7/23/2025 School Board Meeting

001into order. Please stand for the pledge of >> allegiance of the stand. Okay. Approval of the agenda. Second. been moved and seconded. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> I. Motion carries. >> Uh, next up, is there anybody signed in to speak? regularly. I'm usually pretty loud. >> That's good. >> Okay, that's good. >> Is there anybody signed in? Blake, nobody online. Okay, we will move on to that. Uh, student rep reports. You're the only one tonight, Olivia. >> Um, I don't really have much today. Summer sports are wrapping up. I know softball has their last summer game on Thursday. I think those are in Sunnyside. Um, girls soccer is at a camp at Eastern right now. There's volunteer hours at the library available for high school students. And Thrive is still

002hosting summer movies at the Princess Theater and we'll assign high school community service hours for volunteers. >> Thank you. Any questions for Olivia? I appreciate it. Uh, first up, now moving on to action items. The contract for Brightpan Technologies LLC. Sean, are you on? So, Sean is in Arizona. So, she told me she would be on, but she is in Arizona, so maybe something has happened. And she probably didn't know it would be 601. And [Laughter] so, uh, this is, you can see that this is a contract. We have to make some upgrades to servers. I'm kind of surprised we have a server that's from two still operating for us. Um, but it sounds like it's not going to last for long. So, this is to get that updated. That I bet is Sean. Does

003that say Shawn at the bottom? Anyway, if you have any questions, go ahead and ask them and I'll either try to do my best or maybe Sean will chime in. I think it's kind of a necessary uh thing we have to do. >> So, we're we're going to contract all the work by >> Do you know the answer to that, Blake? is for this replacement of the servers. Is all the work we're doing being done for the installation or are we doing any of the removal of the servers or anything like that? Okay. I'm not sure that's not him. I think the only question I really had was the um >> Oh, there's Sean. >> Oh, there's a tremendous amount of user error going on right there. I am so sorry. >> Well, like I

004said, I bet you didn't imagine your item would be up at 60 either. >> Yeah, that went really quick. I thought for sure I'd be able to get two questions. One question was, "Is all of the work being done by the contractor? Is there any work we're can or able to do in house?" And then the second question was about the range of cost and the reason for that. >> Uh so could we do it inhouse? I'm going to say no. Um the reality is is if we had more time and resources and more people, yeah, but they will get it done really quickly and efficiently. Um it would take me twice as long to do it and take up time that I need to do other stuff. As far as the range of cost,

005the range of cost is really because of Hel Middle School. Housle file has been a hot mess all year. Um, it's it doesn't uh I'm going to try to explain it um as I'm driving. When our staff around the district log into their computers, ideally in a perfect world, their drives or the servers that they have access to should map to their computer. It's profilespecific. So if Michael Denny at the middle school logs onto his laptop, he has different access to different files than Brian Bailey does at the high school. Housel file has not operated like it should all year long. A lot of that range cost is going to depend on how long it takes to put those permissions back. My ant I anticipate it being the amount. I don't anticipate it being very

006difficult and we're contracting with someone that knows the network really well. They can jump right in and do it. There's not going to be any learning curve for them. So I don't anticipate it being at the higher end. >> So are we replacing six servers with 12 servers? We are we are replacing six virtual servers on three hosts. >> So >> with our own actual physical servers on our site. >> Correct. The only cost actually there's no hardware cost for us. There's no hardware or licensing cost. All the cost for the project is in the for the work done. >> So the packet cover letter says create 12 new servers. Copy the six out of date servers to new versions. So I'm I'm help with >> that's accurate. >> Okay. So >> Okay. of our

007servers that we're replacing our 2012 servers, the 2012 are so far out of date that we can't bring them to 2022 without doing a jump in the middle. So they have to create a virtual server at like 2019 and then they will migrate all the information from 2012 to 2019 and get it stable and make sure that all the permissions are set correctly and then they will create another 2022 server and then migrate 2019 to 2022. So, it really is a creation of a lot of different servers, but in the end, we'll have six new virtual servers on four of our hosts. >> I think I followed that. So, we just old and needs to be done. That is that >> Yes, sounds like >> I think that's sum that sums it up. >> I

008am so sorry. I didn't figure you'd be quite so so quick to my questions. >> No, you were great. Good. Great. Well, I would make a motion. >> Bright Span Technology. >> I'll second that. So, it's been moved and seconded to contract with Brightpan Technologies LLC, Olivia. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Motion carries. >> Thanks, Sean. Thank you. >> Uh, next up is a first reading of policy 3246, student and telecommunication devices. Basically, the cell phone policy. >> Yes, this is the cell phone policy with some updates, some a little bit of, you know, maybe some that some of that red language you see there, some things that people maybe asked about that. Um, we had those samples from those other districts. Um, so I don't know if there's any

009questions. I thought we might get some parents interested in this, but not so far. Question. >> Uh, no. I I mean, I read through it um pretty quick. I didn't have any suggestions or anything. I guess I was hoping our full student represent board would be here, but um Olivia, any thoughts? >> I think it's good and it's needed as long as it's enforced. So that's basically it. >> But do you know like what type of disciplinary action is associated with violating the policy? So the um procedures will would still have to be would be written and there's a sample procedures that's ultimately the responsibility of the administrators um and that will be something once the policy like we have to decide exactly what all the rules are and then we'll write the procedures and

010we can bring that back for information for the board. I would imagine there'll be like some warnings some um take your phone goes to the office your parents have to pick it up kind of thing. I know that back in the day when I was a principal um when I had a student that had multiple violations, it just got to the point where I said, "Your child's not allowed to bring a phone to school." Like, they can bring it to school now, so don't violate the policy then. And my the parent would always say, "But they need to be able to call me." And I would say, "We have hundreds of phones here and they can use any one of them." So, um I would think that would be likely something in that. You know,

011we're not you're not trying to kick kids out of class. You're not trying to do all that. Phones are very valuable to kids though, so they can become a point of contention. So, it'll take education and reminders and some patience. But if if the expectations get established, everyone needs to follow them. And if everybody follows them and it's consistent, that's when it starts out, it's tough, but then it gets pretty easy. If people are inconsistent, I know that the kids, some of the kids spoke about that, that, you know, the rules weren't the same everywhere. And that's what makes it hard. it makes it hard on the teacher that's following the rules. So, that'll be what's going to be really important is to be consistent regardless. And like I said, I would imagine would be

012the your phone goes in the safe and your parents have to pick it up and that kind of stuff. But I will do that once this is in place. >> They do. Yeah. Yeah. >> So, what would that expectation be for a child who wears a smartwatch? they just if they silence it during the day is that fine or they have to >> you know we have it we it would be some there would be something similar. It's basically got to be treated like a cell phone because you can text like I I can have my cell phone in my pocket and text from my watch if I want to but it'll be the same expectation. Um I don't think we see as many smart watches in the lower grades high you know as the

013kids get older. Yes. Um but there's all all kinds of devices but it would be the same thing. You can wear your watch if you want to. You just don't use it. up. Silence your notifications. >> Take it off. >> I I mean I it for me it's like I I could have my watch on all day and not answer any texts or anything from my watch or answer the phone. So that'll just depend. I mean I think it would be hard to say no, you can't unless there's a problem. But we haven't written the rules yet. So we'll see. >> I think the policy is good and needed. I suspect we'll get more interest in the procedure >> probably. So, probably. So, yeah. So, Olivia, do you think are kids aware of this? Do

014you think? Have you heard anything or not? Really? >> I've heard nothing. >> I know they're probably not going to like it. >> Yeah. >> But I think overall it's good. >> I think too that, you know, as we get past the first reading, it's going to be the time to come out and say, "Hey parents, just a heads up. This is coming and we'll be in place for school to start. I know it's already in the draft language is in the handbook. We haven't sent that to print yet, but once we do, so we do want to get through this so that if there's any changes, we can get that done in the handbook. Yeah. >> The plan to get the information out like a press release, social media out of the first place

