001Legs loose. Right. Thank you all for joining us tonight. Before we get to public comment, we have a couple district highlights. Sorry. Pass that over to Superintendent Mccay. Hello everybody. Welcome to those here in person and those virtually. As you can see, Sarah and Dan are absent. This meeting are Hi Yeah. Uh yeah, we do uh district highlights. I'll start with uh FCC FCCLA and that is our high school uh one of our student groups and organizations there. They uh competed in a state leadership conference. Uh and I want to recognize some of the achievements that they had there. uh 15 groups competed in in events and proud to report that all 18 students either earned a gold or silver silver medal. Of the 15 groups that competed, eight earned a spot to advance to
002the national competition in Washington DC this summer. So for the teams that competed that is fantastic for for them. Additionally, CILA is proud to share that Max Eisman was selected to represent Washington state as the FCCLA national officer candidate. So, for all the state of Washington, Max uh is going to rep represent our state. And then Leah Richards was elected as a 2627 state executive council and named to Washington State President. So terrific for both of those students in their uh leadership opportunities they're going to get as well as representing uh our high school and community. This is from uh Megan Ein who is one of the um uh adviserss. It was a great week to be a Viking. We are so proud of all these kids. They work so hard and it was so
003fun to see them bond and represent our school so well. They had Sherry and I, Sherry Brink, and I beaming with pride. It has truly been a joy to support their efforts. So, congratulations to all involved in FCCLA, those students moving on, as well as the two students represented in the leadership positions. And then thank you to Maggie and Sher for their um their supervision of the students and all their support of them. Uh the last meeting we had, we recognized half of uh our winter sports uh successes. And now I'm going to recognize those who had not competed in the state event. Um I'll start with our boys. Obviously, they had a fantastic basketball season. Uh congratulations to them. They were league champions. Uh although they did although they did qualify for state, they
004did not come home with the trophy. Our girls basketball team qualified for the state tournament for the first time since 1981 and they did bring back a trophy, a sixth place trophy. What makes that also neat is they played all the way to the last day that you could play. Uh pretty incredible uh experience for all of them. uh after the winter after the the fall and the winter uh sports season. Um this is what's called the WIAA Scholastic Cup is where they combine uh academic achievement with athletic achievement and out of all the schools in the 2A there which are 55 schools within the 2A uh we are currently in sixth place for combining academic and athletic uh competition success. So, we'll see how the spring goes and then give an update uh as
005we end that season. But congratulations uh to all the students involved, all the coaches, all the parents and all their support and definitely for all the support that our community showed um uh our two teams. Any questions? That's my report or highlights. >> Great. Thank you. Okay, moving on to suggestions, comments from the audience. There is a statement we'd like to read prior to any statements being made. So, we invite all community members to address the board on an issue or topic. The agenda item titled suggestion. The agenda item titled suggestions, comments from the audience is for any comments related to the topics that are not on the agenda. The audience can also provide informal comments on specific agenda items after being recognized by the board president. Individual remarks are limited to three minutes. Patrons
006making comments are asked to begin by identifying themselves. Please appoint a spokesperson if the concern is a group concern. If desired, you may email written documentation to the executive assistant to be included as part of the official meeting record. While the board will listen to all public comments carefully, the board cannot respond to comments spontaneously or without further deliberation. The board may direct the superintendent to respond to the issues expressed at a later date. Complaints about specific personnel will not be heard in open session and will not be part of the record of any public meeting. Harassing or derogatory statements about any persons or groups of persons will not be heard. Those who are unable to attend a board meeting may also submit a public comment by emailing executive assistant Jennifer. Okay, so first up
007we have Mary Scheler. Good evening. My name is Mary Scheler. So, I'm here on a positive note. I actually went to a thing at um in Yakama and I wanted to bring it back cuz I was pretty excited. Um, my kids go to Yakama School District and so I heard this thing about Central Washington Egg Museum in Union Gap and they talked about the different things that they do there and so I picked this up. It was about educational field trips and programs that they had to do there. And so I brought it back to the school board and I wanted to bring it back to you guys. And they have over I think it's 50 acres and it's $5 a student. And so I brought back the field trip slips and the tours that
008can be done there because egg is huge. And so I brought these back, the forums back. It has farm equipment. It also has Northwest Railroad, box cars, all kinds of stuff to do out there for kids. But I also wanted to bring up an article that I have actually because I'm actually involved in Washington State Growth Management Act. It says yes, agriculture is required and componed in Washington state growth management act. the GMAs mandated in the countries and cities designed to protect agriculture land of long-term commercial and these lands adopted in development development regulation and considered these lands providing components and use. I think this would be a great program because as long as my kids have my and one of my kids have been going here since kindergarten, I've never had an opportunity for
