MERIDIAN SCHOOL BOARD's January 21 2026 Regular Meeting

001January 21st, 2026 regular school board meeting. I'm going to call the meeting to order. Again, I'd like to welcome our large audience here in in attendance tonight. And we'll begin with the pledge of allegiance. >> I alian to the flag and to your stand indivisible with liberty and justice for >> before you forward with adopting of the agenda director fast like make amendments to the uh to the agenda in regards to um policy 40 60 facility use brief. So um you want to add that >> can we call us back in from the executive session to the regular period because it wasn't recorded but >> it wasn't recorded when I called it seven close off so just say that we're returning. Okay. So we're returning from executive session to regular 5:00. >> Okay. So, um,

002yeah. So, I like actually to get a little more information for the board members. Okay. So, we want to do is um >> Well, Morgan, if I if I could >> Yeah, go ahead. I'd rather you speak. >> Yeah. Um, I'd like to make a motion to add to the agenda discussion for policy 4260 on facility use and that will be during new business. >> That become that'll become item C. >> Item C. >> That discussion only >> discussion only. >> Thank you. So be item CB. >> So the request is to amend the agenda. Motion to amend the agenda. And if there's a second. >> Okay. Got a motion, a second. Is there any question or discussion? >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Next, we'll need a motion to adopt our

003consent agenda. >> I'll make a motion to adopt the consent agenda. I'll second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Is there any question or discussion regarding the consent agenda? Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Next item five, recognition. The Meridian Middle School staff recognition. >> We need to adopt each other. >> I did. We adopted that. >> Amended. >> Wait a second. >> We made We made an adjustment to the agenda. >> Okay. Dan, I thought I thought Jasine made the motion or that just for the amendment. Okay, so I need a motion to adopt our agenda for the regular board meeting. >> I will make a motion to adopt the agenda with the amendment. >> I'll second. >> All right, it's been moved in a second. Any questions or discussions?

004Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I I thank you. >> Okay. Meridian Middle School staff recognition. Hi, >> good evening. >> So happy. >> Yes, we're happy to be here. So for the out there in cyerspace, I'm Robert Katzik, principal of Murray Middle School with Jill Hammock, our assistant principal. And we are here tonight as part of our kind of annual tradition of recognizing some of our staff. Each school does this throughout the year. And so tonight is our night to to talk about some of the amazing work that our staff is doing here at the middle school. And so we have decided that we're going to recognize our guiding coalition team members. Some of them are here with us tonight. And so we'll have them come up in a second. um some of

005them couldn't be here, but you're going to get to hear about the amazing work that they do nevertheless. So, um to kick this off, you know, we've been doing PLT uh PLC work here in Meridian for a number of years. And one of the things that we have really worked on this year is really building up our guiding coalition. And so, we we're not going to get into the nitty-gritty of what a guiding coalition is, but wanted to call your attention to this excerpt. This was an excerpt that we read. It's from a book as part of our guiding coalition retreat back in August. So, even though everyone tells you not to read PowerPoint slides when you give a presentation, I'm going to read this to you because I think it is really important just

006to kind of ground you in what we're thinking about when we're talking about our guiding coalition. So, no one person, no matter how competent, is capable of single-handedly developing the right vision, communicating it to the vast numbers of people, eliminating all the key obstacles, generating short-term wins, leading and managing dozens of change projects, and anchoring new approaches deep in an organization's culture. putting together the right coalition of people to lead a change initiative is critical to its success. And so as we think about our guiding coalition, we really feel like they are the right coalition of people. This quote in summation is about getting the right people on the bus and we really feel like we have the right people on the bus for our guiding coalition. And you're going to hear a little bit

007about the work that they are doing here tonight. So I know some of them couldn't be here, but some of them are here. So I'm just going to read their names. If you're here, come on up. We're gonna make you stand here awkwardly while we talk about you. So, uh, each department has a leader that's part of this. So, our English department lead is Bailey Drake. Our math department lead is Heather Kabidol. Our multilingual lead is Judith Zinc. Our PE health lead is Courtney Stacy. Our science lead is Frank McGawan. Our social studies lead is Marcus Holland. Our special education lead is Christula Rearen. And Cynthia Richardson, our Techtosa, is also part of this. So, three of them tonight. Don't clap yet. We'll we'll talk about what they're doing then we can clap at the

008end for them. >> Okay. So, when I think about this group of people and the mindset that they bring to the getting coalition, they come early and are shockingly on time for these meetings that happen almost every week and have the ability to stay deeply present and focused during those early morning meetings. Something that I think is exemplary in this group of people is their ability to think about students as our collective responsibility, which is really the point of PLT, right? That in guiding coalition shoes, they're thinking about the whole building, right? Every kid, every system, every structure that we're creating and how that, you know, kind of bleeds from the work that they do in their PLTs. Um, they are a joyful group of people. I don't know if they're laughing at me or

009with me. Um, but they can balance that joy and like positive collegial relationships with some hard conversations, right? And we don't always all agree at the table and there's dissenting opinions and voices, but it's always super productive. Um, and that really helps as Robert and I think about how do how do we lead and what are what are people saying at the table and how might we need to think differently? Um, and those early morning meetings are modeling this professional learning culture that we want them to help cultivate outside of just that team. So this purple pink we disagreed on that colored paper here is on a bulletin board in the in the place that we meet um just about every week and when we start any year with PLT or guiding coalition we want

010to think about like what is really our purpose right and we refine that every year based on where we've been and where we are and where we want to go and I'm not going to read this whole thing to you but we you know kind of belabored over what what are we like what are we trying to do but the line that really keeps sticking out to me is this idea at the very end of continuous improve improvement and what we're doing. We're continuously trying to refine who we are as a guiding coalition and the work that they're doing with their teams. Um, it's a pretty significant commitment that they choose to be on guiding coalition. So, there's quite a bit of time outside of contract hours that's expected of them. So, those meetings that

011I've been talking about, they are the ones leading their PLTs every single Friday morning. And there's a lot of work that goes into that. You can't just sit down and expect a meeting to go really well without any preparation. I think a lot of us in here know that, right? And so they're putting together these agendas ahead of time. They are doing ear hustle with different colleagues to figure out, okay, we're focused on seventh grade. What is seventh grade doing? Okay, so what protocols, what things am I going to be putting in the agenda to make this morning's meeting really meaningful? Um, they engage in a lot of demanding systems design work. So as we're thinking about how do we want to build systems, they're often our sounding board, right? They're boots on the ground.

012They are very trusted people in our building. And so we trust them when they give us their feedback. They take a lot of risks, right, when they're leading teams. I'm going to try out a protocol I've never done before and this might flop and that's okay. Or they're the ones going into classrooms and trying, okay, I'm going to try something new and I'm going to bring data back from that in front of my colleagues and be vulnerable in that moment. Um, and this is really that job embedded professional development that they're taking on leading. And we think about the best professional development. It's ongoing and it's relevant. And nothing is more ongoing or relevant than PLT, right? They're talking about what are kids learning as a result of their teaching and helping teachers really focus

013on that day in day out. Um they model a lot of humility and reflection. It's not easy to lead peers. It's not easy. Even though they make it look easy, you'll see a video in a moment and it looks really easy, it's not right. And sometimes we fail and we come back to the drawing board and we try again. Um something new we're trying this year that they're also committing to is one-on ones with Robert and I. So each one of them meets with us and talks about how is PLT going? What's top of mind for you? What's feeling sticky? What could we try? Um and then if that wasn't enough, we also throw what about if we did student shadowing? So really getting how do we get more of our teacher leaders in the

014shoes of kids, right? What does it feel like to go through a day as a kid? So pretty significant commitment that they're um doing for us. So when we thought about who we wanted to highlight, there's there's no shortage of people in the middle school that we could highlight. There's really any anybody there. But I was excited about guiding coalition because of the direct impact that they have not only on kids but on staff as well. So I've talked a little bit about that, but thinking about specifically the work this year they've helped us think through what are stronger, more responsive intervention systems for kids. So we're continuously trying to find re reign when you probably heard about that. what I need. They've been a huge piece of that. And how do we connect what

015they're doing with teams to what happens in when there should be a direct correlation between those two things? There's been a huge increase in the use of data to inform and adjust instruction. If you walk into fields, they're almost always looking at student work, talking about student work, looking at data, deciding what are we going to do now based on what we see kids have done. So much talk and focus on essential standards and mastery, right? We talk a lot about we are a learning organization, not a teaching organization. It doesn't matter if we taught it, did kids learn it? And they are the ones leading those conversations. Um, and also now we have for our if we're talking about sixth grade students, they now have sixth, seventh, eighth grade, and special ed teacher all

016caring about their progress, right? So kids are benefiting from having all these people having a vested interest in their success. And then for our staff, their leadership is making Friday mornings meaningful, right? It takes a lot of work to make those meetings feel like they have purpose. What's funny now is if I throw something like, "Oh, can you just take 10 minutes to do this, you know, reflection?" They're like, "No, we've got a lot to do. You know, we're looking at data and deciding on interventions." Like, they are really capitalizing on the use of those mornings. And they're also creating an avenue for staff to have a lot more voice and um the systems that we're working to refine. >> Great. All right. So, we wanted to give you a little sneak peek as to

017what this looks like. And so, we're going to show you about a minute, I think, hopefully if this works correctly, of a video uh that is created in our science PLT. And so, what you're going to see in here is a couple of things that I want you to think about as you're going through this. Number one, you're going to see how Frank leads his team and the way that he directs the work that they're doing. The other thing is thinking about Jill on that last slide talked about there's like a bank of practices that we're trying to create for staff, right? So that if you have staff members who are thinking, gosh, we just really need to be able to do this, that there is now a protocol they can follow. And not only

018is there a protocol they can follow, but there's a video of somebody else doing the protocol. So you can actually see that live with your colleagues that you trust and believe in. And now you have people to go talk to who've actually lived out that protocol. And so thinking about that from that dualpronged approach, you're going to see what it looks like to be a PLT leader and to manage that that workflow throughout this minute clip you're going to see. And then secondary to that, you're also going to think about what's the the usefulness of this for our other teachers who are not part of this. But all right, let's see Joe actually there. >> I don't know. >> Oh, it says YouTube control. >> Yeah, cool. >> Yeah, I'll get a timer going. And

019you know, we're we're trying to go as fast as if we if we miss a two minutes, but that's our goal is to um kind of get through that in two minutes. Just your your five seconds. Um three stacks. Go. Technique only. They're doing a protocol called thin slicing. So what they're doing is they're currently sorting work that is actual student work from sixth grade, which is only one of their students. They're putting this into kind of levels of mastery of what are you seeing from this this work? All right, guys. Less than two minutes there. Okay, >> sweet. >> Now, what I would like you to do is kind of go through each one and find one that kind of is your exemplar of that stack. So, one um one paper out of each

020site that really kind of shows um what that site um and it's not a questionable of like this one's approaching but could be meeting like what what we mean by that is this is solid approaching. This is solid meeting. >> We'll just say that the yellow or pink here is technique sticking. So, we're just going to flag your um the ones you came up with your indicators for technique. And then if you want to put an A for approaching, an M for meeting, and an E for exceeding. All right, ready for some shuffle. All right, stand up. Move one. >> So part of what you're going to see next going to hopefully stop or I'm going to stop it. What you what you would see next is them now they're going to go look at

021somebody else's piles and see where do we agree? Where do we not agree? And that's part of us driving this conversation is are we really aligned in what we think meeting standard is or exceeding standard or approaching standard. And so it's a really really fun thing. And this whole video is 14 minutes long. We're not going to make you watch that whole thing, but uh I encourage it. It's exciting to watch. >> All right, Joe, where do I got to go? >> This one. Oh no, go back to All right. So, just to wrap this up, you know, we really believe that this is the right people. We started out by talking about getting the right people on the bus, and we really believe that they are the right people. These are not people who

022come just to participate. These are people who come to carry and lead the improvement we're trying to build in our school to make sure that our kids have, we've got this tagline of clear path, bold future for our kids. And how do we get them through? How do I get our staff through a clear path to get a bold future for our kids? And they're really the ones who lead that. So, >> let's hear for our coalition. >> Any questions, comments? >> Too many to all. So exciting. >> Yeah, it's good stuff. >> I got so many notes going now. Like your purpose statement. Love it. So, everybody is on board on the thing, does thing. I love it. and the collective responsibility >> that one will stick. >> It was really good to see

023things going good at middle school again, right? I mean, when Todd came, I mean, it was great. We had new leadership, new energy and stuff and and pass the torch and what you've done since the school did hear the other principles talk about how well the work together as a team with other administrators. I shared with James earlier tonight. So it seemed like we finally at our point seems like we got all the pistons are firing at our buildings and I'd like to thank you for and your team for the work that you do. So I know you're dedicated and uh and the work you put into our bond even though didn't happen you know I know you kind of took that personal so kind of show your character deep roots to your community and

024and being a principal. So, I appreciate you entering as I'm sure there's support by that. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> And your energy and being excited about your team. Yeah. Like that's very apparent. >> Yeah. The amount of time that Jill and I spend just kind of going like, "Aren't they great is a lot." Actually, >> it for you to switch places with a student >> because that was Yeah, it was super It was super cool. It was It was just It was part of our fundraiser prize, right? So we had kids who sold certain things they got on this big wheel and they spun the wheel and that was she was just the student that got selected but it was it was absolutely fascinating. So >> we can talk more about it but

