December 11, 2025 Selah School Board Meeting

00130. Um, we're all here except for the soontobe seated board member. So, if you uh can stand if you're able and remove your hats, we'll say a pledge of allegiance. We have a special meeting, an exciting meeting this evening for a lot of reasons. Uh we have a big budget presentation. Um but the thing we're most excited about is welcoming a new member to the CILA school board. Uh so we will begin with the oath of office uh for a current school board member who is uh reelected for a four-year term and then we will proceed to our uh brand new uh elected uh school official. So Kevin, as a superintendent uh and secretary of the board, I am the also the official uh to read the oath of office to newly elected and reelected

002board members. And we will start with the reelected board member, uh Mr. Joe Katron. Joe, would you please stand and raise your right hand and repeat after me? I, Joe Katron, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the state of Washington and the laws of the state of Washington and will I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of school director of CIA school district number 119 to the best of my ability. Congratulations. And now for a newly elected school board member, Mr. Larry Patching. Come forward, please. We'll go right over here by your name tag. We want to make sure that everybody on the video gets to see you as well. Please raise your raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Larry Patching, do

003solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the state of Washington and the laws of the state of Washington. and I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of school director of CELA school district number 119 to the best of my ability. Congratulations. Well, [laughter] >> congratulations. >> Welcome. >> All right. Excellent. Well, we're all together now uh up here. Uh and the next order of business is um again more sort of specifically board related business. um at the first regular meeting at which newly elected board members are seated in an election years and at the first regular meeting in December and non-election years, the board will elect from among its members a president and a vice president to serve one-year terms. The newly appointed board member will not

004be eligible to serve as an officer unless the majority of the board has been appointed. If a board member is unable to continue to serve as an officer, a replacement will be elected immediately. In the absence of both the president and the vice president, the board will elect a president prom uh who will perform the functions of the president during the latter's absence. The superintendent will act as board secretary and perform all the duties as outlined by law. In order to provide a record for the pro of the proceedings of each meeting of the board, the superintendent will appoint a recording secretary of the board. Um, this is an odd number year. So, we will not be electing a WASDA legislative representative. Those are elected during two-year uh, excuse me, during even number years and

005serve two-year terms. So, the normal order of business tonight will be modified uh for the organizational meeting. Um, yep, yep, yep. Okay, I think that's where we are right now. Um we did that call for nominations for president to serve during the ensuing year. After that we will have an election of the president uh through roll call vote and assumption of office by the new president followed by a call for nominations for vice president which will follow the same proceeding a roll call vote for the election of the vice president. I think that does it. So I will I I get to call for nominations. Is that right? I'll call for nominations for president to serve during the ensuing year. >> I'd like to dominate nominate Dan Peters to remain as president of the board.

006>> Okay. Uh I will accept that nomination. Are there any other nominations for president of the board? Okay. Hearing none, uh, we will have Superintendent McCay uh, do a roll call vote, I believe. >> Roll call vote and we will start at the far end. Uh, board member Iverson. >> Board member Patching, board member Peters, >> yes. >> Board member Michael, >> yes. >> And board member Katron, >> yes. Let the record show that uh, Mr. Peters will be the board president for the coming year with a 50- vote. >> Great. Thank you very much. Um I appreciate your confidence in uh my leading these meetings and um we'll move on now to the next order of business which is the call for nominations for vice president to serve during the ensuing year. Are there

007any nominations for vice president? I'd like to nominate Joe Kaitron as vice chair. >> Are there any other nominations for the uh vice president's position? >> Uh let's ask Joe. Are you okay with being nominated to be the vice president? >> I accept that nomination. [clears throat] >> Okay. Thank you, Joe. And now I'll ask Kevin to call the role. Same way as we started. Board member Iverson, board member Patching, board member Peters, >> yes. >> Board member Michael, and board member Katron. >> Yes. >> Let the record show that board member Katron is assuming the vice president role of the board by a 50- vote. >> Great. Thank you very much. Well, I'm excited to start a new year with uh our our um our board and looking forward to uh serving the CELA

008community uh especially the CELA school district uh for the year ahead. Um we will move on now to a district highlight which is an adopt a family program uh that is uh occurring at our high school and Claire uh Richard who is also a student board representative will um tell us a little bit about what's she's been working on with the ASB. Is that right Claire? >> Yes that's right. Um, so if you aren't familiar, adopt a family is a program that the CEO school district uh particip participates in each year and it's where we take low lower income families within the CEO school district who are looking for some extra support for the holidays and they put in what their kids like some of their likes or wishes are for Christmas and then groups

009within the CEO school district and the CIA community in general have an opportunity to sign up to sponsor or adopt these families. Um, and so as uh ASB president, I've kind of taken on the role this year with another um with the ASB secretary, Miley May, who is helping me to um keep track of all these families. This year we have 52 um different families within the CIA school district, which is um the most families that we've ever been able to support. In previous year, last year we had 45 families, I believe. And it's just been growing each year, the amount of families that we have been able to support. And that's really because of all the incredible people in the community. There's clubs that will sign up. Um there's I know there's there's multiple

010people in this room who have signed up um themselves to adopt a family. So um our job is really just to get everyone assigned to families and make sure that those gifts are being delivered and that um these families really just have a little bit of an extra support system in the holiday season. Do you guys have any questions about this? Claire, are there families that are still looking for support? >> No. So, um, we, like I said, like this is the most families that we've ever been able to support. And so, um, initially the the, um, the district coordinator of families will do like a call and she'll tell us how many families she has. Um, initially she said that she had 42 families that needed to be supported. And, um, we were like,

011we're like, okay, we have so much interest in people wanting to adopt these families. are there any more families that um you have who are available? And so she did another um reaching out to people. And so it's really as many people that are willing to help and step up and support. That's how many families that we're able to support. >> Yes. Any other questions? >> Are you still taking families? >> No, we are not. The um the gift delivery is on the 16th. So, um yeah, it's really it's really just been incredible cuz um I've been able to be a part of this program since I was in sixth grade, I believe. But this is the first well, this is the second year that I've got to really step up in a leadership role.

012And it's just remarkable to see like the community really coming together and just um that you will go to the the civic center is where all these items are collected and the whole room will just be absolutely filled with gifts. Um it's really incredible to see a community that really supports and cares for um one another so well, especially during the holidays. >> Very well said, Claire. Thank you so much for your work doing that. Um thank you to your uh Miss Maybe as well. Is it what the name of your secretary? >> Miley maybe. Thank you. >> And Miss Miss Barnett who is the um ASB and activities coordinator at the high school. We cannot do it without her leadership and support as well. Well, it's just a great example of how the schools

013are right at the heart of our community. So, thank you. Thank you very much, Claire. Wonderful. >> Great highlight. Uh, all right. We will move on now to um suggestions, comments from the audience. Uh, we invite all community members to address the board on an issue or topic. The agenda item titled suggestions, comments from the audience is for any comments related to 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 making comments are asked to begin by identifying themselves. Please appoint a spokesperson. I don't think that's an issue tonight. If desired, you may email written documentation to the executive assistant to be included as part of the official meeting record. I

014don't believe we have any that have been sent to us to be. We do have somebody here in person, which is fantastic. Um, while the board will listen to all public comments carefully, the board cannot respond to comments spontaneously or without further deliberation. Uh, as a result of the public meetings act, 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 or persons will not be heard. I think that's it. and our we have at least one person here. Mary Scheler would like to make a public comment. So Mary, if you want to introduce yourself and um

015make your comment. Thank you. >> Thank you. My name is Mary Scheler and I want to thank you to the board um for what you do and all the work you do because I know it's not easy coming here um night after night when you guys do come um and for the early morning sessions when you guys do come. Um, and I want to thank you for the new board that has been chosen. And thank you, Joe, for making it again, too. I want to thank you very much. But I wanted to say this has not been an easy year. And I just come to say thank you and have a very merry Christmas. Um, and I just came to give you each a coffee card. Merry Christmas. >> Thank you very much, Mary. That's

016uh more generosity here at this meeting. Thank you. That's wonderful. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mary. Merry Christmas as well. Uh are there any other people who are here to make public comment? Okay. Uh we will move on then to the approval of regular meeting minutes from November 13th. Uh the board has had a chance to look at these ahead of the meeting. Uh I will move that we um approve the uh regular meeting meeting minutes from November 13th, 2025. Is there a second? Is there any comments or questions about the meeting minutes from November 13th? Okay. Hearing none, uh we'll call for a vote. All those in favor of approve approving the regular meeting minutes signify with an I. I all those opposed and abstensions. Excellent. We'll move on to the consent agenda.

017Um and there are a number of things on the consent agenda. Uh we'll start these are um for those in the audience and for Larry as well, these are items that we take as a whole at the end of the consent agenda to vote uh a uh approval or not approval of the consent agenda. Um, and the the items on the list to kind of give a preview are human resources action sheet, payroll, goods and services, policy updates, and this week we have a number that we had tabled last week to uh to take up again this week with our new member uh an outofstate travel request and a donation. Um, so Chris, would you like to talk us through the human resource action sheet? >> Sure. I would like to highlight uh and publicly

018thank these coaches that are on the list that are resigning this year. Um Kristen Gavick, seventh grade girls basketball. Becky Gau, head uh volleyball coach. Um wonderful coach. She did step down at the end of this season. Kelly Madson, who's been involved with our track uh program for a long time. He is also stepping down, which is a disappointment to us because he's wonderful as well. And then uh Vines Delgado, head cheer coach. So those are pretty big shoes to fill uh for those positions and I just wanted to thank them publicly for their work with our students and just inspiring our students. It's pretty cool. Otherwise, I don't have a lot to mention. Obviously, my name's on the list for retirement. I did um submit my retirement notice uh the first of the month,

019too. Uh Mr. McCay here. Uh but I've still got six and a half months. I still have six and a half months and I'm going to be working really hard until my last day on June 30th. So, >> we decline. >> Yeah, [laughter] there is a possibility. This is the first HR action sheet that is not approved by the school board. Oh man, Chris, uh I'm I'm in denial about this. I'm sure others in the district are in denial about it as well. Um and we'll say more in June, but uh it it um we couldn't do what we're doing as a district without you, and we will muddle through obviously uh with um with the years ahead, but thank you so much for your service to our town and to our school district. Um,

020boy, I e, everyone you talk to uh about our school district has has incredibly incredibly positive things to say about your work and your heart for our students. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate it. >> Okay. Uh, the next item on the consent agenda is the payroll goods and services. And there is at least one uh item on there, Chris, that you you may want to mention. or that I may want to ask about or others might want to ask about. Uh is there anything there that we should look specifically to? >> Yes, I'd like to highlight Blefor. The bill paid for 194,915 to Belffor. Um Belffor has done a lot of uh restoration work for us over the years for floods and different um losses that we've had.

021We had a high school uh water issue. Um when was that? July. >> August. July or August and uh really leaked from the roof right after we had the gym refinished and it was unfortunate that we saw some damage in the gym floor and there was a lot of work to be done between the gym floor and the roof uh fully covered by insurance. We paid the bill and then we got the money back from the insurance company less the deductible. So, uh it all worked out great. Sometimes insurance company pays these bills directly. Sometimes we have to pay for it and we get it in the next 30 days. So, that was one of them. I just wanted to highlight that to make sure everybody knew that that was an expense that was reimbursed

022u by by the insurance company. The sec oh >> greenway greenways or is that your >> I don't have greenways but I can talk about greenways. My other one is uh soars therapy LLC. I just wanted to highlight that was for 22,900 um support for OT occupational therapy services that are being provided to for our students. Um oftent times if we are not able to hire uh an itinerant like that where there whether it's an SLP speech and language pathologist whether it's occupational therapist whether it's a psychologist sometimes we have to go out and contract those services which honestly is more expensive than hiring an employee most oftent times and a lot of times they have a a tighter requirement on the num the ratio of students to to the person providing the service and

023that's difficult because our our limits are a little higher than the the averages uh to save money. So I wanted to highlight that. The other one um Greenways Academy is our online provider for uh CILA uh we have a K8 online program and of course a 912 online program. We have several students that take advantage of that online program. Greenways provides the teacher of record um in providing those services. Uh we have uh support on site also to help students when they have questions. But it is um the arrangement with greenways is they they actually get a pass through of our enrollment um distribution from in our aortment payments. They get 50% to pay the teachers and the costs associated with providing the instructional service to our students. We keep 50%. Um, so we are

024paying out a pretty large amount to Greenways. Last year was a half a million dollars, but we also had money that we put in the bank because we we made we had we have savings by not hiring a bunch of CIA support people to run the program. So, it's been a really a program that we're we're happy with at this point. >> Yeah, a little bit. I think you've heard Greenways, but Larry, maybe you haven't, but uh it's pretty pretty regular for school districts to have a a robust uh online or virtual learning platform for students. Um families have uh coming out of COVID, there are families who feel like that is in the best interest of their children and they wanted that option and we've heard loud and clear from families and students that

025that's an option that they would like to have. So we do have students that are fully en engaged in the online learning. We have students who are half and half. We have students who are taking individual classes. All those are what we we thought the green wiz is the best product to provide that differentiation. Uh so we're pretty happy with it but there is a cost associated with that. >> One last thing we we have just under a 100 FTE uh student FTE that are accessing that online program. So it's pretty hefty number mainly 912 60ome in the 912. You'll see that in the enrollment update and then the differences in the K8 program. So >> you know another another reason why we went to it is that um online or virtual learning programs are

026are are all over the place. And so if they don't come here to get their online experience and and are a student within the resident of their district, then they're going to go find another one. and that may be with another district or another private entity. So we we felt very strongly that we needed a very good program in place that was easy for parents and for students uh to access. That's why we have greenways as well. >> And there's cost savings compared to what Pearson was charging us. Is that right? Because we had a full-time instructor assigned to that. So during CO we had Pearson which is big publishing educational publishing. We switched to Greenway. All right. Thank you, Chris, for that update on the um payroll, goods, and services. The next item on

