001I need to [Laughter] stretch. You know, I have one of these and I never use it and I should. They come in handy. I have too many of them. All right. Good evening everybody and welcome to the West Valley School District board meeting. Today is Tuesday, May 13, 2025. We'll call the meeting to order, but we'll begin with the pledge of allegiance. Ready, begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, getting started here. Uh, Dr. Finch, are there any changes to the agenda? No changes. All right, go straight to communications. response to public comments. That's included as a placeholder. There was no public comment at our last meeting. Okay.
002Staff retirement recognition. All right. It's that time of year and we'd like to recognize uh our staff members who are retiring. And so we'll start with uh Reena Oster. I'm not sure if I saw Reena, but she uh had four years with the district. I appreciate her service. Linda Gigleone. Is Linda here? Not sure if I saw her. So, Linda, 22 years of service to West Valley. And then the third person we're recognizing, and I know she's here. And listen to this. It's Rebecca Ross was teacher at Outan Valley. I was just sitting next to a teacher uh at an event today who had uh Miss Ross's M. Ross's uh when he was in kindergarten and now he's a teacher. So, it's 37 years of service all in West Valley. 37 years. So, Rebecca, Becky.
003All right. So, Becky's here with family. I see flowers. And Becky, come on up and the board will shake your hand. And we have a nice plaque for you. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. And thank you, Rebecca. Thank you so much. All right, one more round of applause. All right, student recognition. All right, this is wonderful to have our uh boys basketball team here this evening. They are the academic state champions for the 4A division with a 3.85 accumulated uh grade point average, 3.85 GPA for the team. And so, uh, I see coach Whit is here. So, Tyson, you want to take the mic and just say a few words about your goals of our program and how this fits into what we are looking for in West Valley? Yeah, you know, uh, academic state championship,
004we won it three years ago, uh, for the first time. We're kind of surprised by that, uh, accomplishment. And so, uh, ever since then, it's become a goal of ours. And so, um, you know, most people, you know, think that we joke about it, but it's something that we take seriously. We remind each other uh pretty frequently in practice. Uh and the guys, you know, put pressure on each other to to uphold our academic values and making sure that we're being the best we can as far as uh upholding that student athlete title uh that is thrust upon them. And I think they've done an excellent job. We won it two out of the last three years. Um the one year we didn't win it, we got second. Uh so uh especially the senior group
005here has definitely done an excellent job as far as leading leading the charge academically in the classroom and it's obviously uh puts a lot of pressure on the the upcoming groups and the underclassmen to to uphold that standard and and keep us going forward with that. So thank you. Yeah, it's wonderful to have that tradition where the underassmen are going to be looking up and and and have something to shoot for as well. So appreciate that. And so gentlemen, let's have you line up here and we'll have the board give you a handshake. So here we go. [Music] [Applause] Nice work. Nice work. Good job. Good job. Congratulations. Good job. Thank you. And I I would just like to add and put a little emphasis on the the the academic achievement. Um you know, we
006all would have liked to seen you in the championship and I'm sure you would have liked to have won it more, but don't underestimate the value of the great education you got here, and we're all very proud of your efforts and your accomplishments in this area in particular. So again, let's give him one last round of applause. We just have two more items here for communications and after that we can take a little break and um our uh student athletes could be excused. Um so um item D was the 2324 financial audit report. So it turns out when you have no findings and no corrective action, it's a very short report, but we are very happy to have a short report. Uh if there's findings and corrective action that can land you on the front
007page of the paper. We are very grateful for our finance department and that whole uh finance side of the house under the supervision of our assistant superintendent Joe Connley and our director of finance is Sheila Wood. So appreciate all the work to have a a nice clean financial report and we included that in the board packet as part of our public record. And then item E is the Washington School recognition program. So we just received this information um just last week. we were able to get into the board packet that uh for the 232 24 school year, we had three of our elementary schools receive state recognition. Only 16% of schools across the state receive this Washington school recognition program recognition. And so the three schools are Autumn Valley, Cottonwood, and White Hollow. So congratulations
008to the students and staff of those schools. And we can go ahead and give them a positive karma clap. [Applause] All right. And next, as we get set up for the innovation center presentation, certainly we appreciate uh people who attended for the communications. Uh you're welcome to stay if you like or you're welcome to go ahead and quietly make an exit. So, thank you so much. And then Mr. Waters looks like he's getting set up. So, this is perfect transition. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Ross. Thanks for coming. Good job with the flowers. Remember that? That was nice. That was great. Congratulations. Thank you. It was Thomas Hall. I was sitting next to you. Thomas. He was teaching at Davis. Oh, that's Yeah, that's awesome. One sec. Was that me? Okay. Better turn that off. No.
009No. All right. So, we have Jed Waters as our executive director for innovation for the district and has been overseeing the innovation center this uh this school year. And Jed is going to have the presentation and has some staff here and not sure if there's some students helping, but Jed's going to give us a presentation. I like the setup here. We don't have to uh jump into the audience. We can just stay here as a board and have the presentation by Jed. Okay. All right. We'll have to be kind of close by. I want to pull it up. All right, that gets us a little bit more out of the way. Does that work? All right. Hey, so welcome to the innovation center. uh we'll kind of go over some of the programs and we
010have some of our staff members talking about some of the things that happened recently and then we'll kind of go over what some things are looking like for next year. So at the innovation center we currently have four different programs for grades seven nine. So our four programs for there are computer science, health science. Right now it is robotics, aggra science and then STEM. Next year we're changing to robotics or STEM robotics and STEM aerospace. So kind of separate out um we talked a little bit about in the past but I could kind of over real quick is we found that students were either into robotics or they're into agriculture and sometimes when they came to the innovation center they're like I want to raise animals. I want to do this. We have an awesome
011egg program FFA program over at high school. So sometimes there's disconnect. Students got here like oh this is wasn't wasn't what I wanted. We found that then just taking off the agriculture class that actually robotics now is like our number one seller for programs. It's all full for next year. So a lot of students are interested in robotics and I will say that's a lot to do with I think what our elementarymentaries are doing. So the STEM and our elementarymentaries now almost across the board and all elementaryaries some aspect we are seeing the results of students interest in those. So hats off if you're elementary teacher, elementary admin, elementary, computer lab, you know person, you are doing a great job there because our students are interested. Then in 1012 right now we have computer science,
012health science, robotics, agrocience, and STEM. Those are programs for this year. And you can see some of the different things. We actually next year we'll be working on CubCrafter's playing just like that. That was received through a state grant. So the district didn't pay for that mater. We received a state grant for that along with actually the robot there. We have that we have students programming that one we received also state grant for as well. Next year again our students will take everything looks like in that bottom kit and assemble another plane and my vision is and it's been for eight years since I got in the district is I didn't know where it would be but that plane actually hanging our common. So ideally next year when you come for the board meeting that
