001Okay, we are live tonight uh for our December board meeting. It is Monday, December 15, 2025, Columbia School District Business Board meeting. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Oath of office. >> All right. So, first of all, congratulations to Crystal and Dad on your re-election. Um, who would like to go first? You can stay where you're at or you can come on out or you have to stand. >> Okay. And raise your right hand. I'll just repeat after me. >> I state your name. I, Crystal Maiden, >> do hereby solemnly swear >> that I will support the Constitution >>
002of the United States >> and the Constitution >> and the laws of the state of Washington >> and will faithfully discharge the duties >> the director of Columbia School District number 400 >> as director of Columbia school district >> Wala County Walaw Wala County >> state of Washington >> to the best of my abilities. >> Congratulations. >> Okay, Thad. >> Same thing. Dad, you ready? >> I'm ready. >> I state your name. I, Thaddius Pereira, >> do hereby solemnly swear >> that I will support >> I will support >> the Constitution of the United States >> the Constitution >> the >> Constitution >> and the laws of the state of Washington >> and will faithfully discharge the duties >> of director of Columbia school district number 400 >> director of Columbia school district number 400
003>> Wala County Wala County >> state of Washington. >> To the best of my abilities. >> Congratulations. >> We've got a full board again. Appreciate you uh doing that. We will put these in the paperwork. We need to sign these off tonight in the meeting and we'll get those submitted and sent on. >> Awesome. Good news. So, we have some great news. Um, Elevate from the Blue Mountain Action Council uh was going to be here to tell you all about the new things happening at Columbia High School. Um, but last minute they called Lily after school. Um, one had an emergency, the other one went home sick. Um, and I said sorry about that, but we'll bring them back to you, talk to you. Um, just real briefly. This is uh a new group we
004have in this year helping support our students for post-secary graduation. So, we have our traditional gear up program there and now this uh Blue Mountain Action Council with the Elevate program doing a very similar model. So, Kevin, you want to say anything about anything? I didn't prompt you with that, but anything you want to say about that? >> We're working with a lot of our seniors um just transitioning um out of the high school. So, showing them some scholarship opportunities and they did some FAFSA things. They were at our conferences and giving information to parents. So, um, group BMAC or Blue Mountain Natural Council is doing a lot of things in our community. So, this is a great program. >> We got an new individual at our high school, bilingual, that's in helping with our
005students and our families. It's all grant funded. It doesn't cost us anything. We have it uh for at least two years. Um, and then we'll go from there. >> What's that position called? Um it is um I don't know the specific title. Sorry, Michael. >> We have a new guidance counselor and then we have this position, right? >> Yes. Well, this position really um mirrors more closely to our gear up coordinator. So, it's really our Blue Mountain Action Council coordinator. >> She's a gal that's coming in that's as Kevin mentioned doing those things. really post-secondary uh trying to I'm excited about this group uh coming in because they have some things behind them with the grant that comes in with some actionable items with research and data and one of the pieces they really want
006to do is start helping us track postsecary what happens to our kids beyond high school. Um there's some places that we could do better looking at that with those additional supports. So >> that's something we've talked about getting better data on for >> 20 years. >> So I'll bring them back to you. Thank you. >> Okay. Board operating principal review. I'll do the board. Would you do superintendent? >> Absolutely. >> Uh be prepared. Board, read all materials. Call and ask questions in advance. Seek clarification and information as needed. When possible, explain to the superintendent in advance about concerns about a proposal. Superintendent develop recommendations that combine the best interests of schools needs of the district within the region that reflect the priorities and goals that have been adopted by the board. >> Uh do you
007anticipate any changes to the agenda? >> We cannot make any changes or adjustments in terms of adding anything because it's a special meeting reminder. It's one week early. So um the only thing I would like to do is adjust the order at which it happens in. I'm going to ask to move Tavis up following this. Uh he's feeling a little under the weather. So, I promised him I'd get him here, let him present to you, and let him get one. So, he's feeling better. You're okay with that? >> I don't know. >> Do it. >> Okay. So, with that, uh, Tavis, um, you guys obviously know Tabus, uh, though he's new to us this year. He's been doing an amazing job with us. Our new, uh, middle school, high school assistant principal and district athletic
008director. to come talk to you briefly and just give you some updates on our athletics and how things are going to start the year. >> Thank you. You're welcome. >> So, I'll do a a quick fall recap. Um I in the data in the middle here, the cable has all the data for participants we've had during the fall and then what we will have signed up for the spring and the winter. That's for middle school and high school. Um for football this year, we had 15 positions recognized as all EWAC. Matthew Wilder was offensive player of the year. And Columbia Burbank was awarded the sportsmanship award for our district this year or for our league, I'm sorry. Um volleyball, we had three girls on EWAC. We made the first round of districts, so that was