027the agenda are policy updates, and there's a whole raft of them starting with 105 and ending with 2320. Um, and those are all drafts of policy recommendations. Most of them are um are fairly simple and straightforward. There were two policies from the last board meeting that we were not sure about and wanted to make sure Larry was here to weigh in on it. Um the first one was uh 1820 board self assessment. Um and there's some language there that's been recommended uh by the superintendent to change slightly what the language is of the proposed policy. uh that language is to strike the first line which says at the conclusion of each year annually and instead insert when the board determines a need for selfassessment. And I'm going to make a comment at the end of

028our meeting about I'm going to kind of pitch self assessment because of something I went to at the annual conference that made me feel like it was a good a good process to go through. Essentially though, we're saying we'll do it when needed or as needed um for self assessment. The second item uh up for um that was tabled uh was the evaluation of the superintendent. The language that was included in the original proposal was the superintendent will have the opportunity for confidential conferences with the board members. I think it should say no less than three occasions in each year for the purpose of aiding the superintendent in no less uh oh it's got a little bit messed up in his or her performance. Uh so uh the suggested change to that and really to

029bring it in line with what we have been doing annually uh is the superintendent and the board will have a confidential conference annually rather than three occasions each year um for the purpose of aiding the superintendent in their performance. The superintendent or the board will have the opportunity for additional confidential conferences during the contract year. Okay, I think that covers the issues that we were brought up last time. Um, Kevin, do you want to say anything about e either of those recommendations? Uh, and then I'll make a motion we can move and we can discuss those. >> All right. No, I don't have any other things to say about either of those. >> Right. >> Yeah. So, I'm I'm good with those changes. Um the the only other one I don't know if I address

030this. The last meeting was 1821 and I'm just curious why we're even considering that policy. What brought that about? I don't really see a need for it personally. >> This is a standard for individual school directors. >> Uh I this is a an item that that um the Washington State Association of School Directors uh has suggested. It's not required that we adopt this. Um I think the idea, Derek, is that with a with a new member uh joining the board, these are just valuable things to kind of remind us of um what an individual school director, you know, what standards we should be holding ourselves to. The items, for those of you who aren't able to see it, the items are values and ethical behavior, leadership, communication, professional development, accountability, and commitment to education, equity.

031Um, those are the uh the the items underneath standards for individual school directors. I don't think we currently have a policy that lists that. So, this maybe closes a gap um for for that information. Um that that would be my my understanding. >> This is new. This is a new policy. The and again these all came together from WASDA. Uh it I it by WASDA it is identified as important. And so uh when I get these and then bring them to you. I don't make a determination of what should come to you and what shouldn't come to you. These come as a batch and then obviously for your determination if it wants to be implemented or not. Again, it is not a required. There's nothing there that requires it to be. Uh, but it does

032be identified uh from WASDA as being important. And I do want to again remind you it is new and it is not a revision of a current policy is something brand new uh to the policies of the district >> and statewide as well. Is that correct? >> That is correct. Yep. I would imagine that this policy has come before uh most if not all public schools that use WASDA for their policy services. I'm looking to see that there's a little header at the start that says each individual board member will review annually review the individual school director standards, which is what this policy is, as a basis for assessing their own conduct as an elected school director. Collectively, the board will assess its performance in terms of its six major functions. And those are the

033ones that I just listed right there. Derek, would it would it uh would it be helpful if we um approved all of those items except for that and then had a a vote separately on 1821? >> Yeah. And that that's what I would propose and and just uh well, I guess we can have discussion once the motion goes. So >> So let's start with the ones that we I think may be able to to move through quickly. So um the policy updates second reading and adoption for 1005 to 2320 accepting draft 1821 standards for individual school directors. I'll move that we approve those policy updates. Is there a second? >> Can I Oh, just offer one just one quick question. >> Yeah, please. on the evaluation of the superintendent. If we're going to have just

034one meeting, we want to establish when that meeting will take place. Is there a more beneficial time this year for us to establish that or meeting every year? >> It has been on the at the same meeting uh for the last three years I believe. Although I think the first year we may have met twice uh during the year halfway through and at the end of the year. I can't remember if it's the end of the calendar year or the end of the school year. >> Calendar. >> So it' be in January that we meet to discuss is my memory. >> Yeah. And that's a procedural thing that's put in place um for the benefit of the board or the benefit of the superintendent if uh if there's maybe disagreement on the evaluation or so

035forth. That gives the in reality it gives the board the opportunity to learn early if there's going to be a potential change of the superintendent so that they can go out and try to select another superintendent in a timeline. It also is a benefit to the superintendent if they would need to uh look for an employment otherwise. It also falls in line uh with the completion of this obviously the superintendent's evaluation and the executive uh session that takes place in the during the January meeting. And Kevin, um, just so that we kind of finish this conversation, my memory is that you provide us with a self assessment, uh, based on certain standards that were we've talked about for the year before, some of the things to work on. You say, "Here's what I've been working

036on. Here's evidence of it, and then we supply our own information, and we combine those into a central report." >> Yeah, correct. And in the coming weeks, you will be receiving kind of my evidence of the areas that have been uh been a focus of mine. Some of those based on the previous year's evaluation that were noted as areas that needed to be improved. So I see some evidence of the work that I have done plus the other areas that are required of my evaluation. Uh the areas of performance that you would evaluate me on, I would provide evidence of that. You would get that information along with uh Dan would provide you each with the um evaluation document that uh is filled in. You would then each do complete that on your own and

037then provide those so that there would be a summary uh evaluation one summary evaluation. And last year there was some conversation about um do the should we be able to look at each individual's evaluation uh uh in addition to the collected evaluation and at the time we hadn't made that agreement so we said let's just go with what we've been doing which was the collected evaluation um and I I don't this doesn't have to be but I guess it's a good time to talk about it as as any I think um I don't know if we want to vote on this or discuss it. Uh, but I'm I'm comfortable sharing my evaluation with others. Um, should we leave it up to individual board members whether or not they want to share their evaluation with others

038or should we all agree that it should all be available for everyone to look at? What does the board think about that? Are their opinions about that? >> Like transparency. I think for me it's helpful to see what other people are seeing on the board. >> Agree with that. >> Sarah, anything? Okay, great. So, uh that's more for us than it is for this other part. Go ahead, Kevin. >> Well, it is all it's also important for me too. I do see the summary evaluation and obviously I can tell that uh h how things are written within that. But it is important for me and I've gone both ways in my time as a superintendent to have obviously the summary evaluation is the important document. the documents that's required of you to do of me

039as part by board policy. But it is helpful in certain ways to see individuals uh uh uh evaluation of me as well. So that will be left to you if you want to share each of those with me of how you came up with that. But important for your responsibilities is the one summary evaluation as well. I I I am big into taking uh feedback uh and looking to improve. So, anything that's going to help me do that, I would would welcome as well as bit the uh the transparency part of that as well. So, I'll leave that up to you of how you want to do that. But, uh important again for this one summary evaluation, but how you choose if you want to add more to to that and and have me see

040individual uh board member uh work on that, I'm I'm open to that as well. So that's not technically in the language of 16:30, but as a board we'll agree to share those individual evaluations with each other and with the superintendent along with drafting a summary of those and we'll meet in January to have that conversation as we have traditionally done in the past. Again, those aren't uh written into the policy but are understood by the board to be um operating procedure for it. Uh, and uh, I I want to make sure that my motion is clear for draft uh, 105 down to draft 2320 accepting 1821 that that would include the changes suggested that were read uh, at the start of this conversation for 1820 and 1630. >> So I I have a question about

041105. Um, on the part where it comes down to the it says towards the bottom it says hold school district accountable for meeting student learning standards. Is there supposed to be another word in there? Because it doesn't sound like it's right. So I was just wondering holding the district accountable for student learning is this section. It's about four up from the bottom. And and which which line are you are you looking at in particular in there? I see the the area. >> It's this one right here. It says holding district accountable for student learning. >> And it says right underneath it, it says hold school district account um accountable. Is there supposed to be a district a certain person in the district or a certain the school district as a whole? I I'm kind of

042confused about that sentence. >> I'm looking uh at that in right now. So maybe for clarification, we can just add the board of directors will hold the school district accountable because that's really what that uh 105 is about. Key functions of the board. Do you see what I'm talking about now? Okay. It didn't it didn't make sense to me when I read it through the first time. So I just wanted some clarification on what that's supposed to say. So the language in 105 would then uh under holding the district account holding the district account that should say accountable. >> Yeah, it should. Yes. >> Uh okay. So there's a there's a typo or a spelling or grammatical error in the heading for that holding the district accountable for student learning. And then it underneath it,

043you'd like it to read the school board shall, I guess, hold school hold the school district accountable for meeting student learning expectations by and then there's the bullet points after that. >> That sounds better. >> Okay. All right. So, we're all in agreement, but the most important person in the room when these discussions is right over here. >> So, [laughter] I haven't I've been trying not to make eye contact. but makes it sound like I don't know who to hold accountable. >> I we I totally get it. Yeah. That's great. >> The heading >> is weird. >> Accountable instead of accountability. >> Jennifer, do you short key over there on all that? [laughter] >> I was I was >> right on it for sure. >> Yeah, good job. [laughter] >> Thank you for that. And

044thank you, Kevin, for slowing us down right there. All right. Uh, I'll move that we approve Sorry, go ahead, Larry. Apologize. >> In that same under that same section, uh, in the third bullet point, um, it talks about, um, valid and reliable assessments, um, who determines those or how will we determine those? Talking about measuring student academic progress and the needs based on valid and reliable assessments. I I uh my answer to that is um the director of teaching and learning is somebody that we've relied on to explain I think they sometimes call it a data pie uh what you know what information we're gathering from various sources uh in order to um uh uh use valid and reliable assessments. I mean the there's things that are in our schools like I Ready assessments and

045uh um Smarter Balance assessment. Um there's attendance rates and graduation rates. So there's a kind of a number of things that go into it. I think between and correct me if I'm wrong Kevin between the superintendent and the the I don't know what you call it district cabinet I guess would be the right term for it including especially the teaching and learning uh director uh determine what those are. >> Okay. It didn't it I was reading through that I was like is that something we determine? Is that something the district employees determine and then get back to us with or how was that I have a lot of questions obviously. >> Yeah that's great. That's perfect. My read on that would be anything that the district would be u measured on from our state as

046well. >> Okay. And so um that would include any of the any of the measurements. So we could we could say that uh SBA is a measurement. We could say that um our um our ninth [clears throat] grade on track is a measurement. Our attendance is a measurement. Our discipline is a measurement. Uh any of things that we're required to measure uh in regards to student achievement. I would also say that anything that teachers are using uh to measure student achievement also would would in my opinion fall into the valid and reliable. >> Good question. All right. Uh so I I uh will repeat the motion uh that we approved uh draft 105 down to 2320. um without for the time being 1821. Um is there a second? >> I'll second that. >> Great. All

047those in favor of approving those policy updates signify with an I. I. All those opposed and abstensions. Okay. Let's take up 1821 which is standards for individual school directors. We've already kind of or I've already kind of uh laid out the six standards. values in ethical behavior, leadership, communication, professional development, accountability, and commitment to education equity. Um, and I'll move that we approve that. Is there a second and then we can have a conversation about it afterwards? Great. And are there questions or comments about 1821? So, I guess what are we approving as it's written or just that we're going to >> at this point? Yes, that's the that's the motion at this point as as written. >> I I don't know at this point to bring it up, but um there's a lot of

048words in here that can have alternate definitions or more than one definition. And there's no definition portion in this policy because we can be five different opinions on what is ethical or and what is not and what is appropriate and what is not. And so I think it would be helpful if we had definitions in here. The way I read it is that under the bold headings such as values and ethical behavior, the letters A through E are further defining what the intention is of that um uh major function. So a definition of ethical behavior would placing students need first. Demonstrate commitment to equity and high standards or achievement for each student. Commitment commitment excuse me commit to treating each individual with dignity and respect. Model high ethical standards and advocate for public education. That

049would be the list of to further define what ethical and uh values include and the same for leadership and so forth. Well, I'll use an example of one of the things I have a um not issue but one of the things um is under leadership uh number C says articulate and model appropriate school director role and responsibilities. It's like who defines appropriate >> and what I'm saying >> throughout this that that seems like that could be brought up with any of these. I would say under number one model high ethical standards. >> What is a high ethical standard? >> So I I I think um that might be up to us to have that conversation about what we think that is and what that isn't. Um this is uh uh a guidance uh for our

050our board and for individual school directors. Um so that that would be my my take on it. >> Yeah. I I think the other thing that u I find confusing about this is why would we adopt a policy that outlines this? But there's what happens if we have a board member who engages in unethical behavior. We we don't even have a procedure or a policy in place for censure or removal from the board or anything like that other than attendance. um as far as I understand. And so why why implement a policy that outlines how we're supposed to act without defining what those actually mean? And I think that's what Larry's saying. And then there's no, I guess, penalty for it. Um so I I just am really struggling with this whole document in general.

