001All right, everyone. We will call the April 2nd, 2026 regular board meeting to order. Please stand for Pledge of Allegiance. Flags at this way. Pledge allegiance 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. Good evening everyone. Thank you for coming and joining us tonight. We have a guest list over at the door. If you have not signed the guest list, please sign the guest list. And I will now read the Cascade Board of Education Meeting Opening Statement. The regular session of the Cascade School District Board of Directors will now convene in the district office board room and via Zoom. The laws governing boards of education require that their work be done where the public can
002observe their actions. Please remember that this is the board's meeting for the public to observe. Others may participate only with the approval of the board. All right. So, first order of business is we had an open board seat and we had two candidates. We had Patty Taylor and Chris Clark. Thank you. Chris Clark come in tonight. Thank you, Ms. Taylor, for coming in and Mr. Clark, who's not with us right now, for coming in. They both brought a lot to the table and and it was really great to have seen two candidates that were so um What's the right word? Um capable of taking on this role, that wanted to be part of the district. So, we appreciate them doing that. With that being said, we did do our deliberation and we have elected to
003bring Ms. Taylor on as a board for the Cascade Board. So, with that being said, if you would agree to it, we'll have you sworn in tonight. Okay. You have to move. You don't need to sit up there. That's a You can sit at the end down there. So, pass that down if you would. So, we will first do a resolution to bring you on to the board, Patty, and then we're going to have you read the oath of office after that. So, first is agenda item 2A resolution regarding board member vacancy position number two. Now, I'm reading the resolution, all right? That's Yeah, that. Okay. Uh be it resolved the Cascade Board of Education moves to appoint Patty Taylor to the board member vacancy in position number two to complete John Remmers' current term
004that expires June 30th, 2027. I second. Oh, all right, we have first and second. All right. All right, sorry. Um 2A resolution regarding board member vacancy has been moved and seconded. Any discussion on this? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed, same sign. Which which word does that one go to? All right, motion carries. Patty, welcome aboard. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. >> right, with that being said, fire away. I, Patty Taylor, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Oregon, and the laws thereof, and the policies of the Cascade School District. During my term, I will faithfully and impartially discharge the responsibilities of the office of Board of Education school board member to the best of
005my ability. All right. Wonderful. I think that is We've done our resolution, done our board oath, so we're going to move on. Thank you, Patty. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. On to number three, the um approval of the March 6th, 2026 exact session and regular meeting. I move to approve the March 9th, 2026 executive session and regular meeting. Second. It's been moved and seconded to approve the March 9th, 2026 exact session and regular session. Any discussion? All right, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. I. Oppose same sign. Motion carries. All right, Mr. Drill, prioritize your agenda. Should be able to go right down the reports as they are presented. Dynamite. All right, number five is well, superintendent report, Mr. Drill. Good evening, board members. Welcome, Patty. Congratulations and welcome to the
006school board. Thank you. >> Good to have you. Um we uh are I can't believe we're coming back from spring break and we're practically like getting down to the end of the school year. Um wanted to um let you know that we are working very, very diligently on getting our um budget ready for the '26-'27 school year. I think that's probably the main focus of a number of folks here at the district office level trying to get that um um budget ready to go. And um we've had ongoing conversations with you guys about the difficulties that uh this board uh is going to probably see financially. We are not in a in the same position as Portland or Salem or any of the larger districts and frankly we're not in the same position financially as
007even smaller districts that are struggling uh financially to get through. The reality is is that the state of Oregon did give a health a healthy uh increase in school funding uh for this last biennium, but the costs uh way surpassed that. So, when you're talking about costs just to operate uh that those are one thing. Uh over the two years the cost for electricity, the cost for gasoline, obviously those reflect uh your household as well. Some of these costs have really gone up, but the one thing that has really hit uh every school district very hard is the cost of retirement, the cost of PERS. And uh as we have said multiple times um when we rolled over in July uh this past year for this school year a year ago, we at Cascade our
008cost for PERS increased $2.1 million just by going from June 30th to July 1st. We have essentially held almost every other box for lack of a better term. Financially, we've held it at the right levels or even saved money in some cases, but the the PERS cost has really hit us hard. We have had prepared for some of that. I don't think we really prepared for that much of an increase, but we had over the last 6 or 7 years set aside money in our PERS side account kind of as a savings account and we are slowly pulling that money out trying to balance that with this kind of a glide path from where we were to where we will be financially. It's going to come down a little bit and that's going to that's
009going to take some time and very thoughtful process or very thoughtful process. We got to make sure that we're going to do that right. Our goal from last fall till now has been take a look at our budget, look at every box regardless of what that box is, whether it's personnel or things or stuff or whatever we need to do, programs, and how can we make those programs or things or stuff or people more efficient. So, when we start with that, we go through, you know, each and every one of those types of programs. So, Mr. Dyer's in charge of the SIA funds, title, and those kinds of things. We're looking at that. The fiscal office with William in charge and the folks that are working in that office have provided us lots of good
010information, lots of data trying to figure out how we're going to essentially shrink that. So, when you listen to other school districts say we've got to cut $15 million. dollars. We really this year didn't have to cut a lot of anything. It just meant that as we got closer to the cliff financially, we were going to get there a little faster. So, what we're trying to do is slow that down. If our analogy is we're a boat on a river going towards the end where the where the waterfall is, my hope is that we're one of the last boats that gets there. Um and what we're hoping for, and it sounds horrible, but what I'm hoping for is that a number of very large school districts are going to get to that critical point before
011we do. And when that happens, their voices, because of their size, start to really resonate at the state of Oregon about how do we fix this. This last um time at the at the legislative last legislative full term, there was zero conversation about PERS, zero. They wanted nothing to do with that conversation. And so, it just sat there. It sat there like, you know, a rotten egg. It just got worse and worse and worse, and people know that. And it's not that people don't deserve a retirement, they do. Um but, the founding fathers of PERS in the in the early '70s knew that this day of reckoning would come. Um for them, most of them probably aren't here anymore, but if they were, and they would say to me, "Oh, we just didn't know that
012would happen." That's just not true. There is no way to run that kind of a program and get to the other end of it and say it's going to continue to be solvent. So, PERS and the legislature, rightly so, over the years tried to make some fixes. There's tier one, tier two, OPSEU, they're talking about it's a more and more and more of these changes. And that's helpful, but it doesn't help right now. Um this biennium, and likely the next biennium, are going to be the critical top end point before it starts to glide back down the other direction, and we're going to have to deal with that. Add to that that 20-some-odd years ago, this school board, uh none of which are Were Were any of you people here? Right? They went out and
013and and got got a essentially a bond against that, right? So, they went out and said, "Let's Let's support going out and and betting against how much money we can make to to offset the cost of per student." And we did that, and to the tune of savings of close to probably $10 million, William, would you say? Over the course of 20 years, Cascade saved 20 $10 million on that process. It made our cost per per student smaller. So, when the cost would go up 10, we would take the offset money and say, "Okay, it only cost us seven." And the next time it only cost us eight instead of the 10 every time it went up. The problem is is that that money is going to run out. It's supposed to run out in
01420 years. Our money and almost every other school district's money is going to run out in about 19 years and two to four months. So, there's about eight months here where we're going to have to pay the full price coming up in the next year along with an increase in per student. All that to say, we are working at trying to slowly trim and slim down our budget. And so, you're going to hear a lot more of this conversation through William, through Jay, our opportunities to talk about it. It doesn't mean that other people aren't doing it. Every Every principal's doing it. Every administrator's taking a look at it. Every director is talking about how do we make it so that we can be that back one of the back boats at the far end
015of that river so that we can get there far more slowly than others. And that's really what we're trying to accomplish this year. To go along with it, I also talk a little bit about the fact that we um are slightly larger than we were last year, and I think that's a really good thing. I think that's really important for us to be a little bit bigger with regard to the total number of students that we have. We're about 30 kids larger than we were a year ago, and for every student, there's about $11,200 that's attached to that. So, that's how we have have of watch that situation and see. Um how do we make sure that we are growing, but but very carefully growing. Um and then it's going to get more difficult. Um
016there are there are really essentially three factors in Oregon that have caused a shrinkage in the number of public school students. One is more kids are home schooled. It's not a lot, it's not a big number, but there are more kids that are home schooled, particularly post-COVID. From COVID on, that's happened. Number two, there are some number of kids that have gone online uh for whatever reason they don't like the rigors of coming to school or whatever the case may be, so they're going online and they not only go online with us, but they go online with other school districts that have built a very big online presence. And then finally, and probably the most important one, probably 50% of the problem is there are fewer kids. Right? People are having fewer and fewer kids.
