001It is 7:00 on uh what's the date today? The 24th >> and the regular meeting of the West Valley School Board of Directors is now called to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> Ready, begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. I'm going to make a motion to um excuse Haley Larson from tonight's meeting. Believe she's out of town. All in favor say I. >> I. Opposed by the same sign. Motion carried. There's uh no changes to the agenda and uh you are on Katie for high school ASB report. >> Okay. Um recently last week ASB paid for 44 students to attend a leadership workshop hosted
002by Johnston. Students heard from two great speakers and had the chance to meet students um across the valley. So, I've went I went a couple years ago, but we get to go and compare leadership strategies. It's kind of a fun it's a fun field trip and a way to bring back um activities for our school. Uh this is a great example of how we use ASB funds at the high school with registration, travel, and lunch. This one opportunity costs about $2,000. So, we're really grateful we have the funds to go do fun things like this. Um on February 18th, our Mr. West Valley pageant took place after weeks of local business takeovers and fundraising efforts. It was exciting to see all of the hard work come together. The candidates have been heavily involved in the
003community and the event has served as a reminder of how supportive and generous our community truly is. All funds raised were donated to Children's Village. Um, we raised over $27,000 this year, >> and that puts the 25-y year running total over $500,000. >> Wow. Wow. >> Uh, congratulations to Mr. Lacy on this amazing tradition. On February 20th, ASB hosted the Ramy's Assembly, a fun event recognizing our school's arts programs. During the assembly, the musical was advertised, giving students a sneak peek of the cast's hard work and building excitement for the upcoming performances. I think they play this weekend, so if you didn't get a chance to see it last weekend, you can still get tickets. Uh during the assembly, the 10 club revealed the girls who will participate in the Rams on the red carpet,
004uh like Mr. West Valley, but they are partnered with the Yaka uh YWCA. And the FFA club got to promote their FFA week activities. Um that's February 23rd to 27. So we had a dress up day spirit week to support them this week. And we sent the wrestling team onto state and hosted playoff basketball. As winter sports are wrapping up, ASB decided to use ASB funds to send our pet band to state if that opportunity presents itself. And a lot of timing has to fall together, but the plans are in place to try and make it happen. Again, these state trips are over $1,000 each time we send a bus. So, it's really important we get those funds. And um I think it really makes a difference to have us all there. So, it's fun
005for them to go. Uh students have already signed up for spring sports. Usually the season for me athletes may start on March 2nd. Um the musical was performed February 20th and 21st, but if you didn't get a chance to see it, there's still time. Additional performances will be held Friday, February 27th at 700 p.m. and Saturday, February 20th at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Uh the cast and crew have worked incredibly hard and will love your support. Spring is just around the corner. ASB students are currently working on the spring committees and have begun planning exciting activities for the season. Our talent show, Rama Palooa, spring assembly, prom, uh, staff appreciate week and lots of fun other small things. >> Thank you. >> Katie, >> what were some of the local businesses that you guys
006took over? Um, I know we took over one of them. I I can't list them all right now. Uh, Outback Espresso, which is fun because I also went there. So, um, I can't list other Pizza. >> Yeah. Um, >> I think they always do a takeover at Vestas. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> All right. We are ready for our special ed presentation. >> All right. Why don't we go ahead and have the board join the audience so you can see? Sure. Um, good evening. I'm Stephanie Milton, the assistant um, director of special educations at HSC based on board. Nice to meet you. Um, so we're just going to first give some updates of some numbers um, for this year. So, we started out the school year with 780 students um with
007an I either receive services within the district and are currently sitting at 840. So, some of that is just early identification of our students three through five or transfer students coming in throughout the year and then also um initial evaluations where we're identifying students um who need services. We have 133 staff members across the district in special education, both certificated and classified staff. And we have a new edition of um what what I'm calling the pilot year of our procedure manual because we're um you know just working on things and and tweaking it a little bit. But we Susan and I worked this summer and put together our um 172 page. We have to say that um procedural manual just trying to catch all those things that um we need staff to be informed of.
008So, it's electronic and available to them and they've been helping us go through and you know give comments on it, things that maybe don't make sense to them or things they have questions about and so it it's been a good addition this year to refer staff to. >> All right, so um here's some of those reasons we went from 780 to what was that 840. Um where we started off with our preschool numbers. Um each year we seem to be starting a little higher with more preschool students. our students three through five are getting identified for those services they need. Sometimes speech only and other times um more supports. Um so there's the growth that we've seen pushing 60 um students in preschool over the year and that transitional kindergarten is you know those students
009are identified earlier and that stays pretty consistent through the year. Um this is just numbers across the district of students within how many students within each building that receive um services. Um and also another way to kind of think about it um we see a pretty good trend of elementary falling between 15 and 20% of the enrollment receiving services. And then as we get up to the high school it's more like nine or 10% which is really good to see. That's what you want to see. We're identifying students early serving those needs. students are growing and um even more with inclusionary practices, helping those students by the time they're in high school. Even when things are getting a little harder, they have grown their skill enough that they no longer need that support. They may
010still need a 504, which gives them accommodations, but they're not meeting that specially designed instruction as much. And here's a look at that least restrictive environment data. So when we see um our LE1, so we're looking at what we want to see is our students spending less um more than 80% of their day in a general education setting. So they may be getting their services within a special education setting. They may be receiving their services within a co-e like at the high school and co-e math class or in a general education English class where um teachers offer support to those general education teachers. So, what we've seen here is we want to see that that blue tab um go up. The yellow is where we're showing students who are receiving um or only in their
011general education class for less than 40% of their day. And sometimes that's what's appropriate and that's what their students need. The students need at that time to receive growth on their IEP goals. Um we want to have more inclusive practices as much as possible where students are with their non-disabled peers. That helps them be more successful after high school. that helps them um grow their social skills, um expand their friend group, and overall be more successful. So, as much as we can get them out there where it's appropriate, we're trying to do that. Um that last one there, the last column, is just seeing um in comparison to Washington State. So, we're doing a little better at getting um students out in the general education teacher or general education setting as much as possible. Um,
012we've seen a lot of growth with that middle where they're between 40 and 80% growing into that more than 80% in a gened setting. So, we just want to start working on our usually our students are in a self-contained setting, pushing them out as smart um a little more. What this doesn't show in the numbers is we do have more students who are getting out into a resource room for their English and math. So, it is a little more rigorous environment, a little more structured like a general education setting. And so that just doesn't show in the data, but it helps us get to where we want to get with helping students be in a general education setting more. All right, so that was just kind of an overview of special ed um this year.
