Issaquah School District Board Meeting 3/27/2025

001Thank you, Jen Fitzgerald. Um, this is a fun night. Under our district's coherent governance model, the school board's primary role is to develop a clear vision and mission that defines the div desired outcomes for our students known as results. This involves identifying what we want students to know and be able to do and how we measure their progress toward these goals. So tonight we have an opportunity to celebrate our mission in action. Each spring, a senior from Isiziqua High School, Liberty High School, Skyline, and Gibson is nominated to attend a board meeting and extend a special invitation to our board for their upcoming June commencement ceremonies. In alignment with the district's mission and to personalize the invitation, staff from each school have nominated a senior who uh exemplifies one of the district's results, formerly known

002as ends, which will be posted behind me as we kind of move through here. after they share a brief statement about after they're introduced, they'll share a brief statement statement about their post high school path paths. So, first up from Skyline, Risha Anamalo. Risha, come on up. This is what her nominator had to say. Risha has been an integral part of Skyline ASB for the past four years. As senior class president, she has been deeply dedicated to her classmates, striving to make their high school experience enjoyable and memorable. Her efforts of advocacy and thoughtfully representing student voice have helped shape a strong sense of community within the Skyline class of 2025, ensuring that these years will be cherished for a lifetime. Hi, I'm Risha Anumolu and after high school I am currently planning on attending

003Indiana University at the Kelly School of Business and I am planning on majoring in information systems. Thank you. Next up from Gibson X representing results two part two. Hava Alhorn. Come on up Hava. Hava has been a leader at Gibson X since she stepped foot on campus as a freshman. She is a deep thinker who listens to understand and acts with empathy. Hava has helped to restructure our school ASP to better meet the needs of our unique campus. She's been a student rep for the school board since her junior year. With a passion for education policy, Hava continues impactful work on school district projects through her internship with Marcel Hower, the school district senior adviser and strategist. Hava. Hello. Um, after high school, I will be leaving for 18 months in January to serve a

004religious mission. And when I get back, I will be going to BYU Idaho to most likely study public policy and administration. And next from Isiqua High School representing results three civic engagement, Matthew Fiser. Matthew is nominated due to his outstanding leadership, commitment to sustainability, and deep involvement in civic life, both at the school and in the district level. As ASB president, a student representative on the district's bond committee, and a key advocate for sustainable initiatives like water bottle filling stations, Matthew has consistently demonstrated the ability to engage respectfully and effectively with a wide range of stakeholders, including peers, administrators, and community leaders. His efforts align closely with the district's civic engagement criterion, which emphasizes informed participation, ethical leadership, and collaborative pro problem solving for the common good. Matthew's kindness, resilience, and drive to serve others

005embody the spirit of responsible and impactful citizenship that the school district seeks to foster. Hi, u my name is Matthew Fischer. Um, I've had the privilege of being able to work with the school board on a lot of things that were mentioned um than the introduction. Um, but in um, um, post high school plans in college, I'm I'm planning to attend the University of Washington um, to study environmental engineering um, to hopefully continue being able to um, inspire a sustainable future in our local area. And our last nominee is from Liberty High School, results four. Come on up, Gregory Shine. Gregory was nominated due to his outstanding qualities both inside and outside of the classroom. Gregory is an active and dedicated member of FCCLA. Always bringing a positive attitude and strong leadership skills to every

006project. He recently attended the state competition and won the silver state finalist in the job interview category. Congratulations. Gregory Gregory consistently shows empathy toward his peers, offering support and kindness to anyone in need. He's never afraid to take on challenges or difficult tasks with a can do attitude. He approaches every situation with a growth mindset, always looking for constructive feedback. Gregory is a fierce advocate for others, standing up when witnessing any form of injustice, including racist or inappropriate behavior, and speaking out to ensure that all students feel safe and valued. Gregory inv embodies the values of respect, resilience, leadership, making him an exemplary mo role model for his peers. All right, thank you. Hi, I'm Gary Shine. As I said, I'm a senior from Liberty High School. I'm really thankful again for the Isqua School

007District 411 for inviting me to this today. And as for my post high school plans, I plan on attending Bubby College to finish my um required courses and then I want to go to a college after to pursue my passion in film, voice acting, and storytelling. Thank you. And then Greg, on behalf of the 2025 ISD senior classes and my fellow nominees, it is my honor to invite you to our commencement ceremonies. Perfect. Thank you so much. It is a privilege to have you come and uh share with us and I can see things going on over there. So I wanted to find out. Okay. Uh but thank you so much. We um are thankful for the invitation and we will determine which one of us is going to speak at um each of your

008high school graduations. Did we want to do that now or at a later time? Well, we we can do that now. So I have on the first one I have on the list is Isiqua High School and Harling Gallinger. Okay. And then at Skyang I I would like to take that one. That was my recollection. Yes. Thank you. I appreciate it. Uh, Liberty. I think I said I was really looking forward to doing that. I've done Gibson a ton of times. Um, so it's been a while and then Gibson. I will happily do Gibson. Great. Okay. So that's going to be your your speakers and we uh look forward to attending your commencement and as always that word is beginning. So it will be the beginning of the next steps for you. So thank you

009so much for coming today. And next item on well a continuation of the public comment is for um public input. And let me make sure I read this. Public comment is an opportunity for the board to receive public statements on items not listed on the meeting agenda for possible board action. If you have a point of view for a specific agenda item, uh such as item six, monitoring reports result three, civic engagement, I'll ask that you hold your comment until that particular agenda item. And if you want to talk about multiple items and that is one of them, you can talk about your other items now and then wait for the um time that we have uh civic engagement to talk about that item. Public comment time is not intended to raise an issue unique

010to a particular student, staff member or administrator. Rather, it is your time to provide your insights on issues more generally and of wide a wider concern. As a general rule, the board will not respond to com public comment. I ask you to begin your comments by clearly stating your name and your attendance area. Please limit your comments to two minutes. We will be using a timer and a buzzer. Uh the board neither endorses nor censors any opinions expressed during public comment. Please keep your comments civil and respectful. Avoid personal attacks on others in place of applause. You can acknowledge by a speaker by lifting your hands in a waving motion. Although we didn't do that with our students because they really rock and we had to applaud them. Um we will start public comment with

011those in the room and then go to those whose hands are raised on Zoom. And if you did not sign up for public comment but are in the room or on Zoom and still want to add something, I'll call on you once we get through those that have uh signed up. So first I have Chinme uh Nagar Nagar and I'm sorry for the misprononunciation and the fact that I need my glasses. You did great. It's okay. So, uh, thank you for giving me the opportunity. Um, this is my first time speaking at a school board. Um, I have two minutes. I guess it starts now. So, um, again, thank you for organizing these things. Um, I'm here today because I'm deeply concerned about a couple of issues. Um, I want to talk right now about

012AI and admin um, overhead. So um first I would like to understand I'm here as much to learn as to maybe get a comment from you. Um what is your AI policy regarding um AI training for teachers to reduce their workload uh to help with lesson planning to help with personalized education uh for uh extra students with extra abilities or students with special needs because I believe that if we don't do something about this now and we continue to work with the mantra of uh no child left behind we will end up leaving all children to suffer equally in the process. We need to get on with the tools like Brisk for instance that are out there in the market. We need to start experiment experimenting with them and uh have a policy which I

013haven't seen yet but if there is one I would like to understand what that looks like. Uh second um I want to ask um what the admin overhead is in the from the general fund. My understanding it's about 20% or more. um about 60% for instruction, the rest for uh school lunch program and so on. Um I believe that again in this age of automation and AI, we should aim to reduce administration overhead and take those funds and transfer them over to uh both instruction uh teacher uh training as well as tools or or vendor uh expenses. So um that's my second question and comment and my uh final question I'm out of time so next time and you can always email the board we do email and and um it gives us an opportunity

014to respond or have staff respond to and I will come back to the civic engagement later. Great. Thank you. Next I have Zachary Hines. Hello. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. All right. Sorry. Uh, hello. I'm Zach Hines. I'm a freshman at Liberty High School. Uh, I'm very interested in the student rep program today. This is my first meeting and I've just in the past couple months, I've learned a lot from this program. I've learned a lot from what Chris has taught me. I first knew nobody at LHS when I first joined. Uh Chris from Cross Country brought me in and helped me learn more about this program and what it has accomplished. Today I would like to talk about how the forms that Chris recently set up in the past couple months has helped

015me find a voice. I believe that these forms and continuing these forms on a bi-weekly or monthly basis will help others find their voice at LHS and other high schools in Isiqua. Additionally, for the student rep program, I believe that it's an amazing program that I would love to be more interested in and I believe that uh the the showcasing of what this form or program has like produced for those at LHS. I believe it's been a massive success throughout my time or in the past couple weeks. I've seen a lot of people reach out to Kesh and say, "Hey, I want to do this program." I believe that this type of influence has made sure that people understand the opportunities that they are given to and I believe in continuing this and even showcasing

016what our pro or this program has to offer will be a massive success and long term. I would just like to say I'm very excited for the opportunity to speak. I originally 10 minutes ago I had no idea what I was gonna talk about but now I feel like I can be a part of Isiqua and be uh heard in a different way. So thank you very much. Thank you. Are there any hands raised uh on Zoom uh and wanted to open up if there was anyone else in the room that wanted to say give provide public input. Okay, seeing none, thank you so much. We do appreciate hearing from um students, parents, and community members about our programs and the needs therein. Uh next is the approval of the consent agenda. So I will

017open it to a motion. I move the consent agenda be approved as presented. Second. Seeing a motion and second, all in favor say I. I. I any opposed? The eyes have it. Next is the establishment of the regular agenda. And just to be clear, the um our online abilities will end at 10 p.m. So, I want to make sure that there's nothing added to the regular agenda. There's nothing added to the regular agenda and I hope we can meet that technology cut off point. Well, it's an open public meeting and part of that is open to the public virtually. So we will be done before 10:00. Uh next item is a report out of our day on the hill. So um last Monday, it seems has it only been since last Monday? Um last Monday

018the board and four of our students attended or actually went down to Olympia and met with a number of our legislators. Um so I wanted to give a opportunity for first for the students to share a little bit about their experience and then to the board. So Chris, would you like to start? Sure. Thank you so much. Um first of all, when we went down there, I was expecting, you know, to uh kind of listen in on the conversation. So when I was told by the board that I was going to be speaking, I was like, first of all, what? And so it was a big jump, but the experience was overall really positive. I enjoyed it a lot getting to speak with uh my local representatives and seeing that they shared the same passion

019and concerns on some issues we brought up. The topic I spoke about was special education. And so I was able to relay a personal story, one about a bunny, which I I have here today with me. Um and so I seeing that a lot of legislators connected with me about this uh and you know agreed with me that about special education the funding required across the state was extremely important. One of the biggest takeaways and things I love the most was um actually Senator Ramos coming out after uh we met with him once and then he came to us right as we were about to leave uh and gave us an update. So that really made me that opened my eyes because initially I thought you know I was like the government moves pretty slowly

020but seeing you know how quickly it came back to us you know really meant a lot. So it was it was overall positive experience and I enjoyed it a lot. So thank you so much for allowing me to attend. Hi um I think there was so so much to take away from our day on the hill. It was such a wonderful unique experience that I wish all of the reps got to do. It was it was so unfortunate that everybody didn't get to go. Um because man was so wonderful. I got to speak about my own personal experience. I got to hear my fellow reps do some amazing public speaking to the reps that took their time for us, which man, isn't that a wonderful thing to be able to make an impact on your

021community, not even just at this scale, but at an even bigger scale. And I think I I have some doubts personally about like how much I can really do. And so it was so wonderful to see that my voice matters and it was it it was an important takeaway and I I come back from that day on the hill with a a renewed kind of enjoyment for my my role and just being here and feel like I'm able to make a difference if I truly put my heart to it. And I I hope that that was everything that we all expected it to be because it certainly was for me. Um, I think I definitely echo what um, my fellow student representatives and Milo said. I think the experience, it really emphasized how important our

022role is and just seeing how much our voice matters and seeing our representatives and senators take into account what we were saying and um actually even act on it immediately like what Trisha was saying like Senator Ramos, he came back to us right away um looking at the information we were providing him and to know that what we say might actually contribute to some policy changes like um I was speaking on the majority ority vote and then also special education like those are such important issues and to be able to advocate for those at a larger scale just meant so much and I'm so grateful that we were able to be there at day on the hill. Thank you for that. Right. Thank you. And I think um there were some of my takeaways was

