001you and the rcw is correct so we're still going to do this for 20 minutes two minutes and then anybody that we can't do it to them what's in their climate device they can send an email that sounds great actually yeah okay yeah there we go head to u-haul okay are you mic's working good evening everyone and welcome to the november 10th regular school board meeting let's all stand to do the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay i know we have quite a crowd here tonight and um so if you're here to address the board i would like to ask you to make sure you sign in on
002the the sign in sheet that's right there at the pillar and so we as we move through uh the first item is the approval of the revised agenda move to approve the revised agenda a second promotion by jeslin seconded by jeff by jeannie are there any comments on the revised agenda hearing none all in favor of approving the revised agenda please signify by saying aye aye aye so all yes thank you all right protocol for addressing the board this is the time during the meeting that we set aside 20 minutes to listen to our community and it's your time to bring information to the board's attention solving a problem or simply to see what's going on we always are willing to listen to your concerns um we do ask that you sign in if at
003all possible before the start of the meeting we do follow the covent protocol so we do ask that you if you're not wearing a mask we do ask that you put a mask on we do have extra masks on the counter here and so we asked those that aren't wearing masks please put one on when you come to the microphone we ask that you state your name clearly first name and last name and spell your name so that we have that for the record do not reflect adversely on the political or economic views ethnic background character or motives of any individual do keep your comments concise non-emotional and brief i want to state further that with masks i have found that they do limit the rejection of our voices and everyone needs to speak much
004louder than they normally would we're going to ask you to come to this desk to speak i routinely have to remind guests to speak up when addressing the board i recognize that it's not always easy to step forward to share your thoughts and i'm sorry if this makes the process more difficult for you but if we cannot hear you clearly i will stop you and ask you to speak louder so given that um can i have someone please bring the list of people that are wanting to speak tonight and again we set aside 20 minutes during the meeting and each guest is allowed two minutes mr uh yeah right over here he will signal you when your two minutes is almost up and i do ask that when you receive your signals i can please
005wrap it up so it's the next welcome birdie oh all right my name is gertie deselyer my last name is d-e-s-a-l-l-i-e-r and my pronouns are she so i grew up in prosser i graduated in 2015 from the high school here i was never an academically inclined person and i really didn't have the easiest time in high school and something that made a lot harder for me was my senior year of high school i realized i was queer and that's really scary that's really scary for a lot of kids um i knew i wasn't safe to come out at home and i knew that i wasn't safe at school to come out because i know that it would find a way back to my family only my closest friends knew and i started getting asked questions
006by my classmates if i was gay or bisexual and i knew i couldn't answer them pretty soon it turned into bullying and harassment from friends of friends and people i hardly knew and even the teacher it's really hard to be in high school or middle school as part of the lgbtq community because as peggy peggy said you know this is a conservative community and you're not wrong and that's really scary here it can often be really scary at times for these kids and that's why i think it's important to check on these kids specifically because they are a vulnerable part of our community when i was in high school i wish someone had been there and asked me how so safe i felt at high school or had a trusted teacher like mr crook who
007spoke at the last meeting who i could talk to about these things i completely support mr bailey in this decision to put up this optional service what i don't support is this complete overreaction to the survey what i want to pose the question to you all especially the board would there still be this big of an issue if the survey wasn't about something other other than lgbtq issues we really have to stand up for these kids they're a vital part of our community and we have to create a safe space welcoming spaces where gender identity and sexuality are respected and acknowledged pretty i'm sorry thank you yeah oh no i have like one more sentence okay go ahead go ahead oh no it's fine we're good i just wasn't going to say that i don't
008want anyone else to have to go through what i went through mate what was the question that you wanted to ask because i didn't quite get that yeah i was just asking that it's the survey that y'all were talking about last week that was given by mr bailey and okay by him but if it wasn't about lgbtq issues would it have been this big of a deal to send out the survey the next person on the list is jessica huntington jessica huntington h-u-n-t-i-n-g t-o-n [Music] good evening as an educator of humans in the prosser school district i'm here to speak on behalf of myself and my colleagues who have joined me we are here to support all students in the prosser school district no matter their race ethnicity values religion gender identity or sexual orientation
009we would specifically like to voice our support for the students that spoke at the last board meeting on october 27th the prosser school district's mission statement says to educate graduate and empower all students to become responsible and contributing members of society the word in power means to make someone stronger and more confident especially in controlling their life and claiming their rights two weeks ago two students represented empowerment at this board meeting and it took it upon themselves to speak up for their peers well-being and support of creating the gsa club research shows that in the aftermath of covet 19 teen mental health is in a crisis lgbtqia plus are already at high risk especially when not supported by their community studies have shown that simply having a gsa club or something similar reduces suicide risk
