001Okay. I call order this meeting of the Isqua school board. Today is Thursday, March 26th, 2026. And at this point, will everyone 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 before we start public comment, we have a presentation from some of our students. >> Thank you. Uh each spring, graduating seniors nominated by school staff extend a special invitation to our board members for their upcoming June commencement ceremonies. This evening, we are honored to celebrate these outstanding students and witness our district's mission in action. After introduction, each student uh after introducing each student and sharing highlights from their nomination, each student will
002share a brief reflection of their experience in the ISD or potentially what their post high school plans are. So, first from the Academy of Community Transition, Mason Shelton. Actually, why you stand on this side so everybody can see your wonderful face. It's a pleasure to recognize Mason for the growth and character he has demonstrated during his time in the ACT program. Mason exemplifies what it means to be an engaged and thoughtful learner. He approaches new experiences with genuine curiosity and an openness to trying new strategies, showing a quiet confidence in his ability to grow. He has developed strong self- advocacy skills, learning to communicate his needs, ask meaningful questions, and seek support when it matters most. What truly stands out about Mason is his positive attitude and steady commitment. He brings focus and effort to
003his work every day and contributes to a supportive environment by working collaboratively with both peers and staff. Mason demonstrates resilience, responsibility, a genuine commitment to learning qualities that make him truly deserving of this recognition. Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Go ahead. Hey, >> take your >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> From Gibson Egg, I would like to introduce Austin Frisbee. >> Correct. Yep. >> Austin is a consistent leader across all areas of his life. At school, Austin leads his senior class, mentors underassmen, and as a long-standing ASB senator, advocates for others, and contributes to school culture. Outside of school, he's trusted to train his adult co-workers, and demonstrates strong leadership and professionalism at his home remodeling internship. Through his senior capstone project, Austin is extending his leadership into the community by helping
004to build tiny homes to support individuals experiencing homelessness in Seattle, helping with the nonprofit's long-term goal of contributing to a net zero outcome for those who want to transition off of the streets. He has a clear post-secary pathway into construction, including plans to attend Green River Community College, ongoing hands-on work, and potential future uh apprenticeship involvement. question. >> Uh, and yeah, after I go through uh, Green River College for trade school, I have three pathways I could go. I could work for my mentor and with JG handyman and work for him. Uh, I could go into a union and or for my third pathway is working for my uncle's lumber business when he starts it up pretty soon. >> Congratulations. >> Oh, and I'm forgetting these beautiful pictures behind me. So, okay, we have next
005from Isiqua High School, Megan Chapman. Megan is a remark remarkable senior whose achievements reflect the very mission of our district to engage in meaningful learning and grow into thoughtful, capable citizens. Megan has consistently excelled academically while pursuing a challenging course load, embodying a passion for learning and the confidence to thrive in an everchanging world. Her kindness and au authentic support of her classmates strengthen our school community and foster connections that matter. Beyond her academic dedication, Megan is deeply involved in the Evergreen Orchestra, where her commitment and artistry have enriched our arts culture. Megan's character, scholarship, and involvement reflect the values we celebrate at graduation, and we're proud to honor her accomplishments as part of our graduating class. Um, like she said, my name is Megan. Um, I plan on studying chemistry at a 4-year college,
006and I've been really inspired by the IHS, um, science department. They've really helped me and have been supportive of my choices. >> Thanks. Thank you. Next from Liberty High School, we have Marley La Madrid. Marley is an outstanding leader in the Liberty High School community. She currently serves as our ASB president and holds leadership roles as vice president of both Key Club and Asian Culture Club as well as secretary of the sports medicine club. Marley has spearheaded numerous fundraises fundraisers benefiting nonprofit organizations including Patriots and Pink, a Liberty High School initiative that raises funds and awareness to support families in our community impacted by breast cancer. Marley also organized a school supply drive to support students in need. Marley serves as captain for the LHS girls basketball team. Her dedication to service, leadership, and school
007spirit has made a meaningful impact at Liberty High School. Hi, my name is Marley Law Madrid and I've been a part of the Isqua School District my entire life and this fall I plan to study international business management at Lyola Mry Mount University and eventually study immigration law. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you so much. And from Skyline High School, we have Hannah Uman. Hannah has been an exceptional leader within the Skyline community. As senior class president and vice president of the National Honor Society, she has consistently demonstrated a deep commitment to service and student success. Her achievements extend beyond the classroom. Hannah placed seventh internationally at DECA and served as a varsity witness on Skyline's mock trial team, showcasing both academic excellence and strong advocacy skills. Her leadership has produced tangible results for the school.
008She's helped raise over $20,000 for class council, coordinated more than 30 events for the class of 2026, and led fundraising to install water bottle filling stations across campus. Anna also uh contributed to Skyline's long-term improvements by participating in QXXQ workshops focused on strengthening curriculum and college readiness. Her record of service, initiative, and impact reflects the very best of Skyline, and she's poised to continue making meaningful contributions in the years ahead. Hi, I'm Hannah Uman and I'm planning to study at Cornell University public policy and I just want to continue um helping my community and helping especially schools to improve consistently and being a part of Skyline and the Isiqua School District has really um motivated me and inspired me to pursue this path. And good evening president and members of the board and superintendent Tao
009Yik. On behalf of 2026 ISD senior classes and my fellow nominees, it is my honor to invite you to our commencement ceremonies. Thank you. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you for having us. >> Yes, thank you very much. We look forward to seeing all of you in June. Um, okay. Uh, we will now move on in the agenda to public comment. Public comment is an opportunity for the board to receive public statements on items not listed on the meeting agenda uh for possible board action. If you have a point of view for the specific uh agenda items on today's uh tonight's agenda, which is the bond refunding discussion or the monitoring report for results number three, civic engagement. Uh I'll ask you to hold your comment until that particular agenda item comes up. Public comment is
010time uh not intended to raise an issue unique to a particular student, staff member, or administrator. Rather, it is your time to provide your insights on issues more generally and of a wider concern. As a 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 two minutes. We will be using a timer. Uh 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. Uh we will start public comment with those in the room and then go to those uh with hands raised on Zoom. So I'm going to start with my signup sheet here. And first off is Jay Sternoff.
011Good evening. My name is Jay Sternoff and I am a resident of the city of Isiqua. On March 11th, uh the ISD staff recognize that the budget challenges stemming from declining enrollment have created unanticipated revenue pressures as presented before this board. The student population is lower now than it was in 2016 when the original high school number four bond was passed. Currently, it is not projected to pass the 20 thou 2016 student count until maybe 2035. That's almost 20 years or a complete generation of Isqua residents. This was recognized by the board this past year when the elementary school in this property was permanently postponed. Isiqua, Belleview, and Mercer Island are all fighting for students through open enrollment. Is this how we're going to fill this new high school? With that said, a recent survey
012revealed that the emergency road on the south side of the proposed high school number four property was assumed to be intact and to have a valid easement even though that easement expired in the 1980s before the ISD ever even acquired the property. This uh designated emergency road is not entirely on this squad school district property as a recent survey shows. As of this morning, we received a notice from the escros school district that they filed a minor amendment pursuant to this survey to attempt to correct these errors. In light of the potential budget issues and the review of the permit application modification, it appears ill advised for ISD to proceed with this project in these uncertain times. Please halt any activities on the property until all permit applications are approved. Fuel prices alone will create
013unanticipated expenses for this project and we humbly ask the board to put all activity on this property on hold with a formal motion until there is a clear path forward to all completed and approved municipal permits. Thank you for your opport uh opportunity to speak. Thanks. Yeah, thank you. Uh next is Dave Osman. Good evening, council members. Dave Osmer, 22433 Southeast Highland Lane. Um, as Dave mentioned, the or as Jay mentioned, there's a has been a uh a campaign on your part to recruit out of out of district students. And for me that's a little uh strange at best and at worst uh uh hypocritical when you also are advertising the fact that the the uh schools are overcrowded. So you either have outer ccrowding and uh trying to recruit additional students into the mix.
014Um, I also find it ironic that the first uh uh structures that appeared on the high school number four site are portaotties. And I think that's uh uh an example of the uh the appropriateness of that site for a high school. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Okay. Um, is there anyone else in the room that would like to give public comment? Okay, not seeing any hands. And do we have anybody online? One person online. Okay. Uh, please turn on your camera and introduce yourself and your attendance area, please. >> Hi, everyone. Mary Durus. I'm a 30-year resident of Isiqua and Newcastle. I want to thank Mr. attorney and Miss Banisk ISD financial staff for their March 11 presentation to the school board. ISD's demographers data showing a high enrollment of 20,200 in 2020
015and dropping to 15,700 in 10 years shows a 30% decrease. They added that quote while levy has incre levy revenue has increased expenditures are growing at a faster rate and that facilities will need to adapt to a lower long-term enrollment baseline. End quote. Related to that good news is the district's announcement of a new online high school. Pedagogy tells us that education is not a one-sizefits-all and this is a very inspired option. The declining enrollment with its slower revenue from the state, which you're very well aware of, plus a new online high school, point to the obvious. High school number four is not needed. As former mayor Paulie pointed out to the city council in 2022, quote, "We should have been able to look at something that was amazing and imaginary and forwardthinking, and instead
016we got a school from the 1970s." Just within the last few days, as you've heard, construction equipment has shown up on the high school force site. The district is going ahead with project number 25501, clearing 77% of the trees, contrary to the city's own green isqua project. Finally, I want to thank you. Thank everyone who's tried to save the old college buildings and those who testified to the impact on this site, including Washington State Department of Ecology, Trout Unlimited, the Snowquami Tribe, Friends of Isqua Hatchery, and hundreds more along with the tens of thousands who voted unfortunately against the two recent bonds. I also want to point out a very special thank you to Dave Osmer who has been a very inspired leader. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Okay, this will close public
017comment. Next up on our agenda will be uh the approval of the consent agenda. Uh we will move uh the consent agenda is a meeting management 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. Do I have a motion? >> I move the consent agenda be approved as presented. >> I second. >> It has been moved and seconded. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> And motion passes. I guess I should say the consent agenda passes. Um, next up on the agenda is the establishment of the regular agenda. Superintendent, are there any changes to the
018regular agenda? >> There are no changes to the regular agenda. >> Thank you very much. And moving along, next on the agenda is a work study recap. Prior to tonight's regular meeting, the board um met with ISD administrators to discuss the school board student representative policy. and I'll open it up to my colleagues for any comments on our work study. Director Coin. Uh well, first and foremost, I uh want to extend uh my gratitude and thanks to our student reps. Uh I think we continue to have one of the most engaged groups of uh student reps um across the state. We see that when we go to WASA conferences. um that level of engagement um is uh is wonderful. So I think that that's very important. I think you know it was good for us
019to continue to talk about um you know the the strength that we see in the program and how um you know as we continue to move forward we have um student rep uh interviews coming up and so we're looking forward to that. So it was good to just have a general conversation around that and um talk about um you know how we prepare for the upcoming interviews. So appreciated the discussion. >> What else? Director Mullings. >> Yeah. Um, yeah, it's always good conversation for us to look at where the program is today, how we've been evolving it over the last couple of years, where we think we've got positive momentum, and where there's an opportunity to continue to refine. I think each group of new students that joins that program has new uh insights and
020input and a different experience and it helps continue to shape um where we want to go and structure that program. I think it's important to kind of regground in. We've had student representatives the board for many many years and um you know in recent years we've really tried to shift toward a program that is about policym. It's about the policies of the board, the policy of the district and making sure we're hearing students and how that how our policies are experienced in real time in in their buildings. And so, um, I think we had a conversation that we're still very committed to that, like focus on, um, the policy work and getting a broad set of input from our our building students of all, um, kind of interests and grade levels, etc. So, I think
021that's positive. I think, you know, as we see changes to how um how our board meetings work, how the public participates in our board meetings, how um the the ability to collect data changes, how how students participate in that data collection. There's always opportunity for us to continue to refine that program. But again, I think our base understanding is we're going to stay really focused on what are what's the policy work and how's that showing up in the building. And I think it's a good conversation for us to have as a group as we prepare to interview the next wave. Again, applications are open to apply to be a student representative uh to the school board and um we've seen those applications grow every year, so I'm going to continue to plug those applications as
022well. Uh, April 10th is when that those application deadlines close. So, let's see more interested young people. >> Good plug. I like it. Uh, anyone else? Okay, great. Okay, thank you very much. Oh, yes. I'm sorry. Superintendent, you have some reflections. Um it's always great to be able to prepare for this next cycle of welcoming um the next group of student representative leaders and and I know the year is not over yet. So we still have some runway to go for the remaining part of this year to currently engage with our student reps as they as they are currently seated. Um and it's always helpful to be part of the discussion as we play a role in helping um to support the student reps. >> Great. Thank you. Okay. Next up on the agenda is
023a um another recap which is uh about the digital promise league of innovative schools uh convening that was here in Isiqua while well in other parts of the Puget Sound area and I will turn it over to the superintendent to give us your thoughts. >> Great. Thank you. Um there's a short presentation also with some photos capturing the um event last week and last week was the time that we co-hosted Digital Promises League of Innovative Schools spring convening uh with the Kent School District and the League of Innovative Schools is really about connecting and rallying forwardinking districts across this country and the leaders and their team members who work in those school districts. And it's an opportunity for us to be able to actually attend. We as host we also got to attend and many
024of our staff attended also um as well as an opportunity. Our primary role as co-host was to welcome um a portion of the 350 plus attendees to our schools for school visits. So that was on day two which was on Tuesday. And so we hosted nearly 180 people in our school district for four learning tracks. We started with a welcome uh convening everyone at one time um at Gibson and um I had a chance to um help open up and also then um ensure that we had a strong team in place and want to just recognize Julia Bambber for being our main liazison for organizing our team, helping prepare across the district for these four different tracks and visits um and really holding that space which was particularly poignant since she also founded Gibson EC
