001[Music] please stand for the flag to flag of the United States of America to the repu indivisible Tacoma Public Schools acknowledges that we are on the traditional ancestral and historic lands of the puup tribe of Indians we honor with gratitude the land itself and the puup tribe this acknowledgement serves as a first step in honoring our nearest tribal neighbors and partners who have inhabited this region since time immemorial and to whom we give thanks for allowing us passage to their lands we shall intentionally create inclusive and respectful part parnerships that honor indigenous cultures histories identities and sociopolitical realities General Council benro will you please call the role certainly president keing here vice president stroer here director Leon here director bomb here director MCC here we have a quorum and uh before we adopt the agenda
002I welcome so many uh people happy to see everybody I know I've spoken with some folk individually I just feel I want to reiterate that uh hoping that we'll be able to proceed through the board meeting without interruption allow the agenda items that we've come to discuss to proceed um we wouldn't want to have to recess or ask folk to leave hoping you all can be in this space with us with this board Mee all right I appreciate yall bye adoption the agenda I move adoption of the agenda second it's been moved in seconded are there any questions or comments seeing none all those in favor say I I I opposed passes item number six notice of public hearings item 6.1 public hearing for impending sale of Madison Early Learning Center 3101 South 43rd Street
003to Lewis Rudolph Holmes the district has determined that the property formerly known as Madison early learning complex 3101 South 43rd Street is not needed for district purposes in the foreseeable future and will not be required for the district's long range planning of capital facilities the district is proposing to execute a purchase and sale agreement uh to Lewis Randolph homes for the sale of the property at 3101 South 43rd Street at this time the district will hear public testimony related to the execution of a purchase and sale agreement with Lewis Randol hommes for the sale of Madison Early Learning Center uh we have two uh speakers who have asked to speak on the Madison sale for the uh public sale hearing and we have one um written comment that's been uploaded to the agenda uh so
004speakers will have up to two minutes uh to speak on the issue of the Madison sale um and if folk are already our first Speaker uh for the public hearing of the sale will be Mr kit Burns very good good evening my name is kit Burns I'm an architect I've designed schools for 40 years so I have a little bit of experience I've lived in Tacoma for 30 years and my advice to and recommendation of the board is to withhold this sale not move forward and to keep it within the school district's um perview their ownership year after year I've seen where school school districts across the country have sold property particularly in a city and then they have to buy it back because the demographics change Madison is very unique uh in a number
005of ways one in 2020 we passed a bond issue of $35 million and part of that was to improve that school the roof and the buildings additionally Tacoma support schools we just passed a $650 million bond issue I'm so proud as somebody who always watched Bond issues as an architect and so this is a commitment of the community additionally keep in mind that could be used as a park for the Madison area now I don't know if the board has had taken the time to walk down there I just happen to do that Rec recently in the last month and a half they have no place to play when I heard that this property was being sold I thought of the cat St song from 1970 where do the children play it's a good song
006It's a good listen to that but I think I'd like to ask the board to withhold passing this or moving forward on it and consider some of those things the investment uh previously I don't know what the amount is I put a public document request in to find out um how much was allotted in the $535 million bond issue but I think it's important when you walk through that area there and you realize they have no place to play except the streets and School District after school district has gone back and had to buy property because the demographics changed and they expect Tacoma to have more than 50,000 new inhabitants by 2050 so I think there's time to um consider that and ask that you do that I do you kid thank you I'll leave
007uh two bits of reading material for you you can with General coun VRA thank you kid thank you all right our next uh verbal speaker for the Madison sale is Kathy Irwin hi my name is Kathy Irwin and I'm a South Tacoma resident uh work former Al in healthcare for many years before I retired um I live close to this whole area of the Tacoma Mall um growth area growth Center and it has had a significant increase in apartments that have been built in this area apartment units many of them with no parking on site and that's been the trend now so people are having to park on streets if there are any plans of developing this um School site in the way of housing that is a very concerning because of the size of
008the property and the fact that the school children all the children will lose access to a park area that has been formally designated as a Park area for that area of town with any planning um that has been done by the city so this is very significant not to do any kind of to hold off on any kind of development of that area that could um Trend towards Housing Development because honestly if you add very many buildings on that lot where will people park because a lot of this people don't have any place to park in that area it's already overcrowded and to consider also the fact that this whole um property area is only one mile from the bridge industrial Warehouse site that will also be a high polluting area as well because of
009the vehicle um traffic that will be generated so this is another area we don't want to be adding in too many more families or congesting the area because of the potential plutons coming down the the down down the road literally um for this area so this is not a place to add more family um type housing in right now so I ask that you consider at the very least to maybe even see if this can be separated out into Parcels to be sold and not the whole thing but leave some part as a Park area thank you thank you thank you all right so that was the last verbal uh comment we had uh designated on the cards for the um uh sale of the Madison property um so with that that closes the opportunity
010for public hearing uh for the sale of the Madison Early Learning Center and agenda item 6.1 thank you Malik yes item number seven recognition of staff students and Community 6 oh sorry 6.2 written public um 6.2a written public comment yeah agenda item 6.2 is the public hearing for the 2425 budg it I've got it yeah I'm I I'm not brand new but close um sorry thank you Malik um item 6.2 public hearing for the 2024 2025 proposed budget uh so the board of directors of the Tacoma school district will hold a public hearing regarding the 2425 budget anyone may appear and be heard for against uh the the proposed 2425 budget approval of the resolution to adopt the 2425 budget is scheduled at the next regular board meeting which should be on June 20th uh
011and before the opportunity for public uh to be heard on this one we've got a short budget presentation very good good evening thank you for the opportunity to present to you this evening it is my um honor to be able to present you with the 17th budget that I have prepared for the school district this year um so the first I don't have the clicker I'm sorry it one I think so click it for here I'll grab it we'll get this we'll get through this together we are not we are not uh we are not stopped by challenges here okay so the uh intention for this evening is both to inform the board and the public of the use of public resources and to give you a short overview of some of the interactive pieces
012that we have had and the alignment of the budget to the Strategic Plan before we get into some of the details and the meat of our presentation which is like the numbers piece which most people kind of gloss over on uh and then talk to you a little bit about some of the timing aspects of what comes next so uh in about 2012 we changed our budgeting process to a budgeting by priorities process uh prior to that process we were doing just a rollover budget where we would take what we had in the prior year and we would roll it over and make some modifications to it we recognized that that wasn't necessarily a way to align the resources that we had into what our strategic initiatives are and it wasn't really meeting what the
013expectations of the board were at the time and so we worked with the board to develop a budgeting by priorities process that outlined a 2-year budgeting cycle where we would align ourselves to the state legislature uh with the idea being that in the beginning of the cycle lots of changes happen at the legislative level they're making more modifications and so we would try to align ourselves with that by asking for Budget submissions through a proposal process we would ask departments in year one of the the cycle to submit proposals to us asking uh excuse me telling us what they were going to do with their resources how they plan to spend them how they align to the Strategic plan what uh strategic initiatives they were working to support and then we would use those to
014develop U not just the first Year's budget but the second Year's budget and so we have maintained that process now all the way through 2 since 2012 and so we're in year two of our current budget cycle um as part of that cycle we also ask for inter interactive um Community feedback uh there's a time for us to provide that uh in year one through a budget advisory committee as well as uh budget hearings any kind of public comment uh that can happen at any board meeting where we do a budget presentation uh emails have always worked as well and our budget calculator which is listed out on our budget website which I believe we've done for four or five years now um in February of 2023 we actually developed an budget advisory committee and
015we had a number of community members and I members and uh PTA members staff members that participated in that budget advisory cycle we get a a learning sessions with them uh five learning sessions to be exact where we shared with them how budgets work how we've developed our budget in Tacoma uh what the legislative fundings mechanisms look like to give them an understanding of what those pieces mean and then had them meet with program managers in detail where they could ask any question they wanted about the types of things that we were building our budget around uh those individuals were then asked to prepare considerations and recommendations to the board of directors which we presented to you in May of last year um it's a robust and lengthy cycle uh and it's perfect to align
016that to our year one because we are making so many modifications and changes in the way that we operate when proposals are submitted and then it helps the cabinet members make a determination around which proposals we need to select in order to move forward with our fun funding so as I said the 2-year cycle uh in the 23 24 budget we did a full cycle 2425 will be a review year in a review Year we're just taking what we had already had in proposals and making modifications to meet the funding expectations that we have uh however in this year we have been in a 23 24 year we've had funding challenges we made some midyear reductions throughout the year and we've brought forward to you uh through since January some Communications around our current financial
017situation excuse me our current financial situation uh so those implications in the current year have rolled into the development of the 2425 budget so we've been doing a little more right sizing than we would probably do in a typical year 2 cycle um but at the same time we're not making broad sweeping changes to the types of programs that we're offering uh we're just making modifications to individualized uh aspects within those program that are already largely developed uh and I just add a point to that that we have done that within the guidance that you have provided in these guiding principles and the criteria that you have adopted for us this was adopted also as part of the year one budget cycle and we utilized it through last year as well as all of this
018year and these principles are really just a set of guidelines for the superintendent and his cabinet to identify what things are more or less uh likely or or sorry uh I know it's boring he's so cute I know sorry uh The Guiding principles are intended to guide us with expectations of what we should or should not make adjustments to our district is made up of several different types of funds these are checkbooks uh that the district is allowed to utilize resources out of uh we have very strict accounting guidelines for how dollars can be spent uh there's thousands and thousands of compliance aspect uh complient expectations upon the district uh the general fund is our operating budget that's where we would do most of our day-to-day operations anything that we're doing with u student centered
019activities and field trips and Athletics uh any kind of classroom teachers any kind of Staff that's used to support anyone in the district all happens through our general fund our debt service fund is intended for principal and interest payments on our bonds that's the only thing that's allowed to be utilized through that resource Associated student body fund is actually a fund that's set up for students they raise resources they make the determination about how to spend those so those really aren't District funds but we have to account for them and report them off to the board our transportation vehicle fund is uh used to buy yellow buses or make major repairs to Yellow buses and that's the only thing allowed to use those resources for trust funds are exactly what they sound like they are
020held in trust they are not District funds to be spent on anything other than what the district the excuse me the trust fund is set up for uh an example that might be a scholarship program at a high school those funds come to The District in a trust and with expectations associated with them we can only spend them on those uh activities and then capital and Technology Levy um funds those are funded out of our most recent Capital Levy that was approved in 2022 and our 2020 um bond that the gentleman spoke of so we use those to buy build uh to build buildings to make major repairs to buildings uh and to buy computer and technology equipment within the expectations of that um whatever was authorized when we when we voted on it so
021the preliminary budget that we'll be presenting to you uh it may still change slightly uh we have to submit it off to Opi are the state superintendent of Public Instruction and they provide feedback and you know represent any errors that come through the the report and so that's why we call it preliminary uh we're presenting to you today what we intend to support that budget uh moving forward and so with the financing um other financing sources and revenues it's 577 888,246 uh and expenditures are calculated at 572,000 ,000 and did I say th000 twice m4802 um and then the recovery of fund balance so there's a difference between our revenues and our expenditures I've told you before that we need to submit a balanced budget to you and that is accurate but in order to
022increase our budget excuse me in order to increase our fund balance which is below the 5% Reserve requirement that you have set for us we have to have our revenues and our expenditures be off the difference between those two will go to Target our increase in fund balance uh that increase is not guaranteed uh it's a it's a plan at this point but realistically if I look at what the expectations are for a 5% Reserve um we don't have the resources to be able to get us all the way to a 5% Reserve we don't have the resources to continue on expending the way that we have been expending um I'll go know a little bit of depth on some of the revenues and expenditures as I go through a couple more slides but essentially
023this plan rebuild our fund fund balance from a 3 and 12% reserve requirement to the 4% uh we will not make it to a 5% in this coming year carryover and um program implications sometimes play into our fund balance uh fund balance for the public here is our savings account those are resources that we keep for emergencies for specific items that were required to have on hand um extraordinary events and also to help if there's a a cash flow issu so that we're not having to borrow money in order to pay off any kind of um you know payrolls or salary items so as far as our revenues are concerned for the preliminary budget 72% will be in state funding that's a little higher than what we've had in past years but that's partially because
