001Great. Well, we we have um uh many introductions and there will be continued introductions even into August as well. Um but we're going to start with um we're going to start with Sher Cox to start with a high school edition. So, we're going to go in different orders with different folks coming up to make introductions. I'm actually going to ask everyone that's bringing in rooms this evening to come on up. I'm not going to introduce them all though, don't worry, superintendent. Um, good evening, directors. I'm Sher Cox, executive director of secondary ed, and it is my pleasure to announce the um newest addition to the Isiqua High School administrative team. U Peter Smith is here. Um he's got over 20 years of experience in international education, um both domestic experiences. Uh he brings a rich
002background in leadership and student centered learning. He's held key roles in schools across four countries including the international school of Panama and the modern English school in Cairo where he led programs that combined academic excellence with vibrant student life. He is going to bring so much joy to learning at Isqua High School. He's pretty funny actually. Um uh his work has spanned uh everything from classroom teaching to athletic leadership and he is especially passionate about building inclusive communities where all students feel supported. I'd like to thank his wife and children for giving him to us because he will spend many many hours with us. So thank you as wife's in the audience tonight and I welcome Peter. Hey thank you very much. I am really excited to be here. Thank you to the board, um
003to Heather, Sherry, Erin. Um it was a pretty rigorous process. Uh and I think I enjoyed it. Um but I'm uh I'm super excited to be part of the Isqua School District and you know, I'm I'm privileged to be here and I'm excited to start that work tomorrow with Erin and the team over at the high school. Thank you very much. Are we going to do it one at a time? Good evening. Melinda Ryan Van, executive director of elementary education, and I have the opportunity to introduce three amazing people this evening. So, uh, first, it will be Valerie Lee, principal at Challenger Elementary School. It's with great enthusiasm that we welcome Valerie Lee as a new principal of Challenger Elementary School. Miss Lee brings with her over two decades of experience in education, including nine
004years as an assistant principal and early childhood administrator in the Snowqualamy Valley School District and 11 years in early childhood special education across California, Massachusetts, and Washington. Her deep commitment to collaboration, inclusive education, and student empowerment aligns perfectly with the values of our district and Challenger Elementary School. As a longtime Kohani resident, Miss Lee is super excited for her short commute to work. We are confident that her leadership will inspire continued growth and innovation at Challenger Elementary School. Hi everyone. Super excited to be part of the Siqua School District. Um yeah, I've lived in Kahani a long time, lived in Isiqua even longer, and I've always worked in other communities. So I'm very excited. It feels definitely like coming home. Everyone's been super warm and welcoming already and I'm just really excited to get to
005work. Thank you for um having me here tonight. All right. Next is Michelle Moon, assistant principal at Brierwood Elementary. We are pleased to welcome Michelle Moon as the new assistant principal of Brierwood Elementary School with 18 years of experience in education, including roles as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, and most recently dean of students. Miss Moon brings a deep commitment to fostering inclusive and engaging learning environments. Her 14-year tenor tenure in the Isiqua School District combined with her personal connection as a parent of ISD students gives her a unique and heartfelt perspective on the communities she serves. Her passion for building strong relationships with students, families, and staff will reflect the core values of the Brierwood community. I do want to say thank you. I'm really excited to step into this admin role. Um, this
006has been home since 2011 Isqua School District and I'm just really excited to take this next step. So, thank you to everyone and Cammy Zabilski, principal at Sunny Hills Elementary. We're proud to welcome Cammy Zabilki as the new leader at Sunny Hills Elementary School. With a rich background in education that spans over two decades, Miss Sabilski brings a deep commitment to student centered learning and community engagement. She serves Sunny Hills in multiple roles, including teacher, dean of students, and assistant principal, making her transition into the principal a natural and inspiring progression. Her teaching experience across grades 2 through eight, including work as a Scitec teacher, reflects her versatility and dedication to inclusive, engaging education. As a longtime community member and parent of three Sunny Hills alumni, Miss Sabilski brings both professional expertise and heartfelt connection
007to her leadership. We are confident that her vision and passion will continue to strengthen the tradition of excellence at Sunny Hills. just want to say thank you so much for this opportunity. I as you know just love Isqua school district and very specifically Sunny Hills and so to have the opportunity to lead this school is pretty special. So thank you. Good evening. Mariah Banis, executive director of finance and budget. I have the pleasure of introducing Kurt Holmes and Kathy Caterhagen. So Kurt Holmes joined us in May as the new district controller who's overseeing the accounting department. He is an Isiqua school district graduate and brings a strong background in financial leadership reporting and internal controls. He's held finance leadership roles at East East Side Research Associates Dirtfish and a local CPA firm. He earned his
008mers in accounting from University of Washington and a bachelor's from Gonzaga University. Uh he is very excited to return to the community he grew up in and is committed to transparency, compliance, and service. I'd just like to say thank you for uh giving me the opportunity to give back to the community and school district that uh I grew up in. So, thank you. And now I'd like to introduce Kathy Kerhagen. She is our newest member of the business office as the director of purchasing and contract management. Uh Kathy brings more than 20 years of experience leading procurement in K through2 education, higher education, and local government. She most recently served as director of procurement at University of Washington and previously held leadership roles at Seattle public schools in the city of Tacoma. She holds a
009MBA from Washington State University and is known for modernizing procurement systems and building strong partnerships. She's looking forward to supporting ISD's mission through sound stewardship of public resources. Hello. It's a pleasure to meet you all. I look forward to working with each of you and I'm just so happy to be here. So, thank you for being so welcoming. Hello, I'm Martin Turney, chief of finance and operations. It's my pleasure to introduce uh Greg Jacobs who recently joined us uh as our director of IT infrastructure coming to us from Oregon where he spent over 18 years leading IT strategy and operations in the healthc care space most recently as director of information systems at ialth Northwest. There he oversaw a broad range of impactful initiatives from modernizing infrastructure and launching enterprise EMR systems to strengthening cyber
010security and improving operational performance across dozens of locations. He brings not just a deep uh technical knowledge but also a strong reputation for collaboration, problem solving, and aligning technology with real world business needs. We're thrilled to have him on board as we continue to grow and evolve our IT capabilities. And please join me in welcoming Greg. All right. Good evening. Thanks for having me. Uh ISTD has been a real warm welcome and I'm looking forward to coming back home where this is kind of my home area. all my family. So, thanks again and looking forward to it. Great. Heather Tyk, superintendent. I guess I'll follow the introduction pattern that uh was set by my colleagues here. Um I'd like to welcome Jacqu Wel and Downey to the district in the role of assistant superintendent overseeing
011academics and our schools and she will now lead in the very same community where she grew up and graduated from. So, another ISD grad. Most recently, Jacqueline led secondary schools in the Highline School District, and I know her impact and influence there will be greatly missed, and her skills here will continue to bring alignment, cohesion, purpose, vision for students who thrive to thrive will be very beneficial. Her focus on equity and access will complement our focus on urgently addressing opportunity gaps and ensuring that we are developing leaders at all levels of our system. In her interview and reference check process, there were numerous data points cited that reflect meaningful and measurable progress for students in terms of high school graduation, attendance, well-being, credit attainment, elimination of racial disparities, and a focus on post-secary success. She's
012slated to receive her doctorate very soon, although I don't know the exact date, and I don't want to put pressure on that one either, from John's Hopkins University this year. and her dissertation is on school improvement to increase Latino student post-secary enrollment. So we are literally getting a rock star who can also belt out a tune which I believe can be heard um at a faith-based institution at some point by others and actually many people have already cited her stellar performance in those um arena. So welcome Jacqueline. Thank you so much superintendent Taek directors of the board. I am thrilled to be joining the Isiqua School District as assistant superintendent. Uh what drew me to the Isiqua School District was the explicit focus in the vision, mission, and strategic plan on ensuring academic opportunities and
013student well-being for every student every day. And uh as Superintendent Tayek said and like many of the my fellow new administrators, as um as someone who grew up in Isiqua and attended Challenger Elementary School, Beaver Lake Middle School, and graduated from Skyline High School, I'm thrilled to return to my hometown to work alongside the community in service of our students. Thank you. very happy. Congratulations. I'm excited about getting more about you. Thank you. start other meetings like this. I know it's very fun. We are excited for um for our community and the leadership that um that we have in our district. Okay, next part of public comment. We are still on public comment. Um this is an opportunity for the public to um bring to the attention anything you want to comment to the district.