051Not that I disagree with some of the things on here or or you know in general what it's going after, but I I guess I feel like a lot of this stuff is already um already covered in other board policies as well. And so I I don't really personally don't see why we need to have this document. >> Any other comments or questions related to this document? >> I had I I've got one more. Yeah, please. are under accountability. Um it's E. It's just a little a little section says comply with board policies and all laws. So my my question is right now we have state laws that are in violation of federal laws governing certain school school board school activities. So which law would we file follow in that instance? >> I think our

052guidance is state law as a school board for Washington state, >> right? But then federal law supersedes state law when it comes to stuff like that. So you understand what I'm saying? Like especially when it comes to this one is like which one do we follow? Which one's going to cost us money? Which one's not? So that's my that's my concern about this one that I don't have like a good answer to. I mean >> I think the answer is that we would follow state law as as um when it's in conflict with federal law from from what I understand. >> Yeah. And I'm I'm kind of the opposite way. Um, from all my experiences and stuff, state law usually gets superseded by federal law when it comes in. So that's like like now we

053have a conflict of of opinion over this and I'd like to agree with all of this if so I don't know where we stand or where we go with that. >> Okay. Um, any other comments or questions? Kevin, you >> I don't have a a comment, but I maybe have um a possibility of a further study of this and allow me to do some additional research um as to why uh WASDA felt that this was needed to be put forward. Uh so at least give you some background to where they're coming from and if there was uh as you see here there was not a lot of legal references other than what the board standards are is their only one that they listed. So I I would be um one to maybe do the the

054background work to get come back to you uh with reasons why I would also I know that part of what Dan is going to speak about is the the board survey the how do they put that Dan there >> uh let me self assessment survey >> okay so um having been uh a superintendent with a board who has use the self assessment tool and a board assessment tool. Uh it may connect a little bit better with some of the things that they're having here within this policy uh and that tool. Um but again, it it's your decision. I I and I don't know the reason why WA was is is trying to implement this. Okay. I I have some suspicions uh that have gone on across the state or the nation with regards to school

055board, school district, superintendent, whatever. Okay, that's my suspicion, but I don't know for sure. Um but again, it it is not required. There are parts of it that I truly agree that as an elected official and as a member of a school board and an individual member of a school board, you are you're high you are held to some pretty high expectations with the job that you're required to do. Um before this there was some unknownness or there could be called by some like I really don't know what I'm expected to do and how I should be held accountable self by yourself uh to do the job of a school director meeting and my assumption is WADA was tasked with putting something together based on their standards that could be put into uh policy which

056could be used when there may be times where that came into question. That's my thinking. Most of the work that WA was done and school boards as general is all about the work of the entire board as a whole. Most of the stuff that you see in our policy is about the board as a whole and how the board works as one. This gets at something that that must there must be reasons why they had to put something in regards to the individualness of a board member and not the board as a whole because most of our policies and purchases about are about the board as a whole because the board as a whole is really the only body that can take action on things and do the work as an entire board not individuals.

057>> Right? Again, I'd be happy to do that, [clears throat] but that's again up to you if that's what you choose to. This is again, like we talked about earlier, this is new. This is only coming to you because it was uh gone through the the process of WASDA determine this was needed. Uh it is not a required policy again, but it it could provide some benefit. It may not provide some benefit. I I don't know, but I'd happy to do the work and talk with the WASDA staff on why this is coming. >> I think uh Dan and I, one of the meetings we attended together at the WASDA conference, uh the school board was having some issues with unruly members, right? And so, um there were questions asked about how do we handle

058that? How do we manage those people? And and I'm really really cautious because I'm the one who is outspoken. I say things that people don't like and I understand that. But I also don't think I should be limited when I disagree with other members of the board or with the way the schools are being run or the outcomes. As a board member, I feel like I do have a duty to the community to voice those concerns because I'm not voicing them necessarily on my own. There are people who voice those concerns to me in the community as well. and I have a duty as an elected representative to to bring those forward. Now, I think we could probably discuss the merits on how um you know those issues are addressed uh social media and stuff

059like that, but um I think it is healthy. It it's not healthy to hide problems. And so I just am really concerned about anything that would limit the elected officials ability to represent the community and speak what they feel like should be spoken. >> And I think that's a really careful balancing act obviously. Um and and that was a really interesting session we went to. Um, and it it's kind of I I don't my my understanding of this is it's not meant to say everybody has to agree on everything that that we all agree to these values doesn't mean we all have to agree on how we get to those uh to those places or to positions on individual items. It it's kind of what you said at the start which is well we don't

060have anything that addresses what if somebody is wildly unethical? But if somebody is is um um uh so terrible at um professional development or at communication that something needs to be addressed by the board for an individual board member, we don't really have anything to point to to say, well, you're in violation of this thing or that thing. How do we have that and make sure that we preserve everyone's right to have their point of view heard? I think is the part where we have to figure out some sort of balance. Um, so I I guess after hearing that I I'd like to amend my motion that we uh table the adoption of uh 1821, if I remember that. Yep. 1821 standards for individual school directors. Um, and uh wait for Kevin to give us

061a little bit more background on the the the reasoning or the rationale for this coming from WASDA. Um uh so I'll I'll make I'll I'll amend my motion to say that uh I would like to table 1821 until we have further information and have maybe a more of a chance to think through how we make that balance between making sure we're following these guidelines but also being heard for our opinions. That work? Is there a second? Okay. Yep. Any comments or questions about this? Further discussion? Okay. All those in favor of tableabling 1821 until our next meeting signify with an I. >> I. All those opposed and abstensions. Okay. So, we will take up 1821. I'm guessing at our next uh u official board meeting um on the uh for our evening business meeting. >>

062Yeah. And in the meantime, if you can think of some questions you would like to have answered, uh you can get those to me and I can pass those on and try to get some answers for it. As well as if there are specific things in that policy that are of concern to you, I think that would be good too that I could be able to ask those as well. Okay. Um, please know that I do know of school districts for a variety of reasons on a variety of different policies still implement a policy with the title of this, but they revise it to fit their needs as a board. So, the mo the model that's been presented to you uh has the ability to be revised before you adopt it. So, it's a matter

063of coming to a board agreement on what it is that you're going to if you decide to adopt this and have this policy. It does allow you revisions. Uh this is not again one that has laws tied to it where you you don't have the flexibility and sometimes that uh you may in ones like this where you do have a lot more flexibility. And it may it may be that if we decide to do a board self assessment that some of this language will be agreed upon after we've looked at that survey and maybe some of that language will be useful if we choose to modify this um policy proposal for board of directors. And I think along those lines, Dan, for me, I think uh more regular board assessment and maybe discussing some of

064these other staffing issues throughout the year um as a board would help me feel a lot better. Um and and maybe I don't have to go to Facebook as much. [laughter] >> I don't It doesn't say values, ethical behavior, commoder on it yet, so that's that's good. >> That's that's fine. I don't mind, you know, I understand. [laughter] >> Uh I I think it is interesting because if there in this conference that we went to, there was this there was eventually a need to censor one of these board members on the on the west side near Tacoma. And if you don't have something like this in place, then knowing when that line gets crossed, I think is is a challenge. So, uh we'll continue to I think work on this and and come back to

065it at a later date. All right. Next item on the agenda is an out ofstate travel request. Um there are four of these. Uh one is for the PLU Honor Band which is in January. One is for the FCCLA advocacy day in Olympia. I'm looking at FCCLA people. Have you been to that? >> Uh yes. I have gone to got been able to go to that twice. Um but it's just for state officers. So actually my sister gets to go um since she's serving as a state officer. So, it's a very cool experience. You get to talk to actual like the legislators of the district. Um, and they are requesting a lot of CTSOC, CTE funding. So, it's it's a very good chance for students. >> Really important for our school district. Obviously, with CTE

066being so central to so many things. The other two items on here are the um cross country nationals US championship in Portland, which I believe has happened along with the 2526 wrestling tournament in uh Oregon. Has that happened as well, Kevin? >> We do have times where we don't know about these these out of state or overnight trips until um it's really close and we don't have a board meeting for a month. what we are what our requirement is is for for folks to get those in 30 days in advance of the trip, but it's just not always possible when things come up and the opportunities come up. So, there are times when this does happen, but we do continue to remind them to get them in sooner. >> It's especially an issue uh Larry

067uh for you uh we I think we're aware of it um in months like November and December when we are only meeting once a month um because of the school schedule and school calendar. So, those have been pre-approved. Uh, we're now kind of, uh, dotting the eyes and crossing the tea on those two. I also want to point out that our students did not compete in the cross country and USA championships, although that would have been a great experience. They were not able to because their season had been completed, but they did get a wonderful opportunity of going and watching, which is a fantastic opportunity that probably not too many students in our lifetime get to go and watch that type of a competition. So, a great great opportunity as well for them. But I

068wanted to be clear that we did not break any WIA violations by having our student athletes compete in the national championships. Do were any former student CILA students involved in that race? Do you know? >> Um, no. Like Mr. McCay said, it's um it it's a club event, so it's not >> But no, no Quiglies, no uh Swedines. >> Uh no. And it's only high school. >> Oh, I see. Okay. Okay. Got it. Got it. Excellent. All right. And the last item is a donation. Um and an incredibly the CEA school district has been the recipient of some extremely generous donations. Uh even just within the last few years um obviously the Wilbur Rep Center is a an enormous one and people have donated to the um high school wrestling team among many other wonderful

069donations. This is yet another example of our our community stepping up and uh investing in our schools, supporting our schools. This comes from Graph Investments um as part of our field turf project uh which has recently been announced uh on our district website and social media platforms um in the amount may I say the amount I guess I can say the amount right the amount of $50,000 towards that capital project fund. Uh Kevin do you want to u mention a little bit about the graph's um interest and history with this uh donation? >> I can start because I've been sorry Chris. Yeah, no problem. Kevin will chime in too, but um this is a conversation the graphs have brought forward with us for several years as we've talked about this project being a high priority

070for the school district. Uh as everyone knows, I think here that our our stadium is named after uh the Graph family's father, Carl Graph. Um and so it's Carl Graph Stadium. and they've offered um over the years they've said they want to make a nice donation to this project. Um they've been pretty flexible on how they want us to use the funds. We're working with them though directly to to work out the details. We've also received a verbal commitment with them to give the school district uh donate to the school district another $50,000 towards the end of the project to complete the things that we talked about. Um, do you want to talk a little bit about what our conversations? Anyway, we're extremely grateful. Um, this family is really stepping up. >> Yeah. So, this

071uh the the Graph family, I don't know how familiar you are with the Graph family, but a longtime family. And there's multiple there's multiple graph parts of the Graph family. Carl's uh family included uh four boys. Is that correct? Four boys. Um, three of them have made their business here. uh one an optometrist uh Dale and then Dick with with Central with the investments and then Ben with the Central Washington Insurance. Uh we now have a grandchild involved in that and that's Scott Scotty Graph Dick's son who has now become involved in the graph investment portions and is involved highly involved in the donation. So this family generationally has supported the school district and supported activities and athletics for for the students for generations. And so it is nice obviously see their their interest is

072um ensuring that uh their dad's name continues to be a part of the stadium. Uh and so I think you recall seeing the renditions of the field with the name of Carl Graph on it that also is shown on the the scoreboard. Uh our hopes is to continue to honor his name uh in multitude of different ways. Um there's ideas about uh the upgrading of a scoreboard. We haven't made any decisions on that with some of this money money. It may have to do with some fencing. It may have to do with some additional signage that would uh share a Carl's name on that as well. Um but uh we'll see. and they've been very flexible that they feel the district uh should use it and can use it in the way that best fits

073the the needs of the project. >> Great. Thank you very much. Um all right, so we have now the consent agenda uh completed and I will make a motion that we approve um human resources action sheet, payroll, goods and services, outofstate travel request and the donation. Is there a second? Great. Is there any comments or questions on those items? We've already voted for the policy updates. >> Dan, I just have one question. When I was reviewing the FCCLA request, um, is it correct that it's one student and one teacher going traveling together? Did I read that properly? So, Leah Richards and uh, Mrs. Eucin, >> I think that's correct. I'm looking right now to see about transportation. I don't think it I don't think it specifies how they'll be traveling as far as unless I'm

074missing it. >> And and I guess just something maybe we should consider is that uh we we go two up. So, either two students or two staff members so that we're not ever isolating a single student with a single um member of the staff. Um so, I'm I'm okay with approving this request, but that's just something when I was reviewing the document that I had a question about to protect the district. >> Sure. Yeah, good point. I'm I don't see how their transportation is is listed as either together or separate. Obviously, they're um they're staying in different uh rooms when they get there. I can see that listed. Gotcha. Okay. Okay. Yep. Good. Thank you very much. Uh all right. Um uh all those in favor of approving the uh consent agenda signify with an

075I. I. All those opposed and abstensions. All right. Excellent. Now we come to item eight, which is the student board representatives report. Uh let's start with Mirian. Mirian, do you have uh update for us from the junior class? >> Um not much. I'm sure as you are all aware, Christian Petri passed away. So I got the chance to go to his funeral this morning. So that was a really good opportunity just to see everyone. And there were lots of kids from our class who went, so it was good to see everyone and see their family. So, they're taking it pretty well. Um, and I haven't gotten a huge chance to get into the school yet, but I'm going to talk to Mr. Monty and get in there more this next week. So, yeah. >> Great.

