001alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right thank you so much uh thank you for your patience we were meeting prior to this with the issaqua schools Foundation executive board and the content was riveting we had a great discussion and so therefore we're a little late so my apologies first item on the agenda is for public comment and uh as I know there I don't think there's any public comment in the room but you're welcome to do this this is an opportunity to speak to the board about matters that are not scheduled for action on the agenda is there anyone in either the room or online here for public input seeing none we
002are ready to go to the next item which is the approval of the consent agenda I move the agenda be approved as presented second okay uh it's been moved in second and all those in favor say I I I any NS the motion passes uh the next item on the agenda is the establishment of our regular agenda are there any changes to the agenda there are no changes to the agenda we will move on so the first item on our general agenda is the board retreat recap uh so I wanted to open up up the board met on March 3rd and 4th I always say there's not a treat in retreat but it was a treat to spend that much time with my uh fellow board members and to discuss really important topics uh uh
003from The District's perspective so I wanted to take this opportunity to let board members share out um some things that they might want to um talk about from that retreat I had uh taken a a few items that I had noted here that I wanted to to mention here I think one of the pieces that was really useful for us um and you know director Taylor I don't know if you would agree too but udl or Universal Design for Learning um I know as being a new school board member in particular it was wonderful to be able to have really a robust conversation and a good learning around that um and I know that that's really woven into a lot of the conversations we have as a board and the talks about that too so
004um wonderful to have that conversation I'd also say too marketing um really to look at our our broader marketing plan for the district appreciated that as we think about um really kind of our our communication strategy actually probably should say communication plan over marketing but tying them to together there but um useful really to think about strategically how we're connecting with the community I think obviously after our our last two Bond measures it's good to think about um and step back and think about strategically how were connecting with all uh members of the community so I appreciate that conversation too so I will leave it at that AJ um yes I I really enjoy the opportunity during our Retreats because it's not often we get that kind of time to really delve into topics you
005know of that are of some complexity as director coin was just saying for instance udl what Universal Design for Learning is new learning for me um so I appreciated that conversation very much um I also uh we had the opportunity to hear from some parents in our district um with kids receiving special services and that was a really great conversation to hear about our families and their experiences in the district and I thought what was really interesting about what they had to say is that was we're moving towards more inclusive uh Services uh and instruction in special services that it's important to remember that that can create some anxiety for our families as well as they are um trying to you know incorporate into a new um method of teaching wanting to make sure that
006their kids are still getting the services that they need so that really resonated with me and also the fact that I think the district you know um sometimes in implementing new things can get out a little bit in front of the communication with our families so we I think there's opportunities for us to make sure that we're communicating those changes with families as we move forward so that was a really great conversation a lot of great back and forth I thought and then also I too thought the discussion around the comm's plan uh moving forward was very exciting particularly um conversation around new tactics as we think about the changing demographics of our of our community and how we're going to try to reach those folks and make sure that we're still engaging all the
007people in our community so overall really a great two days and again just really um value having those two and three hour blocks to delve into those topics so I look forward to the next superintendent would you like to share uh I always appreciate longer time to be able to explore topics uh in a in a fashion that's you know a little bit more informal so to speak I mean it's all a public meeting still of course and we did have some attendees from the public for the duration of the two days of the retreat um but it's nice to be able to have that conversation and um and dialogue back and forth between between the board um and members of the district cabinet team members uh cabinet and Beyond um and I also want
008to thank the cabinet team members for all of their work in preparing because it does take you know um some time to provide um thoughtful uh materials potentially or information in advance but also to engage and be um in that presence uh and space with the board so it's been it was a good conversation thank you yeah I I thought it was um well prepared by staff thank you you uh that was really meaningful time for us and we also had some wonderful executive session time that I know took a lot of stuff time as well um there was a lot less treat in that part of the retreat but um I do appreciate the opportunity and it was interesting because in the end when we were talking about Universal Del Design for Learning how
009does that weave into multi-tiered systems and support and then how do we communicate this education jargon which it is jargon to the rest of the public and I think that that having a good streamline and being able to see that conversation and also um you know director mullings has been talking about change management and how do we um how do we even improve like we're making changes which I absolutely love I think you can't have a strategic plan and really work towards that plan without changing things right that's the whole point of it um but as we're doing that change how can we make sure that are bringing the community along with us um it was really good to hear from parents and sometimes they do not have pom poms and um you know and
010cheers for us but that's how we know where we need to impact our community in a different way and um you know they always say monsters hide in the dark so what we don't know um we can improve so it's always good to reflect on those things even when we don't do them um as great as we'd like to so but um thank you for your time I know it was a lot to be spending 16 hours practically together um and taking time out of your job to be able to do that and if I'm sure most of you actually did your job as soon as you got home so I know it's a very very tiring time but it's um it's really great for us to be able to do the work that we
011need to do here as a board uh the next item on the agenda is the work study recap so as I mentioned at the beginning we were meeting with the issaqua schools Foundation it has been several years I don't know how many since we've had we used to call them linkages when they were under policy governance I don't know what they're called under coherent governance engagement well it was definitely engaging um so we haven't had an engagement with them in quite some time and so it was really good to hear from their new leadership um I appreciated director coin being able to bring that um background have having been a former ISF uh board member and president so um I just thought this would be a great time to recap um our time just an
012hour ago so it was good I feel like I've spent a lot of quality ISF time of late because um I'm gonna say the wrong name of the session impact impact and Action meeting so I attended the impact and Action meeting just in the last few days which was a really cool opport opportunity to get a review of the progress and the performance of some of the programs that their their great work in fundraising on behalf of the district supports and got to see programs at every level elementary middle and high school and um just very inspiring to see what how that investment and the Educators who are asking for programs and putting in them place and making the results real with our students are going and so to then again have tonight's conversation to
013have more of their leadership board and talk about how frankly their structure and focus has changed over time how their um participation across the community has changed over time and that they're really are looking to get more people um involved in ISF on the board certainly as donors as well and have a much broader reach around the community to keep supporting the incredible work that they they do on behalf of all of our students um and I think my favorite part was maybe thinking about how do we make sure more people are getting um a view into their great work obviously they have their nourish every mind every year but is how do we better incorporate that into our board discussions um and and put some of the great work that's happening um that they
014support all across the district on display and maybe periodic board meetings so um very good conversation and um you know inspiring just to get different looks at all the great work that goes on across the district director coin um thank you I um obviously loved it I loved this s schools Foundation it was my first Suare into volunteering uh for the district uh back in Fall of 2012 um when my kids were very little and you know as I mentioned to our partners with the is schools Foundation uh this evening the foundation plays a really unique role in our district um in helping to really support um Innovation um you know supplement uh funding and I think in many ways too really be this positive cheerleader um for the district and I think that that's
015really important and uh the foundation has always played that role and I look forward as uh as director mulling said uh to really continue to partner with the school Foundation see how we can help each other and and and give them um more opportunity to really speak about um some of the great work that they're doing potentially even you know during board meetings and just a quick nourish every mind um their big annual event is coming up on Thursday May 1st so hopefully um many of our members of our community will be there yes tickets are yes registration opens on Monday yes St Patrick's Day um I'll just emphasize the same the same points you know there's so many great programs that are funded in our district because of ISF um and I just do
016hope we we we can find a way to really shine a light on those things because I just think a lot of folks can you can end up taking that for granted not realizing where that funding is coming from for some of the things that your kids are participating in so I do hope that we can continue to work together and shine a light on those programs because I think it'll it'll be um eye opening for a lot of people yeah I think as they mentioned some of those items such as um even helping with teachers that wanted to start a zoology class and a geology class down at Liberty you would think that those are just District directed but it's the partnership it's the fact that uh staff is meeting with ISF on a
017regular basis that they're making sure that they're in alignment that to me is very important they're a huge partner with us and much to what director coin was saying there's Innovation that we as board directors would not want to necessarily risk those dollars in our you know we're we're looking at tax dollars and is that the right risk to take um and is is that the right curriculum those can be really expensive decisions if you're doing it for the entire district and to be able to have somebody who will fund a pilot in five you know in five classrooms so that we can see what results might be um is very very helpful because that's work that we wouldn't be able to do um so I think Contin funding of that and then hearing how
018the lives of students are actually changed by the work that they do and they have such a long history of doing that and we've taken some of that away I didn't really bring it up at the time but we've taken away some of the things that they pointed to like these are programs that we find voice mentoring you know they initiated that and so the district now does that work because it's important work but I think it lost the Highlight that there was actually the community saying we need this and then the community was finding the volunteers to do that um so I think they're they're great partners and I want to see their work flourish and I so I think that that is really important so it was a good good chance to meet
019with them also to hear that some of their executive board had younger students because that was my biggest fear is that as things drop off do you lose those upand cominging new parents that are coming through system superintendent uh they have been the isqua schools Foundation has been such an incredible partner to the school district over decades and and and coming out of the pandemic where there was just a dip in lots of things you know um involvement engagement you know all of it um they're really um starting to see it uptick again in terms of Engagement and participation and so we want to make sure that we were doing everything we can to encourage that because the more people that are involved in um supporting our students um the better and as a reminder
020what was talked about was um the ISA schools Foundation also fills a gap because we don't get the same level of funding that would meet all the needs of our students so they play a particular role in helping to fill funding gaps um and and take that work on on a local level which is what you know the funding model in Washington state requires local funding so um one of the things that director mullings mentioned I wanted to put some um specifics on it but the impact and action event highlighted several different specific program programs um that we having an impact and again everything is uh through the lens of is there measurable progress and results on behalf of um students so the first one that was highlighted last week was a community- based homework
021club that was serving students at Endeavor Elementary School um and you saw great examples of those students just receiving incredible after school homework support uh and snacks as well because you always need snacks at elementary school um and then the Buddy Hall program is at Beaver uh you need snacks all the time yes um but the Buddy Hall program named after buddy the Bulldog at Beaver Lake Middle School um was highlighted and that happens within the school day and then there's an ISF um tutoring program at Skyline High School and so each effort really showed so much results and specifically not just academic results for students that might need extra help but also just student confidence um and lots of student engagement so those are just some examples I thought would be helpful to highlight
022you know I would just like to add on the first program you mentioned was challenger no Endeavor at Endeavor school that I was really taken by the fact that that program is is not happening at school it's happening within the community that those students live in and I thought that in and of itself makes it very unique but that they're creating an entire additional Community there of students who will come into the program later so they get to see some of the little siblings students who've moved on to middle school and so it's just really special um to see those members of the community being members of our of the staff being able to go into the community in that way it was pretty cool um I always assume people are hopefully listening out somewhere
