SFSD School Board Meeting February 12, 2024

001I now call this meeting of this Sil fall School District Board of Directors to order let's please start with the flag salute to the flag of the United States of America to the for stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you um Aaron would you read the board superintendent working agreement please sure so under collaborative governance members of the board and the superintendent uh and the superintendent will work together in good faith as a team in the best interest of students modeling a willingness to learn together board members will recognize and respect the superintendent's responsibility to manage the school district and to direct employees in District and school matters board members will give careful consideration listening to all perspectives and to all issues brought to the board by individuals and

002District leadership the board may only make decisions at properly called meetings board members recognize that individual board members have no authority to take individual action in policy or district and school administrative matters andless so authorized by a board vote under communication agreements board members must follow the chain of responsibility and communicate directly with the superintendent when a question arises or a concern or complaint is voiced by staff member student parent or community member board members will endeavor to communicate directly with the superintendent or board chair prior to meetings of the board to address questions and or concerns about agenda items board members and the superintendent recognize that good answers often require preparation in advance of board meetings when a board member and or the superintendent has an individual concern he or she must communicate one-on-one

003with any member of the board superintendent team as appropriate and in the interest of public transparency and full robust debate board members will endeavor to actively engage in and contribute to board discussions and to share their perspectives on topics before the board full participation from members in advance of a vote supports the board in making informed well-considered decisions on important District matters thank you and I just want to um underscore that last piece about uh robust debate before a vote tonight's probably an important um vote so we want to make sure that we're expressing ourselves well now did I oh I forgot to note attendance we are all here including Tom hi Tom if you feel like you're not getting a word in edgewise use your voice to to Bud in um because sometimes thank

004you sometimes I don't pay attention um and next up we'll do the agenda review I would love to take a motion on the agenda I move to approve the agenda as published second it's been moved and seconded to approve the agenda as published is there any discussion all right we will vote Aaron yes Josh yes Phil yes Owen yes Derek yes Jennifer yes Tom yes all in favor all right and number five on the agenda is the consent agenda is there a motion I mooved to accept the consent agenda second it's been moved and seconded to accept the consent agenda any discussion all right we'll vote Aaron yes Josh yes Phil yes Owen yes Derek yes Jennifer yes Tom yes all in favor all right and number six is an action item and we usually

005don't have action items early on the um agenda but we do tonight because um it is uh coming up we have classified appreciation week and so we are going to consider um a resolution to honor our classified employees and so um I will read the resolution and then I will open it up to board members individual board members who want to um add anything to it so I'm going to start out by reading the resolution whereas the education of Youth is essential to the future of our community State country and world and whereas classified employees are the backbone of our public education system and whereas classified employees work directly with students teachers administrators parents volunteers business partners and community members and whereas classified employees support the smooth operation of of offices the safety and maintenance

006of buildings and property Healthy nutrition and direct instruction of students and whereas our community depends upon and trusts classified employees to serve students and whereas classified employees with their diverse talents and true dedication nurture students throughout their school years now therefore be it resolved that the Silver Falls School District Board of Directors Proclaim March 4th through 8 2024 is classified Employee Appreciation week and be it res be it further resolved that the Silver Falls School District Board of Directors strongly encourages all members of our community to join in this observance recognizing the dedication and hard work of these hard individuals uh Josh you mentioned that you might have something to say yeah um I really thank you for the opportunity um I was looking back at my childhood and I don't my mom was a

007classified employee for a little bit at the high school and I just had a num numerous amount of people that came through my head that I feel like shaped my youth and made it better I feel like classified staff without disparaging anybody or kind of the glue that holds this whole thing together in a lot of ways um Rick Lean just retired this last year I mean he was there 20 years ago Ron still here these guys are around forever I remember Char Strunk with all her elephants at Mark Twain she was there forever with Sher om Jon and Brady and the cooks and it's these people that I was seeing the lunch lines like you jump from teacher to teacher but you always see that person in a day you may not see that

008teacher again because they're in their classroom and so um you know Darby Hector in the light library or wherever she else is in the district uh my aunt Sheila's I but creek God knows how many years as a secretary so these people that have really had an intrical part in our community all classified staff um I'm so grateful to them and for all they have done and are going to continue to do and I know I forgot a lot of people but these were some that I thought of that like man I I came back like 15 years ago like I remember you you were my lunch lady and that meant a lot to me they may not remember it but it meant a lot to me and I couldn't be more grateful to be

009acknowledging them for this so thank you Josh anybody else have anything to say about classifi go ahead in my uh much as Josh said clear back to being a student and then my years of education to being in the schools uh a lot of the classified do have those kind of impacts that that Josh mentioned and because they're a often times they're the ones that are on a consistent basis around our students and they see them in a different role than than others that might and they uh and students really latch on to them and awful lot of students whenever you're around them they'll talk fondly of a lot of people and they do they do make it all happen there's no doubt about it and so glad we can recog others yeah um I

010was real happy to see this um come to fruition in just the we can get very busy and I think it's important to take uh the time to to recognize our classified um staff employees and their contributions and the the part that really stuck out to me is this I just want to highlight it but our community depends upon trust our classified employees to serve students and and that part of that servant leadership and just how much we truly depend on them um and I think over you know sometimes that can get overlooked and so uh grateful for the opportunity to take a whole week and say thank you anybody else I just I want to say that um you know we mentioned Lunch Ladies secretary there's a there's a bunch of classified employees that

011work with kids but there are also Bunches of classified employees who don't work with kids and they're equally dependent upon in order to make the school day and week and year run so uh shout out to to all all of you I I love the second statement here in our in our resolution classified employees are the backbone of our public education system and I think we can just we heard all the comments tonight just want to put the the uh exclamation point on that that they truly are the backbone and and and and everything we do for our kids and um seen and unseen there's so many jobs and this District wouldn't function without our classified employees so I just want to I just want to say thank you all right um let's have a

012motion then because this is an action item I I move to approve resolution number uh 2-12-20 2024 DC uh deeming March 4th through the 8th 2024 to be classified Employee Appreciation Week second been moved and seconded to approve resolution number 2-12-4 DC classified Appreciation Week for March 4th through 8th 2024 uh I think we already had the discussion on this so let's go ahead and vote Aaron yes Josh yes Phil yes Owen yes Derek yes Jennifer yes Tom yes all in favor all right thank you everybody let's move on to our student Representatives Maddox are you solo tonight yes ma'am okay well thank you welcome good evening everybody my name is madx festler and I'm the ASB School Board representative from silveron high school ASB we have a lot of great things happening in the

013month of February that we're very excited to share with you uh from Sports we want to congratulate our swim team on the performance at the district meet last weekend the girls finished a very close second and the boys finished a very close third now they're heading on uh to state this weekend and this is the first time that the aqua foxes are swimming in every event at State we're super excited for them and can't wait to cheer them on wrestling girls had districts this weekend and are headed to state in which Michaela Bonham placed first in her weight class and this is the first time in silveron history our dance team has has a competition this past weekend and placed first the unified basketball team has started their season and have a home game on

014Thursday this week against South Salem the girls and boys basketball teams are ending their League season in a a few weeks and are doing great in their league the cheer team had a competition coming up has a competition coming up this weekend uh for clubs and activities this past weekend our speech team competed in the second second largest competition in the state and Molly patson was a finalist in open radio commentary next we have our theater Department putting on the play Captain remote which will be on February 16th through 28th and then again on February 23rd through 24th we're really looking forward to watching this production uh our ASB update we have our first annual community night that we are putting together it will be from March 14th from 6:00 to 8:00 we're inviting the

015community to come into the our school and ASB students will give tour of our school in which our clubs will be there and they will be able to Showcase some of the things that they've been working on throughout the school winter formal was two weekends ago and it went great it was a lot of fun uh as for ASB we are looking uh on getting best Fox ever up and rolling uh these events will kick off at the end of this month uh and the show will be May 4th we have our unified assembly coming up on February 23rd and we can't wait to showcase our team this year to the school thank you guys so much for your time have a great rest your day thank you thank you all right moving on to

016school and principal reports we have a report from Robert Frost Elementary Jamie mccardy is going to be coming up and um giving us an update on Robert Frost and and Miss panovich is GNA join us because she's here and we're gonna just use her skills um because I think last year board report I got halfway through and remembered I didn't flip the okay one time so I got going a little fast so first of all I'd just like to say thank you to you guys for all your time and effort and all that you do for our school um Robert Frost knows how much effort goes into a school board member and uh just want to say a big thank you um for all your time all your effort and energy keeping our district going

017so uh thank you very much um I'm going to try to keep it very short but um Robert Frost school has been a blessing um April 13th last year uh I met with the staff for the first time and uh it was me and Mr Bush and about 55 employees that I didn't know uh knew knew a few in passing here there um and kind of that morning uh really has changed me personally uh it has inspired me not that I wasn't inspired before but um it was just a new opportunity for me to to take on something that uh I needed personally and so uh I want to thank uh you guys for helping that happen and and uh but it it just really has been an awesome transition really excited that it was

018able to kind of finish last year to where I could get my feet in the ground and get moving um and really just uh gave me the opportunity to learn and understand a little bit of the culture of the school so that it it put us that much further heading into this year so it was a whirlwind to finish last year uh but really just thankful for the opportunity uh to be at Robert Frost School um I got to learn a lot uh in a couple months and I just learned what an incredible staff they are uh super talented uh you talk about the class classified staff being the backbone uh no doubt classified staff is our backbone at Robert Frost but everywhere from our Cooks to our teachers it is a talented uh just

019a bunch of talented Educators I also learned that it was we had somewhat of a fractured culture um I mean you talk about a staff that probably went through some of the toughest years they possibly could go through nine principles in three years um you know so just getting in hearing stories hearing the non-trust a little bit just the fractured culture uh kind of just inspired me to figure out how to to pull us together um a master schedule that need completed with student learning as the number one priority was a must uh systems were needed in all areas uh whether it be PBIS tier one and two systems uh leadership teams PBIS teams culture and climate teams we really just needed to start uh from the ground up and uh um and so we

020did that um we were able to kind of come together to finish the year and see things happening and we're able to get things established with some teams uh um ending last year to to this time this year we were able to hire 21 new employees at Robert Rost um so we had two new Kinder teachers a new first a second a fourth a fifth a music a PE we hired a new Student Success coach um a lead office secretary three assist assistants in our functional skills two in special ed two with our ELD and four instructional assistants so talk about around 60 employees we we hired a third brand new staff at Robert Frost School uh and our hires have been uh amazing and really have come together with our staff that has been

021there and really bonded um pretty incredible uh we were able to start the school year before the school year started so we were able to like get our leadership team into our school two weeks before school started we had our staff they all just kind of said and raised our hand like what what is needed to happen for us to have a great year and so our leadership team came in two weeks prior our PBIS team came in two weeks prior um our Master scheduling committee came in all summer and and did did work um and so really that put us ahead I mean like so when we actually started school the first day of teacher in service we really felt like uh things were kind of running and we knew what we were doing

022and we knew where we were going and we had certain things established and uh we were able to get people in the right spots with our master schedule um and so just starting before the school year really really helped us out a ton so our priorities at Robert Frost School have been student learning is just our number one priority um everything we do um with our guaranteed and viable curriculum with our projection maps to our unit Maps uh to our learning targets um right now every uh PLC is on Pace with our projection map and our unit maps of where we need to be in the the classrooms um you know I think in any I I feel like education's a competition right and like we have to be competitors and we have to be

