001like to call this I'd like to call this order uh please rise for the flag salute pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands under God indivisible with liy and justice for all Tacoma Public Schools acknowledges that we are on the traditional ancestral and historic lands of the puip tribe of Indian we honor with gratitude the land itself and the PIP tribe this acknowledgement serves as a first step in honoring our nearest tribal neighbors and partners who have inhabited this region since time in Memorial and to whom who we to whom we give thanks for allowing us passage to their land we shall intentionally create inclusive and respectful Partnerships that honor indigenous cultures histories identities and sociopolitical realities General Council will you please call
002the RO yes president here here uh numbers and and down are business items it require Quorum so what I would suggest is that we table number five for the moment and then proceed with the agenda and if we don't have a quorum by agenda item number 10 we take a brief recess do General council do we need to take any like formal no great no um then moving on to item number six recognition of staff students and Community 6.1 recognition of The Shining Star Community partner award to Community Partners uh s hem at of the Asian P Pacific Cultural Center um is Miss Amanda the's not here but I'm one of her youth oh are you on their way they're on here why don't we table that one okay great is that the service as
003well yes I did see her there okay all right and thank you for being here um and maybe just wave at me when she I I'll probably notice when she gets here um uh so moving on to item 6.2 recognition of student board representatives for 2023 through 2024 the superintendent recommends on that the board of dirn board of directors excuse me recognize the student Representatives who were chosen to serve on the board this year we have our senior Representatives Amanda Peterson zela donon from Lincoln High School our Junior representative lilan Taylor Junior from Silas and uh Amelia con Constantine from a sophomore from soda and I know we have one here like to take a moment we have something for you I pardon us as we all figure out being in this space not knowing
004how to do anything it's like moving in for the first I think as you're transitioning maybe we could have the three of you up on the stage to do absolutely and I just want to take a moment to specifically recognize Lilian lilan has been here throughout the school year uh Lillian has brought her voice uh representing Silas but also representing students across the district um obviously we've heard her passion for the Arts and the performances and the continues to remind us of those important things and then offers us feedback as we go along so I just want to give a special shout out to lilan for all the hours that she has volunteered uh and you folks know what it's like to volunteer and so it's a lot of work and so uh thank you
005so much Lilia thank you and I just want to on behalf of the board um I uh I hope you have felt valued by us we really have deeply appreciated your Insight your contributions um and student voice is something that is extrem important to us on the board and so we are grateful for all the time that youve given us um and um hope that you will be back again in the fall because you were uh this is your first year with us correct right okay thank you thank you so much and I think um they want to give a picture so if you don't mind I think are there stairs just on stairs on side both stairs and I think we can go back to item 6.1 um we're going to go back a
006little bit in time to item 6.1 uh recognition of shining star Community partner award Miss Amanda Scott Thomas I'm going to give the mic over to you thank you thank you thank you let me put this right here all right all right good evening uh board of directors Beloved Community my name is Amanda Scott Thomas I'm the director of the Community Partnership office um and as you know I come before you every month with a gold star Community part uh partner award or a nomination uh for the board to consider uh and for this month of May 20124 um we have one of our longtime esteemed Partners um that is being recognized today um this um award is for sunon himim and the folks at apcc um in the submission I'm going to read it
007as it was submitted to craft a compelling recommendation for the um oh actually I skipped to St I'm sorry I'm a little flustered so um Tacoma Public Schools defines partnership as a Cooperative relationship between students families schools the school district and the greater Tacoma Community Partners are committed to supporting student academic success and success of the whole child Partners work with and invest in the education of our children and youth whose future in turn will affect the quality of life in Tacoma um quality of life in the entire Tacoma Community when it comes to Student Success Tacoma Public Schools recognizes that schools cannot do it alone and in recognition of an investment of time talent and resources for TPS students families and staff The Shining Star Community partner award signifies an honor and thanks to
008a community partner has who has made a difference by doing what's best for kids so tonight we have a compelling recommendation for the coma Public Schools Community Partnership award highlighting the Asia Pacific cultural center and its program manager for youth programs Mrs S sunon himim it's essential to detail the rich history Mission and substantial impact AP apcc has had on the community particularly through its collaboration with Tacoma Public Schools to offer the true jobs 253 experiences to asian-pacific Islander students apcc was founded in 1996 and emerg from the vision of local artists and Community leaders who recognize the need for a central place to celebrate and share the rich cultural heritage of asian-pacific Islanders in Pierce County it serves as a vibrant hub for cultural exchange offering programs and services that promote awareness understanding understanding
009equity and inclusion of asian-pacific Islander communities apcc represents 47 different countries delivering a wide way a wide array of programs that span art culture education and business so noon as the program manager for the youth programs embodies the mission of apcc through her leadership in the promised Leaders of Tomorrow program her dedication to enhancing the lives of Asian Pacific Island Islander students in Pierce County through education and service is noteworthy him's background surviving War camps in Cambodia to advocating for Youth and families in the US enriches her impro her approach to empowering the Next Generation apcc and Tacoma Public Schools collaboration the partnership between TPS and apcc particularly in facilitating the job's 253 experience is a testament to the center's dedication to educational advancement and career Readiness for API students by offering Hands-On um internship
010experiences apcc and TPS jointly support students in gaining valuable work experience fostering professional growth and enhancing employability skills this collaboration not only benefits the students directly but also enriches the community by preparing well-rounded culturally aware and skillful skilled Future Leaders apc's profound impact on the Tacoma Community spearheaded by leaders like Miss nunam make it exemp and an exemplary candidate for the star Community star partnership award their ongoing commitment to cultural pres preservation education inclu inclusivity coupled with their significant contributions to Student Success Through the jobs 253 partnership underscores the vital role apcc plays in enriching and bridging diverse communities so this nomination was submitted by CTE their staff but uh apcc has been a long-term partner um and at every level in the district they have their their imprint um on supporting students and families
011so we just wanted to acknowledge apcc particularly Mr noon him who has been around since I got here um and has really been an advocate for students APC um API students and all students but we really want to appreciate them today and honor them so I'm going to have senon come up she has members of her team to address the board but can we give her a hand [Applause] the whole team can come up it's new this is yours congratulations my dear wow wow thank you so much welcome here School Board of director member of the community superintendent Garcia and member of Staff thank you very much for um your partnership your believe in all of us in our team and our Board of director I know Al has been one of our even volunteer
012at the takuma school district to help our young people and my executive my executive director Miss L preacher without her we couldn't do it she has been the star and the champion in our community in our Asia Pacific culture center she says lead us to the promised land that's what I call it she told us she'll build us a culture center that you can work with the young people all your life I said okay I believe in you so here we are a culture center will be built because of her and her commitment to the young people and her and I always have conversation about where can we make an impact in a young people's life the kuma School District actually gave us the chance and opportunity and Believe in Us that we could make
013a differ in young people's lives so thank you very much for this special award thank you thank you so much Miss [Applause] H good evening everyone I'm Al Co I'm with the board directors of Asia Pacific cultural center and I senu says I used to be at Lincoln helping after school students the program is open to not only API but all students whether we help them with college preparation preparing the uh College uh financial aid applications helping them with um not only financial C aid but applying for jobs in the summer preparing them for mock interviews uh teaching them and training them hopefully for some personal financial management uh we break them up in groups and not only that but we allow them to spend some time together and have some and build and I
014with the trust of the community and Tacoma Public Schools a group of the Filipino Club at Lincoln were able to take a break and and accept an invitation from JBLM yesterday and perform out there in the nice weather that we had but again thank you all thank you oh please don't go away yep we definitely want to have a picture with you but we also want to extend our deepest deepest gratitude for all of the work that your team does and all that apcc does for our students and our community we are deeply grateful um would you like to come up on stage would your team like to join us we would love all of you to come up here with us please the middle you're the one with the award all ready one two
015three take a bunch six miles thank you thank [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you all right um superintendent did you have anything you wanted to add I just want to give a an extended shout out uh Miss Lua Pritchard is not here uh Lu is a tremendous partner that has built the team senu and LU and I meet pretty much monthly for the last 13 years trying to figure out ways that we can help our kids in our community together and I know that they just go above and beyond and there is an entire community and so uh like so many things in Tacoma is what makes the secret sauces is the whole group working together in that space and so I'm extremely grateful for our partnership and miss anon's leadership thank you so much um okay
016um we're going to move back to item number five um is there a motion to adopt the agenda I'm move to adopt a second it's been moved in seconded are there any questions or comments seeing none all those in favor say I I it passes okay so now we're going to move to um item number seven the superintendent's report and item 7.1 um is the Washington State funding landscape before we get there I want to before I forget there's a few folks that I want to take a moment to acknowledge uh first I want to uh some of us had a chance yesterday to celebrate with our retirees um Educators from you know up to I think uh 45 years was the top amount of years served thousands of positive lives influenced in that time
017and so I just want to take a special moment uh you should get a a video of some of the retiree celebration uh and just take a moment if you know a retiree from the Tacoma Public Schools they play all different kinds of roles please take take a moment to extend our deepest gratitude to them um I also want to take a moment to recognize someone that you see every meeting uh but a little bit of explanation of why we're here um Mr Mark crepo uh has helped uh make sure that we are here today U Mark helped us see some of the vulnerabilities uh with when our elevator went down and not knowing we needed to make sure that we had accessibility and so mark and a team of folks but really led by
018Mark's efforts helped us look at different opportunities across the district and how could we and then Mark's I don't want to say single-handedly but uh deeply pretty much committed you know helped us get this set up and so you know if you're watching for the first time it seems like everything is a little new to us or we're fumbling around it is new to us uh but that's not out of a lack of effort to Mark kpo uh work in trying to help us uh reach and do business in a in a very professional way and so I just want to give a round of applause to Mr Mark kpo I believe that you might have some comments later uh president keing but uh I had a chance to uh attend uh Miss Katherine USA's
019Memorial this afternoon and uh I was reminded of how difficult things uh changes in our community uh and how we have to keep on working together um in there uh I had a pleasure of working with Miss ashka Katherine as all finally always remember uh for years and as a uh one of our school board members and then as a community leader and so I just want to let her and her family know specifically that our thoughts and prayers are with her um and just recognize her one more time here in Tacoma uh it is May it is the end of May uh it is a a challenging time um we're almost there we are almost there vice president stroer reminds us in his comments not to not to rest yet not to rest yet
020we are going into the season of a lot of celebrations uh promotions from uh preschool to kindergarten uh from fifth grade to sixth grade from 8th grade to nth grade and our graduates and there and it takes a whole team of effort uh to get there and so I just Echo uh vice president stroger's comments to make sure that we don't stop yet and that we will keep on working even through these difficult times um you have gotten a lot of feedback uh as uh board members I have gotten a lot of feedback around our current budget situation inside of the Tacoma Public Schools so if you could bring up the slide deck please uh I wanted to give you a little overview um sometimes uh and this is no fault to anyone else's uh
021folks this may be their very first meeting that they've attended uh maybe the first time they watch and we welcome that and some folks have heard some of this ongoing for months um we knew uh that for the last few years that we were facing a funding cliff in the Tacoma Public Schools but more importantly in the state of Washington and I don't have oh I do have a CL thank you see how I do mark and um unfortunately we are not unique in Tacoma um and so we uh we know in Washington state it's been a funding challenge we've talked to you about the funding Gap as it continues to uh manifest in our state uh from everything from what the state reimburses um to expenditures and revenue um led by some of our
