Issaquah School District Board Meeting 8/7/2025

001I'd like to welcome you to the Isiqua School Board meeting for um August 7th, 2025. Uh we will begin today with a pledge the pledge of allegiance. Thanks. 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. >> Great. Thank you. We are going to start our public comment period uh with some introductions and so I will hand that off to superintendent. Great. We have a couple of introductions as as we were expecting to do into August here for new administrators. And I'm going to turn over to Susan Mandell to introduce herself and um one of our new principles. Good evening uh directors of the school board. I'm Susan Mandelle, an executive director of

002elementary education. This evening, I'm pleased to introduce you to Rachel Pearson, the new principal at Discovery Elementary. Miss Pearson comes to us from the Belleview School District where she has served as an assistant principal and summer school administrator since 2021. She has previous experience as an instructional technology curriculum leader and as an elementary classroom teacher. Miss Pearson's values and goals align perfectly with the mission and vision vision of the Isiqua School District. She's committed to creating equitable opportunities for all students through access to highquality instruction, engagement with building and community members, and by fostering collaborative relationships. As a building leader, her vision is to work in partnership with her community members um educators and students to ensure that the programs in her building and in our district are inclusive and accessible. We're happy to welcome

003Rachel Pearson as Discovery's principal and are confident that her vision and passion will continue to strengthen the tradition of excellence at Discovery. >> Good evening. Thank you for having me. Just want to state that it's such a privilege and honor to be joining the Isiqua School District. During my time in education, I think um Susan outlined some of my values and beliefs and when thinking about what my next step would be, there was um no better place for me than coming here to Isiqua. So, it's a real honor to be with you tonight and for the next hopefully many years moving forward, helping to um work alongside our student, staff, and families for improved outcomes and um student well-being. And I'm looking forward to our time together. So, thank you very much. Okay. Hello, I'm

004Martin Turney, chief of finance operations. I have the honor of introducing Mr. Jason Golick, our new chief information technology officer. Very exciting. Uh Jason brings over 25 years of leadership experience, including more than 20 years in K12 education. Uh he's led major technology initiatives, strengthened cyber security, and kept districts uh use of data to make informed decisions. He's a veteran of the US Air Force, worked at Amazon as a network engineer, and most recently held leadership positions in the Belleview School District where he served as executive director of technology and later as executive director of business services. So well-rounded. In Ezu, he oversees IT, educational technology, and student information systems with a focus on supporting learning, improving operations, and protecting data. Uh, I'll introduce Jason Col. >> Thanks. >> Thank you, Martin. Uh, thanks board.

005Thanks for inviting me. Um, I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to be back in technology. Um, I'm passionate about it. Um, I'm looking forward to the opportunity of working with our students, the staff, the community, the board, yourself, uh, and all my peers on ensuring that we're doing the best we can with our technologies, but also preparing for the future and things like that. So, I'm just excited be amazing district and see what we can do with technology. So, >> great. Thank you. And we'd love to shake your hand uh, as you meet everyone officially. Thank you. And we're excited to see the work that will be accomplished. Um, we do not currently have anyone signed up in for public comment, but I did want to make sure that there was no public comment

006online. Seeing none, uh, thank you. Uh we will move on to the approval of the consent agenda. The consent agenda is a meeting management tool that allows us to vote on regular agenda it um uh common agenda items uh in a timely manner. So are there any um is there a motion for the consent agenda? >> I move the consent agenda be approved as presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. >> I. >> Any opposed? The eyes have it. Uh now is the establishment of the regular agenda. Are there any changes to the regular agenda? >> No, there are no changes to the regular agenda. >> Okay. So we will start with a public hearing for the um 2025 2026 budget. So I will gave us into this public

007hearing. I now declare the public hearing open for the 202526 isqua school district budget. Uh and chief attorney. All right. Here we go. It is another year, another budget. Uh Martin Turney, uh chief of finance and operations. So, we're here excited to show you kind of the the culminating moment for our budget. Uh, some of this we've kind of let you know along the way and some of this um will be good information going into the end of the year and then into the next. So, uh I'm going to share the responsibility with Mariah Banisk, our executive director of finance and budget, and I'll let her kick it off and and get it right started. This is not working. the Chief Golix back there taking notes already. So, if you'll stand by as we deal

008with the technical issues and it's done. >> Oh, yeah. Okay. Thank you. We got it working. Okay. Um, so I'm here to My name is Mariah Vanis, exec director of finance. Um, here to kick it off our uh 2526 budget overview. All right. So, we have um put out notices in the local newspaper as as well as copies of our budget our budget guide and as well here at the admin building as well as on our website. Um, tonight we're going to walk through each fund and outlined big picture in some of these slides carried forward from the June meeting. So they might look familiar. So with our budget timeline, what you can tell the budget doesn't happen overnight. It takes many, many months to put it together. Um, so a new update is since

009June, um, we've had our July fact team meeting where we reviewed the budget as well as the budget guide. So, we are projecting an ending fund balance for last year of $5.8 million. And this was an intentional planned investment in curriculum adoption for elementary literacy, middle school, math, and high school world history. And so, that's going to project our bal ending fund balance down to 46.3 million. And so that makes a change um from 13% to 11% in terms of our uh fund balance to budgeted expenditures. So the major the the factors for the revenue budget. So we're projecting Oh, we lost our hold on hold on just one moment. Okay. So we um so we are projecting a decline of 346 students which is very similar to the last year. This equals about $4

010million in revenue from the state. We've received additional funding for special education. They increased the multiplier. Uh so that was approximately 1.4 million. However, there's still a gap between actual costs and state funding of about 9.5 million. materials, supplies, and operating costs. They raised $47 per student. And so that's an estimated gain of $860,000 above maintenance. Um, so that's equals about $8.7 million below actual costs. As well for salary funding, there was a 2.5% cost of living adjustment, $2.7 million. and we employ more staff and and pay more than the state prototypical model. So that doesn't cost that doesn't cover the cost of the staff. Um they did increase the local levy capacity uh in 2026. So uh additional $500 per student and that equals about $4 million. Hold on for uh get our next

011slide up. Okay. So, for revenues, our state revenues equal about 70% of our budget. Um, the local EPO programs um educational programs levy equals 16.6% 6% um which equals over $60 million and is critical to the operations of the schools and the and the enrichment programs. Um and then also to note we get 2.1% in federal funding. So we just want to highlight here um we had this in our June presentation but just to note so majority of our federal funding is in special education title one and child nutrition. We have some there was some recent updates where they released the 2526 funding um but beyond that is still uncertain. Okay. So since co um we had some stabilization and now we have um some some drops in our enrollment as some smaller grades move

012up um and similar decline as last year as well. So this does include running start alternative learning and tradition to transition to kindergarten. Um something to note enrollment is the lifeblood to funding. Uh so that's something that we continue to monitor uh to keep an eye on um to to watch our revenues and expenditures as we plan for sustainability. And right here we have our school levels enrollment trend. Um so you can see that the the largest decline is in the elementary level. Um and then uh some slight declines in the middle and high school level. And something to note at these school levels, they don't include running start students where we did see an increase in running start at the high school level. And then for special services enrollment, we did have a large

013increase in special uh special services and after COVID and then um we have seen a flattening in recent years. And so right now we're projecting a flattening, but we continue to monitor that and see where the enrollment goes. And I'm going to go ahead and turn it back over to Martin. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mariah. So, we are on the local levy slide. Maria mentioned um $4 million earlier. This is where we get to that. So, a reminder, we like to show this because our budgets cross two calendar years, which is when the uh levies are collected. So, we have 2025 calendar year, 2026 calendar year. Um those get split in the budget and um the difference or the total is about 66.2 million compared to uh the 62 um million the previous year.

