001Good evening. It is 5:30 December 9th. Welcome to our regular board of directors meeting. Please join us for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. >> Daisy has her land acknowledgement. >> Evergreen Public Schools resides on the traditional lands of the Chinukan people and the Cowitz tribe. They have lived on and cared for this land and its waterways since time immemorial. We thank them for their stewardship and make this acknowledgement to open a space of recognition, inclusion, and respect for all indigenous students, families, and staff in our community. >> Thank you. The first item on our agenda is to adopt the agenda. Is there a motion? >>
002I move to adopt tonight's agenda as presented. >> Second. Director Gwalt moves that we adopted the agenda as presented, seconded by Director Perkins. All in favor? I >> opposed. Motion carries. The next item on our agenda is a performance by the Mountain View um high school choir. Welcome. Hi. Good evening, Superintendent Maloney and board of directors. We're honored tonight to hear from the Mountain Express Choir from Mountain View High School under the direction of Kim Clawson. And tonight they will be accompanied on piano by the Heritage Choir director, Billy Buell. So they're going to sing two selections for us and Malachi is going to introduce the group. Good evening and happy holidays to everyone. We are Mountain Express, a newly reformed and reintroduced jazz ensemble. We are representing the school of Mountain View High School
003and we have prepared just two tunes for you all with a little jazzy arrangement um Oh Holy Night and Silent Night. Please enjoy and thank you so much for the opportunity. Silent night is all is bright. Crown your virgin mother and child holy inant so tender and love sleep in heavenly peace. Sleep in heavenly peace. Silent night shepherd. Sing halleluah Christ ourordior is Oh, la with the Every daughter of the Jesus Lord at thy birth Jesus Lord at thy birth Holy night on this is bright. Crown your virgin mother and child. Holy inant so tender and sleep in heavenly peace. Leave me in heavenly peace. Holy night. Holy night. Holy night. Holy night. Oh holy night, the stars are brightly shine. It is the night of the dear Savior's birth. Long lay the world in
004sin and he appeared and the soul felt its word. A thrill of hope. A weary world rejoicees for yonder breaks. A new and glorious Lord fall on your knees. Fall on your knees. Oh the angel voicees. Oh night divine. Oh night. Oh night divine. Holy night, oh holy night, oh holy night, the stars are brightly shining. It is the night of the dear Savior's birth. Long lay the world in ever binding till he appeared and we felt his word of thrill of hope. The world rejoices for yonder breaks. A new boy is more on your knees. Oh, the angel voicees. Oh, divine. All night, oh night divine, oh The intonation was marvelous. That was hard music, wasn't it? >> And and it just sounded It sounded perfect. >> You made it sound easy. >> Yes,
005you did. >> Do you guys hire out? I know. I'm just I do a lot of carolling, so I appreciate those two songs. They're two of my favorites. So, good job. Thanks. >> Same here. Those are a couple of my favorites. So, well done. You guys sounded amazing and thank you for uh taking time out of your evening to come and perform for us. You guys sounded beautiful. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Did you bring anybody? The next item on our agenda is the administration of oath of office to elected officials. Greb Kinsey, our clar county auditor, is here to do the uh favor for us. >> It's okay. >> Well, what a fantastic introduction to this evening's meeting. Coming out here every couple years is uh really inspiring to see inspiring
006to see what the students are capable of doing. I was came school district last night and have an entire presentation by students from all the schools your choir this evening. It's just u gives you a lot of confidence for the future, doesn't it? So >> I ask if we were the most entertaining group. >> That was absolutely the best choir performance I've seen this entire season. Absolutely. Um, so are we going to do this together or individually? >> Okay, that's efficient of you. Raise your right hand and then um repeat after me and after I say I state your name. I >> I >> do solemnly swear >> domly swear >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> and the
007state of Washington >> and the laws of the state of Washington. And I will faithfully discharge >> And I will faithfully discharge >> the duties of the office of >> Evergreen School District number 114. >> Director position number one and five. >> Director position one. Director position five. >> Well done. Thank you. >> To the best of my ability. >> Well done. Thank you. Uh yeah. There's a second. Thank you for your service. My great honor. Like that. I come all the time. Thank you. >> Congratulations to you both. Congratulations. >> The next item on our agenda is our board reorganization. We are reorganizing for board president, vice president, and our legislative rep. At this time, is there a nomination for board president? >> Uh, I would like to nominate Jenny Grwald uh to serve
008as president for the next year. I respectfully decline the nomination, but would like to nominate Director Weatherspoon as president to continue continue in her role. >> I will second that. >> Do you accept the nomination? >> I accept the nomination. Um, at this time we'll take a Are there any further nominations at this time? >> Hearing none, we'll do a roll call vote starting with Director Perkins. >> Jackie Weatherspoon. >> Uh, Director Weatherspoon. Director Weatherspoon. Um, Director Grwalt. >> Director Weatherspoon. >> Director Boengra. Director Weatherspoon. >> Director Wilson. >> Director Weatherspoon. >> Congratulations. >> Okay. So, thank you. Okay. So, >> all right. >> Well done. >> Um, next um on our agenda is vice president. Are there any nominations? >> At this time, I would uh nominate Rob Perkins for vice president. >> Second
009the nomination. >> I accept. >> Are there any further nominations? Hearing none, this time for a roll call vote. Director Perkins. >> Director Perkins. >> Uh, Director Perkins. Director Gwalt. >> Director Perkins. >> Director Boanegra. >> Director Perkins. >> Director Wilson. >> Abstain. >> So that's four for Director Perkins when abstain. Motion carries. Congratulations. Next we have our legis ledge rep. Are there any nominations? >> I'd like to nominate Director Boenegra for our ledger position. >> Second. >> Are there any nominations? >> Yeah, I do because I'll be attending all the legislative meetings with um with this year >> because you're the new vice president. >> Correct. >> Congratulations on that. That's >> Thank you. >> Um are there any nominations? Any further nominations? >> Roll call vote. Director Perkins. >> Director Boengra. Director Gonewalt.
