WVSD #208 School Board Meeting 04-08-2025

001testing. [Music] Oops. Sorry. All right. Good evening, everybody. It is 6 PM. We'll go ahead and get the school board meeting for Tuesday, April 8th, 2025 officially underway. We'll start 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. Um any u before we get started, um Mr. Keepart gave me a contact and said that he would not be able to attend tonight's meeting. So I would like to officially excuse him. We'll go ahead and vote on that. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Mr. Keepart is excused from tonight's meeting. Uh any changes to the agenda,

002Dr. Finch? No changes. All right. Going on to item five on the agenda, communications, response to public comments. Wrong. Uh actually, we're on the study session. Oh, I'm sorry. Let me get back to the right one. You're correct. I'm looking [Music] at Thank you for that correction. Uh, no changes to the agenda. Let's see. Communications. No communications. Discussion items. All right. Here we go. Department present present presentations. Yeah. So our study session this evening gives us a chance to have our annual report from facilities information technology and finance. What we'll do is we'll go ahead and have the board join the audience and we'll be able to see the PowerPoint and we'll have each of the directors present their information. Then we'll have the board come back so that we can use the microphones and

003have some question and answer and just discussion time. It's a bit more informal than a formal board meeting. Um it's a study session this evening. Chance for the directors to share information and updates about the departments. So this evening we'll have Jack McKascal is our director of facilities, Jeremy Cox, director of information technology, and Sheila Wood director of finance. We'll go ahead and have them start and we'll join the audience. Okay, I guess it's me. Um, I'm Jack McCascal, facilities director. Uh, just a little bit about the department. Uh, my facilities assistant directors, Blake Scully, uh, secretary Chris Dickman. We have six facility department groundsmen in the department. We have uh six facility tradesmen including uh two electricians or excuse me one electrician, two plumbers, a carpenter, a locksmith, um one facility district warehouseman uh

004Keith Rogers who works in the warehouse. Uh we have 35 full-time district custodians and right now uh 10 substitute custodians. Oh, went one too far. So, um, this year just kind of touching on some projects that, uh, we haven't necessarily completed oursel, but have assisted with or have been done in the district. Um, first off, we'll start with the installation of the artificial turf, replacement of the track, and the retrofitting of the grandstands at AD and to meet ADA compliance at Clayton Field. Uh, that project was completed uh, just in time for school this year. Uh, still a little bit of work going on down there, but um, mostly completed. We will be getting a new uh press box probably towards the end of summer, maybe a little bit later. Having some difficulties on delivery

005with that thing. Um new well was completed and connected out at Mountain View Elementary uh just in time for the school year. Uh we added a new staff parking lot out at Mountain View Elementary, an additional 34 places there so we can clean up the front parking lot for um pickup and and uh community parking. Uh we did get the roofs replaced at Cottonwood Elementary, Mountain View Elementary, White Hollow Elementary. Uh all of those roofs are completed and and working well. Uh just recently, uh warranty replacement of all the lights in Apple Valley and Summit View's hallway. Uh due to widespread LED strip failures, we were able to get all that work done under warranty, which was a good deal. And then uh continuation of the district LED W lighting upgrade. Uh we've had work

006done at the uh Atanum Elementary, White Hollow Elementary, which were both gyms as well as some hallways. Uh the middle school, the gym, uh the junior high gym and innovation center gyms as well. So those projects have uh been completed and um quite a few others. Uh but that's the ones that um I'm going to highlight this time. Uh just a little bit more about our department. Um just so you kind of know the the amount of facility use requests that we process annually. Uh this year so far, we've already done 676 facility use requests processed and approved. uh 200 or excuse me 2531 work orders completed and uh 1377 uh preventive maintenance um work orders that are associated completed as well. So stay pretty busy uh in the department. The future for facilities department

007um continuation of the district LED lighting upgrade. Eventually we want to have all the classrooms hallways done. That's kind of where we're at right now. we have a lot of hallways and haven't really started the classrooms yet. So, that's what we'll be moving with forward with in the future. Um, the restructuring of the district facility use request procedures is a big topic for this summer. Uh, we'll be working on that in our department as well as with Joe to get the facility procedures lined out um a little bit better. maintenance and support of the newly installed artifi artificial turf and running track at Clayton Field. Kind of a learning curve on that one for us. You know, we've always had uh grass, natural grass, so um learning on that. We will continue to learn and

008maintain that. Uh to support the replacement of the boilers and the chiller units at Cottonwood Elementary and White Hollow. Uh the chillers were actually set Monday. uh remove the chillers from Cottonwood as well as White Hollow and set them with the crane. So those will uh be coming online uh the chilling units um first week of May and the second week of May and then uh by the end of July we will have the boilers uh up and running. Uh so they'll be everything will be good to go for next year. And then continue to support the district's facility use requests, work orders, and deferred maintenance systems. That's kind of what we do. And uh anything else that comes up, we're asked to get to uh do continue maintenance and support of the district's building,

009facilities, equipment, and grounds. Our everyday uh I guess you'd call it bread and butter for the department. So, um that's that's the kind of the department in a nutshell. Okay. [Applause] All right. My name is Jeremy Cox. I'm director of IT or information technology if you prefer. Um, in my department there's eight of us I think now. We got myself a network administrator Jason Kaiser. Um, a systems operation or system administrator Tyler Vech, our operations person Sean Phillips, student records systems admin which is Heather Williams. Um, Caleb Store is our cyber security guy. And then we have three technician level people, Cooper Maloney. I'm terrible with his name. Angel Prisciato and Anna Moore. Uh, I'll just kind of make a little note on this. In the last two years, we lost Magdalena Sanchez. She retired

010and we lost Michelle Schoffer or Gabberman who moved down to uh to Phoenix or somewhere in Arizona, Scottsdale, I think, actually. Um so that's almost 30 years worth of of institutional and IT knowledge that we lost in the last two years. So uh the learning curve for Heather and and uh well Caleb too are is pretty steep. There's a lot to learn. So they're they're trying to get in get there get their get the systems understood and all that stuff. So um that's us. We support well over 10,000 devices on a regular day. um you know 5,000 Chromebooks more like 6,000 Chromebooks with the staff uh couple thousand Windows devices, hundreds of switches, um access points throughout every every building, all wireless technology, um servers, camera servers, camera systems, cameras, projectors, um document cameras, like

011you name it, we we support it. So it's a lot of lot of work for for nine of us um doing lots of lots of things. So, we're constantly busy, constantly doing doing stuff. Um, some things that we did this year, some highlights. Um, we deployed Class Link. Um, goal one of of the district's goal, safety and belonging. Uh, we're allowing cyber security type of safety. Uh, allow quick cards to uh for students to easily log in by taking the quick cards, showing it to the camera, and they can log in without having to remember passwords and whatnot. So, made it a little easier for the younger kids to log in. the older kids can do it as well. Um, we turn on multifactor authentication for the secondary students so they have that quick card

012so they can scan it and then they type a I think it's five digit pin, six-digit pin I think it is um to uh log in. So adds that multifactor authentication which helps you know bolster that cyber security trying to reduce the amount of hackers be able to just log in with a just a generic password if they get compromised. Um and then we created it also creates a a launchpad for single single sign on authentication to a district app. So they log into class link it launches the the um the launchpad and they can go and click on any of the I read and the HRW or HMH or whatever they they have nowadays. I so many applications hard to keep them all track of them all. We've also um added some uh linewise

013additions. We added the content aware feature. Now when they go to search like uh string for instance a good example say search string it'll show actual images of string but eventually you you might get a string bikini in there. Well this linewise what it does is it blurs those images so they can't see them. So trying to reduce what the the kids are getting access to and visually. So it's a it's a new product so it's it's constantly learning and getting better and better. So um over time it's going to get even better but it it does a pretty good job already right now. So we implemented that um this year we also launched uh parent square to replace remine remind bought out by by parent square so it was coming eventually so we just

014went ahead and did it now to to actually get a better product parent square it uh it it does a lot more features than what did so it's pretty good um pretty good product so far it's been been wellreceived and and looks like it's going pretty good that was just last week we deployed it so It's pretty recent. Um, what else did we do? We integrated our building security systems with our district alerting systems. So, we uh when a person presses the panic button in the in the offices and now it'll send an inforcast alert to all of the district staff that have the the app, all the administrators and secretaries or whoever whoever else signs up for it. So, uh so we get that communication. So, calls 911, does all that stuff, locks the

015doors, brings down the the gates and all that stuff, but also sends a notice so we are notified too. So just a little little uh better communication making it easier on them when they're in a lockdown situation. It one less thing they have to worry about. Uh that's all done except for Apple Valley some view and middle school which we're working on tomorrow. So um fresh stuff too. And then we also launched a custodio. It's another line wise product. This is actually free with our line wise filter. um they give us a a product where parents can go out and create a an account for themselves. They can monitor their students activity on on the web. So they can see the the history of what they're doing. They can set time limits and uh basically

016what we're doing with the filter, but they're they're doing it for themselves at home. So they have some little bit of granular control at home. And then they can also have one device that's a personal device that they can manage as well. We don't see any of that, but but they have access and control of it. So pretty cool. It's free for us. and it's a good parent thing. There's also inside the there's also a web app or web page that they designed for us that has lots of materials uh for parents so they can get better educated on cyber sec or not cyber security but uh internet usage. So um things like what's what's what's trending now and um just generic general not generic gen general safety tips for online online life for kids.

017So pretty cool thing. It's all free and it's uh rolled out I want to say last Friday. So pretty fresh as well. So I I was rolling it out as I was writing this up. So I had to modify. I was like, "Oh, this this is now live and not not going to be." So all right. And then some future stuff. So um continuing improvement cyber cyber security is always my number one um topic. It's always my my main focus. Um, if you you see this link here, the top one, that's a really good report from SISA that tells us gives us a real detailed information of what we should be doing as a district, where we should be spending funds for cyber security. Cyber security is huge right now um in the fact that

018in school institutions are easy targets. We're low funded. We're understaffed and uh we have lots and lots of personal information out there. So, we're we're a high target. We're a valuable target. So, we're we're constantly under attack. So, I'm constantly focusing on that. Um, so if you have time, I would highly recommend you reading it. Everybody in this room should be reading it. It's a good stuff. Um, really good stuff. The next link there is an actual link to one of our local schools, uh, Highline School District. They got hacked last year by uh, an unknown attacker at this time, but um, to us at least. They they haven't announced it to my knowledge, but uh, yeah, they got they got bad. So, they were down for two weeks, I want to say. no school

019uh during during the cyber incident last I talked to them last month they still didn't couldn't print so that was that's so things that you don't think about regularly they affect systems were down for long periods of time no school nothing like that so pretty it's pretty serious stuff so that's why it's always on the top of my of my list and my main focus so whenever I'm doing anything it's cyber security first and then trying to get everything else next phone system replacement um we're looking at um potentially hopefully next year replacing our phone system. Phone systems circa 2005. So, it's it's an older we've upgraded it since then, but that's when it went in. Some most of those phones are from 2005. So, if you look around the district, you'll see phones that

020are from 2005. They're bit aged. Um they're starting to fail, starting to um fall apart, starting to not work anymore. Um cyber security wise, they're not great. We have to isolate them and do special things to make sure they don't get compromised, and if they do, they can't touch anything else. Uh but uh it's a big thing, but we have 750 phones out there in in the buildings. Every classroom, every nook and cranny has a phone practically. So uh there's quite a few of them. So it's a big project. It's a lot of lot of lot to take in and a lot of lot to do on that. So uh we're trying to find a suitable option within our limited budget for this because it's it's it's tight. Um so hopefully next year we'll be

021looking at that. Um, right now we're currently in the in the process of replacing some of the network equipment from our -ate funding from last year. Uh, so we've got we did middle school, not middle school, uh, Cottonwood and some of the high school today. Oh, yesterday. Tomorrow we're going to be doing the middle school and a TANM. Um, so we're in the process of doing that. So we'll try to get as much done during this week as we can. The rest of that will will come through uh in summertime. And then uh so we've got oh boy I think we have 60 switches we're replacing. So it's quite a bit of quite a bit of work right there. So um UPS is the unre uninterrupted power supplies the battery backups for our equipment as