010for all students regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation our students have stepped up and spoken in support of each other to speak in front of district leaders and people of our community took both tremendous courage and confidence unfortunately the students were responded to with condescending remarks while other community members were allowed to question the board given more time to speak and one speaker even granted opportunity to readdress the board to the students who are brave enough to speak up as educators we see you we support you and we applaud you for a job well done we have heard time and time again that teaching is all about creating relationships creating those relationships comes from accepting and supporting all students this acceptance does not just come from inside our classrooms it starts from the top
011with district leaders and works its way down to us in the classroom as educators that are sitting together tonight we ask that our school board and our district administration show support for all students it is time that we live out our mission statement we must empower all humans in our classrooms thank you [Music] sarah miller please let's find something for everybody my name is sarah miller um i have three children currently attending processor and i will have another one next year who will be in kindergarten and i have one that's graduated um so i have a question for the board you probably cannot answer it but i think it's something that needs to be brought up before it occurs um also i'd like to say i'm a certified medical assistant and an immunization coordinator and
012i'm currently employed by the state of washington um i would like to know your stance on um a covered vaccine mandate for our children and also administering that vaccine at the schools correct that as well um i can tell you that if that happens all of my children will be withdrawn without a second thought i can also tell you if i am forced in my at my place of work to administer that vaccine to children 5 and 11 5-11 i will put my job on the spot um that's how firmly i believe about this and um i am terrified for my children and i also don't want to have to withdraw them from public schools i don't think that that's fair um and i also want to know what your stance is or if you
013have prepared for there to be a mass exodus if this happens for all of us to withdraw our kids because we need to realize that if we don't have kids we don't have a public school system so i i know that there has been so many mandates and your guys's hands have been tied um i say you guys i mean the whole school district all school districts but the mass and all of the covert rules and everything but i just want to say i think that it is going to have to come to a point where we as parents and teachers and school board members are going to have to finally stand up for our kids and do what's right and stop doing what we're told and i would just like to know what your
014stance is on that if you have any at all because this is going to be coming up soon i'm probably going to kill this name so i apologize in advance but pardon me i can say i can say this it has been something that we put on the agenda or discussed at the meeting um the with the mandate as far as the vaccine for employees that came down as an executive order from the governor and so um i'm sure that there will be some executive order or something come out maybe in the next few months when that does come out the district will have the option either to accept or reject now with with the employee vaccination mandate um it was if you didn't comply you would lose funding from the state and there was
015a letter from shoot it was i think kittitas school district that um the ospi superintendent of public instruction chris reichdel had sent said we are prepared to withhold funding and so it puts a district in a tricky situation that if you don't comply uh there won't be money flowing into your district and so even if you have kids you won't have the money and so it's a it's a little bit of a catch-22 there um we've had people uh specifically uh you know he iran mr rainer had asked the same question about a week ago i think um as far as vaccination mandates for children maybe it was two weeks ago and uh his opinion at the time was if california is probably doing it it will travel north to walk or at the perspective
016will travel north to washington so um he encouraged us as well to discuss that and take a position on that um i'll i will ask the board to consider it for one of our next agendas and ask board members to um consider developing a stance or a statement um that that maybe we can put out okay the next i believe is delilah foresters and i i apologize my handwriting is approaches any of my teachers from the high school can attest to that my name is delilah last name is forrester f-o-r-r-i-s-t-e-r and i am here to address the board regarding the potential formation of the gsa club that the high schoolers have requested at this point in regards to it i firmly support it as a community member and as a former graduate of prosser high
017school when i was attending high school we didn't necessarily have an official asb club we didn't really have the ability to have the potential educational purposes that this club would be able to have and a lot of bullying as studies have shown is because of lack of understanding misunderstanding and unfortunately what people have pushed upon other people to try to get them to go with what they want in regards to that a gsa club would be able to potentially provide education in regards to how to properly handle things especially when it comes to bullying or potentially coming out to one's family or friends typically high schoolers are more apt to talk to their friends than anyone else about their personal problems because either they don't feel comfortable sharing those issues with their parents at the
018time or they're not sure how to go about it realistically i didn't come out to the world until 2019 but i've known most of my life that i was not in the standard spectrum even without having come out or admitting any of that i dealt with massive amounts of harassment in my former school district because i moved here in 2014. i still dealt with harassment in high school and did not feel comfortable talking to the teachers or the staff simply because of the fact that the experiences i've had with in schools simply shows that if i tell the teacher all the teacher does is tell the parents of the kid parents reprimand the kid or don't and it makes it worse the next day a gsa club that provides like-minded individuals with the ability to
