Issaquah School District Board Meeting 4/10/2025

001chance to get together and so it went a little bit longer uh than we had originally expected. So we are running a little bit late this evening. Uh we are going to start our meeting with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. We're going to begin our public comment time actually with the first is going to be with a uh presentation from Tammy Enra from the director of special services. Good evening superintendent, Madame President, members of the board. Uh my name is Tammy Andrew and one of my other duties at as assigned is the honor and pleasure of being over uh the oversight principal for

002our academy for community transition. And I'm here to cordially invite you to our graduation which will occur on June 13th from 6:30 to 8. And we would love if you could come celebrate um our launching of these uh wonderful individuals into life after school. Great. We are excited to be able to attend. Um it really is such a highlight of the um late spring for us and the end of the year. So uh please let them know that as many of us as possible will be there. Thank you. Uh next we do have a special presentation from our Isiqua Schools Foundation. So I wanted to give them a moment to speak. Um, hi, my name is Ashna Sika and I'm one of Liberty High School student trustees for the Isqua Schools Foundation. Um, we're here

003to invite the school board directors and the community to ISF's Nourish Every Mind Lunchon on Thursday, May 1st. So, at the event, the community is going to get a chance to hear from students um, K through 12 all across the district, talk about their experiences and their opportunities open to them by the foundation. The event is extremely important in helping the foundation raise funds um to overcome educational barriers within the district and give students with incredible accomplishments a chance to be recognized. Um there's going to be a special performance from Liberty's Jazz Choir, which I'm actually a part of. Um we're going to sing some familiar tunes and it serves as a great example of ISF's impact. So, as you likely know, the foundation provides countless programs for the betterment of the district. And so,

004showing up at events like these to recognize students and um achievements provided through ISF and solidifying your support makes the world of a difference. Um please show up to Nourish Every Mind on Thursday, May 1st from 12 to 1. Thank you, Ashna. I'm Laura Gaffne. I am the board president for the Isco Schools Foundation this year and she said it she said it great. Um join us on May 1st. It really is a celebration. It is not formal. It's not stuffy. Just come as you are whether you're a new parent in the district or if you've been around for a long time and celebrate the impact of what this community can do for students in our district. And then we know not everybody can be there in the room with us on May 1st. There

005are other ways to support the foundation. Um, donating online at isfdn.org and participating in the online auction that will kick off at the lunchon and run through May 11th. Um, it's a great way to support local businesses and support students, their restaurants, uh, businesses, uh, kid activities, school experiences. There's a lot of fun stuff. So, a good way to participate. And then I'd also like to present to the board the 2025 impact scholarship award winners. So each year the foundation rewards awards scholarship opportunities to high school seniors who've been positively impacted or inspired by foundation funded programs. We had a record number of applicants this year which made it an incredibly difficult choice. Um and thankfully we didn't have to limit it to just one. We were able to recognize uh four individuals. Anna, who's

006at Isiqua High School, having started her career here at Sunset Elementary, Hannah, who's at Skyline, and uh began Challenger and then through Beaver Lake. Uh Rebecca Charit, I didn't quite say that right, but I'm trying and we'll get that um we'll get better. She is at Skyline as well and she is actually volunteering tonight at Challenger Elementary at their cultural night which is why she couldn't be here in person. And then last but certainly not least, Matthew Fiser, who I believe is a familiar face uh to the school board, graduating senior at Isiqua High School, um and has been in front of this group a lot on sustainability advocacy work. So, I could go on about how great they are, but more impactful is that you will hear from them personally at Nourish Every Mind

007on May 1st. So, another great reason to attend. Thank you so much for the time. Thank you so much. Um, so we'll move on to the normal portion of public comment. Comment is an opportunity for the board to receive public statements on items not listed on the meeting agenda for possible board action. And I believe that we don't have any board action like major topics today. So, um you're welcome to come up for any topic. There are no agenda items scheduled for possible action. So, all public comment will be taken now. Public comment is not intended to raise an issue unique to a particular particular student, staff member, or administrator. Rather, it's your time to provide your insight on issues more generally and of wider concern. As a general rule, the board will not respond

008to public comment. Um, I ask that you begin your comments by clearly stating your name and your attendance area. Please limit your comments to two minutes. We will be using a timer. The board neither endorses nor censors any opinions expressed during public comment. Please keep your comments civil and respectful respectful and avoid personal attack on others. In place of applause, you can acknowledge a speaker by lifting your hands and waving motion. We will start public comment with those in the room. And those two hands are raised on Zoom. So, first I have Leah Carp Carpeno. Um, and if you'll come up and again just name an attendance area. Sure. Hi, I'm Leah Carpeno. I teach math at Isqua High School. And I wish my font size were bigger, but here we are. Um, I'm really

009concerned about attendance in the district. So, you can see on the graph, maybe not in the back. Um, if if you want to, it's okay. Um this data comes from OSPI and pre- pandemic our high school is high and at Liberty High was closer to 90%. And now here we are in um previous school year on OSPI was 75% at IHS and 78% at Liberty. Um I'm very concerned about attendance. It's one of the biggest things. Why does it matter? I looked at my semester 1 data. Now you got to flip over the card. Thank you. Thank you. Um, out of 144 students who try and get algebra 1 credit that I teach, I had 11 failures. And out of those 11 failures, 10 of them had chronic attendance issues, missing 15% or more of

010math class. It's a big deal. If we want to target Fs, we really need to look at attendance in the district. So, what can we do about it? Number one, have a stronger attendance policy. This district has no limits on when parents can excuse absences. students can put it parents in a tough position skipping classes and later appealing to parents to excuse the absence. Belleview school district on the other hand has a stronger overall attendance than isqua and requires guardians to excuse absences within two business days of a student's return to school. This change would give parents more oversight on their students attendance and give them a little bit more of a stronger statement about attendance matters. Number two, rethink the allocation of FTE. The last board meeting, the superintendent mentioned creating a new position

011to oversee tech and AI in the district. These attendance crisis should take priority, though. Perhaps a secondary attendance specialist could float to schools with need and give help for attendance assessments and family conferences as absences occur. Last, present clear data on academic achievement and attendance in this district. Hopefully, this can be done by the OE12 monitoring report in May. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, are there any other before I go on, are there any other uh public comments in the uh in the room that is not noted on my sheet? Okay, seeing none. Um, I see two. I have Al Serpus and then Chimney, your whole name. Chimn Nagakar, you will be second. So, we will uh Mr. Al service, if you could turn your camera and microphone on, you can begin speaking.

012Okay, there my microphone's on. Okay. Um, first of all, I I've attended several meetings. Okay. I'll have you wait for just a moment so we can hear you because we can't hear you in the room and then we'll let you start over again. Okay, there you go. Well, thank you very much. Uh, I've attended a few board meetings and I've been very very impressed by the student council or student representatives to the board. They present things clearly and succinctly with purpose. Um, the other thing I wanted to talk about tonight, I've reviewed some of the the [Music] um slides for the some of the presentations and I'm talking about um priority area three diverse talent. Um, I did not like the concept of a binary, you know, white students of color, you know, that's to

013me that's too broad. And I think also getting it based on color of skin is wrong. As the previous person mentioned, attendance and connecting with teachers is very, very important. It's most important that teachers have a background similar to the students that they're teaching. And it has nothing whatsoever to do with the color of their skin. In other words, a a teacher who was homeless in third, fourth, fifth, ninth grade can connect better with students who are in a similar situation. And it doesn't matter what the color of the skin is. So I think this diverse talent is completely missing the ball. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, chimney. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. You can start. All right. So, uh, yeah, members of the board, parents and, uh, students, my name is

014Chinmai Nagar. I studied the strategic plan uh to prepare students for global challenges as you put it. Um I have a couple of things to say about that. The first pillar of your plan academics reduces the soaring ambition of students and parents in the district to just graduation. There is nothing about excellence. Um is that enough? I ask. Where is the next scientist, the startup founder, the statesman uh in each class and across the schools? Heck, you don't even talk about programs for gifted students. Less than half a percent. Um, and I have the budget for this year of your all your teaching funds go towards highly capable students, less than half a percent. Whose fault is it then that we can't cultivate the gifts in children after they are placed in the care of

015this school district for more than 10 years and that's just the beginning? Uh, you speak of individualized goals in the deck but offer no blueprint to unlock the best minds that are placed in your care. Um, you talk about diversity and uh, we pat ourselves on the back for hiring quote unquote people of color. U, but that's just pigment over principle. What about diversity of thought, of world view, of experience? As the previous speaker said, are we teaching students to construct arguments with experience and reason? I'll tell you, it's not in the plan. In fact, parents, students, anyone who dares ask hard questions is treated as a problem. And I know this from first person experience. You say in your plan that you want to listen. I have spoken privately and publicly for years and

016I have been met with silence or gaslighting and I know why. When truth becomes dangerous, ideas become enemies. So I just want to say that I hope that your WA partnership does not become a recruitment ground for new comrades in the echo chamber. Um and then you invoke customer service. If teachers are service providers, where is their incentive to be exceptional like the previous teacher who did an exceptional job? Where are the merit based bonuses to inspire them? Please let's not use corporate language like customer service essentially operating like a bureaucracy. Let me be clear members of the board. We are on the same side. Do you if you earn for a better future then um in China, India, Mexico students are not provided a service that needs Thank you. Your time is up. Thank

017you. To lead to win, we have to change something. And you can mute him. Thank you. Are there others online? Seeing none, we will move on to the next item on the agenda, which is the approval of the consent agenda. The consent agenda is a meeting management tool whereby the board is able to pass multiple items with one motion. The consent agenda items have been reviewed by the board prior to this meeting. Any board member may remove an item from the consent agenda and place it on the regular agenda for discussion. I move the consent agenda be approved as presented. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? The eyes have it. The motion is passed. Next item is uh the establishment of the regular agenda and I

018do believe that there is a change or an addition I should say to the agenda. Yes. So uh board president Moraldo I will confirm that there is one change to the agenda um and an FYI. So the change to the agenda is a the addition of an agenda item uh report out on the NSBA annual conference and the ASU GSB summit. And there will be a a presentation later that's part of one of our agenda items which we will add as soon as possible after this meeting. And do I have a motion? I move the board approve the two changes to the agenda, adding the agenda item report out on NSBA annual conference and the ASU GSV summit and adding a PowerPoint presentation to the capital projects and new high school update agenda item. Second.

019Okay. Um, any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. I. Any opposed? The eyes have it. The motion passes. So the first item on the agenda is a report out on the joint engagement meeting with the city of Isiqua. So last Monday, which feels like quite a long time ago, uh the board was able to meet with uh the leadership of the city council um in Isiqua as well as uh staff and leadership. Yes, Milo's mother is president of the uh Isiqua City Council. Um, and so we had a great conversation and wanted to give time for the board to uh give public comment about your reflections. Don't all start at once. So, I'll just say I'm going to try to save as much voice as I can this evening. Okay, Director Coin.

020Well, I will just say it was it's always wonderful um to have an opportunity to engage with our partners, particularly the you know, the city of Isiqua um leadership um and uh and and really to talk about uh we had an opportunity to give um a presentation uh on our end uh from uh in relation to this school district and they gave a presentation uh from a city perspective and I think what was really interesting was just to think about um growth um their growth projections where they're looking at growth, how they look at, you know, different neighborhood uh different neighborhoods within the city of Isiqua and specifically I think really the growth within that central Isiqua corridor which is interesting. So the area that's really along I90 where you know we don't necessarily and

021you know we haven't seen significant growth I would say that they're envisioning in the future. It was really interesting to hear about that and it was interesting to also think about how those projections will impact um students um coming into our district and um so it was it was wonderful to have that conversation and just really appreciate the partnership we have with the city of Isiquire. So there director Taylor um yes it was it was great again to sit down with um our city council folks and and the mayor um and hear about the plans that are coming to the Isiqua area. Um very important uh conversation for sure and I think the main takeaway that I really took was around the growth projection numbers that the city itself um shared with us which I

022think reinforced a lot of the same kind of data that we've been forwarding here out of the district um and recognizing that I think you know there is there was some um suspicion I think about uh for some reason our our growth data numbers over the last few years and some portions of the community, but uh understanding that I think there's an opportunity for us to really partner with our partners in the city to try to, you know, kind of get to numbers that, uh, we can all agree on and can reinforce the fact that, um, well, at least what I feel is very much a certainty is that there is significant growth coming to this community. The city is planning for some uh, the opportunity for some 8,000 housing units in the valley floor.