025as a founding principal and um President Taylor gave an inspiring welcome to help set the tone as you can see from the righth hand photo uh as well. Um and then from there we went into four different tracks. So the first track was about real world readiness and there was various visits to um building off of Gibson um onto Liberty and then also Isiqua High. This was an opportunity at ESU and this was an opportunity to also hear about some um areas such as career kickstart which you all have heard about before and actually our students co-hosted all these different tables where they all talked about their experience at career kickstart and the adults were fascinated and just could not stop trying to glean the insight um about how might they do that in their
026own districts to help young people have really strong career connected learning experiences. Um track two um was around empowering students. This was very much about student voice. Um, director Mullings participated for part of this track as well to talk about um, lots of different opportunities um, where we have both student representative voice but also other spaces where young people are shining. Um, I know that there was a a very powerful opportunity for Skyland also show showcase their um, incredible uh, orchestra as well. So that was pretty amazing. um Pine Lake Middle School um equity team uh members of the school student body also led there as well. Um track three was about teacher leadership. There was a conversation here about um the use of AI in our schools and how we were supporting our teachers
027to be able to do that as well as really focus on um our Ignite program which fosters the role of both UDL and inclusionary practices across our district. So where you see um a range of our schools represented here. And then track four um was also uh focused on innovative school design and we were able to visit um build off of our time at Gibson EC um and head down to Liberty and Maywood. And at Maywood, we looked and talked to students who are participating in the micro school and at Liberty to see some of the culinary arts, hear about the new high school design itself and the pathways that um are being entertained that are top interest for our community and our students as well as to um see and and actually u partake
028in some of the culinary delights from El Cafe and the culinary program there. So that was really what the expanse of our time and then day three we had an opportunity to be able to um share in our learning and have debrief sessions with the attendees um at the hotel conference site as well as present some of our own work um to our colleagues in many sessions as well. So that was a great opportunity here and I will say that the number one the number well there's actually many things that came out of this but I'll share I guess my top two highlights. One is that it was resoundingly clear that that participants participants from the school visits and also the ones that heard about our work from their peers about their day visiting Esaqua
029schools as well as in some of the sessions that we were leading on day three um were really amazed at the incredible way our students led the entire time. Um they hosted, they spoke, they um reflected on their experiences. One is that it was resoundingly clear So that was a very affirming um set of reflections to hear back from our um our peers across the country. And they also were very impressed by the cohesion and alignment across our system from our um district goals which are our results as part of the coherent governance policy model all the way through to the work that we're doing every day to help our students um to feel a sense of belonging and to aspire to be their best selves and to find their passion and purpose. So, um,
030that was really affirming and we set up the the conversation by saying, "Hey, this is what we're doing. We're just showing you what we do. Our kids are here to talk to you about what they do and tell you the great things and whatever else is on their mind and whatever feedback they have." And so, um, we just opened ourselves up and that was incredibly affirming. And just the kinds of questions that people ask also gave us a lot to think about how we might learn and grow. When you invite in different perspectives to your work, you always can learn something. And so, um, it was a big effort, a huge amount of work. So, I will say that out loud to all of our track leads, our entire cabinet, and the many teachers and
031students that were participating. Um, it was a huge work. It was an all hands- on deck day for all of us. Um, we had team members also, um, supporting buses and helping to serve as many tour guides, not many tour, um, giving many tours across the district as they were moving from location to location. And our L cafe provided all the desserts at the two lunch sites. And that was also great to see our students shining by having um amazing delightful treats. So that was that and and um director coin was also on site at the opening and was able to participate in one of the tracks. So I just want to invite um board members who attended and and participated to feel free to share their reflections as well. >> Director Coin. Yes. Thank
032you. >> You looked at me so I was like I got >> I know. I know. Um I'll just share maybe two quick reflections. One, um I was really proud that day um to be a parent of a student in the Squa School District, to be a homeowner in the district. Um our I continue to believe that our schools are are some of our greatest assets here in the Squa School District and in this community. And I just was very proud um in terms of innovation that we're seeing our schools um and how many people from across the country kept coming up saying Isiqua has been on our radar for quite some time and we're glad to be here. So um it was it was neat to hear that. And then just lastly, micro schools.
033I was in the um in the fourth track there. I had an opportunity to go to Maywood and um listen to students talking about their experience with micro schools. If you don't know what those are, um, and you you I know we've discussed them during board meetings, learn more about them. They're pretty incredible and we're expanding them out. They're they're currently just at two middle schools, Pine Lake and Maywood. We're expanding them out to all middle schools next year. It's very exciting. Continue to hear very, very positive feedback from parents whose students are in those programs and um, it was neat to hear directly from the students that day, too. So, those are my thoughts. Director Bullings, >> it was it was fun. I I went to Skyline and participated in a couple of uh
034sessions around student voice. So, we had two of our student representatives uh along uh with me. So, we had Nilla uh at her home school at Skyline and then Kish who was there. I would say I I was really proud just from like watching the growth of our student reps. like it's really impressive to watch them how they've really grown into their own voices and uh what they think about their schools and how they get to participate in the board's process. So that was amazingly cool to watch. I think um it was very interesting to have you know all these people ask us questions about how student voice works and how how that's incorporated and actually want a little dirt like well what did you guys disagree about? What did the kids tell you that
035what are the kids saying that the adult the adults aren't listening to? So I thought that was funny. I think, you know, just in general, one of the things that um I know since my time on the board has been really important is only going to continue to be a leading school district by inviting in more people to the conversation, by learning from other places in the country, by learning from other districts, by inviting people into what we do. And um so I think this is a just a really good example of that of of how we tap into the the greater um knowledge set of all those who are in in education. Sure. Yes. We're sharing about what's amazing and awesome about us, but it's really a wonderful opportunity for this district to continue
036to connect outside of our boundaries and bring back those good learnings. And so for me, it's just a really really critical demonstration of us being connected and staying connected beyond our our district borders. And so, um, it's just very gratifying, I guess, in the role I have as a school board director to know that we're we're going where the information is and not putting our heads in the sand and saying, well, you know, it's a quas fine the way it is. So, I thought it was a great day. >> Yeah. And I'll I'll pick up actually right on that same point. Director Mullins is that it was just incredibly inspiring to have all of these educational leaders here in our in our district talking collaborating and talking about innovation and in education. I had the
037opportunity to have uh lunch with a superintendent from Kentucky, another superintendent from Connecticut. Uh and just to hear their perspectives on on education was really really valuable. and of course just the great chance to showcase all the great work we're doing here in the district about preparing our students for rapidly evolving world. So um that was very inspiring. But the last point I want to make is just how incredibly proud I was of our students. Uh, I had an opportunity to go to the salmon hatchery with two Gibson X students that had interned at the hatchery uh with a group of the um attendees. And those students were just incredibly eloquent um very open about sharing their experiences and how the internship had influence their own um choices that they're making in the direction that
038they want to go uh in their life and how kind of um really foundational an experience it was for them. So uh just couldn't be prouder as to how how well our students represented our district. So um overall I thought it was a fantastic um fantastic event. Any other comments? Okay, we will move along then. Uh, next on the agenda is works in progress. This is a standing opportunity for the superintendent to provide a brief status report on various projects and activities in the district. I'll turn it over to you. >> Uh, my first few comments are really about just sort of the work that's happening this moment in time. Our strategic plan update efforts continue and we're gathering input still. So, we've now been to about 20 learning sites across the district. Our commitment
039is to get to all of our learning sites and our operational sites. Um, and over 300 staff members have participated so far. We're still kind of getting those numbers rolling in, but um, these are times that um, sometimes it's actually during a staff meeting, which does boost attendance, but sometimes it's also optional time set aside for uh, staff members to come in. Either way, we are sharing the um, uh, question prompts as well as the current direction with all the staff at all of our sites. So they have an opportunity to also give feedback via a reflection survey after the fact. So everyone still has an opportunity to participate if they did not attend a session in person to provide input directly. And those are designed very much to generate conversations. So about 20% of
040that time is talking uh between staff members reflecting and then giving share back shareouts in the whole group. Um and there's only about you know 10 minutes of of setup time or uh 20 sorry 10 minutes of setup time out of a 30-minute window. Um and this is also now the season of lots of different transitions. We are constantly trying to align our work uh to student needs and system supports for schools. I think the one thing we should never assume is that things remain static. Uh we have to continue to make sure that we are um organizing ourselves around the most important priorities of the district as well as ensuring that the instructional core which is the day-to-day teaching and learning that happens in a classroom um and also outside the classroom stays um
041intact and continues to serve students um very well. Um two things I do want to highlight. Um our district hosted its annual roots student summit this week. It was held at Gibson X school and this brought teacher uh students together from across all of our high schools for a day centered on identity, belonging, leadership and student voice. The summit was designed to create a dedicated space for students, particularly those from historically marginalized backgrounds to connect with one another, reflect on their experiences and engage in meaningful conversations about their futures. Throughout the day, students participated in interactive workshops, heard from inspiring keynote speakers, and engaged with a panel of local professionals representing a wide range of identities and career pathways. A highlight of the summit was a student and professional panel where participants shared personal stories
042of resilience, identity, and leadership. Students were highly engaged, asking thoughtful questions, making connections, their own experiences, and seeing themselves reflected in the journey of the speakers. And student feedback um remains uh strong in terms of the impact uh of on them individually. And many students share that they felt seen, affirmed, and inspired, noting the summit created a very rare opportunity to build community across schools and celebrate their identities in a meaningful way. So, this is another great example, the root student summit, where we see our district and our staff um really fostering student belonging, elevating student voice, and preparing students to lead with confidence in their communities and beyond. I want to thank the Isiqua Schools Foundation and their donors for generous financial support of this event and to Elena Cividas, Sharon Roy, and Joanna
043Moore for their leadership. And there's many more staff members and volunteers that join that team, but they've played a primary role in both um launching this event and continuing it to achieve um continued impact for our students. Um I also want to share a continued theme around some of the ways we're continuing to increase options that reflect our student backgrounds. um on the operations side. So, uh we do have, as I've shared before, several items that are new to our menus this year. Um I've talked a lot about the Indian doll that was mentioned previously in a in a board meeting, but I'm going to read an email actually that came from a parent. So, it's very rare to get emails that talk about the food offerings on our menus. Um and so, it's I
044thought it was worthy of just sharing and reading uh directly. So, um quote, "I'd like to mention the awesome changes with lunches at Pacific Cascade Middle School recently. My daughter in eighth grade says that there have been a number of very tasty and delicious lunch options recently, including chicken guoza soup. That was Tuesday of this week. Tastes good. It tastes good. Contains vegetables and is even a little spicy. There also grabbing sandwiches and the chicken wraps um taste very fresh. There's a chicken Thai curry that was on the menu few a few weeks ago that was very flavorful and the mashed potatoes are good too. Thanks for all the improvements. Hope you can roll these out to all the schools including elementary high elementary schools. We als we did have them on the high school
045menu as well. And then thank you from this parent. Um I had an opportunity to um visit Isiqua Middle School and and um check out the chicken guoza soup. And so I can certainly attest to the amazing flavor and um yeah, it was pretty awesome. So uh those are some things that are happening in our district and I just like to share some of the fun stories so people can see what's happening every single day both from the operational side of our work as well as a programmatic and student support side. >> Great. I would like to try the chicken guoza soup. Um, yes. Very, very good. Oh, rats. Um, okay. Thank you, uh, superintendent. Appreciate that. Next up on the agenda is bond refunding. Um, the administration will provide details on the bond refunding
046process. The board had a first read of three resolutions at the March 11th, 2026 regular board meeting. Uh we will hear public comment on this uh topic. Uh and I will let you know when we're going to do that. But first, I believe I need three motions. I was going to ask, do you want to do all three? >> Yeah, let's just do all three. >> Okay. So, I move the board adopt resolution number 1261 adopting a system of registration of bonds and obligations of the district. >> A second. >> Yes. Uh second one is I move the board adopt resolution number 1262 authorizing the district to request a certificate of eligibility from the state treasurer pursuant to chapter 39.98 RCW and the rules adopted there by the state finance committee for participation in the
047state school bond guarantee program. I second. >> Great. >> Bigger font. And the third one, I move the board adopt resolution number 1263 providing for the issuance and sale of refunding bonds in the aggregate principal amount not to exceed $252 million and delegating to the superintendent and/or chief of finance and operations of the district the authority to determine the structure of the bonds, approve the interest rates, maturity dates, and principal maturities of the bonds. >> I second. Thank you. Okay, I think we will have a presentation now by superintendent ISD administrators and our guests. >> Uh turn it right over to uh Mariah Bassic. Thank you. Uh good evening board and community. Um so we had a financing plan presentation by Piper Sandler, Trevor Carlson, as well as Lee Marqueesio from Foster Garvey. They're here
048tonight as well. So there um so you have the resolutions in front of you now. um at that past meeting was for discussion and for tonight is for potential adoption. And then um we also have an updated financial plan presentation. So during our um part of our budget development process, we look at our debt service fund and we were able to we are able to we have debt service reserves that we can go ahead and pay additional funds to these bonds. So, this would generate additional savings for the taxpayers. Um, this would require a budget extension. So, we would have a budget hearing at the May 7th board meeting as well as a notice going out in April to the community as well. So, with that, I'm going to turn over to Trevor Carlson from
