Issaquah School District Board Meeting 04/09/2026

001Call to order, this meeting of the Issaquah School Board. Today is Thursday, April 9th, 2026. At this point, will everybody please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. And let's see. Now, we are going to start tonight with leaders from the Issaquah Schools Foundation, who are here to extend an invitation, I believe. Miss Miller, yes, please. Hi, good evening. My name is Amy Miller. I am a Creekside parent, soon to also be a Pine Lake parent. But the reason I'm here is in my capacity as a board trustee from the Issaquah Schools Foundation. And on behalf of our executive director, as well as

002the entire board, we wanted to formally invite the ISD School Board, as well as our superintendent, her cabinet, and just the ISD community at large to our Nourish Every Mind event, which will be held at the Issaquah Community Center on April 30th from noon to 1:00. If you're interested in registering for the event, you can do so at our website or using the QR code at isfdn.org. We will also be opening our online auction at the same website on the same day. If you are looking for a different way or an additional way to support us. If you've never been to NEM, basically what we're doing is showing how ISF has spent its money to support the district. What programs are we doing? How are we helping students? And really just bragging on some of

003our ISD staff and students and what they've been doing to make the district better. So, this event will consist of, first of all, 15 different showcases where you can see, touch, taste, and smell, and ask questions about some of the things we've been providing to the district. And then during the event, we will have seven different staff members, student, and parent speakers. One of whom is the other reason I'm here. We recently gave out our Impact Scholarships. And so, we wanted to publicly congratulate our winners. First of all, our two runners-up from Liberty, we had Shreyas Kolvekar. And from IHS, Dhavit Jain. And our winner this year of the Impact Scholarship was Skyline's Sophia Sun. She will be speaking at NEM. So, if you're interested in hearing from one of ISD's best and brightest who

004will be leaving us at the end of the year, again, we invite you to NEM. So, thank you as a community for all of your support of ISF. And hopefully, I'll see a lot of you on April 30th. Great. Thank you very much. I I will definitely be there. So. >> [laughter] >> Yes. Fantastic event for folks in the community to really learn about all the great work that Issaquah Schools Foundation does for the district. So, I hope people can attend. Okay, moving on. Next up is public comment. Public comment is an opportunity for the board to receive public statements on items not listed on the meeting agenda for possible board action. If you have a point of view for the specific agenda items tonight, which would be the monitoring report for OE17 on sustainability,

005I'll ask you to hold your comment until that particular agenda item. Public comment comment time is not intended to raise an issue unique to a particular student, staff member, or an administrator. Rather, it is time for you to provide your insights on issues more generally and of a wider concern. As a general general rule, the board will not respond to public comment. I ask you to begin your comments by clearly stating your name and your attendance area. Please limit your comments to 2 minutes. We will be using a timer. And the board neither endorses nor censors any opinions expressed during public comment. Please keep your comments civil and respectful and avoid personal attacks on others. In place of applause, you can acknowledge a speaker by lifting your hands in a waving motion, like this. And

006we will start public comment with those in the room and then go to those with hands raised on Zoom. I believe I only have one person tonight signed up, and that is Mr. Sue. Yes, please. Yeah, come up to the lectern there and state your name and attendance area. Hi there. My name is Jeffrey Sue. My daughter attends Maywood Middle School. So, I'm here to speak about safety concerns and how they're being addressed at Issaquah School District. So, in January, there was a reported threat at Maywood Middle School where ISD staff sent out an email assuring the community and parents that they took every step to investigate a reported threat. There was, you know, I took that at face value and said school did it, you know, they did their due diligence. However, a change.org

007petition was submitted. You know, I still believe that the school was following process and everybody believes that they're going to, you know, the goal is to protect our children. Now, my viewpoint changed just this last month. In the last month, my daughter was actually assaulted at Maywood Middle School, and this was caught on security cameras. This was documented on security footage where she It was not a fight. It was an assault. She was attacked from behind, grabbed by the hair, slammed to the ground, and multiple punches were thrown at her face. No action really I went to the next very next day, I went to Issaquah staff complaining about the issue and highlighting the issue. And I was met with a staff member that was very unprofessional, insensitive, who made comments that my daughter may

008have instigated it, and actually violated school rules in the process as well. In that process, both myself and my daughter felt very very alienated and felt unsafe. Now, investigation I received a phone call later that basically told me that an investigation was completed. However, it There was really no investigation because after looking up district rules, I realized that no interviews were were conducted where we provided them. And ultimately, no report was filed. So, I actually had to take the initiative a week later after I realized that staff members did not do what they were supposed to do by policy. I submitted a report. Now, throughout this process, I've been calling out showing where violations have occurred in district policy. However, I have not received any And should I keep speaking? You should wrap up your

009comments. Okay. But overall, is my point here is I found numerous violations of district policy where policies weren't being applied. It's been over 4 weeks since my daughter has been attacked, and there's been little to no accountability. It's been clearly documented on video. I had to make the initiative to file complaints, to submit reports, to file and to really just drive action. But my daughter was getting continuously harassed for 3 weeks. And this is my concern. I just want to make sure that school staff are following procedures. And that at the end of the day, too, parents need to reach out to other parents to just If there's an issue, talk to each other. Because without the support of each other, we don't know if the people who are supposed to be enforcing policies are

010truly doing so. Thank you for your comments. Appreciate it. Okay. Is there anybody on Zoom? Anybody else in the room that would like to make public comment? Okay. Moving along, then. We will now move to the approval of the consent agenda. The consent agenda is a meeting management tool tool whereby the board is able to pass multiple items with one motion. The consent agenda items have been reviewed by the board prior to this meeting. Any board member may remove an item from the consent agenda and place it on the regular agenda for discussion if they like. Do I have a motion? Before that, sorry. President Taylor, can I make some comments about the consent agenda before we approve it? You may. Okay. I know it's kind of an unorthodox, but >> Wait, I think we

011go I think we take the motion. We take the motion. We take the motion. Correct. I move the consent agenda be approved as presented. I second the motion. Okay. Go ahead, Director Ferguson. So, in reviewing the consent agenda in preparation for tonight's meeting, I just want to highlight the US history and financial literacy curriculum for adoption for 8th and 11th grade. There is a comprehensive presentation included in tonight's materials that clearly outline the rigorous steps that curriculum went through before coming to the board and put on our consent agenda. And I just want to call attention to that process because a significant amount of thoughtful work by staff educators, community, and students goes into these adoptions. And consent agenda items can sometimes move quickly without that effort being fully recognized. For members of our community

012who are interested in seeing exactly what we're voting on in our consent agenda this evening, I encourage you to visit the district website and review the meeting materials for tonight's agenda. It's a great opportunity to better understand both the curriculum and the thorough review process behind it. Great. Thank you. Yep. Let's see, we have a It has been moved and seconded to approve. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. And the consent agenda passes. Okay. Next up is the establishment of the regular agenda. Superintendent, are there any changes to the regular No, there are no changes to the regular agenda. Okay. Moving right along. Next up is a board retreat recap. The board will recap the board retreat held on March 23rd and April 1st of this year. Retreats are an opportunity for the

013board to set aside time for deeper and lengthier conversations about important issues facing the district and to engage staff in that discussion. Our spring retreat covered many topics including inclusionary practices, our new high school, grading practices, teacher evaluations, and many more. So, I will just open it up the floor to my colleagues if they have any comments. Yeah, Director Anderson. All right. [laughter] Um so, first I want to thank the staff and superintendent for the thoughtful preparation and collaboration that made the retreat productive and full of good discussions about the future. Um over the course of the board retreats, we focused on strengthening our governance, aligning long-term planning, and deepening our understanding of the systems that support student learning and well-being. Um a key area of discussion was governing coherence, which was really helpful for

014me, including a history lesson on the board's adoption of governing coherence over the years, how we use and review our operational expectations, which again very helpful for me, and ensuring transparency for the public and continuing improving our own board practices. We reflected on how to stay focused on outcomes while clearly understanding the board's over oversight role. Uh we also spent time on long-range planning including financial outlooks, staffing trends, and future program development. This includes conversations around elementary innovation, middle school data trends, future high school planning, and expanding CTE and hopefully steam, not just STEM, opportunities all with an eye toward sustainability and equitable equitable access for students. Um another major focus was special services and inclusive practices. We received an overview of the district's multi-year work around MTSS, which is a proactive data-informed framework designed

015to support students academically, socially, and emotionally. We discussed how this work aligns with upcoming state requirements and how the district is building consistency across schools through professional development, shared tools, and clear expectations always with the goal of supporting students as early and effectively as possible. I personally am seeing the benefits as I mentioned in the last board meeting of these services with my son specifically receiving additional support in reading to bring him up to grade level and this proactive approach is just wonderful because it's helping him catching it before he falls too far behind and and so, I'm excited to see additional MTSS work. Um our work study session also include discussion of grading practices, curriculum alignment, teacher evaluations, and student and staff voice. These conversations emphasize the importance of fairness, clarity, trust, and ensuring

016that grades reflect student learning rather than inconsistencies in practice. We also reviewed elements of the strategic plan and key policies to ensure alignment with district values and long-term goals. Um so, overall the common themes that emerged for myself were alignment, transparency, equity, and preparing for the future. The board's sorry, the board's role in this work has been to ask thoughtful questions, understand trade-offs, and keep students at the center of our discussions. Again, appreciate the work of staff in supporting these discussions and look forward to continuing this work in public as next steps move forward. Thank you, Director Anderson. Fantastic summary. >> [laughter] >> Sorry, and I have to think through mine ahead of time and kind of prep because it's a lot of information. Uh Director Moland. Yeah, it's great summary. So, I won't go

017through what we covered. You did an awesome job covering what we covered. Uh I will always share that there's not much treat in retreats. They happen here in the same board room. We are here all day together. It is though a wonderful opportunity to go deeper on topics, to spend a bit more time, have an opportunity, you know, although there's no decisions made throughout a session like that, it does allow us a deeper sharing of opinion, more time to ask questions, which I think is really helpful and to get more insight. I think, you know, having some time to always reground us in the governance model that we operate under is really important. I think there's lots of maybe beliefs or expectations about what a school board does. And sometimes it's good to get back

018to, you know, where do we fit in the overall model of really setting the policy and looking superintendent and staff on the operational side and making sure we always keep that in alignment and how we stay actively working together super super important. I think for me maybe the the couple of standout conversations were you know, actually starting to start to talk about what could be the focus or curriculum of the new high school. Um uh we have not started to have those discussions. And so, I think it's really important. We have a great opportunity to add to our district, to add the to the offerings we have for students. And so, it was great to start to pull in some information about research that's been going on, where we see the stated interests of our

019students through their high school and beyond plans, how we compare that to um uh oh my gosh, the government landscape of jobs. I forget what that's called, but like the what the federal government does and where we see growth in jobs and growth in salaries over time to make sure that we are we are preparing students for the world they'll go into. So, super conversation to start to get down to brass tacks about what that might look like was the highlight for me. So, time two full days, time well spent. Great. Uh yes, I'll just echo a lot of the same comments that the both of you made, but I really look forward to these retreats. It's just such a great learning experience for me to have be able to have conversations with my colleagues,

020but also to be able to access the expertise of the staff, which is um they're all fantastic. So, it's great. And I think the real takeaway for me was how robust our conversation was about the future of the district, which was really exhilarating to me in many ways, but great conversation around the new high school, rethinking about how we're educating our kids, and then also, you know, the hope of getting to the point where our schools are a little bit smaller and we have more dedicated spaces for an evolution in in education and career readiness and all of the programming that we're we're thinking about in that that space. Great conversation about the evolution of special services in the district. A lot of great information there. Learned a lot about teacher evaluation, which I did