025it was really good. >> Yeah. Yeah. Thank you guys. >> Thank you. >> Okay. We don't have any public comment tonight. So on item seven reports with the PLC presentations. Let's go image science. We just go. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> Yeah. >> All right. So, here's the science department at the high school. Uh, Andrea Ames over here, Kelsey Morrison, and I'm Fred Wy. And we all teach those things. You can see there. Uh the thing that we've done different this year than ever before is all of us teach one class. I think it's called through class >> through something or other. And uh which has been fantastic. It's probably the best thing we've ever done since I've been around uh because of the help that the trickles down to the students better than

026any other program we've done. So this is great and you'll hear more about it, I'm sure, from us and everybody else. Um, oh, click. Uh, what do we want the students to learn here at the high school? We chose this essential standard, which I'm going to read that to tiny little thing on top there, uh, just to kind of show you how complicated it sounds, but then break it down real quick. Create a computational model to calculate the change in the energy of one component in a system when the change in the energy of the other components and energy flows in and out of the system are known. Okay, I just about lose it every time I read those things because I don't know what's God. Here's the deal. I picked this up at uh

027Trader Joe's on the way here. I didn't have my glasses. Um and so I still can't see exactly what it is. Oh yeah, they're right here. There we go. Um it has probiotics, so I'm not super excited about this thing. Uh I guess it's tangerine, but it's warm, lukewarm, room temperature. So what that says to a kid is how do I make this thing? How much ice, like precisely to the gram, how much ice would I need to put into this to make it 40°, which would be maybe more tolerable to drink tyuine or whatever else is in here. So that's what that is is it's talking about the relationship between two different bodies that came together that are different temperatures, different sizes um as the concept. But the crazy thing is is the first

028part of the word uh thing create a computational model. Notice it doesn't say use one. It's there with a lot of guidance uh creating a computational a mathematical pretty crazy model that uh will allow them to discover exactly how much ice to put into that thing or any concept that has to do with thermodynamics. Um the other things on there uh 6 through 12 we're trying to hit them with a bunch of thermodynamics. Conservation of energy is in this matter and energy relationships. So this is almost their last stop. They got one more in physics to kind of get all this buffed out, but that's what this targets at. And um the last two bullets there, develop rational thinking and encourage the students to uh logic their way through the math. And I love that

029next statement there. Uh rather than just plug and chug. I like plugandchug. It has its place in science, but man, for a kid to actually come up with something that goes on the whiteboard is very complicated and feels success about. I know where those some of those things aren't even numbers, you know, they're triangles or something. To know where that stuff came from and what it's going to do for them, it's just pretty awesome. Um, and maybe they're the last thing. Oh, and then in real life, where's it going to help a kid out if they're going to HVAC? uh or if they have their own kids and the kids stand there waiting in the in front of the refrigerator trying to decide what they want for dinner and the parents are going crazy be

030able to discuss thermodynamics and how that applies to regular people. Okay. >> So because these standards are so complicated to look at we tried to break it down into some um into four easy targets that we can assess individually. And the idea behind that is we're trying to give these as formative assessments so we can catch early on when students are struggling. And so we broke it down into four targets, each of them getting a little bit more complex as we go. So I'm not going to read them out to you because that's we've got limited time, but it's kind of the concept of can you tell me that the temperature the final temperature of two objects is going to be in the middle when it's when the objects are the same mass. Can you

031calculate that? So that's target one and two. And then if the masses are different, can you tell me that it's going to be the final temperature is going to be closer to the bigger object? And then target four, which is a big stretch. It's where it gets really hard, is can you calculate what that final temperature is going to be. So the idea behind this was that we can break it down into these standards. We can individually test and then we can figure out is somebody struggling with a conceptual understanding or are they struggling with the math understanding which takes us in. So we assessed this and the what we did then is um we looked at all of our data and we're really viewing this as as a department thing like LC students, bread

032students, my students, they're all our students and we have collective responsibility for uh ensuring that they all meet standard and how can we use our T3 which is our uh tutorial time intervention time to specifically uh target by student by standard. uh a student who doesn't necessarily get everything doesn't necessarily need the same support like student A student B might need different things to get to the same place and so how can we be strategic about that so what we did and this is taking two different points in time like we assessed target one and two and we did this and then we repeated it later with three and four but for the sake of like broad brushstroke intervention we're kind of talking about together so what we did if we look at the data

033uh on target one target one we said was conceptual understanding so every single student from all three of our classes who was like, "Hey, I don't know even know like what is the right ballpark where the temperature is going to be, they came into my classroom and we all worked on that." All three of our students. Then the remaining students who still needed support but understood that but then needed help getting to the quantitative reasoning, we then split them between Fred and Kelsey's classes and we even intentionally swapped their own students. So all of my students went to them and then they traded. So it's like somebody different is explaining the same idea. sometimes you just need to hear it a different way or the fourth time from somebody else, you know, kind of thing.

034Um, so being really mindful about how we're using our tutorial time to collectively support all students in the school, not my students, not their students, our students kind of thing. Um, and then we reassess that later. Um, which will come up on the next slide. That's the concept of how we're trying to really be thoughtful about using our tutorial, our T3 time uh to like target this kid needs this thing and this other kid needs this different thing and how can we uh like capitalize on our strengths and and the time built into our schedule for that. >> So this final data is from the summit of assessment. Um we kind of broke it down. Targets one through three are really the need to knows and then target four is kind of that extension um

035nice to know. I I think that for a lot of people even in here to calculate the final temperature of two objects of different size that'd be hard for anyone. So we did get pretty good success there but we really wanted to focus on the conceptuals. So targets one and three and then just finding that middle ground with target two. Um it's a much simpler mathematic uh part. So we were really happy. I think our collaboration with T3 really panned out. You can see we don't have the comparison scores, but uh the scores across all three targets, across all three teachers are significantly higher. And I think it really is having to do with that collaboration um and dividing and conquering with getting kids the support they need before they get to this final test.

036Uh in terms of what will we do once they've learned it, we do have a lot of standards that we're cramming in. We were so happy with this level of um like these numbers that we were like, "All right, we're ready to move on." But in this unit, we did have a lot of extensions built in. Thinking about target four, that's hard for most people. Um that's an extension in itself. We had worksheets that had multiple tiers of difficulty um to kind of push students who were ready for it, but also had easier options for kids who needed that. Um that was fun. >> Yeah. So to wrap up, um I think this is just a kind of a glimpse into the direction that we're moving as a department. It's really fun and I have

037to say like I think we are firing on all cylinders and I'm super stoked about the work that we're doing because um it's like gaining traction in the building. Like a colleague told us uh in guiding coalition a week or two ago, oh I was assigning students to T3 and they were like oh well I have Miss Ames but she's closed and but like you can assign me to Morrison or WY or whatever. Like it's fine. And so students are recognizing that um that like we really are a team and we're seeing that show up um in like student outcomes, right? Like and obviously this level of intervention isn't everything, right? This when we talk about priority standards like this is the thing in this unit that is we're teaching a lot of other things

038and we're assessing a lot of other things and you can't do this for everything. But it's also creating I think a culture where students know that they can get support from from all of us in the department um and that they know that we have like a really strong commitment to uh shared formative assessments and not everything does get the um that response but we are aligning on all of the the assessment that we're doing. Um, and also recognizing that as we do this, like there's so much like collective strength in the group, but what Kelsey brings to the table and what Fred brings to the table and what I bring to the table are different and that we're better together, right? And that that is like such a real thing anywhere you go in

039the world. Like it shows up in schools, but it shows up in like every workplace ever, right? And so like how can we capitalize on the strengths that uh that the team brings to the table and also model that for our students, right? Which is real world. Um, so again, the like last piece is that that is really just um beneficial for for everybody and also like really great for us because I can speak for myself that it's like it feels so good to be able to show up and like work together and also have it. It's like really hard to be like, "Yeah, my my students like had a hard time with this question, but like Kelsey students crushed it." Like Kelsey, what can you share about how you taught that? And maybe it's

040just the day, but maybe it's not, right? and like recognize it like the level of vulnerability that it takes to be able to just like look at data and say that doesn't reflect on me necessarily as a person or even as a teacher but also we're looking at practices um that that really benefits students and that is what we're using our Friday time for and it's it's making a difference I think >> absolutely >> that's thank you >> thank you for having us >> I just want to thank you as here as high school student where my perception would be that science just maybe don't come so naturally to her. Um, you guys have made it approachable and and safe that she can go ask for extra help when needed and whatever she needs because

041she is seeking a biology degree. Um, so even though it's not something that comes natural, you guys have made her successful. So, thank you. >> Yeah, good. >> Um, two things. Uh you guys were talking about the extensions like what will we do if we know they know it or whatever. Um is honors chemistry still an option for people >> or not this year because we uh ever community college dropped >> all of Watcom County and we had to pivot to central and that was not central. So not at the moment that is for everything but for this year it's not. Okay. And then I had a question about um the curriculum. This is just like kind of speaking like anecdotally, but I know my sophomore year, which was two years ago, it was kind

042of interesting. You know, I think it was the second year of using open sed and we were definitely adjusting to it. Um have you guys like seen improvement like gotten more comfort with that curriculum? Like are students liking it more? That would be my question. >> I would say overall students are getting more comfortable with it. I think we're all kind of it's so different from how I learned when I was in school. And we're kind of adopting to um what does it really mean to do science? And it's not just memorizing facts and vocabulary, but it's questioning things and problem solving how you could figure those things out. And from a teaching perspective, I've learned so much from this curriculum. I think it really provokes a level of deep understanding that traditional curriculums don't

043really get to. And there's drawbacks. I mean, some students don't like that, especially if you're used to traditional thinking. It can feel really hard and intimidating and it doesn't always feel like learning because people are like, "Oh, well, I haven't had to memorize the periodic table." And so, we've gotten I would say in my classes a little bit of push back on that, but I would argue having been taught in a traditional way, um, at least from my perspective, I really think it pushes you towards like what is science? Not just memorizing facts but knowing the process and asking why constantly. We were asking why to each other the other day. So just >> yeah curious if we are doing a lot more with student voice if you've heard student voice about this curriculum. I've

044heard student voice about this curriculum. So just curious if you guys have >> I know Mr. Wy has because you have my student. >> Yeah. be nasty. >> Okay, >> that's a good question, Logan. I think you're um for the students that don't go off to college, I think it's super beneficial because a lot of the stuff we talk about is very tangible like heat pumps, half of us have those to run our house. So, and it's lightening all the stuff we did when you were there. Um for the college kid though, um the the saving grace is most of the kids who will go off to college are ready to, you know, learn and do stuff. They're already pre-equipped up here, but they'll be behind uh in chemistry at least of a Seome kid,

045and that kind of grades me inside pretty bad or a Ferndale kid uh or an LC kid. That really disturbs me. Um but they have those kids are sharp and they're going to become just as sharp in college as they would have if we would have had them go the old fashioned way. >> But not every kid goes to school after high school. and the majority are going to benefit I think from all the the conceptual stuff that we're doing. I think a lot of it too is like for me when I think about like what is science and what does it look like to be able to like be have capacity to do anything which also includes outside of science we want to think about the world that we live into right which is

046so different than 20 years ago where we didn't have a computer in our pocket where I can Google literally anything right there's so many things and even now when you think about AI access and how much stuff is there and then as a human I need to be like okay but can I like think about Does that seem reasonable? And does that evidence really support that? And like those skills and the process pieces are arguably the most important things. Like anything like just Google >> like how many veence electrons does this thing have? Like that's you can Google that stuff if you have it here. That's that's really helpful. But but what does it look like to send people out in the world who are ready to engage with anything which is going to be

047so much bigger than what you would encounter in my classroom, right? So, do I have the the thinking skills and the reasoning skills and the ability to like hey say hey I like can you tell me more about that idea or like how did you get there and like asking questions and talking to people um and that is such a shift because it's different from how all of us learned science and so and changes change is really hard but also the world is changing and students are changing and science is changing you know and so um it's it's for sure like a >> it's an adjustment for for everybody We're in middle school science. Oh, great. Well, thanks for having us tonight. We really appreciate um being here and um here you are three years

048in a running um our science department. Myself, >> Spencer, eighth grade science. >> Steve, I do sixth grade science. Yeah, my name is Frank. Seventh grade. And um you know we have a goal right now by building better thinking thinkers. We want the middle school to be first in accounting in science. So that's kind of our our goal. Um and but our goal tonight here is to uh peel back a little bit of that curtain on what we do as a team. We really appreciate that time that we have on Fridays together. And um we didn't anticipate the nice setup that Jill and Robert gave for us. And we're really just going to play the next 15 minutes of that video. So this way, but uh we wanted to just kind of get in and

049say we we spend time as a PLT working over a four-week process. And we wanted to kind of give that overview. And when I that four weeks is a a grade level. So we'll do a sixth grade for four weeks, then we'll do a seventh grade for four weeks, then we'll do an eighth grade four weeks. Tonight we're going to um highlight an eighth grade one, but we kind of go through the same process every time. And this pro um process up here is kind of what we do. Um, we start in that first week is we come together and whatever is going to be the standard that that teacher of that grade level wants to focus on, that's where we begin. And we norm, okay, of what do we want students to be able