024we've expanded our elementary or excuse me our Early Learning Program with a transitional kindergarten program uh we will be increasing the number of uh preschool slots that we have that is a basic education type funded activity and so it comes through State resources it's fully funded it lives within the means that of the resources that we'll be having coming in so all the expenditures associated with it will be covered uh it's a win-win in our in our book and it aligns to our strategic initiatives around Early Learning but it does increase the number of State dollars that we'll be receiving our will represent around 13 A5 million or excuse me around 13.5% of our resources moving forward uh that's just voter approved Levy that has been allocated um our federal dollars will be 8.5% of
025our total budget and then the remainder will be other revenues in local non- tax you know typically uh if we charge any kind of fees if there are any donations uh things that we might receive from other school districts for educating some of their students those are the types of things that fit into that bucket interest income would be a fit of that bucket our revenues grew by about 45% from last year expenditures on the other hand at $ 5725 million roughly uh will represent our classified salaries at 17.2% so that's 98 million uh 49% of our budget will be in certificated salaries and benefits are about 20% of our salaries so that's 86% of our budget that goes into salaries and benefits a typical budget would be 85% 86 starts putting us into the
026realm of are we able to cover all of the expenses that come along with managing a school district uh you know we have lots of curriculum needs you got to buy toilet paper you got to buy food you've got to buy uh insurance you have to buy utilities and so uh the more we spend on salaries and benefits the less we're able to buy some of those other uh accoutrements that come along with the expectations of running a school district Revenue excuse me expenditures grew by 3% uh and that was a forced growth we actually in if we look at just our salaries our salaries and benefits grew by 6% uh that's with the reductions that we already made so our revenues only grew by 4 and a half% but the salaries that we covered
027in this budget grew by 6% uh which means then we had to make reductions in other areas in order just to keep the staff that we had planned on the books as we move forward uh as we continue to progress through budgeting over the next several years this will continue to be a problem uh it's it's largely driven by market-based salary requirements and also by legislative action uh as uh the implicit price deflator or the cost of living adjustment that the legislature defines increases then we will have to continue to make room for those expenses either through uh reductions in salaries and benefits or reductions in other areas but we're running out of room in order to be able to do the ladder this is a slide that we're required to present this year uh
028just Material supplies and operating costs I need to let you know that we are within the compliance expectations and that is that based on the number of students that we have the legislature gives us a specific allocation roughly around $39 million to cover the Material supplies and operating costs of the district we're actually spending or targeting to spend 46.2 $42.6 million and so we are compliance by $3.7 million in those areas and I'm required to tell you that just going back to our strategic alignment of the budget uh as we've defined this over the last several years I think what's most notable as I mentioned in the early learning aspect you have uh for a little bit of growth here in early learning that's related to the ter transitional kindergarten program and you'll see that
029operations has reduced uh as I had indicated to you in the other funds we'll be presenting to you The Debt Service fund is around $745 million ASB is around 5.2 million Transportation vehicle fund at 1.9 million capital projects fund around 167.5 million we're also required to present a four-year budget uh we are mystified by some of the expectations from our legislature and this is one of them because we don't know what the funding is going to do other than whatever the legislature decides to do that's the primary driver of our resources and so uh what we do is we use the um Office of Public instructions multi-year calculator tool and identify what our revenues are likely to be based on what they have indicated us and then we force balance the expenditures because our expectation
030is that we're going to live within whatever the means are of the revenues we don't have an ability to go out and generate revenues uh at least not in a meaningful Way Beyond grants uh that usually come with their own expenditure expectations or match requirements and so we will just present this to you as here's an example of what a four-year budget will look like uh we're required to present this can I ask a question about that um in reference to the legislature so I know that for several years there's been conversations about the stars um the transportation funding model so as we present a four-year budget and if the legislature does do what they have indicated they are going to do in terms of fixing that um uh acknowledged broken funding formula um how
031will that um how I just for the public yeah I I would say that the really the only meaningful data here is going to be the first year the first year gives us a an expectation of what we're putting in our current year budget uh beyond that it's it's a guess it's a wag a wild guess um and so the reality is that as the legislature makes changes we will modify whatever budget year that occurs in what those changes are and we will adhere to whatever the expectations and needs are of those individual years of legislative action um and so this is a starting point in a Target uh it's more to make sure that people are aware that we do have to think forward uh as far as budgeting goes and um it doesn't
032have any relevance we're not required to meet or even report back on what we've reported here so for clarity we don't know what 25 26 is going to be and that's the importance of aligning it to a two-year budget and so um we will be in a place where we have to wait till the legislators make decisions next year in order to determine what resources we have and we've presented to you in the past the gap between what is provided and what our expenditures are um Even in our our TK program when we say it's it's funded there's still a gap in how many employees we have what the state provides for those employees and the salaries for our employees and that's the reality of it so when we present this to you it's very
033important for for us all to remember is this is based off of what we know today um reductions enhancements there is no way to tell what that looks like in 25 26 let alone 28 so some important dates to keep in mind uh June 7th through 19th we still have in uh time for people to participate in our budgeting process our budget calculator is listed online I'll go to a slide here in a second that gives people access to that um but the drafts will be available for comment feedback uh and then our formal adoption will occur on June 20th uh that's our anticipated date and uh today is of course the formal public hearing once I conclude my presentation yes um will by June 20th will OPI have had an opportunity to yes we
034will have a an f195 that you will be so when we do prepare um the June 20th that's probably the big difference yeah we'll have an f195 which is our formal budget document that's available uh and has been through the full review process and anyone can see our previous F1 195s uh online you can click into this scan do the access uh you can read all 290 plus pages of what that looks like in there so we want folks to see that and you can see where we've spent in the past in previous years and that opportunity as well give specific codes yeah there's there's also uh some annotated versions for the current year so that you don't have to dig into those deeper um more horrible presentations of what's required to be presented for
035the state budget but um the budget calculator is available through that website that is a um online tool where the public can go in and get a little more de like get a little deeper into what our budget looks like make modifications they can actually submit it to us all the commentary comes back to us um we did have 1500 people viewing that budget calculator only five people actually submitted like modifications and changes in comments though so a lot of traffic going to it but not a lot of commentary and interaction from it uh would love to hear what people's feedback and thoughts are on on our budget so you know and I'll just also note the budget calculator that is out there currently is on our 2324 data but you could provide that feedback
036of anything that you want to make sure that we know and that concludes my presentation or there's I uh I just want to thank the team uh there's a small and mighty Finance team uh we took hits all the way through the district all the way throughout the year um Medina Kristen Bell jod I can go down the list there are not many and then team HR we have to balance uh our greatest asset is our resources our our staff all across the board and so we have to balance that and so team HR has to look at that in in accordance with the proper timelines that we've all agreed to and so I just want to give a special shout out this is not easy um last time I shared with you that we
037are not alone in this challenge uh there are are unfortunately all across the state we are facing this challenge so um big special thank you for all your efforts and uh we'll keep on adjusting and making um the best we can with what we've got right now coming ready go ahead want to go first well um thank you rosn for for well you know don't don't have to go away I'm I'm just saying thank you thought you're releasing me no thank you for for the presentation I I just want to U make some comments on some of the points that really struck struck me um both historically as well as current in the situation and how it's evolved over my time on the board which is you know I'm in my fifth year so lot's
038gone on of course got appointed and then two months later with Co so it's not been a normal uh cycle since I've been on but it has been um uniquely different each year so it's been challenging uh but I want to say a couple things one is things that you said that were I think important for the public to to recognize that we have a two-year budget cycle um and that's just the second year of that two-year budget cycle so the first year is the year the time last year was when we came up with new programs and looked at revising the existing programs and and what we were going to be focused on for the two years including this year as the second year and just like the legislature when they have the first
039year um it's just hectic it's a longer period of time and they do a lot more policy work and fiscal work and then the second year the short session is just tweaking and trying to keep within depending on where the economy's gone and all of that same for us right we're this year was not to be a year to do much corre and yet we had to do a lot because what happened was we were on a trajectory to not meet our budget and so we started early we looked at this I took the fiscal responsibility started early actually started last year actually to to sort of try and mitigate some of the costs we were in occurring with the end of the Esser money as well as a reduction continued reduction in in student
040enrollment which is where our money comes from or bulk of it um and so I think that's really important to recognize that this year has been really um we've had to do more than normally we would do but this is not a year for change usually so thank you and I would add to that um I have two things to add to that one you hit on both talking points that I forgot to include enrollment and Esser are two big changes um that we always have to be considerate of Esser was a federal stabilization dollars that are no longer available to the district they expire at the end of this year um and so we will no longer have access to those Federal resources um and then something else that I would think would probably
041be very helpful for the public is to understand that when your expenses exceed your revenues just like in your home budget you have to find the ability to buy things elsewhere so that would be like a credit card or a loan um in school districts that would be the fund balance and when the fund balance is depleted you go into what's called binding conditions which is essentially bankruptcy for school districts and when that does happen and that has happened to a number of school districts there will be five that I know of right now in this in this state that are on binding conditions for the coming year um you start to have the Office of Public Instruction come in and start to help you renegotiate contracts or um to evaluate your expenses and that
042just speaks to very difficult times for everyone involved so well thank you for that point because that was going to be my next my next piece because um for the first year you know when I was vice president and then two years as president you know I was really part of a lot of these the conversations and and I know that President keing and Vice President stroer are in deep into it now um and I I just want to say that there is a pattern of responsibility and I think taking taking um looking ahead and trying to be planful so that we don't that our staff knows if and when they you know if their jobs are are solid and all those things that we really tried to make sure that it's as least disruptive
043as possible and keep as much um funding go flowing into the classroom as which was also if you looked at the guiding principles those were it was really important to this board that that we really focus on the kids and the learning environments and that and we've tried to honor that with this budget um I also think the the bit about the you know the right ex sizing right now is difficult it's challenging uh after Co we you know the the we lost a lot of students and therefore a lot of money and so I think it's it's difficult and it's a it's but it's our responsibility to right size so thank you for the hard work to do that but back to the fund balance now I noticed I know that you said that
044we'll get to 4% this year which is better than 3.5 but not where we need to be which is 5% but I also support that this is a transitional year and next year will be the first of a two-year budget cycle and we'll have more opportunity to think more about how we can do that and I just I want to recognize that the fund balance is extremely important um just like any business or any any your personal Family Savings Account that you want to make sure because what happens with that fund balance if something happened to the district we want to make sure we can pay our staff out for for se you know couple of months or whatever the the 5% would cover to make sure that that everybody gets what they need and
045you know so we and it also affects our bond rating and other things so um just really want to make sure folks know that um as a board you know by supporting this we're really recognizing that we're not at the 5% we need to be but that we're moving in that direction and we don't we want to keep the money in the schools with the kids so and we're supporting the kids now instead of saving it for kids in the future so that's I think it's a responsible thing to do um the other the other piece about your presentation that that I thought was so telling is that 86% 86% of our budget pays salaries and benefits we are investing in the people that that that were that are working with our kids and so
046I just really want to make sure folks are aware of that and um we're also trying to be creative we applying for Grants we're trying to to get other ways that we can invest in some of the special programs and we're working with partner organizations that provide some of the services that we you know can't afford so I just want to say these recognizing it's challenging difficult Financial Times and um that as you said um superintendent many other District most all the other districts are suffering as well and some are in in bankruptcy uh as you would say and um I just want to say that I I'm actually pretty proud that Tacoma is not closing schools we're not firing staff you know we're not it is it is an opportunity to to focus on
047what we are trying to save because we've got really creative and Innovative programs that we should be proud of so want to say that I really enjoyed your presentation I thought it was um and uh I just want to point out those things that came to mind thank you direct hi Miss Medina question so I did hear your plea to have more people um utilize the budget calculator I know last year I did a lot of promoting of it but this year I um How would one find it and then also how will your team utilize the data from what people the constituency students are putting into that thank you um this there's a bit there's a a tiny URL there that's listed so people can access it through that or if you have a
048phone or if you have access to this presentation online um it's available to you you can also just go to our website uh on the district's website under the business and finance area under budget you'll find all of these resources and many many more and you can provise for hours we've got thousands of documents out there it feels like um and so we we do welcome that uh information to come back to us um without the submissions coming to us we don't really have any understanding of what people's thoughts are as they're reviewing the budget calculator but for those submissions we can put together a a a synopsis so um we'll be happy to do that and put it into a Friday report for the board we review them and look at them and if