076Thank you for for mentioning that, Marian. I appreciate that. Uh and uh Charlie and Claire, do you have uh reports from uh the senior class or any other part of the school district? >> Uh no, I don't have anything specific. Just there is lots of buzz going around about um our new school additions with the um with the new stadium and the new addition to our CTE um department. So that's super exciting for students. Really cool. Do you guys have any questions about anything? I think we're good. U make sure when we get to this next portion which is the um um uh super associate superintendent of district operations financial report that if you stop us anytime you have questions and that's true throughout the meeting but uh especially for this next uh for this

077next item. Thank you very much Charlie. We good? Okay. All right. Item nine then associate superintendent for district operations report. We have three things from Chris tonight. Three more things from Chris tonight. The first is the 202425 year-end financial report followed by uh financial status update and an enrollment update. Uh Chris, I'll let you take it away. >> Okay. First, I just want to for Larry's benefit, I wanted to um talk about the timing of this report because it's, you know, po potentially you might be thinking, well, why are we hearing about um Oops. Did I do that? Oh. Um, why are we hearing about the year end 2425 report in December? Because the year ended August 31. You were thinking that, weren't you, Larry? >> Oh, [laughter] I'm just kidding. Um, we always So,

078the way that the requirements work is our year-end closing timeline starts in September with the acral process on expenditures. So we're looking for um what year to record the expenditures in depending on when we receive the goods and services that we're purchasing. So we start in um September. We also have October that is a a month that we generate acrals as well. The state requires us to have our year-end closing done by August or I mean October 25th. um the way that our board meetings are structured, the November meeting, we only have one meeting and it's the second week of November. That really puts a crunch on trying to get presentation materials and some of the uh remaining items after we get the official report filed. Um so we we always we've landed for the

079past several years to to provide this report at the December meeting. Again, only having one meeting in December. Obviously, we we like it to be an early presentation in December, so this works out well. So, uh potentially, if the board had an interest in really trying to push to have this presentation done in at the November meeting, we could take a look at what that would take to do it, but otherwise, we've just been, like I said, we we presented in December. So, um we have to stick to the OSPI requirements on when we have to have the report to the ESD for review. Educational Service District, they put eyes on it. Um the OSPI uh puts eyes on it and there so there's outside approvals and reviews and approvals before it actually comes to

080the school board. So any questions on that? Anybody? All right, let's dive in then. Um some of these slides are just moreformational like this. We do list our board of directors and this is for the 2425 school year. Oh, shoot. Doing this because I have to Oh, are you going to follow me? Yeah. Why don't you follow Oh, no. I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it. All right. Um, sorry. I can't some I can see that really good, but some of the distance is a little not as good as it used to. All right. So, we have our Viking Promise uh new uh graphic that was put together between Kevin and Hunter this past year and and this is what it looks like. Really rolling the pillars into this graphic and then adding

081student experience being the new one for this year. Anything else on that, Kevin? Okay. Um and again just reminding everyone the Viking promise the goal of the Viking promise is to meet the needs of the whole child by creating an equity uh centered engaging and personalized learning experience in an emotionally and physically safe environment for each child in CIA. So we have the pillars that are now into the one graphic that we have work that's associated with those that we um work on all year. And so that's uh we always like to have this as um a footprint for our presentations because how we allocate resources and how we spend resources needs to follow those priorities. And so um we like for folks to be reminded about what our lens is when we're allocating resources

082and spending resources. Um, we don't need to go over our pictures, but we but we do have those in there to to remind you that um at this point in time, myself and Stephanie Henry are in charge of just were responsible in the end for the financial uh status of the district along with the superintendent. Um, and so we'd like to remind you who to call if you have questions. All right. And the sorry go here. All right. The next one is just highlighting our student demographics. Uh last year we had 3641 in our enrollment. Um for 2425. You'll see we're still about half and half on uh females and males. And you can see that uh once again our our highest percentages are in the white and the Hispanic Latino categories. Um those ch

083have changed over the years since I've been here but not drastically. Probably the biggest increase obviously is with the Hispanic Latino population. Okay. Poverty. We like to basically we like to highlight this when we can because it's very important um for funding purposes. Number one, and we're talking about finances. Um, and so you can see in this three-year average, the way that OSPI determines eligibility is they look on a three-year basis on our average for high poverty rates. And the three-year average is what drives the following school year's funding for LAP high poverty. Um, and it's important that we we are eligible for LAP high poverty. It funds a lot of different things for kids in the district. It funds staff. It funds professional development. funds um at the high school, the uh the afterchool

084work that they do with students to help them stay up to date on their their work and so on and so forth. So, you can see here that all of our schools currently meet the 50% requirement to be eligible for high poverty. Um we're looking at right now we're looking ahead to where our percentages. What they do is they pull the final um the final percentages at March 31 and that determines eligibility for the next year. But we look at the percentages throughout the entire school year because we want to see where we're falling on um families that have submitted their what they call the SNE form for free and reduced eligibility. We're looking at those percentages and how that rolls forward into the new three-year average to see if we're going to fall below

08550% with any of our buildings because that would require us to have a lot of upfront planning on how that impacts our staffing and so on and so forth. So, we are um when we're looking at the numbers right now, our high school, middle school are the ones that are closest to uh that 50% mark and the high school being slightly under, but they are moving more towards the 50%. So, we're hoping that they'll see eligibility for 26 uh 27 as well. Anything you want to add on that, Kevin? So, just um as a reminder, our three-year average uh for eligibility for this current school year was 55.59%. Which is good with they look at it as a total, but as far as each individual school eligibility, they look at the percentages for each school.

086Okay, let's dive into um the different funds and what the financial status is at August 3125. Um but before we get there, we'll look at enrollment real quick. Our enrollment trends um we ended the year for 2425 16 just under 17 FTE under projection. So, as a reminder, each FTE at the end of the year, the state looks at the year-end average for the district, and they fund us right around $10,000 per FTE. So, when you're looking at just under 17 uh under projection, you're looking at us not getting $170,000 in funding that particular year because our average ended up lower than projection. It's important for us to be very close to that projection because the projection is what we use to staff our district on the basic ed side of things. So in my

087opinion and most fiscal people like myself would say the most important thing that we do in my position is to have an accurate enrollment projection and stick with that to staff your district. And I think overall over the years we've done a good job with that. There are times when we fall a little bit below, but if we're within 20 below or above, we want to be above projection at all times, but we don't want to be 80 to 100 over projection because what that looks like um to folks is we're trying to pad our cash reserve because we're way over what we and we staff to that lower number and we don't want to deal with, you know, excessive numbers in our classes either because we have case load requirements on that too. So,

088and class size. So this gives you a highlight of where our enrollment trends have been here the last since 2122 after COVID. We saw a huge drop in our enrollment in 20 2021 and we fully recovered on our enrollment in 22 23 and you can see here that to the precoid numbers. You can see that we went slightly up again in 23 24 and now we're on this downward trend that's going to be the case for the next few years and the reason for that is we've got smaller classes coming into kindergarten and this is not unique to CILA when I talk to my fiscal colleagues in the valley it's pretty common that the kinder numbers are are lower the birth rates down the kinder numbers are lower so what that does is as those

089classes move through the system we we use a survival cohort survival statistical method to project enrollment. But you can see that those lower classes as they're moving through the system and the bigger classes are leaving, we're going to have lower numbers. Um I'm working on the 26 27 enrollment projection as we speak and it's lower than our projection this year. So we have to be very diligent when we're staffing the district for the following school year to staff what that enrollment is. So, if we're down 80 kids at one building or we're projecting to be down, we need to adjust our staffing because otherwise it's money that we're not going to get and we've already will have contracts with those staff to to work for us. So, I mean, that's just the reality of it.

090Districts get themselves into trouble when they don't make adjustments when their enrollment goes down and they keep the same staffing levels hoping that it's going to go back up. And sometimes it does, but a lot of times it doesn't. Okay, the next thing I wanted to talk about is kind of a road map and I'm doing this, you know, having a new board member at the table and also refresher for everyone when you when we think about um this road map. So 2019 was the mccclary lawsuit and the decision to funnel more dollars into schools. And I'm going to keep this high level because I can really get into the weeds and Kevin will be nudging me to stop talking. be tomorrow when [laughter] we get done. So, >> so we did see sizable increases

091in revenue in 2019 and the other unfortunate thing, well that's not unfortunate, the more money, but unfortunate thing that the legislature did at that time is they eliminated the staff mix factor for funding teacher salaries. Back when we had a staff mix factor, they would take where all your teachers fall on the salary schedule. They would compute an average mix for those teachers and that's how we would be funded. So if we had a senior staff, we would get more money. If we had a lesser experienced staff, we'd get less money. But now what they did when they eliminated that staff mix factor is they said, "Okay, we're going to fund everybody the average." So guess what? The average is lower than what the actual workforce is. And they've done the same thing with all

092the classifications of employees. I'm just using teachers as an example. All of our classifications are funded less than what actual salaries are. Um, and when we compare with other districts, our salaries aren't way up here and everybody else down here, we're very comparable. It's just we have a more senior staff. So, they need to that's one of the big pushes that we have on a fix at the legislative level is to go back to a mixed factor way of funding because it would be more equitable with school districts. In 2020, um, we had the COVID obviously COVID pandemic hits. Um, we received a sizable amount of money over the between 2020 and 2024. We received $8.7 million over those that span of time. And we were very diligent in determining, okay, how can the money

093be spent and h what services are we providing to our kids? What can we continue to do for kids that we're already doing? and and utilize this funding to help us financially to be more fiscally sound by utilizing it but also having other opportunities that we provide kids the additional services we need to provide them through COVID. So there was a lot of conversation that went on um at our cabinet level district level admin through our building level admin and then having a lot of conversations about how we're going to utilize those funds. What we didn't do is we didn't commit a lot of those resources to staffing and left the staffing. So now at the end of the COVID period, we had to figure out how to fund the staffing. We did not do

094that. We front funded our our counselors because we knew the staffing allocation from the state was going to be higher. So we we loaded the counseling um we preloaded the additional counseling FTE a year earlier and used COVID money because we felt that we needed the additional support for our students, things like that. So in the end uh we'll talk we'll show I'll show you the the way that the cash reserve the fund balance has fluctuated and how it fluctuated during that time period because we definitely um used it responsibly because we ended up in a very fine fiscal position after the pandemic. So after that period of time um now the last two years last year and this year we've been in a position that we are our our salary gap continues to grow

095for all classifications where our cost is more than what we're funded at and our MSOC allocations like our utilities and insurance and those costs are skyrocketing and our funding is not changing hardly at all. So we're having additional expenditures. So, I'll talk on the next slide about the board directive that we received in August of 2023. Um, and really where we as a as a board the board [clears throat] basically directed the administration and jump in anytime you'd like, Kevin, but directed us to say, "Okay, we need to bring our expenditures in line with revenues. We need to balance our budget, but we need to figure out a way to get there." Right now our at this point in time our fund balance you'll see there 2223 our fund balance at the end of that

096year was $1.2 million almost 18.68% of our actual expenditures. The board the fund balance policy that the board has in place currently says that at the end of the year we'll have 8% um fund balance. And so although some of that money is reserved for other things like when we carry over program money, we can't take the program money and backfill it into basic ed, we have to use it for special ed or for lap or for those programs that it's in nutrition. So at that point in time the board we had a conversation with the board and because of the healthy fund balance that we had we said okay let's take a stairstep approach on this over the next three to four years and say okay how can we soften the blow use a

097little bit of the cash reserve to soften the blow on the level of reductions that we need to make to get to a point where we could sustain it moving forward and have a balanced budget. So that's where we started um 20 uh 2324. We ended the year actually higher than our 22 23. We put in place during 2324 a lot of our savings uh parameters and protocols during that year as we were building for cuts for 2425. So we actually ended up in a a better financial position that year which was was nice. Now since then the 2425 school year we ended with a deficit of 1.1 million. we had projected a $1.3 million de deficit during budget time. So we we were in a little bit better position at the end of the

098year. This current school year, we have a projected deficit of 1.2 million in our budget. Um we also made cuts for the 2526 school year and our projected ending fund balance for this school year is supposed to be right around 9.3 million is what we've projected which is just under 14%. So, we're doing what we're we talked about originally to stairst step our our process so that we don't have huge reductions that we have to implement in any given year. And a lot of the all the staffing reductions we've made have been made through attrition. So, our attrition rate is lower now. So, that makes it a little bit more difficult. But we always see attrition. So, that will continue to to use attrition. An outright all a riff would be something that we don't

099want to do. creates a lot of hard feelings for a long time if you know we'll have to just see what our scenario is to make our reductions. So we haven't had to do a full-blown rift since I've been here in any group. So I hope I hope we can avoid that with making reductions through attrition because we will have reductions to make our enrollment projections down. We're going to have to make reductions. Year 3, 26,27, um we'll bring more information uh to the January business meeting around what our projections um look like. We're still working on those. As we speak to say, okay, we think, you know, what's what's our target number here? Where do we want to land at the end of that year in that budget? Um what does that mean for

100a projected uh level of cuts and so on and so forth. So that's really I just want to make sure everybody heard. Again, that was our process when we talked about getting to where we need to get. Hopefully in the in the meantime, we'll see some improvements at the legislative level, but we can't bank on that. I'm I'll be surprised if we will be surprised if we see any improvements in funding this session. Short session, all cuts budget from the governor from what we're hearing. So, we'll see what happens. Any questions on that? >> Just make a quick comment. >> Yes. really for clarification because I think I heard you say that we'll have 8% in the year and it's not that we'll have 8%. We're not cheating to get down to 8%. >> Correct.