009my kids to actually go down there and learn about agriculture. And I think it would be great because I know that I'm part of the PTO and I go to those meetings and they actually pay to go to different types of field trips. So I think agriculture is a big part. Thank you, Mary Scheler. >> Thank you, Mary. Next on the list is Joel Dude. >> Hi, I'm Joel Dude. Uh I want to say thank you to CEA schools teachers, administrators, and school board. Appreciate what you do for our kids. Um in my family, we have an 8-year-old, 9year-old, and 13year-old in CIA schools. And I just wanted to quickly talk about how we strongly support uh would support a bell-to bell no phone policy. Um there are over 20 studies worldwide that suggests that
010phone should not be used during school. Also I realize I am reading this from my phone but there is some irony in that. Uh but 35 states now have laws or policies restricting phones in schools. Um, after a recommendation recommendation from my sister who has a PhD in education, she had me read a book by Jean Twinge, uh, psychology professor and author, and it is titled 10 rules for raising kids in a high-tech world. And rule 10 is no phone in schools, advocating for bell-to-bell, no phone policies. Um, studies show that this can improve student mental health and academic focus. The research links smartphone access during schools school hours to increase loneliness, anxiety, depression, and lower academic performance. As a school district, we should be all about improving the learning atmosphere. We should give our
011teachers the best environment to teach and students the best environment to learn. Uh so my family asks that you please adopt policies uh with no phones in schools. Thank you. >> Thank you Joel. Next on the list is Lisa Drainy. >> Um good afternoon. My name is Lisa Drainy. I printed mine out so I wouldn't be reading it from my phone. Um I am a parent of three CEA school district students. My oldest has been attending since 2017 when she was in kindergarten. She is now in eighth grade. And with her about to start high school in the fall, I wanted to come today to voice my support for changing the district's policy on cell phones in schools to a policy that only allows phones before and after school, also known as a bell-to-bell policy.
012I am also currently a school psychologist intern and former practicum student and employee in the SEA school district. Uh the first domain of practice of school psychologists is database decision-making. So, what does the data say about cell phones in schools? Starting with safety, I understand that many parents, myself included, consider what we would do and how we would contact our students should there be an emergency at the school. However, law enforcement officers have warned that using cell phones during an active shooter event can cause more harm than good. For instance, the intruder can be alerted to a student's location if the phone makes noise. Students can be distracted by their phones instead of following safety instructions. Police officers would need to manage panicked parents instead of focusing on the imminent threat. Students social and behavioral
013health can also be improved by cell phone bans. Research studies have shown declines in bullying and cyber bullying be after bans were implemented because students don't have access to immediate messaging, social comparison, and recording and sharing of incidents that can cause conflict. Teachers report that students are able to focus better in class and sustain attention longer. In another study, students were more socially engaged not only during school hours but also after school with increased attendance at sporting events. Finally, students academic achievement can be improved when schools implement cell phone bands with various studies showing increases in standardized test scores and grade point averages, especially among the lowest performing students and students from lower socioeconomic status. I appreciate that the district sent out a survey to seek parent input on the proposed policy change. The current
014policy seems reasonable as it doesn't allow phones during class, but allows students to use them during passing periods and at lunch. However, the policy is enforced inconsistently among teachers. So, those teachers that prohibit phones in their class turn into the phone police instead of being able to focus on teaching. Additionally, allowing phones outside of class means students could access them on extended bathroom breaks, be tardy to class because they're distracted by their phones between periods, and miss out on significant social opportunities during lunch. The benefits I outlined previously are most impactful when schools implement the strictest cell phone policy of not allowing phones at all between the morning and afternoon bells. Regardless of the parent feedback, I urge the district to make decisions based on data and what is best for students. My daughter has
015a cell phone, and while I admit that it has been convenient at times for me to be able to contact her while she's at school, the convenience of adults should not take priority over the safety, social, and behavioral health and academic achievement of our students. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Lisa. Is there anyone else in the audience that like to make public comment? Came in late, sir. >> No. Okay. Just wanted just want to make sure. We did have one comment come in through email. So, I'll go ahead and read that. Says, "Dear members of the CEL School Board, recently I was encouraged to see a survey sent out to parents about student use of technology in our school district. However, I was disappointed there were no accompanying statistics about the harm about
016the harm phones do at school. If the only factor is quote parent opinion, I'm afraid parents will choose the more convenient option for them, which is to be able to communicate with their kids easily during the day instead of having to call the school office to deliver a message. From my understanding, parent convenience is one of the barriers to getting phone bands in place in schools. But if parents were educated on the staggering statistics about the negative influence phones have on students, they can they too would be encouraged to choose what's best for the students, not their convenience. I live within walking distance of all four sea schools and I have four children from age 11 to two. I'm committed to do my part to improve the environment our kids face each day at school.