0238,000 houses mean many, many more kids into our schools that are already overcrowded. So, I continue to beat that drum, but it's just more evidence um that we are going to have more growth in this area, which is exciting too for the future. So, um appreciated the conversation, appreciated the city um sharing those numbers with us and thought it was a really great conversation. Look forward to working with them in the future. Director Mullings. Yeah. So, I I think meeting with the city folks is great. It may be the only thing I miss about not being either president or past president um is having the ongoing leadership connections uh with the city folk. I think it's important you know maybe since they covered growth to hit on the number of partnerships we have across district

024and city if you look at internships if you look at parks and wreck uh use of facilities. And so it really is important ongoing conversations how we keep that alignment because um you know we're all just trying to do the best things for all of our constituents uh in the in the shared remitt. Um I did though ask the one thing on growth is and hopefully we can get is um what normally happens today is that the city produces a set of growth numbers those get included into the capital growth plan. Um and I think there is some you know there has been some folks who've tried to poke at that. I did ask in that meeting in that meeting if um we can have the city kind of post their own independent number so

025people do have that validation source and one that they can look back to we stay connected it is always validated with theirs and the other five four and unincorporated municipalities as they all have growth targets it's really important to understand that those are cascaded down to them they are mandated a level of growth all of the areas in which we serve have that growth and since we are at the edge of the urban growth growth boundary. We as a district have to make sure we're ready um to plan alongside our cities to absorb that growth as well as the hockey stick of growth that will happen as we see transit move closer to us. So, you know, great conversation with the folks at the city. Um and I think that alignment is just critical on

026many fronts going forward. Um and thank you. I I think I we gleaned very much the same information. Um, you know, for me it was a matter of there is this differential between what is in our capital projects plan because we could only put in there what we know are coming down the pike, not necessarily what's in their growth management plan that hasn't been identified as like this is this is a time certain that this project is in place, right? So, we can only really look at projects that we know are in the pipeline, which is still I'm trying to remember off the top of my head. I don't have my notes in front of me, but I do believe that there's about 600 housing units that are expected to come online within the next

027couple of years. And um the other thing is is that the types of building that will go in the central core, I think will look different than what we have in other areas, but you know, it is um significantly larger than the Isiqua Highlands. So when you talk about 8,000 housing units, what does that look like? That looks like an increase in the number of of housing larger than what is in the Isqua Highlands, which is significant. And that a lot of that, especially down Gilman Boulevard, is going to have bottom floor is going to be some type of commercial or services. And then above that will be um housing. and that our way of estimating how many apartments or condos might generate students may look different as it becomes more of an urban area

028that more families may be living into moving into those units. Um especially if they're affordable housing. We know one of the drivers of population growth in our area is our schools. And so as we maintain good schools, people are going to look for affordable ways of being able to move in. And yes, once the transit center is done, probably not in at 2041 when they suspected it would be done like which I think is crazy that it's that far out, but we have to start planning for that now. Um the discussion about what's going to happen in the at least on Gilman Avenue in the central core is not an is not new. Right? When we built Isiqua Middle, there's actually a way for there to be an additional wing added that was put into

029the plan as we were building. any type of building that we're doing now needs to look at it. How um can we expand on on the any sites that we own um because I think in 20 years we will see a need for that. And if we can make good choices now um it will save taxpayers um a decade or two now when it's our children that are going to be trying to buy into this area and raise their children here. Um, superintendent, uh, just echoing the, um, sentiment of growth and that we need to plan for it even though it might be 10 years, 15 years, 20 years out. And, uh, I think my the takeaway for me was certainly on the housing front, middle housing, which is many more highdensity, more affordable housing

030uh, units and those are specifically located near transit. As director Mulling said, there there's the light light rail and as you said, President Maldo, the types of housing will look very different um especially in the corridor floor um as well where we'll have the most density and where there's most capacity from um utilities and service providers to be able to have that growth. And just for the public, this is a reminder that we do not have just the city of Isiqua in our district. So that this was their plan and that you can only imagine the portion of Newcastle, the portion of Reon, the portion of Belleview and half of Seamish and unincorporated King County. All of the the plans for those areas also impact our future go growth. Okay. Next on our agenda then

031is a uh work study recap. So, as I mentioned, we were a little tardy in starting uh because we were having a much needed uh engagement with the leaders of the Isiqua PTSA Council. Um so, I would open that up for any reflections from my board members. Director Coin, would you like to start? All right, I will start. This is a uh well, one, thank you to our PTSA partners for joining us and um it's a topic that's near and dear to me. We talked about volunteerism and how we're how we can better engage parents um and members of our community in our schools and um our our PTSA partners really looked at had put together data showing um the drop in membership um sadly and it's quite significant. I think we see that in

032all aspects of volunteerism. in our schools and frankly outside of our schools as well. And um you know I think I think it's important to note um you know where the PTSA partners have really identified possible reasons for this and I think it's good for our community to understand this too um when we think about how we can increase volunteerism. So they um had identified, you know, um you know, we have fewer parents with availability, maybe fewer parents that um are are stay-at-home parents. We really identified a knowledge gap between experienced PTA members and new PTS meet new PTSAs. I think this is true, I think, for many of us that have volunteered in the schools for years. I know I personally can speak to this. We looked to um more experienced or older parents

033to really model volunteerism. And with that break during the pandemic, we lost that a bit. So, we had a couple years where parents didn't really have the ability to look up to other parents and really learn how to volunteer in our schools. Um, new parents um having a lack of of knowledge or understanding of PTSA work and roles. Um, the district in building volunteer rule changes. We talked a bit about um just making sure how can we make our schools feel a bit more welcoming for volunteers. Um we also talked about that you know a lot of people well you know want to um donate money versus time and how do we um really value both um and then um just a conversation around uh less faith and district level decisions as well. So this

034idea of how do we partner um how does the district partner with our PTSA volunteers and um you know we we only had an hour together and I think there was a lot to discuss. We probably could have gone on all evening. Um, so I look forward to further conversations around how we can continue to partner uh with our PTSA presidents. And I will just say again to those folks that I hope are listening or maybe you're going to listen to this um on YouTube, if you are not a member of your PTSA, join your PTSA. And if you are just joining in name only, be an active volunteer in PTSA. Um, we really really need your help. Um, and it's a great way um, not only to give back if you have kids in

035the school system, not only give back to your kids' education, but as as adults, it's a you there's so much you can gain from that, too. Um, the ability to connect with other parents, meeting great friends, um, and just frankly, you know, again, it feels good to give back to the community. So, thank I want to thank the our PTSA volunteers and appreciate the time this evening. So leave that. Director Coin stole my line, which I was mainly just going to say if you are uh involved in our schools, if you have children in our schools, join your PTSA. Um because the the volunteer numbers are are down uh dramatically and it's it was rather stark. I think 6 years ago we had 76% participation families in in the PTSAs, school families in our PTSAs.

036We're down to 41% now. And um some of that I think we talked about during the the meeting was um many folks just don't know really all the all of the things and the services that PTSAs are doing for our schools, the events, the sense of community they're providing, all the volunteer work within our schools, the programming. Um so I think also if you're a member of our community with kids in the schools and you know ask questions. there's folks that are in the PTSAs that are happy and eager to engage with you and let you know exactly the the benefits of what you can do for your own school. So, um it was a great conversation and I look forward to to working with our PTSA partners and I hope that we can drive

037up more um get back, I guess I should say, our our levels of volunteerism with PTSA to where they were five or six years ago. Thanks, Director Mullings. or are you saving your voice? I you know I I think it was important to acknowledge there are some operational changes that have occurred um pre- pandemic and post things about how the enrollment or EVP process had functioned before that was driving more um attention and participation to uh the PTSA that has that changed. So procedurally, that's something I think we need to look at um how that could work differently to make sure people are taking advantage of the opportunity to add their membership, maybe being presented with a little bit better advertisement for that. I think there are also some things about how school level newsletters

038or school level communications maybe how do we help um promote more about what the PTSAs are providing in our schools. We had a you know a talk here and at the top from ISF I think opportunity certainly for PTSAs to join us here at this podium um is open as well to make sure we're communicating how we use our own announcement sections as a school board. So I think um I always will go to the operational side. I think that we've got some operational improvements that I think we could look at just to make sure that awareness is up and how people can access and better participate in their um PTSAs is is made available as well. I would agree. Um it was a good conversation. Grateful for the opportunity. Um I think many of

039us started out involved in our communities one way or another. I know I was a a strong PTA member all the way through um the elementary, middle, and high school for when my son was in school. Um and so it's it's good work to be done. I think some of the things that stood out to me that was interesting was also a conversation we had with our Isiqua Schools Foundation is people not actually knowing which pieces of the things going on in their schools are actually being funded by outsource outside sources. So whether it's the levy dollars that are collected locally from our taxpayers who graciously vote to approve those dollars coming to us, whether it's ISF programs or your local PTSA program going on in your school, um the district doesn't do popcorn Fridays,

040the PTSAs do, right? Um the art dosent are actually not pair of educators. They're parents that are coming in and learning um all of the information that they need for those art dosent programs. So the supplies, the painting, the materials are all funded through your local PTSA. And my concern is that if membership drops off, if involvement drops off, those opportunities for our children may go away in certain areas, especially if that's done um for for families that are disadvantaged, right? There is an advantage to having a strong PTSA in your school. And it's something that we're able to it's a great it's part of that great equalizer of public education is that we come together through um PTSA and through our isols foundation to support our students. So for me um you know PTSA

041is not a group of mean moms. I don't it is a group of volunteers is a group of parents that are really needing what's best for um not only their students but the other students in their community. It is a community builder. And so I'm really hopeful um we promise not to let it go six years again uh between times of uh meeting and engaging with the leadership um and um really appreciate that um some direct conversations. So thank you for that. We appreciate that. And superintendent, do you have anything to add? Uh since um I started here in 2022, I've appreciated the partnership between um the PTSA leadership and the council. uh and the many individual PTSAs by school for their contributions so far and the partnership that we've we've had to reestablish being

042back in person full-time. And so it's been um an honor to work with the various leaders and I'm continuing to be hopeful and optimistic that we can tackle and increase our and enhance our communication and coordination to ensure that we're boosting up all the opportunities. And I will say I had a fantastic um scholastic night at our school and it was very well attended and I saw a lot of families that were just you know with their kids and kids getting to see each other. So that creates um informal connection and that's mutually reinforcing to build community over time especially for newer families to the school system. Thank you. So we did we did take a motion to add an item to the agenda and then didn't say where. So, I'm going to add it

043here so that since we're doing um basically report outs of where we've been and engagements that we've done, um I wanted to do a report out uh the uh National School Board Association had their annual conference in uh Atlanta, Georgia uh over uh the weekend kind of the 4th through the 6th. And then uh the ASU GSV which is Arizona State University plus global uh Silicon Valley came together with a conference down in San Diego. Uh Director Gallinger uh the superintendent and myself attended both of those events. So we've spent the past week together. Um and then uh Director Mullings was able to attend the National School Board Association meeting and then Director Taylor was able to come to us with uh come with us to ASUG GSB. So, we wanted to talk about those

044opportunities and really this is um I always say that in education uh school board directors are the people that come in usually with the least experience in education. So, we're in the most in need of professional development. And so, that's how I especially see the National School Board Association Conference is our time of professional development. And ASUG GSV is very much a time of thinking about the future and really trying to get a a forwardthinking visionary uh reflection of education as a whole. So with that, I wanted to open it up to um we'll start with Director Mullings since you started a couple of days back in Atlanta. Uh thank you and it is where I got sick. So, first I would like to extend our thanks to you uh President Moraldo for your service

045on the National School Board. Uh you represent us incredibly well in that um organization and uh so thank you for doing that work in addition to the work you do here. Um yeah, NSBA is obviously it's a it's a really good opportunity for professional development to be able to meet with um professionals and leaders and education as well as schoolboard directors from all across the country um and and maybe a little commiseration on shared challenges and shared concerns but also to learn of uh approaches and guidance. I think um maybe my uh we had really good uh keynote speakers I thought as well and really talking about opportunities for student engagement perseverance as well as some great performances by student groups from both in Atlanta and other national places to show the great work of

046our students which was awesome. I think maybe the session I took the most away from in that was one that was held by a a consultant in crisis communications and I think he did a really good job of um talking about having clear roles and responsibilities in comm's all up like just in general working practices but then under crisis what that means and how to make sure we're we're being clear in who leads depending on the crisis right if it's something that's law enforcement, then obviously they are driving what is and is not in the communications. I know sometimes that becomes a question for our families if it's something that's on the national stage is that how is that communicated locally. So I think um that was maybe the biggest the most packed room I

047sat in an individual breakout and the most following questions and really just goes to show that um you know the topic of communication how we all communicate better more succinctly further to wider groups to changing demographics is really a a a challenge that's throughout the country and so it was um I thought for me that was a really invaluable session in addition to the time we got to spend the three school directors and superintendent uh was awesome. So, thank you. I knew I was I forgot to put my mic on. Director Taylor. Yes. Um so, I was able to go to the uh ASUGSV conference. It was my first time attending that conference and I will say it was a very unique experience. Um, first of all, it's a massive conference with 7,000 people in

048attendance in a huge uh facility at the Hyatt in San Diego. Um, but it's it's particularly unique because it brings together several different kind of um uh sectors um for conversation around education. But it's education tech folks, lots of technologists down there, um educational policy people and then educators themselves. all kind of talking about ways to think about technology and how it will benefit um education moving forward. And of course, as that pace of change is only accelerating, it's a conversation that's becoming more and more important for all of us. Um so really fascinating kind of conversation, great um presentations, a lot of high-profile folks there. um also had the opportunity to hear from um the Department of Education uh Secretary Linda McMahon, which was an interesting conversation with everything going on at the federal

049government um with the DOE. But um I would say the main takeaway was uh AI AI AI over and over again dozens and dozens and dozens of presentations on AI but really from the standpoint of trying to think about the possibilities that AI is going to bring for students to access education. Uh that was my main takeaway. Of course there are things that we were concerned about how AI will be used in our schools. Um but it's really an the possibility of just amazing transformational tool to access information and help educate our kids as well. So, uh I sat in on a whole bunch of sessions on that very subject. Um but I think the most um influential session I sat in with with director Moraldo was about aptitudes and what I really do believe

050is going to be a wholesale change in education moving forward. And the idea that the benefits of trying to identify our students own personal aptitudes as early as possible and then teaching to those kids aptitudes so that they can identify a skill set that is suited to their own aptitude instead of a set regimented aptitude we were teaching to everyone. Um and it just really kind of opened up my mind to think about those possibilities and I was really engaged in that session. So overall, um, very interesting and I suppose I will look forward to being one of the 7,000 next year. Um, I agree. I I feel like my brain is really full of um, information that I gleaned over the time. My time at the National School Board Association conference is different. So,

051as a member of their board of directors, I actually have a different role and position. And so I attend uh far fewer uh breakout sessions just because I actually have to go in and talk with the vendors that show up and with our members. Um, I did want to point out though, um, Ravi Hising who came to speak, um, and somebody who really talked about being able to pivot because as I look at the things that I learned at ASUGSB, I think that's something that we're going to have to be prepared to do, our staff is going to have to be prepared to do. I believe we are at the cusp of a of a revolution and we've talked about AI for years but I think it's um it's exponential usage and integration into everything

052we do. Um we have to be prepared to pivot um what we're doing and how we're doing it. So my takeaway from ASUG GSB, I was also very interested. I think the most remarkable one was um to be able to determine um aptitude rather than interest. And they actually forbid the use of the question, what do you want to be when you grow up? Because it it they said 90 90 some percent of the time it's going to be someone in a uniform, a hat, or a vehicle. And because that's what kids picture either in their picture books and so it really limits where students can see themselves going and um especially when you ask any of the people there, they have no idea what jobs will be out there in the workforce in the

053next 5 years. So how are we asking teachers who many of them have been teaching for 20 years to start being uh revolutionary in their ideas about where students will be going. And I talked about how we've been wanting to teach 21st century skills, but we don't even know what that looks like for the ne for the second half of the 21st century. Um, let alone we have little kids in our schools that will likely live into the 22nd century and could actually be working within the 22nd century. And we're still trying to figure out how to teach 21st century skills. So, I think there's definitely going to be have to be some adaptation in what we do. I also thought uh we have a desperate need to take our high school and beyond plan

054from some from a check mark to a meaningful experience. Uh students and really being able to guide them towards what that that will be what their career path will be. And then finally AI is is here to stay. Um what I did not hear at the conference because it's filled with a bunch of boomers and Gen X is I did not hear um what I hear from my own child which is there is a portion of generation Z that is like AI is it's almost like it's evil. You know AI has been exploitive. The data that it it deres that it's been learned from is stolen. um especially when you start looking at um video or art compositions, in order for it to have learned, it had to have learned off of other people's work.