017So, our example personally is that we're going to graduate right around 230 kids. We have 180 kindergartners. That's a 50-kid difference right from the moment we graduate kids at the end of this year. So, how do we take a look at that? What do we do? How do we how do we manage that? Yes, there are some conversations about how we do interdistrict transfers, but that also brings other problems. So, we're trying to find that right balance to see if we can manage that out and make sure that our finances are working well. And then finally, I just can't believe that, you know, we are tru- we are truly getting to the point that the next time we meet, right in May, we're going to do the budget, and before we meet in June, we
018will have graduation. So, we are right here at the end. The days are getting longer and lots of opportunities for our kids to be doing lots of things. So, any questions? So, I'm going to go back. How many seniors are graduating? >> 230, uh potentially. Okay, so >> that they'll all get there. There's a very little chance on that, but any guess how many kids were in kindergarten 12 years ago? No, but I can say to you that most classes, except for our kindergartners, first and second graders, grew slowly over time. So, that's where I'm going on this is while we only have 180, I think as you said in kindergarten now, chances are that number's going to grow until those kids are seniors. And they didn't start these 230 didn't start as kindergartners. No,
019but they started more like 200. Okay. There was a point where when I first started 18 years ago, every number in front of every grade was starting with a one. Mhm. 185, 176, 154, whatever the case may be. Five years later, every number had a two in front of it. Every number has a two in front of it from third grade up. But in second grade, there's 197. In first grade, there's 175. And in kindergarten, there's 185. So, that seems to be a trend on the lower end. >> that's kind of going in a different direction from a district that we get lots of phone calls, Jennifer and and and Lisa started getting phone calls in January, I believe, about, "Hey, can we inter-district transfer to your school? We really love what you guys do."
020Right. So, we've got to pay attention to that. We got to make sure we find the right balance. Uh and while we're dealing with that, right right in the middle, we have a fifth grade class that now has 258. Yeah. Right there there's they they they just break all the numbers. And I think all the elementaries are going to be very happy to throw them down Debbie's way to start the next year. So, my last question on this is we've got 2755 kids right now. Yeah. With the district as it set up just today, as it sits right now, what's the max kids we could have in this district? Total total. You could get to about 2900. Okay. But you're really bursting lots of bubbles and your class size is going to be really big.
021>> I'm just saying, what's if we had a total total, we could take on about another 150 kids? >> You could. >> Total, as we stand right now. >> but they would have to be distributed >> Now, I understand. I understand. All things being perfect and even, but Whatever reason this year every kid that showed up was a fifth grader. You guys What's But the answer is, if it were evenly proportionate, You get about 2900 kids. >> 2900 kids based on the size of the and the square footage that we have. >> Right. 29, pardon. Yeah. Okay. All right, fair enough. Yep. Any other questions? No. Nope. Nope. All right, thank you, Mr. Drill. Thank you. All right, going on finance director's report. Mr. Wong, welcome. Good evening, board. And I want to continue with
022uh Mr. Drill's conversation. Uh before I started, um when I was uh when I made a decision on to join the great community of Cascade School District, I ran some numbers. I ran some numbers. I was talking, I was zooming with Mr. Pillar and 5 years ago, the salary and benefits cost out of general fund was 78%. And then the number become 82, 84, and this this year that we're budgeting, we're looking at 92%. What changed? Percents. Simply just majority of the drive for the cost is percent. And you know, there's a lot of math. They sent me a lot of report, and I like to put in a simple way is you killed all the chicken who could have laid the eggs in the last 30 years for you. So So So here we
023are at I I call it a structure issue. The funding formula does not support the the crazy increasing cost of percent. It just doesn't. So hopefully, a lot of a majority of the superintendent and OSBO, we're we're gathering together. We're telling this the state government the state government gov- government you we can't afford Like this is a structure issue. No matter what we do internally, unless you help us with the purse, we just can't maintain the same level of service at public school because you're paying after the side account run off you're about to pay 30% of someone's salary into purse. If you look at nationwide I came from Arkansas. Arkansas was 19. So you this has become a structure issue and hopefully next year's legislative session there can there there can be there I
024hope there's some good conversation happened from now to then to help and like Mr. Drill said that the bigger school district have bigger voice and hopefully those voice can reach further and can bring good impact to public schools in Oregon. And you know, I think end of the day is when you have that kind of funding cliff it hurts kids. It hurts the quality of education and um you know, I think Oregon right now is at a critical point of education quality. Um we have one of the shortest was it like school instruction time in the country and we have our COVID kids have just a lot of challenges in reading and math as a state. Cascade is so much higher than the state average. So um that's just a a continue I want to
025make that comment because Mr. Drill was talking about the purse and and that's going to be the core part of this coming budget is how do we not only looking at next fiscal year but in the next three years. We want to maintain we want to minimize the impact of a structure change of the system. And um you know, I think Cascade has been very responsible in the last five years with their finance and moving forward we just have to be more careful with planning um staffing and think about what can we do to you know, to be the last boat. So let me ask you a couple questions on that. So, we're right now looking at an 80% or pardon me, 92% of all of our budget is going into salary, benefits, etc. 92%