010>> Director Boengra. >> Director Wilson. >> Director Boengra. >> Motion carries. Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> So, next item on our agenda is a presentation. Um Kale Piland is our time for our fall sports review. >> Good evening, President Witherspoon, board of directors, and Dr. Maloney. Tonight, we would like to recognize the success and hard work in an area that is critical to the continued work with the district's strategic plan, specifically in how we continue to develop experiences for our students to grow in the goal areas that is centered on building a culture of safety and belonging. One of the largest outreach opportunities that we are able to provide to help connect our students to their school communities is through our athletic offerings. Tonight, we would like to recognize and celebrate some of the successes
011our high school athletes and coaches experienced this fall. So, at this time, the athletes and coaches that we are going to recognize, if you're here, please come forward. Okay, first um is Destiny. Destiny Sconeers from Evergreen High School. She's a sophomore cross country runner. Destiny truly demonstrates excellence as a student athlete. Not only did she earn first team all league honors this year, as well as representing EHS at the state cross country meet, she also maintains a 4.0 gradepoint average. Jason Jason JSON Jason Json Scott uh is a senior football player from Evergreen High School as well. Jason helped lead EHS to a second place finish in the Greater St. Helen League Helens League and a postseason appearance. He carries a GPA of 3.6 and was voted the defensive player of the year by the
0123A GSHL coaches. From Mountain View, uh we have coach Aaron Tasker, uh who is the head girls soccer coach. Aaron has led the Mountain View program for the past two seasons. His teams have won the GSHL 3A both years and have advanced to the state playoffs. Te is Tegan with us this evening? Hi, Tegan. Uh Tegan has been selected to the GSHL. She's a senior soccer player at Mountain View. She has been selected to the GSHL first team three times while twice while twice being selected the player of the year. She has been selected to the all region team twice and this year was was selected as the all region player of the year. She is the all-time leading goal scorer for Mountain View and she will be continuing her playing career next year at
013Washington State University. From Union High School, we have head coach Kelsey Burrus of the girls soccer program. Kelsey has been the head coach at Union from the school's inception. Over that time, his teams have won six league championships. The Titans once again qualified for the postseason this past fall. Um, we would also like to uh recognize one of his players, uh, Alexandra Andrade, who could not be with us tonight. She is a junior. Uh, she is a three-year varsity soccer player. This year, she was selected to the GSHL 4A second team. She is a running start student who carries a 4.0 GPA. And from Heritage High School, we have Carmen Herrera. Carmen is a senior cross country runner. Um, she was the 3A district champion and made her first appearance at the 3A state meet.
014She was also selected as the GSHL runner of the year and carries a 3.6 gradepoint average. And finally, we'd like to rec represent uh recognize Kevin Peterson. Kevin is the head football coach at Heritage High School. He just completed his third season at the helm of the Heritage program. In 2023, he he inherited a team that was coming off of an 0 and9 season. This year he led Heritage to a six and3 record and was literally inches away from the postseason. Um this is only the third winning season in the history of Heritage High School. Um Kevin and his staff have overcome multiple challenges to build a program that the Heritage community can be very very proud of. So thank you and a round of applause for our Right. Hand up. >> Yeah, I guess
015>> I'm making it up as I go. >> Or do you even want us in the picture? I mean, we can sit back down. >> We'll see. I just wanted to say that I appreciate that you guys are doing this and bringing the students and the coaches here so we can recognize them. Thank you. Also, way to go, Heritage. >> Good job. See, >> Lori Just a moment, please. not on the thing agenda. Can I give it back? Thank you. All right. Next item on our agenda are public comments. Any community member wishing to address the board may do so during the designated time on the agenda for public comments. Comments are to be directed to the board of directors as a whole and may not be addressed to any individual member of the board,
016the administrative staff, or the audience. Although the board will not engage in dialogue, the board chair may ask a speaker a clarifying question or follow up at a later time on an issue raised during public comment. Our first speaker is Sabrina Seymour. Good evening, Sabrina. >> Good evening. >> Is that Can you hear? >> Yes. >> Okay. Hello, school board members. My name is Sabrina Seymour and I'm the mom of a football player at Union High School. I'm here to speak about the investigation and twoame suspension of head football coach Steve Pine for his halftime speech on October 17th. Following that investigation, the district concluded that Pine used excessive profanity and an unprofessional approach. He was suspended from attending the final game of the 25 football season and now also the first two games of
017next season. The district's investigation began after receiving a voice recording that was secretly made inside the locker room violating Washington state law. RCW9.73.030, which requires consent from all parties before recording communication of any kind. There were no complaints from current players or parents filed with the school or the district that would warrant an investigation. Instead, this investigation was based on an illegal recording delivered by someone who no longer has a student in the district and has a personal grievance with the coach from the prior football season. Following the game on October 17th, coach Pine had told Union's athletic director Lamont Woods and pres principal Greg Brown that he had lost his composure and would be apologizing to the players and staff. He did that multiple times the following week. Almost two weeks later, hours before