023competitive in our approach and so we have a sense of urgency at Robert Frost if you watch our staff our students our I mean there is people showing up every day ready to take it on and get after it and and and they are all there for the right reasons and so we have a competitive approach we have a sense of urgency um building or building teams have common language uh common instructional practices and just the PC work that these guys have done uh from kindergarten to fifth grade it is so amazing walking into like let's just say we're walking through second grade classrooms you walk through one after another after another and not that they're instructional they're so much um amazing just their own character right their own in their own classroom but their

024learning standard is being taught identical the lesson they're on is identical they're able to come together in their plc's and doing common formative assessments and looking now at where their kids are where do they have to go what aren't they getting uh and there's just a really um all PLC teams are committed uh so that's pretty fun to watch um just really quick just our we our school goals we we did off the Dibbles uh basically early literacy it's a a oral reading fluency and so we um did we started at 47% uh our kids on grade level at or above um we just did our winter assessment and we were at 55% and this might seem like low to you guys but we finished the year last year at 55% so we feel like

025we're like just kicking tail with with where they're going and what they're doing and our end of the year is 69 that's a very high goal and I'm not not sure if we can get there but man if we get close to that it's going to be a really neat celebration at the end and then our other goals around social emotional learning and I'll kind of talk about that uh as we go and that's just kind of where we started 47% so we're looking at every single student in our school and where did that student start and where did they gain and and so really in the end it's like the growth by each student but this is a little different this is schoolwide and just on on level so we started at 47 and

026we just assessed and now we're at 55 we'll assess again in May and we're hoping to be in the 60 mid-60 ranges and then just all the adult actions it's going to take because it's simple to set a goal but like that follow through that consistency that that we're all accountable to that goal like we'll start every single meeting with our goals like we're not going to not know what our schools set out to do and so it is very crystal clear at Robert Frost what we're working for what we're you know what we're all pulling together for and so I just kind of put like our adult actions to get there like if we all go about this together and we're all working as a team and we're all in our unit maps and

027projection maps and our targets are aligned and I'm in classrooms right because if I don't have a pulse on every single classroom and every single staff and what our kids are doing or what they need or what curriculum they need I'm letting us down um and so it's starts there and then um then it goes to our interventions right like any kid that's not meeting standard we better have a plan for them they we're not going to let a kid fall through the cracks and so what does our interventions look like K2 what does our interventions look like 3 five how many kids are we serving monitoring that growth every nine weeks um and so kind of going along with the seal um we have put so much work our staff has put so much

028work into our PBIS and our positive behavior incentives um all the way from tier one we have a tier 2 established we're just now kicking off our tier three PBIS um we have 22 students on checkin checkout within our school and it's been kind of a GameChanger just with student behaviors in class those are those students that could go either way and 22 of them of our kind of behavior uh are going the right way right now all 22 um and it's just an adult putting their arm around them incentivizing them telling them they're great tell them they can do it when they can't do it what's our next step what's our next way to figure it out because we can't just say we can't do it uh and so there's got to be a

029next solution care teams tier 2 meetings bringing our specialists in asking more questions um we have a character trade of the month each month and uh it's been really powerful uh just to see we have a kickoff every Monday first Monday of the month the whole school and we'll have a 15 minute kickoff and we'll try to we had Casey mallister Come and he's a world-renowned uh just inspiration um and he talked to our kids about rising up and we can do hard things we had t-shirt contests and kids design the t-shirts and we wear them on Fridays and just all those things that are going to pull that school and those kids wantan to do great things um and so those were kind of the adult actions and then just some great things happen

030at Robert Frost we have a a really strong parent teacher Club um and we're starting to have a great turnout from our staff and our and our parents showing up working collaboratively uh um not only raising thousands of dollars for our kids but like they're putting on movie Nights for our kids we had trunk or treat at Robert Frost all the little things that are going to bring community members into your school um we have right now incredible volunteer parent volunteers coming um we started a parent advisory uh kind of a council where I'll reach out shout to a set group of about 20 parents and Survey what our schools doing well where do we need to get better and let our parents kind of tell me what they think and a lot of them

031can't make PTC meetings or come to the school so it's their way of getting involved into our school that's been very neat um we have for the love of reading week this week uh Thursday's reading under the stars at Robert Frost uh it's a huge night where we'll have about 400 community members come in Ross has donated Les Schwab has donated The Hope Foundation uh is picking up Boodles of pizza and uh it's going to be a great night and then we have P night 3.14 wamit Valley Pi is helping us put on that event in March math night literacy night um we have Battle of the books going on right now we have Bear Club after school program started for all like any student almost meeting Benchmark in math and so we do it

032so much in reading and so we need to find more ways in math and we're just kicking that off this Wednesday we have 10 staff members attending the orti conference uh response to intervention and we're we guys we were actually fighting for spots 10 10 of our staff's going and it's going to be so powerful bringing that back to our school it's going to be game changers with um it's just we're going to have a ton of fun and it's all based on our school goals um and then we have a motivated positive staff working together working for common goals Miss panovich did you want to have anything prepared no because I didn't know um I will just say from the staff we really appreciate having Mr Mardi um leading us when he came in

033it was it was very welcome it was very much needed we appreciate and we appreciate the leadership that he came with he was right there alongside of all of us doing the work in the summertime and making sure that when we came in at the beginning of the year we knew what the expectations were the kids knew what the expectations were we had a clear Direction um and that's something that we missed for the last couple years working at Robert Frost when we were a 35 we were very well oiled machine going through covid and then the K2 transition and all the principal transitions was a really difficult time um and I feel like we're getting back to where we needed to be so you do appreciate that I did not pay her I did

034not no but diet Dr Pepper oh diet Dr Pepper okay but thanks for letting us present on Robert Frost this evening anybody have questions about the presentation I have a comment thank you I I missed losing the Victor point but I tell you I see a lot of people in town and I hear great things bud great things so you're doing a great job I'm so grateful for you so thank you yeah just word of encouragement to the whole staff just keep up doing the uh the great work and uh merging you know a third new folks and on boarding them and I think taking the the time to put in the hard work and have a good thorough map of where you're headed and it sounds like that's trans translating all the way through

035so good job and same I'm hearing good things from uh the community and and proud of you guys and keep up the good work per several folks and staff over at Robert Frost how how happy they are to have you there and just the wonderful positive things that are going on at that at that school and it's just U you know even just them explaining to me it's palpable what the changes that have been made for the positive that have that have gone in this past year so thanks to you and staff for for all you're doing thank you for the very uplifting and positive report made me want to head back to the classroom same I was like I want to work there that's sounds like things are going well so you guys are

036welcome come visit anytime come for pizza reading thank you good job all right we have agenda item number nine Silver Falls education associ iation is there somebody here okay that's really why I was here all right so I'm Katie panovich um not only fifth grade teacher at Robert Frost but the VP for sfba um and we just want had a quick little message for you guys that many of our members have been tuning in more and more to the board meetings the work sessions especially last week and we received just overwhelming amount of feedback that Express appreciation for the vast amount of questions and conversation that was had um during that meeting that the open Communications always valuable but really even more so now that we're in a kind of serious financial situation um and

037we just really appreciate the conversations and the questions that were asked um we were also very thankful for getting back our building PLC day that we lost on January 17th that ice storm day um our building PLC days are extremely beneficial to us and it's really important for us to be able to have them especially since we don't have as many building PLC days throughout the year so we're really appreciative that we got that day back and want to say thank you for that right thank you so much thank you thank you all right so now we're at the public comment uh portion of the meeting the first public comment portion I'm going to read uh the statement we are glad you're here and well and welcome you to address the board with your ideas

038concerns or compliments please keep the following in mind if you wish to speak please raise your hand to be recognized by the board chair if attending remotely please use the rais hand feature within Zoom for the record please provide your name and relationship to the district please keep individual remarks to three minutes if speaking as a representative on behalf of a group of three or more comment time will be extended to 5 minutes a second public comment period will occur later in the meeting that is specific to discussion and action items only the board will not hear complaints against individual staff District staff or board members during public comment please understand that the board's primary role is to listen and you likely will not receive an immediate response finally remember we all model the way

039for our students and ask that you share your thoughts respectfully and in accordance with the Silver Fall School District board decorum agreement so we'll we'll start with somebody in the audience is there anybody here who would like to speak come on up Max good evening everybody I'm Max Murphy uh had a had uh one of my my middle son graduated from the high school and then I have a 13-year-old that attends the infamous middle school so um that's what I really wanted to talk about um I just I kind of jotted down some notes Here I kind of feel like I I knocked on like 200 Doors this last school bond trying to encourage people to support the new Bond and um as we all know that didn't that that failed I feel like through

040some of the conversations there was some folks that felt like maybe that school we could have done something with that school and I tried to remind them I mean like an old Battleship you know it served its time and its purpose and it's now time to to decommission that that ship and that also remind them that this isn't a deferred maintenance issue it's a deferred tax issue really um again the school has been really well taken care of Through The Years by the stewards that come before us and but now it's time to look to a new school I think we all know and understand that Technology's moved on school Design's moved on security for schools is better than what it was 20 or 30 or 40 40 years ago um seismic upgrades so those

041are all things that I feel like my my son's missing out on right other students are and that they deserve to be able to go to a safe school and a um a school that they they feel proud of and that our community feels proud of um the other thing that I kind of wanted to hit on is that and and Phil I think it was you brought it up at one of the previous meetings was the time frame like if we don't pass this Bond the time and energy that it takes to create a new Bond I mean it's going to be six or seven years before we'd be even uh ready to look at voting at on a new Bond I also heard numbers in some of the previous meetings just to maintain

042not improve maintain what we have we're going to spend upwards of $300,000 a year so over 7 or eight years that's $2.5 million our $70 million School uh Bond right now 10 years down the road or eight years down the road that's going to be an 80 or 85 $5 million project so I think this is the time um and I appreciate the school board that came before you and those that were on that and you guys here today doing this heavy lift and I know it's not easy communicating the why to everybody out in the community 30 seconds but I would just ask this I'm willing to go knock on two three 400 more doors um and I and I will I think what's important is is you folks out there and I know

043that you guys supported it but man just call me I'll be there to help you and any way possibly can and I I look forward to seeing you out there on the main streets of Silverton thank you thank Dan is there anybody online with their hand raised there are no hands raised all right is there anybody else in the audience who'd like to speak Jean okay come on and uh we'll start with asking you your name and relationship to the district and um if you're speaking just for yourself or for an organization I'm my my name is Drew kwell I'm speaking um just on behalf of myself I have um three kids in the montauri school um and I'm I'm mostly here with uh I I just want to express my grievance with the some

044of the gender identity lessons that my kid School teaches um but first off I I'm very appreciative that the school warned us via email that the lesson was coming and they gave us the option to opt out but my my grievance comes also because um the kids peers will be learning about gender ideology in these lessons which they could come up as a topic with um at other times during the the school day or other other days when the the lessons aren't being taught and that makes me feel um like our kids will be kind of like singled out um and as a practicing Catholic I feel like um these uh some of these ideas in these lessons are are opposed to um how how I want to responsibly raise my kids and give them