101>> It's just that we don't want to go below that. We had discussions about >> Yes. >> Go ahead and add >> so Oh, sorry. Um, when do you expect that we will need to have a balanced budget? >> Well, we're hoping that that can happen in the following school year, 2728, but we have to see where we land at that point and then see where our fund balance is and say, okay, because we have to stay over 8% on our fund balance. I mean, I looked the districts in the valley. I mean, there's districts in in trouble. I mean, they're borrowing on their aortionment. or and they're larger districts and I we don't want to be there. So, we got to figure it out and then hopefully in that following year 2728 if we're

102still in a good financial position, we may need to hit it one more time, but not to drop it below that amount. We want to stay fiscally sound. Any thoughts? Yeah, as a board, what I would look for is that we continue to close that gap. >> Yeah. >> That you don't see a spike back up and an increase of the the gap gets bigger all of a sudden. Uh that you continue to see the gap close and close and close and say that hypothetically we get to a 500,000. Okay. Then then it's what what is that 500,000 make up? And then the decisions have to be made because you're really getting down to programmatic impacts on students and it's not just staffing anymore. It's really the things that make our school district what we

103want it to be uh really start to come in and play. But as a board, my suggestion to you is to every year to and and as long as Chris well, as long as I'm here, Chris will pass this on to to to Steph when we do this, but is for you to go back year by year and see how we have closed the gap of that. That's what I would say. But our goal always is to we we we we think if nothing changes, we have got to get a to a balanced budget here soon because if we don't that that ability to use the the fund balance is not going to be available to us. It won't be there. We've we would have spent it all. >> And that's kind of what I

104was thinking as I've looked over the numbers is that uh you know it's this year or next year we've really got to get to a balanced budget. And it's it's very concerning because we have declining enrollment. And I think when I looked at the numbers, we're down 16 17% with the incoming classes. And if you think about how that impacts the budget in the long run, it's going to be pretty difficult. And I I don't want to scare people, but and you guys are great at managing it. I mean, our projection last year was a what 2.1 or 2.2 million deficit, and you got it down to 1.2 1.2. So, I mean, obviously you can manage it, but I mean, we've got to really be aware of what's happening with the money and how the

105future looks, especially if our classes do continue to stay decrease from 300 to 240 students like what we're seeing? >> Yeah, definitely. >> Do do the schools have the option to offer early retirement if that uh if you have to cut staff? >> No, it goes through the Department of of Retirement. retirement. Yeah, we don't get to make those decisions. Something that >> we provide a incentive for people to announce their retirement early so that we're aware that they're going to be retiring because sometimes people are notorious for not telling us their plan on retiring or resigning until the last minute after lots of decisions have already been made. So, we do incentivize that. It's what $500, right, for announcement of early retirement. That's the only real incentive. There is no incentive through the teachers

106retirement system to retire earlier. Actually, there's a penalty that you take if you to retire before 62, I believe. >> 62. >> Yeah. >> Right. I They have a one similar to what I have, but I know like when the state cuts the budget, I've been working for them for 20ome years. They couple of times they've offered early retirements as an option, but they had to work out the deal with the Department of Retirement Systems, whatever it's called. Um, and I was just wondering if we had that option as well for the district. >> We don't as a district, but there there are times where this topic gets brought up to the legislature. Um, I have not heard that uh that they're going to do an early retirement push. Um, but it it whenever whenever

107economic times are difficult, it seems to get brought up as a solution to some of the state level economic challenges. But at this point in time, we don't have anything internally the district can do to be able to encourage people for early retirement. >> Yeah, we just have the notification for our labor groups and our non-represented groups. They get to access that if they want to tell us early. There's been a couple times we've actually doubled that when we really wanted to see things early, but it didn't really increase the numbers too much. So anyway, any other questions before we move on? All right. Um, these next two slides, um, we wanted, again, Larry being new on the board, just so he can understand what process we go through when we actually adopt or, uh,

108develop and adopt, have you guys adopt a budget. Um, we start, it's really starts early. Um, if you can believe that, it starts really early. We t start talking in December. This was for 2425. uh because we knew we had a budget analysis project to work on, we started early in developing a timeline and um with a lot of meetings there that you can see. We give school board the school board an update throughout the season, updates, several updates throughout the the whole budget process through the school year. Um I won't go through all the information, but this gives you um just more information to tell you how we're going to structure it this year. I'm going to bring the budget timeline for 2627 uh to share with the board at the next uh business

109meeting in January. But we are uh like I said, I'm in the midst of drafting all the projections now and Kevin and I will go through those uh before break and then uh we'll start looking at those projections with principles and start talking about numbers and what it looks like for them as they build their schedules, what reductions we're looking for and that kind of thing. So, and those meetings with principles, we have a round in January, February, and March. So, we do three rounds of meetings with principles. We talk about the certified side of things, and we talked about we talk about the classified side of things. And um we we talk about all positions, not just our basic education program, but we look at our categorical state and federal programs. Um we have

110those directors involved in the meetings and our CTE, career and technical education program. All that gets rolled into these conversations and and we we all have homework in between the meetings. We meet periodically uh informally through the meeting time period before the next round. So it works pretty slick in coming up with uh what we need to do in that time frame. >> And those are not just with the principles in the building. Those are also with the directors of each of the departments as well. Whether that be child nutrition, transportation, whatever those may be. >> Definitely. So, this that's why I I included these two uh slides is just to give you an idea of where we land. Um it's important again just like the year-end report, the budget gets reviewed by independent parties

111before it ever comes uh to the board. The ESD is uh very instrumental in taking a look, fresh look at it. you know, we work on the budget for a long time throughout the year and they give it an independent look and if there's things that they pick up on and say, "Hey, this this is not a big deal, but just let you know you can fix this or this is something you want to take a look at fixing." So, it's nice to have their their review. We don't actually um submit the the budget until the requirement is to submit it to OSPI by August 31st. We typically get our budget submitted to OSPI sooner because we our practice has been that we present the budget in July. This year there will be a change.

112We have to have the budget adopted by June 30th because we're migrating to a new accounting system or an upgraded accounting system and everything has to be done in the old system before our blackout period and our migration date of July 8th or whatever that second week of July is. So, it's going to be a real push to get all the work done to get it done to get it ready for presentation to the board. Make sure we're giving you guys updates and so you're not seeing it fresh that night that you've seen um components of the budget leading up to that meeting. But, um it's going to be definitely more work this year, but we'll get there. Okay. Now, we can dive into the um operating fund overview. So just very quickly, we have

113five funds um that we that we manage for the school district. The general fund is our operating fund. That's where most of the business takes place is in the general fund. The ASB fund is ouru associated student body fund. We have uh officers uh like Claire on those at at the schools and our youngest learners. We those schools the principles are more instrumental in helping guide that work. But so we have all the stuff all of the dollars that are maintained in ASB are for the benefit of the students and there's a lot of fundraising and there's just athletics activities different things within that debt service fund. The debt service fund exists merely to uh collect our taxes for bonds and the tax revenue goes in there. Interest earnings go in there and we pay

114our principal and interest payments. We're required to run all of that through the debt service fund. So, our goal is that we would our collection, the amount that we certify to the voters, we're trying to nail that down so that we're only collecting what we need to pay our principal and interest payments. We need to keep a rolling ending fund balance in that account just so we can stay so we're not going into the negative. We typically at the end of any given year in debt service have about one one to 1.2 to 1.5 million that rolls to the next year at the end of the life in paying off the bonds. that money we've made it tradition to have that be savings to the taxpayers. So when the bonds pay off that money gets

115basically kicked back or not collected um by the school district from taxpayers. So that's how that works in debt service capital projects that fund exists to to record all of our uh expenditures associated with capital projects. Um the funding mechanism for those is we um for years we transferred money every year from the general fund an amount of money started back when I was just first here we transferred um $800,000 a year into capital projects. But remember back then we had a lot of older facilities and we had a lot more HVAC and roofing and all those different projects that were we were spending probably 1.1 million to 1.5 million a year on those types of things. Now with the newer facilities we haven't needed to to transfer as much but the last two years

116we haven't transferred any because of our financial situation. After these last two projects get done we'll still have under a million dollars in there. So that'll be good. But we're going to have to get back on a plan to transfer money again at at some point because that's the the way that we fund capital projects. Transportation vehicle fund, that fund exists just to to deposit our depreciation uh payments from the state on our buses that are still on the depreciation schedule and to buy new buses. We can't take any of that money and move it over to general fund to offset. That has to stay in there for purchase of buses. We pretty much spend a good portion of it every year. We order one to two buses a year. The depreciation payments we get

117typically are it's about uh 200,000 a year um for we try to keep the a good amount of buses on the depreciation schedule by replacing them. It keeps that rolling amount coming. Um so that's why that funds in place. All the funds acrew interest on the money that's in there. All the interest earnings go back into the applicable fund every month. So that gives you a quick overview of the different funds that we have. So, general fund being the first one highlighted here, you can see we received 64.5 million in revenues. We spent um we spent about a million more than what we took in. So, 1.1 million deficit there. You can see towards the bottom. And then our ending fund balance landing right at 10 point just under 10.6 million uh for the 2425

118school year. You can see here just a little bit more e explanation on this. You can see total revenues actual. So our our variance there we we landed at 1.1 million deficit instead of 1.3 budgeted. So key impacts um our inflationary price deflator which is the like a cola that the the state legislature authorizes. Um we have a a gap in salary. As I mentioned, our salaries cost more than uh how we're funded. And so it does create a gap in funding. Most districts have to pick that up through uh indirects that we pull on programs through levy to some degree, LEA, mainly levy uh equalization allocation. Um we also have our MSOC inflation insurance, utilities, etc. that are impacting this. And our two programs that have run in the red now um for a

119couple years. and I'll talk a little bit more about those is our special education program and transportation. All right. Um these next few slides just give you really a breakdown of the makeup of our funding and the makeup of our expenditures. So I won't spend a lot of time on this, but this highlights on our revenues. We did see an increase of 1.6 million in revenues from the 2324 school year, which is a 2.6% increase. And you can see on the pie chart that the state general funds that come in are a portionment payments and such that makes up almost 61%. The state special which is like sped and some of those other special um or special some of those other state programs uh lap and such that's the equals just under 22%. Federal is

120always uh one of our lower numbers. We get around 8% in federal funds and then our local taxes um run there right around 7%. And non- tax 9%. So this just another look at those revenues how they they break down. Um and so that just gives you a little bit more. Sorry, this one. Sorry. Uh so expenditures. So expenditures we increase 5.1% 3.2 million. This breaks down by program category on the percentages for our expenditures. Um this we tried to create a couple slides just to give you highlights for the different line items within the budget. So you can see with the levy um we our levy steps up based on assessed value and what's been approved by the the taxpayers actually assessed value. um doesn't impact the amount we collect. The the rate per

121thousand is impacted by assessed value. We still only collect what the voters approve. Um we also have CTE program allocation increases on the revenue side. We've um got our increase in sped. We did get more money in our our special education for our special education program, but our expenditures went up at a higher rate. uh COVID re you'll see an a difference there on the federal because we spent the COVID relief funds uh the last of those in 2324 they had to be spent by then and um see I won't look at all of these but again down below under expenditures special ed did increase in in expenditure side of things um we had an increase in CTE also an increase in revenue um our compens uh I never can say this word Compens compensatory

122compensatory. Got it. Compensatory. Okay, that's ECAP food services, TBIP, and those programs. So, you can see an increase there. Other instructional programs again. And the next line too, those are the COVID relief funds that were spent. So, we didn't have uh we had lower expenditures. And then also down under support services, that large increase is basically our utility and insurance costs. And also with nutrition services um our revenues were up and the expenditures with for nutrition was higher. Um the capital outlay you can see the the costs there um basically nutrition program funds can only be used for the program. One of the needs that we had going to C where all kids eat at no cost. We needed more storage for uh refrigeration and freezer. So, we um she used some of her carryover

123funds to um we had a a unit constructed over there and it it's really working out great to give them that additional space. All right, expenditures. Last one to highlight. You can see there in blue salaries and benefits um almost 85%. This is the highest. We're We've been really close to this 83%. But most if not all school districts in the state are over 80% people. Um that's very very common. In fact, I don't know any school districts that aren't at least 80%. So we keep an eye on that. Um supplies there you can see and then purchase services and then others. Um certificated salaries. Uh we if you'll remember for the 2425 year we made reductions to our certificated staff. Eight FTE including one administrative position were cut for the 24-25 school year. So

124you can see there we did see an uh IPD infl uh cola type increase that came across but we had some reductions. So the net increase um in the expenditures was the 1.7% or 484,000 classified salaries. We actually saw we had a 2ft FTE increase um in 2425. So you don't see the same uh amount there or low a higher percentage supplies and materials. We did make reductions to those. So you can see that and being reflected there in the expenditures. Um and then purchase services. This is again our increase in MSOC for utilities and insurance. There you can see high numbers. I have another slide on that coming up. reduction in travel. We've really cut back on travel costs that are not involving kids. We still have that emphasis. And then uh reduction and

125well, the capital outlay was the walk-in freezer refrigerator. All right. So, let's talk fund balance cash reserve our four-year forecast. So, just a reminder about the ongoing budget challenges. We've talked a little bit about these already. um just our expenditures are rising at a higher rate. It's not uncommon for any business these days. Um funding gaps in compensation and MSOC allocation model, subcost, special ed, and I'm going to touch upon these items more in slides coming up. Um and just some of the recommendations and things being worked on at the legislative level as far as the the mix factor. um getting that back for the certificated staff. Also, uh just better funding for our other staffing as well. And then increased funding allocations for MSOcks. Uh we'll talk about that here in a minute. And

126then fully fund special ed and transportation. Those are two programs that a lot of districts run in the red. Um so there we definitely they need to make some changes to the way programs are funded there. And then lastly, uncertainty of federal funds. We're not sure where we're going to land with that like everyone else. And so we need to um we're having more discussions about that now and as we know more than our budgeting practices will um follow what we think our cuts are going to be there and finding out where we're going to take some reductions. >> Yeah, Congress will be will be watching what goes on in Congress uh with regards to federal funding. Uh there are um three different ideas. you know, you've got the House idea, you've got the Senate's

127idea, and you've got the president's idea with regards to federal funding. And so, it's our understanding that those will all come into play when the when they return from uh the holiday session and they start to get to work in January, that we'll see see what uh where those three end up. Um, two of them are significant reductions to federal funding going to to uh public education. Uh, one of them is pretty much level funding. So, we don't see increases in any of them, but two are very significant uh reductions. That would have an a trickle down impact uh to our state and then a trickle down impact to to our school district as well. We'll be watching that and keeping you up to date. Okay, this slide very quickly just to emphasize the utilities

128insurance funding versus our actual costs associated with it. Looking at a four-year trend here, um our funding increased by 5.1% and our expenditures increased by 81% and 70% um for utilities and liability insurance. And these are costs that we don't have much control over. So, we're um we can do our best to save our on electricity and those types of things, but insurance costs, they've just gone crazy and our utilities have have as well. And that's a lot of money. >> Is is utilities Sorry, Chris. Is utilities mainly electrical? Is that what >> electrical, gas, all of the utilities just like we have >> have all gone up? Not just >> all Yes. All of them. and and for example, when the city of Cila increases their tax on water and stuff, that gets passed