013plane will be in there and it's going to be great and our students will put it together. We also have some pictures of some of the coding they do and some of the health science programs that we have. So little overview of some of the programs just in case you're un not familiar with the innovation center. And then here just some basic I'm not going to read through all these but really innovation center is we focus on masterbased learning and then we focus on project based learning and that's going to be our main mission and goal and vision going forward. So we have a few tweaks from this year as we've kind of come on board. We got a great staff that's jumped through a lot of different things trying to make a lot of
014happen as much as they can. And then we have some great vision for upcoming years. I'll kind of go over that later in the presentation. So again, it's really I think that's what makes this district great is a lot of good staff members across the board. A lot of people contributing. It just isn't one person. It's everybody from when you walk in the door, custodians, office staff, counselors, special education, teachers, bus drivers. I get to see them all. Almost every day we're out there directing traffic, stuff like that. Stop traffic. get to see them again. Like that's great thing about West Valley is it takes so many different people that are helping out. So I have two of our staff members right now, Kendra Bourne and Sierra Clark. They're going to talk a little bit
015about some of their co-eing and one of the projects. Again, that's another thing that makes the innovation center great is there is some great co-eing and we're only starting to grow in that and now Sierra Clark next year will be taking over with our ELA. So she's done an amazing job um over this year and we'll be looking forward to that. And Mrs. was born this year last two years have been doing a lot of our math integration. She's done that. If you think your load's tough, she works math from like students that are below seventh grade level all the way up to students that are like senior level math looking at high-end math. So, she does a great job. Her husband's in the stands. Actually, I'd tell him like, "Thank you for sharing your
016wife." And again, that I'd say that to anybody that's a spouse of a teacher is we appreciate the teachers. We recognize teachers, but it's also their spouses and family that allow them to do all the great work that they do in our district. So, we appreciate the work she's done. So I will let them take it over on that mic and share what they've been up to. All right. Uh I'm Kendra Bourne. I'm the math science designer. And I'm Sierra Clark and I'm the computer science 7 through9 designer. So we're just going to talk a little bit about some of the integration that we've done so far this year between the math and the computer science. Um so one of the big projects, probably the first big one that we built from ground up with
017the math and the computer science was our sparro unit. Um, so Sparrows are these little robots that we can code and we've spent a lot of time working with students to do some background math that's required like finding the distance using speed and time calculations, being able to use the Pythagorean theorem to find a distance on a map. So we used a lot of different math concepts that are all within their grade level. Um, that eventually led them into being able to code these spiral robots before ever putting hands on them. they were able to code it for an entire map before they ever even saw them. Um, to go into that, they had mazes that we had pre-planned out and they had to find the missing lengths of those. Again, going into the distance
018team in time, uh, also tied into ELA. So, what they learned with the Spheros, they had to create a how-to guide and had to do step-by-step processes for someone who's coming in next year brand new to the system with Sparro as well. And they had to tie in their math as well into the how-to guide. So, in addition to that, they got to make some of their own games. So there were some pretty fun ones that they came up with um using those concepts that they had learned with the math. Um and then at the very end we had a final assessment where they showed us their ability to perform all those math calculations um and then send their robot through the maze uh without any trial and error. So just taking that calculating it
019and then sending it through. I think I'm here talk a little bit. I did want to hit one more. I think I think that's the neat thing is they talked about how they did. We also have Mr. Melton to help design some of the work as well. Um there. So again, it's neat. We're on a lot of these projects. We have a number of staff members all working together to help design the learning experience for the students versus one teacher taking on completely. But sometimes I think any one of those can they do a lot of effort. So I can't imagine with just having the load on one. So I'm glad they share. Megan Graham right here is she's our special education teacher. She really set up a lot of work with our fifth graders
020visiting. So we had fifth graders come from every school and she'll share more on that. We were super excited to have fifth graders visit. um they were able to come in and learn more about some different STEM standards and things like that. They built lungs. They practiced and learned a little bit about CPR. They also had the opportunity to work with the Spheros and build and kind of get to work with some of those projects that their students were getting to complete. Um, what was really fun about it though too was the kids were really excited to be here and get to have all these hands-on activities, but they our students at the innovation center also just really stepped up and practiced the design process. The first group of kids came from came through and
021then by the next group they're like, "Oh, we're going to tweak this and we're going to make it uh I think they changed the spheros and ended up building a soccer field for the kids to shoot goals with the Spheros." And so each day we came back going through all of our uh elementary schools, they would come back and the kids would have another idea. So by the end, these projects were getting huge and the kids were really excited to be the leaders um and introduce the things that they are able to do um within the building on you know more of a fifth grade standard. We had kids get to practice with welding simulators. They planted um you'll see the homage table in the right hand corner too. So kids got to experience some
022different equipment that we have the ability to make these hands-on projects accessible to kids. So it was a great experience for both all of our elementarymentaries um but also for our students to be leaders and get to help students explore. So yeah till the end. So, how were the fifth grade how how were the fifth graders uh that participated in the STEM visit? How were they selected? All of the fifth graders came. We did the entire entire district. Oh. Oh, awesome. We It was a week. We did learn that we'll be split up. Okay. Okay. That's uh that's quite the Yeah, the students did they were like you do this all day. They're like they keep asking the same question. Uh but they were very excited. We had a couple that were like, "When do
023you go to the bathroom?" Like all the things, right? So, it was it was a really good experience and a great bonding experience for both staff and our students. And the elementary kids were very excited and actually pretty disappointed that they couldn't come the following year as sixth graders to be a part of the innovation center. So, it was awesome. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. I had a math question. Um, actually curious kind of, you know, what your experience is with the retainment of math in in this setting versus the traditional class setting. Do you see a do you see a difference? Absolutely. I just was in a meeting today talking with a family about how their child when they see it hands-on and the application of it, it clicks for them. But I also, as