019congregate and discuss and learn and become better people in a healthier fashion has many benefits that is all i would really like to say however i'm here in support of those students from last week as well and that's all again that's all i've got to say so just just like for your information um i think that the board really wants the best for kids and has the best interests of kids in mind we haven't received a formal proposal at this time um the the thing that says that there has to be formal proposal there's no policy around this the board has to prove it but it's within the asb constitution in osbo the washington state association of business business officials says it's probably best practice that boards approve it one of the reasons for that
020is so that they can create budget for it and so there's two things that need to happen the charter has already been brought to the student council that's checked off the list the board needs to approve a formal proposal for the club so that needs to be brought to the board an advisor also needs to be hired and so there's a little bit of some moving there with including that and a collective bargaining agreement it's a new position so that person can receive a stipend for it and posting for it and so i think the board's open to consider that but at this time a formal proposal hasn't been brought forward by the our athletic director slash director of the student activities mr alaska just asked him to do that based upon you know what
021what had transpired in the classroom so i think that we're all willing to you know recognize that there is the need for this and want to provide inclusive environments for our children um but there there has been no no formal proposal or even the hiring of an advisor um to leave help lead this club so there's been steps taken as far as improving the charter with the student body councils but the rest of the things that we have to put a bow on is hiring an advisor as well as have a formal approval you are a formal proposal sponsored by basically a building building leader or district director and i appreciate hearing that i was mostly trying to figure out how to ask for that information specifically so thank you okay we'll do i have
022one more on the list so i'm going to do this one yeah that'll subtract um so uh mr zillah i've been teaching in the process district for the past 29 years uh i don't know that there's a lot that i can add to the speakers that have already spoken up tonight especially the young people but there were a couple of points i wanted to contribute as well part of our professional development teachers is to consider the social and emotional health of all of our students and i just want to reiterate that the students feeling safe and feeling a sense of belonging at the school where they learn is utterly integral to academic success so i wanted to tie a lot of this effort as well to the fact that it's very difficult for a student
023to succeed in a place where they don't feel safe since i have been here for almost 30 years i've seen that firsthand i have clients with mustangs for mustangs who were driven from the school system in my early career who suffered from all sorts of high-risk situations not only because of what they endured in the schools but also just because of who they are and so there's a moral and ethical there's an educational imperative i also wanted to praise the students who came and spoke at the last meeting they were absolutely courageous last but not least i want to reiterate that i came here of my own relation nobody asked me when nobody i know um that there probably are funny about these people that would like to have an opportunity to say something both
024in the room and on zoom what i'm going to ask that you do is if you have something on this topic or any topic that you would like to share that you would go ahead and email our superintendent mr ellis or you can also email me and i will pass them along to mr ellis um we are always interested in what you have to say and um and this is an important issue and we do respect that um this is very important for our kids so it's also an issue that transcends numbers and so my my wife is actually in the room she did her doctorate in equity and educational policy studies through the university of washington but one thing that she talks about or likes to talk about is this this idea of a
025case of one so an equitable experience if if a child who's um who's gay or lesbian right doesn't have a the right experience um it shouldn't matter how what the number of that is that that child is still important and their experience is still important so um it's it's an issue that really transcends uh this idea of numbers and how many um you know if it impacts the life of one uh it would be the probably the right move and um it definitely is the the right move um i think considering legally what is right as well so yeah we just add that and so we're moving on to reports and again i thank everybody for coming tonight um the first report tonight is the uh curriculum instructions from indiana thank you i just a
026couple quick things i know there's a lot on agenda a lot of reports on the agenda tonight thanks everybody for being here it's good to see your faces um for me i just wanted to let you know as far as you know filling teaching positions the past several years has been challenging our numbers numbers of applicants are down we do have a lot of student teachers in our district right now we have 12. so that's pretty exciting we have at least four or five more placements there there are some people in this room that have some of our student teachers um placed in their rooms or will be and i appreciate their efforts because it maybe sounds like it's easy but it's not um we also have a lot of other students doing the early
027practicums 30-hour practicum 40-hour practices depending on their college university so that's exciting and just one more thing we did have horton gillingham training this weekend saturday bless the 24 educators that spent their entire saturday on an online training that was somewhat like a fire hose because there was so much to learn we have some of those people in this room as well um there were a lot of teachers coaches and cindy and myself attended that training and that is a program that been around for many many many decades and is well proven to support students who are experiencing dyslexic dyslexia so that's all for me thank you thank you just quickly you'll hear more from me later in the meeting um i just want to report that the year-end financials have been approved and reviewed