055And there is a social justice sense of a a portion of the population is like, I will never use AI. And I don't think we're having that conversation even at something as innovative as ASUGs is not having that conversation. And I don't know if it's that they're not tapped in to those voices in in our young people that are saying there's a justice issue here um of how did you get that data that information because it was exploited. Um and so this uh sense of justice of not using it. Um, I did come up with my latest quip while I was there, which was that there are a lot of visionaries in education, but there was no vision for education. And I really wished I would have had an opportunity to say that to uh,

056Secretary McMahon who was there in attendance. Um, because I think that's what the Department of Ed should have been for the past 50 years, the vision of education to be able to direct that vision down through the system. And now with that potentially going away um we will be left to 50 different visions for education and um pushed down to local school districts which some will do a great job and some will not. I believe that we will do a great job but it's a disservice to our general population and that it will be pockets of innovation. Okay, that was enough from me. I could talk all day. Um, superintendent. Um, also we're checking on whether or not uh director Gallander is online. He was if he had a slower evening at work, he might

057be able to join. So, we'll not yet. Okay. But we'll see. Um, I think the well, first of all, it was uh amazing to be at NSBA. I really appreciated the um the speakers on state on the late main stage for the keynote sessions as well as student performances. And again, thank you, President Moraldo, because um I think not only do you represent our district well, but you also by being on the board, we get to have a different bird's eye view into different things that are happening across the country and through the connections that um exist for other uh board members for NSBA. Um but really found uh some very strong um learning there around the future of learning actually run by the National Education Association. There was a session there about the future

058of learning. And so for me, this was a real crossover topic into ASUGGSV on durable skills and how um we do need content. We won't we can't get rid of content as a concept for what we do in education, but we need to really dial up the durable skills, which um I think sometimes we used to call soft skills, but they're really about um the concepts of collaboration, creativity, communication, ethics, uh sustainability, how we steward our world, um how we manage conflict, and those are things that um are going to be even more important. And we have always known that, but uh in particular, those are becoming more and more important. Um so then crossing over to ASUGGSV um you know the takeaway for me there not only was on what are the durable skills

059but also um there's a lot of talk about AI agents and actually to the point where there will be AI agents for lots of things in the world but actually we will also have a need for an AI agent to manage the agents uh which is a like we hadn't I hadn't gotten there yet so I'm sure I maybe would have gotten there on my own but it was just that was sort of really sort of the next level up. And so, uh, the theme of the conference is learning at the speed of light, which is really what has to happen because, um, AI is learning so quickly. But there are still some really important distinctions and, um, one is that AI can help us sharpen our work and make us smarter if we know

060how to use it properly. Um, and that it can really help lift up the way our workload is and can reduce the things that are either mundane or repetitive or high volume tasks to be able to do things that are more important such as having conversation with each other, dialoguing, debating um and then uh making those connections which are so important in today's society especially because technology is everywhere and then um it was important to me to hear that AI has actually no choice in what they learn and do but humans humans actually have significant choice. voice cuz we are the ones that feed um AI information and then we're the ones that give it prompts. So that actually not only is important to note as we consider the role that humans play with AI

061but also how we then think about learning and how we have choice choice and agency. Um so that was a really profound kind of set of thoughts that that were helpful for me. And then you know there was a se several modes and that that this was a session that u director Taylor and president Maldo and director Gallinger Gallinger and I were all in at the same time and I missed there was two of I got two of the four modes for learning and we heard a lot about how achiever mode is sort of what we currently probably do in many of our systems. we were really focusing on achievement um but we have to move much more to the explorer mode um and how that would really enhance um the learning experience and what

062happens beyond uh the K12 system. So those are just some of my my takeaways and um as a reminder we we did have some team members go um there's also another conference that is u adjacent to the summit itself uh called the AI show and that's a free um opportunity that's mostly geared focused on uh teachers and practitioners. And so it's nice to have that opportunity. We had several uh of our um teachers on special assignment attend that who focus on educational technology. And again, several team members of and our uh joined us as well with with board members. And um we receive scholarships to attend. So we pay no money to attend the conference um for the registration fee. So that's it. Thank you. Um it was uh I think a time well spent

063and um a lot for us to think about the future of education and how it's going to change and um it's it's going to look very very different. Okay, superintendent, do you have the next item which is works in progress? I do have the next item although truth be told on this one. Most of my works in progress over the past week or so has been the topics we just discussed. So, um I have actually a very short update tonight. Um I do want to share and they're mostly public service announcements and reminders. Um April 30th is a deadline for our open enrollment applications for families who wish to transfer schools at the beginning of next school year. Um as well as um uh have choice meaning out of district transfers and and elsewhere. So,

064we do have specific details about uh where we have capacity, especially in our elementary schools on our website and those are all updated this year um for people to be able to see where we have capacity and um that's helpful for families to know and that deadline again is April 30th after the break. And then I'm also excited to share some additional work as we can think about the career connectedness world beyond um graduating from the Islqu school district. And we have some early momentum for career kickstart which is it's a new um free summer career development program for our high school students. And we have in just this past week received 38 applications as of this morning. And that does reflect I think a really strong interest from students eager to explore real world

065career pathways. Um it is designed for rising juniors and seniors across Isiqua Liberty and the skyline. Um, and it's a two-eek window uh program in August that includes work site visits, job shadows, hands-on skill building. And um, we've been supported by the Isiqua School Foundation. So, thank you uh, for your support to help launch this innovative experience. Um, and then we've had an incredible team um, including all many of our counselors at the secondary level. um Jess Hall who is here um Casey Henry who is at Gibson EC and is helping provide that expertise from Gibson EC to this and that's why actually Gibson neck is not on the list because they already do uh internships as part of their academic year. Um and uh Julia Bamba and Lisa Neverse for all their planning and

066coordination at this high school level. Um so applications are open actually through uh April 29th or 25th I'm sorry and um we will have up to 50 students. If there are more than 50 students that apply, we'll we'll run it through a lottery. And so that is where we're excited to to head and continue to build those career connections. And those are my two announcements and updates for what's happening across the district. Great. Thank you so much. So, we'll move on to our next agenda item, which is a sustainability policy first read. Um during the uh board's October 10th, 2025 regular board meeting, student ambassadors presented a proposed sustainability policy. A committee was formed including two board members, two staff members, two schoolboard student representatives, and the sustainability student ambassadors. The proposed new policy is

067attached for review and um it was asked that if suggestions or edits by the board are grammatic uh are grammar or copy editing in nature this will move to a second read at the next board meeting where action is likely or if there's no edits at all and so I will I'm looking I'm assuming Zoe that you would like to offer a presentation to begin Um, sorry. Um, unfortunately my colleagues, um, Matthew and Sienna are both out of town right now, so you guys get me. And yeah, I just I just wanted to give a brief Oh, yes. I'm Zoe Daring. Um, I'm a senior at Gibson High School. I will be graduating here very shortly. Um but just I just wanted to give a brief uh recap on the work study that we had

068um two weeks ago. We went through and changed a lot of kind of where the specific wording was placed. Um one of the most major things that we added was up at the top. um adding throughout the district while while considering available district financial resources because we kind of had that in a couple of places. But we really wanted to voice that that's um something that we want to make sure is considered for everything in this um operational expectation. Um yeah, I Okay, great. Thank you. We really appreciate um the um the fact that the sustainability ambassador has brought this to our attention. You've actually been working on this for probably about a year. So, uh policies do not happen overnight. Uh we do appreciate all the input that um you all have directed and

069helped. Um so, I didn't know if there was I know that Harland served on this. I'm not sure which of the other ones. Okay. So Matt, if you wanted to talk a little bit about some of those changes and anything that you might want like deeper questions from the board. Yeah, I can definitely do that. And I'll just add to um I want to thank Zoe and team for her work and just to give a little background too. Um with the sustainability ambassadors, I know a lot of their work is to is outreach to elected officials. And just to tell you, one of the first student groups that reached out to me when I was elected to the school board were were the sustainability ambassadors. I remember getting an email from Matthew saying, "Hey, we

070have this idea and Jason Morse joined me. Um we met with a group at Isiqua High in January of uh 2024 and um really at that point it was more of just a listening session and I think we were thinking in concept about gosh what if this could be a policy a board policy specifically and so it's really been fun to see how this has evolved over the course of the last year plus um to a formal policy and all the great work that the group has done on it. I think as we look specifically at the policy itself. I you know I based on the work study time that we spent on this um a couple of weeks ago. I will just say from my standpoint um you know feeling really good in terms

071of um what we focused in on and maybe there's an opportunity if we go if we can just scroll up a bit so folks can see under the under this the section there or actually down sorry um just so we can see the the the items in terms of what the superintendent will uh do. I believe Zoe, I think we had we we've narrowed this. I think how many because um we're down to five items. I think before it was it was measurably larger. Yeah. Yeah. I believe we had um up to 179 before. Yeah. Um, and then we also, um, if you scroll down a little bit more, we also have two other points that, um, are acknowledgments from other, um, monitoring reports and, um, things of that nature that we wanted to make

072sure were still kind of connected because a lot of things in sustainability do connect with a lot of other um, systems in the world. Um, so we just wanted to make sure that that was mentioned and um, appreciated. That's a really good point and I know at the first sentence up at the top too um, sorry Stephen if you want to scroll back up again um, where we tightened up that first sentence actually just under that under the line there where we said you know the superintendent shall ensure a cohesive sustainability plan is embedded throughout the district while considering available district uh, financial resources. We wanted to add in the financial resources component in there too because obviously we have the focus on sustainability but we know that you know financial resources obviously play a

073part in that as well. So that was I know something we we added to that too um with that. So that those were my thoughts. I don't I guess maybe I'll throw up if others have questions too of me on it let me know too. I think superintendent Talia you wanted to comment. I did. I wanted to make sure I I know that Zoe did talk about this, but these existing policies, the two bullet points at the very end of this draft, if you scroll up, um Stephen, when I say scroll, I mean going towards the bottom, which is confusing. Uh yeah, there are two bullet points um that that uh was helpful to pull this apart to show that. And this is actually probably one of the first times that we've done this, I

074think, in a policy to show that. And so they're not numbered, they're bullet points because uh and director Gallander wanted to make sure I made this point on on his behalf that uh they are monitored elsewhere. And so there would not necessarily when we think about the operational aspect of monitoring, we would not necessarily monitor those details because they live elsewhere. So people could then refer to those other reports um in conjunction with this one as well. So I wanted to to just share that on on behalf of um the group as well for further detail. And then I do know that there were some student board representatives as well at that conversation. So was um bringing in all different voices and I believe that Matt Fischer is online but his um camera is not

075on. So if he wants to chime in. Yeah, there you go. Oh, great. Okay. So I don't know if uh we wanted to invite any of those other voices. President Maldo. Absolutely. So Matthew, if you have something you'd like to add, um that would be great. Uh you should be able to unmute yourself. Yeah. Can you guys hear me? Yes. Awesome. Yeah. No, I um Director Coin and Zoe mentioned this, but I think one of the really big takeaways that I had from the the work study we did two weeks ago was um that at that top line of while considering available district financial resources because I think that is a key aspect um that we honestly thought could apply to all of them and we thought just for consistency that would be kind of

076like the umbrella. I think at the top also we refined the language. So both 171, 172 and 173 had the language of develop and implement instead of um there was slightly different wording, but it was just so that was consistent and um just making it more of kind of that like 30,000 foot view language where we could um have evidence that fits into that um easier um in conversation with Mr. Morris and Mr. Carter and whatnot. Um but yeah, I and I love the cross references to acknowledge where we are um currently monitoring those and um I think that was a great um add-on. Um my comment would be the difficult part about creating policy sometimes is uh how we structure things. So our results are structured in a way that the uh district would

077have to show reasonable progress towards uh those results. Whereas an operational expectation, you're actually measuring that you're in compliance. And so it is difficult to build a policy by which when you implement the policy, you have to be in compliance. We don't want to set the superintendent up for creating a policy that she would be immediately out of compliance. Um because we actually that is the that is the tool by which we also measure the success of the district and um the success of the superintendent when they're evaluated. So, um, really important to be able to do that and so it can make it maybe a little frustrating when you are wanting to see certain things in there and the language may have to look a little different than you originally had hoped. Um, but

078I um I think this is great work. And so now I want to put it towards the board about now that you've had a chance to review this. Um, this is a first read. So this is our opportunity to make adjustments that we may see necessary in order to feel comfortable to put this policy into place. And so I will open up Director Mullings. Oh, Director Taylor. Um, just a couple comments. very thankful for the um inclusion of the language around district financial resources. Um I agree we should as a district be doing all of these things, but as we know from recent experience, sometimes we get unfunded mandates such as the $und00 million bill that was handed to us uh for the Clean Buildings Act by the state of Washington. What's that? 300 million.

