Regular Board Meeting - Thursday, May 15

001meeting. We do plan to share this recording publicly in the event that a student, parent, staff, or community member would like to know what was discussed. If you do not wish to be recorded, please let us know at this time. Thank you, Bonnie. I'll call this meeting to order tonight at 6:02 p.m. Please rise if you're able for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible and justice for all. Thank you. All right. So, our first order of business tonight is for recognition. Uh, and we have a nice lots of things to celebrate tonight. So, we're going to get right to it. Um, so let's start with Renee. Paulie, would you please Oh, there you are.

002Would you please come to the podium and join us up front? So Renee is a full-time teacher at boarding high school as well as the ASB adviser. She oversees ASB and all the compliance and has transformed that into a studentled organization where student voice is at the root of their work. Additionally, this year Renee took on the added duties of supporting leadership in addition to her previous role of supporting the senior class. She has done a tremendous job of planning and organizing activities that honor student voice, empower students to support their school and local community, and to bring the community into our facilities to support our students. From bizaars, hot dog nights, student recognition assemblies, and our upcoming graduation, which she's masterful at organizing, Renee must never sleep as she is constantly dreaming up new

003ways to support our kids. As a board, we are committed to building student agency. Some of the best lessons live outside the classroom, and it takes caring adults to support our students to make these dreams happen. So, thank you, Renee, for being an excellent partner and bridge between our students and the local community. So, we want to honor you tonight. And we've got pictures and a gift. Yes. Sorry, I had to like take this. We do. So, four, please join me. It's customary when we honor and recognize someone that we get a picture in front of the wall of fame. Are not famous already. Yeah. Yeah. We've got lots to celebrate tonight, but we just want to honor your work and your dedication to our kids. And thank you so much. Okay. Make sure squeeze

004in. Squeeze. I love it. Okay. [Applause] Up down. That's good. All right, sister. Polly, come on up. Oh, he's got his hat. All right. As the athletic director for our district, you know what? I I just want to stop first and say we have all recognized you at every event after hours. They're next to our students. So now I'm going to read what I'm supposed to read, but I want I want to honor and recognize you for doing that. Like at any moment if I saw someone at a football game get ejected and the second I blinked, you were right next to that student helping him through that moment. And so that is not going unnoticed. So, I want to thank you for that. Okay, has to fill in for coaching once. Right. Right. So,

005Tyler, you as our athletic director have been instrumental in assisting the board in growing programs aligned to student and league interest. During your tenure, you have increased programming at the middle school and high school levels, and students are thriving. uh you manage the difficult task of ensuring our community-owned facilities are accessible and available for our students and local community. We know this is an ongoing challenge as the overcrowding in our schools also translates into not enough recreational facilities. You have helped to support our parent volunteers and boosters which directly supports our goal around community connection and partnership. Lastly, you are simply always there. Let's start out by saying that you are visible involved and we appreciate your ongoing connection and support in the building in building and support in building so that our coaches and

006student athletes thrive. On a special note, OS wrestling head coach was recently named the wrestling coach of the year and our assistant coaches were named the national assistant coaches of the year and we put that in your purview. So, congratulations and Before we do anything, I'm going to ask for forgiveness later, but I want to say this. I want to do this now, while Tyler and Miss Buckles are both still here. I want to thank both of them for the push that you gave this year to enable my autistic grandson to participate on a team for the very first time in his life. It has changed him a lot socially. He works harder at school. He gets more work done. And not only is it good for him, but I have two little things I'm

007going to share. One, after the last meet, JJ went over to another kid and tapped him and made a joke about their hat. Okay, JJ's never done something like that. And then JJ sat down to do bottle flipping, which he's very good at, and he does the challenge on like one bottle on top of the other bottle. And kids kept stopping by and saying, "Wow, JJ, you're so good at that." I know you can do that. I know one of these days he's going to do that. So the kids were it were coming to watch him and his talents. And then the thing was going to make me cry and Miss Buckles is the only other one that knows this. So on the summer team there is a girl who has visual impairments and probably

008CP and she has a pair that runs with her. They're tethered. Everybody watches her. They want to know what that she has done. And the boys couldn't run till she was done. And she actually fell down one time on the course. Her parent helps her up. Everybody's watching her. As she starts coming in, all the teams lined up along the finish line. All the kids lined up along the finish line applauded and clapped for her. the the audience, everybody was clapping and applauding for her because they saw this is somebody who gave her all and everybody respected her and everybody cared about her. And so we're not just teaching kids how to be an athlete, but we're teaching them how to be on a team. And that helps them. Not only the kids, the special

009needs kids that are helped, but everybody else learns that we're a community made up of all kinds of people and we're all important on that team. And so I want to applaud the two of you for having real sportsmanship, not just competition, but real sportsmanship. So sorry they had to be here. Yeah. Yeah. No, you're good. Mrs. Buckold gets more credit for that than I do. But you both made it happen. That's the kind of culture that we have and prove that. So, thank you. So, picture for you. for all your activities. Adults adult. [Music] Okay. Ready? One, two, three. [Music] [Applause] No, you're good. You're good. I love I love those examples. All right. So, we've got two very important bond task force members with us. Lovely. Brandon, do you want to come to

010the podium? Well, hold hands. However, you need to make it happen. So, as we were approaching bond discussions, uh we wanted to the board uh agreed we wanted to do something different this go around and uh putting together the bond task force. We didn't know what to expect. We put the ask to the community out there and invited people who had really any connection to the district. whether you had students in the district, you were an employee of the district, you were a community member, maybe you had a job skill we thought could be applicable to the conversation and we had a phenomenal response and I believe we had 12 12 total task members. We were shooting for five and it it took a substantial commitment to be on the task force. It wasn't just

011a you know a volunteer meeting you generally show up to. It was very specific meetings. Um, attendance was expected and we gave the bond task force members just this incredible uh drinking from a fire hydrant volume of data that we've collected through our previous bond attempts. Everything from uh voter demographics to student enrollment projections, information from architects, information from environmental planning, like just You can't like it was a it was stacks and stacks of paper. Um and the bonds Yeah. Yeah. And the the task bond task force role was to learn that information, study it during their day. They took time off to do tours of our schools and see firsthand what our students and staff were experiencing. Uh the good, the bad, and the oh my gosh. So, uh, tonight we want to recognize

012the efforts of the bond task force, the work that they have put into understanding the district's facility situation uh, and to uh, celebrate their ideas and recommendations that they have brought forward to the board uh, and discussed with us and really kind of explain the why behind some of the ideas that have come forward. So, um, tonight we have two mom task force members with us, both Lenny and Brandy Win, who are really interesting that you both showed up because you both bring such different perspectives. And so, we have uh, one more thing, the bond task force, they had to apply for it and uh, kind of put a resume together for it, explain why it mattered. And we want to make sure that you know that that work uh was critical to us getting

013to that next step for our district. Um put it on your resume. Be proud of it. If you need a reference, I'm here. Me, too. And we're looking forward to what comes next. Yes. With the bond. So, we have certificates for you. Yes. keys. But now I have to find Oh, conveniently bring you in. I know. Hold on. You need to help me out. Oh, right there. Okay. One more time. One more time. You can't get through district committee without a mug to remember your word retirement. My daughter was like to you. So come and get a picture of the wall of fame. We need to turn this into a wall of picture. Yeah. Oh, okay. Ready? Okay. One, two, three. All right. [Applause] Thank you so much. [Music] All right, we will catch up

014with the additional passport members. All right. So, we have a few more things that we definitely want to recognize. Um, Ford, I will turn it over to you to fix those next few items. Well, um, I don't know how it ended up, but I love that the high school had their plant sale and so I love plants and I love to shop, but it was really cool. The kids are really good and it was fun. So, I just want to shout out to them. Um, and as part of our effort to support smooth transitions between grade levels, our fifth grade students recently visited middle school to get a firsthand look at sixth grade. And I know firsthand it was fun and Nora's thrilled that she could pick out classes first year. Um, anyways, and the

015what I'm really supposed to say here. Okay. During their visit, students played games, toured classrooms, and learned about the programs and classes has to offer, like I just said, and a big thank you to our staff and student leaders who helped create a welcoming and informative experience. I'll take a moment to uh recognize Orton High School's FFA students um who once again this year visited classrooms across the district to educate the younger students about agriculture leadership and the opportunities available through the FFA program. Uh students participated in engaging activities such as build the emblem, pin the product, and picked a farming. uh sparking curiosity, yes, and excitement about the agricultural education. Thank you to our FFA members and adviserss for inspiring the next generation. And to add to that, the cows are now at LMS

016and that students are enjoying them. Um, I want to recognize um middle school band teacher Colin uh Gribbling um who recently was featured in Voice Journal of Washington Music Educators Association. Um the article praised Mr. uh G's transformation um work in the MS band program stating that he has created um a space where students flourish building confidence and developing love for music. Thank you Mr. Griggling um for your passion and dedication to the music education and I'd like to do another one if that's okay. Um I don't know if uh many people think to go to like the art shows um specifically that are put on. I've gone to a couple of them at the middle school. Um but this year we actually had an Oring High School student Miranda Rios who earned third place

017in the junior senior high school art show at the Popup Spring Fair for her piece titled My Angel. Um congratulations to Miranda on this impressive achie achievement and for representing boarding with such artistic excellence. I think that's a really big deal. Yeah, I would add the I think it was Alexis whose photo got collected for the FSA card. Again, really cool way of integrating art and program. I'll give a shout out to Hidden Lake Kung Fu. Uh Target students Brennan and Jaylen participated in the 10-minute kicking challenge. Seems like it be pretty hard. 10 minutes of kicking and uh Jaylen reached 593 kicks and Brennan reached an incredible 757 kicks and together they raised $1,000 for PTR. Oh wow. So that's fantastic. So I just want to thank you to Brendan and Jaylen and Himlight

018Kung Fu for your dedication. Absolutely. Dedication. That's a lot of kicks and support of the school community. So really cool. Awesome. Okay. Thanks. Some some of these we have to read about. We don't want to miss any details. So, it feels funny sometimes reading it out loud to you, but there's a lot each each month to celebrate throughout our district. And so, we want to make sure we recognize uh recognize when we can and and share that publicly with the the community through our videos and audio now that we have audio tonight. Great. Anything else board members? Okay. Uh, next item is community and staff comments. I don't believe there are any. Thank you. And should excuse everybody before your report or after the report? Most of them have to stay actually, but yes. Okay.