021not know much about, and how the district deploys our our great staff across our schools to make sure that, you know, our kids are getting the best opportunities that they can. And nice conversation around grading practices, where the we've had progress there and where there's still opportunities moving forward. And then lastly, kind of wrapping it all up with a discussion about strategic plan part two and the work that we'll be focusing on over the next 3 years to move our district forward. So, really thankful to everyone's participation. Great conversation. And again, I also very special thank you to staff. I just thought the materials that were prepared for this retreat were exceptional and answered all of my anticipated all of my questions before I could >> [clears throat] >> even get to them. So, thank

022you for all of what I know was a lot of work to prepare us for the retreat. So, uh Superintendent, do you have anything to add like that? Great, I'll build off that and share a couple of reflections as well. Very much appreciate the work and effort of my team at the executive level. Our cabinet does do a lot of work to prepare for and and and prepare together, right, for engaging and setting up for a conversation for the board to happen, but also to be available to answer questions and be called upon as needed. And so, we appreciate that opportunity dialogue. I think for me that time that's dedicated in a longer amount of time, right, than we sometimes have in a work study before a board meeting is very helpful to stretch out

023the conversation to really uncover and build off of each other's ideas. And for myself and our executive cabinets, it's also helpful to get the kind of guidance and we can sort of get a sense of where things are going so, we can narrow in on some of our work and then come back to the board with a set of codified like, "Hey, here's what we heard. Is this the right direction?" So, it's a really important sort of checkpoint to help narrow in and focus on the work, but then also go back and do more work and it sort of answer questions and think more on things. So, we appreciate that that direction and that guidance and that ability to do sense making together. It's important. And and also that team time, that teaming, you start

024to see working styles play out as we all know that's an important part of any team or group of people to be effective together. And so, as we continue to do that as we, you know, we welcomed a new board member this year and that's important to always do every single year anyway. So, I do want to highlight two things building off of the ability to dream a bit and sort of think through the the future direction by looking at data that exists in terms of employment. I think it's a I was trying to remember that, too, Director Moland. I think it's the Bureau of Labor something. Labor statistics? >> Yes, yes. And so, like looking at that data for where people are having jobs, where the high growth jobs are, but then we layer

025on even local data for what that means in terms of the Washington state economy and how we are preparing young people really in in both the some of the STEM fields in particular. We do know there's high interest, right, in certain fields and so we also know certain fields are growing and will have high demand and we can't always pivot every 2 years to adjust to the marketplace, but we can cry figure out what those enduring skills are and that sort of speaks back to the building that we've done I think in that conversation around the portrait of a graduate to think critically around where those progressions can be. So that was very helpful and then really thinking through the role and the value of um how we how we do grading and how we

026do homework. I think that's an important priority to bring forward again as we have had lots of discussions about that with the board and and the student representatives and really the the goal is to make sure that our students can enjoy their experience and also show their work in progress and growth throughout a content progression, but that they that young people that you all hear mean our student reps experiences that you get to also take advantage of the full range of opportunities athletically, activity wise. And and there's a lot of distress out there. So we want to make sure that we reduce stress and make sure that you are supported in all ways. So that was a really important discussion for us to pull forward and get some guidance on. Great. Thank you. Okay, next

027up on the agenda is another recap. We're going to get good at recapping. Before the tonight's regular meeting the board met with ISD administrators to discuss the 26-27 budget. Would any of my colleagues like to comment? Director Mullins. Yep, so again work studies always helpful like mini retreats every time we're together to but in this case to do a single topic and get to spend more time. Obviously budget and how budget works is a multi-step [clears throat] process. It evolves over time. It has a number of inputs. It has many categories. There's always I will plug I will find on the ISD site the guide to understanding the budget. I think um our finance staff does a wonderful job in trying to make what is a very complex set of processes that make up our

028budget distilled and more easily consumable than it happens in the real world where it's quite complex. Um you know, as we wrap up legislative sessions as we see shifts in funding from the federal government as we are making decisions as a district on our top priorities and where we want to go in the future, the budget is a way that that all gets expressed including how we resource the needs and the differing needs and supports for students. So I think it's always such a good job that the team does here of being clear, being proactive and outlining both the opportunities for that to take advantage of grants and other resources, the the evaluation of programs as they exist to determine if they're serving us and we keep doing them or there's changes we need to

029make and then how we apply the dollars available from both state state government, federal government, but certainly from our local local efforts like levies. So always appreciate [clears throat] the conversation. It is an incredible amount of detail and I try to take my role of how do I help simplify the complex and hopefully help in the process of communicating it out to the community, but appreciate the conversation. Yeah, I would say it was a very helpful discussion particularly around this point of how best to put our budget in context for the community. It is it's a complex issue with many buckets of funding and how we try to balance all of that. But I'm just very appreciative of the administration's approach which is generally fiscally conservative in order to try to make sure that we're

030addressing issues that need to be addressed now before they become bigger problems later which we unfortunately have seen for neighboring districts at times. So I'm very thankful for that approach and the way that we try to think about the budget moving forward and then you know lastly always trying to protect our classroom dollars as much as we can. As we are working through the budget process. I'll probably save the rest of my comments for later because I know we have a we have a presentation on the budget as well. So Any other comments Superintendent? Just always good to have the discussion and be able to talk about engagement sort of dialogue back and forth which is less something that can happen at a board meeting. So appreciate my team member for team members for being

031there and being able to provide their thoughts and perspective as we prepare for tonight's meeting. Thank you. Okay. Next up on the agenda is works in progress. This is standing opportunity for the Superintendent to provide a brief status report on various projects and activities in the district. Superintendent. Great. Well, what's been part of our practice is to sort of on a monthly basis in the first meeting of the month just show what's upcoming in terms of the various celebrations that happen across the the district in terms of recognition for certain aspects of education work both for our employee groups, but also other aspects of important topics for educators and then also our heritage and cultural events that happen. We do have a lot of that in our very diverse community such as ours culturally, religiously

032and otherwise. Um the one thing that I do want to say which is very exciting for many people is that spring break is coming up. So that is why that is boxed right there because that's the most immediate thing that's probably on people's minds once we get past tomorrow's school day. But again, we want to make sure we highlight the the plethora of things that are what we recognize and what we honor and that we're putting that forward and making that visible to everyone in the community. So hopefully this practice has been a good shift this year as we as we put that forward as well. And then the the two other things I'll share just that are pretty important in terms of activities since the last board meeting I want to make sure the

033community is aware of is we wrapped up the third of three events around senior exit interviews across Liberty High School, Skyline High School and this week Issaquah High School. And for me it's always just a great reminder. I was able to participate in Issaquah High this this this week and seeing the amazing hearing the amazing accomplishments, reflections of our students who are graduating is is really what makes you know all all the the hard work and the efforts really worthwhile and it was great because actually the funny thing this time was every single student I got to meet with this year had actually started in Issaquah schools in kindergarten. So they really had a long view of their journey educationally throughout the system and that doesn't that hasn't always been the case when I do

034the exit interview. So it just happened to be the luck of the draw on that one. But it was remarkable to me also that they all had a shared starting point right in Issaquah schools, but they all had very different pathways and very different reflections on their journey ranging from going right into very clear expression of I'm going to either get an apprenticeship or I'm going to go work on cars and where that came from not only in terms of the family support and influence for how that um how that can look and that and going into business and thinking that through very concretely and having examples of that to going on to a four-year college university and wanting to major in a variety of things whether to go into health sciences or to go

035into business through a formal business program. Um sports medicine comes up always as a really top opportunity and how that influenced someone to shift their career path and hopes after their first year taking a sports medicine class in junior year. But then also the fine arts and seeing someone who was really proud of their work in performance arts and how that was leading them to want to go into the industry as well. So I think that the amazing options across all of our schools for activities, for courses, for exposure to different kinds of careers and opportunities after high school I think was reflected very well in sort of a small subset of our population and I think that just gets exponentially bigger as you look across the thousands of students that are in our system.

036So that was pretty incredible and that's a lot of work. I want to thank our career and college center team members and the counselors at all of our high schools as well as all of our staff and then board members also contribute their time to participate in exit interviews, our administration and staff members as well as many community members. It was great. I got to see two grandparents that came of of a student and a to be soon second student in our in our system and just seeing us engage with all parts of our community really I think is very powerful. So I want to spend a lot of time talking about that because that's a great part of as we march to the end of this year one of the rituals that we have

037in our system. I will also note that we re vamped the exit interview process not only in terms of some of the consistent practices to help you know achieve seeing you know 500 or more students in a couple hour time frame, but also in terms of linking to the portrait of graduate work and thinking about what kinds of questions are helpful for young people to get exposure to as they prepare to move into career and college worlds specifically using behavioral questions and and then an ability to have a sort of range of follow-up questions that come from that to support them as they think through and reflect on the examples of their life already they've been able to experience or accrue and get exposure to to speak to future aspirations and goals. So, I thought

038that was a a nice thing and we're we will be gathering feedback. I immediately did get a survey for feedback uh the same day. So, hopefully that will also yield some um helpful and input as we continue to go forward. Um and the final thing I'll talk about is that our student representative process for the school board is underway. Um we uh I I always recognize as a moment of time that sort of we're in that moment of transition. So, there's overlapping school board representatives that are going to be transitioning soon, but not yet. You're still here. Thank you for being here. Um but we are in that overlapping world where um we're looking towards that transition and I want to thank Marceau Hauser for his leadership in helping to provide the support to um

039the directors Mullings and Coin as they prepare to um interview uh candidates for the school board representative position. Um and we'll be continuing to share more about that uh throughout the rest of this spring as well. So, that's another big lift and activity that's happening. Thank you, Superintendent. I love the senior exit interviews myself. I will say I was very excited. I was at IHS yesterday doing the interviews and my first two students are planning to attend my alma mater Oregon State University. So, I was very excited about that. >> [laughter] >> They sent them to the right person. Um okay. So, moving along. Uh next up we have a capital projects update of I believe Mr. Attorney Mullings. Good evening, everyone. Tom Mullings with the capital projects office. Going to give a capital projects

040update. We're going to focus tonight on the new high school, the latest updates, the construction. Uh we obtained site works one permit, which was issued on the 30th of March and construction activities have commenced. Um as anti-climactic as it can be, construction activities once you get that um don't mean large earth moving and those type of things yet. We have some steps we have to go through with the city to prepare the site. And um some of those activities are installing temporary permit perimeter construction fencing. We have to survey the clearing limits. We have to tag trees that will be saved and install what temporary erosion and sediment control measures or TESC measures. And um there's some construction support material, storage containers, forklifts, porta-potties, hygiene stations, as well as since this update was done, some

041additional um equipment. The team continues to work with the city of Issaquah to obtain the remaining permits. There's quite a few permits I'm in the process of putting together a a list that I'll be able to present at the next meeting and provide an update as to where we are with all of those. Um and the team continues to coordinate with city of Sammamish on the southeast or the 228th Avenue Southeast right-of-way permit, which allows us to uh widen and do the work on 228th. And we have a groundbreaking ceremony, which is planned for at at this time. It was later this month. It's actually now been named as April 24th, which is a Friday. Just remainder will be some pictures, required sign that we have to put up for the city. It allows it

042just names who the contractor is and you have a QR code if there's any questions and a 24-hour number there that they the the contractor and he can answer any concerns. And the the QR code leads them to our website, which we will keep updated with um various information, construction activities, traffic impacts, that type of thing. Some construction support materials arriving on the site, temp uh temp fencing going up. Clear uh staking of clearing limits. Um more construction fencing. Um temporary erosion control measures and of course we have hygiene stations, porta-potties. You can't do out without those on a construction site. Um some equipment and containers of materials are showing up. And groundbreaking um has since been named as April 24th. We're up on the plateau at the site and we're still an expected opening

