the operational pieces of the test and that takes practice just how to be a better test taker regardless of the content right okay that's but next year I'm hopeful we can really as teachers start to see the success we're having with the interim blocks and they get data right away that there would be more comfort around doing them. How long is the test? Is it like a class period that they would do or the focus interim blocks take about 10 15 minutes? So they're they're snapshots. They're okay. And then they could do the full IABS which could take I mean in English you know up to an hour. Okay. But then the data they get back is just so rich and it's all aligned
047to rubrics and so great instructional tools to use kids too. And to Chris's point, the data that we're getting is getting very granular at this point. The ELA coach for the middle school and high school that an oral reading fluency test with every student in the middle school and every student in the high school. We have never had that kind of tab on where each of our students is at with their reading fluency. Never had that. They're using I Ready and Common Lit to then along with that check comprehension and so we have a lot of data on each of the students. Interestingly enough, I sat down in all the coaching meetings where they met with the teachers. They took this data in, met with every single teacher on the ELA team and talked about
048every one of those students that were students of concern and what was it about each one of those students that we could do to target to help. A lot of it came down to motivation. That's why I think we can't underscore a lot of the other types of work that's going on at the high school. Um you know when we talk about uh priority scales and defined outcomes the middle school high school when we began this journey they were kind of lost with that. They didn't have any ownership of those priority standards or or the outcomes that that were created. They actually had chosen to use horizontal critical concepts because we needed something to get into empower. But now, two years later, what we're seeing is that the ownership in those teachers, they're now sitting
049down with their teams and they're beginning to understand what's important about a standard or editing the uh proficiency scales that were put into um into empower because they recognize they're not teacher friendly, but they're not student friendly. And so making that student friendly is engaging just doing that getting into that process and owning that I think is what we're seeing right now. Um and then in terms of student engagement, you guys have had a couple of presentations here that from student leaders around where we were at with student belonging, uh sense of belonging and student value in their education. Four years ago when we were doing social emotional surveys, we got that same data. Uh and so over the last couple years we've made this a f a focus of our concern. More importantly, the
050students have made it. We've been working with Vincent Pres from the Equity Institute to help students gather data from each other. So we had mentors gathering data from other students around what they liked in their schools that was going on, what they saw might we might need some changes on. Um then last week we had uh I know that Stephan was able to see we had a very dynamic speaker come in and work with the teachers, the students. Um and it was all around bringing value back to the people in your school and your school. And this morning we sat down getting chills right now through this work. Uh we have 70 student leaders from the middle school and the high school today together with Vincent taking the data taking what they learned from bus
051and building studentled initiatives that they're going to lead in their school. So some of them are going to make their way to you guys. Get ready for it. Some of them are very ambitious. But these are initiatives that will change the way kids feel about whether they belong in that school, whether they value that school, it's going to bring sense of pride back into our school. And that work alone, if you get students engaged in their school activities and in their school, they're going to be engaged in the classroom. So that alone is bring that student engagement. Two other things just really quick. We just finished as our admin team just finished TPAP training that we've been going through this whole uh this whole year. We just finished that TP training up. What that did
052for the admin team was it gave them the opportunity to have conversations around what good instruction look like and to calibrate their own um work as they go in and they work with teachers uh grow their instruction. And you guys all already are aware that on top of that we've got some instructional material adoptions that we just brought in. So we'll bring tools in for their instruction. Teachers are digging into that, learning how to use those tools and have some professional development right after spring break for that. So uh there's a lot of great things going on. And here's what I think is going to happen the next couple of years. all these ends are going to come together of the of what we've been doing and we're just going to see some tremendous growth