017The school board through the policies they create has the ability to positively impact the lives of all students by ensuring a healthy and safe community where students are free to learn the academic, social, emotional, and foundational skills needed to be successful in life. Your job is to put the education and well-being of our students above all else. And therefore, I encourage you to put in place a phone free school policy per the phone free schools movement best practice definition. A phone-f free school has a first bell to last bell policy that requires all personal electronic devices um cell phones, smartwatches, earbuds, AirPods, fitness trackers, and Bluetooth connected headphones, etc. are turned off, securely locked away, and inaccessible for the entire school day. An all day policy where phones are off and locked away is the
018only solution that prioritizes the academic, social, emotional, mental well-being, and safety of all our students. Thank you for putting the needs of our students first. Melissa Wright. Okay, so we are moving on to number four on our agenda, which is meeting minutes. We have approval of the regular meeting minutes from the February 26th meeting and approval of the study session meeting minutes of March 12th, 2026. >> The board members. >> Okay. Okay. I I will move that we accept that we approve the the meeting minutes for February 26th and March 12th. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Oh yeah. >> Thank you. That takes us to our consent agenda. Just a reminder for board, we can approve the entire consent agenda um with one vote. Um, we do have several items on there
019that Superintendent McKay and Associate Superintendent Skako will move will take us through and so I'll go ahead and pass it to them now. First one behind action sheet. >> Okay. Very quickly, um, just we have we've had additional attrition which actually in light of the budget reduction process that we're going through, it's it's good. Um so far uh from um the first of the year, first of the calendar year, we've had 10 retirements and resignations amongst our certificated staff and we've had 23 resignations and retirements amongst our classified staff. So um we're we're seeing some attrition and we are making reductions as we go. So you'll see here on this human resources action sheet that we've got most of the activity there is around coaching but we do have a few um resignations three resignations
020on the certificated side which are included in the 10 that I mentioned and uh three on the classified side or on the classified side that are part of the 23 that I mentioned. Just >> one of those kind of stuck out to me, Chris, with Steve resigning from transportation. That's a final lead mechanic is >> easier said than done. >> He's uh Yes. He's been a great fabulous lead mechanic for our district for a few years now. And he and his family are relocating to Missouri. So, he'll be uh leaving us here not too long. Au end of April, I believe. So, we are um we're getting ready to post that position in and out and look for we've got a couple leads from a mechanic or two around. One in private business and two
021in school district business. So, we'll we'll get the posting out there and see what we can find who we can find goods and services. Um, I had just a couple uh things to highlight. On the first page of the general fund payables, you can see there there's three different charges. One to Bill Harris used cars, Brookner's truck and equipment, and Bryson sales and service. Those are all uh charges associated with parts and labor on buses um or just parts in in particular with uh Bryson sales and service. Our mechanics have done most of the work, but there are certain things that they don't either have the equipment for or don't do, aren't skilled enough to do. But these are mainly parts through these three purchases. I just want to highlight that. Um on the second
022page, Greenways Academy, that is the vendor we use for our online school online um AL alternative learning education. That looks really high at 171,000. that was three uh months, December, January, and February. They got behind on their billing. So, I just want to highlight that that that's not the normal monthly charge. We wouldn't be working with them if that was the case. And then the last one I wanted to highlight is back a couple more pages here on Transact Communications. That is our routing program uh software for our transportation department. And it does run right around 25 to 27,000 a year. But it definitely makes the process a lot easier than a manual routing system. So those are that's all I have to share on those. >> I'll take the travel this this afternoon and
023then Chris will come back with the donations and the surplus. So before you there are three student travel trips. These come to you because they're in in each case they're overnight. Uh in one case it's not only overnight but out of state. Uh that's the first one that you have in your packet. uh track and field uh taking students to the University of Oregon. Uh five to 20 students it says. I would imagine they're probably trying to figure out who's going and who is not. Uh the next one that you have is uh uh TSA uh 24 students going to Spokane for a competition. And then you have uh Skills USA going to Seattle SeaTac area. Uh 11 students going to a competition. So our students as normal in the springtime are out and about
024competing against other students from across the state in each of those areas. To go along with the track travel, we have a $5,000 donation from Howard's Medical to help them with their expenses for um for that travel event. And um we have a $1,000 donation from the CIA High School class of 2025 to help with the um prom activities. >> Sorry, I jumped right into that, but Larry, did you have a question on the travel? The only the only question I had is when are we going to know how many students are going to be going to Oregon? I know they have to earn the right to go. So, I was just kind of curious is when they do that. >> I do not know off the top of my head, but I can surely
025find out for you and respond to that. >> Well, I I know that's a kind of a prestigious be invited there. So, it's great that we have students going. >> Yeah, it is prestigious and >> fully. >> Yeah. And to be able to compete in that facility has got to be a fantastic experience for them. >> Awesome facility. Um, I would assume that this weekend's going to determine who qualifies because next week is the trip. So, >> okay, the last um we do have before you tonight a recommendation to approve a surplusing of one of our small buses. So, it's a 2007 Thomas. Um, mileage is 156,000. We have a district, Wilson Creek School District, that's in a bind. This is a bus that we were going to surplus anyway in our June sale. We're
026asking to surplus it uh sooner so that we can sell it to this school district that's in a bind. They absolutely need one right away. So that's why we just moved it up a little bit to sur ask to surplus it. >> Can you go through the responsibility the district has and the different levels of surplus just as a reminder like we have to provide it the opportunity for >> Yep. >> Go ahead. So basically, and we typically have one surplus sale a year. Normally it's the end of June. What we have to do um legally is we have to obviously come to the board and ask that you declare items surplus. It's not just vehicles, it's books, it's tables, chairs, anything that we're going to sell in the surplus sale. So I'll bring that
