001Good evening. It is November 18th, 5:30 p.m. 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. >> Director Gon has our land acknowledgement. >> Evergreen public schools resides on the traditional lands of the Shinukin peoples and the Kaleditz tribe. They have lived on and cared for this land and its waterways since time in memorial. 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
002motion? >> I move to adopt tonight's agenda as presented. Second. Director Gwalt moves that we adopt tonight's agenda as presented, seconded by Director Bokeanigra. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. So moved. The next item on our agenda is special recognition. Dr. Maloney. I would like to call up our um chief operations officer, Jana Gomes. >> Good evening, President Weatherspoon, members of the board, student representatives. Thank you for having me this evening. We have our annual um evergreen award. We are adjusting it a little bit this year. So, we were doing it quarterly. This year, we're going to be doing it by semester. So, it'll be here two times. And then at the end of the year, we're going to do the recognition of retirees like we did last year. So, I wanted you to
003know about the change. In addition to that uh to recognize I mean to recommend uh employees we adjusted the criteria and we had it be measured up against the EPS uh mindsets that Dr. Maloney has set before us and those are assuming positive intent uh being kinder than necessary creating systems that serve measuring twice cutting once and uh build being culturally uh responsive. So I just wanted you to know that that's what is being measured against. Uh we have three awards this evening certificated classified and we have a group. In addition to that ABM and chart rolls are going to uh recognize employees as well. So to get started we're going to begin with our classified award and I'm going to introduce Dr. Matt Bennett who is the senior director of special services. Good evening.
004Please join me in welcoming Sarah Van, teacher of the visually impaired, who submitted the nomination, and Francine Flyer, Brailus, this year's Evergreen Award recipient. >> Good evening. It is my privilege to be here tonight alongside my friend and teammate Francine Fleer, one of our district's dedicated brailists. Francine brings extraordinary dedication to our blind and visually impaired students. She creates accessible braille and large print materials for learners of all ages. And she works one-on-one with students to teach essential braille skills. She approaches every task with kindness and careful attention to detail. And she exemplifies the EPS mindsets in all she does. Our students truly thrive because of her. This spring, Francine will celebrate 20 years of service to our district as a classified staff member, a remarkable milestone that speaks to her unwavering dedication. Thank you
005for the opportunity to honor her tonight. Our second award is certificated and Angie Mitchell who's a uh principal assistant elementary is going to introduce. >> Good evening. It is my pleasure to introduce Megan Joseph to you all tonight. Megan has taught at Sipin Elementary for 20 years. She has taught fifth grade, fourth, third, and currently is teaching second. Previously, or previous to coming to Sipin, she was an educator teaching second grade in Las Vegas. Megan is so deserving of the Evergreen Excellence Award she is receiving tonight. She exemplifies kindness and her classroom highlights culturally responsive practices and leadership. I personally have appreciated working with Megan for many reasons. One amazing quality Megan has is that she wholeheartedly welcomes each child into her classroom. She shows them genuine compassion and love, getting to know them individually
006and how to best serve them in the classroom and beyond. After students leave her classroom to the next grade level, Megan doesn't stop supporting them. She is always open to being a check-in connect mentor for her previous students. She also hosts students during the day if their teacher is gone and they have a substitute. Megan understands the needs of her students and the challenges of change that that can be presented. It's because of her genuine care for her students that students come back to sift every year to say hello. They literally beam when I mention that Miss Joseph is still here. thrilled to see her. As Megan gets to know her students, she participates through the day alongside them as a learner herself. She pushes herself to new to learn new languages. She explores new
007traditions and c and customs and engages in new practices and self-reflection right in front of her class. Recently, she's introduced her students and our school to the life life cycle of chickens. We look forward to new hatchings each year. Megan has embraced our district's implementation of neighborhood schools centering on the vision for inclusion. Every child has meaningful access, participation, and progress and high quality curriculum supported by inclusive mindset and design. Megan's colleagues have this to say about her. Megan Joseph has embraced neighborhood schools and inclusion with her whole heart. She creates a classroom environment that truly meets every student's needs and fosters a community of pure kindness, responsiveness, and acceptance. Over the past few years especially, she has adjusted her physical space to meet student needs, accommodated core lessons with tools and strategies that meet
008the needs of non-speaking students in her classroom, as well as seeks to learn more about her students with disabilities and how to be their teacher, partnering with service providers to create success for her students. Megan's a collaborative partner with colleagues in order to design highquality instruction and experiences for her students. She's accepting and loving to all. She's flexible and accommodating of the diverse needs she hosts inside her classroom today. Congratulations, Megan, and thank you for recognizing her tonight for her daily service to students in our community. Our final award or internal award uh goes to a team for family and community outreach coordinators and Melanie Green who is the family engagement and resource coordinator will be speaking. Good evening and thank you so much for it's a big group. Come on in, guys. All right.
009So, I'd like to introduce you to the FCRC outreach coordinators, the family and community resource center outreach coordinators who are so deserving of this award tonight. So, thank you so much for this honor and recognition. The out outreach coordinators approach every interaction with students, families, and colleagues from a place of trust and empathy. They listen first, seek to understand individual circumstances, and respond without judgment. Compassion and care are at the heart of the FCRC mission. The coordinators consistently go above and beyond to meet the needs of students and families. Whether it's connecting someone to critical resources, offering a listening ear, or celebrating small victories, their kindness helps create a sense of belonging and emotional safety for everyone they serve. They work to streamline access to support by developing or finding systems that reduce barriers and
010increase equity. They identify gaps, collaborate with community partners, and design processes that make it easier for families to access resources efficiently and for schools to respond effectively. In their planning and implementation, outreach coordinators take a thoughtful and strategic approach. They anticipate challenges, coordinate with partners, and ensure that supports are sustainable and responsive. I realize this is more this is a large group than than you normal, but I'm so honored that the FCRC outreach coordinators are being recognized for their unwavering commitment to supporting students and families with compassion, creativity, and excellence. Their dedication to removing barriers, fostering belonging, and strengthening community partnerships has made a lasting and transformative impact across the district. And I'm excited to show you'll be learning more about this program um a little bit later in this evening. So, thank you so
011much for this honor and recognition. I'll quickly introduce each one of them. Kristen Priest, Carrie Urban, Anne Galvves, Rose Ketta, Casey Lutkins, Nor Aish, Brianna Potter, Utley, M Brooker, Amy Bristo, Carmela Bender, Carla Valader, Rojas, and Maria Glendo Cardova. Thank you so much. All right. >> I don't have This is the biggest picture in the world. We might we might need to do short people in the front. >> You got it. Yeah. >> Okay. All right. Everybody smile. All right. Thank you. >> We partner with ABM for uh custodial services and they are want to uh recognize employees as well this evening. And I think they're on their way in that shot. >> Well, good evening everyone. Dr. Maloney, good evening, respected members of the board. My name is Art Selenus and I'm the district
012manager for ABM. And uh before we get going on recognizing two very deserving individuals, I would like to thank you guys for allowing us this opportunity to be able to give this special recognition. So, thank you for allowing us to participate. So, this evening we have the honor of recognizing two individuals. Unfortunately, only one of the two can attend. Uh the other one had an emergency dental appointment. So, I mean, doesn't sound like much fun, but we'll be choosing to recognize uh that individual. And I'd be remissed if I didn't mention his name. Uh his name is Eric Nations and he is our day lead custodian at Riverview uh elementary school. So we have made arrangements uh with Miss Broly and team to recognize uh Eric on Thursday at 8 a.m. where there's going to
013be student participation and also some staff members attending. So we'll be there to recognize him. But with us this evening uh we have the honor of recognizing a very special individual. Um, each year we do a quarterly business review with the facilities team just to talk about progress. We talk about celebrations, opportunities. Um, and when I think of Emma Duran, who's here with us tonight, you can come a little closer and you can even smile. It's okay. Um, I just smile automatically. She's, uh, by far one of our biggest success stories. um not for what she has only delivered to us um as a company but not just to the what she brings to the building but what she's also um brought to herself. Um, I remember meeting Emma and we quickly learned how good
014and proficient she was uh doing the mechanics of the position and then we were watching her for a while and we approached her and said hey Emma would you mind considering you know growing within the company and she was like I don't know right she was very bashful and uh after speaking to uh Mr. Shepherd and team over at Cascade. I said, "I know I have somebody for you. I want you to meet her." And after that conversation, um, Emma stepped up to the plate and took on the day position at Cascade Junior High or Cascade Middle School. And, um, she's flourished. Um, and I know that they were both wanting to be here this evening, but they did want to share some words, um, about having Emma as part of their culture. So, I
015will share those with you now. Since taking on the role of day lead in 2024, Emma has brought exceptional professionalism, care, and dedication to her work. Her leadership has elevated every aspect of our custodial team's performance, and her influence can be seen and felt throughout the building. Emma's commitment goes far beyond completing daily tasks. She is consistently responsive to the immediate needs of the school, often stepping in without hesitation to ensure that our classrooms, hallways, and shared spaces are safe, clean, and welcoming. She takes special pride in maintaining the appearance of our public areas, frequently putting in extra time and effort it takes to make sure Cascadia represents our community at its very best. Her positive attitude, reliability, and genuine smile make her a trusted and respected presence among staff members and students alike. Emma