015or >> um so we would put it out through a couple different means probably. Um the as far as a policy of this link, it's easiest to like email an attachment or a link for parents, but we could do an auto dialer and just say, "Hey, heads up." What we found is, you know, we went from autodialer to parent square. parent square still has a use and we but we've also found that we get so many notices on parent square sometimes I think people tune them out a little bit and for those of you that have kids you might like oh okay that's my 40th one today I'm not going to read that but um so I think we actually have started doing some auto d going back to auto dialer just saying hey parents

016we've sent you a message in parent square or a parent email can you please read it it's you know we're having a new cell phone policy and you might want to check that out um before you know it's adopted So, uh, between now and before the next board meeting, we can get that out. So, but we're, yeah, we'll use and we'll probably put it on our Facebook. Um, not everybody uses Facebook, though, so that direct contact with parents is the biggest, you know, the most important. >> Sounds good. Any other questions? Well, I move to approve first reading of policy 3246, cell phone policy. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Olivia, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Motion carries. Thank you. Uh, moving on to the 2526 student handbook. So, the

017handbook is one of the reasons the board packets 250 pages are so long. Uh we've put a lot of work and review into this. Uh Selena has put a ton of work into this. Um so it is still in draft. Probably 80% of it is no change from last year. Of course the discipline had to be updated. There's you know just a few things here and there that have to be changed. Some things we adjusted, some things we added. Um and then of course the like the cell phone policy, those kinds of things. So there's any questions? Okay. >> Um, Ezrey and Sammy and I were talking about uh the excused absences section. It's page six, I believe. >> Um, yeah, I'm on excused absences, but I'm down a little ways from that. So, let

018me go back to page six. Okay. >> Um, where it says the school principal has authority to determine that section right there. You see that part >> um >> towards the bottom >> the last section. >> Yeah. Under the draft D of draft. Mhm. >> Yeah. Um um the last part of section A, it says except that in the participation portion of classes, a student's grade may be affected because of the students inability to make up the activities conducted during a class period. We were wanting clarification if that meant that excused absences will affect participation points. >> I actually think that shouldn't be in there because um an if a student has an excused absence by law they have the right to make up the work and if they cannot make up the work they

019need to be excused from the work. So that needs to be corrected. So thank you for bringing that to my attention. If a student we get that I think in the respect that it could affect their grade like if you get participation points every day sometimes you get them that are kind of like gimme points like you're here you get you know as long as you're dressed up for PE or whatever you get five points or whatever it is. And so if you don't if you aren't there that that does have it affects the overall points available or whatever. But you cannot when a student has an excuse and absence not allow the student to have an opportunity to make up. that's they have to be able to make it up if it's excused. And

020honestly, we expect students to make it up if it's unexcused. So, um I'll make a note on that. Thank you. >> So, we'll probably need to bring policy 3122 back sooner rather than later. >> Uh we will have it at the next meeting. We will um have to correct this though. Um because I think that's contradictory to the law. >> I think that sometimes um I don't know that's a typo. I do think that there's been some past practice of you I mean of course we want kids to attend class but um of course people get sick. We tell you not to come to school if you're sick. uh and you know or you have a student activity that you're gone for or something like that. We want you to have appointments after school and

021all that, but that's not always possible. Um not a dentist can't see all 2400 of our kids after 3:00 every day. So I think there are some places where that's being maybe is the case and I think you probably have maybe experienced that and uh yeah it it probably is. I think it and and it may be in the sample policy, but I think it I think the word affected, but the reality is they have to be able to give the opportunity to make it up. And if they can't make it up, it can't be held against them. And it and it also can't be you've got to come and make this up. And you can only come tomorrow between at high sunrise between 2 and 2:15. And if you don't show up at that

022time, it doesn't count. Now, there can be a reasonable timeline. you have three days to make this up or you have until Friday or whatever it is. But I do think that needs some some examination. >> Um, if we were to bring that policy back for discussion and update, it's going to this is going to have to go to print before that. Can we make an amendment to the handbook? We we can make an amendment to the handbook. And then what we would do is we printed it and you can see what see what Selena put at the bottom. The little red changes to the handbook may be made periodically throughout the school year. We did that on purpose because you're always the one that's posted on the website would be the most update. I'm

023going to go to the law to check this to make sure that we are aligned to the law. It may be correct. I don't think it is. And then we'll come back with it. So it would not be I mean we have to go to print before that. So we'll we'll make sure it says what it's supposed to say to meet the law and we will go to print and then if we have to update anything that's what the rights for and we can send on a notice to parents saying there's an updated version please check page six in the handbook a their language has changed >> but the handbook language can't change before it goes to print in this policy >> we're going to we're probably going to try to do that if we

024know that the if we know this is right we'll send it to it. If this is wrong, we'll fix it and then we'll we'll probably have to fix it with your permission, bring it to the board and say this is what's correct. You guys will approve it. And if you don't, then we'll just have to adjust and update it based on the red. We'll try to print it with what's correct and meets the law. Is that acceptable? >> The only issue I have is it's a policy that needs to be by board. So if you >> approve it through >> executive action. I mean it s >> let's pull that >> tenative precedent. >> I would pull that policy out of the handbook >> and not have it in there and do >> add an

025addendum as opposed to having it in there. >> I would I would love um for everyone to read the full handbook but I really don't. So, >> but the person that >> somebody bring the handbook that says right here, no, but there was fix it later. I I would I would >> make it more transparent to remove it, print it without it, then say >> I'm going to look as as we're moving on. I'm going to check I'm going to check that to see if the policy matches our language or if that was something changed. It's not exactly the policy. I'm gonna >> It's in our policy. >> Exactly like that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> I think it's item B in the policy, but >> Okay. We'll get that done as quickly as we

026can. We want to make sure it's right and fair. >> So, what um >> table this one? Well, can we table it and still get make this the time frame to get to print because our next meetings >> if you want to make the motion to print it without that part. I I wish I I thought Kim was going to be on here but I'm not sure if she is or isn't. Um, we certainly can and then send an addendum out. >> I think I I would >> I also don't have Selena here. She went home sick today. She's the one that's going to do all the work. Well, I would approve the 2526 student handbook polling policy 3122 from the handbook. Okay, >> I'll second. >> It's been moved and seconded to approve the

027student handbook. Olivia, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Motion carries. All right, moving on to vouchers. >> So, I can tell you real quick before I move on. Um, when the law changed with the Becca bill, students must be students can have excused absences, students must be allowed to complete missed assignments and coursework under reasonable conditions established by the teacher. >> What year was that? >> Oh, it's been a while. Yeah, >> that's why we're up. >> But I'm wondering if the WASA policy is up to date on that. >> Well, this we'll >> get it fixed. >> Uh amended in 2008 and 12 and 17. >> Yeah. But Becca Bill's been around since I I was a principal like and that's been 12 years ago now. So it's one of

028those ones we get up. >> We'll get it fixed. >> Thank you. Uh, where was I? Oh, vouchers. Any questions on vouchers? Um, move to approve the vouchers. Second. It's been moved and seconded to approve the vouchers. Olivia, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Motion carries. Uh, next up is second amendment to employment contract between Proser School District and Kim Casey. Any questions regarding that? I move to approve the second amendment to the employee contract between Proer School District and Kim Casey. Been moved and seconded to approve the second amendment uh to Kim Casey's contract, Olivia. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Motion carries. Uh, next up is the science material kit service agreement. >> So, I had gotten one question about this from Alisa emailed Kim

029and sent it to me. So, using the kits is our adopted curriculum for science and those materials are refurbished by the Kenowick school district. They have they've been doing that for several years and um this is just the agreement so that we can refurbish the kits for the coming school year. >> Thank you. >> On the science kits, um I don't know what our total cost is on that per year. Is it very significant? >> Um I think it's about seven or $8,000 per kit round, which is three. So 22,000. Yeah, I mean I know I I it would be our preference to review our elementary science curriculum, but at this time with funding as I look at my friend Elise here, um I don't don't know how soon that will happen. So yeah, but