014Um except for items that are on our action uh that are here for action. Um yeah, I think that's all I'm going to say about that. Is I believe that we did not receive any prior to the meeting. Is there anyone in the audience or on Zoom that would like to provide public comment? Seeing none, we will go to the next item on our agenda. I would like to pro provide a comment. Oh, so my name is my name is Ken. I am on Zoom. I just heard you guys talk about Just a moment. Let us uh get your picture and we do need to see who's speaking. I don't have a camera. Sorry. Oh, okay. So, I just have a microphone. Okay. So, we have a twominut time limit. So, we'll put the timer
015on and you're welcome to begin. Okay. So, my name is Ken. Um uh my daughter goes to Liberty High School. I hear you guys talk about uh student success uh helping them thrive and student well-being. But what I notic is there are courses taken away to help the population that are needed most. So uh for example in Liberty High School, I noticed like the math labs are no longer available for students who needs extra help and there's no other place where I would seek that extra help. So I hear about this excellence and there's plenty of opportunities for students to thrive if they're acade academically strong already. But when they are not as strong, there is lack of ability to get help. There were used to be courses like that. There was geometry labs before.
016There was algebra labs, but that has been taken away as of last year. And I'm wondering why those decisions has been made. And then my second thing that I have issues with is so at the end of the school year when I try to reach out to talk to a counselor or a principal the last day of school when I find out what my daughter's grade is, no one's available. I left the messages. I get no return information. So I'm trying to make decisions to fur my daughter's education for her well-being, but there's no one to talk to. So I am like struggling. Like we're talking about excellence in helping children thrive. And I I don't see us doing that. I see people talking the talk but no one making the shift towards it. It's
017easy to help people who when they are successful already. What about the ones that are not academic successful? How do we help them? We're taking my courses that are slate to help them. That's that's all the comment I have. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Um and oftentimes it's dissatisfying. It's public input and so there's not an output or response from the board. But you're also welcome to email us at uh schoolboard isqua.weednet.edu. Is that the right one? Yeah, that's okay. Um and so feel free to um provide that. Um and if you could email us, sir, that would be helpful so that we can get connected with you. I think that some of those classes have been renamed, but we need to ensure that you have what you need. So Okay. What was the email
018again? I'm sorry. Um, it's on the district website under board of directors, but it's I think it's schoolboardisqua.weednet.edu. Okay. Thank you. And this is on YouTube, so you can relisten to this to get that email address as well. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So, the next item on our agenda is the consent agenda. The consent 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 the 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. Second. It's moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I.
019I. I. Any opposed? The eyes have it. Then next is the establishment of the regular agenda. Are there any changes to the regular agenda? There are no changes to the regular agenda. Okay. So, we will move to our first item of business, reflections on graduation ceremonies. Um on the board attended the graduation ceremonies for Isakla High, Liberty High, Skyline High on June 12th. Uh they also attended the graduation ceremonies for Gibson EC, and the Academy of Community Transition on June 13th. So, just wanted to provide a time for reflection. Um, and anything you would want to share with the public? Director Mullings. Uh, well, it's the most wonderful time of the year, um, graduation season and, um, getting to see so many. I think I saw the number where we were at 1,500, 1500, a
020little over that graduates across all of um, all of our programs. So, it's uh a great culmination of the work of many, many, many people uh to get to see our students, their families, the communities come together. I'm always really interested in how different each of our school communities are. Some are louder than others, some are bigger cheers than others. So, it's really a cool time. So, um, you know, I know we don't pick favorites of our graduations, but, uh, the Academy of Community Transitions GR, uh, graduation for me is always the very, very special time to see the commitment that our district has to our learners up till their 22nd birthday now. and helping um some of our students really work on their skills, their life skills, their ability to gain work and community
021connection and get to see their work on display. Um I did not cry this year at the ACT graduation. So it took six years for me to not cry um at the ACT graduation, but you know, incredibly um beautiful experience to go through our graduations and and a really deep honor to get to see all the work come together for our district. Sorry, Director Coin. Thank you. I, you know, I will echo those comments, too. It really is an honor to be able to be there for that day, to be able to sit on stage, uh, to represent the district, to be there with students and their families, and, um, it really is, it's for me, it's the most exciting part of being a school board member is the is graduation. Um, you know, and
022just a special thanks to and all the graduations and all the work that goes into those. And I'm thinking specifically on the the June 12th, uh, the T-Mobile uh, graduations of Isiqua High, Liberty, and Skyline. And just a huge, um, special thanks to Jen Fitzgerald who does an amazing job leading all of that work. Um, our school principles and everyone who makes those days possible. I mean, it's for folks to see sort of behind the scenes. I mean, we're graduating three comprehensive high schools, big high schools, and they and it's back to back, and they literally they move from one to the next to the next. Um, and it is it is an incredible um experience. Um, I'll just say too, having a now a Skyline grad myself, having a student who graduated from Skyline,
023it was a special night for me and for my family. And, you know, I think you you kind of it's a full circle experience. um you know I think about starting in the district when he was uh you know it was September of 2012 um you know almost 13 years ago and now having a graduate and um it is it is a pretty incredible experience and I keep looking at academics and foundations up there and seeing upon graduation students will be academically prepared and confident to pursue higher education or specialized career training and and you know I think I've I've seen that for a while I always we think about it but now living it now with my own student um going through through the Isiqua school system, I see it even more and the
024importance of that obviously too. So um all that being said, it was a wonderful day and it was a wonderful day to be there not only as a school board member but as a parent too. So thank you Director Taylor. Uh just to add on a few more things. It is um it is pretty amazing that the whole thing goes off without a hitch. I'm I'm always astounded by that and uh this year it was just uh pretty effortless and it was really wonderful day. Um, and I will just say that that it's it is a day of joy. And I I shared with my colleagues on on graduation day at T-Mobile, there are few days during the year you can be in an environment where everywhere you go, everyone is smiling. Everyone is there
025so happy and supportive of their graduates. Um, it's just it's very moving. So, I I hope that folks in our community get the opportunity to be in that environment and see that. And you know, we it's a district that we can be very very proud of when you're given the success of all these kids that we see as they go across that stage and know that they're on to the next step in their life. And uh it's all it's all very very moving. Um the other last thing I just want to say is also big congratulations to Gibson EC which graduated their largest class ever uh this time around and that was a great ceremony as well at IHS and um again to see those those kids and uh all of the various um experiences
026that they're moving on to was uh really really great too. So anyway, a great day and uh it is the best time of the year. I agree. Yes, you may. I also just want to say some appreciation for the live streaming of the big graduations. I know that's something was really valuable uh for families at a distance and I think at some point someone told me we had a couple hundred people watching those graduations. So, what a I just think that's such a wonderful facility to be able to offer as well because we do have families from all over the country, all over the world. And so, to be able to welcome in more people, I'm just very appreciative that we were able to do that. And I haven't looked, but I'm sure that the
027views on those graduations even afterwards is quite extensive. Uh, Superintendent. Uh well, congratulations to director Coin for having uh the most recent graduate here at the at at the dis. Um and we also had two other cabinet executive leaders with two children graduating or children young young people graduating, Donna Hood and and Melinda Rinban. Um so it's really a great celebratory day not just for students and families but for you know the board as well as our team members. And there's many more examples of staff members who have students and there's some really lovely routines and traditions that help us uplift that even in nice ways. So that's great. And and as you said um Director Mullings got over 1500 students graduate across um Isqua High School, Liberty High School, Skyland High School, Gibson E,
028and the Academy for uh for Community Transition. And again, just want to echo thank you to Jenna Fitzgerald. I think she's really the glue behind all of the school teams that play their role and play their role with their respective communities, but she's the glue behind all that. So, the live streaming uh the flawlessness, the details um really make a really big difference for the experience. Well, I did um I I might get a little choked up, but these were my last graduations. Ah, and so it's it's just that's the best part. and like director coin like you were saying um ends to it's our academic foundations and it really is the way we measure the work and I'm going to miss it. I was thinking about um one I was so appreciative to be