079Oh, 300. Yes. That's okay. Lots of ways to cut it. I was made into the first Thunderbolt. Um anyway, um so I I I think that's wise that you know we've built in that flexibility because there's just sometimes where we are have to make some very difficult decisions. So uh thank you for that and I also just want to commend you for it is very difficult to become more concise in the language and they've done a really good job of that going from what was a much longer document now to these five salient points. Really good job. I like concise writing, so I appreciate that. Uh, my only comment is a very small nitpicky one, which is 17.4 just reads a little funny to me. I'm not exactly sure what it means, and it might

080just be the wording to future environmental impact. So, enhance the readiness of the district's infrastructure to future environmental impacts. I would love my colleagues opinion on that, but it just does not seem clear to me. uh like is it enhance the readiness of the infrastructure to account for this is like I said this is very nitpicky grammatical but yeah I I think it probably I mean it's I think it's um and Matthew and Zoe correct me if I'm wrong I think it's you know we're looking at preparedness really is what we're trying to get to and I agree I think yeah we probably we there's probably an opportunity to tighten that language up there that's all I have though and and I think that that um addition so rather than infrastructure to future to say

081infrastructure to account for future. Yes, I think that does actually clarify the language. Yeah, I was going to say something similar. I think it's just a shift of um couple of those words to make it a little bit more specific, but um I do highly appreciate even the nitpicky stuff because we want this to be perfect. well on the way. Great. Director Mullins, so first I would like to share that I actually did a little ad for the sustainability ambassadors this week, my second conference in Atlanta. I ended up being with a parent in the district and um started talking about their kiddo and their interest in sustainability. So I was like, "Oh, you've got to you got to meet these kids. These are your people." So I actually shared all of your information this

082week. So hopefully I'm drumming up participation. Um, so mine is in the the board a values statement in the beginning and I I totally understand why we write the policy in a way in which we're not immediately out of compliance with. At the same time, my hope is that policy is always pushing us forward to somewhere. And so I feel I felt like um when I read the as written currently the board value statement at the top that I wasn't getting the to what end like to to what end? We want to put this in place and when I looked at so I actually pulled out my binder. There'd be people very excited that I pulled out this binder today. Um when we were working on some of the revisions and I just went to

083OE1 and the board values is a two sentence one. This one is global operational expectation. But the second sentence is the management of the district should foster an environment that inspires the trust by the community and general public. So I guess my my question is how could we add to the first the opening to give it a more like we're doing this to what end? So that when it gets to the point that I'm sitting here and I'm evaluating progress that the questions I ask or the data I ask for to support that is making sure we're we're getting to the end goal or the environmental um I didn't mean your kind of environmental but like the cultural changes, the operational changes that are making sure we're moving forward. So, I don't know if that's

084something you could help put voice to, like cuz you're doing all this work and I know you guys are very passionate about ensuring that the district is um acting in sustainable ways, is constantly looking and reviewing to make sure we're in place and like, but what's the what's the great outcome at the end that we hope like the to what end when we have this in place? That would be amazing for me to add to the conversation. Zoe, did you have a response to that? Yeah. Um, I I really do think that that um would be help helpful to be more informative to people so that way they can understand like what's the end goal. Um, and my only thing that makes this difficult um is just because because it it's similar to technology in

085a way where it's advancing so much yearbyear. It's difficult to figure out what that end goal really even looks like because and and for the cities for example, their end goals looks like um stuff that they have decided on based off of their current baselines that um are like for 20 30 years from now. And that's kind of where I think we were getting at with um like the sustainable transportation plan and 172 and all of these strategies is that's where we're trying to find those more specific goals and that more specific end target because those things can be adjusted and can be um you know they can flow with what the current just ecosystem of what's all going on in the world um is asking and I think that it would be difficult but

086I think we can brainstorm some things and talk about possibilities. I'll I'll give you a little food for thought maybe when as you have that conversation. Um, and again, I know how policies work and I know how they're written and so I'm asking you to push against the exact system you were just given, but that's what I get to do. So, a lot of the language in the bullets is using minim like to minimize, to restrict, to adhere to. What I would love to be able for you to suggest and then we can wordsmith it. But I I need to um this isn't my area of passion, right? So, I'm hoping to get a little bit of your passion. I hope give you the words. What I would hope to hear is um what would

087be amazing? So what's the amazing outcome of having this in place? The amazing outcome is so that every student understands how they contribute to a world left better than their own generation. Like what's the amazing statement if we do if we do this? So in the top part, you can give a little I'm giving you a little free free break up to break a little from the control command statements below and help with the what would be amazing at the top and that way we can we can help put you put it in some language that fits. But that's what I would love it to to that spirit to stay with the policy when you're done. Does that make sense? Yeah. I I think the my first thought is um actually our kind of like

088catch line catchphrase at sustainability ambassadors is to rapidly advance a sustainable future and I think that's what we want to see for all students. So so maybe we just um use that if that's something that would fit. I offer that for your discussion and and I would say for me it it is you know that might be a succinct way of of saying it. I'd have to write down what what was it for me? What is my end? Um you know and having clean air, clean water, a healthy environment for now and for future generations, right? So we need to do our part to be able to ensure that those things are there for our students now and and in the future to come. So and great job So, it sounds like maybe some working

089um from the committee uh on that vision statement to just give us to the to what end. And uh Matthew, did you would you want were you wanting to say something to that effect or respond to that? Yeah. No. Yeah. I I was just wanted to kind of add on that I think it actually I think it's one of the core values of like to prepare students to be like civic leader uh like civically minded in the community. Not exactly sure what the wording is. I think it's on the wall. Um, so I kind of wish I was in person. Um, I'm actually in Atlanta, so I might have bumped past one of you guys over the weekend. Um, I was here for a scholarship weekend. But, um, I really think that the wording could

090potentially encompass like preparing students to be civic leaders and to have an environment where they are like better off than potentially than the previous generation um, in terms of um, environmental sustainability, right? Okay. Well, thank you so much for this. Um, definitely uh my goal is I would love to have a policy in place before uh many of our ambassadors graduate um so that you can at least see your work through uh through fruition. And I think I heard a next step of Ben saying which I think is actually taking the words that um Zoe just used and having that as part of a redlinined version for the board to discuss next. Um, and that might then lead to, you know, a third and final read to to go forward, but then also adding the

091to account for as well. So maybe just once you see that because it's coming up pretty quickly the next board meeting and there is spring break. So I want to make sure that we are just taking that next next um step based on what we just heard tonight and incorporating that and then putting that forward to the board discussion at the next board meeting. Right. and especially if it's similar to what was discussed here, we could do a second read uh with those changes and uh possible action. Perfect. I just wanted to say thank you guys so much. Um we are really excited that we've gotten to this point. Um yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next on our agenda is the capital projects and new high school update plan. And I

092believe this is where we will have a PDF available to um the public. And yes, uh our CFO is here to be able to uh provide some information. So uh uh CFO attorney, I will turn it over to you. Thank you again. Uh Martin Turning, chief of finance and operations. who are here tonight to give um a recommendation based on the last conversations board meeting. So, uh specifically around the possible construction of a building on the uh new high school site. Um the goal there being to work within our financial um constraints and to maximize uh capacity for students uh in that building. So, I'm going to start off uh before Mr. Mullins gets into what this might look like. Uh, I want to start off with the funding available because that's obviously a very

093important part of this. Um, so just to recap for those of you who may remember this, we have some funds remaining from 2016, $90 million. We have 2022 levy funds of $44 million. We're still collecting on that, but we will have all 44 uh within the next uh couple years. And then, of course, we've been holding those funds. And um you'll hear a little bit about the possible timeline on construction, which means we may hold um those $134 million uh for a bit of time, which means we can earn interest on that. So um there could be around $8 million of interest plus this other uh indicating school assistance construction uh funds. So that's $12 million. Um those of course are a little bit more, you know, variable because we can't be 100% sure how

094much interest and we can't be 100% sure on what the scaff funding might look like. Although we have a pretty good idea uh because we had an estimate previously of $3.6 million and the um the amounts had gone up since then. So we have a pretty good idea we're about $12 million to work with um in that category. So that puts us um in the ballpark at $146 million. Um we do have some potential other funding sources and impact fees. Um and build America bond subsidies which we've been collecting. Um this is something left over uh that we did from the great recession that we we still benefit from. Those a little bit more iffy because um they can be taken away at any point in time. So, we don't necessarily want to include those

095on the total available funds, but they are um it is something that we could possibly um take advantage of if we needed to for contingency purposes. So, I'll let Tom um go over some detail here. Good evening, everyone. So, as we reviewed the the site and the uh requirements of the site and what we could do on the site with the available funds, we focused it. We turned our focus to the west section of the building as you can see here. Um west portion, which was a classroom wing and um and gyms. and we figured we could fit a portion of the the high school um provide a high school by constructing the west section of the original design, a parking garage sized for the number of students. So, we've reduced the parking garage size

096down some, a sports field with rubberized track and lights. to go to the next slide. This is the floor plan of the the three floor the three separate floors of the west section of the building. Um ends up being a gross square footage of about 73 74,000 square ft. Preliminarily we can get 23 teaching stations in and uh that puts us at a student capacity of about 656 students. the budget. Um, as we put it together, 110 million construction cost. We've kept 22 million for soft costs and put a $13 million project contingency. Brings us to a total of a little over 146 or a little under $146 million for a prelim a preliminary total project cost. The project schedule assumptions are getting started um March 1st 26. Um because the building is that much

097smaller, it does not need the 2-year construction timeline. It's um so we're able to finish up August 1st to 27 for a opening. Um if we're if we uh if we get the the if you take our recommendation we would next steps would be we'd submit a formal proposal to the city staff for review and also on the second bullet point we have an update city staff we we put in for an extension of the building or of the permits for the project and uh those per that extension has been given. So, we have till August, April 27th of 2026 to get the project underway. Um, the other two portions of the building, we looked at the center section. Um, as you can see, a larger square footage, but the same number of teaching stations

098and same number of student capacity, but um definitely a higher price tag put us out of the uh kind of prohibitive due to available funds. We have some pros and cons over here. Um, that's mainly because we had the threetory. There's a lot of common space in that center section and the east section. Um although um within budget is a much smaller gross square footage, small uh less teaching stations, less student capacity and uh some other pros and cons there. a recommendation to alleviate over capacity at existing high schools by pursuing the development and construction of a new high school facility on available property in the west section within a identified funding constraints. And um we would like to take the next steps by submitting a proposal to the city of Isiqua and initiating comprehension

099comprehensive project planning efforts. And at this point in time, I just want to say what the board asked us uh to do at the last meeting was to come back with a proposal for how we would utilize the available funding that we have. Again, uh we have funding available that was voter approved through 2016 and 2022 for this project. And we have the need and then pairing that with our recent city engagement with the city of Isiqua. we know that we have to plan and so I would like to say thank you to Tom Mullins and the team, Martin Turney and the team for really um you know being able to respond so quickly and to provide this information um and a recommendation that's um been reviewed through multiple people here at the district including

100myself to um for your consideration and and input. Great. So, I will open it up to uh board comments and any type of I I think I think that we're looking for your thoughts on the proposals to be able to give some um direction consensus on direction for for the district. Director Mullings. So, first super I guess basic question on the permits. If I remember last meeting correctly, there were two pieces. Building and sight. No. Oh my goodness. Building and land use. Building and land use. And those have both been extended now until 2026. Yes, they have. Great. Okay, that was my simple question. I'm going to go to my harder ones. So, as I look at I guess I want to just and talk about the assumptions in some of the drawings first. So,

101do I read these to assume based on the picture? I think this is true, but I just want to confirm that these designs include kind of all of those base location design principles we've talked about before, such as road expansion, um environmental or storm water management, like all of those core uh buffers, all those core items we talked about before would still be included. Yes, they are. There are we kind of considered a base package of what to build one square foot what we'd have to do to the site to be able to do that. So those are all in. Yes. Okay. That would be great to maybe add. I don't know if we plan on adding just to bring that back in the package because I think those are some important assumptions because it's

102that's in all of the that's in all three of the recommen not recommendations all three of the examples. Correct. Correct. That core I was trying to call like the core. Nope. That's a good way of putting it. Yes. To the core infrastructure would not change across any of the plans because we have to do that anyway. So the road improvements is very important. So maybe you can do a short recap of some of those key elements verbally that we're doing uh that would be doing anyways. Yeah. the the the basic and the main piece the most visible piece will be the improvements to 228th have to be done and to 4043rd and um also the main drives into the drive. There's some retaining walls um storm system underneath the football field um the sports field

103and track. Um we have storm water requirements for the building itself. Those will all be there. The parking structured parking is one of the base requirements at 50% and we meet we're meeting that with the the reduced parking garage size. And the parking garage size is based on the number of students that will attend the the that the school is built for. And there's some other more minor um water, sewer, all of those kind of things. is the base requirements are all in their power. And just to clarify, those base requirements are what we would do if we had the full-size high school on there. Absolutely. So for me, the key words on this picture is future phases of work. Right. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Director Taylor. Director Mullins is done. Yeah. Okay. Okay. For now.