129on to the school district as well. So, >> uh yeah. >> All right. Um sorry about the small print here. This gives you just a an overview of our special education program. And again, I want to emphasize that CILA is not alone in trying to balance the special education budget. You can see across the top there that we are serving about the same number of kids per year back to 22 23 where right now uh 25 26 we're sitting uh our enrollment right now I think we're serving 508 or something like that. So we're a little bit higher than that. So we'll see an a higher revenue amount if we hold that number that we're serving right now. But you can see on the bottom section um you can see the revenue and the expenditures

130offsetting down the the page there the different components of special ed. So the top one and I won't go through every line on this but 3121 is an important one because if you've heard the reference to excess costs um all students are basic education kids first and then if they have special needs then they get served additionally for that. So the state, the one change that they made last year was um they made all school districts excess cost amount that gets transferred from basic ed to special ed at a 25% factor. And a lot of districts like ours, we were at 19%. So there's a 6% increase that we have to take more money out of basic ed and move it over to help balance. So, the good thing is it does help offset costs

131in special ed, but it it does take away from the the other pot of money that we have to run the rest of the district's programs. So, there are certain slides in this presentation that that tell a story um that I think as board members you guys you guys need to know about and this is this to me is one of those slides in that you can go back and see that we've consistently been over budget in this but the drastic amount of overbudget over the last number of last few years is significant. It it kind of mirrors what you saw with utilities and insurance. Um, but this is this is a concerning trend and we'll point out a couple reasons why we're seeing this. Uh, when you go from just, you know, a little

132over $50,000 uh to, you know, 761, uh, that's those are a lot of dollars that are going to special ed that are that are dollars that in other years uh, previous to this were were being used for other purposes. So >> yeah, that's the biggest concern and and the maintenance of effort requirement that the state has is once you raise your expenditure level to a certain amount, you're supposed to maintain that level or more, which yeah, we're we're still going to try to bring it down. [laughter] Okay. So that gives you just you can see across the bottom there the the bottom line impact over the years um those few years. So Keith, do you want >> I'll take this slide because a part of my work has been working with with our director of

133special education, Betty Lopez, executive director of student services, is to really get an understanding of why we saw that dramatic increase um over the last uh last year or the year before last and last year for this 2425. And there we we we we determined three things and these are all significant amounts of money. So at at our intermediate school we implemented what's called our term. This is not a technical term by any means but it's our term what we called a reset program. And basically this program was to work with students who had significant behaviors both in the area of special education and our regular ed students who did not have IEPs who were um who were making it difficult for students to learn and teachers to teach. Uh the disruption factor that was

134being caused by behaviors um was evidence and we we had to respond. we could not continue to let it go on. And so we responded, but when we responded, we just couldn't we couldn't take from what was already there and just move people around. You had to add to it. And so to the tune of uh 257,000 worth of staffing costs, certificated and uh classified staffing cost, we developed a reset program which provided um a learning environment that um that not only helped those students in a different environment but also helped the other students who are in the classroom and the teacher to be able to do what we want them to do. So that's one reason why you you're seeing a significant uh more uh cost and again before we we knew that there

135was going to be some additional resources needed uh because we have been working with this group of students now and we knew the makeup of the group of students but I'll be honest with you I don't think Chris and I or anybody Betty included expected to see uh you know what we had to do in order to to solve the problem. And I'm I'm you know we haven't fully solved the problem but we've taken some pretty significant steps uh to to make it better. The second one is uh specific with students with disabilities and this is at the high school and SLC is supported learning classroom and supported learning is for our uh most significantly disabled children and um the way that the makeup of those students was at the high school and a significant

136factor is the students that were uh being moved into the Yakama Valley school who is a a facility that is within the district boundaries and we are responsible to provide the educational services for the students who go there and those are some of probably the most needy students in our state they're being placed there as respit they've been uh moved around from all kinds of different facilities and that is where they're going and they come to our school or we provide services to them at the facility depending on the the disability of the student but the sheer number of those students who were going to the high school, we had to have two different classrooms in order to do that. Now there I want to be clear that there are we do receive funding for

137those students who do come from Yakama Valley School, but again that the needs that they have um with additional staffing, many of them needing one-on-one or two-on-one in order for us to not only uh support their learning needs, but also to ensure that the the disruption to the remainder of the high school is uh not at a place where we can't have an operational high school as Well, so you see something similar. We had to we we had a second classroom that was implemented. Again, 257. They're very approximate because it took the same amount of staff to manage both of them. So, um I'm sure there's a little bit of difference between the two for dollars and cents, but around the same uh staffing cost. And when we talk about staffing costs, especially when we

138have to add staffing costs, we don't just look at the amount of pay they receive for their salary. It also includes benefit costs. And so if you're trying to compute, well, how much do these people cost? It's not only their salary, but it's also the benefit cost that we have to include there as well. The third one is um things that happen and we had a lot of students on a case load that needed speech and language support. Um and we had a one of our current SLPs go on a maternity leave. Now, just because the the the person goes on maternity leave, that doesn't mean you can't stop the services. And so, we had to come back and provide services. And in this case, because we could not hire a SLP as an employee

139of ours, we had to contract, we had to go out and contract those services. Uh the contract services are much more expensive and they have different re different numbers of case load. So we may be able to hire an employee that says we're going to work with x number of students but when you go out and contract in order to to agree to the contract usually the numbers and so whereas if we would have had one employee um in if we had to go out contract we had to have two employees so you're paying double and so >> what was the reason you couldn't hire a replacement? We couldn't no we we posted it. Nobody applied nobody to interview and hire. >> Okay. So we had the opportunity to there wasn't anything that needed to

140be done to >> we just couldn't we couldn't hire an employee to do that which for these type of positions it is a difficult they're very difficult to come by and so um with that and and we're hopeful that this is not going to be one of those ones that's reoccurring but you never know. All right. in that we do have employees that that go out on all kinds of different leaves and we have responsibilities to compensate them based on their contracts, but we also then cannot just shut off services to the students who are in need of these services. So again, all of that ended up being 338,000. So you see the three of those together uh really put a put a what is what made up a large amount of that uh over

141over budget within special ed. It gives you some context of why this happened. We thought that would be important for you other than just knowing that we're we're spending more in special ed. >> All right, the next one uh quickly just an overview on transportation. Again, this is a program that's not fully funded. A lot of most districts that around here don't uh run a balanced budget with this program, but you can see there um 2223 we were just we're 391,000 in the red and then across the line there 162 and 2324 and 283 and 2425. Few things happened. Um, you know, we opened a new campus over here, uh, Robert Lintz, and we tried to run everybody on the two-tier bus system, uh, first for two years, and it was not working. Kids were

142on buses for a long time. Um, there was a long wait period at the buildings for the buses to get from one location to the next, and we had to have additional staff supervising. Um so we added a tier three for transportation in 22 23 so that um bus drivers the bus drivers that were working for us at the time they did get more hours because the ones that ran this third tier because they were actually driving longer. Uh but we didn't have to add drivers in the the two-tier system. We were going to have to add drivers and we don't have drivers. I mean there's no there's not a lot of people banging down the doors to drive school bus. And then in 2324 we did hire a 0.5 uh so halftime mechanic to

143handle our additional buses that we service for Union Gap school district and also we moved all of our district motorpool vehicles over to get service there. Um we're re-evaluating that need moving forward. But um the so I have the same type of slide here on talking points for that. So, I've already talked about some of these. Um, so we'll we'll continue to evaluate the need on the the additional mechanic um needs or hours that we're going to need and then we'll adjust accordingly to that. He also drives school bus as well. So, um and then also extra hours and subcosts associated with transportation of special passengers. So, our Mckin Vento students um a lot of times we have to send uh somebody into Yakima here or there to pick up uh a McKin Vento student,

144bring them back. So, all that just takes extra hours for bus drivers to to do that um in between their route times and so on and so forth or we add those students to the routes which make the routes longer. So, also we've needed to add Paris support on certain buses, whether it be uh something that special needs are driving or just for behaviors in general on buses. We try to limit that. Um this year we're limiting uh that to just a couple different paras um for the just the behavior needs, but then also there's a couple other Paris rotating for the special pass or for special needs students as well. So, we're continuing to work with uh Joe Costard on this to see where we can see savings because moving forward, we're going to

145need to try to bring that in line, too. We can't continue to operate with the deficit budget. Hopefully, the state will come through at some point on that, too. Sub subcosts, this is going to be this is really interesting. So for years of course our our funding that we get for sub costs and we only get it for certificated subs is like for 2425 we received $109,000. So they give us the state uses a formula 4 days per teacher. Um they figure out the rate and they give us that amount for the school year and we're only funded for um state programs, basic ed and state programs. We don't get anything for federal programs. So it has to come out of your allocation for the federal programs um and other programs that we have. So

146you can see there just to summarize in 2425 including our classified subs which we don't get any funding for for classified subs we our total cost sub costs for the 2425 school year 1.8 million um and our funding was 109,000. So this is one of the priorities that's being pushed at the legislative level as well to uh come up with a better funding mechanism for subcosts. Um in the meantime, we're working with our uh classified directors for the custodian side or the the operational side of things like custodial I've highlighted there. Uh Chris Harris, we asked him to take a look at uh the times when we do bring in a a sub for custodians and do we really need to bring in a sub every time a custodians out on sick leave or vacation

147and um rotate some things and and make do. And he he cut it in half in one year. And yes, we left positions open here and there, but we had a a way to manage that in the buildings um to make sure things are covered. And maybe garbage cans aren't emptied every day at times, but we got to do um what we can do with this with the short funding. >> Chrissy, you mentioned uh um legislative priorities, and I know the special education and transportation have been legislative priorities, and you mentioned subcaus. Is MSOC a legislative priority as well? Okay, thank you. And MSOC for those who are new, materials, supplies, and operating >> operating costs. >> Okay, thank you. >> Really? The insurance and uh the utilities >> and related to transportation approximately how

148many students do we have riding buses every day? I know that's probably covered at some point during the year, but just as a refresher, >> right now I'm trying to think of the percentage. It's probably 40%. I I can get that number though. I'll get it for you. Yeah. It's just when you look at the parking lots, it's hard to believe we bust very many kids in with all the cars [laughter] with all the parents dropping kids off. >> Exactly. And it's it's amazing though when you when we look at that some of our routes are packed. I mean, we have kids, high school kids. You guys probably know this if you ever ride the bus. Three high schoolers to one seat. And you know, that's hard. Um the little the littles, it's okay. Three

149to a seat. That works pretty good. But when you get a route that's full of high schoolers at three to a seat, that gets a little cozy. We don't We're trying to alleviate that a little bit. Okay. Um, fund balance. So, let's talk fund balance. So, this was at the end of the 2425 school year. We landed at 10 point just under 10.6 million, which is 16% of our uh budgeted expenditures um or actually of our actual expenditures. And the chart at the right gives you an idea of what the board parameters of the 8% it breaks down with 2% of the eight is an emergency fund amount budget contingency funds 3% and cash flows 3%. So that's how we came up with the 8% recommendation several years ago. Um you can look at the

150bottom there and see the various areas of reserves that we we identify and report on at the end of the year. You can see there's two line items there. One is the reserve for capital projects transfer which we haven't made in two years but we do still have an an amount identified there if it if we move down that path again. And then reserve for special education services um being the highest uh deficit that we have trying to identify okay we need we're probably going to need to come up with some some funding to help support that program again. So this is where I wanted to just highlight. Um so this is I have two different scenarios in this presentation. One is without any reductions being made and where we think we're going to land

151at the end of 2029 school year and then I'll have another one that we show with reductions. So this one um just very quickly I know we're a little bit short on time here. Back in n 2019 you can see our total fund balance percentage was 19% and then through the co years you can see 22 22 1918 1818 18 and then now with our intentional um hit to fund balance in 2425 to soften the reductions we're down to 16% not making any reductions moving forward um we would drop to uh basically having no cash reserve at the end of 23 or 2829 which is not an option we're entertaining at all we're just showing what it would show if we didn't make any reductions and we try to survive with um all of our

152current levels of things. >> Yeah, this is a scenario we just keep going and just hoping somebody bails us out and we don't do anything. It just we just keep operating the way we're operating and just don't even worry about it and all of a sudden you don't have any money left. So, I know I know that sounds like who would ever do that? Well, there are school districts in our state that have done that and there are businesses in our state that have done that. And so you just I know that's not what you would think that people would do, especially with public funds, but it happens. And uh why we put that up there is really to show you is that if we did nothing, we just operate without making any adjustments, we're

153in deep trouble very soon. This slide is the same information, just showing it across the years with no reductions being made. Um, but it does show for 26 27 27 28 28 29 $100,000 transfer to cap. Um, again, that's probably not going to happen for the next couple years, but showing that we're still at gets down to the negative uh fund balance, $2 million fund balance. So, that gives you that idea. across the bottom shows what the state has projected for the uh cola or IPD uh percentages and you can see those are not small numbers and every time an IPD is passed through it expands the salary gap that we have. So um I don't know if that'll be on the table for discussion this session or ne this session but maybe next session

154on maybe they hold on IPD for a year I don't know so we don't know where that's going to go. Um this this scenario shows with reductions. Um you can see there that uh end of this current school year dropping just under 14% and then just under 12% just under 10% and 9% in year four. Um this slide shows you uh 2627 targeting a $ 1.5 million uh level of reductions and then uh on a cumulative basis adding 1.5 each year which would be very difficult to make that deep of cuts. But it's something that um just gives us an idea where we would land just over the 8% in year four. Chris, I'm just just for yeah >> a quick question to get to those reductions that means uh a smaller staff, right? Is

