001good evening Welcome to our Schoolboard meeting this evening if you'll please ride for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Al toag United States God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you and again welcome this evening if you're joining us for the first time we appreciate you coming uh we're going to go ahead and start off with our land acknowledgement it's going to be read by our student board rep solivan Evergreen Public Schools resides on the traditional lands of the shukan peoples and the cetz tribe they have lived on and cared for this land and its waterways since time and 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 thank you
002Sullivan all right our first order of business is to adopt this evening's agenda we'll entertain a motion for approval I move to adopt tonight's agenda as presented seconded uh moved and seconded all in favor say I I opposed thank you all right next up uh we have a special performance and I'm is Karan are you going to come up and introduce our uh performers this evening thank you for being here we always enjoy when we have a music performance at the Schoolboard meetings boy my name is k Orson I'm the fine and Performing Arts specialist uh this is a string Ensemble from Mountain View High School and they are student organized and led and their group does community outreach through music so Jess is going to talk a little bit more about what they do
003and introduce their three Tunes hello as she said I'm Jess and so with this music that we do we go to retirement homes and we've been doing it our Mountain View has been doing it for the last about 15 years we didn't during Co but we just love to go and play at retirement homes and spread some holiday cheer to these folks who maybe don't get to experience it as much being there with their families not always being there and so the three pieces are playing are um Deck the Halls Up on the Housetop and we wish you a Merry [Music] Christmas yeah oh [Applause] l [Music] n [Applause] [Music] la [Music] la before you go I think um one thank you very much for coming and playing for us we really appreciate it um
004it was beautiful but I wanted to kind of maybe ask a couple questions maybe some of the other board members might want to ask something too but um it sounds like you're all in class together right during the day maybe I don't know the same the same um band class and then just the group of you go out on your own time and then do these performances and then you just um so it's not just this group okay we have signup sheets so whoever in the orchestras wants to go and perform at retirement homes they are free to sign up and go do so but this like but somebody here like I'm just I'm assuming that you're kind of the one that's like these are the places we're going to go who wants to come
005and join us and there's a fair amount of students that participate in this yes I'm the one that has held retirement homes and iint out the sign up sheets and I make sure there's a group that is ready to that's amazing I appreciate that because I know that the people out in our community probably really appreciate it um especially this time of year when you know things sometimes really bring some Cher to people and thank you for doing that I want to say that um your program has a very special place in my heart because my daughter was with you guys for four years um and I recognize pretty much all of you um you guys always do an amazing job could you go around and tell us your names in what you play what
006year you are I'm Jess and I play violin I seriously just appreciated the the uh tone um and the togetherness that I heard uh from youall my kids all went through Orchestra all but one um who's a visual artist and uh it's just so nice to hear the string instruments uh around this time of year as well uh thank you for coming in and sharing that with us it filled the room with a with a real I guess Spirit of Christmas if you want to call it that I appreciate it yeah I I closed my eyes for just a moment and imagined myself in a concert hall it was just absolutely outstanding and beautiful thank you so much for sharing your joy to us and the community we really appreciate you thank you guys for
007coming and sharing that with us and taking time out every your evening we appreciate you I don't all right next on our agenda very exciting evening this uh as we are installing our new board directors uh that were just voted in the most recent election um if we can call up Gary Wilson Rob Perkins and Jacqueline Weatherspoon to take their oath of office yep well it's my pleasure to um to be the um do the ceremony here to um make sure that you're officially uh on the school board here so we'll we'll what I'll do is we'll um just just repeat after me I'll try to make it short and say your own name I and your names do hereby solemnly swearby that I support the Constitution I support theti of the United States of
008the United States and the constitution of the state of Washington of the state of Washington and will Faithfully dis charge the duties of director of Evergreen School District number 114 Clark County state of Washington ofton to the best of my ability to the congratulations and we're excited to uh welcome you in officially to the school board welcome congratulations Gary thank you congratulations Jackie and Rob on your re-election all right next and I think that there's paperwork that we'll have to fill out but we can do that okay e all right next up on our agenda is public comments um at this time anyone that has signed up um to give public testimony can come up to the podium so any Community member wishing to address the board may do so during the designated time on
009the agenda for public comments comments are to be directed to the board of directors as a whole 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 speaker for a qualifying question or follow up at a later time each speaker has a a maximum of 3 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 and then please state your name and District affiliation if any and we're going to go and call people up in the order that they signed up and then just be cogn we have the timer on the on the side so
010you'll see the your three minute um clock first up is Adam agilera Adam if you're here go ahead and come on up thank you Adam Agera a language arts teacher in Evergreen Public Schools dear Evergreen school board and superintendent Boyd I would like to speak tonight on the issue of the school district potentially cutting up to $20 million from Evergreen students it's important to remind the community that after the first Levy failed in 2022 the school board made the decision to collect Less in the levy which widened our deficit by several millions of dollars when a school district fails a levy they just run it again and organize better it was bad governance for the school board to take less money when it was the teachers staff and parents who worked so hard at the
011doors to convince voters not to punish the students over the school board firing and Cashing Out multiple bad superintendents I would also like to remind the community that the school board and superintendent has already cut 19 million from your children last year they've cut your Librarians counselors athletic director school resource staff overloaded your child's classroom with more students and less attention for your family and now they're planning to cut even more Educators who work directly with students but there's one area the school district hasn't cut yet District administration this building is loaded with millions of public dollars of public tax dollars and salaries by people who do not work directly with students at all why do we have a chief operations officer who makes over $245,000 a year when we already have a superintendent an
012associate superintendent whose job is you know to operate the district why do we have an HR department with a chief officer a senior director and two managers this district office is filled with executive directors overseeing senior director s who are overseeing directors who are also overseeing managers and our students and staff do not know them because the work these administrators do is invisible to the daily lives and struggles our students face with less Staffing and less resources now there are folks who work in this district office building who do good work and if District leadership had not brought us to a place of this financial mismanagement I wish they could continue that good work but I have less as a middle school teacher to give and offer to my students than when I started here
013in Evergreen over 15 years ago many folks in this building have teaching certificates and can be moved to the buildings to work directly with our students as certificated Educators this would be a more efficient use of public tax dollars in the midst of budget cuts and I would like to offer one more suggestion to save money in the budget for superintendent Boyd can you voluntarily take a pay cut do you really need to be making $350,000 a year when you're considering cutting the last of the food pantries on our kids you make $150,000 more than the governor of Washington and everyone in this room and you and I both know that you could never look Governor Insley in the face and say you work $150,000 harder than him it's time for district leadership to pay