023about this but I wanted to do one quick plug about um this school Foundation specifically so um you know it it's is unique to isqua I think sometimes if you haven't been in any other District you might just think oh every district has a school foundation and they don't um very few actually do um and the isqua schools Foundation has been one of the most active in the state of Washington and has also been really um looked at nationally by other active School foundations so it really is a testament to our foundation our community um and why it's so important to continue to support um that great organization and continue to really build built that partnership so thought I'd give that perspective too great thank you and um I appreciated the opportunity to meet with
024them hope we will not wait four years for the next one um and uh definitely we'll see you all there on May 1st at the um isqua Community Center at noon okay the next item on the agenda is the works in progress so superintendent what are the wonderful things going on in the district all right I'll highlight a few things earlier this week Martin attorney Jason Morris Tom Mullins and I met with the city manager Deputy city manager and Parks director um from the city of samamish to discuss ongoing opportunities to work together and provide updates about our respective work um in addition um on Monday I attended a convening hosted by the University of Washington for superintendence I've spoken about this on uh before I've had two different convenings with them one earlier in
025July one in the fall and we will be continuing that work and we are uh the focus is really about um how to shift uh the resource based funding model in Washington state to a student-based funding model that's a very long-term aspiration but right now we know that the prototypal model right now is based on Staffing ratios first on student allocations and so all these other student allocations get kind of added on in some sort of different fashion um and Most states um across the country have already moved towards a more student-based funding model um some recent states that have done that uh shift have been including Tennessee Colorado and Mississippi so we got to hear a little bit more about those States um as well and the history of the current funding model in
026Washington state so um it was just a really good opportunity to continue to deepen our learning and to continue to figure out how um as we know funding is a constraint right now in our state how resources can best be utilized so it's really about learning right now with a long-term hey is this how can the model change to better meet the needs of all of our our students also this week we brought together all of our administrators for our monthly leadership meeting um thank you to Dr Bailey for holding that space and steing that space on behalf of our entire cabinet team um for our uh other administrators across the district and at this meeting we focus on uh the Strategic plan priority area academic opportunities and our administrators um facilitated six student panels
027so all the high schools were represented and including Maywood Middle School and Pine Lake Middle School um and for for the rest of the administrators and these 30 students broke up into these six panels into six different locations and they shared their experiences about what works and what doesn't work at the transition points of Elementary to middle and middle to high school and then uh following some you know sharing of some reflection questions of that what works and what doesn't work as well as advice or new ideas we moved into a joint collaboration or co-design design Sprint between students and administrators to say what would we then do potentially and um Dr Bailey opened up and said and reminded everyone hey we've been doing the transitions the same for 20 years and it's time to
028just look and see what we could do differently but just ask our students how they experience that in a way that gives us um some good Insight so I'll share some of those insights tonight at the middle school level we heard students needing just Logistics day uh Logistics help on day one so they do go earlier through web um to see the school and to check things out but they don't yet have their schedule so they aren't able to map their walking path from point A to point B to point C knowing which classroom they'll be in so there's just some practical things about logistics that could help with either Maps um lockers and actual practice once you have your schedule um there's the jump to doing homework where you're more accountable to what that
029homework might mean um and thinking about that stamina and the management of assignments I know this board talks a lot about executive function skills so that is a jump going from you know Elementary School where homework is and we we know from our prior work over the years that homework at elementary school is not an optimal thing for learning so we're not prioritizing homework at the elementary level but then you're jumping to having to do homework at the middle school so um how that on-ramp happens um how they manage their assignments as well and then just on- ramping for kids who might come in in the middle of the year or potentially um at different grades in the middle of middle school at the high school there's a lot of discussion around really looking up
030to older students and upper classmen and really how that's such an important part of transitioning to high school um looking right now because course selection is happening more assistant with course selection and um personalized advice and at all levels there was a desire for more personalization and true appreciation Mr Gillingham at Maywood Middle School got several shoutouts um for his support directly um and appreciation when that happens for kids um they remember all of that and they really appreciate when teachers show up for them um and those ways that really personalize the support and and guidance um and then what was great is we got an email after the fact in several students uh as they were departing making their way back to school as well as just overall following up the next day they
031had so much joy and appreciation for being able to speak to our adults um who are in charge of the entire system um for having them there and hearing them so that was pretty powerful um I'm going to continue on the theme of students because that's really so much fun um today I met and I told them the group this uh earlier today I said this was the joy of my day um although it's also joyous to be here with you all tonight um uh as with the isqua school Foundation all of it um but I met with eight uh 14 um student leaders across isqua liberity and Skyline high schools and we talked about what they're proud about um for themselves and that was actually my introductory question like what are you proud about
032about yourself not you know what are you good at like what sports do you play like what are you proud about yourself and that really I think is not a question we ask our uh each other enough um and then we just talked about what's happening about uh in their schools and what they what they think about as Leaders like what's occupying their mind so it was a really organic conversation and there's some question answer time but some of the uh things that came out stood out to me were that students are proud when they think about their own individual self about their ability to form strong connections and relationships with others and with those from different backgrounds um there's a universal kind of um pride in their individual ability to adapt to new situations
033um use their critical thinking skills someone actually said I love that I'm smart and I thought that was so cool because it just shows confidence and just you know knowledge of self um someone talked about how they love about their their own authenticity they're like I'm nervous right now but I just am and so I'm really confident in that um in that in that who they are and showing up and they talked a lot about how they're proud about their sense of empathy and how they want to include others so as Leaders as you can imagine that translated into how their thinking about engaging um other students to make sure everyone feels welcomed affirmed and included at their School site and fostering a strong sense of community and pride and sense of unity um and
034really looking at knowing that uh students all engage in different ways so it's not one way that that happens how you can engage in a school Community um and then talking about some examples where um the there those leaders the student leaders are aligning their strengths with their leadership um they came up with some you know really tangible examples that were just so so consistent with what they were saying but what they were proud of about themselves and what they thought about as Leaders like there are mirror messages posted at Skyline that are positive and affirming around the school and at Liberty they're mentors for new students that come and enter and enter the school at different grade levels or times of the year and then at issaqua high I learned that um the ticket
035price two-thirds of the ticket price is going to um the American Cancer Society so some really great things that are happening across our district that show the incred inredible amazing heart and values of our students and it was just so joyous so uh I had to just extend that out and share that because I feel like getting out the stories of our students is uh super important to me and I want to make sure that people hear that and um we're very fortunate to have such amazing young people great thank you any questions from the board okay our next item on the agenda is a monitoring report operational expectation 16 Equity um and the administration is going to be where we GNA hear from students first yes I think we have our after you have
036your students oh after I have my motion that's right oh I move the board accept the monitoring report of oe6 equity as presented second okay now we will have our student presentations oh we'll do Staff first that would be very I think we have a a delayed arrival okay so we we're switching things up sorry about that um so I'll welcome up uh Elena s Dawson and Donna hood and as they I'll wait till they're here and I'll open up with a couple of points all right um I will open up with a few points and I'll have you uh join in so um just really incredible work over the years just this monitor report I think reflects the culmination of so many years worth of Investments um really you know aligned with the the
037policy here but also our own um conviction around what's right for our students and um right now I think we can really focus on intentional conversations and learning experience es that really translate into practice and our day-to-day work um our commitment to our students you know remains unwavering um based on all individual backgrounds cultures and unique identities that everyone brings to the table and so our commitment both to Excellence and Equity um full stop is just what we will continue to do because it's the right thing to do and so I'm so grateful that this policy exists but also grateful that this is an opportunity for us to highlight the good work that we are doing and while we always um have ways to improve because the work on Equity is continual work of um
038how we navigate ourselves in the context of a larger society and that we are people and we're imperfect but um this policy does hold us accountable to continuing to deepen and Foster that work in meaningful ways across the entire district and to bring forward data um both um quantitative and qualitative to be able to discuss where we are making progress and where we need to also make further progress um so you'll see continued improvements from our end in terms of progress and in not only the format and content um but also I think you'll see some connections to the work in the Strategic plan as Equity is really embedded in all aspects of the Strategic plan and um you'll see I think a movement away from more technical things that we've been doing that had
039sort of laid a foundation to more adaptive work that's you know leading to hopefully deeper change within us as individuals um then also as a collective uh so um I'll with that I'll will pass it over to um to my team assistant superintendent of Human Resources Donna Hood Elena civasan executive director of equity belonging and family Partnerships so good evening school board members and superintendant I know the board has had an opportunity to review oe6 and I wanted to share a few highlights from this monitoring report before we move into any questions tonight uh the first highlight I would like to uh talk about is our efforts last year with Recruitment and Retention our human resources department continues to make strides in their efforts to recruit a diverse Workforce this has been achieved through increased
040recruitment opportunities at multiple job fairs digital connections with historically black colleges and universities and Partnerships with our communication Department additionally retention opportunities have been enhanced through the educators of color leadership Cadre offered in collaboration with the Puget Sound educational District this District initiative provided educators of color with leadership professional development celebrations of their work and opportunities for uh connection both uh within the building and throughout other districts uh furthermore our educators of color as well as our staff that I identify as lgbtqia have actively contributed to our Equity advisory committee their leadership has led to the creation of affinity spaces professional development for staff and valuable input into the content of the district stay survey for uh certificated staff I would also like to highlight our efforts in Community Partnerships and family engagement during the
04123 24 school year we were able to organize more than 19 engagement events for families covering topics such as canvas attendance student supports running start and wanic and financial aid Our Family Partnership Advisory Group has also played a crucial role in providing feedback and uh facilitating two-way communication on important issues like Elementary report cards the bond attendance student conflict and student reports this has resulted in parents feeling engaged heard and valued as well as additional parent engagement events during the school year uh we have also strengthened our community Partnerships with organizations such as the circle the garage the YMCA the isqua nourishing Network PTSA and ISF and these collaborations have provided valuable resources and support to our students and families lastly I'd like to highlight our efforts in professional development our professional development initiatives have
042been robust systemic and interconnected across multiple departments this approach helps ensure that our efforts are cohesive and igned with our district priorities uh oe6 is also unique in that it has around 16 voices um and so our cabinet team has worked um very hard to refine our approach in how we communicate our work in the monitoring reports moving away from to-do list to focusing on key highlights overall purpose and areas of growth or next steps so now I'd like to open it up to the school board uh we welcome any questions you have do we have our student do we have our student yet okay okay The Show Must Go On uh yes so I will open it up to uh a board questions or comments I have a couple questions if that's okay um
043and I again the reports themselves always get better the uh the one graphic that I guess I just don't understand what it what it's telling me is it's page eight and it's the TFI subscale report and I just honestly just couldn't sort out what it was what it was sharing uh we were potentially preparing for that question the Dr Bailey is here to uh share why this uh is included and additional information no I'm uh the cultur responsive TFI is an activity that our district has elected to do every other year as a check or a measure on how successfully we are implementing the mtss structures and the tiered structures so what you should take from this is is the elementary schools are farther ahead than the middle schools and high schools in implementation and