049Piper Sandler who to go to discuss the updated financial plan. Thank you. >> Wonderful. Thank you, Mar. I appreciate the opportunity. Uh, President Taylor, members of the board, President Taek, thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight. Uh, the presentation that is in front of you looks very similar to the one that, uh, we shared a couple weeks ago, but based upon Mariah's, uh, introduction, I wanted to give you some description as far as what those mechanics look like as far as the debt service fund reserves and how they can be applied to maximize taxpayer savings. And I always appreciate the tech team. Thank you so much. You guys are the best. Uh, and please ask me questions uh as as you see fit or or save them to the end, however you'd like
050to proceed. Um, this slide looks very very similar except for the last set of bullet points towards the bottom of that slide. So, the the release of these um uh uh strategic debt service fund reserves will benefit the ISD community in numerous ways. Number one, this reduces the total debt that will be uh on the books. It reduces that total principal amount. So this is a very efficient way to uh to bring those debt service fund reserves back to the community. Avoids interest costs. So the amount that we utilize out of debt service applied to this transaction directly reduces the borrowing. So dollar for dollar if round number if we apply $10 million from the debt service fund that's $10 million we do not need to borrow during the bond refunding process. Um and uh
051lowers tax burden. That's the main goal. What this does is reduces the debt service fund levy going forward providing direct tangible relief to the district's taxpayers. So that is the why behind uh this uh this adjustment. The next few slides again are the summary. These are the exact same as what I presented uh a couple weeks ago. The opportunity set with the 2015 bonds, the 16 bonds, and recall the 2017 bonds since the optional redemption date is later in this calendar year calendar year on December 1st. Uh we'll come back to you this autumn with a very similar presentation with updated numbers to see if we if we will be able to execute on a refinancing or refunding at that point in time. Uh interest rates as you may or may not depending on your
052um how strong your stomach is. If you look at your 401k or your retirement or your your stock accounts uh the volatility in the marketplace has been significant. We've seen interest rates tick up again this week. Uh we were able to um get a transaction in for a large metro school district on Tuesday morning. So again, the market is working. It's efficient. Uh we just have to be nimble on how we uh how we structure and uh discuss these opportunities with potential buyers. But we're seeing a little bit elevated um uh borrowing uh uh uh levels uh the last couple couple weeks. Um, if you may recall, uh, the, uh, I guess this doesn't work on the screen because it's a TV. Uh, the second number from the bottom, uh, the net present value savings
053as of now compared to a couple weeks ago, uh, because interest rates have increased about 0.15.2%. So 15 to 20 basis points that net present value savings um is a little lower than it was by the tune of about a million dollars. So the interest rate environment is dynamic. Hopefully we receive some new news uh that's better news as we march forward in time and we're able to grab potentially higher savings. But again, we're monitoring this uh and we we cannot move if we're outside of the parameters of the delegation resolution. Uh similar slide from last time. Uh the 2017s are much more efficient. That net present value savings as of now again we cannot execute um until this autumn is very robust uh and the savings projected there uh using today's interest rates are
054about 7.5 million. So this was the slide uh from a few weeks ago uh the annual savings that we anticipated without the debt service fund reserve draw down that Mariah discussed to kick off this conversation. So just kind of eyeball the annual savings it's about a million dollars. Net present value uh at that point in time is about 5.7 million versus the nominal in the bottom of the green box there of almost 7 million. Utilizing that debt service fund reserve brings those savings to about 2 and a half to three million depending on which calendar year and how the previous bonds were structured. So a savings on a nominal basis about 2.5 times greater right I'm going to bounce back 7 million to about 17 million so that's utilizing uh funds on hand if you
055don't mind I'm just going to walk over because that it's really I'll go back to the mic in a second number at the very bottom here almost very bottom is at this point in time our best guess. So almost uh $11 million of debt service fund reserves applied to this. Again, it's very efficient way for us to bring those taxpayer savings uh home as soon as possible. So that's really the the uh kind of the mechanics and how this benefits taxpayers again brings those annual savings uh to bear uh very soon. And last but not least, uh again based upon uh Mariah's comments regarding the uh the notice, the public hearing and the board consideration for the debt service fund budget extension. I've adjusted the schedule. So that's there on May 7th, kind of at
056the middle bottom portion of the timeline there. bond sale. We're anticipating on May 27th just to give us some time to make sure we have all of our ducks in a row and to accommodate um your consideration for that debt service fund um budget extension. So, those are the adjustments from a couple weeks ago. Uh but we're still on track. We're still pushing forward. Uh we have uh disclosure documentation that's coming together. uh Mariah um and her team has been great to help me put together a presentation so we can have conversations with Standard and Poor and Pores and Moody's um and so we're we're moving forward. Happy to take any questions. We have Lee Markeisio here too, your lawyer. Um if you have any detailed um questions regarding the verbiage in those those three
057different resolutions. >> Any questions? Yeah, Director Allinger. >> Uh, so when I compare on page eight of your document versus page nine, >> oops. >> Can you go over the second column for why there are different numbers for prior debt service when the only thing that you described would be different was with or without debt service fund draw down. So why are the starting amounts different in the two pages? >> Um, in 2020, bear with me one second. Um the the the differential is uh we have now moved we can't close prior to the June 1st payment. So we're we're missing that first interest payment. So this calendar year's debt service is different and we're utilizing um a different um uh debt service fund contribution uh in that first line there uh to minimize savings.
058What I'm trying to do in the first year is have zero savings. You've already set your levy. There's no reason. If we put savings, taxpayer savings into this calendar year, then we're building debt service fund reserves again. That's the only differential. We've we've moved past a June one interest payment between page eight and page nine. And so if we didn't do that, what would our debt service fund be? >> Uh it would grow uh to the tune of about $4 million on page nine. There's a on the top line there's a negative 4.8 million. >> So I mean that would be the total amount, not a just net that's >> that would be a a net addition. >> Net addition. So then what would the total be? That's what I'm trying to >> That would
059be in your debt service fund at which point in time >> for the draw at that at the moment in time. So 617. >> Um I may have that piece of paper. I can run over and grab it from the desk behind me. >> Yes, that is it. Thank you. It's tiny print. uh before the June 1st payment, you'll have about 49 million in the debt service fund. There's a payment of 12.2 million on existing debt on June 1st. >> Yeah. Of that 49 million, how much of that is available to do the debt service fund draw down? uh about almost 11 million. >> Almost 11 million. >> Yeah. >> And so if we go forward and approve these resolutions but then decided not to approve the hearing, how how would that impact the potential
060bond? >> We would be back to uh we could still move forward. We would be back to page eight. >> Okay. So it they aren't connected and that you can't do one without the other. Just the difference is the far right hand column. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Yes, they Yes. >> Sorry if I wasn't following at the beginning, but I think we got there. Okay. Okay. >> Director Coin. >> Um Trevor, thank you for the presentation. I I want to just make sure the community understands. I know we had this similar conversation a couple weeks ago around the timing of this because there could be folks listening in scratching their heads saying, "Why didn't you act sooner? We knew we were in a volatile market. Can you just reiterate? I know it was in
061here, but just explain the timing in terms of the bond refunding. >> Yeah. No, great, great question. Um, tax law is driving um, in general the ability for us to move forward. What tax law says right now is you can utilize taxexempt bonds to refinance similar taxexempt bonds within 90 days of the optional redemption date. So the optional redemption date on the 2015 bonds was June 1st of 25, June 1st of 2026. The earliest we could have uh re gotten this process started and executed would have been uh let's just say uh March of this year 90 days ahead of June 1st without Excel I can't do the the uh the the day count in my head uh but you know March 1st is >> y >> so that is the major driver and so
062we are working with many school districts right now and we are looking to execute on refinancings this first kind of portion of the year through the summer on bonds that look just like this. So tax law is the main driver. Hence why we cannot tackle the 2017 bonds. The earliest we could close round number Labor Day December 1st back it up Labor Dayish would be the earliest we could close. So hence why we'll be coming back to you sometime this autumn to move forward. And again, none of us have a crystal ball. We didn't see the turmoil that started a few weeks ago impacting the markets the way it has. I could see maybe by the time we're looking to market the bonds in late May, this could be over. >> The headlines could be
063died down and we could be in a better spot. So, right, it's it's it's one of those opportunities and I'll say this very analogous to refinancing your house. When's the right time? If you knew when the right time was, you would execute on the right time. We're we're trying to make educated guesses based upon uh historical market perspectives, but then again locking in savings that are significant. So if interest rates do decrease after you've actually locked them in, you can still feel good about, hey, we had a certain threshold, we achieved our threshold, we locked in savings, who knows where the market could have gone, and we're going to move on with our lives. Mhm. >> And I think you have to have that same discussion in your own internal mind when you're refinancing your
064house, right? What's that monthly savings uh mean to me and is it significant enough for me to do the work and pay the points and all the things? >> Yeah. No, I think that makes sense. Well, and I think as this is showing too, we have future opportunity with future set of bonds too. So, it's not a one and >> and this this opportunity is much more robust. Yeah. um you know this the opportunity that is in front of you right now if you decide to approve those resolutions um is a is a minor optimization if you will uh the 2017s are much more robust just based upon the nature of what was structured at that point in time >> great thank you >> yeah great question >> director Mullings >> so following up on
065that question that was really when is when do we open the window right when does the window start I guess my question is when does the window end? Is there a period of time in which we can no longer take this action? Like if the if the interest rates stay in a position that we we can't achieve the benefit we're hoping for, does that close at some point or is it open? It stays open until you can. >> There is an expiration date on the delegation resolution. And Lee, is it December? >> It's December of this year. I am 99% sure, but he has the copies. >> 31st >> December 31st of this calendar year. >> So if we if we were to approve it and the window opens, we can't because of volatility, we
066cannot achieve these savings that we're targeting here and we get past that December date. Is the opportunity completely off the table? >> No, no, it's not completely off the table. We would need to come back to you with a refresh, okay, >> of this conversation and refresh of the documents that are in front of you for consideration. >> Got it. Okay. Thank you. >> Wonderful question. >> Any other questions at this point? >> No. Okay. Uh, is there any public comment in the room or online? No. Okay. Not hearing any. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. >> Um, any other board comments, other outside of questions, comments in general? >> Okay. Not hearing any. Superintendent, you have any? No. Okay. Um well then I think we have motions on the floor. Um
067I'm going to take them in order. Uh we have a motion to accept resolution 1261. All in favor say I. >> I. Uh that motion carries. Resolution carries. >> Uh we have a motion to accept resolution 1262. All in favor please say I. >> I. >> Uh that motion carries as well. And then lastly, we have a motion to accept resolution 1263. All in favor, please say I. I. Very well. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Okay. Next up on the agenda is a 2026 2027 budget update and we will turn it over to Mr. Turney. >> Thank you. Um, not everyone finds this stuff exciting, but uh whenever we can save money for taxpayers and uh lower our debt burden, it's always a good thing. So, uh that transitions us right in some to
068some other exciting stuff. Uh so, 2627 budget, we have a I have a brief update for you today. Um obviously, this is important point in time. Um we do our best and we are pretty precise when we come to our year-over-year enrollment projections within around 1% of the mark. However, as you know, there are some things that make budgeting uh pretty tight uh and a challenge. So, um we're here to share some things that we've learned from the legislature. We do thank you for laying out your budget development guidelines for us and having kind of a longer window. So, as a district, we're considering the multi-year uh impacts of these things as we go along. Um and we will need to be a little bit more conservative um given the picture. So, uh tonight we're
069going to give you some uh information. and Mariah's going to walk you through some of the legislative uh updates. Uh but first, I'm going to just mention um there's a link if you have access to this, there's a link to a page uh set up by WASA and the ESDs uh that really updates and expands uh on the funding gap uh information, right? Right. So, all the Washington school districts um all have uh similar funding gaps with special education and MSOCS uh and transportation uh and really substitutes uh in that bucket as well. So, uh anyone who has a chance should take a look at this this site. They're um going to be updating it more uh frequently and so you can link to any district including ours and see uh kind of up to
070date what those gaps look like. So just wanted to call that out as being a important part and it gives uh visibility to those gaps and really the broken system that we're operating under. So I'll hand it over to Mariah. >> Thank you, Martin. So we'll start with the the wins from the 2026 legislation uh session. So, retail sales tax on services, uh, school districts, ESDs are exempt. And this was estimated about $1.4 million in extra additional costs for our district. Um, you know, this does help with um some cost increase, but as an example, our insurance go is going up by $1.2 million next year. So, that's just one cost um in terms of operating costs. um just to show um you know how they we'll take it though $1.4 million. We'll definitely take
071it. Um so also a good thing for the state school construction funding. So they approved front funding authority um and this is for state assisted projects and this helps those projects move along and be efficient um so that they can the districts can receive funding um rather than waiting for reimbursement to to continue on that project. So for the legislation session, it was um constrained for school districts. As mentioned at the prior board meeting, um school district funding went down from, you know, six years ago 52% of the state budget. Now it's down to 43. Um and so we we also saw reductions in different areas in reg in regards to school districts. So, one that had a significant impact is transi transition to kindergarten. We have 12 um we have five classrooms um for
072our TK and we um currently receive $1 million um and they are going to reduce that amount overall as a state by 35% in serving um 2,000 fewer students. There is no cap on how much a single district can lose. So, not every district is losing 35%. There's going to be a application process this spring. Um, they're going to look at existing programs um and looking at priority students as well as schools in extreme child care access deserts as well. Um, and so as a district, part of our budget development process, we we looked at this potential and decided to continue our TK programs in 26 27 in full. And so we will see how we make out and is is there any reductions to our school district in this area. So we'll continue to
073look at this and next after this cycle we'll look evaluated again. Another one was uh school bus depreciation. So they extended depreciation. You get reimbursement for depreciation on buses to buy new buses. Um so they extended that by two years. And so the impact of that so they they they did that to small buses as well as large buses. And so that makes future costs of replacing buses just um you know when we buy a house or we buy a car things go up in two years. So when we do buy those buses the cost will increase as well as potential for repairing those buses throughout that time. Um so we'll continue to monitor on the direct impact of that. And then lastly uh running start. So they they reduce the cap. So we receive
