001um and officially welcome you all to the 2025 pre- General Assembly learning. Um today is September 4th and we've got about an hour's worth of um content um for you all today. Um we're going to spend some time um orienting ourselves to the general assembly handbook. Um we have Johanna Brown um the associate director of secondary science from OSPI um coming to us to share about climate change education um and Daniel Longher um our WASDA accounting um analyst here with us to talk about school aortionment payments um two specific topics that relate to legislative position proposals that are new in nature um proposed at the 2025 general assembly. Um and then we'll have some um other remarks before we wrap up and close. Um but before we jump in, we've got a semi small group
002today. Would love if you all might take a second and just um introduce yourself, share who you are, um what school board you're from, and um if you're willing, how many general assemblies um you've participated in at WASDA. Um I'm going to pick someone and then if you can just pick someone else from the screen after you, that'd be great. Um, I'm gonna ask Dan Hansen to jump in since you're first on my list. >> Thanks, Logan. Yeah, I'm Dan Hansen from West Valley Spokane. Um Um, so we're very close to the Idaho border and um I've been on my board for almost 11 years. I don't know how many general assemblies, but more than half of them since since I've been on the board. So, and um just a name I'm seeing here. I'll
003go with Amy Hughes. Hello everyone. I'm Amy Hughes. I'm from a small school district north of Seattle. It's called Conway School District and um I've watched the legislative conferences, but I think this is the second one I'll participate in. And I'll go with Han Train. >> Hi. Thank you. So, my name is Han Cran. My pronouns are she, they, and I am a schoolboard director for the Northshore School District. And I think I've been for sure have been to one, at least one general assembly. And then let me see the just the first name that pops up. Uh, Judy Schwab. Let's see. Can you hear me? Good. Okay. I'm Judy Schwab. I'm from the Muckle Teal School Board. I've been on the board for 28 years. This is my last year serving and um I've
004been to several ledge assemblies and our LED rep can't attend today so I'm sort of sitting in for him and that would be Charles Hal and oh let's see Aaron Gerber. >> My name is Aaron Gerber. I'm from the Yellow School District. uh the fellows between Tri Cities Most Lake. Um this will be my first assembly participating. Um I kind of passively watched last time, but yeah, looking forward to this one. Let's go. Bryce Cox. Good afternoon, everyone. I am Bryce Cox. I've been I'm just finished up my third term on the school board and am currently the ledge rep. This will be my third uh assembly that I've uh attended. So, let's go with Daniel Longher. Hi, I'm Daniel Longhoffer with WASDA. Um been with WASDA for five and a half years. This will
005be my fourth general assembly. Um but I'm usually behind the scenes um you know doing tech support and everything like that. So, not actively participating. Uh, and I'll pick on Liza. >> Hello, I'm Liza Ranken uh from the Seattle School Board. I'm halfway through my second term, so it's been about um almost six years. I'm also on the WASDA board of directors um for the last two years. Yeah, this is my Yeah, last two years. Um and I've been our ledger rep for a little bit. I think I don't know this will be my third or fourth general assembly and is there anybody that didn't go yet? Janet. Hi, I'm Janet Caldwell. I'm in my second year of being a schoolboard director for the Clover Park School District. Um I've been the ledger rep for
006both years as well and this will be my second assembly. Great. And Rich u I'm Riches from Burlington Edison School District. I've gone to about five general assemblies. >> Great. Thank thanks all of you. I think everyone has had a chance to go. Am I right? Anyone who hasn't had a chance, please jump in. >> Hello. Uh this is Dan Cutler. I'm from the uh Orchard Prairie School District in Spokane and I I've been uh on the school board for more than 15 years. I don't know how many. And this is my third general assembly. >> Great. Thank you all so much. Um I I always like to start with introductions when we can. Um just to sort of see, you know, all of the different perspectives that are coming into the space. We've got
007some General Assembly newbies. we've got some general assembly veterans um and everyone in between. So really really appreciate you all spending um your lunch hour with us today. Um before we dive into some of our like content presentations um I just wanted to take one second to put the general assembly handbook on the screen which I think you can all see now. Um, and basically wanted to just walk you through a little bit really quickly. Um, how to take a look at it. Um, some things you might want to look for. Um, as hopefully that'll be helpful, um, as you get organized for the assembly, which is just 16 days away, believe it or not. Um, I wanted to, um, first jump down to page three of the handbook. We're in the table of contents
008here and just point out that um there's this space called voting order for proposals um in case you want to see at a glance um each of the different proposals that you all are going to be looking at and debating and voting on um you can see everything in order um there. So just want to flag that for you. Um, two specific callouts that I would make, um, that are new in the most recent version of the handbook that was posted on August 18th, um, is the two amendment proposals that came in through the amendment window that happened between August 1st and 7th earlier this month. Um, that would be number A13, the amendment to the consolidation proposal stabilizing district budgets. You'll find that on page 45. And then also A25 um that is the