045the nurture and the and the um uh respectful education about these topics that I I am responsible for if um if something you know if my uh kids have problems they can come to me and they can uh come to a um a teacher of course but I feel like the First Source is is going to be the parent and I just think that's really important um and then I I can't help but feel this is a passionate issue for me because um I I feel like the the teaching of the church is something that um uh has been around for 2,000 years and it's not something new whereas this the new uh lessons that they're learning is um just that it's very new and I feel like it's kind of an experiment on my

046kids um and it feels like there's um creates kind of a clash between some families and the the L being taught in these types of uh um the sex education classes and um just wanted to uh say thank you for the ability to opt out and appreciate that and the heads up that's really helpful and just want to express my um my grievance in that so um thank you very much thank you thank you thank you drew I just want to uh clarify too that Community Roots has its own School Board sure and so um if you wanted to communicate with them you might get um together with their administrator to find out when they meet in case you wanted to communicate with them as well I appreciate that okay thank you uh anybody else

047online just a second I'm sorry I see no hands raised okay Jean come on up thank you madam chairman and board members I'm Jean feifer uh lived in soed all my life uh design build specialist was uh on the budget committee here for 25 years and the chairman of the high school relocation in 93 and 99 so uh you want anything else nope just you're you have three minutes okay all all right so last time the board met there was a presentation by the waha group and the leader of that group was telling us some things and said that the fees that they get take for uh architect engineering and their management of the project is 23% and that and this what you're talking about now that's about $17 million I asked one of the

048board members MERS if you would do that to yourself and the answer was no but this is the policy or this is the way things go now and I said well we need to step up and make expectations different rather than just following what might be going someplace in Beaverton OR I don't know where we're so we can't afford it so we have two things that issue one if we follow the path still with this expensive company uh I feel that we're not being responsible we need to show them what we want not what they want and then of course in that same discussion that leader from anaha was saying that at upon answering the question was the task force or the bond committee provided lots of information relative the renovation of the existing Slater

049building and the answer was no and he joked about it like he would be doing a budget on the back of a napkin and I'm very disappointed the the board didn't respond to that I didn't watch uh uh any eyes uh about it uh so so we got that issue but the other part is we have a facility that in the bond of 1994 the citizens pass and with great detail said that they were supporting taking the schlater building for the Middle School um and that didn't go Andy Bando was the one that kept going down the different path uh we should have uh picked up where it was left off and I can say I didn't been accused about well why do you why are you against all these things I'm not against anything

050I am very much in favor of being sustainable an example I'll give you is if I'm talking to a client which I do frequently and they want to remodel their house but they can't decide if they should build a new house so they like the location everything else is about good about it so they uh they can Remodel and put in a new kitchen a new great room new master suite for 300,000 and if they're going to do the new one they're going to spend 600 or 700,000 so if they just stay where they are they can remodel their building and they can have a building that is going to last and I'm going to say it a, years we have any of these houses that are in our community can last that long this

051building can last that long if we take care of the envelope and that's what something we have to do so I'm appealing to you we shouldn't be doing this you need to be fiduciary responsible and thank you for letting us speak thank you Jean thank you any other raised hands online nope anybody else in the audience like to speak Bill come on up B would you be able to sayate your name and and relationship to the district and speak on the or tell us what topic you're going to speak on um I'm going to talk about the building the Middle School building bill shedler I live in I have a silver tender addess but live out in the country currently have a student in uh in high school here um it sounds like the dis

052or that the decision is going to be made imminently to try this Bond again with just the middle school and high school repairs is what I've heard I don't know if that's correct or not but I went over the voting percentage and over 55% people voted it down last time and you got to know that the people in the outlying districts having all of their Building Maintenance taken out of this proposal many of them are going to change their votes um so I'm urging you not to put that on the ballot because I don't think it has any chance of passing and in um in reading the article in our town about the ballot proposal last time I don't remember the exact amount but it was over quarter million dollars I believe was spent by

053the district to promote that I urge you guys to use whatever dollars it takes to professionally evaluate the old schlater Street campus with the with it in mind not that you want to replace it but you truly want to know whether it can be renovated for a reasonable price or whether it can't be because it's never professional been professionally done I mean people go through and say these These are problems you show the emotional um videos on online of it's leaking here and leaking there well that doesn't necessarily mean it's repairable or not repairable I just point out that there's a house on the way between Silverton and and uh Central how that was recently sold on auction it's been completely torn apart and rebuilt on the same frame I don't know who's doing that

054but they're do they're not doing it because it's a historic building or anything like that they're doing it because that's the most responsible way for them to rebuild it and make some money doing it or provide themselves with the least expensive home that they can and I I believe that if you spend the money to get the high school evaluated professionally if it turns out that it's not you'll gain a lot of votes of people who are skeptical about the true value of those buildings myself included um I I can't support vot voting for a new building until that's done because there are tens of millions of dollars at stake so anyway thank you thanks thank you any other audience members like to speak at this time all right um any interest because this is

055a very big decision that is potentially before us tonight um I will entertain the option of um opening up for discussion any any response to public comment but we don't have to I'll wait for a motion I have a question okay I mean aren't we going to discuss this later anyways um during or we are going to have a discussion but if there's any any response right now to public comment um I will I would entertain okay anybody over there okay all right we will move forward then to administrator and staff reports superintendent Scott Drew has the bond presentation for us thank you Jennifer and I'll wait for Daniel to pull that up here great well thank you um I want to First go over just an update and that is uh in terms of

056our our Director of Finance uh Director of Finance and operations Steve neelon will be moving on Steve's been gracious enough to uh be very generous with the time that he's given us and really uh help to uh make this transition as smooth as possible so Steve is going to be moving to halftime on February 16 and so on the 13th just tomorrow Kim Dow will be our interim Director of Finance the rest of our leadership team will take over the operational supervision uh so Kim can focus on finance um and we're really pleased that Kim that you're number one you're here number two that that you'll be serving in that role thank you very much I also wanted to say that uh this is Steve's uh last public meeting with us and um that's a

057sad thing too and so i' I'd encourage you on your way out tonight if if uh you'd like to stop in and chat with Steve uh because he'll be coming into the district office but this will be his last last board meeting and so Steve thank you so much for your all of your years of service uh I came in in July of 20120 right at the beginning of the pandemic um and uh I'm so appreciative Steve of of The NeverEnding tutorials that you've given me not just on District uh and State Finance but also on a myriad of other things you've been such an integral team member so thank you Steve um so I want to get into the bond presentation none of this information is new okay so I want to start off

058being really clear you've seen this checklist every week in in my board updates to you as we've gone through and and tackled each one of these things on the list uh start started with you know the intent to file for awesome Grant and then a board resolution to have the administrator team uh continue planning and last week we had a discussion on putting an exit date a specific date on the exit of uh Silverton Middle School and tonight uh we're going to formalize or you're going to formalize a resolution whether or not we want to go out for a May Bond and and so in the bond filings there there are two really critical deadlines the first is on March 1st which includes the ballot caption title and summary that's what you already have in

059front of you that's what was posted to board book um and that's what we'll need to get in as soon as we can uh even before March 1st and so hopefully you've had a chance to look at that and then the second on the 21st of March is the final certification of ballot language and the explanatory statement and as some of you uh know from the or remember from the board work session that we would be putting some part within the this process about Silverton Middle School and what happens if a bond doesn't pass it we will be exploring other options uh for middle school and that's where that's where that'll take place in the explanatory statement and that's not due till later date and so just wanted to make sure I was clear on

060that so here we are in option b this is the option that the board um uh has decided on has has um had me and my team move forward uh planning for option b and as you know in the uh that the last uh January regular board meeting we had waha group here we also had Jonah Jensen uh who led the long range facilities planning committee meetings uh go over with you uh the specifics of the square footage and and also the specifics of the plan for the middle school all along also we've operated under this understanding that whatever Bond we go out for in May will be with work that's already been done by the bond advisory committee that there just simply wasn't enough time to redo an entire bond this takes a a

061lot of time uh to do and we only had two months to do this and so very early on and we talked about this it was going to be something that's already been done through the bond advisory committee work that's already been done or we're just not going to have time to do a bond at all because that would require all sorts of different public input processes uh and steps that we would need to go through to bring to the board a new recommendation and so I just want to make sure that that we're all on the same page page there as well there's also four fixes four major fixes to the high school that we need desperately the high school is our most important asset it's our biggest asset uh we need to take

062care of that and uh it's also facility that's that's uh 20 years old and so there are uh some of the costs going to four of the fixes there at the high school but the the vast majority is on the Middle School this is a gen General obligation Bond resolution that you already have and then the May uh ballot language is on page three so having said that with that summary uh I'll open it up for questions and then I know you have this as a discussion item uh before I do that Steve would you like to add anything to that or anything that I may have left out uh no I think it's uh I I think it covered all the the important points and then just the uh more detailed steps around the

063the filing with Marian County that it's actually two two steps on the first due date being March 1st so I think that for for tonight um you know I think if if the language looks looks good in the resolution and the ballot language um I I would recommend its passage but as we discussed in the last meeting um we do have time to make an adjustment if needed um and get it back to for the February 26 work session but it whatever that is would need to be approved at that time to be able to get the forms filled out in IND Marian County by March 1st if it if we do make a change I wouldn't recommend pass message tonight because I'd like to run that back through Carol at Hawkins the bond lawyer

064just to make sure that it's uh you know passes the legal muster but if it does pass tonight we can turn the seal 805 in earlier than March 1st and in fact they they do encourage that so thank you Steve questions before your discussion item uh I had one on the I just noted Noti it maybe this on exhibit a on the resolution on the resolution okay the the third page oh okay you'll need to scroll down I don't have that up here but okay oh on the third page I got that thir page it's right here yeah there you go uh there were down below the bullet for high school and then it says site Playfield utility improvements Furnishing equipment uh I'm just thinking organizationally wise so there's no confusion wouldn't that be placed

065up underneath the middle school or is a sub bullet up there yeah it's not specifically listed under the high school it's it's a it's another primary bullet so the Middle School's a bullet with sub bullets the high school is a bullet with sub bullets and then site Playfield utility that's a whole separate uh um a bullet um are you saying all of those being under the middle school is that is that I that one on site I was wondering about just the placement of it if it was placed up underneath the uh Silverton Middle School before the Silverton High School bullet you see what I'm saying as another another Prim it looks there it just because of its placement kind of has an implication that people would say well what are we doing with site

066Playfield and everything at the high school is my mhm is what it just stuck out at me as I just saw that did read it the same way because B Theo what's the other two are bolded the Silverton Middle School and Silverton High School are bed so I I I get the way that that's that's all I just uh well that's good point yeah organizational we'll definitely I think it was originally listed there as a sub bullet of Silverton Middle School but because it's more General even though most of it is ConEd towards the Middle School it should it was it was not attached to one building or the other but I could definitely see where it would be uh it would look like it's just part of the high school so you know I

067don't think a move like that as far as moving it um you know uh in in its in a certain order as long as the words haven't changed would I mean I think that's something that could be um you know if this was the only proposed change I think we could make that move and and change that with our submission to the county without a problem tonight if that was something you wanted to do good catch Phil thank you I have a question just a procedural um we don't have to read the resolution no just make the motion got it as with I guess we could just for the record state that we would yes that's where we end up other questions comments I guess it's just a question it's my fault for not seeing