029able to hand diplomas to our grads uh that are that were student reps. um they have been a remarkable team of student reps for over the past two years to really revitalize um that program really putting into vision putting into practice the vision that we had when we switched over what student reps are going to be. So I was very very glad to be able to give Adidi Naomi and Dishita their diplomas. So that was exciting. um didn't do havas just because Gibson at graduation is completely different. If you haven't attended one, watch it on YouTube because it's just remarkable. You feel like you know every student by the end of it. Uh so I did not want to take away and distract um from Hava's graduation, but I really do appreciate all that they've
030done. And so um I was thinking about next year and going I don't get to hand anybody a diploma because I won't be there. I won't be able to take those special shots that I send to my friends that we all like take pictures of people we know who have kids that are graduating. Um so but it was great to spend that time with you all. Um a great board to spend on my birthday. Uh yeah, so it was a great great day celebration for everyone and just excited about what our students are going to be doing from here. Okay, next on the agenda is works in progress. Superintendent. Great. Thank you. So, this week has been marked with the final last days of school. And so, we did have some fun continuing transitioning and
031stepping up ceremonies for our young people. Um, I had a fun kindergarten stepping up ceremony that was complete with the song for Pop and Circumstance, which my son asked me to play again later. I'm not sure exactly uh what was the motivation there, but I think it's associated good memory. Um but amidst all the transitions that uh we have been sort of speaking about over the past month and even tonight, I I do want to talk about one uh key moment that is to highlight for our district, which is with our dual language program. And the dual language program this year promoted the very first group of fifth graders um to middle school. And those students are starting um they had started in the dual language program in kindergarten as a first cohort. those families
032persevered through COVID as well and um the consolidation of the program to one location to maximize effectiveness and to really bring that community together. Um and on a on a recent assessment, the fifth grader students, you know, I can share the really good news about this. They outperformed the country and they also um did really well on the indicators for reading, uh writing, speaking, and listening in Spanish. So that's a really incredible success point and our our program is emerging still. We're still growing it and that will continue next year uh to support the students moving to Isiqua Middle School and they'll be able to continue their journey uh towards biiteracy and bilingualism in a social studies class but taught by a Spanish teacher and who is endorsed for both that and social studies. So
033we're excited about the continued expansion of the work and you got to start and you got to take small steps and you got to get there and then you have to prove the model and then continue to expand. So that's our that's our whole goal goal and our hope. So that's really important for us to just highlight for right now. Um you know next week as we continue to wrap up the year our residents across all of our communities and I'd like to name them because I it's important to say that we have such a wide variety of community members across the area not just in Isiqua but Seamamesh Isiqua Rent and Newcastle Preston and parts of King County. They will be receiving an endofear postcard sharing our appreciation of just the many ways community
034members step up to support our schools and also share some key facts and stats about the year and the district because it helps to have a reminder of what we're up to and the incredible success and volume of the work. Um especially if you don't have kids currently in the district, you might not be aware of the changes, the updates and and how large our system is. So, as I shared some of the facts uh earlier, we have over 1500 students who graduated from high school. There are over 264 extracurricular clubs that met. We have 170 buses that travel over 1.1 million miles. Um over 760,000 meals were prepared inhouse. 97 languages are spoken by our families. Um we had 500 uh 5,250 yearly middle and high school student athletes. and we have um just
035over 1,700 students in before and after school care and we have 6,500 plus volunteers. So by the numbers there are incredible things happening not just within our schools but also with the support from our community um academically as well as um operationally. So I want to just highlight that for the group. And as we start to pivot to planning for next year with this endear transition um there's some been some um important activities this week. We've had an ignite training here in this room for our teachers and administrators to accelerate access to learning for all students and to meet all of their needs based on learner variability. And um that's a great incubator space to have colleagues also spread their good learning and their practices to improve access to opportunities in the classroom. Um our
036cabinet team um met as well to retreat uh although we retreated to a room just across the hallway and um we reflected on the year started to plan for some of our monitoring reports for next year. This is a moment to capture the best uh fresh information as we prepare to monitor next year for what happened this year and we talked about um our next level efforts on multi-tered systems of support. We had a training on project and change management. We had a discussion on our collective commitment to civic engagement and community work and what those opportunities will be next year. And that was just a good opportunity to do some team building and activities. And I think we all agree that anything that Dr. Melinda Rinban um plans for as a team building opportunity
037is one that we will always sign up for um and enjoy. Not just sign up for and and go through, but enjoy. Um, also this week we've had XQ facilitate an important um, educational outcome um, analysis and audit for our um, our district and it was a really unique opportunity to bring together multiple data points that were collected in advance to do some transcript analysis and to bring together conversation. So, I'm going to show education a quick video that I'm going to talk a couple about a couple observations I had from the the past two days. And thank you, Stephen, for having that ready. And this will give you a preview of what this XQ work is and how that's helping us potentially. XQ's educational outcomes audit and analysis or EOA is a set of
038experiences that take schools through a journey and show them how prepared their students are for college and career. The EOA experience consists of an analysis of student transcripts, surveys of students, parents, and teachers, and student focus groups. We had two whole days for all of our high schools to go on a personalized journey and experience looking at their data grounded in student voice with parents, with young people, with school counselors, with educators and leadership teams all in one place together. We knew that the EOA and the data that schools got from it was going to light a fire. I don't think we anticipated how big that fire was going to be. Literally within weeks of the EOA, we were getting emails and phone calls from principles talking about how transformative that had been because it
039wasn't just the principal and their leadership team in the space, but it was also young people. It gave them the shared language and understanding of what the barriers were for student success and that was that spark that a lot of folks needed to prioritize redesign. Students saw that there was something there was an opportunity here for them to lead change and our educators also saw how fired up their community was to be a part of something. The EOA was an inspiration experience for everyone and I think it's raised the bar for us to think about how do we create more moments like that, more moments to have meaningful data, more moments for facilitated conversation, more moments to look back to plan for the future. So, what was great was the um facilitation on site the
040past two days by the XQ team and Keith spoke there as a head of local and state partnerships. And um was great to sort of see him in person because I've only seen him virtually. And what was amazing about this opportunity, as you heard a bit about that video, is that you're bringing together students, families, counselors, other staff members, teachers, principles, and then maybe other district team members as well to sit with each individual school team and be facilitated in their own journey around looking at college transcripts, uh, survey data from both families, students, and staff and their perceptions and to talk about college eligibility, college readiness, and post-secondary options. And so, as we think about our academic foundations and coming off of the graduation conversation, is every single student in our district set up
041for success for any of those three areas? And truly, what are we doing to make sure that those are known um and that we are working not only in partnership with our young people to design the ways that most matter to them, but also in partnership with families. And so my highlight was certainly seeing that in action and seeing that um really strong integrated set of conversations happening but to have all voices be equal. And so our students really shined in these days. Of course they do. And whenever they take the mic they teach us. And we heard a lot about what the opportunities can be to improve our work, but also rethink about how school can be a more engaging place for them to thrive, as well as not only themselves from their perspective,
042but that being accessible and supportive for students of all backgrounds, in particular, our students with IEPs, our students who come from multilingual families, and um our students who might be struggling and might be far behind. So, it's a really great way to have that be part of spotlight. I even heard some students today say, "We need to go deeper and how might we work with our other students in our school because we're just two voices. How can we expand that conversation to other students and to make sure there's a strong representative sample of the different students in our school to ensure that we're thinking about this the right way?" So, it's relevant because as we consider this next high school, this is again a continued conversation for the community and the board, but um this