027request back to you in the May business meeting. But for the normal sale, we are required for vehicles, buses in particular, that we have to well, even for the entire sale, we have to go to public and private schools first. They have an opportunity to come and walk through and make uh offers on different items. All of our vehicles we do on private uh bid uh bid box. And so people come in and they bid. We have a minimum amount and then they all bid on it. But the private and public schools get first, right? Then after they go through their process, then we have our public sale and the public sales advertised to the to public obviously. These are all patron public assets. So we we go by rules and in getting rid of
028them. I in this in particular, I have a private citizen that's interested in buying this bus and I had to tell him unfortunately another public school district is going to probably buy it. Any further discussion on any of those? I will move that we accept the consent agenda as a whole. I get a second. Okay. Oh, we got a vote on that. Okay. Um, all in favor of approving the consent agenda, respond with an I. >> I. >> Okay. All opposed? Great. Pass the consent agenda. On to item six. We do have one piece of business under administration. Our annual resol Well, it's not the same number, but this year the resolution number is 2026-3 or reduced educational program. >> This is a resolution we bring before the board every year. Our labor contracts require
029us to get board board approval prior to implementing any sort of reduction in force. We take we bring it to the board every year in case something happens and we need to go back and implement a riff. And so we are bringing it before the board. I'd like to say remind everyone that we're not planning on going into any riff situation with any classification of employee here at the school district because we're satisfying our reductions through attrition. But we we do have the board adopt this every year because if we get close to those riff deadlines and we we end up having to riff, then we have the authority to do it. >> And in the uh the legislative sessions that are longer, which would >> in in probably next year would be continuing to
030be going at this time. And also if they were to extend into a uh you know an extra session per se um we have to bring these uh way before the important date for us and for our collective bargaining agreements which is May 15th. So that is why it comes to you at this time. Even though the legislative session is over at this period this year, this is brought to you um really as a protection for the district for anything that ma may transpire uh in the legislative session that would be after uh that this time. So, uh, again, like Chris said, we we don't have any intentions of implementing a riff, but for something unforeseen to happen, in order to be able to do it, it does have to come to you and you
031do have to authorize it. >> Question on that? >> Okay, we also got a vote on this then. So, all in favor of passing resolution number 2026-3, you respond with an I. >> I. I. I. All opposed. Okay. Resolution 2026-3 passes. Um, and that brings us to our student board representatives report. Um, I don't know. Need to think about it. Um, I think it's been exciting with the new uh trimester because I got to sign up for a class. So, that's been fun. Um, and spring sports also started. So, it's been keeping everyone busy, I think. Um, I don't know if I have like I haven't really heard like anything any concerns, I don't think. So, yeah, it's been doing pretty good. Yeah, the new trimester is going pretty good. Uh, school's almost over already.
032That's pretty crazy. Uh, it's gone pretty good this year. I don't have any concerns or questions yet. Uh, like they just mirror what they said. Yeah, it's been um great third trimester. There's been a lot of talk about um cell phone policy updates and like I kind of shared last time about the um especially with the registration of courses recently, all the students registered for next year, just kind of the talk again of how um we can kind of help students who are involved in lots of extracurricular activities with maybe some sort of free period. And um I do know that the school has really been cracking down on um students applying for independent studies. So, um I've heard a lot of students concerned about um being able to get an independent study this trimester,
033especially if they already have a super full schedule. Um that does have to get approved by administration and teachers. And so there's been a lot of um nonapproval of that uh this trimester and so some students are kind of frustrated with that. Um yeah. Um I think right now like especially during this trimester I've noticed a lot of like burnout among like staff and students like combined. Um I think it's just because of like like Claire said like some of the workload that is on some of these like students and teachers. But that's just something that I've noticed and something to like think about. But then also I want to give a highlight. I think we have a really cool program at our school where we get to do where we get to go do
034like an internship. Um I'm on my second internship now. My first internship I had was with my church. Um, and the second one I'm doing right now is with Habitat for Humanity. And it's a really really cool experience to be able to not like go into the workforce, but like you know, like kind of like step into it and kind of just like understand what it means to like step into like a different career. And um, like right now they have me in like the office doing administration like administration stuff and it's been a super cool experience. So that's just a highlight. >> I'm going to add on since you just got done talking, Claire, congratulations to you. you are on the list as I mentioned earlier with highlights. Uh looks like you are moving
035on to the nationals as well with what does it say here? Maybe I'll just let you tell us what what it was that you qualified for. >> Yeah. So I qualified for my event which was chapter service project display. So you do a presentation on your community service project that you did. So for me that was actually presenting on my adopted family project that I with my partner ran for the CIA school district. So that was really cool to just kind of um I think I got like a little a lot of compliments on just like the scope of our project. So it was really cool to like do that within our community and see all the benefits within the community and then kind of take it to the next level and see recognition for
036that. >> Very cool. Congratulations. members. >> Okay, keep up the good work. Moving on now to number eight, associate superintendent for district operations report. >> Okay, um first off is the enrollment update for March. Uh we saw a slight increase in our enrollment in March 5 FTE up from February, which is typically we see little tiny drops through the rest of the year. So just these slight increases are nice to see. Uh the total drop though however from March 25 to March 26 was 47 and we know that we're we're we're down this year. Um but overall this school year we're running just under 20 FTE over projection which is a really good place to be. Um we hope to see here what do we have three count dates left in April, May and June.