024part of my job, have a traditional math setting as well where we sit, we take notes, they take a mastery check, so a written test for it. Um, and I noticed that I don't see nearly as much retainment with that. But one example of that is the Pythagorean theorem where in with the Sparrow stuff, we did a ton of work with that. And we also in the egg robotics class, they were uh doing a designing a garden. And so part of that was they needed to have uh angles within their garden. So angled stuff. So they had to calculate how long it was going to be. So they needed to use Pythagorean theorem for that. And students in those two classes I noticed definitely did way better on the mastery check than the students in
025the other classes. Um just because they were like, "Oh, I remember doing this on the garden project or I remember doing this with Spheros." And can I mention what your student the other day? Yes. Okay. So, she was telling me that as soon as they got their mastery checks back the other day, one of her students let out a little squeal of excitement because it's the first one that she's passed uh because it's been related to those concepts that she's been working with and that she's been able to see hands-on and tangible. That's awesome. Awesome. Thank you. Do you want to hit on the master check? They only get one attempt at it and if they don't pass it, they are all done. Because you said like that was the first one she passed. So
026she's failed every for clarification. So these mastery checks um they are all standards based and students have as many opportunities to retake it as they would like. So I create several versions of each mastery check and so students can take it one time. If they don't do so well on it, I'll give them feedback. They get goes back to them. They do corrections and then they come back and then they can retake it at any point. Um, and it's unlimited retakes, so they can come back and retake it 15 times and I will create 15 versions if that's what needs to happen for them. And she does that for all the students. Yes. Do that for seven different math classes. Any other questions for either one? For any of them? Just a comment. I I
027think back to my my days when you said the Pythagorean theorem. Even today, I find it useful. So, I'm so glad to hear that kids, you know, can practically apply this stuff in their real life. I mean, that's such a good thing. So, congratulations on that's a big step. No, and that was just a little taste of some of the different the integrations. I think the ELA we've really done a lot um with that across the board and just all the support. So that's kind of again some of the great things at the innovation center is we get those opportunities or innovators do um to kind of learn and grow and each at their own individual pace. And again I think that those of you that are at the elementaryaries or you know have elementary
028background when you see the students for a longer amount of time you're able to grow and learn and make some of those modifications and it's really tough for we have high school teachers here. When you see 140 150 students a day is really hard to build a connection. I'm looking at we got really great high school teachers here. It just I know their desire is they try to do the best but it gets really hard. So that's one of the benefits with the innovation centers. There is more of that time. Again, every teacher's got that heart to try to reach everyone. When you have a smaller subset, it's a little easier to work. So, uh we had a question on math and how our students do on math. So, I want to hit on we
029have some schedule changes coming up for next year at the innovation center. So, some of those scheduling changes are right now Mrs. Borne mentioned that we have a kind of an hour in the day. We call it U skills and the students are trying to get some more direct math instruction. There's math integrated in their program like they talked about the spirals, but some more direct math instruction, a little bit more on the history, so social study standards and a little bit on everything. It gets be really tough to try to pack all it in hour and some of our high schools, our 10th, 11th, 12th are also trying to do online class time. So, we've done some scheduling changes to really maximize making sure that our students from grades seven to 10 have math
030or every day and we can really integrate that in. So I kind of highlight the schedule which I think is some things I want to you know after a year in the innovation I think um Michael you had let's see what was last October no August September when we were doing the board meeting on CTE and you asked me like hey you picked up another role how you going to do it uh hey we're we're still standing so we made it um again that's hats off I can't say enough to everybody you know even I was talking to Stephanie central office staff everybody that's helped pick up little parts done different things so that's again the great job we have great you know high school next door they're able to help me out with some
031questions help us out with some things. Again, lots of just people throughout the district have made it. Um, and over this year, we've been able to assess some changes. So, we'll be doing some things with the innovation center, also WVA. We got a few different things, tweaks coming up to help our systems out, but just kind of some highlights. So, next year, seventh graders in the first part of their day and seth and eighth, I guess similar, although the sizes look different, but the first really two hours of their day, that's at their core, just like they are right now. they're in area of their interest whether it be STEM aerospace, STEM robotics, health science or computer science and that's a great band that's 7 through nine. They'll also be working so they'll be learning
032the core area so standards connect to that core of the area and then also we'll be integ grading ELA. I think that's one of the neat things is we can integrate ELA throughout the day, but we're really focused on there. Again, we're doing the Maze Runner. They're doing the Wild Robot. We have I'm trying to think whether 10 through 12. So, they've been starting to read some more books. What book is it? Wild. Into the Wild. So, they've been talking about technical writing. We had a student, we were talking about technical writing class, and he actually goes for half his day. He goes and works at Pepe Equipment with his dad and he talks about, oh, when I'm working on heavy diesel equipment, I need to document everything I'm doing. If it's warranty work, I
033really need to document it. At the end of my job, I have to tell what we should do different so we can prevent this to maintenance or how we can prohibit these things and I need to document what job it is, what hours, all these things. It's like, oh, that's the technical writing that we're talking about. You're actually doing a job. So, that part, we have students that came in the year. I don't need to write. I don't need to do anything. Now, they're starting to build a connection to put in the workspace. We have welding. We talked to Magic Metals a few weeks ago and they're like, "If you don't document what job it is and everything you did, we can't build it. And if we can't build it, we can't make money and
034you can't be a welder for us." So, those are the things that as we start to go, it's building the connection, why it's important, why even they're talking about verbs and nouns and they look at recipes and how that technical writing. So, just all the great things that sometimes you think like, oh, it's just hands-on construction, Pythagorean theorem. So, all the different documentation. I think that's a great part. So just some highlights in the schedule then is I'm trying not to stand you guys away but so we'll have that core and then afterwards next year we're moving to kind of grade level bands from really after advisory on. We found out that although the 79's great there's really standards we have to focus on and sometimes it gets hard for a teacher to focus on
035three different grade level standards at the same time. And then we want to work in math every day. So our math in seventh grade and then in eighth grade which either be eighth grade math or we're going towards algebra for a lot of ours will be then integrated with computer science. So just like the spiral project they talked about that will be happening all day long. We'll also be focusing on project based learning. This gets to be a little confusing. I don't want to spend say us here till 9:00 tonight. But our big focus is is getting projects that go through the whole time. So the sphere of robots as I talked about there's mass standards you can integrate. There's ELA standards. There's a lot of different design standards. So, we're working things like that.