019Two get off the hook. All right. Two might want to stay. Maybe three. But yeah, she's already done that. Yeah, it's customary when you get through recognition that I, you know, I invite if if you want to leave, no hard feelings. If you want to stay though, it's a really cool experience. Everybody's always invited to stay. You feel like you have to cuz they're staying. But it's okay. You can go, too. Stop. You can do it. It's like the last one. You have to skip. You know what? I'm going to [Music] All right. Uh, happy to share some great news since we last met in April with a few videos. I thought you'd like to hear and see some student voice that we're putting out there. Uh we were able to host a couple weeks

020ago a regional learning event. Dr. Paul Bloomberg was here presenting to WASA region 111 which is all of Pierce County. So our teachers or administrators were sitting side by side with uh school leaders from throughout the county really thinking about assessment for learning agency. How do we put that into practice? Uh because we're hosting we're able to get a lot of folks in attendance. So we had some free books to pass out. same book actually that you had amplify learner voice and that sparked a lot of not only reflection and understanding about how some of the things we've been doing are really working to accelerate student learning but it gave us some good ideas and time to think about how do we build and where we go from here so should be a good launch

021and a connection to our launch next fall which we'll talk about in a little bit. Uh thought you'd like to see a few photos of what it looked like with FFA visiting our elementary schools. Uh they were capturing both Oring Elementary and Tarmaggan Ridge. And if you were watching social media, you saw lots of positive comments. Parents were raving like, "Oh my gosh, my kid had such a great time." Uh and the smiles and the engagement were just huge. So kudos to FFA for continuing that that call to really get out in our schools and spread the message in the news. Uh we did have a work session. Uh we're going to unveil the world premiere of our strategic plan review. Uh but keeping in mind where we're going next year is really around that

022word agency. That's been one of the vehicles to really empower our staff, empower our learners. Uh Dr. Paul Bloomberg will be our keynote speaker and really talk about that idea, but he's going to speak to it not just through the instructional lens, but how can we really create a culture of belonging and inclusion in our school cafeterias, on our playgrounds, in our uh yellow fleet, things like that. So, it should be a message everybody can connect to with some time to work with our instructional staff as well. Uh, but the stars of the show really reaffirming year two of your strategic plan, Jaden and Carly, we're going to play a video so we can uh sneak peek what it's going to sound like, but then when this rolls public to the community in about a

023week or so. Oo. Hey, Oring your student board representatives. I'm Jaden. And I'm Carly. And we are here to introduce to you the Oring Strategic Plan. This plan isn't just about our academics. It's about us, our goals, our future, and our voices. Our district came together, students, families, teachers, and community members to dream up what learning should look like for every student. And together, we built a plan focused on four big goals. We're aiming for real life, meaningful academic growth, which means high expectations and teachers who believe in us. It's not just about grades. It's about learning who we are and where we are headed. Learning doesn't stop at the school doors. We're building stronger connections with our families and community. When we partner with our community, we get more opportunities like dual credit, internships,

024and supports for your goals. School isn't just about academics. It's also about how we feel. This goal focuses on social and emotional growth. We are learning to lead, manage challenges, and grow into our best selves, all while feeling safe, supported, and safe. Every student's different and that's our strength. This goal is about making sure we get the help we need. Whether it's in class, emotionally, or with our future planning. These goals are more than just words on a page. They're a promise. I promise to support our growth, to listen to our voices and to make sure we feel connected, inspired, and empowered. Let's do this together. Every student, every day. [Applause] So, uh, kudos to you both for continuing to elevate student voice. We're excited for your report. Excited to really continue this work across

025the county and the state. I've talked to many other superintendents and they're really stoked to work with the future you and next year you and who that replacement will be to really keep going with that work of elevating voice and building agency throughout the region. So, uh, kudos to you and that work is gaining traction. So that's a really cool celebration for us. Uh bomb task force. So we did have that culminating activity on May 1st. They started back in January with the application process. Uh as you heard reviewed a mountain of data and some of the key things that we heard from the task force. The urgent needs in the system cannot be ignored. Uh what they really found is there's more to do than you can even do in one bond. So they

026were seeing we need a second, we need a third. their uh staff are doing way more than they really thought they were uh with the facilities and they saw the constraints and how staff are adapting uh to those challenges and they were really impressed. So uh you challenged them with really prioritizing and that's where the conversation really started to sharpen focus unanimous agreement that boarding elementary school needed a replacement. Uh I think a few of them are a little bit shocked to find out that that would actually end up being our new high school. But that's the way we would have to face it because over time you have to do these things in spaces because we have to educate the kids and have the room to do so as we're paying attention to future

027needs. Uh right there right behind it or high school uh as a group they felt like that is right up there on the urgency list. Uh they had great conversations about what about replacing the gymnasium, what about classrooms, what about the 70-year-old gym that looks like it's rickety and kind of falling down. And really the recommendation surfaced if they had to prioritize the general trend is focusing on career technical education. And I think one of the pieces that led to that is when they talked to students who said, "We can't do the types of things we need to do because we don't have enough space. We don't have the right equipment." And when they heard stories of graduates that were unsuccessful when they left here because they didn't have access to the kind of training

028and equipment that other graduates had, that really sparked their recommendation. So their recommendation coming out of May first though was to run a laser focus, that's their language, bond next time around. So uh we really do appreciate that recommendation. We're drafting some pricing for you that the committee saw. And so probably June, July, somewhere in there, I'll have a recommendation for you to consider for a November 2025 bond. I believe that's representative representative of your wishes next year so you don't piggyback a bond and a levy at the same election cycle because remember we do have to run an EPO levy next year for that four-year renewal. So, I'll do some additional work with our architect about pricing and considerations, but I just wanted to bring that outcome publicly to you all and so our

029local community gets a sense of what happened. As a reminder though to the community, all of that data and information they saw is available on our website. So, you can be open and transparent and find out all that information if you'd like. Fifth grade camp, I came back today. PTR was last week, OES this week. Oh my gosh, our staff are loving it. Kids are loving it. This is the first time postco we added the overnight component and they are loving it and everybody has a different favorite. Archery tag was a hit today. Canoeing uh the human foosball my god they were having so much fun. So we're going to have a lot of tired kids and staff tomorrow but I would say at both schools they're already planning and debriefing about what they can

030do for next year. Unanimous consensus among staff that they loved it and so did the kids. And our high school students benefited greatly as well. So, it was a great activity. Uh, rated two thumbs up. Two thumbs up. Good. Uh, two thumbs up. Also, cultural unity fair. Our staff came together, did lots of art projects, engagements, songs, dances. We're continuing continually grateful for the partnership with the Colop tribe, which had representation again this year. Uh, family partnerships were huge. So, Eli uh got a partner in hosting. uh Ariana, they did a wonderful job as student MC's from MS. So, big shout out to them and all the staff that helped to make that possible with the activities and events. Uh our boarding high school culinary students rocked it. Uh we did fewer booths but more

031food this year and as you saw, we rationed with tickets. Most of you were there. That stretched it a little bit further, but boy, that food was gone pretty quick still. So, we're debriefing and thinking about how we can even add more. Satai family brought the fried bread uh and the Marquez family, the Kalúa pork. They cooked the emu the week before with a couple whole hogs. So, we're really grateful to the family partnerships. We'd love to expand that. Uh the closing act was the middle school jazz band. I just have 15 seconds. I thought you'd like to hear. They sound better than most high school programs. It's absolutely insane. If you can hear it, it'll be really good. [Music] Man, I they're going places and that program is going to only just thrive when

032they get to the high school as well. So, kudos to Mr. G. National coach of the year. I don't know. I think this is new and I don't think we ever had a national coach of the year, but the National Wrestling Coaches Association named Jody Coleman as national coach of the year for section 8. And his assistant coaching staff was named the assistant wrestling coaches of the year as well, also for section 8. So, shout out to all of those folks. And that's not just representative of them, but the leadership, but the families for every Saturday since those kids were five and the junior card programs that grow and feed. uh they're having great success and it's really a community uh effort on that. So, we're pretty happy to see that success. Uh I have

033another video I want to share just because I want to have you see and hear how we're elevating student voice. We're coming off the heels of certificated staff appreciation week. Uh this was a cool thing that I think Britney dreamed up and I'd love it. She not only solicited input from the local community about staff to recognize and there were 3540 people so much so that we were just clustering it but she challenge kids to interview their staff and I wanted you to see those videos cuz I think it's pretty [Music] sweet that yeah it'll miss Carson what do you do here I am the library tech specialist. So I teach library and then technology. So we do lots with computers and then learning about books and um different things in the library. But most

034of it is technology. So I see eight to nine classes a day, 5 days a week. More than 700 students, so we're really busy in the library, but again it's library/technology. Nice. That's amazing work you do here. Thank you. What is your name and what do you do here? My name is Michelle Foria and I'm an early childhood special education teacher here for ages 3 to 5. What's your name and and what do you do here? My name is Maryanne Portman. I am the title lab teacher. So, I teach kids how to read. Mrs. Carlson, what is one thing students might not know you do outside the classroom? Okay. Uh, you may not know that I am a chicken farmer. So, I have 23 chickens at my house and I just incubated um eggs and