018the last game of the season, the district chose to place Pine on administrative leave and begin their investigation. That decision removed him from what was for many seniors the last football game of their lives. There was no threat to player safety, no derogatory or racial language. Nothing in that recording suggested an urgent need to remove him. It felt punitive, rushed, and blind to the impact on student athletes. Coach Pine has worked to change the culture of Union football into a program that expects more of its players in the classroom, at home, and on the field, doing grade checks, meeting with teachers and parents, and supporting athletes through both football and personal struggles. The board's decision to investigate and suspend Coach Pine sets forth a dangerous precedent for every employee in this district. You are opening
019the door for secret recordings, personal vendettas to shape discipline decisions, discouraging transparency and self-accountability from staff and students. I am not here to say that Coach Pine did nothing wrong. I am here to say that extending this suspension into two additional games next season is excessive. You are continuing to punish future student athletes and setting a precedent that will be difficult, if not impossible, for the district to uphold and apply fairly to everyone. In a world where taking ownership, admitting mistakes, and changing one's behavior feels rare, Coach Pine and the administration at Union High School have shown the right way to handle it when you fall short. I could not ask for more from someone leading my son. I respectfully ask you to reconsider your decision. remove the twoame suspension of Union head coach Steve
020Pine in the 26th season and to not take our district down this slippery slope. >> Thank you. >> Can you at some point talk about the fact that the board does not make that decision? Okay. Next speaker is Carmen. Is it Shoemakers? Showmakers. Thank you. >> Good evening. Good evening everyone. My name is Carmen Showmakers. I'm a senior at Evergreen High School. The topic I would like to speak to you about tonight is privacy due due to gender identification. Recently at my school, we had two men come into our bathroom and go go into a stall with one girl. Staff have been told many times about these situations and don't do anything. I was told there was nothing they could do about it. My question is why is nothing being done? Why is it okay
021for men to come into our bathroom and go into stalls with other women? I am a 17-year-old and know that it is not okay. This topic may be very controversial and many people have different opinions on this topic. It is never going to be okay, but why has it gotten to a point where girls have to leave their own bathroom because they are so uncomfortable? We have a bathroom that is genderneutral yet we still have them come into ours. Last year we had a kid come into the bathroom and they got suspended. So why is it an exception for others and there are no consequences for it? What if this was your kid and they came to you and told you how uncomfortable they were? Would you would something be done? What is going to
022happen when someone gets raped? Is it then going to stop? Why are we not being protected? Why do we feel so unsafe going in to our own bathroom? I would really like you guys to think about this and put a stop to it. Not just for me but for other women. Thank you guys for your time. Thank you. Our next speaker is Danielle Serach. >> Hello. >> Good evening. >> Hello, school board members. I'm an educator who works in the Evergreen Public School District. I'm here to ask the school board to think about how EPS is showing up for our immigrant families and community. ICE is here in Vancouver. They are staying in hotels down the street and they will not be leaving soon. Immigrant families in this city are being targeted and violently apprehended.
023Their presence scares people and prevents families from accessing school supports and children from coming to school. Just last night, ICE was circling an elementary school in the Vancouver Public School District during dismissal. A community member noticed ice activity near one of our schools today. As families, our families need us to show up for their for them right now. There are EPS staff members that are stepping up and supporting these families. I've seen the family and community resource center coordinators, ML teachers, and paras counselors, secretaries, and many other staff members connect directly with our families in need. These people have cultivated relationships and trust directly with these families. The DR district has also provided support such as links, legal clinics, and food pantries. But my question, as a white person, what else could we be doing
024as a larger group, as people with privilege who can walk out of this this building without fear of being detained? How can we support our families? How is Evergreen Public School System making our families feel safe to come to school? Sorry. to engage with these resources and trust the staff that surround their children. Districts nearby have provided in-depth ICE watch trainings to staff, held neighbor-to- neighbor meetings in their schools to build community, and have committees to ensure the district is upholding their well-meaning statements to make their schools safe places for their students. My questions to you are, what is the district's safety protocol when there is verified law enforcement activity, including ICE, near a school or bus route, and is that robust enough? How do staff feel empowered to protect their students and community? Do
025staff members feel the training they have received prepares them for what to do if ICE is present after school in the neighborhood when an administrator is not available? The Washington State Administrative Codes do not say the district can't provide more in-depth trainings. How could the community be utilized as a support in these situations? Why are families not notified about ICE presence at schools or when following buses in the way we would be alerted about other safety concerns in the community? Can the district explain how withholding this information aligns with its duty to protect students physical and emotional safety? Considering these questions, how is the district ensuring that all students, regardless of immigration status, feel safe attending school every day? I hear and appreciate Evergreen Public School's intent to ensure that all students, regardless of immigration
026status, feel safe attending school, but I have to see these concerns be addressed. You have the power to make our families feel safe and supported. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Our next speaker is Camille Lman. Good evening. >> Hi, my name is Camille. For several weeks, I contact contacted several different people here at the district and the school ward about safety and security protocols. After five weeks of emails and follow-ups, I did finally get a response from the director of safety and security, Shane Gardner, but only after a board member had to step in and follow up repeatedly himself. The email was very long, which was not necessarily reassuring because it didn't actually include procedures or protocols that I was requesting. The reason I reached out in the first place was