036If I look at the robotics, well, if I'm talking about health science, I'm learning about bones, joints, muscles, things like that. Well, that's a lot like how a robotic arm operates. So, now all of a sudden, I'm building a robotic arm, connecting it to my health science standards. And then I want to make that move on its own. Well, now I'm working my computer science, coding, and math. So, all of a sudden, for half my day, I maybe spent some of the time working with teachers that were experts in those areas. They're connecting back to a robotic arm project. I made that robotic arm move, but I didn't do it just, well, I made a robot move and pretty cool. Now I'm starting to understand, oh that's like the bones in my body. I'm understand
037the bones, understand how muscles can make it work, things like that. So a lot of great integration there. If you look at our eighth grade, then kind of the same thing. We got computer science kind of for two hours. Some of the social studies have been looking at Washington state history. Well, boy, Washington state history, Washington is a lot of agriculture. So we start looking at irrigation canals. We can start to like build canals, talk about how the irrigation system works. So a lot of things that instead of just here's our textbook, let's go through it. Again, I'm not saying a lot of our teacher, we have a lot of awesome teachers in all of our buildings that don't just teach the textbook, teach the worksheets, but there's some cool hands-on things that we can
038do by applying that and be building different things, learning about how technologies change, watch state history, you know, bring in, you know, a lot of different things. So, that's some of the integration. Again, eighth grade looking very similar with project- based learning, just chunking some things up. There's a lot of robotics in there as well and some STEM And the last parts of our day looking at ninth grade again starting that same core that's with seventh through 9th grade and then they're moving into they really have two different blocks the rest of the day. So they're moving in for the like middle part of their day is health science. So they're working on biology standards but they're also connecting with PE and health. So a lot of it if we think about hey my biology
039class it's a lot of how body systems work, how everything works. Well I connect that to my health standards that I'm learning. So similar like ninth graders all at the high school learning health and then I'm also doing PE. So I'm learning about my body systems. I can maybe go and do some stuff. So I can be working on the weight room as I'm learning about some of that stuff. Well, that all makes sense. Or I'm learn about cell respiration. Now we can go do some activities in the gym, test our respiration rates, things of that nature. So that's our goal is just building those connections. And then after that, the last two hours of the day, they're in kind of our STEM lab there. And that's we're tying in some CAD art standards. They're
040doing designs in the computer. And then they're also working in some of their algebra or geometry standards depending on what level. If you had a chance through this to walk around the building, uh Mrs. Clark and another teacher led a lot of our students in designing bases. So on on shape, they made some amazing 3D printed bases. They designed it all, 3D print it. They were doing a lot of math integration in that as well. Then ELA component last on Friday, she went picked up a bunch of flowers. The students made cards for their moms, but they just didn't make a card or, you know, anybody else they want to write this. They actually talked about all the literature components behind it and spent hours working on how to write it. They were breaking apart
041word all this just UDL strategies like crazy going on there on how to work that. So that's that goal is to integrate that and then we get to high school level again our first two hours next year is our students will have personalized learning time. So that might be some of them may be going over to the high school. We can't offer again I said Mrs. Bourne is great. She can't teach precel statistics everything else all at the same time. So some of our students and our high school has amazing college and the high school opportunities. Spanish, other things like that our students want to take. So we're working the high school. This will be the first year we're doing it. So there's bound to be a few little things that we're learning. But our
042students can go over there. The nice part about that, too, is in the past we've had some students like, man, I like one or two things I want to take to the high school, but I also like to be at the innovation center. I got to decide, so I'm going to go to the high school. Now, as we start to work on it, it just is with our students registering like, oh, you really like damospace, but you still like something over the high school? Hey, you're there two periods and you're here for four periods. We need to have the four periods so we still work in the master base. If we start to chunk it up too small, all a sudden we just become again, high school is great, but we all a sudden become
043one where kids are moving back and forth. We lose some of that master base. So, how do we take the great things that each building offers and combine them? So, I think that's some of the stuff we're going if a student's like, hey, I don't like to go there. A lot of our students here are like I like the small field you know whether it be just they like the small field whether there's other things on autism other things that just like hey I don't like all the changes they can be here for two classes of online we also then because online is self-paced you can actually get ahead on some credits that way as well with their online or we have some opportunities for PE some project based learning all for that time or
044work-based learning and then after that our students are in their core so again same thing as they're kind of doing now we'll just have it broken up a little bit more into classes is a little more better on the transcript. And we find that the lunch break in the middle is great because 4 hours right now they spend from 7:45 to 12 in their core. 4 hours gets to be a long time and you start to like you go up and then you start to like the last hour and a half start to you know like anybody four hours in one thing start to drag. So by having lunch break in the middle we hope that I can help revigorate them so they come back in the afternoon strong. So those are some changes. Again,
045it's all really the staff that's driven a lot of the students that driven a lot of it. And just kind of I think that's the nice part about innovation center is we can keep changing to meet up with the demand of education because education I've told us in every building. I said it's changing and if we don't keep up we're going to be lost because there is a lot of options. I think I just ordered some on Amazon also like oh it's at my door. I'm like well that's just crazy. Who could have thought about that 10 years ago? But all the different changes with AI the technology going Amazon now has robots everywhere things like that. So, just all the crazy technologies out there. How do we get our students prepared for that future
046and it's, you know, we're going to keep adapting and this building is great and the district's been great about letting us have this building opportunities because it's allowing us to do things. I think as I take tours around families, they're like, usually I have parents, I just said one night was like, well, could I go to school here? Last night I did another tour. Can I go to school here? So, I think parents are seeing that. How do we do that? Because some of them are coming to us and saying, my students in sixth grade, they're starting to be disengaged. you know, how do we hook that? And it's really tough. Educators, it's a tough business nowadays because there's so many things with cell phones, all the other cool things that can get you that
047dopamine hit. And as adults, we're in the same thing. We pull out our cell phones. I can't eat a sandwich without pulling out my cell phone and trying to I don't know what I'm looking at just as news or whatever. I've looked at just three minutes ago, but I'm back on that. So, I think those are some of the challenges we have, but I think there's some really cool things and opportunity. Again, I'm I'm seeing teachers here, teacher from the high school and teachers from other places there, too. uh Montana or no Cottonwood now, right? So Cottonwood now again those are all they're doing some amazing things to really try to combat that and get our students excited education and that's again why West Valley is recognized for what three different schools so far and
048basketball scholars and stuff like that. So that's a lot about here and a little bit on the district. Hey Jed, I got a question for you, but curious about um do you have any idea how many other schools are doing what we're doing at the innovation center? I think of honestly I'm impressed by the teachers and the fact that you're coming up with really your own curriculum in many ways and applying it and I think it's just you know it's it's very much outside the box and I I'm I'm jealous because I wish 25 years ago I could have gone to the innovation center. I did go to the high school. Yeah, I would say we've come across schools that are doing similar things. Everybody's got a different style on it. I think that's the
049hard part is it takes grit and tenacity, I think, to see it through because it's easy at like this is our fourth year. It's easy to start to get to point if you don't have some changes, you get there like it just can't work because it's hard to do all the opportunities as Mrs. Bourne, we can't get to math every day. So you kind of have to keep tweaking it and if you're not comfortable, if you don't have a staff that aren't comfortable with those changes and they're like, "Nope, I like doing this and I started this on day one and let me make you do that." It would be impossible. So I think being able to make the changes and we've seen some other schools, again, sixth period day is really attractive because it's