016truly embodies Cascad's mantra, every minute matters. Every cougar counts. She treats every moment as an opportunity to make a difference. Whether it's responding quickly to a need, supporting her team, or helping a student feel seen and respected, her attention to detail and consistent excellence reminds us that every person's contribution matters and that pride, care, and connection can turn a workplace into a community. Cascade Middle School shines brighter because of Emma Duron. So, Emma, on behalf of the community at Cascade and your family at ABM, we want to thank you. Thank you for believing in yourself and taking that step forward and you're very deserving of this recognition. So, congratulations. >> I'll try not to get fingerprints on it, but here you go. >> You're very welcome. Greg, you want a picture right there? Okay. >>
017All right. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. The final recognition this evening uh is by our partner with Chartwells and they'll be coming in. Good evening everybody. Um this year we would like to recognize our group out at Evergreen High School. As you know, we've been going through a remodel uh since the last day of school last year. And um one of the things we learned, like any move, is you don't realize how much stuff you have until you have to pack it all up. Um and it ended up living in two buildings and a ConX uh container that's sitting out in the parking lot. And um these folks here have just been wonderful about uh putting meals together for our students. We're still serving 5,000 meals a week out of uh at Evergreen
018High School for the students there. They're doing it at a remote kitchen out at Y East. So they're cohabitating with another team over there and uh they've just been doing such a wonderful job about it. I do have a short piece that I just want to read and I want to take a moment to recognize and celebrate the incredible work you've all done during the current remodel. Um, change is never easy, especially me when it means working out of a remote kitchen, but they've faced every challenge with creativity, flexibility, and an unwavering positive spirit. Um, everybody's been so great about that, of jumping in and being flexible and maybe doing jobs they're not used to doing. And the fact that we have to prepare the meal, pack it up, haul it across town, take it
019down, bring it back. Uh, and all of this in a makeshift operation. If anybody's been out there, we're working off of carts and tables and racks and uh, the students have been wonderful. They've been just so receptive with all of these folks. um even in less than ideal conditions, they've continued to provide our steel our students and staff with the same highquality meals and friendly service that define all of them as who they are as a team there. Um their ability to adapt while keeping things running smoothly has been nothing short of inspiring for me and the rest of the management staff as well as CNS. Um, and you know, we couldn't do this without all the folks that we've been working with, facilities and uh the CNS department and our folks and everybody joining
020together, even working with the construction crews out there, working in and around them um as they're putting up walls, taking down walls, moving furniture. Uh we actually had to empty the building out for a homecoming dance on a Friday afternoon and basically take our whole kitchen down, stick it in another room, and then bring it back out. out and these folks have been coming in on weekends to make all this happen and really not miss a beat for all of our students out there. Um, but what truly stands out is the way they've supported each other. Um, you know, uh, we're not I'm not in the facility every day obviously with 38 schools. Um, but the managers here and Alicia who was one of our uh, awardees last year is the leader out there and
021her and her great staff. Um, and you know, the camaraderie they bring to work every day making a real difference, not just in the kitchen, but throughout the Evergreen community. Um, I thank all of them for their dedication, their upbeat attitude, the pride they take in their work. They've shown what it means to come together as a team. We couldn't be more proud to recognize all of them for rising to the challenge during this project. It's getting close to coming to an end. uh we can kind of see the the ends of it and furniture is being moved in and we're we're talking about uh getting to the point where we can actually start thinking about buying groceries again. Um and uh and refilling the place with food and figuring out the new spaces. Just
022like any new house, you got to figure out where the furniture is going to go. And uh it's really exciting. Um I look forward to all of you coming out when it gets open. It's a great space. uh the design team just did a wonderful job and I think the students there are really going to love it. So we're really proud of all of them and uh you know we just want to celebrate all of them as a team and hopefully by the end of this term we'll be living back in there. Um you know but uh it's definitely been a lot of work for everybody and what like I said they've been just wonderful during the whole thing. I couldn't ask for better results. So Jeff, thank you. I would just like to quickly
023say sorry I would just like to quickly say thank you as well because you guys are you guys are managing around our chaos. So thank you so much for what you're doing. I for one appreciate it. >> Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you for your time this evening and then we'll be back with the evergreen award for second semester. Thank you. The next item on our agenda is public comment. 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. the administrative staff or the audience. Although the board will not engage in dialogue, the board chair may ask a
024speaker a clarifying question or follow up at a later time on an issue raised during public comment. General reminders. Each speaker has a maximum of three minutes. There is no mechanism whereby a speaker can donate some or all of their time to another speaker. No individual may speak more than once per regular meeting, even if there's time remaining. Please state your name and district affiliation, if any. Our first speaker tonight is Kamal Richards. Good evening. >> Actually, I would like to retract my time. Everything I didn't see there was many speakers. So, I will give my time to the next speaker. >> Okay. Right. >> All right. Our next speaker is Jacob Smith. Good evening. >> Uh evening board and superintendent. Um I'm Jacob Smith. Um uh sadly I didn't get the results I wanted.
025Um but the advocacy for career and technical service organizations doesn't stop uh because of how things went to the ball box. Um, before I get into my speech, I respect the results of our election. And I'd like to thank my opponent for running a positive campaign and to have debates and discussion with various groups such as the Colombian, the League of Women Voters, and One America Votes. Uh, those groups shined a light of things facing our district, and it was a race I knew would be easy. But tonight's speech is both an invitation uh to be volunteer judges for an organization I'm very passionate about in DECA. The second is a call to action. I would like to extend an invitation to this board and our superintendent to our area 9 conference, our state conference
026in Belleview and Nashville and Atlanta. I understand Atlanta isn't likely for this board as ICDC is during your April 27th meeting. However, our area 9 conference will be on January 14th, which is a Wednesday at the Clark County Fairgrounds uh which is their event center. State for DECA is up in Belleview, Washington at the Hayatt uh Belleview and um Miden Bower Center and it's the last Thursday and Friday of February. Uh Thursday for State is usually a late start around 2:15 uh p.m. goes till about 7 8:00 at night, but Friday is 7:00 a.m. to about 3:30 to 4. Nationals is in Atlanta from April 25th to 28th. Uh but there's only two days of competition and Tuesday is the day of finals, so they need less judges. Um, I also looked at flights going
027from Atlanta to Portland. Uh, if you leave Atlanta 8:00 a.m. their time, you'll get to Portland with an hour layover in Seattle around 12:30. And there are exciting things to do in Atlanta, such as the Six Flags theme park. Or if any of you are college football fans like me, go blue. Love University of Michigan. They have the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame and they have the Georgia Aquarium. And I believe that our board should try to get Legacy a DECA andor an FBA program. I'm told by somebody that works at uh Legacy that their coffee is delicious. This would be a schoolbased enterprise for Deca. I saw an article a few weeks ago from the Colombian about Creature Creations and feel it would be a solid DECA project. I could have gone to
028Legacy because I've got almost gotten into a few fights as a freshman at Heritage and I feel for those kids. Another component is that we are extremely blessed to have DECA and FBA and Skills USA in our schools. It does not make sense for Heritage in spite of them having advisor of the year for Washington DECA to not have a retail operations. of the last seven schools to have an adviser of the year. Only Heritage does not have a DECA retail operation and we've pushed for one since my senior year 2009 2010 to get a retail operations. If we're spending $150 to retack documents, how come we can't get a retail operation for Heritage? And I'm also working on getting the contact information, the judging forms um for Area 9 advisor. And um before in
029closing, I hope our board and superintendent uh as well as the people in this room enjoy Thanksgiving with their families and friends. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Tara Ebby. Good evening. Good evening, board members. Dr. Maloney. Uh my name is Tara Eie. I use she her pronouns. Um this is my daughter, Emilyn. Um, and we are here tonight because we have serious concerns about student student safety with the after care program right at school. Since the district switched to this contractor last year, the issues we've experienced have been constant and deeply concerning. First, the provider failed to have their state certification ready for summer care. So, a bunch of families didn't have care if they were using the state subsidy over the summer, which has thankfully been resolved. But since the school
030year began, the concerns have grown and they're more severe. My daughter, who has had minimal behavioral issues, um was kicked out of daycare one day because she leaned against an exit and was accused of trying to escape the program. Um, not very long after, um, a staff member at the school was trying to redirect her and did so by physically grabbing the hood of her jacket and yanking her back to come, um, back to her. Uh, and after several attempts to reach the management of the program, I heard back a couple of days later and that staff man member was put on a performance evaluation, but still works there. Last week during outdoor time, my daughter was playing outside during aftercare with some other students on the playground. They found a stick and they were
031jumping over it and tagging each other with it. The provider that was on duty at right at school made a very concerning choice to resolve the situation by calling the police on these 10-year-old children at the playground. Um, and this forced my 10-year-old and the other 11-year-old students to participate in a criminal investigation and be interviewed by the police officers at the school um for doing nothing more than playing on the playground. Uh, adding to the safety concerns, there's not a straightforward way to get a hold of the people that are working on site at the daycare. if there was some emergency that I had that I needed to contact my student urgently. There's there's no number for them, the only number available is for their manager who the calls back are inconsistent and delayed.
