001We will call the meeting to order. No. >> Yes, I do. And let's all rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I 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. >> Okay. Good evening everyone. We have a guest list over here. Has anyone not signed the guest list? If you haven't, please do so. Thank you. All right. Opening statement. The regular session of the Cascade School District Board of Directors will now convene in the district office boardroom and via Zoom. The laws governing boards of education require that their work be done where the public can observe their actions. Please remember that this is the board's meeting for the public to observe. Others
002may participate only with the board approval. Okay, moving on. We've got the approval of the minutes of the Jan 1226 executive session and regular meeting and minutes and the February 3rd 26 special session and executive session minutes. >> I move to approve the January 12th, 2026 exe executive session and regular meeting and minutes and February 3rd, 2026 special session and executive session minutes. I second. >> It's been moved and seconded to approve the minutes. Any discussion? >> Nope. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. >> Motion carries. >> Number three, prioritize the agenda. Mr. Drill. I >> think we can go right down the list. >> All right. First up, superintendent report. Mr. Drill. And before you start your report, Mr. Drill, I have a a question. Yes,
003sir. And I think I forgot this last month, >> but we had been having a report yearly of the full-time equivalent to student ratio. >> And I thought that was reported every January to the board. >> Well, I have it in here. The student classroom ratio, >> the well, the student how many students total versus how many full-time equivalent. >> We've been doing that every year for the past maybe three years now. And I thought it was always on January that we got that report >> and I think we forgot it in January and I'd like to make that a annual report that we get every January automatically just >> okay >> seeing however many students there are that day by how many full-time staff we have on the payroll. >> Right. And I'd like
004to see frankly if we could get it for the last few years also just for reference so we could see how many did we have five years ago, four years ago, three years ago, two and now. >> Okay. We uh I believe we gave it to you I I believe we gave it to you last year. >> In January? >> Yeah. Was it January? >> I believe it was January. >> We'd have to check. We're I'm I'm looking over at my right-hand person that can tell me yes or no. She says we have to check >> and then we can do it for this year. It might be more difficult to go back back in time, but we can pull some HR records and see. >> Well, and we have I think we we reported
005on it last January. So, if nothing else, if we could just grab those numbers from last January just as a hey, here's what we looked at last January. Here's this one. But it'd be really nice to see that every January and see maybe like a 5year role, right? >> Or make it into a 10ear just so >> the board we can all see are we are while we're gaining in students, how is that correlating to a gain in employment or going down? Just what is that number? because I believe I believe the ratio was 7.9 or 8.4 last year is one of those two. >> Okay. >> Meaning for every employee we had I think it was 8.4 students. >> We can do that. >> We'll take a look. It's it's not it won't be
006easy to it will be easy to get, >> right? It's easy to figure out but again it's 79 or 84 is one of those. >> If I remember right, we had a little bit of conversation about you know what does that really mean, >> right? because you know how how do I how does my one FTE truly affect uh what happens in the classroom? >> I understand but we have it's just a number. It's just a number and I I I want to see that and and it'd be nice to see how that es and flows a little bit as as time goes on. Okay. >> But if we could make that a standard >> January >> can do >> item that we talk about every January. >> Yep. >> Awesome. >> Absolutely. Can do.
007>> Now we're ready for your >> All right. Got it. See, I got my questions before I even get started. That's good. That's good. Uh, good evening everybody. Welcome back uh to February. I can't believe we are working our way through the winter season um and getting oursel closer and closer to spring. So, um hopefully next month we'll be able to smell some uh fresh cut grass and be out for spring sports and all that kind of craziness. So, we'll we'll get there. Uh in my report I have for you uh again, we monitor uh how many kids are in each building. Uh this is that time of year where I say to you, how are we doing as as compared to a year ago in each building. So Brett, what Brett was asking for
008is just a little bit different. This is in each building. Right now we are right around 30 more students this year than we were last year. Um and uh the bulk of those increases are at Almsville and the high school. So and those you know shift from year to year about where different different buildings are higher or lower. Uh we have shut off any um additional uh interd district transfers. Uh we still have some some um people on a waiting list, but they are um they've been let let known that they can go ahead and apply for next year and we go through that process the same way every year. So we've been we've been getting ready for that in the spring. I'm sure people are already starting to call for next year. We'll go
009through that process. As you're aware, the legisl legislature is back in session. Um, probably the best news last week was that the February quarterly forecast came out. It was not uh a horrific forecast. Uh, slightly uh better, I think, than what most people had anticipated. Um, instead of uh the state being 700 million in the hole, they're only like 6 550 in the hole now. So, um, that's what what that really does for us is that it it says to school districts, you do not need to cut something this year, right now. So, I think I think for most school districts that was helpful. Um, obviously our budgets will be uh harder to figure out for for 26 27 and 2728, but uh that is that is helpful right now. We're always paying attention uh
010to what the legislature does. It's only 35 days, but I think I was told the other day that like 45 bills dealing with education have already popped up. Um that's always fun. So you never quite know exactly what comes out of that, but um our uh our lobbyists monitor that. They're tracking for us. So far so good about you know you you worry about losing money but you also losing worry that there might be a bill that gets passed that suddenly you have to do something and it's an unfunded mandate. They didn't give or provide dollars to help us with that process. So um doesn't mean they weren't good ideas. It just means man they didn't give us money to handle that. So we're hopeful that doesn't c take place. And then finally, I would
011just like to say thank you. I I said thank you to the administrators uh earlier today at our all admin meeting, but um it is unusual to be gone for a couple of months and um things around here um have been running really pretty well. So, uh really appreciate that. People spend a lot of time working. Lots of people just do their job, get it done. They care about kids. They could care less whether or not the superintendent was around. uh what they really cared about was making sure that kids got what they needed to have happen. And that's that's that's our goal, right? That's our goal. So, uh really want to say thank you to each and every person that works at Cascade just just putting their head down and getting things done. Any
012questions? >> Any question? So, I did see on the news that Salem Kaiser was looking at their budget shortfalls. Was that before or after this latest economic? >> I think it's probably a little of both. I mean, I'm not going to give you a straight answer on that one because I'm sure that they had some plans. I got somebody sitting right here probably knows more about it than I do. Um, I got some plans. Sorry, my friend. Um, I know that there were plans to talk about how do you tighten budgets particularly with what we see as forecasting coming and I know their superintendent is is really good at taking a look at things like that, particularly for a district that size. Um, that that looks different than how we handle it. So, they are
013talking about that when the outcome of of February 4th came out and it maybe it didn't go as well as some people wanted. Um, I'm sure that they had to re reconfigure what that number is going to be. I believe that larger districts really have a harder time with that because larger districts means you're live in a a bigger metropolitan area and costs are more costs are higher and there's higher expectations particularly with their association. So, >> um, you watch them, you watch Portland, you watch Bend, you watch Hillsboro, uh, even Medford's going through some issues at the moment. Um, I I I just think that's one of those conversations that, um, what we need to be able to have in our checkbooks to to manage our economy personally is not what is matching with
014school districts, particularly when 70% of your funding comes from the from the state. The 30% that comes from the feds has shrunk. I mean, there's just less. Um so um one bit of good news was that at the federal level they did pass a budget that allowed for title programs and other programs to be held flatunded and that's better news than what we were told three or four months ago. So um that's that's good news but you know good news of flat funding means that you know if you if you provide anybody more money >> right >> that means you have less and uh 80 84 and a half 85% of our budget is in salaries and benefits >> right. No, it just seems like it's not a good indicator when they're struggling based on
015that. So, understood. Right. >> Lastly, >> welcome back. >> Thank you. >> Very happy to have you back. I know he's not here tonight, but I can't thank Mr. Weeks enough for what he did in the time you were out, but I appreciate your cooperation and your willingness to help us get through this from um you know, those are the cards we had to play. So, I appreciate everything you did in that. >> Thank you. It had to be done and uh whether it's me or anybody else, that's what we had to do. >> We had to do it whether we like it or not. So, anyway, welcome back. Happy to have you. >> Appreciate it. >> Anything else for Mr. Drill? No. Wonderful. Thank you, Mr. Drill. Next, we've got director of finance report,
016Mr. Wong. Welcome. >> Good evening. As of uh January 2026, the district's physical position remains stable and on track with our adopted budget. And our total revenue is at 70% of our budget which is consistent with our historical patents. And state revenue is performing slightly ahead of last year because we have a little growth in enrollment. And um on the expenditure side, we've spent 44% of our total budget which is slightly below last year's January is about 46%. Um salary and benefits costs are higher. It's expected and budgeted. though uh all the other spendings are remain well controlled overall there's no finance uh physical concerns and the district remains uh in this physical year remains a very sound financial position um and you see uh all my charts and numbers in the bracket any questions
017>> they're looking >> no I don't have any questions for it unfortunately but I do want to say thank you for what you do and I love the graphs that you make. Those are fabulous. Thank you for doing that. >> Absolutely. >> And I appreciate the the financial data that you bring us and keep us informed of. Much appreciated. And as we continue into this uncharted territory with um the budgets to come, that's going to be even more and more important as we go forward. So, thank you for what you do. >> Yes, sir. Thank you. >> It's noticed and it's appreciated. >> Thank you very much, John. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Any other questions? >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Director of Human Resources report, Mr. weeks for Mr. Drill.