049there's anything of you know significance in the I mean sometimes people just say cool or thanks um so we can we can be sure to share those and then of course we we review them and communicate with the cabinet if there's any relevant information that's awesome I just feel like you know people are getting involved which I'm excited about that's how I got into the school board I wanted to know what was going on didn't understand what was going on specifically with the budget and it was taking me off and so I didn't know that there was a way for me to utilize my voice in other ways because there's a lot of people who watch our meetings online who aren't able to come in because of the time right I want to make sure
050that they're understanding that there's a place for them to have input on the budget if they couldn't make it to the budget hearing so that's why I'm like I where to find it coms not bothering you but put it on our website put it on Facebook so that people can really like access that before the time is up thank you thank you DR or vice president ster um thank you I just want to Echo in terms of um I know that we've had some extraordinary difficult conversations um for months um and none of these decisions are easy because we know they impact people and um I regardless of the perception the priority has been to protect people and our staff and keep them employed um because the impacts of having to riff um are far
051greater and so um knowing like so many of our colleagues in other districts and in in Pierce County and across the state who are having to um lay off staff um I feel um a sense of relief that that isn't an impact that we are having to put on our staff that do extremely meaningful work and impact the lives of our students and our community um and I just want to also add that these I can't I have lost count of the hours of conversations and analyzing and reanalyzing and questioning and assuring like it is this the way are there other ways what can we do um and I realize that that also is not something that the public gets to see um there we have many of those conversations here that you know in
052board business meeting in study sessions I mean I feel like we have talked about our budget at almost every single meeting um this entire school year um and we have tried to do our very best to inform the public of what was what we were facing what was coming and some and the and the strategies that were being implemented along the way um and I also to director melroy's point there are a lot of people that don't have the capacity time or ability to watch our meetings and so it's very difficult to get information and also feel like there was a way to contribute to the decisions that were being made so I just want to Echo the things that have already been shared um and thank you again for your presentation Madam president I
053there's a technicality of that I just want to put a pin in and this is um most of the time when we hear about layoffs across the board and in the field of public education we talk and and many of the headlines it's around are certificated employees and I want for full transparency we have laid off people this year we've laid off administrators we've laid off support staff um and so um and you'll remember we did that as early as we could because we had to mitigate as well as to give people as much time as possible as much time as possible to find new jobs new supports and we have given you updates of sometimes we've been able to bring them back into new roles and so um in the context of where we
054are around deadlines and riffs I would not want anyone to imply that we haven't been there as well and there so I I I just needed to say that and so that if this is the first time you're hearing this conversation um and we've been down that road throughout the whole year thank you think superintendent is your point is that you know we have been if the people we we focused on the administrators versus the classroom teachers was what in in in a part you know at first I uh I don't want to allude that I had a point I just didn't meaning that anything other than a recognition uh as president keing mentioned that we're not doing layoffs right now we are not doing those in regards to our certificated staff and and so
055as we're all learning together I wanted to make sure that that was not lost lost and so I didn't have a point other than just to recognize and I didn't want anyone to say well president keing that's not true um I understood your intent and it was just a Moment of clarity oh I appreciate that correction thank you very much thank you right thank you so much Rob now moving on to item six just wrap up the hearing real quick right 6.2 point a yeah so we have received no written public comment for the public hearing section of the proposed budget uh though we have one verbal comment that was submitted uh in the subject line the requested to be heard uh related to the budget and that comment is from Jason struna I should
056say we may have other remarks like budget like remarks that'll come in the general public comment section so they'll still have a chance if that's thank you what they want thank you um I'm Jason stro do we have a time for we just want to make I'll beef oh no but um if you just give Tracy just a moment to make sure that you have thank you so much for waiting I'm here to urge the board to reject the superintendent's budget and direct the superintendent's office to restore resources to student facing Services you have a fiduciary duty to protect this district and represent the community demonstrate your commitment to the community by protecting our interests against the current Staffing choices being made by by the superintendent's office you are our elected representatives not the superintendents
057as the budget stands it's difficult to see how it reflects the Strategic goals guiding principle and guiding principles regarding academic excellence and health and safety you can do better revise your models divert some of the 59 million for administration which is roughly 15% of the the academic budget to behavioral support and guidance counseling thank [Applause] [Music] you all right so that concludes the uh comment period for the public hearing for the 2425 budget thank you Malik um all right item number seven recognition of staff students and Community 7.1 state holidays and Civic observances yes we have one Civic observance in the month of June and one state holiday uh the Washington State Legislature declared that the month of June of each year shall be known as pride month and it's designated as a time for
058washingtonians to celebrate the contributions to our state by lgbtq plus people in the Arts Sciences Commerce and education uh during pride month the state encourages public entities and private entities including educational institutions to designate time for appropriate activities in commemoration of the lives history achievements and contributions of lgbtq plus people uh we also have like I said one state holiday in the month of June and that is juneth juneth is a holiday that celebrates the emancipation of those who have been enslaved in the in the United States it's a time to celebrate the harms of slavery uh to recognize the harms of slavery and to celebrate its official end on June 19th 1865 uh so because June 19th uh because juneth is a state holiday um that Wednesday June 19th there will be no school
059for TPS students and school buildings and district offices will be closed to the public uh those are the two that we have from for June thank you yeah I'll make a quick comment about uh June and talk about why it's important to me but uh it's my hope that I'm not educating anybody in this room about what juneth is cuz that's not my job but I would encourage you to do is if you don't know but juneth is go ahead and hit the internet hit your local library and try to figure out what exactly it is we're celebrating it's not just another day off it it carries some importance so uh juneth is is a celebration of Freedom resilience and an enduring Spirit of black folks serves as a a reminder of the struggles faced
060as well as the progress made uh inspiring us uh to continue to fight what fight is that it's the fight that's going to lead us towards building a more inclusive Society for for those to come because there are going to be babies to come so we need to make sure this place is set up and rocking for those who look like me so some of y'all who don't know like the Emancipation Proclamation came out yay you know what I'm saying slavery is over for some it wasn't about 2 years till the last folks who were enslaved heard about this so think about that and also in relation to how black folks are treated today I'm just going to put that out on the pedestal and leave it there for you to take it however you'd
061like it but juneth June 19th there are tons of events uh across the city that are happening I don't know if director director Miguel Ray has that in her board report but uh it's it's posted so participate learn a little bit and enjoy it thank you thank you vice president it's in my board report he knows all yeah I don't know but did you have anything else you wanted to add about not board report okay ma'am all right um I wanted to add on um uh given that it is part of my responsibility to help educate myself and others about juneth particularly um on um as I was reflecting on it um earlier today um the American history um Museum in DC um has incredible resources and information and I think the things that um
062is extremely important to me to rectify with and understand is that there were um 250,000 enslaved people in the state of Texas who the state of Texas refused to tell them that the Emancipation Proclamation had passed intentionally um and it wasn't until the federal government came in to say to um uh free them um I think that um the other way that I know that I've learned about juneth is that it is it marks our country's second Independence Day um and I think that it you know for um white folks like myself um it is not something that I grew up knowing about it's not something I learned about until I was an adult um it wasn't taught um when I was growing up and in school um and I find it to be extremely
063important that we educate ourselves to help um young people and others um to know what the actual true history is of this country um to be able to rectify it and move forward um and then the other thing I wanted to talk about um I wanted to just acknowledge um pride month um and I've found myself um as someone who is a part of the lgbtq Community um feeling less celebratory this Pride than I have in many Prides in the past um Pride started as a riot Stonewall was a riot against police brutality um specifically to trans and non-binary black and brown people in New York City um and the Southern Poverty Law Center um if those are so inclined has some remarkable history about um just the history of Pride itself um and I
064think that there are a lot of reflections of of surges of um anti-lgbtq rhetoric and violence and attempts to um erase eradicate and erase the existence of lgbtq people um in history in classrooms in books in libraries um in uh anti-discrimination protections we have a um we have that here in our own State we have that happening on school boards in our own County our neighbors um and I think that it's really important to the point that vice president stroer made about there are more people coming and we have to continue to fight not just for ourselves but those that are coming after us um and um Pride just feels a little more somber to me and I don't think I'm alone in that sense the the violent rhetoric has increased it is here in
065our community it happens between our students it happens in our Parks um it doesn't matter who a person is you it's the rhetoric is here and we have to work to address it disrupt it and eradicate it um as best we can president K I was going to let y'all sit with that I just feel that I want to say thank you to both you and vice president stroer for speaking your truth about communities that you are a part of and also communities that you represent I think that by saying what you both have said tonight A lot of people are unaware of the amount of hate mail that we get um and every time we defend our students or we defend our own identities the hate grows um I think that it takes a
066lot of courage to speak out about issues that matter to you personally but also issues that matter to our students our faculty and their families and I think that Tacoma is a very brave Place have leadership like the both of you I just want to acknowledge that today thank you uh any other comments um all right moving on to item eight superintendent report 8.1 2024 graduation updates Mark can you help me right there thank you so much uh our Communications team uh starting off with tomorrow with our community based transition program we start uh and I guess I would extend uh maybe uh we started off a little bit a couple weeks ago with our Native American uh celebration and this is the time of celebrations right there are a number of folks celebrating we
067have thousands of young youth uh with their families and friends across uh the district that will be enjoying graduation ceremonies next week and starting tomorrow with our CBT which is our communitybased transition program uh our Communications team interviewed 12 graduates from across the district and what you see here is a a sampling oh there you go sorry uh and it's on the front page of the website of 12 different graduates and it tells their stories and and it's a small sampling of many of our districts uh each student interview was asked to reflect on their High School experience and talk about their next steps after graduation and you see 12 very different stories well very different stories in this small group alone uh there are aspiring teachers chefs nurses performing artists welders and so much
068more the students stories are a great representation of the diverse Pathways and opport available for TPS students I encourage you to check out the student interviewing by scanning the QR code or going to our website I want to thank all of our TPS staff and you'll see that in their stories and that who led them to the pathways some students describe them at a very young age what that pathway was and how they connected all the information about our graduations is online uh if you're interested in learning more they're all live streamed and then a special uh request for our students uh this is a time of Celebration and I really hope and I think I've got some of them here that they're safe um each year tragedy happens this time of the year I'm
069asking I'm begging uh I've had too many experiences where we lose someone unfortunately that we don't need to lose so uh for all of our students celebrate safely team up Stay Together have fun you've earned it and please make sure that you uh keep on coming back so that's my report tonight thank you comment comment item 8.2 Human Resources update so tonight we have director Steven Dietrich here to speak with you uh you got a little taste of Steven last meeting he was in the back of the room uh in there and we're trying to give you an update of where we are during this difficult time and how we're trying to support each other as we move forward uh you've requested that in one of our early pieces this is try to make sure
070that we're able to take care of as many people as possible and so Stephen's here to give you a kind of an update of where we are today thank you uh Dr Garcia greetings members of the board uh I'm Steven Dietrich director of HR operations and as part of my role uh I partner with our director of budget our four School directors our building administrators and the tea leadership as well uh to carry forward the Staffing process each fall and spring season uh tonight I'll be providing you an update specific to uh spring Staffing but specific to the certificated staff and how they're impacted I'll start and I'll end on this slide uh the following is an overview of key dates uh this spring related to certificated Staffing process um as to continue the uh
071Staffing process I want to bring your attention to two key dates on the slide first is June 7th which is the date that our displaced certificated staff members have to consider whether or not they want to continue forward with TPS or not after receiving their placement for uh Slash their assignment for the 2425 school year so if they choose to continue on no action required out of our displaced staff members however if they decide that it's not for them and we can't partner in a way to change their minds along the way to see if we could consider a new assignment if needed um or if possible then we will uh work with them to release them them from their 24 25 school year contract uh the second date is June 30th which uh is