009exciting. >> I don't think we should glaze over the He told me I had to be done in five minutes. >> You got to go back to that for a second. He doesn't know where >> was nominated by I will tell you I was at the mean because I ran the um all the EWAC football awards and it was nominated by Tri Cities Prep and they commend us on how good of a job they thought we did this year and uh our sportsmanship throughout the whole year. And he'd been he'd been to multiple games here scouting us and then playing us and he had a lot of great things about the way our kids acted this year. just again I can't compare it to last year so I don't know but he did have a
010lot of complimentary things about our kids and the way they reacted and acted in our games so and everyone seemed to go along with that and said that we did a good job and >> it's a good building >> I mean I think we should have built that and moved on through the rest of what we're doing because you know it's been a little shaky in the past so >> kudos to you guys program >> um the girls the volleyball team at three UAC recognized and they made uh first round districts for the first time I I think in a few a few years anyway I'm talking to their coaches. Um soccer was great. We had 14 girls out all year for soccer. Um 13 of them were high school, one eighth grader. Only two
011seniors. So hopefully have 12 returning plus. We'll add on to that. So we had a full team which was great. Um just numbers wise it was great. Um I won't go through all the numbers. They're all there for um if you see the plus that's eighth graders. So for example, high school girls is 13 high school girls plus one is one eighth grader that participated. Um, in girls basketball, we have that 15 plus, we have three. The exciting thing about girls basketball is we're getting back to the point now where um, if we return everyone, we have one senior that just turned out this year. Um, so we'll have 17 returning plus hopefully gaining a few. So, we won't be calling up eighth graders anymore. Once we get that above 16, so 17 and above,
012you can't call up eighth graders. So, we're at a good spot hopefully. Um, returning 17 girls, we'll be adding a few. So, we have a varsity and JV compiled of just high school girls. Um, so that's exciting going forward. Um, again, the the spring is just projections. I don't that's what signed up on final forms, so we can't go off of that. That's just who has signed up. Um, and as far as the title N, I know that's one of the things that I was told as director of title N. So, I put those numbers in there. Right now, we have more girls signed up to participate than boys this year to 209 to 204. So, that's kind of exciting, too. Um, I should be a lot of that, too. Uh, a lot of middle
013school girls are are participating. We can see that in the lower levels. So, that's exciting for the the future of high school sports. Um, I put some short-term and long-term goal in here. Our short-term goal is possibly it's up to the board if we want to be branded by Nike. Um, what that would do for our school is it would give us a 30 to 40% discount on all jerseys going forward by Nike and also buy um products that we want to buy. So, if we want to buy coaches gear or if we want to buy stuff um any essentially any group in our school could buy Nike products whether it's FFA want to buy Nike sweatshirts at 30 to 40% off. it could use it all the way down to the elementary school. If
014the teachers were a cohort together, they wanted to buy Nike something, um, they would get that discount as well. Um, the only requirement is that you have to wear Nike varsity uniforms. So, our JB would not be required to wear Nike. Um, we would not be required to have travel gear as Nike. It would just be only on field uniforms that school provides would have to be Nike. Everything else could be whatever the kids buy. So, if the kids want to buy Adidas shoes, that's fine. They can wear Adidas shoes. If we were to buy the kids shoes, which we don't do, but if the school was to provide shoes like a uniform, it'd have to be Nike. So, if we got together and said, "Hey, we're buying all the high school kids shoes this
015year." It' have to be Nike. But since we don't do that, we're not required to follow that. It's only what the school provides. Um, and then if same as like I know Todd has done a great job um in football does this too. They they buy things through BSN or game game one. They can still buy that stuff for shirts to wear to games. That stuff's also on the table. >> So, not not this top, but the other one. Um, is there any questions about that? I know that's kind of a confusing. >> What are some pros and cons of it? I mean, >> well, the the pro is the pro is that we get the discount, obviously. The con is that you have to wear Nike uniforms and you have five years to adjust
016all of your uniforms to Nike. Um, all of our uniforms, looking at the schedule, the jersey schedule we're in right now is in a fiveyear loop. So, we could essentially do that all go to Nike in that five years. We don't have to do one at a we don't have to do all of them at once. We could do one every year. So, we could stay with, let's say, an Adidas jersey or Under Armour jersey for basketball. If we want to do that in the fifth year, we could wait till the fifth year to buy that in the Nike um in the Nike uniform. The the con was always that we want to use Game One because it's a local company out of Spokane and they didn't carry Nike and that was one of the
017reasons why we haven't done it in the past. Um Game One now does carry Nike. So, we're trying to keep all of our business local with the same vendors we have had, but now there was a big match between BSN and Game One. BSN controlled Nike, Game One controlled Adidas, and that kind of went away the end of last year. We're both have contracts, open contracts with every company now. So, >> so will it be more or less money? I mean, I know we're getting a discount for Nike, but >> all jerseys are basically the same. So, it would be it would be a reduced cost for us. Um, and I know football already goes football is the most expensive one just because football jerseys are the most expensive. They've already gone with Nike. Um,
