001eventually. All right, it's 7 o'clock. I'll call this meeting to order on November 10th, 2025 at 7 p.m. We have our president, Mark Strong, on the phone, but we're going to begin with the pledge of allegiance. >> Ready? Begin. I aliance 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. >> Changes to the agenda. >> Uh we're going to add uh discussion item C, which will be policy 1111, oath of office. That's on the agenda later as an action item, but we'd like to have a discussion prior to that. also like to do a sound check with Mark Strong. So Mark, are you there? >> Yes, I'm here. >> Oh, very good. Very good. All right.
002>> Awesome. >> So, we're ready to roll. >> Communications. >> For communications, we have a response to public comment. So, I'll read that. At the schoolboard meeting on October 28th, 2025, a staff member expressed concerns about the instructional materials committee, Skyward Family Access, and custodial and asked that school board reconsider policies and procedures to ensure that staff members who are who are parents have full participation and access. And the response to public comment is the superintendent reviewed procedures with the IT department and sent a follow-up email to all staff. Staff staff members who would like parent access to technology tools such as custodial should use a personal email address. Staff members can continue to use their district email address to access Skyward family access. In regards to the instructional materials committee, assistant superintendent Stacy Drake
003sent an email to all staff asking them to contact our administrative assistant if they were interested in serving on the instructional materials committee. With the current procedures, the district ensures that the perspectives of parents who are not staff members are present on the committee and staff members who are parents may serve on the committee as staff representatives. And that concludes the response to public comment. All right, we have a school presentation tonight. >> Uh, and also just for communications, we did receive a letter from the WIAA and just wanted to recognize I won't read the whole letter, it's in the board packet, but basically on very short notice, the the WIAA slow pitch state championship was being rained out on the Kuanas uh, I believe, and unplayable. and they were able to pivot and use
004the West Valley High School facility. And they were able to do that because of our athletic director, our coaching staff, and all of our staff were able to just quickly get everything up and running. And they were able to complete the the Slow Pit State Championship because of the great work of our staff. And so they wanted to recognize that. And I definitely wanted to put that in our board packet and recognize the great work of our staff to help make that happen. >> Perfect. Now, we have a school presentation. >> Yeah. Very good. So, we're going to ask the board to join the audience because we have the PowerPoint going and we'll have students present. So, when you present, go ahead and come up here in front of the whole audience and we'll have
005the board join the audience. >> Is that all right, guys? I'm taking my cell phone with me. So, Mark Strong, you're with me. [laughter] >> All right. So, we're super excited to I'm getting here partner. [laughter] We're super excited to share some of the great things that are happening at the mid-level campus. I'm Amber Styles Gil, principal of the junior high. >> And Nick Clark, I'm the principal of the middle school. >> And we are >> in the middle of the campus. >> Yeah. Um but here I can't know. >> Oh. Oh, here we go. Okay. So, um, in our strategic plan, one of the goals that we're focused on is culture of safety and belonging. And so, we wanted to spend this evening just to share a few highlights about some of the things
006that we're doing at the mid-level campus. This isn't, of course, everything, but we feel like we have some really awesome things to share with you. So, we know that a culture of safety and belonging increases student achievement, and that research shows that when schools foster a culture of safety and belonging and positive relationships that all of these things happen. So student engagement increases, attendance improves, motivation and effort grow and academic achievement rises. So we really want our students to be seen. We want them to thrive, feel valued and supported, >> right? And all of our plans, the district strategic plan and our own building plan um kind of revolves around our expected strategies. And so as you can see at the top there, our overall focus is through teacher clarity and through our culture of
007safety and belonging and and obviously with our goal of mastery of standards. So all of those are expected throughout the hallways, throughout the classrooms, throughout every day and every period. And it basically culminates with our mastery based learning down there at the bottom slot. It kind of covers both sides. So, just know that everything that's done in the building, whether it's district level or building level or classroom level or individual student level, is based on these strategies here. We're all on the same page. >> All right. >> And our RAM's value. So, this is a poster. I think we even have it on here. Yep, we still do. Last year, we pointed out quickly, but wanted to highlight this. It really goes with what we're speaking to today. Um, this was created in partnership with
008some of our students from our uh, what are they called? Advisory advisory reps. And so we have our Rams values on the left hand side. And then something that came out of our advisory rep meeting is that students really thought it was important to talk about the why. So rather than just constantly tell kids what they should and should not do, students kept saying, but we need to talk about why we do those things. Why is that important? So, we worked with advisory reps LA or two years ago and they came up with these reasons why and then we had kind of a little contest to design the poster and we mashed it all together. Well, Mrs. Williams did because she's amazing like that. And now we have these posters in all of our classrooms
009and throughout the campus. And then our tier one team, this is something that um came about after our first year PR co-principles. um our tier one team that focuses on not just the discipline side of things but also the positive rewards our PBIS system they said you know we have a flowchart we have something like this in our student handbook but we feel like we need to really bring it to life and we need to look at it again and say are these things is this really what's happening in our classrooms and our schools so our tier one team worked a large group of teachers um worked together to refine and come up with this particular poster that we also have around the school in our classrooms and then identify those minor and major incidents.
010And we feel like as a staff we're all on the same page now, which really helps with students knowing what to expect, right? The same expectations are in every classroom and throughout the campus. Um, and then that also kids feel safe when they know what to expect just like with parenting, right? Like you got to know got to have some structure there. So, >> so we didn't just throw this out there. We collected some data as we're at. one of our highlights of our data. If I come on, you do it. [clears throat] Oh. Oh, there we go. So, again, this this this is just one of our data highlights for that tier one planning and how we put together the PBIS store and PBIS levels. And then also with our different behavior uh flowchart.