028by the educational service district in pasco and now they'll move that on up to the fiscal staff at the osbi office of superintendent of public instruction and then once we get their certification we will sign the year end and then i'll come up with a report and present it to the it board takes a couple weeks for ospi to sign off on that so probably you know maybe in december maybe the second maybe the second meeting in december we'll see how how quickly they give their approval to that thank you okay um we i appreciate all the uh director reports were all submitted to us on and they are available for anybody that wants to review them online i'm going to ask the board members if they've all had a chance to review them and
029that there are any questions about any of the director reports do you have a question which on which one okay go ahead they aren't they weren't going to do you i don't think you're mike's fun okay so i i think if you have a specific question that's the perfect time to ask you yeah i i was just i emailed you earlier i don't know if you died it was too late today but basically we've been getting the same questions um i got pulled up can you hear him what kevin can you hear him sorry um it was on uh i gotta pull up your your report here sorry it was basically on the the process and protocols for the um for the vaccinations towards um not for that for the unvaccinated towards the vaccinated and
030um if that was because i was told i was under impression that even though some things had said that they'd be treated differently i saw that everybody was going to be tested and treated the same whether it be masks or the testing is that is that true or because it says [Music] thanks mark i saw your first one i didn't see the second one so i haven't got back to you on that one yet um relative to the to the testing um the protocol the guidance tells us that students who are in these high in the high risk activities those who are vaccinated would not have to test but those who are not vaccinated would have to test at least two times a week so your question sounds like are we going to test everybody
031not just those who are unvaccinated we did do that at the for the dance this year that helped mitigate some of those questions right now it's a matter of resources be it tests people time all that to be able to complete that on everybody versus just those who are vaccinated so if there's a direction that comes back to us that we need to do everybody then we'll gear up for that and it's it's just a matter of resources to be able to put the time the past and all that together what we're hearing from the community is is that it's either everybody's on the same page you know either everybody's wearing masks while they play or nobody is right and the as far as masks and participation if you are if you are following the
032guidelines for the say basketball or wrestling if you are following the guidelines which we all have to do in order to put somebody out there you're either vaccinated or you're involved in the testing protocol which we test two times a week those athletes while they are competing or training would not have to wear masks that's that's the adjustment for those who are vaccinated and who are in the tested protocol you can participate in no masks okay that that that clears it up then let's let's here on that and then but for the testing if you're not vaccinated then you'll be part of the testing program but if you are vaccinated you're not getting tested correct that we at this point unless somebody gives us direction where we need to test them all okay but the
033protocol does not tell us that we have to test everything okay did that help yeah i think i think that we need to take care of that but yes okay does any of the board members have any other questions on the director report okay hearing then thank you to all the directors i i like having the reports given this way and i appreciate the time and the energy that went into those so thank you very much uh we're on to the superintendent's report mr ellis okay i just have a couple brief items uh we started work on our website with aptigy so we've been working on transitioning our current website to a website that's app based so parents can download an app and communication will be more rapid and we can get that out quicker
034we hired a new executive assistant in the office selena swearingen who's in the back so this is her first meeting she's been doing just a great job and she has a great attention to detail we have recommended to hire a new maintenance director brian aber um so i know this a couple you sat in on that interview i'm very appreciative of that um but we we felt like he'd do just a tremendous job and we'll be transitioning him into the role that dave shell left uh we do have a meeting coming up the the wednesday before thanksgiving at that meeting we will be swearing in new new board members once they're certified there will also be the reorganization of the seats in the office and so there will be some of the passing short torches
035and we'll be reaching out to those candidates who will be transitioning into that those positions uh this past saturday we partnered with cross memorial hospital to do a vaccination booster clinic at phs here and so and then today i received a commendation that i wanted to read with tomorrow being veterans day mr ellis prosser school board of directors i want to express my appreciation to the prosperous school district and specifically mrs skeen and the crossover high school leadership class for for organizing the veterans day assembly earlier today at the high school the students and staff put together an impressive program to recognize and honor our local veterans traditionally the event had been held each veterans day as all school assemblies in the gym but due to covert restrictions this year's event was scaled down to
036follow health protocols and held in the auditorium at the new high school for the community veterans and and their student family members the school board and district administrators should be proud of the work and effort the staff and students at the high school put into making this a very special event we were greeted at the door by students and presented with personalized thank you notes made by students from keene riverview elementary we were escorted to our seats by leadership class students and treated very nice uh very to a very nice brunch style breakfast a video presentation was given uh was being given with a beautiful rendition of the national anthem performed by the prosser high school choir and followed with a video tribute to each of the military service branches the presentation also included video