026of our general fund goes to the salary and benefits. >> So, what are other districts in Oregon seeing? What are the big districts? What's Silverton seeing? What's what's Silver or Staton seeing? What's Portland seeing? Are they all at the 92-ish level also? The the number that I know and I heard from one of our trainings, Salem-Keizer is at 95 to 96%. That's the number I heard and in general, everybody's at about 90-something percent. >> is the floor. I mean, there everybody's looking at 90-plus. I would assume so. So, what's ideal? I mean, I know it's it's a little I I I get it, but what's what's a true number that do we want 85%? For some reason, 85% was the number in my head. What's what's ideally the percentage that we'd like to be paying
027out of the general fund? Here's what I think. When you reach to a point that let's say if 85% is the ideal number, if you're paying less than 85%, that probably means you're not paying your teacher enough. Right, or you've got openings that you could fill, you could you could bring in additional staff, etc. Right, somewhere is that magic line. And I would say in Oregon's case, 94 to 90 excuse me, 84 to 85%. That's that's where we were 3 years ago. >> Right. Okay, that maybe that's why I was thinking that number. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And our ending fund balance this year is going to end around where we're budgeted. So, we're trying our best to save as much as we can. >> Right. So, we can have much as much as
028cushion for the next year and two and three. Right, but at some point when we're at 92-plus, that's going to squeeze into our cash carryover and we can afford it for a bit, but eventually that's It's to run out. Yes. And then we just hope it doesn't rain because if the roof leaks we're in trouble. Well, on the other the the other The other answer unfortunately Brad is that how do we like other districts, how do you cut positions? >> Right. Right. You got to stop the bleeding somehow. At the moment, like I said, if we lose somebody this year we if we lose somebody, Jay's first move is do we need that position? Is it vital? Mhm. Right. Every position's vital. I understand. But can we run the can we run that building or
029the operation or that that program without that person for the rest of the year? Right. Right. That's step one. Step two is do we need that person again? That position again for next year. Right. Can we do without? So right. And so the easiest example we have at the moment is the title programs. The federal government you know, the plan was to cut it completely. You know, the the Congress at the federal level did give back some money, but it's flat funded. That means we'll get the same amount as we did last year assuming that our poverty level stays the same, which we're not in control of. The feds tell us this is your poverty level and when they compare us out here in rural Marion County to east side of Salem, we're going to
030lose that battle every time. So our number's going to slightly go down. A flat funding means that if we give the raise that we promised >> down four, six, eight, whatever percent. We go backwards. >> go backwards a little bit. So as we as we have had somebody resign in the title area, Jay's done a great job of saying, "Hey, you know what? Let's hold off. Can we rearrange that?" Every elementary has a we have a ratio. You should have about this many kids to this much staff for for a a title program or an ELL program, something like that. The ratio's going to have to get bigger. Well, and I think we saw the ratio when you brought me the report of our full-time equivalent to students. That ratio's getting larger small, but it's
031getting larger for that very reason, which is the the solution that we have to deal with. Correct. And you know, we we have talked about it multiple times. We haven't had to the last four or five years, but we talk about classroom first, and then the next rung is is leadership, the teacher classroom, and it's leadership, and it's district office, and it's programs. How do you do that, and how do you work around the edges? So, you try to leave this middle section alone as long as you can. Right. The least disruptive. Correct. Correct. When he when he when he When William comes and says, "We've never been in the '90s for for those benefits." That that has shot through the roof. And you're right, 85 was right around where we hung. Right. >> For
032for almost my entire career. >> kind of that's kind of a given number. The last 3 years, because of PERS, it's just straight up. Okay. Sorry. No, no, no. That Those are great conversation. And because how severe the situation is, the OASBO is has been communicating with all the school district that that side account that the school district is about to run out of those side account. So, we are one of them. So, the district has has restarted the consideration of borrowing a new bond. So, OASBO has engaged with a company called ECONorthwest to conduct a statistically based analysis whether if we borrow at some point in the future about 18 months, can we make money in the next 20 years to offset the cost of PERS in the next 20 years? So, this is
033in the process of collecting information from the district that are interested into this borrowing bond. So, what did the bond market look like 20 years ago when we were buying these bonds, and what's it look like now? So, right now, the information I have is the interest rate is still too just a little too high to borrow bond. Like, you want to be at some point under 3%. Um because the average profit margin is at 6 to 7% in the last 20 years. So, if you're borrowing a bond at 4.55%, the the the margin is so small. >> It doesn't pencil. Exactly. And then maybe the profit you're making is just paying for the interest. Right. >> And the thing is there were seven districts 20 years ago, around the 20 years ago, they borrowed
034just right before the '08. So, till today seven districts still didn't make money. Right. So, um I was I was working with this company to do a lot of research. Can we borrow a bond to offset the first cost? And if we can, when? And you know, how much? So, so if we get if they get to the point and say, "Hey, you can. Here's the options." Do we have to buy that bond or is that something the district is district by district if they want to get in on that? Yeah, district by district. >> Okay. They can get in on that if they want to You guys You guys have to vote on it. It's a resolution. >> Yeah. Yeah, you have to vote on it. And a a board at Cascade voted on
035it about 20 years ago, 20 years ago, 20 years ago. And we caught there were there were three buys for about 175 of the 197 districts. The first two buys were thumbs up. The last group that bought, the last seven districts, Yeah. that didn't go well cuz they hit the dot com bust and then they hit the '08 financial free fall. And they have struggled ever since. Mhm. We caught the middle train. And and it went The first train and the second train went the farthest. I'm full of analogies and I boats and trains. I love it. But that train That train went the farthest. And so we we lucked out. We really have. It was a good choice way back in the day. >> Yeah, then Yeah. Any questions? >> I have a question.