014for the mistakes they've made Evergreen students and Educators have already paid their fair share all right next up is Margot [Applause] Logan good evening evening I'm Margo Logan I have my MSW in administration I'm a former CPS investigator for DSHS I was also a former investigator regulator uh for DSHS with the child daycare licensing I taught a community class for almost 10 years on recognizing and Reporting child abuse I did seven years of substitute teaching in various Public Schools uh mostly classroom assistant um did the lunchtime and um recess uh with kids um I also was a group uh group uh life counselor in a transition home for Foster youth did that for six years and I think I was wanted to talk about history and I would recommend that the board read um the
015Nea Trojan Horse and American education and also any of the books by John Taylor gate uh what I found in uh talking to teachers and various people is that teachers and other school administrators really have no idea of the history of their profession and it in order to fix some of these problems it really we need the historical perspective and actually for public I'm first generation German uh I'm also an army brat so we lived in Germany for five years and our American education system public is German we are quite German kindergarten is a German word so and and our system is more indoctrination than actual uh teaching and as the years have gone on uh more and more indoctrination has happened and we' SE it all over where we're looking at things that have
016nothing to do with history or English or literature or philosophy or or science and so I've been trying for years to get people dis to read uh Nea in Trojan Trojan Horizon American education and so if the board is not familiar with the beginning histories of public education which started in 1854 uh would be really a good time the in terms of racism the public school system itself is racist it's not the individuals it's not the kids but the system itself is racist and if you go back and you look at the beginning history starting in 1854 uh you'll get a an idea of how that unfolded so um best of luck to you in the new year and um get some reading done thank you Margo all right next up is Michael Jalin gelino
017gelino gelino come on up well my name's Mike jeno I'm a Community member um thank you uh community and board and superintendent Boyd um I stand here tonight with heartfelt gratitude I extend my sincere thanks to everyone who cast their uh their votes for Gary Wilson ushering in a new error for this beloved District um replacing a 24-year incumbant is no small feet and your trust and Gary reflects a collective desire to change and progress in our education um landscape the School Board needs a fresh uh perspective a guiding force to navigate the path towards a brighter future for students of Evergreen over the course of five months I dedicated my myself to C to the cause of ensuring Gary uh Gary's success and tonight I We Stand United in witnessing the fation of our
018efforts it is with a profound sense of humility that I acknowledge the role of a higher power in this Triumph without divine intervention such accomplish accomplishments may seem insurmountable but with faith we have proven that anything is possible as we welcome Gary to the board we Embrace someone new um a dedicated individual posed to make positive in a positive impact on the educational journey of our students this marks a change in one of the leadership positions but also an opportunity for collaboration and growth I want to express my will willingness to embark on this journey once again if needed as for commitment to the betterment of Education or the Evergreen Public Schools um knows no bounds in closing I want to convey my deepest gratitud to gratitude to each person who played a part in
019this journey from the voters who believed in change to the tireless supporters worked alongside Gary and me um tonight or together we have laid the foundation for a promising future and an excite and I'm excited to witness the positive transformation that lie ahead thank you thank you all right next up is James Judkins good evening evening how are you good how are you good my name is James L Judkins and I'm a former educator myself spent 40 years doing it and tonight I just want to congratulate the two the three new members on the board and uh we'll be praying for you I give out a special congratulations to Gary Wilson this guy was just a common citizen that decided that he would take it upon himself to be elected to the school board that
020ought to give us all hope as common citizens to say hey we can get involved and make an impact so congratulations Gary appreciate it thank you James all right next up is Randy Schmid hello my name's Randy Schmidt thank you for letting me speak to you tonight I propose a new policy for the ever screen School District I propose that you adopt the same policy that is documented in Florida house bill 1069 under hor House Bill 1069 if a school denied board denies parent the right to read passages from a book or a resource that would be considered harmful to minors the school district must discontinue the use of such materials in layman's terms that would mean if I read page 69 from gender queer or any page from all boys aren't blue and you
021sto me which you should from reading it in this room because it was extremely sexually graphic that book would be removed from your um all all Evergreen school district schools and libraries and then if you adopted said policy I would I would encourage you to avoid embarrassment future in this board meeting to call your libraries of these books so that we wouldn't have to bring them here and read them and embarrass everybody here by reading those passages if you don't adopt this Common Sense policy we would like to know an explanation of why it would be acceptable for any of our children to check out a book that is so pornographic in nature that it shocked people when one of our own Senators read from that book all boys aren't blue in the in the
022Senate chamber so I just ask you to take a look at that how Florida house bill 1069 is easily found online and I would look at P section six thank you much thank you Randy all right next up is Megan hinger Hi Megan hi my name is Megan housinger I'm a par educator in the district but I'm here as a mother to two students at Ilah and Shahala in 2020 we went to remote learning for the safety of our students and staff why then are we not putting violent kids in alternate learning why are we allowing students who assault to the point of broken bones concussions and Hospital trips stay in their school or once they have committed enough offenses ship them to another school to traumatize a new set of students as we saw
023last week my second issue is equity this district has no right to use the word Equity getting rid of our newcomers program is quite frankly cruel you're setting these kids up by for failure throwing students who are brand new to the country into Jed and Ed classrooms with little to no language support is the opposite of Equitable I find it hard to believe that with such a bloated district office we can't find the money to support our newcomers and I wish our superintendent was in here to hear this that the superintendent position makes more in one month than I do in an entire year I would like to know how you are directly supporting our students not just some strategic plan the Salem Kaiser districts are preparing for a budget cut by freezing pay for
02463 senior administ ministrators and the superintendent is giving back 30,000 of her salary over the next 2 years in case you're wondering that would pay for my par position that would pay for an extra elll perah Vancouver is also preparing for cuts by starting at the district office this board can obviously learn something I have seen the aftermath of a district ran like this of a superintendent like this after the longest teacher strike in Washington State History Maryville school district has never recovered I graduated from there my dad taught there during the strike when I was an adult I refused to buy a home in Maryville because of the schools districts they cannot pass levies they cannot pass bonds buildings are literally falling apart at 75 years old nothing can get passed teachers cannot get
025pay increases the district has never regained the community's trust for all these reasons I am now actively trying to remove my kids from Evergreen schools we are not safe I am not safe at work my kids are not safe at school it is not Equitable for anyone involved and I have a feeling I'm not the only person you need to you need to address your declining enrollment I think there are a lot of families who are looking to stay out of this District thank you Megan all right next up is Jeremy BR Jeremy bro did I say that okay it's Brock oh Brock um I'm a parent of uh three children in this school district I have a a daughter at at uh River viiew Elementary a son at Shahala actually his teachers here this
026evening Mr agilera and um a daughter at Union High School and with recent events at at the uh there was a recent shooting at uh Evergreen high school there was also a recent knife uh incident at at uh Shahala and I am very very concerned about this this the uh safety of our students there seems to be no action from the school district as far as um addressing some of the some of these issues there are no resource officers at the schools and um I know that there are security guards at each school right now but um I'm concerned that the safety is not you know the safety of our children is not being um ad adequately taken into account my son called me the other day during that knife incident and said dad there's
