001graduation like prep assembly. Hey, for psychology. I want to be a psychiatrist. It doesn't hurt. All right, good evening everybody. We'll go ahead and get the meeting started. Um, today is Tuesday, May 27th, 2025 at 7 p.m. and we'll 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. Okay. Um, any changes to the agenda, Dr. Ben? No changes. All right. Communications response to public comments. At the schoolboard meeting on May 13, 2025, teachers from the high school expressed support for the world language program and the importance of offering options for students. A parent guardian expressed support for the high school developmental learning center program and another
002parent guardian expressed support for the West Valley Innovation Center. The response public comment regarding world languages. The administration met with the world language teachers to review ways to provide options for students. Currently, the district has a job posting for a part-time German teacher. The position was posted part-time due to student enrollment. In the future, if student enrollment were to increase, the district would increase staffing to meet the student enrollment needs. Regarding High School Developmental Learning Center, while out of respect for the privacy of our staff, the administration does not comment on the specifics of personnel actions, the administration does acknowledge that staffing decisions are among the hardest and most personal decisions that a district leader can make. While administration cannot provide specifics, administration certainly can attest that the administration strives to make these decisions in
003the most thoughtful manner possible, always with a focus on what's best for kids. Regarding the West Valley Innovation Center, administration appreciates the positive comments that were expressed during the public comment regarding the innovation center. As was shared during the presentation of the schoolboard meeting on May 13th, the staff at the innovation center has a continuous improvement mindset and they will continue to make adjustments to the instructional program based on parent and student feedback. And that's the response to public comment. Thank you, Dr. Finch. Uh staff retirement recognition. All right. So, we have recognition of our retiring teachers uh at this meeting and it looks like and counselor uh three of them are not here but I see one of them is here so that's great. So, the ones that are not here, Jennifer Overberlander, nine
004years of service uh teacher our West Valley Junior High, Carl Iverson, uh 14 years of service teacher at the mid-level campus at the middle school. And Michael Yates, counselor uh for the middle school, 29 years of service in West Valley. Appreciate his service. And we do have Jeff Caldwell here and we've saved him for the last because that's the 34 years of service. So Jeff, come on up. There's a really nice uh wow back here for you. Give you a handshake and handshakes all around for you. Thank you so much. Congratulations. Thank you for your years of service. We appreciate it. Thank you. Congratulations. All right. Thanks for being here. All right. Great. Thank you again for your years of service. Uh very valuable to the school district. And next we have high school ASB.
005All right. So, our junior uh student representative for the next couple weeks, Katie Champy, she's gonna give the high school a B report and then we'll have a report from Ava, our senior rep. So, Katie, go ahead. Um, spring sports have been very successful and on our social media for tickets or the links for tickets are on our social media for postseason contest as well as updating um updates on the teams. FFA completed another very successful plant sale and hosted farm days for elementary students. It's always fun to see them go out there enjoy the animals. Senior parents took advantage of the May late start to host a breakfast for the class of 2025. Seniors also picked up their caps and gowns and can get their tickets at $13 each. It's getting real. Um is
006the elections are complete and we are excited for next year. We have our new junior student board representatives. That's cool. Um we meet on June 12th to start planning for next year. Band and choir are having their final concerts and saying goodbye to their seniors. Honor Society hosted another successful blood drive. Graduation assembly and classes stepping up to the next year is on June 7th and graduation is also soon too. So that's exciting. Uh we'd like to encourage the district to work with InTouch our accounts receivable vendor on being able to accept credit card payments. We are losing out on sales without this option. So, um that'd be nice to have. CILA and Grand View School Districts are using the InTouch software and hardware to accept card payments in their student stores and at their
007concession stands in their offices. We would love to be doing the same. So, that would just be like with our Giza credit cards. Um we'd be able to use them in school and make purchases with them. And uh I think I don't remember the exact amount but a percentage of that money would go to our school. So that'd be a good thing to have. I appreciate the report. I I did read the report prior to the meeting. I did check with our finance office. So we do have a new person in the finance office for accounting. And then right now there's an open position for at the high school for the ASB. Okay. Uh secretary. So, as soon as that position gets filled, then we'll be able to have the new people work together on
008this project I'm getting in touch. Okay, cool. Okay. Well, that is all I have. Thank you. All right. Thanks, Katie. All right. Very good. And next, David Ava Ferguson is our senior representative. So, this is her last board meeting. And as part of our uh district policy, we do have an annual review. We ask the senior representative to provide their insight and a review of the school year and their experience as a student representative. So this is AA's chance to provide that review. Serving as a student representative to the school board in West Valley has been a valuable experience that has offered me a unique perspective on the educational system and its governance. This role has enabled me to understand the intricacies of policym and the challenges faced by educators and the diverse needs of
009students. It has also helped me to improve my public speaking skills and advocate for students in the high school. Looking ahead to next year, this position can be used for greater student engagement and advocacy. By collaborating with other student representatives and school officials, we can develop initiatives that can address critical issues that we need to solve in the high school environment. Furthermore, this experience has equipped me with leadership skills and a deeper commitment to being involved in my community, which will be beneficial to any future endeavors that work on improving educational outcomes and fostering a supportive learning environment for all students. In conclusion, I would like to thank Katie Champy for everything she has done this year and I am excited to see her continue on as our senior school board representative and I would
010like to welcome our newly elected junior school board student representative for next year, George Fox. Wonderful. Thank you, Amy. And yeah, let's raise a [Applause] hand. Give recognition. Stephanie Smith is our administrative assistant and Stephanie made sure that we would have something to recognize your last board meeting. So go ahead and give handshakes. We have a card and a flower as well. So thank you. Thank you so much. I guess go hand so much. Good job. All right. Where are we now? We are on item D. I believe item D and E. So I see 1250 students on governing board report. A Ferguson, senior rep, uh board member, student rep. So and then letter E is the letter of congratulations to the West Valley School District from Senator Nikki Torres. So we included that in
011the board packet. Uh again, the this is rec uh congratulations for the recognition that three of our elementary schools received this year. Only 16% of schools in the state received this recognition and we had three this year. Autan Valley, Cottonwood, and White Hollow. So, we appreciate Nikki, Senator Torres, uh, giving us that letter, a recognition, and congratulations again to those schools. Y and also just a reminder, I think just if we can speak up, we don't have the mics. Um, and so it's picking us up, but I think just for us being able to hear one another. Okay, very good. Oh, that's a good point. We don't have the amplification, do we? All right. All right. Next, uh, school presentation. So, we have Ben McMurray is here. We're here at the high school. Uh Ben
012did say every year we're doing it here at the the last meeting of the of the year, it seems like. So, we might might be able to switch things around next year, but again, we'll have the high school report. And would the board like to join the audience? I know you have your laptops, but we'll go and join the audience for the presentation. Then, we'll come back and do some question and answer. All right. So, like Peter said, uh it's one of those situations where I always get right at the end of the year and then I've got all these things to do and one of them is the board presentation. So, I'm glad we could jam it all into like three weeks, which is fantastic. We're trying to um maneuver that and do something
013different next year. Okay. So, goal one for us is culture of safety and belonging. I feel like this is the one that we have strived the most for the last 10 years when I've been up here at the high school. We've been focusing on relationships. We got our core beliefs. We got our core values. Um all that stuff really relates to the fact that we just want to get to know kids better and make this a safe place at the high school. So, there are four main things I wanted to cover today. The first one is student panels. We will talk about that pretty soon, but that's implemented this year. This is the first year we've implemented student panels. It's one of those things that over the last couple of Zoom meetings that I've had
014in the last couple years, they've said, "Well, how much student voice do you have? How much can you really get from the kids so that you can then inform your decisions after that?" And so student panels is like the next step. The first step was a couple years ago when we put in student focus groups, which is the second bullet. Student focus groups have really been Dr. Finch and I and sometimes a board member depending on what your guys' schedule is like. Sitting down talking to students and just asking them questions. What can we do better? What's going wrong? Uh what do you enjoy about the teachers you have? Lots of different questions to try to get to the fact that we need to either do something different or bring back that information to our