068this earlier I don't ever remember talking about Playfield improvements the middle school well is that specific to the Middle School only or are they talking about at the high school as well why is it a separate bullet underneath the high school if it's not meant it makes sense if it's under the middle school because I know that like the tennis courts have to be demolished and there's some other things on their play that's I'm curious about it's all U I believe on the middle school grounds and it's not specifically sub bullet under the Silverton High School but you just proved I think Phil's point that confus yeah it's clearer when it's put under the middle school for sure because it makes sense based on previous discussions and vision and that kind of thing yeah y

069thanks Josh other discussion well we're discussing more stuff later right we can but just specific about the presentation right great presentation well I just want to say thank you to to both Steve and Kim for um working closely on the transition and uh Steve is an end of an era and I'm going to miss you um you have been um really Supreme at explaining something that's super technical and um I I just thank you for the bottom of my heart for for for being um a great servant who really cares about kids I mean you you can talk about money all day long and you really see how it impacts kids and that's um what I appreciate most about about your service and and thank you for your kindness and generosity and um your willingness

070to serve thank you Jennifer appreciate it can I say something of course anybody I don't and I'm going to and I'm honest when I say this I don't know if there's anybody uh who I know has higher Integrity than you Steve um uh you know we've we've got the chance to work together on District things you came into the district I think right when I started my first time on the board in 2015 and we've had to navigate um projects and things working as a board member and uh negotiations and other things and again uh through that process again your integrity always Rises to the top um in everything you do and uh that always um was an example to is an example to me um and uh just I can't thank you enough for

071your service to our district and and all you've done uh for for again for the kids in our district for everybody from the top all the way down and uh you you surely be missed and uh I just wish you nothing but the best but uh really appreciate all you've done for our district thank you yeah I want to I want to Echo that and add to it not just Integrity but uh Supreme competency in in what you've done um for us and not just just in the financial realm but I think your competency is spread across the entire District um your influence uh in so many different ways that are that are outside of you know numbers and uh budgets and things like that so um and also in the community as well so

072I hope you'll still be a part of the community somehow and you and your family and um you'll be you'll be missed thank you a yeah I want to say you know Steve I've known you a long time long before went to college or actually when I was in college but before grad school um you're a man of character and I love you it's going to be really hard to replace you I encourage our district office to look for characteristics like Steve Steve is own wavering uh with his integrity and character and when it comes to money that means a lot Steve you're a great man it's going to be obviously going to miss you and they're going to get a great catch where you're going next so um thank you than you Steve thank

073you John we can still have lunch at chance every now and then I see they just celebrated their 50th Anniversary I saw that too I I'll make it I'll make it simple you're you're a standup guy and we can always use many of those and that's greatly appreciated in this day and appreciate that and appreciate you helping with the transition and everything and uh best of luck with your endeavors and Kim best of luck falling into place here so thank you ch um just thank you everyone for your kind remarks they mean a great deal to me and um one thing that made it so difficult uh you know to make the decision that that I made was was the people to work with you know the board uh DLT and then you know the

074whole District but just love the the family at the district office um really is our work family especially going through the pandemic and kind of fighting through the challenging times and uh so so that made it real difficult but but ultimately I felt the peace that it was the right you know right decision for me at this you know at this time of my life and I like to thank my wife Sheila who's here tonight she's my uh my rock and uh so her support's been unwavering so and thank you for being here honey uh but I also just want to say this um Kim you're in uh absolutely wonderful hands with uh with Kim Kim is in her seventh year here at Silver Falls and uh you know she was uh raised here uh

075she's a loves this community has been fully invest in this community as a as as an employee in the private and the public sector and in in volunteerism uh she jumped uh uh headstrong into this work uh in 2017 as our payroll speci specialist and took that to new levels uh and the way we do our processes our accounting system um she's extremely intelligent and one of the hardest hardest workers you'll ever see and serves our employees to the the highest level uh of integrity and takes that that very very seriously so um I'm just thankful that she's here to to uh you know to take on this role because she's she's tremendous so thank you all very much we've been we've been really fortunate to have to have both of you for so long

076and and I don't think a lot of people know that Steve really he increased his responsibilities of the district office a couple years ago um overseeing not just Finance but just the whole district office in general including uh facilities and um transp transportation that's a huge um credit to your abilities um so we just have been really uh thankful and and and fortunate to have you thank you and thank you Sheila and um thanks your whole family for for being in our district for so long we really do appreciate it Jennifer Tom yep I wanted to make sure you had a chance yeah you bet yeah Steve thank you so much I mean people have really captured my thoughts your your leadership skills extend way well beyond your financial skills and you'll be sorely missed

077and um um good luck on your next Endeavor I'm sure you'll be you'll be very successful there um I really appreciate that glad to see Kim's stepping up to help out so and thank you thank you for sticking around for halftime you know for the for the upgoing to help help with the uh uh transition yeah thank thank you Tom uh Tom is the uh the the one board member uh you were on the board before I started and and and you're still here it's just amazing uh your service to the school district and the community Tom Owen was on the board then he stepped away but then he came back too so pretty pretty cool yeah thank you thank you so much gel I'll have to go a chance together yes all right uh

078Kim I think you're up on sorry I just I wanted to I get a chance as well sorry uh I just want to chime in as well Steve just in our short time working together um everything my colleagues have echoed truly shines through your integrity probably foremost and your level of expertise and uh you'll be sorely missed you've set the bar pretty high and uh Kim we're glad you're stepping in in the interm and uh just greatly appreciative of both of you thank you thank you Derek all right everybody's spoken right okay now I think Kim we can give you the floor I believe we are uh moving on to our finance and enrollment report now and yes appreciate here like to I'm done with this part have Jeff and Dustin come up on the

079okay seismic deal yep so a few comments to make on that so um oh yeah come on [Music] up so we'll start with the financial uh report here so enrollment um fortunately we're we did not see uh a post uh holiday uh decline like we normally would so we're still still holding on uh above 3700 uh students as of February 5th so we're at 3,725 students districtwide uh including the charter schools uh so that gets Us close to 50% recovery from uh our pre-pandemic or our pandemic low um most importantly um it's not shown on this sheet but uh we're still at least as as of December we're still holding to our um 65% of Statewide uh admw which matches where we were before the pandemic and that probably is more important of a number

080in terms of how it's tied to our state school fund Revenue before the end of February we will see uh an updated State School fund estimate from OD um last year it came out on February 17th and so that will be an important number just to see what's happened with the other 196 school districts across the state in terms of their enrollment Trends we lost a slightly higher percentage than most districts uh 10% but our recovery rate has been better so uh that provided some additional Revenue last year and that's you know helping us this year as well um right now the state had um and this is based on their projections going in into the start of the year they had uh projected 543,000 students and 672 th000 uh weighted uh membership which before

081the pandemic that was up to 76,000 so that just gives you an idea you know over 30,000 uh admw lost uh throughout the state um again when this came out last year that helped us a little bit because our recovery rate was better um I think because of where our enrollment is right now now uh it should provide us an additional $2 to $300,000 this year with State School fund Revenue uh but that is still dependent upon you know if if this Statewide number bumps up a little bit it will uh decrease the amount per student a little bit but I I still should would see a net gain there um so that's that's enrollment we still might see a little bit of uh you know a little bit of decline at the high school

082level as the the rest of the year goes on that's not atypical but you know given um you know we we haven't dropped too much since the start of the year I'm pretty pretty happy with where we're at now so um as far as the financial report goes this is a uh three different pages here that's on board book uh these are uh Revenue general fund revenue and expenses through January 31st so the first page uh our our general fund uh dashboard there um you know revenues year-to dat revenues are running right on track uh versus projected at 65% of of Revenue uh I do see that our state uh School fund Revenue um it should run ahead of budget um by2 or $300,000 I don't see that a federal revenue will be as much

083as budgeted but that was a bit of a guess uh because we had things going on with FEMA and the rest of our s or $3 which we didn't know if that would be fully exhausted at the end of last year which it pretty much was so uh we also get Medicaid receipts and e- rate receipts there so overall though Revenue should should hit the mark uh as a whole um so you can see in this here you pretty much it gives you the top 10 list uh pretty much see every category they're um reflective of all the revenue in the general fund um on the second page it's the same format for our expenses within the general fund um again you can see 71% of the expenses reflected in a top 10 list so

084we are you know as we talked about back in the November work session you know our licensed salaries are definitely our licensed employee costs are running uh quite a bit ahead of budget um you know we didn't settle with the uh with SFA until April of last year didn't pay out the Retro until May of last year so we you know went through most of last year without knowing exactly what our expenses would be and they ended up being higher than budgeted last year due to the agreement and this year you know it was hard to know what the impact of the new agreement would bring um so you know again we had talked about this before but what we saw after the hiring season and the start of the school year was we always

085have attrition for various reasons whether it be retirements or people moving on for what whatever reason but especially with the retirees we typically see uh replacement hires coming in uh lower on the salary schedule but uh for the first time in my 23 years we saw um nearly a you know a match across the board in terms of you know where people were at on the salary schedule we had more uh veteran uh you know people coming in and replacing those positions I think one because you know our our compensation schedule is more competitive but we're also seeing less uh education graduates um I think I heard to stat that only oh she only had 57 uh education uh graduates this last year which is really just hard to believe so so things have changed

086there and it really while it does provide as I think Tom pointed out in one of our previous meetings uh it bumps up our teacher experience rating which does uh help boost our state school Revenue a little bit um it does change the way that we have to Budget moving forward in terms of usually we didn't have to we would budget for Cola but we wouldn't necessarily budget much for the step increase now of course not everyone um qualifies for step but uh for those that do usually we could cover that cost just with the attrition and so that that climate doesn't exist anymore so so we are running ahead of schedule there um now the other thing to point out in the uh the graph uh Midway down on the right there when you

087look at expenditures by object prior year-to date versus current year-to date you can see both in the salary and the associated payroll costs now Associated payroll costs are purs taxes and insurance health insurance contributions the difference between Uh current year-to date and prior year-to date is even more pronounced than um because it's an apples to Orange comparison so apples to oranges comparison prior year in the Red Bar uh is the the licensed Sal or excuse me yeah Li salaries total so the bar represents all salaries not just licensed salaries but through January of last year we were still paying teachers on the 2021-22 rates because we were still bargaining so there's even more of a difference so that again that's a bit of an Apple store just comparison so just to kind of keep that

088in mind um um we are running uh less than last year on our purchase Services which includes U all of our utilities Transportation um you know hired labor things like that um but we are running ahead of last year in supplies and materials and that's because of our investment in the curriculum adoption earlier this year between 4 and $500,000 and then the third page is really just more of a numeric uh look and it takes um just a different way to read it uh but but similar to the uh to the first two pages and and and tries to give a uh kind of a bottom line there and and Josh had asked me the question earlier about uh when you look at the budget column for example and it shows a negative 1.5 million

089well that's because when you when you look at the pro when you run the program uh the beginning fund balance budget of 1.5 million is not included in Revenue uh and you could you could do that either way um I like to I like to uh look at revenues as current year revenues not beginning fund balance which is revenue or money from a prior year so I choose not to include that in the total but the the the budget is balanced when you and it's the way the the state sets it up but you include that beginning fund balance number in the total there so um so as we move to the next you know couple of meetings we will run uh there's other reports that we'll be running we're going to get through the