030this is our adopted curriculum. >> Is there any other way to service those kits besides going to Kenowick School District? >> We we don't own them. We actually are renting them from them getting refilled. So, we own one kit ourselves here because they couldn't handle having four. They don't have the capacity. They they're actually theirs and we're paying to basically borrow the kit with all the materials and we send it back and they house them, store them. It's a warehouse. We would have so many things to store. We wouldn't even have We'd have to Yeah. So, that is it. Could we refurbish them? We'd have to buy the kits first. Gotcha. Um, depends. I mean, some are more expensive than others, and I haven't priced those for a long time. They're between several hundred,000 or

031more depending on what's in them. And then it costs us about $150 a kit to refurbish them. So, they're a lot. And at this time, I with hopeful in our future that we would be reviewing our curriculum, we wouldn't want to buy them right now and then own them. Any other questions? >> Let's make sure we get them there on time. They charge $60 late fee per kit. >> Um, so they actually come and pick them up. So, the only time we enter into a late problem is if somebody didn't bring their kit to turn it in. Um, once in a while there's something missing or something breaks, something got broken and so we have to pay to replace it. So it'll be like $3 or $6. So um we we we stay on them

032pretty good to make sure everything is where it needs to be to be picked up. And if someone were to happen to make that cost happen, they do hear from us. And I told the principles if that can come out of their building budget if they don't collect. We haven't done that to them yet. Yeah, I think the whole year this year or even the last several years we've had one that wasn't returned on time and then I said, "Well, it's your choice. Do you want to drive it up today or do you want to take it up next week?" And so they returned it. >> I'm going to move to approve the science mater material kit service agreement. >> I'll second. So, it's been moved and seconded to approve the service agreement for the

033science kits. Olivia, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Motion carries. >> Next up is Kudo Translation Service. >> So, um this was um a a board uh President Rener asked this is a a program I think that he's familiar with that he's uh used or and exposed to. We met with uh the Kudo at an AI translation company um and we do have some some options um but and it is a cost. I mean the reality is it's an expense. Um inerson translation can be definitely be challenging. We do have the headsets to do that but you are paying for a person when we do that. Our family events and things like that. Um there's a handful, you know, there's several of those where we need translation services. We used to

034provide translation services at board meetings. We don't obviously have a translated transcript. So this would provide a translated transcript. The quote that's here is a um for a platform that would allow us to do board meetings and any kind of meeting, any kind of event. So, uh, it would, you know, it could be used districtwide for any translation services that we needed to. At this time, we do have some carryover grant funding that we have to spend that we could use to to purchase this, but down the road to continue it, we would have to come up with some other funds to pay this this amount. >> I'm trying to think of the application of it. So, the scholarship information, so >> you're just kind of zoom meeting it. >> Okay. So basically, I think

035the way it works is put a QR code up on a screen. >> Yep. >> They could they could go to the event, >> scan the QR code, and then put their headphones in, and it translates >> like for their own phone. They can use they use their own equipment, and then they choose their language, and then it translates for them. Uh, we listen, he did it live for us. Um, and a more I mean he had a sound off so I guess he could have it could have not said what he said but we're assuming that he so it translated I mean it's very clear and easy to understand. You can tell it's it's AI but it was really easy to understand. Um the my only concern and I know the concern for deliss

036is just the cost. I mean it's um it is something we would have to plan for long term but it's you know we have a lot of language needs in our in our community. So it would make our meetings and what we do, especially the meetings, more accessible to parents. The buildings are pretty, you know, get translators and when they have their events and those kinds of things. So um this could make it, you know, you would just sit here at the meeting and just like we're doing now, you wouldn't probably notice any difference other than we'd have a QR code up. >> When you did the test, did you test it with people that were writing bullets management? Uh we it was just a presentation with myself and are you there Delise? No. Kim

037and I Kim and I with a with a salesman. So no um he is actually in Brazil. Um and uh No. So we didn't there but he was doing he was speaking Spanish. We were hearing English. So we knew what he was we knew what he was saying because it was English. So no. Did we try it with anybody that was uh like get one of our our our employees? We could. I'm sure he could do that. Maybe that would not be a problem. >> I think that might be a good idea just to make sure there's no like dialect like regional dialect issues. You don't want to spend all this money and then have it be a Spanish that isn't. >> So I think that well I think the the Spanish piece because we're

038talking about this I don't know hemisphere. He's saying that he's telling us obviously. So, somebody testing it would be great. You It's the same service that you've experienced, but I haven't talked to anybody who's listening to the Spanish version. Have you? >> I have not. Um, I just thought it was an opportunity that people listen in versus, you know, read the notes. >> And it's something, you know, it's not a it's not at this point we we felt a little more pressure about spending some of our carryover than that's kind of relaxed a little bit. So, it's something we could investigate and come back with in another two weeks. It's it's not urgent. >> I think it's a good idea. >> Yeah. And the majority of our parents would need Spanish. Um but we we

039have students that come from other you know Central American countries. It's still Spanish, but it is correctly different dialect. And we have um you know Mandarin and some other languages sometimes as well here. So >> So you go with this though. It's whatever, >> right? You do the QR code and then you pick you pick you pick your language. Nope. You pick it. you. The QR code will let you pick what you want. Yeah. >> This just an annual contract. >> Yes. >> I'm curious if it's more helpful to a family than using like Google Translate on their phone. I know a lot of families that just do that. They just have Google Translate on their phone and it listens and it translates. >> And you know, a lot of those applications are very useful.

040you Google Translate for printed materials, it works really well. It is very hard though, like if you're in a public forum to use Google Translate if you're not getting the input in. So that's the major difference. Just to do the board part of this I think was like 8,000. To do the board meeting part was like 8,000. So expanding it to everybody else is just a little bit more. Um but yeah, if you So we've we've tried different devices. There's devices you can buy that translate, but if you don't have a good clear if speaking isn't able to get into it. So like for instance, if you have a student wearing a translation device and the teacher is moving around the room and it's not a microphone that just has to pick them up, it

041doesn't work very well and sometimes they don't translate very well. If you just translate like you talk, right? So you can get by with Google Translate. We have a call-in service we use for like parent meetings that we can use for translation. But if you're just sitting out in the meeting with your Google Translate, it might not pick it up and translate it the be the best way. It'll translate, but you'll definitely probably it won't be as effective as like this. You're talking into a microphone. It's going directly into the service and it's coming out. You're listening to it on your phone. So, there's other ways around it for sure. and paying for translators for a meeting. I mean, we'd have to look at what that cost is, but two meetings a month, a couple

042of hours is probably a minimum two hour expense. Um, we could we could see what that is, but that is also not going into a recording that someone could listen to online. >> And the grant money would fully pay for this this year, >> but not in future years. >> Likely not. I suspect there'll be better and better technology as we go forward when this comes up next year. I mean, this is already free and available, right? This is already better technology than what we could have done a couple year, you know, a couple years ago for sure. So, >> I mean, I know that when I work, we use Google Meets, right? But right in that meeting, it transcribes the whole thing for you. It'll translate it for you. I mean, that's all free.

043>> Does it do it? Um, does it do it is it just in transcription or is it because you can that with PowerPoint all but it's just printing it. It's not speaking to you. >> It'll do both. >> It will do both. Okay. >> But that's Google. I know we use Microsoft but >> Well, I I would hope that in the next year >> we do, but we have Google. >> We all have Google accounts. We just don't use them because it's they're free to school. So Sean might not like that I'm saying this. I don't know if she's still in there, but we technically all do have Google accounts, but we aren't a Google district, so we haven't really used it. But it doesn't mean we couldn't use it for this purpose. >> We

044could test it. It might be worth exploring that whatever you just work and it's free. So I don't know. >> And also maybe what you said Alisa somebody within the district tested. >> We we could we test that in a board meeting with Google. Yeah. Work on it. Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. Uhhuh. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Blake. >> I also think there's an AI option through Zoom. >> Oh, I there is >> translate as well. And I don't I have no idea if that's >> I think the difference in this application versus Well, and it probably I guess I would assume you can choose your language, right? You can choose your language. So, yeah, I guess that would be there for us. The majority of people is Spanish. it would create that recording in Spanish,

045but I suppose so. I'm not sure how the recording and being able to post the recording would work if you were using the Google Translate part. >> I think I think we discussed that before. I think there was correct then to the cost. >> Yeah, but it might might be a lesser cost. Guess the only limitations would be soon would be strictly board meeting, >> right? >> Not like scholarship night or >> No, but we usually use live translators at that time. I don't know that the application is ideal for scholarship night. I don't know. You know what I mean? It probably could be, but we don't technic usually zoom or so. I don't know. We just I don't know how all of that might work. But, you know, let's let's explore some other ideas.