027a kid running around the school with a knife we're hiding in a class I don't know what to do I arrived at the school prior to the police getting there it took me eight minutes to get there and the police were not there yet something needs to be done uh to protect our kids it's their it's our priority their safety is number one and it is not being um it's not being taken care of so I would like to be some see something done I know that there are budget cuts right now and everybody's trying to find ways to You Know cover for par Educators security whatever else but security should be number one and I have a feeling that more students are going to be leaving your schools because of the lack of safety
028and um I just I hope you guys take some action thank you Jeremy all right our last speaker signed up is shine Sean goodart Sean hi Sean hello good evening uh my name is Sean gundert uh I teach at Henri at Al LAX and I wanted to take the time tonight considering the circumstances to remind the board that Sexual Health standards are harm reduction uh firstly though I'd like to recognize that the Washington State Health standards as they are now are conservative and fall short of addressing the needs of our children and our community they are designed to appease and to pass through public processes while under attack from uninformed uh un uninformed sensationalism as is has been evidenced In This Very Room I'd like to further recognize that at my school I know for
029a fact that the district's policies and state rcws are not being followed in terms of the content and frequency of what's taught and would feel safe in assuming the same for other high schools the oversight is low the training in and provision of curriculum is sparse and systems weren't built to accomplish the tasks set by this board and the legislature as an example the seniors at the school I work at have not had any sex head their entire time in high school due to the pandemic um and having no work done to reconcile them missing sex head their freshman year while they should have received it two separate years recognizing that I choose to address the board tonight because I do truly believe that everyone in this room is here because they care about our
030children and our future and I choose to address the board tonight to restate and affirm that sexual health education is harm reduction gender-based violence pervades our culture and our students deserve to know how to both grow and treat others well and to be treated well and Thrive our children deserve to learn about bodily autonomy our children deserve to know how their bodies work our children deserve the space to be themselves our children deserve to be free from shame our children deserve to not be sexually assaulted our children deserve a safer World our children deserve healthy relationships our children deserve to go into the world prepared and I'm here tonight to remind you that our children deserve more not less so please don't make things worse thank you thank you [Applause] Sean all right um joining
031us this evening is our Clark County auditor gr kimsey who was here to do our oath of office of our newly elected board member Gary Wilson and our reelected board members Rob Perkins and jacqulyn weather spin so we're going to do a replay we're going to do a little pre replay you might have noticed how awkwardly I got up to do the O of the office I was not planning to do it um Mr kimsey we're so happy to have you here to do it in the most official and our newly elected board members deserve that so they're special they get it twice they get it twice yes just of an abundance and caution we'll just do this again so you want sorry so uh my comment is out of an abundance of caution we'll
032just do this again does this mean we get eight years uh no no it does not you might get them but not from this um so if you want to raise your right hand and then uh repeat after me and state your name after the word I and a little bit of test for you to remember your District number uh here in the middle of this oath as well so here we go I I state your name Benjamin Rob Perkins do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I am a citizen of the United States states that I am a citizen of the United States and of the state of Washington and of the state of Washington that I will support the Constitution and laws that I will support the Constitution and laws of the United
033States of the United States and the Constitution and laws and the Constitution and laws of the state of Washington of the state of Washington and will to the best of my judgment and will to the best of my judgment skill and ability skill and ability truly Faithfully truly Faithfully diligently diligently and impartially and impartially perform the duties of the office of perform the duties of the office of School director District number School director District two number two Evergreen School District number 114 Evergreen School District number 114 in and four Clark County Washington in and four Clark County Washington as such Duties are prescribed by law as such Duties are prescribed by well done thank you best of Lu to each of you all right I think we're going to take a few moments to have
034them sign their official paperwork come back for all right thank you very much congratulations again um at this time the board will now be going into an executive session um executive session is to review the performance of a Public Employee we expect it to last about 30 minutes um and then we will resume the meeting thank you all right thank you we are back in our regular board session executive session has ended at this time um we will make a motion I move that the board accept the recommendation of the chief operation officer to terminate the employment of Karen Kirk for the reasons provided by the chief operations officer and that she provide appropriate written notice to Karen Kirk of the board's action second this one moved in second end all in favor say I
035I I opposed abstain thank you all right we'll go ahead and move on to the next order of business which is our board consent agenda we'll entertain a motion for approval I move approval of the board consent agenda as presented seconded moved and second it all in favor say I I opposed thank you and then next is our superintendent consent agenda again I move to approve the superintendent's consent agenda as presented seconded moved and seconded all in favor say I I opposed great thank you all right next we're going to go ahead and move on to our board reorganization every year um every year election year or not we reorganize our officers of the board um and we pick a president vice president and a legislative liaison for the board to represent us for the
036next year so um at this time I guess um I would open it up we probably do president first and have a discussion around it I know that we've talked about in Prior years about um how we do it Rotator give everybody an opportunity to take the leadership position so um I'll open it up for any discussion or any motions per our board commitment I would like to move to appoint Rob Perkins as board chair president want to call it so Jenny's nominating Rob Perkins to be our board chair and it's been seconded by Gary Wilson okay you got any other nominations all right it's been mov to seconded all in favor say I I I did you accept Rob yeah I don't know if he has a choice all right any any opposed all
037right congratulations Rob at this point I'm going to turn the G over to president Perkins who will then meet us with the rest of the um election officers officers get the G um okay our next uh item in board reorganization are nominations for vice president of the board um let's open it for nominations I nominate Jackie Witherspoon for vice president second any other nominations hearing none we'll close that discussion all in favor of Jackie Weatherspoon as vice president for the next year I I I any opposed it's unanimous I and my vote is I accept yeah uh our next position uh up for discussion and uh nomination is uh the board's legislative representative we're open for nominations I nominate Jenny gronwald for legislative liaison I Jenny gronwald has been nominated for legislative liaison do you
038accept the nomination accept are there any other nominations second hearing none we'll hold a vote uh um all in favor say I I I Annie opposed congratulations thank you and so the next item on our agenda is the superintendent report superintendent Boyd thank you director Perkins and conrat congratulations to director Witherspoon director Perkins and uh director Wilson on your um newly elected positions looking forward to working with you all I want to just start by um I wanted to welcome all you all to your new positions I want to share that we just and uh I don't want to steal all of your thunder there um solv we had a really nice meeting with our very first um student advisory Council that's being led by principal schoonover and uh part of the effort that we're
039making to engage students we're also have held our second meeting of our Evergreen Community advisory team uh which was precipitated by the uh the desires of the community for us to um do deeper engagement specifically related to budget so we had a good second meeting with them we've met uh related to budget with our principls our Evergreen Community advisory team we'll be working with our students and uh we're developing a stakeholder engagement plan that we should be uh working on over the break and have something available at the beginning of the school year to share that out widely um this week I the last couple weeks I visited Evergreen High School y East image um did a reading uh program at Fisher landing and I'm constantly Amazed by the incredible things that our teachers and