104For now. Uh I'm just going to start off with some comments and then I have a very specific question. Um I just want to say uh I really support this option. I think it's a a great plan moving forward. Uh it serves the most students that we can right now. 600 potential of 650 students. that would alleviate some of the overcrowding in our high schools, we would hope. Um, and that's not insignificant. That's a lot of people and that's um potential to bring down the skyline and IHS um population. So, uh I think that's fantastic and it's also utilizing the money that our community has specifically twice set aside for this very purpose. So, um I I again very supportive of this plan and I think it's it's wise. Um but I also just want

105to talk about my viewpoint that it just it creates immense flexibility for us which is also exciting. Um, you know, as we continue to talk about reimagining our high schools, gets back to the conversation we just had about that session at uh ASUGSW about helping each of our students find their own aptitudes and providing uh opportunities for them to explore skills that they can then utilize as they go out into their own career preparedness. This potentially, you know, could provide opportunities for that kind of exploration as well, depending on how we'd want to utilize the space. So, um I find that all very exciting. And then also with the opportunity that perhaps we could, you know, expand this this property again going back to the conversation we had with the city of Isiqua and to

106director Moraldo's point that um we have to be looking out 10 15 20 years and this would have we'd have an opportunity there perhaps to expand in the future as we address that growth. So for all those reasons very supportive of this plan. Uh I do think that center section plan is not even feasible. I think we all understand that we from a financial standpoint. Um it's not feasible, but I prefer this plan. Anyway, um my question very specific um is I've been looking at a lot of the legislation coming through uh potentially coming through the latest legislative session. It appears that SCAP funding is under attack in many many ways. I see it as a contingency. It was a potential contingency on the um legislation to potentially lower the bond approval rate from 60%

107to 55%. There was a thought that we would have to give up scap funding to the state if if that was as a compromise. There is currently a bill uh now about non-voted bonds for capital levy um projects. Uh there's just news breaking today that there is a member of that committee that wants to have local districts give up their scap funding if if they choose that path of a funding mechanism. So my question is when do we get the scap funding and if the legislature were to take some um action now I take it that that scap funding could be in jeopardy meaning meaning that legislative process might take effect before we would ever collect the scap funding from the from the state. Is that correct? So uh the scap funding comes toward the

108end of the project. um the front funding bill um wouldn't necessarily affect us in this scenario because we already have the funds. So we wouldn't u be utilizing that mechanism. Um uh however, as you mentioned, there are some things being talked about that could impact us. So there's there's always some there's always a risk, but um at this point, I think we were we would be in good shape to assume that we would have that um unless we hear otherwise in the next three weeks or so. So I I haven't had any um very specific indication that that wouldn't be available to us. Okay. Thank you very much. That's all I have for now. Right, Director Coin. I I don't have any questions at this time. Um I think I had less questions, more comments

109um or maybe clarification. So, um, one of the things that you had mentioned, uh, Safeo attorney was that, um, that we have of the $44 million that was from the 2022, uh, capital levy, uh, we receive a portion of that per year. And, um, if we can, Stephen, maybe get back to the, uh, slide that has the funding availability. Um so that gets collected basically one quarter each year. Um but that the last year will actually hover over between the 26 like 2026 and 2027. Is that correct? Yes, that's right. Yeah. So but we will receive that last group of um monies in April. I think it's when it's due. So that by the time this opens, we will have received all of that funding for that um 2022 levy. Yes, it's it's around $12

110million. And what by the time we're at that stage of the project, there will be plenty of things that will the the things we will spend that on will be coming in much later. So there'll be a nearly completed project, at some point, a completed project, and we'll we'll still have some costs coming in. So, we'll be paying those later, even as we open the building. That's typically how it runs. So, we will have collected it well in advance of when we'll need it. And so, our cash flow shouldn't be a problem at all if that's where you're I I just wanted to make that clarification because there might be people in the public that are kind of doing that math and wanting to make sure that we were we would have all of those

111funds by the time the school opened and the project was finished. Um, I do believe that this option is a great option, especially after, um, talking with some students today, um, that are, um, you know, are given, uh, services under either an IEP or a 504. And I can't believe how often it came up. Well, since our schools are so crowded, my teacher has more students that they have to deal with and don't really understand IEPs. because the schools are so crowded, I don't have time or they don't have as much time to give me as I might need. And it came up at least three or four times. And I'm like, where were you when we were talking about this? This was the impact. And somewhat to Chris had made a comment, one of

112our student reps of like the schools have been crowded this whole time. I didn't know that that was outside the norm. So, it was refreshing for me to hear students actually being able to identify how overcrowding was impacting them. And I think my final comment and then I'll get back to you, Director Mullings, to pass back to you. Um, is that we have not decided on programming inside this building. Uh, this will give us plenty of time to have a community conversation about what that looks like. uh what type of opportunities and really what is it that we need to prepare students for the marketplace and I remember I don't know who I heard it from but you know we are not raising children we're raising adults and so in an education system we're not

113teaching children we're teaching the future workforce and so what are we doing to really make prepare them for those jobs that we don't even know what they're going to be and I think having the flexibility of the spaces that you see inside the space box, uh the the layout. Um we want to have a conversation with the community about what goes inside that box and how we can drive to get 600 students interested in attending the school. Director Mullings, thank you. I'd love to go to the next slide and maybe spend a little bit of time on what at least is sketched out within the box. Um that we haven't just maybe get a little bit more clarification on on what the drawings show. So I understand that what we're talking about is the the

114full design of the project as we went forward with before. There's a smaller subsection of that. So the idea would be and this is there's really a question mark here. The idea would be this is the first section in use and then in the future with growth some of these spaces would change correct and be used differently as the other side is built. Is that correct? What we'd like to I've been talking with the team about is trying to make these spaces usable for the long term and not have to change these spaces out. um you know the gym would if this the bottom section here is was the gymnasium area that would be in a new section of the building now if in the future instead of that is our intent to try to

115do instead of demoing all this out in the future and putting the gym back there we would put the relocate the gym to a new location in the future construction so and so I'll just repeat it to make sure I'm understanding um as designed here, we would look at this as a durable section Yep. of the building and that we would make connections to that other side. Absolutely. Later. Yep. Okay. So, that's great. So, we're not talking about having to rework or overhaul or demo in a future in a future state or at least minor. Obviously, there's not there'd be a wall that'd have to open up somewhere. I think just for clarity, we we um would have the options. I think we're exploring what it what potentially it could look like. Yeah. If we

116didn't revert back to the original plan. So now we have a couple of options potentially available to us. Yeah. And yeah. So I think that's interesting and maybe to your point about one there's a programming question, right? How do we use it? and we have some time to have that. But there's also maybe an interesting conversation of like how do we practically transition over time to what a larger space looks like. But I think um so I think that's great uh that we're talking about what could be durable even through expansion versus some sort of some sort of tear down. So I just want to make sure I understand because um the teaching teaching stations I equate to the classrooms. So maybe tell me what when you say teaching stations what what are you pointing

117out on this? Uh if you the in this simplified drawing teaching stations are just the num number of boxes you see. Okay. Um the different colored boxes as far as the like the 15 across the top. Yeah. Those are just standard um classrooms. There's one there and then the three four five six seven CTE spaces and nothing. It's so it's just right now very simplistically calculated to the boxes that are on the on the drawing and then the that green is com the is common common space. That's where the commons would be. So you'll have your kitchen servery, that type of thing there with a with a commons and that'll all is sized right there for this size of this building. Okay. And so then the opportunity is to your point, President Moraldo, as we

118land on program, then these become a lot more specific. Yep. Very much more specific. And these could change inside this box also as we this is very preliminary and as we as we you know if we get the recommendation to move forward we will explore this further and try to expand upon and and define the spaces better and I think by having just the the boxes where there's larger spaces to do um more career connected learning I think is going to be important and if we needed to split up those smaller spaces, that's easier to do than to try to make it two smaller spaces bigger. Exactly. In the future. Um, so I guess the if there's nothing more to the questions, I would really be looking for consensus. we're not taking action but consensus

119on uh moving forward with uh I think one of the things is where we need to go to be able to get the um the authorization to make these changes to uh to the building permit. So I'll just add my comments there. I mean, for me, I think I've been pretty clear and probably a little too clear that what's important to me is that with the resources we've have, with the resources we've already expended, um, we we need to address the growth of the district, and we should be able to do that in the quickest way possible. For me, that is with the property we have and with the resources we have on hand. quick math would say even being able to move 600 students from some program that they probably love and not be

120able to have, you know, not have today and we'll design that again with community input, I think gives us a tremendous release when I look at the numbers in capacity just at IHS and and Skyline. So, um, being then able to do that in a way that allows us to add as the growth of our our, um, cities that we serve, as we mentioned, they all have their growth targets. Do that over time. Um, as well as still hold true to the fundamentals of that site, that core infrastructure to ensure we're still doing all the environmentals, the expansions for traffic and all of that. Um, I'm I I think it's a a really good offering. So, I appreciate it a lot and I'm I'm supportive of what we do next. Director Taylor, I concur. And

121I think I'm I'm just going to abstain tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Um I would say so direction from the board is to move forward uh with next steps uh to be able to implement this plan. I think this is the right plan to go with the west section um upgrades uh or building as far as a phase one of the project. And superintendent, last word. I would just say thank you for the discussion. This has been, you know, a lot of um opportunity for us to go back and look at things and so appreciate uh the input from the board tonight as well as for again Mr. Mullins and Mr. Attorney and respective people outside of this room uh in their work to get to this point. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, moving on.

122Uh, chief attorney will have to come back to the microphone as we talk about our uh our budget for next year. Yes, it is already time to be planning the budget um and discussing that. We actually started in January with setting the board development guidelines or the budget development guidelines from the board and so this part um the administration will share a brief update. Um no action is going to be taken during this portion of the meeting. Yep. So, thank you again. I'm really just going to introduce Mariah tonight. Uh she's going to take you through some slides. As you know, we're in an interesting time right now where we're still trying to gather a lot of information, do a lot of the budget preparation, and we don't have a legislative session that has ended

123yet. So, there's plenty to learn later. So, we're just going to kind of give you a point in time glimpse into what we know or where we're going. So, I'll let Mariah take you through the slides. Good evening. Thank you, Martin. All right, tonight's objectives. Um, so our focus tonight is to clarify the priorities driving this year's budget decisions. We're going to highlight the start, stop, continue framework and shifts based on student impact and sustainability. We're going to summarize the big picture, including risks and opportunities. So for budget prioritization, we began this process by centering on four critical priorities. Advancing our strategic plan, especially areas that directly enhance the student experience, guidance from the board, priorities with a focus on equitable access to resources and pathways, as well as a balanced approach between outcomes, cost

124efficiency, and sustainability and compliance with state and federal requirements at the forefront along the way. So we touched on the equity based budget framework at the last board meeting um mostly in phase one. I'll just highlight a little bit here. So equity remains at the core of our financial strategy. We focused on aligning the resources to student needs. We partnered with our external consultant uh and nationwide expert education resource strategies and also convened a crossf functional internal working group and we began this work back in September 2023. Um we grabbed a lot of data points, resource use, student needs. We developed the in equity index and then we identified schools for additional resource allocations and drafted um the initial framework. Now we're in the engagement phase. We started that with the board at the board

125retreat in August and then as well as the all administrator uh retreat as well and we've met with um lots of different groups during that time. We also have met with the all administrators back in December and have reconvened the internal working group along the way and have been now engaging with the community at the board meetings. We are in implementation phase and through this process we realized that we had additional equitybased investments already being utilized at um specific schools to support students in the current year. And so we're looking at ongoing refinement and potential expansion of the framework in the future. And so just to make sure it's clear, our core staffing allocation is based on enrollment. um the equity based investments are on top of so it does not take away any um

126enrollmentbased allocations. This is on top of those beyond core staffing and some examples. So there's six added positions at four different schools that consist of MTS MTSS specialist behavior and social supports as well as additional teachers to reduce class size and emergency pareducator hours and the estimated current investment is $1.5 million. So through our our budget presentations as well as our budget annual budget guide, we talk about the start, stop and continue process. So I'm just going to highlight some areas that we have um focused on this year. So dual langu dual language at the Isiqua Middle School is going to be expanded at next year as well as aerospace is going to be offered at Liberty High and advance advanced placements can be offered at Skyline High School. Basque. They're going to expand the

127um extended school day for preschool all the way to age three um and middle school summer camp as well. Um many parents did get that email from Basque and it it sounded like it was very a lot of excitement around that program. Um there's continued need for uh vaccines and and other options that might be out there to help support our families and community as well. Also emergency par educator hours uh to support students on buses. So part of the stopping phase. So last year we had a a a large startup investment for curriculum. And so for this next budget year, we're estimating a 40% reduction. That's $2.5 million. And that would continue a $3 million annual aotment going forward. We also discontinued outdated software. So an example would be there was a financial software

128that we we used in the past and we were able to have create projection tools with our current staffing instead and discontinue that contract. That's just one example. There's there's a lot that we do every year that we look at for redundancy and ways that we can um be more efficient or save money. So this is just some areas that we're continuing uh curriculum adoptions as well as the MTSS work in UDL framework online learning options our technology and information capacity repurposing budgets as well and continue to expand Basque as whenever possible. So for the big picture, we're maintaining a conservative fiscal approach uh while honoring our commitments. And then the fund balance, we we don't have enough information to know our projection for next year. Um we're watching the legislature and seeing if there's

129going to be any new revenue. Um the and fund balance may continue to decline into the next year and we'll have more information on that uh later. Federal funding continues to be uncertain. Uh that's up to about $10 million a year. So that will impact our long-term planning and until we we know um the certainty of that in the future. So next steps, this is the budget development time. So it it's a lot of a lot of work that needs to happen during this the next three two three months. Um and so a lot of um analysis that needs to happen, cost projections, get the legislature information and we are also working through the start, stop, continue budget decisions as well and we plan to share expanded budget information at the June 10th meeting. So

130some key activities that are occurring is we're still negotiating contracts. um coming up with about five of them right now. And we are continuing to analyze costs for any changes in the material, supplies, and operating costs that we can incorporating all the the things that we talked about in the previous slide. And we will be as well as in June and July, we put together a preliminary budget in our annual budget guide. And those will be available for for the public to review. um and our financial core team meeting will review that as well. And then in August, we'll meet again and present the final 2526 budget for potential adoption. So, thank you very much and we be happy to take any feedback or questions. Okay, I'll open it up to questions or comments from

131the board. Director Mullings. Uh, thank you. So, couple things. I I loved seeing the uh Paris support for students on buses. I love that. Um, so that's an awesome ad there. Um, and I just want to just continue to support the process of the stop start continue and how we can look at what can be obsoleted and really look at our investments going forward. I think we maybe had a history of a net negative approach, right? When we're squeezed, we just get less of stuff. So, I I'm deeply pleased every time I see how we can repurpose, how we can look at things that should be obsoleted and use those items to support where we know our priorities are. So, that's awesome. Couple questions. Um, there's a couple of comments on Basque. So I just

132wanted to understand after school bask for middle is that something that we currently have accommodated for or we still need to accommodate for because I think we've got a couple places that after school um would be incredibly important and help with some of the other challenges we see um you know sidebar I sit on a nonprofit that is about after school for middle schoolers and that those couple three hours are the bewitching hours. So I think we've got some places where that's deeply important. Um I see we have new entrance. Uh thank you Director Mullings. Jason Morris, executive director of operations. I do supervise the BAS program. So our intention is to begin to build um inertia around the middle school um Basque program which we used to have prior to the pandemic. Sadly enough,

133it kind of phased out during the pandemic. And we're kind of walking in similar but different footsteps for when we opened that program, which was to build interest in inertia around a summer program with hopes of eventually expanding. I think the likely, and again, I say likely because we need to see how this goes. Although I will say the um the um interest has been very high for the summer programming. We have a few weeks with over a hundred families registered or 100 students rather registered which is great. Um so our interest was to use that data where we're um starting that program at Cougar Mountain Middle School as a centralized location. Uh our interest is to use that data to see where in the else in the district we should expand summer programming and

134then hopefully parlay that into yearround care um depending on our demand. Um, another thing that we are looking at is we're also looking at the possibility in future years of extending some of our um, preschool uh, summer opportunities. So, um, for our youngest learners, a really nice way who that are involved in our current preschool programs, if we can begin some summer programming for those kids, our interest is number one to serve kids and families. Number two, um, hopefully that is attractive to families in our district um, with our younger students feed feeding up to elementary school. I hope that helps. That's fantastic. Thank you. And I have one last one. So, and it's um I guess it's maybe in the the group that's been giving feedback on the budget process so far. So, I