050really easy to check those boxes off. So that's our hard part is not to fall in that to fall in the project base. So there's different schools are doing a scope. I think we're all in the pendulum of too rigid or too just it's free and kids are doing whatever. So it's trying to find that sweet spot. There's a lot of schools that are trying to find it. They haven't found it yet. So, we just had a school envision academy or learning center out of like over by Lacy came the other day. Some ideas, but I felt like I was like after talking to them was like they're doing some cool stuff, but I feel like we're a few steps ahead. So, I think in my goal is in three years again our weight. We're
051going to open it up and like in an hour it's going to be like this place be full. So again, it's again I can't say enough because it's the staff, it's the students that come here and their experience, the things they do because it's not it's not me up there. It's the people that are daytoday doing everything from our you know again custodians bus drivers office staff everybody that's making people feel great. Well, Jed, you are being modest, so but you are presenting to the board and it's a good chance to share. Uh, please do share that we are part of the masterybased learning project that's supported by the state board of education and that we continue to have a lot of visitors come to the innovation center because there are good things happening on
052this campus. Yep, we have had that. We just had Brandon Austin, one of our teachers here, is one of the fellows of the Masterbase Consortium. So, we have a few here and actually some of Masterbase came not too long ago. We've had different groups and they've been really impressed. I think Dr. Vinch just brought a group in not with a master base but another one. So they are really seeing a lot of stuff we're doing and yeah it's kind of that that mindset shift that sometimes is hard because you're used to seeing things as one way in education. So to have that different way but yes there is we're getting some good recognition. Sometimes I tell people it's I feel like we're still moving in the house. So I don't want to like invite all
053the neighbors in yet because I feel like we're still kind of moving some furniture around and we're just rearranging some of the living room. So that's where maybe some of the modesty comes in is because I again we're doing great things. I can see where we're going to be in three years. Well, on on Friday, we did have visitors from Los Angeles and San Francisco that I had uh met at the national conference and had shared about the invasion center. They were so excited they wanted to come and see it in person. They just they didn't want to do a Zoom. They wanted to see it in person. So that was on Friday. We had those visitors. So we continue to have a lot of interest in what's happening on this campus. Yep. And our
054numbers are like Dr. that our numbers are we only have a few openings left in the 79 area the high school the 1012 there's more openings there but our 79 is just about full across the board so it's there is high interest so a lot of again a lot of great things happening and um I think it's a model of what's to come out of education 140 the capacity our capacity if I were to fill I would say let's say about 220 would be our capacity right now enrollment right now is 176 or 178 at our last count we're probably about one we're about that number in registrations right now. We keep going up more in the 1012 area we have and that's just some of the I think as we kind of tweak some
055programs a little bit and again that's we have great programs at the high school I think that's part of the you can easily our mid-level has a little more like they're a little fuller so sometimes a little easier there for students to start up high school if I'm a junior or senior and doing well at the high school sometimes a little hard to make that change or it's just because you're used to it and again great programs over there but I think we're getting there so some good thing when we're building the plane who can argue in three years we actually are with Tango Flight we're building a plane that's flying I You can't argue with an education where you built a plane that you can fly in. Our our target for enrollment would be
056uh 200 uh to start the year with. Sorry. Go ahead. Okay. I have I don't know if this question is best for you or for the teacher. So, you know, I tend to think of when you go to school traditional homework that I wonder what homework for these students would look like compared to you take home a book of problems and you solve it. What does it look like? Do they take things home and solve them that way or do we have some written exercises for them? How does it work? What does it look like? So on the math side, the way that the math is in you skills right now, it's a little bit more traditional in the sense of they're taking home an online program where they are working through some problems on
057there. Um, and then it will give them immediate feedback on that. But in all the stuff that's built into the pathways, it's all project based. And so most of the time it's not here, take this thing home and do it. It's hey, we're working on this project. If you don't get to this certain checkpoint today, you're going to need to do some work at home tonight. Do you agree with how it is? Yeah, we have checkpoints especially for we're doing the design process. So they have to meet each point before they can actually get to the project. Most of the stuff if they're they have a really huge block of time so they shouldn't really have homework. So that the goal is for they can do everything here in this in the classroom and then
058their project essentially what they can show off at home i.e. the bases that we did in computer science. Yeah. And and their grading. I'm just curious how that works. So, is it more based on the success of the project maybe that they're working on or is it the traditional education they get out of the books or the the problems they solve or I know it's a mix of both. Is one weighted more than the other or they're about the same? Yep. So, with mastery based learning, it's all about the students ability to achieve the the learning goal. So, it's less about can I Yes, the standard. So, it's less about can I uh fill out 15 problems and more about in the 15 problems that I filled out, did I show that I was able
059to complete each of these? So, like I can speak to the MA or the mastery checks that I give students, I can have students get every single question wrong, but when I'm looking through their work, I can see, oh, you forgot to add something here, but the rest of your process is good. So if the question is if the if the standard the the learning goal there is I can use the Pythagorean theorem to solve a problem. I'm not just going to look at their final answer and go well you didn't get the right answer so no you can't do it. It's going to be were you able to set it up properly? Were you able to follow the process? Did we make a calculator error? That's not impacting your ability to perform the Pythagorean
060theorem. So it's a lot more to do with can they reach the I can statement and a lot less of did they complete the 20 problems. Did they get the 15 problems 100% correct? Okay, thank you. Same thing for you. Is there anything Jed you could talk about? The capstone is really to have students out in the workplace. We do have students this year from the innovation center that are doing on the job training. So, they're getting paid hour hourly wage, high school credit, and college credit for their placements. And all all the work that we're doing to prepare them to be successful. We we don't want to put students in the workplace where they're not going to be successful. So all all this work from 7 through 11 really prepares them for that 12th
061grade year. Yep. And I was going to hit on kind of the homework assignment. We see students, we had one that like almost 3D printed a whole like medieval mask and a um Iron Man suit. We had a student bringing in. So a lot of the homework we see that goes home with students trying to enrich again that that level three is like you've met it, but our really push here with all of our equipment, a lot of our stuff is how do you start pushing yourself towards that level four? So taking different skills you've learned to come on because really as employers or employees that's what we want to have is you taking that initiative. It's always easy to work with people that are finding gaps and filling them versus identify and saying oh
062there's a problem and then not doing anything. So I think that's kind of what gets our cycle is to get students sort of with 21st century skills workplace skills everything that build the connections. We have a group going out to we've actually gone to a number of different field trips this year to some of the orchards. We have a group in two weeks going to f four different manufacturing settings. We had two students that are looking for apprenticeships or looking at apprentichips next year go out um with some other with Ajax and apprenticeship committee just last week on some tours. So that's our goal is getting you the employment skills. I think nowadays it's getting you a broad employment skills and getting you that problem solving, troubleshooting, collaboration. So those as we are portrait of
063a graduate skills um to get you those because that's what you're going to have to change. our students in computer science. If they just focus on one coding language and they spend four hours a day for four years working on that, that might be outdated and one day a switch. So, it's getting them to learn how do I learn coding languages, but how do I apply that? Kind of like AI. AI isn't something you're afraid of. It's how do I take that and apply it to different things so I can work more efficient versus doing the same thing that isn't very efficient. So that's a lot of our because really we our goal here and our goal as a district with a lot of our current technical education just across the high school is we