023helping the students be better prepared. So I love the ch the fact that we got an opportunity early to have you go through what you were going to say. So it kind of broke the ice on that and helped you with your flow. Um, I think next year one of the things I realized is we need to probably be better at making sure you know who you're talking to so that you know that. By the way, uh, Representative Kalen was a former school board member here. Um, and I'm about to have a coughing fist, so I will whichever. Um, it was a great day. Uh, I just first of all want to thank our students. You guys did a great job. You really did. incredibly you're incredibly well spoken, poised. Uh the legislators are very

024engaged with you folks. So you did a fantastic job. Um and I think you know uh also Milo to uh the point you were making. I really do believe that the legislators listen to the stories that you have to say and they absorb that and know that the stories and personal reflections are what really register with our legislators because that's they they need that information. They need to know, you know, what's going on in their community. So, um, overall, I thought you guys did a great job. I did just want to mention one other thing, too. It was our first opportunity to have interaction with Representative Z, um, from Belleview in the 41st. And, um, I was very thankful for her time. She seemed incredibly engaged as well, interested in education issues. Clearly, she's learning

025because she was just recently appointed to the to the role. Um, and I was thankful for the time that we had with her. I thought that was a good interaction. And then overall, you know, I've we're very fortunate that we have universal support amongst our legislators for educational funding issues in particular. And now we're just going to be in the in the position of waiting to see what levels of funding we're going to we're going to receive. But I'm I'm still very optimistic that we're going to see some good outcomes out of this session. Um, so I think a couple things are important. I think previously we've done a different format of the day on the hill which is being there when every other set of school directors in the state are there and there's

026kind of this long line of everyone with their with their talking points. So I was actually really um happy for this version to have been on a day that was separate from that. I think the amount of focus and attention went up because of that. Um so I think that format if we are choosing going forward uh legislative rep I I think that was a very positive approach. I think um and because of that we were able to fit in such a wide variety of people cover um so many of the folks who represent of represent us at the state level in different roles all in a fairly short period of time. I think we started at 8 and I was in my car by like 11:30 having spoken to a number of people. So,

027I just think it was a really great use of time I think for our student reps who were fabulous. Hopefully, the lesson you took away is there's a lot you can communicate in a very short period of time um while still communicating the topic you had prepped for, but also sharing about you and your experience and making a genuine connection. And so, you know, I think Senator Wellman kind of connecting Dashidita with you about your desire to go into business, right? These are people who've had careers and made lots of choices. So, it gives you guys a real insight into potential, which I think is um is really important. And I think um the other thing maybe I'd say about the student reps is I think you guys did a really nice job of your

028topics building on each other and that you got even better at that as the day went on of sort of realizing how to how to draw a thread through the even though you were covering three or four different topics. making nice nice and seemingly quite smooth connection points between well why does it matter um what the the percentage of approval for a bond is? How does that tie to how we use other funds within the district's maybe special education? What does that mean for um some of the legislation that was moving quite quickly about property use? And so, um, hopefully that's something that you guys take with you is there's really a short, it really only takes a short period of time to both connect human to human but also to land your point. So,

029I thought it was uh uh my favorite day on the hill. Thank you, Director Coin. I know you're on the screen, but I don't want to miss you. Well, thank you. It was great to hear all of the comments, particularly um the students experiences. I unfortunately was not able to make it but um I think being there obviously is impactful and spending that that time face to face with our elected officials and I think they enjoy hearing from students and I think that it it's it's an impactful message that we send and I think um the idea of actually having this separate from the coordinated you know day on the hill with all the other districts is an interesting idea. I I would agree. Even though I couldn't go last Monday, I think it would

030be effective to think about doing that going forward. I can see that it would give us more opportunity in a short amount of time because I know when I did attend last year, it was a longer day and and it sounds to me like we probably had fewer conversations. So, I think that that's an interesting concept to think about going forward. So, thank you, Superintendent. Uh, great. I I want to say thank you um to our student representatives who who joined. And we also got some quality car time to uh connect and um and and chat about all things. Um and I want to say thank you to Emily Emily Lee here for coordinating all those meetings because they did line up as director Mulling said very nicely and in a compact manner um with

031also some room right to flex as well. So, thank you Emily for the logistical support and to Marcel Hower and Martin Tney for their backup support as well, not only as um uh transportation providers, but also as support to the students and to the board as needed. So, it was a great day and I agree. Um I like deteing it from all the other people going today on the hill because it gave us I think more focus and attention with our legislators. Okay, great. Thank you so much. Uh, next on our agenda is works in progress. Great. Thank you. So, I'm going to start off with some public service announcements. So, I think what was top of mind for me this morning certainly and later last night was weather and there was a question of

032like what happened yesterday because I was expecting some emails to say, hey, um, you know, the weather turned out to be not as bad. But we do know that uh there were some significant storm warnings that didn't quite materialize in the same way as they as um our forecasters were expecting. But I do think with the recent bomb cyclone and all the all that talk around the uh warning was quite serious because the weather was unusually warm and so that did mean that we would potentially have significant thunderstorms. Um and then there was a forecasting of of lightning, hail, and a poss possible tornado. So um you know, all the school districts in this area certainly did take that very seriously and heated that for uh the sake of both student and staff safety. Um

033and we're grateful that it was not as severe. Um although we did all hear in this area that loud boom in the early afternoon which I think let people feel like something was um coming. So I'm glad it was not as severe and I'm grateful for that because that would have you know been damaging for potentially um property but also delays in and possible service for um um power. So that's number one. Uh my second public service announcement is about um some vaccinations. So we are holding a vaccine clinic for MMR here. I want to thank Laura Carmichael for that. um as she coordinates on our behalf. That's going to be uh next Wednesday, April 2nd, um from 7 to 11:00 a.m. at the first floor in this building. And that's available for staff members

034and their family members to be invited to sign up. Um so that's uh an important thing to to say right now because that's is something that's a public health um concern across the country. Um some key activities this past week. Uh over the past week, I've had lots of time with superintendent colleagues both locally and nationally as we seek to ensure we are learning from each other about all the different federal changes, legislative matters locally and how we all need to continue to lead in our own communities at this moment in time in partnership with our boards and our staff and our and our students. Um, on Tuesday night, I joined Director Coin at the Clark Elementary School PTA meeting, which was well attended um by by all accounts from the PTA president and the

035principal. Um, and a good opportunity to continue to um get to know our various PTA leaderships uh in their school site and in their in their terms. Yesterday I met with um the secretary of DCYF, the new newly appointed secretary of DCYF um secretary Sen while she and some team her team members visited Echo Glenn. Uh Dr. Bailey and I joined Principal Allison Ilgen Fritz as she presented the work that she and the team there on site do to provide a highquality educational experience uh right now to the current uh residents in the number of 103. Um there are so many wins for our students on that campus especially in support of ensuring that there are um strong mechanisms to provide specially designed instruction as more than 50% of the students on that campus currently

036have an IEP in place and just for context Washington state has uh 15% of uh our students in Washington state have an IEP and is just over 10%. So that gives you a context of um the needs there. Um, I also met yesterday with newly appointed um, Isiqua City Council uh, city council member Kelly Jiang who actually grew up in Samish and now lives in Isiqua. And so she will not be able to join next Monday's engagement with Isiqua's mayor, city council, and the school board um, but is already engaged in asking some great questions. So I know she's looking forward to meeting the schoolboard members um, and many other members of our team in the future. And then finally, we did have an entrance meeting for the performance audit for special education yesterday. Okay.

037And again, director Coin joined that on behalf of um the board, but many members of our team uh led by Dr. Shireen Carver um were participating and that was actually an entrance meeting including all the other districts that were also participating um in this performance audit. So I think there's a lot of questions and you know it's not something we typically are participating in, but um I think that's why it'll be good to continue to report out in that process moving forward. Uh some key initiatives and efforts of our strategic plan. Uh I will say that the 2025 uh 2026 budget development is very top of mind for us right now. Uh it is underway in terms of planning and development and given the current context of our economic climate. Um we will not likely

038be able to do as much as we aspire this year because we have to take a more conservative approach and so we are adjusting. Our team has been working hard and diligently to think of the ways we can always improve our work. And so I think what we knew and what we were planning for and thinking about going into this calendar year um is just going to have to be adjusted and different. So we won't lose sight of those good ideas. In fact, we'll note those as we continue to march through the next set of um months, years so that we don't lose sight of those good ideas, but we we know that we have to uh meet and con and do our budgeting and the constraints that we currently have and pro project forward

039in a way that's um fiscally conservative. Um, our team, uh, our cabinet team conducted another school visit this week at Pacific Cascade Middle School with a focus on supporting our students of color. And I want to thank Elena Cividasawson for her leadership in facilitating the professional learning for our cabinet to engage through this lens and for the principles and assistant principles to engage their staff through that lens as well. A special shout out to principal Jeff McGawan and assistant principal Casey Suki for hosting this first site site visit um through that lens and really just the entire PCMS community for welcoming us to visit classrooms um and see student learning. Uh hiring is in full swing and Donna Hood's team in human resources is quite busy and to highlight some key administrative positions, we have

040posted an assistant superintendent position and we'll soon be posting a director position to backfill for the retirement of Kathy Crop and um as I think we've been talking about quite a bit um both on the board but also in the community, we are needing to bring um an executive level position to our team to bring together the technology and information business aspects of our work and to drive greater cohesion and IT transformation. I think as we heard in the public comment actually that IT um delivery as well as the um rise of more automation that can help actually humans do our jobs better, more effectively, more efficiently so that we can better serve students and families. So that is something that is on the radar. This board has been talking quite a bit about that

041over the past couple years. Um, and as we do continue to think about uh innovation, last night um I want to share that um at the spring convening of Digital Promises League of Innovative Schools, which was held in Pennsylvania, I did not go because this was a board meeting week and um we did announce or it was announced in our behalf that we will be co-hosting the convening next year, which is likely March of 2026, in partnership with the Kent School District. Um, Digital Promises League of Innovative Schools is a national network of school districts that connects and supports the most forward-thinking leaders in education. So, it is a good it it is a recognition of the good work here in Isiqua over time and innovation and forward thinking. Um, and just a huge appreciation

042to Julia Bamba from our team and then our partners in Kent include associate superintendent Rebecca Kim um, who actually is also a parent of students in the district and superintendent Israel Veila for their partnership. They did carry the water for us as part of being on site there to make the announcement and brought some Seattle type things to make uh the group feel very excited. Um so it happened to be some Starbucks type things and maybe some pictures of Seahawks as well. So um that's great and we're looking forward to that next year. And then as part of the strategic plan engagement, Marcel Hower today led a re-engagement session with the PTSA general counsel and so you'll hear more a little bit about that. And we also launched the um capital project oversight committee which

043you'll also hear a little bit more in a future agenda topic later this evening. And then finally just I want to focus and close with a couple of items that are happening that are great about our high schools. And so really proud of the work that um Sher Cox says to lead that and all of our high school principles. And so one of the things that is important to note is that the the board did recently look at um the number of Fs that students have earned for a semester and that actually has dropped year-over-year. So compared to last year that has dropped. So we've actually seen an improvement in that area. And and specifically at Isiqua High School, um they dug deeper into the into the data and noticed that the number of Fs

044declined by 19% in biology for students with disabilities, over 10% in history, US history for our um uh bipok students, and 36% for multilingual students in US history. and then over 20% in both algebra 1 and geometry for our bipok students. So, um those are helpful markers to show, you know, where we're making some progress. Um at Liberty High School, 38 students participated in the state theater festival. Um the whole theater department won gold honor status, which is the highest rating for the variety of events they produce every year. And u many students won um individual awards as well. Um all middle school and high schools are completing have completed the course request process. And so students at Skyline enrolled in AP courses for the first time. Um, and that's a really important note because

045that's something that the board has been uh talking about and we're implementing now. Um, and that's uh fully in action and there will be a multi-year continued process on that, but we have a starting point. Um and then Echo Glenn, I did share some of the wins there as part of our time um on campus yesterday, but uh there are many more students earning their GEDs. And uh one student in particular is uh planning to attend a four-year college university after their time um on that campus. And um tomorrow night, some Gibson X students will partner with Trout Unlimited, the Snowqualami Tribe, and Green Isiqua um to host a community event. So I think one of our students also won um the community the city of Isiqua community environmental award and I think her name