013Um Peter asked me to present on our district behavior team, which has had some significant changes this year. Um so just to give you guys some updates on that. Um, so last year we set a goal that for this school year the district would employ enough behavior support staff that every elementary school building would have a dedicated behavior specialist or BCBA um, which is a board certified behavior analyst and I'll talk about that in a second. Um, the behavior team are all district level support staff. So the goal is to have someone available to every elementary school, but you know, we might have some schools that don't have a need for a behavior specialist and we might have a school that has a bigger need and so it's really more flexible and fluid and they're
014being able to place them where where the need is at. Um staff are assigned to a building, but they may be assigned elsewhere based on student need. Um, we continued the behavior specialist position at the middle level campus and then Stephanie and I continue to support at the IC and the high school. Um, so just to let you guys know the difference between a behavior specialist or BCBA. Um so our behavior specialists in the district um hold a teaching certificate through OSPI and or they have additional training in working with students with significant behavior and social emotional skills and deficits and all of them at this point are pursuing national board certification as BCBAS. Um we only have one um behavior specialist who doesn't hold a certificate through OSPI um but we stole her from
015Children's Village and she's got a lot of training um working with with kids with significant behavior. So um and is pursuing her BCBA certification. Um so BCBA is board certified behavior analysts. This is a national level certification. In order to receive the certification, you have to hold a master's degree, um, which includes completing 315 hours of behavior analytic coursework. You have to complete a 2,000 hour supervised fieldwork experience, um, and then you have to pass the the certification exam. So, it's more than just kind of a weekend workshop and you get to have these letters behind your name. There is quite a bit of training that that goes into to becoming a BCBA. Um, so our behavior team this year, our behavior specialists, um, Charity Capri is working at Apple Valley. Delaney Russell is at
016Cottonwood. Megan Jennings, who's in the audience tonight, is our behavior specialist at some of you. Um, Starlet Bernett has kind of been our floater. We've had some um, students with some significant challenges and she's kind of been our floater this year and helping support those students more one-on-one and doing training with some staff. Um and then Michelle Palmer is at the middle level campus. Um and then we do have three BCBAs in the district. Um so Hanley supporting Autanaum, Stacy Devet um is a halftime school counselor, halftime BCBA at Mountain View, and then I am also a BCBA supervising all of them. Um we've we've also been able to hire some behavior techs. Um so Christine Hernandez works at the high school. She's the only one currently who has her registered behavior technician certificate. The
017other two are working on theirs. Um, this is a paraprofessional level behavior staff. Um, so they do a 40hour training. They have to pass a competency exam administered by a BCBA and then also pass a a test um to get get their certificate. So um more training than than your typical pair of professional. Um, so we have three of those supporting this year, too. All right. So, why did we add more behavior support? Um, since COVID, anecdotally, I think all of the staff and the principles would tell you that we've seen an increase in behavior issues. um based on the research there's a study published in 2023 um where they're estimating that 20% or more of students now are requiring tier three supports. So precoid when we look at the this the level of supports
018those tier three students were making were about 3 to 5% of the students that were needing kind of more significant individualized supports and since co um again the estimates are now 20% or more of students are needing that tier three either behavior mental health social emotional skills training and this is not special ed students like this is our gen ed population so we've seen seen we've seen that in West Valley just the significant increase in the the number of students who are requiring more significant behavior supports. Um also with PBIS MTSS that model we want we really want to try and shift from a reactive to a proactive support for students. Um, and when you only have two behavior staff or 10 buildings across a district, it's really hard to do that as you spend
019a lot of your time just going putting out fires, responding to crises, and it's really hard to to do those proactive things. And so having more behavior support staff has helped us to be more proactive. Um, we're identifying students who, you know, they haven't gotten to that tier three level and we're able to intervene at a lower level doing social skills groups and some more targeted instruction with them hopefully to prevent that need for tier three supports. Um, we're focusing on elementary because we know from all of our research that early intervention gives us the most bang for our buck. So, if we can intervene when they're young, intervene when they're early, remediate these skills deficits that are causing these behavior issues, we know that in the long run, that's going to save money over
020time. Um, having the behavior support, really focusing on those tier three students has allowed our counselors to work um with students with more internalizing behaviors. So, those kids that shut down, you know, they're not the ones being aggressive. They're not the ones having big blowups or meltdowns. And so with with having the behavior support kind of focus on those students, the counselors now have more time to work with those students who previously were kind of falling through the cracks because they're the students that just sit there and they don't do anything. And so, you know, they kind of it's easier to ignore those behaviors. So, we're now being able to address some of those things with those students. Um, and they're not falling through the cracks anymore. Um, so that that's an important change. Um,
021feedback I've gotten from principles. I've had a few principles tell me that this was the first time like they've been able to like be in the classrooms and get all their teacher evaluations done because they have this behavior support staff in the building and aren't having to respond constantly to behavior issues. Um, and so that having the principles out, being able to be in classrooms is going to really improve instruction for all students because they're able to do that coaching and do provide that feedback for teachers that they're supposed to be doing. Um, and then it's more supports for students with no academic concerns who need significant behavior support to be successful in the Jedi classroom. So, we have quite a few students who qualify for special education who have no academic concerns. The only