040students are out there um doing and boy just uh listening to that uh Orchestra today what an amazing group of of talented musicians and you see that um interestingly enough replicated all throughout the district District in our career in technical programs our music our Athletics and just uh proud to be leading a district with such great talent and such great people supporting that Talent want to just um share that tomorrow at our superintendent leadership team meeting tomorrow we'll be um discussing um our upcoming which is not this February but uh the following February upcoming Tech Levy as well as our upcoming EPO Levy so we're going to begin some conversations to uh begin to think about what would that could look like bring that to the board for some talk and consideration down the road
041we're already beginning to think about that and talk about that and I wanted to share that with the board today and we'll be bringing that to you really excited about the ledge priorities that the bird board works so hard on uh through a couple of different work sessions to come up with and um we'll be doing a formal approval of that in just a minute so that's my report thank you thank you are there any questions for superintendent Boyd hearing none the next item on our agenda is a teaching and learning and Equity update superintendent Boyd yeah we've got Dr Kimberly Armstrong coming up to uh tee this off so welcome good evening welcome thank you good evening president Perkins board director superintendent Boyd and student advisor Taylor my name is Dr Kimberly Armstrong I
042serve as Deputy superintendent and it is a pleasure to be before you um giving you an update under operation expectations operating expectations 10 the learning environment and operating operational expectation 11 the instructional program and really it's just a brief update to talk about what the team has been up to in regards to our new strategic plan we um are very mindful of um being where we're at with the budget and while we are actively having conversations about planning for reduction at the same time it's our belief and our commitment to raise achievement across the system because we know that um whatever we do we do by Design and we um want our students to benefit from it one of the things I've been excited about is we know under goal area one culture of safety
043and belonging all of our administrators have selected two goals this year one under culture of safety and belonging and then another one of their choice and so um really one of the things I'd like to uplift is just the concentrated focus on increasing student voice across the district and when we think of our student outcome of students feeling empowered um we think about those actions that we need to do here at the district level to create the agency for that to happen and so what our hope is um over the next couple of weeks is to bring back before you um some measurements and some updates on how we plan to review the progress for students and you know academic achievement I should say um but ultimately how our students are progressing and what we
044hope to see um at a 30-day 60-day and 90day Mark and what leadership Behavior and actions you can expect from not only building leaders but from us as um central office staff so we're super excited to layer in that piece and um be able to engage around um data and accountability with you what is super exciting as well is we have um Health Service Manager Kate Winters here to discuss how we support students health so I'm going to ask her to come up at this time thank you thank you Kate that work how do I make it just a it worked on my computer I end the slideshow and go back to the settings that way well I am excited to be here tonight uh I want want to thank the board members and superintendent
045Boyd for the opportunity to provide an update about health services uh I also want to thank the School nurses and procedure nurses who work diligently every day to support all the students in our district um and for those of the of you who don't know me I'm Kate wyers the health services uh manager for everen public schools uh so a little about us excuse me and who we serve Health Services touches just about every aspect of the educational setting uh we support all the students in our district not just those students with health conditions as well as things like Athletics clubs extracurricular activities and field trips uh this year Health Services started the Year by writing a mission statement and it states that we are a community of collaborative and unique professionals who are accountable
046and dedicated to promising competent safe inclusive leadership to our school Community uh there there are more than 22,000 students in our district and more than 5,000 of those students have a documented health condition just so you realize the Imp that what I'm saying is 24% of our student body has something that they have designated in there uh as a health condition uh immunizations keep our students healthy a little history about immunization so in the early 1900s many US states began requiring specific vaccinations for students to attend school and by 1998 every state in the nation had embraced vaccine mandates for students prior to them being able to attend school we're very proud of how far EPS has come in the last few years so in uh the 2017 2018 school year there were over 14,000
047students that represented 56% of our student body that were considered to be out of compliance and much of that was related to documentation requirements or simply just being undervaccinated uh but we are proud to say that uh there are now only 232 students or 1% of our student body that are considered to be out of compliance I want to thank Health our health services compliance clerk Danielle James all of the nurses the secretaries of the schools and the building administrators for their diligence and support we could not have done such an incredible job without such a great team I also just want to mention that next year the Department of Health is implementing a Statewide online database called School module and we've begun the onboarding process uh but we'll have to provide updates as we
048go along uh our ongoing immunization efforts uh we plan to continue to host an annual back to school health event and mobile immunization clinic uh I encourage students uh and fames am to utilize the medical clinic that's on site at Evergreen high school so watch for immunization clinic Flyers when they come out especially if you're having a difficult time finding an appointment with your regular uh provider um let's see we want to collaborate more with the heart program to work with students in transition and for those of you who do not know what that is the heart program is an acronym for homeless education and resource team uh for example their program supports students who are underhouse or in the Foster system uh this slide shows the overall school health model in our district uh
049I want to mention first our a few of our uh new Partnerships that we have established over the last year so Caravan mobile Health provides a unique service and they were able to bring vaccinations to students here at the district office at the beginning of this school year this opportunity made it possible for students who wouldn't have been able to start the first day of school to be able to do that and be on time with their peers uh We've also partnered with Big Smiles Dental which is a team of dental professionals who go out to the elementary schools and provide free dental care uh Swatch is a community-based Care Management company that connects families with the resources that they need and uh are available in our community we have a me again we have
050a medical clinic at Evergreen high school that's serviced by uh the semar Medical Group to provide medical and Mental Health Services um we have seven procedure nurses who provide all of our skilled uh nursing care and Diabetic Care to students across our district and then we have 18 School nurses in addition to the um excuse me uh let's see in addition to the things that I have listed here uh their main focus is primarily case management and creating and implementing individualized health plans but their day is anything but typical they're often asked to consult on the health of students and staff who come down to the health room they work with families medical providers uh they present health education respond to emergencies in their buildings and a myriad of other things that pop up during
051the day the nurses that I have been given an opportunity to work with here are tremendous advocates for every human that walks through their doors they have a wealth of knowledge and they rely they are relied upon in their building as the medical expert thinking about that slide where I said that 24% of our students have a known health condition not to mention the multiple situations they're presented with every day I just want to acknowledge how full their roles are and even when it's hard they somehow support each other through it all and they smile at the end of it and they joke and they're an amazing team the School nurses manage approximately 2500 individualized health plans and to give you an idea of the type uh and number of conditions that they write plans