043will help put more data, information, and voice into that conversation to give us a strong launch pad. So, I want to thank um uh this is all proono and it's it's really helpful to have that attention also and support and resource for our district, but I think we will be able to use that and run with it when it comes to next year. So, everyone came and showed up. they came back too. I was like, "You came back. Thank you. Thank you, family members. Thank you, students." Um, and it's been amazing to to spend time in that space. Um, couple other things are happening as we set up for next year. We've got some summer work going on. We are asking our administrative team and leaders um, in the district to delve deeper into the
044mental health and well-being of our students um, and the impact of social media. I know that's that has been a topic of conversation for the board in our community and it's important and incumbent upon us to have um a review of certain artifacts that help give different perspectives and information that augment our point of view and um really help us understand that a bit more. And we're also pouring into our leadership in terms of thinking about the strengthbased approach. Uh we do that for our students but we need to do that for our team members. So, we're embarking on a reflected best self exercise where all of our administrators are getting their stories, their best stories of self, and they're going to be reflecting that over the summer and then coming back to talk about
045that with the goal of saying, when is it that I'm my best self and how can I be more of that in my day-to-day work and how can I enlist others to help me with that? So, those are the things that we're working on in preparation for next year and thinking through how we can bring our best selves and bring that joy to the school year and have that be the sort of energy that surrounds us and really fuels us as we continue to do great things. Thank you. Uh, next on the agenda is a capital projects update. So, Mr. Mullings. Good evening everyone. Tom Mullings, director of capital projects here at the district. Give a quick update. Um, starting with the 2018. We're going to start with the 2018 levy, go to the 22
046critical repairs levy, and then an update on the capital projects oversight committee meeting number two that we had last week. And uh another update on the new high school critical repairs 2018 levy um status 28 complete. We have seven in substantial completion which are very near just lacking some paperwork with the state. We have seven still in process and we still have two future projects that we are contemplating what to do with right now. We have the 22 levy projects. We have one complete. We have uh one substantially complete and then uh we have 12 in process and one future. Capital projects oversight committee last Tuesday on the uh June 17th. I guess that was two Tuesdays ago. The 26 members 17 were in attendance. The committee was we focused the committee on the review
047of the 22 levy. There's a lot of information when it comes to these type of things. So, we thought we would focus them in on the 22 levy. Community members asked a myriad of questions and made lots of recommendations on how to expand information up expand upon the information we provide and make it more clear for the public to understand. So when we put it out on the website, it's better understood. We're working on implementing some of those things. Updated information related to the capital projects oversight committee continues to be added to the capital projects website, updating all the time as we receive new information or have new meetings. The next meeting is scheduled for September 16th and the committee continues to review the monthly budget status reports in the capital projects website. Update on
048the new high school. We're still in the process of making revisions to the existing project. Um, we met with city staff and continued to discuss the process of this process of the submittal of the revisions to the project and what the schedule will look like related to those reviews. We still have a target construction date of March 1st of 26 and we're still expecting the opening date to be August 27th. Any questions? Director Mullings. Um, I'd love to actually know more about what were some of the comments on making things more accessible um at the capital projects oversight committee from the oversights committee. Y yes. So we have we've recently in the last couple years we started the what we call the project one pagers which are a status. They wanted just mainly in those
049go in and expand a little more upon what each one of those since we focused on the 22 levy, what each one of those projects, the schools that they or the sites or the projects that were specifically going to be entailed in those. um uh little more information concerning change orders, a better explanation on change orders and what they were for instead of just naming change order one or change order two. More information related to those. Um they wanted to us to expand a little bit upon the project schedules and an explanation if there was a deviation from the original project schedule. a little more explanation as to what those deviations might be and maybe a little more explanation on just the overall budget and again what projects that included what the scope of those
050were. And so they were all very good comments. Some of them are going to be fairly easy to implement. Some of them are going to take a little more rework to get uh the information we think they're asking for provided on a on a single sheet or a sheet that's that's um consumable and not over overly lengthy or overly detailed. What I what I appreciated about these questions is that they're similar questions that the board had been asking for many years about detail for and I think what this group did not know is that maybe we didn't have that as as publicly available and so they're helping us take it to the next level and they're playing their role in providing oversight and and feedback. So I think it was a great opportunity to like
051one feel very affirmed in our direction and progress for making more information publicly available but also account for some of the changes that do occur which is realistic and they did acknowledge that we understand we work in industry capital projects ourselves or construction or in project management and so we get that. So we they actually are providing their expertise in a way that is very very helpful and um in that regard. So, it was very helpful to get that, but also very affirming that we're in the right direction and continuing to make make progress. Perfect. Can I ask a very basic question? Yep. Did they know any of the information was there? Did they What? Did they know it was there? They knew because they had been directed to it before. No, I mean like
052before you directed them. Um, I would have to I would have to take a probably a poll of the members as to whether or not they see that when they go to a to the district website, you know, and then to drill down to construction and then to drill down to, you know, a specific bond or levy. Drill down, you know, then you go down to the next level. Have they done that? I'm not sure. And that's what we were trying to that's part of this whole process too is to try to educate a a few of the community members on the information that's available and try and spread that word that that information is available and accessible and consumable. Yeah. I mean I guess I'll just give my observation and that's wonderful. So I'm
053glad more people are in the data. I'm glad they're giving feedback on the specifics. That's awesome. My observation over the past several years is that com that kind of conversation starts with we need more transparency um and then people find it and you know you can give them like hey here's all the information and their reaction is usually well let me now give you small changes and what we've what I I think we need to figure out somehow in this I know we did usability work when we launched this version of the website was like How do we bridge that gap in between of like how are we sharing things that we believe are of public interest whether that's featuring like every so often like here I know we have like in the search you
054see topics but maybe what that's really telling us is every so often how do we feature that those pieces of information are available or available in depth so that people don't have to come to the capital uh committee or and dig I say lightly because I think things are actually quite well arranged on our website, but I think there's some way that we have to figure out how to promote it because I I think without things being more obvious, people tend to go a bit to the negative, which is it's not available or it's not transparent, which just isn't factually correct. So, I just wonder is what work can we do on that key topics? Like what is a consistent push of some of that? That's not just for you, but it's just you bring
055up the thing I've been noodling on about. Like I was just wondering like they can give feedback on the document. That's great. Yeah. But I would love more feedback on how do they know to begin begin with as we as we think about discoverability. But thank you. Thank you, Director Coin. I I have a related question that I I had noted. Um I'm curious because I know that we have representatives on the committee who um obviously live in the community but do not currently have students in the school district. Have they given any suggestions? This kind of goes back to what Dr. Mullings was saying in terms of ways to reach out to members of that community because I worry I know we've got a lot of good content on our website but to be
056honest I don't if you don't have a student currently in the Esqua school district it's unlikely you're probably going to go to the website. Have they offered any suggestions? Well, one specific um example, somebody claimed that they didn't have any idea about the new high school and this type of thing. And what was the update? How would I know this? And we discovered that he had gotten a mailer, but we assumed that he didn't read it or pay attention. And I think there in lies part of that communication problem with some people. It's it's whether an email is going to work, a newsletter, a mailer, what type of information is going to get to that particular person. Um, we didn't get a lot of complaints about not understanding what was going on in the district.
