MISD Board Regular Meeting - 2026 -1-29

001Rules are rules. Okay, >> get started. >> Thanks for being here tonight. Um, can I get an motion to establish the agenda? >> Second. Second >> student. >> So we last meeting we moved the board director reports to the beginning of the meeting and we will um so go ahead and get started with that. I will kick it off. Um we've had some I've had a number of you know good meetings past couple weeks. We had our study session as a board which I thought um went well with Marty and um I'm looking forward to our second study session where we will I think hopefully get more chances to speak as a board and just work out what our norms are going to be and do some planning and um communicate talk about communications and

002that kind of thing and what our you know visions are for the next year. So, I'm really looking the end of February and I've had some good community member meetings this past the boys and got to attend the IMS wrestling end of season celebration which was fun and it was neat to hear about how team was trying to build and expand and creating opportunities for their wrestlers. And I think that's about all I have um not to report. I just wanted to shout out uh sort of our school infrastructure because last night I was at the high school for two different events an hour park. It was quite dark and I was um doing lots on the campus as I like to do when I have any time to spare and uh the lighting is

003great like we have this lighting that's like sort of dynamic where it's motion detector and you know brightens up when you go under it and then it calms back down when you leave. And I was just like this is I think what our cap tech is paying for. So, like, you know, there's our kept tech levy at work. Like, it's I felt quite safe walking after dark, but also it's a great sort of sign of like, you know, doesn't disturb the environment and it doesn't waste electricity, I guess. I don't know how that works, but um so I just wanted to shout out Tony and his team for like really just, you know, it's like a quality of life thing. I was just like, "Oh, this is working fantastically well." And I felt completely safe

004walking after dark around the campus, um loop after loop, except some of the players in the field kind of laughed at me. Uh so I um um had the advocacy committee with the PTA advocacy committee and I think the conversations with them is pretty much the same um that we're talking uh regarding on the legislation session and what they're um prioritizing as a community uh uh parent community. So, so we did come together with them after and we're trying to find a strategy that will work best for the three uh for us to coordinate when we will have a joint efforts and uh figuring out a way to do that with them. And then they also were talking about uh kind of concerns on um they also see a spike in legislation regarding um regulation

005of AI. So they wanted to explore something with the district and see what we have here compared to what the the state. So the conversation uh evolved a lot regarding that portion during the meeting. But I think that that was that was it for me. Not not much more besides the lecture. So yeah. Oh and and I will say the last talking about the last of last of season. So I just was at the last full game of the season and I think that is the last of coach Vuango. uh for uh an ultimate frisbee. So uh I'm looking forward on how who will pick up that club and who will be the next coach for for the team. So it is interesting. So yes uh as Stephanie mentioned the whole board superintendent and assistant

006uh superintendent participated in our byianual study session with Dr. Marty Schaefer. Dr. Schaefer specializes in building lead uh leadership capacity and teams at the school board, superintendent and district levels with a focus on developing collaborative uh problem solvers. Uh this entire board is working diligently to establish that culture of collaborative problem solving and this session was extremely beneficial towards that goal. Uh one of the items that came out of that session is on board communication with the community. Uh that will be discussed uh later in today's agenda. Uh I attended a comprehensive uh presentation on the say something app at the IMS tier one meeting. Um the session provided detailed coverage of specific situations including what happens when reports are submitted, who receives those notifications, and how that information is processed. Given that student safety

007remains a top priority, these types of presentations are critically important. Um, I met with multiple community members to explain the facil the facilities naming process. Uh, and these ongoing conversations with our neighbors continue to be uh quite valuable and productive. The more we engage directly with the community, the more effective our communication becomes. Uh, as Christina mentioned, uh, her Fred and I met with the PTA advocacy team regarding the legislative work. um that will be addressed in more detail and but activity has been particularly busy given that the legislative session is underway. Uh yesterday I attended the superintendent community advisory as a school board's representative. Uh that group meets three times a year and includes administrative staff, representatives from the city and various community groups. Uh that session again was quite productive. gave a detailed

008report on the district's uh efforts to support student safety. Um, again, just one more example of the valuable interactions with the community. This morning, Joe Joe and I held our our twoon-one with Fred. Again, productive debrief of our first couple of months as a new board and the study session with Dr. Schaefer. Um, and then I have informed Fred and Stephanie of two upcoming conflicts with board meetings. On March 26, I will be attending admitted student day events with my oldest daughter. While trip planning is still fluid, I anticipate being able to attend the meeting ver uh virtually. And on April 23rd, I will be traveling and landing at SeaTac during the meeting. So, I will be unable to attend either in person or virtually. That's all I've done. >> Thank you. um obviously we

009all attended the um session uh like as as a board and I thought it was great. I thought it was well run. Um it's always fun to work with Dr. Marty and um just really appreciated the kind of like positive vibe and like everybody's willingness to kind of like pitch in together to kind of move forward which was just a pleasure honestly. Um since our last regular meeting, I have attended the um belonging and voice committee meeting um and also the uh superintendent's equity advisory council which it's nice to be back on that council after. So we have a a really interesting presentation but like video presentation but um uh I don't know if you're going to talk about it at all, right? But >> I can we can do it right now. >> Sure.

010Do you want to just um there's some work that's coming out of the University of Chapman that's called the ORE project and it's really trying to promote conversations amongst young people started obviously in a a college setting. Um but I was made aware of it by a community member and it's really trying to think about things do not have to be binary. there can be an or in a conversation that I it's it might be this or it could be this rather than all of the definitive um conversations. Um a particular university professor started it started it. She has classes on um kind of political discourse and she was teaching her course um following October 7th of 23 and knew that there was going to be intense conversation in the classroom and that's where it

011kind of started um while the ORO project um has its origins there. It's really about trying to promote healthy ways to get our young people to be more productive in their conversation. So the executive director from the ORE project um just gave a presentation for equity >> advisory and I think people on the council were interested in it although one of the common themes that that we heard was was that they'd love to see something like this even for younger students like rather than starting at high school being able to talk about difficult issues with each other you know like um start them even younger. So you know it's quite interesting. >> We will move on to the full governance process monitoring section of our meeting. Uh the first item up is policy communication and

012support to the board. >> Okay. This is a continuation from an agenda item in December. Um we only made it through item three in the level two report. So, I want to go ahead and bring forward um Aaron and that Hannah's here tonight um as part of that. Jamie's here tonight for part of that. Um so, we have a number of folks. So, if you want to go ahead and join us up here, um the first item is item uh 14 while they're coming up. >> Oh, I thought we >> Oh, no. This He's just like, "Not me." >> So, the first item on this one is related to public records requests. And so, an area of level two uh reporting has been um public records for some number of boards now. So, I want

013to turn it over to uh assistant superintendent battersby to walk us through uh any highlights or items you want to point out with public records. Yeah, with respect to public records, um we continue to report um that we have just our public records. We don't report further requests. So I I always emphasize to this group and to the community that this only represents a portion of what we actually do in terms of providing our community records. Um fervor records are those that are specific to a student. So, if someone uh sends an email, they want everything about their their kids cumulative file, their special ed records. I know we um our special services department, those things are not reflected here. Um and each record does take the time of not just our records officer and

014me in sort of a supervisory role but really it's um it takes the time and energy of our entire sort of organization because our records officer doesn't have direct information or knowledge of what necessary the records are that might be responsive. Um so then it reaches out to the various appropriate department to say you know we have this request we'll fall within the hand of that. There's also a heavy burden on our um our IT department because a lot of our records now are contained in our networks and on our computers and systems. And so we'll do keyword searches to try to try to provide all responsive records. Our goal is always to be as responsive and try to follow the systems as possible to our requesters. Um so it's not that when I use

015the term burden, I'm not saying that we're unwilling to do it. We do want to be transparent and open. interested. It does require resources to do that for our community. Um, do you have any questions about the data or >> can you provide a little clarification on when records requests are, you know, really high dollar amounts, how we calculate that? >> Yes. So um the way we use a system called gov QA and then keep staff report the time they spend um which is separate not our records officers kind but staff they spend locating records that type of thing. Then the records officer themselves a lot of their time is spent u redacting records make sure there's not there's things that have exceptions. So especially in our system a lot of documents and records have

016redactions because they may mention other kits. Um and then some of the high dollar things actually relate to cost for outside counsel to u redact those records. >> And then there's a you know there's a component to it as well that there are some where we as we engage the outside council um you know there's billing hours off of all of that that is you factor in correct there. That's what you're >> That's what I'm saying. >> Yeah. >> And people do not have to give their real actual legal name when they're making one of these requests. It looks like based on the fact that we have things listed by you know certified boogeyman and informed resident. >> Correct. >> So you just send >> well you don't and I think that's you don't have

017to be sorry to cut you off but you don't have to there's a sort of misunderstanding that you have to be somehow affiliated with the district to make a records request. That's not true at all. You can live anywhere in the world and make a records request and we have to respond >> and you reply to however the person to you >> and the records are provided if the if the person doesn't pay like they do not get the records >> correct the person so we process them and we say you need to pay in order to pick them up and then um or to receive them often it's electronic um and if they don't do that then that and they don't respond after a period of time we notified them that we're going to

018consider their request abandoned. Sometimes that means that we process records and no one's ever actually received the benefit of it because it was one installment, but very often our records requests are provided in multiple installments versus just one because it takes time and when we're juggling multiple records with just a part-time records officer, it can take time to to respond to all of those. Anyone else have any other questions? Um we'll move over to our next uh area which is AL our alternative learning experience courses and uh I'll turn that over to our director of high school Jesus. >> So our AL uh funding we receive that uh from the state based on students enrolled in ALA. Our entire amount of our funding goes towards our online um it's not a very large aortionment but

019we use it to cover our online opportunities for students. Um few years ago we did a review of our online courses and our and what we were offering through AL and determined that you know better use of the money would be to shift from a certificated employee uh which actually spread over three different people um which only allowed students to access online courses for periods during the day to hiring a classified staff member who could then be available before school all set periods and after school to give more students access. Um we did that. We've got u Sean Brunson who now operates that and allows students to um meet their state required check-in. So there are certain parameters being an AL student being online for us doesn't mean that a student never has to touch

020base on campus or uh check in with us. And so uh the way that the process works and the funding works is students are required to be on campus at least once a week to check in. Um if they are making adequate progress then they are able to continue with those check-ins. If they're not making progress, which we define is a minimum of 5% progress per week, then they are required to come in every day for a month or until they are back up to adequate progress. Um, we you'll see over time um and I put this in for the last couple years, but I know we have some new board members of during COVID, we sought uh permission from the state to become a full-time online uh opportunity provider. And um that was to

021help some of our students we had who families did not want them back in person at all. So um we sought that permission. We received it. We allowed some students to enroll full-time. Um but we really value our inperson teachers. You know, we've we've hired our educators. We know who they are. When it's online, we don't know who they are. Um we didn't hire them. Um and sometimes they could be teaching from out of state and not as available. So um when our time to renew or decide to come back to what we currently have which is a 50% maximum of online um we sh we opted to shift back and value that inerson opportunity for students still giving flexibility where need be. Um we're in the process of evaluating some courses and things just

022based on the level of rigor. um you know, our our students work really hard in our schools and when they earn grades and things um it's because they've put in some great work and they they're learning some great materials and not all online providers and online courses provide that same level of rigor. Um and some don't have the same expectations. Um so for example um when you look at languages um the benefit of being in a language in person is that you're having that dialogue, you're speaking, you're listening. um when it's online and it's asynchronous, then you're not able to engage in that conversation. So, we're really starting to examine what that looks like, what the experience is like, and are they like enough um to the classes that we offer to approve things. Um

023there is a vetting process. We have two providers that we work with. Um OSPI approves them, and then every district approves. So, we don't approve or take any online credit. We work through two providers. Um, and then from there we look at the course level to determine whether or not they are appropriate and meeting expectations so that a student knows that they're they could transition between online and in person with our staff. So you'll see their numbers went up slightly between 23 and 24. Um, and we're in a place right now where um we we're maxing out our ability for online. Um, we we don't have any more funding for it. We're having to find ways to cut that. So, we've got students who are continuing, but we uh are for the first time are

024having to draw pull back some opportunities to say we we're offering the course in person. We've got space in the classrooms. And so, uh we're we're seeing uh crucial turning point, I think, of where where we're going to hit a maximum. We used to never have a maximum in online, and we're getting to that place. So, we're exploring what that looks like, um and how to plan for that moving forward. is do other school districts offer online courses to well so I mean I would assume larger districts have more class 8 or that sort of thing >> they do and different districts stumbling over my words different districts have different um parameters so for example um I know the school district you can take up to 2.0 no credits in a given area outside of

025the school. Um so whether that's online or through an outside entity. Um but at least in order to to graduate, you have to have two of your credits, let's say in math taken from the high school that you're assigned to. And so we don't have limitations like that where you can only have up to 1.0 credit in English or 2.0 credits in math. Um but other districts do have those limitations. Most districts, most neighboring districts for us, um, fall into the up to 50% piece. There are some remote school districts that to build their enrollment have gone to full-time online. Um, but those are typically like Mariam Knight, OMAC, real small districts where they're trying to pull kiddos anywhere to be fully online, but they're never expected to be in their in their district. Just

026wondering if the the pool to which we offer is similar to similar size districts. >> Have you found a lot of um students taking classes online that are offered at the high school just because it might be less or easier to complete? >> Yes. Um you know we are we're doing a dive right now into um world language and specifically Spanish. Um so our online providers don't offer um Spanish three I'm sorry French 3. So students in the French program and in Chinese like they are metriculating through in our school um in Spanish we had an influx of students leave to we allocated the funding for them in the Spanish classes. Um they determined that they would like to go online for learning preference. Um but then what we've learned is there's it is not

027the same the level of rigor because there's no speaking there's no speaking component or expectation um online they're really not getting the same experience. And so we're we're looking to make some changes to make sure that as students are going some students absolutely benefit and need that online opportunity. Um, but we also need to make sure that as students are earning credits, they're earning credits that are commensurate with those peers who are in the classrooms because we really do feel like the best education is provided from the educators that we have in front of them. >> Is this sort of like the um situation postcoid when we made we switched health class from online option to inerson so that students were getting the same information >> across the board. >> Yep. And similar to what

028we did with summer school, um you know, where summer school for PE and health, you could do more check-in type pieces, we've changed that to ensure that when a student is taking health, um which is a grad requirement that we can make sure that they've covered certain topics um and it's done in person with people who can verify for us. Yes, I've done the training and I've provided the information to students. Do you find that the people students who are choosing to take online courses is there a certain number that feel like it's best for their their certain whatever their learning needs may be they have different differentiated learning needs or is do most do it for you know is it a variety of reasons or what do you it's a variety of reasons um

029we have some students who are um prolific dancers and um or gymnasts who are are need a lot of flexibility in their schedules. They've got to be at their studio by a certain time. And so one day a week they can flex and be in school to do their check-in, but they need, you know, periods five, six, and seven off to get to their training, to get to their performance, to get to things like that. We've got students who um they they like doing it at their own time. And so having seven periods in a day, going through every single period is too exhausting. They would rather spend some time on the weekend making that progress. So they want first period off or seventh period off. um they technically still have that class, but if