011So, we're looking at instructional hours missed. So, if you look at the 23 24 school year, our students were out of the classroom and this is, you know, ballpark but pretty close 5,800 hours. And that's a total across the school with 1,200 kids. And then last year 2425 first year of implementing getting all on the same page tier one across the board. You can tell that we've dropped that down to 38. So we we're close to 2,000 instructional hours saved um and our kids were in front of teachers rather than not. So we it just shows that how how that system's working and how we're all on the same page and how powerful that can be. So again, just one data highlight there. All right. Okay. So, we're belonging and we want to find ways
012for everyone to belong here. We want to find ways for them to come to school. We we're creating those and and so we're going to highlight um these four stars, these four kind of throughout. Then you're going to start listening to the kids because you're tired of hearing us, I'm sure, already. And so, you're here for the kiddos. And so, we're going to start pulling them up one at a time. We're going to start with culinary arts with Miss Hansen and her students. And we're going to that's a new course that we've started this year. and then we're going to move into the PBIS store and then our before and after school activities and finally um some professional develop that we're working through um with is with Miss Goldbeck. So no further ado, Mrs. Hansen,
013you guys ready? Yeah. >> Yeah. >> So, I'm Gretchen and I am first year here at the junior high teaching culinary arts and it's been a fun ride. I'm learning and getting acquainted with the the building and the the school and getting everything um set up and running has been fun. I've I've learned a lot and there's things I'll do different second semester, but um I've had some amazing students in class. Um some things we've gone through include like nutrition and wellness, food safety, um culinary skills, and we do definitely review all of that, but I have found that I can talk enough about it, but then the kids learn so much by doing and then they'll like either be like, "Oh, I got it." Or they'll be like, "That didn't work and we need
014to fix it." Um, so I don't know if these girls wanted to share on some things like a big thing we talk about too is time management because 55 minutes flies by real fast when you have kids cooking and um they made cookies again. We've done a couple different food labs um and learning just like order of operations like when you're making pasta, do you want to cook that first or do you want to wait until the you know when when you're going to get the noodles ready? Are they going to get soggy and fall apart or are they going to be fresh and ready with the sauce and learning timing of things as well? So, um don't what would you like to share? What what have you learned in the class? Um I have
015learned a lot about nutrition and like certain things that like I didn't know before like how much of each food group we should be eating. And um it's also fun to just have like a hands-on class and I have it at the end of the day which I really like cuz like all my other classes, you know, are like harder and then at the end of the day I can just kind of be hands-on and do something different. Yeah, I've learned a lot about [clears throat] like cooking and stuff cuz I haven't really learned stuff. But like once I joined this class, you know, it's good skills to have um in the future and just, you know, learning. It's fun. It's really a fun class >> and we do a lot with time management cuz
016that's, you know, and working as a team and taking responsibility and like if I ask you to clean something, you can do it. You don't have to say like, "Well, I didn't make that mess." Cuz it's just the nature of like working as a group and things like that. So, okay. >> And you guys brought some treats. >> Yes. And if you would like, they can hand out cookies that they made. Yes. You want to do that now? Everyone can grab. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Yeah, that's great. All right. Leadership kids, do you want to come get ready while they're >> Tiffany Williams and I work with our leadership kids and a year ago we stood before are you um talking about our new PBIS store. So we have
017had a full year under our belts and these leadership students are reaping the benefits of our lessons learned and um things we've knowledge we have gained, wisdom we have accured. Um so I want them to share a little bit about the differences they've noticed in the year. So we have seventh graders as and an eighth grader with us. um Gunnar Jones, Kellen Day, Michaela Torres, Gonzalez [clears throat] Torres, and Caitlyn Moore. So, I'd like them to just yeah tell a little about their personal experiences as buyers and earners of points, but also as the organizers and distributors of the PBIS items. Uh, I'd really like that we have used our uh kind of our um so we've we've made um coupons of dismissing lunch and um getting to uh tell dad jokes in the morning
018on the announcements like our great Mr. Clark. [laughter] Uh uh and that I feel like is a pretty good use of our own uh or a good use of free uh rewards and a pretty Yeah. Uh, another thing is we've made a better like delivery system on instead of having it at the middle of the day getting your rewards, you get them at the end of the day so that your teachers are more happy with the students. Instead of not getting frustrated that they're messing around with everything and that they get it at the end of the day and then they do not have a lot of time to play with it cuz they get out of school. Um, something that I've noticed is that teachers have gotten a lot better using them as a
019reward system because I remember last year when it had just started that not a lot of teachers like knew how to use it or they just didn't really figure it out, but this year they got a lot better and we got like much more skills. Um, one thing that I've enjoyed is that um, we have useful items that kids can buy like workbooks if they lose theirs or against damage and pencils and erasers that they can buy if they lose theirs. Anything else to add? Our our average sales right now are about 400 to 500 every other week. So, we're delivering every other Friday. And um we've been able to with the support of our admin, we've been able to find lots of fun things. It's amazing what kids, you know, love. If you've ever
020taken your kids to like the arcade and it's like it doesn't matter that it's not awesome to us that they love it and we've got tiny ducks and stickers and and they're just and lots of squishy things. And so it has been we have really upped our um our items and I think and we keep getting feedback from kids about what's working and what do they want to see in it too. So but these guys work hard every other week, man. They're in there packaging these things up. We've got we've got a we've got it down and so it takes up a good chunk of our time, but it's it's working and I appreciate it. >> Nice job. >> So I'm the I'm the data guy, too. So I just pulled this up. We've given
021out 16,300 points so far this school year. Um we've so far the kids have used 1,660 points for raffles. >> Oh yeah. >> And they've used um Oh, I'd like to. And then uh they they've purchased 1394 items from the store already. >> Um sixth grade's leading the way with 7,927 points earned so far, followed by seventh grade with 5,469. in the eighth grade has fallen over 45,550 say so >> all right so we know involvement matters so whether kids are finding courses during the day that they feel connected to and engaged with or you know leadership opportunities those are all super important but we also recognize that we have some before and after school things taking place that are equally as important on the right hand side band and choir that of course takes
022takes place primarily during the day unless they have concert or competition. And those are our numbers for this year. We had 20 eighth graders participate in the high school marching band. So that was really awesome to see. They would get on a bus after school on their rehearsal days and ride up to the high school and practice and then they got to perform at the home football games and then some competitions. Um and then our after before and after school activities or clubs, we have lots of involvement in that. Uh we had 14 clubs during the fall and again 14 clubs for winter 1. Athletics take place after school. Uh we had 16 teams in the fall. Lots of fall sports. So 344 athletes were involved in that. Um unfortunately we do have to cut
023athletes. We have more athletes participate than any other school in our or any Yeah. any other school in our league. So we're fortunate to have the teams that we have. Same thing for winter. We have eight basketball teams right now. Most schools just have four or fewer, so 113 athletes between our basketball teams and um wrestling right now. And then drama, we just got started with the musical and so kids auditioned for that. Last year we had 120 students participate. That was cast, crew, and the pit. Um, and then this year we were in the middle of, you know, auditioning. And so I had our um, arts teachers just estimate for me. They're pretty certain they'd have at least around a hundred kids. So that is just another way that we're making those connections whether
024it's during the day or before after school. And we wanted to highlight just one of our clubs to share with you. Um, Cox's [clears throat] club. So come on up, guys. Good evening. Thank you for having us visit with you this evening. Um we have what we call wacky science. Um it is a oh a culmination of social emotional learning. Uh it has 21st century skills all over it. collaboration, communication, critical thinking. Um, we work together, grades six, seven, and eight, and they all learn to complement each other. They learn to find the wow factor in everything that we do. Um, we start with alcohol inking um to start to understand small amounts of what the human body can do. Hadera is new in our new club. She's going to talk about what the first
025couple of um club days are like. And then Randall, he's my resident survivor. Um, he has survived the inking club the first round. And um, Randall is what I call an indicator student. His expressions tell me whether or not this is a go or not. And so Randall is here to show you those expressions because he can do them all. Um, >> so first we started by taking different colors of ink and making a landscape. It looks like this. They all turn out different. There's also one up there. Um, we took like ink bottles and we like spritz them all over the paper and like we took like little popsicle sticks and like we made a picture out of it. It took it takes a couple days to dry and stuff, but it made like
026when we when we had we took a gold type of ink and we mixed it with the regular ink and it made a chemical reaction that like pushed it away. [clears throat] >> It's like it's a reaction that also happens in the human body. That's also how it like compares from from like art science to actual science in the body. And we saw a lot of movement out of it of the inks and like it it does resemble to the molecules and stuff also inside the body. And what I think is best about the club is knowing that we get to use needles and syringes all over to inject to like inject fruit and we cut it open to see what it looks like inside. Randall's actually done that. >> Yeah. Um, so after we
027got comfortable working with the needles and syringes, we then started to become bubonists, which uh we worked on injecting different fruits with colored dyes. As you can kind of see up there, the first two um uh the all the different pathways in the fruit, it all reacted in different ways and had the dye like it was pretty cool cuz it was just all over the place. And the onion too, it like circled around it. Awesome. Um uh we learned how to properly work with sharps like the needles and scalpels. Uh I was like I've been deathly afraid of needles my entire life and this has helped a lot with that. Um we also the scalpels which were really sharp really tiny knives and did not want to miss a finger with that. And uh we