046is Mina Jun. So um I see Milo having a positive reaction over there. Uh but that's uh always so great to see our students being recognized by other agencies for their leadership um on really important topics. So that's it for me and I wanted to just make sure I got to end with highlighting what's happening in um our students and school lives. Great. Thank you. So, next on the agenda is capital projects and capital projects oversight committee updates. Great. I'll just turn over to to Tom, but I wanted to say thank you first and foremost because Tom Mullins as part of this update um launched the very first um committee um to provide capital projects oversight. And that set of community members have very different viewpoints within the group and they come from all different

047backgrounds of expertise as it relates to construction, design, engineering and finances and architecture. and they have a wealth of expertise. Their their very detailed questions uh certainly showed their um intellectual capital that they're bringing to our team and so we much appreciated it and so the whole team of both finance capital projects and communications were there to support and are leaning in. Um and you know I'll chime in as needed about what we kind of heard from that but uh I'll turn it over to you. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Um Tom Mullins, director of capital projects. give you a quick update on capital projects and the capital projects oversight committee superintendent to just talked about we'll review the 2018 critical repairs levy 22 critical repairs levy we have some other capital projects going on

048also and the recap critical repairs 2018 we're winding that down um as uh and hope to be complete with almost every project closed by the end of the summer. Um, see the statistics there. The 22 capital levy we are working on. Well, here's some of the projects. I'm sorry. Here's some of the projects and their status and and actual projected completion dates for the 2018 2022 levy. We're working through. We've got quite a few projects. Most of them are in process. We have one in future project which is the um lead testing in the water that hasn't been touched yet. That's being held until we uh actually are required to do that testing. Things are going good there. Um other projects we uh continue to explore options for the new high school. Um some one

049of the larger general fund projects we're working on the Beaver Lake Middle School elevator modernization. Um we also working through some grant opportunities and we've been awarded uh an OSPI per square foot to help pay for investment grade audits at the Skyline High School and Liberty High School. And then we also received a department of commerce grant for um some work for the clean buildings performance standards at Isiqua High School. And the grant covers several energy efficiency measures and uh smart analytics and then retro commissioning of the building. On to capital projects oversight committee. Um we met on Tuesday the 18th of March. Um we had 24 or 26 members were in attendance. They represented all the feeder patterns comprised of parents, community members and students. As uh mentioned earlier, experience in construction, engineering, finance

050and project management. Quick rundown of the agenda and the items covered. We did welcomes introductions and uh everybody went around the room and did their why they want to be a part of this and it was interesting to hear all that. We went over purpose and scope group agreements. We did uh some bond and levy and financial background presentations. Went through the budget status reports and then spent a good portion of time on questions and comments. And there were some diverse questions and comments and points of view. and it was very interesting to hear it all. Um, real quick, the purpose and scope of the committee was important and the uh the ISD capital projects oversight committee is established to ensure the responsible management of bond and levy funds approved by voters. The committee's role

051is to review expenditures, monitor project progress, and ensure compliance with the approved bond and levy requirements. They're to serve as a transparent accountability measure providing insurance to the community that the bond and levy funds for capital projects are being managed effectively and in accordance with district objectives. Um, I'm not going to go through every one of these unless anybody has any questions, but the main three themes were that um, we we took all the comments, which you can imagine were vast, fed them through AI, and had them kind of give us the overall themes, financial transparency and accountability, bond challenges and public trust, and overcrowding and enrollment growth. and then the further breaks it down within uh within those three categories. Next steps, we've got a meeting in June on June 17th. We're going to

052continue to uh we're going to put relevant information up on the capital projects website. We've got a specific page that we've worked with the uh comm's department on for the information from that group. Continue. who we're going to send out, continue to send them out the monthly budget status reports and capital pro they have access to the capital projects website. We'll communicate with them by email and we also told them do not hesitate to reach out by phone or email directly to us if any they have individual questions. Um just future meeting dates. Any questions? Okay. Open it up to the board. Dr. Cinger. So we heard uh frequently asked uh for the bond committee. It seemed like it was just a group of parents and staff members. So, I'd like to know of the

05326 on the committee, how many of them are non-parents, non- staff members, and would be in the community member, and maybe even I've never had children go through the school district. I don't have the stats right in front of me, but the there were some very prevalent voices from from folks that were there that did not have any kids in the district and one had uh his kids in the district. Um they graduated in I think 1986 and he had a strong voice and was trying to understand how everything worked. Um he um brought up some good points and um and I think he got the people thinking in a different way about communication. Not everybody has a has a student in the district as a parent or a guardian. So I think he kind

054of got he his opinion was strong enough he forced people to really think about that and it created a good discussion about it. So, so I would love a report out on that because I do believe that we are accountable to our community and one of the things that we have heard very clearly is that concern and we committed to making sure that happens. So, that would be a number that I would want to know. Yep. We can both um share that with the board uh very quickly, but also um share that back out in our next capital projects update. So, it's also part of the board meeting um on the record as well. Yep. Right. Director to Coin. Yeah, thank you for the update. And I think I first and foremost want to start

055by um thanking those individuals who um have volunteered uh to be on the um capital projects oversight committee. I think you know we talked a lot about needing more people to step up and volunteer and this is a unique way uh to volunteer. I do agree um with director Gallinger's point. It would be good to get that breakout of who all is on the committee. I think one of the things that's a positive with this committee is it does give perspective to the voice of of individuals in the community who do not currently have kids in the district. And I know Superintendent Tyuk and I when we were at Clark Elementary this week talking to PTSA members I think they were surprised to hear that that is about 70% of our community. So it's quite

056large. Um, so you know, it's good that those individuals have a voice, but I think also the benefit of that too is particularly if they've had kids who graduated in 1986, Tom, as you had mentioned, that the district has changed. And so I think it's great that they get that perspective as well um and understand um what that looks like so that they can better communicate back to other parents within their community. I think one of the things too and I don't know um Tom I guess maybe with the the breakout that we might get but I'd be curious too I want to make sure that we're also including younger parents elementary parents of elementary students um who you know they have a longer runway in the district and I want to make sure that

057those parents have a voice. Um, I think that was another takeaway that Superintendent Tayuk and I had, um, you know, coming away from from the Clark Elementary conversation is those those parents who many of them that night actually are kindergarten parents, um, want to have a voice, um, and um, you know, their kids will directly be impacted by many of the projects that will be coming in the in in future years. And so wanting to make sure um, that they have a voice too um, on the committee. And I don't know Tom if you could sense that. Is there are there parents who have younger elementary kids that are on the committee? Yeah. It was a wide variety of of from the students to parents with elementary kids uh parents in had secondary kids, parents

058or community members with no kids in school. I think one mentioned she had one that was like a ninth grader and one that had just graduated and went on to college and Oh, great. Okay. Yeah. So there there appeared to be a good I'll get that breakout and we'll do the best we can to give you as detailed as possible. Okay, awesome. Thank you. That's all I had. Director Mullings, what is the thinking about readout or hearing the observations from the group as they go? Like how will we um will we get to hear directly or in summary or in some way from the group assembled? Well, I'll do a report out each each time. And we had already talked about working with them to have one or two of their members come forward and

059actually report out out at board meetings as to progress. Let them get their feet underneath them a little bit. Let's get uh, you know, get them comfortable with the with the content and and what their their their focus is going to be or their scope. But yeah, that was already a plan. Yeah. Wonderful. And timing we can figure out when that is. I just want to make sure that there's an expectation set with that group that they'll have some direct um opportunity for communication and that and that we can do that in a broader setting. Superintendent. Uh actually communication was a a big topic of discussion um for that group. one, not only in terms of reaching the variety of um uh families and or individuals that do live in the district, whether they have

060children or not enrolled in the schools, but also in terms of hey, we want to make sure that we are also understanding what's happening in the district because we would like to be of assistance potentially and having a role in communications as well and being able to share information um that they receive or um be of assistance in that way. So, there was some discussion about that as well. Any other comments? Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate this work. I think it's an important facet of that transparency um and building trust that we've talked about with the community and being able to have community members that really have this level of depth of insight and to be able to report out from a community member standpoint, I think is very, very important. So,

061thank you. Thank you. Next on the agenda is a discussion regarding the new high school site update. Great. I'll open this up and um pass it over to Mr. Turney. But the purpose of this agenda item is to bring forward um as a reminder, but also for the board to engage in a discussion uh the details of the current financing that we have available for the new high school site and a key deadline pertaining to that new high school site. And again, the purpose is to then um have the board engage in some discussion um on some next steps and to be able to make sure that that's happening um also to inform the public. So I'll turn it over to Martin Turney to provide those highle details. Okay. Thank you, Superintendent. Um so just

062first starting out with the finances, just a reminder, and I know you've heard this before, but uh just letting folks know we do have um $90 million um set aside for the project. Originally, we, you know, when the project was set out, there's $120 million. Um, in the past, we did have about $20 million of, uh, site development and design. Um, and then also $44 million of voter approved 2022 levy funds, uh, most of which is already being collected. It's collected over a four-year time frame. And so, we will have all of that fairly soon. Um, folks may remember, um, in connection with the 2024 bond, there was some funds set aside for safety and security that has been put on hold by the board and that is available, that $44 million is available uh

063to contribute uh to a project. And so that totals $134 million um to work with. Of course, as we hold those funds, there are some interest generated. Uh so we it kind of builds upon itself a little bit. And then of course we also have the general fund committed amount of $20 million um that could be utilized toward a project as well. um upcoming deadline with the permit and we've talked about this in the past, April 27th, there is a deadline um there's a possibility with no guarantee, but we could go to the city and request an extension the permit. Um and at your direction, uh we could go ahead and request that permit and report back to you on uh the result there. Um we could also um bring back what we believe within

064the uh constraints of the finances and uh the feasibility uh of that uh what could exist on that site so we could put that together and bring that back at the next board meeting in April uh if you'd like. So, just wanted to remind us of those numbers and the possibilities and um bring back to you. Any board questions? So, um taking a look at my agenda. So, I wanted to get a consensus rather than an official vote, I believe. Right. A consensus about the um extension of the permit. So, are there any comments or especially concerns about extending giving um for the district to continue seeking an extension? Dr. Gallinger, I would just say I mean I think we have a fiduciary responsibility to explore all options especially given that we've already invested $20

065million on site development in addition to the cost of that property. So certainly for me as a taxpayer I would want the district to explore all options. uh this community has voted twice to approve building on that site in 2016 and in 2022 they affirmed that support and so I would want to know what those are. So I would be in support of and very eager to hear Director Mullings. Um yeah I agree with what Director Allinger just said. Maybe just repeat for me what you said. The request to the city would be what precisely? We would um submit a request through a letter to extend the permit. I'm sorry, maybe you said a second. It' be to extend both the building permit and the land use permit. There are two permits that are okay.

066expire within eight days of each other. One on the 19th, one on the 27th. And we would ask to extend both of those. Awesome. I must have heard that. Maybe it was the second thing you said you would bring back as well. Oh, okay. Sorry. You you mentioned two items you would uh be pursuing and I we're going to bring back lots of stuff. So, I didn't hold on to the second one. Okay. Yes. Uh what I mean is we could bring back a plan um for the site uh that would fit within the design and financial uh feasibility. So within the $134 million plus that we have at our disposal um what could fit into on that site u within those constraints. Yep. Perfect. So yes definitely I mean just commentary I'm supportive of

067both of those things. I think if we have an opportunity to pursue uh an extension as well as look at what options we have I think I think that is the perfect outcome for me. Um I think for for me as well I think uh really pursuing we put a lot of effort to getting those building per the building permit and land use permit in the first place. It was extensive um appeals by the public. And so, um, I really don't want to have to go through that process again to be able to utilize what funds we do have because the funds we do have diminish over time, uh, based on inflationary costs. So the sooner we are able to um I mean if so if we're able to extend those and then the sooner

068we are to be able to have some type of plan of being able to utilize the funds we do have to address the overcrowding that we currently are experiencing I think is is important for us to be able to move forward. And I'm sorry we're not taking public comment on this but you're welcome to email us. Director Taylor I won't belabor the point. I I concur with what director Gallinger and what you both just said. So I too support that that action. Thank you. Director Coin, any feedback? And and I would agree. I am in support of uh of requesting extension as well. Okay. So superintendent, is that enough direction for you and your staff? Yes, we can um work with the city and we will submit a um extension request um and we'll do

069that as soon as possible, which is probably almost immediately after this meeting. Um but more importantly, we also um heard the request to come back to the board and we can work with you through agenda planning to to slate that in for the April 10th meeting, which is our next meeting um with some starter opportunities and and uh about what some options could be based on our current financing and the current um design of that building. Great. Thank you very much. Um, as a note, I did want to talk a little bit about some of these costs because they do relate to, you know, our our capital projects. But there was a question that had come up during public comment around administrative cost um for the for the district. Um, and I might as well