050to do? And so by by getting into that progression, the three of us and any other teacher who comes into the room at that point are really understanding that standard and what it means so that we we become aligned. Um, and that's helping us a lot as an individual teacher, whether it's if it's my unit. I'm getting a lot more feedback because I've have a lot of experts on the side telling me if it's not my grade level, I'm seeing how that vertically aligns and I'm also thinking where can I make connections. From there, we move to what we call a consultancy protocol. And usually that's something um someone will bring an assessment, a final project they want to have students to be able to do and we flush that out. We talk as a

051team. We try to bring in other experts. Maybe that's someone from learning support. Maybe that's someone from our our um ML specialist. And so they we can get their perspective also on what does this assessment look like and is it really accessible for all students? Are there any modifications we need to do? And then we take the next two weeks and we kind of a little bit of what was in that video that was shown earlier is we really get into the heart of the matter and we dive into student work and we bring student work and that's where our conversations are and we're trying to figure out where are students and how are we going to be moving our students towards the next levels. So that's kind of um the overall process. >> All

052right. So what do we want students to learn? Um because our standards are they're not sixth grade standards, seventh grade standards, eighth grade standards are all middle school standards. Um we're never teaching the same standard, but we are teaching the same skills. So we're always looking at all the student work through the skills that we want to build before we send them up to the high school. Um and so when we do that progression part, we're looking at a standard per se that might we might already be in. So, we're going to look at a standard that the teacher has in the upcoming unit, but we're going to focus on skills that they have coming up in that standard. So, we can all kind of look at those skills together. Um, so in Spencer's uh

053unit, their standard was described that when the arrangement of objects interacting at a distance changes, different amounts of potential energy are stored in the system. And so, that's really focusing on constructing explanations and arguing from evidence. Um, so we think about what do we want students to learn? We make a progression. Um, and Spencer and I led sessions in our lid days about this, but basically we're trying to take that complicated standard and break it down into studentfriendly language so that students can look at this progression and go, you know, I put myself in approaching because I can describe the forces between two objects at a distance as repulsive or attractive, but what do I need to show to move up to that meeting stage where we want all students to go to? Or maybe

054I'm in meeting, but what do I need to do to extend myself? Um, so this is kind of our studentf facing way of breaking down the standards. Um, but then we move on to the thin slicing part where we're really focused on skills because that helps all of our students. Um, and that's where Spencer's going to take over. >> Good job. >> So, we take our uh student work. This time it was based around explanations. We talked about that standard being like describing and explaining what's going on. And that standard is actually for the unit I'm in right now that we started after winter break. And this work is from my last unit that we were working on in December. Uh but they're writing explanations always constantly trying to explain whatever we're working on. So

055we take this and we do our thin slicing like you saw in the video where we break it down. We build progressions like that. But we loved that so much for the three of us that we were like, well, we can do this with students too. And it makes it way more impactful than me standing up at the front of the room and saying, "Okay, this is what maybe a good version of this could look like if you did everything right and here's your checklist and you know you can get here." Versus we take it and we put it into we take the written and we transcribe it and I'll give kids eight or nine of these and say, "Okay, you guys have your list of things we're looking for. sort these work samples and

056then tell me why why have you put things in different locations? What are you seeing that you look at that and you go, "Oh, wow. That that was a really good explanation. That really that got something." So, not only are they seeing the skill, but they're also maybe picking up what did I miss when I was explaining and I had something maybe in this red zone that was really basic. And now they're seeing other students. And pretty much every time we've done this, students are like, "An eighth grader did that one. That that was from one of my and I was like, "Yeah, that's that's work that you guys are capable of doing." Um, and so we see good movement of kids that aren't quite getting it yet going, "Oh, I could I could add

057those numbers. I had those graphs. I could have gotten that extra detail." like small little steps that add a lot to the skill of actually explaining what's going on, which is really pretty cool on it. And you do see students I usually try to line it up where we do one of these pretty close to the next time we're doing an explanation too to be like, "Hey, remember like need some numbers. We need to think a little bit more um specifically about what we're doing." And then for our students who are in this kind of green, maybe even some that are in the blue zone that are kind of pushing like that is a pretty excellent explanation of what we were doing with sound. It kind of pushes of in that green section. What can

058we do? What is that difference between someone that's got a pretty good handle and someone that's really able to explain deeply what's going on? Um as well as maybe for some of our students in the green or blue, like sometimes it's can you be more concise? Can you get your point across? Taking less time, using less words, but getting the same level of detail. And sometimes they see those things that they can do just to push that little bit more of we can do a little better. We can add a little bit more detail. We can trim some extra stuff out that didn't really relate to what we were talking about. Um, and uh, yeah, I just think it's a really cool process. Like I said, we love doing the thin slicing so much um

059because it really helps us kind of dial in on what skills we're asking of students and what seems reasonable. I think it's cool for my my two colleagues, the grades below me, to see what their former students are doing in 8th grade, too of like we really are seeing that building skill of they're getting pretty good at these explanations overall. So, it's been pretty cool. Right. So, kind of wrapping that back up, um, you know, looking back of of this PLT process and and why are some of those reasons why we do it and we appreciate it is one that constant vertical alignment sixth through 8th grade and you know we hear that a lot like these are our students but they they are in fact unless someone is transferring in we have taught all

060of those students and at the same time we're we're trying to say how can each student improve from wherever they might be at that point. how do they improve a little bit? And maybe it's we're come up with a scaffold. And that's that clarity of expectations is our next um big idea that we share with students. And so maybe we develop similar scaffolds now that are being used in sixth grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade. Um our a lot of our terminology ends up being the same. So students don't have this cognitive like process of what does science mean? How do we make science more accessible? Like you were saying earlier, is it well, we we make a lot of these systems the same. Okay. And we we're talking the same language. So they were

061like, "Oh yeah, I know what this is all about." And then they they focus on understanding that um that science part. And so we take these um these new practices that someone's come up with and we're trying them all the way sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. Um and so we're trying to, you know, that that fourth bullet point down is trying to build a better understanding ways to push all learners to greater thinking. And that really is trying to find the students where they are. So we spend so much time looking at student work so we can isolate and find out what's what does each student need to move to the next level. So that's um that's kind of where we are and so thanks so much. >> Do I get to go first? Sure.

062>> Okay, cool. uh love what you're doing and there I I heard it there was a similar pattern throughout the the speaking points was language uh came up from from all of you um that you were speaking student friendly language and that you're uh taking time and speaking the same language throughout the the grades and that's fabulous just I'm wondering do you guys ever have time to to communicate with with the high school and so that you are all continuing on that together. >> I mean, we'd like more time. >> I'm sure they would, too. >> Well, Andre's got her hand. She's ready to go. >> That's great because when I first came on the school board, we actually talked about that, too. Um, when I was sitting in those chairs, I don't speak educator

063very well. That's not my background. And so hearing presentations that are something that me as the audience can understand in my language is is huge. And so you guys taking that same approach with our students in science. That's just a win-win. So thank you. >> We did have one question from from Logan who popped out. >> She had to go to work. >> Oh yeah. Um how often are there discrepancies between teachers ratings of student work? And if so, what is the course of action when those disagreements come up? >> Well, I think like um just like anything in life, the best stuff comes from disagreements. Um because you have to provide evidence for why you disagree. And so when we have disagreements, say I've writed something as meeting and Spencer and Frank maybe made

064made it approaching now we're going to kind of have friction over that spot and maybe I'm gaining a new understanding or they're seeing something new that I noticed they didn't notice. And so the disagreements lead to kind of the best stuff. Um because that's where we're getting like the new ideas. When we always agree, it's like, "Yeah, yeah, we all agree. This is we've been there before." But when we have those disagreements, it's where that new stuff comes from where we're like, "Oh, we haven't really thought about explanations that way. Now, why do we think that that's actually meeting an explanation for this unit?" And so it always leads to kind of I would say the best stuff from our PLT meetings is when we disagree on something >> and it kind of opens the

065conversation too for maybe a better districtwide understanding of our our grading system and our evaluation system, right? I've had these conversations with Mr. Stopping and Dr. Everett and like how do we how do we get there? How do we get to that wheel? Chase kind of along the same lines as when when the student disagrees with what they where they think they're at. So when you ask to you know you let the student reflect and then you're like well maybe we're not seeing eye to eye. So what does that process look like? >> Right. I think everything we do we keep coming back to like is is evidence. We're evidence base. Once we we have the evidence, I mean, we're all um those conversations are great ones to have with students because they they go

066a couple places. One, as an educator, it helps us understand where the student is coming from and maybe gives us a little bit more insight into what they were thinking at that point. >> And that's all again more evidence if all of a sudden in that conversation they're able to convince us that they have a a higher understanding of a of a topic than >> Yeah. Maybe they're able to display it in one way or another, but they were able to talk through it with you. Mhm. >> Well, I love too is this the third time we've like Michelle and I have been able to see you guys as a group and just see again that the the everybody being so collaborative and watching everybody grow as teams with just the with the middle school

067and the high school science teams. It's just so awesome and we're seeing it in all the data and it's just great. So, thank you. >> Yeah, >> I would echo that. I also I just want to call out what great questions from Logan >> and we want to move there with assessment >> and and to have our teams calibrating. >> You got to start there. >> We all know assessment is one of those dark pieces. We all grew up a certain way, assessing a certain way. We don't want to >> touch it, but we have to for our kids. So, >> excellent work. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Cool. >> Can I ask a couple? >> Yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. >> Sorry. Um why I love that you guys are leaning into peer review.

068I that's important, but whether or not our students um I guess feel confident about how their teachers think that they're understanding the material. Um but they do care about what their peers think of them. So leaning into that and having them look at each other's work, that's awesome. Um, on another note, what's the status of maybe science fairs? Are we bringing those kinds of things back? I would love to see this sort of not a we >> or I get maybe who is who's the person that might be the point of contact to get that role? I think >> it's something we we think about with the curriculum we're using. Um some of that like application and presentation skills and things like that that would have been part of other curriculums or not really present

069in this one. And kind of the project building of like making your own experiment like that could be something kind of cool. We try and sneak some projects in and we're working them back in where we can too. Um to try and give kids that like engineering piece a little bit as well. >> Yeah. Really put that application to work. >> Yeah. >> Thanks. Great. Thank you. >> Okay. Next up we got the kindergarten board presentation. after hearing from high school and middle school are gonna have to go way back in kindergarten. >> Thank you. >> I think it's still cool. I'm still pleasing my kindergarten future. >> Oh, good. >> It doesn't seem like that long ago that Ariel wasn't >> Everybody has the swag. I like Oh, yeah. We're matching. It's purposeful for

070tonight. >> This is the kindergarten team. I'm Sierra Wley, Angel Lambmy, and Jensen Bert Train couldn't be here tonight. I'm Mallerie Perry. >> I'm Carly Johnson. >> And I'm Taran Tedo. >> Um, so our PLC question was, "What do we want our students to know and be able to do?" Um, so we've been running um cycles around these two standards. So our phonics standard is students will recognize letters and know sounds they make. Um, they use this knowledge to begin reading and sounding out simple words. Um, our writing standard is students will share information about a topic a topic by drawing pictures, talking about their ideas, and beginning to write words or sentences to explain what they know. All right, how will we know if they have learned it? So, some of our assessments are

071um our first one is ourformational writing CFS, which is criteria for success. So, we want to make sure they have a topic, some details, labels, and a sentence. And on the right hand side, you can kind of see this is a studentfriendly um checklist that we use in all of our classrooms. So the kids can kind of self-correct after they do their writing. They can go up to the checklist. Do I have all the things that I need in my writing? And go back and add anything um to their writing. Um the other one um every quarter we assess their letter sounds. Um so right now when we did the assessment we have taught like 19 letter sounds and so right now we expect them to know 16. And then we also do some UFly

072progress monitoring. So, UFFL is our phonics curriculum and so we assess uh CVC consonant vowel consonant words um based on the letters that we have taught. So, this is kind of some of our data. So, on the left, this is when they were coming into kindergarten if they knew five or less sounds. You see all that red there. Um this is for the whole grade level. And then we just did the assessments recently. And so on the right hand side, you can see a sea of green. So, we're seeing lots of um progress there. Right now we only have three kids in the red. So we have three kids in tier three first letter sounds and only two kids in the yellow. So two kids for tier two. Um so we're seeing lots of growth

073there which is super exciting. Um here are someformational writing samples. So on the left is somebody meeting standards. So they're meeting all those things on the checklist. We're seeing a topic. We're seeing details. We're seeing labels in their picture and a sentence. Um they're using uh sounding out skills. So, if you look at the word mammal, it's not obviously spelled correctly, but they're just sounding it out with the sounds that they hear and writing down those sounds that they hear. And then on the right, you can see they have their topic and lots of details. And they're starting to do labels, but they're just doing the first sound in words. So, their next their next um goal would be to sound out all three of the sounds in those words or however many sounds that

074they're hearing in those words. And then this is what our U5 progress monitor looks like. So, we had them on the left. You can see an exemplar here. We had them write had, rug, let, and when. And that kiddo is hearing all those sounds in those threeletter words. And then on the right, you can kind of tell um that those the teacher um markings on there. So like the first word, they had the A and the D. So they kind of are hearing some of the sounds in the word, but not all of them. And then same with number two, they're hearing the G in the word rug, not all those sounds. And then number three, they didn't hear any of the sounds or maybe they're not know they don't know those sounds yet. And