064want students that are going to be successful employees and successful in life successful for their family everything as they leave here. My always think like I don't want our graduates to graduate we celebrate and they're all falling off the stage and just flopping around doing that. Our goal is I want to meet them in Walmart rose or Safeway when they're 25 and be able to see them their spouse their kids and they tell us hey they're employed this way. Hey, because of this, you know, I have this workplace skill, but I also learned Spanish and now I'm taking this and now I'm working at, you know, this place and I'm taking my skills that I learned there and contributing to society and contributing to our, you know, local economy. So, that's our goal here and
065I think as our district is how do we do that? So, I think a lot of things like you said, we have two students on apprentices, we'll be have more apprentices next year and a lot of workbased, Mrs. Graham who's our Crystal Graham, not Megan Graham, but Crystal Graham had students out in kind of job shadows this year with Hope Bridge and a number of other places as well. So, it's it's only growing. I think are limited on a capacity of there's only so many hours in the day and as you can see a lot of our staff is working long hours, but again, it's their dedication again across the district. We got a lot of that. Any other questions on Innovation Center? I could tell you a lot more. Again, you're always glad to
066come tour. It's a great place. We got lots of good things happening. Steve had a bunch, but he didn't have a mic. No, I don't really have a question. I just wanted to thank you so much for your uh enthusiasm and your leadership and I was concerned like Michael was before about how much you have going, but I see you have a great team and I really appreciate that. Last thing, I want an Iron Man suit. So, we'll tell student I am glad though we did post for an assistant because I don't think I could keep it up. But again, it's all the staff. So, appreciate all the support. We'll put you on the list for one more question. Um, well, first of all, again, echo the thank yous. Uh, I think every time we
067come to the innovation center and we have the the program, I just get that much more energized and excited about about what we're doing and it's uh just keeps getting a little bit better every year. And so that's a credit to our staff and the leadership. So, thank you very much. My question uh uh is sparked from something that you said uh a little bit earlier, Jed, about a student's schedule and some opportunities for um our innovation center students to uh in the high school to maybe uh experience a class or two at the high school. And so, not directly to that question, but but sort of uh and I'm not I don't need like the actual statistics, but I'm I'm curious. Do we have high school is high school age 9 through 12? Now
068high school aged um innovation center students participating um in extracurricular activities such as fine arts, band, choir, uh athletics. I I'm just I'm just I'm just curious. Yep. No, sports are probably the big one right now. We do have some students participating in sports. So track I always tell student like, "Hey, if you're a track athlete, it's awesome for you because the track's right there. Soccer, same thing. football right there, C team basketball. A lot of times they're practicing here. So, we do have a number of students or the nice thing is they can hop on the bus and they go right down to mid-level campus. Mid-level drops them off. So, we have a great partnership between the schools of students being able to participate in sports. We've had some students do clubs down at
069the mid level. Uh we do we've had occasionally some students. We do have a number that do JOTC after school. The band and choir, not as much. I think that's where maybe that first and second period will help out. So then there are students that have those desires and go there. I was doing a tour today. I said there's so many great opportunities in the district. Even like in the mid level if you're a seventh grader, you start to have to pick like, oh, I can either do this or these things. So that's some of the things again the balance there. But we do have a number of students here. And I think as we continue to look at each other's strengths between the buildings and the things that the high school has and the
070things the innovation center has, I see a lot of that goes up. And I think in the next year as we, you know, as I have a little more support and we start to grow more, we'll see more and more students. And we were just talking about one last thing is graduation. We're set to have like 25 students. We let them choose this year either walk of the Sundome or walk here. Like we have three going to the Sundome. We have 25 here. And also we're planning right now we'll have at least 15 WVA graduates. So I told like that's 40 people graduating which is amazing. And 40 people if they each bring 10 people. I'm like, we got to fit 400 people plus all of you in the gym. I was like where I'm
071starting to panic. I'm like, we're going to have rows of chairs. I'm like, we can be backed up against the wall. I said, it's an amazing thing to celebrate, especially we have a WVBA student coming all the way from Spokane to come here and graduate again. Great life stories there between the different things, the opportunities of that um afford some of those students. So, I'm looking forward to in a month from actually less than a month. So, in like three weeks, graduation and yeah, we're gonna have to look at a different venue here coming up pretty soon. So, thank you. Yep. Any more questions from anyone? Board, can I catch your names? I I You said it, but I I missed it. I'm Kendra Bourne. Kendra Bourne. Sierra Clark. And then Megan Graham. Hi, Megan.
072Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Nice presentation. [Applause] All right. Uh moving on to item seven on the agenda, public comment of non-discussion agenda items. Uh we will go from the list here. Um just a reminder that members of the public who would like to provide public comments will sign in. Speakers will be called in the order in which they signed in to speak. Speakers will be given three minutes for their comments. Public comment is not the proper excuse me 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. Okay, with that, we'll go ahead and call the first person, Jen Nelson. And I would appreciate even though I
073say your name, if you would repeat your name again just for those who might not have heard me clearly. Sure, of course. Uh, my name is Jennifer Nelson and I am here tonight both as a parent and a teacher. I've taught Spanish at West Valley High School for 25 years and I have two daughters who are currently at Apple Valley, but my oldest is getting ready to head to the mid-level campus in the fall. And I'm speaking this evening to express my support for maintaining two world language offerings for our West Valley students in grades 8 through 12. Since 1955, West Valley has provided at least two world language options at the secondary level. This long-standing commitment has allowed our students to explore diverse cultures, enhance their cognitive and academic skills, and meet college and
074career readiness standards. With the class of 2019, a two-year world language requirement became a formal part of Washington State's 24 credit graduation framework, reinforcing just how essential this component is in a well-rounded education. As a Spanish teacher at the high school, I've seen firsthand the critical role that world language education plays in preparing our students for success in an increasingly interconnected world. The World Languages Department is advocating for maintaining a 1.0 FTE position for a world language other than Spanish for grades 8 through 12. For the last 33 years, we have offered Spanish and German as our district choices in world languages. Looking ahead, I believe the district needs to continue to support student choice by providing two language options when middle level students pre-register for 8th grade um in the spring. In just two
075years, my oldest daughter will be ready to select her language. and I believe wholeheartedly that she along with all West Valley students deserves a choice. Without district support, West Valley would become the only school district of comparable size in our region and even across the state to offer just one language in offering Spanish. And I have data tonight from 23 other school districts from across the state to illustrate this point. Moreover, a reduction in world language staffing would not eliminate the state graduation requirement. Students would still be required to complete two years of a language. Yet, with only one language option, we risk denying our students access to credits they need. This is more than a staffing decision. It's a commitment to student opportunity and global readiness. Preparing our students to engage in a multilingual,
076multicultural world is not just aspirational. It is essential. Our students deserve access to more than one world language in the West Valley School District. I know our schoolboard and community value education that prepares young people to engage meaningfully with the wider world. Thank you for your time, your thoughtful consideration, and your continued commitment to the success of every West Valley student. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Next we have Molly Foron. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay. Hello. My name is Molly Forai. Uh this is my second year teaching Spanish at the high school and I am really really happy to be a part of the world language department at West Valley School District. Um, my family has deep roots in West Valley as both students and educators. Um, I grew up in Zilla. In
077fact, when I was a child, I attended a lot of school board meetings with my dad who was the director of finance at Zilla School District for many years. And I actually used to take notes on an electric typewriter for those schoolboard meetings. Since then, I have lived and worked in Seattle, in Ellensburg, and most recently in Madrid, Spain for nearly a decade. Now, West Valley is my chosen home. There is nowhere else that I want to live and teach. Tonight, I want to share some data with our excellent school community that we compiled last spring in order to paint a picture of what choices students are offered at other schools in the region. Here in West Valley, with around 1,600 students at the high school, we currently offer two world languages, Spanish and German.
