001Okay, it's 6:00. If everybody could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, has everybody on the board had a chance to review the agenda? I move that we approve tonight's agenda. I second the motion. All in favor? Aye. Okay, we have an agenda and moving on to the superintendent's report, Mr. Jesse. Thank you, Board President Wielander, other board directors, student representatives, staff, community members. I will start off this morning. I was able to take a visit to Choice. I had Directors Gilmore and Davidson join me. It was really nice to get out to Choice. I know I've mentioned many times before that is
002a completely transformed school. Really went through the kind of the start of the morning and a lot of things going on. I even heard Bruni's announcement. It's quite a quite an announcement, but just getting great opportunity to get out in the classroom, seeing the students engaged in their learning. I I know our conversation really was around those students are doing a lot of work at that particular school and their journeys are quite involved. I know many of the staff even here in attendance would know these students. It's been miraculous to sit there and watch them be leaders of their own learning. It's really empowering and the relationship that the staff there have with the the students is also um, just a rewarding opportunity to see that. Lots of things um, going on for them and
003a lot of promise. Graduation coming up and I know a lot of kids are getting ready for their choices and with all the work that there's going on there, um, I know that their futures are looking pretty bright um, given all the work that's been going on um, specifically at Choice. Um, second topic, uh, I know uh, one of the hot topics is related to budget and particular staffing. Um, understanding that what is on the agenda is a proposal, a board resolution to do a reduction in force. Our hope is to not go ahead and reduce our staffing. That is not something we're looking to do. Um, but it is also part of our responsibility when there is a decrease uh, that we are experiencing in enrollment. Um, we've dropped in enrollment this year. Um,
004it started last year and um, can continue to drop. Uh, not only just in relations to the birth rate here in Washington state, uh, but also just around um, immigration, which is one of the we are one of the immigration centers um, and that's how we've drawn in a lot of our enrollment over the last 15 years. So, uh, couple that with the cuts to K-12 education um, by the state ledge. Uh, the latest being um, literally the match dollars for the levy. Um, so when high needs districts uh, pass their levies, the state does matching dollars. The state ledge this time decided to cut a percentage of those dollars. It will equate to about $400,000. Um, that's definitely an impact. So, our job is to have a balanced budget and to also look and
005try to maintain services. I think attrition should take care of it. Um but these particular times where we have shifts in funding and also in enrollment, um this is part of doing our due diligence and hopefully before May 15th, we do not have to do a riff. So, I get the advocacy. Um I understand the urgency and I'm hoping folks understand about the need to have a balanced budget and um most certainly managing our tax dollars. Last one is summer program. Uh running summer program again, our dates are June 22nd through June July 23rd. Really excited about this opportunity for students in grade 2nd through 6th, so that's current 2nd graders to current 6th graders. We will also run a pre-algebra class, so those students going from 8th to 9th that need that. I know
006the teachers will be reaching out specifically to all of those students um who are candidates for that. Uh some part of the summer program. Excited about it. We had a lot of students last year, really good attendance um and rewards for those students um and their achievements around uh specifically reading and writing and also completing the pre-algebra class. I believe almost all of the students that attended last summer's pre-algebra course um passed the first two tries of algebra. I think we only had one I believe one student who did not, so um kudos to them. I think it's 17 out of 18 is the number. Um and then uh we'll have high school credit recovery. So, high school credit recovery most districts operate that, we do too. So, we'll continue to operate that. Those dates
007for credit recovery and the pre-algebra class will also be from again June 22nd to July 23rd. Parent-teacher conferences are coming up. We'll be engaging uh folks. We're getting out in front of this as early as possible to definitely make sure that we fill all our seats. Breakfast and lunch will be provided and we will also have transportation as needed. So, excited to have that program. It's something very much um part of getting our students to grade level. So, with that, that will conclude my comments. Thank you very much. All right, thank you. Good stuff. Uh on to community comments. As part of the regular school board meeting, the board welcomes community members to make public comments in person and or by phone as conditions allow. Please see the full script with call-in instructions and guidelines
008for community comments displayed on the screen above. Our first up will be Brenda Mink. >> [snorts] >> I have been a community member now for almost 7 years. Um have not been very directly involved with the school district, but have paid attention to what I see. Um and I have been a person that ever since I was old enough to vote, I have always supported EMS and schools. Always. They never have the funding they should, and that's always the first place that gets cut. This year, when the levy came up, I had to think long and hard. I almost voted no because I really have some concerns with what I'm seeing from the school district. Before Mr. Jesse, I believe you're the superintendent, before your time, the previous superintendent, when he left, retired, I believe,
009he left with a balanced budget. And that is not the case anymore, and that is very troubling. Okay, when money started getting more than tight, putting it nicely, um a year ago, I heard talks of riffing staff at that time. And it troubled me. I wasn't sure that other places in the budget had been thoroughly examined yet. But the offer came out, to my understanding, that Mr. Jesse said put out an offer to the I'm not sure if it was just the teachers or the teachers and the paras that if they would take a salary cut, voluntary salary cut, that he would also take a salary cut. The numbers that I heard at that time were if teachers and took and possible paras took a 2% cut, he would take between a 3 and 5%
010cut. That is not what happened. The teachers didn't agree with it, which I agree with them. Okay? So they didn't take a pay cut. Staff was riffed. But then, my understanding, sir, is you got a significant pay increase, which is wrong. If the school district is already in that much financial trouble, no household increases their budget if their income has not changed. So I have a real issue with you getting a pay increase. I'm like to know if you are living in the district still, or are you still living in Seattle in your home there? You had a rental home here. I don't know how long the board has had that policy, but I think you need to stick to it. It's in his contract that if he's going to work here >> Thank you.