036Okay, and I don't know how I heard this. I You You might have to tell me again, but you talked about that we were behind on instruction time. And you said something about in the country or as a country. Are you talking about Oregon in the United States that we're behind? Okay. >> How are we behind because it seems to me We're behind. We're behind. State of Oregon is behind with regard to the number of instructional days. And there's likely in the next couple weeks you will see a company out of out of Portland basically report on that. But they do the reporting a little bit different. Oregon technically by law we we count by the number of hours. Okay. Not by the number of days. So Oregon's going to look bad because there are
037many districts, particularly smaller ones on the eastern side of the state that do a four-day week. If you count by days, they're never going to be the same as other places. Right. If you count by hours, we're closer. But Oregon generally has not stayed pace with lots of other states with regard to how many days and or hours we do instruction for kids. Okay, cuz other And so that that company's going to it's going to go out, you'll see it in the Oregonian, they're going to have a long conversation about it. And they're going to kind of leave it because the actual answer is, well, if you want to extend more days and and have kids go more, you're going to have to pay people more to do it. We build contracts based on the
038number of days that they work. They're going to leave that part out. It just seems to me that Cascade goes more days and longer days. We do. Right. So when I heard that, I was confused by that cuz I always feel like we're over and we're the the model of Stand for children, right? And and I'm I'm going to say it publicly right now. Stand for children's going to come out with this big article about that. I believe they do that so they can be a part of the process to get money to help make that happen. They're creating a problem for them to talk about. It's an issue. Right? And Oregon knows that. But the reality is, right? The only way to fix it in our system in the Oregon system is to pay
039our folks for more days. That's the only way to do it and they're and they're not interested in having that conversation. Other states go longer or they go year around. They don't take that many weeks off in the summer time. You know, they start earlier, they might end later. For Cascade as compared to Oregon districts, we are higher up with regard to the number of hours, which is why I can come to you on winter we have bad winter and we miss two or three days, it's not as important as say Portland public or even Salem because they are cutting the hours very closely. So, we go longer day by day and we go a few more days than others. Great. Okay. Interesting. Sorry about the confusion. >> Oh, yeah. No, it was me. I
040have a question. Yes, sir. What would you say and I know there's a big variable here, but what would you say would be an average number on how much we spend on a teacher per year? With with the salary with the like with all the stuff included, what is a teacher cost like middle of the road? Middle of the pack including salary and benefits? Yeah, all of it. Like when you say when we're deciding if we're going to keep that position or just let it slide, what is that number? So, our yeah, our first step is about 53, 54. Our last step is right around 100k. So, somewhere middle I'm assuming it's going to be 75. And that's all that's everything. >> No, that's just salary. >> That's just the salary. So, yeah, what would
041the total number Multiply that by 1.5. So, that's a that's about 110, 108, 09 total. Okay. We will for the first time next year for a teacher that is MA45, step 17, the most senior person we have with all the education they will cross the $100,000 mark for the 192 days that they work. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing because 25 years ago our teachers were way underpaid compared to the area. Ruth Ruth can testify to that. And using your that math, it's 150k after they do the benefits and the perks and all the other stuff. >> Yes. Yeah. I'm just picturing that $2 million mark in my head that we have to somehow come up with. So, you're talking 20 teachers, right? If you did it at teachers, but you're also talking
042administrators, classified, you're talking about four years. >> Well, yeah, okay, I'm just encompassing teachers. Yeah. Well, I I hear you. It's an easy way to to do the math, but you say that out loud, teachers are like, "Well, wait a minute." I'm not saying that to anybody. I'm not saying I love you all. Get rid of four of those crazy administrators, the problem would be solved. >> Right. I mean, I get it, but you try to find the balance, yeah, right? I mean, that's what I know that's the number >> is going to come to a fruition, so over time, unless they decide to figure out how to fix it. Anything else? >> Any other questions? All right. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. All right, going on, we've got high school principal's report. That'd be
043Mr. Rasmussen. Welcome. Thank you guys. First of all, congratulations, Ms. Taylor. Thank you. >> great to work with you all these years, and now in a new capacity. >> I know, something new for us to do. Very good. Very good. Um, the board report I put in front of you is pretty focused on the the one specific topic of the state requirement where we have to add the I think it's called the higher education and career pathway credit, okay? And so, at Cascade High School, we decided to call that next steps. Um, it's going to be a credit that we offer seniors um at the end of their second trimester. Um, the state has outlined 14 standards, and we have put in uh a document there for you. Basically, what we're going to do, we're
044going to offer it uh proficiency by credit or credit by proficiency, meaning it's not going to be class kids take. Throughout their high school career, kids will complete certain specific tasks, Um, um, whether there is a service project, whether it is their resume, whether it is a, uh, oh, a mock interview they do at some point in time, and we'll document those things. They'll have rubrics for each of those activities, and if the kid passes, um, we'll rate them on a rubric on a scale of one to four, one being doesn't meet, two means nearly, three means meet, and four is exceeds. Um, if the kid gets a three, we're going to give them a P. Um, and once they complete all the tasks and activities, if they're done at the end of their second
045trimester senior year, well, they'll get the credit. And so, we've designed that for you. That is roughly what it's going to look like. Um, we did not feel we could afford to create the class inside the students' schedule because that would take a teacher, um, to do that. I'd have to take away electives. I'd have to take away some shop classes or something to teach this, um, next steps class. Um, because we have our senior exit interview process, it's so robust, um, that already by itself met about six of those standards. So, we're like, "Hey, we're almost halfway home. If we can build in some other activities to make this happen." So, that's what we've done. That's what we have in front of you, um, and we're excited to, um, be able to offer that
046to our seniors next year. It's going to be a four-year tracking process. There's some complications like transfer students, what do you do with them when they come in? Um, we have a built-in twilight school every night from 3:15 to 5:00, um, Monday through Thursdays, and so, seniors can go and drop in there and complete some activities, um, and things. So, there is plenty of time. Um, students who are on IEPs and other out-resource based classes will be able to do a lot of this in those classes with their teachers and with support staff. So, um, we feel like we have a good plan going forward, and students will get a P or a a no pass on that on that transcript until they get all the things done. So, there won't be an F, and
047it won't be a grade letter. They won't be increasing their GPA through this class. It's just going to be a P or a no pass. So, does the no pass decrease their GPA? No. No, no, it doesn't. We're just We're just uh basically going to assign credit to the transcript when when they get there. And they will not walk across the stage until they get that credit assigned. Okay. That is a state requirement, and now it's part of our Cascade School Board requirement. In fact, we voted on it a year ago. Um uh updating our Cascade Board uh graduation requirements, and you guys approved it already. Um we just didn't call it next steps yet. We didn't We still know if that's the final word, but it's got to be something, and that long title
048was not going to work for us. So, um anyway, uh that's kind of where we're headed with that, and we're excited about the plan. We really think it's a good plan. Um it's going to keep our FTE. We do a lot of the great things well a lot of good things well. Um we're probably going to use a late start day in the fall and a late start day in the winter. Uh we're going to take instruction time cuz we have minutes. Um as Mr. Drill just told you, we have we're over on minutes. We're going to create some activities like we might have all sophomores take the pre-ACT um test some morning, and we might have seniors go off and do a senior project. Um we might have them come work with Olin. And
049if he's got some ditch that needs to be dug or something, we'll have them do that. Okay? Um we might have a We might have a mock interview arena schedule that we have taken some juniors to. So, it'll take some orchestration, but you know, late start days are freight trains anyway. Classes are 50 minutes long, and it's just go go go. Teachers don't love the day cuz it's just it it throws you off your off your game. So, taking one of those and doing something different, um something productive, something that's going to help students with their futures and also pour into their community as increasing their citizenship's is thing. So, um that's just kind of our our our draft right there. We It's going to change a little bit, but not a whole lot. That's