027because several teachers had shared with me concerns about communications that they had received from their building admin about how certain safety issues were communicated to them and to families. Mr. Gardner emphasized that uh staff should handle concerns internally through the chain of command. He wrote, "The expectation is if a staff member isn't happy with the information sharing at their site, they bring it to their admin or report their concerns to the safety team." And sure, I understand I'm just a parent and not particularly well-liked by district leadership. That's been made very clear. I don't expect access to internal details, but staff should feel safe using reporting systems that they're told to use because without that, a safety team is just a title on the website. Uh, which brings me to something I sent last week
028to I was sent last week by someone. An email acquired through a public records request dated August 30th, 2023 between Mr. Gardner and chief operations officer Jana Gomes. This was during the 2023 EA work stoppage. I printed a copy of this email for each of you. Uh, Mr. Gardner described how he and two other director level staff staff drove around to schools to check on teachers picketing and that was considered a good use of taxpayer time for some reason. He then shared a photo of teachers picketing at Columbia Valley Elementary where a few of them were in the roundabout. There weren't that many at that time. Uh, and he mocked them for having a lack of gusto. Miss Gomes then responded, "Really helpful to hear?" And I was cracking up at that picture. So, I
029request the board consider, is that an acceptable leadership behavior? Is mocking staff for advocating for themselves something the district tolerates? Because when leaders talk about employees that way, it should not surprise anyone that staff don't feel safe escalating concerns through the very channels they're told to use, especially considering how comments like this is not an isolated incident by district leadership. And this isn't a a theor theoretical issue. I recently moved. Uh my backyard now overlooks Emerald Elementary's playground, and I've personally seen students jumping the fence during recess on my way to get my mail. Parents and staff have also told me it happens often and they've just stopped reporting it because nothing changes. That is a district safety failure. Same with traffic safety. Uh families at multiple schools in especially York uh have been raising
030alarms by cars speeding through school zones. Complaints have gone to law enforcement, but what's the district doing about this? I know the superintendent has had a lot of fun on ride alongs, which is great for photo ops, but what we need is actual results. So, you're hearing from me unfortunately frequently. You should be hearing from more staff more often and directly. The fact that you aren't should concern you more than it appears to. So, I ask the board take these concerns seriously and act upon them rather than tolerating laughs at the staff's expense. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> That concludes our public comment for tonight. The next item on our agenda is our board consent agenda. Is there a motion? >> Move adoption of the board's consent agenda is presented. >> Second. Is that
031Dr. Dr. Bokenra. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Director Perkins moves that we adopt our consent agenda as presented, seconded by Director Boengra. All in favor? >> I I >> opposed. Motion carries. The next item on our agenda is our superintendent consent agenda. Is there a motion? >> Move to approve the superintendent's consent agenda as presented. >> Second. Director Groalt moves that we approve our superintendent consent agenda as presented, seconded by director Bokenra. All in favor? >> I I >> opposed. Motion carries. Our next item is our superintendent report. Dr. Maloney. >> Good morning or excuse me, good evening. Okay, so good evening, President Weatherspoon and members of the board. First, I would like to congratulate our newly sworn in returning board members, uh, Director Garwalt and Director Bokenra. So, congratulations. And I know they have
032already uh departed, but I do want to make sure that I say a huge thank you publicly to our wonderful students from Mountain View High School who shared their incredible talents with us this evening. And I'm very thankful for our community support of our music programs as well. And we are also so proud of the dedication, hard work, and effort of not only our coaches, but our student athletes that we were able to honor tonight for the great things that they've been doing and all that hard work that they've put in um for the season and for their accomplishments. So, I visited several schools in the past couple of weeks and loved every minute of it. um learning a lot and visiting, you know, classrooms where instruction is taking place and recess and lunchtime and
033lots of ketchup and all sorts of things and mustard flying around a little bit uh when kindergarten uh lunches. So, that's kind of a fun thing to go see. Um so, for the benefit of the audience tonight, um I separate my superintendent report into different sections uh that I uh identify with operational expectation policies. And so I will list those operational expectation policies called OEES for short um prior to the topic that relates to that as I go through this. So um the first is OE3 which is community stakeholder relationships, OEE5 financial planning and OE6 financial administration. And so those three are going to be the um supporting of this topic. So, uh, school funding, it is front and center, not only in the news, but is also front and center for me as I'm
034interacting quite frequently with our legislators, including I have a meeting this Friday with one of our uh, state senators as well to discuss school funding and the impacts it's having here on Evergreen Public Schools in particular. Um, as you know, because of the inadequate school funding from the state, overall increased costs of doing business and our declining enrollment, um, largely due to the reduced birth rates and the high housing cost within Evergreen Public Public Schools, we're facing about a $12 million budget reduction this coming school year. Our chief financial officer, uh, Jennifer Jacobson, shared a detailed and comprehensive overview of our financial status at our last board meeting. And we have upcoming our first um formal the first uh task for the EPS budget committee was to listen to the presentation last time and we're