078At Eisenhower and Davis high schools with around 2,300 students each, students can choose between Spanish, French, Japanese, and ASL to meet their high school graduation requirements. The 2200 students at Sunnyside High School can choose to commit to two years of French or Spanish. Currently at Cila High School with 400 fewer students than West Valley, students can choose between Spanish and ASL. Outside of the Yakama region, most districts of comparable size offer families from two to five choices. Okay. For example, in Walaw Wala, students and families can choose between French, German, and Spanish. The same is true at Mount Spokane and Kamayakin high schools. In Belleview, students can fulfill state graduation requirements through two years of Japanese, French, Spanish, or Chinese. With nearly the exact same enrollment numbers as West Valley, students in Bethl have the
079option of learning German, French, Japanese, ASL, or Spanish. I believe that students and families in West Valley School District also deserve choice in how they meet grad requirements. We want our school district to stand out for being high achieving and competitive. We must continue to offer multiple world languages to our families. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next we have Janie Larson. I said that correctly. Jana Jana Jana. Sorry J. Hello. My name is Jana Larson and I'm finishing my seventh year of teaching Spanish at West Valley High School and my 17th year of being a world language teacher. I'm here as a parent of a sophomore at West Valley High School and as a teacher. I currently teach Spanish 2, three, four, five, and independent study six. And this includes 15 university credits of
080college in the high school each year on our high school campus. I'm here tonight because I believe we all share a common goal to provide our students with the best possible education and equip them for success in an ever evolving world. I am gravely concerned about the manner in which our German language program has been undermined the last 15 months. At West Valley High School, we offer only two languages, German and Spanish. Due to several circumstances over the past two years, enrollment in German has dropped, a trend that could further escalate if we fail to address this issue. By expanding language opportunities, we know that we can reverse this decline and attract more students into our language programs. With the proper time and job posting, we can bring in a dynamic world language teacher that
081would draw students to the classroom. Now that the German position has been posted and reduced to a 0 six part-time position and knowing that there are no German positions around, the likelihood of us finding a qualified, vibrant personality to draw students in and rebuild the program has dropped dramatically. In fact, across the state, schools half our size offer more languages than we do. We risk falling further behind in providing students with the well-rounded education they need to succeed in the global economy. This decision could define us as a district that is not willing to invest in our students futures and ultimately the economic and cultural capital of our community. This is not what we want to be known for. In a world language classroom, students get to explore topics and ask questions that are new
082and unobstructed. Sometimes a world language class is the only real source of success that students experience because they they find a language that speaks not just to their mind but also to their heart. Some students feel seen and come alive for the first time in a way that doesn't typically happen in statemandated core classes. World languages help develop national security and global influence by develop crit by developing crit critical language skills for national defense and understanding foreign cultures. Language skills give our students a competitive edge edge in business, trade, technology and other valuable industries like healthcare, manufacturing and agriculture. Historically, the highest American education emphasized Latin, Greek, and modern languages as a mark of scholarly discipline. Studies show that language learning improves cognitive skills, memory, the importance of English fluency, and even standardized test scores.
083Maintaining our world language program in the West Valley School District isn't about just learning to speak another language. It's about preparing our students to succeed in a competitive connected world. Our district is reducing the language German program without allowing stakeholder involvement. The world language department has not had the opportunity to find the right fit in a timely manner. We are reducing our students to mere numbers and forgetting the worth of their education. They deserve the same honesty, transparency, and real work that we demand of them. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Okay. Next, uh we have Pamela Tilly. Maybe lower. I'm uh Pamela Tilly. I'm a mother of three children that attend West Valley High School. Three is already graduate and one is in 10th grade. And all my children are um special needs of of
084different uh u disabilities that they have. So I highly um how would I put it? Um, I highly appreciate the DLC teachers and uh um and their classes and what they do to help our kids succeed. And so what I'll do, I'll read what I write and I'm not a public speaker. This first time I've been here and um then you can ask questions or could give me feedback when I'm done. Says keep current DLC teachers for next year. Why is West Valley wanting to get rid of good teachers? We haven't heard of any complaints or problems. DLC teachers do more training to be successful teaching our children. Disability childrens do better with the same routine and say seeing the same adults and they feel safe and knowing what is expected of them. Why upset
085our children's learning stability with the current hardworking teachers where the kids are having fun learning new skills and looking forward to coming to school. So I I heard uh that our teachers are not going to be teaching next year and uh without no you know without no problems um like to know why why is our teachers leaving and why can't we keep them to keep our kids stable and happy and you know any feedback. Typically, this session is really designed for us to listen to you. Oh, okay. The next session, if you're able to make it, Dr. Finch, the superintendent, will respond to your comments from the previous meetings. He'll have a prepared comment for you so he can answer your question. So, you can ask the question. It's just that we won't respond right
086now. Oh, okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. All right. [Applause] Okay. That's in covers the entire list. Is there anyone else in? Yes. All right. I wasn't uh planning on talking tonight, but uh I think sometimes when good things are done, maybe we don't take the time to talk about it. And so, and Casey, may state your name for the record. Oh, my name is Casey Florine. Uh I'm a parent of a student actually here at the IC invasion center. So, like I said, I I didn't have something planned here, but uh I scratched something together real quick here. I just want to talk about a student uh that's there, my one of my stu or my son that's a student here at the IC. He's a freshman and I think what's really cool
087about it is the things he's been able to do here at this school. And I really want to point that out how important that is. It's going to sound like I'm bragging. Maybe I am, but that's not what I'm trying to do here. I really I'm just excited to talk about what the school does. And that's what I want to do here. I'm bragging about the school right now. when he was a student here, when he first started, he started in the um ITCS program, computer science program. He loved it. He excelled. He was he he really took off with that. Built his own computers, learned how to design large language models and host his own AI services uh on his own computer, not to do his homework, uh but to learn actually he learned
088a lot of art techniques by asking it and working through some things. So, we talked about the art side of it. That was something he started to do and mess around with. He was really excited to be able to do those things. In fact, speaking of the AI side, he was one of the first kids I ever knew that was encouraged to actually go out and learn some more about the AI, take a report that he wrote and then use AI to, you know, see what AI says about that and then basically grade that. That was a really neat and unique way of doing that. Let's learn how to use this skill instead of being afraid of it. Let's embrace it, take a look at it, and learn how to how to use that technology
089correctly. He's also built video games, has them for sale on international platforms. Uh he had to design his own artwork and music for those kind of things. Create a storyboard that wasn't even necessarily it was something that was encouraged, but it wasn't required in the school. I think that's a cool thing that this school does. This school really helps uh encourage the kids. He started designing speakers that got him into music. Then he started picking up a guitar. Next thing I know, he's got a band. He's really into the blues, by the way, if you're interested. Jimmy Hendendricks is a big thing. The drum set is in the in the garage, though. That's uh that's something else we had to go in there. So, while there's not necessarily a music uh course here, he was