022concern is that social emotional behavior piece. Um, and in other districts and in the past, those students would typically be placed in a self-contained classroom with students with significant intellectual disabilities when they themselves are average or above average intelligence and really just needed to work on that behavior piece. And then being in that classroom, having those behaviors is pulling away from the students who need that specialized instruction. And so having behavior staff in the building has really helped us to be able to support and keep these students in the gened classroom um which is a more appropriate placement for them to teach them the skills that they need and then also continue to give them access to the core curriculum. Um so what are the behavior specialists and BCBAs doing all day? This is not
023an exhaustive list. Um, I think maybe last year someone asked me what my typical day looked like. Um, with our behavior specialists and BCBAS, there's really not a typical day. Um, again, we're we're shifting more to that proactive approach. So, a lot of them do have schedules and have specific things on their schedules that are happening. So, it's not a lot of reactive stuff. Um, and and we're making that shift. But here, some of the things that they're working on are doing check-in checkout interventions with students. um doing small group or one-on-one social skills or SEAL instruction um supporting recess, right? So, a lot there's lots of behavior on the playgrounds. And so, having behavior specialists who are able to go respond and teach those skills in the moment out on the playground um has
024been helpful or offering alternative recess options for students who just can't handle being out on the playground with 500 other kids making an alternative for them. um doing short-term one-on-one classroom support, um skills-based treatment, doing functional behavior assessments and behavior intervention plans. Um we've been able to do some skills assessment and and create some skill acquisition plans for some of our more impacted students. So, our school psychologists are great. Um they they can provide lots of information. Um, but the the skills assessments that the behavior specialists and the BCBAs do are a little bit different and can provide even more information to inform IEPs and help help those students make more progress. Um, we've been able to do more staff and parent training. So, having more behavior staff um allows, you know, the staff training,
025but also the parent training component. So, we have parents who who are coming to us, they they don't know what like they're having these same problems at home, they don't know what to And so we've been able to provide some parent training as well, um, which should help help us see some improvements at school, giving parents some of those skills, too. And then still kind of respond, like we're on call to respond when those crisis situations do occur. Again, saving the principles and some of the other staff from having to respond. Now we have a behavior person in the building who can do that. >> And that is all I have. >> Thank you. Let's go back up to the table and we can ask questions. >> Oh, yeah. And then I've I've had some
026staff send me some testimonials and stuff throughout the year and I include I I've copied and pasted those into the >> Thank you very much. Yeah, I read those uh comments. They were very good. Yeah. Interesting. Um, couple questions I have is, um, I thought I knew this, but I want to make sure. So, how long have we had one per school behavior special? >> This is the first year. >> Okay. So, you're saying that just even in this year so far, you've seen a significant change in classroom behavior just because they're they're in the general ed, a lot of them now, and you have behavior specialists working with >> Yes. Okay. >> Yeah. And I can give you guys an update at the end of the year. Like I we've have some anecdotal data
027that suspensions have gone down. So those are things that at the end of the year we'll be able to look at some of that like the restraint and isolation data, the suspension data. Um those types of things and how having the behavior staff in the building has impacted that. >> Yeah. >> Maybe season share about uh last year uh students were being served at Otan Valley and now they're being served in their home school. >> Yeah. So, we've had um the the self-contained classroom at Tana was our behavior support classroom for the past few years. And so, those were kind of like our most um significant behavior students were all in a classroom um at Autanum. Um, a few of them they needed that that level, but a lot of the students that ended up
028at Autanum were kind of like those false positives because we didn't have the support in their neighborhood school that they needed to be successful. Um, the the only option really we had was to send them to Autanum and then like very quickly with the level of support there, their behavior changed and we were able to transition them back. But we wouldn't have had to make that move had they had we had the support in the building. Um and then I think Nick Hartman shared a little bit like it is it is very hard on one building when you have the most significant behavior students that are just in one building. So having the support so that the students can stay in their neighborhood schools and it's or not having them all in one one building
029has been impactful as well. >> Other questions or comments? Um you had mentioned uh precoid 3 to 5% were in the tier three and then now we're at 20 plus percent. >> Yeah. And I don't know that that like I I don't have the exact number for our district. It's just what the research is showing that there and JAMAMA the Journal of American Medical Association just put out an article as well and they're looking at one in five children have a significant mental health >> that was my question issues. So specific more like nationwide. Yeah, I get I can again towards the end of the year I can give you some more like hard numbers. Um we are very data based in as behavior analysts. So we're collecting data and I can share some more
030of that at the end of the year when we're able to kind of look at how things have progressed over the school year. >> What what is the uh the process of the identifying the three to five year olds? So you you mentioned that we we've got a big increase from 7 uh 780 to 88 840. What's the process you go through in order to identify those at that age? >> So a lot of the referrals come from children's village who serve our birth to three population. Um so part B is kindergarten or 3 to 22 and then part C um which is special education for birth birth to to three years old. Some districts serve that in district but our district um works with children's village and children's village is the one who serves