009amendment to the amendment proposal on routes to professional certification. Just wanted to call those both out for you as well. Um additionally, starting on page five, you will find the rules of procedure. Um would encourage um all voting delegates to read through those and familiarize yourself with them head of the assembly. Um and let us know if you have questions there. And then um want to sort of flag for you that each of our proposals has an icon on the front um with hopes to just make the handbook um easy to follow. Um with the green box being for permanent positions which reflect core beliefs and values. The yellow box being for legislative positions, which are sort of actions directed um towards the state legislature or Congress at the federal level um or emergency proposals
010um purple the purple box um to which none have come in at this point in time. And then I'm also just going to give you a scroll down until I find one that fits on one page. Here we go. um to just give you a quick rundown of how you um might want to take a look at the proposals. Um essentially what we're trying to do for you all is make this as easy as possible to follow. Um so you can see the district that submitted each proposal um the recommendation that comes from the WASDA committee that sort of received the proposal um from members. Um that would be either the legislative or resolutions committees um or the WASDA board of directors in the case of bylaw changes. Um these committees are made up of
011folks that you all elect um and are representative of every director area from across the state. Um and you are not voting on the committee's recommendation um but voting on how you all as a board feel about um the proposal in front of you. um an important context for you. On the right hand side of each of the pages, you'll see rationale statements. Um the first always from the proposing district or districts um with the second um a rationale coming from the committee itself um that sort of backs up why why they recommend a do pass or a do not pass on any particular proposal. So, just wanted to take a second and just orient you to some of those pieces um of the handbook before we get started. Hopefully, that is helpful for you.
012Um any questions on how to read the handbook before we dive into um our first policy presentation. Okay. Um I'm going to pass it over to Daniel. Um, and I'm going to make you a co-host so that you can share your screen, which I think is now possible. Um, Daniel, take it away with um, school district aortionment systems. Thank you so much for being here. >> No problem. Thank you very much, Logan, for having me and everyone for tuning in. Let's see. Uh, sure. Share that screen. Okay. So, right now you should see my PowerPoint. Okay. Are you all seeing the PowerPoint? Logan, is the PowerPoint itself up or you seeing >> The PowerPoint is up. We can see it. >> Great. Okay. Uh so, a few weeks ago, Logan asked me to uh help
013demystify a portionment payments. Uh so, I'm going to do my best to kind of break down a little bit about them. Um, and uh, my experience, I've been in education finance for 19 years. I've been been a business manager in a couple of districts. I was school accounting supervisor at OSPI. Um, so I speak this language fluently and my hope is to get you, you know, have you understand a little bit more about a portionment payments and um, the whole process. So, so what are the aortionment payments? How do they work? So the aortionment system, what we define as aortionment is it's how the state allocates money to the school districts for uh education funding for basic education funding. It's how the state makes it payments. Um the state doesn't actually pay you. The money
014flows to the county treasurer and state tells the county treasurer, you know, deposit this much money in these accounts. um the county treasurer won't get won't get the breakdown in your funding reports of okay we you know this many teachers this many librarians they just get a dollar amount to put into the district's general fund um their payments are made monthly uh it's the last business day of the month uh so like August payment came in on August 29th uh the amount that you that you receive every month isn't the same um partially because the state has set up an altered payment schedule for a portionment payments. And then some items will have different schedules or are paid just once. And so here's the here's the aortionment schedule if you're really curious, you know. So
015in September district will receive 9%, October 8%, November 5% and so on and so forth. And if you look down here, I'm not sure if this will show up. Um, but if you look down here, July and August, I'll get this into this in the next slide. You know, there's 22 and a half% of your uh finance that is um uh 22 and a half% of your portionment payments is coming in the last two months of the district of of the school year. So, you know, in assuming your expenditures are spread evenly over the whole year, you you know, you have 77.5% of your funding coming in for those two months, but you've spent 83% of your of your expected expenditure. So, there's a bit of a gap there. And so, as I say, you