052for we have almost 90 students with diabetes over 200 students with seizure disorders there are about 550 students with severe allergies and 1,200 students with asthma uh so this year we began um the year in our professional development week talking about how health services could incorporate this District strategy District's strategic plan into the work that we do uh so first we found our focus and we created a mission and vision uh then we began talking about shared governance before my time here at EPS I worked at area hospitals that had been using a shared governance system as part of their model for many years and The crucial concept of nursing shared governance is where people who do the work every day to provide the care have a vested interest in Project improvements or and streamlining
053processes in collaboration with their leadership this is important because it empowers and engages nurses to promote the changes that we need to improve and standardize the care that is being delivered so right now we have four main areas that we're focused on and we have created committees uh the diabetic committee I will talk about in more detail next uh we have a team of nurses on the fors and health database committee who are focused on updating forms creating online forms uh as well as a Central Health database for nurses to quickly and easily find the resources that they need we have a team of nurses working to create standardized education for staff and students about many things like health health conditions and illness prevention and we have a team of nurses on the professional development
054committee to ensure that the health services staff are able to keep up to date on regulatory legislative and compliance as well as keeping their finger on the pulse of medical advancement so the diabetic uh diabetes committee um so diabetes is a complex medical condition that affects how your body turns food into energy and as technology advances providing care to these students is becoming increasingly complicated and often requires monitoring more students are getting continuous glucose monitors and Insulin pumps and the diabetic committee was formed with the idea that nurses wanted to partner with students and families to help students learn about their medical condition and to build knowledgeable capable and independent young adults one of the first areas of focus uh that the School nurses and procedure nurses wanted to address when I met them was
055to improve Diabetic Care for the students in our district there are four nurses who have volunteered uh to take this project on which is part of the initial phases of shared governance they have designed student educational Flyers that you may have seen in the health rooms or in schools about food choices and how um their choices affect their health and blood sugar levels um the committee applied and received $1,500 in grant money to participate in a program called the diabetic book program and this is an age appropriate educational series that that students will receive throughout their education here at APS through this program we want to Foster empowerment self-confidence and knowledge of diabetes age appropriate resources can help students find the words to use so their diabetes can be a way to build relationships rather
056than a source of isolation so um I welcome everybody if they want to to get out their phones I did include some QR codes um um one of them links to the to the brochure that I have up here as an example and then the other two are um different areas one of them actually uh addresses the food options at school and how to pick better choices so they're actually um real life examples of how our students can choose to eat um healthier excuse me uh so the example informational flyer uh it evolved from some research that was done by the diabetic team to answer the age-old question why does my blood sugar go up sometimes but I'm eating the exact same thing so this flyer explains that blood sugar spikes uh when you eat
057things like french fries first uh sorry I always think it's funny because kids always want their french fries and I will say that's one thing that we always try and encourage them to take a salad instead um but so uh they Spike when they eat things like french fries but but if they were to eat a salad or vegetables prior to eating those french fries their blood sugar and insulin levels remain much more stable and I know it's small but you can see in that um in those charts the difference in just order makes uh interestingly you're still eating the same amount of carbohydrates but your blood sugar levels do not Spike up like they would if you were to eat the fries first uh this pictorial is just one that the team has designed
058so far and they have lots of ideas for further um education so our goal is to work with students utilizing uh micro educational opportunities like this to reinforce healthy lifestyle choices I want to say our nurses advocate for safety all the time and they are so vested in making sure that everyone on our campus is safe uh as many of you may be aware NFL player dear Hamlin had a sudden cardiac event recently uh while he's playing in the NFL his life was actually saved by early access to an AED or an automatic external defibrillator and one of our nurses was so moved by his story that she contacted the David Hiller Foundation who has donated five portable aeds for our High High School athletics um I just want to express our deepest appreciation appreciations
059to the David heler Foundation unwavering support of Athletics their commitment resonates with the spirit of unity and care that support our school Community um it also allowed me to um ask pertinent questions and we were actually able to get three more aeds in our buildings at the beginning of this year and we are always looking for AED donations so if you are interested you are free to reach out to me and or anyone in health services to learn how to do that I just want to say thank you for letting me talk tonight to the board memb members and superintendent uh boydd I appreciate your time thank you Miss wers um if you could stay at the podium for a moment uh are there any questions uh about the presentation I have two yeah um
060first with the ads how how are you training people to use that or who gets trained we put specific staff members at each School through first aid and CPR training and then uh in the buildings themselves the nurses review the that specific machine with the staff there and then at the beginning you mentioned 56% of students were out of compliance and is down to 1% how did you do that I think we could all tell that I was gonna say Daniel we had the measles my comp the compliance clerk Danielle is actually here so I'm going to let her tell because it was really all of her hard work hi Danielle hello what was the question I'm sorry you went from 56% down to 1% which is amazing in a in a relatively short period
061of Time how 5 years um it's been my baby pretty much I started out um January of 2018 and um Holly showed me what the project was and I started literally by going to the schools and sitting for hours on cold concrete floors going through files of kids and entering them into Skyward which was the first um Step was to make sure that all the information that we had was actually put into Skyward so that we could tell if they were compliant or not um after that it was um just a lot of Education um educating the staff the secretaries um the admin on you know what the laws are required for school entry and um exclusions was big we had to you know we have to hold parents accountable and we have to do
062our due diligence and follow the laws I know that um students in chairs is a big big thing but we we can't pick and choose which laws we get to follow so we started um excluding just three years ago we we um have started this year was a little crazy with the strike and a short amount of time to get everything ready but I am optimistic that next year we will be 100% um we have such a small and that that number of 200 is actually also including our students in transition and it um includes the kids that are Fosters that maybe we just don't have paperwork yet for so if they are under the heart program they we do not exclude we do give them a grace period um and and we work with
063them and their families on trying to get their immunizations or track down records which is where our nurses have really stepped up um but a lot of it was just digging through files and I spend many hours a week scouring the database um the Washington State database and making phone calls and the secretaries are sending letters home um it's been a big thing the Caravan this year was super exciting I think they said we saw we had two car mobile Caravans here at district offices um um we saw between the two of them I want to say close to 70 patients and um over maybe 100 160 vaccines were given so for the first time out it was really really amazing um but really it's just it's a lot of background work so thank you
064thanks for letting me yeah I would just I would just like to say thank you because well for many reasons but um having most of us been on the board during the 2019 outbreak of the measles and this was a huge push because I mean I had a son in the daycar at image and he wasn't quite old enough to get his second but we like the pediatricians jumped on board and they were pushing early so we could get the kids back so I mean we got to witness the time commitments just since I started in 2018 we've had um a State audit the measles outbreak um and a pandemic and then what was there was something else I don't even but it's like every year has been something major along the way so oh