030they're not making progress, they have to come and report in. Uh but it gives them that flexibility to do it at a time that might work for them. Um other students learn um they found that, you know, certain topics or subjects they do better if they can, you know, rewatch over and over something to have it sink in. And so they like the ability to rewind a video or replay something um and not be pressured to the time constraints of a given class period. So, there's a a wide range of reasons. We also have students who um are receiving home hospital support. So, they're unable to come into school for a variety of reasons. And so, this is how they're able to continue making progress with content um without having to be in the school,

031right? >> Any other questions, please? >> Next component is our athletic survey. Um and Jamie and I'll kind of maybe share this a little bit. um every three years, I believe. Correct me if I'm wrong, Jamie. I believe it's every three years we give an athletic survey to our um athlete, excuse me, to our students at the high school. Um we're really looking for a few things. One is um uh taking a look at our proportionality data between um girls and boys and participation in sports overall. So that's the first table that you see underneath item 17. um they're on page eight of 10. Uh and you can see that um middle school uh tends to be um slightly over represented by females and that's generally because of volleyball. I believe that there's a um

032the volleyball in the ball. I'm kind of looking over my women are amazing. >> Well, that too. Yes. Yeah, we definitely have volleyball as a standalone female sport where every other sport is just I would just add to that the the kind of the volleyball tradeoff is wrestling and the the amount of girls in volleyball significantly overmatches the amount of uh boys and girls in high school. Um and then at the high school we see a little bit opposite. Um we're at flip-flops a little bit where um we have more boys that have been um in participation proportional standpoint um than we do girls. That's a little bit tricky because I believe the counts are done differently because they're not all WIAA that we can count for that. Jamie, you touch a little more on

033that. >> Um that is that is true. um different depending on whether we we are offering a WIA sport. So like our boys and girls cross are not WIA um nor our uh boys and girls water polo. Um so those sometimes we still have lots of participants in both. Um but that sometimes affects it. Uh we also like our gymnastics program for years and years we had like 70 to 80 athletes. Um, and the last year or two we we lost a longtime coach and we've had several coaches and some turnover and so the numbers are drastically down and so we're looking to rebuild that program. Um, but I think that accounts for a large chunk of um, girls specifically participating. >> When we then ask them preferences of um, what sports don't we offer

034that they would like to see, uh, skiing and crew um, are the top two. Uh that's been pretty consistent um over time. Not sure what the new crew kind of house and whatnot is going to do um for crew here on Mercer Island. Um skiing, there aren't a lot of other schools to do any competing with skiing. Um I was a ski team kid in high school in Colorado. Much more normal. Um but there's just not a lot of um sports there. So we're trying to track these and and really respond to that. I think that's how bad men came along at one point. Jamie >> like football for girls started this year. We had um a a great turnout. Uh and it kind of exploded as a league. So that's something um that's exciting,

035but it also you know comes from as interests grow and you know we had I think we had football last year um but this year it became a WIA sport and all of a sudden we saw an influx of athletes who wanted to participate. So, any questions on our athletic interest surveys or athletes? Um, >> Jamie, I'm wondering, uh, I see that we have 98 responses and I'm wondering is there where's that magic wand to make the students more responsive or is there like any proven method of I so I think a couple things are like I don't know when this survey was given so I can't tell you what else might have been competing for time >> spring of last year. So um at that time students are also being asked to take the

036EDS. They are seniors are taking um surveys about where they're going, what their plans are, what do they need for graduation. Um we've got students who are testing, so they're prepping for EP. There's the state testing. Um there's so many things vying for their time that when we plug in I'm assuming this is coming out in like an islander hour uh we plug that in there. They like it's so far down the list of things that they're going to get to uh that those who like have the interest might punch away. But I would ask Rodney Lucy like what happens when you get links like that? >> Well, I think there's not ever like a lot of pressure to do it when you're doing like even the EES survey like it's just so easy to

037brush it off. I think most people are like they just look at it and they're like I don't really want to do it. I mean I'm sure you guys experienced that where like someone's asking you to take a survey and you just I think most people are just like why do it? >> It looks kind of long. You start looking >> I would also I I generally just having gotten feedback in the past for different things. We tend to get feedback when people are very dissatisfied. Um so sometimes is if they give opportunities and feedback either through surveys like this or other forums um where they might come to board meetings and that kind of thing or you know bring a group up to the principal kids do exercise of voice which is what we

038want. So while I ideally you would get more people participating in a survey, I also think sometimes a lack of participation is indication that our high school offers a very large amount of sports and abroad um as meaning students. The other thing I would say is you know we've we've ranged between like 83 and 89% participation rates in school activities whether that's sports, music, performing arts. Um, and so I also think, you know, if I'm a student and I'm looking at a survey, I'm like, well, what else do you want to see? Like, my time is already consumed. I've got things because 83 to 89% of us uh have something that we're involved in. And so, I'm not thinking about what more I could need because a lot of times our students are telling us

039they need a little bit less because they're they're stretched really thin. Um this is for the group and also for the students for activities like rowing um which is offered through some clubs here locally or skiing which you know is there an active ski club at the high school. I mean you know just get a couple SUVs and drive to the mountain. um to what extent can the kids sort of fi fill their own needs for this stuff that right like if I'm interested in skiing I can go ski and that does exist there is an ASB ski club and I think that also it is the I think it is one of those things where so much is organized like you were saying like there is so much like music here sports here that

040skiing um to a lot of people is just one of those recreation activities. So, the fact that you don't have to plan, you can just at 3 p.m. be like, I kind of want to just go up to the mountain with my friends, that's at least a lot of the people I've talked to, that's kind of how they see skiing rather than something they want to be a competitive sport for them. >> Yeah. We we also learned um when we looked at redoing the calendar, the school calendar that people here take their February break very seriously for skiing purposes. Basically, I didn't mean to tell you. >> Oh, yeah. I was just going to say I mean I think people like they already have the opportunity to do that to row or to ski. It's

041just like if you look at like the question like oh I would love to be able to do that through the school and like compete in that more easily be like a real solidified organized sport and I think it's kind of what people are getting at there is interest there able to like pursue it in other ways. >> I know Harry Brown just run one down at IMS outreach. So targeting students who um didn't have as much opportunity um maybe had never supported or favor um and got a chance to get them and so was more social emotional um support for kids. Um he ran it for years and years co it kind of um dissolved and never >> and there was I think Chris Harris did it with him so there was a connection

042there too. >> Oh great. Great. >> Uh the last area. >> So, uh I understand that this is high school, but uh just a quick question. When you said about gender, you mentioned middle school. So, are you counting here, uh with the response of some middle schoolers or just you're just saying that in general this is something similar in middle school? Um the proportionality data we do um for that but we do not give the full survey to middle schoolers on what sports are missing at the middle school. We give that >> ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Uh um it's a tough one because I don't think that we can ask that question since we don't know if we can offer that in middle school and at the same time having gone through middle school

043very recently I see what sports and I know that in winter you have wrestling and drill so the gender I don't think that it's not necessarily the trade like what is offered it is gives a little more opportunity towards female sports than than uh the for the male is more declared for wrestling which is a >> is wrestling in middle school. Uh it's not for all >> it is wrestling is >> no it is it is it is but I'm saying what I'm saying as a personality I know got how uh it's it's not as attractive as drill or volleyball to Yes. >> But I also wanted a great sport >> esports would have come about if you weren't thinking I mean that came about because of maybe it wasn't an official survey or maybe

044you do do an official survey. I think it's >> I think it's a good idea. Like I I was just saying to Erin, we should do a survey some something like this for our kids. >> Last area is on restraint and isolation. And so we have our director of special services, Hannah Boulevard, to walk us through our restraint and isolation um data. And I just want to remind everyone that this data is not just students who receive special education services. Um while that is where we track it, I certainly don't want there to be an assumption that this is only for that. So put that on. >> It's also not only students attending school on site here. It includes students who are in out of district placement. Um, so we have definitions listed here for

045you of the different terms. Um, I will not read them out loud for you. You can read them here. But, uh, we're talking about restraint, um, escorts, isolation, and reverse evacuation. Um, this past year for elementary students, we had less than 10, which is great. Um, we have seen a very significant uh, decrease in my tenure here. of restraint and isolation. A lot of that is due to um the training that we provide staff in deescalation. So we provide a lot less training around what to actually do to physically intervene. Our our uh target PD is how to deescalate the situation. So we've seen a big decrease which has been great. Uh we also have three um board certified behavior analysts in our district who provide a lot of that PD and are able to

046train all staff members around what to do when there is any kind of crisis um in a building. So that has been a great resource um for all staff in our district. Um in secondary we had 46 incidents. Um 45 out of those were for students in out of district placements. So those happened um not on our campus here. Um 100% of the elementary students uh uh happened here in our um district and um only one of all of these uh included restraint. So all of the others were either reverse evacuation or isolation. So hands were not placed on the student. Um there were no uh student injuries. Uh there was one staff injury. Um and staff members who do engage in any type of physical intervention are trained in break response techniques. And then

047below that you can just sort of see a summary of the last three years of data. How many are all staff trained in this type of thing or is it just >> um in right response >> in the the restrainer isolation techniques? Like I'm just curious if it's >> So that has gone through many iterations um at least since I've been here for 17 years. So um currently the only people who get trained are staff members who we know are working with students who have behavior intervention plans. Um it is um a very robust training. It requires days of of training. Um and we actually have found over the years that the more people we train. The more people put hands on kids. And so it's like, oh, I've been trained how to do this.

048I'm now seeing something that looks dangerous. I'm going to intervene. And what we found is the less people we train on how to actually physically escort a student or restrain a student um people don't do it. So that has been uh really great. Um and um like I said the shift has been in deescalation training. A lot of principles invite our BCBAS in to do staff trainings on deescalation. So we try to get uh the broadest audience we can for that. Um, and then some principles will invite uh teams in maybe for a specific student who's having a hard time and and bring someone in to train the staff members that work with that particular student. So, >> a big portion of right response, just to kind of add on to that, is the prevention

049side of it, not the I mean, even though it's called response, it's on the prevention side. Um, but it does have that intervention and then postvention piece, too. But um yeah, it it has gone through many iterations. >> I I'm really thrilled with what our data is looking like. Um there are I I cannot tell you the exact numbers in other districts, but um there is a lot of restraint isolation happening in surrounding districts and um our numbers are really quite um exciting for me to see. So that's great. Yeah. And we're talking about three-year period, right? >> The first >> the one the first numbers you see where it says the 2425 school year um obviously is just >> but then we get the next chart hasen >> broken down into more demographics >>

050and you can see kind of how it can has gone down. So it is Yes. Yes. Okay. And just to clarify for people watching slash listening um when you say out of district placements you're talking about Mercer Island students who have been placed at another facility like outside of our district as opposed to students coming from elsewhere >> correct. Yeah, thank you for that clarification. Yes, it would be students who um have been placed into a different like an NPA maybe in a different state or um or it could be here um but not attending school in our campuses. >> Any questions? >> Well, that's the end of the OE report. Um and you can vote on it. >> Yes, let's do it. Unless anyone has anything else they want to talk about before. Okay.

051So we will start with item three. We are noting to or determining whether uh they are district is in compliance with each of these items. So the first item three is annually report to the board the number of enrolled students who have left or chosen not to continue enrollment in the district as compared to the numbers in the previous three years and on even numbered years the reason student left or chose not to continue enrollment in the district. >> Yes, >> I'm so sorry. I think that I I'm a little bit confused. Uh so we're um this is the only things that we have not seen since December. So, and we have not talked about that uh yet. >> The enrollment we talked about that talked about that in December. >> That was the December

052meeting. We only got through that section at your December. >> And one technicality is >> you do have to approve all of the one through is it 19 on this one? >> You still need to vote on all of them. >> Yeah. Fine. That's what I was going to ask. I was asking if it was okay. Okay. Then we can go. Yeah. So just to clarify procedurally if we are voting on all 20 do we need to read each of them individually or can we simply look through them? >> Oh I'm just saying like can we just look through them and make sure >> yes go ahead. >> I did want to ask on the on item three I know at that meeting in December there were a handful of followup question from the PowerPoint.

053Did you have a sense of be able to get answers to those? >> Yep. Um, so at the next um, so there's a couple things that we could do at next agenda planning. We can discuss that of what you're looking for that. You also at your next boarding board meeting will have the opportunity to relook at this just like you did with I believe it was OE3 at the last meeting where you decided to drop a level two for one and add it to a different one. You'll have that chance to look at it as well in your next meeting. So we can do both. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Let's talk about we can I'm good. >> Like to move that we find the superintendent of compliance with OE9 communication and support to the board

054monitoring level. to say that honoring level one except items three 14 16 17 18 and at level two >> sir did can you say I were you calling out one item in particular >> no I'm just saying that here that the title of it is communication supports the bar monitoring level one like forens like I just read that but I don't know if that's necessary >> okay >> you don't have to qualify >> I find the superintendent in compiance with 09 9 communication and supports report seconded. >> All in favor students. >> Moving on to >> I might suggest we do C and D. I think we can possibly get both of those in before 6:00 and then we won't have to break apart um um because that one's going to be a little bit

055more. >> Okay, that sounds good. So, we'll move to policy 1836, budgeting and financial. >> All right. I will have assistant superintendent uh Sullivan joining. Yep. And then uh Erin, I think you are 08, correct? So, you can go ahead and stay there because we want to get to Good. I hear they made it. >> So, the first one is OE6 uh budgeting and financial planning. I'll turn that right to our director of operations and finance or assistant superintendent of operations and finances. Uh 06 is um financial planning during the fiscal year shall support policy protect the district from financial jeopardy and be derived from a multi-year plan. Accordingly, the superintendent will oversee the development of the budget which item number one maintain staff parent support by focusing resources on classroom instruction. Uh that's deemed

056to be in compliance on our side. Uh item two is cost effective, balanced, sustainable, meets bargain commitments to staff and meets all legal requirements. We also see that and deem it to the incompliance. Number three, uh, maintains adequate budget reserves to meet the financial requirements of bond and radio agencies consistent with board policy 180007. We deem that to be not in compliance for two reasons. Um, OE7 states that maintain budget reserves at least 8% with a target of 10% from the prior fiscal year. We ended fiscal year 2425 about 3.1 million or about 4.1%. So hence not in compliance. On top of that uh meets the financial requirements of bond rating agencies. As you know um in 2022 when I first got here we held aa rating from Moody's. Moody's subsequently changed their rating system

057and how they judge school districts. Uh specifically they noticed that there was a decline in enrollment in Washington state let alone uh the fund balances were uh dropping across the state. also mainly due to the levy cap uh that the state legislature uh imposed on districts in 2018. So in November of 2022 we were dropped to a double A1 rating and then in November of 2024 we were dropped to A2. We should be stable maintain A2 based on their new ratings but obviously um that does not uh keep us in compliance. So we deem that once again not in compliance item number three. Any questions? >> It's been a hot topic with superintendent around the switching of how Moody's is doing their ratings and everyone seeing this drop and not really getting clear understanding and