035then hatched out baby chicks. So, I love chickens and I um am a chicken farmer. How are you? Prepare of a day of teaching. um coffee every day coffee and then um I have a team that I work with and we sit down every morning and talk about what our plan is for the day, any struggles that might have happened the day before or the week before and any changes we need to make for the upcoming day. Can you share a memorable moment that makes you proud? Well, teaching a reading, I work with a lot of different students here at Tarmaggan Ridge, and one thing that makes me feel proud is seeing the students read and meeting their reading goals. So, that makes me feel proud. What helps you stay motivated on even on busy

036days? I love what I do. I've been doing it for about 14 years and every day is an adventure. Thanks, certificated staff. Thank you, certificated staff. Thank you, certificated staff. [Applause] [Music] So, as you set these goals, you've set kind of this idea that it doesn't just live some of these measures in a percent. It's in the stories and what's happening. And so we just wanted to bring back some of that to you to know how we're trying to actionize that idea of how do we empower kids? How do we empower staff? How do we elevate those voices? Uh cool creative idea. What we're going to come up with next year, I don't know, but wanted to get that out there because we really love hearing those stories and having kids in the driver's seat

037talking to the adults that are supporting them. Big news coming out of session. There's not a lot of good news, but this is one of those. Uh we pleaded with our representatives on the 31st and 25th for support and advocacy around the early learning center and senators Fortunado, Representatives Penner and Stokesberry, Senator Gildon in the 25th. We're huge. Last year we started the conversation with Representative Bart Kiss in the 25th. Uh, so we've been starting this advocacy since 2023 and I'm proud to say that we're already got the largest award of any school district with $4.5 million. That'll help build an eight classroom early learning facility that'll allow us to effectively double the amount of early learning students we serve between what we house and Pierce County through the ECAP program. Uh, that'll build a

038eight classroom modular facility. Pierce County has committed funds for a new ADA accessible playground. And then we have one of four districts in the county to get funding for uh community garden space. If you don't recall, childhood obesity for the youngest learners is an all-time high. And Senator Murray earmarked some funds to the county to help with scratchbased cooking, community based gardening. How do we help really change the food scape so families learn how to prepare healthier meals and such? Uh so that will start sometime and uh Cliff's not here, but he's going to figure out how to do all this starting July 1st. as part of his new job. Uh we're very appreciative uh with our representative support. Uh that really wraps up a whole lot of videos, but lot to celebrate here as

039we're wrapping down uh the school year. That's amazing. That's really great. Yeah, that's amazing. Thank you. Thank you very much. And Britney, well done on those videos. Yes. All right. Lots of good stuff to talk about. First report of the night. Students, it's short this week or this month. It's short, but you know, we still have it. Do Do you want to start or do you want me to start? Um, you got that. Okay. Um, so there's a couple of notes and like little celebration things here that I wanted to mention. Um, earlier this week, three students from Oring High School um are were recognized as a AAW scholars. Um, yeah, including me. Um, I got recognized for science and then Abby Collins for math and Crawford for CT. That was super. They were so

040sweet and it was like the coolest thing I think I've gone through. Well, it was cool. That's it was cool. Um, got to see a lot of people from a lot of the schools and it it was really good opportunity. Um, and then earlier this month, jazz performed at the Belby Jazz Festival and received second in our division. It's a little sad because we were so close to getting first, but yeah. So, um, still good. And then earlier today actually there was a an assembly that recognized all CT clubs um for going to state and their achievements and I thought that was just I don't think we've ever done that in previous years that I can really remember. It was kind of like brief but we had a whole assembly like dedicated to that and

041I thought that was a really cool thing to see and see how you know usually those things kind of get overlooked with like sports and other type of fun activities but RCT clubs and other stuff. The recognition today and it was really cool and I think a lot of people were really engaged and like noticing how much they're actually doing and how many opportunities are getting through those clubs which I definitely learned a lot about clubs today. So that was really cool to see. Um band has their last concert next Wednesday on the 21st and then choir has theirs the following week um on the 28th. Yes. Okay. So, um sports, not a lot is happening, but then also like a lot is kind of happening. Um so, track, many students made it to district,

042so I'm not sure when they're leaving for that, but softball, um actually leaves for district tomorrow morning. And then baseball is currently in playoffs. I'm not sure when the next game is, but um soccer, they did a lot better than last year. Um, I'm just I'm so happy to see all this all the kids that tried out this year and I'm I I love seeing them just connect. That's something I definitely wish I stayed on this year, but um um but yeah, so for sports, wish them all the best of luck. Um we also did speak to a handful of students at the high school this last week and it was very like not surface level just very broad quick type of questions. It was again just what do you recognize in your school and

043what do you want to see improve. Um a lot of stu students recognize the need for more engagement and spirit within the school. Um especially engagement within the classroom is like lacking the motivation to do school anymore. I know a lot of people are currently going through that weird slump of like it's so close to the end still and so far. So there's very like motivation to really get through um class anymore. Um but just tying to that whole child and sense of belonging aspect that we've been focused so much on um like making sure that a student really feels like they make an impact in the classroom that they're in and that they're like that the classroom would be different if they weren't there. I've never get I've like also sorry I've also realized

044um recently more recently I've never heard so many students get excited about a work period rather than lectures and projects and busy work um just because they're we're in a weird slump and it's they're falling behind and then they're catching up and then also it's like that brain break that you kind of need to reset for like maybe half a class period or something that's just I need the time to really process. Okay, I have to get this done and then I have time to get this done. Um we were just on a testing schedule where we had two hour blocks um of like intervention time kind of for sophomores to do their testings. And I know a lot of people that really like use that time to get a lot of stuff done. Me

045included. I finish an essay in that too or a blog. And so um those type of things I've realized that are like really helping students. Um another thing that I real that student said um is spirit especially within sports and showing up to be there with their peers and other students um for fall season that volleyball games and football games everyone is kind of showing up and showing out for those games. But then when it comes to later on seasons of like winter and spring season, they're kind of more outdoor and then there's not really a lot of like it's not like trend I guess to go sit and watch like a softball game or a track meet or other things like that. Um so um especially with some of the seniors this year, they

046felt as if they were lacking appreciation for what they were involved in and because a lot of people didn't really show up for their senior nights or students at least um and just didn't see the student body within them, which was something that they mentioned. Do you guys do those working throughout the year? Um, it's only this time of year cuz I do the state testing. Yeah. So it was the last three weeks I think which I feel is a lot better than like um what we've done in the past because I from experience um coming to school or being in uh three classes for two periods or two hours. Yeah, that is just insane to me. I could not do that. Um so I definitely like it a lot this year and I'm sure

047other kids do too. So good. Hope that's something that is continued. I feel like for the seniors these last You know, these last weeks you have all your senior stuff and all your classroom stuff and all everything heavy years. School has been feeling very optional lately. I'm a little sad that you're like winter sport athletes feel neglected. I guess probably not just by the peers but others as well. We all know community kind of turns out for football and what have you. That makes me a little bit sad. Makes me want to get up a little bit too. But do you think that is because um they do you think winning or losing has anything to do with it? I don't. How do you get the kids there? What do you think? I think it's

048just like it there's it's a follow the crowd thing. Everyone goes to the Friday night football games and it's such a like a every year tradition, whatever. Oh, it's cool and fun to go. Even if they're losers, half the time people don't even really watch food. I think a good way to like really get other games is like kind of bring it up to people's attention. Make it attention. Make it where people want to have some food there. I don't know. like um I know a lot of people don't even know what like the fields look like or where they're even going to sit type of thing. So just like and yet here our fast fiction baseball teams are going into postseason play. So thank you very much for your reports. Appreciate it. Um, I

049forgot to mention something really cool during our recognition that happened. We had the soldiers home bring a band of veterans to the baseball game. I didn't get to see it personally, but I was overjoyed to hear that they had I don't know if the students invited them or if it was an outing from the soldiers home, but I just love seeing that connection, the community connection. I found out it was really cool. I'm watching you. Yeah, I saw a picture where the wheelchairs were right up back so they could get a good seat in the house and Yeah, I love that. We do more of that. Wow. How did they do that? Because the fields about I don't know. Did they drive their van down to the field so it was easy to navigate? Yeah,

050they drove right up. We have handicap parking right in the field. So they pulled right up and unloaded from the van and it wasn't too bad. Do you know did they think of that on their own or did they get invited? Do you know? They thought of it on their own. Oh wow. That's cool. But while we were there we already made plans for the fall coming to football games. Yes. I love that. Very cool. Very cool. So yeah more from Veterans Senior Center. the solo. Wow. Just help build up some more crowds for our spring sports. That would be good. I need to get out there, too. Perfect. Okay, you guys are kind of down to like weeks. Like weeks. No pressure. That's why you said optional. Yeah. Like optional. All right. Optional. All

051right. Next report we have is the financial report and the numbers I left. All good. All right. Thank you for now presented by Director Christensen the semianual employee engagement survey. appreciate it. Good evening board and student representatives. As you know, each year we do for eight years at least we have done the employee engagement survey with our approximately 37 employees that work throughout the district. This does go out to everybody uh throughout the district and we uh we do it in the spring and the fall. So within the survey we have um four different categories that we can choose as employees with one being which is completely strongly disagree two being we disagree being we agree and four being strongly agree. So we want to look for threes and fours and fix the ones and