053in our school and our kids and I just believe in that. So, do you have any questions? I have a comment. I think my favorite part of this is that I would say the intellectual empowerment of the younger students to be in the driver's seat changes their educational focus and drive so far out than I think what has been traditionally happening. It's pretty exciting to watch that. I think it's it's a pretty amazing feat to be a part of. So, thank you. Thank you. We have some incredible kids. We have some incredible structures and leaders. All right, with all that great stuff, on to more great stuff. Middle school day in the life. Yeah, we're looking at April 11th for the day in the life. Um, we're just trying to get a good count on
054board members that can make April 11th. So, we can connect you with your middle school student, same process. and then we'll do a um I don't know if the survey I gave worked for something other than that because I didn't the response stupid. So well I like I told you too I was a little uh with mine since I was in the same track the whole time. I was trying to figure out if I should do one or two or three. So I might I might look at a couple other ways on how we do it to talk about what that learning environment looks like. But you want to make sure that as we move into the board retreat, we have serious data to move off of to build our plan on kind of like
055what we're thinking about what we'd like to see for our kids. Uh but April 11th is I can be there that day. I can be your soccer schedule, your work schedule, everything. I have I have I have multiple calendars, right? I got to look at the work calendar, the soccer calendar, and then the calendar that matters, the one that it's posted from home. I say your wife. So, yeah, looks like I should be able to do the um Greg and Tasha are in the middle of parent teacher conferences. Nice. Thank you guys. Thank you very much. Yeah. Hey, Elma school district. We have great kids, great teachers. We are so like Mark said, watch. Well, thank you guys very much. We appreciate it. Couldn't agree more. Enjoy your spring breaks. I say I'm sure it's
056welld deserved. All right, give them a second. Now I gotta read through my writing. All right. Uh, public comment. Is there anybody for public comment? Okay. Uh, unfinished business. Uh, approval of policy 3205, sex discrimination of students prohibited. Second and final reading. I'll move for the approval of policy 3205, sex discrimination of student prohibited. Second and final. I'll second it. It's been moved and seconded to approve policy 3205 sex discrimination of students prohibited. Second and final reading. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. All those opposed say nay. Motion carries. Approval of policy 4200, parent access and safe and orderly learning environment, second and final reading. I'll move for the approval of policy 4200, parent access and safe and orderly learning environment, second and final reading. I'll second. Uh has
057been moved and seconded to approve policy 4200 parent access and safe and orderly learning environment second and final reading. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. All those oppose say nay. Motion carries. Approval of policy 4210 regulation of dangerous weapons on school premises. Second and final reading. I'll make a motion to approve approval of policy 4210 regulation of dangerous weapons on school premises second and final reading. I'll second move second to approve policy 4210 regulation of dangerous weapons on school premises second and final reading. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. All oppose say nay. Motion carries. Approval of policy 511, sexual harassment of district staff prohibited, second and final reading. I'll move for the approval of policy 5011, sexual harassment of district staff
058prohibited. Second and final reading. I'll second. It's been moved and seconded to approve policy 511, sexual harassment of district staff prohibited, second and final reading. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say nay. Motion carries. Uh I do want to state that we are moving towards a new um platform. So eventually these policies will be uh out so that everybody can see them here probably in the near future. So um July so yeah July. So we're hopeful to get those out so that the public has better access to look at those policies as we approve them. So just creating a little bit more transparency. All right. Moving on to new business. Uh approval of 202526 new market skills center agreement for interd district cooperative educational services.