075then number four, they're hearing the I in the word when but not that first or that last sound. So that's what we would work on with that kiddo. So if students are not yet meeting grade level, but approaching, we implement something called the tier 2 instruction, which are the kids who are in the yellow that were in the spreadsheet. Um what tier 2 instruction looks like is quick, it's frequent, and it's targeted specifically um on what students need. Um in our classrooms, this looks like um 20 minutes built in daily. It's the classroom teacher's responsibility to work with those students on increasing their skill levels in those areas. So it might look like the classroom teacher pulling over one kid or a small group of kids to target those skills while the rest of the

076class is doing independent work. Um, and in the beginning of the year, it's a lot more of that, just like kids coming over to the teacher and the rest of the kids doing independent work. Later in the year or around this time, um, one or two teachers might start to switch with each other. So, like if I switch with Carly, Carly might take the approaching kids and then I might take the kids that are at or above grade level so we can kind of divide and conquer and be more efficient with supporting our students. Here's a video of Angel Lambie um implementing tier 2 instruction in her classroom. >> Oh no. >> Is that not going to work? >> That's not protected. >> Protect it. Do I protect it? >> Yes. >> Oh, wait. I'm

077accepting it. >> Oh, thank you. >> Okay. Now, what do I do? >> Yep. >> Control R. >> Look at that. Okay. >> Our new word is tip. >> Tip. Say tip. >> Tip. Let's say it really slow. >> Okay. Now, let's move our circles for each sound we hear. >> Nice job. How many sounds are in tip? >> Three sounds. Let's write a letter to match each. We'll start with the T. Say it as you write it. So, we could see Miss Lambie calling over a student to work independently with them. And it looks like um their instruction was targeting encoding um which is writing the letters in a word. Um, and then if students are needing more intensive intervention than just the tier 2 that we just saw, um, we have some reading

078support staff at the school who are wonderful and they work with those students that are in the red on the spreadsheet um, a couple times a week and they work for five minutes at a time and it's very targeted. So, if a student doesn't know um like the letter A, M, and S, they could just really focus on those three letters. Um, and yep, it's one-on-one. And I think we have a couple pictures here. >> They did. They didn't. >> Oh, they didn't go in. Um, that's okay. So, some activities that they might do for tier three is like very hands-on things like if there's a sand tray, um, the kid could trace the letter A in the sand to get that kind of fine motor and connecting um, the letters sounds to how the

079letter looks of the formation. Um, there's also a fun game they play called Snatch It where the reading support staff is kind of like versus the student and they see who can grab the letter the quickest. So, it's fun ways to engage the students and support their skill development. >> Um, this is our bumpup wall that Jensen made for us. It's just another visual representation of our CFS. Um, just sometimes it might be a little bit easier for students to come in come up and compare their work. Um the goal is for students always to get a four. So having their labels, details, um sentence, uh and their topic, but we noticed that, you know, some kids would just be like, I'm done when they get to a four. And so we added a five

080to try to extend and push kids so that they have something more to work towards even though even if they think they're done. So an example of that in a five would be another sentence or to continue writing more. So um this is what another visual representation of the ZFS. Um and to wrap up um our tier one enment is has been really reflective in our data. Um the kids that are needing tier 2 each year for letter sounds is shrinking and shrinking. Um, and so because of this, this has been allowing us to focus or to shift our focus in tier 2 and tier three onto more complex skills. So in past years, right now, we've really been working on letter sounds. But this year, we had a meeting or we had a meeting

081today and we were like, well, we think we're ready to work on more skills like encoding and decoding. So decoding is being able to read a word and sound it out versus encoding is being able to sound it or to chop up the sounds and be able to write it yourselves. So our focus now is shifting more towards that just because of the growth we've had. Um our next steps for tier 2 as a grade level is usually around January we start to split kids up amongst the whole entire grade. So, in past years, we've had um two classes that focused on kids who have emerging skills. Um maybe they're working on letter sounds, maybe they're working more on decoding. And then we have kids that are working on ongrade um um ongrade skills. So

082maybe just more of an extension of what we're doing in our phonics curriculum. And then we also have um extension groups. So last year we did a lot with like um fluency and like reading comprehension with those groups. So we call that like our win time, like what our what I need. So we use our data from PLC to look at what all of the kids need and then decide what each um tier 2 group is going to do based on that. >> Yeah. Any questions? >> I love the bump it up wall. That's so Can we go back to that? Mhm. >> Oh, >> that's so it just such a great representation. So, I mean, you're going through the trouble of already making this and putting it up there. Do the students use this

083as an opportunity to do peer review? >> Yeah. Sometimes I say have a friend check your work and then they go up and they say, "Oh, look, you're missing labels or whatever it is." Because sometimes they do just honestly not see what they're forgetting. Um, so having a friend check too because sometimes for us it get can get super overwhelming during writing time with all the support that some kids need and so it's nice to be like, "Oh, ask a friend first and then they go up or check the wall." Um, so yeah, it's a nice tool for us. >> So is that up there while they're doing the assignment or is it after? >> It's always up there. I mean it's just on it lives there. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> I love it. >>

084It's good to see all the progress. excitement of the littles. I'm sure that's contagious. >> So, thank you for what you do. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> There's a lot of them. When I group of teachers, I was like, that's a lot of teachers. I mean, that's a lot of bodies. >> Oh, yeah. >> But if I do know how, you know, what an impact if you're going to put on your students to be in kindergarten teachers. I think it's always remember their kind like how do you mind the eye still runs in her from time to time, you know, like she was now that was my favorite kindergarten teacher. I hope I'm but still years later, 50 plus years later, still have their relationship kindergarten features. I think they we'll all experience that somewhere, too.

085I hope that's the case. But thank you. I mean, and I know it's it's got to be a tough job at time. I got nine grandkids, right? I was like, who could teach kindergarten, you know, because don't pay enough whatever you're going to pay because, you know, it just there's so much. that I appreciate everything you do developing those young mods, making them successful. So, very cool. >> Yeah, you guys definitely exude a large amount of pixie dust >> when you walk in. So, and it's great and I love to see Taran added to the group. That's awesome along. So, thank you. >> Good job. >> Thank you very much. kindergarten. >> It's funny that there might not. >> Okay, last one on Lisa. Third grade pill. >> Glad you guys saved the best for

086last. >> Thank you. You guys want to roll out the PDF? >> We want the PDF for your Google Docs. >> Um, does the Do the slides? >> They won't. So interesting on the Google >> thanks so much for having us. Um, we're really excited to talk about our tier 2 uh intervention systems of support for our students in math. And I was sitting behind our teammates just now watching them like rigorously head nod while the high school science team is presenting because I think so much of what they're doing in their tier 2 and tier three support is exactly what we do in third grade and kindergarten as well. So that was so cool to see and to hear about. Um, I'm Evelyn Aguular, >> Bin Bey, Katy Vance, >> and Glenn Dealtto, >>

087and Liz Vans is also on our team who couldn't be here tonight. Um, and Rebecca Katzik is our distinguished leader. Um, I've been supportive of our team. >> Uh, so I'm going to start us off just by talking I feel like you've all heard a lot about tier 2 tonight, but my favorite analogy that I will share in case you haven't heard it before is the handwashing analogy. So, when we think about all of us as human beings, we wash our hands before we eat um just as a hygiene practice, right? But if you're a nurse and you need to wash your hands, you're going to wash up to your elbows because you need that extra layer of safety. And if you're a surgeon, you're going to wash your hands up to your elbows and

088put on some kind of mask. And that has always provided a lot of clarity for me about what does it mean to be tier one? What does it mean to be tier two? So, when we think about tier one, um the the diamond that is behind Dr. Everett's um head up there. Tier one is the handwashing. Like we're all doing that, right? And then when we look at our data and see, okay, there are these groups of kiddos who are not in tier one. They're not meeting the learning targets. We're going to wash their hands and wash up to their elbows. And then when we think about tier three, like these are the kiddos who are pretty far from our learning targets where we want them to be successful. So, we're going to wash their

089hands up to their elbows and throw a mask on them as like continuing to lift up their skill set and provide them the support they need to be successful. Um, traditionally a tier 2 plan was kind of like a diamond and we're just thinking about kids that don't get it, right? Like they don't get it a little bit or they don't get it yet a lot, right? But what we're seeing as we're looking at our data is there's a bunch of kiddos because of the great work that our colleagues below us have done, kindergarten one and two teachers, um we've got lots of kids that are hitting the target. And so we're finding that a more effective model for our tier 2 instruction is thinking about moving that diamond or that triangle into a rhombus.

090So we're all the kids that get it extending and then really extending and providing harder, more difficult, higher level thinking skills as well as providing support. So kind of turning that sideways and reflecting it. Um and then I think the next slide is going to kind of talk about how we look at the data and sort kids. >> All right. And so this slide u I just showed some examples. The first one is an example of our formative data when we we give kids a test in class. And you can see there are yellows scores in yellows, greens, and reds. Greens say they got it. The yellows are are t the kids we want to focus on for tier two intervention. Uh and the the reds are they really need they need extra support. If

091we notice that um majority of us have a lot of reds um then that would become a whole class intervention. It's not we're not going to pick those kids out. It's going to be a whole grade intervention um on that particular item. The second example is a a typical uh common assessment question um that the kids would see on on a formative. And then number three is sort of an um an off document that we share among ourselves where we put in the scores of kids after we've divided them into our our tier 2 interventions and then from there we can see who made it, who who got that target, who still needs a target. Um and and then we can we talk as as a team also uh do kids need to move up

092into your section, the tier three section, or should we continue uh using a tier 2 intervention? Maybe a different teacher would teach that skill. Um but it's really good to share that information with each other because it's it's a whole class. There are almost 150 >> 140 >> Yeah. Uh third graders. And so to see all all of them all in one huge document where we can see who's reaching it, who needs extra support, um it really gives us the bigger picture and it and it kind of we we've heard this all night. It kind of hones in on this our kids idea. >> Yeah. So um this is our third year of doing uh 22 intervention as a third grade team. Um the past two years we've focused on like writing, reading, and math.

093This year we are just focusing on math. Um so just to go back to what we're looking at, the colored data of all of our students is also how we then decide how we're going to group students. So the numbers at the top um you can change to what standards they are and then what questions are in the assessment that we give students. Um, and as a team on our Fridays and our PLT meetings, we're looking at um, who had, you know, really great data in this one standard. So, you know, let's say Katie had really great results with her class. She'll take the group of tier 2 students who need to work on that skill um, and say, "Katie, do your magic and do what you did with them with these kiddos to bump

094them up." Um, and I think something that we're also just excited to share is um, just like I think we can get really bogged down by all of the data and all of the things we need to do with our students. And I think something that we've worked really hard on in focusing on math this year is also just creating a really welloiled machine and how we put students in groups based on what their needs are and how to um, really target that one specific skill in math. Um so when we are looking at our formative data in the slide before we're thinking about um what is the target that we want students to meet that is what we're going to have as our exit criteria. So another version of what was in their original

095formative um so thinking about the end in mind and then just like again intervention is a 20 25 minute chunk of our day. So, how can we utilize that amount of time to just hit that one specific skill, that one kind of problem in multiplication, division, whatever we're working on. Um, so yeah, we talk about who wants to do what. Um, and this is just kind of an example of um, yeah, how we sort kids for teachers. Um, and we are also like from the very beginning of the year, we are switching all kids. So we start by you know kind of doing an intro week like the second week of school or the the first full week of whole days and then as soon as we have our freshest data we are switching students

096amongst all all classes. Um and every every week that we have um fresh data in math we're looking at that again and thinking about how can we move students around to best fit their needs. So um again our motto this year I feel like is really keep it simple. So our exit criteria is usually two questions. Um and we give them a one or a zero like they got it or they don't. So the students that um don't have it, we talk about how do we want to again like retarget um and focus on helping them meet that need and then students that are green um get to work on extension. So if we think back to that rhombus style of okay, all students, our collected third grade students all get tier one instruction. That's

097that critical third grade standard instruction that we are all giving our students in our classrooms every day. Everyone gets that. Um the tier 2 groups where we switch and kind of focus on really targeted instruction on one specific um standard or skill or area. Um, that's where we're switching around and, you know, maybe Glenn's using, you know, something having to do with a multiplication standard or maybe Bin's working on kids who need um, additional at bats with, you know, addition and subtraction or something that maybe they didn't quite understand from a previous grade level. But then we also have that other group of students who not only do they get it, but maybe they like they nailed it. So, when we're looking at our data, we can see broken down by question within our quizzes.