014So that's where we get a an uptick of about $4 million in the budget year. So in terms of expenditures, um we are making our investments in curriculum uh as we've returned to a baseline allocation. Uh MSOC continue to increase um by higher than um TPI numbers. Frankly, um the example given there of insurance going up quite a bit. Um obviously collective bargaining um will have an impact on this budget and for and budgets going forward and we have not settled u with the IEA as of right now. So there's some uncertainty um and that impacts planning timelines and other things. So u that's something to note. Um obviously estimated um cost when the state um gives us funding uh it doesn't fund everything and we have a portion that we need to make up

015locally. uh and then again enrollment driven uh funding pressures as it declines we need to adjust as a system. So um talking about the start stop continue concept um these are just some highlights of the things that we've started I'll uh touch on the stops in just a second. So things like expanding dual language into middle school as uh the classes progress up, development of new CTE and AP pathways, increased capacity for preschool and care programs, targeted parent educator support for student educ uh transportation, uh and launch of equity based budgeting framework. Those are the starts. Um some stops we were able to identify like I said um some we're sunsetting some obsolete supplies and outdated contracts. And right above there is what we talk about uh we returned to a baseline. So we we

016did a bit of a catch up with curriculum and now we're going back to what we should consider a healthy baseline for those curriculum adoptions. We do have some continue items um that we highlighted back on April 10th. So if you wanted to go back and check those out, they are available. Again, this kind of just shows um these are similar percentages yeartoear. How much is classroom support uh and special services? Those top three uh categories for expenditure. Again, it's kind of the breakdown. This is a reminder of how much the state funds, the small amount of federal, and then our local amount. Uh one thing to keep in mind as we continue to put numbers out is that these are our budgeted amounts. Um actual amounts come in a little differently. So when we

017say the actual difference between what we um received and what we paid for locally, it's going to be a different number, right? It's going to be a little bit lower. Okay. Similar for Mox, just highlighting how much um we have in our budget versus what is state funded. Transportation, again, there's a discrepancy there from what we get, what we pay for. Uh and then highlighting where we're looking forward at the moment for ending fund balance. Obviously, this depends on where we end up at the end of this year because that becomes our beginning fund balance for the next year. I mentioned those ongoing um negotiations that could have an impact or will have an impact. Uh potential adjustments in federal funding. So, be ha because we have such uncertainty, you know, those are the things

018we need to keep our eyes on. Uh and then the evolving cost, just things costing more than uh by different category um than we see as overall than overall CPI. This slide is really a continuation of what I was just talking about. We are in a time of some financial complexity, some uncertainty. Um, we have those persistent funding gaps. Expenditures outpace what we get um from the state. Um, our enrollment being one of the things that we need to be very uh in tune to and make adjustments annually uh in our budget. Uh, I mentioned that federal uncertainty. So, um things can change. They seem to change um um frequently and without notice. So, we'll just keep our eyes on that. Um and then we a strategic response underway looking forward um building out a

019more um two to fouryear plan um to try to see uh that we are doing exactly what we can to uh eliminate as much uncertainty as possible. So this is kind of the the summary of all that. Um the projected uh beginning fund balance uh revenues and expenditures and then the ending fund balance we tend to have um budget capacity in our budgets. So we give you the projected ending fund balance that we actually believe uh we will wind up with. So that's where that $40 million uh comes from. So that's the general fund. a little bit about capital projects as we transition to the new topic. Wanted to highlight that we have kicked off uh capital projects oversight committee met twice. Uh we're getting our bearings um we're getting some good information and input

020and feedback from the group. Um and we we plan to continue that um into the future and leverage it as much as possible in decision-m. And then of course the new high school project that's going to be the big thing for this um budget and and future budgets. And so when we give you the snapshot of what that looks like, um obviously the the bulk of the expenditure budgets is for the planned construction. We tend to budget um almost everything knowing that not the full amount of that project is going to come out of that year, but we want to make sure we don't miss any uh capacity, right? So uh we just we build that in because we have the resources. And that is capital projects. So, I'll let Mariah walk you through transportation

021and beyond. >> Thank you, Martin. All right. So, in 2425 last year, we got a Department of Ecology electric bus grant for $846,000. And I'm happy I'm happy to report we received the three large electric buses. and our transportation department um is excited to go test those out. Um so um oh sorry I can't go to the next slide. Okay there. Okay. Um so we're are planning out $4.8 $8 million in expenditures and that gives capacity as well and that was 11 small buses and three large buses and those are um not electric. Our debt service fund it pays for um our voter approved outstanding bonds, principal and interest and we're expecting $66 million in expenditures. And lastly, our associated student body fund. So, this is for our studentled activities, dances, clubs, and different things

022like that. Um, we don't expect them to to spend $15 million, but we do give them capacity in case they they do have additional um events that they want to plan throughout the year. Next steps. So, at the next board meeting, we'll present a resolution for possible action. And then um just to also mention again, we do have our full draft budget as well as our budget guide available on our website as well as here in the admin building. So we're ready for any questions. Thank you. Okay. So that this uh moment I would open it up for uh public comment. So this is an opportunity for anyone in the listening audience to provide a comment. Are there any is is there anyone who would like to make a comment either online or in person?

023Would anyone like to comment? With that, I now declare the public hearing on the 2025 2026 Isiqua School District budget closed. I called the regular board meeting back to order. And now I will open up to questions from the board. Don't all start at once. >> Okay. >> Uh Dr. Mullings, >> thank you. Uh so first I just want to start with my yearly commercial about the annual budget guide. It says, "I think this is awesome." >> And um it is incredibly informational and it goes through every component that you've reviewed on the budget, where dollars come from, where they go to, um how we think about them. And so we we will often get commentary about people feeling there's not transparency in the numbers. And I will always take my annual commercial to point

024people to the annual budget guide which is a brilliant uh uh document that really there is no other question to be answered if people would go out and look for it. It's also published on the website. So please please please do do that. Um I also maybe want to add to my commercial a couple things just because I've been irritated by them honestly in the last couple of weeks. So, one of the things that I love that we've added here in the back of the annual budget guide is a statement on the administrative costs of the district. They're on page 40 found in the document. I just want to be really clear where I continue to see sort of inaccurate public discourse about the costs that are spent on admin in this district. I just

025would love people to take a look and note that while I don't think it's a badge of honor, um the district is very uh efficiently run in an admin layer and you can see the comparison at nearly um half of some of our peers locally and certainly below the King County um average. So the reality is here in print uh regardless of what others may say uh when they feel like it. And then the other is just some inaccuracies I just feel the need to urge to address tonight on the new high school project. So I think one of the things you went through is um the dollars associated with the new high school project that those dollars are here and ready to be spent on those projects. I have also seen some inaccuracies around

026monies lost, misspent or otherwise in that project. And so I'm excited about building on that, building that high school on the property that we own. And so I just want to maybe address some additional inaccuracies that I continue to see communicated publicly. So dollars are there and we're going to get ready to get underway in that program. End of Sydney's commercial. So now a couple things I want to um to talk about. So I'll start with the electric buses. So the electric buses, sorry, it was three in total. >> We just received three buses. Yes. >> Okay. And then the idea of that is I guess determining where we can use them, what part of the district. I just know previous concerns have been um the terrain, the distances, etc. for electric buses. >> Yep.