065and our yes we're getting ready to um switch to the school module starting next year which is a Department of Health thing that we're working on on boarding but it has been fun and um like I said it's my baby I'm having a hard time letting it letting it go but um I'm so so super proud so oh I did want to say that 200 if I take away the kids that are conditional and I remove the kids that are in the heart program we're actually closer to like 86 kids districtwide that are out of compliance so I never thought we would see those numbers ever I I celebrated when we hit 10,000 so thank behind the scenes Heroes it's uh sobering to hear 24% of our students have health conditions I would expect that
066for older the first time I ran that report I felt the same way and that is some I mean sometimes they're small things right like it could be this that they have um frequent headaches not that that's small but it isn't you know like it it requires a physician order and a prescription for the Tylenol or you know headache medication that they're prescribed uh it could be something that only happens occasionally like um eczema skin condition where they have to have special Lo at school so some of those conditions are not what we consider life-threatening um but they're still important and we still touch every single one of them yeah and I might just ask just as a board member um if there's a way we could get the presentation a little early just it's
067hard to take everything in on the spot I totally understand yes thank you well and um to Gary's point about how many kids are 24% I think that that's even more important that you and the others are doing the advocacy work to make sure that we're doing some of the education pieces to help kids pre do some of that prevention so thank you for that I I wondered uh I had a couple of questions and uh one of them has to do with the 24% is that uh is that inclusive of the uh um mental and behavioral health problems yes okay so that's all the health problems yes okay thank you um the other one was uh with respect to the heart program is that a county program working through Community Services or is it
068something else I think that's that's our that's ours that's our programs as soon as I said it I the picture of the logo came into my head across the hall the sign yeah um do you have um collaborating uh structures with Community Services no I just don't think it had been done regularly before this uh we were trying to figure out how to help uh make sure that these students that are in transition get the vaccines they need I mean I feel like that's one of our most important um demographics to to work with um the there's just there's so many layers to it but we uh just hadn't really gotten there yet so we met with them first thing this year and we're going to try and do better the context of my question
069has to do with uh my work with the Community Action Advisory Board and Community Services because they know there are Grant sources um for helping uh those with housing situations um and closer work seems okay uh positive and uh if that committee can bring you resources then we should um and the final question has to do with your your flyer uh that you showed us um is that advice that you're giving to kids with type 1 diabetes I imagine it can be anybody to be honest they don't no one you would have diabetes yeah actually any on the planet should eat their vegetables and salad first and then they can have all the other stuff my grandmother was huge about always have your salad first she always had a salad at every lunch and dinner
070and I had no idea how important that would be until we read this book um together uh but really it's anyone it helps with insulin regulation and blood sugar spiking uh helps curb that you know real big hunger that you get sometimes when it drops so yeah it's everyone truly thank you yeah are there any other questions uh just thank you for all your work um Kate and Daniel work right down the hallway from me and I could tell you they're the hardest working people you'd ever meet and thank you to our nurses for all you do too because I know you guys uh are amazing and uh um working on so many different fronts to help and support our students to be healthy so thank you thank you yes it was hard to put
071it all into the presentation to be honest I think it' be uh John I think it'd be fruitful if uh we were to get a copy of the slides that she presented um for our reference they're in our are they in the board dos already I should have looked then I apologize I didn't mistake sorry I kept looking for him but didn't see it I know I I've got him up okay all right the next item on our agenda our matters reserved for board opt um matters reserved for board action uh the first of that is our legislative priorities uh this was a what you have in front of you is a document uh making it beautiful uh for use with advocacy and thank you for putting that up on the screen um this represents
072the work that we've done in Workshop uh in prioritizing wasda positions in an artic discussions about uh how the legislature could help us best in the next year um so what I want to do is open up a a space here for a motion either to adopt or something else I move to adopt the Evergreen Public Schools 2020 24 legislative priorities second and been moved in seconded is there any discussion yeah um just wanted to ask a question on the first action step it says the second line additional funding is necessary to support districts adopting OPI inclusionary practice model is Evergreen has evergreen adopted that John yeah we have um we're engaging in the inclusive schools practices where um yeah and so um the the dollars associated with that add to the challenges that we
073have in funding so I assumed we had but yeah other comments um my comment is that I think this is a I mean we haven't really had anything like this before and I think it's extremely helpful as all of us um get ready for this next legislative session and as use it for talking points I know that um I had a sneak peek at it um and was able to use some of the talking points I think it aligns really well with some of the other talking points with the other agencies across the state and I think as we go into into the next session it's important that we all have the same common language and the same voice and so I would recommend that we adopt it and I will say as we're leaning
074into the conversations about budget reductions a lot of people are asking what can I do and this is a helpful document to share um the kinds of action we need from our legislators to help uh bridge the gap with our budget um our budget issues and as you can see the very top bullet um uh related to special education funding so um that's a a significant Gap of1 14 million that uh the board is not fully funding for us to support our students with in special education so those are the types of pardon me you said the board is not fully funding the state excuse me yeah excuse me the state okay uh is there any advice from our student Representatives no um I think that this is great I think that all of these
075things need extra funding and um looking over all the data you guys have given me I totally agree with all of this and I'm excited for the day on the hill and um I'm excited to get us some more money thank you um I'm very I'm thrilled this is a document that uh aligns with wasa's top priorities um and uh as you know last year I took on on a legislative advocacy uh role I produced a dashboard for federal advocacy that we then adapted to State advocacy that I've shown in workshops before they've asked me to do that again uh and uh the problem is really Statewide um the underfunding of special education is uh a federal and a state level disconnect with the actual costs and we're going to be able to show that
076with uh graphs and data and stories so I'm excited to continue that advocacy um really just looking forward to it and I appreciate the work done to make this uh visually clear um and it's great Jackie anything okay uh the motion is to approve this document as uh the board of directors legislative priorities for 2024 legislative session I'll go ahead with a vote all in favor say I I I any opposed and my vote is I the next item on our agenda is uh titled December 5th School closure considerations for cost savings Workshop uh this has reference to the workshop we held last Tuesday about that John yes so as Jennifer Jacobson Chief Financial Officer is up here to uh we'll tag team this a little bit so um for those folks in the audience
077that may not have been part of the discussion we have we held a discussion with the board in Workshop to discuss the possibility of school closures as a cost-saving measure related to the budget and so um as that uh the board directed me to do so and we had that conversation and today um uh what we'd like to do is to spend a little bit of time giving the board an opportunity to discuss that and um make a uh make a motion to um direct us in the way that you think is appropriate under the circumstances based on that conversation thank you uh Jennifer Jacobson any comments um I just wanted to give you the opportunity to ask any questions we shared a lot of information last Tuesday and so if you've had some time