022well as well as getting replaced. So quite a bit going on there. Next year again we have uh we'll be doing some more of that. We have another rate out there trying to get approved for that one right now that you guys approved I think last board meeting. Um so we've got that one out there pending. So, we haven't heard about if we got the funding yet, but that'll replace the the the last of the the the 10-year-old equipment out there. Um, and then we'll start the whole cycle again. It's fun times. Uh, and then, uh, as always, we try to focus on our IT staff professional de development. Uh, we're constantly going to to trainings or watching videos, webinars, getting in touch with uh, all sorts of vendors and anywhere we can find some

023some information, we're trying to trying to gather it. So, we're constantly doing that. Uh, and you know, as you probably know, technology changes faster than the light, the speed of light. It's constantly, every day I wake up and it's like, oh, something new. So, makes it fun, I guess. A constant learning, right? So, it's all I've got. Cool. [Applause] Yep. Good evening. Sheila Wood, director of finance. We'll start off with the staffing. We have had one change this year. We have um one of the accountants wanted to move into an HR position. So, I have opened up a lead accountant position. We've kind of um re-evaluated that position, made some changes, but we do have a person that we've made an offer to. We have the same payroll coordinator Gilbert Seans and then accounting tech

024is Jennifer Crutch and accounts payable is Marie Bush. So for the current school year we have done some implementation um and most of it is software. We have implemented a multifactor authentication system for the financial module of the Tyler software which is what we use for the HR payroll finance. That's what we use. Um it's called Octa. It's emails based. So now you have to do a two-part multi-log. We are upgrading the InTouch. That's kind of a mandated. That's our cash receiving. and they're going from Entouch what they call legacy to Entouch Pay which is a cloud version. We have um we're running it side by side with my staff right now so we get familiar with it because it does look very different. So we'll hope to implement that in the fall. And then

025they with that they do offer a point of sale credit card um devices but that's put on hold right now their devices were um pulled because they switched vendors. So we have been delayed once again. Um, and then we're also the department is continuing to work on cross trainining and with a new person coming in that's a great time to really get some cross trainining going. So, so for the future, I've been attending a lot of additional trainings for the challenges that many school districts are facing. Um, it's pretty interesting and the different solutions that they're offering. Um, lots of updates on that. not a lot of solutions to be honest. Um we're monitoring the state and federal proposed initiatives as you know with the political upheaval really paying attention to the grants and the

026cuts and the federal versus state um to see we there's so much unknown right now and we monitor enrollment always for the possible impact and monitor the trends. Right now I'm beginning the 2526 budget which um we're starting to get into the thick of that and then we'll go right into the year end. Uh we're also preparing for a new staff member. So we'll be putting together training and then we're also monitoring implementing all the OSPI accounting requirements. I won't bore you with them all but there's all kinds of requirements for leases and software. And they're also starting to really look at your fund balance as part of the process and really looking at unassigned fund balance which is new. So monitoring that as well. And that's all I have. [Applause] Gather around here and

027we'll have a discussion. [Music] Well, thank you again to our directors for the updates. And now it's time just for some informal discussion with the board and the directors. Thank you so much, Jack. I just have a quick question for you. You were talking about the um LED strip failures? Yeah. Do we expect was there a recall? Is it going to affect some more lighting or just at the two new schools? They all had the same lighting and it looks like it was from what we can have been told it was just a bad batch of lighting. Okay. Um that that they um took it took uh ownership of and and sent new lighting as well as the electricians from New York to replace them all. Yes. And no disruption to the classrooms? Nope. We

028got it done uh after hours. Uh they were actually done in three days. Got both schools done in three days. Wow. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks to your team. Every building I go to is uh always looking good. So appreciate all the work you guys do. Just a off-the-wall question, what does it take to maintain the new football field since it's not grass? I mean, when you say maintenance, what do you have to do? Well, um, you you groom it. Um, you know what, maybe you don't know, but there's a lot of pellets underneath there that give it the cushion and support. So, it has to be groomed. Um, we have a machine that came with the the field for that. So, you pull that behind um the side by sides. what we

029have the gate. Okay. Um and then you also have to water the field down. We're not set up to do that yet, but we will be by this summer. Um that kind of um helps redistribute the pellets as well as wash any matter through so it can drain out. There's a lot less maintenance than there would be with grass. Yeah, we don't have to mow it. Uh but just basically keep it groomed, keep your pellets distributed. Um and coast to coast ters app actually will be coming through for the next three years to monitor that kind of help make sure we're doing that so that you don't get um distribution of pellets you know in one spot that you might not notice. So um any tears we've already had one small tear. You have to

030bend those kind of things. Stay on top of those before they turn into big tears. Um and it wasn't really a tear. It was just a seam that didn't get sewed quite good enough. So, um, basically just keep it clean, keep it groomed, keep it clean, and water it every once in a while to keep the any kind of, uh, biohazards that wash through. Thanks. Hi, Jack. Thank you. Um, I have a few questions for you just on the, um, facility use requests. Um, couple things come to mind. Number one is the number that you quoted, um, you said there were quite a bit. Was that does that represent an increase from the previous year? and or previous years. And my second question is the bulk of those uh requests, are they external requests or

031are they internal requests for use of those facilities? And what gets used the most? I I'm thinking it's the gym, but I don't I don't know that for a fact. Gyms are the highest used area. Um typically it is community usage mainly. I mean, we have a lot of school sports, but in general, if you were to go per event, it's community events. Um, and as far as uh this compared to last year, we're actually down from what we were last year at this time. Uh, not by a lot, but I think we were close to 900 requests last year. Um, that's kind of due to some teams, I think, uh, combining practices. Um and our fields do get a lot of usage probably more um there again community is where most of the usage

032of our our fields and gyms are. Okay, that's great to hear and I'm glad that we make those sort of things available to the community. So um one last question regarding that. Are do you feel that you know when the community usage is there and people use it they generally will take care of it or have we experienced much damage or anything like that along those lines? Our community members are really pretty good. Um we don't have a very much vandalism. Well from sports teams you don't really get a lot of vandalism but we have very little vandalism. Um and actually very little debris left. We do get some, you know, that custodians come through and clean them and empty the garbage cans. A lot of times that's just because they got full or overflown.

033But no, I would have to say that in general, our community members are very respectful of our our buildings and our fields. If we do have a problem, we address that problem. Um, there are consequences consequences. If you, you know, don't clean up after yourself, then you're going to pay custodial fees. uh if there's damage that we find out was from your organization that you don't report to us, then there will be a fee assessed. Uh and we've had to do that a few times and we've never really had any push back anytime it's been assessed. Uh the teams usually, you know, confess that that was one of our players apologizing and here's the check. So, it hasn't been a problem. That's great. Great to hear. So, I'm I'm a big supporter of the making

034those kind of things available to the communities that support us. So, thank you. You're welcome. Well, staying with facilities before I have some other questions, uh first of all, Jack, uh to echo uh Mr. Walcott's comment earlier, uh all of the buildings out the exterior of the buildings and the grounds just look terrific and um I I uh I have a student that goes to the high school and so I I see the outside of uh this facility a lot. A few weeks ago, um I was I was dropping Gavin off at school and and and and after I dropped him off, I noticed uh one of the one of the workers out literally policing uh east of the parking lot uh for for garbage in the morning, and I was like, man, there's nothing

035out here and they're still picking it up. I just I I just uh I just think that um just presents the school district uh and and and our our it presents our school district in a very favorable light and it shows that that we uh are good stewards and and so thank you very much to you and your team you and your team for all your efforts. Um it makes us it makes the district look good. So thank you. Um a couple of uh questions uh along with Mr. Strong's uh uh question about facility use. Uh you mentioned that uh one of the one of the tasks ahead is to is to look at the restructuring of the the procedures uh for for usage. Can you um I I I don't want to put you

036on the spot too much, but can you talk about a little bit um some areas that you feel like are are needed for improvement in that area and kind of what you might be looking at without overpromising or underdelivering, but um could you talk about that a little bit? A lot of the restructuring I'm uh talking about is is basically outlining it better for the community. um our facility use procedures outline isn't it detailed quite enough. It doesn't really explain that okay we allow you two hours practice per week at the elementary whether that be two one-hour practices or one two-hour practice and we do that obviously so all the community members have a fair shot at practicing. So there's just some better wording that needs to be put in there. Uh, as far as

037some changes, unfortunately, I mean, we need to probably look at uh uh raising some fees, maybe assessing some fees with the kind of fields that we have now. And what you talked about keeping them up and keeping the district pristine, well, you know, that takes labor and that takes money. So, right. Um, as far as actual procedures, I can't think of anything right off the top of my head other than just making it more user friendly to the community so they know how to submit, when to submit, and how much time they can have. Great. Great clarification. No. Yeah. And we're maybe just uh defining some expectations for everybody so that they know where you're coming from a little bit better. And so, that's I like I like all of that. That's great. Um you

038mentioned the uh warranty work on the LED lighting at Apple Valley and some of you. Um are there um uh are there any other current uh warranty issues uh that we're dealing with at those uh two schools that you're aware of or that you can think of? We've had some roofing issues that we do have a warranty claim on um and we're still working through that. Other than that, nothing under the warranty. Um, and realistically the the lights were already out of warranty, but because they did have a mass failure, they came went ahead and honored that. So, uh, we kind of got lucky on that. And I I'll give those kudos to Blake, the the assistant, he jumped all over that, dug into it, and and got them covered. Great. Cool. So, um, no,

039I mean, the schools are are functioning well. We have just about wrapped up the issues with the roof, so nothing else that really comes to mind. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. Good. I have a question for Jeremy. Um I'm just curious. Have we ever experienced a cyber attack? Uh we experienced them every day, all the time. Every every second of every day. That's my firewall log. It's always happening. Uh fortunately, we haven't haven't been hit by one, but yeah, we we constantly are under attack. It's it's every second of every day. All the time. right now it's happening. It makes me just not sleep at night. But but no, we have uh we have lots of lots of layers in our in our security. So we have we have an external firewall, we have internal

040firewalls, we have everything segmented out. So um if somebody were to get in, we have a crowd strike on our on our devices. So we have uh lots of layers. We have lots of things going on. So we haven't had a a cyber incident in that regard. We've had some people fall for fishing emails. So they were they we had a couple people go out and buy um um gift cards. Gift cards, that's the word. Thank you. Buy gift cards um and they lost that funds for that, but they were able to recoup it by claiming it to their bank. And so there's been a few of those. So we we've tried to enhance and and really stress that no supervisor or principal is going to ask for for for those. We constantly are doing

041um things like uh we have a product called Cybernut that's going that sends out a really really really good um fishing emails that we actually got our superintendent a couple months ago. No, not in a bad way. Not in a good not in a bad way. No, he he reported it. He just report everyone who has an email address in West Valley. Yeah, he he made sure everyone did not fall for it because he didn't fall for it. So, he was he was really good in that aspect. He definitely definitely shouted through the rooftops say, "Hey, don't don't fall for this." Um, so so we're we're trying to enhance that awareness. So to date, I'm going to knock on wood again. We have not had one yet, but I mean the time's coming. Maybe I

042think you kind of answered most of my subsequent questions, but I'll just say them just for clarification. So my biggest thing was it sounds like nothing got through our firewalls. Everything was as it was supposed to in terms of catching them and blocking them and not letting them through. Correct. That's great. My followup question, um, and you kind of touched on that. I know in my job, for example, we're always tested on those. We get these messages and and they tell us, oh, all of a sudden you push the button, this was a test, and it flashes big alerts. I'm just wondering how much training uh, not just our staff, but even some of the students or others who might accidentally or inadvertently kind of hit one of these. So this year we rolled out

043Cybernut to our students as well. So they get the same emails that that staff are getting. So they're they're getting the same thing. So they click on a thing, it'll take them to the page and say, "Hey, this was a this was a a scam. Here's what you should do in the future." So they're getting that that training as well. So both the both the staff and the students. Every year we have uh I can't remember what that I don't know what time is now, but we have at least an hour's worth of training for IT IT things for all of our staff. um every year that we have that and we're constantly sending out newsletters and making people aware that about cyber security. So we've implemented MFA for all of our staff to access