057It was more specific to capital projects and in particular the information related to the individual projects and and that's helpful perspective. I'm wondering too because I always think about like a push or a pull. I mean, have they given you any sense like is it push better or are people saying yes, if I know where it is, I'll go now to there and I'll tell other people to go there, too. I mean, have you gotten to that point yet where they've offered much better on that? No. No, we haven't. And we probably This is probably a good time on this next meeting to incorporate a a back and forth a little bit about now that we've been through two meetings, we've given you resources, we've shown you where they're at. Yeah. Are you can you
058get there? Have you done it? Have you went through and found this? and um see if they have or not. Yeah, I mean that's what I would love to hear. I mean I think with the capital project oversight committee mean I think there's so many positives with this but particularly understanding how people get information because we we oftentimes hear from so many people who say hey I didn't know about that but the information was out there and then you tend to go to more negative place because you don't know where to find it. So yeah I would love to hear what their insights are around that so we could make some improvements there. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I I think along those same lines, I I do wonder again it goes back to how
059do we communicate what people want to hear in a way they want to hear it. It's and I think it's just a tough nut to crack, right? Um, I do think that it may be down to we have a new website, but can we have um a smarter AI attached to the search, right? So it can get at summarizing or asking being able to get deeper into what is it that you need rather than just a text type search that pops up things that are sometimes irrelevant. So I I think there's work for us to do, but I think it's great that they're able to see that that it's asking the right questions um asking questions that the board would ask, but we don't have the expertise that they have. So they have another level
060of expertise. So, I do um appreciate all the work of the committee um ongoing. I know that it's the middle of June and I know that it was a really celebratory time for people that might have students or friends graduating from different things. Um is that the normal attendance? Is there kind of a after so many absences, if you're not able to attend, we can find somebody else who has more bandwidth? I'm going to we're going to work I'm going to work with comms to reach out to the to the people who didn't attend. Some there were a couple that gave us a heads up to begin with. Graduation one had to leave early to go to Cougar Mount for his daughter's graduation. That type of thing. But we were going to reach out just
061make sure they're still they're still interested and um because it is quite a bit of time between each meeting and you know if you're not paying attention it can sneak up on you and we're giving plenty of heads up to them. So yeah. Okay. Right. Thank you. Thank you. Uh next on the agenda is accelerated learning. Great. So, as Dr. Ryan Van rejoins us up here at the podium, there are other names attached to this. Oh, motion first. Thank you. I move the board authorize the district's highly capable program plan as presented. Second. Okay. Great. All right. Now, now that Dr. Ryan Van is at the podium, uh actually there are other um team members who also join to support her. um but she is the lead voice of this in this time but um
062we have Dr. Dana Bailey and Rich Melish um who are here al as well to augment as needed um and the focus here is our shift to really call this accelerated learning so that we can think about it very expansively in the future but this is really focused on the the sort of current update at hand and and sort of the role of the board and helping to support our submission that we do annually to OSPI to support this work um but I do want to take a moment because this is Dr. Bailey's last board meeting officially with the Isiqua School District. And um as we are in the moment of transitions, I want to make sure that I recognize her graduation here from the Isiqua School District. Well done. Um and you know, as
063as she steps into her her next role um in the future, she will be missed here and she will be and she's already had many different sort of mini moments of celebration to recognize her amazing, you know, 20 plus years here in the school district. So this is her last time potentially on the mic and I wanted to not miss that opportunity as a as a key transition moment as well and a celebration moment for for Dana although certainly our loss but um with that I would say that over to you Dr. Ryban. Good evening directors and superintendent Talia. This presentation provides an update on the Isiqua School District's highly capable program including our services identification process and alignment with state requirements. Thank you for the opportunity to provide an overview of the highly capable
064program along with the state reporting requirements. We follow Washington code which outlines the expectations for identifying and serving highly capable students. We submit an annual plan to the office of the superintendent of public instruction which must be approved by the board. The plan approval allows the state to allocate funds that are to be used solely for highly capable identification and services in our district. And uh this is going to be based on uh some guidance that came out in 2023. The definition you may have seen before this was around 2016. So I just thought I would bring this to the forefront for us. Uh but this is what the um most recent report from the legislature has accepted. It's going to be incorporated into the WAC that's in house right now. Uh which is highly
065capable students perform or show potential for performing at significantly advanced levels compared to others of their age, experiences or environments. Exceptional abilities are seen within students general intellectual aptitudes, specific academic abilities andor creative productivities within a specific domain. So, uh, every five years there's a legislative report and so this is the most recent. The guidance emphasizes universal screening twice, once in or before second grade and again in or before sixth grade. Services should focus on enhanced instruction and accelerated learning. This presentation has a link to that report and it also shares statewide data that is accessible to the public. So right now it's in this report form. Um when you talk to OSPI they actually are trying to put it into like a report card style kind of um search that you would use just
066like our academic achievement data. So if you had a chance to browse through this just know that there will be something that's u going to be kind of at your fingertips from year to year with year to year with the data from across the state. So for our identification process, we use multiple measures to identify students. And one of the reasons why we do this is we don't want anyone to not be designated just because of one kind of assessment or one kind of piece of evidence. So we have the Iowa test of basic skills. Um it's nationally normed as a standardized test and it's used to assess student achievement. This is used with secondary students. We have I Ready, which is something that's already embedded. So it's not like we're creating any kind of
067assessment fatigue with our students. We already use I Ready to inform our instruction. So we look at reading and math in grades K through five. We also use a cognitive abilities test which is the KOAT short for co cognitive abilities assessment test. That's used for grades K through 12. And then we also use a creativity test called the Torrance test of creative thinking. And it's a series of assessments designed to measure different aspects of creative thinking in individuals. And we use that for grades 2 through 12. So this gives you a little visual of um the process and the timing. So if you had a student in the Isiqua school district, uh there would be an opportunity for them to be universally screened three times even though the recommendation is two. Uh we have it
068at kindergarten, in second grade, and then at fifth grade. And then just today and yesterday, this admin building was very full because we actually had our new students to the district um being uh tested for um services. So um we have that ongoing usually in the fall and in the spring so that there's never an opportunity missed. And then our continuum of services. Uh we came up with some really uh fun names because that's what elementary folks like to do. So you might have heard these uh if you're visiting a school, they'll say, "Oh, well that's, you know, the pep group." Or, you know, they're meeting with their sage teacher. Or if you were at Apollo or Endeavor, they would say, "Oh, this is a Merlin classroom." So um for our kindergarten, first and second
069graders, we have primary enrichment program, PEP. And that is a projectbased learning opportunity for students which is about a half hour to an hour a week. We have our special approach to gifted education or what we call SAGE which is a pull out for one to two hours a week and it's mainly in the content areas of reading and math. So one student if they're served in both areas they might have a little bit more time versus if a student is being served just one of the content areas. And then um mind education right left integration that is our self-contained classroom um and uh I know that the board has um really wanted to make sure that it was accessible. So we have it at two sites we have Apollo in the south end and
070endeavor up in the plateau. And then for our secondary continuous services, um we have um a a lot of um ways that students can access enhancement and acceleration. I think one of the things that has been a priority of the board is whether you're designated or not that there's access. So I believe that a lot of barriers have been removed. Um, so if you're designated, your counselor does actually have to document that they're checking in with you and that you know you're being um talk you're having a chance to talk about you know what are your goals, what are your um courses that you're thinking about, how can I help you? Um but with all of this the dual credit CTE running start college and the high school um as we've had in other presentations
071this is available to all students but we also are going to be mindful if they have that designation at secondary level that's something that we're going to be having touch points with and conversations around. So these are our goal areas moving forward. Um, we're committed to equity and access and to address opportunity gaps, which was our district problem of practice, we've expanded universal screening to three times a year and broadened our assessment tools. We aim to align services and actual academic needs through differentiated instruction, acceleration, and mentorships. So, thank you for letting me share that. And I have some time to answer questions if you like. Okay, before we get to questions, uh we are taking action on the plan. So, if there's any public input in the room or on Zoom regarding this issue.