043of fall of 27. Any questions? And I've got a couple extra pictures if at all possible that came in after this update was sent to the board. We'll see if we can get them to come up. Shows a little more activities that have happened since the board presentation was due. I kind of threw them a curveball. So, we'll see how it how it works. >> Well, while we're pulling them up, I'll just add that you can see that there's actually uh the the site itself had has a lot of clearing uh because there were buildings and actually a whole school and uh buildings and roads already on the site and um you can also see that there is a different grade across the different levels of uh of sort of where the ground is compared

044to ground level or lake level here. I guess it's not sea level, it's lake level here. Um so, I just say that out loud cuz it's you know, it might be surprising for people to to notice that as you show these pictures, which is why it's so powerful to see pictures. So, we can share and give people a window into our world. And you'll see as we go through construction photos in future updates, you'll see the large cuts, what we call cuts, what you're knocking off the high parts of the site and you bring everything down to basically one level. Construction trailers on site. Wanted to show some activity. We have some equipment that has shown up. Some more support materials. Next one. We've started laying what they call a riprap or ballast for construction

045temporary construction roads to solidify the site if not or stabilize the site if not all the equipment will just sink into the mud. Was there one more? Nope, that's it. So, any questions? Director Anderson. I don't have any questions, but I did want to say that I had the pleasure of walking the site yesterday for the very first time. I don't know if my fellow directors uh knew that I was doing that, but it was a lot of fun to walk around and see everything. And I also can confirm that most of it is already clear cut from the previous uh church and uh other yeah, the college and other uh buildings that used to be there. Um I hope I can share this. One of the things for the trees that will be taken

046down, um it really healed my heart to hear that we're actually having somebody use that wood to repurpose uh to be used in the high school. So, um the green, you know, uh person that cares about trees and everything inside me was very uh happy to hear that. So, we're we're definitely doing a lot of this work very thoughtfully and um it was just really neat to go see it. So, I thank you for the tour um and getting that opportunity. And it was such a gorgeous day to do it, too. So. >> Perfect day. Thank you. Anyone else? Director Mullings? Uh sure. I mean, I guess I'd like to understand on the various permits. I guess something this size there's got to be a lot of permits. Yes. >> But is that something we

047expect that they'll be coming in over time or Yep. >> like in the next short period or how does the how does the permitting come Permits, if if all went well, our next permit would be our building permit. Then our site works two permit in about the same time frame. We're talking a month, month and a half, maybe. Um the right-of-way permit is probably the next one that needs to follow soon after. And then there's lots of retaining wall permits. They all kind of start to fall like dominoes because a lot of them are dependent on each other. And as they get the larger permits that cover more of the area, they start focusing focusing in on some of the smaller permits like different kinds of retaining walls, parking garage, that kind of stuff. So.

048Awesome. And I it is great. I love that um you do share with us the construction pictures as it goes, particularly at this site. I think I mentioned that a couple of board meetings ago, you know, there obviously used to be buildings and a school and roads. Uh lots of roads, lots of parking lots. There's lots of uh construction up on that space. And you know, when it's just amazing to me one to finally be breaking ground. So, I think it's a really exciting moment. But also knowing that I now have a kid in her second year of college and she went to swimming lessons at the pool on that site when we first moved here 12 years ago. So, um it's just really cool to see that now becoming something else that serves the

049community. And uh I'm very excited about how it moves forward. Thank you. Uh Director Mullings asked my question. So, I will just say um I do. Very excited. This is all great. I look forward to more updates, more pictures, and uh we'll just keep keep up on the progress. It's very exciting. Very exciting. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Okay. Now, next up on the agenda is the monitoring report for operational expectation 17 sustainability. Uh I think I will start with a motion. Yes, I move the board accept the monitoring report for operational expectation 17 sustainability OE 17 as presented. Do I have a second? >> I second the motion. Great. Thank you. Uh let's see. We're going to start with a presentation from the administration followed by public comment and then a student report. Um

050and then we will have board discussion after that. So I will turn over for the presentation from the administration. Great. Um I just want to say how exciting this is. This is our first year monitoring the newest policy um from the from the board for operational expectations for sustainability and so we're excited about this um and uh eager to get feedback cuz this is our first time monitoring and I will pass it over to uh Mr. Jason Morse. Thank you, Superintendent. Uh Superintendent Tally, members of the board, um thank you uh for being here tonight. I'm here to uh monitor and answer any questions regarding OE 17 sustainability, our newest uh operational expectation. Uh prior to moving on to my uh short presentation, I want to uh shout out to all of the staff in

051our uh school district, in our community, um and especially our student population who really helped this OE come to fruition. Um this was very much a student driven um as well as the school board driven initiative, but I would be remiss if I didn't uh comment on the impact of the student voice that really led us to developing this uh OE. So with that in mind, uh this report >> [clears throat] >> reflects our continued commitment to embedding sustainable practices across district operations while remaining mindful of financial resources. Our approach focuses on four key areas: waste management, transportation, sustainable facilities, and infrastructure readiness. In waste management, the district maintains a comprehensive system-wide program that includes recycling, composting, and safe disposal of hazardous materials. Last year, we managed 13,000 cubic yards of waste with 42.5% diverted

052to recycling. Through the use of dumpster monitoring software, we reduced hauling costs by 4% avoiding nearly $68,000 in expenses over a four-year or I'm sorry, a two-year period. In addition, all schools participate in sustainable sustainability education and programs and we're advancing towards certification through the Healthy Green Schools and Colleges Initiative. In transportation, the district continues to reduce environmental impact while maintaining safe and efficient service. Through route optimization software and data analysis, we have reduced miles driven total miles driven by over 95,000 miles across the past three years resulting in significant fuel savings. We have also transitioned to renewable diesel reducing greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 70% and lowering maintenance costs. Importantly, we are investing in the future with the addition of three new electric school buses and charging infrastructure positioning ourselves for continued expansion

053of a zero emission fleet. In our facilities, we are implementing long-term strategies to reduce energy use by improving efficiency. By tracking energy consumption and completing targeted upgrades such as LED lights and HVAC improvements, we achieved over $186,000 in utility cost savings last year alone. At Issaquah High School, targeted upgrades and retro-commissioning led to a 24% reduction in energy use intensity or EUI translating to approximately $64,500 in utility savings over an 8-month period. Sustainability is also integrated into our new construction through efficiency uh and energy efficient systems, uh renewable energy initiatives, and environmentally responsible design practices. These efforts have earned both state and national recognition. Finally, our district continues to strengthen infrastructure resilience in response to future environmental impacts. This includes investments in temperature monitoring systems, air quality systems, emergency pre-preparedness, and backup power connectivity. Our

054facilities demonstrated strong performance during recent extreme weather events including major regional flooding with no damage to key sites. Ongoing planning ensures we are prepared for risks such as wildfire smoke, severe weather, and power disruption. The district is making measurable progress in reducing environmental impact, improving operational efficiency, and preparing for future challenges. This work reflects reflects strong alignment with board priorities and a continued commitment to responsible stewardship. Thank you. Um let's see. Do we have any public comment in the room? Anyone on Zoom? Okay. Not not seeing any. Yep. Next Next is our student report from Laya. Hi, my name is Laya Delip. I serve as the junior rep from Liberty High School. So from March 17th through March 27th, I conducted an online survey and developed a report talking about student perspectives on OE 17

055at at Liberty High School. The purpose of this report was to gather student voice on efforts at our school towards sustainability and this data is incredibly valuable in understanding and monitoring student perspectives on the district's progress towards OE 17's goals. It also ensures that student voice is talked about and provides a safe space for students to share feedback. So the survey was distributed to students through Canvas announcements as well as during advisory and flex periods. A total of 85 responses were collected out of about 1,600 students. So it's important to note that student survey fatigue was cited as a contributing factor to the lower rate of participation. Um the survey primarily contained 10 multiple choice questions focusing on student perceptions of practices within the school surrounding sustainability as well as two open-ended questions and optional

056comment sections to allow for more detailed student input. So these questions were mainly grouped into three categories which were waste systems, environmental impact of operations, as well as education and engagement. So under the first category, waste systems, students were primarily asked about access to and the ways that they're able to use recycling and compost bins. So and of course those greatly contribute to sustaina- bility. 48% of students talked about the fact that they sometimes had access to these um resources while 40% said that they always had access. So feedback in this area highlighted a desire for more recycling bins in classrooms and more accessible options for composting throughout the school day. In our open-ended questions, many students emphasized the need for clear guidance on what materials belong in the trash, um compost, and recycling especially

057for items that are found in their cafeteria. Um I would say that is one of the biggest takeaways from the survey. Under the second category, um environmental impact of school operations, students were asked about whether they noticed efforts to conserve energy within the school and just questions about conservation. Um 46% of students indicated that they somewhat noticed these efforts but also identified this as an area needing improvement within classrooms. Um students were also asked about the transportation methods that they take to get to and from school and many students talked about the school bus and how environmentally conscious that they felt while using our school buses and that they are a great resource for students overall. Under the third category, education and engagement, students were asked about their exposure to environmental education and resources. Many

058students reported that um courses such as biology, environmental science, and programs such as green team provided opportunities for to learn about conservation and sustainability. However, students also noted that they would benefit from more knowledge about specific sustainability initiatives and programs occurring within the district. Overall, students indicated that um Liberty High School is making positive progress towards sustainability and just talked about ongoing efforts to improve in this area which is already seeing so much growth. Thank you. Thank you, Laya. Um okay. I will now open um the floor up to any comments or questions. Director Anderson. Uh let's see here. So um first I want to recognize the depth of work reflected uh in this monitoring report. Uh the the fact that helps board um the fact that they're doing an amazing job is Sorry. Uh

059I think the fact that uh we won the 2026 Magna NS- NSBA Magna Prize Grand Prize Award kind of confirms that we're on the right track with all of our efforts. Um I'm personally a huge advocate for sustainability and climate education, so this report really made me happy. Um I think one of the data points that I found really particularly particularly interesting was that we drive 1.3 million miles across a 110 square mile district. So the fact that we can actually reduce 100,000 miles between a what three school year I think is amazing and I look forward to seeing what else we can do to help reduce that but just blows my mind. 1.3 million miles is a lot. I'm also a huge supporter of the decision for the district to use renewable diesel. Given

060the scale of our transportation system and the fact that we still found savings I think it's just amazing cuz I know that renewable diesel can be more expensive but you know with the savings on the filters and the different things I just I think that that's amazing. So great job there. In reviewing Layla's report it does appear that there is a bit of gap with students at least you know there's some opportunities there for more visibility more education. I also personally know that PTAs and PTSAs are picking up a little bit of slack in the schools with partnering with companies like Ridwell. And so I think there's some opportunities there as well because if we don't have a PTA or PTSA doing that then there's some gaps there as well. I do have two questions

061and it kind of you know correlates to with budget. So is the date sustainability investments expand what key trade-offs in the district considering within existing financial constraints and how are priority demands when resources are limited. So you know as we're looking at budget and you know we're making all of these decisions is there anything that you know we're concerned that we're not going to be able to continue this good work. Thank you Director Anderson. I appreciate your question. I'd also like to prior to jumping into your answer I want to acknowledge Julius Carter who is at my left who is our director of facilities and maintenance for the school district and Julius is behind much of this work along with our transportation department and our entire maintenance team and programs. So want to make sure

062Julius is here. He's also here to help answer any really tough questions. We get down in the weeds. Um So I think the question centers around with as we continue to plan for future budget opportunities budget restrictions things of that nature can we maintain sustainable practices. There a couple things that are challenges to us and I want to really this relates very closely to our levy that just passed. So if the district is able to continue to acquire um funding sources such as our levy we are able to continue to look forward to keeping our key systems up to date and functioning and improving. And often times so I want to call this back to our work at Issaquah High School with our our Department of Commerce clean energy grant. So we wrote that grant

