001Hey, we're going to call this meeting to order. Did we start recording? Okay, good. Uh, I'd like I'd like to call the meeting to order. Um, first off, we're going to have a oath of office. Uh, this evening, Dr. Darling will be administering the oath of office to our two new board members that were appointed. All right. Heather and Amanda, you can join me down front. We'll have you stand and Amanda. You know, Heather needs to re open. Did you do something wrong, Heather? You need to reopen. Usually it's me that does something wrong. You're rubbing off. I got my glasses, too, so I wouldn't make a mistake. All right. I state your name. I agree. solemnly swear or affirm solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution that I will support the
002Constitution of the United States the United States and the Constitution of the State of Washington and the Constitution of the State of Washington and will faithfully discharge the duties of director of Graanby School District number 200 of director of Grahamby school district number 200 in Yakama County in Yakama County state of Washington state of Washington to the best of my ability to the best of my ability. If so, please indicate by saying I will. I will. Congratulations. You don't have anybody in his flag. Nope. But I got that taken care of, I think. So, it's h time for the flag salute. And uh the queen of the district office is going to um beat us in the flag salute this year for this time. And I'm actually going to have my picture taken with her
003with the thing even though she's not going to get it. I was waiting for your last waiting on your last one, but this is great. All right. Ready? Begin. Ice flag of the States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Thank you, Jean. You're welcome. Thanks for being a good sport. I think you'll take Yeah. I don't know. Do they I don't know how that works. Anyway, welcome all our guests. Thank you for being here. Uh any additions or deletions to the agenda? No. Excellent. Any public comment? Nope. That's even better. Consent agenda. Like to call for a motion to approve the consent agenda. Make a motion to approve the consent agenda. I'll second. All in favor? I. All opposed? Motion carries.
004We'll go to new business here. Uh Mr. Shre, would you please review the GHS control uh controls update for us? Yes, briefly. Briefly. Perfect. So, um, we need to put some [Music] additional control up at the high school to control the air flow and the testers. Now, the reason for doing that is, um, a couple of things. I sent a couple memos out on that one. Is one of the reasons is that the amount of pressure within the needs to be adjusted better. Is this our little flag saluted? No, it's not. Oh, okay. Anyway, sorry, Brad. Go ahead. So um part of it is what is the key issue? The key issue is the pressurization within the building where some of the doors were not completely closed. We're not able to control all those with
005with the current systems. Um also um moving forward we're supposed to show energy efficiency even though the building is new. It doesn't meet the the current energy efficiency standards for the state of Washington was have to meet within a year. So if we go through and do this project, we're able to come much closer. We're hoping we'll we'll meet the standards, but at least we've done most of the things to mitigate that part of it. Anyway, any questions? What is the likelihood that we'll meet the standards after this process? Um so McKinstry thinks that we're at 99% that'll meet the standards, but nobody will guarantee anything if this and so we have that one piece pressurization. would also have where when the air pressure is off, it would have this issue at the high school
006at different times. Um that if it's not if there's not enough pressure, then all of a sudden uh sometimes the sewer gases come up through um some of the drains, not all, but a few of them because the high school sits on high ground and it just comes up back through the whole system. And so this is going to help stabilize that within the building. I'm just trying to give a real quick overview today. So, I'd like to call for a motion to approve the GHS controls upgrade. I make a motion to approve. Second. I'll second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Resolution 10. Mr. Shre, will you please review resolution 10 for us? So, because we have two new board members, we're required to go through and review this resolution. resolution ask the
007two board members to um the documents to allow them to sign uh financial documents for the dis for the district or anything on spec es especially for the county treasurer. Any other comments or questions on resolution 10? I can make a motion to approve resolution 10. I'll make a motion to approve. A second it. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. We're going to move on to uh like to welcome Amy Forest uh director of communication who will be introducing the April Cultivating Kindness Award winners. Moving right along. Thank you. I apologize for Okay, we have two people that um weren't able to make it this evening. Uh the very first one is Anassandre Aguilera. She's an HT first grade teacher and she was nominated by Sylvia Roso. Is that you? Hi, Silia. Would you
008like to read your I can do everything. I always enjoy when I hear it from the person who wrote it. Great there. Um I would like to nominate Mrs. Iguard for her exceptional skills and dedication to her work. She consistently goes above and beyond to create a welcoming and inclusive environment where every student feels comfortable and valued. Her ability to make each student feel heard and respected fosters a sense of community in her classroom. Her passion for teaching is evident in the care she takes to tailor her lessons to meet the diverse needs of her students, ensuring everyone feels supported. Many of her prior students, my daughter, fondly recalls the positive impact she had on their academic and personal growth. Mrs. Aguular instills a love for learning that lasts well beyond her classroom and her