072Seeing none, we'll go to questions. Director Coin, thank you for the uh the presentation. Good information. It was nice to know what some of those acronyms stand for. Merlin, I did not know um either. Um I question I have uh on uh so secondary six through 12 as you were saying if they have I guess that accelerated learning designation they're checking in and I think it's great we give students choice. I think one concern I have a bit is sometimes that choice you have families pushing kids into those courses where they may not they may not be the right fit at the secondary level. And so it's great that someone's checking in with the kids that have sort of been designated to qualify for those accelerated services, but do we also on the flip side,
073are we checking in with those kids who who maybe do not who we were worried may have maybe they're they've been pushed into that because of of you know of family particularly wanting to have that um their student in those accelerated classes. I'm just curious, do we have what does that look like? It it is um really responsive and flexible. Um, one of the things that was highlighted in the 2023 guidance is really having an opportunity if a student wanted to furlow or exit. I think um, what a counselor would say is if you're designated um, the way that it gets reported, it can be general education. It could be differentiation through a path that you've chosen. And if you look at the report, actually out of the 295 school districts, 288 report that that
074is something that's happening in their districts. Uh but there are conversations a family can have about a furlow or an exit. Um so if they did have say a designation and for some reason they didn't want that designation, they could talk about that. That's kind of a technical thing, but as for the path or what they're accessing, uh that is why we want to have the conversation. And there's timelines that um the counseling department has set with the counselors to touch base with their part of the alphabet who are designated and just making sure that they are being responsive. So there are opportunities and there is some guidance around if someone wanted to exit they could do that as well. That's that's great to hear. you know, I think my observation at the elementary a
075you know, from K through five, um, you know, there wasn't because it was basically kind of aligned to the designation or whether or not you qualified for the accelerated programs. And I remember going into middle school and that choice opening up and you know, we live in a community where, you know, the question came up, is your student accelerated? And probably 95% of the people in that room said, "Oh yes, I want that's what I want to learn about for my student." And I worry about that. That's always a concern that I have particularly in this community that sometimes we push too much of that. I think choice is good, but I worry about that too because it maxes out our students. And I know too many students that have been pushed in those paths
076and it has not been a good road for them. I think they've really struggled because of that. So I would be excited to talk more about the mentorship and internship side of a path for students because I think that that is something like we saw some innovation earlier with um students looking at their transcripts and then you know thinking about you know what is it that will guide you on your path. So I do think that would be a great opportunity because there are going to be some pathways that may or may not have requirements that students are aware of or maybe they don't need those requirements because they're selecting that path. How what a great thing to have a mentor to help kind of guide them along that. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you, Dr. Mullings.
077This is very clear and makes full sense to me. I and I particularly like this continuation continuum of services. Just talk about all the different potential options. I guess the question that comes up for me because I've never heard of I guess I don't think we've ever had the conversation is students where they might be designated as twice exceptional and how does how do we actually account for that in our programming where we have students who may have both highly capable um designation as well as some other learning disability or or special services need. that is a lot of conversation we have with our parent groups as well as our staff. Um we do have twice exceptional students and I think that um talking about our MTSS model and how it's a um support but
078also kind of strengthbased application for students. Our student IEP meetings started off as strength-based meetings in 2018. And so I think that's really important to anchor in on that um there are students who are going to need support in certain skill areas and yet they also are probably needing enhancement in other areas and that's the whole person. So I think that is why it's so important that we still continue to center on and we're actually building out and piloting um more strength-based conversations and applications for our students because we don't want to miss out on that. um just because they're getting support in one area doesn't mean that they're not needing enhancement in other areas. And so, and that's a part of a team that we need to also always remember and consider that um
079I've been at IEP meetings where they're talking about like what are we going to do because um they're really accelerating. Can we modify? Can we compact? Uh we've got this goal over here. Can this be part of the conversation as well? And sometimes it's also helping with things like um engagement behavior. it's um going to be wrapped up in a plan that the team puts together because we know that some students um if they're not engaged then um they're maybe not going to be manifesting as a successful student. So I do think that looking at the whole person is extremely important and and do you feel like there's a I understand the individual side of it. I guess the other the accelerated programs seem so boundaried and maybe that's just my perception. I don't know
080how else to say that like they seem very finite and so how how do we know that that access is really facilitated? Um is there is there any sort of meeting or understanding across multiple students and fall into that into those categories? I guess it just I worry I worry that depending on where that conversation starts, kids end up in either one or the other versus navigating between the two of acceleration and support. And I I guess I would love to know how that plays out in real life and who who across those two spectrums cuz they're very different spectrums of services like who's making sure that that navigation happens across both sides and not just one or the other. I think that um some of our team members like our school psychologists, we have
081nonverbal parts of our assessments. We have the creativity side of our assessments and um we also have reports through our cognitive abilities tests that kind of share what kind of a learner a student is. But I would say that there are students that might have amazing spatial reasoning skills which isn't very apparent if you were just to observe them maybe doing say a math lesson in a classroom. So I think when um like our school psychologists are bringing information to the team, bringing all of the information, not just what a goal area is for legging skills, but wow, look at the non-verbal, look at the creativity, you know, what are we doing to feed that? Um should be a conversation that's happening in our classrooms and um our tier 2 conversation. So, um, you know,
082we do things at a tier one level for all of our students, but there are students who, um, you know, we're having our tier 2 data meetings and we're looking at data all the time. So, it might be that a psychologist sees that, brings it to the teachers attention, and then they could create a plan off of that. I guess, you know, thank you for your questions, uh, Director Mullings, because I was thinking the same thing like how does twice exceptional really play into our plans? Because I think especially when you get into secondary, we we move from having something that's highly capable, I think there's more flexibility at elementary to just a highly productive program, right? So, it's it's not about the students necessarily their capability, but how much can you produce quickly? We
083we do acceleration through tacking on a lot more work, right? Rather than same amount of workload but thinking deeper, thinking beyond that. So it is my concern that ongoing we still have a highly productive program and not a h highly capable program. And I think they're very different. Um can I add one little bit about um uh director Mulling's question? So, we have a standard pack of assessments to go through for the highly capable program. When you get to an IEP meeting, the team decides what tests are we going to run. So if they already have an indication either a hunch or raw data about a student's exceptional capabilities, they can really dig deep in their toolkit to say what is the perfect assessment tool on the special education side to really draw out these