078to think about it if you have any questions I'm here and available for that are there any questions for um Jennifer um yeah I know I had asked for kind of like a you know we got the list of when the schools were built but like what their value may be as of now um and yes any construction that's going to be needed in the near future might help us determine at least MoneyWise you know what would be the appropriate course of action absolutely so we do have that data we need to kind of compile it but um I know that our senior director of facilities is putting together a building to this a little bit what's it called building assessment yeah essentially a building assessment so so apart because we have our upcoming um
079building condition assessments um and so with that that will go into our asset preservation program that we then have to present in March I believe and get it submitted to Opi by April so it's going to be a combination of taking that data plus everything we already have plus all the improvements we have completed through the bond um and just kind of getting it compiled and concise for you all to review and to that point I think that during our conversation last Tuesday a lot of that was discussed like um because making decisions like this are never easy considerations there's a lot of factors that go into it um and really we were presented with kind of some of where we're at [Music] and what our options are obviously there's some options that are on
080the board that we discussed at length at the meeting on Tuesday and so I think in order for this board really to make a decision or even how to move forward I think we would need to consider all of that information and so we would need a lot more information so we can make an uh information or decision that really involves our stakeholders and that we have all the information about our current buildings and all the other considerations because I think we have a list of considerations too that we should think through before we make any formalized decision but I with that I think I would suggest that we really um after this this year after we make all of our budget decisions for the 24 25 school year that we really ask the super
081attendant to give us kind of a two to threee timeline that includes all of the information that this board will need including Community stakeholder feedback all of the conditions of the building all of the other things that we really discussed in that meeting last Tuesday and then um see what a timeline would look for like a two to three year process any other questions for them hearing none um action on this will require a motion okay so I'll make the motion that I move that after the 202 after the 20242 budget reduction is complete we revisit the school closure con conversation and direct the superintendent to provide a written and oral report that includes timelines for a 2-year and three-year process second moved in second and uh I see the so the motion is um
082that after the 2024 25 budget reduction is complete we revisit the school closure conversation and direct the superintendent to provide a written and oral report that includes timelines for a 2-year and three-year process is that your motion it is is there any discussion I like the idea of both a two-year and a three-year not a two to threee so it kind of would get us more you know defined and we're going to get all that information in the spring from the state survey correct yeah so in addition just to reemphasize so in addition I mean there's multiple things happening right so we'll be updating our Capital facilities plan as well and a part of that is an updated enrollment forecast which is also going to play into all of that data as well yeah I
083remember you guys letting us know that it was going to take a while but the minutes didn't show that so it's good to discuss it here to yeah absolutely yeah and what when we were attending that that meeting it really just became clear that without the data and without the community input this could not be um this couldn't couldn't be a process the public could accept uh in my opinion um and so I'm having been told about the timelines and the uh um I guess the necessity to wait and let folks process uh that's really important to me and so I agree with the with the motion uh that we do this over two to three years and that we keep an eye on conditions as they change and I think to director Wilson's um
084point it would be just fine to do a two and a three-year um and look at it from different uh perspectives and it might be something that we bring to the board and we tune over time as we get more information as we do our study and Survey as we understand our enrollment demographics as we see how the leg legislature comes in and and uh after we get through the budget process we can uh provide information we can work with board leadership to um uh decide exactly on the next steps and continue the conversation with the board yeah I I mean when we consider all three options I think that all of us you know when we in that conversation when we were having the discussion that really a what was really a fast timeline
085that really makes us make um decisions before we have all of the information and that's why for me if we get the two to threee timeline and that that process looks like we can really make some inform decisions yeah and and these these three options were not intended to be the only options they were just intended to give the board some way to direct and think about um the issue of closing schools and and various um possibilities so there may be other possibilities that um as we go through the process that are brought up thought about and implemented as well yeah because Financial isn't the only you know reason to close a school it could be you know if there's three schools closely together and it might make sense in that case to maybe close
086one well it also takes a process with our um boundary exception or our boundary changes and I want to also make sure that we stti stick to our policy on how we do that as well so once that's decided we then have I think it's a how it's quite a long process I think that would have to be a consideration as we're doing this yeah mhm agreed um as moved uh we have uh a board opportunity then to revisit the school closure conversation um and uh the direction to the superintendent to provide that report uh John do you think that would come uh May and June after all the data is gathered or will there be updates between now and then on how the work's progressing with that well think that um we could certainly
087uh provide information to the board after we get the study and Survey I think that will be a big important piece in the demographic study and give us a chance to process that so that could I would S I would say June July maybe could be final timeline could be um um a reasonable timeline um and give us until August to really finalize but we can bring preliminary things to the board as we learn them you'll have a chance to here um Nicole talk about the study and Survey the demographic report so we don't have to limit ourselves to that one uh time to discuss it and that can be something in board leadership that we talk about and how you want to bring it forth on a regular basis to have a conversation where
088we can be flexible around thank you yeah I'd probably suggest earlier than that but whatever we can do I think the motion was after the considerations of the after the budget reduction decisions yeah which is uh I'm sure if as the preliminary data comes in that it can go into the Friday report yeah we can start reviewing all of the information as we get it but really to ask for staff to give us that timeline and because then we'll know exactly what we're dealing with from um because part of it too is what funding we get from legislator after this session so that you know depending on that it could make some change some our decisions we make moving forward well in preparing for the conversation with the board we've talked Jennifer um Jacobson has
089uh consulted with several districts that are going through the process we've already got a B good body of information and can draft up timelines pretty not not uh not too difficult it's wouldn't be too difficult to draft up timelines to bring to the board so um we should be able to hit those timelines I also think it's important for the public to hear us say we have not selected schools at this point in time we've not selected schools we have not um decided on anything um and that we intend to involve the community and all stakeholders in a collaborative process um part of why it's going to be in a two to threee process is to make sure that all the voices are heard um I'm particularly interested in student voices on this matter and
090uh and on family voices um and I just appreciate uh the openness so far uh when discussing the process I think it will'll get a better result that way are there any other comments any advice from student Representatives um I just I think it's heartbreaking the idea of having to shut down a school for the whole Community as a district the micro community of the school or schools we would have to shut down but um I think it could be a really necessary thing and you know shutting down a school versus having Librarians or whatever is um you know a hard decision to make but that's kind of what we have to do up here is make really hard decisions based on what is best for our community so I'm really um faithful that we