018so essentially we have that one in Nike already, but um they're in the cycle for the next set I think of uniforms to purchase. So, um, the the con the cons I guess would just be you have to go all Nike varsity, but like I said, JV, C team, junior high, all the or middle school, I'm sorry. All those can use other products. So, it doesn't trickle all the way down through K through 12. It's just the high school varsity is what has to be in Nike. >> So, you think there may be a money savings in the long run? They're definitely money savings and they also will provide us the first year we sign up with this um game one will provide a thousand dollar bonus to us where we can use any way
019we want. So we could use it to if we wanted to buy a certain thing for the school or athletics. Um some of the big poster boards they use at schools that you know for like signing day for like college basketball where they see the the coyote behind you um the cloth one. Those are about $1200. We could use that $1,000 for there. Nike will give us money every year to buy coaches gear or whatever whatever we want to, but you can't use that money to buy uniforms. You can, but you don't get the discount. They give you a $5,000 stipen to buy stuff for the school every year, but you can't you could use it for uniforms, but you won't get the 40% off if you use it on uniforms. You can that has
020to come out of school dollars. The 5,000 could go to other other avenues where we want to brand that as whether if we want to go through buy all the coaches matching polos or something like that to look nice on the field, we want to buy all the kids matching shirts, we could use that money for there. There's just no discount when you use that money. >> Well, we don't get that 5,000. >> No, the 5,000 is only credit essentially for Nike to buy Nike products for our school. >> And now when we buy the coaches all a shirt or this or that, I mean, >> we pay that full price. >> You pay that full price, but we can use the credit money for that. So, when you use credit money, you don't get
021the discount essentially, but it'd be like having a $5,000 credit every year at Nike for the next five years, too. So some of the things that uh as a coach we've done in the past is we've bought t-shirts for every kid in the school that participates in sports. So that like when it when whether it's football, it would just be Burbank athletics or Coyote athletics. So when they go to a football game or basketball, every student would have the same Nike t-shirt on or we could do sweatshirts or something depending on where we're at financially and how many kids participate. So that's the pros and the cons. Um the con was always I believe um just talking to our sales rep is that game one has always been our our distributor since since we've switched
022over to them and then they haven't allowed Nike haven't been provided Nike with a contract now they do so that's why we haven't gone that way in the past um the next one's long-term goal just looking um just over numbers um I think that a conversation could be had future going forward to add soccer in the spring for boys um just because I'm looking at our demographics and in high school. We currently have 63 boys who identify as Hispanic Latino. Only three of those boys are participating in sports right now. Um, so we're at less than 5% of our Hispanic males are participating in sports. And the reason why I think it would be a benefit to our school to offer that is one, they'd feel more included in participating, but also it would lead
023to the springtime sport where we're not using the football field, but it lead to better attendance in the spring through that demographic and better grades and probably better graduation rates as well, just having some opportunity for them. And I've talked to multiple students and they they have told me the Latino students have told me they don't feel there's anything here for them to participate in because they don't want to play football. They don't play basketball. Um and I looked last year not or this year we don't have one Latino or Hispanic student sign up for a spring sport. Um we had I think two for two in the fall and two in the winter. One student was double. He was wrestled and played football that identified as Hispanic. So there was total of four activities
024but only three students totally doing that. So >> what does that do for Title N compliance? I mean, I know we added girls soccer to try to get those numbers up. Now, if we flip-flop it again and we're >> that's something to look forward. Um, that's why I put the numbers that we are having more girls participate right now than boys. Um, that would obviously skew that. I mean, the hope is we'd get 20 25 boys out playing soccer. If we did that, we might add something such as tennis or another opportunity for girls to play, participate in. Um, it's kind of more of a long-term goal. Seeing where we go. There's a referendum for 2B to be moved to the spring for for soccer. Right now, it's in the fall, which would obviously be
025a no no way for us because we don't have the field capability to run any other fall sport. Um, a lot of the teams in our district are playing with the Scack for 1A and they're just bumping up to 1A to play in the spring so they can participate in that level. But it was just a long-term goal of how do we get kids more involved? Um, and how do we affect our graduation rates, our attendance, all those things are we, you know, value as important to to our student and their engagement with the school and their pride in the school as well. >> How many how many schools in our league offer boys soccer right now? >> Right now, I believe um Mton um have to think about a second. I know Highland does.