090February 23rd payroll which takes us exactly halfway through teacher uh the teacher year that's six of the 12 payrolls so it's it's a it's it provides a a really uh nice way to look at the numbers and it'll also project it out you know for the rest of of the year because the one thing we also have to make sure is um that everything has been classified properly between the different funds especially with the increase in the special Revenue funds with SIA High School Success those types of things we think that we you know we pretty much have everything where it should be which then gives us a better analysis and snapshot of of this so so we're kind of building our way uh towards that and then the last thing is uh as we

091finish this month or especially as we go into March and well ahead of the budget committee meetings um the team will be presenting a budget road map uh to get us back to um $2.5 million general fund ending fund balance by June 30th 2025 um it's important to look at uh this in a banial uh view um we're in the first of the two years of the bium Aon I know I've you you had a dollar for every time I said this this year we get 49% of State School fund of the 10. 2 billion uh next year we get 51% so um that's going to result in approximately $2 million more in State School fund revenue for Silver Falls assuming there's not a huge increase in Statewide enrollment and we take a drop in

092our proportionate share uh and in addition this year we did choose to make you know um some one-time Investments or non-recurring expenses that won't repeat themselves next year like the curriculum adoption and the bond efforts and and uh finishing the preschool house so just taking those items uh together that will get us $3 million ahead for next year now when you take into account inflationary elements the colas the transportation Insurance utility costs uh new unfunded manats like paid leave Oregon the potential for unemployment uh cost to increase it's probably a inflation that's somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 million now these are early numbers they need to be vetted more over the next couple of weeks and presented more fully in March but you know it puts us in a in a position uh in

093a positive position to try to build back but we would still be looking at you know having to cut the the general fund expenditures by four to 5% uh so somewhere in the neighborhood of two to two half million so um I think that's all I really wanted to share hopefully that kind of gets us to a you know a point where kind of know where where we sit there'll be some more numbers shared and a road map shared with some some a lot of uh a lot of options and and ideas um obviously not all decisions will be made they'll be made by by you and the budget committee over the next you know two to three months but that just kind of provides the the landscape for where we're at at this point

094in time all right questions about that just a quick one I read an article that first student here in Silverton unionized yes they did how how is that going to affect our contract we currently have well that's a great question we actually just met with uh Greg and Andrew first student last week to ask those same questions Dustin you want to speak to that toic so I can hear them we will still retain the right they'll not negotiate anything with the Union that would remove our right to be able to ask that a driver be removed from a route that kind of management right um I don't feel like they were clear at this point because it's so early on on how pay increases for drivers would or could impact uh or their contract their

095current contract with us I didn't think they were that clear that's fair enough I was just concerned because I know how much of an issue it was last year and I know Scott pulled about every string and dug under every Bush you could find to get us bus drivers and I'm super grateful for that cuz it helped I just yeah concern about that level of instability so thanks guys uh just a comment appreciate the overview and kind of the update um the graphs are helpful kind of shows where we're at specifically kind of looking at the uh salaries and expectation and the investment in our staff which completely agree with and then also encouraging here that we're working on a road map to get us back to a uh slightly stronger um Financial uh position

096down the road but completely recognize and support the initial effort and making sure that we're competitive as a district and people want to come work here so thank you thank you J other questions I got one more more just cuz I must not have been paying attention it's my fault Steve the the revenues that we're saying like 65% 62% is that just because we're still waiting payment from the state to pay us um like are we still well it's it's on track with uh where we would normally be through January so the state school fund payments are uh 112th but they do a double payment in July and then one payment every month through through May uh so at this point in time we would have 34 worth of our state school fund pay state

097school fund payments and then about 90 85 or 90% of our property tax payments which come directly to us from the from the county most of those payments come in in November so these numbers will go up towards the end of the school year then yeah there's still still more Revenue yeah thank you Tom you have any question Steve yes sir yeah yeah Steve yeah yeah you bet hey um thanks for the heads up that you know you guys are working on a road mapap to get the get the the ending fund balance back up um I appreciate the past two three years of you trying to know where the money is coming and going the past and keeping close track of it and the unknown unknowns that you kept encountering from Grants and various

098things it kind of reminds me of my business the past two three years with inflation and fuel prices skyrocketing and labor and shutdown and Co restrictions and Supply CH chain issues and you know um it it just feels like it's mirroring what I'm going through and I feel like things are finally settling down and I can kind of make a real plan now and I'm I'm really looking forward to paying attention to this road map going forward and asking a lot more questions and just learn learn learning a lot about how the the books are learning more about how they're kept as we build the reserves back up because that's super important but but we we have to do it and and pay close attention because those are our those are our emergency funds and

099you know you you've been so so well trusted and it was you know as a board member I pay attention to the things that aren't working and the finance department has always worked perfectly ly and so I've just you know directed my energies or my my ey my gaze toward toward other things and I think it'll be very very healthy for me to pay attention to finances again so thank thank you very much thank you Tom I agree what you said about more known as well I meant to say that actually um that I I just feel that it's very important to say that the 2425 fiscal year has to be the comeback comeback year because it's the 51% year and the knows now are uh we have a higher percentage of known now than

100we have since the pandemic started and the other part of this part of the known is um our licensed agreement uh those those costs are known all the way through the 2526 school year and our classified agreement known all the way through the 26 27 School District or school year uh so uh the environment with the known and the increased Revenue it's time that's we got to got to got to adjust to the new Norm which means we we do have to make some decisions but it it also lends itself to a a quicker recovery yeah I I just wanted to say it be I think it probably Bears repeating to every single meaning that we have that um the financials have gotten way more complicated in the last several years because we have the

101Sia Grant um special funds that can only be spent and in certain ways um it's never been this complex so um I it's something that I think it's good to remind us about but remind the public about as well that that things have gotten a lot more complicated and to understand things you got to dig in a little bit more absolutely and U Leslie and Justina just just here last week put together a wonderful uh line item uh list of you know it goes along with some of the presentations Lesley has done on Sia High School Success and other integrated guidance programs uh but it's it's a very nice one pager that I think they'll be sharing here in the next meeting or two as well that gets a little more specific but still keeps

102it at a um a fairly high level but but gives a little more detail on each of those programs so I think that'll be helpful too great we'll look forward to that all right so next on the list is kind of a presentation SL discussion item because I think you guys are going to present and we have to take action on the seismic um Grant uh so take it away well just I'm going to turn over to Jeff here in a second but we're uh in a real you know fortunate position I think we are now in the 10 years of the uh Oregon's seismic rehabil Rehabilitation grant program I think uh this is our eighth Grant we we went on a a little bit of a dry spell for a couple years but we

103did secure um in the spring 2.4 plus million seismic Rehabilitation grant for silver crust and uh so the first step to this was to uh to do a uh an RFP process to secure a uh an engineer and and design uh that will also do design for us uh for the project and I'm going to let Jeff and Dustin uh discuss what this is and we do have an act item for you tonight good uh good evening uh so back in October we put an RFP out for uh the engineering firms to uh give us some proposals on the seismic re Rehabilitation Grant we received um we were fortunate enough to get three really really nice proposals from three really good firms um Steve Dustin and I sat down we reviewed them we uh kind

104of had a good conversation about what we what we saw what we were making sure uh we're covering all of our bases all the requirements were met um we then individually uh graded and scored them and then we kind of blindly put them into a uh spreadsheet so that we were giving it as as Fair of a shot as we could uh after the tally uh zcs was uh the uh was the firm that was the highest scoring um not by a whole lot but they were um graded on their firm capabilities the the project team their experience uh dealing with uh these types of uh seismic Rehabilitation projects uh their record of performance and their references uh their project approach and their project location um so after the the grading uh zcs came out

105top uh we found that they had really high marks for their firm capabilities their project approach and their experience um they've done some projects for us in the past uh one thing that stood out for me in particular was their timeline uh they didn't want to push it they wanted to wait until 2025 to hit the ground and we we had plenty of time to bring everybody in have good conversations make sure everybody was aware and happy with what we were proposing and looking at the designs were good we wanted to have uh uh everybody at the table with the principles and all the interested parties so we wanted to give that a good timeline and we felt like they had given us the best throughout in that that respect um so that's that's as

106much as I know uh for this at this stage in the game uh you'll vote on the resolution tonight and then we'll uh continue on with the process anything to add Mr Dustin questions board members see you said the project wouldn't start till 2025 the uh boots on the ground getting stuff uh te torn apart will start in 2025 uh the the design process and the project management will all take place prior to that uh should be starting uh actually in several months here so so we just basically need the the resolution to approve us entering a contract uh with with ccs engineering I move that we approve resolution 2-12-4 B awarding of contract for the Silver Crest seismic Grant project uh we could do do it now but we have it we have it

107as a discussion item as an action item later okay right um yeah Phil did you want to say anything no okay all right um yeah let's just vote on it because we want to give another public comment option for the public to weigh in before we do it y okay uh thank you gentlemen really appreciate it thank you all right so now we have started the discussion items we're moving on to policy updates we have some second reads on the agenda uh we've already discussed these once is there any other discussion about these specific second reads nothing from you guys okay then let's move on to the calendar Dan would you uh present the calendar to us yes and if I could say just a couple things not calendar related I'd like to take a

108moment for recognizing our classified employee um want to Echo Josh's comment about the glue and Jennifer's comment about not seeing I've heard it said before you know it's like the glue dries and you don't really see it anymore but if it ain't there you would know really quickly and that is our classified employees to a te and I want to thank my brother over here to my left I arrived in the district at a pretty tough time this guy had my back the entire time and we forged an awesome friendship and I miss him all right onto the calendar so um I'm going to walk you through some dates and some decision points um because this calendar will come up uh there's probably not going to be there might be a couple changes uh that

109come before the board on the 26th um but I'll start back with our first meeting with the calendar committee which is a committee made up of classified and licensed employees met on the 29th we took a view of the calendar to kind of identify what decision points were there uh this is one of those calendars that was relatively easy everything lined out really well there weren't a lot of decision points for the calendar committee to wrestle with which was nice uh the main takeaways that they had to go do were to that the they decided they needed to take a look at were determining the makeup closure inclement weather closure dates that you'll see on there uh which they came back with uh just so you're aware both both uh collective bargaining agreements have the

110first closure day is not a makeup day so that one's an automatic and then if we do get a second closure it'll be on uh be made up on March 17th and a third closure on March 14th I'm going to come back to this this portion in just a second so um um so that that they they walked away from the 29th knowing that that was their to-do list then we discussed it with the administrative team on the 30th and really the only thing that they wanted to look at were the early release days um there are eight of them and um so they they kind of went away and then then on February 5th I met with the calendar committee again that's when they solidified those March 17th 14th days on there that you

111see went back to admin on February 6th and they wanted pretty much of those eight days five are outlined in the CBA the ones that we have some choice on they pretty much wanted to to be the first Wednesday of every month so that's the administrative request is to get those early releases uh to be the first Wednesday of each month that are the building Le ones that you heard Katie talk about here a little bit earlier those are the building Le uh early release days um and then I presented this to SFA on February 8th and here I am tonight talking to you to get your feedback which I'll take in a minute and um on the 20th I'll go back to the calendar committee the one thing that's left out there for the