046>> Yeah, I think I'd like to look into other options that are low or no cost. >> And it's potentially possible if the Zoom maybe is just an addition on a license. So, the the license that we use for the meetings package already. All right. Well, we'll do some investigation >> and maybe it'll be fine. >> I move to table the Kudo translation service. >> It's been moved and seconded to table the C Kudo translation service. Olivia. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Motion carries. Uh, thanks Diana. >> Sure. >> Uh, next up is Tyler Technologies contract for transportation routing. >> Blake's got a little PowerPoint he's going to pull up and Haime is here. Haime, you want to come jump up here at the front make and turn on the

047microphone? We have there's a PowerPoint that kind of explains um the student routing software. There's a lot of pictures that are kind of fluffy pictures. So, we'll probably move through some of those relatively quickly. And then Hen I mean we have had a routing software called Bus Boss. I personally have experienced it in trying to adjust um some like working with AMI in the past. It's like working in like DOSS like it's not friendly in any way. Um, and it we might have been the only district in the world using it, but we aren't using it anymore. Our it's expired. We've we're moving on, but we really do need routing software. We need routing software that we would be able to expand down the road, possibly for tablets and things like that. So, um, we

048can go through the slides. Him is going to chime in. We just make sure you turn your microphone on and pull it close. Keep going. Oh, this just talks about numbers. Yeah, keep going. Keep going. Keep going. This one. Go back. Okay. H, you want to talk about what it does for you? >> Um, I worked with a couple n neighboring districts that already have it in place. They say it's the cats meow. Really works good. Um what they would do is they would come in build a map from border to border north and south east and west and they would directly communicate with our skyward system. So after they built that map of the borders it would communicate with skyward system and pin everybody in the district so we could come in make adjustments

049to routes. Um students that move out if it automatically updates. Um what else? if a student changes um like for the day. >> Yeah, that's updated. >> And it also has the ability later on to upgrade to have each student have a badge. So, we wouldn't be getting those phone calls in the afternoon. Well, where's my kid at? He didn't get on the bus. >> Yeah. >> So, is he at the school or where's he at? Because he didn't get on the bus >> or that type of stuff. And same thing with field trips. Jackson would be able to communicate directly with them or me and we would be able to communicate very easily to set up the trips for sports, field trips from the prison principles, all that stuff would be a lot more

050convenient. The system we were using was almost Fred Flintstone. >> Yeah. >> Um I tried to >> That's generous, I think. >> Yeah, it was it was really bad. And then they were an East Coast company, so their office hours were 9:00 to 4 East Coast time. They weren't flexible on uh working with us to get us, you know, any technical support. A couple times we came in, I had to be here at 5:30 because there at 8:30 and it just it wasn't very user friend. >> I I think too there's some some big things. So we I was in the I was in uh I was at the bus garage because I had a little meet a meeting and I was waiting. So, I was sitting on the bench and there was this this

051driver sitting beside me who was a substitute and she was sitting there going through over this paper and um I said, "Are you learning a route?" She goes, "Yeah, I so she's got four pages turning pages trying to figure out her route written down with her list of the kids and where." So, and some of it had there was handwritten notes on it. Then she goes, "Yeah, I drove it yesterday and there's a stop that's before the first stop, but the kids told me." And I go, "At least the kids told us." She goes, "Well, not till after we passed it." So, so there's that piece that you can if if as we move forward and we hopefully secure some funding, maybe some safety or security funding, get tablets. So, a substitute will walk in

052and just take tablet and it'll tell them all the directions just like if you're going to go to, you know, on some trip and you don't know where you're going. Um, it also they'll come around and does don't they take the routes and take pictures of the houses and then it attaches to the GPS to GPS location for the >> we would to get the system rolling. We would drive each route um with our phone. They would email us a program and we would drive the route with this program on our phone. Pin the route as they're going to each stop. They then they would have exactly where each kid is at um information that type of stuff. >> They you guys also have um a lot of reporting you have to do with the

053with student wrership and all those things. That's all you know how funding comes. So it would do all that for them. It would just be a report. It wouldn't be a bus driver with a like don't they use like a little clicker sometimes? >> Correct. >> Yeah. if we upgraded to the tablet and the card system, it would automatically do >> do all that. >> So, that's that's more money than we can spend right now to go up to the tablets, but that would be the ultimate goal to move forward. So, we're hoping to secure some funding um to be able to expand. So, every bus driver would come in, if we can get to that point, they pick up their tablet and they go on their ride. >> Like an iPad. >> Yeah. Tell

054them where to go. Whole thing. Whole route >> essentially. Okay. >> Yep. And then if if you if you someone's drop off a change or something, it's going to tell them so they would know. Yes. Yes. And you would maybe would get to the point where kids would have a badge or a wristband or something. Um down the road. I see some complications with that, but uh uh we have to have a new routing software and the one we had was terrible. So, and these are funds, transportation funds, >> correct? that would pay for this. >> Was it the old system? >> It was eight or 10,000. >> I want to say it was 8 8,000 to 9,000. I couldn't I couldn't quote it. >> It was but we were paying for uh 10 something

055terrible to be honest. I had never seen it in action till last year when we were working on making some adjustments. since we were talking about working on maybe changing some boundaries to, you know, adjust that wet strand pop population. It was awful. I mean, I wasn't using it. I was watching be used. It was, it was awful. That's terrible. >> And very inaccurate and very um antiquated. Just >> Yes, that's a good word. >> It was not responsive at all. Um, there's a subscription every year, but to get it rolling up that's in the contract. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Yeah. So, >> I think it's 10,000 less than double what we were paying before, but we're actually going to get a good product. >> And again, transportation will pay for it. >> I

056mean, you said there's local districts using this. >> Yes. currently. >> Um I went to Granger and Zilla. >> Okay. >> They're currently using it. >> Are there any any any other programs that neighboring districts are using? Um >> I guess >> I I didn't check. >> Just out of curiosity. >> I didn't check that. Anybody >> I mean it sounds cool, but also sounds like you're going I mean what if you start going badges and iPads like this thing's getting like big brother. >> Yeah, that's definitely an upgrade. This is I'm saying I don't know if that's a >> No, I I got pictures of everybody's houses and >> Well, that's to get the that's for the GPS location for the drop off so they're dropping kids off in the right place. >> Yeah,

057it's it's more like a pin uh >> right. It's pinning the kids' house for the drop off spot or >> I know >> a street corner or wherever if we do group drop offs. Yeah, >> just like you have every every house of a district that's pinned. It is. Anyway, if you look online, >> I'm not going around taking pictures of everybody's house. >> No, we would warn people that we were doing that. We would not just do that. But that's the software takes the picture to pick up the location. It feels intrusive. Yeah. >> We don't want to lose kids. We want them to be dropped off at the right place. >> Yeah. That's kind of >> if you're stu if you're a parent who walked out of the >> there's also that option

058that they uh send emails to parents, send text messages to parents. There's always that option also. >> They can't opt out of their they we would not want their route to not to be in the system. I mean their drop. >> I mean if you were can a parent or family opt out of having their GPS location. >> Can you just enter an address? >> Yeah. Yeah, that's what it that's when they build the map, that's what it does. They it communicates with Skyward and gets everybody's address and then plugs it in on the >> right because if we had a new student come and so that's getting all and so right now there's probably I mean we also have kids that get picked up at grandma's but don't live at grandma's like there's all