058guidance from Moody's in terms of like what that might be. You know, what is it going to take? What's the criteria to get back up? Um I think you heard that in order to be all the way up would require >> right to re you know to resume our triplea rating it would be about a 25% fund balance around there is what we got from themies and then for a double A1 to regain that it would be about 15% fund balance. Um would we have to be at AAA or double A1 to be in compliance with this policy or is not necessarily um but the you know the drop from AAA to double A2 at least for this review OE u and OE7 we see that as not in compliance. I mean I I mean

059I understand that but I have a hard time seeing us get to a 15 or 25% fund balance. right >> in the, you know, foreseeable future. Uh, and if our board policy is 8%, um, being I understand that we're not in compliance now, but I would, you know, would think that we would think hard about adjusting this policy if the best we can hope for with with board policy is double A2. I I appreciate the input. I would agree. I just we always want to be as transparent as possible. Are there any districts in Washington that are AAA? >> I believe Seattle possibly is, but I don't I have a 25% fund balance. >> I don't know if they have a 25% fund balance, but their assessed valuation, the size of the district, >> they

060don't have any bonds, right? Because they do everything through their cap tech or so they got other things going, >> right? But I don't Yeah, I don't know what I haven't really asked Piper Sandler or anyone that direct questions. >> So, building on what um what Julian was saying, would it be useful for you to to re language the section three here or is it just are you content not being in I mean it's it's your area. So, what I mean are you >> I think yeah, I appreciate the question. I do not think we're in compliance with number three just due to uh 07 the 8% 10%. we're not ending up there. We're at around 40% each year. >> So you we've had other conversations with you about the various reasons that we're at

061the balance that we're at, right? Um but do we have is there a plan in place? You know, is where do you think we're going to be at the end of this year and the end of next? I know expenses are going up and as you've discussed but you know do we do you is there any sort of plan in place to increase it? >> Yeah absolutely it's I don't think the growth is going to be you know the news out of Olympia which we'll get to a little bit later on in terms of getting any more money and some of the things that um we could use. Um, if we take a look at Senator Wellman's bill that you all discussed with her and that she went and wrote, which would be a enrollment

062stabilization, that would be an amazing way for us to be able to tuck money back into our fund balance. Um, but I don't think that one's going to make it through. So, we're going to need both some of the legislative pieces, of course, getting into more um sound financial um uh shape in a year from now should the levy pass. um being able to um gain more um dollars there. That will help continuing to rightsize our district and match our enrollment with our staffing. It's just going to take time to get there, but you know, we're trying to increase each year that we possibly can. Um you know, it might be a hold steady type of year this year just because of the lack of support out of Olympia. But the growth for me is

063to get us above 5%. because that's the next level according to OE7 which is the floor that if uh the district is ever going to go below 5% again I have to get board authority as your superintendent and then on our way to six and the last board put that in there as new language to say superintendent can't take the uh fund balance below 5% without a board resolution >> is there a path to get there without depending on the Washington legislature um that would be the fastest path. Um and yes, and it's going to be by reducing staff, reducing costs, reducing MSOC um to match where the district is. The balance is out of then do we not impact program for kids. So that's why going slower over time I think is going to

064be much more prudent than trying to just get there right away. That's going to really take take out programs. Yeah. I don't know if you'd have I would echo that perfectly to get there. We call it in lease business services we use the term threading the needle. >> How do we walk this path of not affecting student achievement, our programs, our staffing, but also try to maintain at least a 4%ish fund balance and try to grow as best possible. the tools are in front of us at least with the EPO levy with House Bill 2049 to provide for 500 additional dollars per student that will help immensely. You know, if the levy and when the levy passes, that's a that's a great step forward and any MOC funding that uh the state can provide, etc.

065is helpful. >> A couple more items on this one. Uh number four meets the following priorities and order that's A through H. You can take a look at those with items such as maintains a safe learning environment for students to G prioritizes additional resources toward the building of organizational capabilities sufficient to achieve board policies etc. We believe this one be in compliance also. Uh item number five is presented in the format which budget discloses budget planning assumptions including anticipated changes in state funding and adjustments to student enrollment along with any demographic changes and B allows the board to understand the relationship between the budget and the priorities for the year. We believe that to be in compliance and then finally six is presented the board with adequate time for review and approval for September 1.

066Of course you know the last meeting we presented the budget calendar. This starts in January for you all, for us all, and ends at the end of June most likely. And throughout that process, providing as much information to you, the board as we can as we get it in the legislature and or VR meetings with our districts uh with our district departments and our buildings. So last year's um OE6 we deemed being in compliance with the noted exception number three. Any other questions discussion? So why don't we first address items if we can get a motion for except for three. >> I move that we find the superintendent and comprise with noted exception of item three. >> Second students get a motion on three. Um I I I I think that it's pretty clear that

067we need to um being that we are not compliance or superintendent is not in compliance with item three is there any discussion >> students. Okay, we've got four minutes. you want to try to get started. I'm happy to get started if you are a level warning. >> Yeah. >> So essentially this is OE8 and it's asset protection. This is um this requires the superintendent take reasonable measures to protect maintain use and safeguard district assets. Um based on the evidence that we presented this we recommend that you find the superintendent in full compliance. Specifically you look at items numbers one through three and item eight. I'm not going to read them aloud, but it basically says that we maintain appropriate assurance to um cover 100% of the replacement value and we have liability coverage is comparable

068to similar situated districts. We're part of the district risk pool. So, it's a form of insurance, but it's not insurance per se, but um it's it's comparable. Uh the coverage itself extends to board staff in the district itself consistent with the board of state interests and policies and the district does not permit unbonded personnel to have access to material amounts of district or school funds. And finally um they we only invest in secure and legally authorized instruments. We're not doing speculative um investments with monies gathered. The next piece which is item four is facilities, equipment and physical asset. It basically says the district follows best practice for maintenance and life cycle management of our facilities and equipment. I think um director Lee noted earlier that we take very good care of our facilities and when

069they are do reach their the end of their useful life we go through the appropriate procedure to notify the board um that they're going to be surplus etc. do that on a regular basis. But fortunately, we get the most out of our stuff and that is head's office noted to our maintenance operation department and also our technology department. So everything all of our staff do a really good job taking care of things and noting when they're small um defects so that we can repair those instead of waiting for everything to sort of fall apart. Um with respect to legal risk and information, those are items five through seven. We take active step to minimize uh unnecessary legal exposure including safety protocols, training, risk management practices. We try we have pretty robust practices. We also monitor

070our policies. Our intellectual property electronic data records and fixed assets are also safeguarded against loss significant damage. Spend a lot of time on our filters and making sure we're training people not to click on those fishing emails. That's off to our department. Um and our records are preserved of and disposed of in accordance with the state uh record retention requirements. Then items 9 through 10 which is governance property and public trust. Um we don't acquire lease and cover or dispose of real property without involvement. We just had an example of that with the easement of the board was involved. um administrative practice are designed to protect the district's uh public image, credibility, and ability to carry out its mission with an emphasis on being both ethical, lawful, and so taken all together, I think the

071evidence uh sort of speaks for itself and then should be found in the superintendent should be found in full compliance to all 10 parts of 08. Do you have any questions? Question. >> Uh I did have a question. Um Erin, I'm not sure if you saw this was from the city of Mercer Island uh yesterday, the notice to the community investigation into a check fraud and recovery of public funds. Um would an incident like that fall under this OE and then what would our plans how would this affect us? How do we prevent things like this from happening to us? That's probably on the financial side is probably us and superintendent Sullivan in terms of what are our practices to prevent um loss. Um we both have technological side of things as well as just

072business practices. >> Yes, it would fall into this OE uh gez on the tech side also. I mean, I've had the experience of of you guys catching an an attempt that was made when um like a fake account tried to fill the district for something that supposedly I had charged as president of the board and and I was like, "Wait, what is this?" And and then it it crossed somebody's desk and they were like, "Is this for real?" And they checked with me and I was like, "No, it's not." Think of fake PL's, fake invoices, deposit scams, things like that that are trying to >> alter, you know, employee financial information or or >> Yeah. And I think the protocol set up within the district is to ensure that if we are uh extending district

073funds, we have POS and whatnot. So there's an expected like here's what we're paying for and there's an expected amount and they then there's a dental check they have to be approved by the supervisor before they're processed with respect to like payroll and that type of thing. We have safeguards to ensure that if our employees are going to change your bank account we make sure that it's really our employees. So we don't have issues with payroll going to fake people um and that type of thing. The we also we do have um this the state requires us to use we don't have live checks here. We have well we have some very minimal but with payroll it actually goes out to the uh state treasurer and then it gets back so we there's less access

074to things that you could fraudulently even if our own employees um fraudulently make bank check. So we try to put in several safeguards to prevent that type of thing. Um and then we use through the tech side we have encryption and what have you when we process our parents payments on final final for final site. No, that would be uh in touch. >> In touch. Thank you. Sorry, I was saying the wrong thing. I knew it. Um so we also have it on that and so it's not necessarily our money but we do want to be um have safeguards for those who are interacting with the district that they're all >> okay. Thank you. >> Yes question. I move that we find that the superintendent moves compliance with 48 asset protection. >> And so with

075that we can move on to recognition and public input. >> Oh, a couple recognitions um for everyone. one is next week will be uh American school counselor uh and so the association affiliated with our school counselors um uh they you know put out notices every year but it's a great opportunity for us to thank um the counselors and that's not just our academic counselors or guidance counselors um those are YFS counselors um but at the high school Susie Brown Maddie Leaport Laura Carson Molly Katie Johnson, Christine Kenyon, Chris Harish, Caleb Visser, and then Janelle Kim who is our espert counselor who goes between the middle school and high school. Then down at IMS, Drew Klein, Janet Goldstein, Jana Dash, Kate Howell, and Katie Spencer. And in our elementaryaries, Joy Kane at Island Park, Julie Matson

076at Lorage, Anna Fencer at Northwood, uh, and Alina Samco at West Mercer. Um, and then rounding that out is Grace O'Brien who works in our special services. um department across all of our schools. So, um it's a robust team. Uh they've worked extremely hard to support all of our kids and um you'll have a chance to be with the city next week with the um and I know that the counselors tend to come up as an example of a great partnership um which then gives us the opportunity to make sure that we plug their giving from the heart breakfast which is coming up in two weeks. Um another uh just a quick announcement um or recognition. Uh we have a number of performers in band, orchestra, and choir who will be participating in the East

077Shore um uh solo and ensemble contest this year for uh Mount Sai High School gets it this year. It's Mercer Island. Uh if you kind of think of all of our east side district 2 districts that we're part of with PTAs or WAZDA, those are kind of a number of the districts that are in this. But there'll be over a thousand musicians over the next two weekends. And we'll have over a 100 uh band students, 40 orchestra students, and 14 choir students um who are participating coming up uh over the next two weekends. Um and so we wish them absolutely the best of luck um with those those who go on from this uh go on to the Central Washington State Solo and Ensemble Contest that's held in April. So pretty big uh a lot

078of events. And then tomorrow uh a recognition and an announcement just a reminder 3:30 um everyone is welcome to join us at Mary Way Pool uh when we uh celebrate the renovation and the completion of Mary Way pool. Okay, we have some things up for public input. Schoolboard meetings are >> Yes. >> Schoolboard meetings are business meetings of the board held in public. Public comment is an opportunity for community members to provide input on the work of the board and the district. It is not a time for dialogue between the public. Board directors do not respond directly to public comment. However, the board silence should not be taken as agreement or disagreement with the speaker's remarks. The board may later direct the superintendent to respond to issues raised during public comment. Public comments must adhere

079to the same level of civility that the board expects of itself as specified in board policies. Speakers may not use threatening or profane language and comments and may not direct individual attacks against staff, students, administrators, or board members. Please note that comments have the potential to violate the rights of others under laws protecting privacy and laws prohibiting defamation. Comments that name a district student are not permitted without permission of that student's guardian. The board president will cut off speakers who violate any of these rules. Their speaking time will be ended. Speakers should state their full name for the record at the start of their comment and their relationship to the district if any. Speakers will be allowed three minutes to comment. If you wish to make a comment in person tonight and have not yet

080completed the public input form, blank forms are available at the entrance to the boardroom, please complete the form and handed to Michelle Mueller. The cut off to register for online public comment is 1 hour before the start of the meeting. Great. Megan Hamill, are you can you hear us? >> I can. Good evening. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today. Uh my name is Megan Hamill. I'm a Mercer Island resident um and parent and advocate assisting families across the district. Um as the board considers non-resident open enrollment applications for 2627, I urge you to apply board policy 3141 rigorously and pause non-resident enrollment at Mercer Island High School. Policy 3141 states that approval for non-resident mission, including for children of district staff, may be granted only when adequate classroom space, facilities, and

081staff are available at the proper grade level or educational program and without imposing a financial burden. Public data from the December 11th, 2025 meeting show students with IEPs, about 13% of our population, failing classes and earning no credits at higher rates than any other group with worsening trends. Cred classrooms lack a qualified special education staff to implement IEPs effectively and persistent barriers for resident students indicate these resources are already strained. Families report resident IEP students facing denials or inadequate supports while non-residents, including staff children, access them more readily. This disparity raises serious transparency concerns. How are limited special services allocated between residents and non-residents? Is there equitable prioritization or does it depend on connections rather than need? These patterns undermine trust and contribute to families leaving the district. I request the board and superintendent prioritize

082resident student retention versus overwhelming the system with non-residents, especially since the superintendent has expressed concerns about the burden of special education funding. Before approving more NOS and resident students and continuation of their enrollment, including staff children, please examine high school data, particularly the current nth grade cohort, to assess whether non-resident district staff students with IEPs place an undue burden on special education finances and capacity. Director Martinez asked about tracking IEP withdrawals to see if programs at other schools could be provided here. Data exists, but remains unanalyzed deeply. Superintendent Rendle suggested discussing are we collecting the right data in a future study session with identified gaps in implementation and civil rights violations from the district's own data. How can we responsibly admit more students when leadership is not fully serving residents equitably or complying with IDA

083requirements? One, pause resident non-resident enrollment including staff children at the high school for 26 27 until full IDA compliance. equitable resource access for residents and resolution of these issues. Two, direct Superintendent Rendle to present analyzed IEP withdrawal retention data plus solutions for better retention and equitable access at the next board meeting. Three, require immediate verifi verifiable progress on school improvement plan impleation implementation MIHS with public reporting on special ed outcomes and supports. Four, prioritize internal fixes, coordination across special ed, civil rights, and high school teams before seeking more students. Thank you for your time. Our resident children deserve priority in the resources they fund, especially with the levy coming up and lack of accountable allocation and spending of special education tax dollars. I thank you again for your time. >> We are at the end

084of the three minutes, but thank you comments. Is now a good time for your break? Five minutes. started and we are going back to full governance board policy 1806. >> Oh sorry 1801. Yeah. >> So, um, teaching learning team, are you co-presenting up there too or hanging there? We have, uh, Nova, uh, assistant superintendent Williams coming in, uh, to, uh, help present this. This really is some of the heart and soul work of our teaching and learning, uh, team, but right, but of course coming and emanating right out of our high school, our middle school, and our four elementaryaries. Um, this is the first of the five fundamentals that we monitor throughout the year. And we're going to give you what the what the monitoring report has historically looked like and then weave into that