090inspired by the teachers here and what they've done uh to embrace that and take that on. And so, he does that. He he is uh designing some speakers still while here. They're designing some more uh guitars. He came home and he started asking me how to redesign an electric guitar. Redesigned it, modified it, brought it here, and the school encouraged him to take the whole thing apart. I was a little nervous. Took the whole thing apart, redesigned the circuitry, and put it all back together, built it, came back, and he was so proud. And I think that's really cool. And again, that's that's what the school has done to encourage those things. So, I can go on and on. You talk about sports that were the things he's done. The school encourages those things. Uh
091that was a big concern of mine when I when we were as a stu as a parent looking for our student to come here. What was the extracurriculars and are they going to be available? And is it a challenge sometimes? A little bit. Sure. Right. But we've gotten through it. Uh the busing schedule works. Those things are are are doing great. Uh as a freshman, he's finishing geometry, finishing uh Spanish. So the school, in my opinion, for the people that I've seen, it works. And I just want to say thank you. Thank you for the support there and I hope to see that continued support. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um we do have a little time but is there anyone else in the audience who wishes to speak at this point? All right. If
092not I for those of you who did speak I want to say sincerely thank you for your comments. There are times when it may seem like we don't respond but we listen. And so please keep sharing those thoughts, those comments, whatever it is because this is your this is your community and your school as well as it is for us. So please keep doing that and we just want to say we appreciate you doing that. Okay, moving on um to action items. Item number eight on the agenda, there are approval of minutes um for the study session and the board meeting. Uh if anyone has any comments. Um actually is this a consent agenda? It's not. No. So these are separate items. Take the minutes together. Okay. We can take the minutes together. Um if
093someone would like to make a motion. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes. Thank you, Mr. Keepard. So we have a motion to approve the minutes for the meetings of April 22nd uh 2025 study session and board member. We'll go ahead and take a vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. 5. Next on the agenda, item B, approval of travel requests. There are two of them there. Hopefully, everyone has had a chance to look at those. If there are any questions, now the time to bring them up. Otherwise, I will entertain a motion to approve the travel requests. So moved. All right. Thank you for that motion. So, we'll go ahead and vote. Um, all those in favor signify by saying I for the two travel
094request. I thank you. Motion carries 5. All right. Uh, item nine on the agenda. Item arising. Anything from anyone here? All right. Hearing none, we'll move on to the superintendent report. Uh, superintendent report was there in writing. Just a short overview of the legislative session. an update on our continued work to uh provide professional development for the teachers that will be teaching in the PAL program next year. An update on the long range facilities planning committee. Uh there was a meeting on May 6th and the committee uh said as a consensus that they did not want to wait until September for the next meeting and so our uh consultant Phil Crocker was able to uh work with the committee and we have identified Monday June 9th as the next meeting and so uh Phil will
095develop a first draft of the long range the updated long range plan and we'll get feedback on that draft from the committee on June 9th. So looking forward to that. Um, also we'll be having uh banners uh for each of the schools that were recognized by the state for state recognition. In addition, we had uh Apple Valley and Mountain View that were also uh recognized recently in a previous year, but the banners didn't come yet from OSPI. And so, uh, I'm picking up the banners tomorrow morning for all the schools. And we'll have awards assemblies for Cottonwood, Apple Valley, Autan Valley, Wide Hollow, and Mountain View for the state recognition. So, um, any of the board members are welcome to come and, uh, as long as you don't talk shop, you can all be there.
096So, not not a problem. And then we do have a graduation ceremony. So, we'll have a ceremony here at the innovation center on Wednesday, June 4th. Balora is Thursday, June 5th, and Friday, June 6 is our ceremony at the Sundome. Uh, did put down there that the ceremony begins at 7, but it's recommended you arrive arrive at 6:00 so you uh miss the traffic jam that is always there. And also I do have um tickets for the board here. So I've got graduation tickets here. So don't leave the meeting without your ticket and you can certainly uh there's additional tickets for family members if you like. All right. That concludes the superintendent report. All right. Thank you, Dr. Finch. Uh moving on to item 11, board reports, board development. I've got one. So I've been
097working with the IMC, the instructional materials criteria for the last four months. It's been a long read. It's been about 274 hours of reading. Uh, and I'm excited. We're at a spot where we met last night and 25 books are being pushed forward for review. And so the recommendation is to approve them. There are two books that I'd like the board to just look at a little bit more critically, which would be Tomb Sweeping and Everyone's an Author. Those two books I have some concerns about, but I'd like the board to also just look at them. But also just thank you for all of the hard work of everybody going into the committee and just making sure all the books are being reviewed. What's the second book? I'm sorry. Everyone's an author. Yes. And we
098have copies of those at the district office. So uh if you'd like more information, uh please contact me and we can get you the rating sheets, get you the copies of the book, and even u if you'd like to meet with the teacher that I recommended, that would be good, too. And thank you for reading them all. I really do appreciate. There's some great books in there. There was honestly some awesome books that I enjoyed reading. That's good. Well, thank you for sharing that with us and yeah, I would like to take a look at those as well. All right. Anyone else? Item number 11. Yeah. So, I'd just like to I I'd just like to make a special uh acknowledgement and a word of thanks to uh Mr. Connley and and his department on
099an outstanding audit. Um, you know, the public may not be aware, but um, these audits are no joke. Um, they're very serious. Um, they're outside audits performed by the Washington State Auditor's Office. They typically choose several areas with which to uh, focus their attention on. Um, and you know, it's amazing. During the time that I've been on the board, um, the operating budget when I, uh, don't hold me to this number, but, I want to say was about $30 million or so when I when I came onto the board. And now, um, that operating budget exceeds, uh, $80 million, and that's in 12 years period of time. In addition to the operating budget, um we have several other dedicated funds, GAP projects, debt service, um transportation, um and you know, and and those are large
100sums of money as well that the district is managing. It's the taxpayers's money um at work. And you know, Dr. Dr. Finch alludes to these are the types of things that you read about in the newspaper about school districts and other municipalities and other form and other governmental agencies and entities that um do not or do not have the sufficient financial controls um in how how the money is is is spent and and and transferred and uh utilized within. And so, um, this is a huge deal to have absolutely no findings. Um, no suggestions for doing it better, being more careful. Um, that's just outstanding work. And, um, I just I I I see the board members shaking their heads up and down agreeing and acknowledging, but, um, that's just outstanding. And I'm I'm personally
101grateful um for all of the efforts uh um that uh of of our uh of our uh business operations department um does for that and continues to do. So thank you very much. Yeah. And maybe I can piggyback on to that just a little bit. U Mr. Ther said it very well. I actually have attended a number of these exit conferences and I was on this one as well. And the words I listen for are no findings, no negative findings. And of course, that was very that was said very early on. And the um the auditors themselves just they're very thorough. I I want to add to that point. They they go through it very meticulously and they're very careful. And that's great news for us because it really is, as Mr. Thorner said, very
102important that the public knows and develops confidence and trust in our handling of the school district's money. It's it's a pivotal responsibility and one that I think West Valley does very well. So, thanks for for reminding all of us about that. Okay, anybody anything else? All right, we're down to adjournment. It is 8:12 on the 13th of May. Thank you everybody for attending tonight's meeting and have a great great day or rest of your week and weekend. Board members, please don't take off. We may have some items for you to sign.