022local leaders uh at the time it was president bonbright and our Uh current president Kramer from the tea uh ourself and 18 other districts advocated that this be addressed they saw the significance of it happening and what they saw and you know these 18 school districts came together uh in Partnership to say that from very large to to small school districts in the 18 um they saw a systematic issue it wasn't a a challenge of mismanagement it was a systematic issue of the way that we fund education in the state of Washington colle L they rep represented over 30% of the students um they asked very specifically both for a long-term solution create a taskforce because the McClary decision didn't fix the Paramount duty of the state in the way that it funds education and
023then they asked for a short term to address the funding challenges in our state and that short turn ask was approximately 1.2 billion which represented about 44% of the Gap that we faced as a state um you've seen uh because we have brought that to you unfortunately the state was not able to meet either one of those in that space um the 18 partners that represented and it was more than that I would say that but the 18 leaders uh partner District leaders uh recognize that what were the driving factors of these shortfalls yes there was decreased student enrollment uh we had the sunsetting of federal and state pandemic funding and despite the lingering impacts that funding was going away so you were charged to spend that funding in a short period of time by
024law you were required to spend that funding you had unfunded state and federal mandates most notably in special education you saw increased operational costs and that's not unique to us it's not unique to education but fuel's more expensive milk's more expensive everything is more expensive and the state was not providing that and in Washington state our funding comes from the state of Washington as a local level yes we have some portion of local Levy but predominantly comes from the state and so when those costs are not matched that's even more problematic many of us adjusted our budgets in 23 24 and they we continue to sh uh face short Seattle you've 104 million some of them spoke hand 27 but it's raised even more Edmonds 11 and we unfortunately Even in our state had districts
025that were going into binding conditions and what that means is that that's the equivalent of going into bank bankruptcy it may feel like we're alone in this but as we look through in what we've heard in the news districts across the state Edmonds South Woodby Tucka Maryville closing schools laying off employees program Cuts significant challenges you have school districts Even in our own Community meaning County close to us continue to face these challenges from ym to Moses Lake to Frankle Pierce couver Evergreen wi Ane and then you might have heard that Seattle's facing a challenge of possibly closing 20 schools unfortunately it continues to be a challenge in our country as well and so you see uh widespread layoffs from every position and I looked around and said you know is this happening in different
026states and what does that look like so from cordelane an Arbor Michigan Little Rock small districts large districts Houston's one of our largest really significant you've been a part of this along the way you've un understood some of the steps uh how we've tried to get to the place where we are today um and how we will continue to mitigate forward we have reduced significantly administrative Services we'll share some more of that information in our monitoring report today uh we have reduced Department budgets we've adopted lean practices across the district to change our business practices we've tried to stay with a level of fidelity to our staffing models but more importantly uh We've honored our contracts uh across the board um we've reduced our Surplus property is a way to not only uh reduce our
027ongoing operational costs but to lower the the footprint which would then also allow staff less to do in those spaces we changed our delivery model to increase revenue and expand access through programs like transitional K and then as we've shared with you around the transportation at bell schedule we've gone to our vendors and partners and said we need to change your contracts in order to maintain best supports that we possibly can so unfortunately I'm here to tell you is you as board members and I know you get a lot of pressure you unfortunately you you are not unique in the situation across the state there's a lot of challenges uh we have a commitment and even as we make decisions things will continue to adjust and change we have specific timelines that we must follow
028through our agreements and partners but as things change for us we will continue to try to live into your guiding principles moving forward that is my report tonight uh and then uh we have a number of Staff reports so unless there are questions I'll turn it over to the staff are there any questions oh good no all right moving on to um you know actually um I wasn't really sure just with the chaos of how the meeting started and having to go back and forth in the agenda um I do want to take a moment to talk about um Katherine ashka um I had an unbelievable privilege of being asked to speak um at her service today um with standing room only um at the East Side Community Center that she and Marty Campbell um
029were at the helm of fighting to get so that there was a place on the east side for people to gather and with the same kind of um state-of-the-art facilities that are in other ZIP codes in the city um and um the service went really long um and so I didn't I I wasn't um I'm actually going to read the remarks that I read um that I shared today at her service um in honor of her um she has um contributed significant amounts to our community that will never actually be fully me measured um and there's a lot of things that no one will ever know that she touched and that she has their hands involved in um so I'm just going to take a point of privilege um and I'm actually grateful that that
030there are so many here because some of you may not know who Katherine was um and for those who don't um she um was a city council member um elected in uh 20 uh was sworn in to serve in 2018 January 2018 um and had been on the school board from 2009 to 2017 previous to that um and Katherine chose Tacoma as her home um I first met Catherine um over 10 years ago at the big hat brunch for Oasis youth center her daughter was in high school and mine was in elementary school her presence as the Tacoma Schoolboard director was significant especially at the time um because you wouldn't have gotten many elected officials at an lgbtq event if they weren't also a part of the community I had shared with uh Catherine at
031the time how immeasurably important it was to have supportive staff and administration um for my daughter as she was transition openly transitioning um at the time Catherine cared um she listened she connected with me Mom to Mom what I didn't know at the time was that I was meeting a trusted friend and a staunch co-con SP spirator as I said she served on the Tacoma school board from 2009 through 2017 she and her colleagues spearheaded groundbreaking work in Innovative practices improving graduation rates across the district and the whole child initiative she was a constant advocate for doing the right thing she worked to get an Eastside special school to help all Tacoma students have access to soda idea and Sammy regardless of zip code and she helped support Partnerships especially Community Partnerships which is still
032a p a pillar Foundation a foundational pillar today she used her position on the school board as and as a trusted leader to defend the rights and protections of transgender people when they were under attack from 2015 through 2017 she was by my side in the face of hostility and bigotry and not only did she stand beside me and my family she stood in front of me she stood in front of my family she supported inclusive policies and legislation and continued that work on the city council and on the Tacoma Pierce County Health Board when she took the ra the Helm of the chair um in 2020 she deeply valued and believed in the dignity and protections of lgbtq Children and Family families when I stepped up to run for the school board for those
033of you that know Katherine she uh prepared me for the hardest parts and never sug sugarcoated anything she told me that i' better be ready to work harder than I'd ever before um and the work the hard work is worth it and she was so right Katherine was my mentor and she was my friend we spent hours on the phone discussing needs barriers fears of our own uh how and how do we move forward to protect people in the early months of the pandemic I told her that I didn't know what I was doing because i' had only been in office for 5 months at the time and she stopped me cold and told me that I am a Schoolboard director and that she relied on me and my knowledge and expertise to guide her
034and she wasn't going to let anyone talk about her friend that way Catherine's love language was truth no matter how hard no matter how uncomfortable a leader takes form through learning to take responsibility holding themselves accountable especially when it's uncomfortable inconvenient or comes at a cost it's clunky awkward and and filled with mistakes anyone can lead during easier Good Times the true character of a leader comes through when we are tested when we are squeezed being willing to stand in one's convictions takes courage and tenacity Katherine service Katherine served with audacity and unapologetically she served uh those she served were her guid in light and Compass Catherine put her convictions on the line again and again and again even in the face of being unpopular or in Conflict to lean in and commit to take
035ownership and move mountains to change outcomes is the kind of boldness that many of us have all come to love about Katherine and rely on my friend may not be by my side physically anymore but she's sure hell is within me our stories are intertwined she is within all of us all of us who carry and cherish her Legacy we do that together she served our students our school district and Community with her whole heart and now it's on us to continue her Legacy [Applause] [Music] thank you um for giving me that well I took that opportunity but thank you for holding space um for Katherine president Keening I think there's directory loan oh yeah sure sure just uh I do want to make just a comment as your other um staff members are going
036to be presenting still uh around the budget issues you've uh heard a lot from our constituents we just like to try to have in their presid presentations is if possible or later some of this information may not be available right now I think in the future um I would like to know and some of the uh students and and constituents would like to know kind of these positions that are um not going to be filled some of them um how some of those duties and functions will be uh done in function with partner organizations we may not have all the information today but I'd like I think it's important that we strive to get this information to our public yeah we can bring that back to you uh you know we'll talk about the process
037as we continue to go forward and what does that look like and bring that back to you thank you um moving on to item8 staff report to the board 8.1 Benchmark reports monitoring Partnerships volunteers and [Music] organization thank you all right so I'm back um the depart uh Community Partnership office comes before you twice a year um to uh report on um two of our Ben Benchmark measures um and I have some um interesting things to share um let's see what am I pointing to pointed Mark bottom button oh there we go all right so um we have some good information to share about volunteers um as you know annually the district processes volunteers that work with our students through a background check process for safety um it is a priority of ours um and
038in years past um post pandemic um or pre- pandemic we our volunteers numbers have been trending um have been decreasing but of course since the pandemic we've been trending upward so we're trying to build our volunteer resources back into um our schools because again schools can't do it alone so the more volunteers the better in our buildings um and I'm happy to report that we continue to Trend upward um in our numbers of volunteers um for the 2023 2024 school year which we're not quite finished um we count our last numbers um August 31st so when I come back to you um in the fall of next year I'll have the final number but we're at 6,9 91 volunteers um which is again um having us uh continue to increase um for the fourth consecutive
039year since the pandemic so as you know um 50% of our total annual numbers in volunteers actually happen in that September and October those SE September and October months of the school year again our volunteers are returning we process those numbers uh this year 31% um actually uh registered in February March and April so we're seeing more of some equal distribution uh so volunteerism happens or people register to volunteer all year long um so we have an increase of 24% for um this school year which again numbers are trending upward uh and so we're excited to see that the um hold am I going backwards I am going backwards okay so um one of the things that I'm asked to do is to um I was asked to do by the board um they gave
040me some marching orders this year was to uh talk to volunteers um we want to find out what we're doing well what we can improve on we want to retain volunteers so it's one thing to continue to Trend upward but it's another thing to retain volunteers and make sure that they're having a quality experience and so um part of the work this year was um doing some I am going backwards you're doing it great am I doing great I don't feel like I'm doing great Josh all along you do an amazing job small shop and between you and Victoria and ren you've done a phenomenal job so you're trending in the right direction with this slide deck as well we are thank you he's so good all right so um we did go out and
041do some volunteer listening sessions um we went to uh Downey Stanley Blicks Mountain uh manitu Park Baker um we met with some folks out in Northeast Tacoma at merer um the healthy kids uh Coalition brought their volunteers together we had one vol unteer listening session online um and then we did a survey of our volunteers from 311 March 11th through the uh 15th of April and so we wanted to get data back to bring to you to um to really let you know what our volunteers are experiencing um and how we can improve and so we I included in my report to you kind of a synopsis of that report so you should have gotten that with this report um that gives you some more detailed information um but let's see I don't see there's