009efforts are truly deserving of her recognition. And she has a nephew that she had to go to his game. She said because she had missed the last game. I said she said this was do or die. I have to go. So she could not be here and she really was sorry. Okay. The next person we have um uh who is here is Michelle Pyano. Michelle we're gonna read is um Okay. Okay. The person who nominated you is Wanita. She was going to be here but knew something else to come up. One Martinez is who um uh nominated Michelle Peson. She's ah Smith and she wrote down you're a migrant parent educator. Yes. Wonderful. And this is what she wrote. She always goes above and beyond for her students. For example, when the district recently gave
010out food to families during the food distribution, uh she made sure to reach out to her migrant families to make sure they had an opportunity to get some food. She knows her students and their needs. Her dedication to helping them shows that she loves her job. I do. And I love it. I can stand up to children, but adults kind of get nervous. And then next, we had kind of a special event this month where we actually have four cultivating kindness awards instead of three because our next award winner that kind of comes as a package deal. Um, Adrien Gutas, come on up here. Thank you. And Isaiah, we are dual package. The second person is Isaiah Villa. Okay. Can I say that correctly? Perfect. You both of you just exemplify what it means um
011to be your best, do your best. You were nominated and people are noticing how much you give to students, to staff members, how much you care, and that's why you guys are receiving this award. So, thank you for cultivating kindness. I couldn't do it without my partner Isaiah and we couldn't do it without Chris and our group. So, I wanted to let you know that I was the one that nominated you and Isaiah and uh on our on job descriptions. Thank you, Bob. Appreciate it. If you look at job description around the district, we're really sneaky at the bottom of them. We always put further jobs to the side. And uh I don't think anybody exemplifies that more than Adrian and Isaiah. Those guys are always, "How can we get to?" Yes. At 3:00 am,
012at 3 pm. They're on a bus. They're on a snow plow. They're in a freaking Grinch costume. I mean, I showed up at a basketball event. I had green stuff all over my jacket because he hugged me. You hugged the Grinch. Actually, I did hug the Grinch. But I wanted to thank you and Isaiah because you two exemplify, you know, what it means to be a Greyhound. and we really hope that every employee could do what you do. Thank you guys for giving us this opportunity in the hallway there. Thank you all so much. Appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next, I'd like to move on to uh Dr. Rob Darling. Would you please share your report with the board, please? All righty. So, our new board members, uh, congratulations and welcome aboard.
013We're glad you're here. And sorry, Trey, for whatever name I called you earlier. I go by many different names. Um, so we had a great, I think, onboarding session last week. Um, we called it for two hours, it went three. Hopefully, it was time well spent for you all. I know that we covered a lot. And, uh, just so you're all aware, we started our yearly audit with the state auditor's office this year. It's an audit focused on fraud. Is that right, Bren? Yeah. So they kind of have a a theme or a focus this year. So this year's they're focusing on our fraud, internal fraud controls. Um the student advisory council met last or last week or two weeks ago and that's our yeah our second to last meeting of the year. They'll meet
014again once again in uh May. It'll kind of be like a celebration and a recap of all the work they've done this year. They're starting to get some great momentum and some great recognition from other entities around the state. I know the League of Education voters has reached out to them to find out how they can help elevate their work at the state level. They've been asked to present at a Yakama mental health and wellness um conference in October um around the work they're doing around ending racism and and hate and hate speech around the district. And so um I'm really excited for the work they're doing moving forward. And then I was part of a dual language uh workshop in Quincy on Friday. They wanted me to come show up over there and just
015kind of highlight the work that we're doing here. How what led to the uh so I got to highlight all the work that Dr. Revenetta got took full credit for everything highlight the work that we're doing our implementation protocols like kind of the the dos and don'ts of implementing duel because uh they're going to start doing it in Quincy shortly. And then next Friday or this Friday I will be at uh Tquila. I'm on the the OSPI council for multilingual education advisory council and we have four meetings a year. Three are virtual, one is in person. So this is the inerson meeting. So uh Thursday night late I'll drive over the mountains and OSBI covers everything. So uh I will just be over there representing our part of the state. We have a dual language