026Um, Warden does not. Granger I believe does in the spring. So I would say there's five or six schools in our in our 12 team EWAC East and West Ewac that do right now. Um and up north it is a little bit there's a few too but all of them go to the SCACK. They don't they don't play in the fall. So that way it wouldn't affect our football or our um I guess just basically our football numbers. That's a big concern that I would have adding a sport like soccer would be the draw would have on something like football and splitting that because our numbers are are good right now at football. We want to keep them good. Um, >> as far as FARC and JB, >> when do you think they'll move it
027to the spring for our for our classification? >> Well, there's a referendum. It seems like every year there's last year there have been referendums trying to move it to spring. So, it could be as as fast as next year. Um, that something they're on. If if we if we decided in the future to go and they haven't moved it, then we could go to the SCAK and play 1A level. Um, which I think we'd be competitive at. just looking at, you know, fortunately I'm able to work at the middle school during lunchtime and I see 30 kids out there playing soccer every day during lunch. Um, and they're almost all Hispanic and I've probably had 15 middle school kids ask me about high school soccer and probably more than that in high school. So I
028think there is a there is an interest there I would say. Um, >> the referendum question, Michael, is if it's in the this year's ones, we just received those within the last week. So those will get voted on each year. Um, and so if it's in I haven't looked, it' be March if they get passed. It would be passed this spring and they would start the following year. >> If it passes. >> Thank you. >> Any questions or updates? >> I like the idea of at least looking at that >> what it cost to add. We should have a pretty good idea adding girls within the last few years. We should kind of know what that >> I think the one nice thing about if if we did go in that direction or looking at
029that the cost would essentially just be the uniforms and the coach because we have the balls we we could the girls it's not like basketball where they switch balls up this they're the same size ball we could use a lot of the same material and kind of recycle every year buy one and use both um game balls or practice balls and practice equipment stuff like that until we get on our feet a little bit more and goes forward but >> thank you >> all Okay, thank you. >> Take us back to consent agenda. >> Look like we've got four items. >> Thanks, Tavis. >> Thank you, guys. Entertain a motion. >> I make a motion to accept the consent agenda. >> I'll second it. >> We got a motion and a second. Any further discussion?
030Hearing none. Do you have something, Michael? >> Um, can you just give us a real brief on the you can talk about I believe of absence for Haley and then the um so this Merlin check and connect pair educator is that this position we talked about? >> No. So, uh, two. The first one is, uh, a current employee who has assumed another position, uh, and that was the high school counseling position because it's only a temporary position. She's taken a leave of absence from her old position just to protect her old position as she assumes that new temporary position for the remainder of the year. That's just by contract rules and regulations. Make sense on that one. Second one is, uh, I've been talking to you about our goals for MTSS and PBIS. Uh this
031is an individual who's doing what we call check and connect. It's a tier 2 support piece that we're working on trying to um Kevin, how would I say encourage attendance. Um >> he's he's mentoring of our high high at risk students. So, he's just making connections throughout the week and does a little interview, talk to them about their struggles making it to class and um how we can support them and uh trying to give them the power to >> he does not have a teaching certificate though. >> No, he's he's currently with us in a in a classified role. Um and I've been talking to you about how we build these things in tiers based on the students that we serve and the supports that we're building for them. This is a tier two, so
032not all kids, just some kids are going to get this. Um, and based on the data, attendance, we've targeted some students that need uh some additional support, and that's what his target is. It's building relationships, working with them, a check-in, uh, doing some of these other pieces, and it's kind of those tiered level supports I told you we'd be building in through this. >> Great. Thank you. Question on the first one out of the middle school going to the high school. She's taking a leave of absence to protect the her job in the middle school. Will we backfill that or are we going without a counselor? >> No, we're already in the process of backfilling that. >> Any further discussion? >> Questions? >> All in favor? >> I I >> Thank you. >> Hear any
033visitors? Mr. Alley, anything? Thank you for being here as always. Reports and discussions. Mrs. Don, enrollment and budget status for enrollment for December. We are 750 that includes our transitional kindergarten and our average is at 749.21. Um let's see from last year we had in for December an increase of 9.8 budget general fund. Um these numbers are all as of October um 31st general fund we're at that was part of that. So the taxes we just got recently right in the fall. >> Correct. Yeah. We had um tax revenue from October. So that's larger capital projects fund we are at 385,000 debt service fund 291,000b fund 174,000 and trans. >> Okay, any questions? >> Okay, we are school choice. So, I like to bring this back to the board yearly. So, I try to do
034this typically in January since we've got kind of through the beginning part of the year. we kind of know where kids are going. They're not coming and going nearly as much. Uh but I bring this back to you because eight years ago when I was hired, this was one of the uh misconceptions I walked into and there was a lot of questions and talk about where kids were going and you know our students choicing in or choicing out. And I try to bring this back to you on a yearly basis to make sure I put the data in front of you. Um because as I walked in eight years ago, there's a lot of conversation about we got a lot of kids leaving. Um was the perception and I said, "Well, let's get the data