155that the idea? Is it through attrition? Um, and maybe you've just mentioned this, but based on our attrition current attrition rate, we probably will still need to have cuts in addition to attrition by the time we get to the end of that. >> We don't know what attrition is going to look like. Um we definitely have people at the top end of the uh seniority as far as years of experience for teachers and we also have sen more senior people in other classifications as well. So there there will be attrition. My whiteboard in my office every year I document all as the resignations and retirements come in just so people that come in we can just take a look at it quickly and see and it's full every year. I mean it's it's less than

156it used to be. We probably hired uh 70 70 60 to 70 people whether it be classified as certified prior years. This last year was half that um maybe 30 I think was our 25 or 30. >> Okay. Okay. So >> got it. >> So we difficult to predict then you're saying with attrition based on historical levels. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> We have to have two plans. We have to have the attrition plan that's going to help us out and then we have to have the other plan. And that's part of that is when you take the action on approving a riff resolution that you do. If we have to start, you know, cutting because we're not seeing the attrition to be able to solve this, then you got to you got to take

157that next step, which is to cut deeper, which is to to really where you start to impact individual people. >> So, we we may get there, but we're not sure we'll get to that point. That's a possibility. I I'm Chris and I go through these scenarios almost on a daily basis if not multiple times a day. Um there's lots of different riff language within collective bargaining agreements and and to be honest with you right now our ending fund balance that savings account that we have really doesn't allow us to really take that step to get into a really steep riff riff >> right >> like uh like what Yakima had to do >> their ending fund balance was so low that the the riff obviously is their only option at that time now as that

158ending lean fund balance starts to shrink then I do see riff as a tool that we may have to use. Uh I I my projection is you won't see that happen that this year but we have to prepare for it and you won't see it but you may see it next year depending on the number of uh people who resign or retire >> and any action taken by the legislature >> and that's another part significant impact. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And it's really hard to predict if people are going to retire. Um there's a lot of factors in play uh for them individually and how they've done their things and and uh in many cases their spouse uh insurance plays a huge part of that. The cost of health care um plays a a large

159part in what I believe a lot a lot of our classified employees uh have to continue to work because of the benefit of the health care that they receive. Uh they're not able to separate. they would love to separate but they're not able to because they count on the health care to help them out or help their spouse out who may not might have that type of health care. Uh those uh that are in the certified area, a lot of that depends as they get into the ages where they're able to retirement is how do have they managed their um their retirement? Have they uh dipped into their investment accounts to do other things and not had that account built for them through the department of retirement systems? Are they able to make the adjustments

160in their lifestyle uh to be able to live on on retirement pension or not? So, it really really comes down to individuals when you talk about their ability to retire. Uh I I'm very proud of our HR team who is very well-versed in all of that and can help people determine if they're contemplating that. There is we do see a lot of traffic in there and we know our HR teams are meeting with a lot of people who are trying to make that decision. Uh one right here who has has to to go through that. Um but um it it really does become individualized on where people are and how they can retire. Um what we're not seeing as much as we've seen in the past uh is people moving from district to district like

161uh we don't see the people moving from uh say CIA to East Valley or CELA to Yakama. And the reason is there's no jobs. Many of them are also in the same predicament that we are is we're not hiring. Their enrollment is declining. they're have uh you know budgetary issues and so there's not openings that people are moving into unless they're very specialized or there's not very many of those type of employees like our inenerates uh that that are able to find work wherever uh they really want to. Um so the the landscape has changed uh for a lot of a lot of things with regards to using attrition although we've been I think we've been very fortunate in that uh we've been able to use that as a measure to to kind of close

162the gap. Um it will be something we always monitor uh and and we'll know a lot more uh in the months of January, February and March what people are deciding to do. I I will say that I don't know if we pointed it out yet, but we have we have not just automatically rehired people that have separated in the midst of the the school year unless it's it's a position that has to be filled. Uh our most recent one is we had a a resignation of a custodian and uh although the work needed to be done, we did not go back and just automatically rehire. We're subbing that position out as long as we possibly can. And it may simply be a position that we cut uh at the end of the year. That's a

163position of what probably by the time it's s and benefits 758 75 >> $80,000. So just that gives you the level of where we're looking at as we go through the year with with our staff. >> What what percentage of the budget are you cutting each year to get down within the four years to try and hopefully balance this? >> We cut uh >> percentage million. So >> yeah, two million. >> You're going through attrition and stuff. So I was just wondering percentage-wise is like do you have a target to get down to in the next four years? How much you want to cut over the four-year period or >> That's what we every year we determine what our target's going to be and then we look at where our fund balance is and then

164we say, "Okay, we're where do we think the board is willing to support as far as a reduction? How much of the cash reserve are we going to uh need to use?" But we think in 23 24 we identified over two million in cuts. Um over a million this last year. So we're trying to get you know so it's not too big of a hit to the fund balance but not too large of so every year it's just determined at the whatever level we need to make. >> If you're looking at sheer percentages it's pretty small. I was just comparative total budget number. It's pretty small. Um, but Chris and I have have, okay, we've been at this million and so our next logical step is we've got to get under a million and you

165know, is that under a million mean 750,000? Does it mean 500,000? And so that's that's kind of where we're looking at is that how much can we take the next leap? Now, I've told you this before, the the the exercise we've done over the last few years was needed. I think it was really needed for the district to take a look at how they were doing what they're doing from a financial and I we found a lot of areas that we could reduce or eliminate and uh the the work that's going to go on now is going to become more difficult because we've taken the lowhanging fruit there and taken that out and now it's going to start getting more problematic. Our goal, Larry, is really to not impact the classroom and and where the

166real our real duties are and responsibilities are. Um, and so most of those cuts don't, if you were to ask probably some of our our teachers, they don't really see it or feel it or know about it because it hasn't impacted them in the classroom or in the schools. Uh, our departments have taken probably more of the brunt of it. Um, and because it's it's those are things that we can go without. Uh but I my we're going to start creeping closer and closer to that classroom level. Buildings have taken percentage cuts of their building budgets. Um >> apartments >> departments have taken percentages. Uh we've not purchased any real capital outlay of any type of things that we've done that are you know unless it's like we have to emergency replace something. um buildings

167have had to reduce staffing based on enrollment decline. And so that that's an easy, you know, that's a pretty easier one to get a hold of and understand. But we have to not only do that because of enrollment decline, that's just one part. We have to almost double because of the the deficit that we don't want to continue to get into the just by doing it our federal program >> that could drive more cuts too with the federal program >> of staffing because we're 84.8% staff. I mean you could we've pretty much skinned our materials of supplies and operating costs. Um, this is pretty self-explanatory, but again, continuing to monitor, balance up our enrollment projections to staffing. Um, monitoring fund balance and cash flow. Uh, if reductions are needed, we need to look at all

168of our areas, all the department program budgets and staffing will be evaluated. We're going to go through the full-blown review again this year of all the programs, even though we've already done it. We're going to look at it again, try to think outside the box and see how we can make ends meet with something less than what we're providing now. And then facility maintenance and capital purchase. One thing we've held on the last two years is device replacement for our Chromebooks um and such and staff computers. we were in a pretty good uh position because during the COVID relief time, we used some of that funding to to frontload some of that so that we didn't have to use our funding to help do that. So, we're getting to the tail end of where we

169need to start investing back in that because we don't want to have to replace all of them in one year. You know, we buy like so many that we can roll roll out some that are not being supported. So, that's that uh debt service fund. We've talked about this. This is to service our debt. Um I gave you the explanation of this. So, and this pretty much just reiterates what I've already said for debt service. Um now, the long-term debt, just to highlight where we're at with that, we have uh two series uh bond issues. Um one's a 2018. It pays off in 2042. There's 38 million or 37.7 million left on that one to pay. And then the 2022 bonds um that were the restructure refinance, they're at 18.2 million. So we have 55.9

170million in outstanding bond debt. Um our collection rate right now is sitting right at about $123, which is significantly less than what we went out and told our voters when we passed our last bond in 2018. So we do have debt to pay there. And when you look at our uh debt capacity, which there's only uh 5% of your assessed valuation, so we're uh we probably have about 121 million in debt capacity. We're not in a position to even think about taking a bond to the to the voters. But just so you know, even if we wanted to, that doesn't build anything as far as our next project that we need to take care of as a new or renovated high school, it's not going to pay for it. So anyway, >> well, just a

171reminder, so you you've you've heard us talk about it for facilities, long range planning and the high school and all that kind of stuff. And and that's this is exactly why we've put it out there for 10 years, you know, because those bonds for the 2022 bonds need to come off the books in order for us to even consider going back out um to to the voters to ask for support. Um it just uh and maybe somebody thinks different like that and wants to be more aggressive and and thinks that our community would support that, but even that the capacity that we have available to us by law doesn't really allow us to do what what is really needed. So there's that that that tells the story of why any of our long-term facilities plans

172are where they are for the 10-year process. So this worksheet gives you history here back to 2017 of what our assessed values are. Remember we have our Yakama um assessed value in our Kittitas County because we have our um the properties of the students we serve out through the canyon. Um so those are uh you can see there the last three years of assessed value increases 10.41% 18 that was a big one in 2024 18.64 and then 5.8 in 2025. So, as a reminder, the assessed value increases drive the rates per thousand that we collect. We still collect what the voters approved on total dollars. You can see that in the like uh reddish color there. Those are the numbers the bo the community voters approved. And so that's all we collect, but the rate

173varies based on your assessed value. So what we went out to the taxpayers and sold on the items that we wanted to fund with the levy was we were going to collect at no more than $1.65 per thousand. We're under the $1.65. We had one year in my time here back in 2021 that we collected less to stay with the rate that we promised taxpayers. Otherwise, we've been under the rate that we've made promises. The bond rate again. Well, right now we're looking at a preliminary uh $1.17 for our bond rate collect. Right now we're collecting a $123, but with the assessed value projected for 2026, we're looking at a $1.17. So, um we're well below what we talked about with the voters on that. Are you going to say >> the reason why this

174is on there too, it's part of obviously part of the of debt service and all the rates and everything, but again, you can uh Larry, if you don't know this summer and into the fall, we'll be talking about uh enrichment levy. The levy, it's the levy is going to be up. It'll be at the end of its fourth year and we'll be needing to go back out to the voters uh um with a another levy, a replacement of what the current levy is. And we'll have to do a lot of work uh at the board level and Chris well Chris and Steph and I to some point will do a lot of the work with re bringing you all the data all the numbers all the impacts what does what does the rates do at

175whatever number it is. And so this the these type of slides will be one we'll be continuing to use as we plan uh for the levy. >> So this year the uh county made significant adjustments to their property valuations. Do we does that mean we get to collect more? >> No, we only collect what the voters approve. Um, so that big year in 2024, that big jump in assessed value, that hurt a lot of districts that there's not a lot of districts that sit around the the rate per thousand that we do because it's the 250 is the actual rate per thousand that districts can collect. Now, when they dropped it to $150, we tried to stay true to the $150, but this last levy, remember, we ended up with what our needs were. We

176went to the $165 per thousand to drive the dollars. But we're what happened in 2024 with that huge increase is it took a spike down on the rate per thousand and a lot of the districts were trying to stay around $150. They went down to like I'll just say West Valley is at a$128. So they lose levy equalization funding because they're collecting less than a $150. So to be fiscally responsible, you want to at least stay at a $150. Why would you want to lose your levy equalization allocation? So and that was who would have thought our assessed value would have went up 18.64%. So >> and from what I there are rumors that possible uh state level solutions to this is to increase the amount that you can collect above 250 uh $2.50 per

177assess. That's really a my That's a terrible thing to We're back to a mccclary issue. >> We are. We are right back to where we were. >> Big districts. >> Yeah. >> Rich districts. >> That just passes the buck to us. >> It's terrible. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> It's just asking for another Supreme Court case. >> What happened to all the marijuana tax money and water tax money that was supposed to go for education? [laughter] >> I didn't know. >> Question. I don't know. >> All right. Right, I'll try to wrap it up here pretty quick and then I have my two quick reports on the left on my list, but cap projects you can see here. Um, like we talked, that's for our capital projects. So, to get to the meat of this, um,

178oops, dang it, I'm looking at my own screen. Um, okay. So, this gives you history for capital projects on the you can see 2425 there. Um we ended the 2425 year August 31 at 7.3 million of that uh we have leftover state match money from our transportation uh project which stays in the safety bucket of 1 point just under 1.6 million which we are utilizing for the turf field project. [laughter] Hi Mr. Colorado and then the donation from Wilbur Rep for the CTE tech center just under $4 million and then the rest is non uh bond money that's uh unreserved at 1 point just under 1.8 million. So we're actually sitting really really good in our cap projects and it's giving us the ability to have two great projects that we're working on. other funds.