042a slide that I think is missing um from this report um but I wanted to give you some highlights so the reasons that our volunteers said that they that they volunteer in our schools is that they wanted to support teachers and staff um in the school buildings they want to find out what's happening inside of our schools um they want to support their students and they said volunteerism was a way for them to do that uh they also volunteer because they want to build relationships with educators other parents and the community so our volunteers are finding value in being in our school building supporting students and teachers um we talked about uh they talked about the ways that they volunteer the majority of our volunteers volunteer for special events and projects in schools they also
043provide classroom support um they help with fundraising and then holiday efforts so we have some annual events and activities that happen and we lean on volunteers um for those events and activities they did have um and shared some suggestions and some concerns um and these are one of the things that our office will be working to support schools in doing at a district level and a school level um but they said that they would appreciate better communication about volunteer opportunities they want to know how um they can best be utilized and that's not always clear um better organization of volunteer um opportunities in school so the systemization of volunteer opportunities knowing what they're going to be doing when they go in and having a point of contact UM building relationship with Educators teachers and Community
044they said welcoming environments are very important depending on where you go sometimes uh volunteers are a little bit more welcome than others um so they want again to be welcomed uh paperwork they said an online application would be nice so we have automated the application but because we don't have a centralized volunteer system each time they go into a school building once a year but even if they go in once a year at one school and they have a child at another school we don't always share information um so they might have they have to do two applications so they said you know an online system where they would go in one time once a year to fill out an application um would be ideal um they talked about removing barriers um for ptas and
045Community groups to use schools after hours um we know that we do have folks inside our buildings but there are some cost asso Associated when you have custodial um after hour stuff so we're we're um kind of exploring how we can be creative um around getting folks in our buildings after hour um one thing that came up um several times was translation services so when we're holding volunteer events and Community meetings and activities at schools they would love to have more volunteer or more translation services um at those at school um events and activities again clear points of contact for volunteers and again um welcoming environments and um kind of a system a systematized volunteer recognition process we don't really have anything um that is um districtwide um volunteer appreciation so schools do it in
046their own ways but and they said that thanks from the students um is a lot of where they get their Joy from but it would be nice to have those volunteer um uh opportunities to be recognized for their volunteerism and to know how many um volunteer hours that they are actually um providing for the district so again this comes about um would be best done through a centralized system so we've been looking at different ways um throughout the years to try to do something around um systematizing our system without spending a lot of money um and so we're still doing some research on that so you will have some recommendations from our departments and some changes that we can make based on the recommendations uh and the data that we collected from our volunteers so
047I'll be happy to bring that back to you um and then you all can let me know if you approve of the recommendations and the things going forward so it was a great process it was nice to get back out into Community but we did host those listening sessions as you asked or as you asked us to do um and again we have that full report that you should have received in my paperwork okay all right the other Benchmark measure that I um report to you at this time of the year is um the number of expanded learning opportunities that we were able to formalize for this particular school year 2023 2024 you will see that we have 19 for this school year um it there is a decrease um from last year as you
048can see pretty much a 70% decrease um there's multi um there's multiple factors for this one factor is a positive factor um we for the last couple of years have been working in partnership with the contracts office that when we do establish new Partnerships they're multi-year Partnerships so we're not going to have to do them every year so they're going to be a decrease in the number of Partnerships just because of that which is great less paperwork for our partners less paperwork for us and if it's an ongoing effective um collaboration there's no need for us to do the paperwork every year um they they are monitored but again we don't have to um go through that entire process the other um reason that there were less than this year um is because we do
049have an automated automated um partner request um process that that happens via um our website and so when folks want to come and partner with the district um because it's automated it's very easy for us to shift that to another department so they might be saying hey we want to partner on this Career and Technical education partnership we're able to go ahead and shift that over to CTE or if it's something that has to do with mental health we're able to send that to Laura and her team so about 20% of the 37 requests that we received this year for partnership were dispersed to other departments so that's one reason that that number is decreased for our office this year the other is really budget impacts um there has been um a slower processing time
050for formal formalizing our Partnerships um and I think just generally in the district things have been moving um slower um because of capacities being decreased um and also budget um part of my budget was used to seed expanded learning opportunities to see if something worked we don't have those funds anymore and so you can see it's reflective in the number that we're able to establish we are still open to Partnerships when Partners come with where there's a program that doesn't require funding or they have their own funding we're still getting those into the works and I'm processing M us and contracts but budget is definitely having an imp impact on our partnership numbers you'd like to see this every year um because the partnership office is not the only Department that establishes and formalizes Partnerships
051in the district this is how the pi divides up into who formalizes Partnerships um or and creates those M us and contracts um each year this is what it looks like for the 2023 2024 school year so um the partnership data reflects again new elos um we did have a decrease we had 37 um submissions this year um we were only able to formalize 19 of those so far but we're still in conversations and still working we'll be working throughout the summer um and so at the um my next report to you in December when I give you the final volunteer numbers I'll also be be able to report to you the final um expanded learning opportunity numbers that have been established for this school year cu the school year isn't over and we still
052we work um through the summer um so I am have some in process but again things have been um impacted um because of budget Amanda I just want to jump in real quickly and because uh that second bullet is it's a decrease in new Partnerships new Partnerships Amanda works and her shop works with a lot of ongoing partners and so even when we talk about new El's are partnership with the partnership office Green trike metr parks and the 60 other partners that provide beyond the bell and Club B opportunities the participation is an all-time high over 25,000 participants and so in some of that data as Amanda's well done a great job of articulating some of the challenges we Face Amanda's also helping Foster those and maintain those current to have more access and reach
053within the current relationships too so yeah just wanted to contextualize that a little bit Thank you And to clarify a lot of the partners that I manage and Partnerships that I establish are the ones that don't fit into the beyond the bail School Beyond system so those will be our highered partners and some of those Partners so I'm mainly talking about what happens in in in my purview so any questions I was um yeah I was curious with the 37 new partners that you're still working through like um what is the um uh diversity of like offering of those like are there are there new partners coming to us um that are filling areas that that you were fostering or we've been fostering to try and fill in terms of um I don't really know
054how I'm asking this question it's not coming out very well I can share with you the list of the partners that are requesting partnership they are very diverse so you have some established um maybe girl serving organizations out of Seattle that want to come down to Tacoma and offer services um you have one-time programs that want to come in to do something one time so we get we get a real mix of folks that want to partner support schools we have people that you know will submit a partnership they actually don't have a program but they want to fit in somewhere and serve and so a lot of those folks we refer over to our green chart partners and fit them in there but um it's there's a lot of different kinds but I can
055send you an email so you can check that out any other questions all right thank you thank you Amanda and thank you [Music] Amanda um item moving on to item 8.2 Head Start uh Head Start year in review Miss there she is tonight we have Miss uh our fearless leader for early learning Miss Michelle R Lewis and one of our amazing partners for Head Start ecap program all right good evening I have a um an overview for you for our year in review and then I also have our policy council president Alicia here I said it wrong again our Alicia here to be able to give some perspective on what it's like being on policy Council heard them States the bottom but all right um so just some of our accomplishments for this year and
056this is specifically for Head Start um is that our head start I am very proud to say that we have the highest enrollment in our region we are one of the only contractors that are not in um uh enrollment on on an enrollment plan for not having um adequate enrollment of 97% or above so that we are very proud that um through all of the efforts that we were able to keep in our consistent enrollment um our other thing um that we are very very proud of is we've been reporting to you over the last year that we finally um finished our office of Head Start Federal review this is the Large review that talks about how our compliance is um within our within the program are we meeting the deliverables of that Grant and
057that we were found in 100% compliance we had no findings and that was a great um tribute to the staff and the families that participated in that review as well as um all of your guys' support um for keeping us fully enrolled in funding um again our attendance rate we are meeting our performance standards at over 85% um we have just completed our self assessment you should be getting a report early next week on that we had our community members our Head Start families our policy Council um take a look at all of our performance for the year here and make some recommendations for continuous Improvement and this year um after going through all of the pandemic we were able to reestablish our health Advisory Board and we had a health advisory committee meeting that
058had over 10 of our local Community Partners to be able to come in and provide us with different resources for the families in Head Start From the health department the law enforcement um to Early Head Start was there to be able to provide to some different opportunities um we are very proud to report that we are continuously seeing our increase in kindergarten Readiness so our um scores from Fall to Spring in our domains we are at 85% of meeting uh all of the children meeting kindergarten Readiness expectations um we have provided our conscious discipline workshops to families and staff again this year um families are very interested and engaged in conscious discipline and learning what we're doing foral in the classroom with our preschoolers and being able to bridge that home to school um seal
059learning um we are very very excited that the office of Head Start is continuing to allow um snap food program as well as Child Care Subsidy as to be categorically eligible so for a head start um families have to be within 100% of the poverty level which means a family of four would need to make under $35,000 a year to qualify for our Head Start programs but being able to expand that to snap and Child Care Subsidy if a family is receiving any of those benefits from our state they are automatically eligible regardless of their income so that is something that's helping our enrollment and helping our families because we know our economy here within Washington state is significantly different than other parts of the country our next steps as we're going to continue to
060reach our full enrollment and continue to do our community outreach we're going to maintain our High attendance rates um we have adjusted our staffing model due to some budget shortfalls that you've heard about this um throughout this presentation tonight um we have created a new Staffing model that was approved by our policy Council as well as the board to ensure that we are still holding all 400 slots for Head Start and ensuring that we were having uh created a new Staffing support model to ensure quality um deliverables and a quality experience for our children and families um we are addressing the key findings again within our um self assessment updating our community assessment to always re-evaluate our community needs as we're putting forth our new five-year Grant cycle and that we are um providing families
061with ongoing um social and emotional support we know coming out of the pandemic we are seeing a lot of Children and Families as well as our staff just um having some more traumatic experiences and we want to ensure that we are supporting that um whole child as well as whole family approach to Head Start and now that I had all of the stuff that we've done accomplishments I would really love um to introduce our policy council president um she is new this year and she's going to talk a little bit about her experience um in our Head Start program this year [Music] CH good evening my name is aricia at Tian for um and I am I have the honor of serving as the policy Council chair and one of the main reasons why I
062am serving on the policy Council chair there's two reasons so first um I have spent the last 10 years of my career in education so I worked at peace Community Center and the after school program I was with college success foundation for a while and more recently I'm at the University of Washington Tacoma serving students and so my son had no choice for his mother to be involved in education and to have a household where we really prioritize education and so the policy Council really gave me a formal way to be a part of my son's education um the other reason is that my mom was really big on being a part of all six of her children's education and so when I was in Middle School and High School I did not appreciate it