027>> So that's like where So where do we think we'll actually put them in? >> Sure. So I believe the plan is we installing a charging uh infrastructure up on the plateau at our satellite. Uh we believe that that's the best place to start our trial of the these buses because it's the best spot to to get the best out of these. So um going up and down and long distances may not be the best for these buses, but we're going to try them out, right? So we're going to we're going to try it out up there. Jason's here to to let me know if I get any of this information incorrect. But you can you can get a good charge. they can get right back there and um they can be um utilized up

028on the plateau the best and as we know more uh and how they're functioning that's where we could expand it a little bit further uh at the plateau. Anything you want to add, Jason? >> Y >> Jason Morris, executive director of operations. Uh regarding the electric buses, we have the three uh buses uh that we ordered uh in hand. We are working on some um uh like warranty work and things like that and making sure they're 100% safe for our kids. Uh the charging infrastructure is going in uh this week and next week. Um and that charging infrastructure is located at the plateau facility. The theory being that we can run the routes, charge them during the midday, run them again, and then as we become more confident in their ability to manage the district,

029we can route them into longer, more extensive routes. That infrastructure has also been built in such a way that it's easily expandable out to up to 16 charging stations. So the theory behind the project was to get buses, try the buses out, get using them, but also be expandable um by purchasing uh chargers and buses um and having the infrastructure underground built out to allow for that expansion easily and quickly. >> And when you say built out on the plateau location, that's across from highay. That's the one on second. Oh, I apologize. Um, the plateau transportation facility is just adjacent to Pine Lake Middle School off 28th. >> Oh, that. Okay. Awesome. >> Thank you. Um, I guess maybe the other one I'd love to dig into is the comments noted around the equitybased budgeting.

030So, I think that's probably worth spending a little additional time on. Um, I think the way it's written in the in your wonderful guide to the budget is it's getting beyond kind of a just how many students in building to adding in some additional I guess thoughtfulness around resources needed in the building. I'd love if you could spend a little bit more time on that. >> Oh yeah. And so we have um in the last we were already doing some equity work by having some um MTSS specialists at our highest need schools at our elementary and middle school and um also some supports at our high school as well. So um so we have those supports as well as a social worker and a behavior um support at the middle school and then at the

031high school we um added we converted a dean to an uh assistant principal and then recently we just hired a director of multi MT the a director of MTSS as well to help support the program. And so the the concept though is because I think the question that we've gotten we get them at town halls and other places is how how do we make sure that schools that need more support that maybe are having more concerns around behavioral issues or something else how does how do we make sure that happens and my understanding and so I guess is what I want to talk about is that that's part of what the equity based budgeting is looking to address making sure we have the right resources in the right buildings. Is that fair? >> Yes. So,

032we have a internal work group. Um we meet periodically and we're going to have a meeting here coming up soon. Um where we do we look at what are the supports that we have currently, what is still areas that we could address and then also the the recent supports that were given, what were the impact of those? And so the impact is is always a you know a question that keeps coming back. So that's something that we really um take a look at as a group um as well as looking at data as well. Um and so we also do look at other supports um like if it's possible we can increase u maybe at an elementary school add an additional teacher to lower the class size um if that's you know a possibility as

033well as emergency par educators for transportation. So there's some different ways that we're looking at it from, you know, a whole picture. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Okay, Director Coin. >> Great. Thank you for the presentation. And I I think one thing that I want to tack on to Director Mulling's point um is just the the the meaning behind the public hearing. And um for folks that maybe are going to listen to this um on YouTube, I just want to make note right now there's five folks that are online and two individuals on from the community that that I can see here that are not uh part of uh admin staff. So this is the the time when members of the community can come and reflect and share concerns related to the budget.

034So again, you know, we talked to a lot of people in the community who ask, hey, is this done behind closed doors? And this is the time to come and ask questions. So I just want to make that note um on that. And I know Mariah, you had mentioned again when this information goes out to the community, goes out, you mentioned local newspapers. Can you explain that process again how folks would get this information or this wonderful annual budget guide? >> Yeah, there's a notice in the isqua amish reporter. It's um reported twice in July and then we we also put information about how you can get more information and then we have all the information on our website as well as here um physical documents too in case you don't want to go on

035the website. >> That's great. Thank you. And then one other note cuz I was going to ask on the equity based framework but you know I think anybody who's gone through budgeting process before and the way that I've understood it sitting on the fact committee for the last couple of years is really this is a targeted approach and we think about you know equity based um budgeting to really meet the areas of greatest need. And I think sometimes when we budget at a you know just a very basic approach might be just a peanut butter approach. Um and this is you know we're looking at this more deeply than that. And I think for the community to understand that too, that is what we would want in any budgeting process. Um, is is that a

036fair kind of assessment of that? I mean, not to say that the district's always done sort of peanut butter approach, but this this fine-tunes it even more to follow where there's the greatest need. >> Yes. Uh, so yeah, typically you give resources based on enrollment. So we layered this on top based on um need and give that targeted additional support. Um, so yes, this is uh beyond the peanut butter layer. Um, and also I just want to note that we did not remove any resources from any other schools. So this is on addition. So in addition, >> and that's a really good point too that this is an addition to that. Nothing was taken away. Yeah. Great. Thank you, >> Director Gallinger. >> I have a couple questions. So on page 33 uh so you

037in your presentation you talked about how the special services population was projected to be stable 2016 students this year we just had and 2016 students this coming year. So, I'm curious what is the like what's driving the increase in the budget for special services? >> Do you say page 33 was the reference? >> Yeah, not on the slides on the >> Oh, okay. So, yeah. So, is let me see page 33 of the uh budget guide. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So the um is it the difference between 24 25 and 25 26 you're looking at? Okay. Yeah. So those are >> some million. >> Yeah. Those would likely just be increases um in staff year-over-year increases if I'm looking at that correctly. >> But if the enrollment is staying same by your projection that you

038presented in the presentation. >> Yep. >> Why is it going up 5%? five person. >> So is it the the um >> from 47.9 million to 50.2 million. >> I'm sorry. Can you explain what number? Because I'm looking on page 33 >> under expenditures under Yeah. Expenditures for special services line I guess 20. I see that for the budget this year is 56.6 million and in the budget for this coming year it's 57.8 eight, >> right? Sorry, >> wrong numbers. Yes, my question is why is it going up when the enrollment is staying? >> Sure. So, without um being able to dig into the detail, my first assumption is we have um incre we have salary increases year-toear. Um so, I don't know if that encapsulates the entirety of that increase. So, from 56.7 to

03957.8 um but that's a reasonable assumption on my part, I think. And then going down to line 30 88. Is that what it is? >> Early learning programs. >> Early learning. >> Yep. >> So what is >> So that program income that includes BAS and so as we begin to try to expand the programs and um especially into middle schools if we have the opportunity we we budget for that. Um, and that one being a revenue generating program, there's typically an offset on the other side of the equation with the revenue. >> So, Basque is going into middle schools this year. >> No, what we're doing is we're essentially budgeting for the for potential. >> I I know the question was, yeah, is Basque gonna middle schools this year? >> I believe we are uh