032All of this, I think, reflects a larger issue at play, which is that right at school is not the right contractor to have the contract with the Evergreen public schools. Um the they're unorganized and the rapid expansion that they've had to go through in order to accommodate this contract has caused their staff to be hurried through training processes and we don't have the confidence that they're equipped to serve our children in ways that align with the values of the district. Um I also want to add that anytime I've interacted with any of the school staff um it's been really great. everybody, the school staff is on board and aligned with how the kids should be treated, especially um the principal at Hearthwood, Tracy Schuster. She's been amazing and trying to get some of these in
033uh issues resolved. So, I just want to urge you guys to be aware of this and consider re-evaluating urgently the contract with this daycare provider. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> And then we have one more speaker, Patricia Ryder. Good evening. Uh, >> good evening. Um, I'm here today. My name is Patricia Ryder. I am the grandmother of two lovely children in the Evergreen School District. Uh we have tried unsuccessfully for the past um I believe it's 45 days might be 46 to get my grandchildren enrolled in Evergreen School District and get services. Uh there is a problem with this district and I don't know how to solve it but I am bringing it to the attention of the board because I do not want any other person to ever go through what we are going
034through right now. I am caring for two kids full-time as is my 74 yearear-old mother who recently in caring for those kids fell down the stairs and broke her arm. This should not be happening. The kids were enrolled in Cameas School District prior to school opening because of problems that we um occurred at the school at their neighborhood school. At this time, I'm not going to name the neighborhood school, but I will just say that it is one of the better schools in the Evergreen School District. But unfortunately, my granddaughter, um, trigger warning for anyone here. So, uh, my daughter, my mom was out of town. I was ill. I could not come to the school to pick them up. And someone called, um, child protective services. Child protective services went to that school and
035performed um an exam on my granddaughter. This should absolutely not be happening in any school in the Evergreen School District. I am a thirdgeneration child abuse survivor. My granddaughter, thank God, is so innocent. She does not yet know what happened to her. We expect it will come at a later time. But right now, we are just trying to get these kids into school and we can't do it. We can't get a boundary exception. We can't get we are Aaron is trying to help us but we are 45 days nearly two months of two little kids with no school and we I I'm enraged, saddened. I really don't know what else to say other than things need to change. Thanks, >> Dr. Maloney. Can we have a follow-up on this later? All right. Thank you very
036much. Thank you. Do we have your phone number, your contact information? >> I don't We don't have >> I'll give it to you. >> Yes. Thank you. That concludes public comment for tonight. The next item on our agenda is our board consent agenda. Is there a motion? >> I move adoption of the board's consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Director Perkins moves that we adopt the board consent agenda as presented. Seconded by Director Wilson. All in favor? 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 Gwalt moves that we approve the superintendent consent agenda as presented. Seconded by director Okanera. All in favor? I >> opposed. Motion carries. The next
037item on our agenda is our superintendent report. Dr. Maloney. >> Good evening, President Weatherspoon and uh board of directors. First, I'd like to congratulate our two returning board members, Director Jenny Gronold and Director Julie Bokeenegra. I'm looking forward to continuing to work with you uh both as part of the Evergreen School Board. Um, and in case you didn't know, consistency and district leadership from the school board to the superintendent is an essential component of creating the environment in which student achievement increases. So again, congratulations to you both. I have three topics tonight that I want to share with you and as a reminder, I will share the operational expectation policy OE um that corresponds with each one of the topics. So OE equity and OE1, which is instructional program. So tonight we have a robust
038set of reports um highlighting our ongoing work that's taking place in our teaching, learning and equity department. You'll hear an update on our multilingual learner program and then also learn about the great supports provided by our family and community resource centers um and a lot of the members of the that res those resource centers were honored just a few minutes ago. I spoke briefly with about our family resource and community resource centers at the last board meeting and these two areas of multilingual learners and uh family comm community resource centers. The these the support that they provide seeks to eliminate the barriers for our students and our families across our district so that students can truly be engaged in learning in our classrooms. They do great work and I'm excited for them to share what's
039happening with you this evening. under OE9, which is communicating with the public, and OEE0, which is equity. I recently met with a group of our Hispanic parents to listen to their experiences and answer questions. This was last week. One of the concerns shared was around the safety of our refugee and immigrant students and their families. I meet weekly, so you know, with a small leadership team to keep up to date on what is happening in our district and surrounding area. We have, as you know, a dedicated web page available that has information not only on our district policies and procedures um along with state guidance, but also a great uh listing of resources that are local here in our community that people can access if needed. And we have provided specific training updated again from
040last year to this year um for all our staff, including our transportation staff. It is important to note that all children have the constitutional right to receive a free public education regardless of immigration status. We in Evergreen strive to create belonging for each and success for all. Our role is to educate and support students all students by providing all of them a safe and learning a safe and welcoming learning environment. And we have those procedures and policies in place along with the caring staff to do so. under OE5 financial planning and OE6 financial administration. You may have noticed we have some budget discussions happening today. So you're going to hear about the end of the fiscal year report for the 2425 school year. You're going to rehear again about the budget forecast and our next
041steps now in the process. This report supports our priority goal that we agreed upon that de to demonstrate fiscal responsibility by monitoring and making adjustments to the expected expenditures as necessary to stay within the approved 2526 budget and also by planning fiscally responsibly for the 26 27th uh fiscal year. Now I'd like to take a moment to share my gratitude. I'm in schools and classrooms on a weekly basis, sometimes as many as eight schools in a week. As I've had the chance to sit down next to a child on a carpet for a math lesson, um or during a small table for some reading instruction, I've had the opportunity to listen to middle school uh students uh practicing for choir. Um or I've engaged as today with in conversations with Pacific Islander students at Evergreen
042High School. While I'm doing all that, I reflect on it and I am so thankful for the caring staff who give of themselves and their time to help make each child feel valued, supported, and successful. I am also thankful for the staff at Mountain View who do the same for my own son. I'm thankful for the staff who do the work beyond the classroom to help make schools function, including you as a board. For the staff, we transport students to and from school, provide counseling, provide nutritious meals, help support teachers, students, and families in their district roles, and those who make the grounds and buildings look great and operate. I'm thankful for all the staff who are part of the Evergreen Public Schools, who choose to be a part of creating a better future through
043supporting the education of our children. Together, we will create hope and increase student achievement. So, this concludes my superintendent report tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you. The next item on our agenda is our budget. >> Good evening, President Weatherspoon and uh board of directors and superintendent Maloney. I just need to switch out my laptop really quick here. Um I'm not only presenting the 2425 financial statements. I also am going to do a short 25 26 update so we can stay on track. >> Thank you. It goes. Thank you. Got it. >> All right. So, first off is the 2425 financial statement presentation. Um, typically, uh, in during a fiscal year, the CFO, business manager, what have you, only gives two presentations. Usually, there's a financial, you know, year-end presentation, which I'm about to give, and
044then we do a budget presentation in June or July, and that's about it. But this 2425 year was a bit of an unusual year. So, I uh kind of thought we'd do a quick recap before we get into the year- end um financial statements. Uh so, really January, February is about the time that we can really hone in on projections. We don't find out our transportation allocation until February. we start, you know, honing in on what our actual enrollment is like and that type of thing. And that's when my director and I realized around February, March that instead of a $4 million deficit for 2425, that it looked like we were going to end the year with a $10 million deficit. So, I came in and did a a budget status report back in March
045to let you know. Um this was primarily due to an increase in the number of special education uh students that we had entering the district and the need to hire a lot of additional certificated and classified staff for that. Um as you know the special education is not fully funded by the state. So anything additional comes out of levy dollars or fund balance. Um, so back in March, we kind of projected that we were going to come against our budget appropriations that was approved last August and that we were going to need to do a budget extension. Um, in June, we passed a resolution allowing us an additional $10 million to spend uh for our total expenditures. Then that is filed with OSPI. Um, then July 8th, I did another board update. Um that was
046when federal funding was very unsure and there was a lot of consternation around are we going to even have federal funds for 2526. Um that was about $2 million and so I did a presentation about that. We have uh received those funds for 2526 but we're still up in the air whether they will continue into 2627. And at that time I did another budget status that we still were on track to to end the year with the $10 million deficit. And then of course in August we had our our budget presentation. All right. So I'll get started on the presentation and I'll try to keep it brief but not talk too fast. Um our enrollment trend. This is an important uh slide. Enrollment is the number of students we served. We've had a 16.5% decline
047since 1617. Um that was really a high point for Evergreen at 26,000 students and we're we ended the year with 22,000 students. Um and to put this in perspective for every student we get ba basic education money about $11,000 per student. Um so losing 4,000 students we would have had another $44 million this year if we had stayed at our enrollment at 26,000. Um, so this has been uh a big reason why we've seen three years of reductions and why we're going to continue to have to make those reductions to adjust for this. Um, a big kind of story behind this, people say, "Where have the students gone?" Uh, for the most part, it's that our incoming kindergarten classes are getting smaller and smaller year after year. When I look back at that 1617, our
048kindergarten class was 1,800 students. Now we have 1,400 and in this current year it's down to 1320. So we have these small class sizes coming up through the district. I did look to see out of those 1,800 kindergarteners that started back then, how many eighth graders do we have? And it's about 1,750. So there's a little bit of attrition through the years, but the the big difference is that we're graduating out classes of 1,800 and bringing in small classes of 1400. Um, so we're we're seeing it more at the the elementary uh years right now, but those small class sizes will continue to to grow up through our middle and high school. Uh, so very brief summary overall in 22 23 we kept our fund balance around 28 million. Um, we had er funds at
049that time. So these were special funds granted by the federal government to help with uh the impact from the pandemic. So, we were allowed to maintain more staffing during this time using those federal funds. Um, which was was great, but of course those federal funds went away in 2324. Um, we were able to bank a little bit of fund balance and get up to 32 million, which we intended to use that additional 4 million in the 2425 year. Um, however, we ended the year with the $10 million deficit that we had projected. So, we did end the year at 22 million. Um the general fund is made up of reserve accounts and then unreserved accounts. Uh reserve accounts are accounts we legally have to hold that money aside for those purposes. So for instance, food
050services. Uh we're we're very fortunate that we're community eligibility provision. So we get free breakfast and lunches for all students which is fabulous. So every meal we serve, we get uh reimbursed from USDA for that. But those funds come from uh federal government and they have to be held aside and only spent on food service purposes. So those funds can't be used to pay teachers or principles or any anything else. They can only be used for that specific purpose. Um so that left our unrestricted fund balance at just over 14 million and we do have fund balance policy that that should be 5% of the previous year's expenditures. So we have now closed the books with just 3.4% 4% of our unrestricted fund balance. And this is something we've talked about over the last few
051months. Um, and I will talk about again when I talk about the 2526 update. Um, just a general review of our revenue. We brought in $430 million. U, most of that was in state revenue. The green is our general purpose. This pays for just our basic teachers, principles, secretaries, just our basic instructional um team. Uh we have state special purpose money and that is again part of those reserves, the transportation, the multilingual lab, some different grants that have to be spent for that purpose. Our federal special purpose is mostly made up of our title one, title two grants, and then also those USDA funds that fund our um our food service program. uh when we had er funds come in we that was up to 13% of our total budget. So we were very fortunate
052to have a lot of those federal monies and they helped us out for a number of years. Um and then our EPO tech levy revenue is at 14% of our total. So for expenditures I break them down in a couple different ways. Um there's a million ways you can break these down $440 million. Um so I just picked two. This one is based on what we call object code. You can see 60% are spent on certificated salary and benefits. So those are all of our classroom teachers, our uh counselors, instructional coaches, and our principles are also included in there. 23% for classified salary and benefits. And you can see um all of the different staff that covers, including our staff here at ASC that work in payroll and fiscal. Um our supplies budget is just
0533% and includes things like fuel. Um our services, purchase services are a total of 11% and a big chunk of that is for things like insurance, utilities. Our running start runs through purchase services. That's about $3.5 million. So that's just a flow through. We have students sign up at Clark and then we have to play pay Clark and the state pays us through a portionment. Um 2.2% 2% of that is our food service contract with Chartwells and 2.3% of those services are custodial contract with ABM. So, it's just kind of trying to point out that um that food service and custodial contracts are a lot of staff. We have all of our custodials out custodians out cleaning all of the buildings and our food service staff. Um, and so really when you look at the
054classified and certificated and those two contracts, it's about over 87% of our funding is for our staff in our schools. Um, and the other way I broke up expenditures is by activity. And this is one way that OSPI often displays this information. So grouping things by teaching and what's really in the classroom for the student directly. Um, school administration is the principal principal's office. Our central administration is the district-wide administrators and our fiscal services. And then we have other support activities. So, OSPI does uh show like what a comparable district will have for each of these uh percentages and then what what statewide um the different districts have. So for districts about our size, 73% and statewide is about 72% for teaching. School admin is around 6% for comparable districts and 5.6% for statewide. Central
055admin is uh 4.7% for comparable districts and 5.4% for uh statewide. And then our other support activities that usually runs around 16 to 17% Uh my last slide on this portion of the presentation is just a little explanation of our other funds. So being government, we have fund accounting and these separate funds. We can't mix and match and use these funds for other purposes. Capital projects are only for building uh new buildings or modernization. We can replace HVAC and roofs with these funds. Um and this is where when we went out for bonds, the money came into our capital projects fund and was spent out of there. So, we're ending the year with 89 uh million in there. So, it's got a healthy fund balance and we this funds all of our summer capital renewal
056projects. Um and it's made up of all kinds of revenues including impact fees and uh we just sold the old image. So, that all went into the capital projects fund. Um our debt service fund, the revenue is just uh local taxes collected to pay off bonds that then built the capital projects fund. um buildings. Our ASB, you know, associated student body uh students did good. They added 50,000 to their fund balance last year. So, they've done a great job fundraising and managing uh their budgets. And then lastly, our transportation vehicle fund that just goes to purchase buses. It's just 42 from buses. So, we have a a healthy balance in there as well. So, uh, the transportation department does a great job of managing our fleet and replacing and and, uh, doing all those things.