063um my mom was coming up to the school and when she knew all of my teachers names and she was calling them during the day didn't appreciate it um but now that I'm a parent I get it I appreciate it and now that I'm working with you um I appreciate all of the parents who are involved and I've been disappointed that we don't have more parents who are involved because I see that it takes a village it takes a village to make sure that education is a priority both inside of the home but then also taking making it a priority at the school that um parents and teachers are working in collaboration um and so the policy Council has been a great way for me to be a part of my kids [Music] education ARA
064I just want to say thank you um because uh you're dedicating your time and volunteering your time um that's benefiting you and your family and your son but also um those that you get to serve with and volunteer with and your expertise is deep so and your experience is really vast so I I just want to say thank you um because we know um this work doesn't happen in silos it works best when we're doing it together so thank you very much and then our last slide is our policy Council um representation from all of the schools and I just wanted to acknowledge that um every school that has a Head Start program has a policy Council representative as well as an alternate that attends monthly meetings um and supports the program in writing and
065rewriting our policies have any questions for us or comments we're always grateful when you come and we're especially grateful when um Head Start policy Council folks come so thank you very much for your time tonight thank you both moving on to item 8.3 the financial uh Financial update so tonight I have Mr krie kman coming to give us a budget update we give you monthly budget updates these are also available on the budget page uh you can go on and see uh the budget updates um throughout the year that you've received on an or a monthly basis great thank you uh this is a ongoing update that we've given you the last couple of months as well um highlights on the clicker on principles that we have here is first of all um we realize
066that we need to be sensitive to our diverse needs and the disparities in our school district and in our community as we're going through the budget and maintaining and enhancing that quality of learning that we have in our school district we do that by also relying on data and kpis that we have available as we're making these uh decisions and recommendations along the way too you've seen as we've been here and also on our websites uh being transparent about what's going on and providing tools for the community to get involved uh at the end of that we've talked about uh some position eliminations that we've had as we've went through the cycle in the last uh last year and we make every effort to reassign people into another spot within the school district that they
067can be have a positive impact as well so what drives our funding issues uh you've heard from our superintendant as well here but we have a an enrollment Decline and that decline you'll see in a chart in the Future Part of the slide deck here it's a slight decline over the next couple of years but it certainly is a decline in enrollment and that uh impacts our budgeting as well additionally inflation and escalating costs in areas like in nutrition services uh we have the C program where we provide meals for all students uh in our school district uh while doing that um food cost continue to raise um we have uh reimbursement rates that are not keeping up with that through what we have through the legislator at this time uh additionally throughout the district
068benefits are more costly uh and we have Market driven salaries uh that we use to retain the best people uh in our school district to make those positive impacts on our our students also eser funds are uh transitioning out this is the last year we have a minimal amount and there's no Esra funds available for next year as we get to the end of that uh Transportation cost you heard about mcken vento and the positive impact that's had on our students but also the impact it is to to a budget to maintain those expectations too we've heard recently too that we're doing a different approach for the Transportation uh looking to save some uh or reduce some costs there while providing the same good quality transportation for our students uh in our next year's budget
069uh special education the per student costs uh they far exceed what the state's allocation is and more students of course continue to be identified and taken care of in that the the prototypical model for education is also something that we're funding 6 or the state's funding 66% of that um when when there's a continued need for us as well and uh our levies are limited here you'll see on the top line is the budget for each of these years going back to the 2018 2000 2019 year the Top Line are the budgets on the left hand side is the revenues that were budgeted the right hand side are uh expenditures that were budgeted the number down below is what we actually experienced during each one of those years and then this current year is on
070the far right hand side of course there's no number yet for the end of the year because we've not made it there yet um down below you'll see the uh Trend that we have for the fund balance reserve and as expenditures continue to be more than what revenues are um that uses up some of our fund balance Reserve we're now at the uh lowest point at the beginning of the year that we had which was 18.3 million um compared to Prior years so the accomplishments that we have had as you remember about a year ago we started talking about mitigation strategies and implementing some of those they've had a positive impact on reducing that Trend um but that has meant that we've had to have some position eliminations and again being careful what we do
071and trying to put people in other places within the district that they can have a positive impact so some of that is position eliminations some of it is a shifting costs around for staff discretionary reductions have been a big F Focus since about a year ago again that's we've had a pretty positive impact on those what that means is sometimes revising contracts or cancelling contracts watching what we're doing for supplies I mentioned I think the last time we met that um it's it's great to have some of the different I was out in our purchasing group just recently and saw that I was getting stuff that was on a purple paper and what's with the purple paper well they're using up all the excess stuff they've got before buying something new and I I think
072that kind of Grassroots approach to saving money throughout the district has been really positive for us uh Sr cost elimination we've talked about and then uh another one is that the exempt salaried employees um salaries have been frozen for for next year as well our superintendent talked about uh excess properties that uh we're eliminating which reduces our utility costs as well as upkeep and other operating costs for those uh this is the trend that we talked about for student enrollment you can see currently over the next couple years there's just a slight decrease but we're not seeing the demographer is not Shing us there's going to be any kind of an increase over the next couple years so the budgets that we set now will be the type of budgets we'll be using for the
073next couple of years on uh this slide is showing uh us the um uh combined Central and administrative FTE that we have we're we're now near the low that we had back in 2018 as we've tried to eliminate all the positions that we can that are not uh um that we can do something different somewhere else and uh during that time period for and that'll be again kind of a benchmark we'll have for the next couple of years with those so the administrative group represents administrative Services it is not all administrators in that space and so the way the state categorizes you can see those different activities and so if someone's working in uh nutrition services at in a certain level uh they may not be an exempt employee which is what oftentimes people think
074is a traditional administrator they but uh they are categorized as the administrative group and uh being involved with the community so we've got our budget calculator that you're aware of and uh we we share that with the community each year uh we also have uh budget webinars or uh videos that will be available for the public to see by the end of this month and then June we've got the formal public hearings for our proposed budget some considerations that we have for the budget of course as we're balancing this is rebuilding our fund balance uh right now it's less than 5% which is what the board goal is for us and as we're building back up to that as well as reducing other costs along the way uh this right sizing of the budget is
075really not just for this year onetime event but it really is for uh the next couple of years as we see enrollment sting about where it is and this budget work has been ongoing again about a year ago we really identified what would needed to be done and have put those things in place where we are today just want to add a context is you know when we think about when you've heard uh Ki mentioned a couple times what this means for the next couple years we can see that enrollment it's flat um if the legislators don't do anything different that's what it looks like in that space if Washington State chooses to continue to fund schools at the same level so there is an opportunity for communities to Advocate and and to continue to
076find resources but um it's important that we don't know those things and so we have to make those decisions right now and so as we've been making some of those adjustments this year it helps to prepare for next year uh for that budget and and ongoing um the expenditure side or the budget will be finalized within the next uh couple of weeks here this kind of summarizing the current Next Step so we are looking at how to balance that budget um as we go into next year and that includes some some tough things for us to take a look at and figure out how it all works into that which course eliminating Esser both uh uh funding and expenditures at for this next year um adding in transition to kindergarten what those legislative impacts might
077be that we have for next year and uh Levy balancing as well we have special education and transportation that we're looking at how to provide the best services for those that at a cost that's sustainable and there's a whole lot more there are as you can imagine lots of different of programs and so forth that we're looking at how to how to make that sustainable years last uh real bit of information here is uh of course the at the end of May we'll have that budget Video available for the public uh June 6th will be the budget hearing and then June 20th will be the budget adoption questions M you have are there any questions comments all right no thank you so much k for the for the report thank you k um moving on
078to item 8.4 Human Resources updates good evening and just to give you an update of where we are with our certificated staff and when we talk about C certificated staff that means not only our teachers who hold a teaching certificate but also folks like counselors nurses uh and also uh like a psychologist a speech therapist so regulations by the state for those staff members that hold a certificate um each year we give a contract to our staff members that hold a certificate and I'm so proud to announce that 98% of our certificated staff have already returned their contracts and are signed up for next year so as we talk about Tacoma being a great place to work um our our staff have voted with their contracts and are coming back to work again next year
079we just have one that's outstanding um and that's for one of our staff members that are on leave so this is an annual process we try to wrap that up before May 15th of every year another deadline that we have by May 15th of every year is something called displacement and displacement is a term that's defined in our collective bargaining agreement with the Tacoma Education Association so displacement is basically a fancy word that means transfer um so there can be usually two different types of transfer it can be an involuntary transfer where because of the Staffing or of uh sorry because of the enrollment of our students we may have to move staff from one building to another um there's also a second kind of displacement which is voluntary um and every year we send
080out questionnaires to our staff and there are staff who say well I may want to go to a different school for a variety of personal reasons or professional reasons and so the staff may also ask for displacement displacement is important to remember that the person absolutely has a job they're going to retain their contract they're going to retain their pay and also retain their benefits and so just another quick snapshot of our collective bargaining agreement displacements are covered in an entirely separate section of the collective bargaining agreement from a reduction in force and you just heard Mr camp and talk a little bit about reduction in force want to clarify again we haven't done any reduction of force or layoff of any certificated staff nor are we planning to do so the reductions in force
081we followed um your guiding principles which is to stay as far away from the classroom as possible we did that earlier this year with primarily reductions in force for some certif uh for some administrators at the central office as well as some um office professionals and we did do five of school administrators but again what we're doing right now what you might be hearing about that's going on in the schools right now is to displacement um it's an ordinary annual process and it is not a reduction in force or a layoff um to give you an idea of how many displacements we're doing this year it's about the same as what we've done in years past um you'll see that 20 of our displacements this year are voluntary meaning that those are again people who
082have asked us we'd like to move to a different school and so the remaining 45 are displacements that are due to um program changes or enrollment at a particular school now this isn't to downplay that it still has an effect on the person who's going to be changing um who didn't ask for change and I just want to do a special shout out to um a person who's on our team who absolutely goes above and beyond in this displacement process um we have a team member who picks up the phone and calls every single certificated staff member and tells them I'm so sorry this is going to happen you're going to have a displacement but I am here with you I'm going to make sure that I'm here to answer all of your questions you
083can call me anytime and I'm going to make sure that I try to give you the best possible placement that you want that's the kind of service that I have never seen in any place that I've worked in my career and that person is Steph jedrick Stephen I just want everyone to give you a round of applause I told him he didn't even need to be here tonight that I had this presentation and he's here tonight because he really cares so much about the staff that he tries to support in this process so it's a difficult process but I want to let you know that um I couldn't imagine uh a better person to try and Shepherd um anyone through it than Stephen and that's our update thank you there any questions for Renee okay