044many of the schools are at what we call Fidelity or 80% so if you're looking at the 80% line and above that's the success Mark and if you're looking at the approaching 80% that's work in progress and now we've done it twice so you might have some schools who have um completed the cultur response of TFI twice and that's what it's talking about it's checking our our implementation of the te system so the sorry the bars like the they both are kind of purple to me so the blue each of those is a school no um it's really hard to read it I'm sorry the first bar uh is on their teaming structures the second is on implementation then you have evaluation so if you could see this in the chart it comes out the
045PBS PBIS website this way and I can I can find that I maybe get you a better examplar what this is telling us is we are underway and there are one six six elements that you're evaluated on in the TFI elementary schools have done it more middle schools have done it once and high schools have done a different High School tool but it's it's meaning to tell you that we are imple implementing with Fidelity in some places and the teams um is where we're the teaming structures are where we're doing some of the best the interventions and the self- evaluation is right there and I think you see at the top the in 2023 the N was 16 so that's the 16 elementary schools who did it the first time by them we did just
046the elementary schools this way okay but the the takeaway from these are is that we have a system or an approach in which to evaluate how we're doing at implementing and executing I guess for lack of a better word the mtss um tiers of support right it's the the creation of the systems that are consistent across all 16 School schs 16 elementary schools and now have done it exactly one time across the six middle schools about how we are doing at building the system the structure okay the framework sometimes we say for mtss so I think you could take away we're on our way not there yet but we're on our way and so we've done 16 schools so far so that maybe the only other question I have is in the under school year
0472022 to 2023 where has an nend of 26 sure I'm so glad you caught that 26 you are speaking my language so that year we did uh tier one a crfi at tier one for all the elementary schools and a crfi for tier two at the schools who felt like they were ready for it now I'm reading the chart okay okay thank you thank you any other questions or comments Point thank you uh great information and um very comprehensive report I I one of the things that I'll just highlight is kind of a comment when I look at uh page 13 um I love how the the report just broadly speaks to access and community and parent engagement and on 13 it just speaks to the broader Community Partnerships that we um really cultivated as
048a district and I think often times members of the community will go to the school as the first resource for something and so um it really is upon the district to be able to bring in those partners and introduce those Partners to our families so I love that the district's doing it and we we you know it also shows to we don't have to go at it alone you know we have individuals who can help us who are experts in in um you know these spaces so I thought i' just call that out I also think too one of the things that's interesting in here that's kind of embedded but some some other really cool things and I look at like transport a for instance the purchase of those Orca cards so that students at
049the secondary level can um uh can participate in after school activities um I think the food services piece the breakfast program um speaking I'll tie it back to the squ schools Foundation but I remember years ago we were helping the district to Pilot that program and how L and it was the breakfast um uh bar program at the time I know it's obviously expanded out but you look at those numbers I mean the breakfast program it's expanded I know this year or this past year but 43 848 breakfast meals and then 3,101 were free um and those were kids who need I mean it's free because they needed nourishment they needed food and it was important that they got that so I just thought I'd pull that out too I um it's pretty cool numbers
050when you see that and what the district just broadly how they're serving students so thank you thank you um I just want to start off first with just the comment about you know particularly in the current political environment reaffirming my own and I hope our Bard's unwavering commitment to these Equity values that are you know in this report and you know they're Central to our mission and I think that is really shown in this report because we're seeing lots of great outcomes I think from the oe6 work um things such as you know their expansion of inclusionary practices Improvement of outcomes for for kids with special Services recognizing implicit bias and discipline and all of those things you know really really great and encouraging to see and also I was I'm very encouraged by the
051uh increased use of data and the um agile tools now for the district to access data to help kind of make these decisions I think that's probably the next step in the maturity is to then start to use that data in very objective ways but um overall I just wanted to comment on those kind of themes that I saw that I think are really great and we're seeing that even in our in the Sip plant we're seeing the schools really lean into the data as well so that's great um had a couple questions um I had a conversation about two years ago actually at Skyline with a group of lgbtqa students and um they had mentioned at the time that there were a couple instances where they felt like staff was Ill prepared to really
052deal with situations that may have come up um so I was really encouraged to see the lgbtqa um training I'm curious though am I correct this is the first year for that uh last year was the first year for it we continued it again this year okay and one of the highlights was that we also included uh students in the creation of the video and they're featured in the video as well okay that's great because I I did pick up on the fact that it was created by the district essentially so um that's great I just uh was encouraged by that I will say I have a question about a graph as well which is is the graph on page 10 uh which has to do with Equity allowance I gotta tell you what I
053I did not understand gra at all so I if you guys could just give me some context as to what I can take from this I would appreciate it and what is equity allowance because I didn't understand that I might invite Susan Mandel to come up uh we also thought that might there might be a question about about this chart so thank you for asking it yeah the equity allowance was first put in this chart to show um basically a range that was allowed in um the disproportionality for the highly capable program so it was to show um that 20% above or 20% below was within an equitable range I think that this chart doesn't show that 20% allowance so I think perhaps that line should have been crossed out okay yeah uh 20 20%
054above or below what exactly though what is the is there a baseline measure of some sort to where it is um in line with the percentage of all students so for the bipo line there 15% 20% above or 20% below would be the Equitable allowance I say okay interesting thank you yeah than yes um so I'd like to go back to the comments you made on hiring which of course I had gone to before that last so what I thought was uh great to see is one that we've in continued some of the additional hiring practices so where we're hiring from um having broadened some of the of our uh recruitment efforts which is great and it seems like we continue to make progress in the Staffing numbers increased Staffing mbers you mentioned um what's
055interesting is you call out that you're still using the relocation guide which was one that we had talked about two years ago right one of the challenges um that people have moving particularly for African-American people moving into this part of the country is a lack of resour sources available that you'd find in more urban centers I'm actually curious to know what the feedback on that has been is there is there a positive reaction um to having that relocation guide yeah mostly anecdotally um and and face Toof face at the recruiting events some students and graduates or recent graduates alumni even who are coming back to a fair a year later say oh this is so great yeah and they and that's about as far as they take it but they they walk away with it
056in their hands and really like having a sense of what's available to them in the community and I think it does paint a nice picture of how diverse it is here in East King County and all of the opportunities that we have in this area it's it's a huge selling point I think our community is is a big part of the draw for our incoming staff yeah I I just W stay with that because having been an adult who Moved their whole family here had family members not move here really there are indicators in communities that are welcoming or not welcoming and frankly the ability to see um that the district itself would provide a guide of oh there are houses of worship that are of a a various group there places to buy food
057that I may not have imagined or in some of communities there are I don't know I think we included I know I remember how's the worship hairdressers I know I sent a list at one point that was my first question upon moving here like can I get my hair done and cultural institutions other places like that things like that and so I just I will always reinforce as someone who actively asked those questions before agreeing to move to this part of the country that those are not small indicators and they are um they're ones that really do differentiate what we're doing to recruit here versus other organizations who do not think of those sorts of things thank you I had I'm glad we're still on this one so I just wanted to um talk about
058I know that we are doing a lot of the things that are primarily for high for determining who participates and highly capable and really this is around who's going to be in our um our service our our pullout services or our self-contained Services correct that as far highly capable and so I think it's interesting that we have an even greater disparity than we had 10 years ago and so I'm just curious we're doing all of the things that I'm currently on the um advisory committee for OPI for highly capable and we're doing all of the things that they're trying to advise um other districts and really put in as their recommendations um I don't know if we're doing one thing that is being recommended which is no student can be unqualified for a single low
059score if that makes any sense I know there's a lot of negative double negatives but let's say you have a student that gets a 95 a 97 and then like a 92 that we can't unqualified for yeah that and I had to go through a whole process and then we changed that process a while back um we now have a different um a different process that allows for a zcore and I'm trying to remember because I haven't been in charge of the highly capable program for a while but it it um it allows some scores to be high and some scores to be low you don't have to meet a threshold on every single test so long as in the end your scores within a certain range and there's also been other um procedures put
060in place that allow for some professional judgment and that sort of thing and when the students test those are the students who receive the designation of Highly capable and we are always looking for ways that we can serve other students through challenge groups at this point um guests coming to the services that sort of thing so while some you have to take the test and the law say we have to identify people and label them as such we're trying and continuing working on new ideas for expanding access to some of these services do you know if there's been any research because I think this has been the case for decades and um one of the reasons that I really got interested in education was the sense that especially for twice exceptional students right so if
061they're um highly capable with they're also on an IEP or 504 is where the real struggle comes um and so when we look at disproportionality in our special education then it's not surprising if there's disproportionality and our identification of Highly capable and is there research going on at least to be able to say what do we really mean by highly capable and how can it be determined and I feel sorry for cough because I've been doing it all day so could you just repeat the final question really around um is there research to be able to find something because I think our current um system I'm looking at our data is actually going much more towards the students that are going through pre-planned testing where they're literally going to school on the weekends so that
062they can qualify for the test and that is so we I I'll say it I've said it a thousand times we do not have a highly capable program we have a highly productive program and so how do we get so is there research because clearly we're not getting to it but I think that's because we're doing what's told to be said is there research out there are they finding other ways to really say what are we identifying as highly capable um we do know about that Dynamic within our own community of students prepping for the tests for highly capable um we have been working to um eliminate that as best we can we now use the I ready test as one of our um achievement indicators instead of a separate test that can be prepped
063for um and as far as research yes I believe Dr Ryan is aware of a lot of research in that regard she actually did her doctoral dissertation with um enrichment things like that um and as I mentioned um we are currently you know thinking of different ways that we can um expand make the program better so that it is not just a product production program but really more of a program of thinking and um and learning or advancement I will add that you know I think it's a it would be a welcome conversation to do more dialogue about um how we identify the unique strengths that each child brings because they also might spike in one area to your point around not being unqualified based on one lower area relative to a very high area
064and I think we have a desire to to talk more and I know that there's some things changing potentially on a state level which I know you're uh president raldo involved in I think we have a deep interest in exploring further how we can expand Advanced and accelerated type opportunities for students based on their individual and or unique DRS um it is a I think would be a passion of ours as as an Administration to be able to engage in that kind of a dialogue further because I think your questions reveal that we have your interest but also on behalf of the board but also our own interest as well we welcome it yeah and those indic those those tests that I was speaking to and again yeah so we're rewriting the wax literally I'm
065sorry I missed the meetings today because I think it's we're getting pretty close to being done but from top to bottom those at the was I don't know what wack means off the top of my head I shouldn't after 16 years um that but a Washington something code but it's the codes that we go by but what they're talking about is within the same subject area we usually give three different tests and if there's one low score on that test out of the three that they can't just be booted for one low test right so we we've we don't have that we we did have that in the past but we don't have that anymore and that was my question um and then I think we still want to hear from the students and the
066board may still have questions for you Andor students afterwards so I hope that's okay Welcome to our student reps who gave great reports to us so the board has read the reports that were sent in but we look forward to hearing from you more directly I'll wait for everyone to be up here before we start yeah I think this was like a whole group I think and Marcel you'll have to correct me if I'm wrong A lot of times we say well what are the ones you're interested in and then all the students choose the same one and then no one chooses Finance except for last year right first year yeah our first year we did our first year we had all the finance ones Jack Jack that's right jack okay um hello um I