070step into that conversation right now because it does relate, it does come up quite a bit when we talk about our capital projects and our overall um work on bonds and levies. Um, we have a very low total administrative cost. Um, it's about 8.5%. Uh so that's pretty low uh overall and compared to other King County districts the average of that um and we're looking at different years but that's you know probably about 12%. So it's pretty low and I just want to clarify that that is both central building which happens here and the administration within each of our school buildings. Um okay great thanks. We will go on to our next agenda item then which is the monitoring reports for results three civic engagement. And I will start with a motion. How dare I

071move so quickly? Uh what that I wasn't expecting that question but uh yes. So, um I move the board accept the monitoring report results three civic engagement R3 as presented. Second. Great. And do we have um I know this is up for a student advisory report. Um what I will do is I will let the district do their presentation. Um our student are we getting feedback from students on this? No, there are no student reports on this one. and then I will open it up to public comment. I'm telling this to the board to remind me to allow it to be opened up to public comment because I forgot last time and then we'll have more our board discussion and questions. Okay, great. Before I pass it over to Dr. Bailey and Rich Melish. Uh

072I just want to frame this uh results report tonight on civic engagement as this topic of civic engagement is so crucial. Um now more than ever for so many reasons and upon reflecting over the past year, this is work that we do look forward to building upon. Um, and while there is some overlap content with oper other operational expectations, you might see specifically repeated evidence from operational expectation 14, which is instructional program or operational expectation 15 on technology. But seeing the work through the lens of this results I think really makes the board's value statement that students will live as responsible members of society demonstrating integrity and compassion reflects the forwardthinking development of this policy specifically and the district goal that resonates so much now with the intersection of global events national news sustainability and

073technology. So, I just wanted to call that out because that was a particularly poignant uh reflection for me as we were going through the reflection process for last year given where we are now. And I do want to highlight and I know that Dr. Bailey will speak to this a bit in her framings and overview of the report um is that one key area of ongoing need is social emotional learning at the high school level which we've heard from our students about recently and I have heard about it in other student spaces. And while we have made progress, we also know that we need to do more, you know, to support that. And um figuring out how to do that in the context of high school structures um is is more challenging than an elementary

074structure or middle school structure. So we are committed to that and that's um certainly one thing I want to pull forward. Um thank you dear school board director, superintendent, our student reps, community members, and my school team. Thank you for the opportunity to present results three, civic engagement and our progress towards students living as responsible members of society, demonstrating integrity and compassion. It seems perfect timing tonight to present results three with the recent update on the day of the hill and our student representatives experience in their own advocacy at our legislature. Thank you for your service, your advocacy, and your investment of your time exercising your civic opportunities in the day of the hill. I believe that Isqua was well represented in Olympia that day. Student achievement data for social studies was presented in results

075too, showing 80 or more% of our students earning a B or better in their social studies classes. This grade data indicates that most students are learning what was intended in the social classes, both the required ones and the elective ones. An important part of this monitoring report is highlighting the series of social studies adoptions that are underway and upcoming. These adoptions provide us an opportunity to focus on bringing forward the most culturally relevant materials and time for deep consideration about what and how teachers are presenting information on history, geography, economics, and civics. Supporting our students to understand the people, places, issues, and events that shape our world. Student feedback is always a key indicator of how we're making progress towards this outcome. And reflecting on all the ways that we hear from students, be it

076annual surveys, student panels, or senior exit surveys. This is one way we know how we're doing. Student survey feedback is presented in the document. And if you were lucky enough to go to a senior exit survey, you may have heard firsthand how the students feel and experience the learning of civics in our school. Social emotional learning has been highlighted in other reports, but I'll highlight again that the high school student feedback included a clear message that canned or pre-planned lessons were not meeting our high standards for quality learning. The high school social emotional learning committee is working to build something that both meets the Washington K12 standards and also is wellreceived by our high school students. Unfiltered feedback is how we get better and we continue to evolve and respond in this area to meet

077what the students need and want from us. Technology use has elements in several monitoring reports and results three invites us to report specifically on the ethical use and impact of technology, social media and AI in our students lived experiences. I had a chance this week to dialogue with our student representatives about this topic and they have invited us to expand how we survey students on using social media to include communication tools such as Discord. We think the specific question about do you use social media may have been too narrow of a question and will work to expand and improve this. Students in middle school reported a consistent and significant increase from the year before about detecting bias and accuracy of what they learn online, how to be safe, and how to make responsible choices in

078their digital presence. The win at social curriculum launched last September. Visible sustainability efforts are throughout the system with system efforts in food services of reusable trays and compostable single-use items, water filling stations in many of the buildings, including this one. And our first electric buses are on order. Students absolutely impress in this area with examples everywhere, including the sustainability pledge activities and other ventures both in and out of school. The healthy youth the healthy youth survey offers great insight to how our students are experiencing their schooling and I want to highlight the protective factors in this report. The research behind the healthy youth survey indicates that we can do more of the things that add students pro-social and resilient skills and one of them is participating in clubs specifically service clubs. I encourage all of

079us to lean in and support times and ways that students can be engaged members of a smaller group participate in activities that invite students into clubs and activities and the protective factors that clubs and activities offer. I invite we are here to answer your questions. Okay, thank you. So before we go into questions from the board, I will open this up to public comment. And Mr. Nagakar had um also specified he had an interesting comment at this time. Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. Again, um I just wanted to note on civic engagement, we have the board represented u in in force. We have students, but I think the parents are subject to the buzzer which is a little bit unnerving. I think maybe we can improve on that, maybe give more time. Uh on

080the policy front, I wanted to say that uh some of the language in the document suggests that we are focusing on the identity of students and having them act or um support things that are aligned with the identity instead of teaching them to think for themselves and figure out what's right and wrong. not aligned with identity but aligned with a synthesis of what they learn in school and what they are able to experience in this diverse environment. So I think uh a lot of work needs to be done on the policy so that we don't have uh actions that become counterproductive. So if you want a certain outcome on a survey, you will have students um say things or do things at school that will uh kind of lead to the outcome of saying I

081respect all uh people or all cultures or all cultures are equal when in fact that is not what we want. We want them to critically think and have an engagement and debate with people around them so that we can synthesize something better rather than just a popuri. we synthesize something new in this country from the diversity that we have available to us. So I encourage that maybe you think about that and uh improve on that if possible if there's a way to do it. Thank you. Thank you for that public comment. Okay, we'll open it up to Oh, was there any public comment online? Thank you. Seeing none, then we'll move to comments from the board or students or questions for staff. I'm I'm ready to pick if anyone wants to raise their hand. Okay,

082Dr. Coin, I'm Director Coin. Sorry. And you're muted. You knew it was going to happen once. Yes, I know. Exactly. I was gonna I was just joking. I said I've suddenly turned into a doctor tonight. Um the um so appreciate obviously this um uh the results going over this from u results three on civic engagement. You know, I was reflecting on I think Dr. Dr. Bailey had mentioned um the recent um senior exit interviews and I had a chance to sit on those last week at ASokoh High and I was thinking about the number of students that I had a chance to speak with um and really where aspects of this resonated and I was thinking about 3.2 two specifically students will understand and apply ethical principles in all aspects of life and then also

0833.7 students will recognize how their personal and collective actions impact the greater community and I would say with every single one of the students um that I spoke with um those two really rea resonated um in their reflections um I know each of them was able to really very articulately um uh share how um their personal and collective action um will impact the greater community and really the work that they've done um to support the community and to support their school. So, uh you know, I think I know that's just a small subset, but I definitely saw that in those interviews last week. And I think the piece around detecting bias um in news and social media, you know, it's interesting. I um I know that um that is that's taught in schools and I

084think I've shared this before, but my own students, my own kids have have referenced that and they always kind of keep me in check with that, too. So I know that that um the work that the district does around that I know resonates with at least with my kids. I they have brought that back to my attention many times. So um applaud the district for doing that work too. So thank you Dr. Gallinger who is truly a doctor. So I I would say you know civic engagement it's students will live as responsible members of society demonstrating integrity and compassion and I don't think that or any other of our sub bullets have anything about identity or politics in there. We want our students to be actively engaged in their communities and to be uh people

085who love to do what they can to make this world a better place. And there's nothing more that I want for our students because we also want them to be outstanding in math and reading and writing and history and sciences and arts and music. And this is one more part of how we really focus on the whole child and their well-roundedness because that's ultimately how they're going to be successful and thrive in this world. Uh I think teaching emotional intelligence is really hard but probably one of the most important things you do to have our students be successful in uh new and uh unfamiliar environments. That is going to be where they find themselves as soon as they graduate from our system. And so I applaud uh our superintendent and your team for all the

086work you do for this because this is not just about belonging. It's about transcending that and to pivoting to be like so how do how do I contribute to making that better for the world around me? And that's important. And I know and that I've constantly talked about my uh desires for a more robust and more student centered curriculum and and I know that you guys continue to work on that and that that's a hard one because as I just listed all these other things that I want you to also do. Um, but I think that there's so much richness in there in in what students just live through that I I wish that we could somehow figure out a way to make it to be where it's a student driven process because I think

087there's so much that students could teach each other and we could give them an opportunity to have open dialogue about the challenges that they face about social media or about choices that they um have amongst each other that directly impact how they make people feel and that's so much equally important to the head knowledge that they get. So I just want to say thank you for this because uh this is uh something that we think is just as important as a board as all of the um academic knowledge that we expect them to have. Uh Christian then Milo, thank you. Um I had a couple quick questions on the surveys themselves. So from my understanding, uh they are pretty extensive surveys. So I was wondering how long one typically is and when they're administered because

088at least uh per from personal experience I can say that when I see a long survey it's very easy for me to quickly think about uh you know the question in front of me instead of uh going through the entire thing and actually thinking about it. The other thing was is there um any desire to expand more than qualitative data into quantitative because I feel like having these discussions with students or facilitating that discussion in the classroom would give a much greater idea of like director Galler said the challenges they face or successes they faced as well. And the last thing was um making it more spec making specific questions uh defining what it means to actually utilize social media because some students might uh think using social media is actively posting whereas others students

089think social media is actually just scrolling and accessing content on it. Yeah, thank you very much for those questions. The student the annual student surveys that come out from the district are quite long, 50 questions or more. And we recognize that that is one of the elements of the survey fatigue that results in lower response rates and lower response rates at the end of the survey than at the beginning. The elementary school does not seem to have that same struggle. It's middle school and high school response. We are always working on improving the surveys for clarity and to make sure we are writing questions that land for the students in the way that we intend them. And without a doubt, this is an area where we could be more concise and and could have better

090results to work with at the end. Um, I just have a wait, sorry. I was I was just going to say I appreciated you thinking about both the qualitative and quantitative and I think the introduction over the last couple years of empathy interviews has been a really valuable addition to our understanding of the student voice. Okay. Now Milo I'm so sorry. Um I just had a few questions about the actual data. I was looking through the um the fourth grade soft skill surveys in particular um and a lot of them show higher percentages in 2021 and 2022 and 2022 to 2023. And I understand that there was the like neutral um like response that was given in the 2023 2024 survey. So I'm sure there was a little bit of that. Um, but I just

091wanted to first know if there was a a reason why you think that more people are neutral than positive. Specifically with the um I'm the fourth grade. I'm willing to listen to other people's opinions, but I make my own decisions. That was like significantly like almost 10% lower um in the 2023, but the 12% was in the neutral. Um just just curious on that cuz the other ones the middle school and high school seem to like be continuously going up. Um but the fourth grades going down and I'm wondering if that has something to do with like COVID and their like lack of soft skills in that area. Um and then once you answer that I have another question. Sure. The addition of a neutral response is to provide consistency across all of the surveys

092so we can track them through all of the grades. And also if you don't offer people an option to be neutral like I neither agree or disagree then it makes them choose one or the other which might not actually be measurable results. So they're they're both reported so that you can make your own judgment about where neutral might have been a year ago for a fourth grader. Is there neutral for the high school and middle school too because it doesn't show in their percentages. It there is and we only represent um in these graphs agree or strongly agree because the neutral has been in the middle school and high school one for a couple of years. Gotcha. Okay, cool. Yeah. So, yeah, it seems like the the fourth grade have that um they're still like