037tributes to phs alumni veterans and interviews of a variety of current students expressing their appreciation and thankfulness for the service and sacrifices of the veterans following the video presentations we were escorted out to the new lower level commons where we were greeted by all of the senior class of whom were arranged around the upper second floor balcony i want to thank uh thank the phs administration mrs excuse me and her leadership class and all the students of the class of 2022 for the extremely thoughtful recognition of our community's veterans we have much of uh we have much to be thankful for in this community the honor of the patriotism and the respect shown by our schools and students to our veterans veterans is certainly among them uh thank you scotty hunt so uh not only
038were there recognition assemblies today we also put a thank you in the process wrecker bulletin on behalf of the process school district across the school board for people sacrificing and serving our country so really that's the foundation which is allowed free thought within our country so we're definitely grateful for that so that is all i have um to inform the board about uh tonight any questions on any of that information board member reports mark would you like to go first uh so we have made or there's been headway on getting the the wrestling club little little guys and gals going um and i appreciate the work that kevin's put into that to to get aau going just it's so important for so many so many people and uh a lot of you took the time
039to come in here so i'll take the time to to talk to you for a second um i grew up in a in a alcoholic and abusive home and the natural helper program was a huge part of my life from the time i was a little guy um and then when i was in high school i became a natural helper myself and uh and the club that you guys have the gsa club is along the same lines of that from the sounds of it and uh i think it's great i think that that pure relationship and and uh and getting getting getting uh really getting digging into kids through other peers because you're right they're not going to come to talk to adults all the time and i know that as a kid i'm afraid
040of and uh so i i support it i think it's just been a procedural thing and uh that's just my two cents on the thing thank you for coming in and taking the time and caring i'll be quick um i attended my first migrant pac meeting eric does a wonderful job thank you eric i know he's out there somewhere don wanted me to comment on the veterans day program he's 74 and he has never missed one of these this is an example the grade school kids do these and the leadership class writes a personal thank you to all of the veterans and it's deeply appreciated when they came out and all those kids were lined on that balcony and gave them a standing ovation uh he's kind of a crotchety old guy but i said
041did you cry and he says no i kept it under control but i wanted to but he said it just he he went came home and wrote a thank you to the leadership club and the advisor and took it to the high school so i'm sure she got it late this afternoon but he said it warms his heart to know that the children in our school district are being taught to respect and honor veterans you know because they've always been around and then my two cents worth on the club i my two older grandchildren are seniors at grand canyon university yes one graduated from um um kamayakin and the other from i just drew a blank on it anyway both those schools had these clubs my grandson was involved in leadership work closely with them
042my granddaughter was involved in soccer and actually went to some of their lunch things with her soccer friends that were gay in the bigger schools nobody thinks anything of it and they've been around for a long time and i'm like like mr ellis we want our kids to feel comfortable and accepted so that that's all i have thank you thank you jason so i was able to attend the wazda general assembly so the washington state school directors association a two-day conference and worked at voting and prioritizing what our district wants to see as the legislative physician's priorities in january and then just a couple reminders for community stuff happening the veterans day parade is tomorrow at 11 11 and they start that near the library stage that and then go downtown and then uh the
043theater's production of all together now is this weekend and i'm sure hannah would talk about it because she is performing as part of that so tickets are on sale for that for friday saturday and a matinee on sunday great thank you and then for myself um i i first want to address the veteran the veteran piece prosser does a wonderful job of always celebrating the people in our community that have served and it always it just fills my heart i looked at today's newspaper across the record bulletin and from cover to cover they have victoria has done just a great job of really um showing our support for our veterans and that that's really special and i know that our schools have always done a terrific job of celebrating our veterans so that's a wonderful
044thing um and then this last week i worked with uh with jeannie and with matt on the um and who else would say deanna was there um and cindy from the bus garage was there in in selecting interviewing and selecting the new maintenance supervisor and we had some really really good candidates for the position um and i think we're going to be happy with the person that was ultimately selected to fill that position so um onward we're going to miss dave he's been here forever he was he's been here 30 some years i think but anyway we're gonna really miss dave but it it'll be interesting to see how brian takes that department and moves it into the future so that'll be great to watch okay so student reports who goes first ezekiel do you