044any of our resources. So we're doing all the all the right things and hopefully we're communicating. Uh that's one of my things this year is we're going to start focus on communicating and trying to bring this cyber security is not an IT's role, it's the district's role, it's everyone that works for it and all the students role to keep us safe. So, it's not just my job to worry about cyber security. It's everyone. So, and one last follow-up question to that and that's that's great. That's all good news. I'm glad to hear all those good things going on. Um, do we kind of track to see from year to year? Are we improving in terms of catching and monitoring these things or do we have any data that shows like last year we caught 75%

045of these attempts, this year we've improved to 85% or that sort of thing? Are we just kind of keeping track of that and just see how we're doing? Yeah. So we have we have a barracuda is our spam filter. So we have that we have all logs and we can see all the history of of emails coming in. We we look at that constantly. Um our crowd strike we have a actual um sock that looks at our traffic and looks at our stuff. Um that actually crowd strike employees that look at our our data and analyze that. if we do get a hit, somebody downloads a a redirector on their Chrome browser or something, they'll they'll they'll capture that, do all the information on it, analysis of it, they'll help us mitigate it. Um, and

046uh we haven't had any of those, but that's just what what would happen. Um, and then they would uh they would we would track all that. So, we have dashboards for all the different things. We have lots of lots of places we have to look for all the different things because we have server logs, we have um client logs, we have the the Google cloud logs, we have too it's pretty vast, but I could if I could I could collect something if you were interested in it, but uh we do have lots of information that we like to information's in our in our name, right? We like to collect it and use it. So, no need to for a report. I was curious I I I still miss this. I just wanted to to know

047if we are improving on our own internal monitoring. Every every day we're getting better. Every day we're making another step towards that. We we have a framework in place that we have that we're trying to build to uh we're using the CIS framework which is uh you know it's got step by step of all the things that you need to do and to get to that that tier four. So we're we're on our way every every day we're getting better. So um we're already past tier one so we're in the in the two almost three era. So, so every day, every day we're making, we make a change and we make a one step closer. So, constant improvement. Thank you. Thank you. No more questions. And Sheila, not to leave you out, I just want

048to say thank you for all the work you do. You've done a fantastic job for us over the years. And I just want to acknowledge that. I don't have any questions for you. So, great. Thank you. Anyone else? I I just have a couple for uh Jeremy. So on these these newer applications that were just rolling out and particular uh how do you call that? Gusto. Gustoio. Yeah. Yeah. That's very interesting. Uh actually I think that's pretty responsive to some comments that we've received from parents about how do we monitor our our our students uh internet usage uh on their devices. So I'm I think that's great. Um, and you mentioned this just a second ago in passing, but like for these newer applications, um, I I it seems to me like I've I've receive

049some emails that say, "Hey, we're rolling this out." Um, are are the are there plans or are is are the buildings or it or is somebody like having a parent night or a training like how how do you use this or is that just exclusively through the newsletters? Maybe that's still a bit of a work in progress. Just kind of a question because um I think these are great things and I'm really glad that we're wanting to be intentional about letting parents know. Um so yeah, that's a good point. It's on my my agenda for my to-do list for next school year. Um I'll work with Manurva and see if we can get some some things figured out and schedule that way. I I'm not and I don't want to like this is what you

050should do. But um I I think that the building principles should also I I would encourage the building principles to be involved in that process. They're going to have a little bit they're going to be a little bit closer to even I think Manurva is great but even being a little bit closer to the students particularly at the elementary level I think as as in their form more formative years. Well I I'll anyway just I'll share something with you. I'm an IT person. I am not a social person. So I like to delegate those kind of responsibilities to people that are are that role. So I will I will definitely work with Monurva and and the principal just something to take just from the from the parent perspective. I totally get it. Yeah. Because there's

051so many I mean like there's a lot of really good things and just to and and and just to off of the uh provides parent access to monitor their students device internet access. So we're just to drill into what that specifically means their students devices. We're talking about their Chromebook or is this like both their private devices too? So they get they get the Chromebook as part of the thing when they sign up they get they can also install it on on a personal device of theirs. So for every student they get one device and the Chromebook. So so they can see the history of that they're using the Chromebook for. They can also install it and we can't see any of this data. It's just it's just their free for the parent. So they

052can get one device. They I think that's they can also set limits you said like on their usage. You can set limits time time limits after 900 p.m. correct shuts down. They say you can only use it for an hour um during on Thursdays and they have lots of different functionality. It also has a paid subscription where they can actually um get like block calls and a whole bunch of other other features too and it's pretty inexpensive. So pretty cool stuff. Well, I just like I said from a from a from a parents perspective um I think it's I think this is great. Um, and uh, especially as our as as we're trying to teach our kids responsible internet usage. Um, I I I just think it's really good and the more that we can

053um, uh, educate our parents on what's available, that that's great. Um, switching gears, um, the phone system upgrade. Um so um what uh tell me a little bit more about the is is this would this be like a a phone system like we bought the phones now? I mean what we have now we we it's our property. So like um is the is is the option to it literally buy an entire phone system or is this a lease situation or or that's part of the that's part of what you're all looking at because you know if you buy a phone smartphone like that it's going to cost $200 $300 or or more now with inflation, right? So 750 that's that's a lot of money real adds up real real fast. You can lease them pretty

054expensively, but you have to do that on a year yearly basis. So, we're going to like look at the cost and the ROI and and kind of see what's what's the right process for that. So, I don't have an answer for you, but both options are on the table for sure. I was just I was just curious uh having gone I mean my having gone through that process at my own office, uh um it was interesting. So, I was just curious if if we were looking at buying or leasing or everything's on the table. And then and then I guess my my follow-up question on the phone system is are our phones now like voice over internet. Are they literally hard hardline? We have we have VoIP for all of our phones except for our

055fax lines, which we still have some fax lines because that's secure transmission that they use for records. Um, so and every every uh school has one of those fax lines, but it is still VOIPE to a to a translator and ATA that makes it into analog. So, so we have those. Yeah. But we also on top of that, we have in integrated with our phone system. We have intercom systems at Apple or Wide Hollow, Cottonwood, and a TANAM. All of our InformicCast, which is our alerting system, is all integrated in our phone system. So, it's we're pretty integrated in the phone systems. So uh and then Apple Valley and some of you also integrate with it uh with our our phone system as well. So so it's pretty pretty deep. So it's quite a quite

056a big challenge. Yeah. No, I I can it was a big challenge and my office isn't that big when we were. So again I I'm empathetic to that. So okay, great. Thank you. Anyone else more questions? Well, maybe one last comment I could share is that I just really appreciate the work of our directors and their support for the mission of the district and the way that they work so collaboratively with our principles. Um Jeremy's at um a weekly meeting that we have with the principles. Um because it is so integral to the learning systems that we have. Uh we do have the other directors on a quarterly basis. Of course, Joe's at the meeting always representing facilities and such. And um it's just really fun for me as superintendent to know that our directors

057really they own the work of the district and the mission of the district and they really promote that if a kid if a custodian sees that a kid's having a down day or something's going on that they'll take the effort to to talk to a counselor, talk to a teacher and say, "Hey, something's going on with that kid." And they'll they'll reach out and make a difference there. And then it's also really fun for me as superintendent to show up to the the steam showcase at the innovation center. So that's science, technology, engineering, and math and arts in there too. And uh our custodial staff is there with a robot that we have. Do you want to share a little bit about uh Jack? What we have a robot that's a part of our facilities

058department? Yeah. It's actually Tyler with with the facilities department. He's one of the groundsmen and and we do have a robot that paints our fields. um and and he graciously attended this year and then enjoyed it. I think he would like to go again next year. Said he got some great questions. Um it's great piece of technology. It's going to be upgraded pretty soon and actually it might make its way out onto our new turf field. So, uh yeah, it he said the kids were really and the parents were really interested and he had a great time. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. So, it's just so great for me to see like this cooperation and collaboration among the department, the principles, and and to show up to the steam showcase and there's our facilities department sharing the

059robot that they have. So, really cool stuff. So, thank you so much for your work every day. We appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Okay. Um, that wraps it up for the department presentations. And so, at this point, I guess we can adjourn. Yep. It's 6:45. We'll start promptly at 7 PM. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, good evening everybody. It is, excuse me, it's 7 pm. We'll go ahead and get started. Tuesday, April 8th, 2025. We'll go ahead and begin the regular board meeting. Um, let's call the meeting to order and we'll go ahead and start 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.

060Okay. Now that I have the correct agenda, Dr. Fch, go ahead and go with uh see any changes to the agenda? No changes. Communications, response to public comment. Yes, we do have a response to public comment. At the schoolboard meeting on March 25th, 2025, community members expressed concerns about the decision to change the PAL program from single grade self-contained classrooms to multi-age classrooms for grades 3, four, and grades four, five for the 2526 school year. The response is this. The budgeting process for the West Valley School District is an extended process due to contractual timelines and state legislator timelines. Certificated staff include teachers and other staff such as school counselors and special education staff. State law and collective bargaining agreements require that certificated staff must be informed by May 15th of each year that they

061will or will not be offered a contract for the following school year. For the West Valley School District, the state legislature provides the large majority of funding for the overall district budget. Approximately 84% of the revenue for the school district is provided by the state legislature. 9% is locally funded from the local levy and 7% is provided via federal funding. Operating expenses are processed through expenditures in the district's general fund. Is important to note that in addition to the general fund, there are other specific use funds for the school district. The general fund is used for operations including the costs for certificated staff salary and benefits. The district also has the specific use or restricted use funds which include the capital projects fund, the debt service fund, the as ASB fund which is the associated

062student body and the transportation vehicle fund. Funds cannot be transferred out of these special use specific use funds into the general fund. The state legislature meets every year and makes adjustments to school funding. While the legislature sets the budget for two years, the bienium, the legislature still makes adjustments to school funding each year. Adjustments are made based on policies and priorities as well as the realities of the revenue forecasts. All funding from the federal government is provided for specific programs such as title one for disadvantaged youth, title three for bilingual students, and title four which funds after school programs at the West Valley mid-level campus. A large portion of state funding is for specific programs such as class 3 uh such as K3 class size reduction, special education, career and technical education, and many other

063categorical programs. The state legislature allocates a small amount of funds to the West Valley School District to support services for highly capable students. For the 2425 school year, the legislature allocated $166,61, which was 0.185% of the budget. That's 185,000 of the budget. The legislature stated in 2023 that they intended to provide funding to serve 5% of a school district's population. In West Valley, 633 students qualify for support services for highly capable students. This is 11.4% of the district's enol enrollment. The district uses basic educ education funds as well as local levy funds to provide services for highly capable students in West Valley. Services are provided in grades K through 12 through differentiated instruction in general classrooms, the program for advanced learners at White Hollow Elementary, and advanced classes at our secondary schools such as college

064in the high school and advanced placement classes. To summarize, in the current school year, the district was provided specific categorical funding from the state to serve 5% of the district's student population for highly capable services. But the district used additional basic ed funds and local levy funds to serve 11.4% of the student population in West Valley who qualified for highly capable services. Each year, the budget process for the upcoming school year begins in earnest after winter break. District administrators meet with school administrators to review enrollment projections and discuss ways to adjust staffing to meet student enrollment. The goal of these meetings is to ensure that the district can present a balanced budget to the school board to adopt for the following school year. Each year, adjustments to staffing are made for the upcoming school year

065to match the student enrollment projections. Note that it is not possible to construct the final budget until after the state legislature has completed their work. However, state projections must staff projections must be completed prior to May so that contracts can be issued to certificated staff by May 15th. In spring of 2024, this is the last year. It was noted that the timeline for identifying students for the PAL program needed to be adjusted. So, the timeline was adjusted for the 2425 school year for this spring. Parents for students who qualify for highly capable services were notified in February 2025 of the opportunity for the PAL program at White Hollow. Parents of students who scored at level three were notified that they could choose to have their child attend PAL for the 2526 school year. Parents of

066students who scored at level two were notified that they could choose to have their child attend the PAL program if there was space available. Parents of students who were from out of district were informed upon registration that placement is reviewed annually on a space available basis. As previously reported, district administrators reviewed the student enrollment projections for the PAL program in March and made the decision to reduce staffing in the program to meet the student enrollment projections for the 2526 school year. Students in the PAL program will be served in two multi-age classrooms. It's important to note that the PAL program at White Hollow will not be eliminated for the 2526 school year. I met with the PAL advisory committee in March and listen to concerns of parents and staff members. In addition, parents expressed concerns