085some ideas, some suggestions, um, and ways that we think we might be able to improve this along the way. you won't get the full overview of that. Um, but you will start to get where we think it might even be more helpful for you as a board to see how the work is embedded within the school improvement plans as you would see within the district improvement plans and our five-year plan. So, with that, I'll turn it over um to our assistant superintendent. >> Okay. Thank you. Can you hear me? >> Okay, great. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, uh, Andrews, do you have the presentation that you can pop up or do you want me to share it? I can do that, too. >> I got it. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Okay, so as Fred

086referenced, you get a series of different reports that have loads of data points in them. We've had these conversations over the years just around how um there may be a better way to report on this and make it a little bit more clear toward our direction. So, um I'm going to kind of walk you through the some highlights about that that uh really are going to be thinking around >> what might be the points that we want to report on in terms of the progress for our students fairly consistently. So, Andreas, if you can go ahead and go to the first slide there. So, one of the things that um is in here, you'll just see some just highlights of different uh points around what shows up in those reports. Again, the data is the

087same as what you see in those reports. Um but this is just a highlight of some of the the snapshots, so to speak, of some of the exciting things. Go on to um the next one. Yep. So our team in teaching and learning has developed some statements that really guide our direction that we hope for the district. So the first one of those is most tied to proficiency and achievement. Um which is that we want to see over the course of five years 95% of our students demonstrate proficiency in ELA and math. Um as we progress forward in the data you'll kind of see where the students are with that. We do a pretty good job but we can always do better. Our second goal is surrounding MTSS structures. There's some data behind that one

088um that's not referenced here because you won't necessarily see it show up in the data points that have been referenced here. And then our third point is that we want all of our students to feel a sense of in our schools. So that's the next one. So I'm going to jump in with that 95% proficiency. That's been our aim for the last couple years is that we've been hoping toward that. Um, you could see that we even disegregated them down into some of our student groups as well to say that to expect a jump to 95% might not be realistic for all of the student groups, but we want to continue that trajectory so that we can see that growth for each of the student groups. So, overall proficiency we'd like to see at 95%

089which includes all learners, not just students um who are without disabilities or those that already know English. Um, but you can see below that we want specific groupings of students to also demonstate demonstrate higher proficiencies than they currently do. Um, which I'll talk a little bit more about here in a bit. >> Can I just kind of work up with a question? My understanding context. >> Yeah. on the documents that will have been provided where where does it show that similar measurement to you say I know you're talking about 95% overall for all grades but is that the page that's the um key performance indicators the SBA comparison >> yeah yep that'll be our overall performance >> just trying to understand the numbers you're talking about >> yeah it's a lot of numbers so on

090the graphic that you see here this is just a highlight and representation of how we compare. So if we looked at that comparison addendum which is also built in there, it's of course important to compare ourselves across the state and see how we're comparing to other school systems. So you can see here sort of how those things compare. Um noting both grade four and grade 10 here. Um we consistently score significantly between 30 and 40% percentage points higher than the state average. Um, and then even going to school districts that we compare ourselves to, we score in most categories higher than all of those school districts as well. So, um, we're doing fairly well there, which I think is another case as to why you as a board are hearing our school principles come to

091you and talk about academic growth instead of achievement because our achievement is already one of the highest in the state. So, it's certainly something we're keeping our eyes on. So our if we look at kind of just elementary and thinking about our elementary progression here, these are just some additional data points pulled out of there. One of the things that uh we would propose to you as we consider some of the alterations um going forward and what we want this to look like is it makes sense to choose some select grade levels that would be appropriate to continue to monitor. You'll see that in this presentation I'm going to talk about some cohort data as well um which we've talked about in past board meetings and presentations of this. Uh but the other side of

092that is that I would say there are some additional data points that just aren't presently in existence in fundamental 2 because of the nature of when it was built and um the tools we had at the time that we used it. So uh for example down at the bottom the literacy trend around second grade um passage reading fluency. We have changed the tool that we use and we use a variety of different tools out of our I Ready uh assessment suite that include some norm referenced assessments that we would probably want to tap into as a part of that. Our middle school um we've talked over the years about how there's a dip when students exit fifth grade and head into sixth grade. There's a pretty significant dip into middle school. The good news is

093that while that dip happens, we see significant growth uh over the years. So it does progress once the students enter into middle school. There's a lot going on in middle school that I would anticipate uh is a part of a contributing factor as to why kids scores change. But we have been looking at that for multiple years. >> So these are the um score trends. So I think it was Christina I think uh director Martinez I think you mentioned this last year in fundamental 2. We had a conversation just about cohorts. And you know, it's one thing to present to you the data of how seventh grade does year-over-year, but those are different children. And I think that's especially important to note because at present, we have groupings of kids who are uh either significantly

094still impacted because of the COVID era education or were babies during that time. And so during that time with babies for example, we know that there's an oral language difference between children who grew up during the pandemic and those that grew up before and after said pandemic. So there are some impacts that are going to show up in their scores naturally. So it makes kind of it makes sense to really track the cohort progress and see are we actually getting better with the same group of kids rather than comparing different groupings of kids across years. So in this graphic and the next one what I've provided to you are some score trends uh so that you can see our current grade level of the student and then how they performed in third fourth fifth sixth

095and seventh um and beyond depending on the grade level so that you could see some of that growth. We have fairly stable scores in um both ELA and math. Uh and so you'll if you take a look at those two graphics, you'll see some fairly stable scores. Uh we do kind of incrementally grow over the years, sometimes dip down just a bit, and then certainly we see that dip in sixth grade, especially um for our students, which is not atypical across the country, let alone in the state of Washington. the high school readiness and retention. These are just some highlights from that report and we really want to boil it down to what's most important for our kids. So what is it that we want for our students is outcomes of graduating from our system.

096Uh first one thing that is very important in high school is tracking nth grade on track to ensure that students are actually making progress and that they are likely to graduate. Uh, one of the built-in challenges of high school is there's no standardized assessments in the way that we see it in third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth until they get into 10th grade. And so, those comparisons sort of drop off once they head into middle or into high school. So, we need to look at some other indicators um in relation to that. So you'll see uh ninth grade on track there as well as D of course assessments between ELA and math. >> Uh pathways are something that our high school has built significantly over the last several years. The um Superintendent Rake Doll

097changed the pathway several years ago. when he changed the pathways, students had multiple options to be able to um explore other ways to graduate as opposed to just the assessment. So, we have some other things listed in here that were a um I would say have risen some on account of that um but also offer some flexibility they how they progress through and graduate from high school. And then these are some post-secary success uh scores. So pulling out of the fundamental 2 report, you can see average SAT um ACTs and then our graduation rates uh highlighted there as well. And then these are um in AP subjects. So once our students get into high school taking those AP exams, you can see that they are um significantly uh achieving on these assessments as well at

098a national level as opposed to just the level on our Smarter Balance. At the start of this, I mentioned um that we are looking at groupings of students and not just the overall picture of students. Uh and so you can see here kind of the report out on some of those groupings as well in thinking about where they are at present. Uh we are seeing an a growth in some grade levels but not others necessarily. Um and so that's something that we're keeping our eyes on but overall we're looking to see some significant growth there. So special education students who are lowincome and students who are receiving English language services um those are some of the groupings that we are looking at. We are also looking at groupings of students um who identify as black

099African-American. Um and on this slide in particular, you can see an area of uh growth for us really is our ELA for our students who are receiving EL services. And you can see that out in the U profile addendum for fundamental 2 as well. One thing I just want to say about this data point that does create a little bit of sticky kind of information for us is that we do um our students are allowed to not take the ELA assessment if they have been in a school in the United States for fewer than 12 months. So that is permitted. Not all of our students choose to take that option of not taking the test. So we do have students who test who have been here for fewer than 12 months um which then of

100course those scores are going to count for us. Um, and so we don't discourage kids from participating in the assessment if they would like to participate in it, which is different, I would say, than some places. >> The last one that you see here is uh MTSS structures. MTSS structures are um kind of just some there's the structures that we're getting to put in place. You've seen them show up in the school improvement plans. And on this slide, what you see here are uh our current data points at present based on the data as of today. So this information is not listed in your fundamental 2 report, but this is something that we would propose that we want to start highlighting for you throughout the year so that we can be more cognizant across the

101year and be thoughtful about uh doing what we're asking teachers to do in PLC's which is to do a plan do study act. If we are engaging in work we want to see that progress and growth and if we aren't seeing progress and growth then we of course need to change our behavior so that we can see that growth. So the data that you see here um by each grade level in the first column is how how many students were at or above level in the fall. So upon entry on the I Ready diagnostic tool. I'm going to make a commentary just about kindergarten to know that kindergarten's assessment is uh fairly simplistic on account of the fact that they are new learners to schools. So just as a the uh bar is set pretty

102low for that one in the fall. Um winter then this is the same number. how many students what percentage of students within that grade level at or above uh grade level standard. So you could see uh kindergarten already at 98% 75% first grade 87% second grade 93 79 and 80 respectively for the other grades. In the next column we've got how what are the percentage of students who have already met typical growth and you saw that one listed in the elementary uh SIP plans as well as the middle school SIP plan. So they've been talking about typical growth and stretch growth. Just to bring us back into that definition, typical growth is how much a student should grow within one year based on the hundreds of thousands of data points that I has across the

103country. And this is how many students, what percentage of students have already met that one-year target January at this point in the year. If you skip the median progress point and go to the me the percent met stretch growth, that's the grouping of uh or the percentage of kids who have already met the stretch growth. Uh as a reminder, stretch growth is designed for students who need to close it uh learning gaps. So students who need to close those learning gaps need to meet stretch growth over the course of multiple years in order to be able to close their learning gaps. So those are the percentages of our students who have already met their stretch growth for the year by January as of today. And then the two other points there um median percent progress.

104So I Ready reports to us the median number that is not atypical in the world of adjustment. They will often give us the median number um because that gives us kind of a general picture. One thing we know in our internal system is that we have such a range of kids in this category. We have everything from 0% progress to 500% progress. And so the median number is it's a helpful measure for us to kind of just get a sense of where is that that sort of middle ground for our students. Um and you could see what that median percent progress is for our students. So what's the percent progress toward typical and or stretch respectively there? And then our last one is just a kind of overall picture of what we're hoping to talk

105more about over the next series of months with you, which is we would like to set it so that our fundamentals are a lot more clear to both uh our staff, our community, and to all of us as well. Um really aiming very particularly toward an endgame here will help us be laser-like focus on that work. um the trajectory here that is suggested by fall. We have all of our finalized data from the state before we send it out to families. So, typically that happens um by Octoberish. Some years it's happened in November, but usually we've got it by October to be able to have some final um summitive evaluations of what our progress looked like for the prior school year. So, that would be sort of a summit of evaluation. In winter each year,

106we would love to be able to provide a midpoint check-in on where our students are based on their already diagnostic data and any other data points that we're collecting. And then by the end of the school year, we have our um tentative data. So that needs to be finalized by the state, but it's basically raw data that is in preliminary phases. We're allowed to share it. We just have to share it with the caveat that it could be changed based on any variety of things that could occur between when we pull the data and when they finalize that data in the fall. Um, and so at that point we could provide an end of year. So we would have a more holistic picture of what did we do over the course of a singular year

107from beginning of year to end of year to see that growth and if we didn't see growth, what are things we paused and changed about our behavior to get better at what we were doing. And that is the last slide. >> Open it up to questions. >> I think that for me, sorry. >> Go ahead. Go ahead. >> Uh I will have this hand. >> Um I know that that Noah did mention, but when I was looking at the numbers that you provided, um um I don't know. I think Um it was an eye openening to see uh the um low-inccome students not achieving where they are. I I I I see that that um that that is a benchmark that that we have to kind of really close because if that's the only difference

108between the other students like what are like we we need to to see what other supports need to happen for those kids to to uh um fulfill u the full potential and and be at the same level as the other students. I think that um kind of um yeah And uh also I'm seeing the the English learners um I understand what you're saying that some of them are new to the the the district or the the country um also having correlated the data of how many of them graduated from the program because I think that at the same time this you might by seeing the data as it is you might think that the second grader that is in English learner in fourth grader he's in the same spot and maybe he's not he already

109graduated or maybe so I think that there's some some record that will show how they can grow and it might show a different data and I think that that's true of course uh a lot of them that they do graduate from from that at different stages. So um um I think more more than questions are comments what I have here. Um and then um of course the the um the numbers related to students receiving special education and um how can we uh start closing those gaps? I think that that um uh and that that it's just what else can we do besides what we have been traditionally doing for them that we can uh uh have a benchmark how how the percentage that we want to at least close that gap and and per year

110and see how how far we can push that. Um that will be kind of some of my comments. Um, >> yeah, >> I think that actually really highlights why this laser focus is so important to us as a team so that we can really be more thoughtful about what are the things that we're doing within our school improvement plans, within our district improvement plan to make that progress because right now it's a lot of data points and so if we don't have a lot of focus on any particular thing, it makes it hard to really make that progress. So the hope will be that we can um see more with more focus. >> Yes. Yes. And I think there's there's um like I think it's a great opportunity because it gives you questions of what

111else can we do and then um a great adventure to make this happen, right? So I think that uh uh it's it's an opportunity. So um and I see the improvement like from elementary how it changes to high school. is not perfect in better but at the same time it also is is pointing some data points that need to be addressed and and um I think that's some of my comments I might have more later but I will let Jul note from the presentation uh for me it's always helpful to uh know how large the cohorts are so when we're talking about the English language learners how many kids is that special uh education uh how many kids is that? And so it helps me just interpret that uh that uh data. Um very much

112in agreement with the goal of making the fundamentals more clear uh for kind of enrollment purposes. I think that some of this data is going to be our foundation as we go out to sell ourselves to the community to other uh people. This is going to be the data that we use. So, it's very helpful to know where we're best in state and be able to kind of sell ourselves in that way. Um, and sort of along those lines for kind of more marketing materials type stuff. Um, you know, when you say or when the average SAT at the high school is a 1330, be helpful to include that. That's the 90th percentile, right? To give a context for what those numbers mean. uh also potentially include things like number of AP scholars, which I

113know we have that data, national merit uh uh finalists and semi- finalists because this is the data that people will want to use to compare to where they enroll their kids or not. >> Great. Thank you for that feedback. That's helpful. I would just say that that is the work um ahead for us as a governance team because that's when we will come back and say you know this is what boards before this board have set our priorities and now you have a chance to put your own stamp on that and say you know what this data isn't as helpful but this would be better can we put it in that context and those will be the conversations that we're going to have um and then the other ones we want to have are also

114when we look at fundamental two which is the highest learning standards in isolation. We forget that there's overlap with fundamental three when we start talking about social emotional learning and there's overlap with four with um creativity and global um awareness and five with equity. So, how can we bring you um more authentic evidence of your fundamentals so it doesn't appear in isolation because they all go together and that's the work that I know the teaching and learning team um will be excited to share more about their thoughts for that. >> Will you be talking more about that at the next meeting? >> Um I think it's going to take more than just I think this one's probably going to be through some study sessions and others. >> Great. I do like the idea holding some