040exploring the option of doing that. I Jason looks like he's going to potentially give us some details. Um, currently for BAS, we are finishing up our um return to our middle school summer programming, which um by all accounts has been very successful. Um, our plan, Director Gallinger, is to, um, not this school year, uh, but next summer, try to expand the summer programming. We'll be doing some surveys of of our parent communities to identify what type of interest there is in during the school year programming. So, our goal set is not to be opening a during the school year program this school year, but be planning for it and preparing for it. And if we have the interest from the community um attempting to um double the size of our summer programming in summer of

041uh 2026 and then the 2627 school year, we would be interested in uh opening um middle school programming if we have the um parent student demand for it. We're also looking at some um ideas to possibly expand um summer programming for our preschool students um uh you know 10 months from now next summer um in an attempt to provide programming for three and four-year-old preschool students. >> Yeah. I just think it should be a higher priority because I mean I think that's something that protects and grows enrollment especially at our middle school where we see some of our sharpest decreases forecast because parents really need and count on that. So if they have to make choices to go to a school that has that versus a school that doesn't have that, that's I think a

042huge factor. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And then my last question is on page 30 of the budget guide. So in the bottom for staff counts, our enrollment declined last year by roughly 200 students, but our general fund FTE certificate employees increased by almost 50 student 50 staff. What drove that? >> So, yeah. So, are we um are we looking at 24 25 to 25 26 on the certificated FT? >> No, we're looking 23 24. >> Oh, I see. It's the year before. So, we had the uh one-year curriculum adoption that increased um some of the toas as well as we didn't project our loss as much as we ended up having. And so, we did have more staff budgeted than the students that came in for that year. >> Can you remind me what

043we were what we were forecasting our enrollment to be? Um I could get exact. I would um you know to estimate it. Yeah, I would have to get exact. >> Thank you. >> Okay. And I um just quickly I uh did some calculations. So our special ed difference between the 5.7 the 57.7 million and the last year's is a 1.9 increase which is the same as the overall budget. So the overall budget has a 1.9% increase roughly might be there's might be more decimal points behind it but and I think that's close to what IPD was for staffing since we are still a service organization so a large part of our budget is in salaries that you see any other questions or comments >> um >> I just want to make it you know a

044general comment again to thank you for your continued conservative and transparent stewardship here and really for the community. I just want to point out that there are real pressures here on our budget. Um falling enrollment at the elementary school level which is you know every student headcount is state funding for us. The funding gaps, which although we did get a little bit of funding from the state legislature, are still significant and the money actually we got from the state is really barely keeping up with inflation really. Um, special services population, all which is more expensive to run, although stable over the last few years, is up significantly since 21. And then this continued threat of the withdrawal of federal federal funding. So, I just want our community to be aware of that and that it's

045really, I think, pretty phenomenal that you've been able to keep us on a fairly baseline throughout this process. But I hope folks will continue, this is me on my soap box now, continue to talk to your state representatives and legislators, senators about the funding gap issues that we're facing. $27 million in our budget of gap that we are trying to fill. Um, so we desperately, desperately need some more help from the state in our funding. So that's all. It's just me on my my high horse again, but um, thank you for seeing us through. I think my question and you may not have an answer to this but um when I was looking at the special ed breakdown the federal government their portion is about 7% of our overall costs whereas generally across the nation

046it's closer to like 13%. Which is supposed to be 40. They don't pay anywhere near what they say. But I'm just wondering this disparity of almost half of what the national average is. So, do you and and maybe this is going to be Shireen that um do you know what the what the metric is that is causing us to receive so much fewer? Do they also put in um things around free and reduced lunch when it comes to uh those service levels? So, I'm really baffled at this 7% number compared to the national average of about 13. That's a very good question and I think that's one that we would need to uh look into a little bit deeper before we gave you a concrete answer. Yeah. >> Because I would love to be able

047to discuss that whatever that disparity is with my uh congressional members. >> So um anything else or any comments from the superintendent? >> I want to thank uh Martin and Mariah for their effort, leadership and hard work. And I know we are um as director um Taylor mentioned you know taking continued steps to ensure that we are stable and to adjust as needed. There is a lot of uncertainty. I appreciate that and and this board um has really helped us steer through some of those more uncertain times even earlier. So we're in a position to be able to start to steward things in a in a way that helps us look ahead at the next two to four years um and plan in a conservative manner. So, um it does take all of us in

048our district to to help steward our resources effectively, but we appreciate um all the hard work that's been happening collectively between our board um and with our team uh at hand right now. So, thank you. >> Great. Any other questions or comments before we end? So, just a timeline. This was our public hearing and this will be on our agenda for action at our next board meeting. Okay. So, back to our agenda. The next item is a study of, excuse me, a recap of our work study. So, tonight we had a work study around the um 2020 6 uh levy. So, EPO levy, capital levy, and um transportation levy. So, it is amazing to think that the four years has already gone by and that the EPO levy is up uh again for the ballot.

049Again, you can see from the presentation what a significant portion um over 16% of our budget. Um so, this is a vital piece u of how we do our day-to-day work. And so, um, wanted to give, uh, time for the board to discuss, uh, thoughts about today's work study around, um, the levy. Director Coin, >> could we actually put up I have it right here on my computer right now, but um, from the budget deck, slide seven again, just I think as we talk about work study, it'd be good to have that up there. the three primary sources of revenue and seeing what that educational programs uh operations levy really equates to. So that's 26%. This is how we fund education. And again, I'm going to go back to conversations I have frequently with members

050of the community when we talk about funding educa education and the importance of levies in as part of that. And so, um, it was good to have this preliminary conversation tonight in terms of what's going into that, what that will look like. Um, and again, just tying it back to the importance of of, you know, funding education here in Isiqua. So, those are my thoughts. >> Director Mullings. >> Uh, so it was good conversation in the works. My honestly between my pre-eread of the budget presentation we just ended and this levy presentation I realized I had them both in my head at both times. So took a little uh unraveling to make sure I was on the right conversation. But I think it's uh again as director Quinn just said it's an important part of

051the funding of the district. The way funding of schools works in Washington. this is a requirement, not an option in order to have local um contribution to our schools. And so that comes out in these three uh critical levies, the programming around EPO, how we maintain our $1.3 billion of building assets in the districts in the capital levy, and then transportation and our buses. And so obviously that takes a good amount of planning to figure out you know what does that mean? What work do we need to get done in the district i.e. what are the projects we need to get done as far as capital and building work? Um how do we maintain our top fleet because we go over 110 square miles and then how do we make sure we have all the

052funding in place to have the supports and programs that our students need. Um, it brings in, you know, things like our tax rate and the um the cost of the the real estate taxes in our area. It brings in building in our the five plus cities that our district covers and where they're going to build new housing and how many new students should we expect from that. How you collect money out over time and try to project that with this amazing finance department that figures out how to make all the math work. and then you know what do we think is most important to come up with the start of the conversation that then the community members can get involved in and really start to prioritize along with us. Um so it's pretty dense stuff

053uh to figure out how all those factors come together and so I guess all I will say about that is each and every category is necessary. I want to make sure as we go into this process that we've got clear statements of what exactly as a community gains that our school district, our students gain from each of the pieces of funding that we're asking for. And then, you know, I think we'll settle on what timing this needs to run, but certainly in 2026 in order to make sure that last conversation of budget all stays on track and we can all um keep providing the excellent um educational environment. So incredibly dense topic. Um lots of spreadsheets and small numbers and um deeply appreciative of the amount of work and thought that goes into even starting

054the springboard uh conversation. Director Taylor or Director Gallinger. >> I'll just make you know kind of piggyback on those comments that the levy is just really levies are just critically important and it is a very broad swath of things for lack of a better word that we that we are dependent on that money for. you know, uh, technology, facilities, programs, staffing, all of those things. Um, so, and it's, you know, incumbent upon us to make sure that, um, our community understands what those needs are and what those asks are, where the the money will be going if we are able to, um, pass a levy. The other thing I just want to say is just a reminder that um again that we were not able to pass a bond in our last uh election cycle.