050going to be the basic structure. Our counseling department will be the ones ones responsible for uh tracking this credit in this class. Okay. So, Pete, so it starts next school year? The next year's seniors have to have this credit. Are they working at it now, though? We will go through in the fall and we'll be clipping off a bunch of things that they've already done. They've already done resumes. Um they've already done um One of the things is going through a YouScience um oh, self skills talents um uh inventory. They go online and they fill out and they get all kinds of feedback from it. That'll be one of the tasks. So, they've already done some of it. So, we'll we'll cross off at least probably half of it by when they walk through the
051door in August. And school starts August 31st this year, so here we go. Okay? You're the quick thing Oh, yeah, go ahead. No, um I want to ask you about the career fair. Yeah. So, it looks like there it's there's a bunch of folks coming to it for for businesses, AD industries, etc. and all 11th and 12th graders are going. Yep. Do we and maybe we talked about this last year, I apologize. Do we require our kids to talk to the people that are there? Do we require them to walk up and say anything to the folks that are vendors, let's call them? And I ask this because I go to shows Yeah. and the FFA kids often roll through it and there's certain FFA kids that walk up with hey, we have to ask
052questions to certain booths Mhm. and there's also kids running around like it's play day. And the kids that are asking questions, frankly, are doing themselves a service versus kids that are just Absolutely. Absolutely. So, I'm encouraging you if we're not to have some I don't know what class would require it to say, hey, here's classes, you have to go talk to three different people and ask X, Y, and Z. Well, next year one of the requirements for this class is going to be that. They're going to have to fill out some kind of a card and reflection sheet. They'll have to get so so signatures um from different industry folks um saying they talked to them and then now I have to go back and do some kind of a writing reflection piece on hey
053here's who they talked to here's what they did so this year we're still not there we're actually putting together kind of a passport thing for students they can earn prizes or things if they go talk to so many people and turn their card in and then they'll get drawn but next year it'll be part of their And and frankly as a vendor I appreciate when the people are coming up and and even it's funny okay that's fine we'll do it but it it's much better show than the kids that are just at play >> Absolutely absolutely and you know we we we appreciate the time for you guys coming out there the the industry people we know that it benefits you because you're going to find some great people that's the goal is that we
054have great high school students to to put in front of you but the reality is is yeah there're going to be some good and now that we're doing all kids we're going to get a few more not good And some of those kids might be intimidated to talk because their buddy doesn't think it's cool but if they have to hey I got to talk I'll just ask this guy Absolutely absolutely Good stuff The last little thing here is I I mentioned earlier this year that we have brought the Cougar Lair back okay we're going old school so we have a teacher Brian Bohannon this is the most recent edition the fourth this is the third edition the fourth edition is coming out um Thank you in a couple weeks so I can bring that one
055to you as well Brian Bohannon English teacher I was a journalism major in college teaches elective he said let's start the paper back up he said what was the paper called I go well it's called the Cougar Lair and we haven't ran it for at least 15 years I mean Zach were you running it when you were teaching here? Yep Were you the maybe the last guy? Yeah 15 years Were you the were you the There was one person after me Okay so it's probably about 15 years that we've had it so the kids did a great job it's self the beauty of it is self sustaining with the ads I mean I helped them pay for the first edition with ASB funds but after that it's self sustaining with with advertisements and people board
056than happy. >> is it going to be printed? Uh he doesn't know exactly, but the fourth edition's coming out. He's hoping for um between five and six a year. His goal is two two per trimester, but I'm not quite sure he could pull that off. Um So anyway, it's it's a great great paper. The kids wrote wrote it well, so it's good stuff. >> idea what it costs to run each one of these each each set? >> Uh I think he ran a thousand of those, and I think it cost about 800 bucks. Okay. We're using the Albany Democrat-Herald. Um they aren't printing as many papers, and so they're looking for side jobs like this to keep their presses running. And so they're happy. Um I hope they keep staying in business, because otherwise we're
057going to find a new printer. Um You can go copy or you know, that kind of thing, and but it's just not the same as newsprint. I mean, come on. >> Right. The feel, the smell, the feel. >> Westlund? I'm not so sure. Anyway. >> It's good to Perfect. Any other questions? Question? No. All right. >> Yeah, I do. Thank you. >> Thanks, guys. Thank you, Mr. Rasmussen. All right. High school athletic director's report, Mr. Hedrick. Yes. Thank you, and welcome. Thank you. Well, thank you for having me today. Um athletics and extracurricular activities are kind of like what parents use cars and driver's license and cell phone time to get kids to do the things they don't want to do in order to achieve the things they want to do. And we have a
058very successful extracurricular program here at at Cascade High School. Um winter uh sports, our girls basketball team finished fourth in the state, and their GPA was a 3.77 as a team. Boys wrestling, we're fourth in state, and their GPA was a 3.25. Cheer was third in state, and their GPA was a 3.76. So we look at that and we say, and I just came from the ninth grade orientation and said, "Our best athletes are our best academic kids." Okay? And and we pride ourselves in that. Okay? And that's a big deal with this. We have over 250 kids right now participating in extracurricular activities. Mainly sports. We also have band and others that are there, too. So, that is an additional 50 kids. So, it's about 300 kids that are doing stuff after school. Um
059an area that has been new to me is with this year, we have 10 varsity sports that we offer in the spring. Two is um boys volleyball and girls flag football. And after hearing the report on finances, we absorbed those two sports into our current budget. So, we're going to make it happen. Okay? As long as I'm here, we're going to make it happen. It's tight, but we're going to make that happen. Um I have a little note here that I would like uh to introduce to the board is we've got a bond coming up. And and hopefully that passes, and if it does, I would ask you to put together a group to have a comprehensive plan of our outside facilities. Not only for competitive uh advantages, but for safety as well. We have
060this beautiful complex here. I mean, I've been your AD for a short time, and I've been your football coach. I don't know who does what. I don't know who runs what. Okay? And who's it So, we got to have an idea on that. And if we should pass and, you know, we have maybe X number of dollars, it'll go into a new track. Where do we strategically place that track? Okay? You know, we've got a stadium, we've got a track, you know, at some point in time it all has to come to an epicenter so we can use it all in its best and most efficient ways. And uh and I think we have the people and we have the community to do that, but I would really encourage us. We have got to pass
061the bond first, I get that. But if we do, let's spend every single dime wisely and not come back 20 years from now and go, "Well, shoot, we should have ran some conduit." Or we should have done this. You know, once that track goes in, you're not going to do much to the middle of it, okay? Cuz it just doesn't happen. So, I would really ask us to do that and go there. In closing, before I get to questions, 7th of December, we had our our football awards dessert and following that, I met with the captains. And this is the side note, so forgive me, but I met with the captains. And the captains said, "Coach, why did you come to Cascade?" And how did you get here? And I said, "Well, there was a
062gentleman that I've known for quite some time that asked me to come here." And they said, "He did?" And I said, "Yes." And they said, "Well, we want to we want to honor him then." And so, they yesterday, we packed the auditorium and the kids got their championship rings. And they said, "We will take our camp money and buy Mr. Drill a ring." So, he's got a daughter that's not real secretive. And she told me his ring size. And Anyway, I doubt that you'll ever wear it, but it's going to be a nice keepsake by your Take a look at it cuz it's pretty daunting. It's pretty daunting. You're like one of those guys in there. Thank you very much. Yeah, absolutely. While he's opening, is there any questions that you may have? I'm so
063over I'm emotional about this, but I'm interested in the girls uh football, how that's going. It it is going really really well. We You obviously it's a seven on seven. IT'S HUGE. PUT IT ON YOUR THUMB, BUD. YEAH. We got to fix that. It does come with a lifetime warranty on that sizing. Okay. Yeah. >> Okay. Just so you know, this this young lady named Faith said you were a 13 size and I thought, "My goodness, that's a big finger." So, I don't know what she was talking about. A shoe? Shoe? >> Yeah. Got it. Got it. Thank you very much. >> Anyway, real quick question on the flag football. Yeah, we have about 11 girls right now playing. It's a seven-on-seven. They play just locally here. Um we will not host a home event
064this year just because of all of our fields are in use and and we'll pay for some things, but we go and and uh they have one game under their belt and they won and they're fired up and All right. That's wonderful. and you know, you'll have other coaches in the spring ask us, "Well, we've already got so much." My goal is if there's something out there kids want to do, let's do it. It's I'd much rather have them doing that than other things that could be out there. So, they're having a good time. Yeah. Well, that's my report. Thank you for having me and any other questions? No? Keep up the great work. >> Well, thank you, Sean. Thank you. >> You're blinding me over there. You can put that Thank you so much.