028also giant knives too. It was pretty interesting. We had the really small ones and then these like huge ones that were like you know >> [laughter] >> We uh after we learned how to be uh safe with all the different sharps, um we used 1 cc syringe, which is the one you pushed with, and a 33 gauge needle uh to try to inject into a simulated vein. Uh so this is about how thin that vein was. Like with a shaky hand and a needle, it's like really hard to get. So yeah, that took a pretty long time. Uh this club was excellent for me because I started out afraid of the needles and now I can work with them like any other scientific equipment. It was a really good it's really helpful instructive club. >>
029Um Esley, thank you um for taking that leap in CTE. Uh also in taking the leap and letting us think out of the box and bring the human body into and steam and putting it all together as one. Uh we have a small gift for each of you. Thank you. >> Oh, thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> That's a really hard act to follow. [laughter] Um, and I don't have any kids with me, but I'm Jesse Goldbeck. I'm the multilingual coach at the middle level campus. Um this is my second year at this campus and I just wanted to tell you that we have been um really fortunate to have some EL release days. So for English language development. So I met with each uh content area of teachers and some content areas
030like ELA we had to do in two days because we wanted to make sure we had subs show up. Um but we got to work the whole day looking at um well our targets and learning targets and success criteria are up there. We use data um I reviewed the data of the WEDA data and the I Ready data of our multilingual students at all grade levels with the teachers that um and then they had the day to collaborate with the team with their team planning scaffolds and strategies based on that data um what their students needed and then that we had success criteria also and then the post-it notes on the on the right are for success criteria three. Um at the end of the day, the teachers committed to three scaffolds or supports that
031they were willing to try in their classroom. Um knowing that not all scaffolds and supports work in every classroom and every content area, but they are willing to um to try some of the things that we had talked about. So um along with our district goals of teacher clarity and safety and belonging um our purpose for the day is to get to know our students who they are their strengths um language and cultures. Moving beyond just the students in our content area um specifically because if you only see students for science that's all you know about them is their ability to do science or if you only see them in PE that's all you know about them. But we were able to talk with all content areas about their reading skills, their math skills, and
032all of their language skills um as far as the WEDA tests were concerned. And so that was really enlightening to some teachers who were like, "Oh, okay. That now I know how I can help those um students in my content area and what specific supports they would need other than just, you know, the broad they're a multilingual student. they would know they knew had specific data on those students. Um and then our on the next slide that's just an example of the data. On the left is the um it's really hard to see but on the far left is the current descriptors. So that's where the students test. Each student has um a report like this. That's where the students test in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. And then on the right hand side of
033that same report are the successive descriptors so they know where the students are currently and what to do to move them to the next level. Um and so that we really focused on specific strategies for each content area. For example, PE and art might not have a lot of reading or writing, but they do a lot of speaking and listening. So, we talked specifically about speaking and listening strategies that they can use in their classrooms or as exit tickets. And then um and then how so they know where their students are and what how to get them, you know, what the next little step would be for those students. And then the right hand side is a just an example of an I Ready report. um we have lots of students who are reading um
034below grade level and so we want to make sure that we are removing all the barriers to get the students to the end goal which is learning the um grade level content. So what do we need to do to remove that barrier in the middle and that's providing the schedules. So, we were able to spend our day in really small groups um focusing on those things and working and planning and committing to strategies for the students. And that's all I have. So, I just wanted to thank the district for supporting um the professional development. I don't know if we will get to do that again, but it was really really beneficial. And um if it's at all possible, I would highly say it's worth the money. [laughter] So, those are just a few examples of
035the great things that we have happening. We have really amazing staff and really amazing kids as you can see. So, we can thank our special people. >> All right. >> Want to put this picture in there to finish it up and to start it because, you know, we're we we're you know, we're priming you guys a little bit, [laughter] right? So, so this is our gym. This is only half of our student body. This is the middle school gym. And you can tell we had to bring chairs out to put it on the floor. We and we had to do we had a a motivational speaker come in Stu Cape earlier this year and we had to do a couple different uh assemblies because we just didn't fit. So something to prime you guys. >>
036So thank you much. All right. We'll have the board come up. We have uh Amry next day and more question. There are so many things that I love about that presentation. Thank you so much. I'm really excited about the pathway and career that's going on. Uh, one of the things I saw was the the creativity that gets put into the curriculum, the excitement on the students faces, and then just the the production of what comes out of it. Thank you guys so much for all the hard work you have to do. we just support them. >> I noticed also, so something happened in our family the last few years. Um, both of our kids came through the middle school and one of the things that I noticed that was a trend that started to change
037when they came to the middle level campus was their attendance. They became in love with attendance. And it was one of those things that even moving forward, they're afraid to miss any days of school. looking at your slide on uh tier one data. That's a great success. How did you guys do that? >> Well, yes. So, again, this is and and someone brought to my attention, they what they wanted to go, what is exclusion means? It it means that's that's kids out of class. They were excluded from the classroom itself and so they just didn't get the opportunity. So, we made it a point and the teachers made it a point that we were going to do interventions inside the classroom. We were going to start it there. we were going to make more of
038a connection between the teacher and the and the parent at that point. And what it does is it reacts to it's the kids were responding. So that was enough to keep them in the class and we didn't have to go any further up the ladder if you know what I mean. So >> yeah, so that's >> I also think too our teachers do a great job of supporting one another. And so when we start thinking about like let's say back in 23 24 maybe you had a kid who was always falling asleep in class and maybe um being removed from class because the teacher was frustrated like why are they always sleeping in my class and I I think we got we had some good conversation and I feel like our teachers really started to
039support one another and like well I know this about that kid and that's why they're doing this and maybe we can figure out some other ways to help them >> you know be successful. Um, and then they also with our with the reflection forms and the teacher started talking about, well, I'm gonna have I'm gonna work with my teacher next door and when a kid needs to fill out a reflection form, they're going to go do it with that teacher or they're going to go do it by them. So, the collaboration, I think, and the conversation around some of those things makes a big difference. >> And in addition to that, we have a very dedicated individual who happens to be in this room too to that really does he runs the tier 2 support
040teams and the care team. And so referring those students that are you seeing something going on on a regular basis, now we're referring them to a tier 2 level. So now we have a team that also talks about that student and what kind of interventions and what kind of supports can we put in place there. So we're very intentional on identification and and that tier 2 interventions as well. And uh we're finding that those all they're having some successes. And we can also add in there that our community and schools is also also another tier 2 intervention that we have um that we we've spent some of our um monies on and uh we find that they're very uh valuable as well. >> And a little reflection on my part. So our first year as
041principles, I mean, you don't know what you don't know, right? U but we knew that there were things to improve on. And we got to May, you know, when everybody's all tired and like ready for summer and we had I was really nervous about we had a conversation about our discipline and our data and um >> it ended up being a great conversation and great input from our staff and I think that was a positive turning point because then from that we got more people involved in our tier one and our tier 2 and that buyin and their input made a huge difference in creating like our poster and the flowchart and just our systems that were already there, but they just weren't refined enough. So, I think the difference has really been with our
042teachers and their commitment to making things better. >> Thank you. >> Um well, I would uh yeah, I've I I think you answered the question I had about exclusion and and what defines exclusion. Um attendance is being one of them. Are there other things that define it? >> So, our attendance is not included in that data. That's just the exclusions like you know a kid removed from the class at that time. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. Um I appreciate uh Mrs. Gills highlighting uh the the number of students in band choir and drama priming us for this. >> That's right. you did ask for another, [laughter] you know, and and so I think yeah, and I look at all of these things and I I think one of the things that as a district we
043can be proud of is is that we are preparing the kids for the real world, you know, and I see that in in these clubs, in these classes that you presented here. And um and um one thing I'll just make mention um is I think you two share leadership really well. I noticed that, you know, our last meeting and then coming here. So, great job what you're doing. >> Maybe it's because we went to medical school together. [laughter] >> Not here, but >> that's great. >> I just wanted I just wanted to say thank you to everybody. I don't have anything to add. I agree totally both of them, but and most students have left, but I wanted to thank them because I mean I remember in middle school it's not easy to stand up
044in front of people. And so those of you that are still here, thank you. You guys did a great job. Um, and the cookies really help. >> But it's just it's just fun to watch the students stand up in front of adults and and share and you get a little nervous, but um and I remember, but it was really good. Appreciate it. >> Well, and I know you guys have other jobs, but if you ever have an opportunity to come visit us, it's it's really fun to see the things our kids are doing. Like the pictures I took in our culinary class. I was just trying to do my observation of Gretchen's room, but it was so exciting cuz they were making this pasta with this um pumpkin sauce of some sort and the kids
045were trying to follow the rest. It was some of them got out the heavy cream, some got out other ingredients. [laughter] They were really learning as they as they went along and watch. And then [clears throat] if you travel down the hallway a little further, I've been really excited about our lettuce. We're growing lettuce in Egg Ventures and we got our garden beds set up outside. There's just there's so many great things happening. And then in ELA, like they're using the new curriculum and you go in and they're highlighting things and they're talking and all across the board. There's great things happening in all our classes. So, it's super fun to watch. So, if you had a chance and you just wanted to walk through, I would be happy to walk through the junior high.