057All right. So, now I'm going to do you a quick 2526 budget status update. Um um now that I finished the 2425 school year, um I just want to give you an update on how we're looking for enrollment this year. Uh we budgeted 21565. September's kind of a a little bit of a wonky month to look at because it doesn't include our running start yet. That doesn't start till the end of September. So that's about 400 students. And then also it takes a while to get kids enrolled, get all the paperwork through and that. Um we also had um a delayed start this year. So that also probably had an impact on that September count. Um our October count came in at 21,565.24. Um I have to say in my 23 years, I've never come
058that close to actual enrollment before with my budgeted projection. So um that's good news. we're going to receive revenue in through aortionment of of what we expect to um as long as we don't lose students throughout the year. So, um I feel pretty good about where we're at as far as enrollment and and uh what our aortionment will look like this year. Um one thing I want to point out is our kindergarten did come in low. So, we're at about 1320 and we budgeted 1,400. Um but we made up for it in the secondary grades. So, those came in a little higher than expected. Um, I do bring up this graph because I think it's really important when we're thinking about the big picture and why we're looking at reductions. Um, it's a hard one
059to look at. Uh, over this 30-year period, our enrollment hit a high in 1617 of about 26,000 students. And so, you think of all of those years of building programs and and schools. Um, and now we're back down to where enrollment was in 0102. Um, and since 0102, we have built an additional elementary. We've added Hila and we've added Union and now we're down at the enrollment level we were back then. Um, this is this is a difficult one and it's why we've had to continue to downsize and downsize over the years. Um, there was one more thing that just escaped out of my head. This is only part of the story though because we also have a lack of state funding. So there are kind of two pieces to the story and we're seeing
060it across the state is that state funding also is not keeping up with our needs. Uh for instance last year our utilities or our insurance went up by a million dollars and the total additional funding we got from the state to cover that cost was 300,000. So, we are getting small bits of 2% increases from the state while we're seeing these huge inflationary increases that we need to cover. So, there's kind of two things going on here that are hitting us now. Um, and it's uh it's it's a lot to to swallow, I know. Um, so we'll just keep continuing to to try to downsize. And there was one more thing about this slide that just escaped my mind. So, um I'll think of it as soon as I'm done here. Um so, just a
061reminder, we just adopted the 2526 budget in August. Um beginning fund balance we estimated at 22 million and we did come in really close to that. And we estimated we'd spend about 5 million uh during the year of that fund balance. And that would bring that estimated fund balance, the unrestricted portion down to 2 and a.5%. Um I'm going to just follow up with the next. Why is the fund balance important? I did bring this slide up a few months back so you're familiar with this. Um, but I think it's important to for everyone to understand that it is very important. We have a fund balance. Some people see 22 million and think, well, you know, that's plenty of money, but we spend 36 to 38 million every month just on paying our accounts payable
062and our salaries and our benefits. Um, so we really do need that reserves. Uh, we need we have emergencies that come up. For instance, last year with our special education, we needed to spend some of that down to cover those expenses. Um, there's gaps in cash flow, like I just mentioned, uh, that we have to cover. There's also planned usage. Some districts have reserves. If they foresee, you know, needing to redo a turf field or something, then they start setting funds aside for that. Um, and then also our bond ratings. So, we did experience in August a ratings downgrade as well. Um, so our reserves have fallen below our minimum 5% set in board policy and the policy requires that we develop a financial action plan to restore the fund balance back to the 5%
063required amount and this is part of the operational expectation five. So speaking of cash flow um this is our projected cash balance for the year as of right now. So excluding um doing an inter fund loan, you can see we dip down to 4.9 million is expected the end of January and 3.3 million in February. Now people think, well that's a positive number. That's great. But we need money to pay our bills during the month. And so if we end February with only three million in the bank and we don't get paid again until the end of the month, that's not enough. We need six to eight million every month to just pay our weekly bills. So, it's kind of like you get your paycheck at the end of the month. If it all goes
064to your mortgage, you still need to eat and pay your utilities and do the things during the month until you get your next paycheck. And that's that's where we're at right now. So, I put a resolution together for a short-term interfund loan of $10 million that we will take from the capital projects fund. So, that'll go on the December board agenda and I think I shared that out. Um, and that will give Dr. Maloney and myself the latitude to transfer the money over from capital projects in December to make sure that we don't get into trouble um in the next few months and then in July or August when our big aortionment payments come back we will pay it back. So those short-term loans you cannot take them for longer than one year and we
065also have to pay ourselves interest on that loan. So it's it's not the most ideal but at least we're paying ourselves the interest and not another entity. So, um, so that's our plan for next month. Um, just a reminder, this was the financial forecast. All of this is out on our website. Uh, we put together a forecast. I worked with Dr. Maloney and the board on how to build that 5% back up. Um, we originally looked at doing it more quickly, but decided, uh, we didn't want to sustain those huger cuts up front and that we could spread it over three years. So the idea is that we will cut 11.5 million going into next year and build it back to the 3 and a.5% um a 7.5 million the following year and get up
066to the 4 and a.5% and then a 6.9 million reduction in the following year and that should get us to 5%. Now of course there are a lot of assumptions that go into making three-year out projections. Someone once looked and said it was something like 300 assumptions go into putting together a forecast like this. Um but two of the most important ones is this is assuming no additional funding from the state other than their maintenance level funding. So if we were fortunate and uh the state allocated us some additional funds that that would help us out there. Um and the other main assumption is that uh we could get um all staff groups to agree to only accept IPD which is the implicit price deflator as their increase for the next um all the next
067contracts. So in the past we got a kind of a cola from the state which is now the IPD and that was just what was passed on to um to employees. And now we've kind of got in this trend of getting IPD plus 2% IPD plus 1% and we're just we're not going to be able to afford over what the state allocation is. So um so those two assumptions are built into this forecast. So next steps so we're starting now digging into the budget reduction process for 2627. Uh we've gone through and kind of backward plans uh the the uh calendars for both budget and staffing. Um if we need to do a modified educational plan plan or reduced educational plan, that will need to be the end of March. And so we need to
068backward plan um um all of the steps that go before that. Um, so we are working now on what our communications will look like, what type of input we'll gather from staff, student, and community and getting all those things in place. Now, and that brings me to my last my last uh topic, and that is we put together an EPS budget committee. Um, I'm really excited about this. It the purpose is just to engage our community and um try to share finances and increase our transparency. Um we've uh selected about 26 people I think are on the committee now. Um so a number of community members, we have two students, a couple board reps. Um we have a couple principles and then I believe from all of our union members. So teachers um office clerical
069and our PSSE large group. Um so it's a it's going to be a good community together. So, their first assignment really was to watch this presentation tonight just to kind of get their feet wet and see what they're getting themselves into. Um, and then our next meeting will be December 11th and that'll be kind of a school district 101, but I will try to make it somewhat engaging because I know in the evening accounting can get Yeah. So, anyway, that's my presentation. I uh I am open for questions. So, does anyone have any questions about either 2425 or what I've shared so far this year? >> Are the uh enrollment change are the enrollment total changes following the demographers projection >> uh from the demographic report we got a while ago? >> Yes. Yeah. So,
070last year they they uh did the projections in 23 24 25 we came in a little bit above theirs. Um and uh I think this year we're pretty in alignment with what theirs were were very close to what their projections were. So um those were just done, you know, two years ago. So >> do you remember uh when they projected that enrollment would begin to increase again? It's it's a couple years. >> It was going to stay around the 20,500 for a couple of years out and then uh there was hopefully a gradual increase. You know, I think it was probably maybe around 30 2030. >> 2032 was >> that's when they started. >> It's a long way off. Yeah, >> it's a ways off. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >>
071Um Jennifer, could you go back to the cash flow screen? Yeah. And the June 1 million, is that including the 10 or is that No, it's not. >> It's excluding Yeah. And so June tends to be the the hardest month because we only get 5% of our aortionment from the state in June. Um and you know then we get 12 and a half% in July because they've pushed it forward to their new fiscal year. So um so it puts a lot of districts in a really difficult bind in June. Um and so that's why we'll have to wait to get through June to make that transfer back out. So >> yeah, I mentioned too that it's possible some of our payables maybe they could go out 45 days. You know, it's not ideal, but you
072know, >> if we have a good relationship with them, um they might be willing to, you know, allow that for short term, but >> yeah, we would certainly entertain that if it looked like we were getting really close. Um we could talk to our vendors. Yeah. So, >> someone's got it. >> What a bird. >> Did you guys What? >> I don't think we do that right. Okay. Uh we don't have um audience questions for this particular presentation. Um but I did have a question. So, what are the um ramifications for doing the interfund loan at a state level for the district? This will be our second one. >> Yeah. Um right now there aren't any ramifications for doing the loan, but I have heard them entertain the idea of not allowing you to do
073them two years in a row. Um I have uh the accounting um there was a school district accounting meeting where they talked about you have to give full disclosure of any uh interfund loans any aortionment advances and any registered warrants uh as part of your financial health indicator. So um they are definitely looking at that. They're also looking at um requiring a minimum and a maximum fund balance. Uh that's something that's being entertained. um what they said what I have heard is possibly a minimum fund balance of 8%. So that would be um difficult for us. It is a total fund balance though so it's not just the unrestricted but we would still need to work towards that. And I know Jennifer um coming on the board two years ago um we briefly looked at
074um possibly closing a school to kind of make up the shortfall. Um I know that's not a popular topic, but is something like that a possibility between now and 2032? Do you or >> I think it it's certainly something we should look at and entertain. Um, but we are right now our average elementary size is over 390 per elementary and that's still a pretty healthy size. I'd say 450 would be more of a target we would want. Um, but depending on how the next kindergarteners kindergarten classes come in, um, you know, they've already been hit by these low class sizes. We don't have any uh elementaryaries in our district that are at 150 students um like some of our neighboring districts and and up north that have some very very small elementarymentaries. We don't have
075any that small. So um you know I I'm I >> hope that would be our last resort would be closing schools and hopefully we'll see an influx of of students um in a few years. So >> any other questions? Thank you. >> Thank you. >> So the next item on our agenda is just the information item for our financial statements for August 25, September 2025. And then our next item on our agenda is a presentation for our Evergreen Public Schools bond closeout. We'll figure it out. You can come up. So, >> introducing senior director of our capital facilities, Nicole Delosa. >> Thank you. Good evening. Um, we're excited to be presenting on bond closeout. So, the 2018 bond program. Uh I would be remiss not to give a shout out to Sue Stein Brener who
076was my predecessor and really did run this bond program. Uh we partnered with RNC management who is here tonight, Adam Cormarmac who will be doing the bulk of the presentation and I'll be chiming in with little tidbits here and there. Um but definitely a time to celebrate some success in our district and really show um what we've done with the bond. So, with that, I'll go ahead and pass it on to them, and you can advance either there or there. >> Okay. Um, thank you again for the opportunity to be here tonight. Um, it's good to see some familiar faces and some new faces. It's been a little while since I've been here, but super grateful and thankful. So, um, just want to first and foremost say RNC is grateful and thankful for that opportunity
077to be a part of such a successful bond. And, um, kudos to the whole entire team and all the team members. It it took an army to do what we did over the last uh six, seven years. And um speaking of Sue Steiner, just all the work and hard work and tireless hours that that were put in for that. So um so goal of tonight's meeting is like um Nicole said, just kind of celebrate some of the wins and kind of give a an over recap. Um without um like I said, without a lot of hard work, none of this would have been able to happen. So, um, I love this picture up here. I think about it a lot and it kind of reminds us of just why we do what we do and