067at the school board meeting on March 25th. The West Valley School District is committed to providing professional development to the teachers from the PAL program to ensure that they will provide engaging projects for students that will meet the needs of students with a wide range of skills and abilities. And I finished the public comment with a response here. So my my own words here, I I truly believe in my previous statement regarding the move to multi-age classrooms. Our community does expect fiscal responsibility from the West Valley School District. Then the move to multi-age classrooms for the PAL program is a change, but I'm confident that our teachers will continue to have an excellent experience in the PAL program. That students will continue to have an excellent experience and our teachers will continue to meet the

068unique learning needs of our students who are served by the PAL program. And that concludes the public comment, the responsive public comment. All right. Thank you, Dr. Finch. We'll go ahead and go on to item six, the program presentation defeasement process. Uh we have Mr. Pager from DA Davidson. Right. Very good. Mr. Strong, hold on. Uh should we uh I know that we excuse Mr. Keart during the uh session. I'd like to make a motion to uh approve excusing Mr. Keepart from tonight's meeting. Okay. Um we'll go ahead and vote on it. Thank you, uh Mr. Thorner. Uh we'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. I I oppose same sign. Motion carries. Uh thank you for that reminder. We have excused uh Mr. Keart from both meetings. Sorry for

069the interruption. No, no problem. All right, let's go on to item six, uh program presentation. So, all right, it's all yours. Yeah. So, recently we the board had said that we would want to look at uh if we were to do defeasement, what exactly would that mean? Uh we've asked Corey to take a look at two options of defeasement. uh if they were to deise eight million of the remaining uh it's actually mostly matching funds at this point or 10 million of the remaining matching funds and uh Corey has traveled from Spokane to be here this evening. So I appreciate Corey being here. Uh we usually have the board join the audience so they can kind of follow along on which page he's on and such. So I think we'll go ahead and do that.

070We'll have the board join the audience and I do appreciate Corey gave us some nice uh big handouts as well. Uh after the presentation by Corey, we'll have the board come back and ask any questions, Corey. So, just give us a chance to get back up here after your presentation. So, okay, we'll go and join the audience now. Dr. Finch and Assistant Super Connelly, I appreciate the invitation to be here. Uh President Strong and the members of the board, my name is Corey Plagger. I think I see some familiar faces. I was here a couple years ago as this topic came up in the past. Um, a little bit more about me. Uh, live in Spokane, but I support Washington K12 schools. That's my, uh, focus here. And I, while I live in Spokane, we

071support all schools across Washington state. Split time in Seattle. Before my time, uh, at Davis and I was an educational s, uh, service district 101 director of finance. So, I used to be on the school side before I was recruited to, uh, spread my wings and and go outside of the Spokane area. Um what our goal today is is really to set the stage, talk about the background of the taxes, the bonds outstanding, kind of give yourself just a little bit extra information to prepare for decision-m then I'm going to explain the process of a de defeasement. It's a little bit unique. It's not the same as maybe a mortgage refinancing. Just got a little bit of uniqueness to it. And then I'll have a couple examples what it means for your taxpayer. So please

072happy to answer questions as we go along. But I know these numbers can be a little small. So that's why we brought these paper copies. But to set the stage on page two, the district has three bonds outstanding currently. The 2012 refunding bonds, 2013 refunding bonds. Those mature really shortly. You'll see the 2012 bonds mature this December. The 2013 bonds uh mature next December, which creates some opportunity, right? Not really necessarily what we're going to talk about tonight, but when there is the sun setting of debt, you have opportunities. I kind of say a new bond, a new capital levy, an adjustment of the EPO levy. There's opportunity there to continue with investment into the school district without an increase of the tax rates in most cases. Your 2019 bonds pretty new. They don't mature

073till 2038. That's going to be the focus of our conversation tonight. The 2019 bonds were 59 million. That does not count the state matching funds that Dr. Finch mentioned earlier. Passed with a amazing 60.83%. If you're following school finance elections since the pandemic, it's been a little bleak in our industry and we're starting to see some slow recovery. One thing that I want to share is that bond was approved at a tax rate to the voters of $257. Keep that in the back of your mind as we look at the next few slides to show what the actual tax rate has been and how you've outperformed that estimate to voters. And that bond was issued at 2.78%. We're jealous of those numbers right now. We're now in the 4% range for tax exempt bonds, which

074still seems pretty good, but not as good as 2.78%. It's really good timing. Sometimes it's great to be lucky and have good timing. The total bond structure was not level, which means some structures are very vanilla and they're the same amount of taxes throughout the length of that bond. Yours was built where there is going to be a step down in the taxes to give you the opportunity should you consider a new bond. So keep that in mind too. When this this bond was built, it was built for needing extra infrastructure in the community. And previously those bonds in 2012 and 2013, you'll notice they were have that refunding next to them. They were refunded by the board and the leadership team saving taxpayers over $4.1 million. Uh previously upon completion of these projects from

075the 2019 bond, however, there are remaining school construction assistance program funds. One thing we'd like to share is you had this bond. The bond proceeds are usually spent first. They have some rules regarding federal tax exempt status and then you get reimbursed by the state for state schools construction uh program funding. And that's really uh what we're talking about here at the tail end. This visual here on slide three is trying to describe your uh EPO taxes in green and your bond tax rate in tan. One notice I I mentioned your bond was approved in 2019 at an estimated tax rate of $257. That very first year in 20120 came in at 233. You might ask me why did it come in lower. We use a lot of conservative assumptions when we issue a bond.

076We know that the board is representing each neighborhood in your communities and the last thing you want to do is tell somebody this golden story that hey everybody vote yes. It's only going to be this much. So we tend to put a little bit of an interest rate cushion and conservative assess valuation growth so that if anything we outperform the estimate and this is another example of that happening. Usually it's due to two factors interest rates going down and property values going up. Then each subsequent year you can see the impact from property value increases. It drops to 218 197 $1.77. When you issue a bond and you sell a bond, you lock in principal and interest payments for 20 years. So just because property values go up doesn't mean assistant superintendent Connelly can propose

077a tax amount higher just because. So that you'll notice has come down almost a dollar over the last few years. So when you hear property value a property owner say you're getting so much more because my property values went up. That might be the case for some governmental entities but not the school district. and EPO in green. You'll notice that's also come down as well. So, this is just setting the stage of your tax rate history. Not really pivotal when we talk about the future defecence, but interesting nonetheless. And one other fact to set the stage here is what is your community doing? Your community is booming and mainly with new construction. You'll notice that your tax base was in the two billion range and now you're in the five billion range, almost doubling in

078the last six, seven years, but this new construction is still really solid. In the year 2025, your community grew almost equally with reassessment of existing homes and new construction. So, when you think about that growth, we'd love it to just be new construction and not have existing homeowners bear the the burden of increased property values, but it's about 50/50 right now. the 3% growth is more in line with historical averages, but you see in the last two, three years, it's been a little bit rough. It's been a little little bit of a challenge for homeowners when they see that property value increase. So, a little bit more about the defeasance process. We'd love to say that this is easy as a mortgage refinancing, but we have a little bit of uh parameters built on this

079because this is a federally taxexempt bond. Deisence is the process of retiring outstanding bonds. In this case, utilizing those school construction dollars. However, your bonds aren't callable right now. So, when you do a home mortgage, you can do a refinance any anytime it makes sense to you. Sometimes people might even refinance their mortgage when it doesn't make sense. But when it comes to a school bond and you're asking investors to contribute $59 million to your community, they want to know that you're not just going to refinance it a month later. They're doing a lot of work and research and putting a lot of equity on the line. So, customarily in the school bond industry across the nation, there's a 10-year date where these bonds will be held until you can refinance them. So, how can

080we work on saving taxpayer money when your bonds aren't callable for another six, seven years? This would be the example. You would take cash, used, your school construction money, and purchase government securities and put them into escrow. You'd put them into account, and this escrow account would now be responsible to pay a certain portion of your bonds off. So, your bonds don't go away. They just go away to you. You essentially put in charge the state treasurer authorized escrow agent, and you would put these funds into an account. they would earn interest up until those bonds are callable and then they would be paid off. So this removes debt from your balance sheet. It no longer exists from your perspective. You are no longer necessary to tax local property owners. The investors don't know who's

081paying them. It's going to be US Bank instead of the school district's county treasurer. And no new debt is issued. So essentially, you're putting this these funds into a governmental savings account and that savings account will pay this debt. So it's a little bit unique, but this would be the example would be is if you were going to refinance your home mortgage, but it wasn't allowed, you'd stash that money away into a savings account, let it build up, and ask that savings account to pay a portion of your mortgage. Thankfully, we don't have to worry about those uh things for as homeowners. Before I talk more about the details, there's a couple other considerations. What would be an alternative? One would be to utilize those state matching dollars for other community supported projects. I know

082you've gone through this process previously where you require a public hearing to change any uses from the board's previously adopted resolutions. And some districts consider investing those dollars with the treasurer and reducing a future bond issue. Of course, there's challenges there as money is sitting, but right now interest rates are a little bit higher than they were when you issued your bond. We're right now around 4%. Those are two alternatives. So, we set the stage. We talked about the defeasence of bonds, why it's not as easy as just paying them off. They're not callable quite yet, but we did two examples. Um, the first example, what if you defeased $8 million using school construction assistance program matching funds? This would create a taxpayer savings of $9.9 million. However, that's because of the time value of

083money. The true net impact to your community, what it would feel like, is $8.5 million. So essentially, defeasing bonds of $8 million and putting them into escrow, the combination of the interest you would earn over that time period and the reduction of interest you'll pay on those bonds would result in about $58,000 positive impact to your taxpayers. The tax rate, however, varies across the spectrum. It would be starting off in the first year 3 cents up to 13 cents per thousand. And I created a visual to demonstrate that. You might notice I'm a visual learner. The screen might be difficult to see, but what you're looking at here in blue is the taxpayer impact. So, for example, in 2026, there's a blue line that says you would save taxpayers 13. So, that means that the

084bond rate would be $1.41 instead of $154. Your tax rate would be 291 as shown here instead of 304. And then you'll notice that throughout the the term of that bond, that blue line are taxes you would have uh issued to the voters locally that you would no longer have to by putting that $8 million in the bank. That's how much taxes you're going to reduce over the life of that bond. So, while I'm a visual learner, some people are chart people and we also might have people in the audience that would ask, "What does it mean to me?" It's one thing to tell people 13 cents. What does that mean to an average homeowner? So, we have these six different home value amounts across the top. We'll start with $350,000. If you follow that

085line down, you'll notice each year what they could potentially save based on today's market factors. So, for example, they'd save $10 this year, $46 next year, and so on. We're using 3% growth on their home values. If you follow the line at the very bottom, somebody with a $350,000 home with this possible defeasence would save $621 over the life. If you shift all the way to the right, somebody who owns a million-doll home would save uh $1,700 by the act of this defecence. So, this is the $8 million example. The $10 million example is not drastically different as we're spreading this over 10 years. You'll notice on the first example there was about 500,000 in savings. This one has about 650,000 of a net impact to your voters. Now instead of it being 3 to

08613 cents, it's 4 to6 cents. And as I jump ahead, this is what the chart looks like. The blue is the savings. And here is the homeowner impact. It ranges from $770 to $2,23. This doesn't take into any considerations if there's going to be future increases in EPO levies, future bonds. This just shows the net savings from this action alone. A lot of information to digest. However, I'm here to answer any questions you might have. Well, thank you, Corey. And we did have your presentation in the board packet. Uh, so the board members were able to review that. Also, the public, we include that in the board packet for the public as well. So, the public was able to get that on Friday as well. So, thank you. Okay, we get to the discussion. Okay.