052twos right we want to be able to move this forward. So this year I'm doing this spring. I guess I'm doing it a little bit differently. Typically, I bring you the information and it's in a one-year book. So, we look at fall and we look at spring. But quite frankly, I think people have different attitudes in fall than spring. And so, I wanted to do a year-over-year look and I hope that that works for you too. So, but I am going to give you some general information from Jeff this year before we dive into some other slides. So, one of the things that we did uh that we do each time is we look at people uh participating in the survey by location. And you can see here that the It's funny, I paused because

053I was going to say orange, but it looks red to me up here tonight. So, the uh red, which is um PTR, has higher participation, but overall we have had participate in the fall and 150 employees in the spring. And you'll notice as we go through this and we start looking at last spring versus this spring that there's been a decrease technically every year with our participation. And um part of that I think from some of the comments is people really want to in transparency just see what is it that we are doing to make a difference. But also when we you may remember you've heard me say this before when we started doing the employee engagement survey the company Pauls that we originally used for this they said if we could get 30 to

05440% participation that we were doing good and that was a nice overlay of what it looks like in our environment and we do still have that although we are trending pretty close to 40%. You can see that our participation uh is similar at the three schools. It's the other three schools it's dropped a little bit but PT had additional participation with regard to who participated. So our certificated staff, our classified staff, nonrepresented and administrators. Boy, those pie charts look pretty similar to me. So I think we are getting a similar um grouping of participation as we go through the future. So this is where I've got this slide and the next slide that are just going to share information. Now I said one through four, but what you're looking for is the red and the

055blue are what I'll say it differently. The blues and the reds are ones and twos. The yellow and the green are threes and fours. So we're looking to trend with threes and fours are yellow and green for the answers for the 12 questions that we have and continue to improve with regard to the blue and red. So, this is in the fall of this year and I know I'm going to flip to the next page and you're not going to have that same look, but believe me, with my eyes, it was not going to work to have them both on the same page. So, uh this is the other one and I think what you'll packet or for the audience who might be looking at our board docs online. Um they can scroll back and

056forth from this presentation and see that they're somewhat similar. We've had some increases and decreases. Um but basically it was interesting to find out that if you read the small print at the bottom where it's talking about the various questions, you'll see that there's some growth in ownership. How will I feel about my job and the ownership that I have over doing that job? There's also some growth in from year to year in support from supervisors in communication and feeling valued. We've talked a lot about that in the district and so we're seeing some really good trends. Um the one that we had a slight decline in is really and I'll show you in a minute, but we separated some of the questions. You might remember that we had 10 questions before and we now

057this year had 12. And that's because we were trying to separate and find out Is this happening at your site or is this the district at large? And one of the things that we saw in the overall trend, if you really get dive into it, you'll see that with regard to communication about district level events, we still have some work to do. And that's obviously not excuses. We've got work to do, but it's obviously harder to get the information to every corner of the district versus right in the the site where activities are happening. That was something that we noted. So, um, start diving into some of the questions here. So, on this slide, the way that I'm going to present to you is I'm going to take what I consider the threes and the

058fours. And on this slide, the colors are all the same for each period. But you'll notice, as I said, that we're looking at spring last year and spring this year. So, in my mind, everyone's mood is kind of the same because it's a similar type of year. But the threes and the fours are um in every chart that you see will be to the far right of each of the the graphs. So this year with regard to what employees feel that they've been given the opportunity or that ownership, we know from what I just said that it's gone up. There's 90% of employees in this year that feel that they have ownership over their work. Last year just slightly lower. It was 86.4. that show some improvement. The next one is uh employees that agree

059that they are given the resources needed to do their best work. And this year, if you were to combine the threes and fours on the right in the spring 2025, you would get 76% whereas last year it was 68.6. So again just trending upward with the next one we have uh that employees feel encouraged to come up with new and better ideas. So kind of those efficiency models and such and we have 77% on that and you can tell that there's a slight improvement left all the questions that went into just going back to the the resources I need to do my best. Do you think our facility constraints play into that? Yes, it was a strong and consistent theme in our comments. So, yes, thank you. Sorry, 11. Okay. Um, so I did speak

060to that one. So on number 12, uh just looking at employees that feel their co-workers and themselves are good at resolving conflict effectively. So how do I interact with others in the workplace and that's at 83% and it's fairly close to what it was last year. Um it's just a few more are in the course which is also a good trend because in that they strongly agree. The next one is that supervisors provide constructive feedback to support the ability for employees to meet their goals without putting barriers up. And we're at 79% in last year. It was 76.3, but you will note that there is uh there are more threes than fours in this year's data. So the number went up overall, but um people chose agree rather than strongly agree. The next one is

061uh that employees feel that supervisors are taking time to explain how changes in the organization will impact them and uh we're at 70% 70.7 and last year was 73. So this is uh referencing what I was talking earlier where there at least there is some thought that across the organization there might be more information and to be clear on what's going on um throughout the organization. The next one is supervisor uh treats them with respect and supports collaboration across the school or department and then 87% for those threes and fours combined and last year was 84. Now this one and the next one are remember I said there was there were 10 questions and now this year we have 12. So this is where it starts being divided. So on slide 16 here we separated

062it so that we can look at what does it look like in the work site and then on the next slide I'll show you what it looks like across the district. So on this one um whether there's good communication at the work site specifically 72% and last year guess what it was 55. So that's a pretty pretty good trend upward on the um and then for the next one. Of course we don't have last year spring data because we added the question for fall and spring this year but we're showing that 65% feel there's good communication uh and that's at the district level. The next one is also one that we separated and we uh did it as employees feeling valued across the at the district but this was excuse me let me say that

063differently employees feeling valued of the district within the district but it's at the work site so how is their boss treat them and this one we had 78% and last year 68.7 so this is new. We've just left it at overall and it's 76%. And the last question that we have uh for this type of graphing is really do people feel like they belong? And also important, would they recommend to someone that this is a good place to work? And we saw that 78% of our employees said that they would recommend this and they feel like they belong. Last year 75.8%. So a slight improvement but pretty. We have three open-ended questions at the end of our survey. The first one says, "What two specific things do you wish could be changed if we could

064to improve your work experience?" And we've we've not changed the concept of that question, but we have changed the wording just a little bit. Like we wanted to hone in on this is about you as an employee and your work experience. Before we didn't have those words at the end. When you look at this, you'll see the things there that they really uh communication curriculum uh flexibility. So when they talk about um see here so I can see that part uh allowing creativity and they really want increased staffing right and our jobs are hard and they want support to be able to do that and you can see that workload and planning time is important to our staff. They want uh they want to ensure fair treatment for all and they want a culture of

065appreciation. So that's a growth continued growing in our district. Then what's the one thing you don't want us to change? Like we've got to preserve this. And can I ask this one question? You bet. Is this do you have this um in the area of like which is the most comments and like this communication? Uh you know I don't specifically and it would be I I just was wondering. No, it came through authentically as questions as answers from individuals. Okay. And I don't have it. That's fine. No, this is the aggregate. You can kind of tease it a little bit more by site. And that's some of what we do with labor and then sitebased leaders or managers is try to kind of drill it down. That's the aggregate. Okay. And then we'll rank sort

066uh by site. I will say with regard to the things that came forward in these last three slides um using uh chat GBT really looking at what are the themes and that was specific and I I went at that a couple of times because I wanted to make sure that I was asking the question the right way and not eliminating anything that's important to our employee base. So, uh these are the the slides that you're seeing are the strongest message about that. Uh and then um this one is one thing we don't want us to change and that's our community, you know, sense of belonging, supportive leadership, uh some autonomy in there. And it's interesting because things that they don't that they um two things that you could change. You notice some overlap here. So

067there's some different levels of that that we haven't quite gotten underneath yet. Uh I like that on year one thing not to change, student centered focus. It's great for our employees. They not only recog with that and the effective communication and work life balance which continues to be important and the last question that we had is what's something that we didn't ask you that you wanted us to know to better support and it was interesting I feel like a lot of the questions here came they didn't know this because they they didn't answer in the same way right but um from the last two questions you'll see some of the themes coming through be sure to ask us about these things because we have more to say on that. Our next steps uh for the

068data is to send it to our buildings. Shared it with cabinet the other day. We'll share it in full with our buildings based on a drill down for their site so that they can talk with their staff and decide where to go from here. So they do see how this works out just for their building. Yes. Yes. And I actually provide the comments specific to the building to their building. I don't create any we would be here a lot past my bedtime for sure if we went through line by line but I do provide that authentically. I was just looking at this. I just have a question. Do we still have a a big problem with sub being subs? Yes. Yes. Our HR team, uh, Holly Mortonson screens our classified employees and Carrie Joy screens

069our certificated, they screen every single week and on board anyone who's eligible and has the time to come in and fill out forms. And although I don't have numbers here tonight, we are wondering what's going on because we will onboard people who are substitutes who have to pay their own money to uh, participate in the background check. and we're having a hard time getting them to engage in one or more sub assignment. And so we're wondering if people are at least I'm wondering if people are participating in multiple districts and then wherever they go first. So we're going to figure out how to swoop in. That's our new plan. We got we're gonna hold the first on that. That's what I have for you this evening. Interesting. Yeah. I want to thank you for continuing

070this survey of the employees. I think it's really important and I think um collectively as a board we've seen some great improvements. Yes. And it's um al to the staff that participate too. Thank you for doing that because nobody wants to sit behind a computer at the end of a long day with kids and do more work. But um it's very helpful. Yeah. And I appreciate it a lot. Thank you. with you. Hearing their voice is important. Yes. Very important. And we can't facilitate any changes unless we know. Yeah. And thank you for putting in the effort to tease out what they mean when when we see them on both like what do you love and then what do you want to change or see different? And it's the same thing. Like why does it