074up to 1.4 FTE of funding for students who want heavier running start participation in high school. And so they reduced how much you can receive as a district uh down to 1.3. And so what could happen from this is students might not take as much running start. they might potentially increase their time at the schools adding to capacity pressures at the our high schools and then we'll also be evaluating you know the impact of this as well over time. So right now we are in full budget development mode um and we uh so HR is currently meeting with the buildings on their staffing. Um we're looking at and refining our enrollment projections. Um we also are staffing to enrollment with adjustments primarily through attrition minimizing the need for a formal reduction force. Um we are
075continuing to have budget meetings and assess our programs, our outcomes, services, looking at efficiencies anywhere we can as well to help with uh those rising operating costs. Um, we're continuing to develop our multi-year financial projections and we also have a fact team meeting. So, our financial analysis core team meeting is happening tomorrow um as well and we'll also dig into our budget process. So, so far um and we'll have time for questions and space um and feedback um so we're really looking forward to that as well and we'll continue to provide updates to the board and the community. Thank you. I do want to emphasize that um we are so grateful to our community for supporting our local levies that were on the ballot in February and we did not um actually go to full
076authority on those levies. I also want to be clear about that as well because we're in a stage where we are leveraging the dollars that we have. Those levies did help us stabilize, but they do not address the rising cost and where we see parts of our system that might have some declines that we have been projecting. We have been projecting those declines. And so when you see the word staffing to enrollment, it's not just our classroom teachers or all parts of our district have to adjust. um when the board um was coming out of COVID there were a series of significant reductions and that was very much that uh sort of meeting that moment in time but the new normal for all school districts including Isiqua is to continue to think about expense management
077so the method that we were applying of really thinking about start stop continue because multiple things can be true you can be starting new things you can be investing in things so that they can grow in their promise and impact for young people but you also have to stop things. And so, um, we don't we don't live in the world that many districts did, including Isiqua did, um, you know, 10 plus years ago where it was, uh, high revenue and some of the, um, revenue models at the state level were able to work in that kind of environment. The environment has changed. It's much more complex. Um, we also have more requirements upon us to deliver on highquality learning opportunities for young people as well. So, we are balancing just a very different set of
078variables now than we were 10 years ago. And we're just want to be very cleareyed and very clear with our community that um you know, we're doing our very best and we're going to make it work and and continue to be um sharing information and be intentional and thoughtful about all of that. So, I just want to reiterate some additional content and context here. >> Dr. Gallinger, >> I appreciate the budget update. I would say as you move forward and especially get to de building it, I would really like to see some comparative data on a percentage basis rather than I mean or FTE whichever thing is makes the most sense for building supports and central office supports. The community has asked questions about Yes. as we strategically staff to our student enrollment that as
079our certificate staff numbers declined that our administrative staff follows. So I would like to see what the percentage was let's say in a couple snapshots before maybe 2018 2021 or two whatever when they what choose choose a couple make sense like one immediately postcoid before we had the rapid decline in student population one precoid and then one what you forecast for the next year so we are mindful of that start stop part because I think that is something that we um if we don't keep our eyes on it then we'll we'll not uh look at it at least I won't. So if you would help me visualize that on a percentage basis that would really help me. >> Yeah. >> Dr. Anderson. >> Um first thank you for this report. Um, I think it's really
080important that we continue to put this information out, not only for the board's information, but for the community. Um, as we hear these numbers, 19.4 million underfunded, uh, for our state, um, or for our district alone underscores that we're not facing just a budget issue, but a systemic state level underfunding problem. Um, and I think it's important our community understands this context. Um, I know that there's other districts that are taking some um, actions directly and um, I think that that's conversation for us to potentially have um, because I think communication to our legislators isn't enough to get this problem fixed. Um, while sales tax exemption and construction funding flexibility are meaningful wins long term, they don't provide immediate operational relief. Um, so we should be clear on what helps now versus uh what will
081help us later. Um, I had the pleasure to visit uh a TTK or transition to kindergarten uh class last week. Um, and that program is amazing. um with the potential 1 million reduction for TTK um I just want to understand um if there's options for sustaining the program and what scenarios we're preparing for if state prioritization shifts again. Um it seems like we with the underfunding now we we can still continue the way that we are but is there any concern with future support? >> Yeah, I mean obviously there's concern uh about going forward. One of the key points is we're waiting for I believe OSPI the ball's in their court to give uh us direction on what's going to look like. And so once we have that first bit of information on what the
082rules going to look like, how they're going to deviate out the funds, then we can kind of go into the planning phase of how are we going to um uh address this going forward. So we're really we're waiting for that first set of information that data that we can react to. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, okay. I will say a few words because I cannot pass up an opportunity to get on my soap box. Um, it's just really incredibly disappointing legislative session. Very, very few wins, many, many losses. Um, I think you said it, you know, we have a broken funding system and I just hope that sinks in with our community that we're now facing nearly $1 billion in underfunding for basic education in this state, which is just incredible to me when you
083look at the number that we are as a state 40th in the country in percentage of GDP that we spend on education and you look at the strength of this economy nationwide, it is very hard to reconcile those two facts. Uh and spending in this state is at an all-time high. Um so, uh I really hope that we can work with our legislators to try to reset priorities, uh moving forward to and in particular to me, I really bemoone the loss of funding for the transition to kindergarten program, which is just demonstrabably demonstrabably successful. We see those kids going through that program that are more successful when they get into kindergarten and more successful throughout their academic careers and yet we're still not going to fund those kind of opportunities. It's just mindboggling to me.
084So, um that again, like I said, me on my soap box. Thank you for all the hard work on the budget. Certainly appreciate it. And uh they're not making it easy on you folks. So, um thank you for the work that uh that you're doing. Oh, one last thing I want to say also about the transition to fun. It's a point that director Anderson was making. This is another example of the pressure we are putting on our levy dollars. We cannot just continue to cut cut cut at the state level and expect our local property owners to pick up the slack. At some point that is going to break as well. So, um that's it. That's what I had to say. Um anything else? Director Bowlings. >> It's funny how everybody has their soap box.
085I I think for me what's important one thank you you guys do an amazing job of of taking care of an incredibly complex financial environment with all the moving pieces. I think it's also important and not that I'm getting into it but to know that the way funding works in the state money goes into different buckets for different reasons. So I think sometimes um people will hear there's pressure in parts of our budget and assume that that means other parts of the budget must also be in pressure. Right? So there's categories that don't cross each other. There's funding sources that have to be spent for their purposes. And two things can always be true which is that we see pressure in operating costs at the same time while we have funding to do other things
086like build buildings. And so I just I just raise that up that it's a very complex financial environment and that um it can be very hard for people to understand that these are pockets that don't cross each other and that they all have to work in they all do work in different and independent ways and that the job you're doing is maximizing multiple categories but in their purpose full spot. And so I guess I just say that because I will often hear or see this handwaving. Well, you're saying there's pressure on one side, but yet you're doing something else. Like, yes, that's actually how it works here in the great state of Washington, which is things go into different buckets for different purposes and must be used that way. So, I don't know. I don't
087know if there's an easy way for us to better explain that, but it is an it is a very difficult part about when we talk about budget, even though your guide to the budget is beautiful and more people should read it. Um, but it's something I think we kind of have to keep putting in context for people that we have to move forward different missions at the same time with different constraints. >> Yeah, it's a great observation. In fact, I think I'm going to use that as we transition to our next presentation. So maybe I'll open with kind of uh kind of making that point for you. >> Okay. >> No comments. >> Okay. Very good. Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. And we will move now as you alluded to our next subject
088which is a capital projects update. And I'll turn it back over to you Mr. Turney and Mr. Mullins. >> Yes. Thank you. Um again Martin Turning to Fine Operations is Tom Mullins um our director of capital uh projects and again so the transition this is this is excellent that you brought this up because this is one of those special buckets right so we are going to be talking about our capital projects um fund today and even within the capital projects fund we have different delineations and buckets of money that have to be used for those purposes. So today we're mostly going to be talking about the critical repairs uh and some other projects. But um things like the technology levy, they have their own bucket and they have to be used for those specific purposes.
089So this uh capital projects has its own fund aside from our uh general operating fund. Uh so that's where we talk about it specifically. Um today we're going to go over a preview of the 2026 recently approved critical repairs levy projects. Um and then give you some updates on some of the other things. 2022 levies u grants new high school uh and the uh upcoming uh next meeting of our oversight committee. But first um with the 2026 so interesting we call it the 2026 levy critical repairs levy but we don't start collecting the money until 2027. Right? So that's something to keep in mind. Uh so as a district um we're very thankful that voters said uh yes to these projects so we can get important things done. Some of them uh are including roofs,
090which we're coming off a winter where we know we have some things that are happening in these buildings, and we want to be able to take care of those. So, what's great about the fact that we pass a levy is we can make some long-term solutions, full replacements of roofs, uh in some cases. Uh so, what right now what we're doing is we're prioritizing those things that should happen right away. And unfortunately, because these are dedicated, you know, funding sources, we need to wait until we have the funds and we can get started on them as early as possible. So I I will give a quick preview because we know there are a couple of big ones that need to happen right away. First are the vestibules at Liberty Skyline is Quai. Uh but the
091very next one at the simultaneously will be the full roof replacement uh at Maple Hills Elementary. Yeah. So we know we've been out in fact this week uh making sure we're patching what needs to be patched. We know people are living in circumstances that are not ideal and we want to correct that as as early and as quickly as possible. So, thank you to the voters for giving us an opportunity to address that. Uh, and we'll be taking that up right away in 2027. So, uh, but the other point is we're working through when we're going to schedule the the other projects, what priority level they're going to be in, and which one should go first, um, as we work through the four-year cycle. And so, we will have that list. We will be showing
092it to you, the oversight committee and the public, uh, so we can be held accountable on progress we're making toward those projects. So, uh, with that said, I'll let Tom walk you through the rest. >> Good evening, everyone. So 22 levy project status um work related to the 22 levy um continues and a reminder that's going to help cover the critical repairs needs between now and when the 2027 um or 2026 levy kicks in in early 27. Um, currently roof repairs at various schools including several Discovery, Endeavor, Cougar Ridge, Sunny Hills, Isqua Valley, Sunset Elementary School, Maywood, and um as and we've added Maple Hills in there as one of those that we're continuing to work on. Also, some act grant efforts. Um, we're we completed the energy efficiency grant. It is quai. I think
093this may be the last update on it. Uh the grant was for approximately $850,000 and the district um had a requirement of approximately 150,000 in matching for a total project of right around a million dollars. We're seeing um significant energy savings already at that school over the last six months since we started the project. and the matching funds were provided from the 22 levy project number 2207, House Bill 1257, also known as the clean building standards. And we continue to go look for grant opportunities and apply for those opportunities that as they become available and and uh match what we are looking for. High school update. We're looking to start site work April 1st. Um the start of the site work is dependent upon the issuance of site work one which I between the time
094this update was completed now we have received that today. So, we've got a pre-construction meeting with the city and the contractor on Monday and after that we'll be able to start and um we're still on an expected opening date of August and of 27. Uh I know comms is working on the groundbreaking ceremony and it's later April and future updates will be more construction related. We're going to kind of change it up a little bit. We'll have some pictures and stuff like that for us to uh to look at and it'll be actual construction progress. And then a recap of the February 11th capital projects oversight committee meeting. Um that one was dedicated mainly to the design build team in the new high school. presented information about the a recap of the design build process,
095how the estimates were arrived at and an overview of the actual project estimate which we had at the time and did a construction market update as well. The information was relayed to the committee members and there were lots of questions and comments and good interaction with the committee. And our next capital projects oversight committee meeting is scheduled for May 12th. Any questions? Dr. Coin, >> I had a couple questions. Thank you for the presentation. Um, I guess one, well, actually one comment, one question. Um, thank you for the update on the roof repairs. Um, those make a big difference, I think, on our schools, particularly the the Discovery, Endeavor, Cougar Mountain, that vintage of school. those houses those schools are kind of all roof it seems like very very visible so thank you um uh
096for for that that's I think a plus for the community to hear that for and then on the last slide on the capital projects oversight committee um what has participation look like in terms of numbers of folks that have attended that are on because I guess remind me again the number of folks that are on the committee and then I guess what does it look like >> we have 26 um members and we have anywhere from 14 to 18 show up on any given night Okay. >> It's we would we were always pushing for more reminders trying to make the meetings as engaging as possible. >> Um the high school was a was was a good engaging meeting although it was a low attendance although there was kind of a we had um had to
097reschedu that meeting. So it kind of it wasn't on everybody's calendars as early as it could have been. So we're hoping for more for the May 12th meeting. Well, it looks like a an engaging uh agenda. It has been in the past. So, that definitely I'm sure attracts people in. And then remind me too, is there a term on that position? So, folks that are on it that maybe aren't showing up. Is there a way to to for them be swapped out? >> I think we were talking about a two-year term and then kind of revisit and kind of re-engage and say, you know, how many want to continue to to be a part of this? If you don't, it's all right. And we'll recruit look to recruit additional members at that time. >> Okay.