135heard a lot of different participants. I didn't hear and it's okay. It wasn't explicit, but I didn't hear teachers. So, is there a component of the the group that's been participating that specifically includes teachers? Yeah. So the fact uh team does include uh our union partners, the teachers as well. And we got some feedback uh I think at one of our uh capital projects uh meetings that maybe there's some ideas for expanding how we do that. So we're getting ideas as well. So bring in more teacher input. Great. I think I think that's a that would be welcome to offer that at least a bit more broadly. Uh I think that would be well received. Thank you, director Coin. I quick question on I know I asked this before an equity based framework and I

136sit on the fact committee and I love the concept of it but if someone were to ask me what are all the facets of equity based budgeting I wouldn't have I would struggle to to explain that and so I know we talked before about creating almost sort of a cheat sheet of short of sorts that would have some bullet points in terms of what goes into that and I won't put the superintendent on the spot like I think I did some forum we were at because there she um did a great job of explaining equity based budgeting when we were at a PTSA meeting at Clark Elementary earlier, but um or I guess last month, but um it would be helpful to have something that would just give more information around what that means because

137we talked about it in concept, but I think that um people would appreciate just knowing what goes into that I guess at a high level would be great. Yeah. Um okay so yeah part of the framework is you're developing an equity index um with your partnership with the contractual service as well as your group internal work group. And so when you're looking at the research you need to make sure that it's relevant uh measurable independent significant and diversified. Um and so we went through a lot of different types of data to figure out what we could put in the equity index. And some sometimes we couldn't because it was self-reported. Um, so we needed to make sure these were data points that we could just pull and someone couldn't like increase their numbers because you

138get more you get more supports. Uh, so we wanted to make sure these are things that we could pull. Um, and so the the areas that uh we all agreed on we we decided on a comprehensive index and so we could had um over uh five areas. So, we chose the access to nutrition, specialized instruction, academic supports, housing stability, and multilingual uh proficiency. Um, and so that's the the basis and you pull all those data points from our schools. Uh, so a lot of different things feeding in there, have a huge spreadsheet and then you tally that up. All of those are given equal um none of those are given more than the other. So, they all are given the equal amount. Um, and then we look at it from a a big picture view.

139Want to thank you, Director Coin, for reminding us because I think you brought this up before. Uh, and so we can work on kind of boiling this down and asking the superintendent um how she framed it at these uh different areas because because I think what I'm hearing is we want that concise, easily consumable, uh, understandable, you know, phrasing that we can provide to folks. So, we'll work on getting that to you. That that would be great. I mean, and Mariah, what you said, you know, definitely from a high level makes sense, but if we could if we could frame it, I know we um you know, we that there's limitations in ter terms of the detail with it, but if we could put it into something that, you know, I think that our community

140could really understand the approach that we're taking and how this is the right direction to go, you know, really and again, I think just that basic understanding would be good. So, thank you. We're going to Yeah, I think um it would be great to have a simple view. I think um what you just went through, Mariah, which is like the factors we're looking at across all of our schools is one piece of it. And then I think it is what resources vary or could potentially vary because of it. Um because I think the way you phrased it was like the population or enrollment based staffing doesn't change but I think it's not super clear like well what what things are tied to the enrollment and what are the other things we are variable. So having

141both pieces of how we know which school needs more more additional supports because again there's the base level supports for all. Some schools will need more supports based on the factors you mentioned but then like which staffing factors are we updating or altering or enhancing because of those factors I think would be helpful. Um because I think when people ask questions about counselors, when people ask questions about um oh I can't think of that's my point of asking like what what specifically should we call out because I think sometimes people think would we cut those roles and I was like no we actually have more of them mental health supports different kinds of counselors I think it'd be helpful to call those those out. Thank you. Yeah, there's definitely a lot of work that's still

142ongoing. So, this is um us teaming up with the the ED departments and diving into the types of resources that would help support the individual schools. And so, um so, as an example, the MTSS specialist, it worked at certain levels of the school. At middle school, it made sense to have more behavior and uh social supports. And we're continuing to expand that and look at the whole system as well. do we need um other things that also support the whole system as a whole that would impact all schools too. So, we're we're continuing to de develop and expand this. And so, we're really excited and thank you for the feedback. We we definitely want to continue to make it as clear as possible, but also yeah, there's still a lot of work to be done.

143Director Taylor. Uh, I'll just start with um agreeing with comment that Director Mullins made earlier about the stop start complete approach to budgeting. It's just um so important to how we budget to make sure that we're getting return on investment and when we're not that we can then use those funds for other areas where we can get a better return on investment. So, uh again I I also big fan of that approach. I have a question you can answer very broadly because I understand we're in the middle of a new budgeting process. But what is not clear to me here is is I think I understand that currently through these allocations we're spending about $1.5 million. I think that was the number moving forward. Do we have an idea as to what allocations for the

144new programs would look like or ballpark or or a lot more little more? I I'm just I'm not it's not clear to me. Um yes, we have played around with a lot of different options. Yeah. Um obviously the the investments continue to no matter what even if you keep the same amount it grows in expenditures just from you know the change in um agreements and how much the costs are there. But we have looked at you all the you know another million dollars and how would okay you know 2.5 million and what what that investment looks like for the for the system as well. So yeah, we are continuing. So that's I would say that's as high as we've gone so far. Just another million, you know, another not just a million is a lot.

145A million is a lot. So yeah, we're continuing to to look at that and reconvene our internal work group and and go through a lot of different steps with that. Okay, perfect. That's exactly what I want to know, just what is possible potentially. Thank you. I wanted to make sure I haven't heard from any of our students this evening and I know that this might be a topic um that you may or may not be interested in. Budgets. What's not fascinating about a budget? But I did want to open it up to make sure that I wasn't missing any raised hands. I don't think we have any comments so far, but thank you for the inclusion. Thank you. Um, I think for me one of the things is that um, having equity based budgeting is

146such a big portion of finalizing so much of the work that I'd hoped to begin when we implemented our equity um, uh, policy. Um, because I worked on that from the very beginning. In fact, very shortly into my time serving on the board, beginning to look at what was equity, all of my learning and um I actually did the first initial shot of how would we implement equity into our policies and really looking actually embedding it in each and every um at the time executive limitation. And the real rub came at well how would you add that financially? What do you mean equity in financial? here's this is this is how we distribute money. This is how it's distributed to us from the from the state or from the federal government and then this is

147how it's pushed out and you know we do things through LAP and title and and and special education funding. That's how we provide those dollars and being able to do the work over the past year of really looking at what are what do we mean by that? Um and that for me equity isn't taking away, it's recognizing that the starting point for students is different. And so when you provide that list, Mariah, that's really here's where the starting point from students has been impacted. And our our results is about all students, right? All means, all that's all means. I I'll say it once more. Um, and so we don't, regardless of where they begin, we want them all to achieve our mission, our academics and foundations, our civic engagement, our life management and personal awareness.

148And that means we will have to take a look at the starting line and say, how do we how do we invest more specifically? And we can look at the assessments. So I don't think there's a surprise that the schools that we're talking about um six added positions across four schools for MTSS specialist behavioral social supports additional teachers to reduce class size and emergency para educator hours. um those are going to be implemented because we can see that the results are not every student is meeting our results. And so um this is a way to financially ensure that we're providing those additional supports. And so I think it's important for the community to really understand what we mean when we talk about equity based um budgeting and that it's not taking away from students, but

149that it's really about supporting students who don't get to start at the same spot. And now I have a student that would like to speak. Wait, is it on? Yeah, it's on. Okay. Um, this might be like not 100% totally relevant or what you're thinking about. Um, but on page seven, what we're stopping? Um, I I mean, I obviously really like that you guys are stopping like outdated and obsolete stuff, but I just had a question on what qualifies like do you have a list or did you get feedback for like what things like is truly outdated or obsolete? Yeah. So part of our meetings uh we go we meet with everyone who oversees all the departments. Um so it all we all find out as much as we can. Um and through those meetings

150they tell us hey I don't think we need this anymore and I would like to use those funds maybe for this or maybe they don't need it and we'll remove the capacity out of the budget. So and then also the budget team also through the uh review process we go through and look at the budgets as well and and look at the trend for the last four to 5 years and see you know if budgets are being used or not and you know sometimes we'll we'll also make changes as well um just to tighten things up if we need to or maybe there's an area that isn't you know having enough budget stuff like that. Yeah. Director Coin, I was just going to tack on to uh uh Director Maldo what you were saying and

151just the word abundance um makes me think of that. I know that's kind of a it's a popular word being used right now, but this idea of equity based budgeting and thinking about opportunity that we're not taking anything away and I think living in that space of abundance is important in these conversations. So, great. Thank you, Superintendent. Uh I do want to reemphasize because I think this actually was a point that came up during the conversation to develop where we are now around a feeling of winners and losers potentially just to even name that more explicitly that I heard talked about by all of you. Um and this is really about creating a system where we are uh not removing things currently but it's about adding where we know we need to to provide and

152enhance the experience for all students. So, uh, just naming the winners and losers feeling that could be underneath that and and making sure that what this is is not that, if that makes sense. I use a lot of double negatives there, but this is not about winners and losers. This is about enhancing the student experience. Great. and we don't have any action to take, but we do thank you for your time um and being able to put together something that we can also share with the community so that not only is the board ready and prepared for the next steps, but that our community is ready for that conversation as well. Thank you. Our next item on our agenda is legislative matters and I will tell you oh I'm sorry treat I was going to

153say it moved up. I'm sorry. Um yes, our strategic plan update. I thought there is no way I'm an hour ahead in this meeting. No. Um, and this is really important. We wanted to find out um where we were at. Uh this was actually a discussion during our board retreat of we've been we're about a halfway through our strategic plan and really wanting to get an update of where we've been, what we've been doing, where we're at now, and where we're looking to head, areas that we're going to be focused in on. Um and um although you'd have a great chart in here on how the strategic plan elements uh tie into either our operational expectations or our results, this is a good time for us to have like a a focused attention on on

154these items. So thank you. So Marcel, I'll let you take it over. Maybe we could have you turned down the mic on. You will help me better. I can be loud though, but I'll turn the mic on. Point one. Uh, good evening board of directors. Marcelo Hower, senior adviser in strategy. Um, as President Maraldo mentioned, we've been really appreciative appreciative to be able to have this conversation. Um, and I think just as evidenced by community members speaking about the strategic plan and giving feedback earlier, um, that's all welcomed, right? That means folks are reading the content. They're reading kind of what's happening and whether you agree or disagree or have feedback. All feedback is welcome. So I just think the engagement with it having these conversations have given us it has given us a chance

155to sort of have more community engagement and to the thousands I always hope director coin thousands watching us on YouTube. Right. My hopeful aspiration of you. Yeah. Um so moving us forward tonight. Um, just to sidet track, last week we talked about organizational effectiveness, which was prior to area 5. We're are moving backwards. So stay with us as we kind of go 5 4 321 thinking our sequencing. But tonight we're going to highlight two different areas. So priority area four, which is authentic engagement, and prior area three, which is diverse talent that I have my my colleagues here to join me and they'll highlight a couple strategy areas and share about the good work happening. Uh but before we do that again just always want to point to the mission and vision just we're grounded

156in this work and again the five the two areas we're working on tonight we'll talk about is I think engagement diverse talent as a reminder the plan was developed uh with community engagement and we are now in the process of engaging back with community gathering feedback on impact but also looking forward in terms of where we might go next in the in the free fresh in the next year or so and director Marla mentioned the alignment to the policies. Just a reminder here I showed this last board meeting and I'll stop here and just highlight a couple new engagements. One is the Isqua schools foundation board that's added new from last meeting. So on 422 I'll get a chance to engage with that group. So just that it's just continued partnership with ISF uh reaching

157out and and gathering feedback as we look to continue to grow our partnership but also look for new ideas fresh ideas as we uh look at what's working with the plan but where we might go in the future. Then the other piece to highlight not highlighted but the teachers union leadership which is meet and confer. So, it's just a process and through thank you Donna Hood who connected us with our union leadership to have the conversation about the strategic plan and make sure that we're we're planning for how do we get teacher voice in this plan as we think about gathering that throughout the district. So, what's the best strategy for that and also gathering their input um terms of how the fan has been the plan has been felt throughout the district. So those

158are the main key sort of highlight areas around engagement. So next we're going to pivot. Oh, I do not want it to keep moving. Not touching the remote, but it is moving on its own. So was that Stephen? It's okay. Okay. All right. I'm going to pass the mic over to Donna. So Donna's going to share a little bit about um priority area three and the good work in that area. Here's a clicker. Good evening. Donna Hood, assistant superintendent of human resources. And priority area three has two main goals. Diversifying our workforce to more closely align to our student population. And in fact, I believe our number has moved from 58% students of color to 60% since we originally drafted the STRA plan. Um and secondly, district leadership and staff will foster a sense of

159belonging and inclusivity inclusivity leading to retention of diverse staff. And there are four strategies there you can see. Um these are all currently being worked on uh pretty much simultaneously right now today. So there is ongoing ongoing work to talk about here. I will shift to a slide that'll highlight one of those areas. um some of our progress thus far in 22 23 we saw a nice big jump in our diversity of search staff and a significant jump in our diversity of classified staff as well. This last hiring season which for us closes in August typically um of August of 24 we uh did see another increase in our classified staff of color but we declined in our search staff of color. So we took a step backwards there which took us below our baseline

160by a tiny amount. Um still not thrilled to see that happen. Interestingly the diversity of the search staff applicant pools did go up significantly. That was another goal of ours and a good metric um by which we could measure our recruitment efforts and we have thought a lot about how and why that has occurred. One of the things we noticed um this last hiring season, we had a big drop off in the total number of hires from 150 in the 2223 season to 107 in the 2425 season. I anticipate that's going to go down again. Um and we are seeing far fewer retirements and resignations this year. So I think that is increasing um the importance of each and every hire but also increasing the challenge of meeting that goal for sure. And then a