045want to go first um i would just like to take some time to express my support for the eventual establishment of the gsa club once it's been formally proposed like matt said i don't think it's an issue i think there's a wrong choice and the right choice monse isn't here but i know that she feels the same way um something else that i wanted to touch on today was about dress codes i know that's something that we've talked about from now till that to the time that i bring up uh my report uh next meeting i plan on getting the board some numbers some empirical data for you guys to take a look at from the student population i haven't decided how i'm gonna get that whether that be through surveys or um signatures or
046whatnot um but yeah i would like to get you guys those numbers so you guys can get a feel of what the student population at least at the high school feels about certain policies that are currently in place and i would like to end my report with a thank you to our veterans andreas how are you today well um doing pretty good uh so i would just like to um just thank everyone who's here and it's just really great to see everyone it's awesome and uh i don't i do want to um share something that um that's hannah wanted to share and she wasn't able to be here once and um and i do apologize for that um so hannah did want to mention that about the uh princess theater is going to putting on
047that show the altogether now uh one second so yeah it's gonna be friday and saturday at 7 30 p.m sunday at 2 30 p.m i also want to do mention uh the play that's going to be put on by the high school which i am a part of the horatio will be late which is going to be on the 18th the 19th and the 20th at 7 00 pm um it's five dollars for students i believe and seven dollars for adults and um i really encourage everyone to go see that it's i'm really looking forward to it what's the name of the play it's called horatio will be late yes sure yeah so that's actually one of my goals is to help address that this would be like a great time to do that so
048we can talk about and discuss it and come up with a proposal through the winter and so hopefully it'll be put in place this spring so we can bring something formally to the board so yeah i'd love to work with a group of students some parents and community members and help recraft and develop that policy to something that's that's agreeable and we don't have that struggle anymore thank you now are you in the play andres are you in either one of those places uh i mean horatio will be late okay oh also i would like to mention um i did we did leadership did put on that veteran's day assembly and um it was just really i think it was really cool to be able to i was part of the video that was put
049on uh uh it was part of whole commitments once it was also part of the video committee um it was really um really nice to put that video together and um i really like how it turned out and i'm really glad that we were able to honor our vets that way great thank you all right thank you very much for the reports we're moving on to the consent agenda and this is revised and the revision was uh had to do with the change in the minutes so i everybody had a chance to review i would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as revised make a motion that we approved the consent items as revised promotion by genie is there a second a second second by mark is there any any uh comments or
050questions on the consent agenda okay hearing none all in favor please signify by saying aye [Music] thank you very much onto action items the first action item tonight is the um approval of vouchers and so that would be the warrant i would entertain a motion to approve the warrants as presented some move motion by jeslin all second secondly by jeannie is there any questions or concerns regarding the warrants as presented no hearing none all in favor of approving the warrants as presented please signify by saying hi to all thank you the next action item is um construction access and utility easement i would entertain a motion to approve that ocean we approve the um action item construction access and utility easement okay motion by genie on a second second by mark is there any questions
051regarding the construction access and utility easement hearing none all all in favor of approving the construction action and utility easement as presented please signify by saying hi hi oh yes then all right on to discussion items um the first discussion item is the epo levy which is educational programs and operations levy and i believe i'm going to turn that over to craig that's very good thank you very much cpo used to be called a maintenance and operations levy just wanted to get the board a little bit up to date on this we need some decisions made rather quickly so i believe um this is just kind of a start of the conversation i believe the board i would like to have probably a study session before too long let me just give you a little
052bit of history of the educational programs and operation levy the epo the current levy was approved in february of 2018 and it was for four years in duration and that's uh it will expire in december of 2022. so in order to renew that levy it will need to be voted upon in calendar year 2022 starting with the 2023 calendar year and there have been a number of changes since that initial levy was approved just besides the name but ospi now is requesting that we have a levy expenditure plan that is actually approved by ospi so that will need to be developed and then the other item is that now a local voters pamphlet is required for every levy ballot proposition and so what's interesting about that is that the school board is supposed to appoint
053pro levy committee members and con levy committee members so our bond council jim mcneil our levy council attorney will draft um the notification we'll put that in the newspaper and then probably in the first meeting in december i would think that the board would would appoint these committee members and if they are willing and want to they can write a for statement for the levy and those that want to write an oppose to the levy now of course the school board does not get involved in those you know for or against but our job as the board your job is to actually appoint those committee members so we'll ask for input from the community and those that want to be appointed on the committee we will have a motion for the board to do that
054and the the timing is is getting to be a little critical for us school boards can and run can run levees four times during a calendar year and in february or april august or november and our typical pattern has been to run the levy in february if that is the case then we have to have a resolution approved by the board and submitted to um benton county and qlikitat county by december 10th that just so happens that december 8th would be our first meeting in december and so the decisions the board needs to make are number one the duration just want you to start thinking about this the duration whether it's two three or four years the past two levies have been four years in duration all the levees prior to that were two years