035and see what that actually looks like." Um and so I want to bring back to you um our uh family and student choice numbers. Um you can see uh students choicing out this year of our district. Those are students that are choicing out going to other schools, uh other places. they're attempting to permanently go somewhere enrolled somewhere else. Uh this year we have 37 students that have choiced out uh whether that's Richland Pasco Kenowick private school you know done something of that nature but we have 94 students that are not enrolled uh not living within our district that are attempting to choice into our district. So I just kind of want to put that in front of you saying um that we've got I always say we got more than twice as many kids opting
036to come into Burbank than opting to leave. Um, and I just like to keep that out in front of people because this was a big piece. People had told me when I arrived here that we had people flocking and leaving left and right, going to other places and other programs. Um, so I just want to bring that back to you and just tell you um you know what what they want. Uh, most time I talk to people, they're looking for the smaller environment. They're looking for relationships. They're looking for smaller class sizes. Uh, they're looking for those unique things a small school provides. That's what people are choicing. Go ahead, Michael. >> When you look at I think it's cute how you say homebased instruction, basically homeschooling, right? >> How do you I mean, how
037do we really verify those numbers? >> You want to go to that? She is the >> uh every year, I believe it's by September 15th, they're required by the state of Washington to turn in a a homeschool declaration to the district office. So, can we actually track it? Honestly, no. But it is a requirement of homeschooled parents by law that they turn that in. >> Right. >> So they >> they got to declare homeschool, right? >> Um, no, not really. I mean, it's a I'd have to look at the form, but >> they declare that they're home. >> They declare that they are they declare that they are using a a program um and that they are abiding by the state of Washington laws. >> Thank you. >> You're talking about the homebased instruction down
038below. >> Yep. Sorry, I haven't got to that part, but you're you're spot on with that one. So, choice in, choice out are the ones above. And then, yes, you see our homebased instructions. Uh, Nikia, like I said, tracks those each year. Um, we get families come in. A lot of times they'll come in asking, uh, a lot of the some of these are, you know, families we see each and every year. Um, we get new families into this. If they come in, then we help them with these. But, yes, 25 students with 11 different 11 different families. We are pay we are still paying attention to who's choicing out and kind of the scenarios and kind of that stuff. We're monitoring that still. >> Every choice out parent meets with me. >> So I
039keep data on the rationale and why whether it's program whether it's a specific staff member incident, what has led to it. I keep data on every single one of those. So I won't sign off on those. She schedules them. I see them in my office appointments and I come in. is an appointment and that's who I meet with. So, so if we continue, this one's a little bit more as we know um we'll say I don't disturbing is not the right word but um concerning because we know this is still an issue for us. Uh Tri-C um you can look that as um excited, but it also means lots of FTE, you know. Um we are getting more and more kids, you're seeing this as a trend. This is not just us, but we're getting
040more and more kids flocking to the trades. Um, and again, I'm not telling you that's a bad thing, but with that, it you see that we're increasing our enrollment at Tri-Tech. Um, and I put the numbers off to the side there of those students going to TRC. Uh, of our 11th 12th graders, that's 20% of of that of those group those kids. Our high school, that's 8% of our student body that go to Tri-Tech. Keep in mind, they're there typically for a morning or an afternoon, and they'll come back for some of those other pieces. But just want to keep you u updated on our Tri-Tech numbers. The one we continue to watch each and every single year and you see what's happening with our numbers is Running Start. Uh it's becoming I mean I
041can't tell you it's becoming more and more popular. Um you've got more parents and more students decide to take uh this as an opportunity. Uh you can see our numbers went from 30 to 36 this year. Um I I you know I I still um it's just concerning for me obviously because we want to serve those students, right? But we understand there's an opportunity for that and um every student and family it's a unique decision that they make and so uh I'll we'll always honor that decision. Um but you know we're up to 33. So, uh, one out of every three of our juniors and seniors are attending at least partial some part of running start and that makes up 14% of our high school. >> What's our competition? I mean, how do we compete
042with that with our level? How can we get them to stay here? >> Uh, college and the high school. We offer that. Uh, we certainly encourage that uh to where you can build those credits um in high school and still maintain those credits. There's lots of stories, pros and cons on both sides of that. And again, depends on the student and their unique situation. So, I could go into lots of what students tell me and how that works, but it's uh um running start has become if you look historically, um it's much easier just to get into now. Um it used to be kind of you know eons and wilds ago you know the select a few top but they've opened it wide for any everyone and you know come one come all they want
043the money for the student and for the student and family to look at that and say okay I can if I do this right I can get a two-year associates degree in CBC basically for just going there and working. Yeah. I mean, you can >> No. Yeah. >> Doesn't cost a thing. You can walk out classes, books. I mean, it's paid for. I mean, so I understand uh for some families, it's a great opportunity. It's hard to compete with that >> questions on that. >> How many How many do we have enrolled in our programs here? >> Uh specifically dual credit. Uh I'll have I'll get those updates for you and bring it back to you. I know Kyle talks about that each year when he does his high school piece. He'll talk about the