055Well, when we went out for the bond and the critical repairs part of that bond package was to maintain our facilities in our district and um those needs haven't gone away. you know, our schools still need roofs, HVAC systems, upgrades. Um, so that's going to be a kind of a critical part of this levy. And, uh, I hope the community understands that that those anyone that's a homeowner understands that you've got to keep your home up and we have to keep our schools up too and good portion of this money will be devoted to that. So, that's all at this point. >> Director Gallinger. Yeah, I would agree with that, Director Taylor. I think that what I would like to see from the administration is a list of all of the top priority things and

056we know from the community vestules were at the top of list. So, I think that needs to be part of that and so I do expect that the capital projects part of this levy will be bigger than has been traditionally because we heard from the community that they wanted these items and they didn't want to pay interest on it. So, we'll we'll do that. I think what I need greater transparency and sort of uh clarity on is the technology piece and I I think that we're just I want our community and I want to stand by that behind this to say like these are investments for our students and for our community and these are the outcomes that we expect that we'll see and I think that that clarity is what I will need before

057I could move forward on the technology piece of that. Uh, and then as far as for transportation, I would also just love to know if if we have 10% less students, I'm assuming that means we need 10% less buses. So, how is that factored into how we are off what's the word? uh depreciating and and doing whatever those pieces of our fleet and what is the short and medium long-term impact as we do these four-year bus cycles that we could anticipate and more or if and when our trajectory of student changes. I mean, I don't want it us to shrink so much that then we're behind when we do grow again because we will grow again. Uh so and then lastly as part of the capital projects I think no matter what we do we

058need to have broad contingency in there because every project that we do that's big even it's best is going to need to have escalation costs built in we can't have the this is all we're going to need we got it so >> um I think you all have brought up some great discussion items items. Um, I specifically wanted to focus in on a couple of things. One is that the reason, you know, when we look at our EP and O levy, such a large portion of it is for staff members that are not paid for by the state. So we staff and allocate uh certificated staff above what the state all lots for our district which is based on the the prototypical school model um which is probably wasn't really accurate when it was first

059created and it still isn't. Um and so when we talk about well what would happen if we didn't have that? Well again about 85% of our costs are staff related. So if we lose money, the m majority of that goes through through um staff. Um it also pays for things that the state doesn't pay for at all. So if you can imagine the admin, you know, the administrative assistant at the front desk of your school, that computer that that person uses is not paid for by the state. Not a single computer in any of our buildings is paid for by the state. the cameras that keep our us safe, the security systems, all of that thing that is considered technology, our website, not funded by the state, although they probably make us use the state

060whatever that Watt Tech um organization that, you know, may or may not allow us to use what we want to. That's a whole another rabbit rabbit hole we can go down. Um, but those are those are the type of things that are funded that there are things that the state just doesn't put money towards. And so we have to in order to prepare our students for a future that now I'm not even sure what it looks like in 30 years. So how are we preparing them for their careers? Um, I will say that some of that is upskilling our teachers. I mean at this point our students are going to have technology as in every aspect of their job no matter what they go into and um if it's not being overtaken by AI they're

061going to be utilizing AI. So how do we make sure that our teachers who have probably very little experience with that in general are able to upskill so that they can prepare our students for this future that's coming that's emerging. So um that is a concern around what our technology is, how are we utilizing it, how are we preparing students um to be technologically advanced when we as a system aren't necessarily that especially if if they could just get the grades in in a timely manner. That would be my biggest ask with the technology. It do we have a system that makes that easy for them to use? um because our high school students have seven different basically have seven different bosses that do things seven different ways and we've got to have a system

062that is able to streamline that. Um so our students expectations can be similar regardless of what class they go in and the technology that they're utilizing the technology that they're using to turn product in is similar across those um those classes. Um and that I think that was my my two biggest pieces beyond the special ed uh discussion that I had just with the budget. um that ongoing it continues to be um something that if our community does not fund our EPO level dollars just the significant impact on our students receiving special services and um I think we can judge ourselves as a community by what we do for those who need us the most. So with that, with no other comments, we can move on to the next agenda item, which is works in

063progress. Superintendent. >> Uh, great. Thank you. I also just want to share I appreciated the work study discussion and particularly the conversation that we spent um a lot of time on with technology which was reflected here um in the in the debrief and we are making moves to invest more heavily in our ability to u build ourselves up infrastructure- wise but also capability wise. Um, so we aspire to both be a leader, but also we still have work to do ourselves. So I appreciated that and that's a dual dual pattern that we need to work on. Um, but thank you to all of our team members who've been working in the summer. Um, the summer, someone asked me today, do you work in the summer and do does everyone work in the summer or do

064you all have a teacher schedule and you're all off? And I said, nope, we all have different schedules and many of us are working in the summer. In fact, that is some of the busiest time for many of our employees. Um, our operations team in particular is in charge of making sure our buildings and grounds are ready for students and staff to return for the school year. Um, our finance, human resources teams are doing their regular business functions and and certainly supporting the hiring process which is um, very busy starting, you know, really in February but all the way through summer as we as we launch schools and our cabinet team has to backs stop each other and help support and provide coverage and leadership throughout the district for all of our teams that are

065working. And that's a much appreciated series of asynchronous moves and coordination that we have to pass the baton between each other um for about four weeks. Um Echoglenn is running. There are services being provided for learning there because of the um residential nature of that facility. Uh we had online learning happening. We had credit recovery at the secondary level. We had an elementary STEM summer school and we have these amazing camps run by our before and after school care teams. Um, and we did have the addition um, back of the middle school this summer, which was an amazing site. Um, and that's still going. The this week is superhero week um, through all of the camps. Um, I'll share a story later with you all about how my son created a new superhero. So, um,

066that's pretty fun. Um, so we also have been starting back up for the school year with other things. Um, in particular, we have talked a little bit about career kickstart, which is a pilot that we've been running to enhance the preparedness of our students for the future, uh, and careers. And this week, 46 students began their journey in the career kickstart pilot, which was supported by the Isquas schools foundation and Sanmar. And over the past week, past four days really, um, they've explored career interests through Zello workshops. Um they've toured workplaces like Microsoft, Seattle Children's, Bank of America, Boeing, Packar, and Starbucks. Um they've been able to engage in panels with professionals across all industries. Uh specifically spent a lot of time at Sanar conducting mock interviews, getting head shot, receiving resume feedback, and um

067one of the biggest themes was hearing about the durable skills that are required for the future that are really crossunctional and crossindustry in nature. Another way of saying durable skills might be profile of a learner or profile of a graduate. Um, and this this featured an engineer, a charge nurse, and a senior HR leader. So, um, that's been what they've been up to already in just 4 days, which is a pretty comprehensive set of opportunities to reflect on the future for our young people and to equip them with the kinds of information, ideas, thoughts, and direction that's necessary. And next week they'll be shadowing some professionals and um concluding with a some final workshops and also an alumni panel. So it's connecting that real world experience continually to help shape how we can bring more