067will be presenting the equity report for ISO High School um I sent out a Ser micr Microsoft form survey to all IHS students through canvas Global announcements and the survey was available to students from February 13th to 23rd um and a majority of this period aligned with is AOL School District's second winter break um so then my survey collected at total of 190 responses um this is lower than some of the previous surveys we've sent out um it's around 7% of the students at isqua high school um all the respondents were Anonymous um and my survey had a total of 17 questions with several of them being uh optional um free response um and so I will go through and break down some of them uh it's also important to note that because this is
068a voluntary response survey that the respondents will tend to feel more strongly about the topic than what the general student body likely feels so when you're applying it to the greater I population please take it with a grain of salt um starting off I had um question four do you feel that isol High School recognizes the the existence of systemic and institutional inequities um my uh questions were um my multiple choice questions were structured differently This Time by the way um so multiple choice there were three options for a majority of questions yes most definitely no definitely not and somewhere in between I allowed um free response uh sections for students that answered no and somewhere in between because I was looking for areas where ISD can improve um so to question four about asking
069um whether ISO High School recognizes the existence of systemic and institutional inequities um 45% said yes most definitely that's great 46% said somewhere between and 9% said definitely not um what stood out to me about this section is that um a lot of students mentioned a few a few instances of racism um or like languages that are less recognized that they speak and would like to see represented in our school um one student responded in the free response section I I believe the school recognizes the issues that are brought to its attention but like other places it takes an individual to push for the school to act on them um I believe that the school do act doesn't actively go after inequities they go by the rule of if it isn't broken don't fix it
070uh that's unfortunate because we do see a lot of behind the work um stuff that's going on here in the district but if some of our students aren't seeing that uh carried out within our schools I think there's some improvement to be done there um another question that I felt uh I wanted to share today was question 10 do you feel that the curriculum taught at school focus on focuses on diverse viewpoints and understanding different cultures and something that stood to me here was and I don't think this has happened or occurred in any of my surveys before um but there was a few students there were three students in the free response in the free response section that showed that they felt the curriculum at IHS is very liberal-democratic and fails to explore the
071conservative perspective uh one student said they they refus to see the conservative Viewpoint in a good light um and I think in a such a polarized environment political environment that we live in today um it's important that we have spaces where we can discuss freely disc discuss our own ideologies and what we're hearing um outside of school and um find ways to uh come to terms with each other and understand each other um so this is something I wanted to point out also like many uh of our Equity service before we um students mentioned that the curriculum at IHS is largely eurocentric um and that there isn't enough diversity but there were some students that suggested that um that there is a good curriculum um that isn't Euro focused um and they suggested using translated
072works from other countries in some of their classes in order to gain those other viewpoints um I know I'm taking quite a bit of time and we have other responses to go or other surveys to go through so I'll just uh skip to question 17 my free my very open up and free response section asking all student respondents do you have anything else you'd like to share um in this section one student stated nothing I have shared is meant to display the school in bad light I just wanted to share my personal experience and I have personally really struggled in my time at the school and would like others to have more support in the future I love my teachers and and and am incredibly lucky lucky to have had the opportunity to be a
073student here and the student that shared this response is a senior so in conclusion for my uh report um I know we we all know that isal school district is doing the very best that they can do uh to make sure that um our students can go through our system um um and they experence what they experience is positive and that they have um that our schools are practicing equity and inclusivity um however I believe that there are still many communities and groups within our school um that we have not been able to connect with and communicate with as effectively as others so I believe that there's still much work to be done for this OE thank you um I all right I'm hav alorn I'm from rep from Gibson and I am standing In
074For Milo um who can't be here tonight um the Gibson X survey got 70 student responses which is 35% of Gibson X's total oh my goodness Gibson X's total student population um and uh every question but one got 70% of students positive Fe back and most of these questions were asked on a Liker scale [Music] um uh one question that did not get majority feed positive feedback it was 50% yes and 50% neutral or no um was um in Gibson neck diversity and inclusion are valued and intentionally practiced um and uh Milo said after speaking to students and reading the comments in the short response question questions um uh the responses seem to be due to lack of cultural diversity in Gibson um we're a majority white school um with almost 70% of our students
075being white and all of our teachers being white um and from the data uh and what students shared they also don't feel like inclusion is being intentionally pushed an important thing to note is that our admission process is a lottery um and is not selective in that way um students also had a few comments about bad experiences um in regard to a 504 plan or an IP IEP um being respected and followed by teachers and staff overall students feel positively about gibet creating an inclusive envir an inclusive environment um encouraging high achievement and giving equal resources and opportunities to all students no matter their e ethnic background um but also feel like we should be continuously encouraging teachers to um learn about I EPs and 504 plans and figure out ways to make students of
076all ethnicities and races feel intentionally included I'm filling in for chrish who couldn't be here tonight um so for Liberty High School chrish sent out a survey um um on oe6 um between February 24th and February 28th it got 259 responses from our school which is about 177% and overall the students at Liberty who responded to the survey felt either neutral or positive about uh the isqua school district's performance in terms of equity um and so one I guess overarching theme throughout um this report is that diversity goes just beyond races it also goes into socioeconomic classes and so that was a huge um finding that we found um through this survey so one of the questions that we asked was or this was on a lyr scale and it was I have Equitable access
077to school activities clubs and Athletics regardless of my background and several students responded that Financial barriers were uh were one limiting factor um only 47% answered true or very true um and so Financial barriers are huge uh factor that prevents some students from accessing these resources that other students do have access to um in terms of personal identity so culture race gender and beliefs an overwhelming majority of students responded positiv positively to this question 75% um said that they are culture f they felt that their culture was respected at Liberty um and and then in terms of uh District communication because I guess communication is another um part of equity we want to make sure that communication goes out to everybody so that they have access to the same materials um so chrish asked my
078family is aware of the district and school's communication about things like scholarships programs or other educational opportunities and over 50% did not agree to this statement and I think that's one point of concern um because we want to make sure that our communication is Equitable and goes to students of all backgrounds and not just those that either are in higher socioeconomic classes or that are more represented um so overall there was a general sense of inclusivity in the classroom but there are areas of improvement that I mentioned thank you um I'm Nyan arajin and we collected 105 responses which is notably lower than past forms that we sent out but the question that I want to highlight is do you feel that school staff and administration Street students with respect and fairness so for this
079one our responses kind of gravitated gravitated towards most of the time with about like 51% um choosing that option for this one written responses revealed that students felt that there was a disconnect between them and many staff feeling that there there was kind of a barrier with student concerns and when they did try to seek out help or try to ask questions to these teachers the engagement was limited um my name is dasida and we worked collabor collaboratively on this report and the next couple of questions I'd like to highlight they kind of fall underneath like the same category um in which we asked if students feel if they are given enough opportunities to share their opinions um on school decisions that affect them and also if they believe that communication from the administration about
080important policies and changes is clear and accessible and something that we saw within the responses for these is that we generally had about 60% falling between yes um almost always or between most of the time uh which is generally positive and then the rest at the 40% laid between um sometimes rarely or we had 3% and no never and this kind of reveals that students desire um a little bit more of an influence on school decisions or just being more aware of them and uh something important that I feel that we can hide in this is students wanted uh school policy information to be delivered in a more uh language accessible manner in which they actually understood how the policies would directly impact them because even if it is shared not everyone's able to see
081exactly how as a student student this policy is going to be impacting them so I think um just switching up the language to be a little bit more clear would be really important the next question that we wanted to highlight is do you feel that your school promotes a respectful and inclusive environment for all students for this one um the majority of responses were most of the time and yes always written responses revealed that students felt that although they themselves had not specifically been targeted by um any like harmful or things or situations that made them feel unsafe they did feel that the language that they heard such as derog derogatory terms and their experiences that lack um cultural inclusivity made them feel unsafe at times and even if it wasn't directed towards them it
082did um kind of change the situation there um we also asked if uh the student directly or someone if they knew face challenges in accessing academic support resources at the school and we had almost 60% saying that no they didn't face any struggles or know someone who did um and about a quarter students said yes they did face it or know someone and there were um about 177% that said not sure so this kind of shows us that some some students face challenges related to the costs of school materials um kind kind of what ad was talking about as well and um students request expansion of free tutoring services and while to ensure that all students are aware of um academic support programs I guess awareness is a big theme that we're seeing uh popping
083up or accessibility as well um and those are the key findings from our report thank you great thank you so much oh wait we do have yeah I thought I I thought I counted four that's I've been sick but I can still count yeah that's fine being inclusive thank you for being inclusive thank you so I don't know if the board has questions or comments for the students um those were really thorough reports we really appreciate the questions that you asked different questions at the different schools but it was really kind of brought out what was happening um at each school because you're all different so yeah good question I had great information I was taking some some notes on this and um one thing I was thinking about just in terms of because there
084was a theme I know it came up at Skyline specifically in terms of voices being heard and and wanting to be heard a bit more and I heard that from the other schools as well but then I I see that the number of students who actually replied to the survey is low how do we get more students maybe engaged who want their voices to be heard they're clearly saying that how do we get more of them to fill out something like this I'm just curious students have any ideas on that yeah or you um a theme that we kind of saw during our survey and um just Gathering responses was that a lot of students who did want to share their opinion or have an impact didn't receive information about the kinds of actions that
085they could do in a timely matter so I feel like a lot of things that people people would have wanted to have an impact on were they were just informed about it too late to have an impact and haa um I think specifically with this survey um there's the survey fatigue is real is and we send out a lot of surveys and the students have to take a lot of surveys and so the people who you're going to get responding are either bored or really have something to say and the US and the district needs to be more concise about when we use a survey and be more experimental about how we're reaching students and find ways to create spaces where students are encouraged to share those experiences so ad so for this survey I
086think Kish got almost 260 responses which I might be wrong but I think that might have been one of the highest number of respondents that we've had from Liberty and I think one of the strategies that we used um was when we did our focus groups to get data for ends two or results 2 I'm sorry um we just at the end of our focus groups we asked students have you ever filled out one of those surveys that we've sent out and most students obviously said no um but there were always a couple in each class that raised their hand that said yes and so we called on them we like how long does the survey take and they're like one minute I think that encouraged a lot of students to actually do it that's
087probably one reason that we have so many more responses now than we typically do um but yeah so I just I think just getting the message out there that it literally takes one minute to share your voice with the district and to actually make an impact um might encourage more students to uh respond to the survey but like Hava said her survey fatigue is real so yeah um so this isn't oe6 specific but I do think that like what hav is talking about with the survey fatigue um one of the biggest contributing factors to that is that I don't think students view surveys as a way to see change within the district it's kind of hard to make that connection between me sitting here and filling up the survey and then actually seeing my voice