015teachers to to then move in the right direction depending on how that looks. Student surveys. I want to just kind of give you guys the student survey results, the data that we've collected over survey results for the whole year, the last couple years. The Center for Educational Effectiveness is who we've been going through for our surveys. I adjusted that a little bit this year because I didn't there's lots of ambiguity and liker type scales. And I'm a science guy and data guy. So, it's kind of a a bother for me to have those liker type scales. I just want a yes or a no. Do you feel like you're safe? do you feel like you have somebody in the building that's actually willing to help you out if you need them? So, we changed that
016a little bit this year and you'll see the results a little bit later. Um, I think it's pretty glaring that we've gotten a lot better in that in that regard. The fourth thing is something that we're going to do in the future. So, we're going to do this next year. I came in this year thinking we're going to go ahead and focus on student panels and we're going to do student shadow. I told my staff that I I don't have the time. I really like the amount of time it took for doing the student panels. There was no way we were going to be able to do the student shadowing at the same time. So, we have pushed that until next year. This is something we've done previously, but we want to bring back and
017and you'll find out later on how that worked and what that looks like. Okay. So, student panels. This is what a student panel is in the library. We've got usually these are in tables. These tables are all, you know, in like groups. So, I would actually send an email out and say, "How many of you first period prep teachers would like to go ahead and be a part of our student panels and I would get six to seven to eight responses from the from the teachers?" And so, I would go ahead and put them on a calendar invite and say, "This is when we're doing them. First period, this is how we're going to go." Then, this is a managerial nightmare for me. I got to tell you, this was where the time really came
018into effect. So, I would take all of the ninth graders and I would put them in a wheel, one of those wheels that you just click on and spin on the internet. And they would spin and randomly select a student. Then I would have to take that student, look at their schedule, find out if they had first period um here in the building. And if they did, then I would put them in the panel. Uh sophomores and freshmen are a lot easier to do that with. Juniors and seniors have more opportunities outside of our schools. So, it was a lot harder to find out who the juniors and seniors would be. I would get 16 students, four freshmen, four sophomores, four juniors, and then four seniors. Once I had that list compiled, I would go
019ahead and have notes for each one of them. The student gets a note during first period that says, "Go to the library." No information whatsoever about why they had no idea because I wanted it to be kind of one of those shockers. They just show up to the library and they just do their thing. they show up, I would have a conversation with them and tell them why they're here and then I would send them to a table that one teacher would be at in the library. We had a list of questions that we would ask them that would just kind of spur conversation. So, our teachers would just sit down and hang out with one or two or three kids. That was it. And it was all about, you know, what what makes you
020feel good about West Valley? What are some things you would change? Um, you know, what uh how's homework look? How does the classroom environment make you feel? Like those kinds of questions to get the student voice to actually come out a little bit more. Now, when I say I did this for first period, I also did this in another month for second period with different teachers and different kids and a different scenario. So, that's what I mean about a managerial nightmare. Like it was just really difficult to get all those students voices and all those teachers at the table at the same time. it. Every single time we had one of these, this is the great part. I felt rejuvenated. Like that day, hearing the kids and what they were telling us, it was invaluable
021in my opinion. Like that was just one of those things that really hit my heart. And every time after that, I would go and I would put the work in on the weekend, whatever, to try to get the other kids ready for the next month and get the other teachers ready for the next month. And I I I hope that the teachers felt that it was invaluable as well because just hearing the students that they might not know talking about things that are about our building and what we want to get better was was in my opinion a great experience for all of us. So that's how we set up the student panels. When I say we, it was it was me and and and all of our teachers that wanted to be a part
022of that for each period that they wanted to go ahead and come in. So these are the kind of the takeaways. Um we used our thought partner which is chat dpt said no and we asked them like what what do students value in the classroom? We took everything that we had and we lined it up and we put it in there. And so they obviously value caring, understanding and authentic teachers. I think most of us know that. But to hear that from the kids is really powerful because we know now that they care about what kind of teachers we have in the classroom. I'm welcoming structured classrooms with clear agendas. class time to complete assignments. Uh they don't like homework, obviously. Who does? But they do really enjoy doing their assignments in class so that
023if they have questions, they can ask the teacher and the teacher can come help them. They want that time with the teacher, whether that's one-on-one or one on 15 or one on 25, doesn't matter. They want to be able to raise their hand and get the work done in the classroom, which I thought was a really good uh feedback for for our teachers. Also, they like learning life skills. We said, "What do you learn in high school?" And they didn't come up with things like, "Well, I learned how DNA, you know, extrapolates and, you know, replicates." And they didn't say anything like that at all. It was all about life lessons. It was all about conflict resolution, working with with people that they usually wouldn't work with. Perseverance, communication. I mean, those are time management.
024Those are big skills that we can't really quantify when they're in high school, but when they say that, we can definitely say that we're at least hitting those things. And that's that's kind of a good piece of evidence for us especially because we want them to come out with those skills and maybe we don't care as much that they know what a mitochondria is in science because they can look that up and it takes five minutes to read that but at least they understand how to conflict resolution with team members that they don't really work with. So those were some big takeaways as far as what they value in the classroom. What would they change? They want more kinesthetic learning. They want hands-on learning. They want to do things. They want to do projects. They
025want to do fun things. Doesn't everybody, right? We all want to do that anymore. Just doesn't always happen. They want a purposeful teacher and they want clarity in what the teacher is doing, which I thought was interesting. A lot of times rules and regulations we think kids don't like in these in these conversations we've had with them all year. They they like that. They like guidelines. They like parameters. It's like the bumpers down the bowling alley, right? like they want something to show them exactly where they're going and what they're doing. Decreased homework, which we all want. And then increased equity and representation. They want more people in the building to be represented and they want more people to be in the equity circle. And that that was good because especially because you'll see on
026the next slide too, they say we do it and we're working on that, but we need more of it, which is nice. So, we're moving in the right direction. It gives us more of a guidance. So with our thought partner and we said okay here's the beginning of the year we've done this six times because we have six periods how has the whole evolution of the panel happened what happened at the beginning that didn't happen at the end or vice versa in this case the panel shifted from cont content like content focused to human connection they care about the connection they have with teachers and peers that's a big deal especially through the whole course of a year, whether that's a freshman, whether that's a senior, they developed more relationships. They understood who was what
027was going on in the classroom more because of their connections. They were more frustrated with passive learning, not active learning. Like we saw in the previous slide, they had a stronger emphasis on SEAL that and I attribute this to, you know, a school year is long. Lots of stuff happens in a school year and sometimes that's not always great stuff. And we have to realize that as teachers and they have to realize that as kids and when they're pushing through that stuff the stuff was a little bit more of a focus at the end of the year because they were able to persevere and move forward and find out what their resources were at school and their their the people that they have at school that can get them through that social yeah sorry social
028emotional learning is also a growing focus on equity and culture that was another one from the previous slide They enjoyed the fact that we were doing that more often and they just said keep doing that is is basically the big stance as far as the whole year went. So going through this um there were two major things that I really thought our staff and our students did a good job of that. I I thought about this before we did it, but the first thing is our teachers really understood what the student voice was. And to hear it first person instead of me and Peter being in a focus group and then coming back and telling them in a staff meeting, that's not very powerful, right? But hearing it first person with two or three kids