016know, that the state pays that 22 and a.5%. Um, it was started years ago. um before my time um and it was only 20%. It used to be, you know, July and August are both 10%. And the reason is that it allowed the state to push money into the next bianium because the state's fiscal year begins on July 1st. You know, school district begins on September 1st. So as a budget saving move um they started pushing some of that money into the next fiscal year because then they could say okay you know these two months that's in the next bianium we don't have to worry about it now. Um you know you're still owed the same amount but it's just been a it's a budget trick on behalf of the legislature as to why they
017did it. Um and they moved to the 22 and a half percent this time because you know more recently just because of you know continued uh funding problems at the state itself and November and May were presumably chosen because those months followed your local property tax collection due dates. So you know property taxes are due April uh but you can split it up April and October. So the following month the state basically cuts it down. Go back slide you know 5% in November 5% in May and then the 6% in June was basically another part of that whole budget saving you know uh trick that they tried to do u for school districts. And if anyone has any questions um you know please feel free to raise your hand or you know put it in
018the chat or something uh and we'll see if I can get your questions answered. So some exceptions for portionment payments. So so this schedule is for your basic education, your special education, most of your special education I should say learning assistance program, bilingual uh highly capable um but there are many exceptions. So grant money uh you have to spend the money first then you claim it uh through a grant claiming system and then the state goes to the feds gets the money and then they pay you. It's part of you know the money that flows into your district. Uh food service claims are also the same. You know you only get money based on meals you actually serve in a given month. Uh levy equalization or LEA has its own schedule. Um and so if
019you know and if if you don't have le a levy, you don't get LEA, so you wouldn't get any for that for that calendar year. Um and uh I don't I don't have the percentages right in front of me. Uh but it is it's an entirely different schedule. Uh special education safety net. So this is uh these are the dollars that come in for your high cost need special ed students. you know, the ones that, you know, you have to spend $50 $60,000 a year on specialized services for them because that's what their IEP calls for. Um, that that money currently is only paid in August. Uh, so it's comes in the last. So, it's another part of the, you know, cost that you have to front until uh you get your special education safety
020net funding. Uh, national board bonus for teachers is paid in July. Um, so it comes in, you know, one month before the end of the fiscal year. Um, so a lot of districts will use that money then to pay the national board bonuses to their teachers on their August check. Uh, some do it differently than that and basically they front fund it themselves. Um, nothing exceptionally wrong with that. Um, can be done, but uh, but just know that your district won't receive the money for it until the July portionment. And then school bus depreciation payments. So, when you get your your money for your yellow buses, that's also paid in August. Um, and what's difficult about that one is, you know, when you buy your bus, you you know, when you buy your buses, you
021want them to be ready to go, you know, purchased, you know, on-site, inspected, all that, and ready to go for day one of the school year. Well, if you're not getting the money until the until August 31st, you know, the bus companies want their money when you when you pick up the bus. Um so you know having you know having access to funding before that is important. Um you know so it can be a cash flow issue but most districts you know it's not a huge one. Most districts solve it. Yeah. Okay. Why am I not advancing slides? There we go. Okay. So what factors go into the amount that districts will receive from portment? The big one first and foremost enrollment. You know, you know, you have students, they generate basic ed funding. So
022many principles, so many teachers, so much in MSOC, etc., etc., etc. So, you know, as your enrollment goes or you know rises or shrinks over the year, uh the amount that you're due in aortionment will rise and shrink also over the course of the year. Um so, making sure you have accurate enrollment counts is very important. Uh, another piece that could uh be different for you is carryover recovery from prior years. And I'll talk about that here coming up in a little bit. Uh, state federal funding shortfalls could impact how much you receive any in any given month. Uh, and then grant claims again since you you claim those after after you spent the money. So, carryover and recovery. If you haven't heard these terms before, um, some let me explain them here. Uh, so
023some state funed programs have carryover restrictions like 10% of your annual allocation. So if you get a million dollars, you can carry over up to $100,000 into the next year. Uh, basic education has no carryover. You know, you get the money, you get the money. Uh, career and technical education funding, however, is different. That that has to be spent in CTE program and you can carry over. uh special ed highly capable those programs have uh you know allow for carryover. So if you didn't spend it fully in one year you can hey great we'll spend it the next year. Uh but one thing to consider is that funds carried over in one year are considered to be the first spent in the following year. So that $100,000 you carried forward from last year that's considered