059these things that get add complications to what they do but we have kids we're not going to go out and take you know a new kid just moved in on 222 Elm Street and I got to go take a picture of the house. just put 222 Elm Street into Skyward. >> So that >> being where I live, if you were to put my address, >> you're a half mile away from where the bus would actually pick up my kids. >> Yeah. >> And that's relative. That's I mean for our district that there's a I mean especially you get out into the country or even in some of our group stops especially with a um like a substitute driver and we have little kids who might just get off the bus at the wrong place because

060the bus driver might think it's the right place. I don't know. >> Correct. Oh when we get in the winter. Yeah. I mean, yeah, for sure. Well, I mean, we have kids getting picked up at 6:00, 6:15. >> Our first driver leaves at 5:45, so Yeah. 6:15. >> Yeah. And then I mean, it's dark at 6:15 by what, October? >> Right. >> Yeah. >> What's um how does the budget wise, how is that is that sustainable? Can we do 16,000 out of transportation annually? Yes, we want to spend our transportation money. Uh the thing with the state is if you don't um if you don't spend all of the transportation allocation and take it away. Uh so we didn't spend everything last year. So I think they took away like 180,000 this year. >> Um

061so we want to make sure that we're utilizing utilizing the money. >> No carryover. >> Yeah. There Yeah. There's there's no carryover. I mean, you ask me about any cost, I'm going to say no. So, um, but I think this is this is something that is needed with all of the issues we have um with bus boss now and the routes and the changes and the random pickups and drops off. It it's it it is needed. Um, and I don't think that we need to spend the money to make it even bigger with like the wristbands and stuff like that. Um, but I do think it's it's a necessity. One of the things they did show me is when it's communicating with the school system, it upgrades, you know, like at 3 in the morning,

062say, uh, somebody at Helen Middle School adds a new student at 3:00 and then the next morning at 3:00 a.m. it'll be upgraded. So, the bus driver will get that notification. uh Lupe will get that notification and remind the driver, hey, remember on route three, you're going to pick up that new stop on Ninth Street. >> And right now, we have to say, we need you to take your kids to school for the first day because we the bus is the garage is closed. Correct. >> Nobody's there. We aren't going to be able to talk to them tomorrow. So, you're they won't go on the bus till tomorrow night when you go home. So, they'll be able to be they'll be fast automatic. >> Couple different district. >> Yeah. >> Well, and building building routes.

063I mean, I I actually don't know. Oh, this is a question I have. What about the parent that calls at 1:00 and changes the drop off? >> Yeah, it would be a lot lot easier to change. Can just it's a couple mouse clicks where now we have to go in type everything in manually. >> Call three calls on the radio, make sure they get the right kid. Yeah. So, >> it would be a couple mouse clicks. >> Moving into the 21st century. We're still working on it. Well, >> how many times? Yeah, we don't want >> That's definitely an upgrade that they do have, >> but a lot of times it's a picture on Facebook of someone saying, "Is this your house?" Because it's my package and I didn't get it. We want the packages

064to go to the right house. >> Blake, I don't know if there's any more exciting slides you want to put advance that forward a little bit. Yeah, I don't think they can even see that part. >> See, that's the map they would build of our district. >> Do you route the routing software they offer is do you see opportunity there to optimize some of our routes? >> Oh, definitely. 100%. >> So, I mean, I drive my kids to school every day because granted, we are at the edge of the district, but it's a over an hour. Oh, yeah. The bus. >> Well, this would help to also optimize that. Um, is the app going to be available for parents this coming year or that be when we move to the if we move to the

065tablet later down the road? Okay. Where a parent when when we get to this place, a parent could pull up their kids's bus route and see how far they're from their house. >> Yes. >> You can also send out notices. Oh, there was an accident. The bus is behind 15 minutes. So, your child's going to be dropped off a little bit late. itself. >> Do you um just looking down the road, do do you know how much it the cost is to upgrade to the to the tablets? >> Um >> it was it's a fair amount of money. >> It's like 98,000. >> It's a lot. It's a lot. >> So Deise, we probably wouldn't have that much. >> No. >> Well, I'm sitting on it at the end of the year. Going back to

066losing money, I'm just saying, okay, does it make sense to do something if we're going to lose this funding? >> I think that um I think it would that would I I was thinking that that substitute I was sitting beside going through that paper trying to memorize this route. I think down the road that would be ideal, but I do we'll have to look for some funding to be able to do that. And maybe there's like a safety and security funding would be a great one to apply for for that. But if transportation didn't spend all their money last year and it was happening >> like 180. So if we do do that, we'd have to cut 100,000 from somewhere else. >> Right. >> So we have to have the transportation money. >> Well, it's

067all in general fund. So the t TV t TV the transport this isn't TV money. So the TVF fund pays for the buses, the maintenance um and then the transportation money. So we get a certain allocation every year um from OSPI that that comes through on a portionment. It's not our LEA money um but it's a different allocation on a portionment that just goes in to 9900 which is a transportation code. Um so they use I mean it's mainly salaries uh because we do a lot of trips and extra trips and all of that good stuff. Um but but we do need to make sure that we're spending the allocation. So it it'll still come out of out of general fund. So we either need to budget that into our budget capacity if we're going

068to do that and then spend down $100,000 somewhere else uh because it'll it it's convoluted in that way. But it all goes to general fund. It's not TB. >> And that 98,000 that was one big blow to do it right now >> to do everything >> where you can just uh do it in >> bases kind of. Yes. But Delisa, what I'm hearing you say then is if we thought there was the potential to leave a h 100,000 on the table again transportation, >> we could budget it this year and not spend it if we don't have it. >> We could budget have the budget capacity. I think where the issue is is with we're budgeting over capacity and our revenue is not is not offsetting that, we'd be in a negative fun balance. Um,

069and so I think if we can do it in phases and and chunk it out, I think it'd be a lot more fiscally responsible to do it that way so we're not having to drastically pull something else out of the budget to pay for something up front. >> Ultimately, this part is allowing them to set up the routing for the kids. Like this is a necessary part of their operation. I move to approve the Tyler Technologies contract. >> Been moved and seconded to approve the Tyler Technologies contract. Olivia. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Motion carries. Thank you. Haime. >> Sorry. >> Thanks, Himeme. Thanks for coming hour early. Glad you made the back. Oh, that's >> uh moving on to consent items one through three. >> Second. >> It's been

070moved and seconded to approve consent items one through three. Olivia, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Motion carries. That concludes all our action items tonight. Moving on to reports. Director of Grants, Kevin Gilman. >> The only thing that I have to report is things are changing weekly with funding. Some funding was released. Um, and then I saw this afternoon OSSI funds were released, but only for tier three plus. So, >> I didn't see that, but we'll see. >> I haven't with Anna yet, but that's what I saw. >> We'll look tomorrow. Oh wow. We'll see. >> So that means our schools would not get OSS funding this year. >> I'm not surprised. >> What is that? Can you clarify the that funding? >> Go ahead. >> This is this is under

071title for school improvement. >> Oh, okay. >> And we did get title I believe this so I'm new at this. So I think this comes out of title A. It is it's they our title title funds are like the state's title one funds that they allocate for school improvement. The uh HMS Witstrand and Heights all had those funds. Uh last year close about 20 28 to 31,000 but >> is not on here. We're not eligible for the tier three OSSI >> which >> we don't have a >> it's good and bad. it means we're not our you know but it's it's unfortunate because there's it's just another hit to being able to do some of the work but >> just just to let you know like what we are losing because we had these funds

072last year heights worked on their PLC's so did the middle school a lot of training um with the PLC's and and the monitoring of those PLC's and how those PLC's were working in the building also So we get a we had an OSSI coach that we worked with um that uh worked using the school improvement plans um helped us to monitor those and see how those were progressing. And then at Witstrand we did a lot of math PD with that and um book study and teacher release time to to observe each other. Uh so we won't have any of those ones. >> It's $100,000 that we're losing. Ouch. >> So much goodness. >> But if we were worse, we would have kept it, right? >> But we weren't, so we didn't. So that's why I