098We can see how they do and then there are those kids who have 100%. I'm a parent of one of those kids that gets 100%. So, you know, I know as a parent, I'm like, well, what what are you doing for my kid, too? So sometimes the kids already have it and and it doesn't mean that we just ignore them or say, "Well, you've got this, you know, go play a game on your Chromebook." Um, so when that happens, we want to extend their learning. One way we do that is with standards aligned math games or extension activities that, you know, maybe take the standard that we're looking at and push it farther. So, for example, you can't really see this yellow sheet, but it is um it's a division duel. So, basically, you're kind

099of playing or against a partner, but you're pulling a division card. So, I don't know if you remember third grade. Third grade is really focused on the core work of math is multiplication and division. Well, division feels kind of hard for kids when you explain it to them. But for kids who've already got the multiplication standards, they they're a family. They work together. So, if you can multiply, you can divide. And if you're getting 100%, then you're ready for that next step of challenging yourself. So, not only does it keep them engaged, it keeps them moving forward, and they're not just stagnating. you know, the the the kids who get it easily should also have something that's next. Which is why we're not just focusing on, okay, the kids who've got it, the kids who

100need a little help, the kids who need a lot of help, but we're turning it on its side and now we're saying, yeah, the kids who need help, we want to focus on them. And the kids who've got it, we want to focus on them, too, so that all kids are our kids and they're meeting what they need and not just being bored and getting in trouble at school. Okay, so to wrap it up, um I was thinking as a teacher, I love tier 2. I think it's really effective and wanted to know what are the kids in my class, what are the kids in our classes thinking about it? And so I asked a couple of kiddos. Um and I love these quotes because they all tie in to our vision statement as a

101district. Um, Dakota said, "I see friends from other CL classes, and we know that that ties into our sense of kids developing a sense of belonging. I get to do learning at my level. That ties into our commitment to student growth and engagement." And, um, Abel, the sweet little guy who grew like 300% on his already, probably in part due to tier 2 time, said, "It helps me with math." And again, that's our strategic plan of student growth and engagement. So, a pretty slick system. That's great. >> We are still growing and learning in but have also found a lot of success in questions. >> Sure, why not? So, well, that was one of my notes that I took uh as far as lining up our strategic plan >> and that you all introduce yourself

102with the cohesive units to students. I love that. Um and that students are traveling between your classes. So maybe making that transition over to middle school where you have multiple different teachers is so scary. So we're we're kind of laying that foundation already. Um and then my second part of that was always looking for at least one adult that students connect with and this way they have four different opportunities just throughout a a day or how many times they're doing it to make that connection with someone that they can really relate to. >> Um so I love that aspect of it as well. Um, and then the other key point, we can get bogged down in data. So, thank you for recognizing that. >> Yeah, >> Rebecca really helps us. Uh, >> that's great. >>

103Um, I really appreciated that and also to your talking point of that we do have something for the learning extension for the kiddos that are getting it so we can keep them challenged and engaged. So, nicely done. >> Elements of belonging. That's huge. I have even considered that but such an important piece that's just a peripheral >> so crucial >> when you guys first said um oh we're just focusing on that and I thought well why but that's great >> and we're going to have such great measurables >> and it's you're everybody even yourself feel successful at the end of the year so that's really good to not have to dump all of your efforts into so many things and get spread thin and we don't want you feeling exhausted. >> We do provide tier

1042 instruction within our classrooms for reading and writing and all >> we just don't share kids at that time. >> Yeah. >> For those subjects. >> That's what first my good job. >> The data showed us that our largest gaps were in mathematics. Correct. >> Yeah. >> Where we had a little bit more focus. So that's great that your your energy is focused to where we do need to close them. Yeah. So, >> excellent. Thank you. And I think collectively across all the presentations, you know, um three years ago when we started this to be able to say, "Hey, we're going to be talking about how collectively kids are doing better and we have to be thinking about how are we assessing and looking at opportunities for them." It's awesome. >> So, it's great. And

105the sharing, every single one, the sharing of kids doesn't happen when people put their doors closed. >> It's awesome. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, >> okay, Dr. Kurt Harlem. Thank you everybody. >> Thank you everybody. >> And we had two from Irene because >> All right. Good evening. Um so I get to talk about a a grant that we've had for quite some time. We it's been called a number of things on one10enth of 1% grant. Um the actual title is Watcom County Behavioral Health Services Grant. Um and just some little some the purpose is to promote a greater ability for academic su success for students who are challenged with mental health and substance abuse problems. Um we've utilized this grant for at least 10 years. Um, in the time that I've been in this

106role, the grant has been with us and then continuing to go back. I looked back in board docs to try to find out how exactly how far. I was not able to locate it exactly. Um, but it has been with us for a while. Um, currently the grant provides the district $118,000. Um, this amount recently, I think last year increased. It was 108 for quite a bit, quite a few years, and then it it increased by 10%. Um, we we renew this grant every three years. Um, and then our staff report to Watcom County um by annually. They report in January and then they provide a report at the end of June. Um, just sharing what they've done, how they've utilized it. um they don't share student names, but how they're reaching out to students

107to to utilize the grant um and reaching out as we're in kind of uncertain times. I Yes. >> Would that be Erin and his team that is creating that report or who's reporting that back? >> Um actually, this report is created by um Alicia is the one who documents it, Alicia Roberts. Um I reached out to Watcom County to check in on okay what's the status for next year and the response I got is it's expected to continue and expected at the same amount. Um so positive news. >> Great. >> Um so this year it's funding two positions. It's funding at a portion of a counselor and then a portion of our family resource center um specialist sorry. Um, previously we've also funded an intervention specialist um for for drug and alcohol and unfortunately we

108lost that position last year with the budget. Um, but so that's kind of the basics of the grant. What I wanted to give you is some because I think this is where it connects is what how it benefits students. And if we if we tie this like the third grade just did to the strategic plan or our our commitments, this goes directly under wellness and support for families. So So I ask each of each of the staff, hey, what does this mean in your world? Um and so one is a very lengthy one, but I'm going to summarize it for you. Um our uh family resource specialist was working with a family um who lived in our district. They had previously previous previously attended Mount Baker School District and so when they weren't attending um

109we reached out to Mount Baker, met with family um got them enrolled, attendance was sporadic and so again we reached out connected with the family. Hey what are the barriers working with you? the family moved for for a variety of reasons moved to um I want to say Las Vegas and our family resource specialists con connected with the family to help them engage so that they could enroll in school in Las Vegas. Um, and so we talk about support, we talk about wellness, we talk about navigating the mental and the stress that comes from moving into a new city and moving new state. Um, that's uh that's a pretty cool story example of how they're doing it. Another one was she connected um a family and applied to a grant that helped them pay back

110rent. Um so connecting them to resources, not being able to pay rent is a mental I mean that's stressful. So supporting them in that way. Um they've driven parents um without transportation to so their kids can attend conferences. So they've picked them up, they've provided transportation. Um they've helped them apply for state food benefits so that they have they have food and evenings and weekends when they're not at school. helped navigate um insurance so that they could get glasses. Um at the high school, they use that time to make sure that there's a smooth transition between middle and middle and high school for those students. Um connect with middle school counselors and admin to improve communication between buildings in an effort to support um those students. um connect with kids with families with outside so

111services outside of school, mental health, substance abuse. Um so that while we have we no longer have our intervention specialists, we are still using outside sources to connect students. So that's a portion of what this grant helps us do um that wouldn't necessarily be able to do without it, but it's additional funding for us. So >> questions about this grant? >> Well, I mean we're gonna need that even more secure. So I think grant we get it's like very valuable. >> Appreciative. >> Agreed. And and as we are starting the budgeting process, we are already thinking of those conversations of what grants do we think are available. We're reaching out to the county about other grants to check on their status and availability. um because they do provide direct supports for our students. >> Is

112it is is the increase in grant you said 10% based off a CPI or they who decides that that it requires more funding to get that? >> I think the county um council >> made that adjustment. and and each spring um myself and Alicia meet with the representative um his name is Joe Fuller from the county and he sits down with us for about an hour and we tell how we've utilized it, some of the challenges we're facing. Um we get to forecast what we may need in the future. Um but it's a very it's a example of Watcom County partnering with local school districts um to support the schools >> because 10% is pretty good. You'd expect like 2.8 or 10 point or something like that. So that was pretty. >> That was nice.

113>> So is it a competitive grant or is there is there a grant available to each public school? >> I believe it's a grant available to each public school. >> Thanks for doing work on that. That's a lot of work. >> It's a enjoyable part of my >> Okay. Thank you, Dr. Harold. on to new business. Uh first review welcome uh ELC Park. >> Yeah, good to see our face again. >> J we we do get mistakes. >> Twins twins are burn. Um, so I'm staying through the end of the month. >> Yep. So this this will be my last meeting. >> I'm excited to be here again. >> Sorry. Was that ready? >> Yeah. >> You go. You said so this will be my last meeting. Like really? >> Well, it would be my

114last in this capacity. >> You did some great things. >> Just gonna have more meeting other times. >> Yeah. So >> thank you. Um, so last month Dr. ever talked about the selection process that we went through for the architect for the new Watcom Early Learning Center. Um we we really kicked off that the project and that process last month. Um we've been working throughout this month to get the contract developed. So this is first reading um for the architect contract with Dykeman Architects. Um and this will come back on February 4th for action. Um, one of the things I wanted to note in this contract is we were able to take some lessons learned from from past projects. Um, and build in after consulting with legal, we were able to build in language to

115protect the district from areas where the architect might charge us a change order fee um, for things that they overlook. Um Dr. Epert was the principal at the high school at the time. So that was a lot of insight from him. Um but >> but um so just really good that we were able to get some of those lessons learned built into this. Uh this contract's been reviewed by by the risk pool and also by our legal team. Um so we feel good moving forward with it from here. Um the budget for this so this contract includes architect and uh the uh engineering firms. Um the budget for this is approximately 1.4 million. Um we did budget in the original C100 form. We did budget 1.5 just over 1.5. Um so we do have the

116budget allocated in the the funding sources for it. Um, and yeah, I think that's what I got on this. If you have any questions, please reach out to me. >> I'm glad you got that language in there. That was huge because I know CSG or Build a High School, as you know. I mean, what was it? the the main concrete walkway I think James off is like that's not square you get identified so but what happened before the language was changed it's like we identified it's wrong >> they had to go rip it out and redo it and the question was I'm like well who's that cost going to pile up you guys are the ones that messed up you know but we're the one well unfortunately you as the owner or yeah you guys

117gonna have to respons >> I was just like and yeah that's when you're the principal I think and James just frustrated as I was like so you so you guys made the mistake completely but you're going to charge us for your paid so I'm glad you guys got that language in >> so our legal council added about three pages worth of language to this contract >> three pages architect error not the not CSG but >> but you hear from CSG because they're >> the well that's good learn from our mistakes and So David, >> I do sorry I just want to say I appreciate that within this contract um the architect is uh not I don't want to say required but within here that they would be meeting with potential staff and neighborhood community groups

118and other consultants. I think that's super awesome. So, I love fascinating. >> Yep. >> Like I said, any other questions between now and the end of the month? Shoot them my way. Um, did want to take the opportunity to thank the board. Um, just the support you've given me over the nearly six years I've been here has been great. um just the ability to to do my job, run the departments, um the financial support, the support to when I've sat here and I've talked about seems like when I sit here, it's usually talking about the bad, right? >> Um but just the support that I've gotten has been amazing. So looking forward to the next steps and I still get to be here with with all my kids in the district and as a spouse

119and also come back in a different capacity. So um yeah, >> you did a great job while you're here and like the same too valuable you have to be physical. I can't think of time find that I called or look for you that you weren't made yourself available or when can I meet you if I can meet you today you know whatever you know or the emergency things in the middle of night and frozen broken things after hours and responding and >> broken pipes at the elementary school and getting right on things you've treat our facilities like they were your own I really appreciate >> as a fellow veteran thank you for your service as well >> thank you >> all I Okay. >> Your resourcefulness is amazing. You just always find a way and

120that will be missed. >> Thank you. I'm not going to miss late night calls. >> No, >> you won't. I guarantee. >> Thank you, J. Thank you. >> Thank you. Fabulous. We'll actually have him back in his new capacity as we have contracted or will contract with CSG and this will be we will be your region. Yes. >> Yes. >> Oh, good. That's good to hear. >> We look for approval of this. >> Okay. Uh let's see. Next new business school board will engage with scheduling by the previously ML access >> since there's no attachment. Is this me? >> This is you. >> Okay. Um I had a a conversation with Jared last week. Um, and I wanted to bring to the board, um, maybe having the opportunity, similar to, um, what city and county

121councils do in order to create more accessibility that when we send out announcements for our board meetings, if we could also have in there that if anybody a little note at the bottom um, saying that if anybody requires a translator or translation for this meeting, please let the school know in advance of 24 48 hours whatever it needs to be um and we will do our best to provide that for you. >> So uh the school district would provide it. >> That's my thought. >> Okay. >> If we require we have accessible. >> So then um then they would come to the meeting or would it be on an online thing or >> I think either or. It sounds like my understanding is that we do have translators that are available online um so could

122tap in via Zoom >> um or be in person if they really love to be here that long. Um but yeah, just to create more accessibility for our meetings and if there is some sort of language barrier having that be an option. >> How would we um is that an app overtime head? How does How would that work? >> So, we we would have a few options. So, one, we have a series in Lisa Gilchrist does a really nice job with the language acquisition piece and so I I would want to start with her and to say what are our options. We have opportunities with translators. There is a cost involved with that. Um, we also have uh translation devices that we have at each of our main offices that when we have board meetings,

123we can pull Um, there's actually a feature of those that you can broadcast a presentation and then if someone goes to the same UR code, URL code, then translation will show up on their phone and we've not tested with that. So I think we think there might be some assisted devices that we already have that we haven't tried that might satisfy that. But I would start with and be happy to have that conversation and and see what our options are. We also know PowerPoint will do some translations but we convert everything to PDF and combine to one. So we also work with Joe but I think we have some options. And I think part of this also I think for us to operationalize is think about the scope of this. Is it we're just talking