046I'm sure Nick would at the middle school, too. Anytime. >> Anytime. I don't have any questions. I just more like everybody else. Kudos. I I I'm I'm really impressed and encouraged uh or I would encourage us as a district and and and for your staff to continue to support these hands-on endeavors because you can just tell >> by the students that came up and spoke how excited they were to talk about needles and cooking and and everything else. That that's so important to that sense of that hook. What is that hook that is going to create that sense of belonging at school that they belong they they belong here because hopefully more than one thing but that that something can that bring them here and they want to be here like Mr. He said, "We
047don't want to miss." That's all part when all of those things happen and kids don't miss school because they don't want to miss out. That's awesome. So, everything that we can do to promote that um the district should be in favor and work toward finding solutions um to provide those opportunities. One thing that um one thing that I will say um I love the numbers on on extracurriculars. Um, extracurriculars are a extremely important part of developing a well-rounded student experience. And on the one hand, it hurts my heart uh that we have to cut in athletics. I know you guys are shaking your heads up and down. As somebody who a long time ago went through this district, I was cut and that's not fun. Um, that doesn't promote a sense of belonging. at school.
048>> Um, but it made me a better person. It made me it and and I and I just offer that that I don't know what we're doing relative to supporting those those students. Um, I know that I know that when I was cut um from an athletic program uh a long time ago, um there were supports in place for me. Um you know, I was I was fortunate. I had great parents and great support and and um friends and so forth, but um while we don't want to see any kid go through that process, it's maybe not it's not necessarily a bad thing in the long run if it's handled right. So, I just throw that out for consideration. I'm sure I'm sure that there is support going on, but uh >> we also have
049great ideas if you know we were to have a bond pass, [laughter] >> but you bring up >> Nick talks about inter murals like all the time. >> I'm like, but where where are we going to do it? But >> yes, you're exactly right. >> Yeah. So anyway, um just love the presentation. Loved um the things that we are the initiatives that we're taking and they continue to take to support belonging at school. Thank you. Amber and I and the staff are constantly talking about what can grab a hold of somebody and hold on to them, right? And so we're constantly bringing that up. So yeah. >> Yeah. We want everybody to find their place. And my mom would say that builds character. >> I like to tell her I have enough. [laughter] >> Yeah,
050we are. We're working to find a place for every kid so you have something to look forward to. >> Cookies were great, too. >> They were really good. >> Yeah, it was good. >> Anything else? >> Thank you so much, guys. >> All right. Next on the agenda, we have our public comment on non-discussion agenda items. I'm just going to read this. Members of the public who would like to provide public comment will sign in. Speakers will be called in the order that they signed in to speak. Speakers will be given three minutes for their comments. Public comment is not the proper forum to address concerns about specific staff. And then we have three people signed in. So, if we can have um is that Brad Henson? Perfect. I did a little writing in the
051back on the fly. Uh, thank you schoolboard members for your time. First, not sure if you'd like it, but you'd have way better attendance if you told parents and community members there'd be cookies. [laughter] Uh, second, my apologies for being a little lightheaded. Unlike our dynamic students that left, uh, I've got a thing with needles, so that was really fun to have thrown at my face, too. [laughter] But on a more serious note, I'm here today in the hopes that you will vote to approve for the additional funding um uh with regards to financing uh an auditorium for the middle school. Um my understanding is there's a proposal on the table for $5 million in funding for an approximately 350 person auditorium. You took the photo down, but as that photo showed for the mid-level
052campus, a size appropriate auditorium would be of great benefit to your staff, to the community, and to the students of the district. I think the new auditorium I would recommend be designed to promote the arts and the students involved in the arts among other things. The current high school auditorium only holds 350 is al often too small for the high school band concerts parents and family and friends to attend let alone hosting the amount of parents and family members that come to watch 6th to 8th grade band choir and other events. I would say 750 to a,000 would be more appropriate. Furthermore, the high school does not have the appropriate lighting, prop storage, and the necessary pit for high school drama productions. To build this type of oral auditorium, in my estimation, would probably cost
053about three times that. Let's say $15 million. Um, that's an increase of $10 million what's on budget. And I believe, if I do the math right, would cost a person with a $300,000 home approximately $25 a year. Um, a $500,000 home approximately 40. Now, I understand everyone loves their projects being funded and we could nickel and dime everyone. We see it in Congress often. I believe that this nominal increase in revenue would have a dramatic ROI for our students, their parents, and the community. With that, I want to thank those of you who have served tirelessly on this board and won't be back after this next couple of sessions. It's sometimes a thankless job and I was raised by my parents to thank those people who step up to the plate and do hard things.
054We don't always agree, but it's important to value leadership and commitment in our community. You all have stepped up. Thank you. I really appreciate the work you've done these past years. >> Thank you, >> Andrea Jones. Okay. Jody Scott. >> [clears throat] >> my way. >> Hello. Good evening. Um, I am a mid-level staff campus member. Did I say that right? Campus staff member. There you go. [laughter] I'm used to talking to kids, not as much adults. Um, but I am also um a drama parent. So, I'm here to speak as well in favor of adding the auditorium to um to the plans for the mid-level campus. So, um as we know, our existing auditorium is quite out of date and much smaller than needed for our mid-level campus students and our high school. Um
055we currently do not really have a facility that can hold all of our our students for these large events. And while our theater students um have done an amazing job uh being very creative with that space coming in from the back and down the aisles and all kinds of things, um it's time for an updated facility. Um to skip over that at this time would mean another 40 years or something before we could update this facility. And so um just want to really urge you to consider that. Um, as you said, Mr. Thorner, anything that supports student belonging and wanting to be here at school, our school district should be in favor of. And so, I ask you to please um consider adding the new auditorium. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >>
056Anybody who didn't sign in, you're welcome to come up now. >> Seeing no one Oh, sorry. Go ahead. >> Uh, my name is Shane Moore. I've spoken to you before. um here because my daughter was one of the presenters tonight and I'm here to pick her up. But after hearing the the last two, I do want to sh I should when I spoke to you about 6 months ago on something else, I did throw in that as a district and I even heard just this weekend from people saying has one of the best fine arts programs in the state. Our facilities do not match that. and um seeing I'll be at the middle the high school in December for a junior high band concert and there will not be enough seats and not just not
057enough seats. We're creating actual uh hazards with the fire department one day if a chief walks in and sees how we're making just to get enough parents to be able to see what's going on. And so I would love to see a nice auditorium. Truly, I what I would love to see is a fine arts building for this uh district, knowing that probably won't happen, but if we truly want to claim to be one of the best fine arts programs in the state, we need the facilities to match it because they are not there. >> Thank you. Anybody else? All right. At this time, we're going to move into the action items. Discussion. >> Discussion. >> Correct. And so let's take them one at a time. There's a lot of discussion going on. Um easy
058one is the approval of minutes from next from last session. >> Oh, I think we uh item eight is discussion items. >> Oh, I'm so sorry. >> Yeah. So, >> we'll go down to the >> So, A is the levy. >> The levy. Awesome. All right. We've talked a lot about the levy. Is there any further discussion for the levy tonight? >> Sure. At the last board meeting, uh the board had requested that I come back and bring some information about uh where the additional funds would be targeted and so I provided that in the board packet. But just you know for the audience as well the athletics and activities uh we have uh a need for athletic trainer additional um time there and that's really safety of our athletes. Our after-school activities for elementary
059over the years have been reduced because of the reductions that we've seen in the local effort assistance and and other reduction of fundings. And so we'd like to bring back after school activities for our elementary students. Uh we'd like to have drama productions in the fall and the spring. Uh we heard about outdoor school and how wonderful that was for our students, but the funding for that was cut by the state legislature and so we'd like to bring that back with our local levy. And then we'd like to reduce student fees as much as possible. Uh currently there's a fee for marching band. We'd like to reduce that and and hopefully we'd like to eliminate it. Um so just you know in terms of athletics and activities, there's a lot of areas there where we
060could um uh increase our funding and we would do that through this uh the local levy. Other areas were the maintenance and improvements, districtwide support, certificated staff and programs, counseling, student health services, and then our information technology infrastructure. Uh there is uh you know we we have uh a lot of uh items with information technology. Uh we have always the ongoing need to upgrade and then there's uh definitely concerns across the whole nation about cyber security especially with school districts and we know that the Highline school district had to deal with a cyber security breach and it infected every item that they had in their system. So ev every every printer, every every computer, everything was infected and the only way to fix that is to have a huge um replacement of all those items.