078it comes back to the kids and why we do what we do is for them. And, um, so tonight we just want to, you know, thank the community, thank the leadership, thank the board, kind of reflect on some of the progress, um, um, kind of hit on some of the impacts that the community was able and then some of that leadership and stewardship. So um um I believe um this bond success was was achieved based on good leadership and that's not just RNC that's not it's just a whole team leadership and I know that um we wouldn't have been able to do what we did without kind of starting that and really building that foundation and I know Sue and I used to say a lot to go fast you got to go slow and
079so we spent a tremendous amount of time at the beginning of this bond, not only pre-bond, preparing for budgets, timelines, etc., etc., but really spending a lot of time on those district standards. What does that look like? We knew we were going to um endeavor a large magnitude bond program. So, how can we have some of those consistencies? Um those guiding principles, you know, building budgets, building projections, timelines, etc. and then really knowing that how much work we had to get done in a in a in a period of time being strategic on how we did that. And so we spent a lot of time like I said on the kind of developing those standards and one of the big thing was um we went out and we engaged um some really um qualified expert
080um consultants along with the internal team to really develop these guiding principles and what that looked like. And that kind of allowed the team, the management team, the leadership team to kind of look through those lenses and how can that transfer throughout the whole project. So we kind of developed a lot of this stuff early. And I think looking back, I mean, it's been 2018. It feels like yesterday, but it also feels like an eternity ago. but spending a tremendous amount of time just spending um time in this area, building that foundation, building that road map, and just making sure that we're going to be successful. Um so, kind of just a reminder, kind of an overview of all the projects. I mean, you can put this on paper. That graphic is a nice graphic
081on the left there because it really shows you how many different sites and different things that were touched for this this bond program. you know, the big highlights, you know, we hit on the seven summers. We we we did we touched almost every single we did touch every site and a lot of different things just from a deferred maintenance items. Um the seven new elementary schools that were built, the new middle school at Y East that was built, um the two high schools, um you know, the Legacy the smaller uh uh high school and then the Mountain View High School. Um, and then those two Hollingsworth and at Archway being able to take those from multiple sites and kind of combine those and really give them a space to be proud of. And then, uh,
082that one uh, high school edition at Heritage. So, really just seeing all the the magnitude, it's it's easy to put it on paper, but when you really think of all the magnitude that was done in a short period of time, it's really impressive um, from the team. Um, also the, you know, the the sports complex. Um, we were able to the the two music rooms at Evergreen High School and and Union High School and then being able to partner with some partnerships outside with to to be able to build that trade center um and that new admin this building that we're in here right now. What a beautiful building and it was a lot of fun to be a part of that um that new transportation facility and then just kind of overall district-wide safety
083standards etc. and we're able to get all these projects done and still be able to give back a substantial amount. And again, that comes back to um leadership. That comes back to developing realistic budgets, schedules, timelines, and being creative throughout throughout the way. Um so I' we've been I've been a part of program. Um I've never been a part of one that doesn't have problems and doesn't have not problems, but challenges. I will say this one might have had the most challenges that we've had um just with you know going through COVID and going through a lot of things that you know our nation our country we haven't seen before and so just bringing us back to reminding how we got there developing that relation or that that leadership kind of having that roll up
084our sleeves kind of mentality throughout the whole um consistent um pool of partnerships um we were able to kind of work through the co pande pandemic Um yeah, that was a strange time. It still to date has some challenges. We're able to, you know, work through those, you know, those those supply chains that, you know, still going on today. We're we're we're having challenges on getting procurement and lead times, etc. But we were able to work through those um labor shortages, working through those and health protocols and state requirements, etc., etc. Um, and then you know engaging the world through remote. You know, we learned how to use Zoom. We learned how to do um all the different things. And I think um just us being able to have the team to create that momentum
085to keep moving forward knowing that we had a goal, we had a plan and we needed to be consistent. We knew we didn't have time to wait. We knew things were going to get more expensive, etc., etc. So, continuing to push on that um and and just being solution-minded. um again to that leadership team. Um so h some of the bond savings. Um you know I just wanted to hit really quick on the the prototype prototypical elementary school. Been doing this a long time. We've done the prototypical. We've seen a lot of success. I think the leadership team this board made a decision to to do that. Um I think there was you know there's challenges in anything but there was a lot of successes in there. Um, I I can honest I can say
086I' I've been doing this a long time and I've never bid a project out and actually the pricing went down. So, strategically it worked really well from a financial standpoint. Um, we were able to um, you know, refine, get lessons learned and improve on each one that we built. We strategically did uh, sift in as a GCCM. It's an alternative procurement to bring the folks in uh a contractor in to get a lot of the lessons learned, identify some of those and then incorporate those throughout the whole entire bond. We knew um that was going to be value and it really did come to fruition and be a lot of success. Um just hitting on a few of the projects. There was a lot of other areas that there was some substantial um opportunity for
087project savings, but in general these projects right here, you know, Mountain View just um a lot of challenges. We were able to have a substantial amount of savings. Some of this was just the amount that we were able to leverage. Um OSPI, we made some assumptions. We made some uh target um anticipations of what those funds were. you know, just so Mountain View, Y East, um this building right here, some of the way that we structured how we procured, um we tried very strategically not to just rubber stamp one procurement method. We tried to really take each project uniquely and and do that in a way to be successful and and try to take advantage as much as possible. So, these are just I'm going quick, but these are just a few highlights of some
088areas that we were able to save. Um, these projects right here are the identified projects that we were able to do through the savings. You know, we were able to um get through um the bond commitments and we knew there that we where we were, we were in a safe um we were in a spot where we could make some decisions on how we could start planning for some additional projects. So we um put a group together. We um worked with different teams to kind of identify what those projects the transportation department facilities was one of those. Um Evergreen High School I mentioned earlier the music room additions those were kind of a big um uh push. So all the high schools now have kind of that music room addition um in place. And then
089Mill plane being able we I think at the beginning when we were bond planning we really wanted Mill plane to be in there and it just wasn't at the time and so we were able to to um to do that and then plus all the athletic facility complexes throughout the high schools just to make some um consistencies across where we have some um consistencies across the board. Um this slide just being able to, you know, OSPI, City of Vancouver, Clark County, Energy Trust, I I would say early on we really identified all these um folks and we really treated them as a partner and we believe they are our partners. Um we wouldn't have been able to do what we did without the success that we had without some of all these folks listed and
090some other folks listed. you know, we worked with City of Vancouver diligently on the early side to to plan and you know, there's a lot, you know, when you're doing almost a billion dollars of work, it we wanted to be a partner to them. So we worked with them diligently on projects that were coming up and and and you know the city of Vancouver, Clark County was just fantastic to work with getting them the information allowing us um to get permits on a timely manner um which um allowed us to be successful when it comes to schedule and the energy trust is just one. But trying to leverage and trying to turn over every rock that you can to find any free money. I know this team worked really hard to do that um to
091to backfill some of those projects. And then just that, you know, that local engagement with, you know, Douglas Green to be able to kind of partner with the community and build something with with with outside funds was a really uh fun um partnership and project to be a part of. Um from a fiscal standpoint, um you know, from the beginning, we built, like I said, budgets that were realistic budgets. Uh we we want to um we put the appropriate contingencies in place to be successful if things come up. We we know we understand things come up. It's construction, it's projects. Um we we did so it started with that and then it was regular reconciliation meetings with Jennifer Nicole and the team to really go to reconcile that to make sure um as we got
092to a spot in the project where we were um showed less risk we would move monies around accordingly to fund um the program contingency accordingly. So like I said, we tried to build cost savings and and and procurement of projects in the most efficient way. And then we just had oversight and audit assuring transparency and that was that group that we met typically bimonthly or quarterly depending on where we needed and and where we were on the bond. Um so we're working right now on it's it's exciting just closing out all these budgets. I'm working with Jennifer and the team. We're targeting early next month to have all the projects um budgets closed out and all the fundings um sent back to that program contingency and and and discuss next next um projects. Um so
093that's kind of from a budget standpoint. I think Nicole was going to and just wanted to cover the general community and student impact. Obviously, you walk into the buildings, um whether it's a new build or a building that received multiple capital renewal projects, and sometimes a lot of those projects are things that you don't see when you walk in, but I can tell you when you can walk into your building and you don't have a leaky roof, that's a big deal. Um and it's it it you know, a teacher can walk into their classroom and they're not stressed out because there's a stained ceiling tile. Um that's huge. So obviously those learning environments you see that improvement um on those things that you may not always see um even down to you change out a
094boiler nobody's complaining about being cold um and if they are we answer to it quickly but um so in addition to that obviously just having the general equity and access across schools I understand that in we had a pretty aged inventory um and now we have an inventory that we're able to maintained so much easier. Yes, we still have some challenges, but honestly, the amount of work and money that was invested into these buildings has really done us put us in a position where maintaining them is much easier. And then, of course, the community pride and support. Obviously really coming out of COVID, it took a while to see our community really start utilizing our facilities again, but I will tell you they are widely utilized by not only the schools, but community groups and
095partners as well. I mean, there is not a single building that doesn't have a community group renting it out or a field, whether it's an artificial turf field or one of our natural grass fields. So, our spaces are getting utilized. um everyone can go in and enjoy the space whether inside or outside. So, it's it's really nice to see that. I think we're both going to partner on this one. Um but yeah, I I mean the congratulations to celebrate our success together. I you know, it is a huge undertaking. Obviously, I came in just in 2023, so I'm at the end of it and get to wrap it all up. Um, which is fun to really see where it all came. Um, and then really just learning that whole path and story from both Sue
096and from Adam and the RNC team and the district team who worked on the bond projects as well. Like it's it's pretty impressive what has been accomplished. Um, obviously we're building on the foundation for the district's future. Um, there's obviously more to be done. Um, but we're very much set up in a position to maintain our current inventory for years to come, which is fantastic. Um, do you want to hit on the other ones or? >> Um, yeah, I I think I'll backing up just I think the bond was very successful because of all the foundations that were built, you know, in the early on in the pre-bond developing realistic. Um, and so I I will speak for RNC. Uh we're here to support whatever those next next ventures are. You know, we um you
097know, we have we're committed. We're um excited to start that next chapter, whatever that looks like. I know we have our team members, kids that go to this school. So, we're very invest in very vested in Evergreen and we're very grateful and thankful for obviously the opportunity that we had um uh to be a part of it. So, >> and a lot of people do ask like what are the next steps, right? I mean, you wrap up a bond, what's next? And it I will tell you that even if in the foreseeable f future we're not going to we'll make the decision if we're going to go out for a bond and when it takes years of planning and years of datad gathering to really determine when that time comes, what are we going after?