018Pardon, Mr. Drill for Mr. Weeks. >> So, his reports there um I really felt like he like you said earlier um had to do a couple of different jobs here the last uh couple of months. Um Jay and I were together um talking on the phone on a regular basis. Appreciate that ability of you guys to allow that to happen. Uh and I appreciate that uh a an awful lot. Excuse me. Okay. Um he wanted to make sure that um you were aware of uh people in this office, how much harder they how hard they worked to make sure it happened. Lisa Sherman, Jennifer, right here with you. Tamara Nixon uh just picked up and handled a whole so many different uh pieces of the process and uh that has allowed Jay to still get
019out, talk with our administrators, talk with some staff. He's talking with our association presidents on a regular basis. Uh trying to cut things off at the past, anything that pops up and did a lot of work here helping me out with regard to the calendar that you'll see a little later tonight for next year. So you have any other questions, he said please feel free to reach out to him. Uh if you've got questions for me, I can take them back to him at this time. >> I don't have a question. Maybe more of a comment on his report. He talked about the the maintenance department creating the work order system. And frankly, that felt like it it it felt like a red light. It's a very proactive thing to do. I'm sure it was
020a bottleneck issue, but the fact that they're just saying, "Hey, there's got to be a better way. Let's see if we can do it more efficiently." I think that's just fabulous. >> Well, >> I'm sure it'll change as we go through time, you know, it'll evolve. >> It's it I think it is better. Olan's here tonight. Maybe he can say yes or no. Um, but the reality of it is is that between that and the fact we finally got around to getting these guys phones. Um, that was probably a much better way for us to get some more instant responses and success to what's happening. So would you agree? >> I would agree. It's been super helpful. Um there's tweaks that you know suggestions that we're going to bring. >> Work in progress. >> Yeah.
021But it's it's nice. It keeps us organized and it also helps us be accountable. So you know, >> right? Accountable and efficiency it sounds like. Yeah. >> Yeah. No, I'm really happy to see it. >> Wonderful. And I just seeing that that was put in place again. It just felt like it was a a proactive move. I'm sure it was reactive because of everybody yelling, but the fact that it's being done is a good thing. Yeah, great. >> Well, suggest it strongly. Good. Thank you for that. Any any questions for Mr. Drill? >> Nope. Dynamite. Thank you, Mr. Drill. >> Yep. >> Um, >> thanks Olen. >> We are on to director of special services report, Miss Johnson. Welcome. >> Welcome. I mean, thank you. Uh, thank you guys for being here. Um, I don't
022know. I got distracted by this in my face. Um, thank you guys for being here. you have my report in front of you. Um, I want to give you the opportunity to ask questions and then I want to highlight some of my team. >> Mine's not opening. >> I don't think >> you ready for questions now. >> Go for it. >> All right. >> I'm ready. I'll go first. >> Okay. >> So, based on the math you showed us here, we've got 17% of our student body using special ed services, if you will. >> I know that's just before. Um, what is what is the state average? What do we expect a school district to have in student body that uses those? What you know when when you sit down and plan, >> what do
023you plan on? What number and what is it? What should you plan on? >> If you were to go back, so the the Oregon Department of Education and IDEIDA and federal guidelines, they expect a school district to not go above 15% special education. >> Okay, >> that's that was the norm. However, that's not the norm any longer. So most of your school districts, their special special education population is continuing to rise. Cascad's number has risen significantly, especially over the last six years. Um, and a lot of that has to do with the way that we identify kids, the way that the parents are moving in specifically for special education programs. Yeah, we're about 17%, but we're actually starting to push more towards 18%, which um is one of the reasons I want to highlight some
024of our classified staff today. So even even 17% though doesn't feel like that much of a stretch from the 15% that the state is looking for. So are are other districts in that same in the same boat as we are? >> Yeah, you'll see. So um I went and testified at the capital um last year around um increasing the cap for funding, >> right? And when I was there, I sat and I listened to several other districts, whether they were teachers or parents that were there talking about their districts were reaching anywhere between the smaller districts were hitting 16% 15%. And for those even smaller than us, that's a that's a big lift all the way up to 19% special education and they were the ones filling it the most. >> And it doesn't feel
025like it's a big difference between 15% and 17%. If you were to ask our special education crew and the administrators in this room, you feel it. um every single percentage um can definitely make an impact. >> Right. That's like 40 kids. 40 50 kids. Yeah. Easy. >> Yeah. >> Since I started, we're pushing almost 100 kids more since 2020. I mean, we're a little less than 100, but we're pushing that. >> And in your opinion, if we were to back up say 10 or 15 years ago, is it are there more kids partly primarily because of how we identify a child that needs these services or are you saying that there's kids that people are flat moving in that much? What's what's the biggest driver? >> It's a combination. So, a lot of the guidelines
026on how you can identify a a student, they've changed. It's ebbed and flowed on I wouldn't call it making it easier. It's clearly defining it, right? So, there's um there's a piece of that. The other piece is our program, our school. When a school district's population grows, your dynamics, it's going to become more diverse. The needs are going to increase no matter how you slice it. and it just happens to be we also have families that are specifically looking for our programs. >> In your opinion, are those guidelines accurate on how we determine who falls within that category? >> Absolutely. So, one of the things that at all the buildings, whether it's an elementary or a high school, we have really specific guidelines and process to identify a student initially for special education. So, we're