011he needs to live here. I'm sorry, was that my time? That's your time. Okay. Well, I'm against riffing teachers again. That's not where the money needs to come from. There are other places. >> enough. Thank you. Lauren Hay. I'm probably butchering the name here. Last name is Hay or May. Okay. And last, Nick Sanders. >> [snorts] [clears throat] [snorts] [sighs] >> Good evening. My name is Nick Sanders and I'm speaking on behalf of the Shelton Education Association. We understand that the decisions in front of you aren't easy. There are real pressures around budget and enrollment and we don't take that lightly. Tonight we're asking you to consider what a reduction in force would mean, not just on paper, but in our classrooms and across our community. Just weeks ago our community showed up for our
012schools and passed the levy. A central message of that was of that effort was clear, support students, protect programs, and maintain staffing. People believed that and they trusted that what they were being told would hold true. So, what happens next matters. If we move forward with a riff for the same year, it is not read as a routine adjustment. It raises questions about follow through and what that and when that happens, it becomes harder to sustain the level of community support our schools depend on. We also don't have to speculate about the impact of a riff. We're living it right now. Class sizes are larger, teachers are taking on more, the time available for individual students is more limited. Our educators are doing what they always do, adapting and carrying that load, but it is
013a heavy year. The strain is noticeable and it is affecting the day-to-day experiences in our buildings, even if students don't always see it. I was taking I was talking with one of our teachers recently who described a class of 32 students, several of whom are struggling. They said, "I know exactly what those students need, but I just don't have the time or resources to give it to them." That's the reality behind this conversation. Students do not learn well from a stressed-out teacher. When teachers are stretched too thin because of larger class sizes or ongoing uncertainty, they cannot teach to their full potential. Our teachers will help will keep trying, giving everything they have each day, but there are limits to what can be sustained and when those limits are pushed, the impact shows up in
014the classroom experience for students. Moving forward with another riff would not just repeat these conditions, it would intensify them. Even larger classes, less time for meaningful instruction, and diminished capacity to support students at the level we know they need. So before you vote, we're asking you to be very clear about what this decision represents. This is not just about staffing numbers or balancing a budget. It is about the kind of educational experience we're offering our students and the message we are sending to our community. The decision will show them what that promise actually meant, not in words but in action. It will define what teaching and learning look like in Shelton moving forward. What teacher do you want in the classroom? Thank you. Okay, on to reports and recognitions, our highly capable presentation with Adrienne
015Minary and Chelsea Cornwall Brady. Good evening, esteemed board president, other board members, student board representatives, and Superintendent Jesse. I'm here tonight to present our highly capable services plan, as I do each year, to share out what we're doing. I've invited my co-director with me here to help share some of the exciting things that are going on at the high school level. So, we do follow state guidelines, which are actually a little bit complicated for the referral process. I think in a good way, because it allows us to recruit more children for this for these services. So, we open a referral window. Anyone is welcome to fill out a referral, community member, a student themselves. We did have that happen last year, which is pretty exciting. I thought that was a good point of advocacy. And
016obviously, families can fill out those referrals. We notify staff and families of the window via multiple ways, emails, our newsletters, we send home take home letters. We try and time it so that um families are able to be notified at conferences as well during that time. We post it to the website and via our social media outlets. The other exciting thing that we do here um because we we get a certain number of referrals, but uh it just depends year to year on the number of those that we get, but we also do what we call universal screening for second and fifth grade. So, we um do a short assessment and look at available data for those students to identify students who may not have been referred, but are demonstrating through their performance that they
017might qual- that having this identification might benefit them. So, uh continuing through the ins and outs of this process, so students identified through screening and referral, so those two different ways of getting pushed through this process, then take the CogAT. We were a little delayed this year um just the company delayed in sending it to us, so we got pushed back by a month for when we're giving it, but we got it worked out with them. We have it, and so it we're still going to be able to do it ahead of spring testing. Uh and then our multidisciplinary team meets to review uh the information. We do look at multiple objective criteria, so we don't want to make a decision based on one test, how somebody did on one thing one time. Um we
018also take into account uh other factors. We obviously look at the referrals when we have them and information from the teachers and what they provide. Uh and we look at other interesting things. Like, for example, did the the exit more quickly from EL services, meaning that they acquired multiple languages quickly, which is an identifier that could indicate that somebody was um performing at that level. And then some of the services that we offer are here. You can see with differentiation our project-based learning, clustered classroom placements at K8, and some pretty exciting advanced coursework in high school. So, I was very pleased to bring this number to tonight. You can see this graph that I've added to each year for the last few years, and we are now above the number of students identified that we
019were pre-pandemic. So, that took a lot of work and collaboration. I'm also really grateful to some of the people that you don't see, but who are behind the scenes, who do our coordination with student records for um our feeder districts, so that we're making sure that students hang on to that qualification as they move into our schools, because um they might be moving someplace where they're not as well known. And so then that's in their records, so when then we're having conversations with counselors, it's right there. Um you can see here the uh what I was just speaking about at K8, and then I'd like to invite Chelsea to talk about some of the exciting things we're doing in the high school. Thank you. Um I put a graphic up there of our course catalog,
020which is available on our school district website. If you haven't had an opportunity to look, I encourage you to. That's been the work over the last couple of years getting aligned across the three high schools, and you can really see all of the opportunities um that students have available to them. So, in regards to our advanced coursework opportunities, we have pre-AP classes in ELA, as well as AP courses. We also have some honors classes, um and then we also have been expanding our college in the high school opportunities. And so that just started a couple years ago, and now we are up to over 50 credits, college credits that students can earn while still in high school. Um so we're continuing to grow those opportunities, and those classes are filling up. So students are taking
021full advantage of that. Um they still can go to running start. There's some other advanced CTE pathway courses. Uh so we're just continuing to layer on. And because this is new, I just wanted to lay it out in here for you. You can see college in the high school. We are growing that. Um students are coming back to us from running start. They really want to be part of the comprehensive school campus and still earn college credit. It doesn't require the AP test in the spring. They're actually able to register for that credit ahead of time and complete it at the end of the class as opposed to trying to complete it in the spring. So we are continuing to add more courses. We're working with um Central and SPSCC. And so we're really excited