084thank you so much Renee thank you Renee um all right moving on to item 8.5 uh audit outcomes update some of you folks have had a chance on early mornings to meet Mr Paul Walker and uh Paul is a a tremendous asset to the school district and uh I've asked Paul to come to give you an update about our audit thank you good evening um president kading and members of the board my name is Paul Walker director of internal audit for the Tacoma School District I am here to present the most recent uh audit report completed by our external Auditors the state of Washington every year the um Washington state auditor office reviews um the financial statements and federal awards for the Tacoma school district and um they just recently released the results of that
085audit and I'm happy to say that we have received a clean audit opinion clean means good it means the kind that we wanted to receive they had no issues to report in those two areas that they reviewed of financial statements and federal audits which are the funds that we receive from the federal government I'll speak briefly about each area uh for the financial statements in their opinion they said that the statements were presented fairly uh they said there were no uncorrected misstatements no deficiencies in the design or operation of internal controls and they found no instances of non-compliance for our federal Awards the grants that we receed from the federal government they would be required to look at at least 40% of those Awards because of the size of the programs that they looked at
086it turned out to be 76% of what they looked at $62 million um they stated that we the district complied with all Federal grant requirements of which there are Myriad and that there were no deficiencies in the design or operation of our internal controls so this is a good report for us uh we are very pleased with it and I would like to say that this type of report does not uh occur by happen stance it starts with you all the board and with our executive um leadership our state Auditors are looking at things what they call the tone at the top which is to look at our ethics and our compliance and our accountability uh and they they uh regularly interview uh members of the board and our superintendent um for each audit and
087also the good work from our business uh services division um our finance department our payroll accounts payable um purchasing budget all those departments have a hand in this uh including uh other departments that are uh uh part of the interface with our external Auditors human resources Department um our Enrollment Services all of them together uh helped collaborate to lead to this uh excellent uh opinion that we received and that concludes my report any um I just want to say thank you having um being one of those people that shows up at 7:30 in the morning um for the citizens audit Finance um committee meetings um it was really um an interesting process it was my first um it was my first time through this formal process um and I found it really informative and to
088work with the um Auditors at the State office were um they were um they were really wonderful to work with um would you share just a little bit about how they came and partnered with us and to help with this really pretty cumbersome process we they um now are you talking about our weekly meetings that we have with our state Auditors are you talking about well there were there were comments during the meeting and when they were participating in the you know presenting the report but that that you had talk you and your team had talk about how they had come and like met and like through the audit process oh absolutely does is that triggering you we yes um in Prior years uh during covid they would do most things remotely and um that
089was fine during covid and then once Co ended then they um still uh did most of their things remotely but we reached out internal audit reached out to a number of our departments and one of the things that our department said is that they would rather have them on site and so that was one of the things that the state Auditors did they actually would go out to our various departments and speak in person to people which was very helpful and the other thing was that we would have a weekly meeting with our finance department and internal audit and our external audits to communicate uh to collaborate to get in front of any issues that they may have noted um any difficulties that they would have we would help them uh get through that and
090then they in turn would present anything that they may be looking at um and then we could help them you know just work through that process as they helped uh us as well thank you thank you for adding that additional context just want to thank Paul and Trang uh uh there there our internal audit team is just two people um and uh we have a lot of vulnerabilities in that and so we appreciate uh when we talk about partnering with the state auditor we have the luxury of being required to pay for a state audit on a regular basis and so it it is uh important for us to have that checks and balances uh to make sure that we don't have blind spots we have other audits as well uh you heard Michelle R
091Lewis mention uh the uh Federal review of performance uh we have recently received a special ed audit results uh from our OPI and I'm pleased to repeat that there were no findings in that which is another clean audit and then today we received our Title One audit another Federal program and once again uh a clean audit with no findings and so very proud of the team our team learns from Paul and train about making sure they have a high level of expertise and we're very fortunate to have them in our community so thank you both thank you thank you so much Paul thanks Paul right moving on to item uh nine members of the public wishing to address the board uh Schoolboard members uh public comment guidelines school board members encourage public part participation your
092civil input is appreciated board members will not respond to your comments during the meeting the superintendent or design 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 um you can contact the board office in advance of the meeting for U disability accommodations as well 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 Civility that the board imposes on itself examples of unimil uncivil comments include comments that are lious or slanderous under a legal standard are unwarranted are and unwarranted invasion of privacy are obscene or indecent pursuant to the Federal Communications act
093or any rule or regulation of the Federal Communications Commission violate School District policy or procedure related to harassment intimidation bullying or discrimination or incite an unlawful act on school premises or violate a lawful School regulation or create a material and substantial disruption to 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 will not tolerate and comments about the Board District and or staff that are negative yet still civil in nature the board will exercise authority to maintain order in a Content neutral manner um and there are two options um there is verbal comment and then there's also written comment
094um and we do have written comment um that has been attached to the agenda um General councel benro I'm going to turn it back over to you thank you President keing we have uh 18 comments for tonight so I think we have a a two-minute timer this evening if that's the decision of okay president okay so do we have the oh it's on the screen yeah we're still learning where things are yeah yeah so members of the public uh there will be a I'm sorry Milly did you no please uh to your left there is a timer uh you will hear a ding uh through that timer as well and so um that is would be your two minute limit so please just finish your sentence at that time and uh we'll continue to move
095forward all right our first Speaker this evening is West Solomon followed by Lucien Croco and when you come to the microphone please um announce uh just say your name for the record please hello hello I'm Wes Solomon uh of Stadium High School Wes you can move the microphone up if that's more comfortable for you West can you hear me yeah um if you the the coma Public Schools remove the career guidance specialist system you will be damaging the school structure that you represent is your job as a school district to present opportunities to students however with the current actions you wish to take with the budget cuts next year you'll be eliminating opportunities for students as well as future students first as a student going into my final year at Stadium I've seen many students
096use a career guidance system it's been incredibly helpful to all of them additionally I have seen several students come in search of scholarships for college they received the information as detailed as they desired in a quick helpful and timely manner that could not be achieved with a system of already overworked counselors that you are attempting to distribute work onto thanks to the opportunities uh our career guidance specialist has offered I have found a new college that I have decided to pursue as well as a seever as well as several jumps jumps jump starts on programs that I need to to complete to achieve my vision of what I see a success I would have never found these programs found these programs if the career guidance specialist system hadn't existed this program is El if this
097program is eliminated for students like myself who are seeking to graduate at com public schools there will be an immediate result of a higher stress higher anxiety graduation process the career center at Stadium asks as a safe space for students to pursue their Futures I've seen several students in an elevated emotional state as a result of the news they that they will be losing the the support structure that the career center offers along with the space that is designated for it although I had only found the news on Wednesday I have started a petition and achieved over 250 student signatures from Stadium alone each and every one of them disagrees with the decision you have made if you continue to work with your plan students currently enrolled as well as future students who will be
098enrolled at your schools will be negatively impacted thank you thank [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you our our next speaker is Lucian John followed by Betsy kindblade hello good evening board good evening Community I am Lucian John Croco ninth grader at ninth grader at Stadium High School the position of the career center at stadium is very important and should not be elim eliminated as it's the foundation for many youth Futures in and outside of high school to give an example during students own time time the career center offers guest speakers to come in and give students the right mindset for high school and their Futures not only that but it also offers field trips for youth who are looking for places to start their next Journey After High School like universities technical colleges community colleges and
099military school this is very effective for students who are confused or don't know where to start when thinking about their future but it ensures they have their best foot forward equally important is the position of the career center at Stadium to oversee students progress and decisions for the future it helps by giving knowledge to and preparing high school students for the college tests like the PSAT sat sa VAB and the ACT tests not only that but it is a place to help to get help for students applications letters and essays making it easier and less stressful for students to apply for colleges this takes some weight off the students who are anxious about those tests and help other students make sure their applications are ready for colleges to look over on the whole of the
100subject the career center provides a multitude of opportunities for youth to expand their minds on what they want to pursue and help others prepare for their next steps when applying for college without this help and support a lot of students at Stadium High School would truly be lost on what to do with themselves in the future I personally wouldn't feel as welcome as Stadium without the career center there as it's a place to work communicate and eat lunch in peace and safety not only that but miss jerson is the adviser for indigenous student group and without her I'm afraid indigenous students at Stadium would not feel welcome thank you [Applause] [Music] our next speaker is Betsy kindblade followed by Jason struna hi there my name is Betsy kin blade I'm a proud parent of a
101stadium student and Edna Travis um I'm here to speak about the proposed Staffing displacements for the 2425 school year like so many in this room I'm disheartened to hear about the resources being taken away from Tacoma students I am especially disheartened to hear that these cuts are mostly support service positions these losing these positions is going to affect the most marginalized of Tacoma students I understand that the legislature does not adequately fund the schools what I do not understand is why the cuts are coming from the lower end of the district's pay scale instead of the top of it for years I have heard that t TPS was topheavy with administrators and that they were paid well above average after digging around I found the top paid roles with TPS our superintendent the four Deputy
102superintendant the CEO and the CE CFO their combined annual salaries for the 2223 school year was a little over $2 million for seven people what does this mean it means the superintendent's salary is$ 28 4% higher than the median salary of a TPS employee and 280% higher than the national average the four deputies superintendent salaries are roughly 220% higher than both the median TPS salary and the national average imagine how many students could be served if those salaries were only 100% higher than the national average how many more could be served if those salaries were on on par with the national aage instead of cutting support services please consider taking a page from the school districts in Olympia and peal and have the highly paid administrators take Furlow days during the low or no contact
103days with students summer break is just around the corner I'm sure there are some Trails these highly paid administrators could explore on their days off [Applause] [Music] our next speaker is Jason struna followed by Molly erford I'm Jason struna uh on October 12 2023 I joined a group of parents attending the TBS school board meeting to speak in supportive supportive teachers and student facing staff who had been maligned by members of the school board at previous at the previous meeting for advocating too loudly for more resources for edit Travis students and the diverse communities that serve those that that school serves the Travis staff at the previous meeting had sought to bring attention to the administration's cuts to the Travis budget that led to increased class sizes through teacher displacements class combinations reduced behavioral support