031the birth to three population. Um so most of the referrals we get are from children's village. Um every once in a while we'll get emails from you know preschool teachers, community members, parents who have concerns about their students um who would like to have at those younger ages. But yeah, the focus from children's. >> Yeah. Maybe Susan could share some more about how our special education department and you yourself and and staff are such a big part of our early learning initiative. Yeah. And meeting with our partners from the community and they know that they can pick up the phone and call you if they have a concern about a child. >> Yeah. Stacy's telling them all the time like I'll see them. We'll send them a person out like we'll send somebody out. And
032so yeah, we do have good relationships with the with the community partners and so when they do have concerns, they're they're sharing that with us and we can get in touch with parents. >> So even even if a child is going to one of our neighborhood uh partner preschools, the child still has a right to special education services and so we we as a school district provide those services. >> Yeah. So, we have a few students who um the parents chose to keep them at their their preschool program that they were going and we consult and do things with staff to support them to provide their special education services. Um we've got a couple students who attend Epic um on our school sites who go half day to developmental preschool and half day to the
033Epic programs. So, yeah, there's lots of different ways that we're we're serving. >> And you had shared that the research shows that early intervention really does make a difference. So there's students that might have speech as preschoolers and then they do exit. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Well, I appreciate what you guys do and I know it is more than a job. It's a calling and so thank you for doing that. >> So can you if you go back to your the slide where you showed the numbers of the overall is it the first one >> this one. >> Okay. Yeah. So 840 does that in that's just special that doesn't include the behavior the kids that the behavior specialists are working with right um >> or does that include both? Most of the
034kids that the behavior specialists are working with are on IEP. So that would include them, but they're also working with students who have not who are, you know, they might be on a 504 or they're at risk like we think >> they might need special ed, but we want to try again that more preventative >> and keep them from getting to that point where they might need special ed. So there are some general education students as well that the the behavior specialists are working with. >> Okay. So that 840 isn't really all-incclusive. That's what I was just trying to figure out. Um there's so the behavior specialists are working with other kids that like you said at risk but not identified in the program >> and our resource room teachers as well. So because they're
035doing more push in and stuff at the elementary like if there's kids who need more significant intervention who haven't yet qualified and the resource room teachers have room in their groups that they're like pushing in to do we're like we're serving gened kids with our resource room teachers and providing them some more interventions and stuff too. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Yeah. That's a really good question. So, so the 840 that's that's the number of students with the individual the IEP. >> Yes. >> And for speech or special ed plus an identified behavior, >> right? In addition to the IEP students and there's students that have the 504 plan, section 504, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Uh, and that's students that may have a disability, but they don't need the specially designed instruction. So, there's still
036accommodations made for those students. And also like Susan had or Stephanie had shared, uh sometimes a student will exit from an IEP, but then they'll still have the 504 to have this protections, especially when it comes to state testing and >> doing the SAT test and they go on to college and they still want to have those protections of having a disability, but they don't need the IEP. So that so there's a lot more students in the district that have disabilities with a 504 plan that are not that 800. >> So that doesn't include the >> that doesn't include the 504, right? Got it. like the high school 54 7% and seven >> 7% >> and then um IEPs are I think 9.5 >> and then my other question was with only having like one
037at the So it sounds like you've concentrated your behavior stack at the elementary level because that's where you have most impact but having just one at the full middle level is that enough or at the high school 1200 kids and one We'll get our polish on >> all in favor of an arter. She's been helping with some of our students and self-contained with some behavior issues. And then um Michelle Palmer, um the program is kind of different at the middle level. She actually teaches classes for social skills and SEAL and >> um yeah, so >> she's not floating around the building or available as much because she is in a classroom teaching and for a good chunk that's ability to teach the skills classes. Um okay and then my last question is so this behavior
038specialist program is kind of new and you guys have kind of implemented it this year. So, what's next? What would you guys see as your next level of goals for what you would like to see? >> Um, well, for me, it's inclusion. Just uh beefing up our support um for our students so that they're able to be more successful in general education setting and just expanding that. >> I think our elementaryaries are doing a really good job of that with the groups and pushing in. Um, and I think the middle level is seeing a difference of that when students come in with some higher skills. >> Um, but that I mean that's kind of my focus because I work mostly with secondary. It's just just keep striving for better. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> And what's
039best for the students. >> And then behavior wise, I mean, it's it's been my dream in my 20 years working in school districts to have at least one person at every building. So having someone at the high school um and probably having that person help out at the IC as well would be probably the next step behavior >> wise. I >> I had one other question I wrote down um but so you identify a lot at that 3 to five year. Do you see and and I think I understand this from early intervention helps down the road, right? Do you see a lot of them not needing the IEPs and stuff later on because you're identifying them there? So that that number's kind of dropping off later. What's the What would you say? >> Yeah.