035coming together as as a group this coming Thursday to learn more about school funding and um all the things that go into that that help uh shape our EPS budget. So under EO um OE uh zero which is equity and OE3 community stakeholder relationships. So this Monday I led the superintendent leadership team which is uh is comprised of uh district leaders and some building uh representation uh as well. I led him through a discussion protocol that was involving the notes and conversations that occurred at our last culturally responsive leaders gathering. Um that's made up of leaders from our community- based organizations here in Vancouver. uh we talked about four different topics in um in that meeting and had some great discussions and great listening um sessions. So those four discussion and topic areas were around
036immigration um families experiencing homelessness uh or around belonging and then postsecondary pathways. So from all those notes and conversations that were held at those individual tables with all of our community- based leaders um we went through and identified the key insights from those conversations. the actions that we've actually already taken um regarding uh the information that they've uh brought to us and the thoughts and ideas suggestions and then also we identified new possible actions that we can take uh that we can take uh regarding those four areas. And um we will be bringing all of that information back to uh that uh group of community- based organization leaders again um right after the new year. We have another meeting set. We'll bring back the things that we've done, what we've accomplished, things that suggestions we've
037taken from our community leaders um and share that and then we will move on to some other topics as well to gather their input and their ideas, suggestions and perceptions around different topic areas that we've identified. So under OE1, which is instructional program, this week our building leaders engaged in professional learning and it began with a message and actions around hope. We we do these at our leadership gatherings and then this this last um leadership gathering. We started with hope and then we followed by an analysis of our school action planning cycles called PDSAs and you'll hear a little bit more about that in a bit. Okay, these are very very important parts of our effective school improvement plans. uh these focus on data and using the school improvement plans as not just a plan
038that sits on the shelf but an actual living document and that is so essential to treat it that way so that um we can actually move student achievement forward as part of the professional learning our building leaders read an article called bestlaid plans can succeed and I just wanted to provide you a copy of it to see some of the uh research and things like that that we are looking at as we pull our building leadership teams together um and So, I just provided that for you just for your um your personal review and reference. Um I am excited tonight to foreshadow our teaching, learning and equity report. Um you're going to hear about our early learning uh or excuse me, our early literacy curriculum um which was a topic of interest from our last
039board meeting. So, we have a report for the board on that and I've actually seen pieces of this in action in classrooms um just last week as well. Um so, firsthand knowledge. Uh this report then is followed by a presentation uh where our executive director uh Bobby Height will share our new five-year plan outlined in the instructional leadership guide. last year through a variety of stakeholders and input from them. Uh this instructional leadership guide five-year plan was created and this so this is now the 2526 school year is the first year of implementation and so we're very excited to bring that forward to you so you can have an understanding and overview of the work that we are doing and how we're going to support and increase student achievement across the district. uh we we
040uh expect our plan to be um implemented with fidelity and um we will be collecting data along the way that we will be sharing not only with the board but also also with our community as well. So this concludes my superintendent report this evening. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Our next presentation is our teaching and learning and equity update. Dr. Fox, good evening. As you know, my goal with each of the TLE updates is to ensure that student achievement remains our shared focal point and priority. These regular updates help keep me centered on the main thing, student achievement. Given the performance by Mountain View musicians and the fall sports update we've already enjoyed, we could almost call it a night. Hearing students perform and celebrating their accomplishments and the work of our coral directors
041and coaches is a perfect reminder of why we do this work. However, we have also heard questions recently about how foundationally how foundational literacy is taught in our elementary schools. And I appreciate the opportunity this evening to provide clarity. For that reason, I've asked for leaders in the curriculum and instruction department to walk us through how elementary students are learning reading, writing, phonics, and word study, work that falls under the broader heading of literacy instruction. Executive Director of Instruction and Leadership Bobby Height along with elementary literacy specialist Leanne Steele will provide an overview of the components of our balanced literacy approach. This work is central to ensuring a guaranteed and viable curriculum GVC building shared knowledge about what students should know and be able to do and how best to help them learn it. Providing
042aligned instructional resources, strategies, and supports across the district is the work of the teaching, learning, and equity team. Making sure that instruction, assessment, and feedback in every classroom meet the needs of every learner is a shared responsibility of TLE and our principles and administrative team. And so after the literacy presentation, Bobby will introduce the EPS instructional leadership guide, a five-year plan designed to build alignment across the system to improve student outcomes. Bobby Leanne. Uh, good evening members of the board. You often hear the term balanced literacy. So, we want to clarify what that means in Evergreen. Balanced literacy is really the whole package. We teach explicit phonics and comprehension in every grade. And students apply what they learn in real books and real writing. It also means responsive teaching. Our teachers don't follow a rigid