093lower. they're in the 80s whereas the the high schoolers are in the 90s even with the neutral. Um just if is that right? Well the high school doesn't include the neutral but it also was only 102 high school students across the system last year. So it's not really a representative sample but I appreciate the statistical thinking that you're using right now. Gotcha. Okay. Um, and then the 2023 healthy youth survey with the um I think that's on page 10 with the bully through social media percentages, the received sexual photos or videos, and the knows how to report bullying. Um, there's a decent amount of respondents on that. That was a an online um like that was an anonymous survey, correct? Okay. Correct. U Okay, cool. I I would like to share my uh my experience

094as a student with those surveys um that I did in middle school. very similar. Um that a and there this is nothing to you guys cuz they were we're middle schoolers and high schoolers but a lot of them that I've seen complete these surveys have been untruthful with the fear of being reported to their counselor or their parents. Um, and so I from my experience talking to people and being in a few support groups, the amount of people bullied through social media or receiving sexual photos or videos is much higher. But that that's just my experience at Gibson and PCMS. But I I'm just wondering I I hope in the future there's a way that we can uh assure students that this is confidential and like get the accurate numbers which I'm not sure how

095to do that. I don't even know if that is something that we can do. But I would just put that out there that I'm not 100% sure that everybody is being truthful there. I I would say that there are ways. Well, we can't know if somebody says no and it's a yes, but there are ways in the healthy youth survey they ask questions multiple times and multiple ways to be able to see who's answering more consistently. But I would agree that having a level of effort to dispel a lot of rumors around um your students going to be tracked etc. Um the healthy youth survey is completely anonymized. um your name isn't given at any point and so um I think that having having somewhat of a campaign looking at the fact that the survey

096will be given in October. I think there's even an outside organization that will be supporting the work to make sure that the healthy youth survey data is um is is done well. Um a higher response from ser from seniors much as what you had pointed out Dr. Bailey is that uh getting seniors to respond is very difficult as well. Um, in fact, I know that of other districts that I will not name that didn't even offer it to their seniors last time because the results from the previous year was below 40%. So, it was unusable. And so, we want to make sure that we're getting a good sample size of students. In the healthier survey, you have to have at least 40% participation in order for those results to come back. Director Mullings. So, I

097was actually going to hold this to the next agenda item, but I'll cover and then I'll go back to the specific report. So, uh, Director Moraldo, President Moraldo and I had the opportunity to attend the general, uh, PTSA meeting at Isiqua Middle School last week. Um, so we did that together. And I think the point Milo you're bringing up here on comfort or with with anonymity and reporting is actually one that was pretty significant I thought in that meeting for last week. So I have a lot more to say about that meeting on the next topic. But I think there is a maybe a thread in many places that this idea of not reporting under reporting um maybe not being comfortable reporting because of whatever an either anonymity or follow-on action that occurs is actually

098something we probably need to take a look at in that session. And I don't mean this in a negative way. I would I I am not surprised to hear students talk about the concerns of anonymity reporting in that meeting. I was surprised to hear parents echo that same sentiment um that they they are as well not reporting for those same fears or fears for their children. So I think there is maybe a bit of a longer thread in this in how do we talk about um reporting in general? How do we talk about uh the facilities available for reporting like on each school website and what the action items that follow through with that? But that that may have been one of the more disturbing threads in that conversation for me during that that session

099which was about uh concerns around violence and other items from the from the IMS meeting. So, I think there's maybe a bit more we can do uh within our community to talk about reporting and follow on action and anonymity that's probably needed. Oh, yeah. No, and I was going to say and around fear of retaliation. So, that's why the anonymity seems to be important. Um, in some cases if you are reporting a crime, you can't necessarily be anonymous if you are the victim because at some point you do have to come out. Um, any other questions or then okay then back to that on this report and it's super tactical and I think I just closed the document. So there is a piece in there. Apologies. I closed it as I was looking up the

100session information. And once you open it, do you have the page number and can we show it on the screen? Oh my goodness. I Oh, I'm so peggy. Let me try to get it back open. Um, it was the point around No, no, I do around um history in middle school and it being applicable for high school for the high school graduation requirement. Northwest Studies. Northwest Studies. And the point in there that maybe I just don't understand what we're saying is it sounds like we need more time to cover the material. So, we're making it a two trimester. Yeah. uh class. Yeah. So the state uh requirement is that a semester of Northwest studies be taught to students and we have traditionally um done that in one trimester of middle school. So as we were

101going into the review process for these social studies adoptions, one of the things we asked ourselves is do we really feel that we can put a semester of high school content into a trimester of middle school? And so we decided no, we we will expand that to two seme two trimesters to be able to get that content in there. And especially because Washington State history gives us a chance to really authentically um put the in since time in memorial curriculum really deeply into the curriculum. So allows us to really um make sure that we integrate that well. So that was that was the thinking on that one. Okay. So it's section 3.1. It is page two um under under challenges. So maybe what I'm trying to understand is is there any impact to the elongation

102of that curriculum at middle school that impacts I guess how it's it it doesn't matter that it's one trimester versus two in order to meet the state requirement. I get that we're going to more. And then secondarily, we have provisions for students who enter our school district post high school and what they have to do. So, does this change their requirement if they enter the system post middle school? No. No, we we have not we have not um we do feel like we're meeting the basic education requirements. Uh it's not that that is compromised at this point. It's more about when we reviewed the curriculum saying we wanted to give the time for that content that we felt it deserved and that the state standards really kind of called for a richer look at that

103content. So, it's not going to affect graduation um requirements for students either who completed it in one trimester, nor is it the students who come in later and have to take it at high school. It doesn't affect that. So under both systems they'll be able to graduate and it won't affect that that qualification. So so for me to build on this question the elongation of one topic requires the truncation of other topics. So what other topics are impacted and not dived into as much based on this? So, um, currently currently through this year, we're doing, um, uh, medieval, ancient, and medieval history, um, for all of sixth grade and part of seventh grade. And then we did Northwest history for the rest of seventh grade. Uh, starting next year, we'll have a year of, uh,

104sixth grade will continue to be ancient medieval history, and seventh grade will be northwest history and geography. um because that geography was another area we wanted a bit more content in. So that's the changes we're making um starting in the fall. Okay. Thank you. And then my last comment is and um I do and for some reason on this topic in particular, the way that this document is phrased in the current set of challenges and the actions is very satisfying to read in this format. So, I just want to acknowledge that. Super helpful to go through it in in that way. Director Taylor, um I'm going to switch uh gears here a little bit. Um I wanted to talk a little bit about digital citizenship and AI. Um first of all, I thought I think

105the you know the data seems to show that the digital citizenship um curriculum is having an impact, which I think is great. Um, but I'm curious about AI. Uh, and I'm going to see if I can frame this question, um, so you can understand it. I understand that we have responsible AI usage agreements in the high schools. Uh, I think the work being done around priorities for AI work is great. I don't think AI is something to be feared. You know, it should be taught as a tool um to learn about efficiencies and to grow the use of AI. We're just right on the cusp of this whole revolution around AI. So my question is though is how are we monitoring AI use in the schools? I mean can teachers even detect if AI is

106used in certain instances? And I don't even really need specific specifics about that. I'm really more curious is as to whether this where we are as this being a topic of conversation amongst our teaching staff and how much work we're going to have to anticipate to address this the AI revolution. You want me? Okay. Who wants to start? Okay. Um yes, it's a topic of discussion among teachers most definitely and has has been a hot topic. Um, we do have some AI detectors in our turnitin.com, I believe it's called, um, uh, resources. I I feel like our teachers have have stayed up on the press, though, that AI detectors, uh, are not fully reliable and have gender and cultural bias. So, we've we've been careful on that. Um, and so, it is something that we're

107talking a lot about. We we do have what I will say is in the progression of professional development and work on the AI uh this year we've been doing a lot of focus groups with teachers doing some PD the optional PD and in August we will be rolling out our first district-wide mandatory PD on uh AI uh centered on colleague AI where we're working with a product out of the University of Washington that came out of a a grant that we're working with them and so we'll be rolling that out about with very clear examples of ways to use AI. To our um uh public speaker earlier, our public uh input earlier, it will include ways ways that teachers can use colleague AI to be more efficient to adapt. We've got some wonderful stories because

108we've been doing little experiment groups with colleague AI with groups of teachers. So, we've found some some really nice uses to help um differentiate and engage in universal design using AI. It also has some spaces for students to safely engage with AI. Um, and so so we're gonna we're going to have a step forward in giving an official tool for using AI in the classroom next year. Uh, and that will also then give us another forum to really talk about the ethical use and the appropriate use and the kind of how do we how do we use AI in a way that extends learning and doesn't allow students to avoid learning. Um, and so, uh, we feel like we're taking good steps, but it's been a really big topic, and I think that, uh, the

109the range of comfort with engaging in this right now is quite broad in our district. Um, Dr. Bailey would like to add anything. That's great. Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? I can't see Director Coin if he had his hand up at all. I I don't. Thank you though, President. Oh, Ava, go ahead. Oh, okay. Um, I was just going to ask again about um what got like cut off with the other two semesters or the other two trimesters, but I know that was asked, but I honestly good timing because I was um just thinking about something else I wanted to bring up on the topic of student usage of AI and things like Turn It In. Um I know that a lot of us are aware of like the biases, the potential

110for things to get flagged that were original work. Um but I also want to highlight the fact that there is um quite prevalent I think anxiety around that. Uh for example the other day I had like an in-class write um and it was completely in class. So our teacher observed everybody do it but um after submitting it I had put it into an AI checker and it gave me like a 90% and then I put it into another AI checker and it gave me like 0%. Um, and of course, Turn It in flags things that um are prevalent across other academic sources. So, if you use common phrases, of course, those things are going to get flagged. Um, so I just also think it's important to um make sure that our students are aware that

111staff members are also looking into these things and they're not kind of out to get you as long as you're not actually using AI in order to inhibit learning. But I just think there could be better communication alongside students on that front. Thank you for that input. Any other students before I move on? Okay, because the first part is a student advisory vote. So, we'll bring that up for you. Thank you. I see the number is [Music] 34. Great. Thank you. Okay. Now I open it to the board for any final comments before we go to the vote. Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion say I. I. Any opposed? The eyes have it. Thank you so much for that. Uh thank you for the presentation and information. It's very um very informative

112and and available to our public in case they are wondering how we are doing as a system. And speaking of which, we have a strategic plan around that. So our next agenda item is a strategic plan update priority area five, organizational effectiveness. Great. Thank you. I'm just going to frame us up as uh Marcel Hower, Martin Turney, and Mariah Bonassic join us up here at the podium. Um so tonight's presentation launches a series of updates for board discussion and for the community to know about the strategic plan efforts in support of results one, the mission of the organization. We will be going in reverse order and doubling up on a few meetings um in terms of the priority areas shared uh for April and May. As a reminder, we are in year two of the

113implementation of the district's first strategic plan in next year, concurrent with year three. Um, we will also be preparing to refresh this strategic plan. Um, and in the hopes that spans from 26 to 29. Uh, keeping our efforts focused on a three-year time horizon horizon allows us to adapt and adjust while also providing prioritization for our work in terms of time, effort, and financial resources. Most importantly, the strategic plan brings cohesion and clarity so that we can all row in the same direction. And you know, I have some ideas about where things might be going next, you know, coming out of what we have been learning, but that's, you know, also for um conversation with the community as we continue to hear from you all, but also others as we go into the re-engagement phase

114and follow-up phase of where we are. And again, I want to thank Marcel Hower for facilitating this work on behalf of the district and for ensuring ensuring that we have the systems and routines in place to monitor and adjust um as needed while also ensuring we're engaging um and re-engaging and following up with staff, family, students, and the community. And with that, I'll pass it over to you. Good evening, President Moraldo, board director, superatory student reps. uh Marcel Howser, senior adviser in strategy, Milo more. Uh excited to be able to share a bit about the strategic plan and happy that we'll have a series of these conversations throughout because we lead up to June and our um mission, our monitoring of results one. So, just excited to highlight again uh our organizational effectiveness area because

115sometimes this is the one that sort of does the the work behind the scenes and it doesn't always get highlighted because it's a little bit away from students but it's the engine. It's talking about equity based funding. It's talking about continuous improvement. Again, the highlight that continues dear to my heart. I'm now walking up to the stage and not rolling on the bike. So, right. Right. So, it is something that dear to my heart. So tonight um you know advance our slide here on purpose is really just to provide a highlight and I'm going to share a little bit about our spring engagement plan today. You know lucky enough I had a chance to meet with the PTSA uh president Maldo was there uh superintendent Turk was there. So I have some results and some