072driven by the CBA for tea which is the district's last opportunity to identify any additional displacements if we do identify any additional displacements uh per the CBA will notify both verbally but we're also required to notify in writing prior to end to Day on June 30th I'd also like to take this opportunity to revisit uh these key points on the slide uh that were shared at the uh previous school board meeting by assistant superintendent of HR Renee Trueblood um and it speaks to what does it mean to be displaced and they're key points that I'd like to stress today uh first first the displacement uh uh is the transfer of a staff to another staff member to another position and or School due to a change in the number of required staff needed for a
073specific building or program uh displacements are normal and take place each school year you'll later see a slide again that represents the numbers of displac Staff each year for the past five years uh in the spring as a result of student enrollment changes requirements of the collective bargaining agreement and or student or program needs um that fluctuate each year staff that have been displaced retain a position include pay and benefits uh with Tacoma um but just not in their current position that they occupy in the current school year we follow section 87 of the tea Collective Bary agreement closely we do not deviate from it um details require it details the requirements of how we identify and support displaced staff along the way and then lastly I just want to stress that displacement um is
074not the same as a as a reduction in force uh our staff that are displaced continue with their employment with TPS I spoke of this slide uh just a minute ago uh as all of this uh you'll notice uh the five years covered the blue represents District driven uh displaced staff notifications where the orange represents staff that have volunteered to self- displaced for one reason or or another um basically to find and get a new assignment separate from the building or program they currently are part of um of the 65 certificated displacements three of the staff members were undisplaced due to resignations or retirements and were returned back to their previous building from the previous Staffing season uh as I noted earlier the remaining 62 certificated displacements have a new assignment determined and have been
075received their final placement notification from Human Resources please also note um again the the bar uh each bar for each year and the orange highlighted number for volunteer s self-d displacements I'd also like to provide you with some information on how we collect and consider the preferences or of displaced certificated staff members as we move through our spring Staffing process in support of the whole educator displaced staff members were afforded the opportunity to rank order their preferences on open positions for which they are qualified as a result those uh that were placed were not required to interview and were introduced to their new location administrators moving on I'd also like to provide you with some additional information regarding how these displaced staff members were placed into new assignments 18 of the certificated displacement displaced staff
076will be staying in their current building but will take be taking on a new role for example going from a lap specialist teacher to possibly a classroom teacher role 47 of the certificated display staff will be changing buildings however 17 of these 47 certificated display staff members uh will be changing buildings that will be changing buildings have volunteered to self- displace again all 65 uh certificated display staff members have now been placed in new assignments for the 2425 school year and what I would like to highlight on this slide is that 75% of the disate display staff members received either their first or second choice for a new assignment finally at this time ending on the slide that we began with I'd also like to invite you to take this opportunity to ask any questions
077you may have about this process or any specifics along the way thank you Stephen and then any I think you were quite thorough thank you did you yeah director Leon oh I as we've talked about a few times already today and and for for many months now this has been a difficult process you heard uh how the budget has um been analyzed and the least effect to the classroom um and that being staff has been made um it is something that's been um not just analyzed here but we've reviewed lots of documents uh the board has um and had lots of conversations with the cabinet and other folks and done visits uh to sites so um I reviewed a lot of information and so of my colleagues and um it is they're not easy decisions
078but we feel like these decisions that have been made are in the best interest of our students and our staff um and some of this um I make a few of these comments um in Spanish also so um um oh I just repeated what I said thank you okay no I just wanted to say uh thank you to director Leon for also Translating that m i just uh when we get into these spaces um sometimes we use the term furthest from the classroom and there and um and that's important U but I never want us to minimize the impact of all of the Educators play a life in our kids and their supports and uh it was shared with me in one of our conversations with one of the community members the term this this
079idea of force choice right we're in a force Choice when you only have so many resources and so if someone has uh been displaced or if someone has been uh laid off I don't want to miss this opportunity to say that they were important as well we're in a horrific time and as we go through this and I think you can see from Steven's uh presentation he spends stepen spends a lot of time uh a lot of time trying to make sure that it's the best situation under this Force Choice uh I'm down in Stephen's office he would say way too much uh in this space saying what about this opportunity what about this opportunity so uh forgive me in a little bit of a Grace but I just as we we go through this
080we recognize that people are being impacted on all different levels and uh we're going to keep on working we're going to keep on working with in this and so we have more days we have more time and we're going to keep on working and um those employees that have already been placed as stepen said they've all been some of them have already started those introductions some of them have rekindled old relationships and some folks are still feeling like that's not the best for me and I I get that and we'll keep on working we'll keep on working thank you thank you Stephen okay thank you thank you Stephen thank you all right moving on to uh item nine staff report to the board and there is none um that brings us to item 10 members
081of the public wishing to address the board public guidelines public comment guidelines school board members uh school board members encourage public participation your civil input is appreciated board member members will not respond to your comments during the meeting the superintendent or a designate will follow up with you after the meeting if action is needed instead of speaking at a meeting you may also send an email to the board at board tacoma. k12.wa.us please contact the board office in advance of the meeting for disability accommodations under board policy 1430 public comment the board president May terminate an individual's comment when the allotted time has passed and may interrupt a speaker to require the same standard of cability that the board imposes on itself examples of uncivil comments include clude comments that are lious or slanderous under
082a legal standard are unwarranted are an unwarranted invasion of privacy are obscene or indecent pursuant to the Federal Communications act or any rule or regulation of the Federal Communications Commission violate School District policy or procedure related to harassment intimidation bullying or discrimination incite an unlawful act on school premises or violate a lawful School regulation or create a material and substantial disruption of the orderly operation of the board meeting the board as a whole has the final decision in determining the appropriateness of all such rulings and can maintain order by removing those who are disruptive however the board recognizes the distinction between unil discourse which it is not it will not tolerate and comments about the Board District Andor staff that are negative yet still civil in this in nature the board will exercise its authority
083to maintain order in a Content new neutral manner um uh General councel benro would you go over um both options please yes uh we have no written public comment for this evening that was uh submitted before the agenda was published uh and this evening we have 16 uh verbal comments uh that we have independent from the ones we did for the for the hearings uh so at your discretion we could uh do three minutes or we could do two minutes do two minutes please okay so our first first verbal uh public comment this evening is Paul CL followed by Emily Golan uh good evening thanks for the opportunity to address you I just wanted to actually say a positive comment about the interactions that I've had that I have on a regular basis with uh
084Forest GRE your liberal relations director and Steve Graves who's doing the work of two individuals now the someone else got laid off a supervisor got laid off um they treated our members fairly just concluded bargaining a contract in this tough economic environment and I really want to acknowledge those two individuals forest and and Steve and I appreciate their their integrity and their decency the way to treat our members thank you thank you would you please restate your name for the yes Paul CLA um I'm a representative the 90,000 member Western States Council our Council runs from Alaska all the way down to the uh Mexico where we had the 12 states on the west coast 990,000 of us thank you thank you very much our next speaker is Emily Golan uh followed by Alexis Green
085good evening my name is Emily Golan I am an orchestra teacher here in South Tacoma at Baker Middle School and mount TOA High School one of my fa parts of my job is that I get to see students starting in fifth grade when they don't know what Orchestra means and continuing all the way into high school when they graduate as fine musicians and fine young people and I love that I get to Foster relationships that whole time with them and be a constant in their lives during a time when there's a lot of things changing from fifth grade to 12th grade um I was under the impression that my position had been cut I was informed that I was displaced and I recently learned that my position has not at all been cut but the
086district has decided that they are unable to compensate me fairly for the work that I do at two different locations as an itinerant teacher and so they have displaced me to an elementary school where I will no longer be teaching Orchestra and they are planning to replace me at each building with a point4 and a 6 position and I would like the board to consider either looking at the time constraints and being creative with the minutes so that I can continue to do my job as I have been doing or to consider fairely compensating me for the time that I put in every day thank you thank [Music] [Applause] you our next speaker is Alexis scen followed by Jaden Sparks okay my name is Alexis Green I go to stadium and I'm a stadium senior
087I met my career counselor when I was a sophomore in high school I met Miss genderson in my junior year of high school they were an important piece of our lives and we need to keep them and maintain them if we don't have career counselors we can't thrive in this e economy Community or be our best selves some people not able to get the help they need because of their family Dynamics neglection pover poverty mental instability and more this ends up causing teens to feel like they will not be anything if they do not have these career counselors it is the most important thing that we must uh support our future these career these career counselors help us with it um to know that we can look forward to something positive with so much negativity
088in the world is the one thing we all grip on to with these bu budget cuts and cutting important positions will lead to a downfall in graduation rates success rates future lives and a quantity more of reasons these career counselors are the reason our generation of high school students are thriving and able to pay for college being able to get support high school students are thriving and being able to um become more stable some uh it's also somewhere to sit to feel safe this isn't just support for college it's support for families and more this isn't just um a career room this is a family and people need them if you take career counselors away not only are you stealing away from the next year seniors and everyone else but you're stealing away from our
089future you guys are making a decision that shouldn't be be a thought in anyone of you guys' heads parents will struggle kids will struggle TPS is being secretive about so much everyone has Let It Be and now this is taking away from who we all like everybody that needs it in high school this is wrong and everyone will fight fight against it the last few years of my high school experience I have gone through mental health issues School issues deciding what college I should go to I was supported the most in my my career counselor some people will have a chance at becoming something in their uh in their lifetime we need someone to someone and people who will help us become successful when I come back thank you [Applause] our next speaker is Jaden
090Sparks followed by Angel Roman hello hello my name is Jaden Sparks I'm a former Moma student and I'm here to talk about your decision to remove the career counselor position your decision to remove the position of CER counselors is simply put a mistake and makes already Pres hurdles students have to overcome all the more harder without the guidance given by career counselors career counselors show immense care and concern for our futures that no other staff member show to be a career counselor means to be incredibly selfless and understanding having access to a staff member like the career counselor can achieve can relieve a lot of the stress that comes with graduation I for one did not know a single thing about the college application process but miss Phillips was there for me every step of
091the way she worked hand inand with the college success Foundation I was active in to ensure I knew what I was doing and what my life after gr graduation was going to be like my career counselor provided me with insight and confidence to transition smoothly into life after graduation without career counselors how will we know what college should best fit us or if college is even right for us who will help with our high school and beyond graduation requirement I hope what I'm saying does not fall on deaf ears and that action is taken to revert this decision there's still time to fix this [Applause] [Music] our next speaker is Angel Roman followed by Reika mavan it's on Hell sorry it's on hell good afternoon board like my auntie said is I'm her ran I'm
092also a graduate from mounta and a current student at the University of pound I wanted to come today and give my personal story to highlight the importance of our career counselors in our schools as a first generation student coming from immigrant parents we knew little to none about the steps to pursue higher education not everyone has a mentor to guide them through opportunities outside of high school but my career counselor Miss Phillips is the reason I'm in a private university today she was there every step of the way for me helping with my college applications FASA scholarships and internships I've never had someone cares so much about My Success outside of school pushing me to apply with pushing me to apply to every scholarship that was eligible for and with her help I'm fortunate enough
093to not have paid nothing so far for college this would have never been the case if Miss Phillips was not there it's hard to imagine a school without her she was one of the hardest working people in mountaha and for her position to get eliminated deeply saddens me with that being said I really hope you guys reconsider I really hope you guys reconsider this action because this will strip away a lot of already limited opportunities for our students thank you thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I think here we have R modan and followed by Penny Kramer after you hi Rika modan teacher at F High School speaking um on behalf of me and another counselor at fos um at the beginning of last year Foss had 2.5 counselors and a05 career guidance specialist this year
094we only have two counselors um the ASA National model for School counseling recommends a student to counselor ratio student to school council ratio of 250 to1 and at F we about 300 to1 um and given our our school that's um particularly not great um due to the amount of work that is required for a senior counselor this year to focus on just the high school and Beyond plan she's being pulled from all these other essential things that school counselors do such as checking if students are passing classes helping them access vital resources providing short-term counseling to students who need it running small groups implementing a schoolwide SC uh School counseling program furthermore because we only have two counselors at Foss our sophomores end up getting the short end of the stick because the priority goes