059Just our standard annual new market agreement that our students can do. I'll move the approval of the 2526 new market skill center agreement for interd district cooperative educational services. I'll second it. It's been moved and seconded to approve the 202526 New Market Skills Center agreement for interd district cooperative educational services. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say nay. Motion carries. Reports see as we our second semester at our second semester stay up down a little bit. It's just too mainly 12th grade level. Then um AL numbers have also continued to raise. Um and uh I think uh open doors numbers, open doors numbers have stayed consistent. So we're sitting about 1636 on average. So we're doing pretty well. Stay steady. All right. budget report. You
060guys should have all got a copy of your budget report. Any questions on it? You can see we're just following our normal trend. like readjusted and moved all over the place. I know. liking seeing our fun balance just because just we just don't know. Has there been any changes in the recent legislation funding model? No, they're not going to look at changing that right now. Stuck with it. The state is very clear that they have funded education enough and they're not going to put any more money into education. Okay. and almost everything has fallen off that with special education and everything got a little hike but it was going to be like um hundreds of dollar hike and now I think it's down to 46 so that students yeah and the Mock rate is pretty
061low there's been a lot of non uh fiscal like um but it will help with scheduling like uh adding a CTE to sixth grade CTE we currently only have a seventh and eighth grade NCT. Um, it looks like they're going to move forward on allowing sixth grade to take the courses. You just won't get the financial enhancement, which is fine. I still call that a positive because not being allowed to schedule sixth graders into CT classes because of teacher certification um makes it so we have to schedule sixth grade around CT programs to now sixth grade can go in. I mean, it'll they're not going to generate the enhancement, but it will generate its own just this will benefit by having fuller classes and more options for sixth graders. So, there's some there's some wins,
062but there's really not many in this legislative session. And the and and we'll have another long session for two more years. So, yeah, I think the update was is took a beating. Yeah. And then it's it's up in the air with our federal money which is part of special ed and our entitlement needs and the big hit is going to be our food service program if they take away our I mean the big conversation right now is we don't know what the federal government means when they make statements. So like we have a federal legal obligation for IDEIDA for special education, but special education is technically DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion. So um if the federal government says we're eliminating DEI, does that mean you're eliminating special education, but that's federally required under IDEIDA? Is
063there an understanding of what DEI is when we make statements that we're going to eliminate DEI? um because when you're looking at all of these programs across the board. So it really means that we have absolutely no idea what the federal government will do because we don't necessarily know if the federal government knows what the terms they're using actually mean and what they include. Well, it's a good thing we're sitting with a little bit of a little bit anyways in case in case something either way. I guess I feel better than not having that down to zero. I think the big thing that we want to be prepared for fiscally is we talk about a fun balance to float ourselves for bills not paid. I think probably what will happen in a worst case scenario
064is a federal move like we're talking like talking about moving special education to Department of Health and Human Services. Um um is that going to create a lapse in all of our federal payments for special education? So now we need to have enough money in fund balance right now with school districts across the state that are in bad fiscal positions. I mean many many school districts in the state do not have enough money and fund balance to blow up their bills and now we have a very real reality that we won't have enough money to like not us but like now there's a very real reality that you won't get your federal funding. So now you need to pay your bills but the federal government will not be paying you in IDA special education. So
065I think the major pressure is is those who have enough money in fund balance to survive these US Supreme Court lawsuits till the money comes in um or will be the winners and those who do not will probably be risking bankruptcy be my I think that's probably going to be the worst case scenario that we'll see because IA is is a federal law so they're not pay for it but it might mean that school districts going to have to pay these bills based upon what's in fund balance. So I do feel good that we spent I mean I get a lot of conversations can we get a parah can we get a this can we get a this can we get a this or we built up our fund balance so I do feel confident
066that we'll be one of the survivors but I don't feel like many of our neighbors will be I was just looking at federal funding federal general purpose federal special purpose just kind of gauging how much money that is year to date looks like couple million dollars. Yeah. So 3.5 maybe or four million bucks. That's quite our special one to ones are pretty much through federal funding for special. The other is the food service because that's about 800,000. So it's a it's be significant effect. Yeah. It just talking through it, you know. So, it's nice having a fun balance where it's supposed, you know, supposed to be. Yeah. Yeah. Now, now let's go to something positive. Y All right. Thanks, Lisa. All right. Good to of the order. Uh would you like to was at the