116feedback direct from our uh PTSA general assembly I want to share tonight as well. So um and then we'll go deeper into the organizational effectiveness um priority area. I always want to start and just I know the vision is a couple years sort of new now but I always like to start to read it because you know it's about all students thriving as they engage in meaningful learning that unlocks their passion and potential to positively impact the world and it is all students um I think about lot a lot of the work that we do as we think about um our problem of practice and we're focused on bipok students and students with IEPs it is all students so when we think about funding and what we do and why we do that's the why

117so we're trying to stay aligned to our vision and our mission. And you know, for all of us, it's like we're not going to stop until we continue to do those things and get better. So, um, as we ground in that, um, a reminder to community about our strategic plan. It's made up of five different priority areas. Student well-being, academic opportunities, diverse talent, authentic engagement, and organizational effectiveness. And it's really, you think about student well-being, it's about um supporting student belonging, student resources. you get into academic opportunities, it's it's supporting students and providing opportunities and pathways for success. The diverse talent kind of shifts to the staff focus. So, how do we make sure we have staff who reflect the student population we serve? Then, as we look at uh authentic engagement, it's that two-way

118communication. How are we communicating with with with community, amongst staff, amongst each other in a way that's engaging and thoughtful? And then organizational effectiveness. You'll hear more about it tonight as we share and go deeper. Um I I also like to keep this because as we think about the strategic plan, you know, it really must align to our policies and and the things that govern us as we work through. This is just a reminder and a reflection of we have different operational expectations and results which are our goals. Our strategic plan priority areas are aligned to those things and we are constantly looking at these um as we go through and policies change as we just working on OE7 which is coming up. So new things come on board. We want to make sure we're

119always aligned as we work. And then the bottom, I would just point out um we really look at this priority area as an area that supports all the work in the district, especially when you're talking about budgeting. So, as we look at spring engagement and what's upcoming, um, we've had some, you know, messaging that's gone out through ISD insider, so some of the different areas, but I'm going to p pull up and really highlight the PTSA general assembly meeting tonight or today that I part in and was able to crunch some of the data quickly just to kind of pull together some themes and what our parent leaders across the district had to say about the strategic plan. Um, and about just in general what was the impact of the plan, uh, what has not

120been impactful by priority area. Then I also asked a question about uh future states. So where where would they like us to focus as we think about the refresh? As superintendent mentioned, we're already thinking and starting that planning for the refresh of our plan. So I'm going to just share a couple highlights that came out of the meeting today. And the question, one of the questions was around future focus and suggestions. And a couple um highlights or suggestions that came out. One was around really illuminating the resources around district resources so teachers and building managers kind of know what's out there. So one was around communication. Another piece was around our c culture and climate. So they shared, you know, how do we support buildings that feel like students are dealing with uh racism in

121spaces? Like how do we support students in those those moments, but also how do we stand on uh diversity as a core principle and value especially in a space now where you know around us in the environment things are shifting and changing and messaging and changing. So just what are our values as a system? How do we stand on that and support? Uh another piece popped around partnerships and community involvement. So how do we provide basic need support? We're doing a lot of that in our social um uh our our priority area one. So, we're doing a lot of that work. So, Noah Westerberg is doing that work, but how do we continue to do that and share um tutoring access came up and and coordination from tutoring and support? And then lastly, I'll just

122share um so edgy speak. So, we all love to speak acronyms into things. So, how do we continue to think about um friendly language for families as we transparently communicate and authentically communicate? Um so, that's hot off the presses. um some stuff that we shared and that just kind of gives a flavor of we're going to continually ask community what do we do well what needs to change and what should we focus on going forward and with that because we are doing well on time right now just by the way director Gallinger I we're doing great we're ahead uh I'm going to pass it to Martin to share a little bit and go deeper on the area right thank you very much uh so we're here to talk about organizational effectiveness from this uh students

123will thrive and experience meaningful learning supported by effective district systems, structures and processes and resource allocation. So how are we going to do that? Um this area is divided into two goals. District leaders and staff will model continuous improvement practice to enhance student staff and family experiences and strategy here to develop a continuous improvement cycle throughout the organization. I'll tell you a little bit about that and how we're doing that in just a second. Goal number two, district leaders and staff will increase engagement in decisions that support effective resource allocation based on priorities and needs to support students and staff. And how to do that? Develop a transparent equity-based budget framework to ensure alignment of funding to areas of highest student need. So in terms of background now, I want to highlight a couple of

124things. Um, in terms of progress and initiatives, uh, we have partnered with an IT professional um, who's lended his expertise uh, to looking at our systems and our structures uh, to give us some recommendations on how we can um, greater align what we do and find some efficiencies and effective uh, ways of um, being organized and operating. We did partner specifically with a company called Inform K12 to help us transform some key district processes um particularly with um moving some of our forms uh electronically and automating the process. And so we started uh with payroll and we're going to be broadening out and I'll share a little bit about that in just a second. Uh we're currently developing a lean continuous improvement training plan including the selection and training of continuous improvement leads in each

125district department and continuation of equity based budget framework um the work and engagement ready for the uh 2526 budget. So our lead for um this lean continuous improvement strategy is Laura Carmichael. She couldn't be here tonight. So, I'm going to share out her her section, a little bit about what it is. For those who don't know, this was something developed um through Toyota's production system. Um focuses in on uh a few different areas to streamline process, eliminate waste or reduce inefficiencies. Um continuous improvement to use uh some datadriven changes to um make things run more effectively. um better use of resources, making sure that the funding, staffing and programs are used effectively and maximizing staff time by creating efficiencies. So, a little bit of background there, but uh next steps in this area are going

126to include um well, I'll I'll start I'll start with this. Uh Laura Carmarmac went through a program of getting trained uh as a quasi expert in this area so that she could bring back her learning and begin training in house. So that next steps being to train lean leaders and core teams at each building. So we're going to do some in-house training of folks who can take this knowledge and do something with it. Um where they live in each department and building. Train incoming staff on lean culture and thinking. That way you know we want to have a lean culture. So as you come into the system, the first thing you or one of the first things you find out is that this is how we think and this is how we do things. So

127it's embedded in what we do. and then ensuring continued support from the executive team. And there's a lot of ideas on how we might be able to do that. Laura's got some some things that she's looking to put into place uh to make sure that those out there who've been trained and are part of the lean culture are getting that reinforced over time and we're not losing that focus. And I'm going to let Mariah talk about her area. Thank you, Martin. Good evening. Um I'm the strategy lead for the equitybased budget. So I'm very excited to share um our development for the equity based budget framework. It's designed to ensure every student have what they need to thrive and it uses an comprehensive equity index to guide additional resource allocations beyond core staffing. And core

128staffing is based on enrollment and then the equity based budget framework is then layered on top the process. So we started in September 2023. We formed an internal work group with uh district department leaders uh certificated and classified staff as well as equity leaders and their insights have been invaluable to the shaping of this framework. We also partnered with education resource strategies who has worked with districts around the nation in developing these frameworks and with the allocation of resources as well. At the heart of this approach is the equity index and we considered a comprehensive view and looked at access to nutrition, specialized instruction, academic supports, housing stability and multilingual proficiency. Something when we built this framework, we realized that the schools that were highest in the framework were already receiving additional supports above core

129staffing. And so this framework ensures that those investments are sustained and intentionally directed where they are needed most. Um the initial resource allocations are provided in the fall and then as the school year progresses when uh student needs arise, we also allocate more resources to those schools. Also important to note that the entire framework is funded by the educational programs and operations levy and is critical to student support. So our next steps is implementing and monitoring the framework as well as continuing to engage with our internal work group and the stakeholders. We annually review our budget and make any adjustments. And then we're looking at long-term planning for sustainability of um these resources. So, this is an a meaningful um approach to ensure every student has what they need to thrive and we look forward

130to continuing this important work ahead. Thank you. And I'm going to turn it back over to Martin. Thank you, Mariah. So, just rounding that out, um summary of next steps for this area, we're going to continue our partnership with Inform K12. Um, as I mentioned, this was um, a solution to converting a lot of our paper processes into electronic process and automating those things. So, we've been able to do thousands of those through payroll because that's one of those areas that you can start with and get an immediate impact. And so, we want to make sure now that we have a a firm grasp on how this works and and know what we can do with it, we broaden out to other departments and areas in the district who can take advantage of it. Um

131we've had that initial review and assessment from our IT consultant and putting a roadmap in place uh to centralizes efforts to improve effectiveness and efficiencies is very important. So we're going into that next stage of of doing something with the information we have. Um absolutely the ongoing collaboration with the equity based budget internal work group uh that Mariah mentioned and exploring opportunities to expand the equity based budget um uh in the future. So that rounds up our update. Do you have any questions for us? Okay. So to our board and students that are left no to my left. Uh yes and as our students I I want to say our students are also involved in educational uh opportunities. So if they needed to leave um that is okay um given we want them to be

132successful in their endeavors. So any questions for uh our board? Chris, hello. Um, my questions particularly focus around uh the lean and continuous improvement. So, strategy 5A and focusing on students. So, I love the plan and next steps help a bunch. My question really revolve around um like what are the metrics? How are we going to make sure that these plans are successful? And like have any of these initiatives been like done in the past and if so, what have they really attempted to streamline at all? Yeah. No, great question. Um, so we started off with getting um trained up first. So that's why we started with kind of the core point of contact with lease Laura Carmichael. And so part of what she's going to bring back and train folks on is how we

133establish those metrics um when we take on an initiative. So how do you plan? How do you identify the metrics and how how are you going to measure those at the end of a process? So it's a continuous process. Um so we don't have we haven't had like a kickoff yet that we can show as a as a demonstration or an example but once we do we'd be happy to bring that back and show you kind of how that's been how that went through the process and how those were identified and monitored. That helps a lot. Yep. Director Taylor, just a quick question following up actually on that is how did the district land on link continuous to begin with? It's a great answer that yeah take to the wayback machine to think about that

134process. So yeah, we had a chance to build with community like we we originally felt uh worked with a delivery associates and outside organization to help us uh with the initial interview process processes and data collection that then led to the formation of some focus areas. So we got organizational effectiveness kept coming up in feedback saying like you need to work on your systems and your processes and the things. So out of that came lean continuous improvement. We had workshops with the board, we had workshops with parent groups. So it was a huge sort of process of developing first the focus areas, priority areas and then the strategies specific strategies. So it ended up ended up leaning on lean because it was well how do you improve an organization? How do you do this? Well

135you need to create continuous improvement cycles. So lean naturally came out of that as a methodology or tool we could train in and then as a way to then create those cycles in the organization. So comm built with community u then the focus became that in that strategy area. and superintendent's going to build on that. Uh the additional context for that time is that we were in year three of financial budget reductions as well. So we were paying particular attention in that time with the strategy development of maximizing resources and as we thought about that and I and I know that I think we can all site working in any organization there's always something that can be improved. is like that one thing that if we could just solve that series of signatures or like

136how that process moves that would like make us all feel a lot better. So we were just giving voice or uh affirming the voice that we were hearing like hey let's actually just like take it beyond just hey we we'll live and adapt to that that bad process and we're actually going to take it on. So those are some other backdrops that we were hearing. So that came from a lot of our staff members and I know every organization has process improvement needs. So that's that was another part which is how do we actually just get at it together and lean itself has those measurable metrics you know we talked a lot about um the black belts the the green belt process and how that can actually show measurable process. So just to follow so

137you were looking for a methodology to use to do this work and landed on the Toyota lean continuous methodology is that is that essentially and that came forward as like you know I mean we had people here uh Mr. Hower has a project management certification and background. So as we looked at also the assets that exist in I think Martin also has that I think Mariah many people in the business office actually have their green belt training as well. So it just sort of naturally came up as part of the conversation. There are tools that help you measure um financial savings and not only in terms of actual costs but human time um that then you know can be put back into doing other things more effectively or um actually saving dollars. Uh I first

138learned about it uh because I sat in a unit at Amazon during my uh MBA internship at at the fulfillment center in Delaware. So uh I was sitting with the uh black and green belts and they had projects that all staff were able to run. So that's how I first also came about. Okay. Lean six. I just I hadn't heard of it before so I was curious. And just add a little more additional context. So the state auditor's office is well offered support and training to us last year. So that was that's a piece of it while that connects there. Um and then Nisha's question around like how do we measure it's really a way to measure either cost, quality or or time. So it's the iron triangle. So one of the three will be

139measuring something around the process which will save us. So when we think about quality is quality of like customer satisfaction. Are parents happier with the with a process now that we've improved it. So I I can imagine we're going to start to look at like different ways to save and and cost savings but as well as like quality. So, Director Coin, great. Thank you. Took myself off a mute at this time. Um, great great work around the strategic plan. Thank you for the update tonight. Question I have uh Mariah back to the equity based budget framework and I've been in sat in on several meetings related to the equity based budget work and I think it's great that the district's moving in that direction. I have found that as I talk to members of the