061So the more we can do to have cyber security so we're not in that position, the better. And so there's some additional uh funding we would need for our cyber security firewalls. So uh we p pulled that together and put that in the board packet. Um just wanted to make sure that you know we were responsive to what the board had asked and um shared that with you. >> Awesome. Appreciate that packet. Any discussion on the levy? >> I I appreciate your guys' work. You and I know uh Mr. McDaniel putting just um detailing a little more about how that's uh spent. Um you know, and I think I think as we put this forward, being able to answer that to the community is important for not just us, but everybody that's involved. And you
062know, those are questions people ask. So, thank you for for the extra effort. >> Thank you. >> All right, we'll begin discussing the bond proposal. >> All right, with the bond proposal, uh the board had asked for more information about what the scope of a middle school auditorium would be. And so, we shared uh two pages here in the board packet. Uh we also shared the enrollment of our band and choir at the mid-level campus and that the stage that's being proposed would be large enough to accommodate future growth in the program. Uh the estimated stage capacity would be 125 to 150 students for band, 150 175 students for choir. That would allow our sixth grade band and choir to perform together and our seventh and eighth grade to perform together. uh the seating capacity
063would be approximately 900 to a,000 seats and then we shared the square footage. Uh there was some talk uh in the public comment about uh the need for um like the backstage, the wings, the lobby, mechanical circulation, storage, auditorium seating. We provided that all in there as the range. When we worked with our consultant on identifying the amount that would be needed to have the middle school auditorium, they were taking into account uh some of the square footage that was already in the original package and then by adding this additional the 5 million additional uh they were saying that we would be able to to have the auditorium um that basically we've been hearing from the public that they would like to see happen. >> When you look at the uh the tax rates, we
064included that as well. And so and you know we are comparing the 2025 tax rate to the proposed west valley 2027 tax rate but um you know previously we had shared this information this is the revised information with the new assessed value. So you can see that in comparison to the 2025 tax rate uh both of either proposal that you decide to uh approve tonight, the one with the middle school auditorium or without those are still combined tax rate with the replacement levy would still be the lowest of our upper valley schools. So lower than Nachis, lower than East Valley, lower than Yakma, lower than Highland, and then it would be equivalent to the CILA combined rate if you went with the middle school auditorium. So, it still puts us in a real competitive area
065in looking at, you know, are we in the right ballpark of the combined tax rate and, you know, this information shows that we would definitely be competitive with our other upper valley schools. You know, Peter, for me personally, it was one of those um packets that really solidified it for me. I really wanted to get to the 975. I just didn't know what we were getting for it. And as you guys have put the material together, it's been so good to see. And so I'm I'm all in favor of the 9275 getting that auditorium put in. Very good. >> I I'm Yeah, I'm I'm I'm as well. Um I think uh one of the community members mentioned it like this is this is an opportunity that probably won't come up for a long time, >>
066you know, and I think it's I I do think um matching our facilities to our fine arts program is is good. And I I do think the uh one of the members made mention that, you know, 900,000 is a cost is about $15 million, you know, and I think I think that's probably pretty accurate, but I think the work that you did um with the consultant helps to clarify how um this is um be a going to be able to fall under that like like that that creates the opportunity to do it for 5 million versus 15 million down the road. >> Correct. >> Um you know, so and um I'm for the auditorium and that's what my vote is going to be is for that one tonight. So >> yeah, I'm also for adding
067the auditorium. I think it's it's h worth doing after I had heard some discussion from some arts folks several weeks ago and began questioning in my mind, well, why don't we have the space for that? and and realizing some I I don't think I realized that the high school auditorium was as small as it was and is that is that 350 number correct? >> 500 seat. >> Okay. I was thinking it was more like 500 but still >> um smaller than right >> than I remembered it being that >> until you're in there. So I'm also uh in favor of adding that. I think it's worth worth adding and and giving the opportunity for the taxpayer and community to to say yes or no. >> I was in favor of it before tonight. in favor
068of it tonight. >> And as I mentioned in the last meeting, if for no other reason, then it keeps the it keeps our students within the confines of our building um and not moving outside and minimizing the being outside of the building, which is a real risk. um that needs to be taken seriously and and uh and I know it is, but uh but I'm also in favor of uh the $97.5 million bond proposal. >> Awesome. Good. Mr. Strong, do you want to add anything? >> Uh not really. Everybody said all the right things. I would just add one other comment. This is long overdue. It's something we um were fortunate to be able to do at this point in time. I'm just glad to see that it's, you know, something that we want we're
069really all in agreement on for pushing forward and getting it done. >> Excellent. >> Yeah. >> Setting the 975 to the side for the moment. Is there anything in the bond specifics or details that you want to talk through? >> I'm debating. Um, I'll only make one comment that I don't think there's anything we can do because I just found out that it was a legal issue. is when I ran for the board, a lot of people were um disappointed at at the you know, it's two sides of the opinion that we had excess bond funds and either wanted to vote on those or or use them for something else. And we had talked about here as a board putting in the next bond proposal that if there was excess funds that it would just
070directly go back to the people or have another vote on where they would be used. And my understanding is that it's a it's a legal issue that we can't do that. We can't write that in. So, it's pretty much going to be the same response as before where it would have to be up to the board after a public hearing, etc. I personally feel like that the excess that we had was a unique thing and [clears throat] I don't see it happening again, so I'm not too concerned about it. >> Okay. >> Could I offer a compromise to the wording of the resolution because I I understand your point, Mr. Walcott and I know that um um I I understand I I perfectly understand what the position was. Um you know, it seems to me
071that uh I don't know that we would be out of bounds by uh passing board policy, >> right, >> on the issue of remaining bond proceeds. um the the resolution can say what it says, >> but I would offer for the board's consideration a policy um to address that issue. >> I really like that. >> I I would be in support of that and I think I I would say I'd verbally affirm that my vote would be to defeat the funds if we got to that point. But I think a policy is going to further carry the opinion of the board maybe as it is. And >> obviously they can change a policy if it's not us. But >> like any good debater, I know both sides of the story. I mean, if the constitution
072of the or if the if the board ch if the board were to change in the middle of the project, then obviously the policy could change, but but I do think um I I do think as a as a >> as a compromise, as I'll call it, >> um it will at least um put on the record at a particular point in time the board's feeling at the time that that the resolution passed that this is this is uh this is the policy of this school board to do X um should an event occur. So anyway, I that's just an idea to uh not necessarily make you feel better about the resolution, but but offer up a comment that memorializes the intention of the board. >> And it's not a feel-good thing for me necessarily.