063Director Carter was was key part of writing that grant. We earned or received $850,000 to do that work at Issaquah High School. The school district had to match about $150,000 of that to make that grant work and to to that was our obligation in receiving that grant. So the the more often we have those funds available to leverage against grant dollars we see a substantial return. So in that specific example in about six months from April of 25 to December of 25 that's where we realized that 64 almost 65,000 dollars in energy savings. So that 150 that we invested as part of that grant process will pay for itself in a matter of a year or two as those energy savings are realized. So often times for us to leverage grant funding and to leverage

064kind of our resources and make these changes we need that that that those dollars available to us. Um other things you know we have to be mindful anytime we expand or retract programming as that could impact transportation or bus usage miles driven. So I think short answer to this long answer I'm giving is really we have to keep sustainability as one of the talking points when we talk about what our future plans are what our strategic plans are and how we build and expand or retract different programming. We just got to make sustainability part of our lexicon of our planning process. I think the future is bright. We have some ideas already for next year. I think we've heard I've heard from students. We have some opportunities to communicate a little better with clubs and

065students in the building to really increase the capabilities that we have for the composting and recycling efforts. So there's a lot I think still that we can do. I'm proud of my team for first year monitor that we had a lot to to offer already. So I hope that helps. Yep absolutely. I just had one other question um we have 26 schools do we have clubs supporting sustainability in every single school? Do you want to take that one? Yeah I Director Carter Director of Facilities. Yeah we have we have programs at every school. Especially in the city of Issaquah proper we have a strong partnership with the city of Issaquah. They they help us out with that messaging. They have a an actual green person for lack of a better word that comes and and

066monitors our lunches and make sure trash and recyclables go in the right bins. So they've been really great at helping us with that messaging and we're going to expand that even more next year. Great thank you. Yeah. Director Mullings. Yes this is um this is a really fun one to get to monitor because it's new because it is very much out of student voice. I think you gave the board more credit than we deserved in this one. This is absolutely work that was born out of students in the district and worked with students in the district mentored by the student representatives. You know we in the board helped shape like how do we fit it into our language how do we structure it but it is just really gratifying and as I said when we

067were adopting or in the middle of finalizing the language in this policy as someone who sustainability is not something I wake up thinking about every day it's not one of my core areas of focus what I really wanted to make sure is that the value statement at the top of the policy was written in a way to remind us when we did future monitorings of what we what we were doing it for and what we what we cared about. And so it was just really kind of heartwarming to go back and look at this again because the students were like oh that's what you want this to say. So this was very much at least the second sentence something the students came back with that we aim to reduce our environmental impact and model responsible

068stewardship by embedding sustainability into every aspect of our work which you just which you just talked about. So I just love that we were able to capture their thoughts and use it to guide how we look at it going forward. So a little sidebar there. Um it's this district has always done a lot in this area and so it's great to see that it can be recognized on one place and rolled up into into one statement. There's one piece that I go to in this report at least the one thing that jumped out and it is oh now I won't be able to find it again. But it's near the very end. It was the comment about the Creek Bank. The this is page six. So in 20 22 the district completed the Holly Street

069Creek Bank repairs and there was a period of our lives on the board where we talked about this every single board meeting this erosion of the bank could we fix the bank would this would this bank actually eat so far into the property there that should we keep the Holly Street early learning center. It is certainly one of the reasons why this building doesn't sit on that site. We get a lot of questions about why did you get another admin building because of this that I'm looking at the there's a link to the picture because where we had the admin building was sitting in a site where the creek was literally eroding the land and so we couldn't support a central office building and so for me it was just really great to call that

070out and I think people think of things like one at a time but this took years to correct and it took a lot of process and I know a lot of work to make sure that we could stop the erosion in that Creek Bank preserve the site for what is our early learning center but also a reason why we're here in this building cuz it couldn't sustain it couldn't sustain us here on that site anymore. So I just called it out because this was like a month by month conversation of basically what happens to this Creek Bank and you know was the property going to be sustainable. So I loved seeing that called out in the report. So thank you for reminding us about about that piece and I had one more thing but it's

071totally gone now. So this is awesome. Oh I was going to talk about the student report. I think the other thing the student report says and it was really important again to the students that helped write this was part of our accountability was to make sure that our students were educated and mindful and one year in it's encouraging to see that some students are but it it really does highlight that we have more work to do. We have more specificity that we need to give people because I think even sometimes we follow the steps but I don't think we know why. I know I with the compost bins, whatever. I mean, I don't always get that right. So, I think the important the report is really helpful in making sure we're highlighting where we we

072have to do the sustainability work, but we also part of our core job in this policy is to make sure we're better educated of why we're doing it as well. So, thank you for keeping us honest on that one. Bye. Um after looking at the report and going through my survey results as well, I just wanted to say specifically um I really appreciated um the energy conservation uh piece specifically about installing LED lights into schools. I think that was very impactful and obviously um we see a lot of energy being saved because of those things. Um and so yeah, again, for the first year, I think this is an incredibly cohesive report and um tackles a lot of points um that students were concerned about. And and I'm excited to see where it goes in

073the future as well. Any other comments from our students? Okay. Um few comments from myself. Um I thought I thought this report was very accelerating. >> [laughter] >> I mean, I I I was reading the report and then kept saying to myself, "Wow, that's cool. Wow, that's cool." So, um thank you for this. I will I will say that I think this work is very often um not understood and not seen, which I would really encourage people to read the report to see all the work that is going on in the district cuz you wouldn't necessarily know that there's a new HVAC system in a in a building or new I've been spending a lot of time with Jason and Julius. Uh new MERV 13 air filters, right? Did I get that right? MERV. Yeah,

074MERV. MERV. Almost had it. Uh MERV 13 air filters or that buildings have been designed to take advantage of more natural light to save energy costs. Things like that. So, it is often unseen, but this report really spells out um all of the great benefits, tangible benefits to the district from this work and the savings. I just can't get over the savings that this work is generating for the district. In particular, it was the transportation space that also really stood out to me. Uh as Director Anderson mentioned, the 95,000 miles saved in uh through the routing software and how, you know, we think about transporting kids, but that saved 21,000 gallons of gasoline, which I'm trying to think of the container that would even hold that. So, um fantastic. The same thing with the the

075move to um clean diesel, 70% reduction in greenhouse gases. Um the lower maintenance costs for our fleet, all of that as a result of it. Um just really, really en- encouraging. So, um one one thing I wanted to say, too, about the student report, Lia. I thought your report was great. Um I think moving forward, because this is our first uh monitoring, it would be really great if we could attach this as an appendix to next year's student report, because I think it would be very interesting. I don't know if we would use the same questions or if the next year's student might choose to use different questions, but I think it'd be really um helpful to reflect back, see what students were saying this time this year versus when we look at this again

076next year. So, uh thank you for all the work. Really good. Um Superintendent, any comments? I really want to commend um Jason Morrison and Julius Carter here for their leadership. Um Martin Turney as well, who oversees all of finance and operations, but the uh there many more people who uh work in our operations teams and I I'm really proud that this um uh this operational expectation exists, cuz it allows us to lift up all that great work. Operations is one of those things where sometimes as long as nothing's going wrong, do you know what I mean? It's going great, right? So, how do we find more opportunities to truly recognize our team members who are working in the operations um side, which is often just to help pave the way for us to do teaching

077and learning. Um but actually, it is an aspect of teaching and learning as well, very concretely as we hear from the uh values of of this board and thinking through how our our students are also um learning about um environmental stewardship and sustainability and and wanting more of that. So, I really appreciate um the incredible work of of of you all. Thank you and and the many team members who are also not here tonight at the board members that this represents. Okay, I think we are ready for a student advisory vote at this point. We'll bring that up. Come on, girls. Boy, you guys are fast. Come on. Student education. Yeah. And there we go. There we have five, right? Yes. Wow, thank you, guys. Uh so, the results are in, five in favor. That's

078great. And with that, I think we have a motion on uh the table to accept the monitoring report for operational expectation 17, sustainability, as presented. All in favor, please say I. I. >> I. And the motion carries. That's great. Thank you very much. Yeah. Next up on the agenda is a 2026-2027 budget update. And I will turn over to you, Superintendent and Mr. Turney. Great. Uh before we kick off on this um budget update, I want to just frame this by saying this is continued work we will have to be doing. Um you know, not only did the COVID years and I were we are far away enough that we sometimes forget about those years, but we are still close enough to remember that that created a massive interruption to how things happened within public

079schools and it created a lot of massive disruption in the market as it relates to um enrollment as well as expenditures and sort of how people experience uh the extra dollars going away. We did not receive as many extra dollars at the time. Uh so, for us, the impact was not as great as we move forward beyond those years. Um and more importantly, you know, the board and the and the team um here and in my first year as superintendent did do several years of reductions to try and meet the sort of changing landscape. And the landscape continues to evolve. So, we're navigating complex and difficult times um as we see from near nearby districts as well as other districts across the state and this country. Um budget is a important topic and so, we'll

080be continuing to bring this forward um at our board meetings. Uh it is an important aspect of how we um do our work in terms of thinking through what enrollment does to our revenue and then how we have to manage our expenses. Um we've often talked about expense management. We've talked a lot about how we have to really be in a mindset of starting things uh if we know that those are promising practices for our young people and to support our staff, how we have to um stop things when we know that they might not be serving us well anymore and be really clear in an in a environment that's not high revenue uh or high growth as the district was about 10 years ago and even for that decade before, we were marching towards

081very high numbers of enrollment um as many districts were in this area. Um we have to really be thinking through um is the thing that we are doing now, is that going to be term limited? Is that going to be sunset at some point? Um if we do start something, how do we know that's working and what kinds of practices and routines do we put in place to assess that on a regular and early basis? And by the way, many things can be true at one time. We've heard that from our board as well, that um you can also be looking to grow things that are working well. So, as we make room in our budget to allocate resources, which are finite, um in the also the face of >> Sorry, what? Oh, you're welcome.

082>> [laughter] >> I'm going to pause for a moment so we can adjust that. Thank you. Um as we as we face, you know, lots of other complexities in our in our market and the legislative component will be highlighted here as well. Uh we we do want to make sure that this is an important topic. We just have to be in the practice of talking about this more um cuz it's a change for our district over, you know, um uh a long time of high growth and high revenue. So, um I'm grateful to work with very thoughtful people and a thoughtful board to be able to tackle these topics head-on and to engage our community in continuing in continuing ways in the future as we continue to make sense of this and adjust. So, with

083that, I wanted to put that out to uh to frame us up and I'll pass it over to Mr. Turney. And then uh making sure everyone is on mute that's uh on the Zoom. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Superintendent. Um again, I'm Martin Turney, Chief of Finance and Operations, um joined by Mariah Benesik, our Executive Director of Finance and Budget. Uh she'll go over some details. Um just going to do a quick overview for you. Um tonight we're looking at uh providing an update on the development of the 2026-2027 um budget. Um why some adjustments are required and how we're responding to the long-term financial stability. And I'll point out this is largely around our general fund. We obviously have uh other funds that have dedicated uh resources that are used for the purposes that

084they were um uh gone out for. So, for instance, the levy. Uh we mentioned some of that earlier. Uh in the critical repairs realm or the new high school and those kind of dedicated funds. So, I want to acknowledge front that we're um navigating a complex um and at times challenging reality. On one hand, we're seeing an overall decline in enrollment, which directly impacts our revenue and requires us to take a more conservative and disciplined approach to budgeting. As you'll see in the presentation, uh this is driven by both enrollment trends and raising costs that continue to outpace state funding. These financial conditions are not static. They continue to evolve. And if we don't take action, the impact compounds over time, making future adjustments more significant and more disruptive. At the same time, these trends

085are not uniform across our system. We continue to experience capacity pressures at the high school level, uh which we are addressing to ensure we can meet student needs and maintain appropriate learning environments. Our responsibility is to balance these realities, to plan for capacity where it's needed, while also aligning our overall staffing and expenditures to a district-wide enrollment decline. Just as importantly, we remain committed to honoring the investments our community has made through voter-approved levies, ensuring these funds continue to support the programs and services that are in they are intended for, including sustaining robust mental health supports that are critical to student well-being and success. This is why you'll hear us emphasize a more conservative approach. It's not about stepping back from our commitments, it's about making sure we are making sustainable decisions that allow us