016parent information night at the learning center on the 1st. The 8th you're all invited to come show up at the high school library for our final um super uh student advisory council meeting. The 9th just as an FYI is the Grand Grand Grand View Chamber Awards the community center. The 15th is a Washington school association superintendent association regional um award banquetss and so you're all aware um we have nominated we're going to provide a community award to the Grand View Rotary for all the work they do to support Gra School District and then our student our student advisory council leads have actually received an award for all the work they're doing around student leadership. So each of them will be there at that that night. I think Jeremy and Shelby will be representing Rotary and
017then the five leads and they'll each bring one parent with them to uh will be at the is it Apple? What's the golf course? Apple Tree. Yeah. In West Valley or the district to the west of us. We don't say their name. And then um May 21st, we have the migrant spring event and more information to follow on that. And just so you're aware, the the document I sent out was incorrect. The eighth grade recognition is absolutely going to be on Monday, June 2nd, not the 3. That date has been changed. And so I'll we'll make sure that gets changed in your calendars. It'll be Monday, June 2nd for eighth grade recognition. And believe it or not, graduation is a little over a month away. And that's my report for this week. Awesome. Any questions,
018comments? Okay, we're going to go to the um our uh doing our uh evaluations. Um, I have to say that I have to apologize because I am the one that missed all of them but one and uh, but I was just looking them over to see if there was any comments that we need to address and I haven't seen any yet. I apologize for not being through all of them yet. And for the audience, just so you know, this part is really boring. Yeah, you don't have to speak out. We won't be offended unless you want to. You're more than welcome to. The two behind you have to stay. You're all free to go. But thank you for coming. Otherwise, you might try and nod for an hour. And if you can come here anytime
019you want to wear your husky shirt, buddy, you're more than welcome to show up. Yeah, that that's a good looking shirt. Go dogs. He didn't seem too excited. I thought he was our uh Yeah, I was going to redo the whole thing. So, anyway, I don't uh we had no comments on any of these. Does anybody have any questions or anything? So, just to explain a little bit only because we don't have any comments, we'll go through each one of these usually and if there's um I don't know did did you guys click on them at all to see what they are these the ones you're talking about? Yeah, you hit the link. just click on one of the links and it'll it'll show you the question that was asked and then if there's attachments
020to it as to if it was an evaluation of Rob or his group, it would give you backup to uh explain that they're meeting that so when you get the send it to us when we're doing the survey, you'll see what it's um if it's everything. So, and then you would answer it down here. You would say um say what is it that they're trying to do? What does the school inter You can be in compliance. You can be in compliance with the following exceptions. Not in compliance does not apply or not enough information. Those are the things you get to choose. Um we've kind of not telling anybody how to uh do this. We've been kind of going in compliance with adding some comments says there's things that we want additional information stuff we
021talked about because we're on our first year going through this. Yeah. So, we're kind of in a learning curve. So, there was no comments. So, unless you guys have something to talk about on this, we can do a motion. Uh, probably ought to do them individually cuz this was in the conflict one for board directors. Yeah, that was all. I did this. Did you happen to show her what she'll do when she gets Oh, I didn't. No. So, I just showed her kind of or showed the trailer what that's going to look like. Yeah. So, that he sees that and then let me go find it. And you can kind of see on the um agenda it has like over here call to order. It has the policies. GP8 and GP2 are the policies we
022follow for our board meeting. So, it kind of references what we've what policies we follow to do it. So when we get these surveys, you see right here. So it's going to come from Stephanie now, but it'll say survey monkey. Sabrina Sabrina. Sabrina, I'm sorry. Anyway, so it'll come here. So instruct, this one is instructional materials. So you'll read this. So this is our policy. The superintendent shall not fail to recommend to the board for approval the instructional materials textbooks used in the district. We'll talk about that and we'll come down here. Okay. And when we click on this, it will not working. It may not. You already filled it out. You already took the survey. Click on it. They'll give you a report. Here we go. So, you'll see a report like this that
023gives you the policy. And like I was showing Trey, it'll tell you what the district interprets this to mean, whether they feel they're in compliance. in compliance with the following exceptions, etc. And then what is it that they believe is evidencing that they're in compliance? And so it's up to us to decide like that's sufficient evidence or if not, then we would go ahead and add comments and put it either in compliance or not in compliance with the exceptions. Okay? And that tells them that there's if it's more information or maybe it's less information, you know, whatever, but then they'll take that information and use it next year when we do it again. Again, the goals this year trying to identify what is it that we're wanting and then are we making progress towards that