037And um we probably most likely will be over projection at the end of the school year and that's where we want to be maybe 10 to 15. So should be good. Any questions on the enrollment? Do you have anything to add on that Kevin? Okay. All right. Let's talk about the financial status update for February. Uh you can see in your packet that we are 50% exactly through the school year. we've re received 45.7% of our budgeted revenues and if we've expended 48.2% of our budgeted expenditures. So this is typical for this time of year. We have our tax collections coming in. Typically aortionment allocations are lower in the tax collection months. So in April we typically catch up to where we're at during the school year. Um, as you know, all of our uh
038labor contracts compensations paid equally over 12 months. So, we should be aligned to where we are in the school year throughout the year. So, with the tax collections, we should be closer to to those percentages. So, we're in we're in uh pretty much where we thought we were going to be. We're in a little bit better financial position than we actually budgeted because we are seeing higher revenues coming in on our special education program, CTE program, and also we're 20 over projection. So, we're seeing those additional revenues. So, as we move into the long range, the projecting our ending fund balance, we should be coming in less than the budgeted $1.2 million deficit. So, we should be in in a better position there. So, feeling pretty good about it right now. Any questions on the
039financial status update? I didn't touch upon the other funds, but let me see if there's anything that I should. Um, debt service payment. The last debt service payment for our bonds this school year is on June 1. We have two payments a year, December 1 and June 1. So, that's coming up. And we have one bus that's still out there that we haven't received yet. So, we'll have one more uh bus to pay for this current school year when we receive it. And I think that's that's pretty much it. >> Going to start seeing some activity in the capital projects fund as we're starting. We would start paying obviously probably seen some architectural expenses, engineering expenses. You're going to see now some expenses um with regards to paying for the the construction that's going to
040start. So, >> yes. that >> is that for both the field and the metal shop >> only only right now you're going to start seeing the expenses on the field some of the cons some of the architectural services definitely those are for both projects yeah >> arch engineering testing and those things are all all uh for both projects >> you will see the mobilization of the contractor for the field turf project uh they'll be there we I think they said right around the 15th of April so that projects rolling. We're really excited about it. We had them here this week and we did they did a walk of the the site and so they're ready to go. It's great. Okay, the exit. So, we just completed the auditor state auditor's office just completed our audit.
041Um I believe the auditor emailed everyone on the 18th of March. So, you should have that report. Overall, uh no audit findings. Uh they have a couple minor exit recommendations. One of them is I'll just say OSPI's fault because the tool they provided us has a bunch of errors in it. At my fiscal meeting yesterday, everybody said, "Yeah, we got wrote up for this and that and the written up." So I'm not putting too much on that. Um there was a transposition in one of the uh areas for for leases, I believe. And so that was a minor thing just to remind us on our on those types of things. So Steph and I will work on that. Otherwise, I mean we we don't actually uh prepare our financial statements in accordance with GAP. Only
042the really large districts do that. So they give us a modified um opinion on our financial statements just because of that reason. But otherwise there were no material misstatements or anything like in that of that nature. So we overall received positive results again this year. They will be right back with us in May to do our accountability audit. Um so we have our state or financial and federal audit uh every year and then the accountability audit is every two years and so it is falling this year. So they'll be back here in May if to do that audit. They'll be here on site again for another couple weeks. So that's about it on it. It went well. Any questions? >> All right. >> I'll I'll touch base on a legislative update. Uh, you know, the
043session is over now and it was a short session. Uh, 60 days. It kind of worked out exactly the way that we we anticipated it working out. Uh, there were no surprises. um wasn't new funding, but what we had hoped for was any uh substantial cuts that were going to impact our school district, and there wasn't. Along with that, there wasn't any new policy uh that would cause us to respond uh to what the legislature has decided. So, I in the big picture, yeah, we were hoping for some relief. Uh but we we knew going in that the state of the economy wasn't going to be able to really provide that. It wasn't where their emphasis was. We reminded you throughout the session in multiple reports whether it be my Friday notes to you or
044when we presented um the update on the budget at the last study session. Uh we we were pretty sure at that time that this is was going to happen. Now that the session is over, it's it's really clear that no new funding, no unfunded mandates, no new policy that's going to impact us, uh but no uh increases um to cover uh cost associated with inflation. Uh we we had some concern about lev uh levy equalization. As you know, we do receive levy equalization. We were on track to have increases in levy equalization for next year. If there's one negative associated with the budget, uh those increases are not going to be coming our way. So, they basically suspended those increases. Um that that would have been helpful obviously, but it's uh not in the worst
045case uh that we've not seen those those increases. So, uh they're going to be paused. uh transitional kindergarten we we that is um has an impact for school districts who have large numbers of transitional kindergarten classes. We have one and so the impact is not going to be uh we probably won't see any any adjustment to that. And the one the other one is uh the bus appreciation Chris has spoken to that uh basically they just expanded the lifetime of a school bus from what 13 to 15. They took the small buses and went from 8 to 10 years and the large buses from 13 to 15. So what that does is that we don't get our money as fast as we normally do. And so buses will have to be on the road longer.