086to deliver on those commitments both now and into the future. Throughout this process, our focus remains on responsible stewardship, protecting the instructional core, and being transparent with our community about both the challenges and the path forward. And so, with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mariah to walk you through the details. Good evening, board and community. So, first, why are adjustments required? Well, in the last year and this current school year, our fund balance will drop over 30%, and as our fund balance drops, our stability drops. And so, um you will see in the news potentially that other school districts um they're borrowing from their capital projects fund as an example in order to pay for expenses in the general fund. They have to pay that money back with interest. So, as Martin

087mentioned, those funds are designated for those purposes, so they can't be moved around in that way. Anything pulled has to be moved back. So, um also what we're experiencing is what what is creating that fund balance decline is the large amount of student decline. So, we have since 23-24, over 1,400 students who will leave who have left this district and will possibly leave this district in the coming fall, all combined. Um so, we must stop this imbalance between revenues and expenditures, and um we're also closely monitoring our cash flow. As things get tighter, um you have to watch that very closely to make sure that you can make your bills each month. So, we also um part of our uh annual committee, we have a fact team, financial analysis core team, and we met in

088March, and so we dug into the enrollment decline, how school funding works. Um there was concern about running start growth and any financial impacts around that, as well as an increased focus on the long-term financial sustainability and the district response. And so, what does it mean? So, we're continuing to reinforce these key financial concepts as um Director Taylor has mentioned, it's very complex um and the way that funding works for school districts. And then also linking enrollment to, you know, budget and staffing decisions. Um as we have less students, we have less staff. We have smaller departments and we have smaller schools. Um so, also um there's an expectation for consistent clear communication is which is what we're doing. Part of that meeting in group, we are going to be putting together our annual budget

089guide um help with that clear communication with the budgeting process and the factors that are a part of it. So, um for our enrollment, um and so, you'll see from what I mentioned earlier with the 1,400 student decline, that's from 23-24 to the projected um and so, um we are having as Martin mentioned, we have a conservative approach, and so, um in the past, we were able to give more FTE earlier in the year. Now we have to we we need to be fiscal fiscally smart um with as as that fund balance is more constrained to wait to put any additional staff um in August and making sure that students are verified before we can increase class sections and different things like that. Um and that That is hard. That's a difficult adjustment for our

090schools, for our staff, and for, you know, potential parents and different things like that. So, these are things that we we monitor on a weekly basis, looking at if not a daily basis, depending on the week. Um we're monitoring that to look at what is confirmed, what moves can we make, and um when we can, we make those shifts, and we are we are already planning for if enrollment comes in in August that is more than projected, we can go ahead and add staff at that time. So, um for 26-27, um in order to stabilize the fund balance with the decline, as we're estimating over $8.9 million decline just in our fund balance for this current school year and 6.2 from the prior school year, um we we need to take action. And so, part

091of that is um having $16 million in cost savings. While primarily those were done through attrition, there are a portion of those that are also through within our bargaining agreements and our contracts of non-renewal. Um these are very difficult decisions, um and this takes a lot of of um care, planning, um and figuring out how the work is going to continue to be supported and services going to be offered. Um our schools are smaller, so we we do have to get smaller, and that's just that is a part of the process, but it's still a hard process. Um you can only cut so much in non-staffing costs as 84% of our budget is in staffing. So, the majority of that 16 million is in staffing at $12 million. So, um for the past few years,

092we have uh we have a start-stop-continue-grow framework. We also have a shift framework as to built into that. So, um just if something is sunsetting or stopping, doesn't mean that work is not continuing. It can be shifting into other positions, departments, and so, we want to look at the student experience, student outcomes, and um the instructional core as well. Look at those impacts of any changes, and and think about what are any consequences of any changes, um and making sure that we meet those needs where they are most needed. We also want to align to the board budget development guidelines, um in the specifics like preserving the equity-based budget um investments is as an example, as well as um continuing to develop multi-year uh financial projections to help guide us through this process. And part

093of fiscal stewardship is not on all investments are ongoing. Um some will sunset. They are time-limited or they shift into um other resources and changes that help fit that need. More details into the um staffing to enrollment. Um so, about 20 FTE in the central office, $3.2 million, and that is a total of 6% of a a decline. So, we're going to be declining 6% in central office administration and support staffing. At the school, um it will be 53 FTE, and that's about 8.8 staffing to enrollment as well. And so, in regards to the total population for our school-based staffing, that's 4% of the staffing there, and then also the 3.7 in non-staffing adjustments, which equals the $16 million. So, um part of our framework is looking at what's starting. So, um part of the

094levy committee was to invest money in developing a Mandarin dual language program in at the elementary level. Um our district's very excited for the opportunity to be able to offer this next year at the preschool level, and then also starting to develop the the work for um at the elementary level as well, and have that implemented in the coming year years. Um and so, we also um was mentioned earlier in the board meeting about MTSS and the impact of the the program. And so, also having a universal screening tool, which will help um strengthen intervention and inter- identification. We also have um a partnership to support special education staffing as well as looking or shifting the cost effective service delivery for mental health supports and this is let's the district be able to provide more

095supports at the same amount of cost. And then looking at report repurposing resources to support our innovation at elementary level as well as secondary outcomes. So as mentioned we talked about the adjustments to enrollment for the staffing portion. And then also some unfunded we we looked at our programs and there portions of this programs that are unfunded but also maybe are not having the outcomes with the the costs associated. And so the optional summer school offerings at elementary level as well as in the secondary but while maintaining that credit recovery access and also extended school year services for special education students. Um reducing the extended day contracts as well as looking at consolidation of contractual services partnerships where that makes sense to streamline that. And of course looking at operational efficiencies and making those changes

096in specifically in different operational departments such as finance technology and facilities. Um What we're continuing so at the prior board meeting it there was some talk you know discussion about the positive benefits of Care Solace so continuing that and that's a there's information on our website for students staff and families to receive free mental health services. And um also continuing curriculum implementation as well. That we started up a few years ago. And there is continue expansion of the bass program with access to summer opportunities and so that's all the way at the preschool elementary and middle school levels. And also something to mention is our district unfortunately is going to lose about $700,000 so 70% of our program for our transition to kindergarten through the state legislation we found that out this week. As a

097district we we have determined for 26-27 to continue those classes it's about it's five classrooms and so they're only going to find us for a little bit over one classroom. So we will continue to offer those five classrooms for next year. I do want to make sure that as Mariah talks about this that I jump in here to talk about the transition to kindergarten impact. So this was actually announced yesterday so it was very recent where we did hear that the reduction for funding from the state would go for us from 74 spots for young children to 20. And that is the reduction that translates into about 700,000 that Mariah just mentioned in terms of the impact to our budget. But we already knew that this was in jeopardy because the legislation had come out

098saying that they the state was going to be reduced transition to kindergarten by 25 by 25%. And so essentially we were preparing for this and we also you know had to quickly pivot to say that we were making sure we were going to commit to continuing our early learning opportunities for young people because it's an important part of both access and opportunity but also we see research that lets us know when you have students start on an earlier pathway for learning they continue to progress successfully in in their educational career and beyond. So that's important to know you know we our district received the biggest reduction in the state. I'm sure that the board will want to talk about that later but I wanted to just note that. Thank you superintendent. Um So what does

099this mean for staff and students? Or sorry yes students and staff. Um So there are will be changes for next year as mentioned schools are getting smaller um departments are getting smaller as well to right size with enrollment. We estimate to be reduced we will be change reducing having less than we'll have we'll lose about 35 classrooms for 26-27. And but we're going to monitor that so we will come back in June and give an update on enrollment fund balance um but that is the estimate right now. if you are planning to resign or retire at the end of the school year please contact the human resources department that can really help with planning and figuring out different moves within the bargaining agreements. And I also want to thank the labor partners as well for

100reminding the staff to do that as well. We also are focusing on the core instructional programs and those remain in place. And so you will see that throughout with the student outcomes and experience at our schools as well as a focus on the student support systems as well. And then also to honor preserve the voter approved levy funded programs and supports as well. So this is from OSBI so this shows all the districts in Puget Sound ESD so that's our neighbors. And this is showing the administrative costs by district. In red at number 35 of 35 is Issaquah School District at 8.9% so out of all the districts in PSESD we have the lowest administrative cost compared to everyone in our area. And then also this it's difficult to read but it is all the

101districts in the whole state. And um Issaquah School District is at the very end there of 295 in regards to the central the administrative costs for school districts. We also looked at for our Puget Sound ESD districts where do we align with um our teacher costs so this includes teacher contracts as well as supplies and and and resources provided in that area and so our district ranks six of 35 among our surrounding districts. And then in regards to around the state our comparison is we are 49 of 295 of districts in regards to the how much we pay for teaching and and to support that area. So next steps in budget is we are currently developing putting everything together to to have so we have a budget here in the next few months. As mentioned

102we will bring more information to the June board meeting we'll have updated enrollment fund balance projections and any additional information for the 26-27 budget available at that time that we can bring. We also will start creating our annual budget guide and we we do enjoy to you know creating the guide it really is helpful it's very helpful to put together all the different aspects and inputs from a wide variety of sources what goes into developing our over $400 million budget and so it's really great to work with our partners in developing that. And we also will have more updates coming. And we have our um our August budget hearing and adoption in in August. And so thank you and if there's any questions as well. Do we have any questions? Or comments? I have some

103comments do you have questions? Start with comments with you listen more questions. Again thank you for this uh thorough summary of where we are. I think I mentioned at the beginning we were talk reflecting on the work study budget is a topic kind of happens all year long it's a continuous process of sharing the inputs sharing changes in funding sources looking at fund balance positions etc. looking at the various pools of funding that we have and so I don't know at least once a month we're when we're meeting we're going through some aspect of budget or budget guideline so I just encourage in general I'll do my Mac coin the community to tune in and listen to that because I think sometimes there is a bit of what I think is inaccurate discussion in the

104community that it isn't transparent. It's actually overwhelmingly transparent, but it is overwhelming when you look at the amount of sources and the amount of data. And so, as I have often said, I I stand um behind the way in which you're managing the finances, the the attempts you're taking at making it more transparent, the fact committee bringing people into that process, and the continuous education. And so, it really is an area that if there is interest in learning more, genuine interest, the guide understanding the budget is a wonderful resource again. And there is just volumes of opportunity to engage and really understand the budget more deeply, and I deeply encourage people to do that and not you know, sort of dip in and say, "I just don't know. It's not transparent." It's very very transparent.