044number of opportunities that we have, the number of credits that we get out each year. So, um, if he's not up sooner, I'll I'll get those numbers for you. >> We have several teachers, you know, doing those programs where they can opt into various different pieces. So, I'll make sure we update that when high school comes to talk with you about that while county elections update. I want to give you just a kind of a quick update because we're kind of in the transition between the November general election and the February election which as you guys know you were part of that uh piece to place a couple of election uh propositions on the February ballot. Um I just thought this was interesting. Want to bring this to your attention as it shapes the way
045we think about uh talking with our community regarding elections. Um, and really the message you're going to hear from myself and everyone that that we're talking about, um, upcoming election is really just about we want to get people out to vote. That our sole purpose is get people to mail their ballots in. We're encouraging participation. The Y part and Washington state, you can see this is uh current data as of on the bottom right hand corner, December 2nd. So this is live. You can get it from the state elections department. this in Washington state we have just over five million registered voters. So you see uh voters in the election you can see the 5.1 million um and you can see this was uh for the last general election in November. Okay. If you want
046to take that down to Walaw Wala County you're able to go in and start looking at these pieces and I did some pieces where I disagregated that information for you. You click on the county you can see the breakup of just Walaw Wala County. bottom right you'll see we're right in the mid 38,000 registered voters in Wawwal County but as you look at that and you disagregate that based on the age you can kind of see the total number of votes of registered voters now this is not who voted these are just eligible voters that could submit their ballots doesn't take long for you to look at that and say who's controlling the vote here in county >> um and you know this it's important for us to know these things, right? So, as we
047look at that, keep in mind this is not Burbank. This is Walaw Wala County. So, this is also Prescott, Weightsburg, the city of Walaw Wala, everyone else involved. >> Should be similar though. I mean, >> split. >> I'm going to break it down for you as we close to ours. So, as you get to this, as you start looking to Wallal County, this was the last uh general election. Now, this is an actual number of actual ballots submitted by age group. Doesn't say whether they voted yes or no on anything. Keep in mind, we didn't have any propositions on it, but this is people because we're all male in. This is who dropped their ballots off. Okay? And if you start looking at this from 65, 55, 45, 35, 25, what you sequentially see is
048the younger you get, the less likely you are to vote in our county. Now, I will tell you this is not just Walaw Wall County. If I mirror the Washington states numbers on here, they're going to be very similar. There's a couple percents here and there, so it's not exact, but the trend is uh statistically accurate across the state as well, but you can see 51% that submitted in the last general election was at 65 or older. Okay, so let's look at that and break those down now to how many of them actually submitted versus did not submit their ballots. So look at the trend now. This is all of the folks within those pieces and who's actually dropping their ballots off. We're a mail-in. Um it's funny as I've been talking to people. I
049I make jokes about Chads and things like that and there's some people look at me that have no idea what I'm even talking about. Um that's we've gotten to that place where you know um and so um you can see uh the older we get the more uh likely we are to feel it's our feel that it's our civic responsibility to submit that ballot. And the cause for concern of me when I talk about this is when we talk about just getting people out to vote is what is our school's bread and butter? The bread and butter is down here, right? These are our parents. These are the ones that have kids in here. And we're submitting ballots at 17, 26, and maybe 34. So, at best, we're catching one out of three. Again, this
050is the county, not Burbank. So, when we begin talking about elections, uh, we're really pushing just let's get people out to vote. We're wanting to promote please drop off your ballot. The other piece we're considering is how do you reach out to a younger generation to remind them don't forget to drop that off and do that. Uh primarily a lot of that you're going to see with the district factual stuff that we're going to be putting out. Um we'll still have some of the pieces that we've always done, but we're going to shift and begin trying to figure out how can we promote a digital message. Okay? How can we promote a social media message? How can we begin encouraging our youth um to make sure they get out and vote? Uh Mr. Gail has
051already seen this. Uh he's seen the statistics. I could talk to you, our board reps were here. They're talking about uh mock elections and doing things like that. Um as we talked to students just about getting out to vote. >> Michael, >> do we have all of our 18 year olds registered to vote? >> Um we've discussed it already. Um, we're working through that process. I couldn't tell you exactly if we do or not, but I know it's been discussed. We've already had the conversations and that's built into the lessons and the pieces that we have done and the American government stuff. And that's not just like this year. That's done every year as part of our um you can't do that just on election year. So that's something that's part of his regular curriculum
052we take care of each year. >> Teaches that government class. >> Mr. Gil, he and I have talked a couple times about this, about these statistics, and he's actually taken these statistics and working with our students about it. To me, it would be well, to me, a a teacher in his position could almost say if you register to vote, you get a grade benefit just for being registered. You know, we don't know how you vote or if you vote, but to be registered. And if you do not register, I mean, to me, that could almost be like a well, punitive, I don't know. But it it's um when I was in school, they I mean, they talked about they talked about if you're 18, you need to register to vote. It's a part of the
053civic piece. We certainly can't make it punitive, but uh what we can do, we actually have lessons and we're talking about like literally how do you fill this out to register to vote? We're like walking students through so it's very easy where to go and what to do on how to register. So that's part of our piece on that. So like I said that part's we do that every year. So um but I just want to bring this to your attention last uh I first saw these numbers four years ago and I did that following our last EPNO election and I will tell you the numbers were almost identical. Um, and that was the first, if you watch the old cartoon with the with the person's jaw that drops all the way to the street