067war conference. It's the Washington Education Research Association. Um they this is not an insult. They actually own this title. Um it is the Washington nerd conference. It is all of the number countries and data people in Washington state. So and unbeknownst to me they kicked off the conference and it was the postsecondary preparedness conference. So it's all about things that are happening. Research-based methods head Gates Foundation is there presenting Washington Roundtable. You're familiar with Washington Roundt. They're a uh a corporation led by the major uh a nonprofit led by all the major corporations in Washington state invested in improving school performance. So like the T-Mobiles and the Microsofts and the Boeing sit on. So they're presenting, Gates Foundation are presenting, and then you have state agencies, O LPI is presenting, and uh ERDC, Educational Research
068Data Center. And they kicked off the conference with a school um showing that post-secary enrollment is kind of sliding off statewide. Um but then they kicked it off with the top schools in the entire state of Washington that have had the largest gains and number one in the top schools based from the numbers people, not the people that you fill out an application for and apply. And then it has to sound really really good. Just the numbers people um they don't know who we are or what we're doing. They just know these are the numbers could show that Elma had the highest postsecary rate gains in the entire state of Washington. So it was kind of nice that we said that as our priority and I just wanted to set the tone. It wasn't because
069we asked for them to find us. It was they exported the numbers out of Tableau. They looked at the numbers through this Excel spreadsheet and said here's the school districts with the highest numbers. and then it was like on the big screen. Um, and we didn't know it was coming. So anyway, that was a very proud moment to say like, wow, the the the the number nerds have said we had the best impact in the entire state, the work that we've been intentional. So then today we hosted the Kent School District to come take a tour of the work that we've been doing. So we were really happy to have the K school district coming in taking a tour of our work on how they can begin modeling. So having large King County school districts
070trying to come learn to be like how can we be more like it was a great experience. And then number three through much work our um our conditional use permit um was approved take we're not done. We still now need to do a blood study. Maybe golf ball clap. We're almost there. I'm getting power flap. We are now moving on to that was done this morning at 10:30. So, we will be moving on to a We need to do a flood plane study now, which has been added in as part of this process before we can build. I bet we find out we're in a flood plane. Yeah, we already know we're Don't we know? Don't we already have that study? And there's a reason why. I got a picture to show like here's your
071study stands stands we're building are made out of like metal or something like like they're made to be flooded. So, but we have to do the flood plan. It's not necessarily a bad thing. I mean, if we decide to do more improvements down in that area, these all these studies will serve um hopefully our benefit in the future. Yeah. Yeah. So, So it is kind of that that's a good thing. Those are our three big pieces right now. I feel like having a coach in the room could really lead off with our start to our spring sport. So I won't steal that thunder. Uh it's been wet. It's all I have to say. It's been extremely wet. Uh as you guys all know the weather tonight, uh we actually had to postpone the game that
072night and move it to tomorrow. But uh spring sports is in full full action. Uh, soccer's been kind of on the road because of how wet it's been. So, but it's been fun. Just really really uh wet. Exciting. It's exciting year. I don't know. You get those years you get really excited and this is one of them. I So, it's early. I mean, we're only three games in, but it's exciting. Uh, other stuff that I had I did have the opportunity to go on the fifth grade field trip this week. I got lucky and got the day that didn't pour down rain. So, I heard the first day was really wet, which what was that? Tuesday, I think. Uh, yeah, Tuesday it rained. But, uh, we were able to go down. It was fun. They
073got to release their their fish and stuff. And then they did a fun project at the end. Uh, it was fish art. So, they had to go around and find tree limbs or anything that wasn't attached and they had to create a fish out of the, you know, the tree branches or leaves. See a picture of that. Well, they have a ton of them. They're going to make a they're going to make a whole mural, I think, of all the the ones that they made. It's inspired by and I don't know the guy's name, but there's uh there's an artist that I guess did this in the Pacific Northwest. So, I was kind of inspired about that. So, like that was a fun trip. I I kind of wanted to also thank the ASB for
074the invitation to the presentation. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go because we had a Oakland game, but yeah, I that's what I was going to ask. I won't steal your thunder. I'm just saying thank you. Not the factory. Uh other than that, let's see what else I have on my list. I I did I was going to say it when uh Greg was here, but my fourth grader really liked the presenter on Louiswis and Clark. He came home and said everything about it. It was really exciting to see him come home and share stuff from school because it's not always the case, right? They don't always share, but you can tell when they're really excited and they come home and share material. So, that's uh Job well done. That's great. You know you're old when