027putting in interventions. We're following a data cycle. We're meeting continuously because we don't want to overidentify. We're not just throwing labels on students. We're really working for the student, right? Like, let's find out what's going on and what else we can do. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. That might be my only question. >> Great. Anybody else before I go on? Um, you had asked the question about staffing for Mr. drill when this first started. And that was interesting because I'm going to talk a little bit about um special education. We have 466 students. Now, this is when I pulled it. We're probably now pushing 470 since I pulled this um in special education. And some of those students do not require more than one adult. And some of those students require up to three
028adults >> For one student >> at one time. >> Okay. and sometimes three adults and an LPN. What I acknowledged in my report is that our life skills classroom over here at the junior high, those are all staff classified staff members that I named very specifically, they are some of the hardest working individuals I have ever been blessed to work with. And I think um the two administrators, Debbie and Pete, can also attest to the impact they're making on each of those kids' lives. Um it's literal blood, sweat, and tears. And um that's in every single building. And truly, I call our classified staff, which I did a quick count, and we're at about 60 classified special education staff with 20 teachers and three SLPs. all servicing a wide variety of needs and without those
029instructional assistants. I don't know what we would do without them. Truly, they are the life and breath of special education and they have the biggest impact when working with our kiddos and I think all of us in here would attest to they are the boots on the ground and we are so incredibly thankful for them. >> You said SLPs. What's SLP? >> I'm sorry. I spoken an acronym. Uh speech language pathologist. Okay. Yes. >> Okay. >> Anything else? >> Any other question? Nope. I asked you guys. We're good. Appreciate it. Thank you for what you do. >> All right. Moving on. We've got the high school principal report. That's going to be Mr. Rasmmanson. Welcome. >> Good evening, folks. Uh you have my report in front of you. I wanted just to highlight um our
030our upcoming next Wednesday, we have our senior exit interviews. It's a process we've been doing at Cascade High School for quite some time. Um, and the seniors are getting antsy about that. They're getting they I asked me today, "Mr. Rest, what do I wear to my interview?" So, we talked about that in the hallway and they're a little nervous. I said, "Don't wear what you're wearing. Upgrade a little bit." Um, but anyway, it it's a great experience for them. Um, and and we in some respects we've been a little bit ahead of the curve. Um, the state has caught up though because uh last couple years the state has put out some legislation. and they've added a half credit class to the Oregon diploma which is called the uh career pathways career college and career
031pathways credit. And so what at Cascade High School we are trying to determine how we're how our seniors are going to be earning that half credit. Um that needs to go in place for seniors graduating in 2024. And so, uh, we have ultimately decided that we are going to do it credit by proficiency, which means we are going to have kids, uh, accomplish several tasks throughout high school. Um, and we'll keep track of these tasks. We have we'll have rubrics for each of these events and tasks. And then we will assign them a credit once they've completed all of these. Um, some schools are doing it by class, just adding a class to their schedules. Um, that takes FTE. Um, that takes, um, if we were to do that, Mr. is not going to give
032me another teacher to teach that class. Um, in a in a current stage of flat funding, um, I'd have to remove some electives from our current offerings. I'd have to take some classes away. So, we looked at it and currently there the the new the new program asks for 14 standards to be met by seniors to receive this credit. and we were looking at are currently what we're currently doing at Cascade High School and we're meeting about six of those already um by our in our process of the senior X interview some of the other things that our counselors are doing with kids and so we thought hey I wonder if we can do some creative things to help kids achieve or show mastery in these other eight standards that the state has identified and
033so we'll be bringing you a uh formal draft next uh month to show you what that's going to look like Um, so hopefully you can vote on that and show that we're going to be offering a credit by proficiency for all graduating seniors in the class of 2027. Um, we'll show that to Mrs. Thompson. She'll have some input on that as well. And that'll be for every kid at Cascade School District. Um, we just felt that was a better way to address this issue um, going forward. And um, we already offer personal finance at Cascade High School, which was one of the additional uh, state requests, but that was already part of our Cascade diploma. Um, so we'll be adding that and uh we'll have that prepared for you next month. Okay. Yeah. >> Oh,
034I didn't Were you finished? >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Absolutely. >> Um, so this proficiency that they they need to do, there's 14 of them. Will it be their responsibility to get like like a checklist or checked off or signature or aimed at freshman through senior? >> Yes, it will be. So uh we actually in the in the days of of Google classroom we currently have a Google classroom for each grade and uh currently our counselors have built a classroom for the class of 2027 already and all the kids are in there and some of the check off things that they're doing are already there like um we've talked to this student about their future plans. we have uh had this student apply for classes. And so we're going to put these tasks in there and
035then different professionals across the building, different uh teachers, educators will be responsible for evaluating uh these students tasks. Uh some of them will be, hey, did they do it? It'll be participation based 100%. Um for instance, we're looking at maybe some service credits for one standard. um and we'll do some uh three hours of of service credit and we might be a a school sponsored service credit. We might take all the seniors to I don't know somewhere and do something. So we we're going to bring some creative I've got some great minds on this and so I'm excited about the opportunities. Um we think it's going to be a great opportunity to do something a little bit different um and at the same time really meaningful because ultimately that's where the scene direct has been.