087Thank you for that information. And so at this point we'll open it up for the board members questions, comments. Yeah, at this point we can do questions for Corey and then there is time later in the meeting for discussion on the defeasement too. Okay. Um I just have one question. So it's not obviously not on the agenda today. Um but if we were to if we were to pass a resolution to do a defeasement that doesn't matter 810 whatever the number is. I noticed in these examples that it it example of estimated taxpayer savings by property value levels and you and you start in 2025. So wouldn't the first year be 2026 not 2025? It's a great point. What essentially will happen is if you defeat it now this will decrease your uh uh fund

088balance. So you're right. This should be struck through, but this this would actually be impacting right now. So if you act you would re you would save money starting in June through December of the end of this calendar year. But you're right, it wouldn't go directly to taxpayers. It would be kind of building up from balance. So this would almost balloon up and then impact the next year. So that three cents would kind of get pushed forward. Okay, it's a great point. Okay. So the savings in 2000 I can share that number. That's f I mean it's I don't think it's a huge I don't think it's a gonna be a huge difference but I think the point is is is at least my point in asking the question is is whatever we do in

089calendar year 2025 if we decide to pass a resolution to defease will not be felt by the taxpayers until 2026. Correct. So that until the next calendar year the defeasence it'll be paid forward. Yeah. So, for example, the average savings per year in the 10 million example, the way we get to that 14, 15, 16 cents is it's 940,000 per year. But this December 1st of 25, the savings is 200,000. So, it starts off very small because the rest of this calendar year. Yeah. And so, if you did save that in December 2526, it impacts your budget next year, not this year, but your taxpayers, you're correct. Okay. It'll be pushed forward. Thank you for that clarification. Other questions? Just uh one question. I'm not sure I totally understand. So on the state matching funds,

090if we defease money, is is they just matching dollar for dollar? I mean, do we lose funds by defasing or I mean, I guess, but not on the whole project. It's really interesting because there'll be a school project where you'll do the voters approve 20 million and you get 40 million in state match. Some projects are 100 million, they get zero in state match. When you have state match deposited into your account, that means you've done everything under your uh requirements to be eligible to get reimbured for existing things that were expended here. So, you had to jump through certain hoops to get that funding and now it's up to you if you want to use that for XYZ that's legal within our state. So, for example, some people pass a bond and they say,

091"We're going to pass a bond and we're going to assume that we get no state match because that doesn't really show up and is not guaranteed until after you pass a bond." So, a lot of folks will then use that state matching funds to do projects that the community is requesting above and beyond. And that's fairly common, but yes, you you've done everything that you need to do to get those funds. So, it's it's done and it's locked in. The question would be is now you have the flexibility to use them for state allowable projects or return it to taxpayers. Returning the taxpayers is somewhat rare. We actually supported a freight on this last spring and they defe 6.2 million and uh it was the first one I think a school has done in the

092last 17 years is what our records show. Most schools will do a reauthorization and go through the process. But afraid a school district felt it was a a communication process before they did the next bond. they wanted to share and get kind of a clean slate. So, there's there's uh opportunity costs as well because if you just leave it in your account, you're going to make 4% between now and your next bond, but there's it's it's not really a slam dunk either way. It's a difficult decision. Thank you. It's probably an uninformed question. Um, can you tell us what some potential downsides to defeasement might be? Um I would say the downside to defeasement would be the the missed opportunity to use those resources for what's necessary now. Right now I mentioned the 60.8% passage

093rate that you received in your previous bond and how excellent that is. Uh the average S percent has dropped into the mid 50%. So I think the opportunity be is if the f future bonds are not successful. Sometimes it takes a couple opportunities to do that is that you've reduced your taxes and now you're going to the voters and now you have to ask them for a tax increase. So that's one negative from using it now or holding it until the next bond. But there is a positive uh action from community trust as well. There's some offsets. So communication is really key regardless of your path. But I think the cons are there um there is some interest rate risk right now. It's in your favor. As you notice this uh massive chaos created by

094tariffs that's raising yields which means if you buy state and local government securities those rates are higher so you would save your taxpayers more. So we used uh Joe and I were putting this together last week and interest rates have already gone up about 50 basis points. So we've already underestimated your savings to taxpayers. So there's an opportunity there. But that if those go back down before you make the decision, the savings get smaller. There's risk there. But it is uh there's not a lot of market risk because state and local government securities are some of the safest investments. Uh this is not something where we absorb any risk. We're just giving advice at this time and it would be all managed through the state and county treasur. So there wouldn't be a lot of

095corporate hands involved. Thank you. That's good. And I guess Corey, the interest rate goes both both ways that these bonds were at a very low interest rate for the district. In the future, if the district goes out for another bond issue, it'll be more then. Yeah, there's likelihood that it could be more. So for a defecence, we're almost rooting for the opposite that schools are normally doing, right? You want low interest rates for borrowing to keep the taxpayer minimum, you know, impacts minimum. But right now with yields higher, this is the one case that would benefit you. But if you do a new bond in the future, it's going to hurt us. It'll mean more. We have time though. Hopefully the tariffs will settle down and we'll get back to some norms. But right now,

096it's a little chaos. So, just a couple of clarifications for me. Just um as I look at the chart, I'm just using for example the one that's defasing 8 million. That's the first one that you have there. So, it's going to take all these years to really defease all of this money. Is that correct the way I'm reading it? So, I'm looking at the average home value of about $650,000. So, that first year, the the the tax saving for one family with the home is $19.50. That's it. Right. Okay. Just just want to make sure I'm reading it correctly. Compared to $10 million defeasement, which is $26. That's right. So just $7 difference more. So it and it follow that same logic all the way down the chart. Correct. Correct. Okay. And one note is

097it shows the impact for through 2038. But the call date is coming up in 2029. So at in 2029 this account that you deposit this $8 million becomes eight and a half $9 million. And you're at that date when the call dates available all that money is going to pay off the remaining bonds. is going to call those. So that's just going to be the impact is those bonds will no longer exist. So between now and your call date, it's going to be saved up. ESCRO is going to pay your bills for you. Then when the call date comes around, they're going to just call off a portion of those bonds. So you'll see those paid off, but they're no longer your responsibility. But so it's not going to be something where it's in savings

098through 2038. It's going to be in savings through 29. And then your escro agent is going to pay off a portion of the bonds from then on and they're matured. Okay. Well, those are good numbers to have. I mean, this puts us in a really nice position depending on what we decide to do with the money. Um, the only other point I wanted to make is just so, if I'm reading that right, that's not a huge difference between the 8 million and the $10 million. Correct. So,$100,000$130,000. Yeah. Okay. And then in looking at these numbers across the bottom, now that is the sum total over that period of time, right? Correct. A $650,000 home over 10 plus years is going to save $1,100 54 55 cent basically in tax. And so not to complicate the

099factor, but if you look at the very final year of 650,000, see how it says $85? That $85 won't be as valuable. Maybe that'd be one pizza in 2038. I was just going there, so you're reading my mind. So that's why on page seven it shows the taxpayer savings is 9.9 million, but the net present value is 8.5. That's the difference there. It's truly going to be 9.9 million. It'll feel like 8.5 because of what we project is going to happen with the value of money in the future. So that cup of coffee that's $80 in 2038. Did I hear you say earlier also that many of the school districts go back to the community and try to use those funds? Is that what I thought I heard? Well, I'll say that with an asterisk

100because you uh won some of the school bond lottery uh by passing a bond when you did and then opening bids during the pandemic in which there was not a lot of allowable construction being done. Your bids came in excellent. You were excellent stewards. very very few people ever have any remaining state matching dollars. Most people are actually going back to the voters and saying we couldn't do what we said we were going to do and we're sorry and they have other challenges. So to have a remainder part of the state match is actually a blessing and it happens very rarely. So I'll say that first. Of the districts that do have remaining funds, many of them do a public hearing and then get feedback and decide how to put those dollars to use. but

101they are usually very small amounts. It could be three $400,000 versus a million plus. So that's why it's so rare and Afraida is the one that kind of did the trailblazing last year. I know we talked about this with the board in 2023. But there's some power to have some savings in the bank should there be roofs, HBAC, we know how expensive everything is. So um it's it's a tough decision. Thank more comments, questions. That's good. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah. Good luck. All right. U moving on. Now we come to the point of the agenda. Public comment on non-discussion agenda items. I do have two individuals who requested to speak. Um, and again, um, just since we don't have a lot of people here, you do have adequate time

102to speak, but I want you to just be a little curious of other things that might be going on on the agenda, but feel free to to share with us what you feel. So, first I have Rachel. [Laughter] I I know you know I'm here um for the PAL decision. Um I would like to address tonight what it looks like for a PAL student or a highcap kid who needs PAL and is is denied inclusion under the current plan. At least eight children have already been denied. Of these, some will get bored. They'll disengage at school and may act out like Owen said last time, leading them to be labeled a troublemaker. Others will finish their work quickly and then read or play on their Chromebook or get stuck doing extra work that does not

103increase their understanding but does keep them busy. Um, they may stop doing their work at all to avoid standing out and being made fun of for being different. Or they might put forth minimal effort just enough to still pass. Some will never get challenged enough to have to try or to learn resilience. They'll get overwhelmed later in life when they finally do meet a challenge and have no coping strategies to fall back on. Some will get assigned to help other students learn instead of learning themselves. These are often labeled and mocked as a teacher's pet. and some will feel isolated, anxious, and lonely as they struggle to connect with others. None of these options is ideal for these students. My son experienced some of these things in second grade. However, making the decision to move

104to PAL was hard. I felt that our school administration at that time did not encourage us to go. I was afraid that leaving would offend them and would tarnish our interactions if we ended up coming back. Everything else we loved at the school, so it was hard to leave. At that point, we didn't know what we were missing. Ultimately, my son's need for friendship drove our decision. We moved in his third grade year to the PAL program. There, he learned what academic challenge felt like, what overcoming challenges felt like, and what failure and trying again felt like. He gained skills and friendship that can't come by studying by himself in the corner. Those same kids from that class are still his best friends today. His elementary school experiences in PAL helped him become the confident

105and high achieving young man that he is now. Last week I met with Dr. Finch and Joe Connelly to discuss the change in the PAL program to multi-age classrooms. We re reviewed much of the financial information that was available. They confirmed what I brought up at the last meeting, that there's no plan to incorporate any other classrooms into a multi-age structure in elementary age. Why do these kids deserve less from their educational experience than any of those other kids? Why should kids who need more help be singled out to receive less? Because it will be less. Some pitfalls I can see in combining three classes into two. There will be less openings for students who need the program, causing future program shrinkage, as happened last year when it was announced they'd be combined. Fewer opportunities

106for students in and out of the program to develop friendships. High level of stress on the two teachers expected to do the work of three or four teachers. Loss of depth teachers will be able to offer in the classroom as they teach to multiple grades. time-consuming disruption as fourth graders will need separate instruction from the rest of their classroom. Logistically difficult planning that kids in two classrooms for three years won't see repetitive material or be given busy work. Other elementary school teachers outside of PAL are also not seeking training in teaching highcap kids and are not prepared to help these kids in the general classroom. I know there were many classrooms this year, some at the high school only had six or seven kids in them. Um, many at the elementary level only had 17

107kids in them. We had the numbers this year to do 18, 19, and 22 in those classrooms, but we're turning them away so that we can max out the classrooms for these kids that have the ADHD, the autism, and other things that they need. They need more one-on-one, not less. At this point, stating that we have enough teachers, but not enough for the PAL program feels like an intentional disregard for the needs of this group. I know the people in this school district care about kids and what's best for them. We have all sorts of special needs opportunities in the form of classrooms, clubs, and information nights. Please don't cut this group out of your consideration. Thank you for your comment. Uh next we have Mr. Jensen. you know why why I'm here. Um so

108I met with Joe and Dr. Finch um last week. It was a great conversation, right? We they they took a lot of time. It was an hour and a half meeting with them. Uh we went through a lot of the financial stuff. We went through I'm a finance guy, right? I'm I'm a I'm a CPA, you know, work in accounting. Um uh and uh so I I I very much appreciated that, right? Um and I expressed my appreciation to them for how well the finance finances are of the district. Right? Talking about the defeasants is another example of that. Right? Um, they've done a very great job with the financial aspect of our district. Hands down. Like I I I have given them props for that. Right. There there's, you know, looking at saving the