040So like Stephanie said, um the like the average is at the elementary is between that 15 to 20% of kids are on IEPs and then by the time they get to high school, we're at a little over 9%. So, we know that that that early intervention and them getting that intensive intervention earlier eventually, yes, they they do get the skills and catch up and and are able to exit from special education. >> Yeah. Few quick questions. One of them is of the students that we're seeing that don't have academic concerns about how many is that? >> I would need to call the data. Um, >> right. >> Yeah, >> it's right. >> There's probably five to 10 at each building with no academic concerns and only qualify for social emotional behavior skills. >> And so
041then it's probably just really good testing and figuring out early so that we can help them in that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> And then on the 1:1 ratios, I probably not very common or is there students that are all day one to one ratios or things like that? >> Yes. Okay. So, we have students um with medical needs who need one-on-one support. Um we have students with behavior needs that need one-on-one support. Those are kind of the two main ones um with the behavior specialists in the building and having that support. We have been able to do some more shortterm like subs for a few months to get to implement some of the plans that the behavior special specialists want to and then we can fade that that person out instead of >> hiring
042a the I call them the the Pizza Hut Paris like >> because those are the applicants we get who have no training working with children and then we're sticking them with our kids with the most significant behavior issues. But having the behavior specialist to actually train the parents to work with the student and give them the skills that they need and then fade that that pair of support, we have seen more of that this year. So >> on a personal note, I've been able to see my son who was that one to one ratio and needed all of that support coming up and he's in freshman in high school now and his IEP came off and he's he's functioning and he's thriving and thank you guys so much for all of the tremendous work at
043every level, at every grade. Anything else board? Okay. Thank you so much. All right. It is now time if anybody uh we have one signed up for um public comment of non-discussion agenda items. And I'm going to read our little disclosure thing here. Members of the public who would like to provide public comment will sign in. Speakers will be called in order that they are signed up to speak. Speakers will be given three minutes for their comments. Public comment is not the proper form to address concerns about a specific staff member. If a person has a concern, they should make an appointment with the superintendent to address their concerns. Uh, Robert, you signed up. You were on. >> Well, later on you're going to discuss the bond. That's why I came. >> Well, we'll wait.
044We'll wait till then. Okay. Then you can that that'll be our discussion item and you can speak on that. Is there anybody else that would like to um make a comment on non-discussion items? Okay. Okay, I'll close that public comment and we're moving on now to approval of the consent agenda. There are six items on there that we'll just take all at once unless someone wants to pull something out to talk about. Um, A is approval of minutes, B is approval of vouchers. Uh, C is financial reports, D is approval of employment contracts, E is approval of resignation, retirement, and separation. And last but not least is F is approval of leave requests. Uh so I um does anybody want to pull anything out? Okay. Then I am going to make a motion to approve
045all six items on the consent agenda. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Opposed by the same sign. Motion carried four to zero. Okay. Now, it's discussion items and we're going to discuss the levy and uh bond review and uh >> go ahead. >> I'll kick it off. I don't think I'm going to pass this out right now. I might give it to you afterwards, but I did some I did some statistical study just basically the last 20 years. Um, and so from February of 2006 to February of 2026, and no pro or con on this, just we've had uh one, two, three, four, now five failures and two passed. One in May of ' 06 and one in February of 2019. Um, the sad fact on this vote was that um, in
04620 years, this is the lowest turnout that we've had. uh 6 I think this number is right 6,677 something close to that. >> Um there was 1,935 less voters than in the 2019 bond vote. And if my AI calculations are correct, um we would need if we kept everything the same, we would need 1,773 more voters and all of them would have to vote yes. and or and then there's all these other combinations or 710 no votes we need to change to a yes vote or they're a combination of both. Okay. So, just looking at statistics, um I have just anecdotally I have ideas why some voted no basically because I've talked to people. Um but I think we all have that. So, we don't need to necessarily talk about that, but maybe we do.
047But those are just some facts. Um I haven't come to any conclusions yet, but I'd like to hear other comments from the board if you have any. >> I'm excited that the levy passed, >> so that was a positive. How um curious on your statistics there on the the two that passed, >> how many attempts >> do you know were were tried before you got it? >> If I remember right, I was on the board during the high school one and I think that was two attempts um the second attempt, but I believe it was within 3 months. >> And in February of ' 06, there was a vote that failed. The yes's were 58.32%. And then we ran it again in May of ' 06 and that was 61.37 and that passed. That was
048the high school. And then I believe there was two or three attempts for the elementary schools and on the third but I think some things were cut out. >> Yeah. I think the high back on the high school there was actually an attempt when I first came to West Valley. It was like 2001. >> Oh, okay. >> and then they waited. >> Yeah. and they waited a little bit and then came very close like the 58%. >> Yeah. And then we ran it 3 months later and and got it over. Yeah. And but but on the elementary schools >> I think they changed the scope. >> The junior high and the two schools were first and that didn't pass and then they took >> the junior high off and did the two apple summit and
049then that came very close and then they ran it again and got it over the 60% mark. My my thought is I think timing has a lot to do just the the you know because we're not close you know we're at 50% essentially what was the levy was the the bond vote um you know and and I think you go back to those times when it did pass I would say the the financial temperature was a good temperature um you know economically >> um whereas I I I I think right now it's not. And I think that's probably a hard part of having it passed. And and I think if we were to put it out 3 months later, my thought is I think we'd still be in the same boat and I'm I would