065That was so nice. Thank you. All right, moving on is 5E Junior High Principal's Report. Ms. LaDay, welcome. Good evening. I'm tall. Yeah, I know these tall guys. >> Or I'm just not. That's part of it. Um I wanted to talk a about a few things. Um last week we took over 200 of our sixth grade students to outdoor school. The weather held. It was amazing. Um two of the kiddos included were our life skills kids and I have to say thank you to Kathleen Johnson cuz she enabled one of the instructional assistants to go up the whole time and be a support to those kids. One came back early every day, but the other one stayed the whole entire time. So, it was a great experience and for those kids to be able to
066be there and be part of it the whole time is great. So, I truly appreciate it. >> staying the night. They come back >> They are not. Um Camp Tadmor lost some um uh cabins a couple of years ago in the ice storm and everything. I think they've rebuilt, but because we are so big, they don't have a facility big enough to house you know, cuz it most of us went when the cabins were there and the cabins are not big enough to house as many kiddos as we have without kids on the floor. So, and they don't have the boys used to be in one set of cabins and the girls were in another set. Well, pretty well they we would need all the cabins for one gender and then some other groups, I
067don't know, in the yurts or whatever it would be or teepees, I don't know. So, but it needless to say they really are getting a full meal deal. They're doing the whole thing as much as possible without staying the night and towards the end of, you know, pre-COVID we were losing a lot more kiddos who hadn't ever stayed the night elsewhere. So, staying the night was a tricky and a lot of them would prefer not to go to outdoor school versus um stay the night. So, this is kind of we get almost every single kid to stay the whole week. We might lose one or two to illness, but for the most part they're going. I mean, 200 of our 210, that was pretty great. And three of them had planned trips, so one went
068to Mexico and a couple others had trips planned, so it is what it is. Um Pentagames quick update, our seventh graders got third. Um we totally rocked the candy estimations. We came home with all three jars of candy. Our kiddos are great at guessing how much candy is in the pot, so that was fabulous. And so that was a good opportunity. We had to multiple students get second to fifth place, so that was neat. Um very few of them competed last year, so it was an all new experience for most of our kids. One of our eighth grade teams, um you would never see those three kids sitting at a table together ever and they worked together amazingly well and so that was super great to see. Um extracurricular, we have 125 student athletes participating
069in track right now and so you can imagine how full it is with high school and junior high all out there running and awaiting being, you know, hit by a shot put or javelin or anything and how they coordinate all of that is pretty impressive. And last of all, we are gearing up for the end of the year. If any of you are bored next Friday, we are having our seventh and eighth grade after school dance. So, yes, if you have nothing better to do, we can always use a chaperone or somebody to help sell supplies or snacks to kiddos. Um, I'm meeting with parents tomorrow night cuz promotion and 8th grade dance or party is coming up. Talent show is going to be gearing up in the middle of May and then we have
070our end of the year trip. So, it's crazy how fast it's come and we're going to be in full swing the next few weeks. So, buckle up. Here we go. Wow, that's a lot. Yes. Any questions? Do the when the the last day of school, 7th and 8th grade still go together to 8th grade doesn't have school. Oh, that's right. Yeah, 8th graders after promotion, they're done. So, 7th graders this year, um, the zoo offers a great deal to schools. I think it's $8 a student to get to go up and it's amazing how many Cascade kids have never been to the zoo. How many kids have never been to the coast. So, it's a, you know, um, it's an impressive opportunity and it's a great deal for our kiddos to get. >> to the
071zoo The 8th Our soon-to-be 8th graders will go to the zoo and 6th graders, um, are going to go to the aquatic park in North Clackamas. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, good. So, it's a good opportunity. >> Yeah. So, I've got a question for you. Yeah. You you glossed over my favorite subject, state testing. Yeah. What did we gain and learn from last year's testing and what do we expect or hope to gain from this year's? Um, Why do we do it? We get to do it because the state says we get to. >> All right. Um, I do think we learn where there are holes. What are areas that we need to beef up as a staff? We realized last year that our students need more, um, multiplication facts because if you don't know your
072foundation in those, every other section of math is difficult. So, that's an area that we've beefed up. So, it'll be interesting to see our numbers in computation better because if kids aren't spending so much time trying to figure out what's 7 * 8, then maybe they can actually focus on how to do the algebraic component. Um it's just really finding out I'm noticing that we are able to push kids more than we were. We after COVID we took a big hit. Kids took a huge backward slide and I feel like we're getting finally to where we were pre-COVID state academic wise where kids were in the book, you know, how much text or whatever content that they'd covered. So I think there are those things. Um I think personally that school is so much harder
073for students than when we were back in the day. When we were reading a textbook, you know, you'd get asked a question, you know, describe Charlotte. Well, she was a nice spider. Now it's go back and prove where in the text does it show that she was a nice spider and we're asking our third graders to do this all the way up. So kids are having to be so much more academically minded and deliberate on their decision-making, you know. So I do think we're pushing our kids for the better and I like that the state is showing that what our teachers here at Cascade are doing is good stuff. Compared to the rest of the state, our kids are rocking it. So we're working hard. Our kids are pushing and they're capable of doing it
074too, you know. You might have to give them an incentive of an ice cream bar to prove it, but I'll give them that ice cream bar to show that you guys really are smart and capable and show who you truly are. So let me go back. So last year the state testing showed that we were deficient in multiplication. Correct. How long does it take us to get that information back from the state showing us where our deficiencies are and then how long does it take us to pivot and change what we're doing to address that? Um this year this last summer or end of testing we got our results back fairly quickly which was nice to see. >> the school year started again in September, we knew where we were deficient from the test that
075we did in April. And then Brian Dyer did a great job. He brought my all my different content area teams together on a specific day. Okay, where are we? What do we need to do to pivot as a whole entire group? So, it's not what just one teacher making the pivot, it's the whole team of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. What do we What do 6th grade teachers need to do to help support 7th and 8th grade better? >> And so, that would be this just looking in the rearview mirror. When When did we implement those changes? Were they Were they implemented effective in September to start No, it was pro Well, we were looking at where our deficiencies were already, but then the test information really pinpointed it. Here's really where our deficits are.