098What buildings do we need to look at replacing? I think we all know which ones are on top of mind for us. um what additional capital renewal projects do we still have to hit on because that's going to happen every year no matter what. So um that statement about our long range facility plan, I mean that's something that we definitely will pull pull out and just kind of dust off and see see what's next and get it updated as well. But I do I mean I appreciate Adam has been amazing. the whole RNC team has been incredible cuz yes, coming into such one of the largest bonds in the state and being like, "Oh my gosh, wait, you guys have done what and we we still have how much to go." They've been amazing in
099just getting me caught up and then just helping me even go back to be like, "Hey, what did happen in this project?" Um, so they are an amazing resource and I know that they're going to continue to be partners with us even, you know, 6 months from now when I'm like, "Hey, this thing came up. Can you help me out?" Um, and so they are truly a partner of the school district. So I appreciate it. And that is all. Do you have anything else? >> Just adding questions. Just thank you again. And >> any questions? >> I think it is the largest bond. It is. It was the largest bond in state of Washington's history. >> yeah, we're very proud of that. >> Yes. >> I don't have any questions. I just want to say
100thank you. Um because it it really was a huge project. We got way more out of it than we had even hoped for. the relationship with RNC. I mean, you guys were on a in a portable on our property at our former ASC, which was all portables. Um, so just the relationship and just the building of all of this and watching this all happen and building buildings on property that had school still going. um you being able to kind of pivot things and you guys did an amazing job. I had the privilege of accepting top project the VBJ top project awards for the bus barn and I think it was in mid or was it Milplane? >> I think it was Milplane. Yeah. But they were again Milplane was our prototypical school that we were
101building. So, and they were such great projects that we actually were given awards for them as well. So, just also a thank you and a congratulations for all the great work you guys have done for us. >> Super thankful. Um, I will say, you know, not just the the projects, but the relationships that we built. I I will say Sue and I we used to call we used to talk on the Friday Friday at Way Home and say, "Hey, what is the challenges? what are we going to do and how do we need to be ready and there's still times to this day and that's why I'm really grateful and thankful for this opportunity that relationship with Sue I'll still call her sometimes on a Friday night and just it's not about project >> she
102hiking though when you do that >> so super grateful and thankful >> I know when I saw you get up I had a big smile because I we miss you we don't see you as often as we used to >> yeah it really is amazing thinking about when we first started just thinking about what it would look like way back in the early days before we even ran the bond campaign. And it really is amazing how much work we got done in seven years, which is and you think about the work we did now and how many years of future students and generations are going to enjoy these schools and the sport fields and all of the complexes. And it really did transform the way that our district looks. And I know we have a
103lot more work to do, but um this was amazing work. Yeah, thank you for coming in under budget where you did and I know with COVID building supplies just doubled and tripled. So that's even a more amazing feat. So thank you. couple challenges, >> just just a couple. And I'm going to mention that uh these projects got our uh highest need students out of commercial rental space, out of portables, and into um some really out of out of uh buildings attached to an elementary school. In the case of the what what we now call Hongworth Academy, just got them out and into the new facilities first. Um, and that was a that was a big priority, I know, for uh Victoria Bradford and for the rest of us was to if we're if we're going
104to build an ASC to replace those 20-year-old moldy portables, we're going to serve the students who need it most first. And uh I appreciate the cooperation and attention that you gave to applying those principles uh because I know a construction project can go any direction. Um and I I recognize um both the advantages or opportunities and the difficulties that uh the co moment gave to us. Uh but a lot of those savings gave us Milplane Elementary School and its replacement. And these buildings are going to last for decades where I'm I remember that some of them were just uh these 20-year buildings that we've been keeping alive for 45 years instead of the 20-year uh standard. And that was a standard in the 70s. And I could go on and on and on about the
105excellence of of the execution of this project. Uh you have my gratitude extended to all of RNC and uh to Nicole and Sue. Um it's great work. >> It was definitely a team >> and so again, thank you to your both of your entire teams and we appreciate you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Round of applause. >> Next up, we have our TLE update. >> Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Fox. >> There he is. I did not see him right there. Sorry. >> Thank you. Good evening, President Weatherspoon, members of the board. Your agenda this evening is packed full and really seems to represent the complexity of keeping a large school district open for business from operations and facilities to budget and financial responsibilities. And now I'd like to share a teaching and learning and equity
106update. And for TLE this evening, uh we'd like to share some of the ways that we're working to remove barriers, barriers to learning, barriers to inclusion, barriers to thriving, barriers to success. Belonging for each and success for all is our north star, our guiding uh light. and is guiding us as we dedicate our work to ensuring access, to improving learning outcomes, and to helping students reach their potential. So, with that commitment in mind, it's helpful to see how our efforts connect to our broader district goals. At your meeting on October 14th, Dr. Fowler took you through a reading of our district improvement plan. And I'm sure that as you read this slide, these goals will be familiar to you. Goal two includes our broad goals to increase overall math proficiency and ELA proficiency as measured
107on the Smarter Balanced Assessment. And within this goal are priority group nested goals for multilingual learners that you can see here. This evening, director of multilingual education, Veronica Magalanus will share some data about multilingual learners and the progress that they are making. She will highlight some of the ways we provide support for all multilingual students, share about dual language programs, and show us how EPS is increasing access to instruction and learning opportunities. After Veronica, Melanie Green will show you ways that our family and community resource centers are helping students meet some basic needs in life so that they can concentrate on learning when they are with us in the classroom. And by the way, it was a nice coincidence to learn that the FCRC coordinators were being recognized this evening with the Evergreen Award that
108wasn't part of our plan, was not coordinated. As Veronica makes her way to the podium, let me share what multilingual education is. It's about serving the students in Evergreen public schools who make up a linguistically diverse population of students. These include students who use American Sign Language, our American Indian and Alaskan Native students, and a student population where 70 languages are spoken. Recently, I heard these students we once called English language learners or ELLL named as linguistically gifted learners. And I I like that term, Veronica. Tell us more. >> Good evening to all the board members as well. My name is Veronica Magayanes and I'm the director for multilingual education and I'm pleased to be here with you tonight. Tonight I'm going to share some celebrations, provide you an overview of our student demographics, as
109well as some results from assessment uh data that we have on our multilingual learners and talk to you a little bit more about our multilingual programs which include again the American Indian Alaskan Native educational services under title three dual language programs as well as English language services. We continue to focus on system efforts that serve our students. And what we are seeing is that more students are meeting English language proficiency, showing consistent progress across language domains. We're also seeing greater collaboration across departments resulting in our students experiencing more seamless supports and have more access to grade level content. This is helping reduce some barriers and increased participation in their core academics. We are also seeing an increase in professional learning opportunities, allowing our educators to build capacity in ways that support the improved confidence and
110classroom practices uh shown districtwide. Our multilingual learners represent a growing part of our student body. Even though we are seeing a decline in overall district enrollment for our multilingual learners that is holding steady. They represent 19% of our total student population. Now we're going to look at smarter balance assessments. As you can see in mathematics, 30% of all students show consistent grade level knowledge and are on track to college level learning compared to only 13.2% of our multilingual learners. In English language arts, 37% of all of our students showed consistent grade level knowledge and are on track to college level compared to 9.6% of our multilingual learners. Another way to look and interpret this data is 86% of our multilingual learners are achieving below grade level or demonstrating an achievement level of foundational grade level
111knowledge. And in ELA, that percentage point increases to 90.4%. At those same levels, multilingual learner students success is directly tied to this district's overall success. Our data tells us that we have continued urgent and actional work ahead particularly in ensuring that our students are meeting grade level expectations and making progress in their English language development. on this data that's coming up. We are looking at the English language development data as shown through our assessment called WEDA. On the pi graph, we see the progress towards English proficiency is slowly improving. Last year, 36% of our students met their expected growth targets compared to 32% the year before. On the graph below for percent of students who reach proficiency, we see that only 6.4% transitioned out of services, which tells us many students are not yet reaching
112full proficiency. We know multilingual learners are highly capable and as you heard from Dr. Fox, they are linguistically gifted. With our district's unwavering commitment and the right teaching conditions and support, they can achieve at higher levels than what we've seen tonight, both academically and linguistically. We're going to take a little bit closer look. I will highlight at least one priority in each of our programs, but you can see that we have many more efforts. As we look at our native students and their families, we are prioritizing elevating student and family voice through an advisory group. This will help us shape the decisions and services that are designed specifically for them. This is very important work because their needs are different from our other student services that we provide. For our dual language program, we are
113prioritizing closely monitoring the student by literacy through formative assessments and ensuring students stay on track on the expected dual language literacy benchmarks. For our English language development programming, we are prioritizing professional development for teachers and administrators, including parah educators to support our multilingual learners. We're also expanding coaching cycles and at secondary collaborative teaching to support our inclusive models to better serve our students. These are our priorities for the next several years. Our schools are working really hard. That includes all of our staff across the board. And we're looking forward to continued progress with urgency, of course. and thank you for your time. >> Any questions? >> Thank you very much. >> Now, Melanie Green will come up to talk to you about family and community resource program. Good evening again and thank you for the
114opportunity to share the work of our family and community resource centers and the critical support the outreach coordinators provide to our district's most vulnerable students and families. Right now, families in our community are facing extraordinary hardship. With SNAP benefits disrupted, many households that were already living paycheck to paycheck are now experiencing even greater strain. Families are just one crisis away from losing housing, food security, or basic stability. Parents are choosing between paying rent, utilities, or putting food on the table, living in unsafe and unstable situations with nowhere else to go. We are also seeing an increase in fear among families who are undocumented. Immigration concerns can prevent families from seeking the support they need. In response, our FCRC's are working closely with trusted community partners to ensure families feel informed and supported. The FCRC team