046And the only other piece of information that is sometimes lost with all of the things going on, and it wasn't a real, it wasn't controversial or anything this year, but it's the IPD, and that's the inflationary price defiill, which is also known as the the COLA or the cost of living increases. Uh so that is a 2.6% increase, and that'll be flowing through. Um basically that is to cover uh those state funded uh positions in our school district. So >> we don't get the allocation from federal grants or levy or that type of thing. So it's just for state, but it does get passed through to all employees. So there's a district or there's a cost that comes with it for districts. And that's le that's the legislative report. There's all kinds of information out
047there from all kinds of different sources. You probably if you checked your email, you had one from WASDA. I shared one from Wasa. And there's every organization has their own little spin on what took place based on what their interests are. So if you want any more, I'd be happy to get it for you, but that's a general what what transpired. >> I I just have like one question and this is probably along lines of transportation. But with uh the cost of diesel and gas and everything going up, is that going to be something we're going to have to adjust for for at least the remainder of the year? >> Absolutely. Yeah, it's what record high right now. >> Diesel's up over six. I don't know what we get it for, but that's the cost
048of the pump. >> We get a little bit less, but still expensive. Yeah, we're going to have to plan for increases in our budget for next year for that as well. and we we we've got our budget set for transportation for this year. So, yeah, we're going to see an overage in that line item of the budget. Hopefully, we can save in other line items to minimize that. But, yeah, it's not it's not good. >> Thank you. >> Where do the funds come to cover something like that when variable costs like that? Well, all of our funding for the transportation program comes through state funds and it's all driven based on the miles and the number of students that you transport. So, there's processed for accountability on that and and submission of reports and then
049they determine what your funding level is and all that funding level that funding has to cover everything associated with transportation. >> Yep. >> Yeah. And so it was budgeted and Chris has done does a good job especially with fuel and diesel is that it is susceptible to increases. We weren't expecting any increases like we're seeing right now, but there is capacity built into the budget to cover certain increases to a certain point. I would assume that we're going to exceed those and so that will be an area that will be, you know, it'll be over what we budgeted for. And so if uh transportation as a whole is over budget, then uh that's what we have a a reserve account for. >> Should see other programs being under that we can offset. So that's what
050you hope for, right? You see one overage here, but you've got other programs that are coming in under that can be green money, if you will, that can help cover those deficits. >> Any further discussion from the board? Okay, on to the hot button topic of the >> so okay >> headphone survey. All right. So we did as we had planned uh since the beginning of the year and really before that we always in our discussions and I when I say we the discussions at the board level the discussions at the district administration level is that we did feel and and did want to reach out and get input from the stakeholders in any before any formal decisions uh have are going to be made by the board in regards to policy uh telecommunication ations
051or cell phones in general and all the other telecommunication devices that are associated they are within policy in our school district and that policy is the board's policy which is authorized and approved by the board. So part of uh my work uh at the direction of the board was to find a time where it'd be appropriate to get some input from our stakeholders. And uh once we were able to narrow some ideas on what proposals would would need to go to the stakeholder to see where they where they were at with those uh that's where we came to the point where it was time to get some get a survey out and get some input. And so that has been done. Uh we have one stakeholder group who has until tomorrow. I don't believe that
052that's going to adjust a whole lot, but that's with our staff. And so they do have the opportunity uh to turn in um their opinion based on the survey which is by the way the same survey all stakeholders group groups got the exact same survey so that we could compare all the results together. So uh you have seen that it's attached to Borg docs it's open for public view. We did a rank order survey. So we had three proposals. It was simple. And the reason why we wanted it to be simple because we were asking um we're asking all kinds of different people for their input, but we also wanted to get our students um who were potentially going to be impacted uh by whatever decision is made. And so the survey for students were
053for fifth graders through 11th graders. And so we had to have a survey tool where our fifth graders uh could understand what they were uh being asked to respond to and could give us a a valid response. So we had three proposals out there that we asked people to rank order. The rank ordering was simple. You you select which of the three proposal you supported the most and which of the three proposal you supported the least. And in general, our results um I I will give you we had good participation. I think participation uh enough to make it considered to be a valid survey. I don't know what the statistics uh of it would say about the validity of it. But uh I do think um that Heidi's work on this, my work on this
054and our good friend AI all helped us to determine that what we had was a really good response from uh from our stakeholders. So we had 613 responses from our students and our students uh selected as their top choice was proposal A which was not surprising to us. That was the the current proposal or the current policy that we have in place. All right, that's not surprising. And uh um they chose proposal A first, proposal B second, and then proposal uh C third. And proposal C is really the K12 bell-to bell. No if ends or buts type one. So, um, parents, we had 180 98 responses. That that really is pretty good in the world of surveys to parents. I wasn't I I wish there would be more, but we kind of understand that. Um,