091will make the best decision for everybody and um um I'm thankful that we have the tools to make those decisions thank you solivan I appreciate you bringing in the fact of the Heartbreak it's it's going to be difficult if there are no other comments I'll take a vote on the motion all in favor I my vote as I any opposed motion carries the next item on our agenda is the good news report John Craig I think it's Craig I would to know why everybody good evening School Board superintendent Boyd solivan our student rep uh I'm going to start uh off with uh we had uh a little bit of delay to the Mil Plane ribbon cutting ceremony uh the original date was cancelled uh so we you know we had it recently uh and it
092was uh as wonderful as we we could have you know wanted it really went great uh student speeches were fantastic um as you could see from the the faces there and The Cutting of the ribbon I know the board wasn't there because you were at the the wasda uh meeting so I wanted to share this with you Dr Armstrong uh was there and um really got the uh kids uh chanting and alive uh it was a really uh really special day for them um we have video and pictures if people want to uh you know see the ceremony Cascade Middle School just last week um I went over there right before a board meeting they had their culture Fair the theme of the fair was a celebration of winter traditions and desserts from the many
093cultures that represent the school so what they had as students staff and families they um made desserts to represent their culture and um I didn't eat any but they looked delicious um a lot of of student leadership went into uh organizing this event they also had craft C uh craft stations as well and even a photo booth so a great event at Cascade uh we previously talked a little bit about pioneers hope program which is helping others pursue Excellence uh we did a video story on it um just got to talk to the kids about how this um overall theme at the school is really impacting them and the whole theme is helping others and it's a as simple as um opening doors for people and then also working together uh I was there on
094this day where fifth graders and kindergarteners work together to make an art project to send out to uh a member of the EPS community that was going through a tough time the kids didn't even know who the person was but they knew that the that family needed support so the fifth graders and kindergarteners worked together uh to create this art another thing is they planted uh another collaboration of grades uh planted two tulips out um in their uh on their ground so they'll see that grow uh but uh teachers and staff and families have just talked about how this overall theme of helping others in every way and you can hear the kids say um why do you like helping someone and it's just because we and they say things like it makes their day
095better um so really enjoyable Evergreen High School had their first ever dig day this is a great event on November 30th um thanks to our our partners with tap construction and c& rentals um you can see from the pictures this was a real handson learning experience those are our students in those uh construction vehicles I will start with no injuries so that's the good news everything went great uh the weather um was true Portland North West weather so the students got to really learn what it's like to work in the conditions uh but they had uh stations inside and outside the skilled Trade Center um and um tap construction work workers helped uh showed them how to use the equipment students were able to ask questions about construction as uh a career and these are
096skills that they're already learning in their program with the CTE program so they're working in the skill Trade Center uh doing J geometry and construction classes uh so about 150 students got to take part in this and then finally um you guys were here almost everybody here for the Evergreen awards from last week so uh some pictures from that but uh that's it unless there's any questions awesome thank you everybody thank you Craig the next item on our agenda is an information item um we are receiving the financial statement for the month of October and uh those documents or that document is present in uh the board dos under this agenda item uh no action is required our next item is a student board representative report we'll turn the time here over to Sullivan Taylor
097hi uh so today right before our meeting we had our first student board advisory council meeting I got to meet all of the great people that we chose to uh be in this committee we talked about the values that we all shared um the needs of uh each individual person and how we can create an environment where we feel safe and uh respected so that we can talk about all of the things that we're struggling with in school uh we talked a little bit about what an ideal school um school day looks like to us and uh we plan our next meeting we're going to talk about our feelings about budget cuts and um kind of wrap up our ideas and present them to the board soon and uh couple weeks ago now we went
098to the um wda uh conference uh Covenant and I both went we had a really great time we met so many just phenomenal uh student board representatives from all across the states or the state um from smaller schools to Seattle public schools and just humongous schools and we learned so much we have a huge group chat it's still fruitful and we're sending each other um forms and things um and we're all helping each other out and bouncing ideas back and forth and um we learned so much and we're really thankful for the opportunity to have gone um to Belleview and learn all these great things so I'm we're from covenant and I we're both very thankful for the opportunity and that is my update thank you Sullivan the next item on our agenda is uh
099board comments we'll open that up for comments by any board member I want to go first I was actually in that meeting with syv um with the students and it was pretty phenomenal these students are amazing and I asked them I told them we want them to be as honest with us as possible because what we're looking for is information that we we're never going to get because we're not in it every day with them um and just listening to them sort of brainstorm and make connections with each other it was just it was pretty cool and it's a great group of kids and I can't wait for you guys to meet them because they're going to come to a meeting soon and you know share with us so thank you and thank you to
100Sullivan and Covenant for sort of Paving the way for this they've done a lot of the groundwork they've been here with us for a year and this is their second year I'm sad that you will be graduating we won't be able to keep you on but you've done a lot of good leadership so thank you other comments yeah I'd um just want to thank the voters of the Evergreen school district for their faith in me to bring A New Perspective and a voice for change I know it can be frustrating uh repeatingly coming to school board meetings and sharing your heart during public comments and not seeing immediate change so um yeah and you know I thought Adam tonight had a interesting comment and it got me thinking um you know as we're looking at
101you know down the road two three years the possibility of closing a school or two um you know he mentioned you know the this building would be very probably more marketable than a 50-year-old elementary school so we might consider looking at those options as well but um also Megan had um brought up some interesting comments too and I'm very interested in hearing from the group assembled as a result of the September 12th board meeting after almost a dozen public board comments at night highlighted corroborated widespread ongoing student behavioral problems causing student teacher trauma and widespread learning loss um you know like she was mentioning tonight you know there has to be consequences for these repeated behaviors so I'm looking forward to hearing back from from that group and I also want to retract a portion
102of my public comment from October 24th concerning superintendent Boyd and his quote in the front page of the Colombian uh that article on October 21st uh shared recently that although the quote may have been accurate it was misapplied to that portion of the article concerning academic scores and I should have considered the source so and lastly I just want to wish everyone a safe and merry Christmas or whatever um seasons greetings you might share Shalom but thank you thank you and thank you for uh thank you Sullivan for um coming to the conference uh with us it's it's uh the culmination of and the beginning of uh something that I'd long wanted to see is our students involved at the highest um at every level of governance and administration in in the district and um
103that's the beginning is that the advice we get from these uh board rep or the student advisory Council I believe it'll be a game changer and so looking forward to having that uh mechanism of feedback coming back uh to the board so that we can make better decisions appreciate that um that's all I had are there any other comments hearing none the board will go into a recess where we'll sign the documents uh uh to make the um action we took official uh and then we will reconvene in a board Workshop uh to discuss uh and debrief the fall School Improvement presentations and uh the Washington State School Directors Association conference that we were just now talking about thank you for [Music] coming [Music]