073It's just I heard from a lot of community members and taxpayers that said they just felt like >> I mean look whether they're right or wrong. I mean >> it's like I'm never voting for a bond again because they you know >> we voted to do this and then they added that. All those things we did and were needed and they're they're great to have done. But >> I'm just hearing you know we want this passed. >> Yeah. and and I and I I think there's a um after we defeze the funds, I heard from a lot of people uh as a kind of like a thank you and I think there's a sense of trust that's built into that, you know, and so I think a board policy alongside of that would just go
074further in building trust in the community. um just to say like we value the money that comes from your taxes because of your hard work, you know, and we don't take it lightly. Um so I'm I would be in full full support. I think it's a great idea, Mr. Thorn. Um I did want to say one other thing. Um I think um I did ask Mr. McDaniel, a bunch of questions um uh prior to this meeting. Just um really thinking through questions from the community that are going to be asked uh because most of us in this room are in support of this, but there are community members that are are not going to be in support of it, you know, and so um the questions that I came up with, I think he responded
075really quick and he got them. Uh I appreciate Mrs. Gorenson answered some of those questions. Um, but I think it'd be important for us just to continue thinking of these questions. Uh, because we're passing the resolution to do it. But after that, I think is where the work begins where, you know, we've got to communicate the why, like the what the students talked about tonight. >> Um, with the with with why why respect. Well, why are we doing this bond? you know, I think um communication is going to be so incredibly important in this and in and passing. So, >> thank you for responding so quickly, too. >> Yeah, those are great suggestions. We do have a bond and levy website already up and running and then adding those frequently asked questions. We can just
076do that in real time as they come in. If one person has a question, we know someone else out there will have a question as well. So, put those frequently asked questions and answers on that bond and levy website that we have. Awesome. And then are we able to put a draft together for a board policy? >> Yes, I've heard consensus that the board would like the administration to bring forward a policy on future u defeasement of funds and also just to make sure the community knows um you know we did talk this over with the lawyer who put the resolution together. Lawyer did include defeasement as an option in the resolution that's being proposed to the board. Uh it does say that the board may retire or defease a portion of the bonds or
077other outstanding bonds of the district as the board may determine by resolution after holding a public hearing thereon. And then basically that that was what the lawyer said that he was going to be able to put in there for us. And um and I do appreciate uh Mr. Thorner coming forward and saying bringing a policy on defeasement would helped us really solidify the position of the board and have that on the record for the community. So I love that. >> We can definitely do that. Awesome. Mr. Strong, would you like to add anything? >> No, not really. I mean, I I think we've talked about this quite a few times before in the past. Um, but, you know, I can live with with anything that we really do there. I I just think that um
078at the time we did what we did. We just had some serious, you know, I think uh facilities issues that we had to deal with. We dealt with them. So whatever future policy we come up with and you know it it will do what we want to do for the community as well. So I'm in favor of whatever you know we come up with here. >> Okay. Perfect. Then we'll consider that discussion done. Moving on to discussion item C. Policy revision 1111 oath of office. >> All right. So, we uh have received from the Washington State School Directors Association this model policy. Uh there was changes to the state law last spring. I had shared a cover memo with the board that explained the RCWs that had changed and the RCWS were related to the
079willful non-compliance of the school board with the state laws. And it did say that willful non-compliance was a violation of the oath of office. They were suggesting, so this is a discretionary um suggestion that they were suggesting that the oath of office be updated to include the state of Washington as um the laws of the state of Washington as part of the oath. And so that's what we brought forward. I believe I'd heard uh prior there was a board member uh sharing with me that perhaps if we're saying the laws of the state of Washington then we should also say the laws of the United States of America and that's something that we could include in a second reading if that's what the board wanted to do. >> Mhm. >> So that's uh that's where
080we're at and if you want just I'm interested in hearing the board discussion here um as we added a discussion item. I think one of the difficulties when I read the statement is typically when you're doing the revision and you see more red than blue or whatever it is, it starts to make you really crossey trying to read it. [laughter] >> And so it it seems more complex than it is. Um and it took me a little bit to just even realize what was being shifted. I don't see any significant shifts in this, but I would agree that um if we're saying the state of Washington as the laws that we would submit to, I would imagine that it would also be the laws of the United States in addition to that. Would you like
081to send it out? >> Yeah. >> Okay. As an option, depending on how the discussion goes, I I took all the cross outs and just whittleled it down to what the old one actually said, what the new one actually says because it helped me. It helped me understand exactly what it was saying. There wasn't that much change. >> I just added on the third line um US law also because it has both US Constitution and state constitution. So why not have both? It just has a something to throw out. >> Yeah. >> I didn't want to interrupt. >> Yeah. And just again for the audience, I I'll just read this. So the suggestion for the new policy that Mr. Wilcott has shared is each newly elected, reelected or appointed director will take an oath or
082affirmation to support the constitutions of the United States and the state of Washington and the laws of the United States and the state of Washington and to faithfully discharge the duties of the office to the best of his or her ability. The oath or affirmation must be endorsed by and sworn to before an officer authorized to administer oaths. School officials are authorized to administer all oaths or affirmations pertaining to the respective offices. After the oath or affirmation is made, it will be filed with the county auditor. My thought towards this is that um I appreciate what Mr. Walcott put in there. But I also think that we recognize we're in a time where the state of Washington's laws and the federal laws don't necessarily line up. Um, you know, and we're also looking at um
083federal laws that are handed down and then our state is basically asking us not to do what they're doing in the sense right now. And so this the WSDA did classify this as discretionary. Um and so because they classified it as discretionary, I would my suggestion would to be just to leave it as it is, not to change the policy or the the oath. Um yeah, that's that's my thoughts towards that. >> A question, Peter. uh if it's discretionary, does the previous policy support the new RCW? >> The previous policy basically the RCW that got updated says that uh non non willful non-compliance is a violation of the oath of office. That's what it says in the new RCW. So this makes it explicit that the oath of office is to uphold the laws of
084the state of Washington. >> It certainly gives clarification, but does the old one does it not support the RCW? >> Well, I guess that's why it's discretionary and basically whether whether you change it or not, the RCW says that will not will for non-compliance is a violation of the oath of office. Go ahead, Michael. >> I make these statements not as the district's legal counsel. Unfortunately, you have a lawyer who's on the school board. >> RCW28 34360, which was amended this year. First sentence reads, quote, "Every person elected or appointed to the office of school director before entering upon the discharge of the duties thereof shall take an oath or affirmation to support the Constitution of the United States and the State of Washington and the laws of the state of Washington and to faithfully
085discharge the duties of the office according to the best of his or her ability ability." And then there's a little bit more after that. So, when you go to the Washington State Legislature site where it talks about down below after the after the statute, there's a link to the actual bill that was passed in the legislature. and you click on that. And for this particular RCW, the only portion of that first sentence that [clears throat] I read was the laws of the state of Washington, which was absent from the policy before. So, I'm not exactly sure what the Washington School Directors Association is saying about why this is discretionary because shall is shall take an oath of office or affirmation. That is a must. So, I don't understand why this is a discretionary policy. That's
086not for me to say. But the Mr. Walcott's suggestion for our policy >> Mhm. >> adds to verbatim the law or verbatim what is provided for in the RCW. Um, it's interesting when you look at when you when you click on the little hyperlink that talks about the rest of everything that was passed that Dr. Finch talked about about willful non-compliance being part of that and then there's a bunch of other terms of art that are used. But what's interesting when you compare the rest of what was part of that package, it uses the word comply. It doesn't use the word or at least I couldn't find it very easily. Support >> comply and support are in my mind different words or different terms of art. >> I would say that the oath of office
087was probably not very carefully looked at. This is just my opinion [clears throat] >> when the rest of the package was was put. I think um I you know again I I I tend to like the suggestion for our new policy to include the United States. I I think we have to comply with all the laws >> Mhm. >> Um that are applicable to the district and applicable to us carrying out our duties as schoolboard members. Um I do believe we have duty to comply um the uh with the law whatever law is applicable. So um in summary I don't understand why says this is a discretionary policy because it's absolutely part of the enumerated statute >> duly passed by the Washington state legislature and signed by the governor. There's nothing wrong with necessarily this