076Right. So, um we started making major changes. We were hitting those, you know, what we were Here's what we're thinking we need to aim at, but then it was probably October and November that we really started, you know, lining up our focus. Okay. And then, you know, this fall, once we get our information, we'll look and see how did we do. And okay, we hit it, great. Now what? Or are we not as good? We got to keep going to see where we need to go next. So. So, what I think I'm hearing you saying is we should do more state testing. No. I No, I appreciate it. Thank you. I wish they weren't as long, and it I It makes me sad cuz I feel like we spend an awful lot of days doing
077them instead of studying content. >> of testing, and I just I'm just curious of why we do it and and what are we gaining from it. So, thank you. I appreciate that. >> Yeah. Wonderful. Thank you. >> Anybody else? All right, moving on. 5F, Amsville Elementary Assistant Principal's Report, Ms. Mitchell. Welcome. Thank you. Congratulations, speakers. Nice to have you. >> Thanks, Jody. Um so, I you know, following in April when I present, I don't have We're in the middle of between like data um collection, so I don't have any new academic data to show you. Um my partners get to share that with their reports leading up to this month. So, I get to share with you some of the fun things we do to engage our families, which is what I share with you.
078We had our pre-K night, which was a big success. We had over 40 families joining us, and it was really nice to see our incoming kinders and meet the parents and give them the information they need. We have registration coming up on the 1st of May. We have math and lit night coming up that our teachers are prepping for and getting activities and everything set up for. And then, Katie Ranzoni worked with a grant and one of our families, Parsons Construction, to set up our Zen Den in our three five building, which is a space for kids to be able to go and de-escalate and take a break when they are struggling to regulate their emotions. Okay. So, do you have any questions? >> I do. Okay, the math and lit night, is that K
079through five? Yeah. Everybody participates, and all of our teachers are there, and they divide up, and they all set up activities. So, it's a great time for teachers and parents to connect and in their classroom. No, it's throughout No, it's usually throughout like We kind of have it set up in the cafeteria, down the hallways of our K2 building. So, all in the open common areas. And so, people and they usually have some sort of like map or passport of some kind that sort of directs them around, so they know what their where the stations are, and they're kind of trying to reach a goal. That's a great idea. So, give me some details on the Zen Den. How many kids total are using that a year? How many you know, how many a day?
080What Well, it's just brand new. Like, we've had it what, two weeks now? Completed. So, I don't have numbers like that for you cuz we've just now started tracking. >> two years. Yeah, you're right. Past two weeks. Yeah, that's a little hard to get. Okay. Yeah. So, um Sorry, that was The past two years we've been trying to build this and get it together, and Katie was able to get a grant, and then with a family of ours, they donated some labor and materials and and got it set up, and it looks very cool. Like, you know, if you can't find any of our teachers, that might be where they're at. It's a really cool space. Um and we just set up a log, so we can track who's accessing it and how often. So.
081>> Okay. Okay. And is there is there someone in there with students when they go in there? Is it just an open space that they can do what they want? No. The The requirement is they have to be with an adult. So, um in our K2 building, we have a reset room that has been serving most of our building for several years now, but um we were finding that our 3-5 students, it was a long trek for them to go there and back, and we were losing a lot of time. Um and we really wanted to set up a space in our 3-5 building, but we don't have the staffing to man it all day. So, we have all of us administrators will take kids when they show up for a break or a teacher
082calls or sends them down to the office or um our guidance counselors will also take them um school counselors, so. And then they also have set up each so uh Mrs. Della Marta and Mr. Nelson have each set up like a I think it's 30 minutes um of a block of time during the day. One of them's in the morning, one in the afternoon that they're just there. Okay. So, um they just kind of work from that space. And then they're also both doing um some of their um social skills groups in that space. Yeah. Okay. Nice. Jody, what kind of things are in the Zen Den for the for kids to access? Yeah. Um so, we have some really cool lighting, so it's a really kind of relaxed lighting environment. We have some water
083features. We have different lighting features. There's a bunch of cushion, really cozy chairs. There's weighted um lap um kind of like stuffed animal things. There's a lot of different fidgets. Um we have these swing um cocoon things that kids can sit in, and um just a variety of like tactile things to do. And then we also have some like problem-solving sheets and things that we can work through with kids if they need that. Sounds good. Nice. Okay. Right. Any other questions? Wonderful. Thank you. very much. it. >> Moving on is 5G communication director's report. Mr. Cascella, I always mess up your last name. I apologize. >> You're not the only one. >> Oh, shocking. Yes. Thank you all board members for being here. This is my fourth year here at Cascade and I um love
084getting the chance to work in a very positive district and I know I say that a lot, but an example that I have is 2 weeks ago uh I was at the annual conference for people who do my job across the state, so different communications people from all different districts. And people watch our social media feed and they come and they're like, "You got cool stuff." And they'll they'll give me stories of things that they see that they appreciate and that just recognizes the good work that our staff is doing for our students and it's a really a joy to be able to communicate that. So, there's kind of this baseline level where I'm just trying to consistently over and over tell the good stories of what's going on and um and then when you
085think of something like a bond, which is the other thing I've been working a lot on, how do you how do you translate kind of good stories into hopefully people voting to support a bond. And what the what the science says in people in in my field and with the consultants we're working with is you do everything you can to figure out how to get the seven or nine touches that will help people know what's going on. And so that's what that's the plan that we have developed and been working on for months and implementing. So, there's the one side of my brain that goes everything we have control over I feel like we're doing really well cuz we're on track to get all those things in place. And then there's all these things we
086don't have control over like world events and the economy and you know, somebody with an upset upset stomach when it's time to vote, you know. Um so, it's it's that is part that's a little bit nerve-racking, but I feel really good about the things that we have control over in the way that we're getting those out. So, I tried to just have that in my written report. On the front side of this with the graph like this is just that base level of consistently telling the good stories um over the four years, and what we can see is that we've just had a huge increase in the amount of people who are seeing our stuff. So, that was the baseline level that helps us be able then to do the specific things to reach out
087to other community members. Um just want to highlight two things and then be open for any questions that you have. Um we um worked really hard to get a reporter from the Statesman Journal to get um something a story in the paper for us which is another way to get to people who are not connected to our schools. The other thing that we are doing uh is mailing out things. We've sent two out to every home in the district. We'll have one more that will is scheduled to arrive about when ballots do so that people will see it. I'm going to give you a copy of those that you can have with him with you on your own. And then the third thing that we're doing to reach people who aren't connected to the schools
088is we've purchased um location-targeted ads on Facebook and YouTube so that they will see um our stuff between now and 5 weeks from tomorrow on election day we should hit everybody in the district multiple times. Uh and that's um that's a lot of what we're working on. So, I'll stop there and see if you have any questions and then I'd love to just hand out I've got um these are the mailings that have gone home so far that I should have a copy for. And I'm just going to give you several of these pocket cards because the biggest thing that's going to help is to hand these out, get information out, direct people to the website which they can find with the QR code here on the back. Um and that just has all the
089information of what's out there. And then encourage people you know to vote. So, Greg, do you on the the media sites, are are you getting feedback from folks that are seeing this as a positive? Is it negative? Is it What's the feedback people are saying on this? On the bond? Yeah. Specifically? Yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah. We We have only had on our stuff, I don't I don't I'm not able to monitor every kind of Facebook group, whatever. But on our stuff, we've only had one sort of negative comment, and that was you know, when we posted the thing that said, "Taxes are maintained The tax rate's maintained to stay the same." There was a comment that said, "Well, yeah, but your assessed value goes up every year, so your taxes go up every year." True,
090but that's that's not a huge Right. negative kind of thing. And we're seeing a lot of folks talking about they're grateful for the work that Cascade is doing and let's figure out how to support our schools. Right. Okay. So, the feedback has been positive Yeah. primarily, which is great. Yeah. Okay. Okay. All right. So, what is your opinion? Is what else Is there other steps we could have should have need to be doing at this point? Um I think what we need to be doing at this point is the the one-to-one connections. Um we've We've got signs up. We've got media out. We've We've got a plan to get all the information out there, and so now it's that personal um "Hey, do you have any questions about this? Do you know about this?" Um
091and then, you know, making sure people get out and turn that ballot in is going to be the biggest thing. >> Right. Okay. Okay. Did you get any like yard signs? Like I could take one and go put in front of my >> a yard. Um So, here's what we have. We have There There's The staff will know this. Like, uh my job is to make sure we follow the law for when we're in the school district. So, the school district itself can only inform about the bond. We can't say vote yes. Um people can do that outside of stuff. So, um what we have done is not done yard signs on the informational stuff because we feel like that would not be hugely effective when we have the other ways we're getting information out.