161nice spotlight. Um, one of our newest partnerships has been with the W uh, the Washington Education Association. They host a teacher residency program. They actually are licensed to s certify and and license teachers in the area of special ed only special ed. Um, but it's a significant support to us as a district. So, we applied to be a partner school district. We were accepted. Um, and thank you to my special services colleagues who helped me to complete that application. The staff who applied into that program were quite a diverse uh group of people which we were really thrilled to see. We were also a little concerned we might only get our own internal staff but in our application we made it clear we would accept applicants from anywhere and so we actually got only applicants

162who were new to the district. So that was really exciting to see that it was actually increasing um the foot traffic into our school district and of that group about half of them identified as staff of color. So very exciting and even um some of those who both did and did not identify as staff of color were also uh multilingual. So there was a lot of interesting kinds of diversity and assets they would have brought to the profession. Of that group we brought two in. They began employment as pair of professionals will continue through June and then next year begin their teaching rounds. So they'll do rounds in three different settings um two special ed and one general ed. And our own teachers get the stipens to serve as their mentors. And we've had a

163lot of excitement around that as well. If they qualify uh and become eligible to interview with us, they might get hired. We hope that they will and they would stay with the district then for three years. So, this helps us meet a critical staffing need and is also helping us to work on our diversity goal at the same time. So, it's really exciting program. Um, and I'm very excited by how it's structured. We have three welcome nights for the next cohort coming up here in April and May. So, it's busy time. See if there's anything else. Next up is Sher Cox. Uh, good evening, directors. Sherry Cox, executive director of secondary ed, but also the lead of priority for um authentic engagement. Uh that we have two goals that we've been working on. And one

164is really to um help our staff across the district uh be better at engaging with families in a multitude of ways. Um we called out co code co-design here, but it's really much bigger than that at this point. And then the second goal is around our partnerships um which is big work here uh but really looking to develop and foster those meaningful relationship with our partners throughout the district. I've got some wonderful um strategy leads. Um I've got Jordan Frost and Wendy Castleman heading up goal number one here. And then I have um this amazing human over here, Marcel, uh leading the partnership um the work to date. So, um, what we've been up to, we shared most of this with you at the works. Um, the no, it wasn't a work session, it was

165a retreat. Um, and so, you know, in year one, we were busy. Marcel was very busy collecting, you know, who are our partners, what are they doing in our buildings, and how are they bettering the experiences for our students and staff and families. Um so then we are now in the process of looking at well do we have students with or not students do we have buildings that need partnerships in certain areas and aligning partnerships across the system to meet the needs of the students and families at those schools. Um we are in the process of developing some new survey questions uh to deliver out to students after the spring break. We are looking um this year we expanded our authentic engagement work team to include school leaders which were missing in our first year

166and as we continue to grow our expertise and engagement um Jordan and Wendy's team have created a more userfriendly com um engagement document. uh and this document really is for the users in the system to determine what kind of engagement should I be doing for this issue. Um and you know it gives them tips and some examples and then some resources. So for example a listening session you know what's the purpose of a listening session? Well it's to hear perspectives from whomever you might be listening to. And then there's some tips like hey you might want to consider having interpreters so that you have linguistic inclusivity at these events. And so it's really for the entire system to use uh as a means of collecting um or to performing I guess authentic engagement. You've seen

167this before. Um and so this is the companion document I talked about is really fleshing out these uh approaches to engagement. And this work also um has been going on with Lena's team um with Laura and Sharon in our district as well. And so they are key partners in this work. Um and then our spotlight or strategy spotlight rather. Um a couple of things from the partnership team. Um I just talked about this where we're um now also going to partner with the student well-being priority area and the community adisement advisory board rather. And this work is to uh create a resource hub that is going to be accessible to families and will eventually be on our website. Um we've developed a new partnership with Microsoft this year. Uh we are going to be joining

168the technology access program um which will help our system um utilize the Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 products. So that we are going to be growing our knowledge on how to use these systems. And then um Marcel and his team uh have also uh been they one of the things they did is to define some levels of partnership with our highest level of partnership um for for organizations like Isiqua School Foundation and the PTSA. And so Marcel has been uh co-designing the agendas with these two groups um focusing um and aligning our outcomes and our funding uh with these great partners. That concludes the P4 or priority four, but just thinking about next steps. Um, and for Donna and for our group, um, we're going to continue to work on the stay survey, uh, finalize

169enrollment partnerships. Um, uh, the partnership agreement with Microsoft. Uh we're going to continue to work on defining uh filling out this engagement matrix for the staff across the district to use as well as you board members if you wanted to use that. Um and then we're going to continue focusing on um proactive initiatives centered on increasing our enrollment throughout the district. And so that is what these teams are up to at this time. And then if you have any questions for us, we'll invite Donna and Marcel back in case they need to take the question. Okay. Okay. Opening it up to questions from the board. That was a lot of information. Director Mullings. Um I realizes, uh it's about the first priority. So, um, Donna, I realized as you were talking that maybe I didn't

170understand the way the term residency is used in that program. And at first I thought like are we housing people, but you're talking more like a physician residency like this is a period of time. Yeah, that is WA's terminology. I didn't name the program, but yes, I believe you're um and your guess at the analogy is probably the correct one. Yes, they are doing rounds, instructional rounds. Okay. Mhm. I was like, I don't think I know what that means. So, I guess maybe walk me through like what this is someone who is not currently certified to teach. Correct. They apply to this program and in it it because it says they start at pair professionals. Yes. But they're actually becoming is it to become a pair professional or to become a teacher? No, it is

171to become a teacher. Okay. So the way that they worked this out, they developed the program so that staff who were interested and applied would get inclassroom experience as a pair professional, which really gives them a sense of what's a classroom like they get to see a different teacher teaching, work with that person and support a teacher. And then they have a summer institute that they will go to with WA. All of their staff are licensed to train teachers who run that program. And then the following school year, fall, winter, spring, they do their instructional rounds as what we would classically call a student teacher. Okay. So the nice thing is they get employment with us for six months first and really understand the district and how things work and operate before even beginning student

172teaching, which I think is a real advantage to the candidates. So maybe the piece I don't understand is are they also enrolled in like a collegiate program or no this program alone? WA is licensed to actually certify them as special ed teachers. They already have bachelor's degrees. Okay? And they will then be and OSPI has signed off on this. State of Washington is all good with it. We're not even early adopters. We're we're not in the first round of districts to do this, but they then get to certify them and they will at the end verify they've met the program requirements and they will become licensed specialed teachers. Wow. Okay. Thank you for the deeper Absolutely. It's it's pretty cool. They also do a second summer institute as they wrap up. Um, and they do

173get a stipend from the district while they complete their teacher residency rounds. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, Director Coin, I I have uh three questions, but I want to uh just piggyback off of what uh Director Mullings question. So, I'm looking at this through the lens of my wife who's a teacher who went through the, you know, the process of becoming a teacher, student teaching, you know, um, and for all the educators in the room, it's a lot of work and it takes a lot of time. And when you student teach, it's completely full-time. Oh, it's full-time. You're not. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and so understanding that, so I'm wondering, Donna, could you go into that a little bit like what does this normally look like? Because this is a significant opportunity. I know I've really pinpointed

174this when I look at this again through the lens of all the educators in my family being a a teacher is not easy. It takes a lot of time and it's it's the commitment because as I understand it too, you're getting paid. Yes. Through this too. Yes. So that's huge. You you do sound like someone who's lived with the teacher for sure. And supported her through that process. So, I was licensed in 1999, already had my bachelor's degree, went back to get my masters, which is also a thing many of our staff choose to do because you can start at a higher pay rate when you're done with your masters. So, there's other options out there, too. Um, but that program at the time was the shortest and it was 18 months. It was the

175shortest one in the state. I was looking for speed. I had to earn a paycheck. Yeah. And it cost $10,000 then. So, it it's pretty extraordinary. This program has very minimal tuition costs for the applicants, for the candidates who are accepted and the stipen they get from us um is significant help to the candidates to pay for living expenses while they get through the program. Um I think that is a huge barrier to people if you are not attached to a family member. And I've shared with people myself, I happen to have been married by the time I was 23. I don't think I would have become a licensed teacher if not that my partner was willing to support me through that program. Now, I paid it back. I helped him get his bachelor's later

176because he wasn't done yet. Uh so, it's all good. But that is not an uncommon story to hear from young teachers and um we would love and of course we can't gift public funds. We can't just pay everyone to go to school to get their credential. So, this is a way um that the state has authorized us to move forward and provide some support so that people can pay those living expenses while they complete it. And it it is absolutely a a huge um boon to the candidates. I mean, as I've said before, I think we need to be screaming mountain tops. I mean, this is this is a huge opportunity and it it particularly for someone who's mid-career to be able to make that transition and forfeit pay for a period of time because

177you're right. I mean, my wife and I have similar situation. and we were fortunately married and I could financially support her during that time because she couldn't work, you know, when you're student teaching. So I and I think most people don't know that. Yeah. Unless they've gone through that process. It's a six-month period without pay. Yes. So most people cannot do that. Yes. And so to have this transition, this opportunity is huge. So that was my first point I want to make. Going back to slide six, um Marcel, I know you talked about Can I say one thing before because this is important to note too. So al alter it's an alternative certification program and there's several methods and pathways in the state of Washington to have an alternative certific certification pathway but at large

178when you look at the data uh of those candidates who go through alternative certification pathways they are often um your most diverse candidates in all ways not just in terms of race ethnicity but also in terms of income firstgen college graduates and it's you know to the point that you were both just talking about affordability of what it means to obtain ain a um certification through a traditional pathway. It just reduces some barriers for those who might need it most and really increases the diversity of representation of many types of people um not only career changers but also um from many different backgrounds. So uh as someone who spent most of their career managing alter and teacher preparation um I feel very passionate that this is a good pathway for us to be leveraging as

179a tool to enhance our workforce. Absolutely. and and also in an area where we need more special education teachers too. So this is also a way to to to to pull from that. Um, Marcel, just on slide six here, I wanted because I think there's there's a lot to this which is exciting too in terms of because you were al you were mentioning with the strategic plan um capturing feedback and I think that this is quite extensive in terms of the the list of of you know different groups that we're that we're reaching out to. Um, also you know just other nonprofits like this the schools foundation, the garage I just want to pinpoint which the garage is the teen center. I know we a lot of us think of it as just the garage,

180but there's probably a lot of folks that don't know what that is. Do you want to could you elaborate on that a little more? Like what does this look like or I know some of these, you know, to be determined, but what would that engagement or how how would you how do you envision that? So, I envision it looking similar to what so to build the plan. We reached out across the district. So, there were student clubs, uh there were student groups across the district, but also community groups, Kowanas, a lot of folks. So to me, it's going in a full circle to go back to the folks that you helped build the plan with to then ask, "Hey, how have you felt the impact of the plan or have or have you not felt

181the impact?" So it's more of like continuing the conversation. So this is not an exhaustive list. This is where we we're beginning right now in the spring and we're starting early. Um you know, we have another this is year two of the strategic plan. We'll have year three next year to implement, but we're just starting getting the jump start now to start asking the questions. So this will grow. And I would also invite, you know, folks from community, you know, reach out if there's other groups or other um, you know, community constituent groups that want to give impact or give um, uh, feedback to us. We're open to that. So, it's not, you know, this is not a set list that we're saying it's just these folks. It's it's really open to folks that are

182impacted by the plan and have an idea about where we might prioritize our efforts. Um, and the other thing I would say to this, it is impacted to the budget. Like what we prioritize is essentially where we place our financial resources. So it's important that we hear voices from a lot of different folks like you know what is support what is supporting their their students right so what's what's really supporting student outcomes. So um this is the list here but it can grow and it will continue to grow as we go forward and we're looking forward I I'll just say even um superintendent we've talked about just making our rounds you know going through you know school by school um on a road show. So again, these preliminary plans. I'm not trying to bake it,

183but we've talked about how can we be in those spaces um at some of the different events, some of the different uh building by building by building. So we know it's important that you know they see our leader in those spaces and they hear about like this is still important for us and we want to hear your voice. So again, this is the start and we'll continue in the fall to grow that list and continue the engagement. That that sounds great. U my last question, Sherry, this was one's for you on authentic engagement. Um the last uh slider or I guess slide 14, emerging areas of focus. I know um at the at the bottom there it talks about proactive initiatives centered on increasing enrollment. What what would that what does that look like? Um

184so so far I mean it um it can look like a lot of different things but um Julia and Marcel pulled together a group of uh thinkers in the district. that's that's anybody really. But um and ask them to kind of like go through a protocol where you really just think outside of the box like what are some strategies that we as a district could um deploy or employ um to to boost our enrollment back up. Um so one of the things that we're doing this year that we haven't done in the past that I'm aware of is that open enrollment for our um elementary schools. And so then Julia and Marcel brought that list of ideas. It was really just ideas at that point. It still is just a list of ideas back to

185the cabinet and we talked about and we used we did another um protocol where we used the dots to and so it's just really um thinking about like um we with fewer students have fewer dollars and we have schools that are sitting um some over capacity but some far under capacity. And so what are some strategies that we could deploy as a district? And like one of the things that my team is doing is looking at the online, you know, launching an online school as its own entity and would that draw students back. And then we have our re-engagement program with Stacy Cho. Um pulling kids that we've lost in our system back into our system um through the treny petitions and whatnot. So just really looking at anything we can do to bring students

186back. I don't know Heather if you want to add anything to that. That's great. And I know I've sort of talked a little bit about our enrollment work. It's one of those things where we should be looking we've been able to pull together lots of different data points and just give that dedicated time. So we'll be doing more engagement on that as we move forward into the next year. But when I think about a refresh of this strategic plan moving into the 26 and beyond school years, um we have an area of of significant focus. I mean, we know how we've been talking about um how we will see a dip, you know what I mean? We're planning for this dip right now, but it will it will also come back up. However, we still

187have a lot of things that we can do within our control to think about what are the needs of our families. Um why are the reasons maybe why some um folks have left our system? How do we stay competitive? um and make sure that we're offering the top-notch programming and opportunities that um we can but also where are the operational things that we can also just do do differently. So that is where we are and so that is an emerging area of focus and I would expect that to be prominent and I would um in our next sort of ongoing set of work. That's great. Thank you Director Taylor. Okay, I've got two comments. One which is very brief and then one which everyone's just going to have to bear with me because I'm going