179Um, we have our ASB fund and our transportation vehicle fund. So, uh, just very quickly, I'll see well I don't didn't give you another slide on these, but like I mentioned, the ASB fund is for our student body and our students actually make all the decisions. They have uh board meetings and they make all the decisions about how the funds are spent and what fundraisers are are conducted and so on and so forth. transportation vehicle. We do have um one bus we're waiting on this year to take possession of. So, we're good on that. Any other questions? So this presentation always is my disclaimer with these presentations. It is use the slides as you need and what you're interested in as just to find something that you may want to ask Chris or myself. There's

180things that you want more information on uh more detail, what the expenditures are, why we're where we are, whatever that may be. This just gives you that initial uh review of last year uh last fiscal year and now it's time for you to use those slides to figure out what you may want to ask if you do want to ask. I mean, you know, no requirements at all. But it it it may key it may key in some things that like, oh, I didn't know that. I want to learn more about that. But it is very comprehensive and uh I think by the comprehensiveness and the number of slides you can tell that uh um Chris and her team this is of extreme importance for the school district and I share that belief as well

181and I know that is from you you as board members. Uh the fiscal responsibility of the school district is extremely important. >> So >> yeah thank you. >> In six months we're saving a million bucks a year. Is that right? >> [laughter] >> Yeah. >> Wouldn't that be nice? >> That would be nice. And thank you, Chris, for and your and for your team for all the effort that goes into this report yearly. Um uh as I mentioned when we were talking about the um your your future uh plans. Um we it's it's I have a great deal of confidence in in this report and uh the direction that we're headed. Um and you part of what's interesting about it is uh four years ago, five years, five maybe six years ago when I started

182out, we had a similar forecast that looked like uh-oh, we're headed towards this thing where we're going to get underneath the 8% that we've have and then things happened like CO being the biggest one where that got kicked down the road a little bit and now we're back to that position where we can see it coming. But we also can't see there are unknown unknowns as well. So as we go through this process, it's great knowing um that we have this solid base to build from. So thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> All right. Excellent. Uh we are now on the uh super Oh, no. I'm sorry. And enrollment updates. >> Very quickly, our November financial status report. Um, we have uh August, September, October, November because we always fall behind on these

183as well because we can't produce these for you until the books are closed. And we we like to present the year end first before we bring these others to you. So, November, I'll just focus on the most recent. Um, you can see there at the top, we're 25% uh through the school year. We've received 22.3% of our revenues and expended 25.2% of our expenditures. revenues always lag in the fall because our it takes a while to get all of our grants um approved through OSPI and so those lag a little bit. So those will catch up as the months progress here. Um enrollment we have uh you saw there in the packet that for the December enrollment count is at 3504 and again that doesn't include running start or open doors or TK because they're

184reported separately. So 3504 is a decrease of 4ft FTE um from November. And when you look at December 24 to December 25, we're down 70 FTE. So you can see that we're we are on that slight decline. Um the projection I had last year and I'm going to run it again this year for for the next four years. It looks like about 1.7% to 2% decline in our enrollment per year. Um so that as of as an average and remember we're funded on year-end average for enrollment. Um, right now we are 25 FTEE over projection, which is good because we typically see a drop in enrollment through the remaining months of the year. So, we have a little bit of a cushion there. Hopefully, we'll land right around um projection at the end of the

185year, if not over. So, that's where we're at. We're still open to non-resident students. They're required, families are required to submit an application for that. They go through a review process, but we are open to accepting addition or students out of district if if they meet the qualifications. >> That's all I have. Sorry. >> Any questions about financial status update or enrollment update? >> All right. Thank Oh, sorry there. >> No, I was just thinking, do we keep track of how many kids are homeschooled in our district? >> We have Oh, go ahead. >> Yeah, we're required to. We base it on though their uh submitting the form that they're required to do. So yes, we do track all that. We actually have responsibility which is part of Jen's responsibility to do all that. We

186have we have to submit information on that as well. >> Yeah. >> How how many do we have? >> Can you remember exactly the number >> for for years? We hovered right around 109. Um so like 50ome families of 109 students. I think we're up on uh upwards of 125 now. Um students uh might be a little even more than that. We can bring that number back for you. >> I'll get you the number, Larry. >> If that's close, I I feel good with that. Do um do any of those um like come to school for any classes? Like we had some that would come for choir that I knew in B. >> Yep. Yes. Uh there are all kinds of different some are full, some part-time, some are full but come for the activity

187part of it, the extracurricular part of it. So yeah, all over the place >> funding for them on a percentage basis all or nothing or >> for the for the instructional day part of it. So if they come for a period, then we get that percentage wise that we're we're providing them services. Anything extracurricular wise, nothing. But they haven't they can legally participate. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Excellent. Thank you, Chris. Item 10, superintendent report. [laughter] >> Thank you very much. Uh, we are now on board communications. Uh, I have something. Derek has something. Does anybody else have anything they want to add to board communications? I'll let Derek start us off. >> Okay. So, uh, Dan and I went to the WASDA conference and I wanted to, um, come back to the

188board with something and, uh, Ferndale School District and and so I'm going to tell you up front the purpose of what I handed out to you earlier and I I sent Jennifer a copy so she can include it in the minutes is I would like to personally um, if we as a board can agree to it, get a no cell phone policy into all of the schools. and Ferndale School District did a presentation on this. Um, and I handed out their policy that I just printed off of their website and also the uh recommendations from OSPI. And uh it was a really interesting uh presentation that they gave. They had the superintendent, the high school principal, a teacher, and a couple of students, a couple of high school students who uh did not like the

189idea of the policy when it was first uh announced. and they've implemented now, this is the second school year that it's been in. Um, initially they said they had between 11 and 40 phones compensate uh confiscated per day and now they're down to between five and 10 and it was that first year of adjustment and now the kids have really gotten into it. And just a couple of key points um and and I would like to get this policy in place as soon as possible. Um, I think we need to get public feedback. we need to get feedback from um staff. But uh overall there in Ferndale, it's been a very positive thing. And one of the one of the great things that they said they have seen is that their student scores have improved

190because the distractions have become a lot smaller in the classrooms and in passing time. Um and so you can read their policies when they're allowed to have the phones, when they're not. Um but they have a very strict enforcement of that and one of the one of the issues that they struggled with was when a teacher would go to a student and say give me your phone the students would say you can't take my phone away from me and there was a power struggle. Uh they eliminated that by passing that duty on to the administrators in the individual schools. So, if a teacher asked for a cell phone and the student said no, then one of the administrators would come up and say, "Okay, your options are you have to hand it over or you

191can go home or you can go to detention and we're still taking your phone." But it it had they had to have full community support from the school board all the way down to strict enforcement by every teacher in every classroom. Um and one of the things they did to ensure enforcement um that actually the teachers accepted was they made that part of their annual reviews with the principles of each um of each class or sorry of each school. And so the teachers were actually being checked up on by the administrators as part of that. Um, something that I didn't think about that, uh, one of the students mentioned is that she would not use the restrooms at school because there was uh, there were kids who would for fun take, you know, go and

192slide their phones and take pictures underneath the stalls or they'd be taking selfies in the restrooms and the student would be in the background. And so she just stopped completely using the restrooms at school. with the cell phone policy. She said that she can actually use the restroom at school now. Um she doesn't feel self-conscious about that. Another thing that the students uh brought up is that um they found that very quickly instead of texting each other uh during the school day where they felt pressure to answer during class or during passing period which would make them late, they now actually talking to each other. And even uh according to their policy, they're allowed to have their phones out at lunch, but um they said that even at lunch now, instead of bringing out their

193phones, they're actually communicating with each other, which is a really good thing. Um and I think that's really those are the the bullet points that I want. But I I gave um the the policies here. I think we should model a policy after this. Um the superintendent and principal said one of the most important things that they did was communicate once the policy was proposed. They started communicating with parents. They use parent square saying this is a proposal. If you have comments come to the board meeting um you know send in emails etc etc. But they kept the the parents informed throughout the process until it was adopted. And um initially there was a little bit of heartburn but it went away really quickly. There have been a few parents who still have been really

194upset about the policy, but when they've come in, when their kids' phone has been taken away and they have discussed it with the administrators, then they've even been able to get those parents on board. Um, and I I think that it's really important for us, one of the things that I harp on is our our test scores. Um, and if this is something that can help with those, then we should do that. And our kids get plenty of screen time outside of school. they don't need to have it in school. Um, I guess probably the one the one other concern the parents had was how do I get a hold of my kid during the day? Well, how did all of us except for you ladies, how did we all get a hold of our

195parents or vice versa during the school day? They called the school office. Um and the phones are available in the offices and um you know there were a couple other small issues there but um I would really like to adopt a no cell phone policy in CIA school district um to help our teachers out to help our students out and I think it would be a really positive um change for the school district. So, I don't know if we need a motion to instruct Kevin to to drop a policy or if we um have Kevin drop a policy and we address it in a month or so. Uh do you know, Dan? >> Great. Yeah, thank you very much. This has been an issue that we've been raising for several years. In fact, last year

196when I went to schools um and met with principles as part of the school visits, I asked every single one of them about cell phone policy because I'm feel very strongly, as you do, Derek, about better for academics, better for social emotional well-being, less bullying. I mean, these are all some of the issues that we're really wrestling with and this has a potential to really move the needle on some of those things. Um, and it was interesting a year ago, uh, I got mixed results. Some people thought, "Yeah, I want to," and these are from administrators. we've got strong positions in place. Uh but then we heard from our school representatives, student representatives, and they said some of it's, you know, not enforced at a uniform level. So I I just spoke to Kevin about

197this yesterday in our premeating. And there's now some interest, I think, district uh wide, especially at the high school. um other people have been to conferences and seen some of the same information that you've seen that I think we could start thinking about a timeline for gathering information, input from stakeholders and maybe thinking about a policy that we can put together to to make this happen. Kevin, did you want to add anything more to that? I think if that is the direction which I am in support of I and I I think that as we have watched other districts navigate this before us uh we've found out what's worked and what's not worked. Um so we're a lot better. the research is a lot clearer on it and there's more research uh that points to

198the same findings that it's in the best interest of our students not only for their academics but for their social emotional well-being as well. Um, our high school has not ever been opposed to it, but they have they have now taken some action steps to learn more about the different ways that you can implement a policy. Whether that's I think they they listen to the Wan that school district who has implemented uh the yonder pouch mode where students put their cell phones in a in a pouch and then it's secured in that pouch uh and they don't have access to it at all during the day unless they can get um somebody to undo the magnet that closes that pouch. Uh so I I think that it's uh it is we are ready to benefit

199and we are in a better position to benefit from this. Our I am always one to believe that we need to overcommunicate in a variety of different modes to all of our stakeholders and our stakeholders in this case are our students and our parents and then obviously our community and our staff as well. uh to get them all on the same page so that when we do implement it has a a better opportunity to be successful. But I don't think there's anybody that's going to say, at least from the school perspective, uh, that we shouldn't be doing this work and studying this work. And I think I think many people know that it's going to lead to if we don't do it as a individual school district, there's a very good possibility uh that our

200state may put uh laws in place to do it. And I'd like to be out in front of it instead of having to follow those. So, >> Ferndale, uh, they did talk about the pouch solution, some other solutions, but they were just cost prohibitive. Um, and so they expect their kids to silence their phones, put them in their backpacks, and if they come out at any point between periods during class, they get confiscated without question. Um, and the kids got used to it, and I think they've seen really good results. and over across the board with that panel, it was a positive change even with the hesitation that some of them had at the beginning. >> One of the original articles about this was in the Seattle Times and I I mentioned it a year

201ago was that they felt like they got to step back a decade and that's not always a good thing, but in this case, I think it's a it's a something we could we could look forward to. All right. Thank you very much, Derek. Uh any other comments about that from school board members? Uh I I'll just show you a couple of slides from the presentation that I went to and I let's get out of here and go get something to eat. Um I went to a presentation called Insight over intuition lessons from two decades of board research. two uh EDDDs um one a retired psychology professor emerdis and one a professor of educational leadership um from the University of Montana for the second one um gave a presentation that said for the past 20 years

202has sponsored research on the relationship between student achievement and action of school boards in Washington Montana Idaho and Texas while some of our assumptions have been confirmed others were contradicted by data if boards are to improve the lives of students entrusted to their care members need to rely less on intuition and more on knowledge gleaned from research and they are really true believers in the um board self- assessment strategy. It's Washington state I think is the only state um in the country that has a I guess uh valid self- assessment program. Some of the things that they said we'll we'll look at up on the screen right there. One of the big things they said was the board should think about us, not me. Get members to service. That's one thing. I think the board

203members here feel that way. Uh we are elected to team kids. They said, not who voted for you. They said the latter is a formula for a destroyed district. Board should be up and out in the community, not down and in uh on the dayto-day. They said that's the supers rule. And then um I had some a slide I maybe it's not on there of evidence of district um what was the name for it? Evidence of district success, evidence of district effectiveness. Um and this first one though is oh there it is. Thank you very much. So I we're just going to I'm not going to read all through of these, but when we do the if we do the board self assessment, these are some of the things that are big picture things that

204we look for. Improving student metrics, levy and bond successes, professional development, effective use of data, low staff turnover, low long superintendent tenure. Uh so those are some things we should be shooting for. And if we go to the next slide, these are some things we should be looking out for. These are red flags, common mistakes of board of d uh board of directors, low achieving districts and low achieve low performing boards. They say there's a really close connection between low achieving districts and low performing boards. They say low performing boards tend to be, and there's the list right there, less time spent on student achievement, less orderly, less focus on policy. Um fewer members relied on the superintendent for advice and input. um members advancing their own agenda etc. And I think there's another slide

205uh after that common mistakes of school boards they listed fragmented actions responding to coercion no ground rules not connected to the community. So th those are some things that I thought, okay, we're doing some of those things. We have some red flags, we have some green flags uh as a board, which means that we've got room to improve like I guess any [clears throat] board does. So um I I'm I'm hoping that uh we'll we'll take on in the new year a self assessment. Um speaking with Kevin about that, he's as he mentioned worked with other boards that have done the self- assessment and it might be helpful. They send you a link I think and we fill it in. So, it's not something we have to do together as a group. Once we have

206the data, it might make some sense to bring somebody in to help us interpret the data from WASDA. That would probably be done distancewise with a Zoom. Okay. Okay. So, I'm excited about this. I think like it says there, effective school boards can make for effective schools. So, that's the big picture that I took away from that uh presentation. Any other comments or questions for us this evening? long board meeting tonight. Larry, they're not all like this. I I promise. I I saw that your your uh lovely wife was here earlier. Tell her we apologize for keeping you so late tonight. Uh oh, good, good. We're all we're all used to apologizing a little bit when we get home. So, uh, with that, if there's no other issues, um, uh, goodbye, buddy, and the meeting

207is adjourned.