024goal or are we in compliance. Um, and it's okay to say if we're not. Again, it's just for us to start to grow and and try to work towards those goals. And the only thing did you already mention that when it's our policies that we add the comments, they won't see this information there. There will be no no backup information because we're evaluating ourselves. Yeah. And when will I get this my first one? You'll get it um not this next one. It'll be after the next meeting. Oh yeah, because we only do it at the second meeting. You'll get it. So after the next meeting, you'll get it that uh Wednesday. Wednesday after our next meeting, which is in and then you have till the following Wednesday to submit it so that they have it
025in enough time to give us the results in our board packets. Okay. And we had a retreat about a month and a half or two months ago where we sat down and kind of went over all the policies and and ends reports and they and the board kind of give Jose and I an idea like for this we'd like to see this data for this we'd like to see this data. So we have a a decent idea of what to expect and then moving forward let's continue to get better and clear. So, do I have a motion on the Do you want to do them individually or do you want to do GP9, EL5, EL15, and EL16 separately? Probably should do them separately. I'll make a motion. I was going to say I think we
026can do them all together because there was no comment any was nothing and we were in compliance with everything. There was no disagreeing, you know, comments. So, I make a motion we approve them all. GP9 E15 and E16. I'll second that motion. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Do you have our assessment? Let's see how many naughty grams we got. Oh, there's even comments. I like it. Was made to do the flag salute. Not happy. Sorry. Was put on the spot. No, just kidding. Um, rate the board's meeting behavior by assigning a numerical rating using the following scale. Okay, she gave us all goods. Fantastic meeting. Good first meeting for Amanda and Trey. Very nice. Um, yeah, we got all goods. Very nice. You want to show Trey and Amanda so they see what
027it here? Pass it down. You guys can kind of see because you're going to get to do one of these. You'll get your turn. You'll get your turn. And you really, honestly, you need to be honest. If if we did get offkilter or something or let's say somebody was uh visiting while something else is going, there's nothing wrong with putting that on there because that's what it's for. So, honestly, the goal is we want to be a model, right? We want to say that when we're here, we're being effective with our time and that we're honoring the policies and the governance models and taking care of district business and that Yeah. And sometimes some things may not apply. Um it's okay to say not applicable too. So while they're looking at that, we're going to
028move on from the board. Um anybody I have a couple things, but if anybody else has something, this is the time if there's anything you want to bring up that you've, you know, maybe you went to copy with super whatever. Or if you don't have anything, you don't have to bring it up. It's entirely up to you. Anybody? I do have one thing. Okay. Um, so today I sat in in a meeting regarding Adobe Express for Education. Have we heard or about any of that here in our school? Nope. No. Have you heard of that instruction? Okay. So what I found out is Adobe has invested in a Adobe Express the the program that they use but for students directly and the goal is to um help students learn skill sets for um skill sets
029for with technology and how they can use that in the classroom etc. It's free for students and there's training available for educators. Um, but it's really cool the things that they can do. They can take the animation components like Photoshop components, video animations, um, voiceovers, all that stuff and help students have a different outlet or way of sharing their voice and their stories on top of other things. But um I thought it might be something that we might be interested in with our district, especially for students when they're doing more hands-on type components or maybe even our multilingual students who need practice with, you know, an education and things like that where they can use this as an app. You already looked at it. Yeah. And it's got more perks than it would if you
030paid for the subscription and you're not in education. um they're trying to make it simple for students and they're trying to help students come out with skill sets by the time they're graduated, right? Um that they can utilize in in the real world. So, thought I'd share that if we want to look into it for our students. Maybe somebody could come give a spiel on that or something or maybe get something. I have a contact if you'd like. Yeah, that or something. Rodriguez, I believe. Um but I can actually get his information if you'd like. Yeah, we just definitely would have to look at where it would fall in with our adoption like where would it go? Where would it go? Yeah, maybe at the high school level if that's something they want to pilot
031look into. I don't know the cost. Looks like it's a map. It's free. Look at it. And we love those kind that are free. Yeah. And that's why I was so surprised because I have Adobe and I have to pay for it and it does not have all those cool features. I mean, I can make it do those things, but I have to work at it. It made it simple for students. Um, and it helps them use their creativity but also introduces them to technology. Um, which again that's kind of where our world is going towards, right? So you want you need these back, Brad, right? I didn't think about summer program that's not infused with it. W counsel this Thursday. So that might be something I can bring to the council order. I think