124board meetings? Are we talking about school presentations too? So we want to think through that. We want you to give us some direction on that as well. >> Don't they have those? I don't know. I try it. But I discovered Tik Tok in February, but time on your hand. >> Yeah. But I never knew it existed before I found it. I'm like, "Oh, that's kind of cool." And then it tied in my ear hearing a so that made even better. You watch the kids. But but they got buds now that will translate I guess like you you wear them like like my hearing aids and and as you're listen too not just one they said something but you could listen and you're hearing >> um I don't know if that would be >> we would

125give out prayers I would of course but I think the people that would might have if they were going to be um coming to board meetings a lot um it would be another option but but I do know I I remember the amount of translators that have our district that are there's a whole lot >> we've expand Lisa has done a phenomenal job expanding >> then so and then same thing sign language interpretation too so and then uh Laney's mom actually she could do it too if so I called her last second her brother was he was deaf so she knows how to sign as well um >> sorry I know that having somebody um in person would be you know I think most tangible and powerful. Um, and I know that is probably expensive,

126but um, what about having the student as like an opportunity like in Spanish class, you know, want to come and do, you know, be able to be here, do something um, for extra credit, something like that. Or in other languages, they're just thinking outside the box a little bit if they needed somebody in person. But I do think yeah I'm sure we've had a lot of um things up personally. >> Yeah, I think it I'd like to start with Lisa. I do know um there have been attempts to start an interpretation coursework through NCTA and the difficulty there is that there you need both written and verbal >> to a to a level. Not to say it's not possible, but I think that's something we would definitely want to look at. How did that work

127in >> Would it be the writing only? Because if we had multiple language going >> that could be a very that could be a challenging atmosphere. >> Yeah. So, one of the ways I've seen it happen is with uh maybe a bank of of 20 devices and so there's a there's a device that the translator would use and it broadcasts to people that that look like little walkins. And so they would come get them out of a case. We don't have that set, right? And so that other piece, the translation device we have at each of our offices actually utilizes people's phones and it would be >> it would be written. Yeah. It wouldn't be auditory. So we'd want to look at that because that could create a barrier as well. Okay. But >> I

128will start with Lisa back with the report. >> We need to make a motion. No, you just I assume you just directed me to do that. >> Okay. I have nine. Old business. >> No, I'm going to ask you back to 4260. >> 4260. I'm sorry. game. >> We have >> Yeah, pretty like there's good stuff on there. >> So, there was um it's not no um this was the item that I requested into the agenda for discussion. Um so I don't expect the board to be ins and outs but um I just wanted to bring uh policy 4260 is for the use of school facilities and as it is written currently are we looking at procedure or policy? >> This is policy. >> Yeah policy 4260. There's 4260 policy procedure and form. >> Um

129yeah there's a policy for this one. can hold up the best. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> And it sounds like um the board discussed the form and updated the form last year around February. So the the rental fees are are all updated. Um, but I bring this up because I was looking through the policy and this hasn't been the policy itself hasn't been updated since 2014. Um, so I think it would be great to have these on the same page and use the same terminology. Um, and maybe most importantly, uh, have some clarity on which organizations we do and do not want to be charging. um particularly with youth organizations at Irene Ryther. For instance, I um worked for a year and a half going back and forth with Common Threads Farms who was open

130and willing to provide a cooking club, an after school cooking club on campus at Irene Ryther. Um, but we had a lot of confusion with how to go about that administratively and who do we talk to, what forms do we need to fill out, um, what kind of insurance? And so, it took an extremely long time. And then once we got there, it was, okay, well, we have um, this falls under the category of nonprofit, which under here is category B. And so then they would be charged roughly $974 to come to our campus and use a classroom for nine weeks. One one day a week for nine weeks. And for a nonprofit organization who is surviving off of grant funding, um having their staff come to our school and then have to pay $1,000.

131um it's not feasible. So that's why it took that year and a half because the first year that's where we were at. They're like, "Sorry, we can't we don't have the money to pay your facility fees. Um let's try again next year." So um speaking with Brian, >> Brian, >> Bryant Michaelelsson um I guess it was a couple years ago now. Um, we came to an understanding then that if the program was co-sponsored by the PTA, then that would fall under category A. Um, and that would mean that the organization or the vendor does not have to pay that facility use fee. And that's huge and that that increases the opportunities for private public partnerships immensely. So since then we now had common threads come for the third year in a row now offering cooking

132club and currently we have uh Bellingham Arts Academy for youth or bay offering improv at Irene Ryder on Thursdays and they offer scholarships on the nasi basis. But I say they the vendor provides scholarships on an asy basis. Um and parents pay the vendor for these clubs. Um, so I would like to I guess the motion that I would like to make is to direct staff to look into this policy to figure out ways that we could create more accessible youth opportunities, youth programs, more accessible youth programs. kind of thing. So for clarification, the nonprofits you're addressing are charging for student participation. So that would make it, if I could for clarification, that would make it very similar to our MYAA sports programs, which does still pay the school custodial fees and usage fees because

133we have to pay people to clean up after students. >> So that would still be a consideration >> and and Jay's worked with our custodial staff. So there are things to take into consideration that there are still expenses even though they're a nonprofit. >> Ma, I'll share that. >> Yeah. No, I haven't considered that. >> How how much do they pay if sponsored by PTA? Nothing >> under category A. Correct. So this then the step is to be almost do you go to the PTA meeting and be vetted through them then? Is how did that work? Yeah, if it was done through email, but Okay. Yes. Yeah. So, then the PTA um I guess then goes to administration school and says, "Hey, here's a a program that we would like to introduce to the school."

134>> Okay. So, it wasn't that hard, right? I mean, >> just once we figured out what the steps were, then it's super easy. But >> the policy as it's written right now isn't super clear on how to move forward with that. Okay. So we want to look at how I wrote down what you said look into how to make it more accessible also considering costs and operation fees and things of that nature. But I think we do have some requirements of union position and the requirement that way that we honor those contract work that needs to be allocated to still >> versus a volunteer should >> or we can look into it. >> Does that need to be a motion? >> No. Not first. >> It would be an act because >> do we help?

135>> Next month >> or like us to have a little I want to say next meeting I'd like to have a little time to have him explore it. >> Yeah. >> Work with him as well. So I don't know when but yes we'll bring back >> but if not cost >> yeah there was a lot of thought that went into why >> any questions Okay. So, we'll talk about this later. Maybe an old business then. Uh >> it'll probably be new business if we bring it forward just like we would another but I think we want to do some investigations first. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Now we move on to open as a second review and approval u retiring the zero series and polishes procedures regards to plan. I know we talked about

136this at the last meeting. Were there any questions on that they have for retiring the series false procedures. >> So I'll need a motion for that. I'll make the motion to adopt a retiring the zeros series all season and procedures have a second. >> It's been moved and second. Is there any questions or discussion regarding that? Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I I hear it. Okay. Next on old business, second review and approval of policy 3122. excused and unexcused absences. But um the board asked me to look into letters and the the 10day letters excessive absences letters. Um we did reach out we can still best practice to communicate with families in that way but what we are exploring is can we do it through email. So we're still connecting but it'll be

137through email. Um, and parent square, >> parent square, I think Janine and Lisa have chatted and there's an obstacle there, maybe a barrier. >> Okay. >> Um, but so we're exploring that. Um, there is a attendance mark for student absence due to school. Um, and those should not necessarily count in the excessive absences. The excessive absences does include excused and unexcused absences. Um the idea being if you're missing school, you're missing school. So it's just that communication >> but there is an allocation for an educational related >> Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. I think that was it. Okay. I think so. Any questions? I need a motion. >> I'll make a motion. I'll second to adoption 3122. >> It's been moved and second. Is there any other discussion or questions? Hearing none. All those in favor?

138>> I approve. And then finally on old business section C uh second review and approval policy uh old is that detailed attachment >> according to the agenda there's procedure did we skip something >> we we asked that um 4110 be >> 4110 be removed for right now >> okay thank you sorry >> um so it was not on the agenda it izing that it was removed. >> Well, I will need a motion for policy 1111. >> I'll make a motion to approve policy 111. Second move and second discussion on that questions hearing none. All is in favor? Hi >> is the finance report budget finance report Daniel >> everyone >> these days >> what uh driving >> yeah it was a nice drive weather was very >> nice >> yeah there wasn't any snow on

139the pass or anything >> you remember that this had the best year ever it's Perfect. >> So you're just having snow in Austin and we don't >> Oh, I got you. So I'll never forget >> all of you weeks later they call closed all the schools like yeah my fault. They said it too. They could have said you should never start. Okay. Right. >> All right. So, first I'll I'll take a look at the um enrollment comparisons. So, here's January enrollment compared to December. Uh we are up two in the core program, one at one at the high school. Um MP3 um is is flat. So, a total um increase of two. Uh special ed enrollment continues to increase uh up seven from December. Um our ECAP program is full at 40 um as as

140well as the TK program. Um TK is at 43. Well, actually TK were allowed to have 44. So it's been kind of fluctuating up and down between 43 and 44. Um the running start uh it's been a busy year. Running start this year we're at and dropout engagement decreased by one. >> Is there any way you could clarify? We've talked about this before but with our special special education we've increased seven. We only had an enrollment increase of two. So, can I conclude that we just had more students now be qualified or enrolled into special special education that are already in our buildings? >> Right. Right. So, when to for a student to get on the count for special ed, that means they have an IEP that's been established for them >> and it takes

141time. >> Say, I think Erin explained it that there's that process that they have to go through. Um, Yeah. Um this is the comparison to the budget. So this this gives you a better idea um funding wise the impacts. Uh so in the core program we're up six. That's uh I down one, middle school's up four and the high school is up three. Um MP3 is up seven. Um actually we we have been hovering around 215 for a number of years. So to be up a little bit in MP3 that's um that's great and and unusual for recent times. Um special education again has has some pretty crazy numbers right now. >> Um fortunately when we budgeted for special education we tried to leave some predict some some growth there. Um, but there's still some

142additional needs um that we're considering going into next year's budget. >> So, I'm curious if you say MV3 has kind of been flat at the 2015, >> right? >> I was at the 20th anniversary and families are on a wait list. So, how how is that possible? Um, well, I imagine that's probably for the the in-person program where there's limited numbers of students that can go in each classroom. >> So, you're this is the entire >> Yeah. And so, there's kind of a maximum amount that we can serve at two days a week, you know, if we were to it would take a complete shift in the program to to add more students. If we'd had more portables and you you split them in half rather than thirds, then we'd have capacity for more and

143we'd be able I think we would we would fill the interest is there. Yeah. >> Yep. um yeah that I don't believe there's any app on the remote students that we serve and so as we get it uh more remote students we do um we do serve those uh the let's see uh again running start these are the highest numbers I've seen um so up quite a fit there. Any questions on the enrollment side of things? >> What is dropout re-engagement under running SER? >> It's either BTC's they have an impact program or it's going to be our open doors program through the CTA. I don't think it's that is it because they have their it's there in the first eight track. It's BTC. Okay. re-engagement, >> right? >> So, this is the budget projection

144report and um there's three three columns here that have been populated um with information. So, October, November, and December. um you can always see enrollment like all in one page in a snapshot which is which can be interesting. So if you want to look in this this green row here you can see uh we like we started the year at 1786 which seems to be pretty common for us. we'll we'll have a low month of enrollment at least in the last few years in September and then it then it kind of picks up to more closer to what our average will be in October. Um and you can see it's been uh you know slight growth but fairly flat um there. And then the pink will will show you what we budgeted at. Um this

145this next row is beginning fund balance um in purple. And then this top section here has our uh revenue revenue figures. Um for each each line represents a different revenue stream that the the district has. Um the local property tax, we have two months that the the more significant um October was one of those months. It's October and April and then and then you get a little bit of extra in the month following each of those months. And that that's just based on um people paying their property taxes. Uh we had 2,279,000 in October. And and again, I won't go line by line, but I'll just kind of point out some of the interesting stuff and and a little bit of on how to read this report since um Jasmine's new. The there's also this

146this row up here on the portment payment percentage. And so we don't receive our port our portionment evenly throughout the year. Um and and so it's kind of interesting to see what percentage we receive. And there's a lower percentage in October and November. And they and also um essentially what they do is they reduce the percentage that you're receiving the month after you receive your local property tax because they're assuming that districts have money and they can they can handle that cash flow adjustment. Um and then there's a big boost in July and August. really that just happened at the legislative level when they were uh faced with a budget crisis and they they wanted to move money out of one bianium to another and so it was like a one-time fix that now we're

147essentially stuck with. Um so you will see you know an uptick in your portment in those last couple months of the year. Um so any of the aortments those numbers start with the three here. Um you can see uh we received 1.5 million in October. Um almost a million in November and then 1.7 in December. Um and then you have your your state grants. Those all start with a four here. And um it's it's somewhat typical to have a couple of those not show up in September and especially since the budget reductions happened at OSPI. They're a bit slower to approve our grants and so we are getting those a little bit later in the year. Um an example of that would be the transition bilingual here. So the in September and October we didn't