115study sessions on this topic and I right now I feel like for me the more data the better as I'm learning all of this getting my head around it and uh I agree with you know what Julian said about you know spec specifics and how this data will be the baseline for how we you know work on reaching out to the community and improving and and everything else. I think it's a great place to start and I'm excited to talk about, you know, how this how this plays into our priorities and where we want to go from here. >> And I, you know, I'll just kind of speak about our school teams. Um, you know, it it's hard to come and make school improvement plans so public because they're talking about their weakest areas. That's

116the whole point of school improvement plan is they come to you and and they're discussing where they're the weakest because that's where they want to improve. It's not the only thing they do. Um they have a hundred other things, but this is where they're going to focus. Um, but I think about, you know, a lot of conversations um with the with our middle school uh principal and longtime team there that we sometimes lose sight of, you know, we have a fifth grade cohort that might have left last year at 88.6 in ELA and then they're 84.2 when they get to sixth grade. And then forget that 84.2 two is three percentage points better than the nearest school district to us. So people are dropping in in general students are dropping when they get to sixth

117grade. That's not going to keep our middle school team from saying we don't want to see that drop. But it also helps us to remember that this is in context and that's a pretty high percentage compared to others. Now how many kids um what's the number on that? I think director Bradley to say um you know actually Nova just pulled some data for me today um that I was asking for. So fourth grade math for instance we had 173 of our fourth graders score level four 65 a level three and 35 below. 35 kids over four schools that's nine kids. We know those nine kids. We know what that looks like. Some of them are getting learning assistance program support. Some of them are getting special services, some of them ELLL. Um, but to your

118point on the Title One, you know, by the time we are done with one school providing an extra intervention person, we're out of our title one money. And so that's where the levies and the other come in. But it's been really hard to get services into our middle school and even our high school over the years um because we're trying to get at least four intervention specialists in our elementaryaries. And so we're trying to be really creative, but that's been a that's been a barrier for our district. >> I do really like having the context of the other school districts. It does really help you understand where we exist, you know, where we are compared to the state. But I also like the idea that that doesn't mean that, you know, we should lower our

119standards. I think that is still helpful to have >> and and nor just focus on achievement. I think you've seen in all the school improvement plans and what you've noted tonight um Nova is that you know we can look at SBA scores and pat ourselves on the back and say we have high achieving kids. Um we know we have kids that are also really well supported at home and they're they have great partnerships with our schools. We have great teachers in the classrooms and pair of professionals. Um but the growth is very important too. So, does anyone else have any questions or feedback? >> Um, no, but I just want to thank you for um doing that tracking across the cohort. I think that was really useful to see, especially since we have the pandemic

120affecting our cohorts and um that was a a useful incorporation of our feedback from last year. So, thank you very much for doing that. >> Yeah, of course. Um I maybe I just can't find it, but is there a copy of the slide deck in our in our board docs or Okay. >> No, no, it will be. Yeah. >> Yeah, that that'll be fantastic. Just because it's hard for me to um while you're speaking to like try to pick out the data from the >> Yeah, for me I agree with that. But I also do really appreciate you pulling all this together. Yeah, thank you. Okay. So on this agenda item, we are we'll be voting on compliance with fundamental two which looks different than the other we always >> correct. The other OE when

121it's an OE that has all the components one you will see fundamental two three four five and one separate. So tonight is just fundamental two of OE one that you're voting but >> we're still voting on whether it's in your plan. >> Correct. which is it's just so broad like there's a little bit of data about this and I appreciate it but just this is it's >> you know to to really vote on whether we're in compliance with this entire fundamental you need a lot more data >> so it's a bit like your level ones and level twos the level two data is what we provided you tonight that's what previous boards have said they wanted to see um and then the rest of it's kind of level on but again you have the opportunity

122as a board to say you know what we don't want to see so much on that we'd rather see what are you doing for health and PE some year or something and then we could provide you more information on that so it's really around what are the priorities and that I think where we need to have the conversations about the other it's hard to have a conversation about one fundamental without thinking about the others and what does this all look like and as Dr. Shaper was talking to you the the do nows. Um no wait what was his was it do nows the >> now initiatives >> now now >> initiives >> now initiatives thank you um you know what what's our now initiative >> and that will help us then to I think solidify

123which fundamentals or which OES and which sections we're going to prioritize. So that's how that kind of fits together. Okay. Do you want to make a motion? Anyone? >> I move that we find the um fundamental to in compliance. >> Second. >> I this is 2050. Just before we move away from that, I you know these are superintendent compliance, but this has been kind of a unique and it and a great night for me to sit there and see if you know we have our teaching and learning team. Um we have our business and operations team. We have our HR and legal teams all presenting to you tonight. Um it's everyone's work. I mean it is the people behind this and it goes all the way down to our schools with our bus drivers and

124our teachers, our principles. Um, it's really everyone working together. So, I just want to thank our group for all of your support and work. >> Yeah. And thank you. Thank you to all of tonight because I know it is a lot and it's really helpful information. So, appreciate it. Okay, we are moving on to partial governance process monitoring 4A. Great. We are going to have a report uh again from assistant superintendent Sullivan going over our financial dashboard for November and >> right uh provided to you as superintendent mentioned uh we have our notes the financial dashboard status report November December and then also uh my notes to financials uh through December 31st uh basically through December 33% of the fiscal school year. Uh expenditure is about 33.6%. We are right on uh month over month,

125year-over-year comparisons. Uh so that's a good thing. Revenue is about 34 30.5% and of course you throughout this in particular that it's due to uh the receipt of our local taxes at Capac and EP at the end of October, November and a portion of 5% in November. That's why you see that um decrease. Some highlights in regard to our expenditures and revenues. An interesting one kind of a teachable moment uh our vocational education CTE CCR. There was an increase month over month about $85,000. Uh this is due to a change in state accounting. Specifically, uh they've asked us OSBI to track uh not just direct and account for but also indirect costs for the CTE program. probably behind the scenes that's due to um them wanting to see how much money is really totally spent

126on those programs. So you see that change. It typically came out of support and community services. Now you're seeing it uh more so out of the vocational education CTE account. Uh revenues once again the theme presents itself. Our local levies decrease of 6 36,000 roughly. Obviously we have our local tax in the end of October and some trickling in in November uh and in December but that's why we have that decrease uh state aortionment similar that's due to our aortionment schedule from OSPI state uh we have that um uh increase November to December about 2 million uh that increases by about 4% into four 5% November then 9% in December and then lastly we look at our uh other category donations capte tech escort etc. We see an increase of about 219,000 in December. We

127have a large donation from the high school say of 150,000. Then also because we have those two weeks off in December we see an increase in facility rental revenue basketball etc. that comes in also and then looking fund balance cash on hand. um at the end of December we saw about 690,000 and we compare year-over-year one of our budgets uh right there um we have this decrease about 722,000 year uh this is due to additional special education out of state placement we have obviously our decrease enrollment we've spoken of but we're also at a smaller transfer cap tech and an increase out of the cap tech fund we cool project uh so that money isn't there at this point, but we'll see more transfers as we move forward throughout the year, hence a decrease in

128our donation. That is the financial report. Any questions? >> Was that um PTSA donation? What was that targeted toward or was that just general? >> No, it turned out right donation PTSA to it. >> Um there are a few specific things. Um for example, the entire high school certificated staff is going through uh CR training. Um it's one of their three SI goals. Um so all staff who have not been previously uh trained will go through a three-day intensive. Um that's really working to culturally responsive education. um it's working to examine instructional practices for equity and then they go through and do a a workshop model where they go into each other's classrooms and do model lessons. So um a big chunk of that is is for that there's also additional support services um and

129things where some staffing needs questions. Moving on to item Bicy9, communications support to the board on residents. >> Great. I'm going to invite up uh Jamie and Aaron. Um into this next piece, Michelle, you can stay forward with that, but she'll be Michelle will also be a contributor. The next two agenda items go together, but they have to be uh worked on separately. Um the first is going to be um our discussion around my recommendation um for open enrollment. And then the next item are all of the board policy changes um that come about because of that. So, if we go back to my December uh kind of early look at this um and if we kind of go down and you can actually go all the way down to the very last slide. Um

130this is where um we were discussing or where we kind of left off. Um my thinking around elementary uh remains uh consistent and that is we're looking at K5 being closed at this time uh and not opening. Then we're looking at a sixth, seventh and eighth grade opening um and ensuring that there are some limited spaces and we're going to qualify that just a little bit here in a moment. And then 9th through 12th grade also open but of course limited to um capacity such that it's not impacting us negatively financially. Um so if we then go to our other two documents Andre um the first one yep is this one. This spells it out a little bit clearer for you as to the recommendation. Um, and it really just rolls through. A couple things.

131Um, we did call out that our pathways, those are our students through age 22 who qualify for those services. That's a program that's closed as well as our early childhood. Um, while we've talked about K or K five, we wanted to make sure that we were clear um around that piece. And then we were doing some work uh with our school teams and really trying to take uh find where there might be uh other areas where we need to be thoughtful. And so there's another addendum tonight um that we've added and this really looks at the middle school um and really does some qualifications. So um do you want does someone else want to take this? >> Yeah, I can address it. So you'll see that highlighted language there that is just taken from the

132recommen recommendation but it's an amendment. The amendment um adequate classroom space facilities at the proper grade level of program for which entry is sought. That's just taken straight out of the actual procedure but just clarification um that there there could be limits there. And then at this time there's no passing the sixth through eight e 8th grade highly capable program. We do want to highlight that for parents who are thinking of coming here at this point in time. We learned as we evaluated those who have already been testing in our system with high and in coordination with our uh assistant director um Weston Lucas. I was trying to think his last question. Won West Lucas and Jamie and Michelle. There's just really not space um to provide services to those who are not uh residents

133here. So before you have discussion and and ask plenty of questions, I do want um both Michelle and Jamie to be able to talk just a little bit more about the diligence to what they go through when they're considering choice transfer. What does that process kind of look like? And so sure you want to piggyback on each other, but I want to just turn over to you. >> I think she does the ultimate review. So um what's funny is I was going to say the opposite. I was going to say Michelle should start. Um, so all things start with Michelle. Um, we've got information, lots of information on the website about trace transfer, open enrollment, what that looks like, what the timelines are, what documents are going to be required. Um, but ultimately it starts

134with Michelle. Um, and do you want to talk about just about what you what is collected from families and I can talk about reviewing it? >> Sure. Um so what we require from families for an evaluation is um a copy of their grades um attendance records and any discipline as well as some application forms. And the records required are for the preceding two years and for the current school year to date. And if those records indicate anything that might suggest a cost to the district, then we might go back and ask for additional information. or if it looks like some, you know, a student's records show that they might not meet our policy requirements, then we'll also ask for additional information. And um once all of those records are compiled, then I turn it over

135to Jamie. Uh things that we as I go through, every student has a file. Um in those files, um we're looking for things. Oh, and and it's an expectation that the family select. If we accept non-resident enrollment, it's for a full-time in-person enrollment. Um there are additional costs um and money that that is not uh recouped by us if students enroll and then choose to go to Running Start or enroll online. Um and so we are we are looking for students who want full-time inerson enrollment. So that is a question that is asked and they mark that on an attestation form. Uh and that's taken into consideration as well as their grades for the last three years, their attendance for the last three years. is all commentary from educators, um feedback, we look at discipline,

136we look at um you know really detailed information. So for example um there have been times where students might have missed a 3-week period. So it flags to me as an attendance indication I asked Michelle to reach out to the family and we get notification back that explains there was a grandparent who was ill uh and dying in India. So they took a family vacation once in a lifetime and I can look in that tracks because that happens three years ago and I see that the attendance has pro improved over the last few years. Therefore there's not a concern that uh the need for attendance intervention is going to cause an undue financial hardship to the district. That might be assuage that concern of um attendance. We look to make sure that a student's on

137track for graduation. We're not looking to um bring in students who are credit deficient. oftent times that will require additional services and things that uh or courses through summer school or credit recovery where we would incur additional costs. So again, we're looking for students who um have can maintain regular attendance, who are looking for full-time inerson enrollment and who are not credit deficient in any way. Additionally, we do ask for um specific services and programs if a student is reserving receiving services elsewhere. Um because a student is receiving services whether they be or 504 or IEP services does not preclude them from being welcome into our district. Um it just means we have to be able to have capacity in the programs that already exist in order to meet their needs. Um a condition where

138we would not choose to accept them is if we didn't have space in a given program or service area. Um we could deny that we would have to incur additional expense by bringing in that student. And that's an example of sixth grade or the middle school with highly capable. Um those classes are going to be fairly large going into next year already. Um we know then that if we get up against our contractual maximum of 33 students. If we took in a couple more and they were not res or they were non-residents that could mean that we have to open up a new section of ELA, a new section of social studies which are new teachers. And so then the money that we do receive, which is the aortionment from the state, um, uh, around

139$11,500, um, then that all of a sudden doesn't become a that becomes a financial burden. So that's where we watch those. Last year we ended up closing partway through the summer or even heading in. You want to talk a little bit more about your decisions and working with the middle school? >> Yeah. So, uh, Michelle and I work closely with the registars ensuring that. So, for example, um if we had 66 students exactly and our cap was at 33 and we were trying to fill an algebra class, um 66 would mean we could um have two algebra classes. However, if we were to bring in four or more students, all of a sudden we would have to open a new section. That would create an additional cost to the district. So, therefore, we would deny

140because what we do is we check with um the high school register, the middle school register and say, "Where are we with classes?" And so there were families who um had applied, we would do like a conditional approval to say, "Okay, it looks like everything on your end is okay, but we need to let you know that there's not room in an honors class or you're limited in your electives that we have available. If you would like to come, we need to you need to know going into it, you're going to have some limitations as to what's available." Um and so then they would come in knowing full well that would be the case. And there were a few grades in which we had to stop in June and say, "Hey, our numbers are too

141tight. you don't see until we get everything finalized with our uh core schedules. We can't open it up to anymore because we need to get it all balanced. >> And then this year we even went back to families in the fall once we realized we did have capacity and we were able to actually bring in some students in the fall both at the middle school and the high school um where then we did have capacity. So we had some mid-year transfers who came in early in the semester in the trimester. um it's that precise, it's that hard of uh or that critical of of watching that and you know it's imperfect um for sure. Uh you know it's never a perfect piece and that's where we're going to get into the policy revisions. Um but

142happy to take any other questions about our process or our recommendation. >> This is just a quick question. Are the um restrictions on like running start true for like students who have like parents who teach in the district or is that just entering the school? >> So uh families who teach in the district are uh or students of parents who teach fulltime in the district which is distinct from those who are teaching or who are otherwise only full-time in the district. It's not teachers. If it's fulltime they have certain statutory rights to bring their kids to the district. um which are different than those through other enrollment restrict. So those restrictions don't necessarily apply but they have to be full-time staff members. They would apply parttime. >> So my understanding is that if someone is