055we did we did put this out through parent square, which uh which has been known to get um have a lot of users and know that it does get to parents. And so we had 19 198 responses. Again, this is this is a maybe a little bit of a surprise. Uh but I want to share with you the insides of this is that uh proposal A ended up being the first, but proposal B and C were all very close. So with proposal C getting probably as much support in you know within a very small amount of votes determining the difference between those. So, um you can see that um although the most uh did go with proposal A, there was support for the other two as well from parents. Staff, we have 209 responses and
056this was as of I believe yesterday when we did this work or maybe the day before. I would expect that that to increase a little bit, but uh this was also not a surprise that proposal C was the first um in the staff responding. So uh with proposal B and propo proposal B being second and proposal A being third. So it I don't think the results of the survey are any surprise to any of any of us but we do feel like we've now kind of gone through the next step of getting getting input from all the stakeholder groups. Now this is not our only source of input. I I want to make sure that um um especially people in the audience and people virtually know that the topic of cell phone policy has been
057discussed at ver a variety of levels um mostly a lot at the high school through a lot of uh student voice asking questions interviewing I know Thor's council has done some work in regards to that as well to get input uh our student representatives at v uh miss m v variety of times during the course of board meetings and study sessions have been asked about their opinion on this so they can share it with the board as as really representatives of the student body. Um I've had community forums where the topic of cell phone policy uh has come up and we've dis we've discussed those thoroughly and I know the board has had uh multiple times that you've had discussions. So, I I want to make sure that people know that we're just not taking
058the survey as our number one as the number one determiner about what is going to be done by the school board. The school board um has also uh had time that they have gone out uh and done their own research whether that be at the WADA conference where Mr. Iverson and Mr. Peters went to uh sessions about other school districts and their um their implementation of cell phone policy. Uh I know Mr. Peters uh has um has a family member that's involved with the University of Washington who has done some research on this. So I I would say that the board is at a pretty good place with being educated about what the research says as well. And now with tonight's public comment, uh adding to that, um we'll take all of that. I will
059gather all of that information and then the board uh will you will probably see in the coming months uh determine where the policy is going to be uh for the 26 27 school year. But is there anything that you'd like further with regards to the results of the survey or any comments that you may have about the survey? I just have a question maybe for Chris. When did we make that transition away from and it's not exactly the cell phone policy, but the transition away from textbooks into using more Chromebooks in the classroom. I can say it not more maybe more specific in education public education in general uh but not more specific to the I think what the heart of your question is here um >> I'm think >> onetoone devices um I think
060got a lot of attention as um Google and other type of platforms began to be available for students to start to do their work and submit it to teachers. And it started uh with with uh platforms like Blackboard and other ones. I can't remember their names right off the top of my head, but that that whole idea started uh at the college and university level and it started to trickle down into the public education K K12 system. As that began to be the way that our our teachers were being trained to use those platforms, they started to go out and started to use them independently within their classrooms. And so what happened is we had we we I'm just being again we as in general K12 education and really at the high school started to
061see that those students who had technology devices available to them in their home uh were able to meet and be able to to do what the teachers were asking them to to to turn in work to monitor their assignments uh to do their research. uh they were able to do that but a segment of students across our state and nation weren't able to do that because of a Wi-Fi connections uh hardline internet connections andor the devices and so if schools were going to move to this new platform it had to be one that was going to be uh able to support all students and so you saw school district invest uh a tremendous amount of money with a lot of grants from those companies that were going to support that um into this kind of
062virtual way of doing um doing their work and submitting it to teachers. Then and then CO came along and so CO uh with the idea of having to have virtual uh education there for a while that really uh and then the use of the federal funds that came along for COVID relief uh the state directing those funds to be used in many cases on technology and onetoone initiatives so that every child had a Chromebook uh that just changed the game for that. uh we have seen just uh in the last couple of the years the impact on screen time that kids are having and the reduction of screen time within the schools. Um and so I think I've shared with you some examples of that uh and and seeing kind of adjustment of going back
063to maybe a a a normal the way it was before. So does that help Eric? No, that's >> I was and the reason why I asked is um I was encouraged at the last meeting when you said that the middle school next year is uh starting to move away from the one to one and I I think the screen time the kids get plenty of that outside of school. It's related to the cell phone policy. Um but also I mean it's been several years now that we've had these Chromebooks out and they're going to start getting worn out and then it's going to be a massive expense. And so >> it looks like um 20145 is when we started purchasing the bulk of those chrome Chromebooks and then we invested a lot of money over
064the course of a few years and like Kevin said through co we received a lot of additional money that we used towards those purchases. So we're you know we're rolling in new Chromebooks every year. We had the carts set at the elementaryaries. Um that took a little longer to get all those set, but they would get set and then we would purchase additional Chromebooks to roll into um sixth grade and then they would keep rolling up and then the older ones would roll down and be parts machines for the elementary ones that were in the carts. So it looks like 145 was when we really started purchasing the bulk of those. >> Yeah, it's funny. It's funny you mentioned that is that Chris and I just had a had a meeting with our director of