088implemented or seeing that tangible change and so I think that one as student reps like when we communicate this it would probably be helpful for us to start saying like hey this information is going to be used when the board does decision making on this OE or highlighting instances where that student input is really valued when it comes to policym um and then the other thing also like ad was talking about most of the time when we're made to fill out and I genuinely say made to fill out surveys and things like home room and things like that they are like significantly longer than the ones that we send out and so I think distinguishing that like this isn't one of those large screening type surveys it's just a quick thing is definitely helpful as
089well uh I'll go Naomi n and then Desa I thought I saw your hand us um so with what adidi and AA were saying um I feel like it would be a good thing to inform about how they would have that tangible change and how it does just like take a minute but I feel like a big difference in informing this would be doing it like in person because although we do put these things in like the messages with our survey it has a way smaller impact than like for example they did it in person and I feel like that could be seen their responses went up with that so if we were going to inform I think that would be an important thinga um and I think that like not only saying prior to
090like before they're filling out the survey like oh this is how your voice is going to be important kind of having like a reinforcement aspect in which after they fill out the survey and we have like our report presented we could like um send kind of like a follow-up email or something like that be like oh like here's the clip of where your voice was important in our report so kind of they feel like they're able to witness a little bit of that impact and I think it creates a problem association between actually engaging with um these surveys that we're sending out Pap along with what doido is saying it would also be interesting because sometimes it feels like you put in feedback and then it like slips into the like Beast that is Administration
091and then disappears and things happen but you don't know if anybody actually heard it or if it mattered and if there's some way that when things change we can say like this was like these are parts of our student feedback that mattered these are things that we heard from students that mattered so that students know that it's not just a coincidence and that their feedback actually mattered and maybe if there's a way that we can organize like I don't know like a district listening group on oe6 like not like a complaining room but like a place where students from all backgrounds and all like can come and share like these are experiences that I've had positive like where I felt supported and recognized and seen or defended and negative where I felt alone or afraid
092or targeted and for that to be a place where we have students sharing and staff who are listening and then that can be taken and be a constant monitoring of how this is going and students can really feel like they're being I don't know that was a kind of spitball idea well and and we actually have on our agenda that there's um during our calendaring time when we're going to have uh discussions with high school students and in the past we've done it specifically while we were developing this um OE okay Naomi now you now you're gonna raise your hand okay yeah um I think a resource that we have yet to really uh utilize in our surveys are our teachers and our direct staff members in our schools I know there are definitely teachers
093many teachers in my school that are passionate about our students and want to um improve our learning environment for those students especially like our um ml students and uh students who are maybe in guided studies who want um more support um students who um are in special ed um a lot of our teachers and staff um I think could push these surveys out or just like ask some of these questions to those students um and just like maybe make note of them in their classes or at least like encourage them to fill out the surveys that we send out um because I think those teachers can have a big impact on what students are replying and responding to our surveys um and maybe it's not getting more student responses is getting more of wider variety
094of student voices in our surveys yeah that's my point so I think for me um it would be interesting to know you know especially when you're talking about hey what are the actual policy changes that are happening based on this information how can I tell them back saying you know the board is listening to these responses because you're putting in a lot of effort to give us this information this data and what are we doing with it and so I think based on the feedback you received in your surveys is there any specific actions you think that we might need to take based on some of that so um you know would it be like how do you ensure that um what we're doing around curriculum is more welcoming inviting to other cultures to other
095voices so just really curious quickly about anything that you might have saying looking at the data you receive for your school would there be something that you know if you were in a position to speak to policy makers what policy would you want us to be looking at naom is going for the mic well I think we're all thinking right now um but I do want to say that in my report um in survey several students noted that um one of my questions was are your families able to communicate or do they know how to communicate with the district or school um in a large and a big majority of students uh either said no like we've never had or needed to reach out to our district and or like our school and ask for
096something um and then the other majority said um when they did when they or their families did reach out to the district or the school or Administration it felt like their emails were lost they either never got a response or responses were very very delayed um I think that's a point that I don't know if there's a policy that would align with that but that's one area that I think a lot of students and families could um would want to see Improvement on in order to increase that connection and then you can hear more about like where where else can we improve what other policies do we need to implement or whatever do any students have thoughts now that I've stalled so I think the opportunity that President moraldo just opened up to you is
097one of like the continued maturation of what your roles are right so I think what you've proven you can do now is um reach your student populations you've proven you can um gather information and doing a very nice job of of kind of succinctly reporting on what your findings are I think the opportunity the president's opening up to you is what does your advocacy look like right and so I think that's a very different step is okay I can go from reporting What I Hear to what might we actually advocate to be different in the environment and so I think um that's awesome like I love hearing more of the first year voices this meeting that's awesome and so I think it's just each time a little bit of uh what what can we actually
098do or what can we provide from the seats we're in and so that might be just I'm just trying to restate the opportunity that was opened up to you and to start to think about what that what that might look and frankly feel like going forward because honestly that's what I'd rather hear like what I hear in your reports tonight is and I what have I been around five years six years now is actually quite a lot of positive movement in student reaction when we bring up Equity my first year um on the board there was a lot of upset and unrest a lot of bubbling up a very specific reports of not feeling included I think that moved into I heard there's an equity policy but I don't know what that means for me
099what you guys are saying tonight while you're you're hearing this year's results I'm going over like the trajectory what your what I'm getting from your reports is oh I hear the report I'm largely positive about my experiences here are some areas we could do different so that Arc for me is a very positive one we're going in the right direction but I think you know president moraldo opened up like one more click for you guys in that statement is that fair so Hava I don't have a policy suggestion I have a question since this is about voting on whether or not uh we feel that this OE has been met um will we have an opportunity to come back to you to do some thinking and maybe some talking with students and come back to
100you with ideas that we've come up with for policy changes because it's kind of hard to do that just on the spot right I would say if if you wanted to come back and reflect on something maybe um later in the year I'm trying to think about our our meetings are pretty tight or or if you wanted to submit some type of report to us you guys could do a video of your own together talking about what you've learned from this one and to consider it now and it may even reflect on how you ask your questions like oh this is actually why I'm asking this question because I there might be some policies related to um to these questions that we need to take a look at so is it about something like you
101know are we respectful for all student voices are we really getting at we've made so many curriculum changes so when I hear that they feel it's still um eurocentric I sit back and go well I would be really interested in what more we should be doing because we've done a lot of work so where are we still having gaps so I think there's you know um yeah so if you want to reflect on that or if you want to talk more um I don't know even looking at work studies maybe there's a work study that you could come back towards the end of the year um and say maybe and not just even this one policy but is there a chance to talk about all of policies I know we'll be talking a little bit
102as we step into next year's student rep time so maybe we can take a look at that agenda and see if there's time for you to share about what what things you might take away from this this year and yeah they we've really stepped up what student reps do and so this is a big hey by the way what policies would you change if you're going to be the voice so then how then can you communicate back to students okay that was a little bird walk but I think it was a good one um wanted to go back to are there any further questions for students or for staff in relation to just as again the coughing today all feeling it sorry okay um and it's back in the the hiring world and it was
103you mentioned a stay survey can I just learned more about that yeah so AA and I executive director sason and I uh we crafted a stay survey um and also Incorporated some of the feedback we got from a group that uh Elena has secured to do some PD with us and that was very helpful as well as we crafted questions so last year we gathered our Baseline survey data we had about 115 respondents districtwide went out to all staff and this year we have since sent it again and we had about 1,65 give or take take a few forgive me I haven't looked at the numbers recently uh respondents so the total number went up and we really wanted to learn from staff what is going well with regard to your employment experience and what
104can we improve upon so we asked specific questions about staff um feeling honored that their identity is honored at work staff experiencing a sense of belonging what makes them most happy about working here in the ISD um what do they like the least and what do we need to know about that so it's it's really great content and we are looking forward to crunching this Year's data is that something and I don't know how appropriate that is is that something we can know more about like what is the what are the questions what are some of the sentiment I think I think if I'm just honest one of the feedback points we get often is you don't listen to teachers um and I struggle with where that goes in my mind given the fact that
105what you just went through you're on a stay survey the fact that the district continues to rank in the high ratings of um employers within the state so I think there's some something to be explored yeah there about what are the Avenues and reach how are we hearing and listening how is the district hearing and listening how do we get sort of access to some of that information because I have I say that's a topic that I always feel a sense of dissonance on it feels like it doesn't add up to the actual data of what happens in that so I don't know if there's a way to explore that topic of listening systems um I engagement opportunities I think that would be a helpful future topic yeah I'm happy to talk that through also
106with our superintendent and as I prepare for um a little bit of an update to you all on P3 too that might be an appropriate place to do that yeah P3 meaning the priority priority area three yes under theat plan yeah director coin just to to tack on to what director mulling just said I'd be curious too in terms of teacher listening but because I think it's a broader category I'd like to maybe see if it's broken out by District adman I think Schoolboard I think I'd love to see what that breakout looks like personally because I think right now it's probably clumped into a lot and so people might be scoring it maybe differently than they would if was directed towards specific groups so yeah okay any other questions or comments um maybe just
107would like to say thank you great um really great student reports tonight just really helpful to hear the different um maybe insights and what's happening at each of the respective schools that we have at the high school level and then uh huge appreciation to um the partnership between Elena and donana uh in this um OE on behalf of the entire team because it is everyone's work and so we've really made some big strides and and and having that live across the entire District uh although we know we have more further to go and we appreciate that feedback great so we start this off with an advisory vote from our students correct so do we have access to that do you believe the district has provided sufficient evidence to meet the expectations outlined in operations expectation
10816 equity thank you for that feedback now with that I move to the board any final discussioni prior to our vote okay we have a motion on the table all those in favor say I I any opposed the eyes have it thank you thank you can I just share a couple comments before um Martin turny and Mariah vanask join here for this component of our board meeting um there are a couple things that are on my mind which is that there's just so much going on um in the world of budgeting around us both on a national and on a state level and so what we have um ahead of us is how we're looking at not just the upcoming year but we're also preparing um for how the Outlook might look in out years
109and so it is Inc combing upon us to sort of bring forward all the different variables at at at hand and at play the legislative session is still active we've had another cut off in terms of um bills passing out of their house um as of yesterday and so there's still a lot happening and I'm excited that we are going to the day on um to Olympia with our students on Monday it's well timed actually I think um not I think by way of scheduling it got well timed but um it's it's just there's a lot and so I just have huge appreciation for the stewardship of how we're looking at um our resources and making sure that we are able to um continue to do good work and put the resources against where we
110have the biggest priorities um so thank you to our team for that um attention and it does take all of us to make sure we're stewarding that stewarding those resources effectively Ste could you maximize that slide thank you all right so um again Martin attorney to financial operations joined by Mariah basik Executive Director of Finance and budget today we're going to go over kind of where we landed in the last year uh so gives us kind of the starting point to talk about 2526 uh go into some of the inputs and things that are of consideration uh as we look into next year so some of that's going to be looking at the initial enrollment projection um and some other considerations thank you Martin good evening board directors and the community tonight I will provide