112calendar committee to make a decision on is do they want to identify a forth closure date the contract identifies that they can they identify a minimum of two and there was some discussion amongst them about whether they wanted to identify May 2nd as another potential makeup day they're not totally uh coming to agreement on that whether they want that and just to kind of give the board a heads up if if they don't identify that as a date and let's say we have one of those ref winners then the choice that comes before the board is to extend the school year into the summer so it's sort of a kind of a preemptive move on their part to decide what do they want to do do they want to and I think the one of

113the issues that they're facing is that's in that long stretch between spring break and the end of the school year and kind of looking like they might want to hold that day as a a a work day um and so that's and but then other people are like well no let's we don't want to go into you know it's the Dilemma of whether they want to go into June any further so so that would be one thing that the calendar committee might come back and say is we want to add that May 2nd as another makeup day or not um I have an odd question about that so Silver Crest say Silver Crest is the only school that doesn't have do that that because they're 1500 ft does that mean that the makeup day only

114applies to the school that didn't have school correct it's not districtwide so great question we've never actually applied to that really districtwide last year when Silver Crest had more days we did do some changes and their scheduled to make up some hours and and but we as far as like full makeup days we operate as a full District because we can't have buses not run for some schools and others so um so we did do some unique things last year with s with Silver Crest and that certainly has been a discussion Point as to what happens if we have another one of those years um let's see what else I got here I will be sharing the update with the classified Union um on the 21st and so any feedback for you from you I

115I guess I trust their process on deciding on that May 2nd versus end of the year it doesn't make too much you know I want them to make sure you know I I I trust that the process is going to get us what we need on that anybody else have any comments and that is why part of the reasons why I shared it with SFA on the 8th to make sure that they're kind of maybe more than just their calendar committee members that are kind of circulating that through their membership well and we could have public feedback too so um and if anybody out there wants to check it out and give us feedback we are open to it so maybe just a a question Dan so um if we did have a bad winter

116and we had more than that two days and if they don't identify May second then the natural would be to go to like June 16th like push it out a day is that yeah and that takes board decision okay and so if they sorry just to so if it stays as is there's not a day that's identified and we get to that point next year we would have to as a board determine okay are we going to extend the school year by a day yeah okay we could potentially negotiate with SFA on on that May 2nd day but we can't unilaterally Implement on and would we would we be able to kind of assess that prior to that May 2nd like if we have a bad okay so that would be that would definitely be

117part of our regular Labor Management meetings that we have monthly with both associations in terms of how we how we want to do that and if if there's any willingness to amend the calendar but that would take an agreement so it sounds like we've got some ability to maybe push it off until January if they don't come back with a hard yes or no on on May 2nd yeah well they're going to need to come back with a decision so that we can bring a calendar as far as May 2 goes but yes next year we could we can have those lines of communications open with the with sfba okay thank you the only other minor little thing is that January 6 we'll have a different color and a different shape on it to indicate

118something that is a teacher directed workday and they've they've said we need that signified so that will look it will be a different symbol over that day that makes sense any other comments it's way um less controversial than the current years C yes okay let's move on then to um the bond resolution discussion now is the time to um discuss uh the resolution I'll open it up to comments well I'll start with a question so just if then so let's entertain that we win real quick and then all our problems are solved um now it doesn't and we still have buildings to take care of and what's I know I talked thought i' talked to you a little bit about this Scott about what's the timeline for turning around for like just a small like

119Bond or maintenance operations Levy to take care of the stuff we have to do I mean how like if this cuz we know we talked about it in the past the board did about just an option of like okay let's go for a 12 or 15 or say we just do a 5 million operations Levy how far back are we to get that done onto a ballot to get voted on because I know I know this takes so much of your guys' admin time so I know it would just be nice to just win and move forward but wouldn't that be great yeah uh I what it would boil down to Josh is the process uh process is what we dictate the timeline to come up with a bond uh recommendation that the board would

120take action on so um I would say to do a whole new Bond let's say uh with first of all we need to get our facilities assessments done all that needs to be redone our long range facilities plan was probably good for another couple years uh we'd need to run a full Bond advisory committee as well to make sure that the public has had plenty of opportunities to give input um so we're talking about you know a year over a year to do the process once once it's done from a to z um so if we look at you know next year to run a whole process and then to bring it to the board to take action on you're probably looking at uh the May election next year uh sorry the year after or

121the November before that but I would think it would be of next year would be dedicated to to a bond advisory committee process to to come up with another Bond and what does an operations Levy look like compared to a bond I would have to come back to you with that yeah I would I'll chime in and say I'm not it would be I would have to have there would have to be compelling reasoning behind um an operations Levy for me no I'm not saying now I know but I'm saying I'm saying that I I think that we've got to pass we got to get that school taken care of before we can do any uh that's my personal opinion position do that answer your question Josh yeah those are just I'm waiting to see

122what my colleagues have to say I can uh start us off um I think we're all wrestling with the the gravity of the decision before us um you know and in stepping into this role um I consider I've got two primary bosses and employers our taxpayers and our kiddos um I was at the middle school a couple weeks ago shortly after the um ice and snowstorm and they were fixing leaks in the kitchen to try and like serve food for the kids to make sure that that they had the capability to do that um you know we went out for Bond previously um in our Comm said hey that's not the bond that we want right now um we are wrestling with a shorter time frame we're trying to capitalize on the work that the

123bond committee had done the long range facilities committee had done um and to also capitalize on securing that 6 million in the awesome Grant as well um it's not an easy decision obviously but I think um our role is to take complex decisions and then put it back out to our bosses and say hey this is at this moment time what we think is uh the best option with what we have right now and so for me again we have two primary pressing issues one is we need a new middle school for middle school kids there's just no other way uh around that and then uh we also need to preserve the high school and recognizing that at some point every student that call Silver Falls home that Works their way through the high school

124will benefit from that um obviously wrestle with the um part of our other outlying schools and some of the other schools that do have significant issues not getting um necessarily directly benefiting immediately but again understanding that um this should free up some of the dollars that we have been pouring into the middle school on the facilities and maintenance piece then also uh the significant importance in maintaining the high school so um you know as we kind of talk through this I'm definitely heavily leaning towards uh you know approving um The Proposal that's before us um again because I think it's the best option that we have for right now yeah I'll I'll piggyback on what you said Derek um it's it's the best option I think we have before us I think that's a that's

125a great way to put it um you know we did our D due diligence I mean not just us but five years of work went into our no November ballot I mean I was part of long range facility planning committee started in 2019 right um we honored we did a lot of work on that committee passed it off to the BAC um and they came with the full recommendation of what we should do with the bond now we all know that what we really truly needed in our district was even Beyond another 50 million dollar beyond what we really put out there in November to our to our taxpayers and our community that was scaled down from really what we truly need um our community said no I respect that um and so then it's

126our job as the board to be problem solvers to take that information that vote as and and I think we heard loud and clear it was too expensive um and so how can we and again we have to be then we have problems before us our job is to solve help solve problems with our community and with our Administration our problem is as you said Derek and everybody knows the middle school it is beyond repair several committees you know before us who gave us all the information agreed with that the the plan is to it's beyond usable life it's time to get a new Middle School um I will honor that um I will not go against that um that is clear to me as I've been in that facility a several times um we

127also need to deserve this building because every child or every student in the district comes through this building um and if we want to keep it as beautiful as is today we have to invest so then then we can't it wouldn't be a confus or accused of having deferred maintenance on this lovely building we have to do that so I look at this opportunity we had before it says okay we took the November feedback from from our from our community saying it's too expensive it's too big we can't tolerate that this time so we have to kind of scale that back to what we have before us now in option b uh which solves the problem of the middle school and it keeps this building intact for hopefully another 20 25 years to come um

128and Scott you had in your in your presentation The Orange Box and I think what we need to to realize and help our community understand that as if we go forward with this this is in essence a cost neutri Bond we are paying a $1.96 per $1,000 valuation uh on on the current Bond right now on phase two the high school that figure will not increase or decrease for the life of this new bond proposal we're doing our best to hear our community from saying we can't we're not going to increase we're not going to you as we saw it was it a sizable increase and I do believe people went to the went to their tax payments did their math I saw a lot of a chatter on Facebook whether it was uh uh

129actual ual uh you know um numbers from folks uh assessed value or their real value I don't know um but uh I heard a lot of chatter on that and I think we we've we've been if we approve this as a board tonight and move forward I think what it does is is it solves the problem our biggest needs our biggest needs a middle school and keep this building intact now that's not to minimize the k Community needs um but we have to triage it we have to scale it back okay the first option didn't work which touched everything we got to scale it back now to the most pressing needs this is a cost effective way to keep our our our $196 obligation per thousand valuation in our community consistent we're not increasing taxes

130but we're solving the two biggest problems we have in our district in terms of in terms of facilities and again that is no way ignoring our our K communities but now we we we have to do as a board now triage what's most important those two things are most important and I think we have a plan to to present it to our community in a in a more cost effective manner to keep the tax burden the same yet still solve the major facilities problems we have the two major facility problems we have here in this District so I'm I'm in support of it uh me uh first of all I want to start out by saying I definitely can support uh us going with the middle school and high school needs as far as a

131bond I do question whether we're giving the best shot we can at passage of such a bond uh and this is where and I just run it by one more time uh this the size of the facility that we're talking for the middle school all indicators are it looks like you know we could probably scale that back 5% MoneyWise which isn't in essence scaling back to school uh just on the comps we have the the big comp it's really close is is uh Cascade bethl District it's almost a clone to what what we have here they're building a they're building a school around the school right next to their athletic field for the high school I mean it's it's almost uh right there and that facility is like when you count our facility of what

132we're building new and then what we're remodeling to hopefully close to new level with our existing gym complex it uh it's just like slightly bitter Builder excuse me bigger than what our just new part would be I think we're at 91,000 and it's 95,000 I believe and round numbers and so I think you there's room there to take 4 six million off and still be meeting our 196 mark But including some money going to our other buildings to take on some immediate needs obviously as Aaron pointed out uh before wasn't going to reach totally everything at every building but we got to start somewhere uh at picking a way at it and it roughly for every million we have to go to the other schools not counting the high school and the middle school it

133works out in round numbers it works out about a 100 I mean about $1,000 per kid if you go by School population so a school of uh 330 kids take times a th that building would get that much for work and we have a readymade list from the long range plan the long range plan specified projects a hierarchy of them and we could pick from them ones that would fit into the whatever the amount is that would go to a Mark Twain or to a Robert Frost or to a Silver Crest and then that way we're showing as far as stewardship we're actually trying to work on the other buildings too and we're not we're not any close to saying we're going to fix everything that's there that needs fixed but at least we've in

134good faith got a start on it and then we can start talking you know down the road next election or something like that serial levies for the you know been mentioned and everything for operation maintenance operation but it gives us a a start and if we can get uh real close even a few cents above if it need be but around that 196 Mark and still be giving some money to those other buildings be building a very uh nice and functional and good big enough Middle School that we need for students get get get this building covered I mean that's extremely important to have any building it's the you start it to roof and the walls to keep everything else safe uh but get the money that needs to come here to get this building