024to be the first money out. So if a district doesn't spend enough in a given program that you know it could have funds recovered during the following fiscal year and why is it the following fiscal year because your financial statements are not due to OSPI in final form until mid November. Um and then it takes time to take all that data, put it into a format that can be used and then uh they evaluate and say okay you know had they how did they spend versus how were they allocated and it's also done it's done in January and another reason why it's done in January is that is when enrollment gets uh when funding gets tred up to your enrollment. Um, so for the first four months of the fiscal year, September, October, November, December,
025your district is funded based on your budgeted enrollment. And then starting in January, it goes then based on your actual uh enrollment to date. Um, and so that's also the month that carryover recovery is done. And so recovery, if you have it, so so it starts by taking your allocation for the given year plus carryover from any any carryover from last year. Then you subtract your program costs then minus any in any applied indirect costs and minus allowable carryover. So you know so let's say this year okay you've got $1.1 million to spend because you know you you didn't spend $100,000 last year you only spend $750,000 this year. Um I'm just going to make up some numbers. Don't worry about actual numbers. Um, so when they look at the end of the year, they'll
026say, "Okay, they spent $750,000, you know, take off 100,000 because that that was last year, left with $650,000. Let's call it, you know, uh, 10, you know, let's call it another 10% carryover." So that's $100,000 you can carry over. So now they say, "Okay, expenditures plus carryover is 750,000." And then, you know, say $50,000 for indirects because makes my math easy, my mental math easier. Uh, so $800,000 of, you know, allowable program expenditures plus carryover. You were spent, you spent, you know, you were given a million dollar to play with. So, we're going to take back $200,000 next January. Um, it doesn't happen on that scale very often. Uh, but it can happen. Um, and if it if it if and when it does happen, you know, it just means that your district will get
027less funding for a given program in a, you know, for January. And there have been times where uh some districts don't receive any allocation in a specific program for a couple of months because the level of recovery was that big compared to their alloca, you know, compared to the allocation in aortionment schedule. Um so you know uh the district's business office get has access to a couple of tools that OSPI has designed to start running you know carryover and recovery. So this is something that they should be looking at. Uh first version comes out I believe in April. So, you know, if they're not if if they're not doing their own tool, OSPI's tools available beginning in April to start looking at, okay, how are we doing versus, you know, you know, how are we
028doing for the year versus, you know, our allocations? So, do we think we might have to bump up spending? Are we going to have carry are we going to have recovery issues or carryover provisions? So, there are tools out there for your district to use. um you know they're making the decisions behind the scenes a lot of time you know about you know ways to ways to make sure that they minimize any recovery. So, state shortfalls. Uh, so like your district's budget, the state must remain within appropriated amounts at the end of the fiscal year. Um, if the appropriation isn't full enough to fully pay for a month or two, then the state will short that payment, but they will make it up in July, the new fiscal year. So, it it's happened uh this
029year it happened with transition to kindergarten for two for two months, I believe it was. Um and you know it just sometimes happened like basic ed you know you know final numbers come in even with the uh uh you know extended budgets or you know supplemental budgets and just okay you know we're you know x dollar short and they will you know they will allocate to districts enough to hit that funding level and then whatever else um what whatever's not funded basically gets funded the next year um you know so you get it in July I um goes into their calculations as to how much they can spend for for that next year. Um they're usually pretty good about communicating this. Um but sometimes it's not until like a month or two in advance. Um
030it hasn't usually been too big of a dollar amount, but I'm not saying it can't be. Um you know, maybe there was a huge bump in enrollment that they weren't expecting. um and all of a sudden they've got to short everyone's aortionment payments by you know you know 10% of what they were of what you were expecting. Um so can become a cash flow issue for districts. Um but you know it's just the state has to has to remain within their abud their appropriated levels. You know they cannot exceed it. Um there was one one incident during I believe it was I think it was during the great recession where um the level was kind of so big that they had to short districts money in June. So June 30th payments were cut drastically short