036It's been a meaningful process. Um it's put kids in front of a panel of adults um for the first time. Many of them some of them have applied for jobs but most of them haven't um and there's a lot of them are scared um and a lot of them are shy and unsure what to say. And so it's a great learning process for them. So if we can build a few other authentic and genuine activities for kids to do, I think we're just going to continue the process of being making them prepared which was what the state was designing all along when they added this credit. >> Other questions? So yeah, I want to expand on what you just said. So in your report here, the last sentence on your the graduation rate for CHS,
037it says preparing students for their next step in life after high school is what we do. >> So I understand what we're doing. We have we have college um credits for kids that are going on to college. People go into the diesel mechanic school. They go into the trade schools. People go into the military. Let's assume I'm a student that's going to I'm done at graduation. I'm going out into the workforce. What other than personal finance, what has Cascade done to prepare me to be successful in the world if I'm just going to go straight into the workforce out of high school? >> Well, you've taken four years of English and you've uh done a lot of writing. You've done a lot of reading. So, you're you should be able to read lots of different
038technical manuals and and pieces of non-fiction. Um, so you can prepare for that. You should be able to communicate and speak clearly. um because we do that in all of our senior social studies classes as well as English classes where kids have to speak or collaborate and present those kind of things. So those those specific tasks for sure in addition to that the senior act interview process has been a great one for kids. Um and then we've offered multiple opportunities for kids to engage um with other adults with other programs with uh experiences. I mean, it's a we're called a comprehensive high school for a reason. And every kid's going to come out with something a little bit different by their choices that we give them through electives or college career paths or uh our
039CTE programs. Every kid's going to come up with something a little bit different, but ultimately they're going to experience some things that hopefully will prepare them for the next step. >> Perfect. You answer my question. So, I mean, at the end of the day, if even the students that go straight into the workforce, if they apply themselves and take advantage of these opportunities, they're going to come out with a with a background that's going to help them succeed in that arena. Now, if they do nothing, then we or the bare minimum, let's say that we can't help that. But if they if they take advantage of what we're offering them, even the ones that go straight to the workforce will come out with some skills that will serve them. >> Correct. If graduation is just
040a check off list, it's just something to check off, then I'm not sure we're really we're really doing the kids service. If we are preparing kids for life and in the meantime, we can still check off graduation. Great. Okay, we've done that. But at the same time, we've we've really thought about the activities and the classes kids takes and the experiences they've had to prepare them because that's what it's about. We know that kids leave and it's a different world. I mean, you know, I just met with the seniors re last week talking about it's one of our first big senior meetings talking about, okay, the end's coming. Time to get serious. And when when they hear they don't have to go to school next fall, there's that first elation, but then all of a
041sudden they're like, >> now what? >> I say I tell them, no one's going to tell you what to do when you leave. No one's going to tell you. You have to decide. and that all of a sudden you just kind of watch this glaze in their eyes just like oh I mean so it's it's some of them know exactly what they want to do. I mean you I could I could list out kids are like I'm ready I know what I'm doing. I'm ready to get out of this place cuz I'm prepared. I'm ready to do it. Most of them are like oh now what? And in some ways the world's a bigger wider place than ever before. So we've got to do a better job as as well as good of a job
042as we can preparing them really. >> But those kids that again are going straight into the workforce they have the opportunities in front of them if they want to take advantage. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. That's what I was looking for. >> And I think this college career pathways credit is going to give us some more opportunities to even create more authentic and genuine activities for them. >> I really do. >> Dynamay, welcome. >> It's a little tall. It's a lot tall, actually. Hello. Good evening. Um, you have my report. Um, I think the junior high I've kind of been thinking about because it's been a while since I've been with you and it I think the junior high has just done a really good job of, you know, focusing on three different things. Number one, we're
043working really hard. Um, I ready scores that you have there are just a piece of what we're doing. Well, students are writing essays up the yinyang in English classes. We're reading novels. We have lit studies. Um, social Yeah. >> What was that term? >> Literature studies. >> Yeah. So, >> just so we're clear. Yes, I technical term. Um, lots of work being done in the junior high. Kids are working hard. Um, we're working on giving back because it's not just about us in junior high because the students are very self-centered. So, it's time to show them that there's more to, you know, the world just us. Um, the food drive is a huge piece of us in the um December. We supported I don't know how many families, about 70 families. If the weather had
044cooperated a little bit better, we would have had a lot more walking through our doors. but instead we gave a bunch to the umil food bank which was a great opportunity for us as well. Um multiple families brought in lots of turkeys and hams. I think one family themselves brought in 40 different turkeys and hams. So it was impressive. They did want their classroom to win. So there was a ulterior motive but it was still um pretty impressive to see the wagon fulls of turkeys and hams walking through our doors. um the grandparents lunchon a 50 plus year you know um opportunity that we do for our families is great and that's coming up next Friday and then lastly we're that I didn't put in here but we're really working on connecting to the world
045and um the next week we we're all focusing on the winter Olympics so the junior high is going to have their own version of winter Olympic inter murals um the local um western interiors donated us carpet squares because we can't very well have roller blades on, you know, the gym floor, but we can have carpet squares. So, we have speed skating, we have a torch run, we have all sorts of activities planned. And then sixth grade is two of our classes are reading Peak. It's about a junior high boy who climbs Mount Everest with his family. And um Tony Wisa, if anybody needs a connection to somebody, that's the woman. So, I read I Tony, do you know anybody who might have climbed Mount Everest? Sure enough, she gets us this guy who's a sherpa
046who is all excited. He's from Washington and he's hoping to either come down or Google Skype us. And so I have two classrooms that are totally thrilled that they're going to get this opportunity. I've read the book myself when I taught sixth grade. So I'm like I'm going to be in the back of the room listening too because it's just such a cool opportunity. So um I think you know six the junior high is really working to how can we you know expand our horizons here. It's not just about us you know but it's around the world. So you have any questions? >> Any questions? Yeah, I'll ask a question of you. So, you have your your I Ready scores and your um oh, where is that? Then the diagnostic page. >> So, how do
047we turn those diagnostic page into action? What does that look like if you see something on there that's we're not hitting the marks? What do we do with that information? I know I ask this all the time when we do all these testings. How do you turn that diagnostic page into action? >> Part of it's we haven't even taught the concept yet. So when they're tanking in algebraic concepts, it's like, well, my sixth graders haven't even touched on algebra yet. So that's a piece of the puzzle that we know. Um, the bigger thing that my people look at is at the end of the year, okay, where did we miss the mark? Is there certain areas and they can dive way down deeper into what was missed and how do we boost those scores so
048that next year's group come up even stronger than what they are right now. Because the beginning of the year, this is what you should be. um they they kind of test sixth graders and we're going to score weak because we're not truly sixth graders yet or seventh graders. So, it's a little bit of a disadvantage. But what I like seeing is that the kids are making growth. And the kids that um a lot of them that really struggle and you can show that they made a 16 point gain halfway through the year and you're hoping that they make that the whole year. That's big gains. And so they're moving along the pendulum. And the ones that were missing, now what? because we have a few that have gone backwards or that are at kindergarten level
049as a sixth grader and they're not identified as special ed. Now, what do we do? You know, maybe they're new to us. Do they have a reading disadvantage? Maybe they're not attending school very often. Now, what do we do to support this kiddo and get him or her up and running? >> You're telling me we've got sixth graders that are at a kindergarten level? >> We've got a few. Yeah. >> And they've been with in Cascade. >> Not all of them. No. >> Wow. >> But yeah, we get some every year. We get somebody who's, you know, new to us. Sometimes it's a homeschool kiddo. I had one two years ago. Bless the mama's heart. She was like, "We didn't teach math." All righty then. Here we go. Wow. >> You know, yep. Okay. >>