143denied they can appeal how often does that happen? Um and and because I typically am the person who if I don't handle it myself then I coordinate with outside council but handle the appeal. We have maybe one or two a year. Um there's a lower level appeal process that doesn't get all the way to an administrative hearing and I'd have to look to um Superintendent R and Michelle on that without having to do it. I probably heard three or four last summer. Um I think is what I what I had heard. And then um uh you know after after it comes through me then it can go to um OSBI and then that can go to an ALJ and then um error gets involved with that. But um very rarely does it really go beyond

144me um you know >> and generally what they're the test generally speaking is whether or not we applied our policy >> how how for the ones that have >> administrative law >> uh rarely are they >> we're off the So just to clarify clarify the uh comment that was during uh poly comment. So uh children of staff that are full-time sorry right have the same right as any resident just because that's the way that it is treated and then the open enrollment is that we have sorry you said >> state law >> yeah state yes sorry yes let's clarify that state law that they have the right so so it doesn't matter if they have need uh special education, high cap running, but then the other ones and open enrollment is the one that we

145are limiting and we are not open for those opportunities. Correct. >> Yes. Um so as noted in the two documents that I provided gives you the outline of um what that looks like. So um you know we're not closed to AP classes in the high school. You know those are so just what's in there is what we've limited. However, as you'll see in policy when we get to that one, um we do try to be very specific around we're looking for full-time um students. >> And if you want to know the statuses, RCW25.225 and it says application for school employees, children's non-resident students or students receiving instruction and it specifically says that it's for both classified and certificated so it's not limited to teachers. So, I had asked you this, Fred, but I know that,

146you know, there's been some, you know, media some articles about enrollment in our state and some districts were bringing one of the things they were it said they were doing to increase enrollment was were allowing people to partially enroll. And so, I was wondering if you could just explain for everyone and community why we Mercer Island isn't doing that. >> Yeah. Um, if you have the economies of scale and you're let's I'm I'm only going to say Belleview because they're nearby. Um, I think the first answer to the question is we were one of the last to reopen to open enrollment when that happened two years ago. So, this is our second year. This would be our third if you approve it. Um, so virtually every district in the Puget Sound region, and I say

147virtue just because I don't know for sure, but I can't think of one who's open. um when you are a larger district and you have the economies of scale and you don't have to worry about you know how you know I can take in x number of kids because I can place them in one of four high schools that's a lot easier than us who we only have one high school um we're really careful around the full-time students um because we're really looking for that full aortionment and it really goes back to other conversations that you've had here at the table and we've had together and that is there's overhead cost no matter what. So, if a student is only coming to the high school for one period of day um and they're a resident

148student, you know, we still have accounts for them. Um there's still lights and heating that we need for that student. Um and so as we've looked at the numbers um we really feel that it needs to be a full-time student to make sure that we are receiving full aortionment and then we're really doing what we want to do which is not solve the enrollment problem but solve the um challenge of making sure that we're offering as many electives as we can um providing as many opportunities for students. So that's really why we are committed to that full-time enrolled student. >> Can I just say something about timing? >> You bet. >> Um so right now uh at the high school when when does middle school do enrollment and course selection? We're going to start the

149end of February. >> End of February. Um so it used to be the April 15th deadline is when people when the board went to choose make a determination about open enrollment. Right now the high school um is open for students are selecting their courses and then we will begin it closes February 11th. Um we will then begin the process of um determining how many sections which courses are going to run and things like that. Um the middle school goes through a similar piece of how many sections of each course are they going to need based on elective requests and things like that. So, um, from somebody who is navigating the choice transfer world, um, and trying to figure out what which classes we're going to run, where we have enough, where we have OC's for

150enrollment and things, um, the earlier deadline, um, helps with families trying to choose private school over coming to us. Um, but also in if there are kids who are on courses that are on the bubble, by getting them in earlier than April, we're able to potentially keep some electives or courses and know our numbers um more solidified than um waiting until the spring and summer. >> Could you talk a little bit about the cost or what you know why this makes sense from financial perspective? >> Yeah. um when you're receiving full aortionment on a student um I think one is what Jamie had just mentioned and that is you know if we have a class um of 18 for let's say a drama class and then we but we have open enrollment and then we're

151able to add four more kids to that now all of a sudden we might actually be able to run that class rather than take away an option for kids so I'll get to the financial piece, but that's kind of the academic reality um for some of this. On the financial piece, when you take the full aortionment, if we're already running um the school, we already have the lights on, we already have the heat going, we already have um uh you know, staff members in place, we already have counselors. As long as we're not pushing over those limits and having to add extra sections, then the economies of scale start working in our favor because that $11,500 is additional coming into the to the district from the state based on the per pupil aortionment on that.

152Um, and so that's why that can really help us and that's why we try to watch it to make sure that we're not incurring additional overhead. Um be but if we're already open and running that's why it works. I was just talking to Dan Steel today um former WASA um legislative advocacy uh and we were talking a little bit about this tangentially but you know this is why you know when they base everything on numbers of students um this is what makes Senator Wellman's Senate bill make a lot of sense of if the if the state is already aortioning the money in the budget um then doing that enrollment uh hold harmless for a what really helps schools out because we still have to open the doors next year. We still have to have things

153and so it's really hard to make those adjustments when you might lose a hundred kids but you still have demand for all of your services. Does that help? >> Any other questions? I the other sort of benefit and this is one of the things when we were discussing open enrollment because I I see things often from the HR lens is that having open enrollment helps us sort of address when we have dips in class you have a big level comes through and then you can sort of buoy up a class in terms of size and if you up the whole like whole PE whole students instead of partial that's beneficial because you can predict that but that also enables us to retain staff because we have students for them to serve. So it enables us

154to smooth our enrollment a bit um so that we are not forced to make reductions um rapidly to meet the changes in enrollment. They may only be like a two-year blip because we had a dip for two years. So it just allows us to smooth and not have to react when you have a sudden dip in the moment. Uh, so I think it's overall better for staff and advance staff who are less worried about or at least have confidence that as an organization we're looking at ways as our neighbors are to stabilize enrollment and to which helps ensure some employment security. I think that's better for the overall sort of morale of staff. Um, which is ultimately leads to happier staff teaching our kids which presumably and I believe leads to better instruction and support.

155Yeah. >> Uh I had a question about this be more appropriate for uh principal mold, but in terms of culture at the high school, kids fit in, kids do well. Can you speak to sort of those items around the open enrollment kids at high? >> Sure. >> You're young. I think J answer. Uh so there's a couple things we do specifically for students um who are new to the district. So we have Islander Hour and um we've identified a few Islander Hours that are specifically for students new to us um who are coming from somewhere else um to in to help them um you know learn a little bit about the community, about other kids who might have come from different places um and to help build connections within each other. Uh and so we've

156done that. We've also uh administered high rates for our students coming in um to ensure not not replacement but to be able to communicate with teachers. you know, we've got lots of data on kiddos who come through our system, but those who haven't, we're limited to what the state has assessed, so like the SBA scores. Um, so by administering the I Ready Diagnostics, we're able to give teachers information about their students um as they come in so they're not at a a deficit of um information of their peers. Um, anecdotally, there have been a number of students who are in um, from choice transfer um, who have come by just to say like what a great place it is and how they feel really welcome. There's so many opportunities. Um, I I don't know, Lucy

157and Rodie, do you guys have um, interactions or, you know, an anecdotal pieces to share? >> Yeah, I have a number of friends that I hear from open enrollment actually. Um, and I think it's the same struggles as any new kid to the district. Like being new on Mercer Island is a hard thing. Mercer Island's very clicky. It's hard, but I don't think that there's any specific like it's not more difficult, you know, but nor especially if you're in high school, you know, like you can drive, you can get around. Um, so I don't think there's any different struggles than any new kid would have in the schools. A couple people I know a few people who um live off island because they used to live here and then either they left the district for

158a little bit or they moved off island and so they just are still in the district and it's especially as you get to the high school level once you can drive once your friends can drive there's a little bit less of that lack of connection and so you're able to build those connections in school and then they can continue out of school no matter Yeah. Just um does having does the addition of the um students like the the students from off island impact at all how we collect on our levies? >> Great question. Um it doesn't impact the cap tech levy because that's a set amount a portion across or distributed across the entire tax base. um it does on the EPO levy um because when in post McCclary now that we collect on a

159per pupil basis so it's the number of students times a multiplier um that is an example where that is an incurred cost for the total you know tax base so if we have um a student who's not living here their parents aren't paying that same EPO fee I will say as someone who lives in isqua um I know that I have a student who's now here in the district open enrollment, but I pay the taxes over in Isakor and I know they have open enrolled from somewhere else and so it is kind of like you know all the trading around. Um but that is one thing then a criticism that um I I have to be transparent about to say um if someone is adamant that they just don't want to pay on the EPO

160levy because the state changed the state law um that is true. >> Yeah. But it's 3,000. If passed, the EPO levy will be driving about $3,800 per kid. If you distribute that across the entire tax base, it's not raising people's taxes by a dollar. Um, you know, this is very >> comments questions. So, is this the time when you would take a vote on this or are we still >> You would The first vote would be on whether or not you're approving the uh the PL you're approving open enrollment as a as proposed by the superintendent >> and as amended >> and and as amended because you do we did addition. >> So, I guess I would just say that I I think that this makes sense for a number of reasons. I think that

161force decisions if everyone's aware hopefully this is you know this is the temporary solution that we still need to look at in a little bit more broadly and what we can do um this isn't the answer to those question but I hope this makes sense for for this following school year does anyone want to make a motion >> uh I I can make the motion. >> Uh motion to approve the uh board policy uh 18009 the recommendation on non-resident enrollment with the um addendums and >> and amendments. Second. >> Now we head into the policy portion which um we have a lot of clean up for you um based on the policies. Um part of this is learned experience uh and part of it is trying to make it clear for those who are going

162through the process. Um and above everything is that it's just transparent on what we're looking at. So um there are a couple things here. We do have excuse me um an amendment here uh that we have added today based on even finding some additional pieces. So, what I'd like to do is first just walk you through the marked up 3141 um and then we'll discuss the amendment second um and then we'll work through all the way. So, let's start with the LAR policy and I'm going to now turn this over to our team just to highlight key aspects. Um we didn't try to change anything material. Uh the most important thing is what you just passed. Um but we did want to clarify something. So I'll turn it over to our three. >> Yeah. So

163I'll go ahead and take the lead on this. So um hopefully you haven't had a chance to look at the red line that was included. Um first of all, section C, which starts on page one, just includes what was the superintendent recommendation. It's obviously not approved yet, which is why it's in this draft form. Um we did highlight the ECSE um the most preschool on that as well as our pathways program just so there was no ambiguity because it was our experiences there was some uh people contacting us trying to understand well what about my three-year-old or what about this so we just wanted to be clear um so to save both our time and the people who are interested potentially in those programs um moving on we uh we have a small change in

164line B on page three. It's B1. Um, and we just expanded to be at grade level. Again, this is for clarity. Um, facilities and staff are available at the proper grade level or in the educational program or instructor level. It's different than grade level. That's true because sometimes we get applicants because of whatever their background is. they're they're applying for grade 11, but the classes that they'd actually end up taking because of where they are on their educational journey would be nth grade classes. And if all the nth grade classes are full, even though we're grade 11 person, there's nowhere to put that student. Um, so we just wanted to make that clear for people. So that's why that changes there. Um if you look at sections dingy again it is it's just basically uh

165changing level one instead of first just so that it's easier to follow and it's policy. Um we have now we have non-resident applications through open enrollment. So we added E. Um, and then we added some clarification on F, which is siblings of non-res students currently enrolled in and attending the school district or expected enroll again in the future. So, um, it's just sort of delineating the priority levels when we consider application because we're what we're obligated to do by law is to create a policy that can uh that's fairly applied to everyone who's similarly situated. were saying that this is how we're consider consider people who are siblings because that's one category of person right >> one if I can add just one clarification on that um this is a key difference than the 2008

1662009 open enrollment in that period of time I would say it was a very liberal open enrollment we had we we weren't being saying they had priority we were just saying if you ever have a sibling that comes along automatically get to have them in the district. We still go through a criteria process with everyone. Um, and so that's to ensure that, you know, we're not losing track of of our ability to open and close the system. So all of these are based on making sure that um we're not just wide open that that and that it's that it's fair and that we can apply it consistently. Um and then moving down to again I said we have to have establish a rational fair and equable standard for acceptance and rejection. Um age is another

167example of that. We do have kiddos who are seeking early entrance. So that means they're slightly younger. That would be the typical cuto off for kindergarten. And so in this case we could accept a kid but if they don't get placed wherever they're trying to go and there's not room we could resent. that's not necessarily applicable right now just given um what's open but we wanted to address that in case that was a concern in the future. Uh and then the the district reserves are right before the first day of the academic year. Um and we again are just making clear that we'll resend it if our approval of an application if you indicate that you're not going to enroll full cut for all the reasons we discussed earlier. If you and that's with running

168start maybe some people that is full but we don't get fulltime portionment for that um online courses and participating in my online that's another example or if we become aware of material misrepresentations in the application for example and we then learn that you were part of a gang that that's something that by statute that we can exclude a non-resident or parole uh person or you have major disciplinary issues um and that could even be true that's something actually true that would include a staff members child for there are exceptions there um with regard to certain contact. Um so we just wanted to be transparent with those. I see your card. >> Uh yes, I just had a question. So for example, someone open enrolls in ninth grade. They have a good nth and tth grade

169experience. They're ready to do running start in 11th or 12th grade. Does that student then have to leave the district to do running start? >> Correct. >> Got it. And the one thing um that I want to make clear is that Running Start is something that would be available to the student in their home district and if they're seeking to come here, our presumption is because they want to be part of this community and access our teachers and something unique about Mercer Island. And we actively at least in the initial board discussions were seeking people. We wanted to imsh anyone who came here and welcome them into our community. and just having had a student now who's participating when running start you're gone most of the time sometimes all of the times you're not truly

170part of as much and your connection to the district is different um same with being online so if you wanted to make that choice then you would return to your resident district or you could apply presumably to another district if they don't have that requirement there answer that question >> yes thank you >> um moving forward Or did I? Yeah, just add the other thing is every year and students who come to us via choice transfer um exclusive of staff member children um they know that every year is up for renewal. So they they have to apply every year. Um it is not and staff members have to apply too. Um but when when a choice transfer it is a yearly approval. It is not uh once you're in you're part of our system. How

171would that work for like uh class enrollment where you know, let's say that they're ready to take algebra 2 and we're at two sections of algebra 2 and it's like looks like it's going to be full. You're going to have to go elsewhere or it it theoretically could happen like that. However, that's part of why we do the enrollment early, okay, and we get all those numbers so we can work out all of those logistics because then we also know, and this is part of it, of why we try to cut off at certain points, we have new families who are going to be moving in over the summer and we need room for them as well. And so it it it um yeah, it there's other variables of why getting the enrollment in now