022to be able to offer these opportunities to students. Um we do have small group guidance in K-6. There are modules available from OSPI for clock hours. Uh we do provide PD at um our middle levels, and then the AP uh courses come with training for those teachers. So with that, I'll open it up to see if there are any questions. The highly capable program has expanded greatly since I was in school so many years ago. So that's wonderful for me to see. Uh now you're screening at second grade. So does that mean services are available for them as early as third grade then? Services are available We can identify as early as kindergarten. So, what that is is it's about really at that age making sure that we do those clustered classroom placements that really
023facilitate small group instruction because that way if there's you know, a group rather than one there's a group of kids that you can place together who are perhaps reading an advanced text or you know, reading a couple grade levels above or you could provide that advanced work in other areas. Yeah, so we're actually our screening kids that young this this age in the referral. Thank you. It's it's exciting to see that growth from about 100 to 130 I think if I remember those numbers right. Yeah, I think we were when I started here we were at 64. >> Wow. And so is that just the direct intentional effort to communicate and to do that multi-level screening and parent communication? I think there's a few things. I we started the screening when I got here so
024and then added a grade level so now we do second and fifth. So that was able to identify quite a few more kids. The collaboration with the um our feeder districts because that I mean that would you know, that's a loss if the if the it doesn't follow you from where you were to where you are now so that was another thing. Um is there any data on post high school those in the high cap program in terms of you know, success not just college but you know, life success? That's I could we could look at that together. I have a high cap group that I monitor in our student data system which is called Home Realm. So I monitor I just pulled it up the other day to look at um grades because we
025were doing some look at grades at the older grade levels but then um performance on our benchmark assessments and as you can imagine they by and large are doing quite well. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. I had a question just about I guess how it actually works in K through 6. So, at whatever grade they're identified is that then the kid, the parents know, the teacher knows, the counselor knows what types of pull-outs or group type of Can you give us an example of what that looks like in any one of those grade levels that are K through 6? Yeah. So, we notify principals in the spring and trying to do it ahead of when they do classroom placements. It is we work on that really hard. Sometimes the company delays sending us these tests and
026it's so I think I've got us up now so that we're going to get to we'll squeak in time to do that again this year. And then we do we have a small group block built into our master schedule at every grade level starting at kindergarten. So, there is some walk to to that for like for example in our fourth grade and third and fourth grade in some of our schools they have divided up groups so that kids are kind of moving between spaces in that small group time. Um just worked a little bit better at that grade level. In K2 they more stay in their classrooms and push-in supports go in. So, that for example there can be two or three adults keeping kids moving and providing targeted instruction whether it's below grade level,
027on grade level, or above grade level. And the other cool thing that I'll just want to point out just cuz I'm really proud about it is our book rooms here at Mountain View. They've been doing a lot of work on that. So, that for example if you were a kindergarten teacher and you had kids a small group reading at a second or third grade level, you just go to the book room, check out books, bring the small group set down to your classroom, and um and provide that instruction to your kids. And I'm really thankful to um Christine Chamberlain and Tiffany Skogstad for uh doing a lot of work around that. That's great. Thank you for telling me about that. I also do appreciate the work you're doing with the partner or with our community
028schools like Southside, Hood Canal, identifying those kids and keeping track of them all the way through. And I do really appreciate all the offerings up at the high school now that are There's a lot of different opportunities for kids to stretch and grow, get college credit or certifications. I think all of those things are are fantastic. So, thank you. Thank you. We just did a comparison actually with a district that's twice our size, and we rounded them out. We were. It was very Yes, we are. Um what kind of uh guidance do you get from like Central Washington or uh SBCC um as far as how [clears throat] you have to design those the curriculum to make sure that they are getting the credits and then can slide that into college? I can report back
029more on this um if you have more specific questions about it, um but the people who are teaching college in the high school are partnering with the college and are provided specific curriculum. Um students actually register for that college at the beginning of the course, uh and then as they pass that class, they're they're given the credit. So, um the instructor is partnering with the college. Okay. Thank you. Um super impressed with the enrollment. It's good job, guys. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Anything else? Okay. Thanks. And budget update with Mr. Sherman. Good evening. Do you have it? You know you have the clicker? Oh, got it. Uh good evening Board of Directors. I want to walk through our um regular budget updates and we'll go a little deeper in what happened legislatively and how
030that impacts us uh and some things that we're already dealing with this year uh from impact. So, the slide that everyone gets to see, hopefully they like as much as I do. Uh again, the dash lines are projections, blue is revenue, orange is expenses, and gray is fund balance. Um I think the key things to take away from this are we did start the year with a negative fund balance. We are predicted to end this year with a positive one and a half million dollars. Um and that's really exciting, but it's a far cry from the seven and a half million eight million dollar fund balance we should have. Um and then and then even when we do, a large chunk of those need to be um unrestricted dollars and so it'll take us a
031little bit of time to get there as well. So, again, this is a we're about seven months into a three-year plan and so we knew that this year would be difficult having to um claw our way into a positive fund balance. And what that will mean for this year and the next couple of years, um we are trying to keep our expenses below those projections and outperform that fund balance um and hold some money back in case some unexpected expenses occur. Um this is the regular enrollment graph that we've been seeing. I've updated it to this one here. The shape is almost the exact same. The big thing is what's happening year-to-date and how we're at 4196 for the average. Um this is FTE. Um I don't want to get too much in the weeds,
032the uh, but this is our what we're funded for for students K-12. And so we've seen a dip at the last meeting we talked a lot about um, why that was occurring with the lack of newcomers, a drop in birth rate, uh, and some parent choice and how we're providing more ALE options for our our students. Uh, so that's what that looks like. But what's happened since we've last met is legislative session ended uh, and it was um, an overall reduction really um, is is what what will be essentially felt by school districts. And so even though the spending of the budget went up, K-12 had the biggest cuts to it. Um, and this is what's that's impacting schools across the state. Here's some um, headlines from across um, the state. Um, Clark County talks
033about Battle Ground in that one. Puyallup is cutting 15 million and closing their high school pool, which we were I I we refused to do that actually. Um, Tumwater's laying off some non-teaching staff. Uh, Vancouver, which is also in Clark County, is laying off about 200 folks uh, right now. Mukilteo, which is a a property rich district with Boeing there, um, their enrollment's declining and they are also making some cuts. Uh, this is happening statewide for all the reasons we talked about before, the economic down pressure from uh, lack of funding from the state and enrollment declining statewide with birth rates. Um, it's just the reality of the situation. Uh, couple weeks ago Rick Doll came out and talked about how these cuts that legislative legislative uh, session created really affect districts like Shelton disproportionately.