029saying, "Yes, I don't like it when a teacher does this. I'd rather have paper instead of the Google the Chromebook. I'd rather have certain things all the time. That was much more powerful to a teacher than me coming back and saying that to the staff. So, I think that was the major takeaway for the staff. The other takeaway I think from these student panels is the fact that our kids now know that we're listening to them, right? Like, this is a big deal. We're listening to them. We want to know what they think. We want to know what they're doing. And we want to know how to get better. And every time I met with those kids before I sent them to a teacher during these student panels, I would say specifically, be honest. This,
030you know, you're not getting graded. You're getting out of class that you're excited about. Just tell us the truth and we will try to get better as a building. Whether you're a senior or whether you're a freshman, you might not see the change, but we're going to try to make the change. And for students to hear that and and like I said, 16 kids each month for six months. So, we're talking about a lot of kids that we're really talking to. And these are random students, like I told you earlier, and that's not including the students that we have on the focus groups. So, we're actually talking about more kids than that that are hearing us say, "What can we do? What can we do better? How can we do this to make it easier
031for you to come to school and easier for you to learn?" That's all we really care about. And so those two major things, the staff hears the kids say what they want and the students understand that we care. That really was the two major emphasis of this whole project. Um, soon we're going to be doing a shadowing project that also allows our staff to understand our students a little bit better as far as how a whole school day goes. Um, but that's that's kind of what we're trying to do is get more student voice and then hopefully use that to move forward in what we want to change in the building as a staff. So, that was my section. This is the student survey results, which is very in line with our goal one, by
032the way. These are the things that we actually put in place. Sarah's going to talk. So, you could see in like fall of 23, it was fairly low in certain areas. You know, do you feel safe at the high school? 62% which is okay but definitely not good enough. Um and over time as we went on through the year we started you know skipped kind of the 23 24 started back in fall of 24 were showing results at 71% and gradually going up. You may notice that from December to February there's a little bit of a drop. We attribute that to the changing of semesters and students having a new schedule with new teachers they may not necessarily be familiar with. Um, and then the next question is, do you have at least one adult
033at the high school that you can talk to if you have a problem? Again, it was really low in in the fall of 23. Um, this year was a little bit higher. We really focused on relationships in 2324 um with students and staff. And so, you can see it again is has increased. Now, these dates are given to us by the central office um dictated and we're very purposeful and intentional about setting time aside in our RAM strong classes to make sure that our students have the opportunity to take this survey. We're averaging averaging sorry about 700 students right on there that are taking the survey for us for our results. Uh oh, you might have to do this. [Music] I'm the challenge one with technology. So Ben mentioned the student shadowing and that was
034pretty amazing. Now we did a lot of this that year of COVID 2019 2020 and um you got the opportunity to pick a student, ask that student, can I spend a day with you? And that's from the time the student comes to school. You go to every class with that student. You eat lunch with that student and their friends. Um, and you end the day with that student. And it's really enlightening. I think that I don't know if staff here have that opportunity to do that, but to recognize how difficult it is to sit for that amount of time in a classroom every day and not want to fall asleep or get agitated or be bored or want to learn more. Unfortunately, we did not have the opportunity to meet as a staff to discuss
035the outcomes of that um together as a group because the day we had that scheduled was the day we found out that we were probably going to go into lockdown. So, we had um time purposely set aside to have opportunity to do that. But, it was a wonderful experience. We're hoping to start that again next year. And um I had the opportunity to spend time with a student who some people would say could be challenging and it was very enlightening for me to have opportunity to go through that day with her. Goal four for us is uh focused on freshman success. Part of the reason that's one of our main goals is that uh we know historically in education that's at the high school level that when a student's going to drop out it's it's
036at 9th grade generally speaking after the first semester of 9th grade uh if they don't have success as they come forward. Uh and so we have done a couple things. Uh done some tracking off of first semester grades. Got that data kind of broken down on what we found. We actually didn't just track freshman success. We're just sharing this one right now. This focuses on freshman, but we did it for all classes. So freshman, sophomore, juniors, and seniors. Part of our dashboard information that we're working on collecting. Uh and what we see when you look at the big picture is that students as they mature have more success as they kind of figure out high school a little bit. Uh and so that success rate increases, the failure rate decreases uh as we go through.
037So hard data as we went through first semester grades 75% uh uh passing all classes that equated to 246 students off the class. Uh the national average, by the way, is 7030 split. Uh so we're above the the national average there at semester time. Uh so out of that failing rate, right, we're at 20 24.5% uh failing at least one class. We broke that down even lower. 37 students actually were just flunking one. Passing everything else, but they've got the one. Uh oh. Uh and then you look down a little bit further, two or more classes, 52 students or 14% out of that 24 uh uh became important. And there's some other issues that come into play when you look at that multiple failure rate, attendance being uh one of them. Current we have a
038monthly DNF list that we kind of collect out of the counseling office and look at. And so this was as of uh the 21st of this month, just looking at the freshmen, knowing they still have three and a half weeks to fix their grades to get things uh better. 68% uh passing all of their classwork. So that's 238 students. You can see it's behind where they were uh at semester time and 31.2% failing at least one. We didn't delineate any farther than that. just because it could all change anyway. And uh we'll track that again when semester grades come out. Um a lot of kids who are on the list right now on the DNF list were on the list uh first semester uh some re some repeaters as we go through. So one of
039the things that we did to try and address this uh we created a high school 101 class. This was uh intentional CTE funded for incoming ninth graders really targeting we targeted them based on their uh academic lack of success as an eighth grade coming to the high school. So if they struggled in one or more of their core classes, we gave them high school 101 uh study skills essentially uh as support system with the caveat that they have a way to earn their way out uh of the high school 101 class and that is get to the end of the semester and be passing all of your classes. Clearly, it shows that you don't really need that support anymore and you could get rid of that elective, take something else. And there were a number
040of kids who happened to and had success and got out. At the same time, there were also some kids who had the success but asked to stay because they liked the support. And there were kids where even despite having study skills, it didn't make much of an impact on their success rate in their academic courses first semester. Uh so they got to stay for second semester and now we'll see if that's had any influence uh as we go through. Um the high school 101 course teachers spend a lot of time. They've met they met a lot early in the semester because they're creating a class from scratch uh basically and so they met a lot to confer with each other about what and when as far as organizing things as far as helping good study
041habits and trying to get kids on the right track early uh and what was working for me and what's not working uh and kind of having that conversation and building through. Uh, one of the things that we're finding, it's probably not a bad idea for us to have like a high school 2011 class uh, in the future. Um, but what we see from the bigger data when you look at all four grades together is, yeah, there's some improvement for sophomores. It's not huge. I mean, the biggest growth in the lack of failure. There's some improvement from sophomore to junior, but it's really from junior to senior that it really leaps quite a bit. And there's very few seniors who end up failing a core academic course. Um, and by then they kind of figured out
042how to be a student and and adjusted as they need to. Uh, but we've seen enough where we know that freshman and sophomore years we've got some ability to have some work which creates an opportunity for Mrs. Daily to talk about peer tutoring. Yeah. So, I'm Erica Daly, a math teacher at the high school. Um, so my first year here was 20 2021. Um, and one of the big problems that we saw, as talked about before, um, all of these freshman and sophomores failing classes really early on and particularly math. So, math affects students just differently than other subject areas. So, we saw a need there. Um, and it kind of just started with plucking a hand selecting a TA for myself for each of my math classes and hand selecting them from my honors
043algebra 2 class for the next year with the intent of seeking kids who I've heard explain things well or has been extra kind of resilient toward a variety of student behaviors. Um, kind of things don't phase them. they get along with everybody. Those are the students I was looking for. So, they became my TA's um year 1 and that was the 23 24 no that was the 22 23 school year. That was when we kind of started playing. And then when we saw that that was helpful, having a peer in the room who could help students and run groups with students, that was really effective and we decided that it should be accessible by everyone in the school. So, we started talking and looking and decided that year one it would be a math focus.