095to seniors graduating and right now sophomores aren't getting anywhere near the amount of attention that they deserve um this is not only good for sophomores right now but this will inevitably mean that when their senior year comes around their senior year counselor will have to do even more work um School counselors are not trained to fill out the FAFSA or the waa uh career Specialists have a very specific set of skills that they've honed over the years and long-standing Partnerships with College admissions office apprenticeship programs and more that allow them to directly connect students to various career Pathways um having a full-time career counselor at Foss would enable our two counselors to give students the vital supports that they need to succeed uh Beyond high school thank you thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all
096right we've got Penny Kramer here followed by Claudia cruma good evening I'm Penny Kramer president of Tacoma Education Association and I would like to begin by extending my congratulations to our graduates excuse me um who are finishing their career with TPS and hopefully moving on to bigger and better things educators are always told to have datadriven instruction so I have some TPS has a 91.1% graduation rate and 99% vany which is verification of acceptance at next institution we are graduating Tacoma but are we educating Tacoma let's talk standards don't get me wrong Educators don't like standardized testing but it does give us trackable data in ela only 43 % of students meet standards that's fourth lowest in districts of comparable size math is 27% that's third lowest science is 34% that's second lowest post High
097School measures aren't great either one year postgraduation over 54% of our graduates are not enrolled in continuing education 8 years postgraduation 63% of students have no degree this is not due to a lack of educator expertise we're doing the best we can with limited resources overloaded classes and essential supports being removed from schools these statistics are a result of TPS leadership mismanagement yes there are legislative funding issues and there's also layers of Crisis so what do we need from the school board we have a budget issue but we also have a management issue and it's your job according to wasda standards to support a process for internal and external evaluation of District Operations and provide written performance expectations for the superintendent and communicate those to the community there's talk about rightsizing the budget how about
098right sizing the administration and the administrator salaries how about right sizing our workload thank [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you our next speaker is Claudia cruma followed by by Tina Taylor hello my name is Claudia kok thank you and as a former Tacoma Public Schools Community partner and current College access adviser at the Clover Park School District it's incredibly important for me to not only advocate for the rights and Welfare of my colleagues across districts and those whose work has touched and impact the lives of thousands of students for the last several years and some even decades but it's also important to always always put the needs of the students first and foremost the youth are future and we must continuously do everything we can to support them especially amidst the worsening economic crisis we as
099advocates must provide whatever critical tools possible to support students access to a quality and dignified life career guidance Specialists do exactly just that to dispel this role that has proven to drastically impact each individual students's career trajectories in significant ways is a disservice to our youth and Community especially our low-income and first generation youth of which I identify as and work closely with in my role as an educator public education is constantly underfunded and thus underst staffed just as we've seen just as we have seen in the budget presentation it's appalling to me that the US government approved a 90 billion budget billion dollar budget for the Department of Education this year yet over $884 billion in military defense spending we need to fight for the funding and prioritization of Education in our community's basic
100rights together I can't accept that this is just how it is because to accept that is to fail our students listen to the students in alumni hear their stories their testimonies and let that move you to continue fighting for our youth their Advocates and for the future of our society and let's please be creative more creative in our advocacy for this change as possible and we can do better thank [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you our next speaker is Tina Taylor followed by Jana white hi I'm Tina Taylor I am a teacher at Brant monu um my pronouns are she her and hers um I am here tonight to review some STS ards so the common core standards that we all work under there are 21 to 28 standards for each grade level k through
101eight for the Washington State School Board Directors Association you have five standards that you are supposed to be following today I'd like to talk about standard five and this is for our Schoolboard members but also for the community it is uh engage local community and represent their values and Expectations by holding the schools uh the expectations they hold for their schools by a collaborating with families community members responding to diverse uh interests and needs and mobilizing Community Resources so in the sections underneath this particularly is called out does the Schoolboard follow an established process for referring citizens with questions concerns comments or feedback to the appropriate personnel and following it up appropriately something to think about B ensuring school board and District transparency through a process that is is open and accountable uh listed among
102six points here is number two does the board make itself directly accessible to the public something to think about C ensuring student in ensuring District information and decisions are communicated CommunityWide and I really appreciate director Leon for adding in another language that's great but does this board ensure that proactive communication systems are in place to disseminate information and address issues in schools and Community that's two-way communication and D soliciting input from staff and a wide spectrum of the community so that a diverse range of interests and perspectives on issues is heard and in particular does the board seek meaningful input from staff on changes needed to strengthen instructional programs so give that some thought evaluate yourselves we're asked to do that all the time as educator thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] our next speaker is
103Gianna white followed by SIA Wells sorry Hi um first and foremost my name is jna white and I'm a current Junior at Lincoln High School I am also a City senate member and junior class president now although I have not completely had the same experience as my teammate I've experienced and witnessed the Imp Jam Jones has made on our current Juniors and seniors while it's important for us to take care of ourselves we have also been taught to look out for others and for others and today those students are at Lincoln nope um for other students at all Tacoma Comprehensive High Schools it saddens me that the idea of taking away a big support in our school has even been considered unlike my teammate I will not get to be able to experience the help
104like college apps and scholarships and I say this because when I do ask for help with scholarships that I can currently apply for the staff at my school send me to the one person that they know that will help me the most jila Jones so I ask you to think about all the kids within the next couple of years to keep Jones at Lincoln doing what he does best thank you thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] our next speaker is Siana Wells followed by Zev cook um good evening I thank you all for Gathering here today and allowing me to speak on the topic of removing career counselors from our schools my name is Siana Wells and I'm the senior class president at Lincoln High School as well as an all City senate member as a
105current senior I have directly experienced the positive impacts of career counselors in our high schools Jamila Jones has aided me in finding the right fit for my next steps in life and I now will be going to a 4-year college for free and continuing to play the sport that I love many students at Lincoln High School do not have the guidance at home that they need and Jamila Jones has been able to be a positive male figure in these kids' lives he has had such an impact that within an hourong assembly we obtained over 350 signatures from Lincoln students petitioning to keep him in his in his position next year without his position the rising seniors like my teammate that just spoke in the crowd and the many other across the district will not get
106to experience the same level of support that was offered to me this year I ask that you all reconsider your decision and bring back career counselors so that students can walk into their next phases of Life confidently and with a plan thank [Music] you our next speaker is Zev cook followed by Jasmine Walton hi I'm Zev I'm a grocery worker with uscw 367 on the south side and the co-chair of the Tacoma Democratic Socialist of America um yeah I'm here today to support my union siblings and tea and our students uh to be honest I don't really see um you know why this needs to be an issue in terms of school funding and why the community needs to be on opposite sides of the school board on this issue um we live in a
107state where there's tons of money and we have some of the you know largest corporations in the country here in or here in the you know seac area and across the state we're one of the richest States not just in the US but in the country and instead of funding our schools our state legislature is instead passing tax cuts to hand over money to companies like Boeing who are Prosecuting a genocide in Palestine um you I think that you know in terms of what I would like to see from our you know political Representatives on on the school board is you know and the consensus cult and the you know secretive decision making and join with our community we would love to um work with you on you know going out and and fighting for
108fair funding from the legislature and from our city council we have you know a city where our our city manager makes more money than the governor um the city spent hundreds of thousands of dollars uh paying out settlements to killer cops in our city um the school board can be a powerful voice on those issues if you come together with the community and that's what I would like to see moving [Applause] [Music] [Applause] forward all right we have Jasmine Walton here followed by Beverly Bowen Bennett my name is Jasmine Walton and I'm a school counselor there's a false narrative I've heard as a response to displacements and position eliminations I can speak to this firsthand from being in building that lost two full-time positions within the last 2 years and no significant decrease in enrollment
109the work of the employees that have been displaced and or eliminated does not disappear it's put on building employees that already have their own duties to fulfill I've heard there's a hope of partnering more with Community agencies and organizations for support Community Partnership and collaboration is great and welcomed but it isn't a replacement for a full-time position of an individual that has experience dedicated contractual time knowledge and expertise the response presented isn't equivalent or Equitable to what's being removed most people are familiar with the smart goal acronym it's a common practice that's used for goal setting for individuals and Leadership within organizations a goal should be S specific M measurable a achievable or attainable R relevant and realistic and T time bound the responses I've read and heard from decision ERS don't use the entire
110smart goal process the important information for the implementation of the proposed Solutions is missing we aren't being set up for success in a smart way and that's not hyperbole if there's no commitment to reconsidering the decisions that have been made for career counselors and support staff I request that the board and District leadership work with students Educators staff and stakeholders to create transparent communication s that explain to families what services and supports their students will no longer receive and ways their current their students current and postsecondary educational opportunities will be further limited we all hear and understand the message that the state's funding model is Antiquated and out of our current control what we also need to hear and read is what that means to our students education and the impact on all budget or
111no budget there's no consensus without community [Applause] [Music] our next speaker is Beverly Bowen Bennett followed by Jennifer blae I sure didn't know what I was getting into when I came to this meeting I've got to get on the side of all the people who have spoken about career counseling I I grew up in the 50s I'm 81 years old and we didn't have career counseling I'm a very intelligent woman I did not know it when I graduated from high school I had no encouragement to go on to any further education I ended up through many steps of first an LPN then an RN and then a BS in of being a very good nurse I would like to say that if I had been encouraged in high school I might have became a nurse
112in my 20s rather than in my 50s when I finally got my BFN well that's one thing another thing is the 19th we got a long way to go but boy have we come a long way since I was a kid at least we're talking on your issue also and I want to say thank you now for the reason I'm here I live in the Tacoma M neighborhood we redeemed high density just before I bought my little house 23 years ago my community is absorbing apartment complexes probably on a rate of two or three starts a month many of them not being built in a way that utilizes the uh footprint of the property in an appropriate way I understand that the Madison site is going to be sold and it's going to go to
113a developer whoops president keing may I request 30 more seconds for the speaker I don't know how this all works but she didn't she started what the mother said or can she come back and have 30 seconds later can she sign back up I'm going to leave that with general counsel then I know she can always come back she can always she can always come you come back there we go you can you I don't know what that means let's let's finish these and then I can other there are more other people and Beverly Beverly actually go ahead and you you can finish now where was I okay I know it's being sold and it's going to be sold to a developer unfortunately I went to their website and they build the kind of units
114that does not use up all the footprint of the property and I the reason that is so essential is that I cannot stand the fact that here we are deing to be high density and then not use all the land so I would like to be able to either have the school district write it into their sales agreement that they have to be prudent about how they use the property or they allow me to come and talk to them on a regular basis and and help them to make a design that would enhance my neighborhood we are losing such a good resource I volunteer as as you know I volunteer currently at the prechool there and play with the kids that's the best part of my week so thank you very much and if there's
115any way that I could have some sort of input on the fact that we have that we hang on to the playground that we got that was just built and that they do something about using all of the property I would appreciate it thank you for your you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right we're almost there friends we have three more so our next speaker is Jennifer blae followed by gunar Ray hello hi Jennifer Blaze I'm a mom of four boys Bernie and Baker um I asked several students to tell me how they' got lots of extra kids too um how Miss prman makes them feel these are their responses safe care for heard seen supported smart capable understood calm proud hopeful and excited to learn and I asked them what they think of Miss prman
116he's kind helpful protective safe to talk to helps them solve their problems happy and a good person there's a shortage of teachers in America right now and this is why we're not valuing the good people in our education um we're just not and you guys you're not going to hear anything you haven't heard from every Bernie parent that's come up here and talk we talked about the new buildings being more important than our kids we talked about I mean everything under the sun I have it all right here but you guys aren't really even listening my son Jimmy he spoke at one of these meetings and asked you to keep his face principal because that we were told his parents that position was being dissolved we find out we're losing our principal and instead of