148receive anything and then in November we received 100,000 and now in December we're back to like a more normal amount of 40,000. Um and then you have u any of our federal grants. Those all start with a six in this revenue code here. and they're all reimbursement basis. So that means that we have to spend the funds before we receive them. So we're there's always a a least a there's a one month lag of when you spend it and when you receive the funds and typically we don't start receiving funds until November because those grants oftent times are not approved yet. And then you'll see at the end of the year in August you end up getting two months. Um, so we'll in in August we'll make a claim for July expenditures and then in

149September we'll make a claim for August expenditures and because we're on a cruel basis accounting those funds get um acrewed back to the current fiscal year. So just something to keep a a lookout for. Um, another thing of note is all of our aortionment um that we receive from September through December is based on how we budgeted our enrollment to be and any increase or decrease in enrollment gets squared up in January. So, we're we're coming up on that that square up month and uh we'll receive a little bit of extra money, but because we're not significantly over enrollment, um it won't be, you know, huge. >> Um and then these grants that you see that start with a seven or eight, those are typically ones that we invoice for that are local grants. Um,

150so this you there's also a line that'll have total enrollment or total cash receipts. That's this one in blue that's um that's bolded here. And and then there's um under that line are expenditures and it's broken down into salary, benefits, and accounts payable. um I'll typically speak to if there's significant fluctuations in in either of those categories. Um salaries are have been a uh on pretty much average the last 3 months and um accounts payable um honestly we're trending a bit lower than average. Um December's at 302,000 that's low. Um, but we I would expect January to be higher because we only had one AP run in December and we cut that off pretty early. So, I expect a larger um accounts payable month um next month when I'm reporting that. Um total cash dispersements

151are this orange row here. Um this is and then below that is a percentage. This budget percent is if we were to spend the budget equally throughout the year, what percentage we would be at. So through December, that would be 33%. And then there's actual of where we're at. We're at 31%. And so that's that's kind of like a quick check in to see how we're doing financially. If that number is flip-flop and we're our actual is higher, it typically means something is not going as planned and we need to make some adjustments and shifts. We um we had a year like that a couple years ago kind of when the financial crisis started and then we've made a lot of adjustments to to really um fine-tune our expenditures and uh have been in alignment

152since then the last couple of years. Um then this final line is our ending fund balance in yellow and currently we're at 3.6 million. And would you explain to Jasmine um how you budget the amount that you want to end with that in the fund balance? >> Yeah. So ending fund balance um you want to have a certain percentage in there um for cash flow purposes. As you can see we're we're paying out about $3 million a month. So to be up above 3 million is a good place to be for for our size district. Um there have been situations where state funding can get delayed and so it's important for us to have enough cash on hand so we can pay our bills and and pay our staff. And so being up above 3

153million um is a more comfortable place to be. Over the last couple years, we've been working to grow that where we were in the 2 million range last year and the year before. And if you have any like major equipment breakdowns or anything like that, which we had a scare a couple years ago, um those are the types of things that if something like that came up and you didn't have enough cash on hand, that can put a district in binding conditions pretty quickly. does a really good job making sure that we're >> Yeah. We've been pretty focused on financial stability the last couple of years. >> Well, the whole district's been doing a really good job being accountable. So, >> Oh, yeah. It's it's a it's a district effort for sure. >> And back

154up on two things. And I I realized I said, "Oh, it's BTC impact." Which doesn't really tell you what that is. So, it's a program BTC has for students that are no longer engaged in high school and have not gotten a diploma. They can get high school credit. They typically don't. They don't have to meet very often, but they can also pick up AA credit, so they'll get college credit. The fact that they're engaged with BTC is a good thing. Whether it's the best fit for them or not remains to be seen and we're working on re-engagement outreach. It's one of the reasons we started an open door program here as a satellite program within CTA because they meet every day and they go through a curriculum to get a high school diploma. BTC impact

155does not make high school diploma award. And then the other piece just for everybody is we we still are running it's not much but we're running positive with enrollment. We're 1% up and I think everybody else is almost 1% down in the count. So we're not seeing the drop off like others are saying but it's still slow. >> Nope. Still good place to be being positive in the current climate. There's a lot of districts that have been just losing enrollment and having to budget more and more conservatively as far as like expecting less and less students to show up because they were having budgets where you they would have less enrollment. And that's when it gets tricky because all of your the majority of your funding is based on the enrollment that you have. And

156in the budget process, you're staffing based on expecting those revenues to come in. And if you don't have the enrollment, you have less revenue. And so you may have obligations to pay more expenditures than money that you have. Any questions on the budget projection report? So that's really um specific to the general fund. This is the the budget status report. This is something that's legally required to be included in the board reports and so that will always be there. Um, this first page is the general fund. That's where we do most of our business. Um, and again that budget, this spreadsheet, the budget projection report is the same information but with more detail. So I don't typically spend um any time on the general fund. and then then I'll just go through kind of big

157information um for the other funds. Um this is October's uh we have a a capital projects fund and um there's a technology levy that's included in that capital projects fund. So, anytime you see the general fund receiving a high amount of higher amount of tax for the year, you'll see the same thing for the capital projects fund. And those monies the um that's the technology levy. So, we received 406,000 in technology levy funds um in October. Um for that technology levy uh we run all the expenditures in the general fund throughout the year and then we do a transfer from the capital projects tip fund to the general fund to cover those expenditures. Uh the debt service fund the purpose of this fund is to collect taxes to pay our bonds. That's that's all it

158does. And so if we issue a bond, um those monies will go to pay for a specific project and then we will levy um basically the exact amount of money that we need to pay those bonds each year. Um we received 531,000 in uh bond levy um taxes um in October. And so the ending fund balance in October was $1.5 million in the the um debt service fund. Uh then we have the ASB fund. This is um this is a fund that we have um activity at the high school and the middle school. Um it's basically there's this thing called the cars criteria. Cultural, recreational, athletic, uh uh social. So it falls within one of those four categories. And there's various clubs. Um the high schools is a bit more elaborate. They have they have

159more funds more clubs and they do more fundraising. at the middle school. Um, they just do like one large fundraiser to help support their ASB. There isn't typically a lot of things to talk about uh when going through ASB finances. >> Then we again, sorry, what was that acronym? Cultural >> cars, cultural, athletic, recreational, and social. >> Thank you. So, it's like non-curricular stuff. You can't have anything that a student, you can't pay for anything out of ASB that a student is receiving a grade on. Um, and then the the final fund here is the transportation vehicle fund. And the purpose of the transportation vehicle fund is to buy new buses or you can do major bus repairs. We don't ever um use it for that. It's more if we have a a repair for

160a bus. Um it's more of a minor repair that comes that is paid for in the um out of our transportation budget out of the general fund. Um, so what happens is we buy a bus and it goes on a depreciation schedule and then the state pays us back for the base value of that bus over the useful life of that bus. So it's pretty important that you have all of your buses in your fleet on that schedule. And then when a bus goes off of the schedule, you want to sell that bus and get a new bus because that's how you continue to get more revenue and have working like a a newer working fleet. >> That that depreciation schedule might increase to was it 15 years from 13 to 15 and was that

161going to be decided at this legislation? >> It's the governor's proposed budget. So, >> okay. >> Whether it gets traction with the legislature, we'll see. But it's one of the >> Yeah, that would that'd be pretty lame. >> Yeah. Because I mean that was 54. >> Yeah. It's It's frustrating. >> It would it would make it so all of our buses are older and it would take longer to to be able to buy new buses. we would it would be an immediate reduction in the amount of money that we were would receive in the transportation vehicle fund. So it could it could throw a wrench in, you know, how quick we're quickly we are able to replace our buses and and that's like it's pretty it's planned out in the future like 13 years like

162this the schedule that we that we run and we've worked hard to to have that schedule in a healthy place where we're receiving a couple of buses each year where 20 years ago Meridian wasn't in a place in a very good place in regards to our fleet and and we had buses that were not on the schedule, so we weren't receiving money and and we had to run some leases to get all the buses back on the schedule. Now, enough time has gone past that those buses have all have fallen off and been replaced and we've been trying to replace them a couple buses a year um to spread that out because there was um like eight buses that we bought all at once and so now we're replacing them every a couple every year.

163>> Costs are just going to go up too because the longer you have something >> Yeah. It's not a good >> It would not be a good thing for schools that goes through. >> Um this in October there is um something to go over. We had two new buses. So there's 30 331,000 in expenditures there. Um there's 268,000 remaining in the in the transportation vehicle fund. And we did just receive a bus. So we the and the buses have they take about 18 months to to receive them. You order them and it's about a year and a half before you receive that bus. And so it's you have to plan very far in advance. Um sometimes you can get lucky and they have exact like they may have an extra one in inventory that meets

164your specs and they can get that to you quickly, but that's kind of few and far between. We have one more bus coming because of that like um just it taking so long. It used to be about a year precoid and now it's bumped up to about a year and a half. So we just received the last bus we had on order in January. So you'll see that expenditure coming up which will um kind of wipe out most of what we have in the TVF fund. uh we receive funding the depreciation revenue once a year. That's in August. And so that's kind of the bump up. So you want to time your orders so you receive those buses in the fall. U which we've done a pretty good job on. Uh November there wasn't really

165anything standing out to go over. I did want to pull up one thing in December. um that's under the debt service fund. So we we make payments on our bonds twice a year. On December 1st, uh we have a principal and interest payment. Um and then we have an intereston payment on June 1st. We made a payment of 1,254,000. um on December 1st. Uh we're running towards the end of these bonds. These are 2010 bonds and so we're seeing like a a good amount of principal being paid off. Uh 1,95,000 in principal and then the interest was 159,900. Um and then that brings us down every time we make a payment it typically brings us down in the between three and $400,000 range. Um, and then we collect those pay the um the taxes up

166until we make the payment and then it kind of brings us back down to that level. That was all I had tonight. >> Thanks for the color codings. We try to keep it consistent too. >> Yeah. My pleasure. It's good to be here. >> Line. Sorry. >> Sure. So on the U like the budget status report >> that'll always be fun >> which is ASB. >> Okay. I just did like a quick search for that next page. Oh, it would be it would probably say associate student body. >> Oh, I see it. >> There we go. >> Okay. Thank you, Dan. On to superintendent report, >> Dr. Everett. So, I'll talk about this picture in a minute, but this is our >> You've been busy so far this year. 296 has been busy. >> That's

167right. Yeah. This is uh Laurel Valley. >> It's been great seeing you across the stand just >> appreciate that. Yeah, it's been good. This was a that was a good event. So, a few things to report on. Um, we held our monthly superintendence meeting and we talked about feedback on fun schools now and how that was really a positive situation um, in terms of community coming out being able to talk about all of our financial circumstances for Meridian Blaine and Mel Baker. Um, and it got good press across the state and then Marty and I went to the uh, conference and then it was talked about at the conference as well. We also talked about preparing for the legislative conference. Um we didn't have many districts in the county attend. Um we had some and

168then we had an earlonged conversation about Wacom Discovery. Um and this is a program that uh it's a cooperative that is designed to be smaller in nature staff of personnel who are trained and equipped to serve elementary, middle, and high school students experiencing significant social, emotional, behavioral difficulties. We typically have one to two slots. Do we have three slots? Two slots now. >> I think we're at >> three to three. >> Three. >> I think we're at three. What that means is we pay ahead to preserve space so that we can have three students served in that program. The reason why we had a conversation is because we wanted to be aligned as superintendent with the um directors of our special ed programs and understand what the ESD was doing in their management of Wacom

169Discovery. Why that matters is we've seen an uptick in the population at Wacom Discovery. They typically were 28 to 30 and they've ballooned up to 50. >> Wow. that follows the closing of Scadget Discovery which was also managed but they had leadership issues and for student safety they closed that program and what we heard in this meeting the ESD was represented what we heard is that they are working to try and reestablish um and they also heard from us saying that we pay into a service and a and a place to support students that we want that um quality of service preserved And so, um, more to come on that. I think one of the things that they're having difficulty in the Scadget realm is they would really like it to be a school like

170a closed school or elementary school and they're having a hard time locate that. So, um, >> so what happens to our funding that's going towards that? >> Well, we haven't run into difficulty being able to serve our kids, but we wanted to make sure that we had a conversation before we got to that point. And I think it sent a message that said we're paying attention. We want to make sure we don't lose options for our kids, you know. So, it's just something we want to make sure that we're we're watching and they recognize um the ESD recognizes that we appreciate the way that they've provided the service and we think that the leadership at the Walker Discovery Facility is quite excellent. they've been working really hard and this isn't a reflection on the work

171that they've done, but it is a concern about what's the prolonged circumstance and so that was a a major conversation that we had. Um I mentioned that the legislative conference and so um director Ray joined me here. We had several speakers in sessions that really circled around the concept of lack of revenue. And I want to be clear, there is a lot more revenue in the state than there ever has been. The spending is the issue. And so the prioritization of education issues is where we're seeing that we aren't going to have funding. So the overall operating budget's projected to be a $2.5 billion shortfall. When we look at the operation of educational funding in 2019, the overall budget, 52% of that was going to education in the state. Now it's 43%. So a common