044And instead of having um one TA for just my class, I would have two to five tutors per class period and the rest of the teachers in the school could check them out. So, we had a check-in checkout system. Teachers could reach out to me and request a tutor for a given day based on an activity that they had planned, a student who was struggling perhaps who needed a week. um kind of it was a fit the mold trial and error experience. And what happened is the same five or six teachers utilized it all year long, but pretty much those two to five kids were in my class period each day and they didn't always have things to do. So we evolved it and we're in now year two of officially having a peer tutoring
045program. So year two looks like this. We essentially set up a TA program but for tutors. So students can choose to be a tutor for a teacher of their choosing. And this year it started as myself hunkered down in front of the counseling office that first week of school trying to recruit kids for the high school 101 program, the algebra 1 classes, my co-taught geometry inclusive classes, um the other co-taught algebra classes, and science. Science is the other big need. So we threw those in the mix and we just started recruiting kids who were coming in for schedule changes. So we found students who could fit very specific spots and we made that work. Those students then met with me on a weekly basis. They engaged in weekly online discourse. Um they were given a
046comm a topic of discussion each week that they would engage in about educational equity and some of the things psychologically that they probably don't understand that go behind what we do when we teach. They then met with me on Mondays during their RAM strong time. So, it was only about a 15inute meeting, but they engaged in activities where they learned strategies on how to get through tricky kids or prickly kids. They learned strategies on exactly what situations is within their power to engage with and what situations is out of their power and needs to be passed off. Um, they were taught confidentiality elements. They were taught um how to structure a lesson plan effectively. they were taught how to approach um how to teach something from multiple angles and through that some of them evolved
047and did really really well and some of them found out it wasn't wasn't the right fit for them which is fine. Um and so that that's the year that we're in right now. Um second seme so first semester we had 31 students in the program dispersed throughout the school. This semester we have 41 30 I believe of which I didn't look at look at all of it but I believe the we only lost one from first semester. So one student who had been peer tutoring first semester opted to not continue second semester. So all of that student all of those students continued forward and we gained some more. That leads us to this year. So this coming year. So year three, uh the plan is to partner with National Honor Society that I now advise
048and begin um establishing a give back mentality within our honor society that focuses on the community of West Valley School District. So, uh we will continue. We are now having uh teachers were given a recruitment letter that they could adjust to their liking, hand out to students and recruit their own tutors for next year. Those were supposed to be returned back into my mailbox by this coming Monday. And I checked my box today and there are already 20 slips in there. So, that's just the students who were recruited and asked. That doesn't necessarily mean that they'll all stay. um that they all won't move on to Running Start or YBT Tech, but we have kids interested. So, um the National Honors Society students will tutor in the library after school. That's something that they earn
049their hours for. But another way that they can get their hours next year will be to partner up with an underassman and tutor outside of the school day to allow for equitable access to tutoring for everyone. So if you engage in sports, you cannot participate and partake in after school tutoring. If you do not drive, you cannot partake in after school tutoring. If you do not have a ride, you can't partake in after school tutoring. So by partnering an NHS member with them as a peer, um they also will get access whenever they need. The plan is to put the sign up for that as a QR code in every math and science classroom and in the counseling office so that students have very easy access to sign up for tutoring. Okay. Um okay the
050the other thing is I brought a couple of blurbs from current peer tutors. They wanted you to know about the program and what they've pulled from it. So um I will also give you their names. Okay. Uh the first peer tutor is Audrey Keller. She's a current senior. She's peer tutored for two two years now. She was one of my TAs during the first round, year one. And she was selected out of my honors algebra 2 class. And um she told me that year that she wanted to be a math teacher and she has not wavered on that. So she has peer tutored for me. She has peer tutored for her other math teachers and she is fully ready to go to Central and become a math teacher. So this is hers. I have had
051such a wonderful experience being a peer tutor for the past two years. Being a tutor has prepared me for my future career as a teacher in so many ways. I've learned a lot from my mentor teachers. I think any student interesting in education should have to have this opportunity to know if it's what they want to go into and to gain experience. I got to teach lesson plans while in high school. I'm grateful to have had the opportunity of being a peer tutor. The next one um is from a student who would like to remain anonymous. Um they have peer tutored for two years. This student in particular comes to me every single morning telling me about their babies. Their babies are their freshman and sophomores in their biology class they tutor for. I have
052enjoyed being a bi biology peer tutor at West Valley for the entirety of my junior year. I plan on doing it next year. I've learned both communication and perspective skills. I have learned how to communicate new concepts and techniques to mostly sophomores, but also a few freshmen, many of which have had a hard time at school and have a very different approach to learning compared to myself. That very fact was one that I had to learn to approach differently very quickly. I have overall had a great time and have learned so much from this program. I've also gotten better at biology. I've learned to appreciate all students, especially those most different to myself as those as those students have taught me to appreciate everyone perspectives and learning styles. I genuinely feel that I'm a better
053person after this program and many dedicated students would benefit being a peer tutor as well. Um, as well as those benefiting from having a free and fair tutor that is possibly going through similar experiences. The third one is uh another hand selected one. This was Natasha Columbo. Um okay. Peer tutoring has granted me so many opportunities that I would not have had otherwise. It's given me the ability to have empathy for everyone, especially people who have forms of learning in a way that I would not have had. It's easy to get into your own bubble when it comes to education. And peer tutoring has forced me to abandon that mindset. It's given me the patience and insight to seek out students who may have been given up on by a tired teacher or a frustrated
054parent and offer them a new perspective that day. Peer tutoring is a unique opportunity because it's a way to level with a student peer a way to level with a student peer-to-peer instead of an adult authority figure which is sometimes daunting for students. One of the most exciting moments was this year in algebra 1 class, seeing a student in class who slept almost every day and is very much at risk. Begin to understand a math concept and do the problems correctly after I prompted him with just a pencil and a calculator. That's all it took. Sometimes peer tutoring is just encouraging students to get over their fear barrier and take the first step to asking a teacher themselves. And that one I chose to read last because that one is probably the most critical. They
055are so afraid to ask for help and just having someone available who they can ask and gain access to has opened up doors for them across the board. We do also have a graduating senior who has been in peer tutoring for two years who is was in a RAM success and probably would have qualified for high school 101 program had it been available to her her nth grade year. Uh she was failing classes um sophomore year started to turn things around a little bit and then junior year we offered her to help out with some of these kids because she had made a serious behavioral change and we thought that that would be good. She calls them her babies as well. She's one of the ones that begs to stay in High School 101 because
056those are her babies. So, if we can get more high school students paired up with younger kids, it's making a difference. To piggy back off that, I've seen Natasha in class and and she has a heart for those kids. I know exactly who she's talking about, by the way. I've seen her work with students and it's really awesome. She really has at the end of the semester at least like gotten to the point where she just calls them out. She just makes him uncomfortable just like a teacher would and says, "Why is your head on the table? What are you doing? What do you need? Like, well, you need a calculator? I'll get a calculator for you. You want a pencil?" You know, like she just she totally nails them the whole time. and from
057peer-to-peer that really does make a difference rather than just it being an adult which they've heard continuously throughout their life telling them what to do. It's nice to hear it from a peer as well. So Natasha has been fantastic in that program. I did want to take one more second and just um recognize uh Mr. Jeff Caldwell because he he was one of my math teachers going through high school high school here at West Valley. I do have to say that he was fantastic for me and I appreciate all your time and effort in in West Valley and all that you've done. Jeff, thank you so much. [Applause] That is all we have as a presentation. Are there any questions? Yeah. [Music] Hey Ben, in case I missed it, what's the um what's the difference
058between the student panels and the focus groups? So focus groups last for a whole semester. Okay. And so I've got the same group of students that come in once a month on their lunch period and we just sit down and talk. You've been there. And um and so that those students stay for the whole semester basically and they just get a note saying remember you've got lunch in the conference room and then we have a conversation with them. So we try to change up the questions every single time. For the student panels we keep the questions fairly similar and it's different teachers asking those questions and different students all great Mr. Mcor just a two quick questions. Thank you so much for that presentation. That was awesome. I'm looking at page six of the slide.