071look that way? What are they maybe what are they asking for that's not coming through clearly in those either in the question or the responses and and I like the spring to spring because you're right there's a whole what they truly wanted to know right just not as the year goes on and there's some periods of disillusionment right that people that people just naturally have when they get up for the day whether they're ster wanted to compare kind of how we feeling in May each There was a phrase uh that I wanted a little more context on. It was trying slide it was asking for workplace privacy. I wasn't sure what that was. Oh, on slide 21. It was two specific things you wish could be changed and it was facilities and environment and it

072said workspace privacy. I was curious what what you meant by that. I recall some of those responses and it was having to do with employees who work in close quarters and feel like their computer or office area is observed by others in a way that may not be as supportive as they would like to. That I can understand that. Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. Address air conditioning. Air conditioning is a thing for real. last year too. It rose to the top. I know. I don't have to invest in. Thank you. Thank you very much. And then also like sometimes changes occur but maybe they're not always tied back to the ask. I think that's always been a hard thing for any kind of employee surveying back that that change. Maybe we've, you know, added some

073additional time or communication that's not tied back to an improvement from the survey, right? That's hard. So, it's hard to ask and that's so important to ask. There's so many things that are out of our control. All right. Okay. Consent agenda. There's no discussion on these items. I'll take a motion. I move to approve items one to five on the consent agenda. Second. Thank you. All in favor? I motion passes. Under action items, we have the 26 27 calendar. I'm so happy. You're so good. Well, thank you so much for allowing me to be back here for my once a year appearance with the county committee. I do want to say thank you to the other people that are are part of the process uh working with uh Debbie and Holly u quite a bit.

074Um and then we had a new person this year and Aaron uh working with us. And um one of the things this year honestly we had an easy job. Sometimes the calendar just falls naturally in places where it doesn't make it a challenging situation and this year was one of those. Um so I think you'll see that in the documents to make our life a little bit easier. So um our group worked together. We got um we talked about key dates. We tried to pull some neighboring calendars. One of our challenges is uh as ordines try to be ahead of the game on the calendar front. Um, we are running into the fact that our neighboring districts haven't created calendars as far away. Um, I know in my last athletics meeting, one of the districts,

075they don't even have next year's calendar approved yet. And so, we are definitely in in a better spot. So, that was awesome. Um, but based off of that, we did um just kind of look at the trends. We know from year to year. One thing about being back here every year is before the process even starts. We kind of know what our staff tends to like and it gives us some places to to start. So that helps. Um, when we worked on our process very quickly, it was obvious both within the staff and the community that things were lining up. So when it came time to actually create calendars, we didn't have to create as many as we normally would because there just wasn't as much to create. So when we looked at the initial

076survey results, um, you'll see that the staff and community were actually closer than they've often been. Um, and so that was kind of nice. Uh it was again clear across the board that what people wanted. The only thing that was maybe not super clear was the first day of school among staff, there was a little question if people preferred the first or the second. Um but when you look at spring break, when you look at the snow makeup day, we we gave them a chance to move it. Everybody says we need a day off in March. So we gave them the option. But when they realized that meant that the long weekend wouldn't be as long, they decided um and parents big time did not want that separate day off. They definitely preferred to have

077the day attached to a long weekend. You can see with that 80 to 20% vote. So all of our calendars shared uh the majority of the dates. You can see all legal holidays are on it. Um Thanksgiving with the no school the day beforehand. Um, our winter break would be this the two weeks with the three weekends. It falls naturally this year. Um, and then we would continue with the nonschool day at the uh semester break day. Basically, when our contracts changed, it used to be we had kind of a grading day to do our report cards and when the contracts changed a few years ago, that opportunity went away. And so teachers were like, we need a day to finish up semester 1 and do semester 2. So, it's a non-pay when they choose

078to to do that work, but at least there's a day that they could come in and and work in their classrooms and and really be ready. Um because if you for instance middle school PE when our kids all start over, it's like the first day of school again when the semester starts. Um and so for those teachers in particular, I think that's a really nice added bonus. Um and then we have the professional development days keeping um the three days in August as we have had and then the additional day also attaches to that long weekend as we see parents I think they prefer when they can clump their needs for daycare that type of thing and then we have kept the two snow makeup days where they have been which is also attached to

079the long weekends. So when we put out the voting um we only had the two calendars and the only difference in those calendars was the start day of school. And you can see um in the voting that we had um that there was strong support to go ahead and start school on Tuesday the 1st instead of waiting until Wednesday. And so in either case you were starting before Labor Day because Labor Day is so late. And so um people were like well as long as we're coming back we'll go on Tuesday. We didn't start on Monday because that falls in August and so that has some of its own challenges when you start in August instead of September one. And so we did not give them an option of Monday. So we are asking um

080that you would support calendar option A which is that we would start school on Tuesday, September 1st. Um which does make it so our last day of school would fall on Wednesday, June 16th. Gives you the 17th. If we had a bad winter day, you got another um day there at the end before you would have to navigate what to do next. So that is our ask and I am here to answer any questions if you have any. As we know, like I said, this one just was everything just kind of fell in place this year. It was just a lot of clear dates. Any questions? How long does it typically take you? Just out of curiosity. Yeah, it this was a fast I mean literally we had what three different meetings where all of

081us I think sat and talked. Um I wrote the first calendar before I ever sat down and met with any of them and I was wrong. I I thought people would pick Wednesday. I I they like that three-day week, 4 day week, 5 day week. They they've done that a lot in the past. The difference is they see the last day of school is the 16th and 17th and that for a lot of people checks a box. I'm just curious because it's so detailed and there's a lot of information that you're getting from people. I just the survey process has made it so much simpler and then Holly and Debbie and I have have worked together on it now for you know quite a bit of time and Holly and I will send things back

082and forth and we're editing things and it's like okay we got it right now let's send it to the next group. So, it's a great team effort and and we do get pretty good response from our staff. They vote really quickly. I I think a goal for next year is to get our community to have a better response. We did not have a high number this year that probably one of the worst um ones we've had. And yet, you would think with social media and things and pushing it out, we could uh get that response better. Um but this was not a high response year. The nice thing with the ones that did respond were on the same wavelength as the so that makes it easier because that is a challenge when our when our

083teachers have a different site than what our community has and then we have to try to balance it for sure. So thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. All right. I will accept a motion. I move to accept option A as recommended for the 2026.7 academic calendar from the presentation tonight. I second. Thank you. All in favor? Motion passes. Thank you. I al also heard for people in other districts that were jealous of the floor that we have so they can plan their plan their family activities. So school is not optional. All right. Inter Scholastic activities is our next action item presented by Mr. Paulie. Hi. I guess long time no see. Uh, so you guys have you guys have the report that was going to be with you. Um, uh, I think

084last year I did like a couple little highlights um and gave you guys questions. You want me to do the same thing again or would you prefer just to go with questions? I like highlights. Okay. Uh the um second year doing this uh a lot of it is very similar. Um on the second page uh it talks about the um spring OSD athletic department's uh administration of a interest survey. We have to do that once every three years. This year this spring is our next opportunity. So I summarized what has happened three years ago and then below talks about that we will be administering the OSPI's athletic interest survey before the end of the year. That information drives what we decide to do next year athletically. Um I in here I talked about um there's

085a large there's a growing interest for flag football. Um, we applied for a grant last year from the Seattle Seahawks and received a grant for when we start flag football, if we start flag football. Um, but based on that interest, I think that would probably drive whether or not that's an option. Um, and once we get that information back, then we'll decide what to do from there. U, but that might be an option in the future. Uh, considering later on there, it talks about in the, uh, report it talks that females are under reppresented athletic group at the high school. and uh males are the under reppresented group at the middle school. So in there it talks about the things we've done in the past to mitigate some of that uh discrepancy. Uh we added

086u gymnastics last year for two female gymnasts who this year decided not to do gymnastics even though we had the co-op with summer again this year as an option. Uh and then we have a bowling team that we added uh that is continuing to grow. Um we have to talk about how how far we let bowlers go because uh in numbers because daffodil has restricted our number of lanes. So um last year we had six lanes to do whatever we won with and because other schools are using daffodil, they cut us down to two lanes. Yeah, that's awesome. So you you guys know Mr. Nasnik, if you've met Mr. Nasnik, he's a great guy. he was able to figure out some uh creative ways to get everyone on the on the lanes as often as

087he could uh and still support a team um that took fifth and state. So um and at the middle school level uh to help with the the discrepancy in male athletes, we added uh um boys cross country and boys soccer in the last few years. And the boys cross country numbers are growing. Mrs. Buck Holds can attest to that. um she's doing a really good job. Yeah. Yeah. Um anyway, um the next thing I'd like to talk about is the handbook. So, um this year we started parent nights for um fall sports in the at the high school. So, we did a fall sports parent night where uh we met with all the parents that showed up and then all of the coaches did their parent meeting all in the same night, the same location

088uh to try and get more people to show up on the same night. Uh also to get information out about the student handbook and expectations in that. Um and so we did that fall, winter, and spring. In the spring meeting, we uh took a time during the spring meeting to talk about uh updating the athletic code. So, we're in the process of updating the athletic code using uh parent feedback, student feedback, community feedback, coaches feedback, and staff. We uh gave a Google survey uh asking them what areas of the student handbook they wanted to change, what they liked, what they disliked, and so we're in the process of taking that data and turning it into a document that we could uh bring to you guys uh in June or July. So, uh that's where we're

089at with athletic code. um talks about the underrepresented groups. On the last page of the document, it talks about athletic challenges. So, uh some of those challenges are the same as they were last year. Uh challenges and always there's always a challenge in hiring coaches, hiring good coaches, hiring coaches that have the same uh goals and values that our school represents. Uh to make sure that athletic programs have those same goals and and values. uh what's important, you know, student student athletes or classroom based athletics, things like that. Uh the age and safety of our of our athletics facilities. Uh you guys already know that because of the bond report, things like that. Um and then uh some facility issues at the middle school. Uh the the sharing of the stadium for middle school and