109taxpayers money is is great, right? That's um what I want to focus on again is my wife brought it up is the kids. These kids need more help, not less. These are the kids that that need a little extra help. Right? You talk to the teachers. From what I've been told, there hasn't been any any administrators go to the power classrooms and and actually see them in action. Um, and that's really hard to hear. when they're cutting cutting this right I they're changing it they're not cutting it they're changing it drastically right from three classrooms down to two multi-age classrooms and from what we we've been told there's no other elementary school classrooms that are going to be multi-age that are gen general ed we we know that they're special ed that have multi-age that's

110that's separate right general ed uh elementary school uh classrooms that don't have multi-age. That's a big deal especially when teachers haven't been been trained, right? Are are they going to be able to get trained in six months or it's going to be less than that? Going to be three or four months, right? It's it's a drastic change. what we had, you know, what we have continued to ask for is le let's look at this in a year, right? Are we willing to put how much are we willing to deposit for these kids for one year to to to not change the program? Are we willing to make a deposit on these kids that need more help for one year? Right. We've talked we talked to Joe and we talked to Dr. Finch about maybe in

111the future we we look at a levy to help pay for the PAL program, right? Um it's it's we have a advisory committee in the district, right, that was supposed to help with this. They weren't advi they weren't an advisory committee. They were just told what was happening when it w you know and it was it just happened to be the day of their meeting. So go back to this district has been run financially great, right? Is one teacher salary going to affect it? Are we willing to deposit one teacher salary for these kids that need extra help? So, I thank you guys for hearing our please. And it it is it really will affect these kids. It's you can't say it won't because it it will. Their friendships, the classroom attention that they get

112compared to what they're getting now. Thank you. All right, thank you for your comments. Um, I will ask if there's anybody in the audience who would like to speak now that we've gone through the roster here. Please go ahead. Sorry I came late to do a emergency procedure way down topish. But anyways, you know, I really I mean my daughter's I have Can can you uh restate your name again? Oh, I'm sorry. My name is V VU L E. So, I only have one daughter and I'm sure my daughter will be fine with multi-age or whatever, you know. But, but I do think that it's not fair to combine the classes like that for the kids in the future. I don't think I will ever send my kids to the PAL program knowing that they

113have to share the teacher. And you know they already expressed concern that they're gonna get bored waiting for the teacher to address fourth grader when and then you know you can imagine you have a third grader coming in and then next year they're not sure they're going to be in third or fourth and then even when they supposed to be in fifth grade the year after they may still be in fourth grade depending their on their performance. And I'm I'm sure those kids who are pushed back and say, "Oh, you're going to share uh the classes with the third grader again." I'm sure it's going to cause some self-esteem issue. You know, uh I you know, we used to have two power program uh two power classes. So, I wonder I mean this is just

114for future uh for the community because I think it's important to have the classes there. my kids benefit a lot from it and um and I'm sure in the future they'd be good member of society because of the PAL program or part of it. But I wonder instead of having two combined classes, can you just do four in fifth grade? Because you know we we usually just have two classes. uh that way the kids have their full teacher because if you're not doing it to any other classes it's just simply not fair that these kids were targeted and I understand that you have your reasoning but somehow the discussion will never share with the public with the committee and I feel it's not fair you know I I'm from you know I'm from a different

115country and I'm I live America now and I sometimes I wonder like why in America America that you know you try to take away the opportunity for kids to study harder to become better leader in the community and then yet you are like Microsoft Google or even Starbucks would hire a pout kids from India that's been in the power program all their life to to lead you know this is the future that I see that I I know a lot of cities are trying to get rid of the power program because of issue that we discussed last time. And I feel like we should be, you know, taking a bold move and say no, you know, we should we should help these kids, you know, so they can help in some way build America in

116the future. You know, an athlete if they want to play soccer, baseball, without a coach, no matter how good they are, they're not going to get be the best. And it's the same for for these kids who have a autism like my son. You they need that kind of training. They need that kind of you know um not just uh intellectual training but mental support from their teachers. And I feel that you know combining these classes uh will discourage the community and most likely you're going to get rid of the PAL program. And uh like I say, you know, um I would never send my kids if I know they have to share a teacher like that. It's simple. So I I really ask you to, you know, discuss in term of if you if

117you want if you want to get rid of the PAL program, this is the way to do it. But if you don't maybe, I don't know, if you don't have enough money in the future, just do a fourth grade and a fifth grade or I mean you can't do third and fourth and make the kids go somewhere. So that's that's my I mean I've been thinking a lot about this issue and I'm sure you guys are too. Uh I don't know what difficulty you're facing but clearly you're not discussing that difficulty with the community. It's not a topic that you know we we hear about. So um I mean if if it's about money I don't know how I don't know if it's even legal to to get funding. you know you get sport team

118go out there and ask community parents to donate uh I don't know if we allowed to do that you know to to gather parents and supporter to donate for the power program to keep the three classes if if it's money issue but if it's not then then I do think that every kid should deserve their whole teacher uh unless you know we out of budget then all the kids should they should experience the same way I It's just not fair for you know all the kids in the future coming in PAL program like that and I bet you it'll be a lot of uh parents who are going to be discouraged from sending their kids to the PAL program and you'll close it eventually. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you for your comments.

119Uh, next. [Music] Hi. Um, my name is Len Tran and I'm sure you guys remember me from my last meeting. Um, I also sent uh an email followup after my speech last time and I didn't hear anything back except from Dr. Finch. So, thank you. Um, I do plan to meet with Dr. Peter here and um, Mr. Connelly in about a week or two. I've just been really busy. I wasn't actually prepared to make a public comment today, but I feel like after hearing Rachel's speech, I really need to speak up. I've been part of the highly capable advisory board meeting since its inception in 2017. Um, back in December of 2017, that's how long I go back. Um, my kids are no longer in PAL, but I feel as if I need to be

120an advocate because my kids truly truly are high achieving kids at the high school right now. I wish last year I had known that the enrollment numbers are falling as they are claiming because I would have done something different. I wish that there was transparency by the administration at that time to bring back some options to us a year ago before we arrived at the decision today. I feel like the decision is made with haste. It is not made with the way I see it. I'm a project manager. There's many ways to solve an issue. There's many ways to skin a cat and I think that we could as a group and I've I pleaded in my email to you all that we are here to help and that's what this committee is for. We

121meet four times a year but I am willing to meet outside of those meetings in a year's time to bring the numbers up and think of other options. There's many flaws in why the enrollment fell and it's not necessarily because of lack of interest. I'm going to tell you that right now. Um, PAL has always been targeted since 2017 and I feel like it still is in a lot of ways. I know that as mentioned by Rachel, I know that teachers in this district don't go to the professional development that's um offered to them except for the three PAL teachers. So, I'm worried. I'm really worried where we're going with this. And I've mentioned before that a program like this should be promoted, not diluted. And it really is. My fear is sitting on the

122advisory committee in about three years time, there will be no highly capable program anymore. I want to I'm going to call it right now. So, that's my fear is this is just a stepping stone to something a lot bigger and worse than where we where we want to go. So with that, I I just ask that this board, Dr. Peter, Dr. Connelly, I plan to meet with you in about a week or two. Let's let's think outside the box here. Let's see if we could turn the tide. I know the numbers may not hit that May 15th that you're seeking, but I heard some options here. I heard some pleading. Please do reconsider. But I think this board here, the four men that here can make that change and only if you guys are willing

123to make that change cuz we will probably continually come here and plead our case until May 15th because the decision hasn't been made yet. Thank you. Um before you leave, I I just a clarifying question. Did the email where did you send the email? The generic school board can generic school board. Is it being blocked? That's my curiosity. It hasn't been blocked. No, I don't think so. Uh I I No, but I'll I'll I'll make sure that I resend it just to make sure that they have Okay. Yes. Thank Yeah, I received it. So Okay. So I going Mark receives it because I have his personal email and you're on an advisory committee, Mark. The other four are not. I only have access to your generic school board and I've been blocked before from this.

124Well, I let me just well, I'm not going to get into blocking because frankly that that doesn't happen, but I will just represent I I did not receive the email and so that's why I'm asking that question. So, Dr. Finch, if you can make sure that Yep. Tomorrow, I'll make sure that it goes out again and I'll get confirmation that they receive it. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. And my fear is when I say block, it's not me personally. I think it puts it in spam. So just I know a lot of parents have sent it and they haven't heard anything back either. Okay. Thank you for sharing. We appreciate it. All right. Uh any more comments? I don't see anybody else here. Yes, Mr. Marinachi. Good evening. Beautiful day. I just wanted to go

125back to last school board meeting uh the agenda and on the agenda I I reviewed it very carefully prior to the meeting because I was very interested in one of the resolutions that was on it and it's listed as an action item and so I intentionally contacted Dr. Finch and I said, "Hey, just want to be clear. Um, if I want to speak about an action item on the resolution on on the resolution, what is my time to speak on that? Because customarily in the past where there was something of hash a bigger issue, there would be like a discussion like a separate time period that you could speak to those particular issues. And he said, "Hey, you can go ahead. You can speak during the the normal speaking time." I said, "Great. Fantastic." And

126I did. And you guys heard it. want to say. I noticed, however, during uh when that action item was brought up, um I was under the impression that because it was an action item that perhaps it was intentionally set up that way so that there wouldn't be any discussion amongst the board members. There would just be a vote and it was opened up so that you guys would have a discussion. Board president open it up. Nothing wrong with that. Had it had a you know a discussion. people shared their views and then there was a vote on it. And my preference would be when there's something that's on the agenda that potentially, you know, there's going to be a discussion, not just a vote on it, that you guys have your discussion. However, somebody part

127of the community can come up again to speak to what is stated and then you have your vote. So, I mention Dr. Finch. Dr. Finch said yes, he's open to that. However, I did tell him I was going to speak tonight to that particular point because my view was I wanted to speak after I heard some of the items that were spoken to. So, as a committee member, I would appreciate just in the future just keep that in mind. Thank you very much. All right. Again, thank you for your comment. All right. I don't see anyone else in the room, so I assume there's no more comments to be made. Thank you all for your comments and thank you for speaking up and even just showing up for this evening's meeting. So, we appreciate that.

128All right, moving on to item um number eight, action items. We have a number of them. Um I have a one item in particular down here. So, I would like to just if you don't mind, we could take them one at a time. Anybody? Yes. It's not it's not consent agenda. So, I would suggest take them A B C D. Okay, perfect. So, first is the approval of minutes. Um, item one and two under 8A, study session minutes, board meeting minutes. Um, if anyone would like to make a motion to approve those items. I'll make a motion to approve those items. Okay, we have a motion to approve the March 25th uh 25 study session and board meeting. We'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Oppose. Same side.

129Motion carries 40. Next is the approval of the travel requests um product safety University of Philadelphia May 11th through 16th May I'm sorry of 2025. Again um I will take a motion on that particular item so that we can vote. Would anyone care to make a motion for that? Make a motion to approve the travel request. All right, we have a motion to approve. We'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Oppos. Same sign. Motion carries. Approval of resolution uh C. Item C number 25-04-774 delegation of authorities of WIAA. Just to make sure everyone understands that is different than what we had last week. I just thought I'd bring that up just to be sure. All right. Uh would anyone care to make a motion on item C?