059How do you go from 32 to 87? What's that story? A couple a couple of things. Okay. So, the first one is we started doing the CDE surveys uh before anybody else in the district. So, we had more data points along the way. Yeah. And um we didn't necessarily teach the kids about the the questions that were being presented, but what we did was alter the questions that were being presented. As I referenced a little bit ago, um it was more of a like scale. Do you agree? Do you strongly agree? Do you somewhat agree? Do There was lots of neutrality. I don't like neutrality. I'm a science guy. I'm a dad guy. I can't stand that. I'm a yes or no guy. And so what we did was we adjusted that and we gave
060out our own Google form that we sent out and it was just yes or no. And so I really attribute some of that uh increase to the fact that they there was no neutrality. Yeah. There was no maybe. It was all just yes or no. like make a decisive decision and figure out the rule. Okay. Does that answer? Yeah, I I think that that answers a lot of it. The second part of it is um if you were to remove the questions and remove the neutrality, how do you pair up a student with a teacher? What's that look like? Because the question was, I don't I have a teacher who has my back or I have a teacher who sees me. How does that happen? So, in the 10 years I've been here, my main
061focus when I first started, and you can probably ask any staff member, I would hope at least. Uh, there's some here. Uh, I my main focus was on relationships. It was all about relationships and trying to get that done. I've been a coach, I've been a teacher. I noticed when I when I've been in this business that if you have a relationship with a kid, they will do anything for you. And that and that they it doesn't mean they're not going to screw up once in a while and they're not going to make mistakes, right? We all make mistakes, but at least they'll come and talk to you. and at least they'll have a relationship with you to come have a conversation around what they did wrong and then hopefully when they get back they'll
062be fine. And so that was my main focus going into this whole business I guess you could say. And I think that really does show itself uh in these questions like if if we've been developing relationships for six, seven, eight years. Uh Ramstrong being one of those big things, right? Like having conversations with students about grades, uh their families, what we can do to make them better. uh that just instills more of the culture in the building for teachers to say, "Well, I've got to make a relationship with this kid." Especially in a Ram Strong class. That's my job, right? Like that's what I do. I don't have to push content. I could just hang out with kids and be relative. So then you see Ramstrong is one of those lunch pieces. Oh yeah, big
063time. Okay, that's cool. And then sorry, go ahead. Just the final question on on slide nine, 108 students in that 31.2% 2%. About how many of those students are in math? Because it seems like we're taking a lot of retroactive steps to really address math, but is that the number one number one failing class? Yeah. Yes. And then do you know about percentage? I don't. Okay. I'd have to dive deeper into that. I wouldn't want to give you throw out a percentage that doesn't do anything. I'd have to look at I have a question for you, Ben. I'm sorry. you know much simpler than some of my colleagues. So my experience when you get to more and more PE people students in this case getting involved you have more and more groups a lot of
064times there's such a wide array of things that they might come up with or respond to. Is there any thing that you could point to that along the way there was sort of a general consensus that the students agreed on or points that they consistently came through and said this is something that you know we feel needs focus. There's one main question that I ask most of the students nowadays and Peter can attest to this because we do it in our well I do it I should say in in all of our panels and all of our discussions with kids. It's it's have you been at West Valley the whole time? Have you been here your whole entire educational career? And when I ask that question, I it's shocking. It's shocking that 80% of the
065students are like, "No, I I didn't. You know, I came in at fifth grade. I came in at 8th grade. I came in at 10th grade." And to hear their stories about like how how the transition was and how different it is here was was very telling to me. I don't know if it has been for Peter, but it's it's shocking to me. they they enjoy the transition, although it's harder. It's more rigorous is what we usually get in those in those conversations, but they they figure it out. Like they figure it out and they know that they have a relationship with us with the teacher, which I again going back to it, 10 years we've been working on this. And it's not like you can just check the box and say we're good with
066that. Like we have to continue to do that all the time, but I would say that those students really do find a connection somewhere. We have more clubs than we ever have. We have more opportunities for them to be connected than we ever have. They don't have to play a sport. They don't have to be honor society. They don't have to have all that stuff. There's always a spot for them there if they want it. And we just try to provide those opportunities for them to want that and then hopefully cultivate that if they find the motivation to move that direction. Okay. And then one follow-up question. Um again, large number of students which I really uh like a lot and I think that's very important. Um, just given the volume of it, I assuming
067or maybe not that they get chances to or multiple chances to be on both of those different groups, whether it's the student panel or the focus groups over the course of time. They may serve three or four times because as things go on, their perception and their views may change as well. So, I'm just wondering if that's something that happens a lot and are they willing to participate when it comes to that or do they say, "I've done my turn. You let somebody else try it." So, so I have given the option for some of them especially for the lunch uh that we that we do the student focus groups and mainly that's because I don't want to take them away from their social uh they enjoy hanging out with at lunch and with their
068with their peers. So, I have given them the option and it's funny some semesters it they're I've got half of the kids that are like no I just hang out with my friends and eat lunch which is totally fine. I'm cool with that. Now, the other one the student panel there is no option. It says go to the library and you're going to the library if you're in school at that day. So, it's just it's kind of one of those things where we're trying to catch all the students, but we don't want to impose on them. A semester long commitment is kind of difficult and I don't want a kid to be uncomfortable if they don't feel like coming. But I I have to tell you, and I'm sure almost all of you guys have
069been at the student panels, when they come in and I tell them why we're doing it, and I send them to a teacher, they have no idea who it is. They are really open and honest. Like, they could care less. they they say exactly what's on their mind and then they leave and they're done. Like they're fine with it. There there's no issue there whatsoever and we get really honest conversations out of the kids which is fantastic. That's what we want. Right. So lastly, not not another question. Just I commend you and your staff for reaching out to students the way you do. I think that is so important to get their involvement, their input, and most importantly giving them a sense of being a part of something. I think that's really important. So great
070job on doing that. Thanks, man. Um, yeah, I I appreciate the it's obvious there's a there's a desire from you and the teachers to continue to grow and to learn and and to not be just okay with the status quo. And so I it's comes out in your presentation. And then also just recognizing too, I think the blurbs that you shared um from your students. Um, I appreciate the the what you go through in order to select those students. Um, but it just seems like they have a lot of social uh intelligence and just awareness of maybe where the students are, the other students that they're helping. And so I think there's a lot that goes into selecting those students as well. So I would say kudos, good job on that. And my question, Mr.
071McMurray is not related to your presentation, but um it's a pop place, but uh the the board actually gets a safety and um incident uh behavioral report every month from all the schools. And I've noticed over the last few months that it seems like the high school is significantly lower in the amount of behavioral incidents compared to maybe the mid level campus. Is there something that you would attribute to that? And maybe there's I I understand there's a maturity level at the mid level, but it just it's st it stuck out to me the last few months. I'm glad you look at that because we pride oursel, especially our administration, in making sure like at the beginning of the year, these are new freshmen, right? like they don't know us, we don't know them. So,
072it takes a a a time to kind of develop those relationships with the families and and the kids and try to figure all that stuff out. And then uh there's a point where we just say we're not doing this like just not going to happen. If it does, we're going to go ahead and discipline that. It's not doesn't mean we don't love you and we don't think that you're going to get better after that, but but we got to do what we got to do and we got to support our teachers and support our building. And so I think our students understand that after a while we might give a little bit too much grace depending on who you are and how that looks and if that those 25 kids are in your class or
073not. But we we do the best we can develop those relationships in that period of time. And I do think second semester it gets way easier because those kids know our expectations. They know the guidelines. They know the rules. And we have great support from central office to just continue having a line, right? like having a line and making sure the kids know that they can go up to it but not beyond it. Um I was one of those kids in class that I knew exactly where the line was and I would go up to it but not beyond it. So everybody understands that, right? And that's kind of where we were at what what we do. We also have a lot more options. I have to say with the RAM flex program that we
074instilled the last couple years like there's other options for students. So if they can't take a full day, we have a half day option for them. if they can't take a half day option, we have a one-day option for them where they just come in and meet with Mrs. Vulka on Fridays. Like, we've created more options for those students that struggle to be here all day long and I think that's been a lot easier for us as far as disciplinary and behavioral issues. Is there anything else that does that answer your question? Well said. No, thank you. I think yeah, I think there's two two things I heard is creating a clear line and options for students. So, I appreciate that. Um, well, I'm just really the word that comes to my mind as I've
075sat here during presentation and thinking about our high school students and our staff and it's just the word impressed more than anything else. I'm really impressed by a lot of things that I've heard today. I love that we are seeking uh we are intentional about seeking student voice um in what goes on up here at high school. I love the peer mentoring initiative. It is such a blessing in any aspect of your life to help another person. And the fact that we are doing something intentional here at the high school that at the core of it is every one of those core values is awesome. So kudos to all of you guys for making that work. I just think I think it's great. Um I just I have a question about decrease in homework. and
076the voice of of decrease in homework. And so, you know, you've heard me say before, the board's heard me say this, I've said this a lot. I'm a well- educated person. I'm not a professional educator. So my question is about the balance between and I'm I'm using I'm using um I'm using the decrease in homework feedback as an example. not the only thing. But but it I'm intrigued by this because I think everybody that is in this room that has gone through some level of education has has experienced those teachers that didn't give us a lot of homework and then those that gave us a lot of homework. And I didn't like a whole lot of homework, but the work, the doing the work was in my best interest as a student. So I I
077think it's everything is in balance and moderation. But I guess the question then is is how do you balance taking in student voice on that particular issue versus the educator saying you know what but in your best interest that the the homework the balance of having some homework that that that time in thought that time outside of class to do the work does have value. How do you balance that between hearing the student and balancing that in your best educ you know what's best for the students from an educator perspective? Does that make sense when you want me to answer that? Math has been fighting AI since 2007. Sure. So we've been fighting photo math since 2007. I've never not taught with AI and math. So what is done outside of the classroom is completely
078unusable for me. So the the morph that has happened with math education um because of that is now our role as math educators is to assess their thinking and monitor their thinking and hear their thinking and see their thinking and intervene when it's false and intervene when it's problematic or when it has errors. And we can't do that if everything happens at home. And so I also think that when we ask students that question about homework, their definition of homework and our definition of homework is different. Their definition of homework is when the teacher says the word this is homework. That's what they think homework is. And ask any student and it is when they say at the end of the lesson, this is homework. That's what students think it is. And we know that.