032you get this package for education. You'll help me remember that, right? If you guys want the contact information, let me know. I can definitely make sure to share that with you all. Back to Brad. Oh, anybody else? So, I have a couple things. Uh, one, I did go to the advisory thing uh last week uh with Rob for a little bit. There was a guest speaker that came down. Uh, it was very interesting. Um, sat there for a while. They're they're doing some neat things. Got to talk to the kids, which was good. uh if you ever get a chance to do that, it's pretty cool. Um I do want to know if you guys have thought about any times to go I if you want to at all or not do a tour of
033the schools. Um I'd like we're running out of time is the only reason I bring it up is um so and if you can't you can't or if you want to go a different time and you could go directly with Rob. I mean you can do that. I just want to try to get it done this year. Um, so if you guys are able to do some, please let me know and then, uh, we can get something set up. And if not, um, I'll get with Rob and see when I get something set up. Like, how long does it usually? All day. Oh, all day. Yeah, we'll go to all the schools. I mean, you could probably break it up, right, if needed. Like maybe we could if you only wanted to go for a
034half of one or whatever. But that's what I do. If you do all the schools, it is an all day thing though really because you're going from each building and you get to talk to, you know, the administrators and things and so yeah, we probably do six hours like an hour in the building, 15 minutes to go transition next building and so Okay. So anyway, think about it and if you could let me know in the next few days, uh that way I can get something scheduled so I can I'd like to make it happen. So, um, another thing I brought this I talked to Rob today about this and I know I remember last meeting we talked about how we as a district maybe we just kind of stay in the weeds a little
035bit and let all of this stuff that's going on through the courts play themselves out in regards to say transgender uh uh athletes and different things like that. Uh, it's starting to get a little closer to home. There's some issues going on in Proser now and I understand that there's quite a few schools that are joining a lawsuit. Uh going to uh push this issue a little further along. I kind of talked with Rob a little bit and I want to know what you guys think of this, but I think we should at least maybe find out what our community thinks so that if it does come down to having to make a decision, we have an idea of what they want. And what I talked to Rob about today and and I want to
036run this by everybody to get and if we don't do anything, we don't do anything. It's the board decision, but we could start having some uh uh sitdowns with staff uh with students and then maybe start doing some uh stuff at the learning center where it's open to the public and maybe put a thing on the website uh that says if you don't want to come in person, you can send your information to a link on the website and that way as a board we could look at it to try to get an idea of what our community thinks. So to give some more background on the information, some districts said submitted two proposals to WIAA um regarding transgender athletes. One was to have um no transgender girls in the girls category. That was one
037amendment. And the second proposed amendment was to have to offer a boys category for sports, a girls category for sports, and an other category for sports. So transgender athletes could participate in the other category. WIAA said, "Well, because of the way the law is written, we can't do either of these currently." And so, based on recommendations from their from their legal council, they did not approve either of the amendments because it's it's in conflict with state law. State law says athletes can participate in whatever gender they identify with. So, that's the issue is some school districts are saying, "Well, the state law is saying this, but coming from Washington DC is something different." And so some districts are saying we're going to follow what's in Washington DC and some districts are saying we're going to
038follow what's in state law and they're having obviously a little bit of a conflict. For us it hasn't been an issue because we currently don't have any transgender students participating in sports that have brought this to our attention. Um and so but like Dan said, districts around us are starting to um address the issue through their board meetings or other other avenues and and we we had the opportunity to provide our the district's perspective on how we would vote for both of those amendments and we we we decided to abstain because we hadn't gotten community input. Um there were many other districts that did the same when it came to it and ultimately it didn't matter how people voted. WIA said, "Yeah, we can't do this anyway. It's against the law. It's against the state
039law right now." So that so that's a little bit of a background. You know, kind a few weeks ago when this first was brought up, we had decided that we would wait until we see how things play out because it hasn't been an issue in our community that's been brought to our attention. Um, is there anything that has changed that would warrant us to go out and do outreach to find out if there is an issue? is I mean on topics like this I feel like you can find issues with with most anything and if it hasn't been affecting our students and our kids I wonder do we want to put that out there or just wait until we find out what happens and then how does that impact us I think this would be