034Um, and the biggest one for us is these local effort assistance. And there's a lot of talk about that cuz I I'm I get really excited about LEA cuz it's basically state match. Taxpayer gives us a dollar and the state gives us 30 cents for that dollar. And that that really helps and goes a long way. Um but that was reduced from what we expected to see next year. And so it it looks like this um these are just a couple of the highlights. And I want to be really clear here. Um K-12 will see an increase of about $200 million. And that's a that's called a maintenance level increase. But to fund that $200 million, they cut these programs $80 million. Uh these are the highlights. And so for uh one of the big
035ones was local effort assistance. That was cut uh about 26.8 million dollars. Um basically every district will receive who receives LEA will get $100 less per pupil than we expected to get next year. And so for us that's roughly $400,000. Um and again, those are the districts that need it the most because we can't go out for a a low um tax rate levy and collect a lot of money. That's just not how not how it works. Um the other areas is running start. Um they reduce the amount of courses that students can take over the course of the running start. Um so just it reduces access to college courses. Uh that saves the state about $7 million. Um bus depreciation I know is is not uh as on top of people's minds as other
036two are, but that's $21 million. And what that requires is for our buses to last longer, and it's less money per year. So we have less funds to update and and have new safe transportation for our students. And that is it's a it's a problem. We have a large uh geographic area that our buses go. There's a lot of wear and tear on our on our buses. And so we haven't calculated that fully yet. The tools that OSPI usually um releases haven't been released yet after the legislative session. Uh once they are, we'll have more updates around this. And so again, this $80 million in cuts are funding these maintenance level increases. And those maintenance level increases are required to maintain, based on state law that already exists. So, that is some MSOC increases, paltry,
037about $200,000 for us, which does not cover the difference in insurance costs. IPD is required by the state as a maintenance increase. And also, that 2.6% doesn't create it doesn't close the disparity between the $82,000 we're getting per teacher and the high 90s that our average teacher makes, right? Those those deltas still exist. Um So, even when K-12 sees a maintenance level increase, we actually experience it as a cut because those increases don't keep up with the costs to operate a school district. And so, I just wanted to put a point on that cuz it's it can't be understated and every district across the state is feeling it the same way. Um also, as a reminder, last year we had some cuts to some title dollars. We had some uh OSSI uh was reduced by
038we lost about a half a million dollars last year. They closed that office for school improvement, which is an odd one to close in school districts land, right? This operation we're here for one purpose is to educate a whole child and um school improvement dollars were cut by half a million. And the other one that was really shocking to all of us was McKinney-Vento uh in our district was about 55,000 and that helps serve homeless students in our district, which we which we do have and and foster kids. Uh and that those dollars we receive zero of now. We're still providing those services cuz a priority for us, uh but that that money has to come from basic ed and the levy to make up that difference, right? So, again, we are super grateful for
039the levy. Without it, this conversation would look a lot different. Um but these are our real cuts that we're seeing and what the impact looks like for us. Um That's a quick budget update. What questions do you have for me? Thank you. That's a that's a lot of information. Yeah. And I appreciate you keep keep updating and that one's not too cheery, but we we need that information. Um when we talk about projected enrollment versus actual enrollment, Yeah. is that about 145 different if I'm doing my math right? >> ended last year um expecting to see about 4,375 students this year and we're like I said it's about 4,200. Um Yeah, 4196 if I remember. >> Uh I'll have to go all the way back there all these sorry. Um And so if that that's
040correct. Correct. I can't quite get there. Thank you, sir. Yeah, 4196. Um does that mean the state will each one of those students is worth about $18,000 from the state? So does that equal the $2 million reduction in funding? >> are are multiple revenue drivers, but yes. There's a basic ed portion and then a lot of our students qualify for other funding streams and so it's around 18,000 for us. Yeah. Yeah, does that mean the district would get you know, 145 times around 18,000 less? >> That's right. How do you make that up? Uh well, through really strategic reductions. We reduced MSocs again and the other space we have to do it again because the majority education is a people oriented district. That's how you see differences in kids' lives. This is exactly why all
041these people are here and they chose this career path is to make a difference in kids' lives. Um but because we're people oriented, it's about 85 to 88% of the school district's budget and so to have the meaningful cuts to keep up with the reduction in staff, I mean of students is a reduction in staff. You can't staff a district at 4,300 students when you only have 4,200. Will that ultimately lead to higher class sizes or or how do we account for that as we move on? >> Yeah, that's a great question. So it it is a balance. We um we do see higher class sizes this year. We knew that from the riff last year. Um and and and again the the reduction in force being presented later tonight is a is fundamentally even
042though the language looks the same, it's it's fundamentally different than than last year because of the financial condition and what's and what's happening. This is a response to this enrollment. So, as enrollment declines, our our class sizes will get smaller. Um but when we have to reduce staff, it kind of levels that out. Um in broad terms, yes, as class size goes down, as student population goes down, class size will go down. But you also can't continue to staff at those levels. So, you try to balance it out at an at an appropriate level where they can be effective in their work. And one more question and I'll I'll pass the mic. Keep going. I'm just Um you know, we just saw the offerings at the high school for all of these amazing high cap
043and and different things like that. As you have a lower enrollment rate and a need to consolidate, does that mean some of those programs or those things get cut along the way? How does that work? >> So, highly capable is a grant program from the state. And so, we we try to keep all of those grant programs operating within their allocation. Um a lot of them don't fully fund what it costs to run the program. Yeah, so you're also in competition with running start. So, we lose revenue. Like when he put up this slide, um >> [clears throat] >> capturing that, that's just the reduction of the funding for it, but there's still the we become a flow-through for the dollars. When students go to typically a community college, they take all those monies. We
044don't get the indirect, the administrative costs is something we don't districts don't get the flow-through for that is in alignment to the cost of the students. So, that's part of the challenge of running start. So, if we don't offer those courses, we will lose those students for running start. And that's an issue across the state. That's not just a a Shelton thing. So, yeah. Thank you. Yeah, of course. What other questions do you have? I didn't really have a question, more of a comment. I actually was um listening to a presentation from our 35th legislative reps Couture and Griffey yesterday and they brought up this uh Senate Bill 6260, which is where all these cuts are coming from. And they knew they even talked directly to me about it when when they were giving their
045presentation cuz they know where I'm sitting. Right. And how devastating it's going to be for all of these rural districts across the state. And it specifically targets rural districts, seemingly so. It It know it does because the property rich districts don't qualify for LEA. And again, as an example, and I've shared this to the staff across buildings, Bellevue can go out for 75 cents per thousand and raise 75 million. In districts like Shelton, we go out for $2.31 cents and raise like 9.9 million. Right. So, in their presentation there, they were really expressing their their concern for the survival of some of these really small rural districts across the state that they may not survive because of this cut. That came up in one of the um buildings today. Um I don't want to raise
046alarms, but in the next 15 or 20 years, school districts may look a lot different with um if Washington still continues to operate the same, I guess. It would have to look different. Consolidations are real concern. Yeah. So, that's one of the questions I had. So, the the local effort assistance, that LEA, that will impact this levy that we just passed. Yeah, we were expecting a little over 3.1 million dollars to come in after the levy passed and I um I told some staff this earlier, I was really I felt like it made me a liar. I went and told the community based on what OSPI and legislators said in the past about what those dollars would look like and then they reduced it at the last minute by $400,000. But yeah, the next year's