043script. They adjust based on what students show them each day. And it means building independence. We gradually coach students using an using an I do, we do, and you do progression so they learn to rely on themselves. Most importantly, this philosophy ensures every student, no matter their starting point, gets daily access to grade level instruction with targeted support when needed. That balance is how we maintain both rigor and responsiveness. And now, our elementary literacy specialist, Leanne Still, will walk you through how we bring this philosophy to life in our classrooms. Thank you, Bobby and Brian. If this slide becomes too difficult to read, it is somewhere, I think, in the packet that I gave to Lori earlier. So, just wanted to let you know that. So, let's look at how we put that philosophy into
044action. On the left side, you'll see the three-part structure. In whole group, all students receive core grade level instruction. In small group, teachers meet students where they are. And during individual time, students read and write independently while the teacher monitors and confers one-on-one. This structure runs across all three literacy areas, reading, writing, and phonics word study. So in reading, Fondestell classroom, which you might hear me refer to as FPC, provides a full suite of instructional context for each area, whole group, small group, and individual. Each of these serves a specific purpose. Modeling strategies, practicing together, receiving targeted support, and applying skills independently. In writing, the parallel structure appears, giving students a predictable progression for learning how to express and organize their thinking. The same structure is used for foundational phonics and word study. We teach
045explicit systematic phonics every day. And FPC gives us a research aligned sequence of lessons, hands-on routines, and highly engaging practice that builds phenemic awareness, decoding, spelling, and automaticity. But more importantly, phonics lives beyond the phonics block. Students apply these skills in reading and writing. So now that all three areas are visible, I want to draw your attention to something incredibly important. You'll see the small orange dots across the reading and writing columns. Those dots show where phonics is intentionally practiced, reinforced, and applied in reading and writing, in whole group, in small group, and individually. This visual shows that phonics isn't a standalone block. It also threads throughout the entire literacy day. This is one of the strengths of the FPC curriculum and balanced literacy. The consistent structure is also what makes our guaranteed and viable
046curriculum possible, which referring to that we usually call it GVC. Whether a child moves across classrooms or across schools, they experience the same highquality materials and the same sequencing of skills. That coherence prevents fragmentation and ensures every student builds a strong literacy foundation year after year from early learning from our transitional kindergarten classrooms all the way through our fifth grade. This is actually kind of as Dr. Maloney mentioned seeing it in the classroom. You can see these instructional contexts mentioned on the previous slide in action. These are our teachers with our students here in EPS. From a quick glance, you can see get a sense of the context that are whole group explicitly led by the teacher as well as small groups students working together and working individually. And just like on the previous slide,
047I've added the same orange dots here as well. This helps you see exactly where phonics shows up naturally in student conversations, in book choices, in their writing, and how they problem solve new words. The key takeaway is that literacy instruction in our classrooms is vibrant and active. Students are talking about books, applying strategies, and building confidence yeartoyear, classroom to classroom, and school to school. Finally, slide, this last slide shows how we support this work at a large scale. You may remember the results of our math and reading GVC visits that we shared with you last year. Tonight, we've got the opportunity to share a little bit more about how we responded to those. Over the past two years, I have personally visited over 500 classrooms annually through our GVC walks. And these walks let us
048make informed decisions that directly support both teacher workload and student engagement. Because I was able to be in all classrooms, I could respond when seeing patterns or needs as well as curate innovative work from our classroom teachers and make it scalable districtwide. I worked with instructional coaches and classroom teachers to create and distribute the following. We created readers notebooks for daily structure and enhancing writing about reading. We introduced phonics and word study notebooks to streamline the workload, increase engagement, and align the phonics with our scope and sequence. We expanded our shared reading collection to include digital text and online phonics practice. We updated scopes and sequences specifically for grades three through 5 for realistic pacing that dovetailed with our assessment calendar as well as our district calendar. We've created writing about reading rubrics to support
049students, teachers, and professional learning communities, which we may talk about as PLC's. And we've created professional development for teachers, coaches, and administrators. And this year, we've started to use a directtoteer professional development approach with our fifth grade teachers by pulling them here to the district and having us work collectively. All of these ships were grounded in real observations and classrooms um with feedback and support. the system as a whole. So through this structure and this level of support, balanced literacy is not just a philosophy. It's a lived experience for every student in Evergreen public schools. I do have some samples of a few things that I will leave with Lori if you'd like to look through those as well as I'm happy to have further conversations when we have more time if you have some
050questions. And now I'll pass it off to Bobby who will show some alignment with the leadership work around the leadership um packet. Thank you. Thank you. and back. Thank you, Leanne. So, you just heard from Leanne about our guaranteed and viable curriculum with literacy work, which together strengthen our core instructional reading foundation. Tonight, I'll show you how these efforts connect to our larger instructional leadership guide, a guide designed to build coherence and leadership capacity districtwide. President Weatherspoon, I have provided an instructional leadership binder and I've also shared year one of our plan with each of you. So, the binder and every principal received one of these as well. The instructional leadership guide published this past June defines how our instructional systems connect. It brings together what used to be separate initiatives into an integrated approach