140community, you know, I say, "Hey, we have this comprehensive equity index that we're using and I find I, you know, I don't have necessarily the tools to go deeper beyond that. Are we how are we looking to kind of explain all that goes into that comprehensive equity index I guess to the community so people understand how that allocation looks because I know people find it intriguing and I think most find it you know it's good that we're moving that direction but is there more detail that the district's thinking about in terms of of kind of providing in terms of how we're how that allocation is determined? Uh yeah tonight is a brief introduction to the strategy and and the work we've done. So far obviously we have we started or over a year and a

141half ago so quite a lot of work has gone into it um working with our internal work group as well as the partnership with uh educational resource strategies as well. Um so yeah as we um dive into all the different um strategic plan areas once we you know do all that then we'll have you know more engagement and information to go out there. Um and we also keep um the board the board directors updated as well as the um all administrators and we get a lot of continuous feedback. Um we're getting feedback during this budget process as well. So there's a lot of different inputs going in and we'll continue to develop that and expand and um provide more information. And the superintendent can expand more. Uh I think actually director coin is making me

142think about our visit to Clark Elementary and I there were some questions about um how we allocate resources based on need. Uh so Clark has a lot of high needs um opportunities to be able to meet and deliver on. So I do think that maybe what Director Coin might might be thinking about as certainly I was was okay get a refresher on sort of the top bullet points that can help with you know communicating out to the community what this work is. it has been a lot of work uh and is uh is supported by a lot of um data. So I think it'd be good to get the high level summary that we can start to communicate to others and equip the board and others for that. And superintendent, I'm glad you mentioned that

143actually um because that is what spurred the the question and I really liked your response actually that you gave to the Clark community related to this. Would you mind sharing some of those aspects? I think it was it resonated well with me and I think it did with others in the room too. Uh I think I said although now it's like two days ago. I was uh running from one meeting to another and then trying to get home. Uh I think I just said it's an opportunity to look at where the highest needs are for our students in particular first anchoring on you know the economic backgrounds that make up the community and then there's other measures that track with that. So uh being able to say that we were able to forward plan for

144for that based on the demographics being predictable what those needs might be but being able to flex to that over time but that we have actually intuitively and I think not only because of this board but prior administration I think already derived our way into you know mostly um a very very good model because they had the intuitive nature of where the needs were. Thank you director Mullings. Uh so first thank you for bringing back the connection between the strategic plan and our policies. I always you know want to make sure that we're being very clear the strategic plan doesn't stand on its own. It's a way that we see progress in the policies is laid out. So thank you for bringing that back. It's awesome. Um the second point I will make is on

145the continuous improvement piece. I I it almost brings me to tears as a green belt. um to see that application here being part of the conversations over the last several years being a being a user of resources in the district. I know for me it's always been really important. Are we looking at how um the people who use our systems, our processes, how they engage um with our buildings, you know, that we just need to mature in general the processes we have and make sure we're looking at them from how people use them versus maybe what's convenient for us to display or how our internal processes work. So really excited to see um the continuous improvement piece come to life. I think the last piece on the equity based budgeting framework, I'll go back to

146what I was talking about before, is our opportunity to be a part of this community um discussion really one of concern around um behaviors in our school and the IMS community. And that conversation that the IMS PTSA put on brought in both the uh police chief, I almost called the superintendent of police, the police chief for Isiqua, as well as the district attorney responsible for um youth, chief prosecutor of um chief prosecutor um for for uh juvenile crime, juvenile. And so it was, you know, a really good conversation to talk about many things, including if you look at the long arc of behaviors and even crimes by juveniles, if you look at the long arc, we're significantly down from where we were 20 years ago, but also an acknowledgement that we're we you know, there's

147still challenges that exist every day. So it was an it was a good conversation. Couple things that came to light. one I mentioned earlier which is about I think we have an opportunity to refresh what we have available to all of our students to all of our families to report safety concerns. Um I think maybe that's something we should have a a steady drum beat on. There seem to be in that conversation a real focus on very specific reports of crimes or on harassment, intimidation, and bullying. That's super technical and I think the what we've made available at all of our schools is just if you see that you have a concern, please report it and know that it will be followed up on. So I I would love to just get back to that.

148But if I move forward, one of the things that maybe was the most satisfying is to be able to sit in that room and hear the administrators of that building talk beautifully and very confidently about the differentiated staffing and resources already provided within their building. And that that was a direct result of the work you're talking about here, the work we've done for many years. And um it was just super gratifying to see the line go from what we talk about in this boardroom to concerns our community was sharing but to a set of building administrators just super confident in what they were doing and why they were doing it. they had already been um provided with um the broad set of resources under the MTSS model um to include multiple kinds of professionals and

149that that was an enhancement on previous systems. And so I I probably would say um just based on this work sometimes you wonder if that is going all the way through to the end line. And I think in that conversation for me it was just really clear that what you're talking about in some of this work, what we've been talking about in getting resources to where need is is happening in real life. And it was a just a pretty proud moment. Obviously, do we have work to do? Yes. Do we still have uh young people who still make bad choices each day? Yes. But to see that um just the clarity in that uh occasion for me was fantastic. Director planning it to go. No, I meant like I raised my hand. She just didn't

150see it. I'm joking. Hey, uh I am so grateful for the update and for equitybased funding because that's been a plea of the board for a really long time. I think as you get ready to socialize this though, I think it's also really important to say what it's not. And this board has been very clear about what equity is to us. And what equity is to us is having the really high standards that we uphold in this school district and driving supports so that every student can reach those standards. What equity is not for our district is lowering the bar so everyone has the same, you know, higher likelihood of crossing that bar. And so I think that's really important that we share what equity means to this board and this district and how that

151transcends and translates into equity based budgeting framework. What it's also not it's also not taking away any sort of core funding from any one of our schools. This is really about driving additional supports and additional dollars and additional staff members to support our students in their journey to success. So, while I agree that it's super important to report out on this and provide a succinct way you explain it, I think it it's also going to be important part of our story because someone that's just tuning in that hasn't been part of this decadel long journey we've been on for equity may not connect all the dots. And I think we've learned that through these past bond campaigns where we have half the people in our schools who weren't here in 2015 when it was all

152about how impacted our schools were and then they're like wait why are you guys talking about overcrowding like well because we've been talking about actually for a really long time and then we got interrupted with this whole COVID thing. So please, that's my plea is that whenever you do that, that we have those important parts of what it's not because I don't want it to be distorted by anyone in our community, even staff, by saying like, "Oh, well, you know, that's because we're taking away from such and such because because we're not and you're not." Uh the second thing I would say is when I look back at what the strategic plan the two goals for under this one of organizational effectiveness when you're doing your lean processes and you know the goal was develop

153a continuous improvement cycle throughout the organization now that you're kind of further into it. Do you have a sense on gosh our goal is that we have 5% of our central office staff or administrative staff or whatever. Is there any sort of like true target you're trying to get to or do companies have any sort of threshold by which they they know like when we hit this threshold we really feel like it really takes off? Meaning because you do like five people for your 2200 employees that's not going to do much. So have you guys gotten a better sense on on where the destination is or what the goals are? because if you do now that you're this far in those would be helpful points to report out because otherwise it just seems like oh

154that's cute we found a process we're doing but we want to know how does it make meaning and translate into impact. So, um I'll be interested to get a debrief from Laura Carmichael after she's gone through her training, which is kind of our next step. But I can tell you that for me the the goal set is for every department, every building to have the training and knowhow to go through a process to go through their own um like it it's not necessarily every building needs to have x amount of process improvement initiatives that they've gone through, but the goal for me is everybody in those areas knows how to go through an initiative. if they have if they've spotted something that needs improvement or they believe needs improvement that they've been given the tools

155to look at it in that way and drive a new and efficient process. So, um, that's how I see it and that every, like I said, every department, however we define that, every building has a way to to put something forward instead of just suffering under the inefficient process to say, "Okay, we know now we have those tools. We have the people that are our experts in the building. We can go to them and we can run through something to see if we we can improve this process." Hey, any other questions or comments? Thank you. And it is actually good to hear the progress on the strategic plan in each goal area. So, I look forward to continued discussions on those. Thank you. Up next, we have legislative matters. That was quick. Um just couple

156items. Um the special education funding bill uh that came from the Senate that is now in the state house and the MSOX bill are um both in the appropriations committee. In the House, I think from our discussions on Day of the Hill, we understand that there's going to be some negotiation then on what the ultimate funding looks like. Um so there's not a whole lot to update there. Um uh there was public hearing a few days ago on the uh on the bills but uh no other updates than that. Um interestingly though the eminent domain bill uh 5142 actually passed out of the house committee yesterday with an amendment um which I which is very interesting. And the amendment to the bill essentially says that um a school district uh would not need to offer

157a piece of property that they purchased or I shouldn't say purchase, they obtained and purchased through eminent domain. they would not have to offer that back to the original seller if there has been an effort to develop the property, go out to the public for a uh a vote for funding for the property or um if it's included in the district's capital plans of building on the property. So, I think that uh kind of puts a lot of our anxiety to rest about that bill and um that's how it's passed out of committee at this point. And I would imagine if it passes, that's how it will that's the form we will see it in. Let's see if the superintendent wants to say something along those lines. Uh yes, thank you. Um so on the

158to to add to your point on the finance, uh we're we're reviewing both House and Senate versions just to see what those implications are and taking that into account. And we'll use that as part of our updates to the full board in the April budget. next update on the budget. That was redundant, but we'll the next budget update for the board. Um, and we also know that that future, you know, uh, as the weeks progress, we'll get more finite on what those what those implications are. Uh, I appreciate those updates and appreciate, um, your work and the board's work on really aligning around the big three, although transportation sort of fell off, but the special education funding, but also MSOT costs are are included in both, although I think um, the Senate version is a

159little bit stronger in terms of the resources uh, provided. Um and then on the eminent domain, the amendment was put forward by Representative Goodman. And so I know that um Martin Turner has been working to make sure that some of those details were included. Um and I appreciate uh we didn't talk about this part from the legislative day on the hill, but President Moralo was able to speak to um uh Senator Hassawa's staff about the implications. So I think that certainly helped to know what the implications might be. There was another uh amendment language that we had not been um sort of thinking and and sort of advising about which was uh also including that it it would be excluded to go back to the original sellers if the property was acquired by the district

160more than one year ago. So you wouldn't have to go back that was added by the the legislative process. Yeah. Yeah. One other just one other thing on legislative update. I also attended uh with the director coin the fifth legislative district uh legislators town hall meeting on Saturday at CMMS and uh the legislators there heard from the community uh a lot of support for additional funding for our schools and again uh we've already known this from our fifth ledge legislators um but they again express their their support for for all of these measures that we're interested in. So just wanted to share that as well. Um, and I I appreciate that. Uh, the time we spent with our legislators, I feel like when I listen to that amendment, y those items sound very very familiar.