104and created social emotional conditions detrimental to learning and teaching for students and staff alike they were pleading for help help centered on students with the least resources and among the highest needs in the district yet their calls for support uh for unhoused students legally mandated support for students with IEPs support for students who have faced trauma and ultimately support for all of the hundreds of Travis students who had been negatively impacted by TPS admin's Cuts fell on De ears and provoked offensiveness on the part of the board word of the video recording of that meeting spread amongst parents and led to the mobilization that brought us to speak during the public comment period on on October 12 2023 where we commended the energy dedication and care that Travis teachers and staff have for our students
105and expressed our dismay for the Cavalier dismissal of their concerns and advocacy members of the board and representatives of the superintendent's office listened and to their credit respon responded to our justifiable outrage at that night and invited us to talk in more detail about our concerns and frustrations at the end of the board meeting the Travis parents and staff were present joined members of the superintendent's office and the board to talk further about our complaints seek information clarify policy and eventually we're invited to have other meetings uh that concerned issues like Title 9 resour for Title 9 resources for mckin vento students resource allocation methods Etc um we we essentially felt heard and seen at least by the board if we didn't say that uh that we our needs were SA but the current Cuts
106Travis staff faces and other staff around the the district face are all the more egregious having after having been seen and heard by the members of the superintendent's office we recently learned that several of the positions occupied by staff that spoke for increased resources in September 23 will not be filled in this upcoming Academic Year the loudest voices for advocating for the students with the highest needs will be displaced to other schools by the boards and superintendent wisdom and that the progress staff at Travis have made will be rewarded with diminished resources for the Academic Year up coming thank [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you our next speaker is Molly erford followed by Jennifer good morning or good good evening my name is Molly erford and I am a kindergarten teacher at Sheridan Elementary I am
107here to tonight in supported my students in the entire student body at Sheridan last week sherid received disappointing news that our social worker Katie bushard has been displaced to say that this is disappointing is an understatement Sheridan Elementary located on Tacoma's east side is one of the largest elementary schools in the district the needs of the students at Sheridan can be overwhelming at times especially since we seem to be bursting at the seams in most of our classrooms and due to budget cuts have already lost so many important supports the support Katie provides is vital to the growth of the whole child and it is hard to imagine filling the needs of our students without her Katie supports the needs of our students in so many ways she is always on the lookout for kiddos
108who need a little extra whether it's a pair of shoes that fit a quiet office to reset on a bad day or a friend as Katie host lunch bunches regularly in hopes to connect kids that need a little support in the Friendship Department during her eight years at Sheridan Katie has established many Partnerships that bring in resources such as food clothing and various Services last year my class nicknamed her the snack fairy because she would pop in every few weeks and fill our cabinets with gram carers and goldfish for snack time Katie supports do not only serve kids while they are in school her supports go beyond the classroom as well Katie supports our families in crisis families that need help with a holiday meal groceries and setting up doctor's appointments I could go on
109and on about the many ways Katie supports our students but for the sake of time I'll leave it at this our students that shared and come to school with so many needs not possible for one teacher to meet every one of the these needs it takes a village and our social worker is part of that Village her workpl an instrumental part in the growth and successes of such thank you [Music] our next speaker is Jennifer Bell followed by Penny Kramer hello am I close enough to the microphone yes thank you I can't quite reach um my name is Jennifer Bell and I am the Tacoma Education Association uh secretary and I also teach seventh grade at jron Middle School um I'm here today to talk about two issues the first uh and most urgently is
110the career specialist position um six years ago I was in the situation that our career special career guidance specialists in this room are in now um I was actually facing a riff they had displaced all career guidance Specialists um except for two of us who were Rift um ultimately it was determined that that work needed to go somewhere which I think we still know and um four of them ended up right back where they were serving the high school students that they needed to be serving um and so I would very much like to Advocate today that that's really what needs to happen again um I can tell you a little bit about where the work they do won't be going it won't be going to outside agencies um I love outside agencies they do
111a lot of great work for us but under our contract it's very clear that duties presently performed by bargaining unit members shall not be assigned to any other bargaining unit outside agencies or individuals without providing the association notice of the proposed assignment and an opportunity to bargain its impact noner certificated Personnel will not be used to replace teachers um so I that's very clear um so that's not a place that that work will be going the work will not be going to a software program I know that the state has finally identified the uh software platform that they're going to use for our high school and Beyond plan which is great but um I don't know if it will surprise anyone when I say that students will not effectively use software if they're not counseled
112for it um that was a fast two minutes thank you thank you Jennifer our next speaker is Penny Kramer followed by Jose Martinez Perez Jr very far away good evening I'm Penny Kramer president of Tacoma Education Association I'd like to congratulate and thank all of our retirees and I also want our retirees to know that you're always welcome back as a guest teacher we we need more um tea members are facing displacements it's stressful and it impacts so many lives I want to acknowledge Steven dedich um he's in the back he's a master at his job who takes time to consider feedback and has partnered with me to make improvements in this difficult process over the last two years so that our members have increased input in determining their next position he's been working this
113entire meeting and I'm sure my inbox reflects that displacements are directly affecting students in the classroom as you've heard from a few already removing counselors social workers career guidance specialists and other support staff is a misstep which could have been avoided much of the work that displaced members is going to fall onto the plates of already overloaded and overworked Educators so I ask yet again what is being taken off the plates of our Educators yes there's legislative funding issues and there's also layers of Crisis across our district you've heard me speak about some of these partnership is a word used regularly but it's not put into action in a meaningful way tea represents about half the employees in TPS and we are the experts who are in the buildings with every student every day when
114large scale system changes are made at the top without input from the people who complete the work it's demoralizing there is a budget issue but we also have a management issue administrators should not be making unilateral decisions without first hearing about those impacts and including us in the decision making if there were jobs in other districts t PS would be losing highly qualified experienced staff because we're overloaded overworked undervalued and dismissed this should be a huge concern for our school board and our community and I urge you to engage all stakeholders and include us in the problem solving thank you next speaker is Jose Martinez prz Jr followed by anaise Glenn lroy and Kell price hello my name is Jose Martinez Perez Jr and I'm here uh representing the displacements for those career and guidance
115Specialists I ask that you guys reconsider especially for the damage it will cause you see as a first generation college student and American the career and guidance specialist at syus has Honestly made such a huge impact not only for myself but for my family you see as fasta consider continues to get more and more difficult it's something that needs more and more attention and frankly Miss Becca is the one that made this completely possible I didn't know what I wanted to do in my life I didn't know if College was an option I didn't know if my family could afford it financially or what I was going to do so my main vote was why not go to work and even then she was the one pushing me finding me opportunities and frankly taught me
116that college was an opportunity for me she showed me that as long as you're willing to work for it you can get it and there's Pathways to get it but nowadays they're very limited unfortunately the scholarship I have gotten is no longer going to be continued but I had the luckily opportunity to be guided by Miss Becca to get that college opportunity and frankly my family is not paying anything for my college education thanks to her you see guidance and career Specialists are needed multiple we not only at my school but as you've seen in stadium and other schools but for it to be taken away is like stripping a student of their opportunities and that is something that I cannot stand for thank you all right our next speaker I think we have a
117joint effort here I'm Glenn lroy and Kell price followed by Brian Bisson um hi I'm anaise and this is Kell and we're seniors at silus and we're also here to share our perspective on your budget cuts for the career thingy because like as a student you're like you're supposed to you're here for us and so um quite frankly like going into a senior year it's really scary there's a lot of stuff you don't know about like the fasta and um the high school Beyond plan and so when I went in I was like how am I going to afford this because I have have a huge family and of course like I'm a minority and col College is very expensive and because I had Miss Becca it was a lot more coming cuz she she
118guided me through all this stuff I didn't know before and I have a friend who's a first generation student and her dad was scared of the FASA and because of Miss Becca like they were able to work through it and so I also want to bring up fact that you're not only stripping like us from those resources but outside of being like um guidance person um she's like also involved in our school with um the GSA club with the scholarship committee with like choosing our graduation speaker so you're getting rid of that position while also getting rid of someone who's like really in integrated in our school and I don't think you I account for that when they're so much more than the position they have and also I mean just everyone being here having
119more comments than usual shortening our time to two minutes that should be enough to show that this is a huge issue and you should listen your people [Music] anything our next speaker is Brian Bisson followed by Casey parrot hi I'm Brian Bissell I'm a teacher at mounta High School uh uh Civics AP Government I also coach cross country and um budget cuts are terrible uh we we all hate them uh and I don't envy the position of those who have to make the decision so I appreciate all the work that you all have done to find uh cost cutting measures um and uh anyway I'm here on behalf of the uh career and guidance uh College and Career guidance counselors and uh on behalf of my students um I teach seniors and so they spend
120a lot of time in there um I see it every day I write so many passes there um and uh uh I just I I I gave my students an opportunity to volunteer to to do some writing uh today in class impromptu and I just kind of want to share some of their thoughts uh my personal experience with Mr Phillips has always been helpful she got me to change my decision and decide to go to college and likely the same with many other students over the years as a student of Mount in my opinion Mrs Phillips has the most important job here her job quite literally changes lives I can't stress enough how important and helpful she is again in my opinion for my future she is the person who has helped me the most
121and I can vouch for others that that is the case as well uh one of my best memories is applying to my dream College in front of my counselor and the feeling of telling her I got in uh without her I could not finish my resume my personal essay uh or finding a college suited for me uh without her I don't think I would have gotten far she has given me a safe place to help me when I'm in trouble in my own personal experiences I would not feel the confidence andess I have about my future if it were not for Miss Phillips she stayed hours helping me get in contact with FAFSA and didn't leave me alone in that process taking away the career uh uh uh counselor would be uh would be bad
122for students all right it goes on [Music] our next speaker is Casey per followed by Chelsea Vex all right hello hello how we doing today all right ah sorry that's how I work things all right uh my name is Casey parrot um I'm the college prep adviser over at Silas high school with college success Foundation um a Lincoln grad and a Tacoma native um it used to be back in the day you could graduate from high school apply to a random job and make a decent living for yourself this was the norm for my great-grandparents my grandparents and even my parents that time is quickly phasing out Georgetown University put together a study that determines 72% of the jobs in the United States will require some type of college education 42% of those jobs will
123require a bachelor's degree from a university and I'm not sure what the school district is doing to prepare these students for that cold heart fact but removing the career guidance specialist position was not the right move every staff member in the school system recognizes the power of education and I'm sure you do as well however they also recognize how difficult it is to apply to college and the process that goes with it our career guance guidance Specialists more importantly Rebecca Akerman was the only one on the TPS payroll whose sole job it is to prepare them for their next steps the countless hours pushing students to do more than the bare minimum Becca has made sure that our students are shining and given every opportunity that could be thrown their way I'm disappointed to say
124the least that DPS decided the future of our students uh is being taken away this position is incredibly important and I'm confused as to one of the Benchmark goals which which is and I quote developing plans for life after graduation while still in high school is important to a smooth transition to the next phase of students lives helping students plan their next steps and monitoring how many students are acting on their plans is important to determining our Student Success end quote and we're deciding to remove the exact position that is in charge of executing this this is important Rebecca jamaila Angela and Brandy deserve better than this they deserve they go above and beyond for our students and District should do the same my dad always had a saying if it ain't broke don't fix