111key financial updates focusing on our fund balance enrollment Trends in the legislative session our goal is to ensure Financial sustain ability while maintaining high quality education for our students let's begin with a three-year comparison of our general fund fund balance so our fund balance Trends reflect the impact of enrollment fluctuations and funding shifts over the past three years from September to December the state funds US based on budgeted enrollment however in January actual enrollment numbers take effect causing a revenue adjustment looking at the green line for this school year you'll notice a downward Trend after January showing the adjustment from budgeted enrollment to actual as discussed in December at the board meeting current enrollment is down 329 FTE compared to last year and our projection was .5% above actual enrollment now let's take a look
112at this year's fund balance projection initially we estimated 6.7 million decline in our fund balance but the latest projection shows a $9 million decline several factors are contributing to this increased Financial pressure including the plan $6.2 million in curriculum costs to support student learning 1.3 million in loss Revenue due to the enrollment being 5% below projection 500,000 in critical repairs for a middle school elevator and $1 million increase in operational costs driven by inflation these challenges highlight the need for Strate strategic financial planning as we navigate declining enrollment and Rising costs now let's focus on special education enrollment Trends typically enrollment starts lower at the beginning of the year and gradually increases however for the current school year the light blue line you see there at the top we see a flattening of enrollment since
113October we are monitoring it to ensure that Staffing Resources align with needs additionally special education funding is a major Topic in this year's legislative session and there's potential for sustainable funding to support our students that we'll touch on later in this presentation for our local Levy Trend one of the key financial shifts we're experiencing is slowing Levy Revenue growth and prior years Levy Revenue increased over 10% annually Now growth has leveled off to 3 % and under meaning that we can't rely on levies to absorb increasing costs if expenses outpace Levy growth we will face more complex financial decisions this underscores the need for sustainable Revenue strategies moving forward Echo Glenn presents another enrollment challenge this year we rely on state projections to staff the school appropriately each spring however current enrollment is 96 students
11430 34% lower than the state's projection of 145 students this shortfall is due to delayed Cottage openings in an overestimate from the state we are working closely with echogen to to monitor the impact on Staffing and funding okay and lastly on for the fund balance for 2425 this chart illustrates total fund balance Trends from 201819 to estimated 2425 balance alongside the percentage of expenditures that fund the fund the fund balance represents some key observations the total fund balance peaked last year at 52 million but is now projected to decline to 43 million for the current school year the percentage of expenditures to fund balance has decreased from 177% in 201819 to an estimated 11% in 2425 this decline reflects the ongoing pressure of rising costs and declining enrollment now I will turn it over to
115Martin to dig a little deeper into the fund balance thank you thank you so we're actually now um so this kind of rounds out where we think we're going to be in 2425 um a bulk of that was expected of course uh now let's start talking about 25 26 so we start with um your board of directors development guidelines for the budget uh two key uh changes this year so we want to highlight those um setting aside 20 million doll for future school facilities which when we do that we call it a commitment it's in the fund balance I'll show you what that looks like in the next slide and then an increase of the board designated emergency reserve it was a million dollar and now we've increased that uh on your direction to $1.5
116million so we wanted to show um the changes those two changes and what that might look like for fund balance so it's important on this slide to that you know this is September 1st 2526 a projection so we don't know exactly what our budgeted expenditures are going to be but we uh project that uh and then we look at um what we believe the ending fund balance is from the previous year which is this current year and then we say okay what's that going to look like and what is that unreserved undesignated amount um what might that look like and it it's indicating is that we may dip just below uh the board mandated 3% um with those um commitments added so what we need to do then is think about how we're going to
117approach that in the 2526 budget so that we can stay in compliance so other things to consider um when we set aside funds and eventually use them that can be a challenge to our operating fund the general fund so want to point that out also um again if we're trying to adjust for um compliance and making sure we have that unreserved undesignated at 3% we may need to make some adjustments within the budget in 2526 to make sure we're in compliance there then of course we are dealing with some uncertain um Financial uh outlooks items and some of those include um potential reductions in federal funding a lot of questions right now about what that might look like um the state has its own uh budget issues that they're addressing um and then we're still
118dealing with some uncertain inflationary cost increases and some of them focus in on specific areas like Insurance where we can see those large increases year-over-year that can really uh substantially hit our budget okay and we will expand on the 25 26 thank you Martin so we had the board of directors budget development guidelines in January that were passed and then we uh just had our second Finance analysis core team meeting today and we'll have another one in the summer we also have had many cabinet midyear budget reflection meetings meetings with department leaders principles um talking about as well as um costs enrollment Staffing projections and then also always watching the legislative session as it develops okay so for the legislative session the key priorities are the big three special education and socks and transportation for
119special education there are potential increases for the funding multipliers and safety net thresholds um mxs potential increases for inflationary to catch up with the increase in costs and then transportation did not advance but there could be funding and the all final um session there are also some other areas that we're watching local levey Lids a potential increase for district levy limits as well as changing for Bond approval from 60% to 50% simple majority for pass rate now let's talk about our project enrollment for next year this year as mentioned we're currently down 32 un9 students to put this in perspective this is the size of a small Elementary School for 2526 we expect an additional decline of 355 students which equates to about 1.9% of our Uh current population why we still finalizing 5-year projections
120initial data suggests continued enrollment decline in the future this will have financial and Staffing implications and we will need to prepare accordingly let's review how we develop our projections State funding is based on full-time equivalent FTE students part-time students such as running start are factor in proportionally short-term projections are more reliable than long-term estimates projections become less precise due to changes in birth rates housing Trends and economic conditions Capital planning uses headcount adjusted for facility constraints and a 95% utilization Factor for capacity to develop our 2526 forecast we analyze birth rates and their impact on kindergarten enrollment grade rollup Trends across all schools and grades local housing affordability and economic Trends this layered approach attempts to increase the accuracy of enrollment forecasts in summer we are projecting 18435 students for next year running start participation
121remains High uh we're expecting above 700 kindergart enrollment is expected to Hold Steady the impact of open enrollment is undetermined at this time as it's too early this enrollment decline will directly affect funding and will require careful financial planning to manage resources effectively now Martin will walk you through our 2526 budget considerations thank you right so just to kind of recap the 25 26 considerations here obviously as we mentioned some uncertainty around the federal funding right now um that's about $9.4 million um that we get annually from the federal government and those uh larger grants 2.3% of our operating budget so we're keeping an eye on that um addressing um the decrease in reserves and so we had the plan decrease and we want to make sure um that we keep an eye on our
122fund balance and how we manage that over these years um the commitment to the fund balance we talked about also um we want to make sure that we sustain our District Operations um and that might take a little reduction here and there to make sure that happens uh we want to make sure we continue to align with projected uh Revenue what we see is the econ IC Outlook and program needs and then continue our philosophy of start uh stop and grow so we review that annually and we've had uh meetings uh so far this year with that Focus coming up we've got five bargaining agreements to negotiate uh so we'll be busy doing that this spring want to keep annualizing costs uh the particularly the MSO cost to see what that might have an impact
123for next year uh incorporate any legislative changes of course it's going to be a little late for us to really uh be able to incorporate everything um as the timeline to develop the budget uh we're probably not going to know everything uh by the time we have to make some of those decisions um and then we'll finalize um and get our fund balance projection down for next year July we will have our preliminary budget complete with in budget guide that we put out annually uh we will hold that final uh fact meeting and then um in August we do the Public Presentation and then the proposed adoption uh that last meeting in August all right thank you are there any questions for us I'm sure there will be director Taylor just one first quick question
124um the federal funding the 9.4 million is that mainly Title One funding or title one uh idda which is a special education those are the two big ones uh we have some other uh smaller but those are the two primary yep thank you director coin Martin could you go in uh to detail I know we talked about it in the facts meeting today um but the kind of the planning that you're doing behind the scenes um should the federal funding go away should that 9 million go away can you just speak to some of the work you're doing just to some back around that I was gonna go to a slide but there's no okay there's no slide so let me just talk about it uh yeah so um I mean here's here's part partly
125why we want to have a healthy fund balance because when things happen that you know we can't anticipate or even if we have a little bit of a heads up like in this case um it's good to know that we have that cushion so that emergency fund so if we're able if we um become aware of a loss of partial or all of that Federal funding at some point if it's past the point of no return in our budget you know we can probably sustain that over the course of a year and then we use that time to say okay what are the next two three four years going to look like and what kind of changes do we need to make as a district so to to answer your question in the short term
126we essentially we need to absorb that in our fund balance uh because we need to continue those services and then we go about some in-depth planning to see how are we going to react to this as a system I think this is um important for the community to note too that we are having to we want to think about this as more concretely um a potential sort of risk to out years for us from a budgetary perspective and revenue perspective so bracing ourselves for the next unit mean Beyond just this year being able to weather one particular um loss of $9 million of our budget well 2% it's not insignificant and then you compound that potentially over multiple years that is significant I've got a mulling I've got a few um can we go back
127to the slide I think it was Slide Five it was a special education [Music] enrollment um so this is the count of students correct correct but not would the would the view of cost over this time be the same would the view of cost so this would tell the story that we see special education by student flattening but my sense I guess what my feeling of it and I'm asking for confirmation is at the cost of that population is increasing oh yeah so there's a couple of different things so absolutely costs increase just to provide the services even if we had a a completely flat line it would still cost us more because that it cost us more on a because we uh fund more than the state gives us and that that difference tends
128to get greater over time in the past couple years we've also had another element which is we had more students and so because we don't get enough from the state every all new students add an additional difference between what we get and what we provide and cost the district fund so so I just worry I think there has to be two parts to this view because I think without the second part which would be the in the cost is still going up year-over-year it maybe isn't telling the full story it's like oh we shouldn't be worried about that impact as much and so I I would just want to add that second view sure or Adam on the same view like whatever but I think the cost is the thing that jumped out at me
129um then I want to talk about Echo Glenn because I remember we had the conversation about the echo Glenn I didn't write which I didn't write which number it was um I think it was probably next after that we talking about um we talked earlier months ago I don't remember if it was this school year or not about this projection for echogen and about the fact that it seemed like a very steep increase that was being projected by the state what I don't remember was do we were we required to hire to their projection or do we hold that hiring until the students are actually there like is the projection alone having us spend more yeah so we actually um we get the pro this nor projection in ailish right and so what we need
130to determine is what can we do as a system to make sure that we have uh the instructors there for this for these students right so we essentially need to take that as it is and say okay we need to staff to that because if we don't staff to that then we don't have uh right we don't have those folks ready to to teach so we effectively said okay we we need to do this we're highly skeptical but we're kind of in a situation where we need to we're not um necessarily well I don't know if I should say we're not mandated but we need to make sure that means we need contracts in place and we need people that are are ready to to teach so we're kind of in that spot looks like
131Don might has something to say and this particular uh last hiring season I stay in very close contact with Martin and Mariah particularly with regard to echogen funding because it is so peculiar and unique uh and we expected to hire approximately four teachers and when some of the circumstances with Eko changed we stopped at two okay so we were very cautious and knew then if the additional Cottages opened we could always keep going okay so we were very very prudent in that and I think it ended up working out really well okay awesome thank you [Music] um open enrollment so I know we're in the beginning stages all these questions are but I don't remember that seems to be my pattern tonight but what I don't remember is um right now is that based on