054or the ground, you know, that was my like, oh my gosh, we got to think about this differently. Um, just to encourage people to get out and vote. >> So, any follow-up or questions on that? >> Is it also a messaging to the age group, >> right? Like they're the main voters. >> Yeah. So, getting their their feedback and response and interest. and supporting these bonds and >> yeah um it's something we're we're crafting um strategizing how do we how do we reach them you know um the things that we've done in the past we sent a mailer home we sent uh stories home who does that reach the people that read those things are not the are not the ones at the bottom there are the ones that are going to read those things
055at the top right read the mailers and that stuff how you going to reach that group down before You've got to come at it with a different piece. You've got to get short bursts, quick informations, reminders, things. Oh, I need to do this. We're busy. We've got kids. We've got games. We've got all these things. I need to somehow remember to drop this off in the slot for election night. Questions? Lauren actually approached me. I guess she sat through the meetings muted my daughter. >> We've had the staff uh uh sby sessions informational sessions. So, >> and she sent me a snapshot of uh see it there. >> No, I didn't. Go ahead. >> I didn't send it to you, but it's it's rich on it's a sandwich board. When you walk into the games,
056you'll see >> this event or program is funded by levy dollars. >> I mean, make it put it out there to where you know you almost got a trip over it and people understand that. I know we try to put it in the program and stuff like that occasionally, but >> seemed like a great idea. >> That program that they had last year at one of the playoff games was amazing. >> I've already reached out to Granger. >> That's where it was. So, um, you'll start seeing beginning in January be attending the events. We'll have the flyers. We'll have the information. Those things will be out there. uh we're talking about there are other districts we've seen that have um those things regularly as part of everything they do 12 months around though it's it's
057an icon it's a stamp it's something you know if this is a levy funded activity your piece you know you've got that some of those people so we're working on lots of different ideas trying to reach you know all of our students and families >> I think I've taken it for granted that people kind of know what we're doing here people don't know I mean I'm not trying to say they don't know but I think that everyday person doesn't understand the difference between a capital projects and a >> capital and you know the impacts that it has or potentially could have >> well >> a lot of the people I talked to in that 65 plus age grap really didn't have >> you know what I mean they they were like well you guys are
058already funded yeah but you don't understand all the programs that aren't funded all the programs will lose without those dollars >> I can tell you I know that because um if you look at the people that should know what you think would the school staff. Um, levies and bonds are not something you go through a class in a school for, right? Um, it's it's at the administrative and the district level. And so I go out to these staff meetings and people like, "Oh my gosh," you know, and so it's just that constant education on those pieces. Um, even even within the organization, people are like, "Okay, I didn't quite understand how that works." Um, and it's confusing. uh trying to make it uh as easily understandable as possible about how finances work in a district.
059Um it it's not, you know, your breadandbut finances. So, uh we've got to make sure they understand at a level that they do. And I think I'm getting better over time crafting that message. Uh I couldn't have crafted that same message eight years ago. Um and so because of that, subsequently, we're getting better at that messaging. Okay. >> My heart good >> asking me questions about school stuff like she was interested. >> Good job by the way. >> All right. Very good. Okay. Uh if I move on uh we are at 9.6 the seawasa regional workshop. Just a reminder you're invited to attend the annual workshop. This is here in Pasco at ESD123 um in January. So mid January. Uh kind this is kind of a last call. Um, if you'd like to get in
060on that evening event, you need to let Nikia know. She'll register you. They serve a uh a filling dinner. And then you're going to get to listen to Marissa Rathbone. She is taking over Dan Steel's position. Uh, and she's going to talk a little bit about um statewide legislative initiatives and what we're doing as a regional as a platform. So, um, just check your calendars. That's something you can do and you want to do that. Let her know. We'll register for you for that. So, there's no cost to you or any of that. show up for dinner and a little presentation on that. Just a reminder. >> I'm I'm in. I mean, yeah. Okay. Thank you. >> They're starting it pretty early. I don't think it's ever started at 4:30 before. I think they do
061that so the people who come a long ways can get home. >> That makes sense. >> Okay. >> So, Siwasa workshop. Uh new presenter Marissa Rap. Moving on. Um this was something from um our last meeting, but we didn't take any action. So we brought it as a report style piece. It was discuss and add to last month's agenda to talk about the start times of schoolboard meetings. So I'm bring it back to you in new business in case you would like to take action now that we've got a full five here. Um it was discussed and proposed uh from the board to possibly adjust start times of board meetings from 7 p.m. to 6 pm. Um if that's something we want to do. Um certainly we all were at the will of the board
062uh but it would need to go to a vote because we have a traditional time at 7 pm. Um and we would just need to communicate it accordingly. So going to discuss have any conversation about that whether it's the timing of that whether you want to discuss the day from Monday to another day but uh it's your conversation and how you'd like to do that. >> I'd like to hear from you guys. Kind of the one that got it here. Monday is really a good day for me. If it's makes it easier for others to go from 7 to 6, I'm I can support that. >> What does that do to you though? >> I would not be able to make it to six. I get off six. So if I'm working that day, I