092My understanding is that there is a pack in place and that they are working on getting signs to be able to distribute to the houses, but that would be a separate discussion from the school. I did notice that the big signs in front of the schools were informational and didn't say anything about how to vote. They were influencing my vote. They just wanted to inform me. Yes, I I I yeah. I have I think I've been a little frustrating cuz there been a couple posts that our staff has made and I'm like, "Hey, we need to change that to this to make sure that we're following the law." So But I will say as well to our staff that when you're not on your job, feel free to say whatever you would like. I see.
093All right, wonderful. Thank you. Well, thank you for what you've done on this. It's been a lot of work and everything you've done has been very appreciated. And I'm super glad that our new board member was a part of our long-range planning group all the way through. So thank you. It that was a privilege. Thank you. And I really like these pocket cards, by the way. They are Take some. Give it out. Yes. Yeah, Brett, to to be in a place where we're like look, your taxes aren't going to go up. They're going to stay the same. And in the process, one quarter of the money is going to come straight from the state. It's just kind of hard to If you find somebody that's against it, I I mean, I guess the answer is
094you're going to vote no no matter what. But Yeah, no, I hear you. I hope for a better time. All right. Wonderful. Again, thank you, Greg, for what you do. I appreciate it. All right, discussion and communication. Informational items, 7A, retirements. Mr. Weeks, good evening. All right, good evening. We are at that time of year where you'll probably see a lot of me for retirements, resignations, and hiring. We just have one here this evening that kind of kicks off the season for us. It's actually a resignation retirement for us. Uh Mrs. Gross has let us know that she will not return uh under the circumstance of anything. So, we are announcing to the board to accept that resignation here this evening. Wonderful. Any questions, anything for Mr. Weeks on that? No. All right, then moving
095on, we've got 7B, which is the coach advisor list, Mr. Weeks. Talked a little bit about all the engagement that students are doing with the schools already in front of you is that advisory list that they are participating in. There's two highlights on there for you. They're the varsity uh baseball assistant coaches. Last month we came and we had those vacant. We're bringing you those titles here tonight and those individuals coaching as assistants. All right. Any questions on that? And a comment you made, you're always welcome up here in front of us. So, we enjoy having you. >> Yes. Good. Thanks, Mr. Weeks. Appreciate it. 7C is statement of economic interest. Yep. So, just making sure that uh you have filled out your statement of economic interest if you can. If you haven't, you have
096until Wednesday. Then the state starts asking questions. So, um and we're trying to make sure if you need any help with that, and I can't remember if Patty, since she started, I don't think she needs to. I was going to say, do I have one day to get something done? I I'm used to paperwork, but that's a little heavy. >> okay. Well, we'll Maybe we can try to do a little check-in. We'll get a hold of you tomorrow. But, we'll make sure that everybody gets that in. If you have any questions, if you're not sure you did it, check in, call tomorrow. I'll check in with you. I'll I'll check with Lisa and Jennifer at the end of tomorrow because then it's Wednesday, and we want to get everybody taken care of. I think for
097those of you who have done it, it takes all about 2 minutes once you get in there. Or less. Or less. So, won't take long. Required by law. The five of you, myself, and um our finance uh position. So, we'll we'll take care of it. >> sound as complex as the guardianship reports. I might be able to do it. Exactly. Okay. All right. Next we've got public comment and I understand that we have no public comment. Mr. Board Chair, could I add one thing to that information item? This is This is Spencer. I wanted to share with you as my fellow board members. I recently got approved to be a substitute at Cascade High School. And I didn't I didn't want to share it until it was official, but I am now officially allowed to
098be a substitute teacher. I have a restricted TSPC license, so I can do up to 10 days in a row. And I wanted to share that with you all and give you the opportunity to say, "Please don't do that." or but or come talk to me privately if you have concerns about it. I went through the process and got approved. And I'm terrified about the opportunity, but I'm looking forward to the chance when I get to be a substitute teacher in the junior high. I think that will give you a whole new perspective. Spencer, my my one question, this is Darren, my one question is that the ethics commission is all good to go. I just want to make sure you're all good to go. I am Thank you for that, Mr. Drill. I talked
099with with Lisa Freely and had a discussion with her about the the appropriateness of it and she gave gave me some counsel on that, but I actually am would be employed by a staffing agency, Edustaff, which is the agency who works for us. Technically not an district employee. And this is really more contingent on my son's willingness to allow me to come to his school during the day. If he tells me to knock it off, I'll stop. But I I I like you said, Mr. Chair, I I think give me a unique opportunity and perspective on what our wonderful staff do on a day-to-day basis. Nice. Excellent. Thank you. And and just for clarification, I think he he said it there because the substitutes all run through a staffing group now, right? And they don't
100work for the district, which is why you can do that. Okay. All right. Correct. Thank you, Spencer. Okay, we have no resolutions, right? No resolutions. Right. The only one we did already. Okay, future agenda items, Mr. Drill. Yeah, so next month is our budget meeting. Our budget group and the board member group will be together. We'll go through the budget. We'll have that ready to go for you. Miss We're we're working on that right now. William is and his team along with Jay and myself and the directors and principals are talking about different parts of it in the next few weeks. We will get that put together. You will see about 3 to 5 days before we get there a copy. You can come in and get a copy if you want to. Ask any
101questions, but we will be ready to go with that. Generally, what happens is we have that meeting. If you need to have more than one meeting, we will reschedule that. But what we've done in the past years is have the one meeting and then we open it up again. We get it passed and we open it again in June while we're doing the regular board meeting. So that's what we've done in the past over the next couple of 60 days. We have to have a budget in place by the end of June by law. I miss anything? All right. What's that? Yes, so Miss Taylor is now on your board. >> So we we will have a budget committee opening and I can we can we can check in I can check in with you
102on that as we go. All right. That's all I got. >> Anything else, anybody? No? No, Mr. Drill. All right, thanks everybody. Meeting adjourned.