047collection when when we collect those levy dollars and they pay us LEA uh during that same time, it'll be reduced by $400,000. And then also, so with running start up there, will that if they're reducing access to college courses, will that mean that students that do running start will have a limited number of students >> able to take less classes because their FTE that they're allowed to be is less. So, normally they can be 1.4, which is this whole other super FTE in the week stuff, and that's been reduced by 1.3. And if um I think the bill also allows us to go to 1.2. What How we're trying to combat that, um my understanding, I don't want to I'll get I'm the finance person, is offering more college in the high school courses so
048they don't have to go to running start programs to get those higher end classes. >> Right, which are great options and I just talking to people in across the state of Washington, college in the classroom is something that's really developing in a lot of Yeah. schools here in Washington, which is a great additional option. I also wanted to get some clarification on class sizes. Where are we seeing the most increased class sizes? Is that in the elementary schools or is it throughout all schools, depending on the course? Um I just don't have a good idea where >> the system. Right before I pass it to superintendent Jesse, I will say the the K-3 has some class size ratios required by the state to create enhancement dollars. And so, if a district wanted to try to
049save money by increasing the class size of third grade, they would actually lose money because you lose these enhancement dollars. So, you have to kind of balance it out. So, the So, K-3 has a a requirement by the state to receive some additional funding, but the rest of it is kind of across the system. Yeah, secondary's usually the one that gets hit the hardest in this particular area just because of the class sizes. Um you also, like with the funding, some of the challenges that we face specific to us is that we have such an incredible amount of CTE funding. I mean, it's really great, but it also creates its own restraints. So, uh we're almost $9 million in CTE funding. Over half of the staff at SHS, for example, are related to CTE. And
050so, you have to build a master schedule that uh conforms to the state requirements around providing what qual- what qualifies for CTE or not. And then, you still have to obviously balance out all of the credit requirements uh for that to graduate. Um so, they have to take specific coursework, obviously. Kind of illustrated up there even on the courses that we offer for highly capable is just all the other kids that can have access to. So, CTE CTE can't carry the day. We have to balance that load. In the the past, we've had some lower numbers in our CTE courses to carry them so that we can have pathways. So, within the academy model, you obviously generate certain courses so kids can complete their pathways successfully and sometimes their own industry credentials that come along
051with it. Um the challenge is just forced on us, in particular, in that that that way Director Davidson is just you have to incre- you either have to drop that particular class or you have to increase the number of students in for it to carry the cost. Because if you have a lower number of students, um that's a challenge. That also happens at Cedar and Choice, as well. We've had some really lower class sizes. We've had that conversation with the staff there. Um we built it up. We were there today. It's gone pretty well, definitely. I think it's comfortable. Um but, you know, there is um as documented in public comment, there is limits, you know, you want to not overly stretch it uh for sure. So, it's a tough balance, So know, when you
052have that the last part of this not try that a lot of complexity to it is on the surprise of enrollment. So for example, even at the elementary level, if you have a all of a sudden students just don't show up the first day. This is all projection until butts are in seats. And so then we have to adapt also just on who shows up and who does not show up where. And so we did have that at two of our elementaries. We did do a collapse this the staff we talked with them and it worked out so the numbers weren't ridiculous. Um but we're on edge. I mean there's a lot of classrooms all the way K through 12 where we are, you know, we have a you know, our seats are full. Um
053and so that's that's where we're at. We would love to more students and then we are more staff. Mhm. Um I know that there's a couple of different housing developments coming into the area, things like that. Um let's throw some rainbows and unicorns at this. Uh how much of a positive impact is that going to have on the budget going forward and being that there will I would imagine be more kids involved? Yeah, um statewide they're not seeing it used to be a real just like everything before COVID, there was a real percentage you could say, "Oh, you're getting 400 homes in, you should see this X number of students come in." That number that factor has dropped and it's taken a little longer. So we have the 200 home 199 homes going in Olympic
054Heights. Another development of 40, another development of 30. We do expect that to eventually be a a positive for the school district enrollment, but it's hard to predict until the families get there. Um and we do think it'll take a little longer than it had been in pre before COVID for sure. And then the other question I have um I know they they cut the the funding for it, but how many kids do we have that qualify for McKinney-Vento off the top of your head? I don't have that number. I'll have to ring you back to you. >> Okay. Thanks. I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to take a look. 300 About 300, yeah. It ranges It's been in the low 200s to up to 300. Um that can change, obviously, as kids
055I know people listen in. You know, kids are couch surfing, stuff like that. Those kids qualify, too, for those particular services, so Right. Um and then those kids, unfortunately, sometimes disappear more quickly, too. Our more The mobility rate is higher for them, too, so it's between low 200s and 300. It's a great question. Thank you. Go ahead. I one more question. Um Director Dale had mentioned how do you make up that money? And you mentioned MSOC. Can you clarify that what that is for the public? >> Yeah. Um So, there are salary-related costs, which are all people and staff, and there's non-employee-related costs, which are called MSOCs, uh material, supplies, and operating costs. So, um and you have to have certain things to run a building, but that is um like toilet paper, papers, pencils,
056curriculum, um mops, stuff like the water bill, stuff like that. We partnered with the city to try to lower some of those things. Um so, we've been moving through those kind of all year trying to find ways to save money and and and shave those dollars, for sure. Yeah. No, I just I know I know that that terminology gets thrown around a lot, and MSOC doesn't mean anything if you don't know what it means. [laughter] Um >> I was in college they were called NERCs, but even that went away. Yeah. No, that I I am frustrated with all of these budgetary conversations that we end up having because one of the things from all of the years that I've been here on the board is that there's a lot of unfunded mandates, and we already
057don't get funded for the the prototypical model that the state funds us on does not fund the amount of things that we already need. And then you throw in the fact that there could be a roof leak or an HVAC system that goes out and we have issues. Um so these are all very serious concerns all of the time. It is definitely something that for me being on the school board has for years it is a stress that you're always thinking about and balancing that out with doing what's best for students and for giving and and for hopefully making our teachers happy and our paraeducators and everybody that works within the school system. So um but the it is very complex and it's can be very stressful and it's very disappointing to hear that we
058are facing um even more cuts to funding that we thought we were going to have. I first three years that I was on the board we passed a levy and that was when the state of Washington changed our rate and we weren't able to collect what our community had actually voted yes on. So it's been happening for a while. >> Yeah. Yeah and each of these moves legislatively are and the unfunded mandates some of them like and we said this before are really altruistic in nature but the impact is actually it saves the state money and it costs districts money. That's really what it comes down to. Does anybody have anything else? Thank you. Thank you. All right on item number six the consent agenda. Has everybody had a chance to look at that? I
059have one on the student. Oh darn I did it again. Uh report from the student school board reps. Sorry. It's like Uh we get Alan from Cedar. Yeah so uh we got I've got a quite a bit stuff of planning that we're that we're doing right now. Uh the theme for the Cedar dance has been decided. It's going to be underwater themed. We're going with with an ocean theme. And now we just have to try to find a location, find decorations, and just get it set up. Envirothon is going out to compete next month. I think it's around the 20s first 28th some somewhere around the around the 20s. Going to go compete. We're going to win regionals and then we're going to get to state. Uh the seniors are working really hard last trimester