051that ensures high-quality instruction for every student in every school. The guide is a five-year action plan that provides a clear roadmap for our leaders as we implement our strategic plan. We are beginning to see early momentum. Small intentional shifts that are already making a meaningful difference. Using a shared instructional leadership plan helps to ensure students experience consistent expectations, access grade level content, and fill a c and feel a culture of inclusion in every classroom. We are also reestablishing our professional learning communities, strengthening away the ways teachers collaborate to build on student strengths and design instruction that supports every learner's growth. Together, these shifts bring our equity promise to life by increing inclusive learning environments where belonging and opportunity are woven into daily practice. At the heart of the work is the principal leading instructional improvement
052so that every student thrives and through their leadership our teacher practices improve and our student outcomes are evident. I love this slide. Across the district, our principles, teachers, and leadership teams are working together to create a learning culture where coherence and equity guide the classroom experience. This is the direction of our five-year plan and the future we are intentionally building toward. If you're interested in exploring the details of our instructional leadership leadership guide, it is also digit digitally linked in your mater materials as well as the binder that has been provided for you this evening. Thank you for your continued partnership and belief in this work. It is making a difference in every classroom every day. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Bobby, and thank you, Leanne. So, tonight we focused on student musicians,
053student athletes, our approach to literacy instruction, and a systemwide instructional leadership guide to support alignment. We covered a lot this evening, and I appreciate your interest and your engagement in these topics. Looking ahead at your January 13th meeting, we will report on the impact of a tutoring program and we will revisit school improvement plans with a focus on how principles are using PDSA cycles to measure the impact of their efforts. Now, you've heard Dr. Maloney use that term PDSA. And yes, it's yet another educational acronym. Nope. I'm not going to tell you what it means. I'm going to make you wait till January 13th. You You can Google it, I'm sure. Um, yet another acronym. We'll explain it further on January 13th. This concludes the TLE update. >> Is there any are there any questions?
054>> One or two. I am uh heartened to see uh this kind of focus uh brought to academic achievement and I thank you for presenting uh this information to us and it sounds like the the work is already underway. I wonder um if uh sometime in a future workshop uh we could drill down into the culturally responsive systems elements uh and be thinking about uh how uh the district's commitment to equity and inclusion um is expressed through this plan. Uh I think specifically uh I'd heard some things about uh Fontess and Panel uh and the struggles that multilingual learners and uh folks from minorities sometimes have with that curriculum and I wonder if uh the design that you've presented today uh moves to correct that kind of deficiency as they've perceived it. Uh but it's
055not something that you have to respond to right away. this a future workshop. >> It's a great question. It's a very specific question and I'm thinking about people and others in this room are thinking about themselves or other people in in combining our multilingual learners and the work that we do with multilingual learners with fontus and panel and the cultural responsive practices. Yes, there's some information in the guide, but we can bring something that's more explicitly um presented to you. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Next up, we have our student board representative report. Sorry, let me bring it up real quick. Um, general consensus, I think it's been going pretty well. I know that a lot of my fellow peers are very tired, though. Um we're in
056the final stretch before winter break, so that's probably why. Um also to note that club activities and other extracurriculars are picking up as well. Um at Mountain View specifically, we recently had the Jolly Jamie literally yesterday. So that was nice. Um it was really nice to see a lot of community members from like different schools and like also a lot of children as well come and like see what instruments that they might want to play in the future. Um and then yeah, we also had the WASDA annual conference on November 20th and that was a really nice experience. Um there was a lot of different workshops that I think they geared towards a lot of different perspectives and like interests. Um, for me personally and like for Lorelli, I know that it was a really
057good networking opportunity for a lot of the student representatives because we got to talk to a lot of student reps from like smaller districts and also larger districts and get to hear about their different experiences and how it's like being in those like different size districts have affected what they get and like what they um what curriculum what curriculum is offered to them. And yeah, that's about it. >> Thank you very much. The next item on our agenda is anformational item. It's our financial statement. And now we have our good news report with Mr. Burbach. >> Good evening. I'm going to use this computer this time. So, all right. Is it already up there? There it is. Got it. Got it. New system. Uh, good evening board directors, President Weatherspoon, Superintendent Maloney, and student board
058representative. Uh, I am going to present the good news. And some of the good news this month is updates on things that we've shared previously and how those uh programs have have grown in the last year. I'm going to start with the Pacific Middle School and Jahala Middle School. The unified basketball game was last Thursday at Pacific Middle School. I think you might remember a couple years ago um we did a video story on the first ever game and that was at Shahala when Shahala played Shahala. So basically they had two teams there and um the coach there for Shahala, Carrie Doyle, told me when I did that she was going to get she was going to grow this program and get other schools involved. And uh this is now a home and home game.