040a great first action for Amanda and Trey to be in front of town forum fielding questions about transgender and you'll be no controversial at all. So, one thing I don't I'm I'm kind of curious how uh because what's happening is uh there's a student in uh East Valley of Yakama that is going to be going to regionals in Proer and this is where some of it has started. I we don't have any kids going to regionals in Proer. Uh I don't know because typically we're we're I don't that's a good question. Anyway, wouldn't it isn't it track and isn't that too late? I think that I think it's East Valley Spokane. It is East Valley Spokane. Yeah. And so, but it's a regional event. Yeah. They're in our crossover, right? Yeah. Yeah. And and that
041athlete won the state event last year for the 800. Yeah. Over a girl that her parents went to her mom went to school in Grand View. There was a big quite had over that last year. But now they I think people with the federal government stepping in, I think people now feel they have a some backing if they want to push the issue. And my only thought on this was if it did start coming to something, we have no idea what our community thinks. we would have to go through that whole process to try to figure that out to be able to make a to possibly make a decision if we had if we were pushed to make a decision. I wanted to kind I thought about possibly trying to do that a little upfront
042and not have to panic to try to do something. I agree with that. I would rather be proactive than have to try to be reactive because it could be too late. I think it already is honestly even though it hasn't hit us personally. I kind of think it already is. I was going to say for this year, I don't know that anything would change necessarily and I can't say that. I don't think anything's going to change, but I think we would have an idea of what our community thinks because that's who we represent and it doesn't matter what any I mean it matters what each of us think because we do live in this community and we all have opinions, but we need to I would think we need to find out what what does
043the school think, what do the students think, what do the community think. Well, for me personally, it will affect me because Ila is a freshman and she'll get this the next three years. So, if we and I don't know if other what other families and athletes think or whatever, but I feel like if we wait until it's something that everybody's coming in to argue. Yeah. Because Proser is having um uh petitions uh written and signed and they're out getting petitions signed by people in the community. they've gone to that level and without and and some of their school board is jumping on the bandwagon with that and they've actually split amongst themselves a few things on it. So, it was just a thought I brought up. I thought about it. I talked to Rob about
044it. I told him I wanted to bring it up tonight. I asked what he thought of that. Um, if it's something the board wants to do, we can look into it. If the board doesn't want to do anything with it, then we don't do anything with it. I think on something like this too, I would want to lean in and get opinions from our athletic directors, our coaches and things as well as to what they think because my biggest fear would be that we have students who feel targeted or feel that they're now um their personal situation may be, you know, like I said, an issue of contention. And I don't want somebody to be in a situation where they're bullied either or they're feeling, like I say, left out or we're working hard as
045a community to try to make sure everybody feels like they belong. And something like this could possibly put us backwards a little depending how our community, you know, reacts to and responds. That would be just my biggest fear is are we going to do that and um will our students then be put in a bad situation? Now my biggest fear on the whole thing is somebody getting injured and somebody getting hurt and then or somebody not playing a sport or doing something because they're afraid of something like that or um you know I I don't know. I I have no answers to the situation. Either way I have no idea. Is there also a legal thing that we could get drugged into as far as participating in sports and say I don't know if you've
046noticed obviously somebody is that you from a different school district that is coming and competing here and then somehow something happens. That's that's happening that happened to Tom Water. Yeah. Tom Water made the national news because they they went against the executive order but followed state law and then they got targeted by the by the federal government. So, so they can technically get drug into it without being wanting to get right on both sides. We can we can from the state or we can through the fed because one way or another you're out of compliance. Yep. That's the hard part right now is because like we you just took your oath to uphold you know right now and right now is the hard situation because they're in conflict and our state right now is challenging
047some of the decisions at the federal level but until the courts hear this out we're in limbo. So, a conversation I had with a resident yesterday, we have a young man who is an exceptional athlete in track. And this person asked me, "What would we do as a school board if that athlete decided he wanted to compete against girls?" Now, depending on the sport, young ladies could get hurt very bad competing with him. I have a real problem with the chance of that happening. So on one hand, we want to be cons concerned about everybody feeling like they fit in, but on the other hand, I'm a little more concerned about physical injuries to females competing against biological events. And I might cause some real hard feelings saying that, but that's where I'm at with