079So when we hear them say no more homework, they don't mean don't make me ever do anything at home. They mean give me an opportunity to do it at school. If I don't finish, I do it at home. And that's the logical homework that comes naturally. So it's not that no students are getting homework. Yeah. It's that we are not teaching lecturing all period and then saying, "Here's the assignment. Do it at home. Bring it back to me tomorrow. I'll grade it on my own time." We're just going to and the work coming back from home might not be authentic, right? Like it might not be depending on what program you want to throw it into online. So that's the hard part for our teachers. They math has been battling it more than any other
080department for years. Slater.com, I go down the list. There are so many things you can just plug in an equation. It shows all the work and you can plug it into a homework section and get 100% on. So they they have definitely been dealing with it the most. But I did think that it was interesting in our student panel group and and Jeff has been part of most of them. So you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I felt like the students voice was really we want to work on things in class so that we have the teacher to help. And if it's a practice thing, I've already got it. I just need to practice it. I'll do that at home. That's fine. I could do that. But when I have questions and I
081need help from somebody, I want to do it in class. That's what we felt like that homework situation was. And I and I definitely picked up on that. Um, thank you for that answer. That was not as I considered in my thought process. So, thank you. It wasn't necessarily talk for 45 minutes and then here's your assignment to do at home. That just think No, no, but but that's but see that's a perspective that that again I don't have. I'm not in the building. I'm I'm you know the parent of a former high school student who to the point of I would like help at least from my observation with my students. All of you were or all of our staff was very available not just at during class time. You know, Campbell felt like
082she could always email anybody anytime and get an answer in a, you know, not ne some some teachers email back at night. That's not necessarily the expectation, but but got a timely answer. And so that I mean, again, from my observation, I I appreciate that our our students do that, but I but that's a thank you for that answer back. I didn't really necessarily think I when I was asking or formulating this question, I was thinking, "Oh yeah, we're going to talk for 45 minutes and and then here's the assignment to do at home." Not necessarily. Thank you for that perspective. Good. All right. Just a quick curiosity question. Do we have You're talking about life skills and students talked about having more life skills. Do we have any kind of financial fitness class like
083insurance, banking, budgets, or is that incorporated into some of the math classes or We have a financial algebra class that most seniors take, but that one does hit most those requirements. Yes. Of course, your honors kids or AP kids probably aren't going to hit that class because it's more of a moving on from senior year class, but it definitely helps out with taxes and all the stuff that you would have to need to function in the pool. Okay. And the nice thing about that class, it is a college and high school class and students are planning to go on into a humanities major. It counts as their college level math. So I've had students come back and tell me how much they appreciate having taken that class and it's they've been able to knock out
084their math when they're still here at West Valley High School. So very relevant. Can I jump in? I also just to kind of go along with that. Um I know that some of us like we are senior Ramstrom advisors this year and we started the school year co-eing together and we um incorporated a lot of financial things that we wanted we knew our students would need to know about going into for postsecary um opportunities regardless of what they were. We talked about um credit card debt, what it looked like for compounding interest, the differences between um the different kinds of loans that are available out there for education or for like daily purchases and things like that. So, there's a lot of us on campus that have just um incorporated started to incorporate more of
085those real life financial skills into what we do in Ram Strong because the kids have asked for it. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Anyone else? Great discussion. Thank you, Mr. McB. All right. Uh, now we move on to public comment. Again, I have to read my little script here. And this is an area where if you have anything that's not basically on the agenda, non-discussion agenda items, feel free to give us some comment and input. I'm reminded the board generally does not respond to those those inputs but we will take them down and respond to them at a later meeting with the public comments from the uh for the response to public comments from the superintendent. Uh so members of the public who would like to provide public comment will sign in. Speakers will
086be 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 a specific staff member. If a person has concerns about a specific staff member, they should make an appointment with the superintendent to address their concerns. So with that, we have two speakers, Jennifer Nielson. Good evening again. My name is Jennifer Nelson, and I'm speaking again this evening as both a parent and a teacher. I spoke two weeks ago. I've taught Spanish at the high school here for 25 years and I have two elementary age daughters. I'm speaking again to express my support for the district maintaining two world language offerings for our students in grades 8 through 12 beginning as soon as possible. On April
08715th, following the last school board meeting, our department met with Dr. Finch, principal Amber Styles Gil, and Principal Ben McMurray to discuss the vision for world languages in the West Valley School District. During the meeting, Dr. Finch expressed both his support and commitment to maintaining two world language offerings for West Valley students. Our district administrators understand that a well articulated sequenced world language program supports our students development in many meaningful ways. Our department presented several viable options for recruiting and retaining a highly qualified world language instructor in a language other than Spanish. I want to thank Dr. Finch and our building administrators for expressing their support, but I also urge them to prioritize funding for this position as soon as possible. The current posting for a 6ft FTE German teacher will honestly make it extremely
088difficult to attract a qualified candidate from outside our region, especially as German is no longer offered at any other valley high schools. Before tonight's meeting, I did review Dr. Finch's response to public comment, and I was disappointed by his statement, and I quote, "In the future, if student enrollment were to increase, the district would increase staffing to meet student enrollment needs." In my view, this language does not reflect a clear or proactive vision for sustaining or growing world language opportunities for our students. In recent years, other specialized programs such as instrumental music, vocal music, and ROC have also faced enrollment challenges. Yet, the district has continued to prioritize funding for these positions. I respectfully ask that the district do the same for world languages in grades 8 through 12. Thank you for your time and
089comm and your continued commitment to our students. Thank you for your comment. Next we have Jana Larson. I feel kind of short of this table. My name is Jana Larson and I'm Spanish teacher here at West Valley High School. This is my seventh year as a Spanish teacher here and my 17th year in teaching overall. I'm also a mother of a teenage daughter here in our in our building. I would like to thank and acknowledge Dr. Finch, Amber Styles, Gil, and Ben McMurray for meeting with the World Languages Department two days after the the last board meeting. Our department was very excited to share the three immediate solutions that we developed, any of which would work and covered a variety of sol situations based off of the 0.6 six part-time German position which has since
090closed with zero applicants. We've been told it would reopen but as of now it is not reopened. However, I'm disappointed that Dr. Finch did not share the three viable potentially money-saving alternatives that our that our department presented with you the board. Nor has he committed to any decision. Each of these options had a vision and a plan for the long-term success and health of another language position other than Spanish here at West Valley High School. There does not seem to be any commitment to embrace having another language other than Spanish being taught here. This means that our students, one of many things is that this means that our students who come to us as already bilingual in English and Spanish cannot learn another language from our district. What a travesty. We know that sometimes there
091have been down years in other programs as my colleague mentioned for example coming back from co especially our ROC program didn't have enough students to maintain two t teachers instead of cutting a position the teachers taught other courses like photography now the program has rebounded and is thriving this has happened in with choir band art and in many other instances it has been done for the benefit of our students and we're good correct decisions. The stakeholders in those situations were listened to and solutions were found. The commitment to the long-term health of our student of student choice was made. That is not what is happening within our department right now. Research shows that learning another language positively impacts the personal, cognitive, professional, and cultural well-being of students. A study in Tennessee showed that students who
092studied a world language in high school had higher cumulative college GPA than equally academically talented peers without such language study. In a study published earlier this year by Perkins and Zayn, it is shown that second language learners have significantly higher neuroiming activity in the language and speech center of the brain and more quickly move information from short to long-term memory. I could go on and on about the benefits of learning a second language, but I won't. As a district, we tout that student choice, just like we saw in this presentation tonight, and doing and we tout that we value student choice and doing what's best for kids. But here we are without a commitment to hiring a teacher that teaches another language other than Spanish. It is these kinds of decisions that disheartens and dismays
093and causes us to lose students to other st districts that offer what we do not. But we could. Peter, thank you again for meeting with us. I find my interactions with you engaging and meaningful. I urge you to be decisive in making a commitment to bringing in another world language teacher other than Spanish here at West Valley High School. Thank you. All right, thank you for your comment. All right. Um, since we only had two individuals that signed up to speak, we do have a few extra people here in the room. Um, I will open it up if any of you individuals would like to step up to the mic with a comment. This is your opportunity. All right. Seeing none, we'll move on. Public comment closed. Okay. Approval of consent agenda. There are a
094number of items here. Um, as usual, we have the board members to look at or should have looked at perhaps by now. Um, if anyone would like to pull something out of there that they want to discuss further. If not, I'll entertain a motion by a board member to approve the consent agenda as presented. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda 8 through F. Thank you, Mr. Walcott. We have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Items 8 through N. We'll go ahead and vote. All those who approve signify by saying I. I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. 5 Z. I'm sorry. I said motions A through F. Motions. My my copy here has A through D. Oh, no. It's turned over. I see it. There's A through F. Okay.