073said it's kind of a double edge there. >> Need questions for Kevin. Livia. Thanks, Kevin. Appreciate it. Elise, you're up. >> Um, okay. I don't really have any good news either, but um, so I have April and May's financials. Um this is just a a a great example of how things change from one one month to um one month to another. Uh we had um in the month of April because of property taxes, we uh were able to add to our fund balance $426,000. In May, um we dug into our fund balance $1.5 million. Um, so it it fluctuates. It fluctuates every month. Um, but the the biggest thing to take away here is and and Diana and I have talked a lot about this. Um, our spending is not stopping, right? If you look

074at the trends and look at the graphs, I mean, we're spending even just an MSOK, so just not even payroll. Um, I mean, some months were spending almost a million dollars. Um, and it's just not it's really not sustainable. If you compare the last three fiscal years, our expenses are going up and our revenues are going down. Um, even in in salaries, we're spending a few hundred,000 more each month. In MSOC, the same thing. Um, so it's it's really a discussion about really minimizing our spending, um, cutting more stuff, um, and really putting a freeze on a lot of stuff this next year if we want to be able to continue to be good stewards of our money and not have the state take over. Um, so it's it's a a lot bigger conversation and

075when we go into our budget meetings this next this next month. Um, we'll we'll talk a lot more about that. Um, but we really need really need to look at our expenses, what we're spending on. Obviously staff is the biggest thing. Um, I mean we're spending 3.2 to$3.5 million a month in staff. Um, and that includes just base salaries, extra overtime, extra time. We and I were having a conversation earlier. We we put a a freeze on on overtime, but it doesn't stop. And by law, if somebody worked the hours, we cannot not pay them. Um, so there's a lot of things spending wise that we're going to really have to cut back on. So if we put a freeze on overtime then wouldn't it be the their management team that be responsible for that?

076>> Yes. Yeah. Correct. We talked about that earlier. >> So basically then what has to happen is uh progressive discipline. So we still have to pay them but there becomes progressive discipline because we told you can't do overtime unless approve. Literally people are only supposed to do overtime or extra time if Kim or I approve it. I haven't had anyone ask me. Now, right now in the summer, we're not we're not really getting that. You're not, you know, but during the school year, um, and Kim put that email out and a couple weeks ago, >> it was after the school year was already over, but we were talking today about the startup of school. Um, there's a lot of times people get brought in for extra time because they do need help and the buildings

077getting, but the reality is it just is just like we need to put notice out now. Whatever your contract days are, that's what you work. And the only way that you can work any extra days is to get direct approval from Kim or I. That's it. Um, we we I was going to go home. We sat for an hour today talking. Um, cost of run doing business is not going to come down. It's just not. I mean, it continues to grow. Um, and when we even cutting like obviously cutting staff, but cutting some of our positions like food service and like it's such a small amount, it's just not chipping away at the iceberg. Um, it makes some impact but not enough. Uh, we talked a lot about major cutting of building budgets, really slashing

078building budgets to just the bare essentials. Um there's about reducing doing some more staff reductions before uh here in the next couple of weeks. Um it's it's a we're in a really really challenging place. >> And I think another huge issue is a lot of stuff we can't control because of DBAs. I mean for example VIVA we're the our district pays more in Viva than any other district in the state. We're paying almost a million dollars a year in Viva. Um, and that's a benefit that we offer our staff because it's written into their their CBAs. Um, and the the >> and the impact of that was so I mean some of it's from long ago. It's been in there for a long time >> and it, you know, just keeps it's it's regressive bargaining

079just doesn't happen. >> U, we've tried. We have tried. Um, and there's just some stuff that that they won't give up. Um, and on one hand, I I can't blame them. You, you know, you need to make a living. Um, but on the other hand, we're not in the business of making money here. Um, we're in the business of of staying afloat and not having the state take over um, and determine what we cut and have of us have no power. Um, and nobody wants that. No, we want to be able to control our spending and and the decisions that we make. Um, and so I think that I think that we really it's just a bigger conversation in um sacrificing now to make sure that we're sustainable in the future. We don't have a

080static. >> Yeah, they're they're different by group. >> Everybody gets I know contract. There's an article in Seattle. Yes. >> And that's and that's exactly what's happened here, right? Just not as big of a number. Um but still the same impact. You know, we don't have a couple hundred,000 budget. Um but if you, you know, put it down, it's it's basically the same amount. We're dipping into our fund balance every single year, every month. I mean, you look at 22 23, our our fund balance every month was over $5 million. Um obviously our revenue was a lot different. We were getting esser money. Um and that completely dropped off. Um our our LEAA money is affected also by the amount of kids that we have in AL. Um we know that's that's a new thing

081too. Um and so there it it's just it's crazy how you cut one thing and it affects something else. >> And at the same time, you know, we went from half a million dollars for insurance to a million dollars for insurance. That's like two and a half% of our budget just to pay our insurance. >> That has happened over in the last two years. And it could go up again. >> It's going to go up again this year. Probably almost >> and then and then you have to pay that upfront. They don't let you pay that throughout if if we were able to make the payments throughout the year, we'd be in a lot better position. But when you're telling me we make $2.7 million in the month of September and our expenses are five

082million, it's just not it it's just not sustainable. >> At least good news. >> The delayed aortionment from the state issue. Is that >> already factored into here? Like we seeing that corrected yet or is >> it's factored in as a problem, but they don't have the money yet. >> To resolve in June, I think July end of July. So we should we should get our aortionment report from OSPI tomorrow, 24th. It's they run it on the 20th, but they don't publish it for for a few days. So we should get it tomorrow and know and know that number, but they're supposed to trip us up in July. >> July extremely low fund balances partially because of that. >> Yes. >> When you say when you say July, it's the end of July. >> The

083end of July, >> not all of July. So, you know, we get 12.5%. And and that's another thing, too, is the the p the amount of money that they give us every month fluctuates. Um it's not like we get the full $24 million up front and are able to spend it as we choose. Um some months we get five, some months we get nine, some months we get 12.5. Um and so, and it's, you know, it's predicted to to go down next year also. Um and and LEA is too. You know, you know, we were talking earlier, we don't get levy equalization money like our neighboring districts do. So, we're passing these levies and you know, our community is it doesn't like the amount of money, but the amount of money that we're getting from

084the levies is still significantly lower than Sunnyside, for example. Um there's no equalization money that we get at all. Um another thing is a lot of our extra grants have been cut off. uh supply chain systems, for example, for food. I mean, that was a $150,000 grant that that helped us to provide fresh food for for our kids, and we don't get that anymore either. They cut that off this year. Um so, anything outside of the food service allocation, general funds. Um >> well, and like so my budgets, I have quite a few budgets I manage, and this is not grant budgets. I have over half a million dollars there in my budgets. I haven't spent that are this year that I have not spent. And if I had, it would be worse. >> And

085and it's, you know, we're we're moving money and we're not spending it out of Deanna's budget, but then we're having to to spend $25,000 on a lift. Um we're having to spend money for for for other things. And so um it we're just not we don't have the revenue to sustain the expenses. And I mean we're we're behind in a lot of stuff. I mean just for bus boss for example um our our even our our office we do so many things that are in the stone age because we're not paying for um the software that that would help us and it affects our employees. It affects their mental health. It um it's it's I think it's a a lot bigger issue um than people realize when they're not. Um, but it's it's definitely a

086conversation that that we need to have and and make a lot more cuts. Um, grant money would be great. Um, but unfortunately there's just there's no grants out there to apply for um that we qualify for. Um, we could spend the money on on getting a grant writer, which we have before, and it I mean it didn't really do anything because there's just nothing out there um we just don't qualify for anything. We're not small enough to be to get, you know, these big grants for small schools and we're not big enough to get levy equalization money like Sunnyside does. Um, so we're really just kind of kind of stuck in the middle. >> I wish I had better news. >> I don't, but I mean >> I don't think I have any. So, by