031but then they made a new payment July 1st. Um so you know it was an exception that you know forgetting your your money at the end of the month. So, you know, districts really had to had to scramble that time to find the the funding to be able to pay for the for their June bills. Um, you know, but generally if they have to short, it shows up, you know, at the end of July, but once it did happen that because of the magnitude, they've just paid July 1st. Uh, federal shortfalls. So, federal grants are largely paid on a reimbursement basis, meaning you have to spend the money first. you know, you spend the money, you claim to the grant system, state claims from the feds, and everyone gets their money. Normally, great system works
032out well. Uh, but this is true as long as federal appropriations don't run out and are funded. You know, we all remember the, you know, various declarations earlier in this year that, oh, they're not going to fund this or, oh, they're not going to send out this money. Um, as long as that doesn't happen, you know, this process will work. Um and um you know, but if the state, you know, if the feds ever do say, "Okay, you know, we're going to cut the appropriation or we're not going to fund it." Um then, you know, and you still have to spend the money, but you can't uh you know, you just won't get the reimbursements through the feds. Now, some of you may be wondering, well, can we just claim in advance then? Claim all
033the money we're due. Yes, with a big butt. The big butt is uh federal cash flow rules generally require that money goes out within three days of it being of it reaching your um your district. If not, and that's why it's done on reimbursement basis, by the way, because you've spent the money, so your money's gone out. So the federal money that comes in to reimburse you, you know, meets that cash, you know, the cash requirements. Um and the other is interest. you know, if you earn interest on um federal dollars that you claimed early, that has part of that has to be paid back to the feds. Um doesn't again doesn't happen very often because almost every grant out there is paid on a reimbursement basis from the feds. So, you know, cash flow
034is you know the the cash flow requirement is not is usually not a big problem. Okay. So now some claims about you know some of the myths about aortionment funding um that you may have heard. So the big the first one is the claim that the legislature is not fully funding education. So when the court accepted the funding formula as it was finalized in 2017 2018 they agreed that met the definition of full funding. So is the legislature fully funding education? Yes, within this narrow scope. Um so so the values are based on the proposals out outlined in the quality education council originally enacted in substitute house bill 2776 you know and updated since then. But that is the legislature saying hey this this meets fully funded. The court said okay we agree that meets
035fully funded. legislature met that goal. Legisl court said great, you are fully funded. Um so again here, you know, within that limited framing, yes, the legislature is fully funding education, but it's not adequately funding education though. And we see that by levy needs, you know, class size issues, everything like that. Um so, you know, just remember that there's a difference between full and adequate funding. You know the legislature is fully funding it's just not adequately funding. Uh so funding equity versus equality. So funding formula generates uh funding factors equally. So an elementary student in tino and yes it's how we locals well sometimes spell tino uh they generate the same staff as one in Seattle you know you know 1.88 AA principles per prototypical uh high school, you know, class size of 17 for K
036through three, you know. So, in that sense, everyone gets funded equally. Everyone gets the same amount. But now, but then regionalization provides that additional funding for districts with a higher cost of living as much as 18%. So all of a sudden now, you know, the equity issue, you know, some people could argue that, oh, it's still equitable because, you know, it costs us more to do this. It cost us more because we have to pay our teachers more because of the cost of living here. You know, it's not equal funding. Whether it's equitable or not depends on your perspective. I've worked in small districts that get regionalization and I just have to say w um you know um you know that it it's not viewed as equitable by some of the smaller districts and then
037the smallest districts receive additional staff to make up for shortfalls in the funding formula. Um like I Logan had a question about this last week. So, for example, uh I think it was Shaw Island that I used five students. They generate like a third of a teacher. Now, you're not going to you're not going to be able to hire a third of a gener of a teacher to instruct your kids for a full school year. So the legislature has these funding formulas that say, "Okay, we will give you additional students to meet, you know, so that way you can actually hire, you know, enough staff without having to resort to local levies." Um, and uh, you know, when I when we say, you know, small districts, we're talking, you know, the smallest districts, you know,