105So, one of the things you commented you commented on, which I think is really important, is about the fund balance. And that we have been operating because of the pressures of rising costs, cuts in funding, we have been operating in a deficit requiring us to draw down on the fund balance. I would just, as always, like to reframe things. Think it's really important to to comment and share a little gratitude for the fact that we have a fund balance. Um that is not the same statewide. That is not a position. So, we actually uh making some really difficult decisions over the past, at least the I'll say the my 6 years, some very difficult decisions, have been able to support the operations of our very high-performing school district, while at the same time maintaining a

106fund balance for, you know, I guess future rainy weather, which is what we sit in. And so, I think it's important, yes, we're drawing from a fund balance, but I just want to acknowledge the fact that we have one is actually a feat and a testament to the way in which you're managing uh in a fiscally responsible way that we all um I'm very grateful for. So, that's the first piece. Um I think as we look at I I I live for a stop, start, continue. I think stop, start, continue is something I have to constantly do and figure out. Um you know, since we do not have unlimited resources, there just is not a world of unlimited resources, how are we in a constant process of reviewing the um the conditions we're in, number

107of students, the amount of staff we have, but also the programs what we have, and uh are we getting, if they're working really well for us, how do we enhance them to make them work harder for us, get us better outcomes, and where do we no longer support programs or disinvest in those programs because they're not getting us the the answers that we need. And so, one of the ones I'd love to maybe talk a little bit more about is summer school. Uh it's that time of year when people are thinking about summer school. And um one of the things we we, you know, I think you mentioned in this in this uh presentation that summer school is one of the areas of change, uh but maybe could we talk a little bit more about

108the process of reviewing a program [clears throat] like that and coming to a decision and like kind of a little bit more behind that, I think would be helpful. Yeah, I can lean into that one. Um when we think about summer school, um it is uh an enhanced option for our young students. We do deliver on extended year services for our students who have um uh needs that we are dedicating our resources to for that purpose. Uh but summer school is an opportunity, often times, to uh in many districts where I have worked in the past, address summer learning loss specifically. Um and I can give you the data on all of it. I have lots of data from prior experiences where we have seen um especially where in districts where we have a lot

109of students who are below grade level uh really need that kind of support overall. And so, when you look at the data, you can look at the data for learning loss by looking at end of year uh data for how students might be performing, and then you can track that as they start the school year as well to look at learning loss. Um for us, what we have found is um it hasn't had necessarily that measurable big bump for our students in terms of addressing learning loss. Um and and that's something that we just want to say out loud is that we have not seen that kind of um uh need, nor have we seen that actually create that sort of uh bump between the end of year and then when students attend summer school

110and then when they come back for the beginning of the next school year. So, that's one example of how you might want to look at it. And it's not to say it's not a valuable program offering or experience for young people. Um but we also want to make sure that we're looking at our our experiences in totality and making shifts where we need to, as well. The opportunities also at BASK are really important. So, we have summer is a time of play, as well. We want to make sure that our students are experiencing fun times and enjoying um uh being pushed to explore their passions. And so, we are continuing to enhance some of those offerings by pushing up into the middle school. We relaunched middle school last summer. It was very successful. Um and

111then also we are expanding into um earlier young young students starting at age 3, which is another part component. So, when you have maybe a child who's uh if you have two children, and one who's already in elementary school and participating that you what do you do with your other child who might be not yet in our school system. So, we're, you know, trying on different things. And again, we will look at that. Uh are there is the enrollment strong? yielding a positive experience? Is it meeting a need? So, um that's some example and window in into that. And um as someone who has done a lot of work on summer learning loss, you know, and and measured that and developed very clear uh performance-based contract partnerships on that one, um I can tell you

112that um that is not the need right now in our community. Again, we might come back to that in the future should that become a need. And so, we will just make sure we're very clear about that as we um don't want to abandon good ideas, but but we want to try something a bit different and also make sure that we're clear with the community. Yeah, that's incredibly helpful. And I just think it it highlights the thoughtful tradeoffs that have to happen around any any one program that yes, while one change in a program may feel like a loss, there's often thoughtful, you know, I think you call it a shift in the in the presentation of where do we better get some of um same or similar supports or enrichments. And the other thing

113I want to talk about is the the administrative costs. So, I appreciate a couple things in the presentation. One is the the thoughtful layout is that we we need to remove reduce programs. We need to shift um dollars into our continuously rising hole of gap that we have. I think that's important. In that [clears throat] is that we're looking thoughtfully at what does that mean to reduce across the system. So, to make sure we're looking at um changes at in administrative, central office roles, operations roles at the same time uh we're doing that closest in the in the school buildings. The one you point out, I think it's your slide 14, which is where does ISD fall in the um administrative cost comparison because I think this actually comes up a lot. Um a lot

114of uh false belief that ISD is somehow overly top-heavy, um that there is some hoarding of central office resources and dollars, and where, you know, to the detriment of the programs, and it just isn't factually true. I also want to say I don't see this as a badge of honor. I actually do not think we should sit in the last position. I think there's so much more we can and should be doing from central support uh layers uh in order to provide the greatest support across the entire what is a a large and complex system. Now, I I think, you know, we have to make cuts, but I just want to be clear, I don't think it is the goal to cut that to zero, to cut that to nothing. And being last is not

115probably where we should be because the how are how is it even right that we're last in districts that are smaller than us? It just doesn't It just logically doesn't make sense. But I think just simply displaying where this district sits in administrative cost in both our surrounding districts and the state is really important. And I just I just beg the the stop of the just wrong and uh inaccurate discussion that there is some uh top-heavy amassed structure. And I will always advocate for making sure that we're making the right choices that supports that support across multiple buildings or all of our buildings because that's how we get better, more efficient, uh provide better quality delivery across programs is by having people who can manage from the center. Director Anderson. Um so, thank you for

116this report. I know budget is a difficult topic, especially when you're having to make um decisions. Um I do want to confirm, I believe TTK had a $1 gap prior from federal funding, and now we're at 1.7 cuz I heard 700,000 was what was reported. So, is that about where we're at in total? No, no. So, um we receive a little bit over a million dollars in state funding. Um I know that in there was 1 year, a few years back, where federal there was some federal funds attached to TK in a, you know, so I think that's what you're referencing. That went away. Um so, we only have state funds for TK TTK. Um and so, they will Yeah, so they're they're going to be reducing that 70%. Um so, we'll we'll receive about

117almost we'll receive under 300,000. Okay. So then where are we coming up with the balance? Yeah. So that's part of um you know, different play different resources. Um so um poten- potentially from, you know, the levy can support that. Um as if, you know, so that's part of our levy increasing um can help with that offset that. Um but also it potentially could be a fund balance decline as well. So, you know, we we still have a lot of work to do with projecting the fund balance for 26-27. So even with these cuts, I I you know, I right now I I don't have the data to say we're going to end in a positive with our fund balance. We have a lot more work to do. So the potentially that could be um a

118reduction or fund balance to cover that. If not, then potentially, you know, there's other sources that could help with that. I mean, the question is an excellent question because it's about choices, right? So we have to and and we think about expense management, it's about how are you using your dollars to support the expenses that you are choosing to place your efforts towards. And so it's about resource allocation. We are making room for ensuring that we are continuing that effort so that our youngest learners have access to peer learning and opportunities to get a head start um and their educational journey, but that does mean that we have to make choices. Yeah. And and I just want to say that my question doesn't mean I'm not in support because I absolutely am in support of

119both TTK and also you had been talking about BASK um and adding middle school BASK, which my daughter will be joining and I'm super excited for her to have that opportunity. Um I don't know if Martin you wanted to add to >> Yeah, I just wanted to because we've talked a lot about potential sources and all that. I want to make sure I'm very clear that this is we will not be um eliminating, reducing, or otherwise um having any of the levy, the voted levy on items that we are committed to um providing um being shorted for this purpose, right? So we will find other parts of the budget that or fund balances was mentioned. Uh so I don't want people to leave the conversation thinking that this this would replace something in the levy.

120Okay. Thank you. Um and then my other question um was in regards to reduction of staff and specifically teachers. Um I'm greatly concerned about the impact of instructional quality and student experience. Um even with the fact of us, you know, aligning to enrollment, um which I hate the, you know, whole dollars to student thing, which we've talked about in legislative matters. Um but how are we monitoring workload impact um and remaining uh with the remaining staff that's staying in their functions? Um in regards to consolidation and classroom sizes, that kind of thing. I'm I'm just concerned with seeing that number of uh teachers reducing, how that's going to impact across the school district. Yeah, great question. I think one of the most important ways we do that is by keeping in close contact with our

121union partners. Um keeping that dialogue open. Um making sure that um we are hearing feedback. So if there is a strain or there's something that's going on, um we can try to adjust to that the best we can. Um and and we do that when we when we uh hear about things that we can correct. Um we also have our principals and uh and uh the feedback from the buildings that we listen to and um usually filters up through the executive directors and we can um we can hear what needs are being expressed at the building and try to react. Okay. Um and then just the last thing um Director Mullins kind of touched on this with slide 14. Um I just wanted to say that data doesn't lie. Um and I think this is

122an important reminder about how um op- how we're operating efficiently uh as an administration. Um I I hear a lot too, are we using our tax money properly? Is it going to waste? Um and I think we have additional challenges than our peer districts with size and geography. And so, you know, I understand what you're saying where we probably shouldn't be last, but I think this does show how efficient we are being with tax dollars. So I just I really liked seeing this slide because I think it it proves a point. Data doesn't lie. We also uh we do a version of this on the budget guide every year on the back page. So if you're interested, we will show uh the most current update every year. Yeah. Uh okay, I'll add on just a

123few more comments. Um First of all, you're a certain type of animal if you enjoy writing budget guides. I'm just going to put that out there. >> [laughter] >> I just want to emphasize uh a point that was made, which is when we think about the budget, the budget is not static, right? It is constantly in a state of evaluation based on the circumstances that we're we're facing. And there's times we've identified things where we want to drive funding because we understand that there's a need or there's a program that we want to start because we believe there'll be, you know, benefits, tangible benefits. And at the same time, you know, we're always looking to where we can sunset programs that have served their purpose. Not all programs are ongoing in infinitely. Uh and so,

124you know, those are they run their course, so to speak. Or because after evaluation, we're just essentially not seeing the benefits to justify the cost, not the bang for the buck. So um it is a difficult task that you folks have in trying to continually juggle uh those things. But that's that's good management as far as, you know, I'm concerned. Um I did want to go to Can we go back to slide seven? Cuz I just want to be very explicit to this, my understanding and for the community that this number, $15.8 million, is the number at this point that has been identified as needing to be cut out of our budget in order to sustain a good budget moving forward, correct? Correct. Yeah. Okay. I just want the community to understand that that's the

125number, that's what we're looking at. And that's what we're facing and we'll, you know, do what we need to do to make sure we're making good decisions in that regard. And I'm going to pile on >> [laughter] >> slide 14 and 15, 16, 17. Um it's not that this is last. I mean, we're last by a lot. I I mean, you the bar drop is really substantial. But to Director Mullins' point, I'm not sure this is a, to use her term, a badge of honor. To try to just continually cut admin costs as an end in itself, I'm not sure is the approach we want to take long-term, but it's admirable. We do hear it from the community a lot about admin costs. You know, what are the admin costs? I hope our community will

126look at this that this district almost always looks to cut out of central office and ops before taking money out of our classrooms. Very admirable, but um at some point, we're going to fall off the chart. So I don't want that to be the case. But again, you can also see that in this budget as well. That the cuts that you're looking at is about 6% of costs in central versus 4% in teacher uh salary costs and staffing. So um definitely continue that um um what am I looking for? >> [laughter] >> That that uh trend, that's what I'm looking for. Last comment and then I'll turn over I think Director Mullins has a question, but just one more comment. Um on TTK TTK funding I will just say that this is, you know, more

127evidence of the erosion we are seeing in state funding across the board. It seems like every meeting we have some kind of example of where we are shaling falling short with state funding, gaps growing, so on and so forth. And in this case, I think it is particularly short-sighted when you look at the benefits of this program that the data show. Um These early learners do incredibly well out of this program. And not only immediately when they then move into kindergarten, but then throughout their educational experience. So this is um I think a very unfortunate decision our state has made when there's really an opportunity here to help kids springboard into their educational experience that we're not going to fund, which makes no sense to me. Director Mullins. Yeah. Yeah, and I'm going to leave

128it on this slide because I just have to comment again. Like there are districts in the state that have a hundred students. Like a hundred. There's districts like and there's only like eight beneath us. It's what? I just have to point that out. There are more multiple districts that have like 200, a hundred students in the district and we still fall that low. But let me transition like uh to my last point, which is exactly where you both just left it, which is and that our budget is is about expression of values at some level, right? What do we value? And when we look at that we can't look at individual choices and kind of get fixated on them because there's we're trying to balance multiple items, multiple needs all at once. But I think