060of the year getting ready for her graduation preparing for conferences, too. Uh we're planning to have a little celebration for all the seniors during conference week so that we can all just kind of come together and celebrate our final final few few weeks in the in the school district. Uh apart from that we have started the third trimester. It's gone off pretty well. There's a collaborative class called greenhouse operations happening in in uh Dana's class, which is a collaborative class between uh Choice and Cedar. And we've been working on getting the greenhouse ready for for next year's students. So there's a lot of good stuff planned there. And overall a lot of students are just kind of getting ready to finish out the year finish out strong. And yeah, it's exciting. Okay, and Abigail from
061Choice. Pathways is working with staff members and community members and speech people to help with I statements. Open Doors is working with family education support. They are going to have Adult 101 for 6 weeks. Choice students are learning about the Constitution and civics. It's really interesting. ELA is learning about support claims. Science is getting ready for the plant sale. Middle school is learning about rock music in ELA and art class. In science, they're learning about Earth's impact with waste. In history, they're learning about activists and they're taking a health class. All right. Thank you very much and Sophie here from Shelton High School. Hi. Um our spring sports have started and are doing amazing. Um our spring sports assembly is coming up as well as ASB elections. Students wanting to run for ASB officer will
062speak at the assembly on why they should be voted. And multicultural night is April 23rd. There'll be a food truck to fundraise for the class of 2027 and there will be lots of fun. Very good. All good stuff. Okay. Now, the consent agenda. Has everyone reviewed it? I motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. And it passes. >> [snorts] >> On to item number seven, discussion and action items. 7.01, proposed revised policy number 2020, selection and adoption of instructional materials. Chelsea Cronauer, Brandi and Adrian Minard. This will be the second reading, recommend approval. Good evening, Board President Wielander, members of the board, Superintendent Jessie. We are back up here tonight to talk about policy 2020. So this is the second reading, so we're opening it up for any questions. Any
063questions? I do have one. I know it's been several years since the instructional materials committee was formed before to approve this same kind of thing. Are we still using those recommendations they approved back to then in those days or have we kind of changed and evolved since that time? I I just want to I just want to clarify that we're answering the question correctly. Is Are you asking if the members of the committee are the same or is it that that No, the the material they approved last time from the instructional Is it Are we still using that material today? Is that kind of what we're leaning towards or or have we have we shifted away from that already and we're looking at something else? Um we So, the instructional materials committee is part of
064that process. So, we we are still using adopted curriculum. But, what we're part of what we've built into the policy and procedure is then also a way to decide what is no longer relevant. And so, that wasn't always in there before. I will say, for example, at a school recently, well, maybe 2 years ago, we were cleaning out some closets and I found some books from the '50s. So, on the on They weren't using those. But, I think that it's good for us to clarify what we are using and what we're not using. Did that Okay. Thank you. Did anybody have any other questions? I'll do it. No, no questions. Okay. I would take a motion. I motion that we adopt approve proposed revised policy number 2020 selection and adoption of institutional material. I'll second
065that. All in favor? I. >> I. And we have a policy. Thank you. Thank you very much. 7.02 proposed resolution number 26-01 authorizing a reduction in force. Clinton Sherman. Good evening again. We are putting forth a resolution to authorize a reduction in force. That again, our hope is to not have to actually initiate. But we there are still some unknown variables in what staffing is leaving. Our hope is that we we know we need to reduce some positions by roughly two to five. Our hope is that happens through attrition. We don't have all the information yet. Um the state revenue as we just talked about earlier was not helpful to us. There are also some real concerns about what's happening federally. And so this is really um Again, not something we want to do, but
066something we feel like we need to be able to do in case some sand shifts underneath our feet again and we have to make some moves. Any What questions do you have? Yeah, I think one of the questions is how is this different than where we were last year with we're using that word riff and there's a lot that goes with that. Um explain how that is different. >> Yeah, that's a great question. I understand that the language is the same and the emotions can be the same. But we are in it's a fundamentally different thought process around what's happening. This is really due to Before it was because we had a negative 2.3 million dollar fund balance. We had to make moves quickly. We entered binding conditions with the state which we are still
067in and working out. And even though we are on the upside to a positive fund balance, again, it's it's really far away from where we need to be. And this is really more a response to enrollment decline and some economic downward pressure from the state of what we're seeing. Is this something uh that we would need to do statutorily even if we're not going to do it just in case we are going to? Um if you need direction for us, the board has to authorize the reduction force to occur. Okay. Um yes. Uh I'm going to add in that it's a It is a precautionary measure. This is a largely precautionary measure. But there by there is statutory that we do have to have a general fund balance prior to even me getting here. Again,
068as he said our even when you have a balance, it's restricted. That is actually not really a general fund balance because of the restricted dollars. You need to have a basic idea, and I know we've talked about that before. And so this particular measure really is about again precautionary, but you have your own board policy where we're supposed to have at least a 4% board general fund balance. We do not have that, obviously. And you are required again have a general fund balance, and it cannot be a as directed by OSPI. You cannot be relying on restricted dollars, which is what we have had done for a long past, and we currently still do today. And and we will even with a positive fund balance of 1.5 million dollars at the end of this year,
069those will largely be restricted dollars because they have to be. Okay. And can I ask for clarification on that, too? Just because we do have a lot of people that listen. And so when we talk about restricted dollars, that means that they are restricted to a certain type of funding. >> Use. That's exactly right. >> And use. Um so the dollars come in in different avenues. We talk about the different revenue streams. So there's a Title 1 dollar There's grant dollars, um Title 1 LAP. Those have restricted uses. But even food service dollars that come in for nutrition services, if if we hold those back in any meaningful way, those are restricted to only be spent on food services. When ESSER and COVID dollars came in, those were also restricted. CTE dollars are restricted. There's
070a lot of um restricted dollars that we received from the state and all the federal government dollars are restricted. And so, as I was saying just as I said earlier, the fund balance that we had seen prior to COVID was largely restricted. And and um the real mandate is that you have an unrestricted fund balance. That's what the percentage is that you authorize in board policy. And so, all of those are accounted for Oh, yeah. >> specifically in those programs. And if we have an excess in say CTE, we can't move that over to help out with something that we're lacking in. That is correct. And I I I guess it's also important to to talk about how we do try to leverage leverage those restricted dollars as far as we can with whatever's allowable
071in those in those different buckets of money. Right. >> That's definitely something we do. Um I had a question too just about the with this um resolution, so we are needing to do that because we have to legally do that with the allowable time to make an announcement by May 15th Yeah, that that's >> if there's going to be Right. We have to notify certificated staff by May 15th on their positions moving forward. And so, yeah, this is a a timing issue and really a precautionary measure. And so, >> our hope is that it happens through attrition. We have not seen that happen yet. Right. So, if we So, if we do or don't see retirement or somebody letting us notifying us that they are leaving the school district by May 15th, um I guess