095Moving on. Now we have discussion items uh policies and instructional materials. So Dr. Fish, you want to give us any background? Yeah, we'll start with with policies. So the policies are listed later under action items. Uh there was a cover memo about the various policies. We have second reading for policy 4060. The second reading uh adds the language that was suggested by Michael Thorner. And then uh we also you know Michael had pointed out that the uh procedures would need updating. So we have a draft of the procedures updated and the form has been updated as well. They're ready to post tomorrow as soon as we get approval for second reading. And just again the language that we added in there was that the um exception would be granted on on a case by case
096basis with a commercial business that partners with the school district to enhance the student experience. So I wanted to make sure that was clear that it was something that would enhance the student experience. Uh the next policy which was kind of I'll give you all the policies and then you can open up for discussion. Next policy is a new policy would be new for the district. It's based on legislation that clarified that transition kindergarten is not an entitlement. So kindergarten, a program for 5-year-olds is an entitlement. If you are 5 years old and you live in the West High School district, you're entitled to go to kindergarten. But transition kindergarten is not an entitlement. It's based on funding that's available by the state. So they may um appear that transition kindergarten is not an entitlement
097and the um the legislation passed. And so we need to have policy that's updated regarding uh transition kindergarten. Next is uh policy 5011 sexual harassment of district staff prohibited. And so it's update of the legal definition of sexual sex sexual harassment for 5011. And then the final revision here of policy 6801 is increasing the dollar amount for a small attractive item from 5,000 to 10,000. And so anything greater than 10,000 is a capital asset. So that's the main change there. They actually WASDA had some policy revision of the language. Uh our previous policy was just kind of written out as a list. So it it reads much better as a policy with the revision that's suggested by WASDA. And so superintendent's recommendation is to pro approve these revisions and adoptions of policy as presented. Okay.
098Can I go? Um, any further discussion on item B there? I thought there was a change in We'll go ahead and why don't we get to discussion first policies? Okay. And then we'll I'll introduce the instruction materials. All right. Anybody have any issues they would like to discuss further policies? Um, I maybe have a question. the uh transition to kindergarten. Do we expect that funding to uh to go down? Oh well um yeah question about the funding. So you know the last legislative session u you know the state was looking at uh reduction in the revenue. So there was um basically the compromise was they didn't increase it but they didn't decrease it. So in some ways you could say we came out you know in in a way that is going to continue to
099benefit our students in West Valley. We have two classes, uh, one in Cottonwood and one in Apple Valley. And so we're going to be able to maintain those two classes, but it was very clear that you're no district's going to be allowed to increase the number of transition kindergarten classes and no district if they don't have it right now, they're not going to be able to start it up. So it was good that we were able to start up transition kindergarten when we did because we're going to be able to maintain the classes that we have. But really good question about where where they're at. And and I think just for clarity uh 501 I think we're just we're just returning to the 2020 Title 9. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. Okay. Any further
100discussion on that policies issue? Anyone? All right. Um now do we want to go ahead and materials? Next with action item is ad adoption of instruction materials. And so we've had uh our committees working throughout the school year. Um we were able to because it was English language arts, we want to make sure that the materials that were identified for potentially for adoption were done in December. So that would give time for community members and uh board and instructional materials committee to read the materials during the spring. And so we did have the uh instructional materials committee meeting. Uh some of the materials that were piloted were not moved forward for adoption based on um you know the teachers deciding that they did not want to move forward with adoption. And then a couple materials
101that were actually approved by the instructional materials committee. Uh we um wound up having a teacher that um had piloted or had reviewed the materials and presented to committee, but she's not the person teaching the class uh next school year. That's the CHS 101. And so the teacher that was teaching the class said that she would prefer to use materials that she's used in the past and not use those new materials. So we pulled up uh one of those materials. then the other class is not going to be taught next year and so we pulled that material as well. So the rest is listed here uh for the school board in the packet. It starts with grades six through eight the English language arts intro to literature by the Hton Mifflin hard hardcourt. Um you
102know it's it's nice to see that the committee came up with the Hotton hard court. test materials that we adopted uh last year for K through uh five and so there'll be some continuity there in the district K through 8 with the HMH materials and then the other materials are English lang language arts for the high school and innovation center and of course uh we do have our world language materials as well uh we're adopting the German materials there uh but as uh you know as we heard earlier with the public comment we're still working on uh our they they had shared that there were uh options that we were that we are looking at in the future if our option first option is to hire a point6 position. And if we're not able to
103do that, then we're going to work on other options that we had talked about in our meeting. But we want to have the materials adopted so that if we have a able to find that point6 position that that person can come in and teach German using the materials. And then uh the other world language materials here are the authentico um for Spanish and aulejo for AP Spanish literature. And that's um similar materials uh to the realis that we've used. It's basically updating the materials and a new a new copyright um but uh similar materials that we've used in the past and I have been well received by our teachers and our students. So So there we go. That's uh the information. We've got English English language arts grades 6 through 8, world language for grade
1048 in the high school, and then English language arts for grades 9 through 12 at the high school and innovation center. All right. Thank you, Dr. Finch. Um, again, any um discussion or anything from any of the board members here? If there are no comments from the board, I go ahead and open it. I I have a couple comments. Yes, I'm sorry. For discussion. Uh first of all, I'd just like to um say a special thank you to the instructional committee uh instructional materials committee. Both our staff and community members and Mr. He participated very diligently in the process. It's a lot this I mean for this particular adoption, it's a it's a tremendous amount of work. There were a lot of uh there were a lot of materials uh um reviewed. Uh I'm from
105from a board members perspective. I'm very appreciative. I'm also um appreciative that some enhancements that we made to the the the the timeline the if you couldn't come to the meeting uh we adopt if you couldn't if you couldn't make the the the meeting for adoption that we had a pool of of reserves. Uh uh that that was a that was a really good suggestion that was made that we implemented some of these things. And so, um, uh, as we continue moving forward, uh, with the instructional materials committee, um, just I would just encourage, uh, the board and the community to always be looking at our process just like we are trying to be a district of continuous improvement. Um the adoption of materials is a critical element and aspect of the work that that
106we do um or that we approve as a school board, but where we really have a lot of our community both from a staff and from the uh community member perspective. And it is something that is is really important for us to continue to take very seriously. Um, and I know we do, but but for us to continue to take very seriously because um, as as we all know, um, local control uh, by school districts and school boards is eroding away in this state. And so we need to seize the opportunity and continue to improve our our our process and program. But but just a that's a little bit of a soap box. So I apologize for that. But uh but I but but I just again want to uh express a sincere thanks to
107uh the committee for their work in bringing this to us. Thank you. Yeah, I I I agree. I think the process um I think it's it's improved, but I do think the process needs to be improved more. Um you know, I I I'm thankful we pulled the a couple of books um one in particular and I'm not going to go into detail about the book, but I think the appendix that we have for the selection committee is maybe maybe the definition of that appendix is too broad and I think maybe that we need to be more definitive. Um I think of the two books that uh Mr. Pete asked the board to look over um uh one in particular was just very much clear when it came to the appendix to me and and went
108against part of that appendix and so um and I don't know if maybe um maybe the am you know it is a large amount of books and so for the selection committee to have to read through it I mean I think Mr. Joel is the exception. Germany is fun. So, uh, you know, I and there's there's no way that they can read through all of those books. Um, you know, and so I think, um, maybe part of the process we need to consider is how do can we assign some books to these two members and some books to these two members and then make the appendix have a clear definition. um you know because we are always continuing to grow and continuing to get better and I think last year we we took a step