129this juxtaposition of the two conversations of um transition to kindergarten and uh summer school for for purpose of grade improvement. Obviously, we still want to make sure we have opportunities for our high schoolers to recover and stay on their graduation path. But for grade improvement, there's a value statement we have to make, which is and and we were talking about financial literacy a lot at retreat, right? The compounding interest is to put that money in transition to kindergarten. That's where you actually should you have to invest in order to build up over time. And so you do have to, you know, maybe disappoint some folks, I know my my students included, who use summer school as a way to improve grades. Well, that's a great program. It has value. But but as a simple example,

130when you think it how important it is to invest in the earliest learners getting the best start, and that I think is the hard work that I know the administration is doing every day to make sure we're looking at a holistic way and balancing multiple um multiple conditions and multiple kinds of programs and what are their individual outcomes. It's very difficult. And uh I just I know that that's what we stay in with you and just implore as you know, it's never about one individual point. It's about how do we balance an entire system and make sure that we're we're shifting and moving toward the things that have the highest value and the and the highest compounding interest, if you will, uh of the investments. Any other comments, questions? Superintendent I want to appreciate the

131board for discussing um it's for the reflection of the values of where we are really ensuring that we are keeping dollars close to student experiences as possible. And I will say that I agree this is not a badge of honor to be at the very bottom of a chart um or in the bottom 10 of the state in the chart. And and that's probably as low as we can probably go like right now. And as we move into next year and beyond, um and workload is is something that we're considering and and we do want to always think about how we can do work, you know, we as humans we want to continuously learn and think about how we can do work um more effectively, more efficiently. Uh but I also want to be clear

132that that's sources and uses, right? So what's the source of your dot revenue and what's the uses that are attached to that are important that we continue to talk about um to educate um our community about about where our revenue comes from. So I think Mariah's point earlier around districts that might be borrowing from other funds, they have to pay back interest on that and that's actually uh probably not a it's not a good way to approach things and they I know they might have to, but we want to make sure we're clear about our sources and uses and that's part of our fiscal stewardship, our transparency, and our commitment to taxpayers. Okay, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Next up on the agenda is our strategic plan update, priority area three. No, it's five.

133It's not three. Sorry. Priority Priority area three, diverse talent, and priority area four, authentic engagement. Uh I will turn it over to the administration. Great. This is a continued series of the reflection about each of our priority areas. We heard about priority areas priority areas one and two last time. You're you'll hear about three and four in this time and then we'll hear about priority area five in upcoming meetings. So um it's a helpful way to as we continue to think about the renewal of our commitment to our strategic plan on a three-year cycle to constantly have this backdrop of how we're reflecting on this current year and the past couple years. All right. Good evening, board, student representatives, community, Marcel Hauser, senior advisor and strategy lead here. Um I'm going to walk through today.

134Thank you, superintendent, for highlighting. We're going to talk through priority area three, joined by Donna Hood who's led that work, the the diverse talent priority area. And then priority area four with Sherry Cox. And I'm going to attempt to keep the good times rolling cuz we're on the clock. I want to not We're doing good. We're making good timing. But sure, I will hold the story unless you want me to tell the story about how we first met. Do you want me to tell the story, Sherry? Or hold it for next time? Okay, I'm going to hold it for next time. I'm going to keep us time going. So today we're going to share some brief highlights here. But I do want to thank um So we shared vision and mission last last couple weeks

135ago. But I want to thank folks in the district. This is a little bit off script, but for providing feedback on the upcoming strategic plans. We've been around now 30 sites, but 29 learning sites plus some other groups. Student reps gave feedback on Wednesday. Thank you. So a lot of good feedback and a lot of good connection points to where we should go forward. So I just want to thank community for providing like 600 plus individuals have given feedback. So thank you to community. Um as we move forward, we've shared this. This is the how how we'll get the strategic plan work done. So it's it's this is how we'll connect back to the vision and the mission and the results. But I wanted to spend a little bit of time here and just connect

136back to the work that we have to do and we'll continue to do as we look at the strategic plan and the strategy areas. And it connects to budgeting because as we think about what we should do, we should always align it back to the policies that govern us. So as we think around um you know, priority areas over the past three years, we really worked to align the work in each priority area and the goals that exist within to the different results and also the different operational expectations. That's what the OE stand for. So um this is important work that we it you know, anything that you do and as you think about the constrained resources, what are you working on? And are they moving the needle on the things that matter most to

137students? And I was thinking about my brain works to cohesion and alignment. So we should not be doing frivolous work. It should attach back to the things that we're measured by. So this is meant just to remind community and folks that this is the work that we've done over the past three years and as the work continues going to go forward, we have to continue to do that alignment work. And really that's my show. I was trying to have more talking points for me so I can just get more mic time. Okay. But I'm going to I I am going to seed my time. Okay. It's Donna Hood. And we're going to dive into diverse talent, some of the updates this year, some of the highlights. So Donna. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Donna Hood,

138assistant superintendent of human resources. And it's been an exciting year in P3. Just a reminder of what our goals have been and what our strategies were. Some interesting work um that has been really exciting and ongoing work has been our anti-bias in hiring training. That generated really significant interest and confidence amongst our hiring managers. You'll see a data point on that in just a second. And then event selection continues to be really important. Where we show up to recruit staff matters. City U continues to be a really great partner and venue for us um including this year, which we got out just in the last few weeks to City U. They have really interesting alternate pathways to teacher certification and we find they have often very diverse candidates. Um sometimes people who are choosing a

139second or third career and bring a whole host of additional expertise to the classroom when they join our profession. So they're a very exciting partner for us. Um Central Washington last year also extremely um important place for us to be. They have a dual language endorsement program, for example. And getting out there has helped us to continue to meet people who lead their teacher ed programs and um has also launched us into some interesting partnership that I'll talk about um for the future as well. And then again, continuing to look at multiple data points has been very, very helpful to us. Um we have found that singular data sources only tell a part of the story and we keep having to dig further in um and that helps us really get more nuanced in our

140approaches. In addition, um we have seen success in the mitigation of bias in our hiring. So our rate of hiring diverse talent is at 29.5% of all cert hires, while the pool is at 26% um candidates of color. So that's good. We are exceeding um the total percentage of candidates in the pool, which means we are successfully mitigating bias. And we are continuing to support the profession by hosting student teachers and can cultivate um really great potential candidates out of our student teachers as well. In fact, this year um we've placed 90 and last year was 81. So we have again um kind of set a new internal record. We also have seen a decrease Excuse me, an increase in the total number of exiting staff who want to work for the ISD again, that's

141awfully nice to see. Uh sometimes staff are leaving to grow a family or they're leaving because a partner's moving. Um but often they are very interested in coming back and we have had many staff return um after a brief departure for some reason. Uh and resignations and retirements declined again as well. We've seen an increase in the total number of staff respondents to the state survey and are seeing again an increase this year. We're near 2,000 responses, which is very exciting um given that we only have about 2,700 staff. That's a really high rate of return. And it gives us a lot of rich data to share with our administrators um and we often report this back to our labor leaders as well cuz they're deeply interested in that staff experience data also. And I

142I enjoy um showing that data to them annually. They they find it interesting, too. Uh in this particular arena of partnership, we are very excited that our WEA partnership is fully up and running. We actually have an update here, live time update. Our first teacher resident graduate interviewed. Um and so we are excited about that. We are well underway and we have um our next set of residents in the ISD right now. And a live time update on SPU. We have 10 applicants for our five spots. And SPU just finished gathering our input on those candidates. So we anticipate them seating five people um who are currently different kinds of staff in the district all seeking teacher endorsement in special ed. Um sometimes in other areas, too. But that is one of the primary um

143reasons for this grant that we have secured with them. So, we are very excited about that and they're even hoping to waitlist a sixth and if there are additional grant dollars, they may be able to seat a sixth person. So, we're super excited about that. And that, by the way, was kicked off by Dr. Dana Bailey and we are just continuing the work. Um and so, we're very grateful that she was able to launch that partnership. And then the last um kind of big highlight, we are really working with Central Washington. They've taken a deep interest in hearing from us as a district about um preparation for students entering the teaching profession, particularly in the area of special ed. And so, we are talking with them at length. Dr. Carver has been a great partner

144in this work with me in really figuring out how we can best equip pre-service teachers um and are very excited that they also offer significant scholarships and we are helping to promote their programming. They offer nearly full tuition um to people who enter this pathway. So, we're super excited about that. Hoping we can seat some people and create like a incubator program. And next up is Ms. Cox. Uh thanks, Donna. Uh Sherry Cox, executive director of secondary schools today talking about authentic engagement and it's like uh Donna set me up for success here because one of them is around um our partnerships and you can see that the partnership spans across the district um and Donna just highlighted some amazing partnership work that she and the HR team have been working to build out. Uh

145along with that, um the first goal is around uh listening and then following up on constituent groups. Uh so, just thinking about the lesson learned last year and this comes out of um the results one monitoring report was shared with you in June of last year. Um we're continuing to build out the team. Um we've added built we added building leaders cuz because at the end of the day, it's the teachers and the building leaders that need to be doing the engagement with our families as well as the district office staff. Um we've had some co-designed meetings with partners um that have generated some really meaningful collaboration both with our PTSA as well as our ISF folks and Marcella's been leading uh some of that work. Um we had the Microsoft partnership that we had

146shared last year um or had shared in that report as well and we just continue to build out partnerships and try to align them to our um you know, mission and vision as a district because one thing that can happen with partnerships is they can really span across all sorts of places and they're hard to manage. They can become and so, we're really just trying to streamline it and figure out like is this partner aligned with our work? If so, then let's bring them in and if not thank them and move along to find the next partner that may may be more aligned to help us do the work. Um uh currently the team is out there socializing our our draft metrics and companion document. Um they're working with some of those groups. They took

147it to the all admin uh group in January and just really trying to um deepen the connection with the other strategies in the strategic plan, the student well-being priority um helping just continue to build out on those partnerships. And then this year, we really have shifted our focus um to increasing our mental health partnerships. Um and I want to just call out the great work of Elena and her team. Um we've partnered with Care Solace to expand services. Um we added Youth Side our Youth Eastside services um to each of our comprehensive high schools and uh Issaquah Middle School. And as a result of bringing them on board, we're able to stretch out that Swedish partnership to schools that maybe had a little bit of service, they're getting more service or maybe they didn't have

148any service and now they do have a little bit of service. Um we are continuing to look for folks to support us in this area but to be truthful, their budgets are very strained as well. And so, while we have folks like Asian Counseling Services who would love to step in and support us um without some additional funding from their sources, those become much more strained relation not relationships, but their ability to support us is more strained. Um we have also partnered at this point with UDub Smart Center to pilot an evidence-based mental health intervention um that can be given by our school counselors to really try to train more folks in this area to support our students with those needs. So, with that, I'm going to turn it back over. He's going to tell

149the story of how we met now. It was a cold evening on a Thursday. >> [laughter] >> Get my narrator voice on. All right, next steps. Uh school visits will continue through the through the month. We have a few more to go. We have district office meeting we'll have as well to share the strategic plan and get feedback. And then we have one more, so organizational effectiveness, Martin Turney will lead and share a little bit about that priority area five and that group's work. So, those are the next steps and with that, we are open for questions and feedback. Any questions or comments? Director Mullins. Uh I do have a question and it this may just may not be the right uh priority area, but I think it is an authentic engagement. Um one of

150the things I didn't see in here or when you went through it was some of the um the additional outreach mechanisms like adding in communication devices like I think we added like WhatsApp this year, Nextdoor, like more ways of reaching the community. Wasn't that this year? And isn't that this priority? But cuz I've actually liked seeing those improve like reaching people on the platforms that that they are already communicating on. Um that's a communication thing and >> That's a different one. Yeah, and I mean, communication and engagement know, we're not going to call them up, but we'll get you that information of what all we added across the system. I have a positive feeling about it if it helps. >> I think there's I think there's a lot going on. Yeah. Okay, just to give