117moving her up you guys hired somebody with Le less experience who was probably cheaper seems to me like there's a couple HR staff be fired instead but we're getting the peer of the people who work with our kids a woman who learned another language to better support them it's unbelievable and they sit up here sit up back there and listen to you guys up there talk about how proud you are of what we're doing it's just sad we begged our kids have spoken to you these kids I'm so proud of you guys those are awesome [Applause] I wish I could say this again all right our next speaker is Gunnar Ray followed by Stevie and Betty hi I'm Gunner Ray a senior at stadium and you can probably guess my exact reason for being in
118this building today I believe that the career guidance specialist is crucial and taking the position will only hinder the preparation of students I find it ridiculous that after having 25 people come to this building with 36 hours of notice that you failed to see the severity of this issue so how about this last Tuesday approximately 40 of my peers were awarded a scholarship for the upcoming year a massive congrats to them all but what you failed to realize is that this did not happen organically these things take time and more specifically it was the a result of time and rigorous effort from Miss jerson announcing explaining and preparing all these students for sustainable success in the future as a graduating student I feel objectified by your choice to remove this position not only does every
119career guidance specialist serve as the backbone for the students Futures but it gives them the stable Haven for kids to be motivated and stay motivated there's a huge difference between graduating and graduating well you preach as it says right behind you every student every day but is that all you see me as am I a student or am I a person going along with this your new grading system grossly skews the curve to minimize failure in your classes this serves as a quick out to force your students to graduate without addressing their needs with this and the career guidance specialist removal this shows me that I'm neither a student nor a person to you I'm a statistic no matter how poorly I am prepared if I graduate it's a win for you this mindset cannot
120be transferred to my fellow peers please save the career guiding [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] specialist all right I think we have Stevan Betty coming up here and that those will be our last speakers hello my name is Betty fam I am a graduating senior for the senior or stus high school um I come from a low low lwi income immigrant family um I didn't I personally didn't think about any of my high school plans until this year and it was really stressful going to this year and everyone telling me and asking me where am I going to go what am I going to do next year it was really stressful um without Miss Becca my career counselor I would have I would not have um been prepared to apply for colleges and fasta fasta and
121scholarships and applications are so stressful and I would have not known how to navigate them at all without her um um my my sylus my um my graduating class of silus high school is is one of the highest um number of graduating students and I'm 100% sure without people like Miss Becca there that would have not been the case um I also um speaking with my friends and peers I have recommended Miss Becca to so many of my junior friends them asking me about what should what like how did you navigate like applications and scholarships I immediately said Miss Becca go to her will help you with everything that you need and knowing that now there is not going to be someone like that for my friends next year is really concerning um I also
122this year someone was talking about how they SP struggled with um mental health and coming from an immigrant family who doesn't have an understanding of how things work here it was really hard for me navigating well what are these different societal standards from the two cultures that I come from I do not know what to do and without Miss Becca I wouldn't have been able to make my a plan for my future which was really stressful to think about okay um go ahead you can finish I may just ask for 30 seconds of your time um to speak hi everybody um my name is Stevie lazama I'm a junior at silus high school um and this will obviously affect my senior year for the career counselors um as concerning as this all is you can
123see the amount of students that have come and left um just to give some student perspective if you guys haven't heard from the 16 members that have spoken about it already um I am really trying to prepare for my college um just want to give a little insight I recently got awarded my first college scholarship thank you to Miss Becca Mr P and Miss jerson um I was awarded the only Washington Student out of the whole nation to receive this scholarship I would not have had it without them um coming to this meeting I was told by my career counselors this week to come and I prioritized this over anything I had just came from the PA Palmer scholarship interview 30 minutes before I showed up here um on my way to a second scholarship
124this would not have happened without my career counselors this means so much to you guys and if I may recite back to your guys' words you guys spoke multiple times throughout the meeting um you guys are doing this for the best for your students you guys are in support for your students each and every day um and the decisions that you make are for your students taking the people that support us the most and get us through high school to better for college it's not the right decision um and taking the career counselors away is taking the opportunities from your students that you support and that you are at best interest for um I know from a student like me we're only just two speaking up for stylus high school today um but I plan
125to reach for the stars and they're a part of the rocket to help me get there so thank [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you um that was the last public comment for this evening thank you um all right I move to adopt the consent agenda a that second I moved and seconded are there any questions or comments regarding the cons seeing none all those in favor say I I I opposed passes moving on to item number 12 policy matters item 12.1 first reading of policy 6216 reimbursement for goods and services warrants uh the Council on behalf of the director for financial services recommends that the board of directors review the draft of new policy 6216 and provide feedback before a second reading uh just real briefly this is a new policy uh based on a wasda essential
126classification um it's about lost or unclaimed warrants uh and the process that we would use to issue replacement warrants uh if they're lost or if they need to be issued to uh the estate of one of our stakeholders um sorry that was very distracting um all right whether um uh is no need for any port action until the next the second read I was just gonna say are there any questions and comments no no all right thank you very much um item number 12.2 first reading of new policy 6217 electronic fund transfer payments uh the general Council on on behalf of the director of financial services recommends that the board of directors review the draft of new policy 6217 and provide feedback before a second reading uh like the first uh policy this is a
127new policy uh it's a new wasda essential classification um and this one relates to uh rules about us issuing electronic funds transfer uh it has a policy language about a review by The District's auditing officer in order to issue electronic funds and it states that the district will use the same review process for electronic funds transfer as we do if there was to be a papercheck issued to somebody okay thank you very much are there any questions or comments all right thank you malink um item number 13 financial report the district's monthly financial report will be presented presented at the June 20th 2024 business meeting monthly financial statements can be found on the district website at www.tacomaschools.org depart departments back SL business and finance item 14 curriculum and instruction 14.1 approval of the interlocal agreement
128number TSD 24076 between Eastern Washington University and Tacoma Public Schools from June 6th 2024 July 30th 2025 the superintendent on behalf of the director of schools recommends the board of directors approve interlocal agreement TSD d24 076 between Eastern Wasing University in the Tacoma Public Schools for college and the high school from June 6 2024 through July 30th 2025 I move to adopt 14.1 second second it's been moved second and third um are there any questions or comments seeing none all those in favor say I I opposed passes item 15 business matters 15.1 approval of contract number TSD 23 23-33 amendment number two between Bailey and Bailey cons counseling and consultation and Tacoma Public Schools from September 1 2024 through December 31st 2027 before I read the recommendation this is one of four this evening and
129um my comments are not designed to detract or minimize from the testimonies that were shared this evening but these four contracts represent a celebration a celebration for our students um it's competitive grant-funded opportunities that provided 35 clinicians to be in our schools this year to support mental health for our students and as of the end of April these clinicians were able to support over 2500 students and um that nearly represents 10% of our students so this grant funding that the recommendation is coming to you tonight is to continue to support mental health for our students inside of our schools through 2027 and that is a celebration so the deputy superintendent on behalf of the director of whole child recommends that the board of directors approve contract number TSD 23033 amendment number two between Bailey and
130Bailey counseling and consultation in Tacoma Public Schools in the amount of $24,000 from September 1 2024 to December 31st 2027 funding source US Department of Education grant for school-based mental health move item 15.1 a second it's been moved and seconded are there any questions or comments seeing none all those in favor say I I opposed it passes item 15.2 approval of contracts ts-23 d088 amendment number one between Greater Lakes Mental Health and Tacoma Public Schools from September 1st 2024 through December 31st 2027 the deputy superintendent on behalf of the director of whole child recommends that the board of directors approve contract number TSD 23088 amendment number one between Greater Lakes Mental Health and tooma public schools in the amount of $48,000 from September 1st 2024 to December 31st 2027 funding source US Department of Education
131grant for school-based mental health I move item 15.2 one second it's been moved and seconded are there any questions or comments seeing none all those in favor say I I I opposed passes item 15.3 approval of contract number ts-23 d89 uh amendment number one between cono consel counseling and referral and Tacoma Public Schools from September 1 2024 through December 31st 2027 the deputy superintendent on behalf of the director of whole child recommends that the board of directors approved contract number TSD 23089 amendment number one between conos counc in and referral in Tacoma Public Schools in the amount of $561,000 from September 1 2024 to December 31 2027 funding source US Department of Education grant for school-based mental health I move to adop 11 15.4 second it's been moved in second Ed all those are there
132any questions or comments a comment yeah cono has been working with um the community for many years um people have all languages but they specialize a lot in latinx community so thank you any other questions or comments seeing none all those in favor say I I opposed it passes item 15.5 appr approval of amendment to the contractual memorandum of understanding between Tacoma Public or between Tacoma School District and the City of Tacoma from April 2024 through December 2025 we Ski 15 we did four y I just moved sry you're doing I just moved for you what we didn't 15.4 did we we did yeah we did it's Catholic commun it's not going to hurt us to redo it same thing yeah yeah that's fine we're GNA bicker and that's fine because we just did con
133y so um item I'm going to move back to item 15.4 approval of contract number T sd- 23-9 amendment number one between Catholic Catholic community services and Tacoma Public Schools from September 1 2024 through December 31st 2027 the deputy superintendent on behalf of the director of whole child recommends that the board of directors approve contract number TSD 2390 amendment number one between Catholic community services and Tacoma Public Schools in the amount of $612,000 from September 1 2024 to December 31 27 funding source US Department of Education grant for school-based mental health oh I second so director Mel Roy did you move I moved to adop got it director bonb second that was for Tracy for our minutes help Tracy out a little bit there it's been moved and seconded um are there any questions or
134comments on this one I just go ahead please I was just going to say these are the four that you were talking about I'm assuming um Deputy superintendent and I just want to say how much I appreciate this and um thank you to the team who reached out and got the Grant from the federal government to make this possible and pretty exciting that 2500 students got the counseling that they needed which was otherwise unavailable to them and I think this is a move in the right direction I really appreciate you guys I just want to give a couple shout outs to obviously Laura Allen and Deputy superintendent uh Lisa Nolan and courtne leech uh courney Works in our grants office these uh grants are a massive project Rosa Medina we have to build a business
135plan for each of these things uh there is no one in our community that coordinates all these Partners together to come in Malik and the legal team who has to write all the agreements so they can come in so they can do it safely in that space all of our principles and all of our staff that saved a spot for them to come in the transportation department who has to help with the runs so I just a huge shout out and once again I'll point it back to you because a couple of years ago you continued to have work studies around mental health and asked what was our plans and how would we build bans and then you set a goal to build sustainable funding when the state would not provide sustainable funding and that's
136what we've been doing for the last few years so thank you for your leadership in this area you can see the impact is massive thank you uh seeing no other questions or coms amends and the work is not over um all those in favor say I I I opposed it passes now to item 15.5 approval of amend of addendum to the contractual memorandum of understanding between Tacoma school district and the City of Tacoma from April 2024 through December 2025 longer walk then to we're all getting used to it Tony the assistant superintendent of K12 support on behalf of the director of innovation learning and CTE recommends that the board of directors approve the addendum to the contractual memorandum of understanding between Tacoma Public Schools and the City of Tacoma April 30th 2024 to December 31st
1372025 funding sources CTE to C I move item 15.5 second it's been moved in second end are there any questions or comments seeing none all those in favor say I I I opposed it passes thank you thank you very much Tony I'll speak slower next time item 15.6 oh I see Chris coming appr he's running approval to negotiate and award design build alternate alternative method contract with uh am ameresco how do you say that amaris thank you am marisco for the Munley HVAC upgrades project the Chief Operating Officer recommends that the board of directors approve the superintendent to negotiate and award a contract to amorisco for the design build alternative method for the mckenley HVAC upgrade project move item 15.6 it's been moved in seconded um I do have a question um just out of
138curiosity um I was this made me wonder about how many other HVAC upgrades that we've done so far um over the time um since because I know that it initially um was something that we did with Esser funding to improve the um air quality and also help folks in our building students and families and Staff feel safer I just it made me wonder um I've lost track of how many we've already done we touched basically every school this is additional work obviously McKinley is a swing site which we're going to utilize lives for many years especially passing the 2024 Bond and I don't mean to put you on the spot I think I is it approximately $30 million over those years yes okay so you can see the impact and that was one of the
139things that you proed and uh coming out of Co obviously we had Sesser dollar and there were certain categories we had to spend those dollars learning loss improving infrastructure quality of air and that was one of the pieces that you pried and so we're on the tail end of spending that in addition to all these things so Chris and the team Morris ald Alicia the whole team over there has done a phenomenal job sh with purchasing a variety of folks trying making sure that the contracts are all right and going so thank you to all that team and thank you for pointing out the magnitude of that volume of work are there any of the comments or question all right uh uh seeing no other comments all those in favor say I opposed passes um