087next meeting, uh, you'll know for sure if we've got repaid back for May and June. >> Oh, no. Tomorrow. >> No, tomorrow. >> Could you just let us know that came through? >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Any questions for Disease, >> Olivia? >> I'm too scared to ask. >> I know. I Yeah, I'm kind of like I don't even know if I should talk about this stuff. Yeah. Um, so I did put this uh on your this one of the things that Deise just referenced. We, you know, we've had we had the same employees for 100 years and then we've had this turnover. Our employees are struggling in HR and payroll because most districts our size have more people doing the work than we have. We have a little bit more of

088a skeleton crew. So, this is an expense and it's not something we've decided to do or committed to do. Uh but we currently use a company called Frontline um Frontline Central. Um we have uh absence management where uh if you go in and you need a sub and people can go in and pick up a sub job. Uh they offer a lot of different things. There's an expense to it of course, but right now there's a big expense also to the mental health of our employees and the amount of work they're doing because we're processing in payroll hundreds and hundreds of pieces of paper which c you know paper time sheets coming in for people for oh I couldn't even summer school a you know student supervision all kinds of things. Um, and there's a

089lot of it's easy to make mistakes when you're processing that much paper and you're relying sometimes you have to double check everybody's work. So, we are uh looking at these two programs. We intended for this to be a discussion item. I I got left off the agenda. Um, but we are looking at two different products that do have a cost to them and so we may or may not do this. Uh but recruiting and hiring right now we have an online application system that used to have a lot of districts and it's down to us and maybe one other district and it's not very good. It's literally the application. You can do the application but Frontline would allow you to do the whole process from advertising to hiring to all the onboarding. All of the

090information would trans go directly into your employee system. Right now what happens is we you do this system we hire something someone everything's in paper um you print out the applications you do um which we still maybe would do you're doing interviews you're writing notes and then once you make a decision you go back and you uh you have to well you have to do your references that's on paper then you have to do a hiring form that's on paper and that has to go to at least three people before it gets to the actual end of hiring and this is piece of paper being handed around. So, that would um be better. Um and then the time and attendance is a big one because we're doing the absence management but not the like time

091sheeting piece. All of we all of our uh classified employees turn in a time sheet. Um they're in the system as basically a contract and get paid. uh but if they had comp time or if someone stayed and did you know supervise the basketball game a paper time sheet is coming for people to get paid. So that would alleviate that for us and make it better for our employees. Um but again it's a cost and we don't know at this time if we can aford to do it. Um, but we know at some point we cannot afford we can afford not to because we are we're going to continue to struggle if we don't get into a more appropriate system than what we're doing right now. >> And I I've been processing payroll the last

092few months. And I mean when I say we're in the stone age with a lot of things, we're in the stone age for a lot of things. Um, for example, like uh bus driver time sheets. It I I did payroll for a decade before I came into this role. It took me three days to process those time sheets. Um where if we had time in attendance, the bus drivers would in, out. Um it would um it would have a summary for them. It would print off every day. Um it it it would just be so much more efficient. Um, when I first started, we had our our payroll person was hand entering every single time off transaction for every employee in the district. Um, and there there's just a lot of processes. Um, and I

093say no to everything. I I mean financially. Um, but this is something that I think that we have to spend the money on. um the mental health of our our employees, the the turnover that we're having. Um it's it's just not the greatest. And our our office is so short staffed already. Um I mean, we need to have two more full-time people. U but we just don't have the money for it. Um this would help us streamline a lot of things. It would it would honestly be a cost savings at the end of the road. there there are so many so many pieces that come together even for subs um the the one system has to talk to the other to make sure that the code is correct and they don't now and so we

094have a lot of things that are getting charged to general fund a lot of staff that should be charged to grants um and we don't know that and so when we could be getting extra money for that instead of using VA funds um the cost of overtime the amount of the amount of time that it takes for our peril and HR staff um to do some of these things. Um it's it's it's a lot for for anybody. Um and so I I know there there's two different pieces. There's the HR recruiting piece, which I think is something that is needed. I don't think it's as needed as time in attendance. I think um if we couldn't afford to do both of them right away, we could implement one one year and another the next year.

095Um, but it it we we have these systems. We're already paying for a piece of this system. They're already installed everywhere. Everybody's already using the ASOP piece everywhere. Um, it's just another module addition to it that would just make it a lot more seamless and it would cost the money upfront. Um, but in the end it would be it would be a cost savings. Um, just moneywise, mental healthwise. Um the we you know we value our employees um and uh we see how hard they're working and and the stress um and we just need to we need to make our systems a little bit better kind of like the the bus boss thing. Uh we need to streamline a lot of stuff. >> How much? >> Um so this is for both modules. So I

096can't tell you the breakdown between the two. the time in attendance and recruiting and hiring for our district is is in the $20,000 range and that would be a yearly cost. Um, and then we would have to pay the onetime implementation fee. There's a like several u week six weeks of them like getting all of our stuff lined up correctly before we can use a system. That's a that's another >> Yeah. 15 to is it 12 weeks? >> Yeah, 12 weeks. >> We started in August. I mean, it it wouldn't go live until January. Um because it's it's a proc. It's also a cleanup. It's the it's the cleanup of the system. Um getting everybody's calendars in there, the account codes, their schedules. Um uh making it to where it talks to Skyward and Skyward

097talks to Frontline and easy export and import. Um it's uh I have the worst pregnancy brain. What was the question? they ask well I don't even know and I don't >> the cost okay and so we've been working with a rep there um and there is a little bit of flexibility and so we wanted to bring it up in a discussion item first before we have them waste their time >> and do a huge demo for us and actually get the quotes for us >> um the gal that we're working with she's amazing but she does have to go to her admin and let them know what we can afford to see if that's something that they can work with um and then um go from there. But we wanted to discuss it first before

098we waste their time and and doing a whole bunch of demos for us if it's not something. >> So there the implementation fee is 15 to 18,000, but I think if we did one of the two, it's approximately half of each of those. >> Yeah. So it's either about 40,000 or about 20,000. I'd be curious to know you calculated the cost in manh hours currently know annually what does it cost for for a person to process all of these things and is there then a cost like what's the cost savings by having this automated >> we would but we don't have time I mean the reality is it's true we know there's a huge cost and um we're not able to bring someone in and just Hey, like have this smooth system. It's the same

099thing with our HR that we're doing a ton of cleanup in Skyward with our HR um inactivating employees that are no longer with us, all kinds of things. But with this system, if we hired someone, the information would go directly into Skyward and we wouldn't be we're hand entering everything now in multiple systems and it's just I mean it's super inefficient and it's easy to make mistakes. >> Yeah. And I and I think too um you know Sean's brought up using because Skyward also has the ability for um for jobs, but we're migrating from Skyward in two and a half years. Yeah. Um and so I don't want to pay for an additional module in Skyward and do all of the work to move everything over just to have it go away in a couple

100years. >> Yeah. >> Um and we have to move to Q no matter what. So it's it's not something that's a choice. Um, but you know, the the gal that we're working with at Front Line um offered to do a presentation if you guys would like to see more. Um, it it's kind of hard if you're not in it to understand um all the rules and the bells and whistles and get excited about the things we get excited that it can do. Um, but it might be beneficial just so you can see um really the full scope of it. And there's so many things within those systems that we can be utilizing that we're not now. We have so much paper. Um, and we spend so much money on paper and printing and um, the

101ink, the the postage, it it's it's crazy. Um, and we want to move more towards electronic. Um, and we're one of the last districts that still still use this this job center. I think there there's three in the state and we are one of them. >> Yeah. If you ever have an hour free, think about if you could do like a just a quick and dirty estimate of like how much time does it take for people to do their annual time sheets and then someone to process them. >> We could probably run a an o an an overtime report pretty easily for those two areas. I mean, you said you spent three days. >> I know that that alone's ridiculous. And I mean, but adding up the minutes because of the way the routes run