088statement other than I maybe don't love the word support. I think it should be comply to be consistent with the rest of the statute. But um that having been said um I I think the law is very clear about in the first sentence which matches up with our which matches up with the proposed policy. Um, and then I don't see anything wrong with adding the laws of the of the United States of America um to that. But anyway, I've kind of just gone on, so apologize for that. Um, uh, I'm disapp once again, I'm disappointed with the legislature and the way they handle things, but, uh, but I I cuz I'm I'm I I can see where there would be, uh, some consternation about the support of Washington law when you have a reasonable disagreement
089about that law. >> Yeah. Um and that puts the that that puts at odds your personal feelings as schoolboard members which we all can have >> um reasonable disagreements. That's what makes our country great, right? And where we advocate for changes to the law when when appropriate. It's difficult because um as fiduciary officers of of the district, we have to comply with the law. And there's now even more law that says that if you willfully not comply with the law, >> there can be financial consequences to the district, which is also um which is also troubling. But but um anyway, I'm going to stop talking. >> No, it's good. >> I I I would I would say that I'm comfortable with with all of that being said, I'm comfortable with Mr. Walcott's suggestion for um
090adding to the policy. >> I I just want to add one thing too. I appreciate that. Um I think also there there is a there is a lawsuit against our state. Um that's it it's a broad lawsuit and I I I don't know all the details. It's still something that I'm reading into. But uh part of my understanding is that there's the statement in in here where it says that the state can withhold uh 20%. >> Mhm. >> Um uh is is part of what this lawsuit uh does. And if you go to our state constitution, and I'm not a lawyer, but I can read the constitution. The constitution says that the state is required to provide funding for every single student in the state of Washington. And so by by us supporting this um
091in many ways I see it as a way of not voicing back to the state that and giving them permission to say that they could withhold funding from a student. uh you know and so again there there's this lawsuit and I want to do more uh research into it and understand it more but it is challenging our state and um um I I and and it's another reason why I think we should >> um keep as is and maybe table this um and pick it up again. But um that that lawsuit depending on how it goes can even change >> this law we we saw this with uh title 9 title 9 changed and then there was a change in policy and then title 9 change back and then there's a change back to the
092previous policy. Um, so >> I I I I think just with all the discussion around it, I think it'd be better to maybe table this. >> There's three areas that I'm I'm confused by and sometimes I just don't understand these things. Um, I would like to know why it's classification is discretionary. So what why is that? What purpose would it have if it's not required? What is the time that we have? Are we having to make a policy change right away? Is it something that is [clears throat] required of us? And then I I suppose it would be a philosophical question which maybe we can't answer, but it would be that when we came onto the board and we took an oath to uphold the constitution and to do our due diligence, uh I would
093have assumed that it was to also follow the law. And so it's an odd weird kind of >> misdirection where when you take the oath, I would assume that part of it is to follow the law, to do it to the best of your abilities. So it's it's confusing to me that there's a change. >> Well, I think it's discretionary because when it's required, it's when the legislature does say that districts shall adopt policy and they give a deadline for that. Um, and that that's the only reason I could uh determine that it was discretionary. >> So, we don't have a deadline yet. >> No, it the legislature did not direct districts to adopt this policy. >> Okay. >> So, that's why it's discretionary. >> Having said that, >> just like Mr. Thorner had said,
094it is in the law that we have to follow the state law. >> Yeah. Well, [clears throat] >> and it is in there. And more importantly, it is in the state law that every person elected to the office of the school director shall take an oath of affirmation. >> Yeah. Which we did. And so >> so you're going to have to administer oath to uh uh two board me or one possibly two board members depending on the final outcome. Uh, >> I I I guess what I want to I guess what I want to say is is is part of the law is just because there's a lawsuit filed doesn't mean that anybody's right. There's um part of the law is is that if the court ultimately determines that something is unconstitutional that could but
095that's that's going to take some time. So this is the law unless there is an injunction of some sort that pre prevents this law from going through. more importantly to table a motion or excuse me to table a policy that says well I'm not sure but um or implying that well we may not follow the law or we may not >> I don't think anybody >> I understand but I think that's a bad message that you potentially are sending talking. We're just talking about drafts right now. >> I understand. I'm just I'm just saying that tableabling this motion I don't think is wise. I think it's because because outside of this room, anybody can draw any conclusion that they want about why wouldn't they do this. >> Sure. >> So, this sentence that I read
096is the sentence that is in here. Um I again I'm I I don't frankly care what says about this being discretionary. This is clearly articulated by the law that was passed by the legislature, signed by the governor, and so it's it is what it is. >> So, this policy revision includes the laws of the state of Washington um in compliance with RCW28A 343360. >> Would totally agree. The push back that I would have on it is the oath that we gave, would it not be applicable? So, could not the new board members take the same oath that we did, the same policy that supported it? >> No. Because because it doesn't include the laws of the state of Washington, which is shall take an oath or affirmation to support the Constitution of the United States
097and the state of Washington and the laws of the state of Washington. The oath that we all took did not include the laws of the state of Washington. >> So, should we have to retake the oath then? Well, that's not for me to decide, but um >> I guess you would have to if it's re-election >> would you then do a re a retaking of the oath time there's a law >> I think it's for each newly elected re-elected or appointed director. So at that time >> for each person elected or appointed before entering the discharge of the duties thereof. So >> I don't think it hurts you to take another oath. But um again just going back to just going back to um how Mr. Walcott's suggestion matches up with the oath that I
098I don't see there being any problem with adding >> okay >> the laws of the United States of America. I think I think to Mr. Keepart's point, there's a lot of um a lot of conflicting this federal policy or federal federal law, how does that supersede state law, um these executive orders from the president superseding? How does that all how does that all >> fit together? I I agree that's a mess. >> Our lawyer said it was an exciting time to be a [laughter] I would say it's a mess >> to be perfect to be perfectly honest. I would say it's a mess. >> Yeah. From a practical standpoint, >> we will be ushering in the new student board probably what mid December. >> Uh the yeah the newly elected board members will be at
099the first meeting in December >> and that would be when they would take their oath, >> right? >> And so then we do have a little bit of time but not a whole lot of time. Well, it is timely if we do the first reading tonight and then we would have time for the second reading. With the second reading, we could have the addition that Mr. Wilcott had added. >> Okay. Then um can we get that reddraft and then >> if there is any I and I want to take your word for it that discretionary is is uh not up for debate, but it'd be interesting to look into that. >> Right. >> Okay. >> Could I say one last thing? >> Yeah. You know, you can comply with the law as written and still
100oppo and and still voice your opinion to to oppose it, >> right? >> Um you always have that ability to do that. Everybody has that ability to do that. Um >> we've done that with resolutions. >> Absolutely. You you have the ability to you have the ability to you or the collective board has the ability to advocate and stand up and say, "Hey, we don't think this is right." So um and still comply with the law. We don't like this, but we we don't like this law. We need to comply with it. >> But we want to seek change whether that changes in the legislature or whether that changes in the in the court system. So um that's all part of that's all part of the constitution and the law. >> Yes, it is. >>
101Awesome. Mr. Strong, do you have anything to add? >> Not really. is an interesting discussion. Just one little point though. I mean I I forget who it was mentioned about well do we necessarily need to consider Washington because the [clears throat] uh sometimes federal and state law don't match and that's real possible but I think as long as we're able to accommodate both we should and for one other reason we live in the state of Washington we should make sure that we are following the Washington state laws as well. So, I think there's no questions in my mind about the federal uh law. So, it should definitely be there, but I think it's a good idea to make sure that we have everything included at this point. >> Any other closing thoughts or questions? Okay,
102we're going to close down the discussion and we'll move into the public comment regarding that discussion item. So, if you'd like to talk about any things that we just talked about, again, you can sign in. Uh, I'm not going to read the statement again, but if you would like to sign in, or if you'd like to come on up, we'd love to hear from you. >> Okay. See nobody. >> Oh, no. Peter, >> I'm so sorry, Peter. [cough] So if I understand correctly, I could talk about the three topics you just talked about, not just the last one. Correct. >> Correct. >> Okay. So about the topic you were having, I would say that I would defer it. I think um it's problematic. I did read through the RCW as well too. If there is