135up to Snuff I think we've got a lot of selling points pushing forward and and we've checked off quite a few boxes of what people uh are looking for for the money I'm I'm I'm genuinely concerned that when we you know we talk about the the advisory committee well advisory committee their recommendation was to everything and to Lim well voters turned that down and so we're already not necessarily going everything as the advisory committee recommended we know that but at least in good faith we've got some going to all our buildings and so the Robert Frost and Mark Twain and silverrest and Evergreen and all our buildings will get some some money going to them and get some fixes there not as much as any of us want but would get there and it I

136I feel it get more Buy in and improve our chances on because I've said it I'll say it again I I think we're looking at a very long haul if we don't if this bond does doesn't pass uh before anything is going to happen again and so that's that's just my take it but if we end up at where we're at on the plan B I can I can support that I just not sure it's the wisest Choice maybe just a sorry um I know I'm speaking twice before some other folks have um I I in general like the the concept my understanding is it's just not doable with the time frame we have is that accurate okay that's my question is it even possible with the ballot language or any of that we've already

137drafted we would have to come back to you with a with a new plan and and that would require going back to the consulting firm on scaling back the project as well uh might in terms of costing uh that piece um but I'm not prepared to talk about a prioritized list I guess is what I'm saying okay so that was just a clarifying point for me is is the concept I think is sound I just don't think it's manageable in the time frame that we have I totally totally agree with with uh what Phil said also it we're just under an enormous time crunch um and to do it right in terms of process I don't I just don't think it's possible with the with the work that was from the long range in that

138priority list and everything that wouldn't be enough of a well that would be our decision that would be the board's decision but the board has remember the board hasn't given me that direction either if the board had uh we' probably be in a different conversation right now you know I I would just say um the yeah the time there's not enough time to make an adjustment like that um um but I I I agree with what you said I think that would be ideal Phil at this kind of a price point to try to get all schools involved but uh you know I I would I would just say that I there was no stronger proponent than myself than to have all schools represented like we did in in the last Bond and quite frankly

139that's a big reason why we did two listening sessions at every school yeah and it really felt like was going to get the support we needed you know to have every school involved but what felt so good uh in the in the in the months leading up to and and um kind of finalizing the the program and the package and getting information out really turned um where it just didn't feel as good there was a lot of uh bickering about uh allocation amount uh to each building um you know and it was so fixated on the dollar amount and without um really taking into account and giving the proper Credence to you know a school that maybe had a a seismic project done versus a school that did not uh or you know a school

140that you know had a gym versus didn't and you know what you know is it a covered play area or does Evergreen get a gym I mean it just got it really bogged down the whole program and with the limit on on Words and a ballot in these different ballot sections um this something that was as simple as warm safe and dry it became just so uh controversial you know so um I still think and and then we ended up losing all the rural precincts by a large margin after all that was done and so I'm not saying that that that that wouldn't work at the right number so to speak but I think this effort um kind of piggybacking on all the work that that had been done um it'll it'll kind of I

141think you know it'll tell us like well this one specific method didn't work and then we scaled it down to 53% of the total about 53% of the previous total um but but it's but it's simpler it's easier to understand it's attacking kind of the two biggest needs and if that doesn't work then yeah I guess back to the drawing board I just like to to add to Steve's C thank you Steve for for saying what was on my mind as well that uh if you were on the board uh previous and and you went through the bond advisory committee and the long range facilities planning committee for that matter uh and you started to see how messy those conversations got once you start seeing uh what $138 million would would bring to each and

142every school and how it turned out to be this battle over itemization and and individual costs and all sorts of other things where when you're running a public process becomes absolutely impossible um and so when you ask me if it's as easy as coming to the next board meeting with a prioritized list I don't know how you would do that without another public input process because otherwise what becomes is the superintendent list and this is a bond that the community will pay for and and so I I just I encourage you to think about it that way because if you were on the board you would know the thousands of hours that we spent trying to solve that equation on what is the best approach to take uh with the projects that have already been

143outlined and sure there are a lot of things we'd rather do differently um but we're talking about an enormous amount of work that came cannot be uh accomplished in 2 months so yeah I totally agree with both both uh your comments Steve and and Scott and I don't disagree with anything anybody has said I think that there's a lot of ways to to look at it and um from the beginning when we de we we started thinking about floating this Bond that's always been the delimiter is we don't have time to do a public process and I'm not comfortable with the divvying up resources um in a way that was different than the BAC um so that's that's been my line through through the whole process but I I want to go back to something

144that Derek said um about the amount of money from the general fund that is used to um keep Silverton Middle School afloat that money um if we get a new Silverton Middle School can uh be allocated to the other schools um in order to uh get their needs met and so that is a huge benefit uh for the entire District to get Silverton Middle School um in in a spot where we don't have to spend this $100,000 a year just to keep it going uh so that's a huge thing that I think people need to to look at um and you know it prevents us from having to look at drastic changes in the way that we house our students um so that's two benefits to the entire District that aren't specifically like what do

145we get you know they're not on the the list of projects but they are benefits for the entire District so um I agree that that that it's not perfect and we got to make the best decision with what we got right now and so for me I I'm um in favor of a bond that um addresses the biggest piece of feedback that we received I think the one that everybody can agree on is that the November Bond was just too too expensive so this this meets um is responsive to that feedback and it's responsive to the idea that you know if we don't replace silver to Middle School we're going to um the general fund's going to keep bleeding and uh we may have to make some drastic changes in the way we we educate

146our students so um for me I'm I'm I'm probably going to be voting yes yeah so for me to speak to to Phil's idea that's not a I mean that's a concept that I considered before um but I think Steve really really put it together succinctly for me is that it seems like an arbitrary a bit of an arbitrary way to allocate bond funds when you are just allocating based on you know number of students irrespective really of what what our most important needs as a district are um and so probably for that reason I I I don't like that idea um and I and I agree that we don't have time to implement it by well in any reasonable way I think before this election uh to work out you know even if we

147wanted to add some criteria and try and figure all that out I think we would end up in that same scenario where you know people aren't happy with the allocations that are selected and I just don't see a way forward with that um but I also think and as I've been thinking about this particular Bond and you know the comments about the size of the school and the square footage and the different components I think that it's important you know so when I my personal life when I hire an expert and ask for their expert advice I don't just disassociate myself with common sense right but I still I try and hire an expert that's going to provide me good advice um and I think that's what we did in hiring waha you know they

148don't they don't themselves build schools we hired them as a resource to give us uh a lot of information about best practices about um you know square footages and you know lots of details and think it would be wise for us to take their advice on on those things especially in terms of you know budgeting in the phase that we're at right now which is you know predesigned the school may end up being 88,000 square feet or 92,000 square feet I mean there's a we we don't really know um but and then that led me to also uh in some conversations with some public some people in the community you know saying well you need to direct them to not build the top Hall you need to direct them not to build an edifice to

149their own ego or something to that effect and I thought you know we we really have done that and so I I printed out our our principles of design you know that it' be durable long lasting simple maintainable non prioritary sturdy responsible you know all these things that would guide that um future Committee in designing the building and deciding on how many square feet and where they can conserve funds um and where they you know would would spend funds so um I guess that's where I fall in terms of that whole um you know the budget numbers and then also in terms of um you know really just relying on our experts I think that's the better place to put our Reliance than in um you know folks in the community that think they can

150do it for 20% of the cost or they can you know pull a rabbit out of the Hat somehow I just don't think that that's realistic at all um um so with regard to the bond question that we have in front of us you know I'm I'm uh I'm going to be voting in support of it um and it really gets very simple for me I think our district is better off if it were to pass than if it were not to pass and that and and to me it's also the only realistic option that we have at the moment yeah I I think that's it ow and2 it's it's we're at a point now where we have to do this like we we have to for the when again coming back to our kids

151that's what we're here for we have to get this done for our kids there's no way around it and and I think I don't think we have time to kick this can down the the road anymore I think it's irresponsibility on the part of us as a board if we do um I don't I don't think it's being responsible it's not what we're elected to do we have again problems that we've been we've been presented with um and trying to with the aid of our community and our communities and our staff and our and our and our U Administration to try to solve the problems um and again we we can't we don't have time to kick this one down the down the road because the way I see it and Jennifer I'll touch on

152something you said about putting money into a building again ultimately we want to get out of and tear down um I I I don't think it's fiscally responsible to put potentially a million dollars into a building we want to get out of um you know Jeff put together a a list for us a few weeks back and and shared with us like what could happen like there there could be a potential million dollars worth of need over the next few years I don't see that as being responsible when we have reserves down to you know three digits or or six digits that's not being fiscally responsible um and and again it's a building we want to ultimately get out of so I just don't think it's being responsible again if we kick it down the

153down the road or and leave it for another board I I don't want to be you know personally speaking I don't want to be I want to be a part of a board that solves a problem not just leaves another problem a really even worse problem for another board and then just not dumping money into a into a building we want to get out of I forgot I didn't let Tom speak I'm sorry hey Tom Tom do you want to take your turn yeah yeah no um I appreciate everybody's comments but I'm gonna be voting against this um I guess I've I've been for months now wanting option C um and it was kind of floated toward the beginning by another board member just to you know pass six or eight million and take care

154of the high school and get that six million awesome Grant I think I think that would have P would pass um and that's kind of every time you know I've been floating at the past couple meetings what about option C you know and it never comes up so you know I'm in the minority on that and I'm fine with that um but it's it's based upon the fact that you know we got temp we got it the pass by it failed by a pretty large margin um and I think a lot of it I I think I think something like that would pass my singular opinion um and it would be kind of like a u he's a baseball metaphor or just be a base hit get get one to pass um build a little

155trust and then in three years that the the high school bond finishes getting paid off and I think that's been an anchor I don't think we really quite understood on all of these bonds over the years is that for the most part most of the bonds we proposed have referred way have relied on deferring a lot of our payments for that and it's you know it's called The U defer interest and um you know we're talking about deferring $60 million for 3 years so you work the interest rate at four or five% for three years and that 60 million portion that's deferred turns into 68 or 69 million and then you start making your payment and that's and that that's a increased cost and it's and it's sad um but but I think that's kind

156of buried in you know the collective group of Voters when they say it costs too much how come it costs too much and um it's I I I don't know the answer the way out it's it's too bad that the the Middle School the old high school could not be refurbished into the middle school it's it's too bad um I think people forget that during that process was when they discovered about the large the subduction fault Zone off the coast and people are still holding on the hope that we could rebuild that that high school but but that's you know that was a what they call a Black Swan and um I don't really have an answer you know I really we needed to pass the last Bond but the voters with a large margin

157said no so you know I look around the state there's been there was a large success of passing these small bonds with the Austin Grant so but I'm in the minority and I'm going to back off and um I'll probably vote Yes on when it's on when it's on my table but as a board member trying to think about what everybody in the in the district is going to vote Yes on that's why I'm go going this route so um you certainly won't hear me talking it down I'll tell you that much thank you thanks s yeah um I'll just be kind of guess to the point for once um um I hear plenty of people say no and I hear plenty of people say yeah I feel like we have a responsibility to give