098because I again I want to elevate this because this was significant feedback we received in the community on setting up the capital projects oversight committee. I hats off to the district for doing this. We just want to make sure people attend. So they've shown they had interest and then maybe for some of those folks I think the idea of having folks roll off after two years but I think to giving folks an out if you've signed up and you can't do it anymore giving up that spot to someone else who' really have interest because this is really important. >> Absolutely. >> So yeah thank you. As a reminder, those are also open to anyone to to also attend. So, we publicize them and have them on our calendar, so they're open to the public >>
099as well. >> Any other questions, comments? Director Anderson, >> just a comment. Um, thank you for the presentation and a thank you to the superintendent and team for um the focus on Maple Hills. Uh for those who don't know, there was water damage that occurred Monday night. Um making a kindergarten class completely inhabitable. So um appreciate whatever we can do to help work work them into the schedule and get them moved up. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Gallinger. Following up on that, uh are there any remaining funds from the 2022 levy that we could uh appropriate to a Maple Hills roof project number one. And then two, what about our school board reserve for this? Because getting started on that work seems like the sooner the better. There's approximately $600,000 left in the
100roofing portion of the 22 levy. That project's about a $3.5 million re-roof project. So it's kind of tough to we don't have enough funds in the 22 levy to do that work. >> Thank you. And then as you prepare for the vestibule projects and Maple Hills, it'd be great if you guys had some sort of signage that showed a a very large sign like the notice of blank signs that you see on by Province Point that is uh thank you to our voters. >> Okay. for approving this project for building safety, school safety, student safety, whatever. But I think we need to continue to braid together our good work with communication and that's a highly visible site that you will have thousands of parents coming into the building for curriculum night uh even if the
101project hasn't started yet. >> Yep. But these are moments where people are there that they we'd like to see and show like hey this is going to be what's happening because of your uh votes. Perfect. >> I just want to um just in for Maple Hills in particular, we have patched the roof this week. We do have maintenance funds and an open PO to make sure that we address anything as it arises. I know it's not the perfect, it's not the long-term fix, but we are actively doing all we can to buy us the amount of time to get us to that full roof replacement. >> Director Mullings >> for the um capital projects oversight committee. Are is there either I guess feedback or summaries from those? And if I should already have that, let
102me know. But I I do have a I I have an interest in knowing like the tone and tenor of those conversations, the questions that come out of it. Um >> we we have the presentations up on the web on the um on the district website. >> I don't think we have any what we presented out, but not >> like what is the >> uh common questions or what is what information are people more interested in? Like I'm trying to get a sense of what were they hoping to know? Like I know when they got started a lot of it was baseline information like how does it all work? How do you see the data? >> And and with new high new high school new high school is really um like the first meteor one
103that they're getting to dig into. So I was just curious as like what is the conversation? Yeah, and as I as I indicated in here, there was a lot of questions and we left plenty of time for questions and we had a team there that could answer almost anything and it was everything from um cost per square foot all about construction and it ventured in there was programming questions that we weren't able to answer at the time, but it was a wide range and very little if any negativity. It was a very positive conversation. It really was. So, >> so really at this point it's still just about like what are the details of that project. Okay. >> Yep. >> Okay. Thanks. >> I'll I'll add that there's um there was a lot of forming
104as you said baseline education and getting up and running. Um and we've tried to sort of give some tone and tenor. I think it's helpful to hear, you know, from Tom right now the tone and tener of the lasting types of questions. and we can certainly as part of our regular capital projects updates do more of that in advance um and prepare that as part of our summary for where we are especially um for the May 12th meeting. I will say that I'm I'm grateful that the the levies uh for capital uh passed because now we can actually have a lot more content to talk about. So as we move through time, I mean there's it's not just the high school, but there's all these other critical repairs that are part of the capital levy.
105And so what I appreciate is that this uh structure is now set up. the baseline has been founded and formed and that we can now launch into as we move towards both prioritization and progress of the work and being able to talk about any market trends or things that pop up that make us have to have different choices. We can then engage that committee on what we're seeing and what how we might handle those um questions as they arise. So, it's set up and ready to go and grateful that we now have the funding to be able to tackle a lot of these big projects. >> Director Willings. So the the other thing just back to the complexity of all this like it is really interesting when we talk about like even the name of
106these levies right so 2026 levy but money is coming in 2027 and and then when we talk about 2022 we're still talking about projects that we're doing and so I think it is important to kind of restate that these levies are structured in a way that they're paying for critical repairs and maintenance over the course of a number of years and so it is our expectation that there's dollars remaining when we get to these later years to actually do stuff that breaks. I think sometimes people are like why are they still doing stuff? I'll use that as my quot fingers. Why are they still doing stuff from 2022? And it's like cuz that's the point. The point is we need to get the money so it covers us across all the way from 22 or
10723 to 27 until the next one kicks in. So, I don't know if that's something like explain a little bit more, but I just think when people see the year, it feels like why are they why does it take them so long? And so, maybe just explaining a little bit about what critical repairs is actually doing over the course of the number of years would be helpful. >> Yeah. And one of the one of the key points is it's 20. It was voted on for example 26 and it covers years 27, 28, 29, and 30. And collections happen each of those four years. We don't get the money like a bond or the bulk of the money up front. It's spread out over those four years. So yeah. >> Yep. >> Yeah, that's an important
108point. I'm just going to reiterate it is that um it comes in a couple times a year when taxes are collected too. So it's not that we get all of it up front and then we spend it over four years. So a lot of timing involved, a lot of when are we going to do the the things? Do we have enough for the big project right now? You know, that kind of stuff. So that's a bit of the balancing. Uh and then our executive director of communication reminded me we have started putting summaries up on the website for the capital projects oversight committee. So that might answer some of the questions and we can always uh elaborate on those as we go forward too. So if it doesn't you know hit the mark now we
109can improve. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate the presentation. >> Moving along. We will now move to uh monitoring report for results three, civic engagement. >> May I have a motion? >> I move the board accept the monitoring report for results three, civic engagement, R3 as presented. >> Second. Thank you. Okay. I think we will have a presentation now from the administration. >> Great. Well, we'll have Dr. Downey and Rich Males join us up here for some framing. Um, as always, you know, the report has been posted and I know that the board um reads our our very uh long reports quite in depth. Uh, so we'll just do some light framing and then open up to board discussion. Um, and um as we Yeah. and questions. >> Thank you. Um, good evening directors
110of the board, superintendent Yik uh Jaclyn Downey, assistant superintendent schools and academics. Results three focuses on developing students skills, dispositions, and sense of responsibility to live as engaged community members. Civic engagement is complex and not easily measured by a single outcome. This report draws on curriculum evidence, student experiences, and perception data to measure results. Three. In the 202425 school year, students consistently reported strong outcomes related to respect, ethical decision-making, and considering multiple perspectives. For example, 94% of high school students and 86% of seventh graders reported they are willing to consider others opinions while making their own decisions. The vast majority of students across elementary, middle, and high school say they act respectfully toward people with ideas that are different from their own. These results align with what we see in practice through social studies instruction,
111social emotional learning, and co-curricular experiences such as leadership, service clubs, and student representation on the board. The report also identifies important areas for growth. students sense of agency and impact are more variable. For example, 57% of seventh graders with a significant number of students also selecting neutral responses um indicate that they feel they have agency and impact in their community. In addition, secondary students and staff report that standalone SEAL lessons are not always experienced as relevant, reinforcing the need for deeper integration into meaningful core instruction. In response, focused work is underway. We are integrating SEAL standards directly into coursework, continuing inquirybased and culturally responsive social studies adoptions, strengthening positive behavior intervention and support and MTSS systems. Together, these efforts are designed to deepen relevance, strengthen student agency, and improve how we measure progress over time.
112Taken together, results three shows we have strong foundations in place to support the development of our students as they become collaborative, ethical, and confident adults, as described in our portrait of a graduate. It also challenges us to keep learning alongside them to provide the most relevant and empowering learning experiences possible for our young people. We are proud of this work and remain committed to refining our system so every student continues to grow as an engaged and valued community member. Executive Director Rich Melish and I look forward to your questions and discussion. >> Thank you. We'll now uh see if we have any public comment on this topic. Anyone online? No one in the room. Okay. Uh I'll open it up to board comments and questions. Dr. >> Um well thank you. Um I thought the
113report as always was very thorough. Um u lots uh lots of good information to go through. I I was reflecting on a couple things. One um recently participating in the senior exit interviews at Liberty which I know few of us here or actually four of all four of us were part of including director Gallinger. Um, and the question around bias and how do you determine facts, which I is a question I often well I always ask uh students that and I was looking at section 3.3 um and I think it's page six where um the report says how the district in terms of just curriculum uses a process the culture responsive equity framework for adopting curriculum to ensure or at least to try to mitigate by by uh any bias that potentially could in the
114curriculum got me thinking a bit around how we're equipping students with that. And I know that there were there were a couple areas there's the when it's social curriculum. I don't know it didn't speak to how it would help students kind of maneuver through bias, but I'm wondering are there specific calls out call outs for how that maybe is being looked at or how that's being taught to students? You know, it's it's funny because right before we came into the board meeting, we were in the room with our student representatives and just talking about kind of the changes that are happening in our social studies curriculum. And a couple of I I'm kind of excited about some of the new course development that we're doing and just some fundamental shifts. And when you look at
115that college and the C3 framework that's mentioned in there that guides >> um curriculum development, it it approaches the professional practices a little bit differently. So for example, I have it up here. Um dimension one of that C3 framework is developing questions and planning inquiry. So that's teaching students to develop questions and plan inquiry. The dimension um three is about gathering and evaluating resources and developing claims using evidence. And dimension four is communicating and critiquing conclusions. So we've we've really built that into the the core structure that we're doing to design these new courses. And as a result of that, and it's always built around um compelling questions. >> And so I I a few examples here. Our previous generation of social studies classes just pulled literally out of the out of the standards. And
116with the C3 framework, our new courses, you'd expect Glo this out of global studies. But when we look at global studies, the essential learnings are actually the compelling questions that they are going to study in that course. So for example, not surprising for global studies, questions like what circumstances have created a world where genocides and human rights abuses continue to happen. So that's the that's the learning is to do inquiry around that and get multiple sources and look at that uh from a critical lens. What's probably more exciting to me is a class that is less um not always as accessible to students as world history. Um, some students may love world history I heard and some students were like world history old old things that happened. Um, but I look at the questions in
117the new design of of world history and I look at things like how do people use nationalism as a form of resistance to imperialism? How does new technology inspire change? Okay, that's that's ancient medieval history. how does new technology? So, they're really trying to pull those questions up to the present and really look at multiple points of view and get them to look at those different points of view critically. So, really I I that's I know that's probably more than you wanted to hear, but it is about teaching students how to look at bias and look at different points of view. >> I I think that's that's very helpful. I I guess then another question on that is then I guess where are students directed to to obtain factual evidence? Yes. too. That's my that
118I guess that's another part of the concern too with that. >> Absolutely. That is I think if you talk to any of our social studies teachers and probably our ELA teachers as well nowadays, that is a really big important thing um that they're aware of and are looking at that. So when they're looking at multiple points of view or having them do their own research and they're definitely integrating in multiple of our courses, how do you figure out whether what you're looking at is is reliable, valid, true, um, false? Um, because we know that kids are inundated with lots of, um, unreliable sources of information. >> And does that include kind of the AI overlay too in terms of being able to >> Yes. I think just about every conversation I have with a teacher,
119one of the first things they're doing is saying, "How do we evaluate where AI is getting its information, whether that information is valid, and how do we figure out where its mistakes are?" Because I think they were basically teaching students that you can assume that they're going to find mistakes. So, how do you find them? >> Yeah. Great. Thank you, >> Director Anderson. >> So, I'm the data person. I'm looking at numbers. um page four I'm seeing um the secondary numbers and even 9 through 11 in 21 22 and 23 24 being really low. Do we have reasons as to why we were only in the hundreds for those years >> for numbers of respondents? >> Yeah. Uh I know at least in the 23 24 school year it was a miss and so you
120can see in the 2425 school year real significant jump in participation. So it was strategic the approach to having students take these um these surveys. So there was followup and it was real regimented. We did hear that year there was a lot of survey fatigue as well. Also, we have had to note continually in our modern reports because we do come back to these different surveys in different reports um that this the data from this year might not be as reliable on a year-to-year basis compared to the other years given the low numbers of responses. >> Yeah, it's just it's it's hard to see how we're doing when we're reliant on data and data is not very strong. So, um, and then I have another question, and this can be answered by the superintendent or
121the board, um, because I'm coming in so late with the portrait of a graduate. Um, how ca how does that alignment make students civic and community skills more visible and measurable? Because I see that mentioned in the report, but it's I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how that's part of the reporting. Uh well, first I'll I'll take a first uh comment here and then I'd be curious to hear also board thoughts and and and Dr. Downey and Rich Malish's thoughts. The portrait of graduate does quite nicely overlay actually with the um with the results overall and I know that we have a future board retreat to talk about what those implications might be, you know, as we think about both the portrait but also uh the governance model and policies from the
122board itself as part of the coherent governance um process. Um and right now what we are determining is that as we look going forward where is that overlay um how are we taking that into account in our strategic plan um and how are we taking that in account with any future discussions the board might have around tweaks to policy and how that can be further connected. We also did commit to our staff to constantly think about where are we looking where we already see evidence where these um aspects of skills are being developed currently throughout the entire system. Um and so as you even as we even reflected on Rich Malish's comments about the depth and the different criteria and domains um in the curricula for addressing for both world history and then other other
123uh social studies courses you could hear in there that interpreting information and data uh portrait of a graduate durable skill really come through. So there's lots of ways that what's already happening. Uh and then the measurement of portrait I think that's a really good question. The question is, do we actually measure it or is it actually that we're looking for evidence because a lot of the durable skills are really about linking to mastery, right, in competency based learning as well. And there's a lot out there now that's being developed, especially by um organizations that have leading outsiz voice in this area to think about progressions of skills and how those might get overlaid with standards um as well. So, there's a lot to figure out. You ask a great question um and I know that
124some work is out there and we're going to start leaning on that. Actually that was one of the benefits uh of inviting people to our school district um from other districts across the country as we found out there is some good work happening on uh where there have been fur um more advanced sort of years and looking at a profile of graduate or a profile of a learner and so we've um been able to be connected with those people and how they're thinking about a couple years down the road. Uh Dr. Downey or um Mr. Malish anything you'd want to add? >> I just agree. I think we're in the we adopted the portrait in November. Um and so now as we're looking back on the work over the last year, we can draw those
125connections as superintendent said and see some highlights and now we can think about with our strategic plan refresh where there opportunities to dig further into the portrait um and develop strategies that really pull out parts of the results where we see the portrait as well. But I it is certainly continued work >> and I would just say that the the bringing that into the report is part of our commitment to kind of start pulling the thread of past years into present work. So it's not really that we see that as evidence of last year's work. It's more of hey this work is continuing to develop into this year. And you're right, we have a ways to go on that. >> Director Gallinger. Uh thank you for this. I I think that uh I appreciate these