072we still would then be contracted with those with that staffing level. That's correct. >> Okay. Um That's what I was I was wanting. And so then if we if we're not needing to do a reduction in force, does that then not occur after May 15th? That's correct. And so we can then clearly communicate that because you're saying that the intention is that we hope not to do that. And so we can clearly identify that if this resolution is passed letting people know whether or not anybody if what if any reduction in force there is. It is one precautionary measure. There are other precautionary measures we have to choose. So we we have to write a fine line here. Um when Clinton put up that slide and he's going over those OSSID dollars, so those state
073intervention dollars as well as the McKinney-Vento, we got notification of not getting those dollars until after May 15th. We ate that in this budget. And so when you're trying to generate up your general fund balance and then you have to eat $600,000, it's $600,000 less. If you recall, we came to you we said we're going to probably try to get to 2 million in in our in the plus this year. We're at 1.5 for a reason. We have to continue even on top of the decrease in enrollment. So it is tricky to ride this line. It is a tightrope at times. This is not the only measure we have. We hold on to other expenses and we will have to drop some other things after May 15th if we were to lose additional funds. So
074just this isn't the only thing. We hope not to have to do this one. We may pass that timeline. So we may not have to do hopefully not have to do a riff, but we may still have to have a further decrease in in the funds that we receive whether that's from the federal and all those programmatic dollars or in enrollment. Also and it this is just my understanding, um because we are audited every year, if we don't maintain that um positive fund balance to the tune of 4%, uh this is something the state auditor also gigs us on, right? Uh yes, they're now looking at financial conditions and giving findings for financial conditions as well. That's that's correct. Thank you. >> shift over the last like 2, 3 years. I think um one of
075the things that we just celebrated uh about a month ago was the levy passing. >> And so I I think they're funding is a tricky thing. What a levy funds and what general funds fund. Explain to somebody who's like, "Didn't we just take care of this at a vote?" Um why we're talking about revenue? >> Yeah, we did. I mean, if the Oh, okay. Yes, um I don't even want to think about it. If the levy wouldn't have passed, and again, 62% is a resounding level of support that we haven't seen since uh before 2020, it's um we outperformed all like districts our size with demographics. Um it's just really impressive. If it wouldn't have passed, we would not be talking about two and five through attrition as our hope. We'd be talking about 80
076staff members uh and reduction of all sports, after-school programs. It would have been a um it would have been a fundamentally different conversation we'd be having tonight. And I again I guess we can So, the levy um makes up the difference. We talked about earlier how the state made some reductions. Uh even though schools are seeing a maintenance level increase, that increase is not keeping up with the rising costs of salaries and material supplies and operating costs. The levy makes up the gap of of the lack of state funding. Um That's that's That's it's the majority of that levy's dollar The function of those money is making up that gap. It also does do all the sports at activities, athletics, but really it is making up the difference in the lack of state funding. And
077And it does allow school districts to prioritize what's important to them. Like we are backfilling the McKinney-Vento dollars. We have a level of of nursing staff and mental health supports in in Shelton because our student body requires that. We they need that level of service. And I I think I'll probably pretty close to finishing this up here, but You're on that. >> um we're looking at, you know, two to five positions and hoping that it's actually zero through whatever. Um how are we doing on the surface better than say uh Yakima, Olympia, uh Seattle or all looking at the need to close entire buildings. Um Bellingham actually is closing a building. Um is this we're doing something more right? We're in a better position? Um it's wind in our back >> multi-factored. Our the enrollment
078that decline that we're seeing isn't enough for us. It's enough that we have to respond to it. It isn't enough that the enrollment could be absorbed. Uh like if if one of the elementary schools had really low enrollment, you can only close a school when the other elementary schools can absorb those remaining students. And And that's not the case. The numbers don't work. Um the class sizes would be massive just because of the sheer just the math of it. Um So those districts all have um larger elementary schools. Uh no, they have more elementary schools to be able to disperse those students to when they close a building. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions? Yeah, oh. I asked this question this morning of the superintendent, but I'd like to ask it again to you. If we
079choose not to vote on this resolution for reduction in force, then where does that leave us or how does that What do we then have as options? We would Honestly, I think we'd have to bring the resolution back to to you. I would defer to the superintendent, actually. Okay. I actually don't make those decisions. Uh so, leave in vacuum, so Right. I know that there is a time-bound component to this, too, where we do have to do this to give those notifications by May 15th. Yeah, and um we've tried to work through this with everything being up in the air. Um Cuz there's also fractional FTE, and if if it's if the number's too low, like we wouldn't we wouldn't um initiate it through a a reduction if if we can help it, right? Um
080if if the actual reduction in workforce has to be what we're committing to is two to two to five, is where if it's less than that, it wouldn't necessarily go through this process. Um we'd kind of find a different way to figure it out. And and I am hearing that from you both that it's your intention and your hope that we do not have to do this at all. And that if we do that it's that it's it's a small number of two to five, which is still two to five people. So, that is always a difficult um decision, but I do I am hopeful that we do not have to do that at all. As you're both stating. >> an inherently a positive person, and I would love to come to the board without
081these type of um discussions, for sure. And then, I lied. I do have one more question. I'll allow it. Yeah. Uh with the kind of the the causes of this at this point, you know, reduction in enrollment and different things that are going on. Um Is this something that's likely to be not necessarily every year, but more frequent um statewide, not just with us, but is this something that we're going to start seeing more of? >> Yeah, as we talked about last time, the birth rates are a real concern statewide. Um if that continues and we have less kindergartener kindergarten students coming in than seniors going out, then your overall district enrollment will be dropping. And so there will be have to be we'll have to watch that. Uh Shelton Every district will have to
082watch that and make adjustments as necessary. That's just the reality of it. Okay. With is there a motion? I move to close the question. Okay. Uh not right now. I motion to approve proposed resolution number 2601. Second. I am going to second it. And I will recuse myself from this vote. Good. All in favor. I. I. Good. Okay. Thank you. Everybody's leaving for the best part? Okay. And uh moving on to legislative update. Go ahead, Lauren. All right. Good evening, everybody. Um should be pretty much the last ledge update for this session. Uh since my last update, the legislature finalized the state operating budget and adjourned the session. As I mentioned previously, once the opposite house cut off past the focus shifted almost entirely to the budget. And that's where the remaining policy decisions ended
083up being made. Overall, the final K-12 budget shows a modest increase of about 207 million above maintenance level funding. But much of that simply maintains existing funding levels rather than addressing the rising costs districts are experiencing. Because the funding formulas do not fully reflect rising costs, the increase may not fully offset the financial pressures districts are currently experiencing. Several of the issues I highlighted in my previous report ultimately showed up in the final budget. The legislature made adjustments to programs including local effort assistance, transition to kindergarten, school bus depreciation funding, and running start participation. Local effort assistance, which helps balance funding for property poor districts with lower levy levy capacity, saw changes that reduce how some districts qualify for equalization support. Transition to kindergarten, which was which has been um expanding access to early learning