055in duration so it could be two three or four years also on the ballot is an estimated levy rate per thousand dollars of assessed valuation and the last item is the amount of collection so that rate times the assessed valuation generates x dollars of levy uh revenue to the district for excess property taxes so those are the the critical items are the rate the duration and the amount of collections now i've been in contact with the assessor for klickitat in benton county and they as far as 2022 of course it's just an estimate they don't have the actual um rates yet they won't know that until january so it's really an estimate of of what the evaluate the valuation of the school district's property has increased in both counties and the other piece that's a
056little more difficult uh is there's also a component of state assessed value that's also included in the district's valuation um so i have a preliminary number from clickitat in benton counties but not the state assessed so some of this is our best estimate you know we look at history we try to look at new housing you know those kind of things that that makes a fourier level a little more difficult to be honest with you because you know we don't know what's going to happen in three or four years from now so there is some pros and cons for maybe having a two or even a three year levy as opposed to a four-year levy um against some of the and that you can chime in on some of this you know some of the
057pros and cons are of course if you do it every two years it's like you know it just seems like we just passed this levy or we voted on the levy and so and in that issue also with with the evaluation of of estimating you know what's going to happen in three or four years from now it's about 20 000 um to go through the process and put something on the balance so as as craig it talked about there are different durations and different rates that we can um we can run it at um i i think that the primary the primary thing that's important when you're looking at a levee i think is that you're able to pass it um so if you're if you get into the position where it's a double failure
058of course there are risks involved there with cutting programs a lot of this a lot of what we do with this money is athletics extracurriculars technology uh safety and security we get we can list them out but with without those levy funds um basically we we take a hit and have to absorb that we can only do it for you know a certain amount of time before it would be you know there have to be a conversation about it's not it's not sustainable anymore so that's that's i think part of the discussion of course if you go back in time we were able to set rates locally when the mccleary decision was made the state across the board said you can you know the top of that is a about 50. um now they've they've
059kind of eased off that a little bit and you can um through property evaluation right yeah so you can run it a little bit we can get a little bit more at 250. but initially when when we took that stance um sustainability was was one of the conversations that we were talking about that there just wasn't enough money to meet the end of the month basically for the long for the long haul i think what we've talked about talking about years here and so um that'll be part of the task to to define the term and the rate um and really it's a kind of unpredictable time with covet people have been out of work one of the other tricky tricky things is that the four-year levy rate um was the reason why the board
060at that time and this is before i was here it was i think that there was some true wisdom behind it but it was to to lock in a levy rate um and then basically get a bond rate so those those tax rates wouldn't be in conflict you wouldn't pass the bond and then go back out to the taxpayers of the community and say oh and you know so it felt like nickelodeon it would feel like nickelodeon so so there's i think there's some strategy there but but the rate the rate is important the duration is important and how long just as craig said if if they're you ever get into a pickle um sometimes it's better to have a short term so we can we can say we can adjust some of this um
061so yeah yeah just i think it's something worth deeply considering and like craig said we're um we'll be on the clock and so we need to make some decisions about it very fairly quickly to get the resolution passed and then do the work and do the work associated with that so so i guess our recommendation is that we you know have a study session a special meeting where we look at numbers and assessments and actually you know come to a rate right determination and total collection amount and duration those are the is a week that we might be able to set a meeting well or the end of the end of november yeah i would really like um i know we're on a real tight timeline and i did kind of the looking at our
062drop dead date to get the the past resolute resolution valid back to the county or to the state is december 12th jim mcneill has to have time or the excuse me the 10th jim mcneal has to have time to write that resolution for us but the closest board meeting that we would have to formally pass that resolution conceivably would be the meeting on the 8th of december um there wouldn't be time at our next year at our next board meeting to do it and i'd like our new folks on board to be part of that special meeting as we we sit and talk about that so i would like some thought and some feedback on having that special study session on the tuesday after the thanksgiving holiday instead of the monday and that would allow
063us that travel time for people that are going on big going someplace if we did it on a tuesday and then we could sit down and have that study session special meeting to really go through all of this and set the duration and the rate and talk about the needs and um and then be able to present that as a bring that back and be able to pass a resolution out of this december 8th meeting does that that work for well it works for jeannie elise elise is here well i'm just right but i'm just looking at a study session so that we have a chance to really talk about it think about it i'd like to get jason's input on it too so i if that works would that work for jim mcneill do