063would not make it. >> So I would make a motion or recommendation maybe we look at this again in a year or something. I mean, if you guys are good with that, I know Todd's got a little bit of a conflict, too. He's got a kiddo in middle school, and, you know, I just think we all need to be able to make it >> work good. So, >> I could make it work, but I mean, certainly needs to work for the board. Um, and if you want me to table this and bring it back to you um, six months and just see it start next year and see middle of the year and just engage in that conversation and see how everybody's doing at that time. Certainly bring it up again with that. Okay. So,
064we'll move along. All right. Last month, uh, Dana um, Stoultz was in front of you talking about transportation. and she gave you the update and we recommended to the board that eventually we'd be purchasing one more bus uh this next year. As a reminder, this is that ongoing separation of purchase of three buses all at once. Um and she discussed with you the need um for a new trip bus. This would give us a backup bus with storage underneath it. We currently have one, but only one. So, if that goes down, um it's nice to have a second backup bus. Um so, we've got one prepared and ready to go. not a bus, but uh an order. All I need is because the ask exceeds my um policy threshold for spending, I need board approval
065to move forward uh with the purchase of the bus at $230,000 that fits within the transportation budget piece that we'll receive next year once we receive those dollars. So again, this no money will come out of the general fund or these pieces. This is all transportation dollars being spent. Uh as the board set up that schedule how many years ago will remain with all these buses uh route bus for everyone on the depreciation schedule. And so um reminder this will be a rear engine bus. These cost a little bit more why you see the 230 because they have the storage going down the middle and we'll be using jet key. It is using the OSPI state bidding contract. They're pre-bid, state bid contracts. So, you're locked in at kind of a we don't go out
066and shop that. The state does all that for shopping for us. And so, we just follow those state bid contracts. >> Is this a pretty basic bus? I mean, it's hard to go through this and try to decide if we're ordering a Cadillac bus or a standard bus. >> Um, it's somewhere in the middle. Okay. Your basic bus wouldn't have all the extras in there. There's a base price in there. You'll see on that. You'll see some extras. some of the extras. I would tell you I wouldn't order a bus without it. Adjustable pedals, things like that for safety measures, things like that. If you were to ask me, just looking through that, Todd, give me an idea of where we're at. And I say why it's in the middle. There's a few things I've
067asked them to upgrade in terms of cameras and some other pieces that I think are safety features for us that you can get a base model for. But there are certain things that I think moving forward we need to look at enhancing uh for safety purposes and reasons. It's not a top-of-the-line bus, but it's not a bottom of the line bus. It's You're asking me, it's somewhere in the middle there. Brad, >> it were a Gillig, it would cost $350,000 and it would be a really really high-end bus, the highend one. >> What are you thinking? >> It seems like a lot. I know early early on when I got on the board, it seems like we're buying buses for 115 118,000 and you know that's over double. We're quarter million bucks for one piece
068of equipment and it it causes me pause. >> Yeah. Uh rightfully so. That same bus if you're going to look at that's not a trip bus, a front engine bus that you're looking at the one we last one we got, you're looking at that same bus for about 170 180,000 now right now. This is your standard front engine bus. And a lot of it's just me getting over the increases in prices that we've had to deal with. >> Sticker shock. >> Yeah, it's sticker shock. >> Uh this one would be set uh not to be delivered prior to the start of next school year because that's when that next piece uh that next funding piece comes through. Um so again, we're right on line with this. We're not sitting there with a whole bunch of
069money. Uh we're just checking them off as they come through. So we're right where you need to be as a district to maintain and continue a solid updated fleet. Um, anything that we have sitting off there is used as our backup pieces, but we've got buses on there that we use every day and our kids are sitting in safe uh new buses because they're not all new, but they're all depreciation. So, all of them that are on routes are within the last 15 years of buses. >> I'm good. A motion need a motion on a motion to let um Mr. Hillberg approved this ordering of this bus to come in the 26th school year when we have the money. >> I'll second that. >> We've got a first and a second. We're talking for a
070contract price of 2345708. and the recommendation or the I mean when the transportation person was here a couple meetings ago she talked about needing that we need one of these >> need another backup one the the one that we have has been in shop they all do here and there for things when that does that leaves us without that trip bus so um right now we're doing okay in the fall that gets tricky with us with football always needs a trip bus uh things like that just because of the storage really you're buying this bus so we can take kids there and have that additional storage. Otherwise, we're going to double up a bus and then we're taking two and that's an additional driver and lots of additional costs for that. >> Have a motion.
071Michael. >> Yes. And a second. >> Any further discussion? >> All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Unsal review. Our next board meeting date reminder is Thursday, January 29th. that was discussed last month. As a reminder, the only reason this one's on a Thursday is because the Monday night is a home basketball game. You have a home basketball game Monday and Tuesday. We don't schedule board meetings on Wednesday nights. So, this one one and only board meeting is Thursday the 29th. Um things we got coming up, we just need to discuss and have a conversation. January is typically the annual we look at board reorganization and we kind of put that off a little bit. um if we're fine right where we're at but we need to at least pose the question to the
072board um and then I'll have any other updates for you at that time. >> Okay. Anything anything else for the good of the There you go. Remember signatures.