090high school athletes is becoming more difficult with the number of athletes that are participating. This year we were pushing a hundred high school track athletes while the middle school football team was p practicing and the high school soccer team was all practicing at the same time in the stadium. Uh so it gets a little bit hectic but our coaches do a good job. U but there's only so much you can do. So uh adding some another soccer field at the middle school in my opinion is a high priority but we're we're able to continue to make it work right now. Um that would be probably something in the future. Can I ask one question about that? So you know the field back behind what what exactly is that wetlands now or I I was I

091was just wondering about it because No, it's not wetlands. That's where I know I was thinking are we are we could we use that field? We're we're looking at every option. We have had uh two meetings so far this spring talking about uh um middle school athletics and facilities. Uh and we're brainstorming ideas to make it work. Um we're painting a middle school. We're painting football lines um at the high school down here so that on Mondays the football team can practice here. Um we uh we have a great partner in Oring uh the city of Oring allowing us to use Gratzer Fields, Gratzer Park. So, we use it in the fall for baseball. Uh, and then this year, uh, we used it for soccer in the winter. Um, and they allowed us to paint

092lines out there and have soccer fields and soccer goals. It's it was really good. Uh, the city of Oring's partnership with Oring School District is really, really good. Um, and so, uh, and then, uh, celebrations, I'm sure you guys have seen it, but we've gotten lots of compliments about the Oring Cardinals banner, uh, banners in the stadium having come to town. That's good. Uh, so that's a real good one. Um, uh, let's see here. We had a former graduate, Isaac Jones, who was drafted by the Sacramento Kings, donated, uh, basketball shoes to our varsity boys and girls basketball teams. Uh, he still hasn't gotten us his signed Sacramento Kings jersey to put up in the lobby of the gym, but it's coming. Uh, and we also, uh, did a renovation to the BA boys baseball

093and girls softball dugouts. So, and those look really good. That was a community partnership. We had some donations of lumber. Our maintenance department um with uh Curtis Nybo and his staff were able during the winter to prefab a lot of the walls and roof uh in the shop during the winter when it's raining. And so when it stopped raining and we had support from our baseball and softball teams, we were able to put those dugouts. We were take them down and put them back up, renovate them in in very short order. Uh and uh and we're slowly getting them completed. So, we got the majority of it done and then there's still some leftover things that need to be done. Um, and then, of course, you guys already recognized our boys wrestling team. Our boys

094wrestling team is uh, you know, four times state champions and, uh, with lots of individual state champions, but now they're being recognized at the national level, being as a team, being ranked nationally, and then also being nationally uh, recognized as a coaching staff and as head coach. Good things. Um since uh since a couple of things were brought up uh earlier, um we had a great partnership with um the senior night for softball, senior night for baseball, and the parent groups that were there supporting and the the soldiers home who brought people down. It was probably our best spring event with the participation and fans and people there. Uh and they were great baseball and softball games. Um let's see. Uh, I can't walk away without thanking uh Beth Beltry who is our facilities coordinator

095and she helps register all of our students for athletics, Sandy Grazian who's our school nurse at the high school and does all of our athletic uh medical certifi uh registration and clearance. And then uh Karen Buck Holtz um at the middle school who's our athletic coordinator and then again all of our maintenance guys that take care of our fields and prepare our facilities. Sure. Um this I don't know if this is happening next year, but I was some of the kids were talking about um that the law the rules have changed for um transfers. Is that is that a is that I'm learning about transfers and students and all that? They were just talking about it. I'm like what? So the there were a number of amendments that we voted on uh this year through

096the WIA and one of those was a transfer rule. Most of the transfer rules have stayed the same. Uh this is an addition for people who want to transfer after they've established athletic residency at the high school level. Um according to the new amendment, they can change schools if the school accepts them because that's a really important part that parents don't understand always. um because some schools don't accept, you know, every student who wants to apply. So, if they they want to transfer during the summer, they can transfer during the summer. If the school accepts them and then whatever sport that they were a varsity uh varsity participant in, they um they have to sit out um 40% of the season, okay? Is is basically so you can transfer only during the summer, not during

097the year. You can transfer again this summer, but you must sit out 40% of whatever varsity season you participated in. So, football, four games out of a 10 game schedule and so on and so forth. Eight games, eight games out of a 20 game schedule. Um, but if they want to transfer during the year, it all the rules are the same. Okay. And there's still a transfer break uh the natural break between middle school and high school either between 8th and 9th grade or 9th and 10th grade depending if you come from a junior high. Okay. Yeah, I'm learning a lot. I know. I'm like, "Wow, that's a new one." Well, I just want to say thank you for all you do. You're I I think you're doing a great job and we can see

098it in so many different areas and I and like she Carrie said, we always see you everywhere and and you work with the coaches and you want you want the best teams and you want I just like what you do. So, thank you. I think a lot of us don't really know exactly how time consuming this particular job is, but you were aware of I was um a little bit curious with the lacrosse grown the way it is. Is that on the horizon that Yeah, they're bringing that as a sport. There is uh growing support for lacrosse right as we currently sit. the the WIA had there's no amendment to add lacrosse to the WIA um list of sports. Uh so someone would have to propose an amendment to get it in. Um sometimes an

099amendment like that comes with a two-year trial. Um but I'm not sure if the um lacrosse or like USA lacrosse um want I don't know I don't know if they want to do that or if they don't want to do it. I don't know exactly the ins and outs. Uh but right now there's nothing on the horizon to add it as a sport. So, it' probably end up staying as a club for most schools like what we do. I think it would be cool to have I just hope they wait on those days. Lacrosse. Lacrosse is an interesting one because they practice in the evenings after everybody else is done practicing. Part of that has to do with them being a club um and kind of priority of the fields. Uh but our our lacrosse

100team is our ordering lacrosse club is thriving. Uh you drive by a Saturday, there's three, four games on a Saturday at home. Our uh high school club lacrosse team is doing really well. They play tomorrow or sorry, they play Saturday. Um uh with a chance to make it to the semi-finals and the championships that come after that. Uh so we might see uh our lacrosse team playing in the the state championship for the second time in four years. That's great. So, um I did want to say uh I know that our student uh board represents brought up spirit and and school spirit and uh um and fans at games and stuff like that. I this year I joined two sportsmanship committees. One at the league level and one at the state level. Uh and they

101break sportsmanship into three different categories and one of those is promotion of sports. And uh um and we really talk about how to get kids to games and how to get them to cheer the right way and say the right thing and um some of it comes with some sportsmanship codes, but we have some plans on the horizon sportsmanship wise that might be able to get our uh kids more motivated to be. Okay. I I've wondered, you know, we try so hard to have kids be engaged in something whether it's the middle school, the high school. Everybody's got their clubs and their activities while the games are happening. So, I just wonder if if our our student body might be spread thin over all these activities, which is good. I I love them in the

102activities. Yeah, we have we have a tremendous number of athletes participating. We have 120 middle school volleyball players right right now. 10 10 JVC 10 C teams, one JB, one varsity team. So there might be a little bit of that being spread in, but we can do a better job to promote. I think um we just uh we uh are looking at adding a program to help our social media account. Uh Erin Saluca runs all of our social media at the high school and we're trying to provide her with tools to make our social media posts more professional looking that are more enticing and kind of get people, oh wow, what is that? Let me see what that is. And and promote our um athletics and activities. So, if you guys are on social media,

103look for some of those. There's been a couple of them out already. So, the middle school volleyball evenings, it's real hard to find parking at the middle school if you're there for something else. Yeah. Yeah. You would never believe that uh that uh parking after school would be an issue, right? So, we ran into a couple issues with uh the parent pickup for Taran Ridge and uh parents trying to show up to watch games that start at 3:30. So, our our Taran Ridge principal and vice principal, they've done a really good job of getting the word out and cording off that road in between as a one-way direction. Uh, and then our parents uh and fans were really gracious at understanding where to go and what to do. Uh, so that's been we've run into

104a couple snafoos, but for the most part, it's been really good. It's pretty amazing actually that you can even do it because I've been down there and there's like four different events going on. I'm just like, "Oh my god, the whole field's like using things and then you got somebody over on the grass over here and then in the building. I'm like I'm not that's a it's a good problem to have. Start the shuttle service or something. Yeah. Like parking five school. All right. I appreciate you going through the highlights. We do have a report. I did read it, but I think it's important to tell the story through the bullet points and also uh for our community to access this meeting and hear about it too. It's important. So, thank you. Any other questions?