084before kindergarten, will now be more limited and prioritized for students with the greatest need. With statewide funding reduced by about 27 million as part of the final budget. The state also slowed the reimbursement schedule for school bus replacements, meaning districts will recover those costs over a longer period of time. And participation limits for running start were adjusted, which could affect the number of students able to access dual credit opportunities. Taken together, these changes reflect a broader effort to keep programs in place while slowing spending growth as part of the final budget. God, I could repeat that for everybody again tonight. Sorry. So, overall, the final budget reflects a year where the legislature focused on controlling costs while keeping existing programs in place rather than expanding funding for K-12 education. As the districts and OSPI work
085together through the final details, those updates will come out slowly through policies and updates from our district, so thank you. And now board member comments, and we'll start on the end with Director Wilford. Thanks for coming. You know, that was a really hard vote. Nothing any of us really wanted to vote for. We really take that seriously. Something I mulled over for quite a while. Um you know, we we talk about projections and funding, and it's it's hard to project what the state's going to do. You can't really guess when they're going to make a cut that's going to affect you greatly, so yeah, not happy with it, but unnecessary or unfortunate evil, I guess we got to potentially do that. Let's hope it doesn't happen. Thanks. Yeah, thank you for everybody coming. Appreciate public
086comments. Always important to have public speak. Appreciate the high cap presentation. That's a really fun part of this meeting. Um I will remind, I guess, myself and everybody we work under policies and RCWs. We we don't get to just make our own decisions. And so often, these local school district challenges are a November issue. Who you vote for and who's representing you matters. And if you don't like what's happening, reach out to your representative or put somebody else in there. And so I'd encourage there's there's a lot of things that happen at the legislative level that we have to um be proactive about. We love our teachers here at this district and and I'm hoping that our number is zero and not five. But we do live in a reality of decreased enrollment, increased costs,
087and and all that goes into that budget. So, keep reaching out. We see those emails. Yeah, that's all I got. Director Gilmore. I appreciate everyone that came tonight, uh especially the teachers here to represent these um tough resource times. Uh this morning being able to walk through choice and cedar, I really saw that in action where you know, it's cedar and choice in the classrooms and students are really coming together with the teachers to to pool resources and make the best learning experience for everybody and these things are not ideal. Nobody wants to take from education. Nobody wants to have our students with less of anything. It's It's frustrating moving through the legislative session each year. And each year it gets harder as as an education advocate. It's not getting any easier and it's falling
088on deaf ears. It's everybody needs money and it is difficult. Um So, on that cheery topic of I just really appreciate everybody here and keep coming and >> [sighs] >> helping and emailing us and we like to hear your voice. Thank you. Director Davison. I'll echo the sentiments um taking a vote like that is not what any of us want to do. We do as school board members, the budget is our primary duty. And doing what we need to do for students and teachers. And it is really stressful and it is really um frustrating as I mentioned before when we talk about um the funding sources, the complexities of it, the rising costs and trying to figure all of those things out. Um it is very difficult. I do appreciate public comment. Um one of
089us would be happy to speak with you after the meeting. Unfortunately, during the meeting what what during the meeting we're not allowed to so that's why I'm bringing that up in my public comment is that the way that a school board meeting works, I feel like it's always awkward because we don't get to have a back-and-forth dialogue during this is literally a meeting that the public gets to watch that we are conducting and it's unfortunately not a two-way And we'd be happy to clarify that with you after the meeting's over. Thank you for staying for that and we do appreciate all public comments as they come up here. Definitely appreciate and care about our teachers. Um I know that this raises some uncertainty and I don't like that. I do hope and that we are
090correct in thinking that attrition and retirement will help with this issue. Um and and I would like to have that clearly communicated as we um get to May 15th. I I think all of us would um, I too really appreciated walking through choice this morning. I see on a daily basis um, any of these walk-throughs or just interacting with students, how our teachers go above and beyond to try to help all of our students reach their graduation goal and find themselves and find interest in things. And I can't stop thinking about even just we met the teacher who's doing the online program and she was talking about a student who just wanted to continue with his education until he ended up on hospice. And you just realize the really difficult situations that are going on
091with our teachers and our students and everything that they are doing to enrich that person's life. Um and and it was just it's always great to walk the halls and see the actual students, see the teachers teaching in their classroom. Um I know Lauren and I both really enjoyed being in Dana's classroom with all of the plants. Um, it's just it's a wonderful opportunity to see what is actually going on in our schools and that is what we want to keep working for and trying to maintain here. I think we the entire time I've been on the school board, we've been operating under some restrictions with funds in one way or another and it's amazing how people come together to try to make that work all of the time in public education. I'm an always
092vote yes, too, on fire, EMS, schools. I'm always a yes because there's never enough for what I'd like to give to our kids in our community. The only other thing I want to mention is that there are scholarships out there for seniors and that many of those deadlines are coming up. I know that the school board does the Drake scholarship, but there's, you know, Rotary scholarships, our community credit union, there's all sorts of scholarships listed in the high school counselor offices. So, if you are a senior, I really encourage you or your families to take a look at what is available for some of those funds. Yeah. Um I guess I guess I'll follow up with, you know, these these votes in these situations are hard. Um you know, I grew up here, I graduated
093here, I live here, I you know Um several of the teachers, you know, I've known since literally I was a kid. Um I've been in several of the teachers' office, you know, staring across her desk asking them to help with my own children. Um and so you know at no point do we ever want to be in this position. Um I would love to see our high cap and and college credit programs, you know, make up some of that and and pull kids back from running start and those things and make that positive difference there. Um the state is consistently asking us to do more with less. Um it's a thing. Uh the federal government is asking us to do more with less. Uh there's less fewer uh grant opportunities out there, things like that.
094Um the state to its own has has gotten creative in a couple of different ways. Um but it's still not enough. And and with things like declining birth rates, we do have to make these difficult decisions. But um just understand that it it hits us uh at home. It's a true and honest-to-god gut check every time we have to make these decisions. Ma'am, uh as far as uh we'll happily answer your question after the meeting individually because we can't all meet as a group once we you know hit the gavel. It is under the OPMA, the open public meeting act RCW 42. If you want to more clarification on that um lastly uh again summer programs um you know pre-algebra that's a great deal as somebody who struggled with math all the way through college
095it actually is what held me from a degree for the longest um get your pre-algebra if you if you haven't get your credit recovery if you need it second through sixth graders get in summer programs is good it rains the first half of our summer anyways so you might as well go learn something um uh National Honor Society celebrated have 21 freshmen with a four point holy smokes if I read the post right uh ROTC finished strong this year they did their finals down in Oregon City somewhere and and did great had several award winners there get out see your spring sports and kids it's you know we're coming into this last trimester seniors don't give up now I've seen too many of you kind of cough and sputter at the end and and really
096mess up some awesome GPAs some future opportunities don't let off the gas with that um we do have an executive session if it's anything like the last one uh I don't know when we'll stop fighting but we'll probably come back just to adjourn there will be no decisions uh made um so if you want to stick around for the adjournment that's fine but we will be gone I'm going to say at least a half hour any questions okay thanks folks executive session, I want to do about a 5-10 minute recess so I can talk to this young lady right out front.