126conversations because when we think about the whole child, these parts are just as much an important as academics because I know we talk about academics all the time. So if you would go to the bottom of page eight, uh and so 3.5 uh which is students will understand appropriate, considerate, responsible oh and it's gone. uh and ethical use and impact of misuse of technology including artificial intelligence and social media. So this section is one that I'm always interested in. And if you would go to the top of page nine, I think a year ago, I wondered is and has the district yet done a sort of guiding principles or best practices or policy, whatever word we want to use for our staff because the interpretation of this isn't if you use AI, that's misuse. But
127I think still in many of our classrooms that's essentially what's being projected. So rapid change is happening quickly in this front. Do we have guiding principles or something for our secondary staff in particular? because I still see widely variable of like AI is bad to then oh yeah you should use AI to help you with this project. So that range makes me wonder what what are our teachers really being directed from the highest levels of our district. Yeah, we we have developed uh our ed tech team has developed some um guides to good uses for AI for staff particularly and have been continuing to build that out. They've done some work groups especially around some of the humanities courses where there were some particular concerns um to really come up with some like here's how
128you can use it and not be afraid to use it because of you know cheating or things like that. So yes, some some some guides have been used and this year we've been making particular um progress in training around the use of our adopted platform of colleague AI and training. Uh so we've now we have now trained all staff on the beginning uses of AI as of this year. That didn't happen last year but we did we did have some last year some um uh promoted uses of AI in the classroom um available even last year. the we're now moving into the projects of uses of colleague AI for the studentf facing side in secondary and so that's just we're just doing some pilots on that so we've been making some steady progress in that
129area um and but it's it's yes it's dynamic and emerging but we absolutely are and we did do um a full half-day training with all secondary staff in January really showing how important it for us to lean into that conversation of AI um just as part of career prep and preparing students for the world outside of school. So we are certainly getting that message out there and I would say that there is still a lot of variability of comfort um with AI, not just the use of AI but the ethics and challenges um that people have with AI. there's a lot of different opinions um among our community and our teachers >> in that >> which is why all the more important that there was centralized I think guiding principles about that. So if you
130had them in place for the last school year I I think >> I would have to look at what the publishing when we publish that is but we could get um we could we could get some copies of the documents to you and follow up to this meeting if you would like of of that we've put out there to teachers. >> Yes. So, if it was from last year, I would love for it to be linked into this report. >> And then if it's from this year, then I would love it for it to highlight sort of like, oh, here's where we're headed. >> I will I will confirm. I I'm looking at I think both of us will try to confirm whether that came out last year or this year. I think that we
131had a version last year, but I don't want to swear to that. >> I thought there was by late spring. Yeah. And so I I guess I would like it to be able that way we can kind of watch it evolve over time >> is why I would like to be here is because I think we're going to see rapid evolution of it >> over the next several years and that's why I would like to memorialize >> what last years were otherwise >> if it's not in this report. We can't go back and look and see what the district >> like where they were and then Yep. >> to query that because I often go back and look at >> like past year's data or past year's like links to see about that. >> Thank
132you. Milo. >> Um, I was thinking about what Harlon was saying and I was thinking about my teachers and how they are all very very split on the AI usage where definitely we have some teachers who are like, "Yep, let's use AI." We've actually got a class right now um that students are signing up for which is how to use AI in your schoolwork. And then we have a teacher who would never be caught dead letting her students use AI. And I think that's a um there's an interesting split there. Um and then I do have some questions and comments on page 14. I know we were talking about in your like original reflection was that we had some growth in the fourth grade soft skills survey about believing that students that they can make
133a difference in their community. And it seems like that number, although I do appreciate the inclusion of neutral, it does seem that neutral and the strongly, it just seems a little a little low. And I know we touched on that. And I would just be interested in knowing what we've done with that data now that we have seen those numbers and what we're doing to try and encourage our younger elementary students um to believe that they can make a difference because they totally can. And I know um just last Friday um our kids students went and worked with the elementary students um to teach them lessons about salmon and cocon education with trout unlimited. I think I think AJ touched on that a little bit ago. Um but I and I think at the end
134of that most of them were fourth and fifth graders. I think at the end of that they were very inspired and encouraged and definitely I think if we had asked them that question they would have said that they believe that they could make a difference in their community and so just wondering what kinds of things we're doing or are thinking of doing to encourage that just cuz I don't know our youngest our youngest believers are still really important to our community. Thank you, Milo. And I appreciate your passion for this. We had a a fun dialogue uh last morning about this as well. Um so I think when looking at the elementary data, you see the percent neutral. It was added um to the survey. So that's why we keep it in there. So you
135can see yes, there is a dip and strongly agree and some of that went to neutral, which didn't exist as a category before. I agree with you. It is still lower than we want it to be. One example of um civic engagement or I say students feeling empowered to make an impact in their community at the elementary level is with our benchmark curriculum. So that is our literacy curriculum that was recently adopted. And it was a couple months ago I was visiting some elementary schools and across every grade level the unit was a focus on my community and what who are the helpers in our community and what kind of impact we can have in our community. um whether that's through community service or government or different roles that people play and occupations. So that
136was one example I had um regarding that. >> Yeah, I really like it. Yes. What we're thinking about now I'm thinking about having Gibson students come to all of our elementaryaries. So I I do think that there's something so we do have like we have a social studies unit on me in my community. We have these uh benchmark units. Um, I'm kind of curious because we changed the way our student clubs work, which allows students to create clubs. Um, I I think it's I I think there's there I think you touch on a really important point is that we could tell them as adults that you can make a difference in your community, but how do we get students to really believe that? Because here I am, I'm four fourth grade, not four years old,
137fourth grade, and you know, I'm in this world of adults and how can I say I'm going to impact my community? And I'd love for our students to leave our elementary saying, "Oh yeah, I am totally convinced that I'm going to make a difference in my community." I do think actually that when older students say it, it actually has a really huge impact. So, thank you for doing that work. >> Yeah, go ahead. >> I definitely um I think that's I think that's wonderful and I definitely I just love when our high school students interact with our younger students. I think that's one of the best, if not the best ways to not only confirmu the older students mastery, but also include the younger students. Um, I remember when I was in elementary, I think
138the the biggest way that I felt involved in my community was through helping the lower elementary students. So, I I do think we're still doing that cuz where I work, I see a lot of the fourth graders and they talk about that. Um and then my other it was just a quick comment that a lot of these points that we require surveys and do some data for um like the understand and respect diverse cultures and whatnot um Gibson does have quantitative data for that because of our dashboards and so although it's not representative of the whole district and all of the high school experiences you could still technically if you're interested use that and it might help with some of the like qualitative like actual numbers portion of it. >> Thank you. >> Any other
139director Mullings? >> So we we've actually talked about a couple about survey participation. Only thing I found interesting, maybe it's a question, but I the portrait of a graduate work I don't see any reference just going to the underlying like website of it of the actual state because there's work happening at the state level on the same topic which I know is was a bit of a the baseline and I think that might be helpful to add into the discussion just because it's not like a thing we made up this portrait of a graduate that there's actually work happening at a state level um that we are adopting adding to whatever the right word is and so I think I I think me may be missing a bit of the plot for people on where
140did this even come from like what is it based in so I would just say there's probably a bit to add on like what is the what is the foundation of this work and where did it come from might be helpful in in in that conversation just as I was looking at it I was like well I know how we started but I don't think anybody else knows why this is why this is here and where the work comes from so that's that's just one I think we could help with a little bit more history and storytelling on the portrait of a graduate guess what I've got a portrait of a graduate question no I just noticed uh later in the I think the latter part of the report there was a discussion about the
141um exit interviews being realigned to the portrait of graduate. Uh I cognized if we just did this in November, but I'm just curious if you could tell me how or what the thinking is there or how that's being realigned. >> Why don't you tell me? >> Well, as as director Coin said, four of us just recently experienced the the five new questions um aligned a portrait of a graduate. So, uh, the new questions which, uh, were first used at Liberty, they're the first school to go this, uh, this spring. First question was for students to tell us about yourself. Kind of that typical first interview question. And then next were five questions that the interviewer could select from. And each of them were uh, a version of the durable skills in each of the five
142areas of the portrait of a graduate. So, for instance, um tell me about a time you set goals and achieved something. Talking about student agency, tell me about a time that you collaborated with a group of people um to accomplish a goal. So, examples like that uh were what students spoke to. >> Great. Thank you. I'll add that we were already underway in relooking at the exit interview process as well as the uh value of that experience as a really authentic um time for young people to really practice being in front of adult and another adult in a professional way that helps them reflect on their experience but also helps them project into what it might look like to show up in an interview as well. So that was already underway. So it was, I
143think, easy for us to sort of make a bit of a a pivot to also start to link that automatically with the portrait of a graduate. >> Any other comments? >> Yes, go ahead. Le >> much. Um, I just had a quick thing um on page 15 and just in a couple of other spots too um with between the fifth grade exit survey and the seventh grade student survey. Um since both Tres talked about community and kind of student impact on community, I was wondering if it was kind of looked into on why um the percent that strongly agree or a agree dropped so much in that kind of transition from elementary to middle school. That's a great question. Um I think it's something we should look into further to find out more. I do
144think it it aligns in general with some of the other student surveys we see in middle school. A little bit of a dip in satisfaction is a big transition time right in students lives. Um but I I would love to talk with our students and find out more. We'll do that. Developmentally kids are right in the middle too uh in seventh grade. So there's a lot going on developmentally there. So that's just I think we it's a helpful frame to think about the the change and how we can think about developmentally what would be helpful. I do think that um we've seen some strong evidence with the micro school work where students feel incredible agency because they're taking a question uh you know like how does how does sustainability work in Puet Sound? Right? How
145and so that's a really powerful way for young people at Maywood to be able to engage in a local based question um that's about sustainability. The same thing is true at Pine Lake. is very specific local type questions on sustainability. So I think that there are new things that we could actually draw connections to that are this year when we do next year's report. Um but um that's a really great observation. >> Yes, Milo. >> Sorry. Is there a possibility to for next year for us to separate out the like traditional middle school responses to the survey with the micro school responses? Because I would be really interested to see if the number of like seventh grade students that believe they have an impact on their community is a higher percent because that could also
146prove that our micro schools are working the way that we want them to. So if that's a possibility that would be amazing. >> It's a great question on evaluation right is the support we're putting in place is opportunity making an impact. Certainly we want to maintain some consistency with this survey so we can look at data over time. However absolutely we want to survey and talk with our students who are experiencing our micro schools and be able to see that comparison in data. >> And a great question on methodology on evaluation as Dr. Downey brings forward. Uh, one thing for this year if we were to survey I think we'd have a very small N size. So you it's hard to compare but and I do think the qualitative aspect and this is back to
147measurement linking back to director Anderson's question too like how do you measure experiences and I think it's very powerful to think through oftentimes the qualitative components um uh and that kind of feedback you can never replace the words someone uses about what they have learned how that has further furthered their passion or expanded their interest areas. So, um, we want to always balance that as well, but it's it's a good question to bring forward. What's the methodology to learn more about the microscope? And I did bring that up. So, thank you for, uh, building on that. >> Okay. Hearing no more comment, I think we have a motion to accept the monitoring report for results three, civic engagement. What was it? Do we have a student vote? Yeah. Sorry about that. We will have a
148student advisory vote at this time. Excuse me. One more. still need one more. Yeah. No. Okay. Well, we have five in favor. Six in favor. Okay. There we go. Okay. Thank you very much. Uh that's great. Now we have a motion to accept the monitoring report for results three civic engagement as presented. All in favor, please say I. >> I. Uh, and no oppose. So, the motion carries. Thank you very much. Oh, they're gone. Thank you for that presentation. That was really, really great. Next up on the agenda is a strategic plan update about priority area one, student well-being and priority area 2, academic opportunities. And I will turn it over to the administration. >> Great. As uh Mr. Marceler joins us at the podium um as well as Dr. Carver and Mr. Melish and
149Dr. Downey. Um I do want to say this is the beginning of our updates about where we are currently. I know in my works in progress I talked about what we're doing to prepare for the next round of our strategic planning. This is year three of our first strategic plan. Um as again it's a it's part of our um implementation assessment answer answer to uh one of the results which is the mission and that we'll be monitoring that in June and uh we're combining priority areas one and two and that's similar to how we did it last year. So you'll hear uh another couple updates in the next board meetings as well about um the other priority or areas. So um that's just some context and framing of where we are in time. >> Thank
150you. Superintendent Marcel Howser, senior advisor and strategy. Good evening board. Good evening community, the thousands watching on YouTube somewhere. I was like that I'm hopefully thinking that Matt. I was channel you with that. Um moving into so purpose today and thank you superintendent for framing it. This is all about year three implementation. So there's two tracks running simultaneously right now. We have our year three of our current plan which we'll go into and kind of share highlights. We also are going through a refresh. So today primarily we're going to focus on year three of our 2022 2023 strategic plan. So we're going to stay in the present. Uh but promise more to come in the future on the refresh. So we we love to start with the vision and mission and goals because um one
151interesting tidbit we've been going through the schools and talking about our mission our vision and collecting feedback on the plan and I always like to start with do you know what the results are and very interesting like most schools it's not telling anybody they're like what are the results and it's interesting because I'm like yeah they live in the boardroom but these are our goals these are what govern our work um so it's it's really our foundational piece so want to make sure we I always say that publicly like these are the goals that that we have for students and these guide our work as we move forward. So anchoring in that we think about the how the strategic plan really lives as the sort of vehicle to move that work forward to accomplish the
152vision to accomplish those goals. You've seen the pyramid. We've shared this publicly before that middle section really is the is is the heart of it. That's the strategic plan work. So our priority areas, our goals, our metrics, our strategies. So that's the anchor in in the work that kind of pushes towards those higher level goals. The journey really started in 2022 and 23. So thank you board was a part of this process to think about what you know our priority should be what you know taking on the feedback and the themes that we heard. Um we able to come up with a plan that that you know encompassed the five areas but also 18 strategies. So thinking back to year one, we had results one, which was our first time measuring the strategic plan via
153the mission. Uh year two, we started thinking about our our SIP plans and our our template. So thank you to Rich and team. We started to modify those SIP plans directly. So you could not fill out that SIP plan without seeing a direct alignment to the strategic plan. So that was systems level work that happened. And then as we go into year three, we just talked about portrait of a graduate that was that was a big piece in change in our system. So that is a part of this work. Um and then again we are now moving into refresh you know phase of what are the new strategies what is community telling us and what did we learn from this first three years of the plan. Last little bit of framing. So we shared about
154the system health indicators. These are the same indicators that we worked on collectively. the board viewed and and really okayed as these are the high level indicators that we feel let us know whether we're going in the right direction or not. Um so they're meant to be sort of higher level framing. Um but they're not to mean that we we're excluding other data points. Um I always like to I tease Rich and the folks like results two has a thousand data points like we are tracking a lot of data but that really the system health indicators they're our attempt and our way of pulling things back up to the top and tracking things. uh public can have access to there's a public dashboard through PowerBI that you can access and see the three-year trend data.