115of 12 outreach coordinators who met earlier this evening support 24 schools. They are the point of contact for families to connect with community resources and help navigating these challenges. Three years ago, the outreach coordinator's team was reduced by half, significantly expand expanding each coordinator's workload as they now support two school buildings. effectively doubling their case load. During this time, we have witnessed an increase of housing instability and homelessness. While you may associate our role with distributing resources like food, clothing, and toiletries, and buying snacks at Costco, we also spend a significant amount of time working alongside families, providing referrals to programs, and helping them navigate and access access complex systems that can be difficult understand, especially for families who are new to our country or facing language barriers. The outreach coordinators also serve on school
116building committees that work to support student equity initiatives, family engagement activities, serve on attendance teams, facilitate Spanish and Russian parent meetings, serve on our district rise team, which you heard about at the last board meeting, support family engagement efforts, coordinate volunteers, and take on many other responsibilities that foster meaningful connections between students, families, and our school community. We are deeply grateful for our many community partners to help us meet the diverse needs of our families throughout the year. These partnerships allow us to provide essential services, supports, workshops, and programs that make a real difference for our students and their families. This holiday season, we're partnering with Zoom Info, the Salvation Army, Live Love Christmas, and many other local nonprofits, faith-based organizations, and businesses to provide support. Recognizing that families are struggling to meet their basic
117needs, we've asked our partners to focus their efforts on providing food baskets, toiletries, and household essentials. If you haven't had a chance yet, I encourage you to stop by one of the FCRC's next time you're at one of our schools. Each FCRC is designed to be a warm, welcoming space where families can connect with the outreach coordinator. Here are a few photos from our FCRC's at Sunset, Orchards, and Crest Line. I want to share some data highlighting the impact of our FCRC's. This slide showcases a few of those collaborative partnerships uh focused on alleviating food insecurity. Each month, we host 10 school-based food pantries in partnership with the Clark County Food Bank and Share. Last year, these pantries saw nearly 4,000 visits, an increase of 37% from the 2324 school year. We distributed more than
118117,000 pounds of food, also up from the previous year. In addition, we distributed over 15,000 share backpack program food bags, which go home with students each Thursday to ensure they have access to food over the weekend. Currently, we are sending home 500 bags each week across the district. Unfortunately, we do have a wait list as Sher has placed a cap on the program due to funding. This high this slide highlights other areas of our work. Among them, we distributed more than 13,000 diapers in partnership with Battleground Adventist Community Services. Our Mckin Ventto leaison Mac English together with the FCRC's led efforts to distribute nearly $120,000 in funding to support the stabilization of unaccompanied youth and children exiting systems of care like foster care and child protective services. Carrie Urban, our FCRC at Legacy in Evergreen
119High School, provides direct hands-on support to unaccompanied students, helping them access essential resources, obtain critical documents such as state IDs, social security cards, and birth certificates, and apply for EBT benefits and health insurance. She also accompanies students to off-site appointments to ensure they can successfully access these services. The FCRC's manage many partnership programs that address food insecurity, a need that continues to grow as the cost of living continues to increase. To help offset the challenges created by the SNAP cuts, our team's been proactive. We've request additional pounds of food for the 10 pantries we operate each month. And just last week, the pantry at Burton ran out of food in 30 minutes. In addition, Sher has begun double stuffing their weekend food bags and providing extra deliveries to stock our pantry shelves. We are also
120collaborating with the Council for the Homeless to pilot an alert system that allows us to enter immediate needs and be quickly matched with a community donor willing to help. I've been meeting regularly with businesses and donors to collect basic needs items. And we've seen an incredible outpouring of generosity. Staff from across the district, including those at AFC, have reached out to donate food, toiletries, and funds. These contributions help us fill critical gaps. As of last week, our district has nearly has identified nearly 1,000 students. 1,000 students experiencing homelessness, representing over 600 families. Many of these families are living in unstable situations, including sleeping in their cars in tents. Just last weekend, FCRC picked up tents, sleeping bags, and blankets to deliver to a family sleeping outside. Sadly, this is becoming more common as families face
121rising evictions with limited housing options. The emergency winter overflow shelter was at capacity the first night it opened. Despite these challenges, our FCRC and Mckin Vento team continued to coordinate, advocate, and find creative ways to pull together resources to support our families. The FCR series remain the essential point of contact at schools for families in crisis, providing not just resources, resources, but compassion, guidance, and stability. I'd also like to take a moment to acknowledge the toll this work takes on our outreach coordinators and McKenna Vento leaison. We witness the struggle of fam struggles of families in crisis, hear heartbreaking stories, and carry the responsibility of helping often with limited resources. The emotional weight of this work is heavy, yet they continue to show up every day with empathy, compassion, and an unwavering commitment to our
122students and families. The outreach coordinators are truly deserving of tonight's recognition. Their efforts, often behind the scenes, make a meaningful difference, and their dedication, creativity, and perseverance inspire all of us. Tonight, we celebrate not just their accomplishments, but the compassion and excellence they bring to their work every single day. Thank you. Thank you. Two very important programs, multilingual education and our FCRC programs. And I I do want to thank each of the women this evening for sharing uh their presentation with you um and and describe some of the ways we're trying to remove barriers for our students and our families. Before Melanie gets too far away, I would like to als in fact stand up please Melanie. I'd like to thank her for her service on the Clark County Community Action Advisory Board, a board
123with the responsibility of advocating on behalf of people who are low income at the state and federal levels to ensure services are available and equitable. She has completed several terms comprising seven years of service on this board and served as board chair, vice chair, and member. It's good to know that director Perkins remains on this board. But tonight, we want to thank Melanie for representing Evergreen and contributing so much for our community and others in Clark County. Will you help me with a round of applause for her? THANK YOU. I ENCOURAGE YOU TO COME A little earlier to your next meeting on December 9th because we will have student musicians carolling in the foyer. Uh our Mountain View coral students will be performing. We'll also have a fall sports review. uh introduction to the EPS
124instructional leadership guide and per some questions that came up at your last meeting, we'll have a presentation on the district's literacy program, Fontus and Panel, from the curriculum and instruction department. This concludes our TLE update. Thank you very much. The next item on our agenda is our student board representative report. ladies. >> All right. Um I'll begin. Um generally at Mountain View, I would say that there has like it's been touched on before um there have been increased like stress due to ice sightings and also um because of SNAP benefits being taken away. Additionally, I would say that because grading um or like the grading period is approaching, there has been increased stress on students because of that as well. However, I would say that the community in Mountain View has come together a lot
125more because um we recently had several events such as Scare View and like the Holiday Bazaar. Um and I would say that those brought together a lot of different communities within Mountain View and provided a lot more communication between them as well. And then regarding like our involvement with elementary schools, I think a lot more high schools are trying to get involved um in their elementary school because they're trying to get people to join their clubs or like come to their high school as well. Um, for example, like with NHS, we've become uh we've begun volunteering at like Shaha for tutoring and also at Marian for Crest um at their school events and just talking to students and getting like their general thoughts about like how school is going for them. Yeah. All right. Good
126afternoon everyone. So, I am a senior at Heritage High School. Um the work stoppage has created a sense of eagerness for many students to you know get started get involved which is really nice like instead of like a negative outcome it's really it's been really positive. We had a club and sports fair and many students got to connect and step out of their comfort zone and a high percentage of students have begun getting involved which is really a sense of pride. um our performing arts uh throughout the district really have been super thrilled by the community's enthusiastic response to our different like community outreach events. Uh we had a leadership conference a couple weeks ago where our heritage group kind of expressed a couple of concerns with the sustainability at our school especially because we
127don't we only have a singular trash can in our cafeteria. We don't have a sorting station. We don't have recycling. We don't have compost. None of that. So, we had a committee that came up with an idea of connecting with our Clark County, I forgot their name, but we have it and having our sorting station and instead of using milk cartons, having milk bladders and milk dispensers, which we are, we got a a grant a money from the shark Shark Tank um event at the leadership conference, which we are working on. Um, a common concern right now expressed at the high school level are really the high rates of burnout every time I go to school about 20 times a day I'm hearing I'm tired, I'm tired, even from teachers and it's just really getting
128harder for students to keep up with the workload. And I guess things aren't really as exciting anymore with, you know, not being the beginning of school anymore. Um, add additionally a lot of our first generation students and undocumented students have been experiencing high levels of distress due to the ice sightings being more and more local. Like re a couple weeks ago, 41 people were deport like were detained at Woodburn. A couple days ago, someone got detained at WCO and in Andre. So unfortunately this means a lot of students are aren't attending school which is a really big concern having attendance be one of our biggest issues and having a lot of students having to take on these tasks in order to support support their family and their duties. So, we must ask ourselves this. What
129barriers are preventing students from all backgrounds to reach out? And can we break down these barriers? And I'd like to thank our FCRC and our multilingual learners uh support supporting us and seeing all these procedures and policies being put in place. So, thank you so much. Uh last night we had a meeting for SAC and one of our main um points of discussion was how do we get more people at these sack meetings and so we are every other month we are having on-site meetings. Uh next month we are having a meeting at Mount View. We will be focusing on mental health because that was one of the main concerns that many students at the leadership conference expressed and we just want to gather more student voices on that topic. So, the meeting again, we
130talked about the the meeting and how everything's going to flow. We made a really great flyer that a lot of people we've been sharing around. A lot of people have been reposting on social media, which is great. And and again, another one of our next steps is asking the dean of students/security at different schools to, you know, get input and perspectives with other students because I feel like a lot of our student input is coming from our most involved students, but really we want we want to also hear from other students. And yeah, that's pretty much it. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Any questions? All right, moving on to our next item. Matters reserved for board action. Ratification of recognition and procedural agreement between Evergreen School District 114 and Evergreen Administrators Association July