084students special strengths and um unwinding or unteeing if they have um twice exceptionalities that might be hard to see on the surface. So the this program has as you saw the very set um additional assessments that the students participate in. The school psychologist owns the road on which tests are we going to do next and they have a deep toolkit to say what you know that we won't use the standard set for this child. We're going to go with something really special. And I think that's encouraging. So, just to let you know, I have actually been serving on the um OSBI committee um that has been working together and putting together the wax uh for the the new law. So, we've had a lot of deep conversations. So that's why I'm like lot of conversations
085around this and excited to hear that that because one of the areas that we were talking about is um many districts are using just three assessments and then I don't know if they have the the continuum of services. So they'll say oh well if you didn't get a certain percentage on all three you're not in. Right. And so, um, to be able to hear that, hey, we're we're looking for including instead of excluding shifts the focus. So, how can we include kids rather than exclude kids? And I think that will help really to see especially where we're at um with disproportionality was still something that I would appreciate maybe getting a um information after this to where are we on proportionality of of students served in our programs because we're really so many of those
086things is to try to try to target um mitigating the disproportionality we currently app. Your work has not gone unrecognized. The last meeting I was at at OSPI for highly capable updates. When I said I was from Isiqua, they're like, "Oh, you work with director Moraldo." So, and they're super excited about the WAC updates. So, they're like, they can't get done soon enough, but they're really excited. They're said they're in-house. They're getting edited. They're going to be amazing. So, I know they appreciate that commitment and time. Giving a presentation at WASDA, right? No. Yeah. Yeah. Any other questions or comments? Thank you so much. Thank you. So, with that, we have a motion. So, seeing we're at the end of discussion, all those in favor say I. I. I. I. Any opposed? The eyes have
087it. They I do say that when people talk about moving into the district uh for our schools, many of them move into the district for our robust access to accelerated learning. Okay. Next on the agenda is a review of web-based platforms for board meeting agenda and documentation. I know. Oh, good. Leave it once. Good evening, President Moraldo, school directors, and superintendent Toyak. Yes, I have the most exciting topic of the night. So, um I'm thrilled to be here. Um obviously, you're well aware and certainly want to make sure the community knows. We um we had a situation with one of our servers in a former uh platform that we managed board meeting management called event planner. It um it lived well past its its life cycle. um and from a security perspective um beyond its
088useful life. So we were able to transition quickly to a temporary solution on our own uh website which is under final site. Um and uh during that time frame we had an opportunity to review um a number of different platforms. You want to change the slide. Appreciate that. So as we evaluated um a multiple different platforms we looked at seven different platforms. or board docs, escribe, onboard, ideals, board, convene, boardable, and civic plus. These are all platforms that provide u access to uh board agendas, minute development, uh live uh meeting uh updates, motions, voting, you name it, all the bells and whistles that potentially a board may want. And but first of all, we had to look and make sure that the systems were uh web accessible and ADA compliant. also met our records uh
089retention requirements at the state level, functionality and usability, scalability, long-term fit and then also looking at the overall cost. We not only want to looked at a single year but we looked at it like a three to five year period. Go to the next slide. So after going through all looking at all these different platforms, there were only two platforms that really met our our top need and that was really based on um web accessibility. Um there was a public view and access to the public um and easy translation and both of those that was board docs and escribe u very good pro you know platforms but they also pro provided a bunch of additional uh resources and and application opportunities that really went well beyond our needs at this moment in time. Um we
090also looked at the training the implementation time frame and then while we were going through this we were working with the uh um the staff and the administration as we were we stood up a temporary system we started to become more efficient with our own temporary system before we knew it we decided that we can actually survive and succeed without adding another um application that required a cost and there was no more training and it was seamless um and it also was uh part of our search engine when you were talking about how do we improve AI well as soon as we put something onto the our website. It's part of our own search engine and it's also indexed immediately by Google. So, it becomes a lot easier to find um in the search engine
091world. Um it and also our current website meets furpa and it's SSO and password protected. So, security was already uh was already established with our current system. So, in the end, we made the decision just to stay with our current platform. Obviously, if the changes of the board or at the district level require additional needs, we'll we have a good basis of some of the platforms that are out there and we could easily shift to another uh plat, you know, platform in the in the future. But our recommendation and my recommendation with the superintendent was to stay with our current website and be able to manage all the agendas and I feel the administration team is was behind. It was a team decision to make the recommendation. It wasn't just only myself. I have any
092questions at this time? thoughts, questions. Director Mullins, um I should probably know what I'm about to ask, but I'm gonna ask it. So, it seems like the like our preparatory process is a little bit different, right? Like how link show up, that kind of stuff. Though, do I look at like how things worked for this meeting as an example? How we'll just go forward, the way things show up, the security, password, that whole process. So that's set the way it is and we'll go forward that same way. Um that was my question. Thank you. I mean I Yeah, certainly. Yes. And if there's some adjustments or making ease of use or accessibility, we can work on it. But yes, this No, it's just more I know things have looked a little different over the last
093couple months. I honestly don't remember what it was. I remember what I just did this week. And so it was just like I'm just going to keep doing the same thing. Yeah. As this week. That's perfect. The the biggest issue too is this. If you if you set your uh translation or your language preference on our website, it obviously translated immediately. And the other platforms, you would have to go into your browser settings, reset your browser browser settings to whatever lang your language preference is. And so that made it a little bit more difficult. All right. I I think that's the best part. Um, and I've used Board Docs for a couple of other organizations and I just absolutely hate their interface. It's It is It's unfortunate. It's hard to navigate on other I've gone
094to other districts to try to find other policies. This is awful. Um, so this looks great to me. Yeah, I I do think that making sure that our policies are easy to access. um is going to be important. You know, which is our policy versus which is a monitoring and things like that. I think my biggest concern really is a backwards look at making sure, you know, we have a lot of stuff that was kind of lost. Um our meeting minutes have not been robust for years because we has we said, "Well, watch the podcast or watch or listen to listen to the the the audio." And so I think you know there won't be any like here's what the agenda was. I think that's one one of my considerations of do you know what
095the plan is for that piece? Well on everything we're all we're compliant for all the record retention for the back year. So we're able to take the stuff off the old server put it into a format that exists on our current website. So if you look at any of the past meetings prior to when we went to the temporary shift it exists exactly in the same format that it was. and the documents that are associated on those agenda items are also um easily attainable and download and view from that standpoint. So, so we're we're meeting the record retention requirements. All the archive agendas are back and they're all they're all up to date and we'll continue to to manage it going forward. And you'll probably see an update in the summer where we'll move some
096of the other stuff into more of an archived accordion condensed version. So, you're just seeing a little more easier to be able to look at just the past year where then you can still access all the prior years to that. Okay. So, thank you. Yes. But no. Okay. And there's no action for us to take on this one. So, okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Cheaper is better. Uh the next item, not to have left it like at the last end of the board meeting because it was not as significant because this is significant. So, those of you that have uh lasted this whole time, I'm glad that you did. Um part of the past few months, we have had uh the opportunity to meet the board has met in executive session twice.