125it thank [Music] you our next speaker is Chelsea Vex followed by Wendy hul hello my name is Dr vadex I'm a pediatric neuropsychologist in the community I can't even fathom the logic behind cutting these services in the middle of the worst Mental Health crisis our country has ever faced a crisis that has hit our teenagers harder than any other group in the last four years rates of anxiety and depression in adolescence increased by 65% that is six times higher than 2019 our teens are scared and overwhelmed and uncertain frontal stress is at an all-time high access to Mental Health Services is at an alltime l low social anxiety skyrocketed after covid and our teens are feeling disconnected and isolated all over the country programs are being rolled out in a desperate attempt to address this
126crisis except for here we're cutting their supports we're decreasing funding in the things that matter to them the things that make a difference High School is a critical time for a person it is a Crossroads where we make decisions about our future that will affect the rest of their lives there's no other time in a human's life where we are expected to make so many critical decisions about our future such a time would be stressful and overwhelming for the best of us and then consider that teenagers are dealing with underdeveloped brains they lack the cognitive development needed to process and synthesize all of these variables and this makes them as a group short-sighted impulsive and a bit illogical I love you guys but and yet despite the fact that we know more about cognitive development
127and the Adolescent brain than we ever have we are not using that knowledge to prioritize supportive systems during this transition and we are asking our teenagers to make life-altering decisions regarding their career paths and future trajectory and they need guidance they need to have someone break down the process someone to add structure and accountability to help them consider all the different factors that can make or break this next Stu for them they need someone who knows them and sees them above and beyond their grades or fleeting interests someone who can untangle all the threads and make this process a little less daunting because what these students do After High School matters it matters so much thank you I'm going to steal my wife's time now um no I'm sorry let's have you come back up
128when she comes up yeah if you want to come back our next speaker is Wendy hul Follow by followed by Noah Jorgenson um my name is Wendy hul I've been a Tacoma Public School parent and have worked in close partnership with our high schools over the past 10 years supporting postsecondary access and involment I'm here to address the forecasted displacements and cuts of the four College and Career guidance specialists at Stadium Lincoln Mount toomas and Silas I understand that the board and Administration has due to the failure of the Washington legislature to fully fund basic education um that you have to make these cuts um I respect how difficult these decisions must be and know how dedicated all of you are to our Student Success as you've heard from our students and parents and staff
129tonight um I just want to add my testimony to the critical role that our College and Career Specialists play in leading and coordinating post High School planning access and enrollment these four counselors Jamila Jones Brandy Gunderson Rebecca Akerman and Angela Phillips are seasoned veterans in their field and experienced gifted Educators with vital institutional knowledge that takes years to develop of Partnerships and Pathways and complex systems to navigate they have developed trusted and consistent relationships with with students and families that cannot be replaced by outside partners and they are the leaders in their buildings and in The District in the complex steps to college apprenticeship and career our building staff do not have the time or the expertise to replace them in eliminating these four essential positions our students especially lowincome first generation students will lose
130access to critical keys to their future we don't want our students just to graduate they must have a plan for After High School and the guidance to navigate these complex next steps I urge you to retain these four college and career counselor positions thank you for your time I think we have here Noah Jorgenson followed by Sophia Jorgenson hello my name is Noah Jorgenson I've been a TPS student for the past 10 years I'm currently a sophomore at Stadium High School I'm here to voice my opposition to your plans to eliminate the career guidance specialists in our high schools some people think the career center is only for seniors but that's not correct a year ago when I was a freshman I needed help with the summer program opportunity Brandy Gunderson in the stadium career
131center was an amazing help and resource because of her I got connected with the program with interim credentials and I spent about 140 hours that summer learning about electricians and the principles of electrical work including a trip to Clover Park Technical College I'm also a member of the stadium tennis team did you know that we have paid coaches for uh our Athletics including basketball baseball bowling cheer cross country fast pitch football golf soccer swimming tennis track and field volleyball water poo and wrestling I've also been told that we have more than two dozen paid coaches I've also been told that nearly half of our students are involved in sports that's great but it means that more than half of our students aren't part of sports where is their coach for many of them it's Miss
132Gunderson some of us wonder why there are more than two dozen coaches for our Sports and only one college coach where's the balance what about Equity PPS says it's committed to equity but it's hard to see that you really mean it when you plan to cut these positions I don't think anybody is asking for two dozen college coaches or 10 or five we definitely want and need to keep the one that we have every High School Toom deserves that please do not eliminate our career guidance Specialists thank Youk [Music] I think we've got Sophia jensson here followed by Charles jensson hello my name is Sophia jensson and I've been a TPS student for the past 12 years I'm currently a senior at Stadium High School and be will be graduating June 13 I'm here to
133voice my opposition uh to your plan to eliminate all career guidance specialists in our school district two years ago I felt confused and terrified about my life After High School I knew that I wanted to go to college but I was unsure about what I wanted to major in and the process of applying to colleges I soon realized that there was a lot I had to do in order to make my dream come true and I had no idea even where to start thinking about applying to college made me feel very overwhelmed scared and frustrated thankfully we have Miss genderson in the career center during the past two years I've heavily relied on the resources that the C Center has provided and has been extraordinarily helpful not only for me but for every single student
134at Stadium I can say for sure that Miss genderson has helped me more than any of my teachers I've had in the past four years at St I cannot imagine what would have happened if Miss jerson wasn't available to guide me in my fellow peers questions we had never ended and M jerson never stopped having answers she helped every step of the way with assisting with applications forms essays scholarship opportunities internships and a ton of support and unending explanations of the fasta waa and more I honestly don't know if I would be heading to college without her help and the support she has given me I can say without a doubt that would never have been able to completed all this complicated work without her help I know for sure that Miss genderson has profoundly
135had a profoundly positive impact on my life and there are dozens of my classmates who feel the same way it seems very unfair and wrong of you to eliminate career counselor specialist every student deserves a chance to have this kind of support on something as important as figuring out what they want to do after high school this is a vital and necessary resource resource for all students please do not eliminate these positions please do what is right for students and keep career guidance Specialists what they do is critical to the core mission of our schools I am proof of that thank you thank you I think we've got Charles Jorgenson here followed by Tuscany Brown Reed hello my name is Charles Jorgenson and I am a dad of two children who have been TPS students
136for the past 12 years today is very emotional as remember our friend Katherine uska and come from an incredibly inspirational Memorial Day assembly at Stadium High School normally I am super proud to talk about PCS uh TPS and I'm a big cheerleader but not tonight tonight I'm here to ask you to prevent a terrible mistake from being made I think your recent decision to eliminate our career guidance specialist is wrong please take the time to carefully read all the comments submitted to you there are many personal stories and a significant amount of data you say you want our input and you say your decisions are data driven but it sure doesn't seem that way regardless it's vital that we continue working together in Partnership even when we're frustrated this change will harm thousands of students
137weaken our community and send the wrong message it will undo Decades of commendable work done by groups who have dedicated so much passion to get our students ready for Life Beyond High School this decision is certainly not student focused and seems to stand in direct contrast with the number of TPS principles and commitments the decision is hard to understand I've been told some here may think these career gu Specialists are no longer essential because information is now online and we have websites that argument is like saying we don't need Math teachers because our kids have calculators maybe this idea seems to be financially positive in the short term but I invite you to understand the impact more fully because there's no doubt it's not in Tacoma's best interest I wonder when is the last time
138that you any of you have been in one of our Career Centers I invite you to come one of Tacomas few very few National Merit Scholars who will be graduating with a 4.0 unweighted GPA sent me an email it contained these three sentences he told me I could share with you quote that room changed my life quote I don't think I could have done it without Mrs jerson quote this process was harder than any of my AP classes and took more time than any of them unquote our high school students need to have career guidance Specialists figuring out Life After High School is complex and mindboggling with twists and turns navigating app with Prof professional help is highly improbable please help our students be successful thank you disent this should not happen thank our next
139speaker is Tuscany Brown Reed uh followed by Our Last speaker Carrie Vex hello board members I'm tusy Brown Reed a student of this district and with um my co-president meline we support Stadium's black student we're here to speak with you today and urge you not to get rid of our District's career counselor position we believe this would most heavily impact our minority students here who are already statistically disadvantaged in terms of post-secondary Education taking away this resource from your students would not only affect our futures in the places we go but your own employees too you want to push the valuable work these counselors do every single day onto our already overwhelmed guidance Council despite it being almost impossible to get an appointment with them without waiting for weeks on end this would make an
140already hard job practically impossible to do in effectively and equitably we know that our affluent students have other avenues to arrange for college advisors essay assistants opportunities to put on their resumés and resources for jobs and college tours but if you decide to take away our College advisers who are free to us now what happens to accessibility with everything going up in price some people won't be able to afford that this this is a blatant Injustice that you all would be doing to us with absolutely no regard for the harm it would cause in speaking on disparities you have adopted principles that you yourself are not following reading the agenda for today's meeting I saw on slide six of your budget update it lists a strategy to balance the budget as position elimination and cost
141shifting of staff I had to guess here but I believe this is a reference to cutting the position where he are fighting for today and if so that's an opaque representation at best and also a violation of principal set s transparency in principle one eliminating disparities among all groups on slide two of your presentation please think long and heart about this decision and the Futures at stake thank [Music] you all right I believe we have up Carrie Vex yes uh hi uh my name is Carrie vadex I am a teacher at Stadium High School I teach a culinary arts adviser of BSU as well as the culinary arts club and a few other things um I'm here really I didn't write anything but I took a little notes from your guys' stuff and to say
142that stadium has also submitted um a staff uh signature list in the things come to bring it back around to our first speaker um and something I heard today here about having a su IC issue for funding of school districts wholeheartedly agree um but what I am proposing is a radical redistribution what we talked about earlier it's topheavy the top 60 approximately 60 positions in this District are paid more than our governor more the top one almost twice more than the governor of the state we had to fight for funding for my classroom I still only have two strange ovens in my classroom I haven't been in there most of the semester learning gone as my department Guy come on in no but miss gunderson's there every day helping coming in seeing what's needed just
143like for all of our students we we work together because she is the um adviser of isg indigenous student student group and me of BSU and we fight at stadium constantly this is Injustice not just for stadium but M J Jones and the rest of them they are needed for our students speaking as a first generation college person that would have not gone to college if it wasn't for someone like that her for any of them and uh I just ask that you let my wife finish [Applause] and that is our public comment for this evening uh and we've received the written documents they referenced I have these and then I have those over there with with Tracy okay thank you Malik we'll scan them in um all right moving on to item number 10
144the consent agenda I move to a second it's been moved in seconded are there any comments or questions being none all those in favor say I I opposed pass it uh item number 11 policy matters and there are none item number 12 financial report um which was presented um earlier um on the staff report to the board under a jeda agenda item 8.3 monthly financial statements can be found on the district website at www.tacomaschools.org backde departments back buus and finance item 13 curriculum and instruction 13.1 approval of interlocal agreement number TSD 24-44 between Pierce County Juvenile Court and Tacoma Public Schools from April 30th 2024 through April 30th 2029 good evening the uh director of schools recommends that the board of directors approve the interlocal agreement between Pierce County Juvenile Court and Tacoma Public Schools