132just certain buildings that is currently based on certain buildings that have capacity okay um and it's it's focused on our elementary schools this is and this is our first year and I will say that because this is our first year being very clear where there is um capacity um so that families know that you know when they actually put in a potential uh request um to enroll in the school district it it just um is helpful because before that wasn't completely visible and requests were coming in so there was sometimes a mismatch of the request and the availability and so since this is our first year I think when we say impact remains undetermined I do expect that we will see a bump up um but I would actually expect that bump up to increase
133over the next few years because word of mouth right will will get out and people will understand um how to interpret the information we're putting forward about um available potential capacity and one more which was the comment on I guess in the in the internal budget meetings the stop start grow my brain always says stop start continuing um stop start grow so so the question I had before you got to that exact line was was is there a continual process for kind of evaluating and surfacing those programs that we do think are on the verge of sunset needing to Sunset I bring that up because I think in the past where we've had Pro programs that were maybe reaching their Sunset period we weren't as explicit in communicating um that item so is that is
134that something in this uh format the stop start stop grow that those kind of programs are coming up and are those things that as we go through the budgeting cycle I guess we can be a bit more transparent about yes and by the way we we we interchange grow and continue as well in our own in our own speaking um but we are um much more clear in our planning phase but then also in the communication phase of any if anything is new for example or there's an investment coming online or if we're reviewing something and we're saying this is actually ready to start to Sunset off we are getting much more clear about that and communicating that um appropriately now is it perfect uh probably not but we're we're getting into that habit and
135we're building that skill of planning with an end in mind or a phase plan or a scale plan depending on what it is I just think that that's great and I think that'll be really important as we move forward to open up those conversations earlier so they don't feel as surprising or we didn't know like here's some of the some of the areas um Investments become easier to talk about but where we're thinking about um you know I'll just bring up uh Sports programs with declining enrollment like those are good ones to like hey these are ones that maybe we have seen year-over-year decline in students or programs that were meant to build up skills well we build up skills and so at some point you know how do we surface those but I think
136if there's a way to give insight into that earlier in the process of considering Sunset I think that would be better I think we've always done a better job of here we're adding but not so much on the where we're thinking about um uh reapplying funds or resources um we agree with you and and we're all working on doing that even better to eliminate surprises but also to preview where we're seeing either lower use or lower impact or uh no no further need because of was a capacity building um investment or uh allocation thank you for that and bringing that forward that's really important and appreciate the affirmation that's a good direction for us to continue to go right AA um this is just a question that I had overall um and I don't know
137if there's anyone else who's kind of thinking about this who's listening but when I was looking at the um enrollment projections one of the things that confused me a little bit is when we were talking about um like redoing boundaries and overcrowding stuff and I know that its own Pandora's Box um but I was a little bit confused because we always talked about how the rapid growth within our district would make it hard for those Solutions to be like sustainable and so I'm just wondering if we were looking um maybe like somewhere else or um if I'm focusing on the wrong numbers I think some of the things that we've discussed is that there is a difference in what's happening at our elementary level our Middle School level and our high school level and that
138at our high school level we still have the largest uh number of high school students that the district has ever had uh the same can not be set at the elementary level and part of that really does have to do with birth rate which will continue to be a problem long term um we just aren't having as many children being born and the other thing that I you know we we're positing we're not sure but we're making the assumption that housing prices are so expensive that young families are not moving into the area but that families with older children that have established careers um are so I look at the houses that being built behind me starting at $2.4 million I'm not sure that there's young families that will be able to afford to buy
139those um without being in debt for the rest of their lives uh so I think looking at that how are we how are we what are other options to be able to get more elementary students within our district and so we're looking at can we open enrollment beyond the isquad boundaries saying hey if you um have if you want to have your child at an isqua school and it's one of our schools that has capacity um we would welcome being able to allow you to do that so whereas before our growth was growing so fast and we had so many students especially at the elementary level that there wasn't capacity to do that we're not going to invite you to bring your high schooler here probably right now um but yeah so that's that's what
140it's looking at and so the fewer students there are the fewer dollars we get both federally and from the state and from our local levies so every time we lose a student there's three different pieces of our budget that are impacted and and maybe there's another question behind that too which is maybe Mr attorney can talk about this um we were expecting a decline for the next couple years and so um this this isn't a surprise to the board and us but we are uh we were expecting a decline but we're also expecting a pickup in the future and so we do while while um we said that near-term projections are more reliable than far out we also know there's going to be growth and so our city Partners provide us information with sort of
141potential growth plans in housing and sort of what they're being told by King County in terms of that growth so we have to match to that a little bit as well because with growth of housing units becomes children um but I think our projections have been you know we've been projecting the decline but our projections have been pretty historically a very low margin of error so if you can speak to that a little bit that would be helpful sure yeah so the year-over-year it like like we were mentioning on here near term is a lot easier to project right uh so we know a Dip's coming just because of like all the things that were mentioned birth rates uh folks may be hanging on of their homes when their students are now out of our
142system all those kind of things um the question is really you know how long will this last and when does it start to pick up and what what um grade levels does it start to pick up do people move in with older students into our district so when we see uh the increase is it going to be mostly at the secondary and will those Elementary numbers stay like that or will we eventually see the upswing in elementary and in secondary so you know all those things are still in question because they're longer term questions um and we do we go through a process and we reach out to uh demographers and others that can help us with these statistics and they they will say the same thing you know five years maybe beyond that question
143right a lot of things can change and every time there's a change it can Ripple through your projection um so what we do is we do it every year we see what the new conditions tell us uh and then um we look at developments we look at other economic changes um and and see how that factors in so hopefully that that's helpful in how we do it yeah any other questions okay um there's no action being taken on this and so thank you so much you appreciate your time next on the agenda is legislative matters I you know that's a great one thank you and uh director mullings reminded me that we did not take public input on oe6 if there was any I'm sorry that I can't impact the vote but we certainly still
144would want to hear from you and she needs to be better at bumping me and making sure I ask for public comment before I hear from staff and yes and you're always welcome to send an email to us um and we read all of those I may or may not get back to you but our staff will certainly acknowledge that we've received it so you should get that I'm not seeing any hands so we're going to move on to legislative map oh is there one now thank you Cammy cross I do see that hand Chris um to clarify are you taking comment just on oe6 or also on the budet o6 okay mind then period before at the beginning of our meetings you're welcome to attend next meeting to give us public comment or you
145can email us and we'd love to hear from you thank you okay now now we move on to legislative matters okay it's exciting times a lot going on um first of all uh excited for day on the hill uh which will be Monday which um as was noted earlier it's uh it's going to be an interesting time to be down at the capital there's a lot going on and I think we're going to have some interesting conversations with our legislators so um looking forward to that um few things to report on um SB 5263 which is the special education bill that seems to have the most legs in the legislature um passed out of the Senate yesterday and um significantly to me anyway it passed out of the Senate 480 with absolutely no opposition which
146indicates to me that we have bipartisan support for funding which is great and encouraging and um something to be hopeful about uh the Bill calls for $2 billion in increased funding right now over four-year period um which will be impactful I hope so uh we will continue to see what happens there um on the MSO front Senate bill 5192 passed out of the Senate as well and is now there will be the first hearing will be in House Appropriations on the 19th of March that would create about $120 million in additional funding per year for Moc so that would be helpful as well what was that what was was that again the bill number the amount 120 million a year um so that that's um encouraging as well uh lastly we have come onto our
147radar has been a bill concerning eminent domain and School District's use of eminent domain to purchase and potentially hold property um that bill also passed out of the Senate I I believe it was yesterday at a 70 vote as well so it does seem to have some momentum um there is a public Hearing in the house on civil uh house committee on civil rights and Judiciary on 318 uh which um we may want to give some testimony to um depending on our point of view on the bill but anyway it's it's an interesting piece of legislation saying that any if a school district purchases a uh acquires a piece of property through eminent main holds that property for longer than 15 years and then sells the property they must give the seller the op the
148original seller the opportunity um to purchase the land at the uh original price so um the trigger is selling so that's something that we'd have to keep in mind but anyway it's an interesting piece of legislation and we'll see what the impact is but it does seem to have momentum um so that's kind of the big updates out of the legislature right now I did want to mention that legislative Town Halls are taking place all over the region and the fifth LD will be having their Town Hall at Cougar Mountain Middle School on Saturday March 22nd at 10:30 to noon that also happens to be the same exact time that the 41st LD is having their um Town Hall as well so and their town hall is at beliew College on the 22nd um so
149uh just offer that up to the Community if you have needed to won an opportunity to interact with your legislators that's the time um they will be there to answer questions on a whole range of issues um I'd also encourage our student reps if you're interested in also having some more interaction with our legislators that we will have just seen um that's a great opportunity as well um the PTSA advocacy teams have also sent out a call to action on those Town Halls so uh you'll see some other information there and I think that is the gist of it what I have now unless you have any questions cmms Cougar Mountain Middle School back in the library is there anything on nsba advocacy um there are some guidance letters that nsba has sent so uh
150we are a national connection uh District actually we're a cube District now uh so we should have received them um and I think that you've received them also around um uh immigrant status students and around Title 9 UM as you have probably heard the administration is trying to make significant cuts to Staffing at the Department of Education although I thought I saw that there might be a judge that blocked some of that or some provisional work or so um I think it's going to end up uh something similar is going to happen with that but about 50% of Staff members were told to look elsewhere for employment um and I don't know how that impacts us directly and um I don't think that nsba really has they sent a dear colleague letter to the Department
151of Education um I do know that there are certain C offices and certain things that are codified in law special education so the in individual with disability Education Act is codified into law so if it's not the Department of Education or if it's something that's limited that's still something that will have to be um have to be under them to what extent they funded I don't know because they've never made 40% why would they start now why would they not go down to smaller percentages I think right now they're either 11 or 13 I can't remember the very very small amount that they uh fund compared to what they promised uh in 1972 when the when the bill passed um the other thing is the office of civil rights I think would have to find
152a home as well because that's codified into law um now a lot some of the title some of the title funding and such is tied to that so how would that look um so I do think that that it would be interesting how would you get to that funding as well because again it's codified in law but we do have to be concerned we mentioned today in our oe6 we talked about something that the the Administration has said if you're dealing with these things we're going to cut your funding and so I think that's going to be something to consider that we're taking a stand when we um when we pass we say we're in compliance we still hold these beliefs around Equity around inclusion so what does that mean for us and what does
153it what is the administration really going to be able to do um definitely watching what he's doing in Maine and um how does that impact long term so um I don't have all the answers but that's certainly things that we're talking about and thinking about at the federal level and with that we're going on to announcements and correspondence and um I don't have any additional announcements or correspondents okay uh I do know that some staff or excuse me some board members have gone to meetings over the past uh since our last meeting I know I attended the uh PTSA uh General uh councel meeting um met with the whole Council we uh the staff was here uh the District staff was here to talk about um what happened with the bond and so I had
154um was able to share during that as well um and I know that some other members have been part of some community outreach so next on the agenda is calendar and future agenda topics and this is the one I always wonder like how am I supposed to manage this okay so if you pull that up are there any future agenda topics based especially on our um board retreat that haven't been captured I think we have really full agenda so anything you say is going to be either in August or September so nothing the rest of this school year we do have a wda director Area North regional meeting in Belleview on April 29th and we do need to have a motion I move the board attend the Wasa director area 2 North regional meeting on