038under 75, under 100, uh, some even under 300. You know, there's different factors. So, um, and it's district generally, not schools. So, even if you've got one school that only has, you know, 50 kids and, you know, all your other all your other schools have, you know, 300 kids, now that that one school doesn't generate small school funding, you know, uh, generally speaking, and of course, there's an exception to that, like there's an exception to everything else. Uh, equity versus equality part two, levies. All districts use the same levy formulas except for Seattle. Congratulations, Liza. You're special. They get higher per pupil amounts uh than every other district out there. And so the caps are based, you know, the levy cap is either based on per student amounts, which for all districts except for Seattle,
039um you know, it's the same per student cap or levy rate of $2.50 per thousand of assessed value. Uh and so the per student amount of final levies vary widely as a result. Uh so you know definitely equality you know in theory everyone has access you know has equal access to the same levy formulas. It's just you know actual application varies widely and you know some districts can only generate a few hundred dollars of levy per student because you know that's just the way the funding formula works. Uh the state does offer levy equalization LEA to uh provide some equity for districts who can't generate as large levy per pupil terms but it does not bring up districts to the levy per pupil cap. Um you know levy cap this year um I don't remember
040the exact number I should have looked this up. Ballpark $3,000 per student. probably way less than that, but just, you know, all $3,000 per student. Levy equalization, you know, it's a it looks at comparing your per student amount for a levy of $1.50 per thousand to a LEA cap of 17 $1,800 per student. So, it's not close to the LEA cap and it only looks at a levy of $150 instead of a levy of $2.50. Um, so you know it it makes up some of the difference but nowhere near enough. And finally, levy perpable caps are increasing faster than LEA. They have been in the past because of different uh measurements and different uh inflationary factors. So you know the idea of LEA helping to uh stabilize and provide equity uh has just disappeared over
041the years. And that was all my slides. So if anyone has any questions, Logan, any do we see any questions in chat or >> Thanks Daniel so much. No questions um as of now. Um but anyone who might have a question, feel free to unmute and let us know. Is there a way that we could get those emailed to us? >> Those slides. >> Yeah, >> absolutely. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay, Danielle, that was so so helpful. um for everyone on the call in the context of um the number of position proposals and items that y'all will be considering that impact or um directly mention funding or the funding system in general um specifically aortion payments. Thought it would be really good to have Daniel come on today and um give us that
042um explainer. So Daniel, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Um you all will have um a little bit less time with us than you originally thought. I was able to connect with our OSPI presenter and uh they had the wrong date um for today's webinar. Um rest assured they are planning to do a recorded version of their presentation um that they can send to me early next week. Um, so for all of you, I'll make sure everyone who has registered for this call um gets a copy of that um so that you're able to hear um that perspective um as well. So without further ado, um I am going to share just a couple of more um resources and tips around general assembly um and then we will go ahead and get you all
043um on your way and give you a little bit of time back this afternoon. Um, first and foremost would want to remind you about the RSVP form um that we are circulating right now um in terms of what you might be used to as registering a voting delegate for general assembly. Um we are choosing to go a little bit different of a route this year and instead just ask that districts um RSVP to us and let us know um that you're intending on participating. uh many of you on the screen have done so um but if you're not sure or you haven't I just dropped that link in the chat um would encourage you to fill that out that's really helpful for us for planning purposes additionally um we will be sending out voting credentials
044um to all school board chairs or presidents and leads um I believe this afternoon is when those are going out um regardless of whether or not you filled out the RSV VP form. That's just a really helpful tool for us and we'd still ask that you complete that form and let us know that you're planning to attend. Um, but credentials will be coming out um via email um from our comm's team later today. Um, and then the one other thing I want to flag for you, I'm just going to pull up our general assembly web page, which you should see um right now. Can I just get a um a thumbs up emoji or something? you can see the web page. It should be on. Great. Thank you. Um what I wanted to flag for
045you all um for this purpose um is if you scroll down here just a little bit um you may have board members that want to participate um in general assembly um at a time when they aren't the voting delegate. Um and this year what that looks like is um viewing the public broadcast. So one board member um from your board can log in at a time with the delegate credentials that'll be emailed to you. For all other board members who may want to watch um there's a blue button here. You can click on it. I don't think it's going to send you anywhere yet. Um this is where there will be a live stream broadcast of the general assembly. So, for any board members or any others who may just want to watch and aren't