064you think would that i know he usually likes to have two weeks he can draft a resolution with i know but he usually likes to know so the other issue is getting the blessing from osp yeah i know there's going to be a bunch of other districts running the same right levy right and the reason that i like the february because if i'm correct our dates are february april or august or november but ideally most districts go out in february because then we all share the election cost and so that cuts the cost down for all of the districts to that probably twenty thousand dollars to run that election if we are a lone wolf that goes out like in april or august we're incurring all of the costs and so it's it's um it's
065better to go out with the majority rather than go out as a minority so and just statistically the results are higher in february there are some anomalies just for the record there were some like three levies that were passed like two years ago 100 percent right it was like three so there are some statistics but for the lion's share right that would give us february rate if the date is a higher percentage yes that would give us time to get information to our new new incoming board members too so does that work would that work for you jeanie [Music] i can have all sorts of data you know different estimates of valuation and rates and you know as much as we need to and it would be nice if that special meeting could be at
066six instead of seven all right i'll talk with jason and make sure that works for him yeah that's all i have thank you okay thank you all right um and then within all maybe have something like this craig like this is what we used last time we can look at information flyers that we've used in the past and okay thank you all right so next on our agenda is the district boundary report and i believe that's you mr ellis yeah there's a so the b section of which strand school lease this is just a circle back around um and so we we stuck with what we the guidance that the board gave us and went out for a short term lease this is kind of the information there is the byproduct of that so initially
067what uh what craig and i had had done or what we've heard from the board is that the shorter duration lease was preferable because of the construction and bonding the design build process that will be taking place at witstrand the near future so that's circling back around on that c district boundary report we worked with a company by the name of smamish data solutions we're required there is actually rcw about it when there's a census to consider the census data and consider if district district boundary lines need to be redrawn and so this is part of that there is a resolution uh process to this and it's much like budget where um there has to be a hearing and there will be a resolution we have to post for that so this was kind of
068just an informational discussion item of course spamish data solutions part of that process was to ask for not only city board members but people who were running for office so that they could draw those lines appropriate uh unless they be accused of gerrymandering or something to watch those fights so uh i can get a comparison of what the district boundary lines are versus the new map but they have shifted a little bit i think in a couple districts to accommodate that information from the census so and then the last portion that we'll be bringing to the board it's more of a discussion portion of kevin lotz can kind of talk through this a little better if he has anything to share at the new high school streaming streaming video over covet has become something that
069obviously is important and their community is like and that has allowed them to engage and connect with our school and so we're considering basically some hardware and software that would allow games to be streamed it'd be a permanent fixture and we'd be working with the company on a contract um but they would attach cameras within the gymnasium so that we could stream it out this company would actually do that for us we we do believe that there could potentially be some cost savings in this decision but the the hardware would be a fixture within that there would be an agreement that comes along kevin do you have anything to add on that this was a consideration we had probably a year and a half ago when we were getting back at things trying to figure
070out how we were going to provide those streaming opportunities there were multiple different ways uh youtube is one option we chose adjust the game which was an option that gave us a lot of flexibility this was one that was available at the time but the price ticket was about five grand per camera that we would have had to pay so we didn't choose that one at that time they've now restructured their part and uh in working with wiaa to provide this service it was a perfect opportunity so we'd be able to mount this one at the stadium one in the main gym one of the second gym could be provided for any activities that happened there but also could be for other activities as graduation etcetera that we can use but they're automated systems they
071don't have to demand uh there's a lot of benefits with that [Music] okay thanks if there are any questions about that um please let me know or kevin know again this is one of the options that we're considering okay thank you all right um we're going to shortly adjourn the regular meeting we are going to move into executive session uh to discuss the current appraisals of district property that session will last us about 45 minutes uh it is um rcw 42-42-30-110 c that is a question okay and at the end of that 45 minutes we will adjourn from executive session move back into regular the regular meeting and adjourn for the evening so um is there any questions on on that part of it okay so i would entertain a motion to adjourn from the
072regular meeting to move into the executive session and um and again it'll be for 45 minutes i think we'll take a five minute break before we go into the executive session however motion to adjourn from the regular meeting and move into the executive meeting okay okay so that's marked and jessalyn all in favor signify by saying i'm okay oh yes and we will come back into executive session here at 8 15 8 15 and we will be an executive session until nine o'clock thank you thank you everybody for coming tonight thanks boys did you ever get the cobin see did you