068of that at scale and potentially throughout the course of the school year. Um and then this week we've been had a busy week as some of the adults here in the system. We wrapped a great two days with all of our administrators to prepare them to welcome back staff and students. Um, one of the biggest themes this year is joy and really thinking through how that connects to um, not only our students but our adults. And when our adults have joy, we can be our best selves at work. We can bring that hope, purpose, and belonging and agency to our classrooms, to our interactions with our young people, to our support for them. And that is the kind of thing that they also need to be able to actively engage in learning. um that is

069actually explicitly named in UDL in the universal design for learning framework. And um when students have both joy and play, they are more ready and more excited to learn. And that is based in research. Um this past week with our all administrators, we covered things like strength-based leadership development. Back to my point around joy. You have to know and be clear about what your strengths are, know what your best self is. And we did an exercise collecting best stories of self to help affirm that and draw that out. We spent time talking about how we can strengthen trust um in our community and how we can strengthen our brand um what that means in terms of relationships and customer service. We did talk a lot about digital transformation as well and with the launch of

070our newer business unit on uh bringing together a lot of our technology pieces and information systems as you met um our chief information and technology officer Jason Golick earlier that is work that we are just setting the stage for in our reorganization um of that work and started to put some lift into that um as a team together. Um on that note, we also talked about the impact of social media and technology on our young people um and specifically youth mental health. We had uh some homework where we not only collected best stories ourselves, but we also went deeper into some of the information that is out there to have shared meaning around mental health and the impact of social media. So we had several options and some people read all or watched or consumed

071all of the content. We read the anxious generation or listened to it on audio. Uh we we listen to a podcast um with Ezra Klein interviewing Jonathan height about the anxious generation and we watch um the social dilemma from Netflix. And so I will I will share that there was a pretty big universal shared meaning that was made and we just had not had the chance to do that with a hundred people before where we all said very profoundly this is a problem and how do we how do we play a role? So excuse me. Um, so that was a pretty big conversation and very engaging and we hope to bring more of that kind of a conversation to our community. We talked a little bit about the levy and um about our strategic plan

072refresh coming up um and how we are going to continue to focus on uh addressing opportunity gaps that exist in our system through our problem of practice and much of our professional learning to support increasing our universal design for learning and MTSS systems and um all of this is through preparation for our August professional learning with our teachers. Uh we also invited our partners from the Isiqua Schools Foundation and the parent teacher student association um to just join us and to have their faces in front of all of our administrators and um have them to talk about what their focus is over the next year which is pretty collective in nature. It's about how we build up engagement and volunteerism to ensure that we are um reaching right our our families and our constituents in

073ways that um keep them engaged with our school district. So that's what we did over the past that was a lot. So I just feel like I talked about a lot but actually that was a lot and that was two full days. So um we did have Jacqueline Downey um assistant superintendent overseeing schools and academics step in and seamlessly take take charge of that space on behalf of our whole cabinet team and each of our cabinet members just did a great job of leading at different sections and portions to be both intellectual and spiritual leaders of that space. Again we brought this tone and tenor of joy. Um, and you know, uh, we had some music that also was managed by DJ Rich Melish and DJ Melinda Reinvan. So, uh, I can't name all the

074fun moments, but, uh, I think we did strike the fun balance of joy, but also purpose in that time. Um, and all the topics that we talked about were really the ones that we will be thinking about this upcoming year in partnership with the board and the community. And so, uh, that was our foundation at a high level to kick off for the year. Uh I have two public service announcements now. So the enrollment verification process is open and the EVP is an opportunity for our families to confirm their students enrollment in the district for the upcoming school year and to complete the important annual enrollment forms for their student or students. Um EVP is only for families with students who were enrolled last year and who are continuing. So, families who are new um

075uh have already completed their forms and will not have access to EVP in this moment. And it does close on August 13th. I will be making sure I complete this this year, so I experienced it because my husband beat me to the punch last year and so I didn't get to do it, which I was really excited to do for some reason, but uh uh I've already coordinated on him by text. So, um that is an important note for everyone to make sure they pay attention to. And then finally, uh you should all have the beautiful art calendar. um if you're a family, you've received it and the board members here at the at the dis have it. Um it is a representation of all of our beautiful students artwork and then has just very

076key key dates here. It doesn't have all the dates that are important in the world, but um is a helpful way. We keep this up certainly in our home and I have it at my desk as well and has also key information. And the one thing that I want to call attention to in the spirit of thinking about engagement and volunteerism and and being involved with our community um through other avenues, uh there's a really nice section here on the back of the calendar about how to be involved with our PTSAs and PTAs, the Isiqua Schools Foundation, as well as um uh the volunteers for Isiqua schools. So, I thought that was a nice way to show how we have various organizations that are really true partners to us to help support and promote our

077schools. and support our students. So that's it. >> Thank you very much. Uh so a lot is happening in the building. Next item on our agenda is our school improvement plan meetings. So uh wanted to give some time to discuss based on how we structured things last year as we're moving forward with structuring this year. um what our system is going to be. I think this year we will be doing it by theater patterns. Is that correct? Um so that is a little different. Last year we were doing it by um by basically grade level. So how um is there additional data that you want? I think over the past few years we've had really good solid work on the data set um really improving what that looks like for us to be able to

078utilize. Thank you to uh Rich Melish for that work. Um but looking at how we want that discussion to fold. Um I think I liked last year not having you have nine minutes go. Um so but just wanted to hear from the board some hopes and expectations. Director Coin, >> you know, one thing that comes to mind, um I know for director Taylor and I, this will be our first time on the formerly on the board, but we'll go through the speeder pattern structure. Um and I know I've heard from the the tenure board members that it's both options are great, so it's hard to pick one, which I think this one will be great, too. And as I think about feeder pattern, I think one thing I would love to really dig into is

079just transitions. As I think about the feeder pattern, um that transition from elementary to middle school and middle school to high school and how that, you know, where there's areas of improvement, we think about, you know, kind of some of the the the positives, the negatives. I I really would like to drill into that and I think we have a unique opportunity when we're having, you know, the feeder pattern structure. So that would be my thought. Great. Thank you. Anything else? Either more about structure or certain questions you'd want asked. So, I think that's a great great viewpoint. Director Mullings, I saw your finger moving. Uh, I was thinking, you know, we we have an afterwards meeting, but maybe it would be nice if we actually had a before the data a high level and

080got to have just a data discussion before we kicked them all off. I don't think we've ever done that before, but it might actually be nice and orienting to us and that way if staff chose want to listen to our dialogue, they could actually listen. so were bored on their way home. >> Um, but I think it would get us sort of focused on sort of the bigger pictures and draw our attention to things that you want us to draw our attention to that we frankly just don't have time to because we wanted to spend time doing sort of serve and return with the building leaders. So that would be a something that to think about. And then otherwise I'm biased of course but I liked that we presented the plans to them uh because