048this. So, what do you guys think of um and I don't have any idea if this is a a vote type thing or not? I don't have any idea, but Well, it's not on our agenda. So, we It's not on our agenda. It's from the board. It's discussing it. Is it something we want to maybe do some research to see if it's something we want to maybe Rob reaches out to Scott and maybe some of the administrators through the school to say, "Hey, is this something we should uh maybe we want to start talking about this and uh having some open forums because I don't think we ever vote on having open forums or talking about what we could decide we would decide on like what would our procedure be as far as gathering ing
049input from the community. Um you talked about kind of having some town hall styles where we just sit and listen and ask questions to them but we don't offer anything. What is it the linkages like we have the surveys we have surveys and they can provide surveys so that be some of those linkage opportunities. So what we could do is we could we could pre provide a couple options for how to go about that. Then the board can decide on what option to take. And the other I thought that possibly Amy could put something on our website there would be a link to it to where if people wanted to download or they could get on it and take the survey or they could send things to it or whatever. Um as an avenue to
050you know I don't want to go stand in front of everybody to get my opinion because of whatever reason. Um but that would allow them to have a a stake in it or opinion. Yes ma'am. Before we go to created an email account that I monitored, it was Westbound Communications that family because we too had to put out a big statement um about transgender and bathroom use. It wasn't a sports situation, but it was a bathroom use. Yeah. So, we recreated that and what I would do is every Monday morning people would send things throughout the weekend. I would gather those emails up and send it to the superintendent. So we could do that is certainly an avenue and a lot of parents felt comfortable just expressing their their thoughts in an email. Um you
051know what they felt about transgender students in locker rooms or in the bathrooms with their with their child. Some were very much against it. Some were actually not bothered at all. So it's really interesting mix. But every Monday morning I would have a good 10 12 emails that I was sending Peter Finch the superintendent. And I've just, you know, because it is public record, I would just say these are the emails that came in throughout the weekends from the community and then send it all in. So they'd be like three or four or five, you know, in one email. You wouldn't have to all be combined. So that's an option, too. Yeah. So what I'm hearing is process though, we can talk about details later. First, we're going to start with our athletic directors and
052admin and see if this is something that they believe is appropriate to start talking about and discussing based off of student interactions or coach interactions and things like that, athlete interactions. Is that what I'm hearing? Well, I didn't hear that second part about the ad the athletic directors. I heard you all say I heard you all say you want to start getting community input and then the admin would be one component of the community input but we wouldn't ask them to necessarily determine whether we should do it or shouldn't do it. I don't know if I would agree but I'm ready for their opinion. Okay. So start with them and I think start with like yeah the athletic director maybe a few coaches. Yeah. And see where they're I don't want it all based on
053just what the kids have to say. That's not That's why we're asking the coaches. No, I understand that. But the community is the one that's going to decide the world. I mean, there there are a few in the school district that will have good opinions on this, but the communities are the ones that is going to Well, I think of the end user, the end person is our students who are impacted by this. And yeah, but the ones paying the bill are the ones that are not going to approve anything that we have if we go against what the community wants to do. Well, then I I would say if we don't start that direction, I don't know that I would want to go out to community because like I said, us as adults, I
054mean, forgive me for saying this, but sometimes we can cause more problems than we can helping. So, I mean, as students can give us some insight at their level as to what they're how they're being impacted, if it's an issue to them, if there's concerns, and just like our student advisory committee, I mean, they're pretty bright kids who have a voice who have an opinion. And I've heard from not just that group of students, but we've heard it at WASDA that they want to be able to have more of a say in their education and the impacts that the um policies have on them. So maybe this isn't a policy right now. We're trying to get a bill for what's happening. But first, is it an issue? It is a policy. We have a policy
055or let me go back. I'm sorry. But we're not changing a policy right now. We're not changing a decision because right now we don't even know what is legally okay to do, but this would be a good start to let us know how they're feeling. But on the other hand, the win on what Heather's saying, after those community forums on transgender bathrooms, they are now committed to $2.6 million of building bathrooms for a ceiling. Just so you know, that was after West Valley brought it to the to the community. Yeah. I mean, so things can happen when we bring also. If we don't, my fear is if we don't start the process and we get a situation that blows up in our face, we have to pass a levy here in about 18 months or