155So we will come back in June and show like how we did so starting from you know three years ago to now like to show some progress and there has been some exciting progress. We'll highlight a little bit here. So, you know, four-year grad rates, we've shared this in other board meetings. We should celebrate, right? They're very high, very high. The highest, you know, tie for highest in state. So, I always want to round that to 99%. At this point, it's like a hanging little it's 99%. So, we are super high in that area. We we also know we want to highlight. So, we're making progress of students with disability, our BIPAC community. So we we are really putting in hard work in in in really growing and closing gaps, but we also know I
156always like to be honest like there's other areas we know we have to continue to improve. So you can see the third grade reading there's some flat lines flat data with our black indigenous and people of color. So our student data there. So and again the team here is not going to stop until you know those those gaps are closed. So with that framing, I have a dream team behind me to start. So we're going to share some highlights. So Dr. Carver is going to come up and share some good works, things happening in student well-being and then Rich Fall and we'll talk next steps. >> All right. Thank you, Marcel. And good evening, uh, superintendent, board of director, student representatives. Um, we're excited to talk about student well-being and I'm actually very excited about
157some of the connections between results three that we just talked about. So hopefully we can make some meaningful connections. As Marcel shared, we've been working over the last three years really focusing and targeting um in strategic areas. And so I'm going to talk specifically about student well-being in our two main goal areas. So first and foremost, that students feel safe and have a sense of belonging in our schools across all of our learning sites. and students will have access to resources that support their basic needs, social, emotional, and behavior and mental health. When we think about this, I wanted to first and foremost highlight that this slide reflects um what was previously shared with the board in June of 25. And Marcel referenced this as part of our results one monitoring report. And at a
158high level, we learned that system level infrastructure, participation equity across grade levels, and we've talked a lot about that tonight about what does that look like? Participation equity in our surveys and our engagement and the shift to assetbased support models are areas that really require and continue to shape our well-being work. And that's the work that I'm going to share with you about this year. And I'm fighting a cold, so I'm going to just really quickly hear Dr. Downey offered. She's like, "Well, if you lose your voice, I can speak for you." So, I'm going to try and muscle through here my couple slides. So, um, one of the things that we really want to talk about in terms of this year is that we've been really building on those lessons. And I'm really pleased
159to share meaningful progress that we've made this year across priority one systemwide. So, the data on the slide shows that we've strengthened participation in our well-being surveys. And so, we've talked a lot about that data in the rears and that's one area that we continue to talk about. Yes, we have some survey fatigue, but we're really working on strengthening that. And now we're connecting those results to targeted multi-tered systems of supports and interventions. So, not just we're collecting data, but also that data is driving student supports and driving action at the both the student and system level. On a programmatic side, we launched a strength based collaborative pilot and it is in direct response to our commitment to move away from deficit-based models across our system. Also, as mentioned in results three, we've completed a
160full integration of our Washington State's SEAL standards into our high school coursework. Now, we know we need to continue to for focus on SEAL at the high school level, but that work is moving forward. We've also developed a high school SEAL playbook and we finalized a community resource hub that's available for students and families. We've also mapped out a K12 student goal setting pathway aligned to both the portrait of a graduate. So, uh Dr. uh or director Anderson mentioned that piece. How does this connect to our work? So, the portrait of graduate connects there and our high school and beyond plans. And this positions us well for sustained and systematic impact. I also want to bring and highlight some of this work to life and share some of our key spotlights for this year for
161this priority area. So this past August, we hosted our annual resource fair and the turnout truly reflects the trust our families and our community is placing in the district. We served over 437 families and this represents 870 students and that includes distribution of school supplies. But beyond just school supplies for each and every one of those students, this event brought together sports physicals. So thank you Dr. uh Gallinger. um health screenings, vaccinations, EVP support, and closing clothing closet services all under one roof before the school year even began. This exemplifies whole child supports made accessible to students and families in community. The second spotlight is around Care Solace. And so we'd like to share that Care Solace is a care coordination service that's available for every student, every staff member, and every family in our
162district. It's available 24/7, and it's available in over 200 languages. And this year, the team expanded Care Solace to include social services coordination, which is broadening our reach significantly. Since July, the numbers speak for themselves. With 800 or excuse me, 80 referrals, 42 successful connections to care, and over 140 hours of staff time saved. That time then directly translates to our social workers and our counselors being able to directly support and serve students as opposed to navigating systems. I want to shout out to our equity, belonging, and family partnership team as they've worked in these two spotlight areas along with the full st student well-being priority area. I will now turn it over to my colleague Rich Melish who will talk about priority area two and academics. >> All right, thank you. So priority priority
163era area two academic opportunity centers on two goals. Um increasing uh student achievement of meaningful milestones and equitable access to resources and pathways. Um you know last year we we talked about some of the journey that we were on and some updates and things that we were learning along the way. Um uh this year some of the areas I want to look at are some of the outcomes and also some of the things that systems that we're developing. So, um, increases in reading foundational skills. We hit some targets. We saw some really nice gap closure in our students with disabilities. Um, and I'm also excited about some of the other measures, formative measures that are showing acceleration when students are receiving interventions. And we're also seeing um how how cohorts are increasing their achievement in
164more measures as they go from third to fourth to fifth as well. So, there's there's some nice parts there. We are we are we are still not done though because um we did see that flatline with the um students of color that we're not seeing that accelerated growth there in that third grade um measure and we we'd like to see the overall we'd like to see that also reflected in overall measures of reading and ELA and third grade. So we're hitting more acceleration in fourth fifth. We'd like to see that happen even earlier in third grade. So we're not we're not done. We have places to grow on that, but we're excited with some of the early um uh returns on investment there. When we get into the the next couple uh bullets, as we
165were developing our multi-tered systems of support, one of the great things that's happening is desiloing our intervention systems. So, as uh teaching and learning service uh managed programs and special service managed programs coordinate, we're using success block and and strategic scheduling to really make sure that we're getting that full continuum of support and being really responsive to students. Um and so we're we're and we're getting more more interventions earlier. So, we are we are excited about the the systems development that has come out of this strategy as well. the um kind of I think I'll jump down to some of the the the data work too and the the just attention to gap closure. I think one of the things just anecdotally that I see is how many of our engagements with staff and meetings
166and collaborations and and structures in our schools start with this commitment uh recognized commitment to gap closure and we start by looking at the data of these groups and saying is there evidence that this effort is closing a gap an important gap and I think that attention is is really making um making its way through our system at all levels and so we're starting to see that in ways that we look at grades and nth grade success and on track. Um we see that in our looking at are we getting students to to feel that sense of agency that they can choose advanced math if that's what they want, accelerated math if that's what they want. And then also looking at some of our support systems and saying, are these interventions serving all students? Is
167our tier one curriculum serving all students and getting all students to to to um hit those markers of success? So I think that the strategic plan has raised a great awareness of the gap and and made it more systemic. And then finally um some great work around the high school and beyond plan and just really revising that and strengthening that and becoming more meaningfully connected to helping students choose um their pathway through our schools to prepare for their career ambitions and their post-secary um opportunities. Um, and that work is that work is not done either because there's there's more to come as we integrate the the portrait of a graduate that we were just talking about into the high school beyond plan in very explicit ways. And as the state is investing in new resources
168and new scope and sequence for that work, I think we're going to see that that um high school and beyond plan become increasingly um meaningful to our community as they go through and our students as they plan their post-secary goals. So, the spotlight strategy, there's several things that I I think we could be really proud of as a system out of this. Um, but one of the things that we've already kind of mentioned earlier in this is is how it starts to come together. And I think that seeing these strategies starting to reflect deeply in school improvement plans. For me, that's been one of the highlights of this work. Um it's the fact that that we have a common dashboard and not only do we have the school improvement plan dashboard, we got related formative
169dashboards so that they can look at early indicators and leading indicators of each of those measures and and be more responsive throughout the year. So I think that's something that has been a real highlight is how we support the school improvement plan integration and then also the fact that there's a great similarity in the school improvement plans because we're we're creating systems and structures and scope and sequences of how do you how do you do this work but letting schools make it locally relevant and fit their needs and fit their um strengths as a school. So, um, as a result, our state survey recently showed some connections that more staff feel that the work they're doing at school, their school level efforts are linked to the strategic efforts of the district. So, that was that
170was kind of a something that I that when we saw that, we're like, hey, that's that's a nice nice little piece of data to say it's starting to get throughout our system. Um, and then we're we're just emerging and developing and deepening. We've been doing these continuous cycles of improvement where teams, support teams have been looking at data regularly and asking ourselves, okay, what do we do? How do we get to these students? What do we do next? Now, we're getting that down to the classroom team level. So, on the January non- studentent day, we introduced a new protocol where we had to start teaching how we can in a very common way get all teachers involved in looking at the data and saying who's thriving, who's not, and what can we do about it?