172thing you'll hear from some legislators is, "Oh, we're we're putting lots of money towards education. We're putting more in than we've ever done before. And that's true, but with respect to the total amount, it's less. It's about 43%. So inflation, you know, all the different things that talk about the operation operation or the operating budget, excuse me, um, in its increase, the share of it going to K12 because K12 expenses have gone up as well. It's smaller. And so, um, there were conversations about what we know about the big three where we talk about MSOC and we talk about transportation, we talk about special ed, um, levy levy equalization. We had representative uh, RDE and Gerguson there. They talked about the governor's proposal to cut TK by 25%. Um, they had sessions on how to

173communicate needs to your community. um a lot of really good information, but what it's going to boil down to is being present in Olympia and weighing in. I've have already weighed in on early learning. We've sent letters as as I've shared with you earlier. Um so, we have really good support from our local legislators. Um but they are three of the larger group and and they don't all sit on education committees. So, um we just have to keep keep pressing. I don't know if you have anything you want to share. >> When I was in Blue Dam Seattle, I think the biggest frustration that I heard mostly from so not from us is you know don't don't start coming out with unfunded mandates like oh you got to do this but we're not going to

174give you any money to do it and I heard that a lot from you know different schools 1A schools 4A schools you know don't give us unfunded mandates. One thing that I was if I say the negative comment I got is some of the state legislators saying you know unfortunately we're going to make making some decisions that aren't going to be popular with pair you know but like they're laying groundwork a lot of them but I always had that graph you show me you were playing the 53 and it's not worth but um yeah that analogy of the town hall it's like you know what I'm saying here's $500 >> yeah you get to get to Chicago. I don't care how you get there. You got 500 bucks to do it. And so you don't

175need maybe take a bike, but as long as you get there, that's all. And I was like, that's not realistic, right? You know, you're taking away from kids, families of the future. Yeah, it was it was I I found a little more frustrated, but we're making a voice. That's the important thing. >> Wounding I'll send the I'll send it's called wfunding.org. or and it's a a group of associations in the state that has captured some of the major issues and why we're in a funding crisis and has some good graphics talks about overall budget and how how it's shrunk. Well, it seems that it's not across the board experience through five. Like we're fairing better than some of our other district schools from reporting and then you probably have your schools in more affluent areas

176of Seattle that have no idea there's a shortage in funding it. So it's not across the board your experiences within this group. >> Yeah. And and to your to your point actually a lot of people a lot more people are paying attention to the the funding crisis because you have a Belleview that would fall in a more affluent area that's in binding conditions. Right. So it is it it is hitting everywhere in terms of the lack of funding and then we have issues where they increase the capacity for districts to go out to their communities and get more levy funding. Right? And that's some things some communities can do and some things other communities cannot do. Right? And so then the question becomes will they do a levy equalization where districts who have less will

177get some more support and then that becomes an increase to the state. So um none of it's easy and kids are kids are being impacted. They're they're balancing the budget on the backs of kids. >> Literally anyone who listened to me, I will tell them the TV tray story from >> Yeah. >> And that's been getting home with folk is not about mismanagement. They are not providing enough funding for schools to operate >> and that's just blame. I mean that could be going on all throughout the state, >> right? That's just what we know in our >> because at the states conference they talked about Yeah. up in walking county they had a town hall which is very but they spoke about how that found the thing so I'm sure that we're just the one

178that actually reported the key in terms all over the state could be even worse >> we can give examples of that in our own way of using closets for offices and in of middle school and you know things of that nature >> just Yeah, >> we could start making our own list, >> right? >> Sure. >> And send that to light pole. >> Michelle, for anybody who might not know about TV tray or anybody listening online, do you want to tell the story about Blink's TV tray situation? >> Oh, I don't think I could. It was it was at the the classroom was at capacity unable to house additional desks and so the the number of students within classroom they had to resort to using just a chair and a TV tray for their learning

179space >> because they couldn't put another desk inside the room >> and what's that classic 37 I can remember something >> wow >> get to like a lecture type Paul for learning >> right >> not classroom pulling like in our school pulling students into the comments >> so we will continue a followup on that is and you'll see on the calendar but um we have several districts that are going to join uh we're actually Logan and Marty and I are going to go down on the 29th that's advocacy day we'll go on the hill we have meeting with all three of our legislators at 3:30 :30 in the afternoon. Um, also we'll be uh meeting earlier on behalf of WSRP and that ledge group to talk about ways to cut cost of insurance. So, we'll

180be down there on the 29th. On the 14th, we had an NCTA advent council meeting. And just uh some of this is really Jasmine because of of you being new, but um we partner we've been good partners with NCTA. We host some programming on our campus. um fire science, allied health, open doors and welding. Um the consortium member districts for NCTA are Mount Vernon, Burlington Edison, Anacortis, Concrete, Cedar, Woolly, Lconor, Scadget Valley College, and then Meridian and Bellingham. Meridian and Bellingham are the only two Walker County schools or school districts. Scadget Valley College used to have students come over and take courses at NCTA because they're on the same campus. They don't anymore. Um they went through uh some things that they've been doing with some student le conferences and really partnering with uh other

181spill centers to make sure that the way that they're sharing with their families about the things that they're doing um are valued. Um in the enrollment report both in Rian and Bellingham constitute 75 students. It's fairly balanced. I think uh 38 to 40 are Bellingham and that we make up the other the other half. Blaine Lynon and Nside Valley constitute 17 students. Um that's of interest to me as we talk about moving to the Waka County School and having greater enrollment from all Walker County districts. Right. Um there's a little bit about uh the chicken and the egg. what programs do you provide to get interest before you actually have a facility to house them? Um, and then how do you get the funding from the state to build it to be able to have

182more programs than what you have? So, um, I'm making a case for early childhood ed to have that come in this next year. Um, we'll see what happens. It depends on student interest. And so, um, enrollment for next year is February 14th. Our principles and counselors know that one of the things that was shared is that AASA uh which is the superintendent the national superintendent association they have a redefining ready cohort which falls directly in line with the work we're doing around what we want as a springboard for students. So college ready, career ready, life ready indicators. The premise is that students deserve a balanced approach to success that honors the multiple pathways to meaningful lives. The effort is to learn strategies where career college and life readiness aren't competing but are complimentary to holistic

183student development. So, some of the things that they have as they talk about expanded work-based learning opportunities, access to college pathways within their high school, dual credit opportunities, NCTA and skill centers offer dual credit. Um, and you don't have to have that exclusively. You can have a combination of college and high school and skill center programming as well. Um, strengthen executive functioning skills. They talk about neurode divergence and being able to provide opportunities for students to um work in environments they're not used to working in um and ensure students have life skills necessary for independent living, financial management, career navigation. So they have an actual summit in Mansfield, Texas, and they are doing a showcase of their early learning program and their shared time centers as exemplars. And so there's an opportunity for any of

184the um consortium member districts to send a representative to see those in action. NCTA is what's called a shared time center. So if we go back east, skill centers are cons are considered uh youth prison places. So the the terminology is different. So when you hear shared time center, it means skill center over here. Um but I'm checking I know that the chair because of our investment in early learning program, I'm interested, but because the the chair is interested, we're checking on what that would cost to see what that would what would be involved there. Um, I did go and enjoy Whoops. enjoy the unified basketball game on the 14th and that was a close game. It was 4244 at the end. Not one, but yeah. But it was great. Everybody cheering both ways. And

185>> there might be one I think is Friday night. >> Friday. I don't miss I did. Yeah, they're so great. So, >> what time? >> Seven. >> I had correction. I had clarification on that. >> Okay. Okay. >> Miss at 7 o' >> good. And then um one of my roles with ASA as a as a liaison um with WASA. We meet online once a month for region one. region one is all your west coast states um Alaska Nevada um white Montana Idaho you know the states um and so we come together to talk about what's happening and what are we looking at and one of the things that we have is we have access to AASA's um congressional legislative representative um Sasha Pedeski and she says that we we should expect to get similar

186federal funding that we've received in the past. However, we should not expect it to come on time. Congress has to approve the aortionment for schools in the country by January 30th, which happens to also coincide with the time that they need to fund Congress or fund the government. Um, and so on one hand, it was good. Uh, she also said, "Don't be surprised if there's some small cuts, but just for context for us, federal is about $600,000 in our annual budget. Is that correct, Dana? >> Um, don't like it's more like a million, >> is it?" >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, significant. Okay. So what she said is the effort of the current administration to dismantle the department of ed is disruptive. So even though we should get the funding don't expect it to happen

187on time which means we then have to use our portion in July is difficult and so in any case um we have our work cut out for us. Um you know we also did some discussions about the national education conference in February. And my last slide uh things coming up. So tomorrow and Friday um this is interesting. So out of 295 districts we have 28 or fewer superintendents with eight years or more experience. >> Wow. >> Been huge turnover the last four or five years. And so WASA has has collected a group of people to be mentors to new superintendents and it's some specific training and so I feel honored to be part of that group but I'm going to be in Reton for that and then on Mon Sunday and Monday um the risk

188pool has their annual board meeting and legislative meeting and then um we will go down on the 29th as I described earlier for IC advocacy. have a board meeting here on the 4th. And then I reported a couple meetings ago, I think in November, that Rep. Timmons uh from the 42nd and Rep. Santos, who is the chair of the education committee for the House, we met at the Bellingham Library representatives from district um districts in Walom County to talk about the lack of mental health supports and the loss of funding. And so there is a lunch meeting to have significant individuals from districts be present and engage in how maybe we can put plugs in the holes that we're anticipating. So that's that's happening on the 6th and then I am attending the the National

189Education Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Um and as a reminder that's a that's a link to the AASA role I have with WASA. Um, I go also in July and that gets paid for through AASA. They fund that in July. Um, and then locally, MP3 had their 20th anniversary yesterday. So, we're saw that. Appreciate you being there, Michelle. Thank you. And then, um, happy to report we had our first steering committee meeting today for the early learning center. >> And so, that's pretty exciting. um the architects lead a lot of that work and have community engagement is one of the things we're going to be working on a design team. I do want you all to know and and this will come up again. Wacom early learning center well is what we've been calling as early

190learning center. There is already in existence for many years a Wacom center for early learning. early on in this whole effort two and a half, three years ago. They were pretty offended that we used that. Didn't know at the time. And we already started a federal grant through Senator Murray and we cannot change that name until we expend those funds or we won't be able to reimburse. So, we're not going there. But one of the things we'll do at the end of this process is we'll have a name a naming scheme. We don't want to get bad partner. >> So, So, welcome early learning center works for now and it'll be something that they'll want to go through some process to change that. As a reminder, we are not running this early learning center. We're

191going we're going to be putting out RFQS for somebody to run it. So, it'll be running it, but we will have the ability to name it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. We already have a naming convention that we >> I have no idea, but we can look into it. Yeah, >> it would be great. >> Okay, thank you. >> Hey, Dr. Everett, how far members had to go to work? I guess they got day jobs, too. Information from board directors. We >> got some fun dates coming up. responds. As we talked about earlier, uh Laurel Valley will be playing a unified game on Friday at 7:00 against Lake. >> Is that at home? >> It's at home. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Uh this weekend, we've got our cheerleaders heading to Belleview uh for state qualifiers.

192So, this is their last chance. Hoping that works out. Um and senior night recognitions are coming up. So January 30th, we've got boys basketball and girls cheer. And on February 3rd, we have girls basketball. So as always, it be great to see folks there to support our graduating seniors as they wrap up Mother Stevens. Yeah, I talked to Brian last some good news. So, we had a Winter Storm Classic basketball game about the tournament for the day after Christmas. In fact, last night after paying all the bills and everything that we secured enough money to get new scoreboard gym, >> that's good. Goal, right? >> That was the goal. And so I mean several I mean several different people I mean Brian you know Brian was you know the women master the whole thing there's

193several people in the community donated their time donated their wages so forth so and then maybe say Brian did say the good news he said talk to you go get three bids he says fortunately he says the lowest bid that came in was a scoreboard that I wanted to get >> and and the scoreboard I didn't want to get was the highest bids that I was right something like that. Yeah, the star is aligned. Everything worked out. But he says the tournament was successful >> without having to get funds from district or anything like that. The fundrais when it would be in he didn't actually give me >> he did check on to uh the curtain for the south gym that southside you know just to have that little run coming at us. we get

194about 3,000 all of us. Right now, we're deciding to budget. And to your point, it's like how how often will we need that curtain throughout the year? You know, if it's only for like three days out here, you know, if if it is, but it's a lot. >> Yeah. So, >> Oh, the curtain doesn't work right now. >> We don't have one at all. >> The south, >> we're talking about bright right. They're coming in through. >> Oh, that's what you're talking about. >> Certain times every morning like the 11:00 game is just what it comes through. If if you're on if you're the team on the board and you're looking south, I mean the reflection off the floor, you can't even coach your team. So, you got but but it's only there for like

195a couple hours, right? >> It's a shiny floor. There you go. >> It's very warm in there. So anyway, but it's something that he did say he's going to continue to look into. He there's a local family or some of that actually has business and stuff like that that possibly in time to look for some donation donation of work and time or maybe next year if we do strong class. That's one of the items. Was that Steve? >> Yeah, Steve Holy. So anyway, but hats off to Bryant and then and all the community members that you know put in the time. I mean they stayed around help Bryant clean up the clean the stands, take out the trash, everything like that. So it was a community effort. So I thought it was pretty big. >>

196Yeah. >> Okay. Uh that's it. Otherwise we have the signature of our physical documents and our meetings. >> Yes. Buddy.