05616 months. And if we sit on our hands and wait and see what happens, and four months before our levy, something blows up in our face with this, we'll never pass that levy. Who's to say it would blow up the other way, though? It could blow up either way. I just think we If you don't ask, you're never going to know what they're going to do. If you just ignore them and just say, "We're not going to do anything. We're just going to stay in the weeds. We're not going to do anything." We we've talked about being transparent with what we do and bringing this to the community and letting them have an input. And not that I don't want to hear what the kids have to say, and I'm sorry that I look at
057it like this. Kids don't vote for a levy. Kids are future voters though and they're understand that. But there's still a reason they're not able to vote. I understand. I'm just trying to say from both perspectives. I think we need to be very conscientious of how we approach this because um like I said, um our students are why we're here. Our students are what we're trying to ensure a good educational experience and extracurricular is part of that. So, um for all of the students. For all students, you're right. So, so it was just brought up if we don't want to do anything, we don't have to do anything. I just brought it up as a as a thing to possibly do something. I wanted to bring it up that is it's something I'm starting to
058see it blow up in other school districts and it's blowing up with the school board making decisions I think without any input from the from the from the community without getting any community input. I was worried about that when I started noticing that. can see that and I and I'm going, okay, so as soon as we get a call from Quincy or Ephrada or even Grand View that now we have a a student that we have to deal with and all of a sudden another school sues us over some and I'm don't get me wrong, I it it's going to all play out in the courts eventually, but I just man it just worries me. My concern right now where we're at as a district, if we get the community saying that they are 60
05970% one direction, we're still out of compliance if we try to change a policy. I didn't say we would change any policies. We would just know the way they feel so that if it does come down to let's let's say that the federal government wins, okay, but we have 70% of our community doesn't agree with that. Okay, we shove it down their throat or do we advocate for our community and say, "Wait a minute, you know, I mean, there has to be something there." I guess what I'm saying is we don't even know what action we can take from this. We can't really change a whole lot right now. I mean, but we're not looking to change anything. We're just getting opinions. If we get opinions though, if we get opinions after we find out
060a decision, we can at least run with that and say, "We know what we can do is fresh in our minds. we can explain to the community this is what's been ruled out in the courts. Now how do we implement this? How do we come together around this? It's not an option where right now we can have discussions but we don't we can't even we could do that but I think we're just sitting on our hands waiting for it to happen. It's a really weird situation. In most cases I would say be proactive in this situation. I don't know that that's the the option that's the best because like I said just we can go six months a year and still not know what we what what we can do and I don't know that's
061my opinion I just like I said it's a weird situation one way or another we're out of compliance there's a lot to be done in the courts and um our students we have to be thinking about them as well so it'll be helpful if next time we meet um we bring forward a couple different options. Options for waiting till the decision is made and then or an option for for taking for doing getting community input before a decision is made. Okay. And that way you all can have a conversation and and have a vote an action. Yeah, we'll put it on the agenda. Can we all agree? Do we want to start with administrators first like we talked about in athletic directors or not at all? I think we need to bring it uh and
062anybody can bring what they think needs to happen. We'll put it on the thing and let the board decide. Okay. I got a question. Would you I guess uh hear the input of the athletes more so than like the whole student body is just get their input as how they would feel going up against you know certain athletes and see how they feel about it with the administrators. So there's lots of ways we could get student input. One way we could do would be via a survey. So we have a big number of students who could respond anonymously, which they might be better. We could have them pick a box say, "Am I you an athlete? Which what which season are you involved in?" So that way we could determine non-athlete voting versus athlete voting
063that way so we can get some clear demographics. Yeah. because I mean being you know an athlete of the school district I would if this was me back then would like to know hey you're going to be going up you know a girl that's pretended to be a boy in said sport you know or vice versa the other way how how would you you know how would you feel if you had to go up against someone like that right so we could gather that kind of information yeah it would be good to get their their feel for it along I think with the community's outlook on that as well as far as parents wise. Okay. Okay. I'll get some proposals. I'll reach out to you all um beforehand and give you some drafts so you
064can give me some feedback on it before we bring it to to here. Okay. Okay. That sounds good. Thank you. Anything else from the board before we call it done? How was the first meeting? [Laughter] Giggle. Couldn't have been all out. We didn't We didn't even make it an hour. Come on. Even after this, we still didn't even go an hour. Yeah. Okay. It's my bedtime intend. So, you get up at 1 in the morning. Okay. Uh meeting journ. Perfect.