050not be in a rush to try to put the bond out again. That's >> Yeah, you might be right, James. I'm curious, though, because what we're seeing is just not voting. >> It'd be it'd be more clear if it was no. if it was no overwhelming but it was only what 26% of the vote came in >> and so >> about that >> yeah it's it's less interest in the vote and I would think that if it was no for the bond across the board it would have just been more votes now >> what are you saying the ratio would still be the same I mean >> yeah so if if it was because of economics I would think that people would say no >> versus just not voting >> sort of like statistics that
051that many people pulled. Yeah. >> So, do you think if you were to change it to a different time of the year, like maybe around election season when more people are out voting, you'd think that that would >> um get more people involved >> like like November, you'd probably see more people involved. I think >> there'd be more things on the ballot. >> I think a lot of it would be some of the things we have to discuss too are do we keep it the same? Do we cut some things out? Do we revise it? Do we go back to facility committee? I think we didn't have enough support from certain, you know, you were looking at the um demographics of precincts. >> Yeah, the precincts. Yeah. >> And and we didn't have a a
052group pushing it this time either, which most most of the time we do. >> I I think that there just wasn't a lot on the ballot, too. If you think about like people's voting habits, if you're going to fill out a ballot and there's a lot on there, you're going to fill out every box. You're not typically leaving a box empty, >> right? When there's less on the ballot, you may look at it and think, "Oh, I don't need to put my ballot in. There's nothing that I care about." I don't know if that's the case or not. But when you look at a low voter turnout, I think I think that there would be more ballots turned in if there was more on the ballot. >> I think we need to look at getting
053our community involved. I think they didn't vote because they don't feel invested or involved or um you know want to participate. So I think we're really lucky the levy barely passed. Um we have a long ways to go on the bond. >> Mhm. Um, so I think we need to look to our school community and our larger community and find out um, you know, why what would get them involved because >> not even our own school parents voted, right? >> Yeah. >> It's such a low. >> Yeah. We need to be coming up. We need to be asking a lot of questions >> and we need to have a community group of parents driving this and not our administration or >> but us as the board can also get more involved in you know take
054that role on as being involved in the community and bringing the community together and >> um >> you know I think I'm really glad the levy passed because that would have been a much different conversation to be having right now but it's really close it was only a few hundred votes difference >> and we would be cutting budgets for a lot of things. So, I think it's kind of a wakeup call >> that how close we were on the levy and that we have some work to do in our community to get people feeling like they're involved in part of what we're doing and feel like they we have buy in because I think there's some past history of the last bond and the way we hand you know I wasn't on the board but
055the way the board handled the last bond that we have some work to do there. what what what would these steps you think and maybe even looking in the past that would have our community feel invested? >> I just think it's the overall school community, right? It's not just about the levy and the bond. It's about everything. Um and you know, you look at attendance at events, right, where we've had that community forum about the levy and the bond in the fall and there's like barely any parents there. >> Um so I think people are just checked out. >> I don't know all the answers. I just think we need to >> I mean, you're right about the one thing that I I'm not sure how to I've tried to talk to a lot of
056people about the last bond. Some of it was even though totally legal, it was that excess funds issue, right? Because we just happen to have all those excess funds. I mean, when I was campaigning two years ago, everybody is like, "What would you have done with that?" You know, I'm never voting for a bond again because you didn't come to us. And so I think there was a lot of trust lost at that point, but I think hopefully we're rebuilding that and one of the policies that we're passing is hopefully going to rebuild that. Um, but I think you're right on the building community. I mean, you look at without naming names, I mean, there's precincts in areas of some of the projects that we have that were non- voters and those are in the
057area that would be parents and teachers of those schools that we were going to build or fix. So, that's going to be an interesting >> discussion, too. >> Yeah. Maybe, you know, there needs to be more time and explanation of the plan and get people involved along the way and not just kind of at the end, right? >> Yeah. >> Um there was that small group of facilities planning, but they it was a really small group. I mean, less than 10 parents probably because there was some staff on there. Um, so I think you know the middle school parents and the junior high parents and the Patana parents and the Mountain View parents need to want this as much as we do >> and they need to understand why they, you know, why it's a
058good idea. But and they need so they can tell their friends and neighbors, right? And it was very much driven by us trying to inform people quickly and >> I think at this point um I'm just shooting from the hip here. Yeah, I think at this point I think we need to um digest this a little more and keep looking at some of these facts and then start talking even individually as board members to teachers and parents in those areas that we all know and then we're going to need to put this on the agenda again because we want to make a decision on where we're going to go with it like who we've talked to, what are we thinking we need to do, do we need to cut it back, do we need to
059just have more more active support? Um so we're definitely going to keep keep this on the agenda. you'll keep talking, but I don't want to cut off comments um I >> I think maybe just maybe something that we can all do um is is maybe talk to people we know and ask ask the why why they voted no >> just for understanding. I think we all know I mean talking >> prior to uh the vote with people it was honestly about exactly the way the vote turned out. It was about 50% was for and 50 against. And so I think maybe just if we can do some homework and just ask the why maybe understanding about how we can I think I think you bring up some really good points, Natalie. And so I just
060I want to understand all that and I want to go forward at the right time. Um, my personal thought on the I I don't think the the plan was part of the no. Um, I I I never heard from anybody that said, "Man, I think that's a bad plan." If anything, I thought it was a good plan. >> Once they understood the scope, the >> sequel. Yeah. I never heard push back on the amount or the scope. >> So, um, yeah, I think it goes back to a lot of these things we recognize. But I will make it a goal to talk to some people and ask their why. >> Okay. Is there any other discussion from the board? Otherwise, I will um open the public comment time. >> Okay. Public comment is open and