050And the the kiddo didn't know, you know, she'd never seen multiplication. But when she was shown it, it was like, "Oh, I can do this." But, you know, she had a long ways to go, but they catch on. I had another one this year, too, and homeschooled sixth grader, and mom's like, "I didn't do a very good job." That's okay. We'll figure it out. >> Thanks for letting us know. We got it. >> Okay. Good to know. >> Yep. >> Wonderful. All right. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Any other questions? >> No. Appreciate it. >> All right. Almsville Elementary Principles report. >> It looks like we've got Miss Mitchell and M. No, for Mr. Mincer. >> He's not well. Is that what I'm told? >> Yes, Zach is really disappointed and sorry he's missing you
051all tonight, but he is um homesick and so he asked for us to step in >> his place and speak to you. So, you have this report in front of you. One of the things we just wanted to make sure to highlight that we're particularly excited about, we have had some really good um increase in our data and our both our reading and math numbers. But one of the ones that stands out is that over our three-year historical data, we've typically averaged a 1% increase from the beginning of the year assessments to the middle of the year assessments. And um this year we've grown 5% from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year. And then sorry I need to slow down. And then um and then the other part of that
052is that usually in this in that three-year historical data it we the total year growth from the beginning of the year to the end of the year is 7%. So we're already more than halfway to our >> if we normally see 1% and we're at 5% this year. Did we do something different to drive that number or was it just luck? >> No. And it's not luck and I don't think it's anything specifically different this year. I think it's a culmination over the last three years. We've just really inter um really targeted our interventions a lot more closely. We've been really diving deeper into the data and um putting kids in the appropriate groupings and providing them the support they need. It's just taken just takes some time, right, >> for the data to sort
053of catch up with all that hard work. And so it's nothing specifically this year. It's just a culmination, >> but it's a it's it's changes over the last few years that have got us to here. Yes. Okay. So it is it is directly because of the changes >> of the changes we've made. Yes. But nothing specific this year but over the last few years. Yes. >> Okay. That's fair. Thank you. >> And kids are also getting used to the the math curriculum that was new several years ago and all our our AVID strategies that are you know boiling up through the >> through the grades like all of it is coming together. >> So all the pieces are coming. Okay. Wonderful. >> Nice. >> Okay. >> Do you think it'll be higher than 7%. >>
054I sure hope so. >> Yeah. sounding like it. >> And we also have um a copy of our latest edition of um the Panther paper >> all done by students >> all completely. We were we've been um I was recently interviewed by three different students for three different articles. So for the next >> we'll see how that >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? And the last thing on the report, um, we have our Valentine lunchon coming up. So, similar to the junior high one, we have families come for Valentine's Day every year and they get to eat lunch with their students and they love it and then they get to go out and play recess with them. Um, they look forward to it every year. Our kids look forward to it. Everybody dresses up
055and you guys are welcome to join us if you would like. >> When is the bike When's the bike >> Oh, you want to do the bike rodeo? That'll be closer to the spring, like May. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> So, I'm gonna ask one more question back on the on these scores. So, when we find something in some like these I Ready scores, how fast can you pivot and change the curriculum based on what we're learning from these scores? >> Pretty fast. >> Yeah. We mean a year, day. We their teams meet regularly to review the data and adjust the intervention groups so that our teachers are meeting weekly to review data. >> Okay. >> Um and so they can make a change from one day to the next if they need
056to. >> So it truly is pretty quick on if they're seeing an issue. It's not something where we wait months before. >> Obviously it kind of depends on what the specific need is. But yeah, we can make certain changes quickly. >> Nice. Wonderful. Thank you both for taking this minister's place. Any other questions? >> All right. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. On to Hang on. It won't click. I'm having it problems. >> That's my fault. >> Exactly. Welcome. >> Good evening. I I wanted to take a second and just thank you guys um for your your energy, your time, your commitment, the the questions you ask, the the things you do to help us provide the best education we can. >> I have questions for you, too. >> I'm
057I'm excited for those questions. I but I just I do appreciate you guys are a great board and I I I appreciate working with you. Um you should have my report in front of you. I I don't have a lot to add to it. Um this is the time of the year that we're keeping the lights on, making sure things are running. Uh we have a lot of security audits and stuff coming during the summer. A lot of summer projects, but for this year we're kind of just keeping keeping things maintained and planning for the summer. So any questions? >> So first is the phones. You said one of the things you want to change is the phone systems. Are we are we currently on dialup phones or are we on >> No, we're on
058IP phones. Uh the thing is our Mel Shortell system that was um implemented I think it was just over a decade ago is no longer supported as of 2028. >> Right? >> So we could kick the can of meat, but I set aside budget for this year and I want to do it this year to make sure it's done. Especially, frankly, with the uncertainty in the economy in the in the state legislature, who knows what next year looks like or the year after. If I have it now, I need to do it now because I don't want to get in a position where, okay, it's 2028. We have to do this because it's end of life, end of support. We can't get updates for it. We can't get help with it >> and we're stuck.
059>> Are we talking for this phone system? Are you talking software or just hardware like phones, physical phones? >> So, we're replacing the physical phones. Um there are phone switches which are devices that when you plug the IP phone into it connects and it connects to a phone switch which connects to the server. So all that all that phone traffic relays from the phone to the switch to the server. Uh we have to replace the switches because those are 10 years old and the server runs a certain operating system and has a certain application on it that we have to upgrade as well. So we have to replace everything. >> But we have to have a hard physical phone in a classroom. >> Yes. We can't do it off of just everything's forwarded to cell
060phones. >> No. And they also have to have the ability's law and right for us to be able to call 911, we have to be able to call emergency services um in the classroom. So, >> and you couldn't do that off a cell phone? >> Maybe. It would be a lot a lot more expensive. I mean, you're talking we're we're paying about $40 per phone right now, >> right? >> And we have 350 phones across the district. Okay. And I'm mass in my work, we're getting rid of all of our phones and it's all just going to the computer and you can either talk on a headset or it forwards to the cell phone. >> And that's one of the actually really cool things with our new system. We will have that feature >> which
061we're excited for for the nurses, for the people that travel amongst across buildings, >> right? >> They won't be tethered to their phone anymore, right? >> They can check their voicemail on their computer. They can call somebody from their computer even if they're not at their desk, right? So, we're adding some of those features, but no, I just don't think it's feasible. It's also a kid's going to grab a phone and hide it or take it with them or call their parent on the side. I I think having a physical desk phone is still the most secure and safest way to do it. >> Yeah. So, my other question is, does the school use AI? Do we are I'm not asking the students using AI. I'm asking if the teachers or are we using it
062on the administration side? >> Yes. So, we went forward with Gemini and Notebook LM this year. Um, we had Mr. Dyer and myself, we had a board that a committee that went together and developed a um a plan and some some framework on how we're going to use it. Um, I can't attest necessarily to how much it's being used or how it's being used. I provide the technology, right? So, we said we're allowing Gemini because it's within the Google Workspace domain. All of our privacy agreements are met and Google tells us in in very nice words that they're going to protect that data if a student if a teacher accidentally puts personal information into the system, they're not going to take that and use it in the the language model. Um, so we're we're a
063little bit safer in that area. Uh, which is why we went with that platform. So, I guess maybe I'm I'm a little lost. Give me for example on how we're putting AI to work at the school level. >> I would say that'd be more of a curriculum question. Um, again, I provide the technology. >> They have access to Gemini. They have access to these tools. >> How are we using AI right now in the classroom? And I'm not talking the students using it to write their reports. I'm talking how are you using it? >> Mr. Rasmus, >> here. You can use mine. the wrong guy to question. >> Mr. Mr. Dyer is your guy. >> Mr. Dyer, get up there with him. >> Come here, Mr. Der. >> Get up there. >> This this administrator