1311, 2025 through June 30th, 2027. Is there any discussion? >> I move adoption of this agreement as presented. >> I'll second that. Director Perkins moves adoption of the agreement as presented. Seconded by Director Boenegra. All in favor? >> I I >> opposed. So moved. Thank you. Next item on our agenda is proposal for action policy development policy 1111 oath of office. Second reading and approval. Director Perkins. >> Okay. This is the second reading of uh the proposals to change board policy 1111 regarding the oath of office that uh new uh well school board members must take after election. Uh as you'll recall from our workshop and our first reading, this is aligning uh the policy with uh the existing state law on the advice of Wazda and uh the district's uh council. We've gone over
132this and uh advanced it to this point. I guess the only question that really remains, Dr. Maloney, is whether or not there have been any questions or comments uh come through your office about this proposal. >> There has not. Okay. >> I move for approval of board policy number 1111. >> Second. >> Director Bokenra moves that we adopt policy 11-11 oath of office as presented. Seconded by director Gronalt. All in favor? >> I I >> opposed. So moved. Thank you very much. Next item on our agenda is our good news report. Welcome Craig. Out this In my excitement, I forgot my notes. Good evening, President Weatherspoon, board directors, and Superintendent Maloney. Thank you as always for letting me present the good news. Uh, I'm going to start uh with uh I'm going to go fast
133through this part. We have a lot of Veterans Day celebrations that occurred over the two-week period kind of uh near Veterans Day. Um I think that what was awesome and I heard our student board reps talk about uh how our secondary schools can connect with our elementary schools and a lot of these celebrations. You could see this one here at Sunset. The Covington Colts band uh was there to play along uh with the the choir from Sunset. And uh also when you look at our uh celebrations, you'll see a lot of pictures of students in front of microphones uh and and students performing. So many of these celebrations, most of them, most of the work is done by the students, obviously with support of staff, depending at what level. Uh but it's really great to
134see um not just the student voice but the the student effort that they put in to make these celebrations not just great for their schools but to uh veterans that are associated uh with their school communities. Next thing I want to share is uh a really cool program that we have for the first time in our school district. It's the learning to the Let's Go Bicycle Education program. And this is a grant-f funded program. Uh, and I'm going to get this right because it's very particular. It goes uh the funds come courtesy of WASDOT through the Climate Commitment Act with a partnership with Cascade Bicycle Club. And this grant provides um all the bicycles, all the equipment that goes with setting up for uh the presentation for for the curriculum, and they're there for a
135few weeks at schools. The funding also provides money for a bike specialist to work with the PE teacher at the elementary school to teach this curriculum. And not it's not just about riding the bike, they also are about riding it the right way and safely. Um the bike specialist told me it's one thing to teach a kid how to ride a bike with one hand. It's another thing to teach them to ride with one hand while doing the proper signals when they need to stop and to turn. And uh the percentage of students, elementary school students between these are for third to fifth graders that don't know how to ride a bike. um statewide it's it's something like 30% and when uh the they did some research for the grant in our district um it
136was close to 50% at some schools. Um I was there at Ellsworth and this was the first stop for eight of our schools will get this program this year this grant program and um Krin Ormston who here oversees PE. She helped work on the grant. Uh, one person that was really instrumental in getting the grant was uh, Miss Wubeno, who is the PE teacher at Ellsworth. So, it was great that it started there. Um, the amount of bicycles that come is amazing. It comes also with a trailer which moves all they they pack it up every day during the lesson so that the third through fifth graders. So, the other students uh, can then use the gym and then this stuff will also go into the trailer and then move on to the next school.
137And the goal is to apply for the grant again next year and going forward so more schools in our district will be able to have uh this curriculum at school. Uh so I encourage everyone to watch that video and and see these kids learn to ride a bike. It's awesome. Uh Heritage High School Teaching Academy had a special guest, Superintendent Dr. Maloney was a guest speaker uh to talk to our future teachers uh in EPS. And uh finally um I think everyone's talked about this. the board talked about being part of the Shark Tank workshop and then our student board reps talked about our youth leadership conference that was held here at the ASC. Um, this was a full day of hands-on leadership training with interactive workshops. They talked about conflict resolution, wellness, and of
138course the now very famous Shark Tank uh workshops which um students presented uh ideas to improve their student experience. And there were winners that actually reser received funds to actually put these ideas into motion. Uh the conference was led by one of our board director student board reps here who was part of the I think the connect evergreen intern team. You're not okay but you're in the picture so I thought you were but the intern team. So it was students uh that are in the connect evergreen intern team that helped to plan this conference. So um that is uh my report tonight. And there's Laureli right there though over there. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. Next item on our agenda are board comments. Any comments from the board? I don't have
139any. >> I'll just say I enjoyed um last Wednesday attending uh the Evergreen High School's choir festival and the elementary performed there as well and in middle school and yeah just seeing the excitement of the elementary school kids. It was just fun watching them. And then also there was a wonderful rendition. It was called um yeah I got it written here. Bring me a little water, Sylvie. And it was really done really well by the the high school group. And it was fun seeing some of the students that attended the Evergreen High School breakfast with the board. Some of them were part of the choir there. So, it was just an awesome night. I continue to be impressed with the music programs in the district. Uh, I attended uh the Union High School um and
140its theaters uh presentation. I got to listen to the Union Choir sing in the Tossa language of uh South Africa. And it's always impressive when they stretch out of English, but there was a middle school uh performance in an African language. and uh it's just a joy uh to be able to watch them share music with us and and to become musicians at those early ages. Um I appreciate I just appreciate that. I do want to um talk in light of the budget presentations and so forth uh about the legislative expectations uh that we're being asked to accept. Um we can uh according to those who predict it uh expect no more than maintenance level adjustments to uh funding next year. Um, I spoke at length with uh Senator Harris and Senator Cleveland over the
141last few months um about it and I can attest that they're heartbroken that it's come to this point and they each have uh their own explanations, narratives, and reasons why we're at this point. But I am hoping for a uh a great level of cooperation between them. Uh WASDA has released the WASDA board has released the legislative priorities which are available on their advocacy page and I thought I'd just mention what those are. If I can find the there we are. Uh broadly it's um to to fulfill our legal and moral obligations to kids. Uh we're asking the legislature to provide relief and flexibility for school districts uh and uh to maintain funding for the small district's modernization grant programs uh under the broader um heading of safe, healthy, and contemporary school facilities. While Evergreen
142doesn't have uh the urgent problems with our facilities that other direct uh districts do, I know they'd appreciate us advocating alongside them as uh a member district in director area six and in Washington state because there is a great need um for all of that. Um, in that discussion with Senator Harris, while I talked about the way that enrollment is uh reducing funding faster than we could reduce costs, uh, I explained to him that it's it's not really possible when one student goes away or two students go away. uh in an incoming kindergarten class in each class of all 22 schools. it's, you know, how do you adjust staffing for that and and just kind of tried to shed light on that difficulty as well as the insurance costs? And he was thoughtful in that
143discussion and I know he's going to get a copy of uh the WASDA priorities. And what I'd like to suggest is that um we do some workshop work next month on our priorities. Um I know we only got only got the one meeting but the legislative session will start in January probably before we've had two meetings. >> I think that's a good idea. >> Yeah. >> So uh that'll be worth a wider discussion and maybe like last year we can prepare a one pager the way that WASDA has uh showing where we're aligned with those priorities as well as AWSP, WASA and the other letter groups uh in order to the alphabet soup, the W's. Uh, beyond that, I was also uh with Gary and Dr. Maloney at the Veterans Day parade for the city
144of Vancouver, which was immense. I think they had 10 times as many people this year than last year. At the parade, Congressman Cong Congresswoman uh Glucen Camp Perez was there and gave a stirring speech about sacrifice. Um as well as uh Rep. Stoner and uh some other legislators. I think John Lee was also there and who else did you see? >> Okay. And the mayor was there. She gave a speech. Uh and we met two uh centinarian uh veterans who are still going strong. uh who were the uh marshals of the parade. Uh so that was a good day. We have an invitation from a teacher at Mountain View uh that I've asked to be put in this more uh to come and have a discussion about uh state testing and assessments in general. I
145think you've seen you've all seen the email. Uh so that invitation is open and we just kind of have to remember if three of us go we'll have to notice it. Uh but she was grateful uh for our reply and the the kids are really interested in hearing from us. >> We had our breakfast with the board. Do you want to talk about that? >> I think we brought it up another >> Did we bring it up last time? >> Yeah, >> We went to one together, you and I. Um but uh this was with the students at Pacific who advocated during that discussion for themselves, for their fellow students in really mature uh and these kids were adulting. They were talking about their uh honest concerns did something. >> Oh, sorry. Uh uh they
146talked about how the work stoppage affected them. Um, some of their parents were ped par educators and they shared very honestly what it was like to go through that with uh their parents and they were very candid about their teachers naming the good ones by name. Um, I was able to share some high points with uh, Principal Tissson afterwards and she was grateful for the feedback and uh, what I can report to you from that uh, discussion is that she's extremely aware of how well her teachers are doing. Uh, and uh, she's working actively uh, to develop all her teachers uh, so that they are improve improving with the school. That was a lot, but um we did a lot. >> All right. Um I want to say thank you again to Melanie Green and
147your um group. Um I had no idea how much work all of you guys do, just the breath of work that you guys do and we really truly appreciate it. Really makes an impact on the students and the community. So thank you very much. Um so on a separate note um this past year I've been part of what's called the schoolboard network's um national policy and governance fellowship. It's this cohort of about 70 schoolboard directors from across the country just coming together. We had um cohorts for the first like six months of the year on a whole bunch of different topics. And so I ended up sort of narrowing my focus down to early education. And what happened recently is that the Balmer group recently committed up to $170 million annually for the state of
148Washington for early education. Um and basically expanding early education through the ECAP program. So this creates an opportunity for Evergreen to partner with EOCF. Um they provide highquality early education programs for eligible families across Southwest Washington. And I would sort of like to suggest or recommend that um or request, sorry, the board schedule a workshop potentially in January to have a conversation about what we're doing with our early learning programs. Um potentially explore partnership for opportunities with the OCF because there's a potential for them to expand what they're doing with us. Um and consider how we can continue to expand access to early learning to better serve our students and families. >> I think that's a great idea. >> All right. Thank you. Um, it is actually 7:44 and our meeting is adjourned. Thank you
149very much.