061you are the only one on the list. So, it is your >> shocked that you said people didn't want to say. >> Well, someone else might want to. >> So, you have three minutes or so. >> Okay. Well, I uh lived by the golf course and the evaluation for my home did go up $100,000. >> Wow. >> In one year, but the year before that it went down 50,000. So, it was very, very uh I trembled as I voted yes. My hand was shaking as I was covering in that little spot, but I did do it. Uh, I think it was poor timing to have it while in February, you know, that's when you're told what your taxes are going to be >> and that is not a good time. In November would be a
062much better time. Uh, I think for a lot of reasons. >> I'm always shocked by the few people who respond uh in any way. So, I called this morning and over 23,000 ballots were sent out. only about 6955 were returned in the entire county. >> Mhm. >> And uh this district 24.64 returned their ballots. So a lot of people just threw this in the garbage probably unfortunately. >> Uh my 3 minutes is probably about >> You're good. Keep going. Keep going. Uh I was a teacher for 30 years and then I was a substitute for 12 years after that. And one of the superintendents we had in Yakama decided that he would have a two-pronged approach so that no levy or bond would ever fail. And so at every event he had an administrator make
063a little speech like about 3 minutes at football games, basketball games, music concerts, everything saying, "Thank you for your support and your support is what creates this program." >> And it was really helpful. And one year he decided that he would give each teacher, and there were about 900 of us, >> a list of 10 names and their phone numbers to call after the ballots were returned. I mean, after they were uh >> Sent out. Yeah, >> we did. And uh so we had gatherings and phone banks were set up and it was a big social event for teachers and we spent the whole evening phoning people and saying thank you for supporting our schools and we hope that you'll vote. That's all we were supposed to say. Uh, and a lot of times parents
064wanted to ask questions and things, but and so they always passed. And that superintendent had a chance. He had his 20-year plan and he almost got through it, but he had to retire. >> But they built a lot of schools like Franklin Junior High School was replaced and Washington. Martin Luther King, Adams, Ridgefield, and Roosevelt schools were all replaced during this 20-year plan, and they all passed. So, it's parent support that is going to push it over because that's the largest group. >> Yeah. >> Uh a senior citizen like myself, we're a small group actually. uh people who have never had children, people who are on fixed incomes, younger people who haven't even registered. I mean that all those groups are minuscule compared to parents. If they vote as a block, they cannot be uh
065defeated. So that's the group you need to uh tap into. And I think his two ideas were good. They were very successful. >> Thank you, Chairman. You're our new chairman for >> too many >> including the meetings if I hear about them. >> But thank you for taking the time. >> Yeah, thanks for your comment. I appreciate that. >> Um there are no other signups but um please if you want to comment now is the time. just a little hard to get here. I just had seen >> state your name for the >> My name is Casey about West Valley. My kids go to school here. Um just a couple things. So it was about 3600 votes is what we got somewhere right around there for the the bond and the levy. I think I
066saw something around 5,000ish. I'm maybe that number's off. Maybe it's some somewhere in that range. So that's somewhere 13 14 1500 votes where someone voted for the levy they didn't vote for the bond and the one thing I heard time and time again was people said they didn't know there was two things >> a lot of people I asked them when you saw that what' you think they said well it was an either or and I didn't know which one to choose >> that's what I heard >> so I I don't know if it was a just a you know the bond was a there was a big focus on that and it was great the levy passed but I know that's one thing I had heard >> as I was reaching out unfortunately it
067was a little too late they had talked they already submitted their and they were happy to to pass that but what I heard it was a it's an either or >> just something >> yeah thank you >> that's good thank you >> before I close the public comment anybody Okay, public comment is now closed and we will keep re visiting this. So, very good. Okay. Uh, action items number 11, approval of travel request. I think you all saw the one that got added for basketball. Yay, basketball boys. Mount Sai on Saturday at 4. Just a little plug there. Uh so approval of travel requests for ROC uh in May and ROC again in March. They're backwards actually. And then the boys basketball in Isiqua at Mount Sai. So I'm just take all these together. I'll
068make a motion to approve the traveler requests. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Opposed by the same sign. Motion carried four to zero. Um now we come to B and C which is policy additions revisions. We had uh first reading um so 4200 um parent access and safe orderly learning environment at 6220 uh the bid or request for proposal requirements. Um we'll just take those one at a time. Um, first of all, before we have a motion or there any discussion on uh 4200 or 6220, >> I would just say I'd appreciate you giving me the time to digest 6220 a little more. >> So, um, >> pretty good. >> Yeah. >> Okay. All right. Um, instead of me keeping making motions, I will Somebody else want to make a motion for
069approving the first reading of those two policies 426220. >> I'll make a motion to approve both 4200 and 6220. >> Okay, motion's on the table. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I >> opposed by the same sign. Motion carried four to zero. Okay. Um approval of policy additions and revisions second reading. Um there's one, two, three, four, five. Um most of them are just additions to policy and there's two new policies. The accommodating students with adrenal insufficiency and the defeasence of surplus surplus bond proceeds. Um I am going to pull out for me. I have a comment on 5011. So I want to know I'm gonna pull that one out for right now to talk about that. Is there any com? Anybody want any others pulled out to discuss? Then let's
070start with u I will entertain a motion to pass the second reading of 6961. >> Did you pull out 21108? >> I pulled out 5011. >> You didn't say 21108. Oh, I'm sorry. 21108. Um, I'll entertain a motion. >> I'll make a motion to approve policy 1630, 21108, 3425, and 6961. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, all in favor of those second readings by saying I. >> I opposed by the same sign. Motion carried four to zero. I'm I'm going to be voting no on uh 501 and I just wanted to make a comment and then we'll we'll vote on it and it goes whatever way you want to go. Um, I looked at it and I just I'm looking at my stack of policies and some I feel like are redundant and on this one