064is not using AI in any shape or form except to ask the random occasional question um that it comes up with. But a few a few staff and and teachers are using it to create some goals and some plans. Um they'll say, "Create me a goal or plan based upon this standard." and it'll come up with something and it's a good jumping off point. It's like, oh, that's interesting. Those are good ideas. And so, I know that's happening. Um, some people are using it to help them develop spreadsheets from sets of data, those kind of things. But, um, we're still pretty novice at this, at least a lot of us are. >> Um, I I use it frequently. I do. I'm not going to say that I don't. Um, so, and I think the more
065you scratch, the more um you can dive into it. So, an example of the high school, we just had Mr. Medlock. He just sent me a PowerPoint presentation that he did um just on his psychology class and he put in information and it spit out a really cool slide deck for him to be able to use and so that probably saved him probably 30 minutes to an hour and just this is the information I want to give my students put into a slide deck and it did that for him. So prepping and different things like that. But some teachers there is platforms where you can actually they will grade papers and so like you can put the paper in it will actually spit it in um put it up against the rubric um that you
066put in also as well. Um last week I just um discovered this one is called notebook which is attached to Gemini. And so like for like Senate Bill 141 the new accountability um from the state um it's basically how we're being held accountable by the state. Um, you can put everything in that you want, all the information that you want to learn about. And I put all this information in. So, documents, websites, um, legislation, and I said, "Create me a podcast for this." And so they created me a 15-minute podcast and it broke down everything I needed to know, the back history, where it's going, what do we need to do, what do we need to prepare for, and it sounds like a podcast, like two people talking in a in a coffee shop type
067of video. And this is an easier way to disseminate. So then if I'm working out, I'm running, I just listen to that and I know what's kind of going on with Senate Bill or different things like that. Um there's different things with um sped. We have um again you never want to take the first rendition of what AI gives you and so that's where we always but again like we can always like put in goals for IEPs um help um write up reports or different things like that and it it writes them out for you and you can go through and it creates a framework and a starting point for that. So, I mean, for me, if I was teaching or even where I'm at now, you're talking saving hours upon hours of time doing
068reports and stuff like that. >> And and can anyone use AI? Do we have to be approved on some way or is there some training or anybody can just log into this Gemini system and away they go? >> Yeah. So, it's it's it's already in the Google. So, if you go if you have the Google suite, we call it the waffle up on top. There's everybody has that attached to their >> Okay. >> to their thing. We did some PD over it um in the winter time in December and we just uh we had somebody come in from the ESD to train our elementary teachers and that was a breakout. Very very popular with the teachers and again it's lesson planning. It's just slide decks, presentations, different things like that. >> Okay. >> Yeah. It
069was actually one teacher that actually created uh a song about the salmon run. It's really cool like in fourth grade and they like create me a cool jingle song about salmon run. and they did it and the kids learned it and it was like this unique awesome new song about salmon. >> Okay. >> It's pretty neat. >> All right. Interesting. >> Okay. And if you if you ever want to know more about it, come talk to me because there is a lot of different ways that people are utilizing it. >> Right. Okay. >> Good. >> And thank you for that because I again I don't work with teachers directly a ton and right >> I give them tools and what they do with them is they're >> right understood. So >> Okay. No, that's fair.
070All right. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. >> All right, moving on. We've got 5A school calendar, Mr. Dill. >> So before you, you have a school calendar for the 2627 school year. Um it als there also shows the parent calendar as well. One shows, you know, how the staff will deal with the calendar. The other uh what parents would have in front of them. Um we always put out a couple of different options. We're required by our contract to run the calendar past um our certified staff. We also I believe this time I wasn't here so I believe Jay also shared it with classified as well. Um little bit of a mixup. We generally share it with our administrators too but that took a little longer this
071time. Uh so we were able to finally get it out to them and go from there. The reality is we have so many days there's so many weeks you got to go through a process. The trick this year for this upcoming uh fall is that Labor Day is late. So once in about every five or six years, we advocate like we are tonight go starting a week before Labor Day so that we can be done like June 10th. Um if we have a lot of snow days, we'll have to add extra days and the calendar that we would have that we considered going after Labor Day would have put our ending date like the 18th of June. And then if we had to add extra days, we would have been into the to the low
07220s in June. That's not healthy. um when you hit June and after Memorial Day, people want to be done. And so just take me at the experience of done doing this for a long time. So we asked the teachers um in typical fashion, nothing against them, like about 55 57% really like the before Labor Day. The other 42 43% like the after Labor Day. Everybody has a personal reason why. Um had we had a normal a normal calendar, they would have kind of been in the same boat. You know, it's it's a tough decision for them. So, this is the one we went with the higher percentage and this is the one that we're talking about. We would like for you to approve the one starting before Labor Day this year. Get it out there
073so parents are ready, families are ready, and our staff are ready to go. >> Questions? >> No. >> Okay, >> good. Thank you. >> Yep. >> 5B. Bond proposal presentation for Marian County May 2026 election. Great. >> Good evening, everybody. I'm going to see if this is going to work. I'll push the right button and it will. Uh, I'm actually really excited tonight after a lot of work to get to ask you to vote to approve placing a bond on the May 26th ballot. And so, what I want to do tonight is just walk through the process that we've been to get to this place, let you know what's in there, and then have time for any questions that you have. Um the process of the last 18 months that's led to this proposal, we
074started by hiring BBNL architects, WRK engineering and RNC management to lead us through this and to do it right. Uh and so our first step was to do a facilities assessment process. What that means is that architects and engineers literally walked through and examined every part of every building in the district. And there they did this to incredible detail. uh the painting on the walls, the electrical, the plumbing, the floors, the roofs, the rafters, everything. And then they made a condition of like, you know, as new and functional all the way down to needs replacing. And they made a mark for every single one of those things across the district. Uh this is the front page of their final report, which we got in October. You can find out on our uh district website on
075the facilities tab. There are 237 pages of details here, but I'm doing us all a favor and not working through all those pages tonight. I am going to show you the facilities condition index, which is in this report, and it's kind of a summary of what they found in all those things. Um, it's a good way to boil down all that detail. What this is doing is the engineers and the architects look at all that, and they estimate the cost of all the repairs to return the building to a completely functional condition like it was when it was new. So, this wouldn't remodel it. This would just be like getting what we have back to kind of a like new condition. They figure out what that cost would be and then they calculate what that
076repair cost is as a percentage of replacing the building with a new one as a whole. Uh, and when they kind of do this in all these districts, what they basically say is the higher the percentage, the worse condition that building is in, obviously. And anything where the repair cost is more than 30% of the of building new, that's labeled as critical. Uh no surprise to any of us, the 35 building at Ensville is the one that is most in need of work. It has a 59% FCI. Uh another building that reaches that critical level is the Maran School. uh it would actually take a lot of work to get that to a functional place and even then it is it is at a smaller um school than we would like for one of our
077schools and it's not located in the area where our students are in the district. Uh the main building at the high school as well as the opportunity center they also reach that critical level and the main building at Cloverdale is very close and so this kind of just gives you the one sheet summary. You can look at it in more detail like I said on the website if you want to look at all those numbers. But what this did is it gave us the hard data of where our biggest needs are for our buildings in the district. So what we did then is we convened a long range facilities planning committee and that was over 30 community and staff members. We met six times over eight months starting last March. We toured the buildings. We