105Okay, we have an action item. I move to approve the intercolastic activities program. Thank you. All in favor? I motion passes. Keep going. Yes, I brought some friends with me. Come on up, friends. We're pleased to bring to you a request for your approval for a couple of curriculum adoptions based on the recommendations that these uh fine HQTS we'll talk to you about. That's an acronym for high quality teachers. Just made that up. We started out the year with three processes, three three pilots. Uh MS social studies, MS science, and uh OS math. We ended with two proposals. MS uh social studies would like a little bit more time to look at material. So about a year from now, my colleague over there will probably be bringing uh something to around the middle school science

106or sorry social studies uh possibly ELA at the middle school and uh uh uh elementary science as well. But tonight we have uh middle school science and high school mathematics. And I'm going to let our colleagues talk about this because our system is very teacherdriven. You know, we have we and it's a great thing about one of the things about being a small system is um you you really have the ability to involve your teachers in this. They're the ones that this is their tool. These are the tools that they use to teach and they're the best ones to make some of the judgment. We provide the structure and the support around that, but it's really them that do the work. And so they'll talk to you about the process they went through. But I

107just wanted to affirm to you as a board the process involves uh every element of the board policy towards this in terms of screening the material, testing the material, making the recommendation. We had the instructional materials committee a couple weeks ago, got the approval from the instructional materials committee and now the the decision lands on in your lap. I'd like to start with Elliot Scape who is our MS one of our MS science teachers. He's going to talk a little bit about the middle school science process and then take any questions you have about that and then I'll turn it over to our I'll introduce our high school people and we'll go from there. Thank you. Um so for science we've been this has been a long process that we've been going through. We started

108yeah 2019. Um we started the process and then it got interrupted and it kind of got put on hold. Um, and we're just kind of floating in like an area of limbo trying to use some old stuff that we had. Um, until last school year, um, we finally came together as a curriculum group which included, um, myself, two other middle school teachers, and two high school teachers. Um, and so we had throughout the year, we had um, three in-person meetings, but we also did some work on our own. and we really evaluated and looked at there's a bunch of different curriculums um online look at the resources we got some they sent us some resources we kind of looked through their books and things they had um and we evaluated those for the NGSS standards

109um in particular looking at how they kept how they hit the three dimensions of NGSS um and then we narrowed that down to two specific curriculums for the middle school that we wanted to pilot which was uh Savas and Amplify Okay. And so we have been piloting them this year and we did the first semester we piloted SAOS and the second semester which we're finishing up the pilot now with Amplify. And as we piloted those um we kind of were going through the lessons just really this is as if it was our curriculum to see what they would do or how they would teach, how the lessons would work, how the kids would respond to it, um how well they would learn the material. We then um evaluated those on a rubric that assessed how

110they hit the NGSS standards um and how they make their connections to uh the SCP, CCC's and DCS which is the science and engineering practices, the cross cutting concepts and the disciplinary core ideas within science. in three dimensions and um in doing that they they were both effective but um as a team and through this through the the evaluation rubric that we use is amplify scored higher um particularly in the aspect of its alignment to the NGS standards and so um that is the one that we ended up recommending to the instructional committees uh instructional materials committee and then that's the one that we our SQL for does it have a piece of um AI connected to it at all the curriculum? Um not that they mentioned they it is they do have a really

111strong online platform which is um like continuously updated. It's not just like oh well here's like a book and then you get a new edition in a few years. Like the online program they they it's like updated throughout the year. They are on the forefront of like materials are on display out here. We have the public display set up for both the science and the math. And you want to if you ever have a chance to look at it. Thank you. I I wanted to say I'm really glad you used the national science standards. Those are really well constructed. Yeah. And I like their approach to the three problem kids involved in real world scenarios. Yeah. They're they're really with the especially with the science and engineering practice like applies gives them a lot of

112like real world applications. And so this is for all middle school grades, correct? Six through. the high school teachers, they they like this mix too. Yes. Um they were looking at they were helping us look because as we evaluated what we wanted then they could see like okay well what how does this fit into our high school program um and one shift that we did was uh switch to disciplinary teaching. So sixth grade is our earth science, seventh grade is our is our physical science and eighth grade is our life science which kind of mirrors then how they learned it in high school. So it makes a nice flow. That's a great idea. Is that the first time that's been done here in this way? Like incorporate we it was probably might be done prior

113to me getting here but it was mixed when I came. So it was kind of blended through the kits that we had involved and then they they unblended it and created the discipline process. A lot of systems do it that way. I think it's a fantastic way to put the students first and make learning a little bit easier. All right. Next up, I'd like to introduce Kayla Jacob and Bethany Walker to you. They're going to talk about Carnegie Math. I when I started here in Harding, the first curriculum adoption I did was high school math. And so as I walk out the door, we have another high school math adoption. You might be wondering why that happened within that time. There's probably different reasons, but from my perspective, it's the growth in the mindset of

114our teachers. I think what they've learned about what needs to happen with mathematics to get kids involved and increase their agency and their ownership and their engagement in the mathematics, they really need materials that provide the teachers the resources to teach that way. But I will let you guys talk about that. I I apologize. One second. I had a question and I forgive me for not mentioning it about the science program. Um on grade 8 it says $43,500 and it says this will be partially to fully paid through CTE. And I was just curious if you knew the break in that like the what portion would be paid through CTE which the eighth grade. Yeah, the eighth grade. It's the eighth grade. Yeah. So, if we looked at the purchase orders, you could see them.

115Okay. Because of the engineering aspect. No. Uh, NAT has worked with middle school to get that course qualified as a CTE course and get the framework approved, which opens up increased CTE funding. So, the FTE in CT has dramatically increase. That's why we can allocate funding in that regard. And in fact, they have to they they have a lot of money that they need to spend. So it'll be fully covered by CTE. We just don't hear that a lot. No, we also just went we're in the process of getting a seventh grade CTE as well for physical sciences. We're submitting a framework for that. That's good. I sorry question. I knew there was something in here I wanted to ask about. Thank you. Hello. Okay. So, I'm Kayla Jacob. Uh, and this is Bethany Walker.

116Um, we started the curriculum adoption process last year where we screened through a lot of different math curriculums and we looked at the ones that were the top rated, especially for conceptual understanding. Um, and so we narrowed that down to a couple. We were looking into similar to the middle school illustrative math but they don't have the integrated math system which is really important for the SBA being in 10th grade doing the traditional uh algebra geometry algebra takes three years and so they don't get all the material they need by the 10th grade. So we wanted to go stick with an integrated math approach. So integrative math one and integrated math 2 um cover all the information for the SBA by 10th grade instead of by the third year. And so that really helps us

117narrow down. We've looked at um accommoding some some things that we're still looking for. Have great conceptual understanding but not a lot of procedural. And we want a good balance of both of that. And that got us down to Carnegie. Um and it's one of the top rated ones as we said. Um We wanted to try that out this year, pilot it and see how things go. And what we found was Okay. So, so we piloted um integrated one. So, that's our freshman math um all year. Um and I'm on that team. Um and then we took a unit um we found quadratics is our most essential and so we really piloted that with integrated two. Um and so we have found that um you know math is changing how we think um back when

118I mean when we were students you know it's just like direct instruction right you memorize and then you just are expected to do that um you weren't given chances to think critically and critique and debate about like well I came up with this process I came up with this one but we all found the same solution and so Carnegie does a good job in the textbook to really emphasize, you know what, this student thought this way, this student thought this way. Can we create some, you know, like, oh yeah, I thought this way and I got the same right. Oh, I got this way. You know, and so it opens that up because there's all these different type of learners that it's not just one way anymore. Um, so it really scaffolds for individualized but

119also a whole group setting. Um, and then also that collaboration that we need um outside of math class um and in the real world too um and really defend our differences, how we think and that creative piece that we can't get in a regular original textbook. Um, it also, we've kind of talked about this at the uh when you guys came to the high school and visited, but it has a great component for intervention like individualized intervention because it has these online aspects called Napia um where they have some in like adaptive work with it where students who like struggle versus are like getting it. It has step-by-step things. So, Even if you continue to struggle, it helps and you you keep going until you master it. And so some people that might take two

120or three problems. Some people might take five to seven problems. And it helps us when we're in the class live view. It actually shows us this kid is taking a long time on this and really struggling. Flags them so we know who to go to to spend that precious time because we'll get like 50 minutes with them a day, you know? And so it helps us identify those. It also has other interventions like if students are absent and they miss the lessons because a lot of it is like she said like this conceptual like critiquing with the class and discussion base so that they can find their understanding but really hard when you're not present but they do have not as like awesome being there in person that's always the best choice not like has

121the lessons for them. Um if they're absent, they can go on and do the math stream to get some of the things that they're missing. So, it has a lot of great options for kids and it even has like things where if they are getting it and they need to push some of that um extension and enhancement enrichment enrichment, right? So, like they can do some of the things enriching them for people who are like, "Okay, we're getting this stuff." lots of great interaction. Um and then uh last and finally um because of how the curriculum is made all the little task there's a it's hard to find a curriculum especially with absences as we mentioned it's not just conceptual. So it's just you know if you walk in and we've spent two days on

122one conceptual idea it's going to be hard to really follow what it's doing. So it's an even balance with procedural. There's um online skills practice for the formative um part and then there's also a skills um test bank um as well as a pre-EST, a post test and then also different test versions. So that way we have a lot of practice so you're not looking at CUDA all the time. Um and then also uh Carnegie met with um the leader of building thinking classrooms. Um and so it really opens that you're not just sitting down taking notes and writing on paper. It gives these um innovation where students can really stand up on whiteboards so it's less permanent you know um and really thinking and talking at whiteboard so when you walk into classroom you're

123seeing that more often um than before. So that kind of helps teachers as well and we can assess as needed. We are sending a bunch of teachers to that building thinking classroom. The national conference is in Reton this year and we've already registered to have 30 some teachers that are going to it. And the last conversation I had with Carnegie Math. They're they're building this relationship with Peter who's the creator of this to get the curriculum endorsed by him and actually eventually have some of the pieces modified so they even represent this even more. So this is a really great investment to the kind of the pedagogical kinds of things that we'd like to see happening in mathematics classrooms. We use the same building thinking classroom instructional routines in the illustrative math at the middle

124school as well. So and we got a bunch of elementary teachers going to it this summer. So we'll be building off of that as well. Any questions? Well, I just wanted to say that first of all I learned a lot from last time you guys presented. So, I feel like I know much more about it than I would have. Um, I really I I like I like what you have to say. Math is like always hard, right? It's like we're everybody always str kind of struggles with that curriculum and everything, but I'm excited to see that we're getting something that's more engaging that does a better job of intervention and things. So, thank you for that. Yeah. something that touches on all learners, which is what I heard when you presented before. It was a