103w willo, excuse me, willful uh non-compliance, there is uh an outlined approach that needs to take place and it's separated into two different sections whether it's brought up, you know, say by a student or a staff member or it's a broad policy at large. So it's not like the superintendent of OSBI just going to immediately whack for willful non-compliance. There has to be an investigation that takes place. So, my view, and I really appreciate the sharing of everybody that was on the group, um, and Mr. Forner said it, you can still follow the law as the state of Washington as it's written today. >> Mhm. >> And I don't see anything wrong with the way it's currently written where it says you're going to follow the Constitution of the US and you're going to follow
104the Constitution of the State of Washington, which embodies supporting laws that are passed. So I read what the RCW says in the specific point about I would not you know the questions I would ask interesting it does say you know that it's not required I would wonder are there other school boards that have already proved it in the kind of discussions going through so I would leverage what else you're hearing out there cuz if we're struggling with it other people are going to be struggling with it at wells too but my first take and like Mr. Wilox saying, "I'm kind of researching this cuz it really intrigued me. You know, the agenda just came out Friday over the weekend, so I'm just reading it for the first time." However, a couple of you brought it
105up. There's already disputes between federal law and state law. In some cases, the state is not following what federal law says. So, it's really an interesting dynamic that we're talking here. And as Mr. Far said, it's a big mess. >> So, my first cut would be I don't think we should rush through this right now. and for the people who um who are now being elected, you know, that could be quite a big change for them. So, if the law does not stipulate a specific due date and I frankly again feel like the way it's written today, you're aware of the laws, be in compliance with it. So, that that's just sort of my early take. I have not finished researching on my end, but that's just what occurs to me. So, I think it'd
106be good to see what other school districts are doing about this and and if they are changing the verbiage rather than creating something out of scratch, try to um see what other folks are are doing in that regard. So, uh anyway, that's my comments on that. Um as far as Levy, I just want to a shout out to Mr. McDaniel. um he has made himself available uh for additional questions regarding um just more details even over and beyond what has been shared even into my tonight's uh link. Um, it was mentioned previously by a a couple folks and even kind of came up tonight in a different context that communication is really important to the community and I still have some outstanding questions and um, Miss McDonald even said tonight let's get together again to
107talk further uh because I think there's a couple of additional items out there that' be good for the taxpayers to hear about. So you guys move levy and that's great. I think we can backfill it with some additional information. So, uh, fantastic. Um, and I really like the idea that was talked about, Mr. Thorner brought it up about, um, changing the policy because it was such a mess the last time as a compromise. Yes, people can change it later on. However, I think it sends a message to the community that the intention of the board who is uh in power since obviously the attorney said, "Hey, you can't there was this to be a public vote." I think it sends a message and it kind of speaks to what Mr. Wilcott was talking about earlier
108that there was a defease and the people and [clears throat] the community really appreciated that. So, I think that's a great idea. >> Anyway, those are a couple thoughts I have. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anybody else? >> All right. Closing down public comment discussion time. Moving into action items. Go. >> Uh let's go ahead and I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes for last session. >> I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from October 28th, 2025. >> Excellent. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. [laughter] >> There we go. >> Four to one. >> There's a little lag there. >> Sorry, Mark. Was that in favor to pass the agenda? Yes. >> All right. I'll I'll pause the next time. I'm sorry about that. >> All right.
109The motion carries. Uh sounds like we're dealing with resolution. Uh sorry, where am I? >> B is approval of the >> B is >> I'm sorry, the >> first reading. >> Yeah, the first reading. So, with the first reading, then do we just put it on pause and wait for a draft? Cuz it seems like there's discussion with it. >> No. >> Well, we can make a motion. >> You can vote that motion down cuz I'm going to I'm going to make a motion. >> Okay. >> And you guys can vote me down if you want. I I But before you do, I strongly urge you to not vote me down. >> Okay? >> I think you're sending the wrong message. I don't agree with Mr. Marinachi's assessment that this is discretionary. the law that
110I wrote does it makes it clear shall take an oath that has all of these things in it. >> Okay. >> So in my opinion you need to pass this to comply with this provision that is in the RCW. >> Okay. Hear a motion to >> So I'm going to make a motion to approve. Well, let me make a specific motion. I'm going to make a motion to approve the suggestion for our new policy written by Mr. Walcott for 1111 which includes the entry of the uh as as amended but then which includes the laws of the United States >> and changing the word from support to comply. >> Nope. I'm I'm going to leave I'm going to leave support in because that word is in that word is in the is in the statute
111as written. Okay. So, I heard a motion to approve the to approve the policy in the additions and the revisions written by Mr. Walcott under policy number 1111, oath of office. Um, all those in favor of carrying that motion say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. I >> The eyes have it. Three to two. The motion carries for the first draft. Moving on to and so when we come to this proposal there's two different proposals for the actually we'll take the levy first >> approval of resolution number one resolution number 25-11784 replacement educational programs and operational levy. Can I get a motion to approve this resolution? I'll move to approve resolution 2511784. >> Excellent. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. The motion carries. 50.
112And then we come to Proposition 2-11785 bonds to renovate aging schools. And this would be for the 97,500,000 uh with the addition of the auditorium. So if we can get a motion to approve that. >> I'll make a motion to approve 2511785. >> Excellent. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those pave opposed same sign. Motion carries 5. Excellent. >> Do we need to do anything to uh >> amend the agenda to strike? >> Correct. >> Yeah, we'll remove >> 10 10 C3. >> Correct. >> Excellent. Can we get a motion to strike uh proposition two? >> Three. Thank you. Yeah. [laughter] I I'll make a motion to I make a motion to strike uh >> 10 C3 >> which is the bond without the auditorium. >> Right. 25 1176. >> Excellent.
113Um I hear that motion. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. Same sign. >> The motion carries 5. Excellent. All right. That was a little bit >> well done. [laughter] >> Let's move on to >> tricky there. >> Super attendance. >> All right. >> Report. >> Oh, first items rising. >> Oh, I'm so sorry. Any items arising? >> Seeing no items. Let's move into the superintendent report. All right. Uh just superintendent report shared that we will have our annual survey of students, staff, and families coming up. uh staff will get the email when they come back on Wednesday and there'll be a link for them to take the survey. Our families will get uh information sent to them on Monday and then also as they come in for conferences there'll
114be computers available that they can take the survey. It's a short survey for the staff so that we have a a high completion rate and then our students in grades 3 through 12 will take the survey during conference week and then also following that uh during for secondary they'll take it during their RAM um advisory ramstrong. So that's the uh superance report. Just as we receive the results, we post those on the website. So we're very transparent in West Valley with our results of uh student achievement and perceptual data. And so that's under the strategic plan part of the website. Those are key performance indicators. And then we also have our uh data summits with the school board and just share all that data. We're transparent with the data here in West Valley and we'll
115continue that >> board reports. >> I've got something. Um, [clears throat] so I I went to the candidate forum >> um for the the new candidates um running for the school board. And something I heard was what I was reminded of of 2 years ago in that sometimes when you want to speak to the school board, it's intimidating to get up to this podium. Um, you know, and I remember thinking that when I was running for school board and then I heard it again and you know, >> I'm been on school board so I'm like, I'm not intimidating, at least I don't think I am, >> but it's just the idea of it. And so, um, I was sitting with coffee, uh, Mr. McDaniel and another community member at Starbucks, and it just it was
116this it just seemed like here's a here's a platform where it was just easy for that community member to talk. And so, um, I'd like to propose, um, hopefully by January we have it set up where we can do like Fridays at Starbucks, coffee with the school board type thing, and maybe, um, have it organized through um, uh, Stephanie, who manages everything for us, >> uh, or or someone, but it, uh, where people can just reach out and say, I'd like to get coffee, the school board member, um, and maybe even, you know, two of us can go like legally two of us can still hang out as friends >> and talk about whatever. So, >> um >> I don't know. I' I'd like to have that for uh beginning in January. I think that'd
117be a good time to start that and especially with the bond and the levy going to be on the ballot in February. I think it's going to create a lot of questions and it might be that it takes a little bit of time to gain traction, but I I think it'd be a great place to be able to give people opportunity to speak that's not going to get up in front of a school board. >> So, it's pretty good. Any others? Okay. I'll join this school meeting at 8:36 p.m. on November 10th. >> All right. Thank you, Mark.