109and we're said let's make the process better and that's what we began to do and I think we still have some work to to do there but um but yeah I I'd just like to say I I wasn't going to bring this up because the two books were pulled and so it's kind of a moot point but you know again I think we need to make the process better um all things need to be looked at. But I think the concern that I have is that even with the two books, nobody wants their time, teachers or instructional material members, um, if you will, wasted if there is a vote that basically was unanimous on all of these books and to speculate, well, maybe they didn't read them. I don't think it's fair to them. Um,
110I didn't say that. Well, that's how I took the speculation of your comment. So, that's all I'm going to say. We just need to continue to improve the process. Yeah, I'm I'm very excited to continue to work with you and see if we can tighten up the process, make it better each year. Um, I'll be committed to reading all of the books that come through and I'll be committed to sitting on every board. I'd love to make this process as good as we can. I have one quick thought just much softer part of all this. Um, because it is very time consuming. And by the way, I echo Mr. Darnner's comments to you, Mr. He for all that reading. That's a huge job and undertaking for me. I spend a lot of time going back
111and forth in my in my car. It'd be great if some of those were available maybe on tape where I can listen to them or anything like that just so that it's you know I could I'm not losing any time at all because they are some of them are lengthy but just a thought. I don't know if they are available if we could get them but it might be helpful with at least a copy or something like was made. It might speed up a little bit of the review process. Well, I appreciate the input on continuous improvement. That's something I'm committed to. So, we'll continue to look at ways to improve the process. Um, the materials presented here today were approved unanimously by the instructional materials committee and so I appreciate the discussion and I
112appreciate the yeah willingness to work on continuous improvement. Okay. All right. Any more comments on either of those two items under the discussion items under bullet number nine on the agenda? If there are none from the board, this is a chance for public comment on discussion items. If anyone has any comments they would like to share, again, we don't have a signup sheet here with names, but since we have a small audience today, if you have a comment you'd like to make, this is an opportunity to do so. All right, hearing none, we will move on to action items. We have a number of them. We'll take them one at a time. First, the approval of travel requests. Seeing hoping that everyone has seen one is there. If somebody would like to make a motion
113for the approval of the travel request, we'll go ahead and take a vote. Anyone? I'll make a motion to approve the travel request. All right. Thank you. Um, excuse me, Mr. Kappire. Uh, we have a vote. We have a motion to approve the travel request as presented. There are one, two, several of them there. I'm not going to go through all of them. We'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor of approving the travel request as presented signify by saying I. I. Oppose. same side. Motion carries 50. Um, okay. Item B of approval of policy addition revisions is second reading. Um, and again, those items are there for those who have any comments. 40 and there's also the 4600. Let's do the I should do the second reading. Yeah. 4060. Yeah. Okay. 4060. We'll
114go ahead and do that first. Um there since there are no more comments if someone would care to make a motion on those items um memo policy revisions. I'll make a motion to 40 distribution and 4060. Thank you Mr. Heaton. So we have u a motion. All those we'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. I oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. 5 0460 distribution of information. Next we have item C, approval policy addition revisions, first readings. There's the 2020 20 I'm sorry 2230 transition to kindergarten program 5011 sexual harassment of district staff prohibited and item 6801 capitalization of assets. Again, if someone would like to make a motion on that, we can go ahead and take a vote. Otherwise, I'll make a motion to approve policy additions 2230 511 6801
115in their entirety. Thank you, Mr. Heath. We have a motion. We'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. I oppose. Same sign. Motion carries 5. Finally, we have item D on the agenda, approval of instructional materials. again. Board memo, instructional materials, IMC, instructional materials committee, meeting meetings, meeting minutes. Okay. Are those if we indicate a motion to approve those items, we'll go ahead and take a vote. Does someone care to make a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the instructional minutes and the meeting minutes. Thank you. For instructional materials and the meeting minutes. It's a tongue twister for both tongue twister. Thank you, Mr. Keeper. We'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Oppos. Same sign. That one carries. 5 Z also. All
116right. Now, we'll move on to item 12, items arising on the agenda. Anyone have anything? Hearing no items, we'll move on to item 13, reports. Dr. fish. There's a number of them there, but hopefully all of you have had a chance to take a look at them, unless you have something you'd like to add to those. No, nothing to add. All right, then we'll go ahead and move on to the superintendent report. Yes, we had a nice event uh sponsored by the Washington Association of School Administrators. Uh as West Valley School District, we were able to recognize a community organization and a student for leadership. Community organization that we uh recognized this year was the Akma Valley Partners for Education. They're the organization that helped us access the congressional directed spending from uh US Senator
117Patty Murray's office. Uh that fund those funds were allowed us to move a portable to the Mountain View campus and add uh preschool for students in Mountain View through our partnership with Epic. So, we recognized them. Uh they're housed at Heritage University. So, we had a nice contingent from Heritage at the event. And then we recognized uh Lana Muno Silda for her leadership as a student at the innovation center and her leadership was to provide the um technology classes for parents. And what the cool thing is she attended those when she was a young elementary student with her parent. She saw the impact that it had for her family. how to access a free email uh account of how to log into email, how to start getting email from Skyward and all those things that
118we do that we sort of take for granted. And Wana saw the positive impact for her family. So now as a sophomore, she helped to organize those evening classes for other families and uh I just met with her last week. She's going to be going to Running Start next year in YBC. So, it was just really nice event and uh appreciate Wana's family coming to the event and it was I thought very well done and it was hosted at Apple Tree so we didn't have to travel too far this year. And then the other part of the superintendent report is uh just continuing to update the board on the PAL program. So, uh Wendy Clark's our um highly capable program coordinator. She's uh organized sessions over the summer for the teachers that will be doing
119the multi-age classes. So there are planning sessions with they'll be um you know facilitated by Wendy and the goal of that is to develop a scope and sequence a multi-year scope and sequence for project based learning so that uh students will have a variety of activities and they will not be redundant as they go through the multi-age classrooms. But then also we had the highly capable advisory committee meeting on Wednesday, May 21st uh looking for uh advice from the committee on how to um showcase the work of the PAL program. And so they suggested having a highly capable showcase. So showcasing across all the services in the district. Doing that in February and hosted at White Hollow so you can not only showcase PAL but also had high school students that were in the program
120as well and have them there sharing about all the highly capable um and advanced courses that are available here at the high school. And so just have a nice showcase of the highly capable program do that in February. So appreciate the uh input of the committee and helping us to get better. We talked about continuous improvement. So this is something that will help us to showcase the whole highly capable program. Do that in February when parents are making a decision about PAL. And that's the superintendent report. All right. Thank you, Dr. Finch. Just uh typically when we get to board reports, board development. Does anyone have anything? Just a couple reminder items more. I just want to get them in before we adjourn for the night. Um board members, please do not leave without signing
121some documents. We need those done. And then just a reminder, all of you are aware graduation is coming up. Um I just want to give a shout out to the school district. We year after year I've gone to those as a board member and I just think we do a fantastic job. It just simply amazes me how organized and how neatly it's carried out within the prescribed time period. It's just amazing to handle all those students and to see it done so professionally. So shout out to uh Dr. event and the school district and especially the high school staff those who participate have done a great job over the year with organizing that event. It's actually a fantastic event that many should really marvel how well it's carried out. So all right with that hearing
122no other items I'll go ahead and adjourn the meeting is 8:37 May 27 2025. Thank you for those in attendance today. Thank you.