078p poured over all those facility reports. We looked at population and enrollment projections and we heard from staff about needs. And where that got us to in May was we were able to identify as a committee that there is a lot of need in this district. In fact, over $100 million in building needs. Uh, and one of the big things at that point was as we were looking at one of the needs and as a part of that $und00 million would be to construct a new school for grades five and six on the main campus and designing it in a way that it could be expanded at a later date to include fourth grade. And we got down here in all of these uh details, what are the most important repair, renovation, and expansion needs
079for our district. So, we were at over $und00 million. Is that feasible? We did a couple of rounds of polling to kind of check that out and see if that would be feasible. And what we found is that there is a a huge uh recognition that people have uncertainty about the economy and it makes a bond of this size almost impossible to pass in our district. Um, everybody who is close to our schools, they know how much need there is, but the reality is that almost 70% of voters don't have a current connection with our schools. and they are concerned about their own economic outlook and increasing taxes right now is very unpopular. So what I'm going to show you from the polling is really just this slide right here because what they what the
080experts who do polling can do is they can boil it down and say what is it that makes voters most willing to say yes according to polling and what they found in our district is it's the basics. It's updated. Improve heating and cooling, conduct critical repairs on aging roofing, flooring, siding, and interior finishes, make things energy efficient with lighting, windows, and insulation to efficiently use taxpayer dollars. And so when we kind of took all those results in uh with the long-range facilities planning group, we realized we needed to scale back our ask of the community and to choose the things that voters favored the most according to this slide. So the basics of taking good care of our facilities. So to just be really clear, we recognize our many needs in the district. We have
081them identified. We have them prioritized for the future and it is really good that we've gone through this process and that will help us as we move forward. But where it gets us to tonight is that we are asking the board to put a bond on the ballot that is expected to maintain the current tax rate of $19 per 1,000 of assessed value. Not the real market value, but the assessed value. And the reason that taxes will stay the same is the bond that was passed in 2006 will be paid off this year. And so adding on a new bond at that same level just replaces that and uh does not result in an increase to taxes. If that bond were to pass at that level, that would that would raise $30 million for us
082to do critical repairs. And we already know that if it does pass, we are approved to receive a bonus $10.2 million from the awesome grant. And that's a state grant that would go somewhere else in the state if our bond doesn't pass. So if the bond passes, what would happen in a course of that? We can do all of the identified roofing repairs and replacements in the district. All of them that are identified in the facility assessment. We can do all of the identified heating and cooling, HVAC needs across the whole district. Uh it would budget $2.5 million for floors, ceilings, walls, bathrooms, other refreshes across the buildings of our district. uh as well as septic and other needed infrastructure improvements here on the main campus. There will be money be money if the bond
083passes to improve safety with things like uh doors and uh fences and uh badges and different things that we need to increase that safety. It'll increase access with ramps and uh elevator lifts at the opportunity center and at Turner Elementary. It will give major repairs and improvements to the 35 building at Almsville. So, not only a new roof, but some major renovations to make that a much more livable place for our students and staff. If passed the bond would build new cafeterias and kitchens at Turner and at Cloverdale where they're hugely overcrowded, and we will get important renovations for our PE needs. So, those are the things kind of above the gray line at the bottom that we will do for sure if the bond passes. if we are able to to achieve some cost
084savings compared to what we have budgeted on those above line projects. We've also listed kind of below the line there at the bottom uh the kind of key things that we would like to be able to do uh if we have the funding for it. Uh and those could be decided upon after we've done all the things above based on both need and also cost. you know, if we've got if we're we've saved a million dollars, then obviously we can't do a $5 million new gym, but we might be able to do some of the other things. Uh, so that's kind of the process that we're trying to do that both um makes sure that we can deliver what we promise to voters, but also gives us clarity that we can also do these other
085things if we're able to experience savings on that. Um, so coming kind of the bottom line of this, we all know that there's a lot more need, but this seems to be the best way forward to address our most critical needs and to respect where voters are with the economy right now. And doing this and demonstrating that we can do that well is going to increase our chances of passing another bond down the road to address some of our other identified needs. So, that's sort of where we are in the process and I'm welcome to take any questions that you might have because obviously there's a lot more there, but I just wanted to kind of hit the most important things in the process. >> You said we already got the approval for the 10
086million from the state. We did. How does that work? Because I thought that came after you applied, but you didn't know. So, I'm confused that we already know the answer to that. >> Uh I it may have been that way in the past. The way it's been over the last couple of years is if you are going in November, you apply by July 15th. If you're going in May, you apply by December 15th, the one before. So, uh, William did that work for us in December to apply. Here's our here's what we're trying to do with the bond. Here's the places that we're doing it. And then they give us a letter that I have a copy of in my office that says, "You are approved and good to go." So, it gives it gives
087confidence for districts as they're moving forward to know what they can expect if they do pass the bond. I mean, that's nice. $10 million. That's >> Yeah. Nice. >> Yeah. It's it's it's a huge, you know, it's a it's a quarter. It's a quarter of what the other thing is like right off the bat. So, it's it's really helpful. >> And then my other question was on the roof at the 35 building. I know it's been reworked multiple times, but still leaks. Is it has there been a plan that's going to rework it so it won't leak this time? >> Yes. Yes. The >> They haven't seem to figure that part out yet. Uh, you know, news flash, I am not a construction person, but one of the reasons we hired all of these folks
088is to be able to look at that and figure out how much money do we need to allocate to that to make sure that we can do it right. And so, the professionals are telling us yes, we can we can do this, right? Okay. >> Yeah. >> So, what's what's our what's the plan? How are we going to connect with this community? >> Yeah. uh we've already been doing a lot of work. So here's here's where we are from from the district point of view. By state law, we can inform but we cannot advocate. In other words, we can give all the information about what our bond is going to do, but we cannot say vote yes on this. Uh so from the district point of view, we have stuff already lined up that we've
089been working on for months on theformational side. Um, if you do vote to approve this, we have a website ready to go tomorrow that has here's all the information of what's going on. We have drafts of three mailings that we will send to everybody in the district that will explain what's going on and the needs that are there and what's what we're doing with that process. Um, we've been working with members of the community to form a political action committee because they can say, "Please do vote yes on this." And so those folks are already doing some good work um ramping up for that and doing things like where where do we have a lot of people already gathered. Well, when little league starts, we got a lot of people on the field. So, we're
090going to have people out there meeting folks and sharing information. Um you know, the car show that comes in the different places that are going on. Um Turner and Armsville, there's not a lot of some districts, you know, there's like a Kowanas or a Rotary or things. There's not a lot of um public events that happen, but the ones that are happening, we're going to get to with people from the district to inform them. Um, and I've also been working on building relationships with folks in the community. Um, the um the administrator for Turner Retirement Homes was on our long-range facility plan. So, I've been talking with him about meeting with their residents to be able to tell them what's what's going on and why this is important. So, you know, those are some of
091the things that we have in mind, >> right? >> Yeah. Okay, this is a long time ago and it's probably not even legal, but yeah, this is we as a staff had to we had to we didn't have a choice. We would meet down at a bank and there would be a list that the school would have and it would show all the people who hadn't voted yet. >> It didn't show how, you know, how they voted in past elections or anything. >> So, we would have the number and then we would call to remind them to vote and encourage it to be a yes. >> Yep. Now, could something be sent out to the people that we know? Because sometimes the ballots are just sitting on their counter. >> Sure. >> They mean well,