140did I miss something all right item number 16 other business 16.1 adoption of resolution number 2142 author authorization to negotiate with sell negotiate with and sell to Lotus Rudolph homes for the purchase of the Madison Early Learning Center property located at 3101 South 43rd Street I move item 16.1 second all right we'll do a roll call vote on this resolution I know you didn't get the chance it's all right we'll do a roll call votee on uh agenda item 16.1 president keing how do you vote on resolution 2142 do we want to answer any questions I it's the end of the school year didn't know very much the end of the school year he want to it done yeah are there any questions or comments comment it's about negotiating the sale for Madison yeah bet
141all right um my grandmother spent 39 years in this district and one of the schools she served at was Madison it is integral to the South Tacoma neighborhood as the former chair of the South Tacoma neighborhood Council it was really impaired to the community um that we invested time in giving back and cleaning up and it was really insightful to the community when we partnered with the Tacoma tree Foundation from the school district standpoint and planted trees there I think that the impact is not lost on us that sometimes we can't afford to keep things that we really love and when you can't afford to keep things that you really love sometimes you don't have a say and what happens after you Let It Go um however as someone who lives in South Tacoma or
142lived in South Tacoma when I was serving as chair I lived walking distance from there right on uh 47th in Warner Street I could walk to Madison I could touch it I could smell it and the kids in that neighborhood do not have ample play Space however the playground at Madison was preschool specific so those K through five students and those middle schoolers who like to hang out at parks did not really utilize that playground either so this is going to be a problem for someone else but also um I really do hope that metrop Parks makes a plan for the South Tacoma neighborhood area especially the area by the mall because the parks is not my department this the department I serve in um but just as someone who lived there and someone who
143advocated for sat tooma for a long time um it is not lost on me thank you any other comments yes director Leon yeah I think um um other organizations that have had a chance to you know look at that space um and um we've there's one organization now that wants to buy it there still going to be some negotiation around this we've heard from the public and and we know that there's uh concerns around Green Space and open space and park space which are really important um and as we've heard we we have a budget uh issue and and we may or may you know we have spaces other places that we could grow into um this is the right decision um the being made by the superintendent's office it's been analyzed well um even
144though it's difficult for the people in that Community there are other spaces are they ideal maybe they're not their ideal at this point but you're right not everything is within our control as a school board umast East thank you thank you and prior to you making a decision there are some things that I've heard in the community that I wanted just uh the city does have requirements for trees and Landscape that will bring and um there's an opportunity to maintain possibly even create more spaces they have some requirements in their ordinances for green spaces um I've also uh heard in the community is this um this uh and just for the clarity is we're not selling the transportation system this time the transportation property in there um and so although other government agencies have said
145to us this is not the right time for us does it mean that there won't be opportunities in the future to continue to invest in that in that space uh and then um I know there was one request at least tonight to speak uh I will ask Mr Williams uh if and we'll contact Miss uh bone if she's uh willing to allow us to share her information we will share her information to make sure that uh if we do reach an agreement that this uh potential investor has that opportunity to hear some some of those insights as well thank you any other comments no all right seeing none I will pass it over to General council benro president keing how do you vote on resolution 2142 hi vice president Stroger how do you vote I
146director Leon how do you vote I director bombre how do you vote I director mcel how do you vote I for resolution 2142 passes thank you um moving on to items 16.2 approval of Washington inter Scholastic Activities Association WIA for short u membership renewal and School Board resolution for the 2024 2025 school year the assistant superintendent of K12 support on behalf of the director of Athletics and activities recommends that the board of directors approve the renewal of the membership between WIA and TOA public schools from September 2024 to August 2025 funding source Athletics and activities move to ad it 16.2 second it's been moved in seconded are there any questions or comments no seeing none all those in favor say I I opposed and passes thank you thank you Tony item 16.4 ratification of the
1472024 through 2027 collective bargaining agreement between Tacoma School District number 10 and the membership of the western State's Regional Council of Carpenters I think we're at 6 I'm going to swap oh did I do I'm sorry no worries all right I'm going to go ahead and start would you like me to read go back to 16.3 yep yeah that'd be great no problem thank you no problem M uh item 16.3 ratification of the 2024 uh through 2027 collecting collective bargaining agreement between Tacoma School District number 10 and the membership of the Tacoma Federation of Education supports professionals a aft Washington local 461 AFL-CIO thank you the director of Labor Relations and hold support on behalf of the super assistance and PR of Human Resources recommends that the board of directors ratified the collective bargaining agreement
148between Tacoma Public Schools District number 10 and the membership of the Tacoma Federation of Education support professionals aft Washington local 461 aflco I move item 6 .3 second it's been moved in second end are there any questions or comments all right saying none I pass it over to General Council benro we can do a roll call vote president keing how do you vote on the ratification of the CBA between the district and AF local 461 I vice president stroer how do you vote I director Bon how do you vote oh I uh director MCC how do you vote I director Leon how do you vote I the cbaa is ratified oh I did apologies oh no you would have seen if we were awake all right thank you um now item 16.4 ratification of the
1492024 through 2027 collective bargaining agreement between Tacoma School District number 10 and the membership of the western State's Regional Council of Carpenters the director of Labor Relations and whole ljk support on behalf of the assistant superintendent of Human Resources recommends that the board of directors ratify the collective bargain agreement between Tacoma School District 10 and the membership of membership of the western State's Regional Council of Carpenters I move item 16.4 second it's been moved in second are there any questions or comments I just want to on both this one uh thank you to very much to our partners uh you do make a difference for us and I also want to just give a special shout out to our ESP Partners um forest's leadership and helping us find uh respectful ways to to keep on
150working together so thank you and uh thank you to all of our ESP Partners out there thank you Forest thank you uh what why are you pointing I was confused I was like prise promise bringing it home I know we're so close all right seeing no other questions or comments uh General Council will you please call the role yeah president keing how do you vote on the ratification of the CBA between the Tacoma school district and the membership of the western State's Regional Council of Carpenters hi vice president stroer how do you vote hi director Leon how do you vote hi director bombre how do you vote I director mlar how do you vote I the CBA has ratified thank you thank you for us well done team I mean I don't know if it
151was well done but we got there we made I'm um uh I was referring to tonight um all right item number 17 board comments and r for I got fun stuff okay so um I wasn't going to say nothing during J but I really did feel moved to just thank you and I will thank you both again thank you president um keing thank you vice president stroer there's a lot as like heavy as the head that wears the crown I do not envy your positions but I want to thank you for your fearless and tireless leadership so um it's juneth month even though juneth is just a day it's a month I think the way that some of us are raised um we grew up celebrating it we understood like the cultural significance um my
152grandmother had like this africanamerican encyclopedia that my mom now has that will be passed to me cuz I already wrote it like this is for me um it's 17 books they're very very thick and they talk about the history of black and American people in the Americas um and so during juneth month there are a lot of celebrations um so you can celebrate at home by Googling what it means um like vice president show just said but there are some un unsung heroes in our community like one of our school counselors Miss Thompson she was a school counselor at to and now she school counselor somewhere else I'm not going to say because public um but she single-handedly created a community involved TPS um focus juneth event um a Citywide event last year it was
153hosted here at the PDC and this year it will be hosted um at Evergreen Tacoma another partnership that she secured um through our director partners ship Amanda Scott Thomas so thank them both for the work that they do and their event will be on Tuesday June 11th at 400 p.m. um this Sunday coming up on Sunday June 9th the juneth youth Market hosted by the big homie project which are one of the partners of metrop parks that does um violence intervention work throughout metrop parks and I think they've partnered in late nights in the past um on Sunday they do a youth Market where like their students whove been involved in program get together and they sell items they learn about small business and what it means to be uh that black entrepreneurial Spirit um
154so that'll be at the East Side Community Center on the actual day juneth um way out kids one of our Community Partners also partner with green tracks metrop parks and a bunch of other people um way out kids um has been hosting this will be the second annual juneth road to economic freedom festival at Stewart heights park that's from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on the Saturday after juneth um will be on the Saturday and Sunday the B black business is hosting um juneth celebration slash um the kickoff to summer season and black festivals and how we want to celebrate ourselves in the city of Tacoma um Saturday and Sunday June 22nd and Sunday June 23rd 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. um can I ask yes girl I going fast so on the the East
155Side Community Center um juneth event what was the time uh Sunday June 9th from 12:00 p.m. to 400 p.m. you said it was on the actual day no June 19th is the steuart Heights Event so confus I know there's so many events um and I just try to prattle them off cuz at the end of the day they're on Facebook you can Google them and if you really want to go celebrate Jun you'll say juneth Tacoma put in Google and a bunch of stuff is going to pop up I know cuz I did that last year terrifying amounts of things came and I was like okay I cannot go to 75 events I'm one person and but I'll do my best to try to be in spaces that welcome and my culture and celebrate um
156who I am um I have a quick question go ahead about the Stuart Heights one is the pageant going to happen again this year yes on the at the same day yes the community aunties are hosting the second annual Jun pageant junam pageant used to be a big deal in the city of Tacoma um back in like the 80s or something like that I'm not aging anybody but myself my mother my mother told me about it when the one that happened last year I was like oh my God this is the the first ever and she said actually it's not learn your history learn more about your city so I did I Googled it and I learned a lot more um so yeah so there's a lot of people getting together to put on events
157in the city to celebrate and uplift black youth black culture and talk about what juneth is the speakers all very interesting but the one at steuart height has a bunch of like performing artists I'm not going to lean into that um but what I will lean into um taking a moment to apologize for interrupting board protocol and requesting additional time I know that I did something that I really shouldn't have done I know that going forward people are going to be like you did it for this one lady why didn't you do it for me so let me tell you why um my culture I was born and raised into a matriarchal society um black women raised me to support and respect my elders and I felt that um the speaker was so moved by
158what what was happening in the room that she lost track of her own point and it wouldn't be fair to not let her have her own Point as she wanted to just commemorate and celebrate and talk about the history of herself in this moment past present all coming together so if you come to a meeting you're like um director mroy did it one time for somebody else director mroy is not going to do it again even for an elder because I know it'll come back to bite me so I'm going to say that now because somebody's going to record this and say she did it and she ain't going to do it again um that's Point number one point number two um I do appreciate the the calls and the calls to reflect and evaluate
159and focus in on our work and I want to read something that I did share publicly and then this is also something that I reply to a lot of emails with because I think it is really helpful information for people who say that um the board is inaccessible I think that we watch national news of what school boards are and what they aren't and we apply that to ourselves even if it is not rooted in reality or fact because a lot of people in this District including a lot of people who are in the room tonight have my personal phone number know where to find me three nights out of the week also a bunch of people in this room have my personal address which is terrifying cuz once you're elected lots of people know
160where you live and they send you lots of stuff so I'm going just say that right there but what I will say is that I asked people who came to me and said it's not fair because I don't know how to get involved in 2020 I felt powerless with no understanding of the infrastructure and how this city operates and I felt so isolated from systems and institutions that were imposing themselves upon me I had to find out a lot of things on my own without a network of influential or knowledgeable people now this is an email that I sent to a lot of people so I'm reading something that I've said here are some ways that you can get involved in our district learn about the equity Paul's policy review team if you cannot join
161it read our policies if you have an issue or concerned about those policies please email the board at board tacoma. k12.wa.us attend a board meeting board meetings are an excellent place to see policy decisions in real time our meetings are also live streamed and available on YouTube even though we do not translate ourselves there are YouTube caption options that translate our meetings into a bunch of different languages and I've seen it in action in real time with folks who said I want to know more we did it together I had no idea what I was doing on those captions but it did help somebody learn something about our district be aware that board members cannot respond during or after your testimony per policy 1430 which you can find here I typically leave lots of links
162in my replies to emails another way to get involved in our district is to start a PTA or booster club at your school these groups help you elevate student and family voice and create a space to learn about how the district operates in partnership with your school Community join a Safety Committee at your school contact your board rep you may not know this but into we rotate positions every year to ensure that all board members serve every student every side of town every demographic every single day check out the website to discover who your board rep is and email them to requested meeting however a huge disclaimer on meeting with your board rep we are essentially a volunteer board who makes $4,800 annually to serve that is capped by law due to the lack of
163funding for schools and Boards most board directors in Washington state work to sustain their households so they may not be available immediately but give us time we have all found ways to accommodate and meet with many folks huge disclaimer I have two full-time jobs just so I can come to these meetings because I did not realize how much money it takes to be an elected official and I have to work doubly as hard CU I don't have the degrees and I don't have all that support it's just me by myself just so I can sit here so I do make time to meet with people I go out of my way I'm very public facing and I always welcome you email me ask me for a time to meet now if I make you wait