172and the registration. I would assume that there are open enrollment high school students that are registering for their classes right now regardless of whether they've been approved for open. >> And that's also why we have priority. Sorry to interrupt, but that is that is a priority consideration. If you were a prior um and successful enrolled out of district student who've been here, your application would get priority never. So that's why you have that level one, level two, level three. So just moving on um we indicate that we just try to highlight that the district doesn't get to consider personal familial social circumstances that are are not expressly identified in the statute rule or district policy. We do have to equally apply our policy as it's written. It may be great that your great that your

173grandpa graduated from here but we still have to consider your application when it comes in as compared to everyone else. And we have to consider your discipline history. We have to consider things that are delineated, not things that are not delineated. And I don't know how we would possibly weigh a familial connection with one against another. Um, so that's not something that we consider, but we just try to put that there. So hopefully families can understand that. Um we also just because people look at our policy and they want to know when we're going to be doing what we try to indicate in the policy when we are going to be um opening the district as saying what will happen to your applic 26 27 school year if you apply in September we have certain

174timelines we have to adhere to um in terms of responding to your application and we won't have any awareness whether we're open or not so we may be in a situation where we have to deny that application under state law. Um, anyone can apply for open enrollment at any time. So, they can apply through choice transfer, but we just may not be able to accept. So, we cannot we never tell someone you cannot apply um through choice transfer. It's just your your the ability of the district to accept it will be hampered by the fact that we won't know whether we're going to open or close for the following academic year. So um leading on unless there's any questions to the application process requirements um we just sort of again trying to clarify what type

175of uh things we're going to need. Records include grades attendance and discipline reports and just saying like hey we may want to request that just again so it's in this the policy. We clarify what is considered full-time enrollment because where we know what a full-time FTE is um other people may not. I did right at the start is an example people think I'm full-time enroll because I'm getting full credit but from our perspective that's not a full-time MFT because that's not how we're paid um then we again make the next section is about continued enrollment and just there's no assurance of continued enrollment and make that very clear um and that you may be required to return to your res resident district and clarify how that may happen. Um there is a section here that

176they when you come you have to attest that you're going to full-time enroll. If sometime in the middle of the year you change and you withdraw from classes become partially enrolled you switch to online that's going to impact your ability to be accepted in the future. Um and so we put that because essentially we don't want to harm kids. Um, and we're going to let you finish your academic year, but you're we're not going to cons uh you're not going to be eligible for pre-entry um termination. Uh we and this is going to also be addressed in I believe the addendum. So, I'm going to just touch on it briefly is that it used to say academic poor performance and it should have been reverse. So, poor academic performance otherwise I think the policy is

177pretty clean. Those are the key changes. Most of this is just driven by our lived experience and what families are asking and trying to be as clear as possible um about what we're our expectations are. >> And then if we could switch to the addendum. There's two changes here. I have to make a little bigger. >> So let's do this just quickly. Um let's just do a motion so we can talk about the amendments. Um if we can get a motion and then we can talk about that if that's the board. >> Okay. I think these changes moving >> to um to adopt the amendment. Um >> or to yeah the amended version and then we can discuss it. >> Motion to adopt the amended version of school district board policy 3131. >> Second. I

178>> Okay, so let's go ahead and discuss that. >> Okay, so the amendment um is we after it was initially published was a sort of review um and appreciation that cafe's in pretty close margins. It's not right at the middle school. Um so if you look where it's highlighted, I think it's like green or yellow. I don't know what color that is, but non-resident enrollment in the grade six through eight highly capable programs close. We're just putting that there because that wasn't in the original thing. And then if you scroll down to the next page, which would be page seven of the proposed policy that you just approved, is that uh there is a high there. Again, this is just clarification uh about what is full-time FT and it says or enrolls in any other

179manner inconsistent with full-time enrollment because um it there may be some other way you can do that besides running start and online or partial say if anything reduces you from a full-time FTE as a student that's going to be implicated. You won't be eligible in the future, but we're going to let you finish the year. And then for the purpose of this um we wanted to be clear what we meant and have a standard of what poor academic performance was because um we've gotten that question at following the first term. people are concerned like my kiddo didn't do well they got and they might well we we think that's still I would be thrilled uh with and I hope that our students are but then we have other people where it's like my my kid

180is um really struggling and didn't pass the class what is that going to mean so we wanted to be clear and so we can um apply a fair rule that's obvious and um that is known by the families and after discussions um with Jamie and others just what that standard is um is it we determined that poor performance would be something less than a cumulative GPA of 2.0 O which is a C average which in I think our other one of the policies looking we were looking at is that you're it's on track to graduate >> on track to graduate and see average and then and not becoming credit efficient for on time graduation and another reason for that um is to become credit deficient that then changes what the district is having to do

181to support the student in terms of providing additional classes online classes um because how do you make up that work? So, we just want to be clear on what that standard is. And so, that's what we thought was pretty reasonable. >> So, lots of moving parts. >> Um if someone does become credit deficient, is it possible for them to recover that credit over the summer and then enroll? For example, if there was a really good athlete that was on open enrollment and everyone was planning on them playing sports and they didn't pass an important class and were no longer um eligible under this policy, would they have an opportunity to get that credit back over the summer? >> So over the summer, uh well there there's so many layers to that question. First, >> these

182are the kinds of things that we will deal with in the future. So please unpack. >> Sure. So the first thing it's irrelevant whether the student is a a talented athlete or not. Um that is again something that we don't consider in our policy. Um so that is that wouldn't be relevant. It may make football star. >> No that is not part of this process. So that that would be something consider it would be the next part of the process which I'll um so uh a student can engage. We offer credit recovery in two ways. One is uh online through my online uh the other is through summer school. Uh if a student so full-time student would is not online, right? So we would um potentially terminate the open enrollment for the following year based

183on them being credit deficient because in order to make out that credit, they would have to go through credit recovery. that would be online and no longer full-time enrollment because we have to pay a fee for the actual course not counting like that's in addition to what we're already funding the staff member who's overseeing it. Um so that would be grounds to potentially terminate that open enrollment piece. um if they were to go elsewhere. So, we we terminate, they're credit deficient um or they didn't pass classes, they go somewhere else and they go back to their local school district, they complete credit recovery and they want to reapply. Then, uh I believe they would then fall into the tier. And so, for example, in 9th grade for 9th grade applicants currently have 36. We don't

184have 36 openings. So if that student were to come in um and they would enter that weight list because they were no longer a student in good standing so they don't take carry that tier one level one priority they would join the weight list or tier two and then if space became available down the road now that they could demonstrate that they no longer are credit deficient then we consider their application in that way. But that takes like scouring over transcripts, grades, really trying to make sure that the students set up for success and going to be able to continue to perform well in classes. Uh the other caveat is um one semester is potentially recoverable. Um once you fail a year one course or multiple classes, it becomes more challenging because um through summer

185school, you can only make up two semester credits. Um so you know once once you head down that path um I might contend that maybe you need some more supports or maybe the travel time is a challenge or um you know there might be something better to do. >> Understood. Thank you. I will just say that uh through parent square and having updates on when the grades are coming from my kids is it very easy for the parent to be involved on are you not in track and then maybe have an early intervention to those who might need that extra support. So uh the parent can start advocating for that. So >> any other questions? Um, I just wanted to note that this is like an important tool in our toolbox for like retaining the

186classes and programs that we want for island school districts. And also it's it's a tool that every other district around us is using. So like if we weren't using it, we would be hammerless in the playground or whatever the analogy goes. Um, I lost it there. Um, and I just want to appreciate the sort of nimleness and um uh sort of a droid handling of the at the spaces that you guys are are doing where where you're like, "Oh, we could take three more students or now we're full or you know, like that sort of thing." It's it's it's very responsive and I think very it shows how we're maximizing the benefit of this um choice transfer program for our schools to maintain the programs and classes that we want for our students and that

187we're not incurring costs or taking on a burden by having this program. And I think that's a a really important thing. But also um I recognize how sharp an eye you're keeping on the situation. And I just want to recognize that because I think we're lucky that we have such a finely tuned um scaffold to go back to my tool analogy rather than that playground hammer to try to sort of figure out how to make this program work. So um just you know great job implementing it and the improvements year after year that we've seen in the I guess year after last year since we've had this program um you know are just making the program stronger and making it benefit the district more. something that I just want to share because Michelle and I

188get to hear um you know stories and pleas and and things like that from families. Um you know we hear you know oh families are unhappy with the district when they're leaving. Um we have so many families so excited to have their children have the opportunity to come here. Um and so they were when we opened up and it was uh 12:16. So December 16th at midnight is when the we opened up for and we said that's the point in time in which um we'll be able to meet the 45 days. It'll go before the board uh and we'll have a decision for you. Um, I can't tell you how many people we have tracked in the system, uh, who were in there at 12:01, 12:03, 12:06, parents in there at 3:00 a.m. Um, and

189then we've got cohorts from, um, different schools, um, especially private schools in the greater Seattle area where we've got like eight or nine families who are applying um, from given schools. and the emails that we get. Um there was a family who uh came to many families came to our um high school future islander night um and then emailed back like thank you so much my kiddos so excited um you know so I just want to share that although we hear sometimes like we're not doing enough um there are so many families out there who see the value and are really excited to hopefully they're hoping to get an email tomorrow um and they've said like we're waiting for that email. Um, so there's lots of great things happening too that people do want to

190be a part of. >> Thank you for that. >> And I I want to just add that I just because I don't think they're championing themselves enough. I think that Michelle and Jamie do a very good job of interacting with these families. It's not it's a difficult process. Sometimes the schools they're coming from is hard. Um I I think consistent with sort of how we're trying to test speed they are it's hight touch um there's and we make every effort to be clear up front but also help things as they walk through. I also want to appreciate the board and that I think that the things that you've approved and the feedback we've gotten is not only for the benefit of the district and the kids here but also ensures that when we take a

191kid in um from another district they them provide them the necessary support so they can be successful and really be part of our community. And I do think while I think there's probably some disagreement uh between some people, I I do think that there are people who made connections with students that students who make connection have friends with people who don't reside here non-district students and that it has added texture and added to our community. um at least from the students experience having three kids or two kids in this district myself um who have made close connections with kids who don't >> so with that >> so can we get a motion to approve the amendment >> uh you've got that on the table you just need to move to approve the changes with the

192amendment >> move to approve the changes with the amendment >> session the Yeah, the proposed amended changes. >> Let me get a motion. >> Students I >> I >> 2050. Moving on to either the E board policy 105. And this is our chance to spend 10 minutes only talking about communication. And this is a continuation of the conversation that we started in the study session. And this is specifically students. We started to talk about how we as a board might want to communicate with the community. And so in our first study session, we started to talk about this a little bit and then we talked about how we are planning at our next study session later in February to really solidify you know sort of our vision and the our priorities priorities are now initiatives

193and the idea was to uh basically ensure that whatever communication plan we come up with supports those initiatives. So my thought for today is you know I think this is a good chance for us to just start the conversation and get a sense for what where people generally are any ideas that kind of thing since there's only about 10 minutes also and then we'll plan to continue this as we go um you know I think it's a balance between finding you know making sure we're taking the time to do it right and vote so you know moving this along because I think it is something that we need to start personally I need to as soon as we can do it well. So I will just kick it off real quick. >> So and I

194just to clarify you're talking about communication with the community. >> So I guess I'll kick it off and I just want to say first of all my general sense is that I feel there's a need of for greater communication with our community. I feel that we need to find some specific put some sort of structure in place to do that. But I also think that, you know, I I've done some research and I've seen, you know, in multiple places that, you know, the most effective boards have a structure in place to communicate effectively with their communities at certain times. What I didn't find was a lot of great examples about how that would work. I mean, there's some out there, right, but not a ton. So, my sort of sense going into it is that

195we need to probably figure out what works for Mercer Island, which may not be the same as what works in other places. And so I also I would suggest that when we're thinking about this to not think about it in terms of we're going to pick a few things or one thing and do that no matter what going forward, right? I think that we should sort of approach it from the idea of let's come up with what we think we should do and try it for a four month period or a six month period or whatever that is and see what the response is. So we're not committing to you know 17 years of doing this, right? For example. So I think that's sort of the approach I would like to take. Um, so I

196did some thinking since I couldn't find any great examples. Uh, and my sort of perspective, the two things that I think I would like to see personally are one, I like the idea of providing written communications from the school board to the community. But I thought about it and I don't think that it necessarily needs to be every single meeting, regular meeting. I think, you know, perhaps once a month, that kind of thing. Some sort of regular communications, but not necessarily every single meeting. Um, and then the other thing that I would like to explore more talking over with you is the idea of hosting, you know, a town hall type event once or twice a year. So, those are my thoughts. Love to give everyone a chance to share a minute or two. They

197think who whoever wants to go first. Char. Well, Jody and I, we discussed it with at our twoon-one with Fred. Um, and you know, as we come up with our NOW initiatives, those NOW initiatives kind of will structure a lot of this communication. And so, you know, one of I mean, and we've not approved, but quite clearly one of our big initiatives is around student safety. And there should be some sort of part of our board web page that is devoted to those now initiatives talking about student safety. And as we do things, that part can get updated because as I talked about in my board report, you know, I was at the tier one meeting, it was all about student safety. I was at the superintendent community advisory, it was all about student safety.

198And so as we bring these things that relate to sort of what Marty called our NAO initiatives or student safety, our sort of board website is the best place to do that and we can do periodic updates as needed. Um, you know, I I I sent a couple Nextdoor posts to the board earlier, but right, like the president of the Belleview School Board, he's choosing to jump in the next door comments and talk about uh EPNO levies. I don't know if any of us have any desire to get into the social media comments. I know I do not, but that is a way to communicate with community. So, you know, I just think that we kind of I mean, you know, we will sort of work our way through it, but as we decide what

199our priorities are, that I think sort of drives some of our communication with the community. >> Yeah. So, just um a couple thoughts. one of I love the idea of some kind of presentation that would be monthly because like in any given month, you know, we might have two board meetings, we might have four board meetings, we might have, you know, some extra little meetings. Like there's just like the the the timing of doing it like once a month is nice because it's also kind of like seasonal and it's sort of like, you know, like everybody's getting ready for the end of the school year and this is what the board has been working on and this is what's been happening over the summer. I like that idea. Um, I think you you just have

200to sort of like futureproof what you're thinking of in terms of like right now I feel like we're pretty well aligned just for like a board that's starting out together. But you could have a scenario where you would have a board member who would really disagree with the chair or the president's description of what the board has been up to or of like measures the board has passed for example. And then that person might take issue with like how you're summarizing the meetings or whatever. So, just kind of think about like is this something where like the board's going to approve it or you're going to include it in your in your board report and then the board will be like give just a general thumbs up and then it'll get published next, you know.