092it would be a yes. They just don't get around to. >> What can we do with that? >> Um, that is something the political action committee committee can do a lot of as a district. Um, the way that state law is now, we can't require staff to do anything like that. We can't organize anything like that ourselves. Um, but staff members are able to advocate in times that they are not at school and they are not in the role of their position. So, we will be getting out to all of our staff members, here's what you can and can't do. And um, if the political action committee or others in the community want to do something like you described, they would be welcome to do that. >> Do they have access to a list of
093people that have not turned their votes in yet? >> That that can be purchased. So that was something the political action committee would have to raise money to be able to do. It's called >> maps or something like that. It's it's something that um that you can get or van. That's what or even just a voicemail thing sent out or something, you know, just >> reminding people to get their ballots just >> absolutely. >> Good job. You've done a great job. >> Sure. >> I just have one question. the on the >> uh the development budget. What is that 30%? What is that like almost 10 9 and a half $9.2 million? What does that >> entail? What is that? >> You bet. Okay. So, we'll talk about cost and what this is the difference
094between estimates and budgeting. This is a budget. This is not an estimate. So, um this is primarily what we hired RNC management to be able to do for us. And the first thing that he did is as he with our long-range facility group was to remind us that um there is such huge sticker shock when it comes to building for schools because there are higher legal requirements for what must be built in your home. There are things like prevailing wage that must be paid. Um so all of that has to be taken into account and everybody's like well I could build the gym for you know whatever. Well you can't do that. So that's why we hire the the people to do that. He has not gone through and like priced out every HVAC system
095and come up with this number. What he's done is he looks he's looked at other things uh other districts for uh comparable things and budgeted an amount of money that covers prevailing wage and covers um inflation that would become because even if this bond passes in May, it's going to take until fall or winter to actually fund it when the district would actually have money. And realistic a lot of our work is going to be done in the summers following. So you have to build in uh room for inflation. So all of that goes in the topline number development budget that is there to cover a whole raft of things that covers um design work by engineers that covers permit work that covers oopses and surprises um when you're digging in a sewer system and
096you find things you didn't know were there. Um, and that again is just a all that is as he's prepared that for us is a percentage of the stuff that's up above. And what he told us is it's he says says lean 30%. His normal for that is to do 38%. But he did 30% on this one um because we had you know other members in our group Tom Levelvel who's like we can do it for better than that and so and and we hope that Tom is right. But we also want to have the experts who have done this work so that we make sure we deliver what we are promising to voters. Um so that's why we're using their numbers even when some of our folks were kind of doing back of the
097napkin well we can do better than this. Well hopefully we can and if so then we have other projects we will do. >> Okay. So Spencer like 20 years ago right when they built the new gym area over there we got done and as the principal I started to watch that go up and one day everybody stopped there was this long conversation I w happened to walk out and Tom was animated uh they were having conversations with the builder and what they've come to figure out was as they got ready to build the gym part they recognized that the slope from where the auditorium is to the gym was much deeper much the percentage was higher higher than what they had expected. So they had all these people get together to have a conversation and
098really it came in in 2004 five there was this conversation like that slope's going to cost $965,000 to fix and everybody stood around and had this long conversation about how they're going to do that. That's not in the budget. It's not even in the development budget. Blah blah blah blah. And then Tom and a couple guys were like, "Well, what if from the foyer down to the gym there was this slight slope?" And it got quiet. And they all looked around and said, "Could that work?" And so instead of 900 and some odd thousand, it was about $48,000 to make the slope work. So when you walk down the slope, when I walk down the slope, I think of this is a million dollar slope. Um that's that's the development budget. They were able to
099save that kind of money. So that's just kind of the piece that they they play out um when you walk in there. And you know, people walk down all the time. They don't think twice about it, but it just happened to be a little lower and it wasn't something that they saw initially. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> And then the other thing I uh as far as staff and and employees not being able to advocate or district, um that doesn't hold true for us. We can get out and shout and holler as much as we want, right? Let people know and and hopefully be a part of these events that are happening and do that. So, >> yes. Yes, indeed. Cool. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Nice. >> Perfect. Thank
100you very much. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> All right. On toformational items. Statement of economic interest. Mr. Drill. >> So, I believe that this is back on there because a couple people haven't finished their statement of economic interest. >> Okay. It opens in March. >> Yes. So, the conversation we've had about you guys making sure to do the statement of economic interest will come open. I need to do it. You guys need to do it. That's part of the reality for the fall for this upcoming year. >> Perfect. Just a reminder. >> All right. Wonderful. Thank you. >> Yep. >> 6B, board member resignation and zone 2 position vacancy. Mr. Drill, >> um you received a um resignation letter regrettably from um from John Remy um leaving the board. So, wanted to get you
101guys that um and so you can begin to prepare for um going out and looking for a new board member. In the past, you guys have set a time um usually a month or two months or three months um going forward to uh set up a time, ask the district office to ask for people in the community to finish out John's term. You guys have done that by doing interviews and then uh close the door and then having a selection. I would assume you guys would like to do the same thing again. >> Yes. >> Okay. Is there a date so you have March, April or May to kind of work on that? I would suggest that March might be a little quick, but um April makes good sense and that you could seat somebody
102into the May board meeting. That might work. >> I would agree with that timeline. April and May. >> Okay. We can work on that. >> Wonderful. >> Post now in April. >> I would think so, but we can talk about how to make that work. You want postpril. Okay. >> Okay. All right. Good. Any other questions on that here? No. All right. Thank you, Mr. Drill. >> Absolutely. >> Next is public comment. We've got no public comment today, so I'll move on to resolution. >> All right. Resolution 8A, resolution regarding out ofstate trip requests. >> Be it resolved, the Cascade Board of Education moves to approve the request from the high school choir director to travel to Seattle, Washington for a workshop at the University of Washington from fe February 26th, 2026 to February 27th,
1032026. >> Second. 8A resolution regarding outofstate trip request has been moved and seconded. Any discussion? No discussion. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. 8B. Resolution regarding 2627 school calendar. >> Be a resolve. The Cascade Board of Education moves to approve the 2026 2027 school calendar as presented. >> Second. 8B. Resolution regarding 2627 school calendar has been moved and seconded. Any discussion? >> Just one question for Mr. Drill. This is the This is the calendar you recommend after the discussions. >> Yes, sir. >> I I think I heard you say that. I just wanted to double check. That's that's all I have. >> Yep. >> All right. Dynamite. Okay. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. >> Motion
104carries. 8C. Resolution of Cascade School District number five calling a measure election for general obligation bonds. >> You want me to read all that real thing? No, we're not doing that. >> It's only two pages. Yeah, >> that's follows. >> Yeah. Uh uh now I've got I got all sidetracked. Um I move to uh resolution for the measure for the general election bond as written below in the proposed motion. >> Second 8C resolution of Cascade School District number five calling a measure election for general obligation bonds has been moved and seconded. Any discussion? No discussion. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. And that's our that's it. Just the three. >> Yes, sir. >> All right. Any future agenda items we need to discuss? >> No.
105I I think that u you know, we've talked about it earlier. Uh there's um my evaluation that you need you guys need to wrap up. There is uh the opening of your school board position. That sounds like you've already got it taken care of. And then come May, we will have the budget committee meeting like we normally do. That usually is settled set before your regular board meeting. >> So busy spring for sure. >> I like it. Sounds good. >> Okay. Anything else from the board? >> Maybe >> we didn't approve the bond, right? >> We just did. That's what we did. Okay. Okay. >> That's what Spencer eloquently. >> Yeah, he cheated on that. Just making sure. >> Yeah. No, you voted on it. You said yes. >> Okay. Okay. Anything else? We're good.
106All right, that's it everybody. Meeting a journ. Thanks for coming all.