125way of engaging kids at every level and not not, you know, moving forward and letting kids get lost. So, I appreciate that those critical thinking skills. I think that's one of the things that I remember from the presentation at the high school and um it was me that complained my boss needed to be there. Um, but to think about that because math is really hard and memorizing it just doesn't work. Um, it doesn't that never worked for me, but I'm very much a critical thinker and I can think my way into a solution much easier than I can memorizing pendants or anything like that. So, um, I'm I'm excited and I'm excited for the students that we'll get to to learn into that curriculum. something they said uh in their introduction shouldn't be lost on

126any of us which is um the way that they were taught math right and so the way we were taught math the people that it worked with for the way that it was taught they became math teachers because they were really good at math and they were like one of they weren't they were of the rare group that was good in math they became math teachers so you do have math teachers that were trained in ways of procedural and then procedural builds conceptual, but they're the ones standing here and saying, "That's not working for my kids." So, they're unlearning some of the way that they learned the math to actually be able to relearn to teach the kids like us that were like just hanging on until the end of the semester and then the

127year, right? And hoping you got a grade. So, so we talk about that conception when when you're doing with conceptual understanding, we we call that conceptual velcro. So it just builds that foundation for all those little pieces to get sticky and stay with us. So the fact that they're taking this step and that's was the big evolution for me because we weren't quite there in our first math adoption. We're there now and that's a big celebration especially like the team. Yep. The team is all accepting really excited about it too. A big difference. I think that a big highlight. It's really hard for us as adults to change the way we want to do something. Um, so kudos to all of you guys and your teams out there. That's yeah, the future is very bright

128in the areas of STEM learning. Both the middle school high school programs are very strong and then the partnership with Curted coupled with your vision for future facilities and and ask of the community. I'm just really excited about the trajectory of where we're going. Amazing folks doing this work every day. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your for your time. Thank you. I don't know if it was green. [Music] This is the question under the cost and so my understanding is would be this approval that we will pay for this over three years both the science and math. Yes, that's the correct three years. Okay. There's a little bit with the science. Uh the cost for first the first year is higher with the science because we're buying the kits. Yeah. So that

129cost is higher, but then the next two years are the same cost and the Carnegie is split over three years. Then we'll add professional learning uh to that as well that we're still creating and working on. I was going to ask the clubs don't include professional development. No. No, not at this point. Unfortunately, director Bannon's money magic money tree died, but we'll be looking for a new magic money tree. We all pay for these materials. I appreciate Steve. Thank you for leading the process for evaluating uh the curriculum components. I think all of us have has expressed a strong desire to level up our academic performance and with that with that ask of our staff comes the need for new resources. It is big investment but we've got to move anywhere in office. So students

130first absolutely. So with that, if there's no questions or further discussions, I will ask for a motion. I move to approve the recommended curriculum for adoption. Second. Thank you. All in favor? I I motion passes. Congratulations. You have work to do. Steve will be checking in on you, Mr. to make sure that you're right. That's right. Some somebody here's got work to do. Just call next year. How's it going? Right. Excellent. All right. I don't know why you went and sat down. Director Rab. Oh, this is prepared by Yeah, I can answer your questions if you've got them, but Okay. All right. So this is our alternative learning experience and if there's no questions or discussions and see any come through then I will entertain a motion. I move to approve the alternative learning experience

131program. Can I get a second? Second. Thank you. All in favor? I motion passes. All right. for comments. So, I have one topic for discussion regarding graduation, but I'd like to open the floor and see if there's anything else. I commented throughout, but uh so every year we need to talk about graduation because it's going to happen whether we're on stage or not. Uh, and each year it's been our honor to hand the diploma covers to graduating seniors. Um, there are parts of it that I have loved and that have gone really well. Um, I've been particularly proud of our board's connections with our students that have been formed over years. Um, there's parts of it that do not go well. The kids are coming fast across the stage. We're trying to switch positions and

132make sure that every student has a, you know, solid picture that they can keep for millennia. Uh, so I wanted to get, you know, the questions on the table. Do we want to do it similar to what we've done in the past? Is it important for us to hand the diploma cover to the students or are you interested in changing things up? I'm interested in changing things up to make it less chaotic up there for the students. Um that's just my personal um I love being there. I love watching graduation. But I'm perfectly happy um sitting down or hamming. I just to keep less movement up there from us. I think it's a distraction u for some students. And um I think a couple of times we've had a student up there with nobody getting

133them. Um, you know, it takes not that they don't ever get it, but um, that just gives me kind of a sick feeling in my stomach. So, um, whatever we can do to give the most connection from the board members who have the closest ties. Um, I really don't. So, I'm perfectly happy to take a step back and more than a helper or observatory. Um, Is it you've been through it um more than I was it helpful to have so it handed to you or no? Was that more of a uh yes then no? Okay. So sometimes that works really well. Um it's I think it's worse turning and grabbing. Yeah. That's that's what I think is like going like this and like this. Yeah. And then you're trying to do the right shake and

134the Yeah. So, I was just wondering like if you know if you were just like you had someone that just was handing handy but then I was thinking well you still have to turn around I guess to grab it. So I don't know if that would help or not. It it worked. Um what what makes it a little bit challenging the reach and grab is one time you got kids coming from this way the next time you got kids coming from this way. So we're constantly out of what I consider be like out of position. Yeah, we're trying to get oriented in the back of the camera with the students. So, it can be tricky. It's hard. I mean, because I really like to hand out because it's, you know, the kids, it's nice. It's

135a fun thing. Um, but I know that it can get chaotic, too. So it's like and seemed like last year we weren't quite sure on how many we had we're supposed we were we were sure but we didn't quite follow the string of how many we're supposed to hand out at one time. So then but I think the pacing of calling the students name and coming from both sides it's so quick that even if you knew that 10 moving out of the way getting somebody else up front just makes for a chaotic and then too often a miss. So it comes in on the sides and then they go down the middle. Would you do you think it would work to have a board member kind of sort of at each corner of the table

136where you're greeting the student and then so that you know maybe the board members are kind of altering in the middle. So you have two people kind of having one one for each side for each side instead of one person. Yeah, that would be a good idea. We still have to somehow get to the middle because that's what they're going up off the stage. That's where the photographer if you only had if I was on the right and Kathy was on the left and you have a student coming on the right then, you know, I'm up center and then could fall back as she's going up with while you're getting the other cover. Yeah. Yeah, that could work. I like that idea. Yeah. And they would always be oriented towards the photographer like Mike and

137he was pointed out because that that was a hard thing was this way and then you'd have to kids would be to make sure that the kids the kids are oriented one way when they come on the stage but then you got to be audience would be easier. for them too. So, I'm kind of hearing an interest of the board to continue to hand out the covers part of our conversations with Renee and the whole entourage of photographers, our speakers, and things like that. Uh, we'll move forward with that in mind. There's some things that potentially we can consider in terms of who takes the pictures and where are they. We want everyone to have their moment, I heard. So we either need to think about the connection between admin and the announcers of the

138names to make sure if there's a backup that we pause and we're communicating or potentially that could be mitigated by separating the picture where maybe they do down below. So you're the hander and maybe a picture is with the school admin or by themselves and people do all of those things. So it's not like any one of those things are right. Uh but we'll proceed with that. If any we'll invite you if as many of you that can come to practice that can the forward conversation will help with the anticipated setup but practice can help maybe make sure we dial that in and we'll make sure either if admin is too busy shaking hands maybe another staff's job is to say wait to the announcer until it's clear and then go ahead and just work

139on the visual cues. So I think we'll be able to dial that in a little. I actually like the idea of them taking the picture with the admin because they're they're connection. They're more connected. You know what I mean? It's like they would be like, "Oh, this is principal freeze or you know that then they are with us most of them." So, um I like that idea. I actually also kind of um I don't know what other school districts do. So, I don't know if it's common practice for board members to actually handing hook up on this to them. More common than not, I would say. But we've done it all variety of different ways. When I was a principal, we almost change it every year. So, because I'd be perfectly okay, too, with the

140principal handing, you know, with this hand out and especially when he's got his daughter graduating this year. So, well, I like how we do kind of make exceptions for because it makes it more personal. Yeah. Yeah. One thing is um it's nice to be able to say their name. It's hard to hear the announcers saying the name up there on the stage with everything that's going on. I don't know if there's any way we can they can even be louder or we can see it. I mean, it's just it's hard to hear them especially since it's coming from both sides. It sounds like such a simple thing. Handy. It sounds so simple, but it's there's so much happening up there and getting kids pulling tight for the photo. No, take your diploma proper with you.

141Remember, Kathy's probably taught a lot of so at least a dozen up there. Well, this is only 10. Only 10. But still, I think it's that's one of the things that It creates a little chaos in my ADD mind maybe. But but that's one of the it's one of the things that's makes orning and I think it's one of the special things about graduation. But the other thing is whatever happens when I I give them their cards ahead of time and I can say on it I will look for you out the audience to come and personally. So I I'd already just tell them I will come and find you out there with you. I think it might it might be helpful though that we do go to the the practice because that way the

142kids are actually doing it with us and it would be helpful for me anyway. I think they would be prepared that we're the ones doing it right instead of Yeah. Well, then we go through the whole process and they'll know what we walk them through that process. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. We do it uh 10 m in the morningish. Okay. Okay. You got some ideas? Got some ideas. We'll probably talk again before graduation and figure it out. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. I'm okay. I'm okay changing the a little bit. We want to try to make it great for the kids. So, and let's hope it doesn't leave this room. I just think positive weather. Yeah. Okay. It's beautiful. With that turned into a long meeting that That's