161So, um, really appreciate that work. And I know that, um, Sandy Hayes from Northshore has also been working this issue from the kind of the northern south uh, northern east side perspective. So, it sounds like that there was some combined agreement on that. Yeah. Um, I guess any big updates nationally? I'm trying to think. Oh, there might have been the dissolution of the Department of Education. So, um, that executive order is going forward. I'm sure there's probably going to be lawsuits that accompany that. Um, so I know that there are concerns about even if that were to stay what the transitions are like the transition process. So the administration may say that yes, you know, IDEIDA will go under I think it was housing, excuse me, health and human services, but what does that really

162look like? Who knows what that transition is? I know as somebody who's had a grant, a federal grant that was transferred from one government entity to another that that transition did not go fluidly. And so I think there are some concerns there um as well as continued concerns about federal funding overall for education and for any um any monies coming to the state. So um that continues to be something that we're watching. Um, NSBA is certainly having as many conversations as they can with legislators about um the needs of of school boards and school districts across the country. Okay. Next item on the agenda is announcements and correspondence. So with this is a standing opportunity for the board to share any announcements or correspondence that are not listed on the agenda. Seeing none, we'll move

163to the next agenda item, calendar and future agenda topics. We do have a few items and um I will definitely ask for the superintendent to support as we try to go through all these to make sure I've captured it. Um the first thing is that the board will need to review and identify and identify topics for future meeting agendas and other special calendar items as as well as schedule special meetings and work sessions. So that's what this portion is. So it looks like we need to schedule a schoolboard candidate workshop and I believe that people that are going to be on the ballot are not usually the ones to do that because it's pretty awkward. Um but that leaves that leaves actually four people that would be available to do that. But I as president

164would really prefer Yeah. not to. I'm happy to I can I can do it too. I can volunteer for that. Okay. It's great to actually have two people. So that's fantastic. So if you um that director Taylor and Director Coin have done that. Now I know there was some discussion about taking a look at the work the handbook prior to that meeting to ensure that we any necessary changes. Yep. I've got changes. That is it is helpful to go through those changes. because I know that that was a role that was last played by former directors. Um, so it's great that we have two the two people that replace them stepping up to actually do that. Maybe I'll take a look. Still still fresh in their minds, I guess. Yeah. Okay. I'll take a look

165at that. Yeah. I mean, I'm happy to take a look. Okay. So, um, so Emily will email you the word document so that you can highlight changes. All I do changes. There you go. Um the second is board engagement with high school student panels. Now these events will have two board members, not three. So without a quorum, they are not public meetings right now. Um you each have the schedule um or you each have potential schedules of that um before you. It looks like um April 10th for Isiqua High School that myself and director Taylor will be available at the bright and early time of 8:45. You don't I thought I handed you a set. That's after the piece of paper. Now I realize that's for you, but she said it wasn't for but now

166it's there's a second one that will be coming. Um and then April 24th for Liberty. Right now we have um Director Coin and Director Gallinger. So we are still open on um Gibson EC. There are three of us it looks like. And I don't have um Director Gallinger's schedule. So I don't know if he's also included in that. So um who wants to not be included? I I just would like to participate in Skylines. So, okay, that's I want and I see I sign up for Liberties now on April 24th, which is great, but I do want to participate in Skylight. So, when is Skylines scheduled or potentially scheduled? Director Raldo, I don't have it in front of me. Could you could we run through all of them really quick just so I know cuz

167then I might pull if I'm on one I'd pull myself off potentially on Gibson neck. I don't even know if I'm on Gibson neck but Okay. So currently you are on April 24th at 1 to 2 p.m. along with me along with director uh Gallinger at li uh Liberty High School. Okay. Uh, so we were all available then for skyline. And when is the skyline date? Am I seeing? It's uh April 25th. It was either 8:45 to 9:45 or 9:40 to 10:40. And so Director Gallinger saying he wants that one. He wants that one. So we need one more person to say they would prefer that. I I I prefer that too. Okay. Prefer Scott. Okay. And then for Gibson since um I've got good director Gibson. So Director Mulling since you haven't done any

168other. So um having you as part of that Gibson one the 23rd and we will ultimately just pick one of the hour slots. Correct. Correct. Okay. Yep. So I'm I'm okay for Gibson if someone else is ready and then probably AJ or myself. Yeah, I can't do the 23rd. Okay, then I will take on that one and that way everyone except for Director Taylor has one or two. And which time slot, Director Mullings and President Raldo, do you do you prefer for Gibson? Because it looks like there's the two that you're both available for. I'm fine with either one. Get my phone out just in case something's changed since I filled this out. I have no other items for that day. U maybe April 23rd, right? So my preferred is I said it's such a

169mystery. Um why don't we do earlier than later? The 9:50 to11. What was that? 9:50 to11. Yes, the earlier one. The 950 to11. Would you like me to recap it all? Yes, please. You're now that you're all locked in. Yes. So, um on April 10th at 8:45 to 9:45 at Isiqua High School, um it'll be President Moraldo and Director Taylor on I'm going in sequential order date wise. Uh, April 23rd, we'll be at Gibson Act from 9:50 to 11 with President Moraldo and Director Mullings. On April 24th at Liberty High School from 1 to 2:00 p.m., Director Taylor and Director Gall I'm sorry, Director Coin and Director Gallinger. And then the last one will be Skyline, which is April 25th from 8:45 to 9:45 a.m. with Director Gallinger and Director Coin. Excellent job managing all

170the variations of these options. And thank you to Emily for helping with that too. Yes, thank you. A whiz. Oh, great. I have a second apparently. So, I did not. Now for the town hall with the IMS IHS community, although open to anybody throughout the district, but it will be located um in that area. Uh it looks like we have availability um on May 12th from 5:30 to 7. Has there been any changes to that since you originally filled out the form? So then we would have uh the location would be the Isiqua Middle Schools or Isiqua Middle School Commons or live. So just is middle school would be appropriate from 5:30 to 7 p.m. So I'd be looking for a motion. Uh, I move to calendar the board town hall at IMS at I

171uh Isqua Middle School on May the 12th at 5:30 to 7 p.m. Second. Okay. Any other discussions? All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Guys have it. So that is the second thing we've accomplished. um we discussed a high school graduation. One thing that I did note is that I do not think we have a location yet for our um superintendent evaluation. And so I can I know that it in the past it's always been initially it was at Suzanne's house. Last year it was at uh Director Gallinger's house. I can do it at my home, but I have more people that are like in the house in the evenings and not a good private area that would fit all five of us. What's the date? What? Well, I'm always happy to

172host. Um, but that May 1st date, I am no longer available. Thank you. Okay. First, I would be happy to host a future event, but things are a little wild at my in my household this spring with my son graduating. So, lots going on, but future I would do it, just not this year. Okay. So, and then Dr. Taylor the other day student board. So looking at the fact that um it's really awkward to have somebody host something they don't attend. Um let's pull out the old calendars. Is there anything surrounding those days i.e. Wednesday or Friday? And we'll So you're gone Wednesday through Friday. Um what about a May 5th Monday? So are we still available on May 5th? Yes. Oh, it looks like yes. Yeah, I could do that. So we will shift

173that. So, I actually will need a motion and I could host both. What do you It's not written down here at all. Do we have a location for both? Yeah, I said I could host both. Okay. May 5th, June 4, both 6 to9. Uh, I move we calendar uh the superintendent evaluation meetings for May 5th, 2025 and June 4th, 2025, both at 6:00 to 900 p.m. at the home of Director Gallinger. Second. Any other discussions on that? Oh, yes. And students, you do not have to stay for this part. All those in favor say I. I. I. I. I. U. Any opposed? I hear none. Uh, the eyes have it. So, thank you for doing that. So, that will be um that motion supersedes the last motion. And is that a bad I shouldn't have

174said that. No, we actually just got rid of a conflict. I didn't realize. So, May 5th is great. Perfect. Um, I do want to say that I need to probably uh find out from Director Gallinger how to send out the survey for you all. Um, given that date, I will might be a little bit more flexible. But if we could aim for return to me by April 27th so that that gives me time to consolidate the input. Also, that would be superintendent any feedback you would like to provide to the board so I can have it ready for that meeting um by the 27th. also would be helpful. And so I'll work with director Gallinger on making sure that gets out to you. Hopefully sometime this week would be preferred. So you have plenty of

175time. Great. I know he's like an entire month. I know you're going to do it on the 27th, but I'll give it to you ahead of time. Um, other than that, I think a future agenda topic that came up was a discussion around, um, an emergency monitoring of, um, OE12. And so, um, maybe a discussion around that and then we can look at when we can calendar that into our topic into our agendas. Yeah. Uh, thank you, uh, President Maldo. That's me, uh, requesting this. So, uh, I think that I have some concerns, uh, when our policy is there intended to drive equity and support students equitably across our system. And in it is not uh a mandate to make every student take an AP class when they graduate high school or by the time

176they graduate high school or to take an IB class by the time they graduate high school. And so I do think the board needs to have further discussion with the administration when one of our comprehensive high schools has moved to mandate such. So I would like to bring that up for discussion because I think that that is uh what us uh as representatives of the community need to do and need to hold the system accountable for and to be able to have open dialogue about that um because I think that is a a deviation from board policy. So I would request to add that to a future agenda to be determined by uh our superintendent and president Ronaldo and myself through agenda planning. Okay. Uh any any other comments from the board? Okay. And you

177said clarify I I do have a so as desri I guess as described it are you saying it's a gap in the policy? No. And emergency monitoring to ensure we are in compliant that the district is in compliance with OE12. Got it. Okay. Thank you. Um my question would be would you want a full monitoring or a partial monitoring of a specific portion of the OE12? Oh that's a great question. I don't know what kind of discretion we have. So uh obviously just the the ones pertaining towards the coursework and grading access. Um, so, uh, could you pull up which one I'm talking about? I think it would help if we had focus on what areas we had concern so that the staff wasn't spending time monitoring something we weren't concerned about. I don't think

178we have the new one on our website. No, it's it's still all the old. That's a problem. Eelss. So, I can't tell you which one it is because it's not on our website. Uh yes, that is a major project we're making a plan for uh to migrate and we enlisting in some help in that one. Uh I think that there's I think I heard two things. This is one of my clarifying questions. Um which is also I think part of what you're saying is related to instructional program which is where the board did make modifications this past year. I believe it was probably in like an October meeting where we found the last version because there were several reads of uh now called OE14. Um and then I also heard OE12 as part of the

179grading part. So I wasn't sure if there was u additional intent there. Yeah, thank you. I might I might mean OE14. So I'm sorry. Uh is that one updated? Uh no because it's a holistic it's a it's a it is an important and big process to explain the migration well and then have all the policies connected to each other. Thank you for pointing that out and the archive of that is I think it was the um the second October meeting. So we went to the board archives. Let me go do that as well so we can look at it. Would you feel comfortable for the um president and superintendent to review which OE is appropriate to address your concern and allow you know certainly you can email me more information, but I do think what

180you bring up is important for the board to monitor. Um so any emergency monitoring of that um we can get that on the agenda. Um, since there's only one meeting in April, I don't know if we'd be able to make it in April and then may have to be the May board meeting. Would that be sufficient? Sure. I think uh it would be 14.3 14.4 14.5 14.6 six. [Music] Okay. Um, so I think we will gear that towards the first meeting in May. So if we can add that, I would respectfully request that we actually look at the end of May. There's actually no monitoring report scheduled for that meeting right now. Oh, in the first meeting in May, is that quite extensive from what I recall? Yeah. So, I think there's more room also

181given that, but also there was no other monitoring reports, no monitoring reports overall at the May 29th meeting. Why don't we do that then? Um, be able to provide it ample time for staff to go through and do the monitoring that's necessary. Uh, so we will do that. any other items uh future agenda topics that the board would like to consider. I will be thinking about either at our fall retreat or sometime in some of our work studies to really talk about um uh artificial intelligence and um what it is that we're doing as a district. I think it's important for us to kind of have a heads up and I'm really interested in the opportunity to move education as a whole forward. So I know I won't be here long enough to see that

182to fruition. Um but this is such a great opportunity to make strides in doing something more. So we've had discussions about what we're doing at our high schools programmatically and I think that that would also be another discussion about what's the appropriate usage of AI, how are we using it for to much of of the discussion earlier to um ensure that our teachers are able to do to do more right to to be a um kind of a support to them as well as how do we train students to use a tool that will be part of their environment as they move forward. So a strict you can't use AI policy doesn't work because we need to actually be training them on how to um so I think there's a lot of discussion and I

183so I'll I'll see where we can fit that in uh prior to my leaving the board. I have two more. Okay. Uh I spent the hour before uh our executive session with our students and uh with Marcel Hower and Jason Morris. So thank you to their work and we came up with what we believe is a ready for board to do first readon OE17 and we would like to place that on the April agenda. So, should there be more modifications by the board, that gives us three meetings to hopefully get to second read and approval before graduation. And so, I would love to have more flexibility to do that. Uh, I really appreciate superintendent and her team for weighing in on it. And I think that we're in a place where both the students and

184staff feel comfortable with, but they both will touch it over the next like the students committed to having it back to Emily by next Tuesday and you have the redline version currently that's quite more red than anything else um to get a sense and you can sort of follow how that goes and then we let the students know that uh a superintendent and team would then have a final uh touching of it before it comes to the board for review. Uh great. That definitely has been on our topic of when was it going to be ready because we definitely want that to happen um sequentially. Thank you for that. And then your last one is uh we are just moments away from opening up their uh call for proposals for presentations for the next annual

185conference. And my recommendation is is that uh we present on how we do our school improvement plans. Uh, and so I was looking for head nods for support of the board to have me submit uh a presentation on that that would include staff and principal and board members of course or superintendent. It has been a while since we've done a district presentation. So absolutely I think that would be great. I think we have such robust discussions around them and so I would love to be able to share out how we do that. seeing head nods to y that was those are okay any other items hearing none and having gone through the entire um agenda our business is concluded. And