188to pontificate. gonna pontificate because I want to talk a little bit about the philosophy of strategic plans and who doesn't want to talk about that. So, um first of all, I just want to say the WA teacher residency thing super super cool particularly that it's bringing people from outside the district into the district as potential uh teachers for us realizing how difficult recruiting is and all of those things. Super exciting. So, uh very excited to see that. Now, the bigger conversation for me. Um, if we go to page 10 and 11, and I I want to preface all this is that I real this isn't a criticism of priority area 4. Um, because I understand this is just a presentation. There's a lot of other stuff in the strategic plan and there's a lot of

189other work that's going on that, you know, didn't make it into the presentation. That's fine. But when I was reading this, it got me thinking. So, I looked at goal one and then I looked at goal two. And then when I looked at the lists of progress, it seemed to me that most of the things that were listed there fell more into the goal one area. And I thought, well, that's great. Goal one was being met. And then it made me think though I think I'm hoping long term when we are thought thinking about the strategic plan that we are having an allup view of the plan and being very honest about goals that are met and those that are not met because a strategic plan should be aspirational at some level. Um and it

190should be perfectly fine to set a goal that sometimes you don't meet and there can be a whole bunch of different reasons for that. things on the ground change, re uh financial resources weren't available, on and on and on. But if at the end we have a strategic plan where every goal is met, uh that's probably not an effective strategic plan because that just means you weren't aspirational enough. We didn't push ourselves as far as we could. Um and I don't have the answers to that, nor am I suggesting that's the case. But towards the end of the strategic plan, I hope we can get to the point where we have a 40,000 ft view that really says these goals were met, these were not. And then that fuels the conversations is to those areas

191that weren't met. I think we as a district could probably do a better job of trumpeting the things that we do well and that and the progress that we've made, but also the areas that we didn't meet should be the source of conversation as moving forward, right? Is that still a goal? Should it be a goal? why didn't we meet that so on and so forth. So, I when I read this, I just thought about that and I personally I don't know if it's long-term plans or not, but if there's a report card or something at the end of this process that gives me a view of how did we do overall because this is great. We're going in depth here, but I would like to uplevel it at some point. And if that already

192exists, my apologies. But anyway, those are just my kind of philosophical views on strategic planning and hope we can keep that kind of top of mind that it's okay to fail, it's okay to fall short, but let's be honest about that. Let's be honest to the community and say these are the areas that we can improve it. So that's all that I have. Thanks. Thank you, Naomi. So I do I do to your point I'm not going to remember where we said we would but I think we uh certainly have had conversations about what is our monitoring mechanism for the strategic plan. I just don't remember where we put it. It isn't uh it was in NS before results one results one. So, as I understand it, I'm double checking though, our goal was to

193do that all up monitoring of the strategic plan and its accomplishments or progress challenges in N's one monitoring. Is that still accurate? That's correct. So, our very first monitoring of ENS one or results one, which has not happened before, however, has been a longtime discussion of the board. How do we measure and or monitor the mission mission? And so that was a that was a a intentional pairing between um the strategic plan and and that results or the that mission statement which is results one. Um and so that is planned for the end of this year. We did the first one last year and I think at this point it will reflect like hey what do we actually find out? this actually is harder to to like tackle and here's why it became bigger than

194maybe what we intended originally when we had the the goal and the strategy created and crafted or actually scope and scale-wise or grain size this one was actually much more tactical and actually we were able to knock it out of the park pretty quickly and so therefore there's not a need to have that be ongoing um but this else this other thing did emerge so um that that will be shared and I think is part of your desire to have more progress and I look forward to that. I would just say that perhaps before we get into all the words that tell me all of that, a graphical representation would be fantastic. A report card, something of that nature. That's just and that then would allow me to dive into those areas. Yeah, that's a

195great great point. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, now Naomi, thank you for your patience. Um, I have two things. Um, one of them, apologies if you've already mentioned it. Um, but on some of the on some of the slides you me there's uh terms listed as classified staff and certified staff. I'm not sure what the differences or what they are really. Could you define those for me? Yeah, absolutely. So, our certificated staff hold a teaching license or they might have an educational services. I never remember what ESA stands for. That's an acronym that does not stick for me. I apologize. But our school counselors, for example, hold ESAs even though they are not classroom teachers. they can are considered certificated and other staff are who do not have to have a certificate to hold their

196job and have that position are considered classified. Okay. And then thank you for that. And then I just want to bring back um something one of our public commenters brought up today and focused on was that diversity is not just race. And I think that's um it's something that's been on my mind lately and I think that's something that we need to put a focus on as well. Um I realized that you guys prepared for this presentation before today. Um but yeah, just keeping in mind and like in future presentations and like reports, it would be really interesting to see um if if our focus is student and community engagement, it would be really interesting to see how many of our staff members um who work with our students um have like ADHD, have dyslexia,

197um have different socioeconomic statuses. Um, and I realize not all these things are something that staff or like we can have people like share. Um, but it would be pretty cool to see that cuz um, in recent years I've realized that not all of my teachers are like uh, quote unquote normal. a lot of them um are like like last year I had my I realized my first one of my teachers um was dyslexic and he shared this he shared that with us and it was like oh that's that was kind of like an aha moment like I didn't realize teachers could be dyslexic and I think that's something that a lot of our students don't seem to realize and it would be great because some of our students have dyslexia and then having seeing

198people who are educators who have careers who are good at learning and teaching um who have the same disability or learning uh challenges they as them can reach those positions. I think that's really important. Thank you. Um I think for me the um Sydney had asked a question earlier on an earlier topic when we were talking about sustainability to what end and so when I looked at at the goal one for authentic engagement you know it's basically designing the model to engage in and the goal was around um uh yeah if you can bring it up because the goal is around uh listening and following up on input. And so it just led me to that question to what end? Um so something to think about when we're re-evaluating the goals um in the future,

199what we might want to do in a future plan is what what do we hope to happen? Because again, we can be listening. What does it mean to follow up? How will we be tracking that portion of that piece of the goal? So when creating the model um it is great that there's going to be a resource like here's how you here's the types of ways you can engage. So I think it's getting to that to what end that will be important for me to see as a measurement. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. And so then the next item on next item on our agenda Yeah. Sorry, I'm sorry to do this, but could I just go back to the last topic for a second? Sure. So, I I I love the idea of

200greater representation outside of race in what we talk about. I think it is important to also note that there are numerous studies that show that student performance is better when students learn for and see those who look like them. So I think it's really important that we we should have a goal when we have a staff that the proportion of that staff that looks like our students is way out of whack. that that is a problem to be solved and that we then have other problems we can also solve which is other forms of diversity, other forms of representation, matching of experience. But we should not shy away from the fact that many many many studies over many years have indicated that student performance and excellence is improved by being taught by those who look

201like them. Thank you. I'm glad we did not overlook that legislative matter. Yes. Uh I don't actually have a whole lot uh because I was at the conference this week. I actually missed the last legislative update uh call with the WASA folks. So apologies for that. Um just a couple things. Um both the special education and MSOC bills that came over uh passed by the Senate, came over to the House, went into committee for the House, have now passed out of committee and are going to the rules committee, but I they were both amended and I apologize. I just do not have updates on what the amendments were um this afternoon. I ran out of time to look into it. So, but I do know that they're on the way to the rules committee. Uh

202I have a hunch they were paired down, but I don't know that for sure. And um I I I noted earlier with the capital levies and non-voted bonds legislation allowing districts to use non-voted bonds if they have a capital levy in order to finance project to get that upfront funding. Um there is an amendment to that bill that would require school districts to um give up their scap funding. So, um I think that's unfortunate, but we'll just see uh if that carries the day or or not, and I think there will be some opportunities to uh testify one way or another in that regard. So, I think that is all I have for right now. It sounds to me like the state wants any opportunity to not fund. Yes. And to give Yeah. Take back

203money. Yes. Oh, you want to collect something locally? Yes. Then we're not going to give you anything. No, but we already had voters say that they were going to give us this money and SCAP is a part of that. Oh, but you want it early, which is bonding, which actually it makes no sense that it would be any type of double dipping. We're going to take away our your less than 1% financing for your high school project. Yeah. Yes. Exactly. And just tonight, we um Martin Turney Oh, just tonight, Martin Turner sent off to um uh committee chair, Senator, is it Yasmine Trudeau? um a note saying that we do not we support the front funding bill in its original form without the amendment on um removing scap funding if you are going to use

204that mechanism and any of us that have time tomorrow should send a similar note I'll for just did it tonight so I'll for it on thank you yeah I actually have a yeah something that could be used as well okay next item on the agenda is announcements and correspondence so there is a list of uh correspondents that the board has received. Are there any other correspondence items um or announcements? Great. Yeah, perfect. I was just going to do a quick little announcement, not more of a reflection. Um but I had an opportunity to sit in on um senior interviews at Skyline since the last meeting and I had the opportunity prior to the last board meeting to sit in on isqua high um uh senior interviews. Uh unfortunately I couldn't make the liberty senior interviews

205but I just exit interviews but I just wanted to mention how blown away I am by our students. You see it full circle um and just um really impressed by all of our students many you know um and um our staff too. I I think all of our our our staff that has helped our their these students get to this point. Um it's pretty impressive. So, I just wanted to show that very proud. Yeah, I think several of us were able to do uh senior exit interviews. Um I have to believe my takeaway though is that we have a lot of opportunity to provide better um outcomes for students who are not going directly to college. and that if they're not going directly to college, we fall short of providing them what they need to

206support their families immediately upon graduation. And so I think that to me continues to be some of the work um that needs to be done as we're looking at um expansions of programming down at Liberty that you mentioned. Um and as we look at what happens inside um the building of the new high school that we talked about today. um that that has to be something we have to find an urgency uh for supporting our students that will need the opportunity to provide for their families uh without having a college education. Okay. Uh next is calendar and agenda uh top future agenda topics. So, um, this is always the fun part, me trying to figure out all the things that I need to go through. So, the schoolboard candidate workshop is going to be um

207from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on April 23rd, which is coming up soon, um, in the boardroom. It will be hosted with by directors Matt Coin and AJ Taylor. Um and I and I believe with a wholly updated or upto-date uh workbook. Yes. Um the is it uh schools foundation nourishing every mind nourish every mind which they came and presented. Um I know that I will be attending direct. Yes. Can I mention something on the I guess I have a question on the first one. on the first item. Um, just thinking of when you two were both became directors. Do do you need any help or guidance on the format of those sessions historically? Yeah. I mean, if you I don't know if you I don't know if that's already been discussed or I know I

208got covered. Yeah. I mean, if you have any feedback, absolutely. I mean, I I think our only exposure to it was the one we went to. Yeah. We would just emulate what happened to for us two years ago. Did you have an Ann and Suzanne session? Yes, we did. Okay. And as long as you I just want to make sure you feel like you Yeah. But I think anything Yeah. But if you have anything you think would be helpful because you only we only know what we know from that if there's anything No, they're the gold standard. They're very good. Yes. And they may be open to a phone call of just what they were using as their Yeah. agenda this great idea. Yeah. Yeah. I just want to make sure. But if anyone else

209has ideas, please let us know because I um want to make sure to incorporate that. Yes. So, thank you. Yeah. Um, yes. So, I think yeah, if you do need anything, I'm sure that um Ann or Suzanne would probably be open to having a a brief conversation. Yes. Very good. Um, so the Isiqua Schools Foundation, I know I am going Director Coin has a table. So, we've we've got a pretty full one. So, I think we need to take board action to let the public know that we will be in attendance there. No action will be taken during that time frame. Uh, but do I hear a motion? I move the board attend the Isiqua Schools Foundation Nourish Every Mind Student Showcase on May 1, 2025 at 12 p.m. at the Isiqua Community Center. Second.

210Any discussion? Hearing no objections, the motion passes. Um I'm using that because we can actually do that more often. The ACT graduation will be on June 13th. Again, great presentation. I'm excited to attend that. Um, I think we will have a quorum of the board at that as well. So, we will need a motion. We will also need tissues because I cry every time. Absolutely. I move the board attend axe graduation ceremony on June 13th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. at Gibson E High School. Second. Any objections? Without objection, the motion passes. Uh, July 10th, 2025 board meeting. we do need to adjust or possibly adjust the start time. Um, usually our July meeting is via Zoom. Um, usually it is early in the morning to get it over with. It is a consent agenda only

211unless something horrible and atrocious happens and we have to actually have a big full meeting which I would like to not do. So, we need to know number one, do we have at least three people who are available July 10th? I I am unavailable. I will be out of the country. I am I am available at any hour of the day or night. I am available. I can make myself available for a brief consent agenda only daytime session. That sounds like a quorum. The par parameters have been set. Is there a time frame for a start? I'll leave it to to city. I mean I I I'm free all morning and I'm free. Yeah, I can do it anytime. Um, is there a time that might be too early? I would love to early riser.

212Early riser 8 a.m. Would that be too early? That is up to staff. I have a puppy that gets up at 5:30. So really now a days. Anytime is good for me. [Laughter] only for 10. Is that too Is that too early? I mean, we can I I believe we've done it around 10:00 in the in the past on on a summer on the July date. My conflict begins at 9:30 that day. You have a lunchtime break at all. It's it's goes on. Uh, is this something you could do in the car while driving because you will have reviewed the consent agenda prior to the meeting? I mean, if we could accomplish it as late as a 9 or 9:15 starts. Yes, I think a 9:00 start. 9:00 start. That sounds that sounds great. We'll

213make it work. Okay, wonderful. Um, just use your hands free. So, I always use my hands free. So, I move the board adjust the start time of the Am I on the wrong one? No, that's the right one. Uh, it says July 20th. July. It is July 10th. Okay. I move the board adjust the start time of the July 10, 2025 regular board meeting from 6:00 p.m. to 900 a.m. and it will be held over Zoom. Second. Are there any objections? Without objection, the motion passes. Uh, and then we have school improvement plans, uh, scheduling for fall. I think I would like to wait until Dr. Gallinger is back so that we can do that with him at the next board meeting. I agreed. Sounds good. Okay. So, with that, is there anything else that

214we want on the um, as a future agenda topic? I believe that next board meeting we have an emergency monitoring that was requested at the last board meeting that will be on this uh the next board meeting. Correct. The emergency monitoring for operational expectation 14 is slated for the second meeting in May. Okay, perfect. Um anything else? No. Just want to look back at my event information then we are adjourned. Thank you.