171And so getting those cycles of continuous improvement in our service to students. So that's where we've been growing um and seeing how the systems in our district and our school improvement plan efforts in our reef. And so that's the spotlight that I wanted to bring um as as uh we continue to grow in priority area two. >> Thank you, Rich. All right, next step. So just go quick. So, we're continuing our school site visits throughout the month of April. You continue to go and collect feedback. U board retreats coming up. So, we'll pivot toward the refresh and what the next three years can look like. Then, we have a series of board meetings coming up to talk about this, you know, continuing the updates on this current plan, but also uh the new plan coming
172up. So, more conversations, strategic plan over and over and over and over again. So, thank you for listening. We're open to questions and feedback. Director Anderson. >> Um, so I mentioned this in January, but um, the Washington State Washington State School Director Association or WASDA as we like to call it started a new director um, connection meeting, training sessions, and this is the first year um, that they're doing that. And I I've loved being a part of that. And what's funny is on Friday our training was mission, vision, and goals. and they asked straight out like, "Do you know what they are?" And I knew our vision and mission cuz not only is it on our walls, but it's on our it's on our website. Um, but I was a little fuzzy on the goals
173and four hours later, this presentation came into my email. And so, it was the timing was just perfect because I was able to get myself kind of up to speed on all of this. So, thank you for all the hard work in this. Um, I think there's wonderful things happening. Um, one of the things, uh, mentioned in here was, you know, the reading foundation skills as well as the multi-tered systems of support. Um, in the retreat that we had earlier this week, uh, part one of two, um, I shared that I've seen that at work with my son in first grade. He is in the reading or learning to read phase, um, and experienced wonderful proactive help in this um, to get him up to the reading level he needed to be. So, a big
174thank you to the team for just even the start of all of this uh work. Um because it's I can personally say it's working and it's wonderful. So, thank you for that. >> Awesome feedback. Thank you. >> Yeah. Great. >> Yes, Milo. >> Sorry guys, I know I'm yapping a lot this meeting. Um based on your priority priority area one um and the lesson learned from year 2 implementation I just wanted to highlight that we are making wonderful progress on that specifically the understanding high school students social emotional needs require different approaches than elementary students um and I'm sure maybe you guys know I'm sure you do but um we are revamping the high school like the one that goes out all high schools the suicide prevention video. Um, and that's partially studentled, partially clinician
175um, le. So that's pretty cool. I just wanted to highlight that that we are um, redoing that um, which was made in I think 2020 during COVID. Um, and so we are we are redoing it to make it better and working with our service providers um, the ones at Swedish Hospital and whatnot. So I think we're making some great strides on student mental health specifically in the high school. >> Thank you for bringing that awareness. >> Dr. Mullings, >> this may be my favorite presentation in a very long time. >> Wow. >> So >> Sydney, do we get away? Right. >> And it's for me it's it's for many reasons. Uh one of the things in my first I'll say three years on the board I was like we we track so many random data
176points and talk about them for a really long time. And what for me was really important and I talked about a lot and you don't have to hear it anymore is like what's the data that actually matters? What are the points of inflection along a student's uh time with us that we know matter to their go forward success, right? What are those key points? Do we know what they are? Can we measure them? And then if we know what they are and can measure them, what are we doing before that point to make sure that we change the trajectory of where students hit those different inflection points? And if we know what we're doing, then what are we doing around the multiple facets of what has to change for any given student, whether it's supports,
177whether it's, you know, you know, the um oh gosh, the services before the start of school, right? For some students, that's about how do they show up at school, clothing, can they participate with sports, physicals, all the various barriers or things that become barriers, you know, how do we remove those? But it's also the academic identification and using the early indicators. It's about actually knowing which students are continuously um finding barriers to graduation or barriers to the next level achievement and disrupting those patterns. And what are and then how do we know that we as a whole system are lining up together to interrupt those repeatable patterns? And that was really hard. I almost cursed. That was really hard my first few years. Like it just like it was all this kind of random acts
178of work happening, but how do we know that they're being orchestrated in a way that can make substantive difference in the outcome for students? And so we, you know, we we've done some of our results monitoring. We absolutely can see it in the gap closure and in the graduation rates. What this presentation does is it pulls together like all of the various types of programs, all the various types of supports, right? Because to get to that last bit of those kids that aren't being served, it's a lot of different stuff that has to happen at one time. And so I just um am just deeply grateful and very proud of what this piece I know it's just a piece of the strategic plan in the readout, but it is um it's just light years ahead
179of how we were thinking about students as whole beings and how they fit in within this community and what we can practically do that's different to make a real and substantive change. and that trajectory and uh I am just it is just amazing to see. So thank you. >> Thank you Director Mullings. >> This is recorded right? We're recording this coming saying we're going to get the part. >> Yeah. >> Director going. >> Thank you. Uh thank you for the presentation. I want to um go to slide 13. And I kind of want to elevate Car Solace because I I think it's pretty substantial when you look at the 140 plus hours of staff uh time that's saved through coordination with family and providers. And I know I'll be the first to admit and others
180at home maybe listening are wondering this too, but Care Solace I hear about it, but I think there's a lot of specifics I don't know. And so I was just wondering if maybe someone could speak to it in a bit more detail in terms of what this looks like. um and how students access it. Um I think I know the detail would be helpful for me and maybe others. >> I will do a highle overview but again I want to uh call out and celebrate my colleagues in the equity uh belonging and family partnership um uh department. This is truly uh exemplifies their work um and the work of this uh P1 area. But um Car Solace is available as I mentioned to students, staff, family, community members. And so if you go to our
181website, you can log, you can hop right in and you're going to be able to see you can access them through a website. You can access them directly through a phone number. It is a service that connects you to mental health resources in our community. That's one of the biggest barriers is access to connected resources. So, being able to navigate our medical and mental health community, finding a provider, finding a provider um that aligns with your identity, finding a provider that speaks your language, all of those components. And so, families can log in free of charge. They will help you connect and coordinate and they navigate the system for you. So being able to say that piece about the burden of trying to call multiple providers, they will reach out, connect you if you're looking
182for a very specific type of provider, loop back with you at times that are convenient for you. If you're working third shift, they can get back to you. If you need supports directly for your students mental health, um if you need services for your own family's mental health, maybe you're having, you know, some support needs with your family and you need those, they're also available. Um it's a pretty dynamic opportunity to connect our community together and provide those resources very quickly. >> That's great. Thank you. I mean, as you stated too, there's just so many barriers to care and to have someone coordinate all of that to be able to find a local provider. Yes. >> To be able to maneuver through, hey, does this provider are they covered by my insurance? all of the
183questions that people might just say, "Hey, >> and even navigating, you know, insurance benefit, >> who takes my benefits, sliding scale access, all of those things, they have the care providers support with that, the care coordinators support with that." And again, I highly encourage folks to hop on, look at the website and access those resources. >> Is there a way, I guess, how is this promoted across the district, the service? How do people know it exists? How do we >> Yeah, that's a great question. And so we do have access to it in multiple places across our website. I know our counselors are huge supporters. They're directly um sharing this with students, sharing this with families, sharing this with staff members. Um our social worker and well-being teams also are connecting um students. I think
184it might be something I'm looking over to our uh comm's team. It might be something that we can also do some intentional pieces when we're reaching out um in whether it's um newsletters or other areas. I think there definitely would be an opportunity with that because I think particularly at our three comprehensive high schools that are so large and access to a school counselor is tough. Um, and usually that's just for scheduling. So these types of conversations >> are limited. So I think yeah, if there's a way to be able to push >> this out as a resource, I think would be would be wonderful. Yeah, mental health and well-being continues to be one of our top priorities and something that we continue to hear consistently um from students, staff, families is, you know, how
185do we support and so we're looking at multiple avenues to support? So, yeah, thank you for the feedback. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Yeah. >> Yes, Mil. >> Sorry, just adding on to that. Anytime you email a school counselor, it's right under their name is the link and a little description of what the service is. So anytime um and it's also I believe on some just regular teachers emails and so the students definitely get visibility through that just because you probably wouldn't see that. >> Thank you Milo. >> Director Galler. >> Yeah I would just say uh to be more proactive would be great. So if we know peak stress is as leading in finals. I don't know if that's the peak stress, but I'm sure you guys all know when the peak stress is.
186Seems like that should be proactively sent through Canvas and through emails to our families of, hey, this resource is available. I think that just shows like timeliness of support because when you start school, you're probably not thinking about this. >> So, you want that just in time educational piece when you need it. And if we have the techn technological ability to schedule things, then we should just schedule it because we we know you I mean you guys know when peak stress is. So those would be great times. And I think that would help uh normalize which I think is a huge part of student well-being is we wanted to be like this is normal. It's normal to be stressed. It's also normal to to to seek help. Yes. >> To find balance. >> Yes. >>
187And that also directly connects to our commitment in a proactive and preventative framework. Our multi-tered systems of supports are intended to be proactive and preventative. So reaching out in advance and saying, "Hey, we have these things. Please access these resources." So that's great feedback. Thank you. >> I wanted to pivot to the academic opportunities one. And so on our website, it says goal one is to increase student achievement of meaningful milestones of third grade reading, algebra 1, and nth grade on track to graduation and decrease opportunity gaps. But PowerBI only lists one of them. So I know in our in the the dashboards for our SIP plans you can find the data for the algebra one and graduation on track but it would be great just when you're on the PowerBI website and how if
188I'm at the top and I see the options are for the system health educator indicators percent of third grade greater scoring proficient in foundational literacy and I could choose percent of students attending 90% % or more of school days and percent of students who graduate in four years or continuing seems like adding the other two would be helpful if those are to Sydney's point if these are what we're trying to hone in on on these are the measures that matter >> we probably need to have them all in onetop shopping uh so we can see them and then it would be also helpful in this presentation as well as on PowerBI if you would define what your what is the scoring proficient in foundational literacy? It doesn't define what foundational literacy is. So are you
189using I ready and using certain strands within I ready. So that would be helpful versus I I don't need someone to define to me what like what graduation in four years is but the continuing might be. I don't know if everyone would know what that means. So I think adding those definitions to make it more just user friendly would be really helpful. Y >> thank you. Helpful feedback. Thank you. other comments. Okay. Um I would just add that the bullet point I believe it was in um section two but we don't have to go to it. Uh that pointed out the increased understanding of people about improvement efforts direct links to the strategic plan that is just huge. Uh I've done a lot of work in strategic planning at Microsoft over the years and you
190come to these teams and everyone's doing all this work and you can ask people you know why they're doing the work and they are hardressed to tell you sometimes. So that really is a tell all of the impact of the plan and um it's really about organizational empowerment. So really great great work and I just think that's a real reflection of the impact the plan is having and uh I would hope to be able to emulate that in some of my own work later in my career. So u really really well done. Um okay well hearing nothing else. Thank you very much. Appreciate >> Oh director Gallinger had one more thing. Sorry. Sorry. I thought he was >> more comment. Uh I just want to note for goal two students will have equitable access to
191resources and pathways that support individual individualized post high school goals. I am grateful for groundbreaking that is going to happen next month because it really is about this district and this board's commitment to deepening that opportunity for our students >> uh and developing those pathways to support individualized plans. So, uh, I'm excited that I'm sure that will be a prominent part of the renewal of the strategic plan, but did want to call that out as >> those were things that I think we dreamed of that we're getting a little later start than we would have liked, but nonetheless, like we're starting and and I see those dominoes falling. Uh, and I see nothing but excitement on behalf of our community and our kids. So, thank you for that. >> Great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank
192you. Okay, next up on the agenda is legislative matters. This is an opportunity to share legislative updates. Director Anderson, do we have anything to share? >> I don't have any myself. The session clo Yeah. And we had the report about the impact. >> Yeah. >> Of legislation on the district. So, I don't know if anyone else has anything. >> I do not. Anything else from anyone? >> Okay. Next is announcements and correspondence. Uh, do we have any correspondence we need to add to our report? No one has any correspondence. Moving right along. Uh, and then lastly here, calendar and future agenda topics. Um, let's see. The, uh, high school graduation presentation of the graduating class is listed. What is the conversation we need to have there? >> Do you need to select speak? Uh, who's
193speaking? you and that selecting speak. Okay. >> Uh I think I'm out this year. >> I would like to take on Isiqua if I could and that we have a family friend graduating is high. >> Yeah. >> Sorry. What are we talking about? I'm >> Oh, sorry. Sorry, Director Anderson. Yes. A at the graduation ceremony, uh, as part of each ceremony, there is an opportunity where the one of the school board directors gives about a one and a half, two minute, uh, speech and then presents the class. >> Gotcha. >> Yes. And, uh, you know, there's a script for some of that and all that we can we can help you with, but um, that's what we're all signing up for. >> Four ceremonies. Four ceremonies, five directors. Uh, director Mullings is gets the buy
194this this year. Uh and the Gibson EC um ceremony is usually held at IHS in the theater there. Um it's a smaller uh ceremony, but uh really unique and great and cool, >> beautiful. >> So um that's an opportunity as well. So we'll have the three at um uh T-Mobile and then the the Gibson uh ceremony as well. >> Perfect. >> Do the ACT graduations listed there too. Do we have a speaker? >> We don't we don't speak. >> Oh, just listen. Okay. I didn't think so. It's just on this list. >> So, I have signed up for IHS. >> Unless someone else wants that one. >> No one gets it. I'm taking Y. No, I was just like >> presidential privilege. Wow. >> I would like to sign up for Liberty. >> Okay, there
195we go. >> Question. Should I be right now? >> Skyline for >> Yeah, you you're you're Skyline this year. >> Yeah, >> he is Skyline. >> It leaves you >> and all do get snuck. >> Yeah. Well, that was so easy >> because we have how many years in a row of graduating board member students graduating? We have like five years in a row. We'll do something like that. >> Yeah. >> Wow. >> So, you are skyline this year. That's so exciting. >> Okay. So, we're good on that assignment. And then we have one above. Should I go through this one? >> Sure. >> Am I the only one who got this sheet? No, we all got it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, um, this is the a motion, a potential motion for a joint
196engagement with city of Isiqua. >> Yeah, that's right. >> Uh, it looks like we're amending this one. Did we already pick a date? >> We're just changing the time. >> We're changing the time. Do we need to discuss this one or did was everyone comfortable with this time? I can make the motion and then we can discuss. So, I move to amend the motion we passed on March 11 uh oh, I wasn't on the call. That's why. March 11, 2026 to meet with the city of Isiqua leadership from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. instead of 5 to 7:00 p.m. And the meeting will take place at the Isqua Senior Center. A second. >> I second. So, just to know, I I have dance at 8, so I will have to leave at 7:30, but I'm fine
197with the time change. I'll just have to hop out a little early. >> Okay. >> Uh, I'll have to check my very busy schedule, but I believe I'm available. >> I'm fine. I think I'm fine with it. >> Yeah. Uh, yes, that works for me. So, I guess all those in favor say I. I. I. Yes. Okay, great. >> Those are the only ones I saw. >> Yeah, I think that's it, right? Okay. Anything else for the good of the order? Okay, we are adjourned,