151a thumbs up. So, Elena said we added our partner down there. So, yes, in the system we have the same >> we've added. Absolutely and we will take credit for that. Yes, as you like because you liked it. Yes, we have done that. The system has done that. Yeah, but to be clear, we're we've not added WhatsApp or Nextdoor because those those are uh Those are Those are hard to Yeah, we We have to be invited to some of those spaces, but uh We have utilized the platforms. >> The key back We've utilized the platforms. We've utilized the platforms and in a lot of but through the levy um efforts, a lot of our uh partners and volunteers for our schools and and champions of our work had were very engaged, I think, on some

152of the different uh social media and or neighborhood type chat opportunities. I have one more. Um the stay survey. I may have missed the frequency. Annual? No? Yes, annual. So, in February is a a big time of year in the world of HR, so it made sense for us to dovetail it with a couple other communication pieces we do at that time. It's the time of year we reach out to anybody on leave to ask them, "Tell us your intent for next year. Are you returning? Are you resigning?" Um and have also classically told people about our transfer process, which is now new in our a redesigned process in the CBA. But that's a big kind of checkpoint every year. So, we started to give our stay and exit survey every February. Gives people a

153month to complete, which is awfully nice. They like that. Um and now we're in we've done 3 years, so we'll be heading into year four. Uh and it's the I think the trust in it has grown, too. A lot more responses, which I'm really pleased to see. Yeah. Director Anderson. I just have three quick things. Um slide five, I absolutely love. I think it is a fantastic visual uh for board members to see where all of our operational expectations are falling into our goals and priorities. I would recommend future new school board members get this day one. >> [laughter] >> Cuz it really it I love it. It just tells you everything you need to know um and where everything kind of fits. Um slide 15, the link for the companion guide is a dead

154link. At least it was for me. Um and I would like to review that, so just a note on that. And then lastly, in our partnership I actually scheduled a uh tour at the garage uh for the end of the month. Um I'm working with Kaylee there to uh you know, kind of see what support they're providing to our students. Um so, I'm really excited for that um to get some insights, so just wanted to comment on that. Yeah, the garage is amazing. So, I've been there and they have a coffee coffee shop there, too, as well. It was it's a bonus. Awesome. Can't wait to see it. >> Free coffee. Every time, yeah. I probably will when you're not there. I prob well, I'll be there for 30 minutes, okay? 30 minutes, I think

155I can see what's going on. Oh, and I just wanted real quick to apologize to Laya for mispronouncing your name earlier. So sorry. I that's a bugaboo for me, so. I think it's like Mercury retrograde. I'm having like communication speaking issues right now, so. My apologies. Um just a few minor points for me, just of interest more than anything. Um, student teachers, 81, um, and maybe I should know this. How many of those student teachers do we retain or how many just come into the district to learn and then go elsewhere? Just curious about how that >> would love to be able to rattle off a a hard and fast number. It's a little squishy cuz people go to school all over the state and what we found is that even those, let's say our

156our friends at uh who are Cougars, yeah, they might actually move home for a semester or a year to student teach and request to student teach somewhere in our local area, even with us, and then go back to school. Oh, okay. So, it's a it's an interesting and they don't always know where they're going to live right away. So, sometimes it's not until we hit that recruiting event um that they've kind of decided where they're going to land and sometimes it's about where people are hiring, particularly right now in these tough economic times for districts where they're seeing some enrollment declines. Sure. A couple of years ago we were east of the mountains recruiting and our booth was so full because east of the mountains they were experiencing some reductions in force and so a

157lot of folks were absolutely willing to come back to the west side and were interested in our district. >> Okay, thank you for the clarification. That's uh yeah. I will add that the um it's it's a very natural thing for a principal or a team at a school to get to know a student teacher and then do their very best to uh ensure that they are supporting them through an application process if a position does come up that matches their background. Um, it is a natural thing to be doing and I think that's always a it's important for us to always grow the field by having student teachers, not only to promote the good work of in Issaquah and develop those strong mentorship relationships with um really great teachers and then they take that word

158elsewhere, they spread that word. Um, but it can be hard also. I want to make sure that when we think about anti-bias in hiring, you want to also make sure you're opening up um positions to be so people can be considered as well. So, there's a you there's a bias and if you know someone you're like, "Oh, I want to I want to go with you because you know and hire you because I know you." So, that's called the I can't remember if there's like a hundred plus biases that exist. So, uh human brain. >> thinking it might be affinity bias, but I don't quote me on that. Yeah. Affinity. Could be recency, too, actually. Proximity bias. Um, couple of other questions. Um, this next one I might just be incredibly naive, so or I

159guess what I'm saying is that I should probably already know this, but um external partnerships obviously a point of uh emphasis. I think it's going to be more important as we talk about this new high school, we talk about opportunities there to potentially partner with some of our uh you know, industry and such in the in the community. I'm just curious, how many and there's also the point made in the slide deck about it takes a lot of management to manage those relationships. How many staff members do we have right now managing those relationships? Zero. Zero. Okay. >> Marcel kind of oversees the um our key partners with ETSA and um ISF, but there's in the central office there are zero people. >> Okay. I mean, it's real or all. It's Yeah, I understand. I

160mean, it's all or nothing. >> nothing. A little bit of okay. Yeah. Well, I I think we I mean, there's yeah, it's and it's somewhere probably in the middle to because people hold different relationships that are related to their functional area of expertise and that is important to have someone who manages the service delivery in the district that then seamlessly is adjacent to and connected to the provider might have. So, for example, our wellbeing team um really manages a partnership with um Swedish, yes, and then actually if you see the other examples of our mental health supports, um I think you can see that their ecosystem is really robust, right, as it relates to some of those relationships. And then, you know, when it comes to working with Issaquah School Foundation and our PTSA leadership,

161that needs to be held closely to superintendent and our executive cabinet. So, you know, I think it's um it's important to know that many people hold the relationship, but there's not one centralized person that um that does it, but I think the strategic plan helps illuminate that that we can actually provide guidance and that that was really the good work, too, to to show that we can have formalized relationships with um different partners and show that that's that can be held by many people and that we are consistent about that approach. I have worked in systems where you have a whole partnership team. I've led that partnership team and fundraising team in the past um as well as family engagement and so it ties very much a lot of different, you know, um efforts, but

162that person would never own all the partnerships in the system. They have to set other people up to be able to steward that work. So, Distributed in some so good. Okay, thank you. Uh and then one last question about the fee-based counseling services model. You just explain to me a little bit how that works. I mean, I take it what that means is these are uh organizations that um if there are families with the means or the opportunity to pay for a counseling service, we can direct them to these organizations that have great services for them to take advantage of. Is that correct? Um, kind of. >> Kind of. Uh I mean, yes, that does happen, but what we're saying is that we have um established some prior we had not allowed outside counseling services

163to come in and provide counseling service to students. So, like if my kid sees an outside therapist, I would have to get him there outside of the school day or he would have to miss school and so what we've done is opened up the opportunity for some folks to come into our schools to provide the counseling services for students. That makes sense. Yeah, it makes perfect sense. Love it. That's great. Uh yeah, okay. Thank you very much. Uh any other questions? No? I'll just I have got a question. Go ahead, La. Super quick. Um, I was also wondering about uh the mental health program cuz I know some of my people at my school have been um taking use of those. I was wondering um if we have if we know like how many students

164are able to utilize those tools and um like if we have any number if it's kind of need based or more by choice. Um, I don't actually have the number. I can tell you like I was visiting a school today and their um YES counselor has a full case load at this point. So, sometimes this many times the students are referred when school administrators or school counselors are working with a family and a student, they're often referred to those services. Um, but it's not to say that a student couldn't choose on their own if they heard of such [snorts] a service being provided at the school to go in and and see if there's availability. And with our partners we do get, you know, reports on that at the end of the year. Obviously, the

165number of grows throughout the year. Um, I do I do know that we're probably not able to meet all the need that exists and so we're continuing to seek ways to expand those offerings. I think using uh a referral system such as to help with care coordination like CareSolace has certainly enhanced that uh access. Um, and I want to say that we are also really thinking through the role of equity and access um and affinity type services as it relates to the kinds of partnerships that have been expanded. And so, the work of equity and access and and belonging really um is taken to heart through all of our work and you know, as a note when I think about our equity work overall, it's something that we are we're all accountable to doing and

166thinking through through our lens um where that lives um in the day-to-day ways we expand services for young people. Um, I do think that the aspect of just you raised an important question um President Taylor around um uh services and onsite and offsite. So, there is often referrals that happen, right, that um uh counselor might provide to to young people and then there's an opportunity to make sure that those are getting matched with services that either have different insurance types if there's a complexity there as well. So, we're just making sure that the the partnerships that we have to provide mental health services are in place, um that we can start to help support young people in our buildings, but we also can provide the right referrals and then uh bolster that with coordination of

167care services from CareSolace. Great. Okay, thank you very much. It was a great conversation. Okay. And Director Mohsin, your rating of best ever because two weeks ago and I would only ask because my colleagues here, you know, this competitive is it in the realm of that realm? You don't have to say what it was better. Uh it was it was a very [clears throat] strong update. Thank you. >> Okay. I'm asking for direct feedback. I I can take it. >> [laughter] >> Okay. All right, thank you, Director Mohsin. Thank you for the work. Okay. >> [laughter] >> Moving on. Uh now is the time on our agenda to talk about legislative matters, although we have talked about legislative matters a little bit today. >> Yeah. Um, do we have anything Director Anderson? No, I don't

168have anything. Pretty slow time. >> Yeah. Yeah, they've all gone into hibernation. >> And like you said, we're talking it it's affecting us now just daily, so. Okay. Good uh Superintendent. Um, we um I wanted to highlight and the board was aware of this that Representative Thai um did visit Pine Lake Middle School today and join students. She she was there with one of her aids, Oliver, to um talk about civic engagement, to talk about um her own leadership and uh story and journey as an immigrant to this country, which dovetails quite well with some of the work that the micro school students are engaging with um as it as it relates to immigration. And so, it was a really well-timed visit uh given the content and and the student groups that she met with.

169Um, and I know it was very appreciated by Principal Michelle Capenagro that um uh a state legislator would come to the school and it was of value and it was really value to the students, but also to the staff that were listening as well. So, um we appreciate her for her leadership and then um I do want to note that as we as we, you know, did talk about transition to kindergarten, I know that there's probably some legislative topics that will come up as as legislative rep and the board wants to sort of engage with us as we start looking to next year and that probably starts pretty soon to start to engage with our legislators. So, I will appreciate that partnership and help. Okay, moving along to announcements and correspondence. Do we have anything

170we need to add that has not already been reported? I don't believe I do either. Okay. And then lastly on the agenda is calendar and future agenda topics. I think we need to calendar some school improvement plans. Since there's only the three of us, should we hold this one? We should. I think that's that makes sense. Correct? Yeah. Yes, held. Thank you. Perhaps perhaps a um a poll can go out, but what's helpful with the existing members of the team we can narrow what those options are if we already know there are dates that are not available for the current, you know, board members in attendance. That will just help us with the poll versus to give you like 45 days of options. Well, I think you know my mantra at this point, which is

171I am available. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, I don't have anything at that time period. No conflict. I mean, we would take out Thanksgiving. I Yeah. Give you that. And the week that going out. Probably, yeah. And we don't ask staff to do that either. I think it's great timing. It's great timing for me to be planning it so I don't have a lot of I'm just flipping through the calendar that far out cuz it's November to beginning of December. Yeah. Um something is on December 10th. Yes, I should actually check. Oh, this is on December 10th. So, not right now. I have nothing that pops out as of now. Yeah, I'm pretty much a restrict. >> It's far enough out. I'm pretty there as well. Yeah. It's good. Okay. Is there anything else at this

172point?