046actively voting, that's the space, um, that you will go to. And then also, um, more information will be coming out, um, with delegate credentials, but I would also just flag there's a whole bunch of information here on the website about how voting delegates can get into the general assembly platform, um, sort of how it all works, the email address for our help desk, um, and all of those types of things. There's plenty of information here um on our general assembly website. So, just wanted to throw that out for you one more time. And then lastly, one more thing. Um on your screen right now, you should be seeing an Excel spreadsheet. Um want to give a shout out to school director Sarah Bentell from Shoreline for helping to throw this together. Um, but this is
047a tool that, um, we are hoping to amplify this year, um, that board voting delegates can use should you want to, um, to gather perspective from your fellow board colleagues um, as to how you as a board might vote um, on any given proposal at general assembly. Um what you can see here in order of uh voting order in the handbook is each of the proposals um that will be up for debate and vote. And there's an opportunity for various board members to either maybe mark it with an X um or a P or a C like pro or con um or any other comments. Um it gives you a place to sort of gather feedback from your colleagues um to help inform the voting process. So, just wanted to show you that spreadsheet um
048and also mention that that will be coming out um today um in a follow-up email from this presentation um so that you all sort of have that and can use it um should you choose to. Um are there any board members on the call who have used a similar version of that spreadsheet over the last couple of years and might want to share how it's been helpful for you? All right. No, no worries if no one wants to jump in. Um, we have received many requests um over the last couple of weeks for something like this yet again. So, really hoping that it's a good resource for all of you. Um I did get one question in the chat um just about the um public broadcast page um and would just sort of respond and
049say um any any person um who's not a voting delegate of a school board can use the uh public broadcast to watch the general assembly. Um so that is there for for anyone. Um anyone who's viewing um from that page will not have the ability to participate in any way. Purely just um watching a live stream for the event. And Dan, glad to know that you'll use the spreadsheet this year. Hope it's really helpful for you and for anyone who's planning on use it using it. If you have any feedback um or just experience from using it that um would be helpful for us to know, please don't hesitate to just send me an email and share um or if there's other resources that could be helpful for you similarly in future years. All right,
050y'all. Um it is 12:46 and oh, Daniel, you got something to throw in. Jump in. >> Yeah. Uh so it's not related to general assembly um but it is related to annual conference. Um so remember um uh if you haven't already already registered for annual conference uh early bird pricing expires I believe on the 26th. Um so after that uh early bird pricing goes away. Um and the big question still is about sales tax and after October 1st. Uh the department of revenue just issued new guidance. I haven't had the chance to read it yet. So you know so take this with a grain of salt. you know, there is a possibility that if you sign up after October 1st to attend annual conference, you may have to pay the sales tax rate. Um, again,
051we're not sure exactly if that's the case. I haven't read the interimm guidance. Um, but it's another reason to sign up early and, you know, say save money on early bird pricing and save money without having to pay the sales tax. >> Thanks, Daniel. Appreciate the update. Okay. Um hope everyone has um a lovely rest of your day, rest of your week. Um please remember in case you're interested in attending. Next week is um general assembly caucus week. Um there are four different WASDA caucuses that'll be holding meetings. Um on Monday, September 8th at 5:00, the school directors of color caucus will be gathering. On Tuesday, September 9th at noon, the small schools forum will get together. Um, Wednesday, September 10th at noon, the equity and access caucus will get together. And finally, on Thursday,
052September 11th at 5:00 p.m., the large schools caucus will get together. So, if any of those dates um or meetings are interesting to you, um please feel free to register. Um those links have been sent out in various member updates um over the last couple of weeks. I'm also dropping those in the chat right now um for anyone who might just want some easy access. Um it's actually too big to drop in the chat at once. So I'm going to drop it over a couple different chats. Um and that is all next week. And then of course would encourage you to um join us starting at 8:00 a.m. on September 20th, General Assembly Day. Um, official business will start at 9:00 a.m. Um, but if you join us at 8:00, um, there will be a
053presentation just sort of connecting the outcomes of general assembly to the work of WASDA. Um, and just trying to show how your work and your voice directly informs um, all of our work, especially as we think about the upcoming legislative session. So, thanks all of you for joining us today and hope you have a great rest of your day and week. Take care. >> Thank you.