201So, just kind of think about that as you're as you're working on these ideas. Um, as far as like a like a like a sort of town hall type of thing, I sort of feel like we could do that already. I mean, people can come to these meetings if they want to come, you know, like like and we do have specific meetings, for example, like when we're going to be discussing the budget, like that's like a very open like public call for input from the community on the budget. And then when we discuss like, you know, like the, you know, hiring slash eliminating positions for the next year, that's something that a lot of community members and a lot of staff members come to. So, I just don't know. Like I think if you were

202gonna pick one thing to focus on, I would focus on the like monthly word update rather than the town hallish kind of thing. Like just that's my my immediate response having having not had a lot of luck getting people to come to sort of like office hour type things in the past, you know. Um, and then the other thing I was going to say is just that I do think like something like student safety >> is something that the district should be updating people on because we've got like a legal person and we've got a press person and we've got like it's it's a it's a big responsibility to be updating the community on everything that's going on on that front and absolutely like it should be on the website. there should be, you know,

203that should be kept up to date, but I'm just not sure that the board the board part of the website, which most people don't even go to, is necessarily the most effective place to be doing that. And and then if we're doing it, but the district also has stuff, then the two things have to be kept, you know, like you can't have them saying different things, like you can't have have one be out of date and one like up to date. So that just I'm just kind of like spitballing here, but I think in general it's a great idea. I'm sorry. I don't Great. >> Sorry. Uh um no I >> um I do like the idea of uh having it be sort of like seasonal like monthly or something and not if if we

204were to do a board update which I'm agnostic on. Um, I would prefer to have something more like, you know, monthly or every other month or something where it's more of a, you know, this is what we've been up to and sort of then highlighting our initiatives or as Julian said, maybe just focusing on sort of like, you know, when we have an action report to do like a specific thing that we've accomplished or whatever as a board. um rather than trying to like replic you know to each meeting and then by the time we get it approved by everyone as everyone's looked at it it's like the next meetings on the table especially like a month like this month you know we have two board meetings we have two linkages you know we have

205I mean we have like something every week as a board um working hard to serve the district so it's it's it's a lot um where my concerns are is I really don't want to be duplicative with the efforts that are already being made to communicate with the community and I still remain unconvinced that this is going to provide new information to the community. Maybe it'll be like the board perspective but I think you know community members are welcome to come to our meetings and get the board perspective right from our mouth during our meetings and um Ian does a board buzz I'm gonna say >> meeting recaps. >> There we go. Board meeting recap. um every meeting that already comes out to the community. Um community members are welcome to watch our meeting online. They're

206welcome to watch it later on YouTube. Um, so I remain a little bit unconvinced about like the necessity of of of doing this effort or at least I want to be I want to find I guess I want to really see that that we have there's an untapped need or an area that we're missing in our other efforts. I mean if we can maybe cover that area with what we're already doing or if it's something new and a different perspective or different information that we will be bringing to the community. Um but there are I mean these meetings are open to the public. The public is welcome to come. So um I'm not quite convinced that that another perspective on what's happening here in this public meeting is is necessary but I'm also willing to

207be convinced or willing to you know deal with the spirit. >> Sorry. Um so um I think that also this this could be a green compromise like having a month for report but then see how that goes published that way in our website and as we see the reception see if there's a need of updating so different things I think that for example the student safety yes we are working a lot on that and at the same time because of the complexity of it I think that it would I don't know if it will be fair or will give the answer that the community want to have that is different than what you're having or what the community is working on. So I I but I would say I don't know might be but I

208think that it could be a process like we can start somewhere and then build on depending on on how that that goes. Uh related to the town hall and the open meetings I think coming to the board meeting and talking public and in record is very different than town hall. It is very intimidating and if you are like just like we meet students where they are I think that we have to meet the communities where they are. So having one or twice a year at town hall and meeting them out I find it is like we can try it the same way like try it once and see what happens. Uh I think that especially like elementary parents this is like the worst time to come and give comments and meet them. Uh so I

209think that that uh figure out a way to engage with the community matters for them to get to know us but uh I find that and if you don't know how the school board works uh you don't know that it's open for for everybody. But I I do think that there's something there to to do. And the last is um where I find that might be a good collaboration and a great way to start working also with our city is I have gone as a citizen to a few of the engagements of the that they meet the coffee with a city council or Janice and uh the rep representatives came the other day to Mrina to talk with the community and I went there and there were a city council member it was me Janis

210and few community members and what it was interesting is that the conversation started to overlap. So when there were questions about the schools they turn around and like well you are a school board member and then I could answer. So I think that maybe talking to them saying like well will there be a possibility that we have a coffee together city council and school together since we share same boundaries and um I think that that that could be uh and especially since both eventually will put bonds on the table like this conversation questions how does this work might be a also an opportunity to engage with with community member that we not necessarily interact all the time and So that's that's another um option. Uh and I will say that Juan is us and I

211will also would love to have and listen to more student voices. I know that you bring a lot of the student voices but I would love to see how >> before we get people I'd love to hear what you do. >> Yeah. I mean I think for us like a lot of it's about trying to communicate better with students which is hard because not really that interested in it. Um but yeah, I have found like we did um you know, we brought you guys in when you were campaigning to the schools and the year before that we brought some board members in for a town hall and I felt like that was really effective. Like I don't think a lot of students I think similarly to the community know that they can come and talk

212to the board in public input or like feel like they would want to um or know like what they need to comment on. But being able to have that time just to you ask questions. you know, public comment's not, you know, you say every single time it's not a time to talk to the board. So, that town hall, I think, would bring something different I think could be great opportunity. I was just thinking that actually, but I sort of I it was really nice being there in person to speak with the students. I was just thinking about how we're hearing that some students still feel comfortable with certain things. We should do a town hall. I don't know. >> Yeah, we do. I try to do them. We did a couple last year and it

213was like >> the the yeah the um whatever that building is up the library that >> it was like kids in the aisles was >> I mean to me the accord of a town hall is more back and forth. It's not the same as the people coming to I agree with what you said you know it's to get community input is to communicate things to the community and to receive their input. >> Um I mean I agree those are some really good points. I think um just one kind of small thing is that and I think we kind of learned this at the high school is that no matter how much information you push out of people, they still come back and ask questions and you refer them back to everything you sent out and

214you go, "Well, it's right here." And they go, "Oh, well, I didn't read that." And so, um there is I think in terms of establishing a written communication, you do want to make sure that you know that people ne like will be using it. as director Lee brought up. I think that like there's not you can't always gauge that people will be using that or that there is like an unapp need that is calling for that to be in place. I do think that a town hall could be more um useful because I think that it is very clearly like a dedicated amount of time you can give. You can put it on your calendar and then you can give the time to it and it can make something more it can feel like a

215conversation. It can feel like you're actually getting useful information that you want to have. And to add that I will say that also understanding uh the demographic of the parents that we have and the younger parents are are more visual and auditory than the older parents. So I see that like for example B I think that they have YouTube videos of different information. So maybe eventually think about who is who are we're thinking. Um, so >> great. So, we should wrap this up soon, but it sounds like you both want to. >> Uh, sure. Uh, this is actually for the owl, for the intrepid souls that have stuck with us for three hours of our schoolboard meeting. Uh, if you have a thought, please get in touch with us at boarder islandschools.org. We'd love to

216hear from you. >> Yeah. Only that uh I did go and and look at those links that of of the Belleview School Board President uh discussing lemies or whatever with people. And um that's that's very I would just say for any new board member if you're thinking about doing that definitely you're going to want to talk to like our you know council before you do it because that you're creating a legal record. If you're if you're operating in your role as a board as a board member and you're like, "Let me tell you about blah blah blah," you are creating a legal ex it's a it's it's it's a public act in your official capacity. And among other things, you're not allowed to delete that. So, if you get in a big fight with someone

217on social media, you can't actually delete it without like destroying public records. I have learned that from uh friends who are on like I've learned that both from my own experience as a board member but also from friends who are on city council and who sometimes get confused about whether they're posting in their on their city council persona or their personal persona. But if they post accidentally on their personal persona, they leave it so that they're not deleting. >> Yeah, that's that's for sure. >> Okay, I'm going to wrap this up now because we went over a little bit and we need to move on quickly with the consent agenda. motion to approve it. >> Superintendent, important announcements. >> Just a couple um of additional items for uh my announcements. one uh just kind of

218starting off with lots of talk around tomorrow being a you know kind of a work stoppage day or a walk out from schools. Um you know I haven't heard necessarily of anything official. I don't know if our student reps um are aware of anything. There's been some talk here and there if students choose to walk out, which we've had them walk out on different issues over um the last, you know, 10 years or so. Um you know, we continue to hold classes. We continue to continue with learning and um our job is to try to keep kids as safe as possible. If we can keep them on campus and assembling peacefully, um we do. But that's kind of how we've handled walkouts. But I'm not hearing anything official, but our students might know much more

219than I do. >> One student is shaking their head and the other is not. I >> know. Sorry, I shake really suddenly. >> Um uh so then a couple other things Director Bradley's already mentioned um just some conflicts, so we'll work on those. That was in my notes there. Um, we've also sent out a communication this evening to our families and that you'll see around just how do we handle uninvited guests in general. Um, obviously, um, there have been lots of questions around federal intervention through ICE or perhaps other agents. Um but it's also a reminder that you know sometimes we have someone who's from King County courts who is coming as a um you know third party advocate and we follow the same process. They have to have all the right legal documentation. If

220our schools are unsure um they notify the superintendent's office. We evaluate those documents um to make sure that no one has access to our kids who shouldn't have those. but send out a clarifying email on that to our community. Um, and then I think >> those are really I think the main items. I know we're going to talk a couple things legislative, but those are I think the main things that I want you to know. >> No, no, no, it's only once a month. Uh so I think that we are uh working full scale in the uh uh the session right now. The session is um in um committees pretty much all the bills are are are um um working fast on that. So it's fairly intensive to track the bills. So this year I

221think I'm switching the the method and I think that I've figured out a way but I will I'm not ready to share because I I need my tech guy here to tell you how are we going to make this for next year. I think that we have a a a will help us do that. But uh February 14th is the cut off of all the bills. So whatever doesn't pass super will die. So so good and bad about that. uh uh there's there's a lot of uh and I'm going to be just broad on on some of the things. So, so uh uh related to um um school governance um compensations, I think there's there's two bills that we're monitor monitoring closely. Uh um so uh one is related to um uh schoolboard districts uh

222and the school board directors, how they're elected. Uh if you're over 2,000 uh uh students, uh there's two bills, one in the Senate, one in the House. If you're over 2,000, which we are, uh three of your schoolboard directors need to be elected by district. So that will totally change how we do uh >> neighborhood basically, >> but then we have to make districts and then publicize it like that and then election will. So it does will create some uh burden in terms of economically for the district but also um um it it did pass the house. So now it's is going to go to appropriation. So uh we are talking to our legislator saying that this doesn't work. I understand we understand that the need for the basifier when you're in rural area but

223for us this will definitely not do not work. So uh then um there's another one that that uh was we are observing related um that we will have to have uh reserves in our funding from 6 to 12%. uh by law which uh I think that there's every single district will will have a different uh they will so we are monitoring and we are also talking with the legislators because uh the reality of the the state is that nobody is necessarily between even close to that um the end sock was heard today so I don't know uh if it will be passed to executive session or not uh so we'll have to see if that will hold But I think that the one that I hear and I think that the students uh I went

224and talked to the students a little bit about it is um there were two bills not necessarily in education but it was related to the ebikes one in the house and one from the senate. The house one was brought up by uh mercy uh major roen uh uh and the well the city council and and uh major uh testified and the senate was from Kirkland. However, this is an issue that the school district has been heavily involved and and I think that uh I was talking yesterday to a city council member um to see how can we like when they have a bill like that also work with us so we can also ask school board also testify and I think I'm going to we're going to track it because now it's going to go

225to probations and and the different uh uh executive sessions so they pass to the board but also there were a lot of students from Kierland testifying for the house one and and I think that this is a great opportunity and um and not necessarily if like if you care about issue but necessarily like for example this one is a great example how do we involve students to to learn how to testify how to get involved and I think that um there's something that that I think it's a great opportunity maybe also in civics uh to to be part of of of what it means to be part of democracy and and and and and they can't like think say what is their uh statement not mine but uh but being involved in in in those

226type of things matter but he might say something that Marcel uh so so I would say that is the house bill uh 2374 and the uh on the board side is the senate bill uh um 6110 um so whoever is there in the uh so I I will also pass it to for for the record for to me also if their parents that are want to to support that matter. So and in other areas I'm working also with the students and with WASA to um to see if we can bring a a resolution that will have to work with the board in terms of um student safety. So we'll uh keep uh I think that we're just in the in the uh talking process. So we will uh we'll send you an email soon to

227see uh where how our thoughts are coming uh with the work that we are starting to engage with uh on on the the resolution on on the site and Juliet has a lot more things to say. >> Um sure. Uh no Christina covered most of it. Uh I would like to bring some attention to House Bill 2593, Senate Bill 6257. Uh these are about accounting and budget and bud and budgeting requirements around uh minimum fund balances. Uh uh the Senate bill also would include potential civil liability for superintendent and schoolboard directors. So that would be a fun one for us. Um we'll see. That would be another uh unfunded mandate. Uh then there's uh House Bill 1295 and Senate Bill 6192. Those are both around uh structured literacy, structured numeracy and uh emphasizing evidence-based uh

228practices and professional development for educators. So those are the main ones on math and reading instruction. uh would like to point out that today, this Thursday, January 29th, was the public education advocacy day where everyone went to the state capital. Uh neither Christina or I went due to board conflicts. So, as we plan our schedule for the future, it would be helpful if we were uh did not have board meetings on those uh on that day so we could go in person. Um, and that's about all I have to add to Christina's, but yeah. Well, and I I would just add that uh Julia sent me a great email with with uh like you were I think that uh uh where we're what we're going to share and I love how it is and I

229think that I would love that it is a little bit of like a board report but I think that during the legislation having a way for at least share with you this is these are the important ones that maybe if you can jump in and testify um that will be great and I think it's a great exercise for all of us to actually you know testify and and lose the fear of of going and and do that in person. I can I do send a lot of uh testify written testimonies or or based on our uh platform uh I do uh vote in favor or con depending on the bill on in the name of Ford. Uh if there's something that for example the beetle on the back ebikes I I would have to go

230and ask everybody would everybody approve and and um and vote that I say but we will uh input of the what the city has um bring but I will I will communicate that with you but but also I think that that that is is something that that uh needs to be a little involved as they get more tight with with us, let them know what to do, but having presence matters. Uh, not just dismissing us because we're only mediumsiz district. So, it can be a quick very loud advocate. So, it's so >> the only thing I would just add is I'm watching the ones that are unfunded. You know, the cell phone policy one is a great one. I signed on to that, but I signed on to other great job, great idea, but for

231districts that it's going to cost money to, these do not work in these economic times. And so those are pieces where, you know, I know legislators are, you know, they want to go back to their constituents and they want to say they got something done. Um, and when you don't have a lot of money, you turn towards language and things, but then it ends up costing us. And so those are things we're pushing on. Um Matt spent a couple hours today with our school alliance team uh getting all the latest um there. As I said, I talked to Dan Steel today. Um so we're we're very actively involved, but really trying to watch mainly those bills that have um both a House and a Senate version. Those are the ones that are most likely to

232move a little bit. uh the ones that are only coming out of one house, those ones are the ones that tend to um get some excitement now, but as soon as they get out of their chamber, they usually fall in. Uh this was a comment from uh the legislature. This seems to be the session of housing. That is what is moving the needle in Olympia, not education. >> Thank you so much. That is all we have for tonight. >> Yes, we did. >> All right. >> Thank you so much.