059So they played at Pacific on Thursday and later in the year they will play another unified game uh at Shahala. And of course to remind people uh unified sports is people with intellectual disabilities and people without play on the same team together. The whole schools both the schools now are coming out to support this. Uh the referees as you can see were even students. Um just a wonderful uh experience. I love going to this and it's great to see um this grow and I don't know who won because no one cares because everyone wins. It was awesome. We had a celebrity sighting at Archway Academy, a visit from uh Chuck E. Cheese. I believe that's his formal name. Um he showed up at Archway to be part of their fundraising event. And what we learned
060is that people love the mouse on social media because uh I guess he's got his followers. But it was a really cool archway students invited um they reached out to Chuck-E-Cheese and asked if he would come or she I don't know. Uh and um and the mouse did come. So it was awesome. Home Choice Academy had a Thanksgiving Day parade event and uh basically this was a tip of the cap to the Macy's Day parade and um the different they did it two days of course because they have cl different classes on Monday and Tuesday. So they did it both days. Uh it rained uh but as you could see they didn't care. Um they marched uh with the uh banners that they made and uh each um grade had it at themes. Furrest Elementary
061School has a tradition of collecting Thanksgiving food boxes every year. Um this year uh a great collection. They supported 52 families. It was a total of uh 250 people. That's the whole first Furrest community uh that supports this event. And when you go out there when they're stocking, it's it's amazing to see all the cans and all the food around their their library. Um, another update, uh, you probably remember we we talked about the jigsaw competitive puzzling and how the clubs had started in our in our district and, um, and it it it was in its first year. Well, they just had their second annual event, a district-wide event. This started with 15 elementary schools. this year they're already up to 19. Um we have our own uh celebrity puzzler Diana. Diana is a puzzler
062and was at the event. So uh uh but it's great to see this program uh grow and again um what they learn while doing these puzzles is so much beyond just the puzzles itself and they're amazingly fast at it. And then uh finally an update on our attendance um initiative this month October's winner uh was the Eagles of Image. Uh they were 10% higher in October this year than they were last year. So uh the initiative with our district staff is working just so hard along with the school staff uh to improve attendance. And they also got that future earnings award which is the check that says they're not going to get a million dollars right now but if they keep coming to school um that that attending school will turn into more success uh
063later in their lives. So uh just a wonderful uh award for image to improve and that is uh my good news report. Thank you. Oh I don't have to unplug because it's not my >> Thank you very much. The next item on our agenda are board comments. Any comments from the board? >> Last week I was able to um go to the teaching academy class at Heritage High School and spend the class period with them talking about what school boards do and um some of the things that we're working on and what our goals are. So it was a lot of fun to be able to spend time with that class. I know Dr. Maloney went just a few weeks ago and then they invited the school board in because they want to get perspectives.
064>> I I appreciate those commenting tonight and I believe um maybe I'll share what I believe you guys were thinking of sharing that. Um we don't make any decision as far as the uh union uh athletic director that was out of our hands. So we just get informed. Um, also, um, I'd like to find more information about, um, Carmen Shonmaker, her concern. Um, apparently maybe sounds like there was some sort of, uh, complaint filed and I'd like to find out what happened with that. And, you know, she mentioned that whether or not it's true or not, but, there was another complaint where um, it was followed through on, but, this one kind of fell through the cracks. So, I'd be curious to to know what what the uh facts are there. And um and also,
065you know, Camille had mentioned about um Emerald Elementary kids jumping on over the fence and that it used to be um written up and now it's no longer. So, I wouldn't mind understanding the, you know, what's being, you know, the facts there as well. So, and um yeah, I'll I'll also explain um during the uh vote for vice president, I abstained from the vote. And um correct me if I'm wrong, but I do do not believe I've been censured or disciplined at all this year, but last year I was told I would that those positions rotate and that I would be in line for being uh coming up for vice president this year. So, I didn't get nominated. I'm apparently being disciplined in some way. So, um yeah, it's a little frustrating for me. I
066know I'm not going to win any popularity contests with my board, but um I thought that was I was told that was just um protocol what's been done. So, I'm frustrated with that and I'll just leave it there. Thank you. I uh I think we ought to have a workshop maybe in our next meeting or the one after about um about that uh and discuss our agreements. Uh this is a different board uh than it was on the day we made those agreements which was back in 2022. So it's time to review them anyway. I understand that the policy we have about um selecting president, vice president and other positions is unchanged since a couple of decades ago. So um if we could review the policy together and have an open discussion together, I think
067that would be really beneficial. we can um do a workshop coming up next month and I think that for that policy we need to potentially consider a procedure so that we can actually have a procedure for how we select our board. >> Mhm. Um, aside from that, it's uh I want to point out that uh I know we're discussing the conference um and what we took out of the conference of the WASDA conference uh in our workshop, but uh hearing about uh $12 million of uh cuts to make this this coming spring. Um, I did have a conversation with uh a representative from Flow Analytics because they had a um they had a vendors display on at the conference and I uh I asked them a couple of questions about their predictions um and the
068report that we got and we were able to pull up the report and look at look at it together. Uh what he said to me was that uh the birth rates um appear to be lower uh than estimated in in the uh in the flow in the in the demographic reports mid they had a high a middle and a low uh prediction and it's lower than the middle prediction. Um so we uh we are facing um ongoing enrollment loss due to uh both birth rates and still the cost of housing. Uh it's keeping folks from moving in or staying. Um it's an affordability thing in a lot of ways. I don't have any other comments. >> Any other comments? It is 6:39 p.m. The board is going to go into a recess. Then we will
069reconvene for a workshop where we'll discuss our 2627 draft school calendar, our legislative priorities discussion, a conference debrief, and then have a discussion on board protocols and calendaring.