158that choice to the people I'm going to give it to them um I mean I think all the points tonight were made you know I really Phil I think you have some great points I really do but we're also under some time constraints I am tired of people nitpicking itemized lists and square footage and it's just like gives me a headache cuz I read all those old minutes I'm frustrated cuz it's not our this board or the previous boards fa this has been going on for a decade now trying to fix that school um you know takes up so much admin time to run these things I'm learning and I like to gosh I'd just like to pass this thing um we will have a bond oversight committee again I hope people like I mean

159from some really great community members Scott that same if this passes we'll still have we'll reach out to those same group that we had posted before correct yeah okay yeah and they have first right a refusal say yeah um I want to encourage the board I have decided that I will enter the nefarious Waters of social media um for this at Great consternation I will do my best but I'm going to need a lot of information from you guys I'm sure I'm going to be asked a lot of questions I want to make sure I give them 100% factual info and cuz we don't we cannot spend any more money so it's going to be on us to do some heavy lifting we probably won't have a pack we probably are the pack um and

160this if this Bond passes I firmly believe it's better for our community our kids than it does not I think we think right now we're not thinking 50 years down the road what what this looks like and we won't even remember really um is yeah that's it I'm yes I just want to say one more thing before I ask for final thoughts um Owen's uh piece about our design what did we call it uh principles our principles of uh guiding gu principles guiding principles I want to just put plant the seed that if we could get that into the actual information that goes out to voters um I I think that that might be um it might be a good thing I don't know I don't know what everybody else thinks but I I think

161that people didn't go to the website to look at that and they need it on the actual information be in the voter's pamphlet the voter pamphlet stuff is C well also I think it's when I talk to people and say there's going to be no tax increase you're going to get a new building you're going to get improvements to the high school be that solidifies our investment there um they're like oh yeah but so just making sure that messaging is super clear on this and then also one of the things that I got kind of confused on a little bit Scott and you cleared up for me is and I I'm the social media wolves are going to be out so that there's a design phase you know so some of those questions about like

162how how are we going to is that a discussion we can kind of have now like how how's that going to work so there's we approve this and then and so we're asking people to sign up for this without knowing what it's going to exactly look like corre or what exactly in it y so I'm kind of that's that puts me in a difficult situation if I'm going to be out there fighting yeah and that's the conundrum of a of a school bond every district and every Community has to Grapple with that but we don't have the resources to go through and nitpick and itemize every single little we don't have the financial resources to do that um but when a bond is passed that's when the real input starts so we thought there was

163Community input during the during the planning phase and development phase once it's passed that's when droves and droves of community members and stakeholders come together and decide how they want it to look and and that's why it takes a year year and a half of planning before ground is even broken to make sure that it's done right um so thank you for clearing that up thank you for bringing that up though that's very important about the design phase and Scott you had put the B ballots and bonds or bonds and ballots are we do we have any folks I'm going uh I along with our team uh is we're going on Friday okay and if there is a board member that would like to come even though it's been in my updates uh every Friday

164for the past three months um if there is a board member who would like to come we we'll do what we can to see see if we can see if we can add you Debbie's giving me that look right now that means that means she can solve it just to prove my my intent I did join both Silverton connections as well as the Silver Falls Group which I was already part of gold star and I even changed my picture to not be an engine to actually be my face so preparing so yes we'll pick up on on some additional information and bring I I just want I was really trying to sell for any potential board members who wanted to go that was my intent there um it's a good conference any other comments yeah

165he yeah um Tom I want to thank you for bringing up the U the kind of the plan C part of the conversation because I know it's been kind of it's not growing a lot of legs with our board but it you know it's been thrown out there a few times um and I appreciate your your perspective on that um very valid and I really appreciate what you have to say on that especially as many years as you've been on the board and you've been through this process a couple of times before too I but I can't help but in in when I hear a smaller Bond maybe something like a six million plus another six million in matching gives us 12 million I just I'm trying to figure out beyond the high school what's

166that really going to do to solve our biggest problem I I we're going to we're going to be going back to the community asking for another Bond that'll that'll probably be more expensive again with a couple of years time I I mean other than fixing the high school I not exactly certain what a six what 12 million will do for us you know like I said it's not going to touch our biggest pressing issue and that's the middle school and and darn near 500 students um I do want to come back and I want to try to get this on public record again is that our our scenario that we're that that we may approve here is is is not a tax increase as compared to the November Bond um yeah this is a $1.96

167per th000 valuation that is currently on the tax uh the tax burden or the tax um uh for the taxes for each each taxpayer and the or homeowner within the Silver Fall School District that $1.96 will just remain uh for the for the duration of the of this new Bond so it is not an increase well that's the estimate that's the estimate correct that's the estimate sorry can I add one more thing but yeah I just no I just want to say I think that people I'm asking people just really who are watching or out there just to consider that because if we do delay this and we have to wait maybe two three four years for another Bond I can guarantee that it's not it's going to be even or even if we wait

168for the the other one to drop off the current one in in a couple of years that it's going to be way higher than a196 that's I mean I'm no Financial prognosticator I don't have the Yoda skills like Steve or or uh you know but uh but but but I can tell you Common Sense tells me that it's going to be more than a196 per thousand here in a couple of years the last thing I wanted to say is the reality of if we don't this doesn't pass it just makes it harder for us as a board to decide what the longevity of that building is and those harder decisions that I really don't want to have to entertain or make so well one and one point too is as I've I've mentioned this before

169uh if we don't the Middle School needs replaced and if we don't do it now we've got all the things that Scott's talked about that we have to do an assessment we have to uh we'll have uh the committee work again uh the advisory committee then you got the time delays and then even once a bond has passed you got that time delay during the design phase and all that so we need to be real with people and it's not something that we can put on the ballot but when we talk about uh what a no brings but it's certainly a talking point that we need to emphasize if it's no in reality if it's no to this bond in reality with everything that would have to happen and probably would happen before another comprehensive

170bond that would build a middle school that middle school would only house kids that aren't even in our school system yet I mean they would we're talking back done the math we're talking three-year-olds is would be the first possible kids practically to be in a building if we don't pass this one and so that that paints a little bit of a picture of uh the urgency just us coaches when we're coaching we talk urgency with players there needs to be some urgency there needs to be some urgency here for our community uh do we want what we've got and keep going Band-Aids which keeps pulling money from everywhere else uh we're not we're not going to let the rain fall on the kids so we're going to do what it takes to make that not

171happen but it's not going to be cheap and what do we got when we're done uh so so I think that's you know one of the biggest selling points that we we need to emphasize knowing this one and that's one reason we're going back right now uh so we don't have to reinvent the wheel on all those steps but if we have to go through all those steps again and put it down the road we're talking quite a few years before there's a new Middle School no matter best intentions so I did want to um commend Phil because he actually traveled to how many comps I I I I went to two of the comps and talked to actual project managers on the third so he really did his homework on so way to go

172I've uh and that's why I can support this our our numbers aren't outlandish or anything I just felt you know if we could find everywhere clear there was some room there to skim some so to speak for elsewhere thanks but I also see the logic of uh uh you know not being a put numbers there if I can I think I think Phil you were presenting the ideal like I think as a board we would love each of us to be able to give a little bit to each individual school and so I I appreciate that and I think um our public appreciates that we were you know thoughtful about wanting to do that but wrestling with the practicality of actually implementing it so again just huge thank you for kind of being that consistent

173like is there a way to accomplish this ideal Jennifer I also Tom I want to say thank you too for bringing up what you said today there's nothing that you said I disagree with and I I don't want you to feel like I left you know suggested an idea a while back and leaving on an island uh because I still think it's not a bad idea but um you know you and I just come to a different inclusion on on this particular scenario so I I appreciate you you know where you're at on that totally agree and diversity of thought is is not a bad thing so any last thoughts okay um we are going to move on then to our second public comment period um and this is specific to discuss question and action

174item so specifically about the seismic Grant um action the bond action and um policy ik so is if there's anybody who would like to speak about any of those things please raise your hand either on Zoom or in the audience so Carl um you have speaking for yourself I am okay so you'll have three minutes and just um make sure that you identify yourself and your relationship to the district okay Carl deweer relationship the district I went to Silton High School Central H been in the district a long time I just wanted to come speak tonight uh I appreciate your guys' positivity in wanting to pass the middle school bond uh I appreciate Tom's courage in taking a different position that's hard to do sometimes um but in speaking with a lot of members in

175the community which a lot of them have reached out to me because they knew I took a position last time against the bond uh just a few things going forward that I think are going to make it challenging uh one is gentleman called me and said well what the world they they they asked for $1 60 last time we were getting 138 million now they're asking for $1.96 and we're only getting so so there's going to be some confusion in that front um and then as Tom's baseball analogy to a certain extent I feel like you guys are trying to go for a home run and knock it out of the park which would be great but I'm just concerned that there's that possibility of striking out and it leaves us and our district in

176a worse position because it's going to take longer to get back to the table and try to get things put together than going with that very small maybe 6 million and we talk about time as far as I understand a bond is presenting something to the voters and putting it in action to me it seems very simple we're going to go after a small bond to take care of some of the problems at the high school whatever we have left over we got a great maintenance department let them take and put that money into all the issues we were talking about in the last spawn and we get positivity in the community but we need to get the community back to the table and I think it would be easily to TimeWise to put a

177bond on uh to take care of the middle school when the high school bond falls off uh start a year prior put that Bond on and I would rather put a million dollar into that Middle School than defer $12 million to the voters roughly that's that's not fiscally responsible uh and I guess the the amount of deferred interest depends on what the interest rate is and when you pulled that Bond but the potential of 12 million I think is there when I ran the math on it if you were cold bond early at 5.6 that's not being fiscally responsible with our dollars so that's all I have to say tonight and appreciate what you guys are doing thank you thanks car than car thank you anybody on Zoom anybody else from the audience all right

178then let's move on to the action items um the first item is is the Silver Crest seismic Grant should I try again yep go for it I move to approve resolution 2-12 d224 DB uh awarding of the contract for Silver Crest seismic Grant project I second it it's been uh moved and seconded to um approve resolution 2-2-2 2024 uh - B um awarding the contract to uh for the Silver Crest seismic Engineering Services RFP uh discussion no Aaron yes Josh yes Phil yes Owen yes Derek yes Jennifer yes Tom yes all in favor okay 14b is the bond action item is there a motion yeah I'd like to move to um approve resolution number 212-224 d a a resolution of Silver Falls School District number 4J calling a measure of uh election for General obligation

179bonds and related matters I'll second okay I don't have that right in front of me um it's been moved and seconded uh to pass resolution number 212-224 a resolution of the silverfall school district number 4J calling a measure election for General obligation bonds and related matters um is there any discussion all right Aaron yes Josh yes Phil yes Owen yes Derek yes Jennifer yes Tom no it is six yeses one no the motion passes thank you all right let's go to 14 c um policy ik academic achievement um actually this says second read yeah oh what so you're asking for us to do it even though it's the second read got it because there's a sense of urgency around this one it's connected to the one we deleted that's right okay so um let's um

180have a motion on this one ISO move to adopt uh the with the edits to code ik policy okay it's been seconded oh sorry it's been moved and seconded to adopt policy ik um the academic achievement policy um and the edits are already in there right right yeah okay we don't need to say that then I don't think okay uh any discussion all right let's vote Aaron yes Josh yes Phil yes Owen yes Derek yes Jennifer yes Tom yes all in favor future agenda item requests all right it doesn't seem like we have any so meeting adjourned thank you [Music] all