130Um number 25-04-774 delegation delegating authority to WIAA. I'll make a motion to app uh to move on delegating authority to WIAA. All right, we'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. I post same sign. Motion carries 4. No wonder I had trouble. That has a there's a little misspelled try to read the words. All right. Next, we will go on to item D, approval of West Valley Education Coaches Association three-year contract. Um hopefully everyone's had a chance to look through that. We'll go ahead and take a vote if someone would like to make a motion to approve that. I'll make a motion to approve West Valley Education Coaches three-year agreement. All right, we'll go ahead and take a vote on that since we have a motion. All those in favor

131of signifying the approval of the West Valley Educational Coaches Association three-year contract for 2025 through 2028 uh signify by saying I I post same sign. Motion carries 4. Next, we come to item nine. Again, the uh discussion items here. We can talk specifically about defement. Uh, we just had a presentation on that. So, I'm going to open it up at this point if there are any comments, any discussion anyone would like to have. I just, uh, I'd like to weigh in on a couple things. Um so um first of all the uh presentation was um it's you know we had it a couple years ago obviously before the new school board members uh or our newer school board members rather have have joined but it's always um I think it was I think it was

132great to have it again and and I probably couldn't listen to it enough to to fully understand and grasp and the visuals are are are helpful. So, um, thank you for making that possible. Um, in terms of the, um, let me I just I I want to be maybe clear about where I stand on the matter so that there's no, um, uh, assumptions on anyone's part. Um, first of all, um, when in 2023 when we had the resolution, my position was was that that we should have, um, not passed the resolution. I did not vote in favor of it. My reasoning behind that was was that when we ran the bond um and successfully passed it, it was based upon the premise that we would build two schools, nothing more, nothing less. And um that

133was the uh that was the implied promise despite the bes despite the um wording of the bond. um that was the implied promise that was made to the community at that time. Um regardless of how that vote turned out, the process that we went in in in terms of uh engaging with the community and trying to figure out okay, you know, what should we do with this money? Um I thought was a overall very good process. It led to good discussion, a lot of input from the community and ultimately resulted in a in a vote of three to two to on a list of projects that some of which we have completed, some of which we have not um for a variety of different reasons. Um, I said at that time and I will continue

134to reiterate today that I will respect the the the vote of the board um on the resolution um that passed 3 to2 even though I voted against that and my actions have been consistent with that in that um uh I my my our my responsibility our responsibility collectively um is to use the money that that we have resolved to spend in a financially responsible and prudent manner and I'm very proud of the way that we've executed the pro projects to date in that regard. I think that um I mean despite my dissenting vote on the resolution um the repairs uh that have even been outlined tonight during the study session, I'm proud of those repairs. I think that they were good uses of a good stewardship of of this money and I think that we've

135done um the projects in a financially responsible way. Um there are several projects that remain on that list that have not been uh completed um for like I said a variety of reasons in terms of the actual defeasence and should we and should we not and when should we do it. Um, I I I think that the timing of that decision should come um after we have received the updated long range facilities planning report which will be later this year when we are going to assess um what are the district's needs uh in terms of our building infrastructure. in particular um going forward. So, so I personally would like to see that work completed and hopefully um if if if and when we should make that decision to defeze using that as a as an

136overall strategy to put the districts in the best possible position should we decide to go out for a bond. um in terms of the communication that that would send. Also, we have to be mindful about um uh in February undoubtedly we will uh be asking the voters for a renewal of our of our present levy. So all of these things I think are factors that should help us guide us in our decision making um on defeasance. should we shouldn't we um in addition to the information that we received tonight um how much we should and how does that impact our our asks if we decide to do that later this year. So um I I just I I think tonight was a a necessary um I won't even call it a first step and a

137necessary step in in that in that process as we continue to deliberate. But um in terms of the timing of of deciding um if and when and how much uh to defeat my my suggestion would be that that let's wait on the long range facilities plan update to be complete. Thank you. All right. Thank you for your comments. Do we know about when that's going to be completed? Um the next meeting is uh coming up in May and then the plan was to have a an first draft of what we're looking at and then basically have some time over the summer to consider that and then come back and finalize it in September. Okay. So that that timeline would work on then looking at what the needs are for the district, developing the levy, and

138then certifying what the tax rate would be for the following year. So it would fit within that timeline. Nor and normally that's a I'm sorry to jump in. in in the past um in the past when we've run run a levy or frankly a bond we've sort of honed in on that in the fall and then the resolutions would be passed um I believe it's got to be um it's got to be by like nove like November in order to get on as I'm looking back at Mr. Connley, he's nodding his head. I believe there's kind of a there's a deadline in I want to say like early November that we have to have the propositions to the um uh to the voting department or to the um auditor's office so that we can get

139it on the ballot if we were to run in uh February. And I and as I'm I'm picturing in the past all of these various deadlines for when we have to pass a resolution at the board level so that things can be placed on on the ballot and there's a variety of different timelines. But for the February ballot I know that it's like early I want to say it's like early November. I'm sure that we can get that. But I just wanted to say that not to interrupt your train of thought. What was I gonna say? So thank you for that. Yeah. um not having been here when when that 3 to2 vote happened uh I I as a member of the public at the time was um you know when I voted for the

140bond I felt like it needed to go to the two schools and the money should have been you all the money should have gone back or made a decision by the community however since the vote was 3 to2 and I came on the board after that I also I appreciate what you said Mr. Thorner about all the projects that have been done. I've appreciated that. I've appreciated the manner they've been done and and the savings that we've had and and a lot of those things were were needed and I understand that. So, I I appreciate all that. Uh clarification question. I have a lot to think about and a lot to read here too. But clarification question. My my sense at the end of the forums that we had with the public and the vote,

141it wasn't promised in the vote, I don't believe, but my general sense was that at the time we were going to spend it was a $59 million bond and we saved $19 million and sort of the end of the whole discussion, my recollection is that we would spend about 13 millionish and and give back to fees about six million. So the numbers that we're talking about 8 to 10 million are above or instead said so 6 million is already pretty much promised to the public I would say um then and so now we're just talking about another two to four million. Is that correct? Am I stating that correctly? I I I I think that seemed to be um I mean that seemed I think that that was my recollection of the conversation. Yeah. I

142mean, and and that was with the sort of uh uh an I I'll call it an informal budget or projections on what the project costs would be conservatively and and and so forth. Yeah. Yeah. We looked at all all those and it's it's it's been done well and we've saved some money, etc. So, okay. I'm just trying to get clarification in my head before we move forward on on what that would look like and how much savings that would be. I I feel I feel pretty strongly comments I've heard that um a lot of the public, you know, felt we needed to fees that money or more and I think that does go a long ways in building future trust for future bonds. So that's that's where I stand on the defeasement. Um as a

143matter of how much and how we do all that, still a lot of processing has to go on here. Thank you. Any comments? Uh, no, not really. I'm still in the learning process of it. I think I'm in favor of defeasement and then just figuring out what that number looks like. I think the 8 million we probably get more of a benefit than the 10. And so then there's the value to be able to use and then to also honor things that we've said. And so that's where I'm at right now. But nothing's firm. I think we're close to the same wavelength here on a lot of these issues. Um, of course I was around as was Mr. Thorner when we went through this whole process and um your recollection is pretty much spot on.

144I think as far as I can recall there was that additional money that was left over and the amount we talked about defeasing was somewhere in the $6 million range. I think the thing that's important to me is um we have been good stewards of this and I like the idea I think Mr. Thorner suggested that we have a plan a strategy on how we do it. The amount I think is it's important but it's secondary important because we have kept our word to the community plus the idea of the that more than likely depending on how we do this we're going to defeat even more than what we promised initially and that sends a good message not only on our ability to manage the money and do the right things with it but also

145our ability to plan and move forward as we think about these things. I like uh Mr. Thorners talking about when we do this because the timing of it is everything in the world. The timing of it. I would like to see that our plans and our strategy as we move forward actually give the community the maximum benefit of all of this, right? The benefits of the the bonds dropping off prior bonds, the tax advantage, the fact that we're going to defease this money. I mean all these things the timing would be great as we go forward and even looking at a bond or levies as well. I think those things coming together at the right time send a stronger signal than we've already been able to send. And not only that, I think that it

146would be welcome news given the current climate we're in right now to many of the to much of the community. So, um I I'm I'm with both of you on this. It's it's also a matter of how much we Yeah. we can do. I I kind of drew the same thing you did, Mr. Heath, that between8 and $10 million when I look at the the total difference in the amount, it's minuscule, but when you compare, you know, what we would get in return. Yeah. The freedom that you get from it. Well, not only that, that money will sit there gathering interest for us. Um, that could pay for some very good things. You know, that amount of money gathering interest for us and still we're defeing even more than we said we would. So, there's

147a lot of pros and cons. The key is we just have to weigh them out carefully. I like again I go back to the the thought that we have a plan in place as we move forward. We just don't do this and okay we we're going to randomly decide on the mount. There needs to be a rationale why and I think that's real important. So um the only thing that's missing right now is Mr. Keart's part of his discussion what he may think but we'll have an opportunity to include him at some point. So let me let me just say one other thing if I may. Um, so I'm looking at last at the um at last month's um uh financial information and as of as of the end of um February of this year,

148the the total fund balance um is close to $14 million. $14 million. I just want to say that clearly. Didn't mean for my voice to trail off. about 14 million about $14 million. Um and then then you know uh few more weeks there'll be some additional interest. There might be some expenditures but $13.7 million is is that amount. Um the state the state matching portion of that is is um about $1.2 million. Just so as you as you have that what I wanted to add was not that but what I wanted to add to what Mr. Strong said and and as we think about the amount that we are going to defease is the amount is also the amount that we retain. Mhm. Because what what I think is really important about the retention piece

149is having a plan or a set of princip a plan and or a set of principles for how that money would be used is also of material importance to how I will individually vote on this. And and let me let me be a little bit more specific because one of the one of the concerns that I had from the very beginning when we were talking about the feasing and so forth and what do we need, you know, what are what are the needs of the district. Okay. So, um, chiller upgrades, boiler upgrades, roof repairs, the the the the the track, the the track, the football field. All of these things were identified as things that we need to do in the last iteration of the long range facilities plan. some of the things that ended

150up on the resolution were things that were not on the long range facilities plan. So my concern back from a couple of years ago was that okay if we retain and we're going to utilize that it becomes this what I want to avoid is are the emotional wants and the emotional asks. Yeah. And so that's what I mean by the um and and and that's not to say that again I I don't want to I also don't want to be misrepresented or misunderstood when I said anything that was on the list was an emotional need or an ask. I'm not trying to say that at all. But what I am trying to say is is what is important to this individual school board member is that if we retain any portion uh or anything that

151is not defeased um that that we that that we have a either identified list of projects that this money will be utilized for and or a I mean and we are legally required to do this anyway but a good process process about how we are going to go utilize these monies. So it or how they would be utilized in the future. So I just I I that's probably a little I I just wanted to develop that just a little bit more for everybody's consideration. So I'm sorry to again take up No, it's good that. But just just to say that out loud, too. Yeah. And so what I'm hearing you say is that you'd like to see it as a designated Well, it has to be designated, but um um I I I'm I'm a

152little bit reluctant to give an example of what I mean. Um but I I I want to make sure that or I want to ensure that that if this money is utilized on a capital project need that that we are undergoing as much objectivity in that process as possible and and not and try to and try and you know a data driven relying on professional advice you know these kinds of these kinds of things rather than hey we really like to because this is what we'd like to do um that I I um these are um you know HVAC system you know mechanical systems go out wells wells need to be replaced. Um, you know, some of these things that we identified, um, some of the things that are identified on the list, for example,

153are are are things like, um, improving the junior high auditorium, which is was identified in the long range facilities plan, but we haven't tackled that yet because we may or may not be modernizing or improving the junior high as part of another bond issue. We don't we don't yet that's to be determined. So I mean and so from a from the sense of not attack attacking that project yet that makes sense because we don't know where we're heading. That's again back to the idea of of let's have a plan. Let's see what happens with let's see what the outcome of the of the updated long-range facilities plan be. But um but but whatever we retain and however that resolution looks like to uh defease and potentially retain some of those monies I along the lines

154of what Mr. Sean said, and I just wanted to develop this just a little bit more in terms of what is it going to take for the resolution to g garner a yes vote from Michael Thorner is having a good sense of a plan for the use of of of that money. And even if we haven't identified that project, how do we go about identifying projects that are on that list and it in as a uh you know an objective process as possible? It's good. I want to add one other point as well and it's probably kind of taken for granted but we all would I would think um have the same perspective in one area and that is our communication with the rest of the community on this whole project on this whole defasence.