097Um don't ask me the dates. I don't have them off the top of my head. Oh, you will in your motion. So, why don't we start with your motion then? Um, I move the board approve the contract of Superintendent Heather Talia for the term of maybe I won't July 1, 2025 through June 30th, 2028 and accept the annual summitive evaluation of the superintendent board superintendent relationship 5e as presented. Second. Uh, that's okay. It was one day in May and one day in June. It was a delight to be with you um during those discussions. Uh so we want to talk openly about um the fact that we are extending um a three-year contract. So we'll basically tacking on um really pleased with the the results of the superintendent. So in the 2024 25 school year
098marks the second year of implementation of the district's three-year strategic plan. The plan centers on five key pillars. student well-being, academic opportunities, diverse talent, authentic engagement, and organizational effectiveness. So, the board would like to highlight and share appreciation of the following accomplish accomplishments in some of the key areas of the strategic plan. So, I'll start with student well-being. Uh the superintendent launched the district's first comprehensive resource fair, providing families access to key services and support networks. The superintendent also supported the expansion of the school breakfast programs, improving access to nutritious meals for students and reinforcing the district's commitment to equity and well-being. Um, and I will continue in the area of academic opportunities. So during the course of the year, superintendent worked through the initial implementation of universal design for learning to support inclusive accessible
099education for all students na as well as navigating a complex bond crisis uh and provided a forward-looking plan to alleviate high school overcrowding. Right. and I have authentic engagement uh successfully recruited Mark Sherwood as executive director of communications evaluating uh the district's communication capabilities and strengthening its relationship with the public. Yeah, it's very good timing. Uh developed and implemented a more coherent, coordinated and effective internal and external communication strategy. uh strengthened relationships with the broader community uh enhancing transparency and public trust through proactive engagement uh with families, civic partners and the media uh within Isiqua positioned the superintendent as a visible and collaborative leader through regular outreach with city officials uh community organizations and civic groups and I will discuss organizational effectiveness. um superintendent established the capital projects oversight committee which we just discussed actually
100tonight reinforcing financial transparency and public accountability through oversight of major infrastructure initiatives. Um, also the superintendent demonstrated strong crisis leadership with an effective and reassuring response to the bomb cyclone storm in November, which was certainly memorable for all of us, maintained a sound financial position in close collaboration with our chief financial officer, ensuring long-term fiscal health and stability for the district, and then also continued the development of a strong budget process with intentional steps towards implementing an equity-based budget framework for our upcoming 2526 school year. And then I will final finally talk about um just beyond the strategic plan also the superintendent's leadership development and external relationships. So the superintendent ma uh maintained active engagement in regional and national networks of executive educational leaders um leveraged these professional relationships to bring innovative practices practices and
101shared insights back to the district reinforcing a culture of continuous improvement excellence. and you shared some of that today. Um, and added necessary support at the cabinet level by hiring Jacqueline Downey as assistant superintendent and Jason Golick as the chief information and technology officer. So, those are just highlights. Um overall we can look throughout the system and see that um that the changes that the board has been looking to are being addressed or being discussed and looking for ways to make those improvements so that when we talk about our academic foundations, our civic engagement and our life management and personal awareness and our overall mission that we're speaking about all students, all students will graduate. All students will live as responsible members of society. So again, and I'll say it because anytime I can in
102this last few meetings, all means all and that's all all means. Um, so, Superintendent, we thank you so much for your leadership, the leadership of your team and continuing to work to build a team that will bring the the school district um really into a new phase of um what we need to do for students as education is shifting rapidly and we know the impacts of AI um especially in um what what our communities will need as far as a labor workforce um seem to be rapidly changing and so we need to be addressing those um as soon as possible because I don't know what kind of jobs are going to be out there for today's kindergarteners and if you think about it they might likely live until the 22nd century which is really crazy
103to think about. So thank you for um this past year and we look forward to uh the continued years of working with you. Okay, I won't be working with you in continued years, but just anytime I can. Um it is truly a um honor to be able to work here and to be able to lead here and work alongside incredible colleagues who are all sitting in the back of this room here um participating at times but also listening and providing support. And there's many others obviously outside of this room, but uh the opportunity to work in a district that um has the board uh values that align with my own in terms of what's best for kids and the pursuit of both excellence and um equity at the same time while making sure that we're
104constantly evaluating how we do our work to be better all the time is so important to me. So, um I am grateful and honored as I said and uh you know I do have a kindergartener and so when I think about well actually I should revise that I have now a first grader which was told to me immediately on Tuesday at 10:45 a.m. that uh I don't know what the future holds and the predisposed notion of what comes next is so um changeable and and exciting at the same time. And so when I think about what's possible for our work and and the fact that systems can move quite slow, um public institutions, you know, there's a lot of planning cycles, there's a lot of regulations, there's things we have to keep in uh track
105and take account for, but uh at the at the core for me, it's around figuring out what the next level is, how we level up together, and how we leverage all of our um best parts to be able to reach our overall mission and vision. So I'm excited to do that. But I feel like it's, you know, next year will be year four and how do we kick into high gear and um keep going. So excited to do that with you. And the superintendent evaluation is an evaluation ultimately of the whole district. And so um I do want to thank not only the superintendent but the staff all the way from the cabinet down to um the teachers in the building, the staff members in the building that serve our students lunch, our bus drivers,
106etc. every single person um needs to be a part of this work in order for us to be a successful district. So, thank you. Next on the agenda, oh wait. Oh, yes. We actually have to take the vote now, don't we? Uh is there any more discussion hearing? None. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? The eyes have it. Great. Thank you. Now we'll go on to the next legislative matters. Oh, it's me. Okay. Um, not much to update right now other than the fact that uh I had the opportunity to meet with the superintendent and CFO attorney in what I would call an initial discussion and planning for the next legislative session. We want to be very purposeful this time around um in thinking about a strategy for how we can work
107with our legislators to really move the ball forward for some things that we we need here in our district. We're all very aware of the big three. We continue to call the big three special education funding, MSOC, and transportation, but we also want to make sure that we are investigating other opportunities for us to work with our legislators for the betterment of the district. So, uh we're having those conversations. We'll continue to have them over the summer and uh hopefully culminating towards a meeting with our um fifth at least our fifth LD legislators for sure, hopefully our 41st as well. Um where we can share some of our thoughts and get their input as well as we move forward. And and as I mentioned in the past, we do have um a commitment from all
108all of our three at least fifth LD folks to meet with us sometime maybe in August or September to have that conversation. So, um, more to come on that and, uh, we'll keep you updated as we move forward. Any questions or comments? Um, I think for me, my only comment and I think I'll be interested to hear from the WASDA board as they kind of develop a larger um, holistic view of things is recognizing how much the the legislature did put into funding, the the big three, well, at least two out of three. Um and making sure that we're not just always thank you but you didn't do good enough. I'm very concerned about that. Yes. Right. So if we keep going back and keep going back I am concerned that they'll say well it's
109never good enough and just stop listening. Right. So I think maybe finding what is at the core of maybe some of those expenses that they can help with that isn't monetary. Are there policies that are impacting us? um you know the amount of time it takes to put together the highly capable um plan. Yeah. And what kind of supports are around that? Um you know, can it be every six years? Like what are the things that we might be able to do that isn't necessarily just asking just rattling the can. Yeah, very good point. The discussion that we we started to have already along those lines. Okay. Great. Okay. Okay, the next item on the agenda is announcement and correspondence. There is a list of correspondence that the board has received. Is there any additional
110that board members would like to share? I have none. Okay. Hearing none, we will go to the next item on the agenda, which is a calendar and future agenda topics. So, um, right now I only have that we are changing our regular board meeting to Thursday, Janu July 10th, um, at 900 a.m. and it will be Zoom only. We will not be having that in person. That is likely going to be just the consent consent agenda and then oh, and the pledges of allegiance and then that'll be really it. Um any other things that we need to so again we've had some conversations and I think um during those we have been jotting down um items for the um board retreat. Um we will have to Haron and I will review that with the superintendent
111because otherwise we're going to have five days of retreat. So, uh, there is a lot of a lot of work ahead and for the public, I always say there's no treat and retreat. We do the treat the retreat here in the building. We don't go off to some fancy schmancy place like other districts do. Um, but it also makes it more accessible um for the public. With that, there's no other comments. We have reached the end of our agenda.