081I think it's less pressure for them and it lets them I think see the lens through our lens about like what is it that popped out to us that we recognized about the work that they're they're doing in the building because it's going to be different. We're we're an outside set of eyes. So, uh, if I don't know how the other board members felt about this, but if they liked it, I think we should adopt that again this year and then sort of see long term. >> Sorry, as I was writing, >> yeah, I I would just second that. I I did like the format last year. I also think there's a benefit to that in that, you know, the schools put a lot of effort into their plans and we put a lot of

082effort into reading all those plans. So if we can narrow the discussion of an overview of what's in the plan because everyone knows what's in the plan and focus more on either set conversation pieces which we can determine like what are the keep doingings what are the stopdoings in your school or uh a set of focus questions to have I get the most out of it out of the conversation I guess is what I'm trying to get at. So, um that would be my suggestion, but I did very much like the reflection that we were able to provide the school leaders um as an entryway into that conversation. Director Mullins, >> I think that over the years, regardless of whether we've done it as feeder pattern or by grade level, um I I I tend

083to end up with the same questions. And so maybe it is helpful to get those out first and and kind of do see what we can what we can do about them. And a couple ones you mentioned one of my big ones always been the transitions like what do we do to actually facilitate whether it's data sharing or information sharing or patterns that happen between the transitions. Attendance is always an important one. I think I would love I would love to know what we're actually doing about attendance. Right. It's fascinating to me that we see attendance change as kids get older, but that they're the same kids. So, we kind of report on the fact that the attendance changes, but how, you know, what's the interruption of attendance is one that always comes up for

084me. And I know there's lots of things we're doing. We reaching out to people, etc., but like is there something else or some new thinking or something we need to do on on that? I think um we tend to get into conversations about under represented populations in the schools where that have the largest number of underrepresented populations. And what I'm very interested in, if you look at, sure, yes, we have schools that have higher numbers of black students or or Latino students, but if you look at across all of our schools, it's actually not those schools that have the majority of our black and Latino students. So, we probably have two, three elementary schools that have high numbers, but it's really the rest of all of our elementary schools that have most of the population.

085And somehow I think we we tend to have the the schools that have the highest number of underrepresented students carry the message where they actually don't have the most of our population. So, how do how do we go into those conversations and really feel like all of our schools, even if they have small numbers, are equally equally compelled, equally urgent of what um we're doing to make a difference um with those pop with the underrepresented populations. And then the last one I'd love to have more of a conversation about is is where we see um standard deviation differences. I think we see everybody's data and like I don't know my 26 different piles of data, but I would what I would love to see is like where am I have the conversation that's really about

086where am I consistently underperforming in whatever number, where am I consistently overperforming and what is what does that mean? So, how do we not just look at every piece of information, but really hone in more quickly on where should I be learning and where should I be sharing from those higher performing areas and each schools have different statistics, right, that they're performing higher on them better. I feel like we don't really if we could get to that more quickly which is some of those differences in standard deviation and performance and how do we actually cross share that information. Those are the things that come to mind but I realize I ask the same questions every time. So it is kind of good to get them out early. So thank you. >> Great. Thank you. I

087think these are some really great ideas to what we can do consistently. But I love having the discussion about the data before we get to the meetings. Um it ensures that we're looking at it holistically across the system and that it's like oh I have an SIP meeting this week and with these schools so I'll look at these schools. Um so I think I think that will be helpful to have an overall discussion and about really looking at how are then are we looking at that data? Um I would agree around the um attendance data I think is if they're not in the classroom, how are they learning the content? And when you have a teacher at a graduation talk about students not attending the class, I'm like, okay, maybe attendance is a topic that

088we need to work on. even down to the I skipped that class so I could go study for this other class cuz I think I'm okay in that class, which I would suspect is why that teacher was finding kids not in her classroom was because they were doing okay and they needed to go study elsewhere. Um, and so all of that about attendance and I think some of that might even relate back to if I'm not enjoying school, if if there's no joy in school, it's going to be hard to get out of school, out of my bed when I'm already dealing with, you know, uh, anxiety and depression and mental illness that we know that such a large portion of our students are dealing with. How do you then move them? I maybe it's

089a it's some data around you know what are the percentages at our schools at least at the middle and high school that we know where we have um mental health uh data where students are struggling with that as is that how is that proportional to the attendance record in that school um so I think some of those things are you know and then around engagement and it's really hard to know is a student not engaged in school because they are struggling or are they struggling because they're not engaged in school? And it's really hard to know which one of those there are. But I think I'd like some discussion around what are we doing to help get students into the school building because that's a it once it starts to become a cultural norm that

090students aren't going to school or aren't going to a class then things are are going to fall off. That's the beginning stages I think of some of the struggles that they'll have later on. So great. So that will be some agenda topic then prior to the sips beginning. Uh director coin >> sorry to interrupt there. One thought I had on data. I think one thing I get challenged a bit with the SIP data is there's so much of it and it reminds me of a leader I had many years ago who I presented data to and he said so what like what am I supposed to be looking at? Um, and I worry a little bit with the SIP data. Sometimes maybe we go down a rabbit hole that we really shouldn't be or that

091there's things that we should be looking at. And I don't know if there's a way to elevate some of those data points. We're really looking at the important things at certain schools, certain feeder patterns that really would guide the conversation. Because sometimes I I have found in the SIP conversations that I've participated in the last couple of times that I realize gosh we didn't hit the point we really should have or we didn't get to something that's clearly important. So if there's a way to structure it so we can really hit the big stuff the really big important data points that would be useful if we can if it can be framed in a way so we really focus in on that. Thanks. >> I think that's the point of leading off with a conversation

092before we actually go into our steps. >> Yeah. Yeah, >> that's >> but I think too having I agree but then also getting you know from the district sort of an analysis too of where we should focus and we're they're seeing some trends as well to help to guide that conversation too. Well, and it might be relating it back to our strategic plan, especially around um disproportionality and um trying to reset the expectation that it's not that right now we know if we look at this school, I can automatically assume something about the passage rates in there. So, how do I get away from your zip code determining your success in school and um being able to see some of that data? Any other thoughts before I move on? One more. No. Okay. Okay. Okay.

093So then I will go on to my topic that I am dreading as board president which is the WASDA board of distinction applications and board self assessment. So I feel I already feel like I'm behind. The deadline is September 8th. So that's like oh it is a week and a day. Um a month a day and a day. Well it's going to feel like a week before I know it. Um, so again, similar to last year, there's not as many um items to fill in. I don't know if you have pulled up, do we have a link to the board of distinction? You can find it if you look up WASDA 2025 board of distinction. Uh, and then there's a button that says apply now. You can bring that up for board members to look

094at. So there's a short session on professional development uh success and evidence. And so um and this is the opportunity gap. What decisions or actions has your board taken in recent years to identify and then address opportunity gaps? And then the other large question is describe how the board selected this initiative. how how it was successful and what evidence. So um so it's all around what that initiative is, what has your board learned from this initiative. So I think based on everything's around one initiative. Yes. So if you scroll down there's a button that says apply now and that will bring up the form. So the structure is a little different in that there are sections of writing that is geared towards what was your initiative and I almost feel like this needs to be

095a com a committee at the board you know a couple of us. So, I know that since I am doing a large portion of this, I would be uh likely one of the two, but if someone would like to join me in really being able to sus out some of this um get ideas. >> I can I can help you. >> Okay. >> And so, we can schedule a time to get started on it. Can you keep scrolling down? Um it's a long form so you can see why. So what decisions or actions? So number one has your board taken in recent years to identify and then address opportunity gaps. Describe this initiative or commitment. Uh please describe how the board selected this initiative, how it was successful, and what evidence you have from the