102and all the >> that was just for bus. I mean, I don't get to pay any extra for the extra hours, >> but you also have a lot of other stuff you could have been doing. There's a big there's a big cost to that. >> Yeah. >> I mean, it doesn't take a lot of time to come up with $40,000 in >> Nope. >> cost. Nope. >> With inefficient processes. So, I mean, I' I'd love to see >> an efficiency expert would have a heyday in our district, I think, with some of these things. So the lease if you went with with the time and attendance module of this that gets you an uh time clock set up for like hourly employees. >> Yeah. Yep. >> Yeah. And then my other going back a bit

103ago, my question for you is so time cards currently for hourly employees. If we're having issues with people accumulating overtime, why are not the supervisors looking at these things, say Thursday night, and saying, "Hey, tomorrow on Friday, you need to clock out at 1:00." So, um, our employees, especially if they're eight hour employees, do not have like we have extra time and overtime. So, we have like seven hour employees, six food service is a big one. They may only work four hours, but they might stay two extra hours to cut up more vegetables. And so, that's extra time. Our eight-hour employees, maintenance, custodial can go into overtime as our office employees can also. So, we talked about today about putting out um the communication. It's working with our ad team, not just going, "Oh, it's

104I mean, it's it's we can only do what we can do in our office, but that it has to be with the support of our administrative team." The end of the line's the end of the line. There are certain things that have to be done in the day, like for instance, a transmitt perhaps, uh, a deposit can't leave a big amount of money, but that but then you do that first and then if you can't get something else done, you come back and do it the next day. And I think too it's not always calculated as overtime. So they can comp time also, right? >> So they accumulate comp time. So they're gone for the day, but they need a sub. >> We're paying for that person and then we're also paying for the sub.

105>> Yep. It's both issues. >> So it's it's not just >> I mean I know for I think for our maintenance department, they've really >> they did a really good job cutting their overtime. Big time. >> Andy has Andy has really locked that down a lot. Um, >> yeah, but we have other areas that needs to happen. So, we lease and I worked on that today. We're going to continue to work on that. >> We just got to be pro more proactive. And then the follow through of the discipline has to happen. If someone's doing you a letter, I told you not to do this. Here's a letter. You did it again. That's the way it goes. Um, I have so much good information here. Um, helpful. I I'm going to tell you that my

106high school science teachers believe that they have a curriculum they really want. I don't know if we have the money. I actually have the money in my budget to buy it, but I don't know if I'm going to get to spend it. We remember we have a $30,000 or $31,000 grant for adoption. I don't have the quote for it yet. I still It's not going to happen at the start of the school year, even if it happens because I need the committee to come back together and my district instructional materials committee has to come back together. There has to be open review time for it. They know that they've waited for 20 years. They're okay if we take a little bit longer. So, um I'm just letting you know that for the high school that

107is moving forward and then we'll have to make the decision if we can spend the funds or not. I already warned lease about that. Um and then we have been working we pretty much beat this horse to death um about and that's bad phrase to use in proer but um we made some adjustments. you know, we lost our migrant funding, but in a conversation I had with um Darlene yesterday, we had a really I had her really uh we really discussed the direct our uh uh community eligibility provision for school lunch. If we do not um enroll students in the migrant program, our our uh C we're probably going to lose our C program. So we will probably not have universal or we will not have free lunch because what will happen is that percentage

108of kids which is about 22% of the kids in our district will no longer so about a third of them will drop off this year and a third will drop off the next year and that p our direct provision students that are directly certified for free and reduced lunch are um foster care um any Medicaid student are uh migrant students homeless students. So that percentage, the bigger that percentage is, that helps us with our funding and how we become eligible for every student to get free meals. If we do not enroll, we stop enrolling students in the migrant program, we're going to probably lose that. And that was something that um because I said to to I was saying, "Well, Darlene, we're still going to have most of those students are going to qualify for

109free free or reduced lunch, so we would" and she goes, "No, Deanna, it's our community. That's that that direct cert. And if we lose a direct C, we are going to lose the pro we will lose that program and we would have to go back to the charging for meals and kids having debt and all that stuff we did before. So, um, Delise and I have talked about it a little bit. We we need to have a further conversation. I learned this information while Kim's been gone. We have not talked about it yet, but I think we're going to have to think about how we deal with that. Hannah, can you explain to me how we would lose the kids that are in the migrant program? >> So, >> I know we're losing the >>

110We have an employee whose job is migrant um recruiter. She meets with the families. They go through the questionnaire that qualify you to be a migrant student or not. And then they're entered in the program and it's for three years or certified for three years. So about a third of our kids have to be renewed. So we have any new student that comes in, she meets with the family. If they qualify, they then they're also certified, but they have to reertify every 3 years and have to meet the requirements of the migrant program. We will not lose the students, but they will no longer be qualified for migrant if we don't qualify them. So they will no longer be a direct search student. That will no longer contribute to that percentage that allows us to

111serve the kids all free and reduced lunch. Why? Why? Sorry. Why don't we Why wouldn't we qualify them anymore? >> We don't get any funding for migrant. So, somebody we're not going to get any funding for migrant. That's how we paid for those employees. We are going to have to make a decision to pay for an employee to do that work if we want to keep that program. >> There's no there will be no one to do the interviewing. Correct. So we I mean the kids they they know that I mean and most people pay their for their meals. >> They have to be qualified by the person who visits with them and interviews them or is there a different way to qualify? >> No. >> It's called a certificate of eligibility and there's a

112questioning. There has to be someone to sit down and do that. It's a all program that they log into complete the questionnaire for the family. Um I the whole migrant program everything's up, you know, totally up in the air. There's, you know, I think Sunnyside has something like 50 employees in the migrant program. They have the actual state migrant program in Sunnyside. So they have employees that aren't like teachers or anything that work and help run that program for the state. We will continue to qualif, you know, of our homeless students, kids that might be in foster care, all those things. But if we don't have someone certifying kids that are migrant, we will have a issue. That was her job. >> Mhm. >> Right. >> Yeah. >> No. >> Well, and it's getting parents

113to come in and understand why they're doing it. Like sometimes families don't really understand why they would want to do that. Um, but we need to talk about that. So, I just wanted to put that Kim and I haven't even got to talk about it. She doesn't even know. I did send her an email, but I don't know if she's reading her email. So, uh, put that in your in your in your brain and think about that a little bit because we may have to do a little adjustment on that. I'm glad I found out about it because it would be I mean our poverty percentage is o average is over 80%. So that gives all of our kids opportunity for free meals. So and that's all the good news I have for today. >>

114Thank you Deanna. >> Sure. Oh boy. Um, what are we on to board reports? Michelle, >> I don't know who was worse. Me too. Got me depressed. Um, so gosh, I guess it was the 4th of July to the 9th of July, I was able to um chaperone the FCCLA National Conference in Orlando. That was really great. Um the two girls that presented um well they participated in the category of public presentation. They won a silver in that had a great time went to some good leadership sessions and um I just think that program is so great. So I'm hoping that it continues to grow. Um and really I just wanted to thank you guys for all you're doing with the budget difficulties. Um I know it's hard but appreciate your transparency. Really do. um

115we'll get through it one way or another. So um yeah, just thanks for all you're doing to try to mitigate the impact on our kids. Appreciate it. >> Right. >> I'll just echo. Thank you guys. Thank you. I think our conversations are every single crowd that Great. Thanks, Lisa. Um, I don't have anything yet. Um, I think it's all been said tonight, so I appreciate that. And uh so I don't know how many are still online, but we will have uh budget meetings through August. Uh so next study session will be August 13th right here at 5:00 p.m. Uh followed by a regular board meeting at 6:00 p.m. on August 13th. So two meetings that day. Then a study session August 20th at 5:00 p.m. if needed. Um and then another regular board meeting August

11627th. So a lot of budget talks, uh a lot of difficult long conversations. Um so I appreciate all the all the work and with that this meeting is a journ. Thank you. No