075you remember that guy coming in with real guns. You remember the year where we had to say, "I don't think you do that anymore." That was when we could all drive our trucks to school without shots. That's right. I remember those days. And then the other thing that popped in my head, I've been kind of doing some research and I kind of fell across this that uh for the good of the order, some districts choose to sit in on staff meetings and then kind of report back on as such. uh the board that I picked out that was doing they actually do a state of the district address that is actually from one of the board members to the staff that has been basically put together but I thought that was kind of interesting and
076see and then listen to staff comments something that I'm researching so I just kind of but that I don't I haven't done anything but watch it so I don't know how that would work so just other than that that's all I have Stephanie um I just was going to share back on the Isaac Butts um staff presentation. I sat in on the high schools, but I had talked to actually um one of the middle school staff that had been there the day before. And um you know, really staff soft work at 3:30 and um the middle school team, I think they were still heavily engaged at 5 and the high school is still going strong well past 4:30 for both days. Um and if if there weren't teachers were missing, I wouldn't have known. I
077mean it was it was very very well presented um or represented by all the staff. Uh I think the students did a great job of I think they handwrote invitations. They may have you know uh I don't just feel like guilty but I think the kids actually did a really important job of um speaking to the staff of how important they are as part of um kind of rebuilding some culture. And uh from the teacher standpoint, I thought he did such a good job of speaking into their calling versus their career. Um he was very passionate about that. He reminded them of their power to be a hero that um every educator has a chance to literally change a child's life. that you never know what child when somebody chooses to see something in them
078and to basically help foster that potential what that really you know can do to change an entire life. Um but then he really the part that I think I loved is he really spoke to the staff about he gave them lots of opportunities. What do you want to see? and you know they're they're putting all their hopes and dreams out there and then he really just challenged them and I believe he did this with the students as well of well whatever you want you have to be the first to bring and and he was actually picking on Travis Bernrock for one of the moments because one of the words that Travis said was um he wanted school to be fun and so he's like okay Mark was in there he's like well are you fun
079I mean he was just being you know but he's like you got to bring the fun if you want the fun you have to be willing to bring it not just to sit sit around and wait for somebody else, not to wait for your administrator to get fun or, you know, the kids to get fun. You've got to bring the fun. And I think you just did a really good job of um inspiring them at a very personal level to be accountable for their own personal contribution instead of being kind of critical about what other people are or are not doing. Um I don't know. I I felt like it was just a really good grounding that everybody I think for the investment that the ASB kids did I think it will yield some really
080good fruit. So, I love being part of it. And I think um in response to your thought, Michael, I feel like I got overwhelming um gratitude for being present of of either noticing the board just being aware and present to learning about what they're trying to learn about. So, I I do feel like that might be well received at large. Well, I'll keep doing some research and kind of bring some stuff back in because I just caught it when I was watching something because I was trying to I was trying to do something else. You always catch something when you're doing research for other stuff. I was like, wait a second. Did they just say that? Okay. So, want to see how they do it before I like, hey, let's try this. Uh, I don't
081have a school share. I have a school share. It's kind of a personal share, but we have a young lady in our home that's been in our house since August and had to make up about half year school from last year and she's made that up. She's a running star at ASU. She's been accepted to five nursing programs across the nation, St. Mary's being one of them. And she is uh officially accepted as a Rebel UNLV. Here we go. And two scholarships from them as well. So onward and upward. The opportunities presented to her at the district have been fabulous. And so we're super proud of her. See, somebody was her hero. Yeah. Yeah. Not sure, but she's doing it. Nice job. Great. Oh, it is. I don't have anything. All right. Uh, looks like
082next I'm just uh looking at future agenda items. Next meeting's April 9th, focus on kids. And then before we break this down, everybody have a great spring break. Welld deserved. Have some time off. Enjoy your family. enjoy enjoy your family if you can. Uh, you know, it sounds like it's still gonna be wet, but everybody in this room is working next week. Look at your face. All right. Okay. So, preacher, everybody else enjoy your break. With that, I'm taking off I'm taking off different time for one. Does anybody want a motion? Make a motion that we adjourn the meeting. It's been moved and second to adjurnn the meeting. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. All those post say nay. Motion carried. Meeting agenda.