145from April 30th 2024 through April 30th 2029 I move to ad up 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 thank you Doug item 13.2 approval of contract TSD 22090 amendment number two to purchase near pod learning application for the 2024 through 2025 school year the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning recommends that the board of directors approve the purchase of nearpod learning applications for the 2024 25 school years in the amount of $245,400 are there any questions or comments seeing none all those in favor say I I opposed passes item 14.2 approval of contracts CSD 24- 069 between Canon Solutions America Inc and Tacoma Public Schools from June 1st 2024 through May 31st 2029 oh hello Miss
146jumper is on her way oh I think I also skipped one so my apologies my apologies um the chief Communications officer recommends that the board of directors approves contract number TSD 24- 069 between Canon um Solutions America Incorporated into Comm public schools in the amount of $591,500 from June 1st 2024 through May 31st 2029 I move to 14.2 I second it's been moved and seconded are there any questions or comments seeing none all those in favor say I I opposed passes thank you m jumper we're going to go back in the agenda to item 13 uh wait 141 14 thank you 14.1 approval of the application for Head Start Cola Grant number uh 1 c011 090 the assist superintendent of teaching and learning recommends that the board of directors approve submission of the Head Start
147Cola Grant application in the amount of $168,200 um let's see just to verify we're moving on to 14.3 thank you approval of contract number TSD 24070 between Canon solution America Inc and to come Public Schools wait you're right yes that's correct we have two separes we have second Canon one on there tiisha miss jumper there are two of two items on behalf of the chief Communications officer the superintendent recommends the board of directors approve contract TSD d24 d70 between Canon Solutions America Inc and Tacoma Public Schools in the amount of 1,666 from June 1st 2024 through May 31st 2029 funding source Printing and Graphics move to do 14.3 second it's been moved in second end are there any questions or comments I do have one clarifying questions because they sound identical so if you for
148the public um if we could just have a distinction between the two items that would be great one's Hardware one's software well kind of so the uh first one is actually from our Printing and Graphics group uh to do all the things like yearbooks and posters and things that we have that's that specific equipment the second one is for all the copers printers that are in the schools uh that are used by staff throughout the district that's very help helpful thank you Ki um all right any other comments or questions seeing none all those in favor say I I I opposed passes item 14.4 approval of the guaranteed maximum price GMP amendment number three the contract between Tacoma School District number 10 and BNB Builder construction for the Oakland High School historic modernization project the
149executive director of planning construction for the chief operation officer recommends at the board board of directors approved the guaranteed maximum price GMP amendment number three which states at the cost of the Oakland High School historical project the operating officer also recommends the board authorized the superintendent or design to sign said GMP amendment number three in the amount of 6 million $993 $699 bringing the total consideration to 33,5 $748 excluding sales tax funding source capital projects budget issued I'm sorry issue approved by voters in February 11th 2020 I move to adopt item 14.4 I second it's been moved and seconded are there any questions or comments seeing none all those in favor say I I I opposed it passes item 14.5 approval of ground lease for the South Puget Sound Maritime Skills Center and Port Maritime
150Center Planning and Development the executive director of plan Construction for the chief operation officer officer recommends that the board of directors approve the ground lease for the South Puget Sound Merit skill I'm sorry Maritime Skill Center TPS Capital funds will be paid worth the approximate amount of $5.5 million in related Capital contributions completed I'm sorry I'm having a difficult time talking tonight same Morris same you're okay contemplated in the lease and offsets future lease value funding source capital projects bond issue approv by voters on February 11th of 2020 move to adop on 14.5 I second it's been moved and seconded are there any questions are coming seeing none all those in favor say I I opposed pass it and wait is there that was 14.5 yep all right so other business uh item 15 15.1
151adoption of resolution uh 2141 emerc declaration for building sighting replacement at Wayne Wright intermedi Intermediate School the executive director of planning construction for the chief operations officer recommends that the board of directors adopt resolution 21541 to declare an emergency existed way W inter immediate school and approve the immediate procurement of necessary equipment Services funding source Capital project bond issue as approved by voters on February 11th of 2020 I move to adopt 15.1 second it's moved in seconded are there any questions or comments seeing none all those in favor say I we'll do a you said resolution didn't you it's okay um uh president keing how do you vote on resolution 2141 I vice president Stroger how do you vote I directly on how do you vote I resolution 2141 passes thank you thank you Morris
152um item 15.2 and I will recall adoption of resolution uh number 24 2143 to authorize the submission of a non-party declaration related to initiative 2081 the district General Council recommends the board of directors adopt resolution 2143 to authorize the submission of a non-party declaration related to initiative 2081 with no cost to the district I move to adopt 15.2 I second it's been moved in second end are there any questions or comments seeing none I will turn it back over to you general counsel yes uh so president keing how do you vote on resolution 2143 I vice president strer how do you vote I direct Leon how do you vote I uh resolution 2143 passes thank you so Madam president I'd like to just uh thank you for that um what we are doing here with
153this and for folks that may have a question at home um what we have seen in the the recent passage of um initiative 2081 is there's a lot of vagueness in the ways that we can potentially support our students and our families and so what we're asking for the US to be able to do in this me specifically is is to highlight that vagueness in those B that bill specifically and seek for clarity uh to answer that so that we're able to ensure that our staff and our students are safe and able to provide the services accordingly so um the non-party means that we're not saying yes or no in anything we're asking for that Clarity in our concerns of that vagueness thank you which also aligns with with the testimony that I had given
154in regards to the during the hearing in the legislature in March so thank you very much for that pres K and I should also I should also note just because the public whoever's watching may see that two of our board members are not here but we all share uh we're all in alignment with the decision made this evening we've had individual conversations with director Miguel Roy as well as director Bon bright and We Stand United on this front so I just thought that that was important to share thank you very much vice president strer um all right moving on to item number 16 board comments and reports thank you lil would you like to share something um hi I'm lilan Taylor I am a student representative from Silas High School um I want to thank
155you guys for this opportunity obviously um I'd like to use it to speak on um our our guidance our career in college advisors um kids often will at least kind of joke about how it feels like the only thing our schools care about is US graduating doesn't really matter what we do like it feels like we could do literally anything and still somehow be able to graduate and I feel like this kind of thing is proof of that because they help us after we graduate and getting rid of them just makes it seem like oh they're just trying to get us out of here we need that support I'm not a first generation college student but I still don't know what I'm doing my parents don't really know what I'm going to do either and
156the they help us and it's so important for us to have them um that's really all I wanted to say thank you thank you very much lilan Dr Leon I appreciate all the public coming this speak today on the different topics but a lot of it U related around um the budget problems that a lot of schools are having so I appreciate the discussion from superintendent and all your staff around the reasons in the background and you know we we heard a lot of heartfelt um stories and and uh evidence as to why um those positions along with many others are very important for our students welfare and future so um we did hear you and I think that there were ideas in there that if the superintendent Administration or staff has not considered they
157will consider and so I will have some questions afterwards too for the superintendent on some um ideas around this so thank you for everyone for coming thank you hey a public comment and but in the honor of mental health month I'm going to hold true to how I feel and I don't have I'm not going to say anything that I needed to say this evening so I don't have a report appreciate it thank you um I uh last week um my head's a little fuzzy it's been uh an extraordinarily long and emotional day uh from for me personally um last week I did attend the foundation for T students conference um and um I know there were other there was a lot of other things the citizens um audit fin committee meeting also took place
158and a numerous other um meetings and um uh just a lot of work I feel like there's just been constant work um this week I just wanted to highlight a couple things um as already has been mentioned our um retirees um were celebrated last night in a really beautiful way and vice president strer and I were um there to um celebrate them and honor them and I want to um also thank um Miss jumper and her for putting on a really thoughtful beautiful fun um celebration um and I really hope that we call can take the advice of those uh kindergarteners or those Young Elementary School students of what retirement really is so hopefully people will be able to see that video soon and I hope to follow some of their advice um and then
159um also um on Tuesday vice president serer and I um had um attended the Indian education senior ceremonies um and Deputy superintendent Nolan was there as well as um uh uh superintendent Garcia um and Corey and I were there for the entirety of the celebration and I don't know how many seniors 30 34 34 34 um seniors came through um as well as some of the staff the teachers that um the seniors had um nominated and um the ceremony is just um I don't know every time I'm at we do anything with the Indian Ed department is extremely moving and as a non-native person I feel really honored to participate um and so uh Corey was able to um um present um a medallion to each senior um and then I and some of the
160other um uh the parent advisory council member um Kim who I'm forgetting Kim's last name I'm very sorry and her daugh daughter Maya we took turns wrapping the seniors in um uh blankets um and it was just um and learning about where they're going what their next steps are and meeting their family members um it was really extraordinary and um I actually knew three of those students from when they were very young so that was even more meaningful and um and Council P tribal council member Annette Brian was there with her grandson um so it was a very meaningful and beautiful um experience um to just share to be able to hold space with them um and then um there was also um yesterday the Jenny Reed ribbon cutting for the um Trust of public
161lands partnership and also with metrop Parks um and I have some fun facts that I have not pulled up yet but I'm going to pretty quickly um so the trust the this is a um partnership between Trust for Public Lands Metro Parks um and Jenny Reed is the second um Stafford well Jenny Reed was the first I know Abby Salone would be upset if I didn't say they were the first they were absolutely the first um uh but we they um are one of five sites school year sites that um have um we have this partnership with um and um some of the points from um uh Park commissioner p uh commissioner oh my gosh uh Andrea Smith who is the president of the park commission um she had talked about that um these are
162these are considered Community schoolyards um and they are helping um close um Metro Parks um gap of a 10-minute walk to um a park or Green Space um and Community schoolyards like Jenny Reid and Stafford are helping close uh or um are uh they're going to serve um uh 1,510 people who live nearby um who previously lacked access to a public space within a walking distance um the five Community Schoo yards that our planned will serve approximately 25,000 people and help increase the number of people living near a park in Tacoma from 69% to 70 75% um and and um some of the other things that um around Trust for Public Lands um through their work Nationwide they've um saved I think it was over 165,000 Acres um and Jenny Reed and we are the
163first um schoolyards in the state of Washington um that have um had this partnership um and so it's a really remarkable thing so and it was very much student driven um students um as well as what the ceremony by the ASB yesterday um it was a really uh this was a very exciting and beautiful playground and Playard space um for that Community to have um so just a just a tremendous amount of gratitude to our partners um and then there was also um the TPS uh Rainer night was also last night um and so that was really fun and uh oh I hope I say this right right was it Point Defiance elementary choir that sang last that sang they did a fantastic job and our fifth grader from Jefferson was the one that designed
164the yes and designed the jerseys so thank you I was uh going to make sure that he that student got a shout out um so it was really um that's always a fun night to be together um so I think uh with that um I know there's lots of other things we have Memorial Day weekends um no school tomorrow and on Monday and I hope people um have an opportunity to rest um and rejuvenate and um be safe um are there any other final comments please start registering for summer late nights on your school websites thank you all right um and see other comments um uh we will move to item number 17 announcements of next regular board meetings June 6 24 um at 6:00 p.m. there will be another business meeting here in this
165location as well as on June 20th and then on July 11th uh we will also have another business meeting um and with that uh this meeting is adjourned [Music]