071it was based on the fact that the original policy without the changes that were added covers exactly what the policy is designed for. Um, the whole policy in my mind is worded badly. It bounces around and discusses other issues than what the title suggests. um they add the calling out groups of 14 to 15 groups of people and in my mind harassment is harassment no matter who it's against and it's too wordy um especially considering that we have six other policies that discuss discrimination sexual and otherwise and then I looked up the RCW referenced in the policy and um it primarily deals with equal access discrimination though it does address some sexual harassment. So, I just feel like the change wasn't needed. I think it was just redundant for our other policies. So, um, for
072what it's worth, it's not necessarily opposed our other policies. It's just seemed redundant to me. >> I I'd agree. I think I think broad is better on policy than specific. And the more specific you get with policy, I think then it creates uh more loopholes, more work that you're putting on other people. And I think a broader policy tends to cover more. Um, and we just re passed this in January with a change. And so I I probably agree with just keeping it the way it is. Um, if that's what you're saying, that's my >> that's my opinion, but that's up to you guys. So this is a existing policy and all that's added is the civil rights violations, right? And it calls out the civil rights. >> It calls out all those names. >>
073So you don't like that. >> Yeah. I just think it's redundant to the other six policies that we have on the same issue. >> The other policies are around student harassment and this one is around staff. Right. >> Right. But then it sort of changes into students also part of the like above that. So if you don't approve this, you're just taking out the civil rights language. You're the rest of the policy is still as is. >> Yeah, the rest of the policy still as is. And our other policies address that. >> So Peter, do you have any background about why this language is added? Is this directly related to like the um civil rights discrimination language that we require to include or you know? Well, we had the first reading that was approved and
074so I wasn't aware there was any concerns. So, this is the first I've heard about concerns. >> Okay. >> And on that fact, I'm I'm happy just to pull it for right now and discuss it. Um, >> that might be helpful to table it at this point in time. So, >> I'm willing to do that. So, so I can um make make sure I'm not mistaken on what I'm saying. Yeah, that'd be helpful because uh it does seem like it's something that we might need to have our legal counsel give us some opinion on. >> Yeah, I'm I'm happy to do that. >> Yeah, especially if it looks like it's two to two right now or could be two to something or three to >> Yeah. No, that's Yeah, I should have just started out
075by table. That makes >> that'd be helpful if we could table it and get more information and we'll bring it up. >> That would help. That would be helpful to me. >> Um do I need a motion to table this or just hereby table it? Um, >> I I'll make a motion to table um 5011 and to get more information and we'll bring it back up at a future meeting. >> Um, all in favor of that motion signify by saying I >> I >> opposed by the same sign. Okay. Motion car. Thank you. Sorry about that. >> Very good. Thank you. And we will look into it and bring you back for me. >> Okay. Yeah, I'll I'll get with you. >> Okay. Um D, approval of resolution. This is delegating authority to WIAA. I
076believe we do this every year. Um, and uh, I will entertain a motion to approve resolution 26-02-788. >> I'll make a motion to approve the resolution one uh, 2602788. >> Okay, there's a motion on the table. All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed by the same sign. Motion carries four to zero. Approval of the 2627 instructional calendar. I will make a motion to approve that calendar. Um there's a motion on the floor. All in favor of that motion signify by saying I. >> I. Opposed by the same sign. Motion carried 4 to zero. F I believe there was a typo. It's asset preservation program report not prevention preventing our assets. Um >> thank you. >> And is that that is something we need to vote on that? >> Yeah. Uh Mr. Walcott did
077uh contact me previously and said now is that a report or does it need to be approved? Yes. And yes. >> So it is a report and it does need to be approved by the board. >> I trust you all read that and uh I will entertain a motion to approve the asset preservation program report. >> I'll make a motion to approve the report. >> Okay. Motion's on the table. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I. opposed by the same sign. Motion carried four to zero. Are there any items arising, issues that may have come up since receiving the agenda hearing? None. Um reports are in your packet uh to be read. Are there any questions on any of those reports? >> I I I'll just say um I always look at
078the safety report and I I was just encouraged at how short the safety report was. >> Oh. >> Um I think it was about half the length it usually is. So that's I mean that's great. >> That's good. >> Okay. Um Dr. Finch, superintendent report. >> Yeah. Just want to make sure everyone knows that we have our all district STEM showcase. It's coming up uh Thursday, March 12th. So it's really quite soon, just a couple weeks away. It'll be at the innovation center. It's after school from 5:00 to 7:00. And it's really a showcase for all the district. We'll have some of our elementary schools there showing uh some of the after school STEM projects that they do. And then we'll have of course the innovation center. So really looking forward to it. We have
079some community partners that will be showing up as well. So should be a fun evening. Lots of hands-on activities and um just want to promote science, technology, engineering, and math. Uh Thursday, March 12th, 5 to 7. >> All right. Thank you. Uh board reports, board development. Um I attended Bye-Bye Birdie. It was very good. They did a great job. So that was fun. And I the night I went I saw Natalie there and Peter there and that was fun. And again congratulations to boys basketball. And um I stopped by the high cap program last night the showcase and that was very cool and again saw a couple of you there so that was that was fun to attend. Any other board reports board development? I I think maybe just the levy and bond. I do
080appreciate um all of Peter's work on on the levy and the bond. Um you know, I think Mr. Swope brought up a a good point and I think one of the things you did was announce at every event or had somebody announce. So I'm going went to quite a few basketball games this year and >> um somebody was announcing it every time and so um and then the phone calls and everything. So, thank you for >> and and to everybody that we worked on. >> Anything else? Okay, it is now 8:05 and this meeting is adjourned. All right, we have some signatures here.