155Tuesday April 29 2025 from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. at pesta Del Soul Elementary School in Belleview second okay any discussion is that going to work for you I'm done me what time was it 6: to 8:30 p.m. 8:30 p.m so I'm available to be there um and the South End one is actually in Renton I believe so it may be something I don't but I don't know what date they've scheduled that one I can make that one work too available on the 29th the 29th will work for me okay great so we will have a quorum so we do need to have the motion that is uh before us now so then I will ask all those in favor say I I I any opposed great so that can be uh reported out and uh
156calendaring made uh senior exit interviews just for your information on have not contacted any of them um although I do think I have some availability on uh two of those one of those dates so uh March 19th uh isqua high school and Liberty are both doing it in the morning Liberty also has an afternoon one available and then Skyline High School is Wednesday April 12th I will be flying to Georgia but I know that the rest of the board does not have to leave that early thank you to our students as they thank you leave and I know this is born for you guys you are welcome to leave at this point too we appreciate all your input today I should have let you go before we got to this topic and I'm signed up
157for this aah High Senior exit interviews on the 19th and that yeah I can do that too I haven't signed up yet though I haven't signed up but I do need would like to sign up for Liberty in the morning I believe um I think car mentioned he signed up for Skyline this is March right yeah no what time is it I will not be able to do them see okay so then we we received a um Clark Elementary PTA invitation to an open forum for the Clark community on um March 25th 26th April 2nd April 29th April 30th May 14th or May 15th are they so they're asking one us to count to them or I unsure they and it was one I think it was it had landed on I have to look
158I had it on my other calendar but um on one of those dayses they were throwing out the different dates March 25th 25th yeah and just one board member right was it just one I had confirmed um with Emily that I was AA I could be available for that one okay if else anybody else wants to join me what if they'd like a second person I can be there but but I also love my days that I have nothing on my calendar it's their rare um the next thing to discuss is board engagement with high school student panels one of one of the next steps from the board retreat was to get a recommendation um from Dr Shireen Carver um and and Sher Cox about uh the best method to focus um some of the
159conversations uh to hear from students and so um the recommendation is to do a small focus group with some invited students so that it's um a very you know not curated but intentional space for students to feel comfortable and be excited for that sharing with you all and uh the recommendation that we would also have it be facilitated by a social worker to help support that conversation um followed by just you know so some starting up with some general questions and Reflections from students but then open dialog and Q&A between students and and board members um the recommendation would be to go to each of the high schools um maybe starting with Liberty High School first and so the request would be um finding time and uh obviously the best time of the day would
160be during the week and during the school day but if there's some general morning times uh that you could align on and agree on for four different campuses that would be the best and this is this is a hard scheduling task I recognize that so it feels like a doodle type poll yes so we can we can narrow that in and do that do it that way and bring it back forward you know for uh finalization confirmation uh in on the March 27th meeting I was going to say by putting it in the March 27th meeting that we would be looking at April or May for these discussions which gives your staff time to prepare for them as well so that but for us to look at our calendars in April and May but but
161I think doodle poll is probably the best way so if that plan feels um uh okay to the board then that would be the way forward and this is for each High School there would be two board members correct um however you wish to handle that I I I I think it would probably with scheduling it's probably we've done the student ones as two so they're not public yeah conversation yeah so I I was going to say I would recommend that but I also didn't know if there was additional yeah yep thank you sorry as I type if I don't type it I will forget it that is a guarantee I'm old now um so then the IMs IHS Town Hall we received that it's actually scheduled so we received that invitation I thought I
162saw it today did I not I don't remember see that I don't remember seeing that um the there is the isaam Middle School PTSA General membership meeting that's happening that came in after the posting of this agenda this is the town hall um that was discussed at The Retreat as part of the board engagements to host a town hall at some point this spring yeah for for board to you know engage with the community so are we looking to settle on a date for that or do you want to use that same doodle pole and utilize that there's a time that we're all available yep we can do that so that we'll we'll get that forward and then we'll bring back the results of that for the March 27th meeting okay and then yes and
163then the final thing is um so director Ming's brought together wanting to have a future agenda topic around board committees and so I wanted to open that just briefly if you could talk a little bit about what that is and then we can work to get that on the agenda more fully and you may have to remind me of what the plural is uh in committees if there was another additional idea think there was okay so I think the question in my mind of committees that c that uh using committee came up of how do we get a bit further in advancing some of the topics we think we need to advance and kind of working on them along the way so the student rep program is a great great example of that where we're
164like we want to update it and so we created a a smaller group I might was I by myself was I the committee I may have been the committee of like gathering information doing drafts and then bringing that back to the board meeting for discussion but certainly once we had a program then became two board members for the student reps who are then working on you know what is the criteria we're going to use how are we set up interviews Etc so that's that's my mental model and so the topic specifically on my mind is around um this whole topic of Engagement and how can we look at the change uh changes that we are driving in the district and setting a more structured engagement of how we do that so I think one of
165the questions that's come up in in the last has been like hey the board makes a decision is that happening tomorrow is that next year and I don't think we have a good published kind of here is what happens to gather input that may go into policymaking and how people can be expect to expect to be engaged here is the process we go through to make that decision so it's multiple board conversations maybe it's first read second read third read and then um it is then what are the steps that happen post a policy change right we don't expect policies to change overnight that there's implementation planning but to make those things more structured um so that we can have repeatable process and I think my perspective on that is that will help increase some
166of the exposure to more deliberative conversations participation in those conversations as well as decisions that we know we're taking over months of time we don't have a set way that people can expect to know about that or participate in it so my suggestion was is this a topic that we could address I think a board subcommittee is one topic we could do that as a companion work to some change we're currently working on right this is something that has to get done and we can do that uh kind of writing the process as we go with an next change but I do think I I do think for me really stepping back from some of the feedback and input and conversations over the last several months I agree of the theme of people not feeling
167brought along in the process um I think what happens is then people apply a belief system into into why that I don't think is necessarily always true or realistic but but that looking really at good change management principles and being able to um set those that we can always leverage I think would be pretty important so that was my uh suggestion and and my question is do we want to actually take that work aside for a couple people and start to lay down what we think that good engagement looks like and then bring that back as a topic we work on then as a board so we can make progress that was probably a long setup apologies yeah well and but I think it's good for us to start thinking about that um for a
168conversation so that we'll put that on the board agenda and how much time do you think that we would need for a conversation do you think 20 minutes would be satisfactory because we would be deciding how do we want to build do we want to build a board committee and I I was checking it's like our old words would be gp7 I don't know what the new no gc7 so um but that's how we structure a board committee that is more broad um and also realizing that even though it's a board committee it will have staff support what is staff's capacity and when um or is that something that can be a committee of two which we often do a subcommittee of the board um that goes out and does I think most of our
169work since I've been on the board has been that subcommittee work but it might be something that when we're talking about Community engagement do we need it to be larger so I think it's a good conversation to have if I put 20 minutes do you think that would be a satisfactory amount of time to discuss it um I will look to my left to see re reaction well I was going to mention we actually this was several months ago the subcommittee on oe6 um around Community engagement we had started that work and we had been working with the district too and we had two student Representatives that were part of that too so I wonder if that ties into that too so I'm glad you brought it up so I think it's probably good opportunity
170for us to kind of revisit yeah it that work because we did it we did some initial thought yeah um and so I'm glad you brought it up because I'm I was looking at this and thinking oh my gosh this was tied to o16 we're just talking about tonight so yes I am in total agreement with that and I think we could maybe bring some of that work back that we were already doing because it ties into that too in terms of community engagement the further work of always 16 so and yes I'm I'm fully supportive as well I mean it's yeah I think it's important yeah so we've now talked about talking about it at the ne at a future board meeting and yes I think 20 minutes would be great and I'm feeling
171even more encouraged about that 20 minutes since there's starter work yes that sounds great okay so I think that is there and then you say you have something here and I have no idea this is referencing um I believe that the board was interested um or some members of the board were interested in scheduling an additional special session oh earlier we oh yeah we were really wanting more time from our special session earlier and you we had guests waiting for us with our ISF executive committee so we stopped short of a conversation we were having and is it possible for us to I don't a time to have that continue that conversation if we all agree I I think it would be prudent but I think it would be too we don't um our next
172board meeting um at four o'clock we've got we're meeting with the sustain we have a sustainability meeting AR and I are part of that so I I uh think there might be interest in having that conversation earlier sooner than that date for sure not just earlier in the day um and I wonder if there's opportunity to U do something on Monday I think someone was starting to talk think starting to talk that out but then I I think that might be difficult for director mulling and myself at least from what our understand our conversation was earlier that I think we both have work obligations very shortly after after the D yes understood I have to yeah yes and I won't be able to make the Monday um down the hill so I won't but I
173can manipulate my calendar the rest of next week fairly easily to make something happen yeah sometime during day next week is actually pretty good okay so maybe that can be a doodle pole that can go out more immediately triple doodle yeah triple doodle well I think the one doodle might suffice for the two things before but for this one to really um because also Dr gallinger is not here right and I would want to ensure that he was able to meet that as well so if we could do something with a deadline of getting back to Emily by the end of business tomorrow yep okay um and is a an hour or an hour and a half the allocation of time we'd be looking for I would say 90 minutes I'd rather I'd rather post
174it and not use it yes than have to keep coming out every 15 minutes asking for 15 more minutes okay and because we're doing a quick turn on this one is there any times that are definitely not workable it it just is it it so we really are only we do it on Zoom or the 18th 19th 20th or 21st um we can do a hybrid or it's it will be if it's hybrid I personally will make it happen whenever the time is yeah i' prefer hybrid I can't do the 19th or the 20th next week I can do the 21st I don't know if anyone has flexibility on Friday so we're narrowing it on the 18th and the 21st is what I'm hearing just to give us yeah I'm open both of those times
175yeah 21st I could do probably after 2 p.m. oh that might be out on the 21st actually uh 18 18's much better for probably [Music] better and so it looks like we're rounding in on the 18th during the day yeah okay we will just give lots of and then yeah options and 90 minute chunks and um hopefully that might also work for 18 gon great before no on the 18th would be amazing and then after I'd love it if we could do before before 11 even I want to do it before 10 you might you might actually be scheduling this I am free amazing 41 we're 9 a.m. no you so you have to be done by what time I need to to be done by 11 I can but I have flexibility before 11
176some us before 11 just worked yeah yeah like 9 well four of us before 11 works okay on the 18th on the 18th okay so we will confirm with that actually was pretty amazing that that happened because it's not an easy feat um we will reach out to Dr gallender perfect and because it is a special session do we need to make some type of motion now or is that something um because it's on the 18th um we would want to give advanced notice and we can you know we'd want to get out advanced notice because we try to honor that you know 48 Hours even though that's it's beyond the 24h hour period but tomorrow's Friday so that would technically be the I'm just wondering do we need to take action I think you
177would need to yeah since you do have a quum and we can adjust that if we don't have Dr gallender I'm gonna say 9 o'clock just to give us buffer 9 to 10:30 9 to 10:30 hybrid hybrid I move that the board meet in special session executive session regarding legal matters on March 18th 2025 from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in a hybrid session second okay all those in favor say I I I I any opposed yeah I tap it I think that might have been my first freewheeling motion I have one thing to add I'm sorry the da2 south is the same time and day as the issaqua city of issaqua Engagement that's why it was not offered out thank you so that that's a no-o on that one that easy uh so with
178that I don't know that let me pull up my agenda I think that's the last one of course it just went away okay we are done yeah thank you 842 with a 904 905