065technology Greg Sugdan and and we discussed this what does this mean for the future and our purchasing needs and our planning needs because we do have cycles of Chromebooks, iPads, uh desktops that um displays uh multimedia displays that are are to the end of their life cycle and how do we plan for the future with a with a change in maybe how we're using those tools. >> Yeah, I think uh Kevin, you've talked about the pendulum swinging in education a lot and this is one where we went from textbooks to technology and now we're starting to move back and hopefully can settle somewhere in the middle because we need to have technology. The kids need to know how to use it. But we also, I think, have seen that it's become too much of a
066distraction in the classroom. on the cell phone. Read a story earlier this week. Oh, yeah. Go ahead, Claire. >> Um I was so just to clarify, proposal A that's the current >> current. >> Okay. I guess my question is just um this is the I mean this is the current policy, right? But as a student, I I couldn't tell you that that's the current policy. So if this were like if a new policy were to be instated or this or we were to go with proposal A, what would what do you think like would have to be put in place to actually make that change? Because like right now it is the policy but it's not really happening. >> Yeah. And that's where you get into the inconsistency that you guys face in your day-to-day
067going about your class schedules where the um the classroom expectations uh vary from teacher to teacher. And I wouldn't say that's just at the high school, it's probably throughout it. So, I I do know for one um the attention that cell phone policy has had um across the nation with all the research and and school districts looking at their current policy and determining if they need to to make adjustments to it is is bringing a lot more attention uh to the schools. And I regardless of what one is determined to be adopted, uh I do think that there's going to be a greater emphasis uh to become more consistent in the expectations across classrooms. Um that puts uh students in a difficult situation um and at times it pits uh adults against each other where
068one is implementing uh as it should be and the other one is becoming lax. So, so I this what whatever is decided uh it's still going to require a a lot of um management supervisory work to ensure that whatever is decided is implemented uh consistently and what the policy says. So I think this will give us a good opportunity to reset that whatever it is that level of expectation is um in starting of the new school year. All right. >> Got one more. >> Okay. Oh, yeah. >> So, um yeah, special ed report. Betty has provided for you a document and all that is is a written report. Obviously, if if if um like we had done in the past, uh the board transitioned away because of other needs uh from having directors and executive
069directors come in and and do a presentation during meetings uh to a written report and we did this last year and there was some some interest in continuing continuing it. What I ask you though is that if there are things in the written report that spark your interest that you reach out to Betty and get further information or allow me to get the information from Betty. She has done a really good job in going through what she sees in each of the different category the challenges and the supports that are being provided on the first page. Um she then summarize summarizes it as well. Talks about the unknowns in regards to special education. And then probably the the the biggestformational part of it is so that you can see by schools the different numbers of
070students that are within each of the different classifications in regards to special education. and uh she's gone uh those students who have a 504 plan, those students who have an uh an IEP, those students who receive speech or occupational therapy, those students who are in the SLC classroom, which we know are the ones with the the most extreme disabilities. She's gone through and so you can see how uh those students are placed within each of the schools and then the staffing that's required in order to support those students. So if you want specifics, reach out to me. This is m this is meant as just a summary or an overview or a general report. But if you have an interest in special education or how we're doing our our special educational obligation to students with
071their um disabilities, please let me know and I know Betty would be happy to give you a lot more information. Any questions from the board on that? Okay, concludes the superintendent report. Now we're on to board communications. Nothing. Okay. >> Um I will I'll take a moment. I would like to just again congratulate the the girls basketball team. That's pretty awesome. I mean I wasn't even alive in >> and So that's that's a long time that's a long time ago. Um I went to school with a couple of the moms of that team. So it's pretty amazing to um see just how successful their their kids are and that was a pretty exciting team to watch. They're really tight and >> u like really close friends. And so that that matters. They're they're a strong
072team. So >> I I gotta say it the support that uh their peers, the fellow students showed them was incredible. Uh, and that that not only I mean go we we recognize the basketball team because they're the ones competing, but the opportunities that our tear squad got, the opportunities that our band who is absolutely incredible, the opportunities of all the friends, all the relations, all the grandparents, all the other community members who showed up and either went to the games or showed up when they were doing the sendoffs or the support from the sponsors or anybody else who who became involved in those events. the impact of those and the experiences of all the students that get to be involved in that is something that they'll they'll remember forever. And so for a group of
073group of student athletes and everybody that goes along with that to be able to experience that for the first time since 1981, it it is uh it is really something to celebrate. So thanks again for bringing that up. But the impact across our community, that was a really there was a lot of feel-good moments and positive support for our schools, not just because the kids were playing basketball in the Sundoo, but just in general, it kind of I felt it kind of brought the the community together and I know it brought the school together on on seeing uh the success of a of a girls basketball program that that has not had a lot of success over the years. So, it's really neat neat to >> pretty awesome. Okay. Well, there is no need for
074an executive session tonight. So, we'll go ahead and adjourn my first and hopefully last meeting that I have to lead. We we'll get the varsity back in here next session.