155I mean it's important to me to know that everybody in the community is aware whether they're for it or against it. It's important for them to know all the details about it. Um, and I think one of the things that helped us last time get through what we were going to do with some of those leftover funds is that we went through multiple community forums. We made sure that everybody had a chance to provide input whether they wanted to or not. They had the choice. Yeah. And I think as we go forward with this, once we have I I immensely like the idea of getting the long range facilities committee's final document as we go forward. But once we have all those things in place, then I think we go back kind of doing similar

156things again just to make sure it isn't even so much for the input in terms of just making sure they are aware of the process what we went through why these decisions were made and ultimately they could by virtue of a forum change some of our minds or they may not or they may reinforce what we're already thinking. Um, and hopefully it is the latter. But nonetheless, it's important that that communication takes place. And one last thing about that, um, I don't, you know, I don't want us to take just a one shot approach at this. You got one shot to say your point, you know, and that's it. I think it may take one or two forums or something like that where the community has a chance to speak because sometimes some people can't

157make it to the first one. They can come to the second one and so forth or other people hear about the first one and they become more invigorated and come to the second one. And to be honest, a last point on all this, that's really what we want. We want the community's involvement. Sometimes it's hard. I I see four souls here that bait it out tonight because they feel strongly about an issue. We need more of that and these sort of these issues are very important. The last thing I want is after the decision is made then we hear from. Yeah. So we want we want that and I and I'm saying that now because when we get to that point it's going to be important that we I know when I was doing it

158I I just told everybody I could come to the forums. Come come and listen. Come and state your point of view. So it's important that we get that message out there. That's the last thing I want to say about that. really just I think that's critically important. All right, anyone else? Any other comments? Well, thank all of you for your input. Uh again, very important issue and topic and um more information to come on that I'm sure as we get closer. All right. Uh public comment on discussion items. So, any member of the public here? Any anyone? Yes. All right. about the items you discussed, right? The fees we just discussed. Yep. And we won't be counter discussing it. We just I echo exactly what you said, Mark. Whatever you just said there at the

159end. I'm sitting here nodding. If you don't involve the community and parents at the onset, this is what happens. You know, parents come here, they're frustrated, they're upset, they want to meet with you all personally. We don't have any of your emails, so we don't know if you're even hearing us or what you guys are doing about it. Um, that's why I actually purposely came to this meeting because I wanted to see your response. Um, we heard Dr. Finch's response, but I would love to hear from the other board members as well. So, yeah, that's all I wanted to echo is for this bond levy things that you guys are just considering. Um, and considering that it's a very short term, I mean, you guys only have a very short window, right? Because I know

160that thing has to be on the the ballot in February. So, very short window to earn the community's trust. So, I'm here. I'm one of your active members out here in the community. I'm willing to assist, but please, I'm I'm I'm still back at PAL. Please don't break my trust. That's all I want to say. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Thank you for having a Is this on? Thank you for having a time for a committee member to speak after. Great discussion by all of you. Uh that was fantastic. Um one little clarification, a little bone I pick. Don't call it savings. It's really just excess funds. Do you follow what I'm saying? It's not savings, it's excess funds. There's a lot of reasons why we have a large amount of money. It's not

161necessarily because of savings. There's good timing, interest. There's an element where it was estimated a lot higher. So, it's excess funds, not savings. It's a little misleading to the taxpayers. I want to say um a lot of what Mr. Thorner said, I'm in complete agreement with. you really have to have a plan for this. And I think about the future um I mean, excuse me, the previous times that we've gone through this and it's been brought up um by the most recent, you know, February is going to be right around the corner. And I think the idea of seeing how the long range committee comes, whatever their thoughts are, I think that's really critical. And uh Dr. since I'm on that committee. I just wonder even though we're meeting on May 7th if maybe we

162can expedite the report from that because I think getting the word out and I would just echo also what was just stated if you want to buy in a community uh Mr. Strong, you're absolutely correct. I think it was excellent that we had all those community meetings before and you guys were able to get feedback and I think that's good. So, it's better to um be proactive rather like an example of the PAL thing reactionary. Um you guys get it out there. I think that's the best thing um to do. So, thanks for talking about this and again, Mr. Thorner, I think you're you're spot on on a number of the things that you said. So, thank you. So, I was actually at all three of those forums that were mentioned. Um, and I have

163to agree 100% with Mr. Thorner, like like have a very specific specific plan. And I think it's all about the timing. That is so important, right? Because I I'm I'm also on the long-term facility plan um uh committee and uh there's going to be some needs, right? I mean, we're talking about two new schools potentially um and something at the junior high mid-level campus also, right? So, there's lots of needs at the district and I think it's all about the timing and and getting that measure message out is is going to be critical to to the passage of the bond because we're going to need another one obviously. So, you guys are doing great. I appreciate it. Thanks. Yes. Yeah, I I'm I'm echo what everybody's comment on uh getting the community involved. I just

164want to also remind you that I think Mr. Thorner was here on the last levy and the last levy happened to be at the time when you were considering whether you terminate the PA program or not. So you had lots of us here and you say hey go out there and pass the word for the levy. A lot of us did that. A lot of us were here went out and you know there's two classes 60 parents went out and you know I literally all my patient I harassed them for that you know I mean I'm I'm always for the school. It just you know the way I grow up and the way we emphasize on school. So I'm everything you know I want to do for the school and so I just want to

165let you know that you know somehow you really concerned about this defeasement that I have no concern if I save $50 a year is nothing you know and I don't know if many people even think about that I mean they go get a meal for $50 but you clearly see that 90 of us here parents of uh actually we have 60 students so That's more than 100 parents are really concerned about this power issue and I don't hear any beside Dr. Finch you know personally discussing talk about the important of that to us that why you make such a decision that why eliminating one class is so important out of I don't know more than 200 classes of all the high school and middle school elementary school that you have to eliminate this one class.

166It just doesn't make sense. Uh, and I I think uh not hearing clear um explanation from you guys, that's not going to sit well with us. You know, I just want to, you know, I personally donate 3,000 a year because I have three kids in the school. And I have to reconsider that. Not because it's just that I I just don't understand why our voices and our concern are not addressed uh clearly you know that you make somebody or whoever however a decision is made uh that brought us to this stage that you know I I feel is it's just unfair. Thank you. Okay. All right. Thank you for your comment. Anyone else? I think there's only two left. All right. Well, again, thank you for your comments and uh we appreciate your time and

167being here and sharing your thoughts. Moving on to item number 11 on the agenda. Items arising. Anyone? No. No items arising. We'll move on to We've been talking about them. That that is true. Uh so we'll go ahead and move on to the superintendence report. Uh anything you'd care to add, Dr. Finch? Yes, the superintendent report just wanted the board to be aware. Um there's both things at the state level and the national level that are concerning to us regarding the budget for the upcoming school year. Uh we learned about this House Bill 2050. I did testify via Zoom uh as a con against this u bill. It was sponsored by um Representative Ormsby. Um so, and he's chair of the committee, so we'll see what happens with this bill. Um we have concerns about

168this bill moving forward. House Bill 2050 was heard on April 3rd. This bill would shift a percentage of our portionment revenue from the state coming to our district. it would shift it from February, March, and April and move it to August. So, this will have a negative impact on our cash flow and our ability to manage our day-to-day operations. And if this bill passes, the West Valley School District will need to increase our fund balance in order to provide funding for day-to-day operations such as payroll and expenditures. Uh in the past the legislature has adjusted aortionment and with house bill 2050 it would result in 24 25% so a quarter of all of our state aortionment would come to us at the end of the school year in July and August. So that would be

169the next July and August is what we're talking about. So we'd have to u you know have our day-to-day operations payroll. Um, a lot of people don't understand our portionment does not come a set amount each month. It's not one 12th throughout the school year. And this would actually be a detriment to the West Valley School District if this passes. Uh the others at the federal level um there was recently uh the US Department of Education sent letters to all the K12 state agencies across the nation requiring them to certify within 10 days that their policies were aligned with the pres presidential directive against diversity, equity, and inclusion. And uh just be aware for title one uh that's the federal money for title one for uh disadvantaged youth. That's 1.4 4 million that comes to

170the West Valley School District. And I can give you an update that the superintendent of public instruction for Washington State uh came out today and said that he was not going to sign the certification. and he said that he's already sent a letter and saying that um the state does comply with all Title 9 requirements and that um that it's unclear exactly what the presidential directive means and so uh we're just going to see how this plays out. But again, that would be a large impact to our budget if we were to lose our title one funding. So, just wanted to have the board aware that there's both things at the state and national levels that are concerning to us as we move forward with the budgeting process for the upcoming school year. You know,

171thank you for sharing that, Dr. Finch. I guess I haven't really given a lot of thought to the idea that it sounds like even some of our funds that come in are based on fee reimbursement. I mean, we get them later or do we get Well, we get them during certain times of the year, right? So the first thing I talked about was the state aortionment. And so a portionment is the amount of money that comes based on our enrollment. So it's not the special categorical programs, it's the aortionment. And so I think I didn't realize all when I was principal. I didn't realize until I became into the district office that the money doesn't come 1112th 112th 112th. It doesn't come uh to the district like that. it comes at different uh and it's

172basically all through the years the legislature has made adjustments based on what their budget is. See for the state by changing that aortionment it moves it from one fiscal year to the next. Yeah. So even in when I was there listening to the um the prep before the testimony they were saying well this will save the state like 113 million or something. It doesn't it it just pushes it pushes it and it puts that back on the local districts that they're gonna have to come up with that money to f to make payroll. So in order to do that, you know, we have to make sure that we have an adequate fund balance so that we can make payroll and do our expenditures. Um our insurance costs don't we don't pay them all in July

173and August. You know, it's it's we have ongoing day-to-day operations. So that that's a concern. And then back to the federal money. Uh yes, many of our federal grants we do the expenditure and then get reimbursements for that. Um with this was actually uh saying that in this upcoming this fiscal year that they were going to allegedly stop payment for title one unless the superintendent public instruction signs this certification. We'll see how it all plays out. I mean there's there's been lots of back and forth between the executive branch, judicial branch, and the states, but just wanted to make sure make sure you were aware that there is this uncertainty that's out there. It could make a huge difference and I could see easily how I just to clarify my other question though. Are there

174any funds that come in come to us late in the year like that other than this initial this proposal here? Well, there are some of the categorical funds are done on a reimbursement. So we spend the money and then we submit for reimbursement. And unfortunately we have seen that um it's not always always consistent on the amount of time that the state u gives us you know does the reimbursement. Sometimes we've had to wait up to four or five months until they get the reimbursement. So that's just another reason to have adequate uh fund balance so that you can have the cash flow. Uh there are districts that are in very difficult situations that they don't have adequate fund balance and their only recourse is to b borrow money at that point. But when you're

175borrowing money, then you're having to pay interest to b when you're borrowing money. So it just kind of digs your hole deeper. So that's why it's really important for us to be fiscally responsible as a district and have an adequate fund balance for all these uncertainties that are out there. All right. Thank you for the clarification. All right. Um there are no more comments or questions. We'll move on to item 13, board reports, board development. Anything from anyone? Yeah. Uh just uh couple things or maybe a request. Sure. Um, so I have the district's website up and I've navigated to the schoolboard page um where I see a really old picture of me which uh is me of much younger uh no but um and I know that as the as the as the website

176has changed we have the board uh member uh contact form which is great and and and I know when members of the community have the opportunity to basically email the school board and it generates an email to us. Um, in the past, um, and I I think we should still keep this up, but in the past, if you were to like push Michael Thorner or click on Michael Thorner, for example, um, it would have a hyperlink to my email for the school district. I'd like to see that maybe return for the schoolboard members. In addition, um in addition to the board member uh uh contact form, having schoolboard at wbsd208.org also be included as a hyperlink so that if people didn't want to use the board member contact form on the website, they could click

177on the hyperlink and then the then their mail um program could email the entire school board. Um, and just as a reminder to the off a audience, and it's not a secret, uh, you can email us directly at our last name, first initial at wbsd208.org. Um, so I I want to try to remove the technical barriers that may exist. Um, I I I don't want to say anything that's out of turn, but I'm quite confident that we're not intentionally blocking anybody um from trying to contact us. But, um, looking at the website, I think that we could do a little bit better. Um, and so those are just some considerations that I would encourage. Um, but, uh, that's why I wrote up on the thing. It's our last name, first initial at wbsd208.org. and then

178or you can email the schoolboard at schoolboard wbsd208.org. So anyway, I I I always uh in my in my real work um I use email a lot and my biggest fear is not to receive something. Um, and for that my my my uh sarcastic reply is is that sometimes my spam filter keeps out emails that I actually want. And so I actually want everybody's email, but uh um so anyway, uh no excuse. If we can work on that, I would appreciate it. Sounds good. Thank you. Great suggestion. I like that idea, too. So, okay. Um, anybody else? Board reports, board development. Hearing none, we will go ahead and adjourn the meeting today again, Tuesday, April 8th, 2025 at 8:41 p.m. Thank you everybody in attendance.