096past one to five years to support your assessment. Um, if you scroll down even further, then it goes into um, some evidence that we'll need to find. What has your board learned from this initiative and what adjustments have you implemented as a result? How might this inform future practices, planning, and goal setting for your board? Then number four, how do these actions demonstrate your board's progress on one of the Washington State School Board standards, which we can then choose which standard rather than them us telling us. Then indicate which of the standard benchmarks align with your work. What part of this initiative or commitment was the work of the board and what part was operationalized by superintendent and district staff? Identify both governance actions, decisions by the board and management operational actions and decisions by

097staff that led to this success. So it is very different than it was way long time ago. So, um I think part of this might be having board members try to brainstorm individually and maybe send me initiatives that pop to mind or if there's some brainstorming that you want to do now of things because for me that's that's the part that probably paralyzes me like what are we going to talk about and what do we think our our biggest com um commitment towards addressing opportunity gaps has been >> what did we submit last year? >> It would be you were the submitter, right? You were last year. What was it? You don't know. >> Well, I was thinking it would be Yeah, we did. It'd be good to see that and then I think we

098did it where a portion of like the superintendent and cabinet helped with the port piece of it. Yes. And I know there I can't remember we put a piece together so yeah don't remember >> we provided some minimal assistance uh with data but uh based on the request after you met so after you meet and have more of a >> okay >> but happy to help in whatever way possible. >> That sounds good. >> I mean what >> my was it onboarding new onboarding like two two things two topics >> because I would go with the equity based budgeting this year. Mhm. That's the one that jumps out for me. Wow. >> I didn't hear you. What was >> equity based budgeting? >> Yeah. I mean, I think for me it would be our school

099improvement plan process and really focusing it up. It was a big jumble of mess >> and getting onto a single data set that was then provided to schools which then allowed us to really identify what those opportunity gaps were and led to us really having that deeper conversation to push equity based budgeting forward >> because that's the so what and the what was the impact of us doing that. But yeah, >> and then the year before that I think we did um like landing on the set the data points that matter. I forget what we called it, but like that we were going to always look at how we're leading up to the key. Yeah. Our key metrics. I think we did was what was the year before? So >> plan. >> Yeah. So I

100like what you just said because I think the SIP rework then leads to what we're doing with equity based budgeting which would have further on >> because that can be one of the results of the work. Right? So what is one of our results? >> Okay. >> You guys are done with your part. Matt and I will now get together and uh schedule some some time. Sounds good. So, >> I think those are two good areas. >> I I I always say remember I'm a math major. So, when it comes to writing that >> I like to write, so we're covered. >> Oh, perfect. >> You are That's That's great. Um, and the other thing is I don't want to be the president that doesn't do board of the year, a board of distinction, because

101we are the only district in the entire state that has been a board of distinction since it's been offered >> and the pressure is on. >> It's so much pressure actually. >> So, I don't want to be the one to fail. Don't need to add that to my list. Um, next on the agenda is legislative matters. >> None at this time >> other than we have, you know, primary election this week and a lot of ballot counting going on and all that, but uh I don't have anything currently at this point. >> Okay. Um, and I don't think there's any surprises in our state races. So, uh, announcements and correspondence. So, we have a list of announcements and correspondence. Does anyone like to add to that? Any announcement or correspondence that you've had? Hearing none,

102we will move on to calendar and future agenda topics. So um there was a need to update the start time of the August 21st board meeting. So superintendent uh to accomplish and make room for um content before the board meeting. We were proposing to just shift the board meeting as we did tonight to start at 7:00 and wanted to make sure that was discussed uh by the whole board. Um that was something that we talked about during agenda planning. Um but also that the public knew that that would be a shift as well. So it was just more of a head nods kind of inform. >> Did we need to take action to delay it till 7? >> No, it's just more just making it visible and transparent um for for you all but also

103the public. >> So yes, I I said that bringing you in any earlier than our current number was our current time was probably not feasible. um and given the length of our meeting that we would likely be able to do it and still have a longer um a later start time. Um and then we did we send out the proposed draft agenda, but you had talked a little bit about the >> the retreat the retreat agenda. Um we had some planning time um between uh director uh Gallander, President Moraldo and I. And so you have a draft agenda with the topics um you have in front of you. It's it's a reflection of most of the topics that we've talked about and uh in the past. There are a couple that have been parking. That's

104that's I just made a verb out of a noun, but we have some items that were um determined to maybe hold till you know the winter slash early spring and to go deeper with a fewer set of topics. So, um there's a desire to continue to think about, uh sort of overall, you know, what does it mean to be a learner in our system that does feed into some of the important topics on high school programming. Um it will tie into lots of other things as we think about budgeting and resources and that kind of thing. Um continuing to talk about performance metrics overall and and really what are the outcomes of so what topics that connect very much to you know my work with the you but leading the district. Um the levy is

105a possible topic as well if needed. So these are some of the topics that have come up and if there's anything else you have a draft and you can respond and consume it and then we can take it back under account um and advisement under agenda planning otherwise we are looking forward to that time at the end of September and um unfortunately director coin will be missing a portion of that um and we will miss having his voice at the table. Anything else for the good of the order? Uh yes, I forwarded the email that we uh did submit a uh offer to do a presentation at the Wazino conference in Seattle and we were accepted. We don't know the time or date or whatnot. Uh so if you have interest in being part of

106that uh then let me know. >> Um I also had a few notes. um one was um back before that thing that happened in 2020 and 2021 um when there was either it was either I don't know if it was a new employee uh welcome or a new uh teacher welcome was where they all come together um that board members were invited if they had time to attend that at least for for the lunchon portion so they're there all day and during Uh we'll make sure we get that date out to you all and uh if more than three of you join then we'll make sure we notice that appropriately but we'll ask for some responses to make sure we handle that well. >> Okay, >> that's great. And the other thing I just I

107didn't know where to put this um that came to my mind um when we were talking about uh different items was that for this coming calendar year or this coming school year starting in in actually in October is a healthy youth survey and I really want to drive home the importance of that. Um we were very close last year. I think we had 41% of seniors take the healthy youth survey. If it's below 40, we can't use the data. Um, that happened in Reton in 2021. They only had 39% of their seniors take it. So, that data then doesn't get released. So, they have no idea what those numbers were. Their response to that was to not provide it to 12th graders in 2023. That is another subject. Um, so I want to make sure

108that our community understands the level of importance of that data. Um, all the things that the school does driven by that data, what the board does to evaluate ourselves on that data and how our community partners utilize that data. So, it's very very important that we get that that um students understand that it's completely anonymous. It's not like um some places where there's a number associated with it that can match back to a student. They are completely not identified. And so we want them to be truthful. And it's important for them to be honest with us um to be able to assess what work we're doing well and what work we need to do. So I just wanted to share that. Director Mullings, >> um the thing that came to mind for me is the

109board member handbook. Um, I thought we did a refresh. Did you Did you both do an edit? The one that's out here is 2023. >> Yeah. >> Is there a new >> Okay. So, I just want to make sure given that we will have at least one new >> board member that we uh >> Yeah. did it in advance of the Yeah. Yeah. We forum we did for interested members. >> Okay. So, that would be awesome. I just want to make sure we have the most current version of that available as well. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Anything else for the good of the order? Going once, going twice. We are dismissed.