164two weeks don't get mad cuz I have to work cuz I got to pay rent those are my board comments thank you director Mel there fun and long who would like to follow that I'm willing to go next go ahead okay now for the fun part this is this is what I like to do um especially this time of year as y'all know how I feel about graduations but because I don't want anybody to get it twisted when it comes to me um in honor of men's mental health month in honor of uh the month of juneth I got to talk my talk for a second so uh I'm I'm appreciative of everybody who comes to speak especially our students who stand up and get behind that Podium uh so I want to be intentional
165about acknowledging presence because it's important I have to say uh that perspective is everything and everybody has a right to their own um and what I want to say about everything is simple yes I've been elected to serve in this role um yes I work on behalf of community I'm always willing to find the time to connect when you have to work a full-time job and also be a elected official you have to find time and I'm willing to always do that but you do not get to tell me how I engage with Community when I engage with Community or how to do this work I'm not big on lip wrestling I'm not big on going back and forth uh with people but the narrative that that folks don't care um or we're part of
166some secret society where we're making decisions that only benefit us it's tired and it's played out and since we're putting out stats let me put a stat out there for for folks um it's likely that in the month of May I spent more time doing board business in conversation about board business than I spent in conversation with my own kids and I spent a lot of time in conversation with my kids since we're putting out stats I'm not saying that I don't engage with my babies but when this work calls I answer cuz that's what I've been elected to do this is a labor of love for me um uh and and the power of Education itself is weaved into the essence of my being just in case you don't know the biggest form of
167payment for me um in this work is graduation season and yes we are educating and yes we are graduating and I'm not going to stand here and weaponized phrases and I would appreciate it if folks didn't do that moving forward either uh shout out to all of our graduates ues that worked hard to get to this point shout out to all of our graduates that did the work to prepare for where they're going next shout out to all of the young people that are still going to be working past graduation date to meet some requirements cuz we don't give up on young people I see you I'm proud of you and it's no doubt in my mind that you are ready for what's next I'll kept my comments there um graduation start tomorrow we're going
168to have a good time we're going to turn up and celebrate the young people the way they deserve to be celebrated without the device of foolishness thank you okay yeah um again uh thanks for all your comments um and I I know that uh there's a lot of emotion around decisions that are made uh when positions um are not going to be uh continued um but as we've mentioned one multiple times that um we have reviewed and seen and um discussed what the uh safety plan is or me safety plan what the plan has been to get these U kids through to the next phase and the vanes and the next stage um and there is a plan for every school it might be a little different um and it might be a little bit
169different coing forward at that same school uh but that's something that's really important uh for everyone in this whole organization so um but it's it's an emotional moment to to have a position change we understand um and I want to celebrate um and just congratulate all the graduates and all the promotions we've talked about this this is an amazing time of the year um but it's all about learning and it's um I've been to several celebration end of year events concerts Awards um plays and it's just a beautiful thing to see um the kids light up um when they do amazing things and finish amazing projects and all their teachers and family around them thank you for all the staff that makes that happen yeah um well we've got a couple of themes going here
170tonight in our comments and I'll I'll start with um I'll start with our our role as board members and uh we are representatives of communities so when when people say that we don't talk to community we are Community we represent as a matter of fact if you look at this board you you know you couldn't find five more different people we represent different pieces of our community and every single day we're talking out in community not just people that write us or or that call us um but like my colleagues if someone calls me I make the time I talk to them I follow up with the superintendent if necessary on issues if I don't if I don't know the answer and you know he has staff work with these individuals we get stuff done
171I it's it feels really um I understand people are passionate about this but it it seems no disrespectful is is probably the best word um when people accusatory you know imply or state that um we aren't talking to community or we don't care about Community input that's all we care about really is the kids and the and the parents and the families and the staff that make things happen and I I just wish people would um you know think a little bit more and and learn a little bit more about what we do before making statements that imply uh you know our purpose and our objectives and and what our mission is so that one um I you know I just want to get that out um the second thing I think I want to
172say is um that this is a very um stressful time for people June May and June are are excting in for students they're exciting for families summer's coming people are graduating kids at all levels are moving up up a grade sometimes moving to the next stage whether it's Elementary to middle and middle to to to high and so it's not just our high school graduates there's um progress and joy and enthusiasm and growth at every single level for every student in our system and that takes a village and that Village is the teachers it's the custodian it's the nutrition staff it's the nurses it's the counselors It's I mean the list is so long I probably shouldn't have started it cuz I'm going to forget bus drivers it's the Carpenters it's the you know it
173goes on and on and on the the the TPS staff the 5,000 staff that make that make our school system run and um and so and they're going through a stressful time they're trying to finish out the school year and then maybe their position is being altered or they're being displaced and there's you know they're personally um focused on multiple things like the rest of us are and so I just want to acknowledge that it gets emotional but know that we he all all five of us and I'm going to speak for you all because I think you'll agree with me that we are committed to everyone getting their needs met as best as we possibly can so that they can better serve and best serve our students um and then the last thing I
174want to say is the celebration of um of our high school grads because that is as director stroer says really kind of highlight to be up there on the stage and be the ones who actually officially graduate these students and it's incredibly joyful to watch the faces and see the proud parents and to have these kids really um be moving forward to to a next to next the next step and so I want to thank everyone who makes that possible because um graduations are a huge lift I mean the physical happening of a graduation um and so I want to thank in advance the TPS staff that make those happen and some of those people are right here in the room making this happen so I just want to thank U our M staff and
175our group that Tech staff and everybody that that makes that so everyone can watch but I also um I want to I want to thank the kids I can thank this thank the students for sticking with it um asking for things that they need and then pushing pushing through their own anxieties to to get to this place it's it's been a tough four years this is a group that actually was Co impacted and it's you know they struggled like everyone else so those are my comments tonight I just next week is going to be super exciting we start tomorrow morning right here 10: a.m. right for CBT so exciting and then um I know I'd be Willie Stewart on U Monday or Tuesday and then Tuesday 5 o' whole week I've got we got a
176whole week of of graduations and so um thanks to everyone for making that happen thank you um we've been here a long time yep I will um do my best to make it quick um and I just also want to thank everyone's comments tonight um they were very impactful for me so I really appreciate um your vulnerability and honesty and um willingness to try and clarify a a narrative that is um that some are saying about the five of us and what we do and what we don't do um to vice president stroger's point about the hours spent I have worked more than a full-time job since just the last board meeting on the very issues that people have come to speak to us about I have been in community meeting and speaking with people
177people um some people I know some people I don't know I actually met with Miss with Miss Beverly on Monday to talk about her concerns um and to try and address confusion and questions and um you know I don't always have the answer and I actually said I would direct staff to her right when we don't have the answer we direct staff to help people get the answer information that they need or the support that they need and like director Bond right I am also in my fifth year in this role and there has never been a time that I have said to the superintendent to any staff member our previous superintendent would you please reach out and support this family this student this Community member no one has ever told me no and then
178they've always followed up and reported back to us now maybe they didn't give the the information or the decisions or the results that the person wanted we don't always we always can't do that those of us raising kids we know we can't tell our kids they don't always get the things they want right and so I just want to acknowledge that we take this these roles individually and collectively very seriously um and we live by by the commitments that we make for the reasons that we all chose to ask the voters to allow us this privilege to serve up here so I'm going to just wrap a little bit with some things about um what I've done outside of what I've already listed I had um the really fun opportunity to Mentor a group of
179fifth grade boys at Way wght for their IB project um I know they wished it would have ended two weeks in they were very ready to be finished particularly by today um and today I got to see their presentations um and the group there were a number of different groups that chose the same or similar topics um and these four boys chose child trafficking and they took the topic seriously and I met with them last Friday for their last last Mentor um group and they were very much like a her like trying to her jellyfish they had no interest in doing any of this but they'd rather sit with me than me take them back to class so U which I gave them that choice um I um they we like we created a plan
180we like I let I wrote out a plan for them for how they were going to present and today like they took that note that I wrote for them and it was taped to their table their presentation and then they didn't have anybody coming to their they didn't have anybody coming to them and it was a gym and it was loud oh my God I don't know how anyone could think straight the energy by the way you could feel school they want school to be over like that energy is high and I know that's not just at way right um and so these four boys did such an amazing job like pushing through learning how to communicate together learning how to express frustrations with one another figuring out how do you do a collective project
181how do you work as a team the things that they learned were far greater than the important information of the subject that they were studying and it was really incredible to watch that and be a part of that um and uh the great Justina Johnson uh was also there cuz she had a group who did the same topic and so we chatted a little bit and she went over and she asked my group to present and she came back she's like they popped straight up they went through their presentation they had actually um improved the process and they told me afterwards they're like this keting so we were doing it this way but it wasn't really working and so this is what we changed in the middle of it like in the middle of this
182whole presentation and so I just um to director bomb's comments about thanking our students like yes we should be thinking all of our students who are working really hard to do things that they often don't even want to be doing and they are supposed to do it anyways and we sometimes expect them to be happy about it maybe even smile and I see Zeke in the back laughing about that because they're not always happy about it but I just it was a really cool experience um and this is an age group that I worked with for you know well eight years and so I really felt like I was in my element um and I just want to give all the staff there and all of the other mentors there were mentors from all over
183that came and volunteered with um this these students and so it was a really great culmination of of um a huge collection of people to try and help our students um our help our students succeed in a lot of different ways that we don't always collect data on and I think that's important to acknowledge and recognize um I do want to um say that um Congressman Strickland was at largemont um on May 28th and I got to be there and she and I got to hang out in a head start classroom don't be jealous both of you I know it was amazing and she was forced away cuz all she wanted to do was color with these kids and it was a really it was a beautiful experience um to share with congresswoman Strickland and
184also for her to be able to share the things that she's been able to do through her office in Congress and the things that she's prioritizing advocating for um back in the community that she serves and we get to benefit greatly from her leadership um and then um there were other things I had the um wasda Federal relations Network committee that I um ran I think that was last week um and I also attended the urban leads state of black Tacoma which um is a very powerful informative event that I try not to miss and I was really grateful to have been there um again this year um yesterday was the traffic and safety committee meeting and I want to give one shout out to Jimmy gear Gear did I say that right okay um
185uh uh kayn uh Henley from safe routes um to schools from with the city of Tacoma shared her um shared with us that that Jimmy Greer um was being um that the the amount of effort um because of his leadership and and and work um it led to the walking school buses and the um the uh and that OPI had a video or has a video that they're sharing on their platforms about um our walking school buses and Tacoma and Jimmy's work um and affiliated with this so I just wanted to give um that um Jimmy a shout out for that um and the impact that um Jimmy's had um on our students in in that way um and then um I do want to say um regarding I know last meeting we had um
186voted on um uh to join a lawsuit um as a non um oh my God my words are escaping me Malik nonp party declaration we are not joining a lawsuit we are submitting a party declaration I'm tired thank you for that clarification so we did not join but we did submit Malik is like out hives party doing great we're doing great but I just wanted to say um share that there was um a hearing on Tuesday seeking a temporary restraining order um and that was not granted and so there will be a second hearing um on June 21st correct is that correct that's correct um and then was it yesterday um the state superintendent's office was that just yesterday too that was yesterday my god um had off um provided um uh guidance MH um
187around um the parental rights initiative um this parental rights initiative that is now enacted as of today um and that um for and recommended that districts do not um comply with any rule any law that con um conflicts with any other existing law within this par within 2081 did I say that right Malik yeah in particular saying where the state and federal law conflict that school districts in Washington should follow the federal law until obbi has a time to issue technical assistance clarifying how School District should comply with the state law okay thank you so I just want because this is something we've talked about several times over the last multiple months I just wanted to bring that forward um and I think with that I'm ready to read item number 18 um announcements of
188next regular board meetings uh June 20th 2024 will 6 pm here will be our next business meeting and then July 11th on 20 uh July 11th 2024 6 p.m will be uh another business meeting and then again August 22nd 2024 6 PM um business meeting all here in this location and with that the meeting is adjourned I open you're welcome Che they out [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] n [Music]